Watching Lin Mo use just a single skill to instantly kill a monster as high as level 20, on the field, the four of them, Ling Xiao included, were all utterly shocked.
"This is… way too terrifying!"
"That was a level 20 monster!"
"My god!"
Even though he was bringing along Ling Xiao and the other four, it had no real impact on Lin Mo at all. Because according to the system rules: in a five-person party, each person gets 50% base experience, and the one who lands the final hit gets an additional 30% experience.
Which meant Lin Mo could obtain 80% of the base experience. Compared to solo grinding, the difference was really only about 20%.
Using that 20% experience in exchange for escorting Ling Xiao and the others to level 30, for a payment of 1.7 million.
'Worth it!'
'No!'
Or to be more precise, it was worth more than just 1.7 million.
That 1.7 million was only the power-leveling fee Xia Wanwan was paying Lin Mo on Ling Xiao's behalf.
Just like back in the newbie village before, if Lin Mo helped Ling Xiao and the others secure second through fifth place on the Blazing Ember City leveling rankings, there would be massive additional bonuses, plus lottery draws.
All of those rewards, Lin Mo wanted them all.
'Even if it's just the combined cash rewards for the top five on the leveling rankings, that's already over a million in cash.'
'And then there are all those lottery draws.'
'If I can also get them to take over rewards on the equipment ranking, wealth ranking, and reputation ranking.'
'My final profit would be completely immeasurable.'
Thinking of this, Lin Mo's blood instantly boiled.
This was a huge order that could let Lin Mo take a massive step closer to his ultimate goal of fifty million!
'This order, I absolutely have to secure it.'
Thinking this, after handing over the corpse of the Venomous Spider to Skinny Monkey and the others to process, Lin Mo continued locking onto the next target.
Maintaining the rhythm of firing one Heaven-Slaying·Seven-Star Volley every fifteen seconds, easily taking down one Venomous Spider each time, the experience bars of all five people were skyrocketing.
And after equipping the Poison Explosion Necklace, Lin Mo's mana issue was greatly alleviated.
Each kill refunded 25 mana points, meaning the actual cost of one Seven-Star Volley was only 27 mana.
With a full mana bar of 647 points, Lin Mo could already cast Seven-Star Volley 23 times and kill 27 Venomous Spiders.
But Lin Mo still felt dissatisfied.
'SSS-tier skills are indeed strong, but so far I only have this one. It really limits my performance.'
Because Lin Mo only needed one second to kill a Venomous Spider, most of the remaining time was spent waiting for the skill cooldown.
It wasn't that he'd be helpless without skills, but if he relied on basic attacks, it would take eight or nine hits to kill a Venomous Spider.
By comparison, the efficiency of killing monsters with skills was obviously far superior.
'If I had one more SSS-tier skill, my monster-killing speed would double.'
Right now, Lin Mo still had as many as nine skill slots, more than enough to control a second SSS-tier skill. The E-rank Ice Arrow and E-rank Fire Arrow in his bag had long been ready.
But the biggest problem was: he had no skill evolution points to evolve the skills.
Lin Mo opened the Blazing Ember City background panel and took a look. At the top it showed: current Blazing Ember City player count 541k/3M.
Online players: 390k+
"It's about time to collect another wave of skill books."
Thinking this, Lin Mo hid his ID and sent a message in the Blazing Ember City chat channel, [Buying basic class skill books for 1,000 each, direct trade, instant purchase.]
However, to Lin Mo's surprise, after the message was sent, a full ten minutes passed, and he only received 11 books sporadically.
"That's not right. Why is no one selling? Is the price too low?"
Lin Mo thought it over again and again, and finally discovered the problem in a private message from a player.
[If you'd said so earlier, I already used it after changing classes in the newbie village.]
Seeing this private message, Lin Mo suddenly realized, anyone who had already come to a level 3 main city must have completed their class change, and they would definitely have already used their basic class skill books.
So if he wanted to buy books, the most suitable place was the newbie village.
"Going back to the newbie village myself would waste too much time."
So Lin Mo came up with an idea.nHe opened his friends list and sent a message to [Shadow of the Wind], whom he had added earlier: [Are you still in the newbie village?]
[I am, Brother Mo! The offline shop was a bit busy over the weekend, so I went to help out for a while and got delayed quite a bit. I've only just reached level 9 now.]
