After conquering the One-Line Sky Forest, the second area was a place that Lin Ye was extremely familiar with— the Forest of Fallen Giants.
However, unlike Lin Ye’s fragment dungeon, the original Forest of Fallen Giants didn’t have an air wall, so anybody could go to more places within the area. The terrain also changed a little, and the monsters’ strength and types increased.
In addition to the Kingdom’s Soldiers, Ghosts, Hyde Knights, and curses, there were also Behemoths, Heavy-Armored Soldiers, and other new monsters.
Furthermore…
The effect of the regional curse here was also very sinister.
…
[Secret Region: Forest of Fallen Giants]
[Monster Level: LV 10 – 12]
[Regional Curse: Giant’s gaze (Skill cooldown time doubled, unable to recover mana or HP naturally. Other than Hive-like exclusive potions, the effects of all potions brought by the Challenger are halved.)]
[Revival Point: Bonfire Point.]
…
Most of the human challengers lost to this map, and they lost to the powerful Cursemancer. Just like the students at Lin Ye’s school, they were taught a lesson by the Hex Teacher.
The Cursemancer’s Skill set and intelligence were already abnormal.
‘You even doubled my Skill cooldown time and halved the effect of potions. Aren’t you clearly asking me to die?’
‘But…’
A handsome boy was discovered by accident.
The Cursemancer was not a secret dungeon Boss that they had to fight.
As long as you give up on the treasure chest it’s guarding and find a way to bypass it, this guy won’t chase you.
The remaining two Bosses, the last giant and the Hyde Knight, were rather stupid. As long as one played a little dirty, they would be easily defeated.
Furthermore…
Because he could use Skills,
The actual difficulty of this map was even easier than the one-line Sky Forest.
When he encountered a powerful boss-level monster, he would use crowd control Skills. He could attack or defend.
When he encountered a large number of Monsters, he would just use his AoE Skill and instantly clear them. He did not even need to use his ethereal fire.
In One-line Sky Forest, if you didn’t have enough close-combat dodging ability, you would be severely injured after killing a single monster.
If they were surrounded by a group of monsters and couldn’t move, they could prepare to go to the banquet.
“Master Lin Ye, there are two roads ahead. Which one should we take?”
“On the right, there’s an NPC there that sells things. We can use the 8,000 Bloodsouls we robbed from the Lizardmen to spend them.”
“Alright,” he said.
Upon receiving the order, the Dragon-Armored Tree Guardian slapped the horse’s behind and made the holden warhorse speed up. It ran to the right side of the path and continued forward.
Soon, they arrived at a campsite. There was a small black tent and an old woman with a large box on her back. She was wearing a black robe and sitting on a black carpet with a calm expression.
…
[Name: Helena]
[Level: LV10]
[Qualification: Gold ★]
[Skill: ???]
[Description: An ordinary old granny merchant (only the leader can buy equipment from her when forming a party)]
…
According to the information he had, not only could he do business with this old granny, but he could also attack her and take all her goods after killing her.
But…
In other areas later…
She was supposed to appear again, but she wouldn’t. You wouldn’t be able to buy the new goods she brought, and you would miss out on a lot of better things.
It was equivalent to…
After the Hive-like NPCs were killed,
They would disappear forever.
That was why Lin Ye didn’t have any bad intentions towards her. Instead, he stood in front of her and politely stated his intention,
“Hello,” he said.
“I want to buy something.”
Helena pointed to the large box behind her and took out all of the items inside. She then displayed their stats and said in a calm voice,
“Pick one yourself. The price is written on it. No bargaining, no bargaining.”
Lin Ye looked around and found that it was exactly as the guide said. Everyone would meet Helena here, but the items they could buy were completely different.
There was only one item that was useful to him.
…
[Equipment Name: Greedy Silver Snake Ring (exclusive equipment for Hive-like)]
[Type: Hand accessory (can be worn together with other hand accessories in the outside world. Can not be worn together with Hive-like exclusive ring equipment)]
[Current Forging Level: LV 1 (Max level 3)]
[Quality: Gold (High)]
[Equipment Requirement: None]
[Equipment Effect: Increases the number of Bloodsouls you can obtain from killing monsters by 20%. After upgrading your forging, the increase will be increased.]
[Price: 5,000 Bloodsouls]
…
In Hive-like, exclusive equipment could be stacked with normal equipment that one carried. It was equivalent to one wearing two sets of equipment and receiving two attribute bonuses.
The Lizardmen of Crimson Dawn dared to threaten the new challengers so openly.
He wanted them to be his soul-grinding tools.
It was because…
Not only did they have more free attribute points than newbies, but they had also gathered a set of Hive-like equipment and received various permanent buffs.
It had a combat power that was stronger than a level-15 Professional in the outside world.
It was almost impossible for newbies to beat them.
And so.
Lin Ye decisively took out the 5,000 Bloodsouls that the Lizardman mage gave him and bought the Greedy Silver Snake Ring, before putting it on himself.