[Does Brother Mo have any instructions?]
Qin Feng looked extremely excited when he received Lin Mo's message.
Clearly, from being someone he once disliked as a romantic rival, Lin Mo had now become an idol Qin Feng deeply admired.
Lin Mo said, [Help me collect skill books. All E-rank books for all classes, I want them all. Buy them at 1,000 each, get as many as you can, no upper limit.]
[For each book you collect, I'll give you an extra 100 as a tip.]
[No problem, Brother Mo, leave it to me,] Qin Feng chuckled, [No need for the tip. I only have one request.]
[If you ever create a guild in the future, could you let me join it?]
Looks like Qin Feng was determined to cling tightly to Lin Mo's thigh.
[No problem.]
[You front the money for now. I'll pay you back later, if you trust me.]
Qin Feng knew this was a chance to prove himself and didn't hesitate at all, [Brother Mo, what are you saying! Of course I trust you!]
With that, the matter was handed over to Qin Feng.
Next, Lin Mo could focus on grinding Venom Bottles with peace of mind.
When Qin Feng eventually arrived at the level 3 main city and handed everything over to him, that would be the moment Lin Mo's second SSS-tier skill would be born.
Although when dealing with level 20 monsters, Ling Xiao and Xia Wanwan, who were only level 10, were completely unable to contribute, and the entire process relied solely on Lin Mo, it didn't affect Lin Mo at all. Relying on extreme burst damage and relentless slaughter, in just two short hours, he killed nearly four hundred Venomous Spiders, collecting ten bottles of venom for each of the four of them.
The generous monster-killing rewards, along with the final quest rewards, allowed all four of them to advance to level 12.
From being ranked beyond 500,000 on the level rankings, they charged all the way into the top ten thousand.
As for Lin Mo, at level 16 with 19% experience, he still firmly held the number one spot on the Blazing Ember City level Heavenly Rankings.
Facts proved that Lin Mo's worries had been correct.
Previously, it was just that there were fewer people. Many powerful players were still in the newbie village hunting bosses and hadn't come to the level 3 main city yet.
As time passed, according to the system's real-time statistics, the number of players in Blazing Ember City had now reached over 2.5 million, gradually approaching saturation.
Aside from the level rankings remaining unshaken, Lin Mo's top spots on the equipment ranking, wealth ranking, and reputation ranking had all been taken by other players.
First place on the equipment ranking was a level 15, tier 2 red equipment, owned by Dragon Soul Aoshi.
First place on the wealth ranking was Hero of Troubled Times, holding an astonishing 3,158 gold coins.
In the Blazing Ember City chat channel, messages about Wang Junjie buying gold at a 1.1:1 rate were flooding everywhere.
Even though tons of people were cursing at Wang Junjie and telling him to stop spamming.
There was no denying it: Wang Junjie's money power was truly unmatched.
Using wealth to display one's strength was also a valid approach.
And first place on the reputation ranking was a female player named [Liuli], with a reputation value as high as 1,228 points.
It was truly hard to understand. At this stage, when each quest only rewarded 1 to 2 reputation points, how exactly did this Liuli manage to obtain so much reputation by just the second day after the server opened?
Besides that, there was another point that made Lin Mo feel even more puzzled.
Looking at the rankings, Lin Mo rubbed his chin and said thoughtfully, "Why do I have no impression of this Liuli from my past life?"
"She's at least number one on a Heavenly Ranking. There's no way I'd have no memory of her at all."
"Could it be… I remembered wrong?"
Although the Heavenly Rankings were constantly changing, Lin Mo wasn't worried.
Because aside from the level ranking rewards, which could be achieved once a player reached level 30 and completed their second class change.
The other three rankings would only be finalized once the number of players in the entire city who reached level 30 exceeded 100,000.
Therefore, the current rankings didn't really decide anything.
Three months before the Oracle devoured reality, the SSS-tier talent user of Dragon Nation, the national server's number one female emperor Xiyue, had not yet logged in.
Which meant that Lin Mo was currently the only SSS-tier talent user in the Dragon Nation nation.
The power of an SSS-tier talent surpassed everything.
"Take it slow. The one who stands till the end is the real winner."
A surge of intense confidence rose in Lin Mo's heart.
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