The Healing Solaris Cleric

Chapter 141: King of Leveling Up (2)

The Zigmunt Desert was a hunting ground where the scorching heat persisted all year round! In this place, monsters were one thing, but there was a far greater threat that existed year-round in this place.

[The surrounding temperature is too high.]

[All stats decrease by 15%.]

"Ugh, it's way too hot."

Even though Kai was wearing a cool cleric robe, he sweated profusely.

Moreover, when night fell, the temperature plummeted below freezing, completely changing the map's nature.

It was a harsh place where one had to fight not only monsters but also the heat and cold. Because of this, not many players went to the Zigmunt Desert.

"But the tougher the challenge, the greater the reward."

Zigmunt Desert was home to mostly large monsters. The treevagos in the Elven Forest weren’t small, but at best, they were only medium-sized creatures. On the other hand, the predators in the desert were enormous; they were built to overpower their prey.

The characteristic of large monsters is that they have ridiculously high HP.

They also dropped an equally ridiculous amount of XP points and item materials! Of course, their difficulty level was also ridiculously high.

At this point, it was hard not to question the developers' intentions.

"It's like this place was made just to mess with the players."

The sunlight wasn't just warm. It was scorching. If it was this bad now, he couldn't imagine how much worse it would be if he were wearing the Tyrant of the Sea set!

With a sigh, Kai headed straight for the hunting grounds of Zigmunt Desert. As he climbed the sandy dunes, his surroundings grew silent.

At the same time, his view was filled with a breathtaking sight! It felt as though the entire world was divided into the blue sky and the yellowish sand, creating an illusion.

As Kai took in the scenery, he realized something.

"Oh, if I hunt here for a long time, I might get depressed."

That was how quiet and desolate of an area it was. It was a harsh land where there wasn't even a sign of a player or NPC.

However, Kai, being the positive person he was, found one silver lining amid the many drawbacks.

"It's perfect for power leveling. No one's around either."

In other words, all the prey in the area belonged to himself!

Switching his gear to the Tyrant of the Sea set, he immediately summoned his pets.

"Enhanced Summoning, Blizzard, Mimic!"

[Enhanced Summoning grants you an increased attack buff.]

[Enhanced Summoning grants you an increased Stamina buff.]

"Use Knighted skill." Kai promptly knighted Mimic as a dullahan and commanded Blizzard and Mimic, "Bring me a monster. Just one for now."

Both of them nodded and obediently followed Kai's orders. They left together and returned, not before long.

"Ah, finally here."

Kai, who had been smiling, suddenly tilted his head and rubbed his eyes.

Rumble, rumble, rumble!

Something massive was approaching, overturning the sandy dunes as it came.

"...What are they bringing back?"

After taking a closer look, they weren’t bringing a monster but being chased by one.

"Damn it, I need to protect my pets!"

Kai quickly drew his sword and ran across the sand. Despite his feet sinking into the sand, significantly slowing his movement, he moved quickly!

"Wow! It's massive!"

"Kiieeeek!"

As the monster got closer, it became clear. The creature drawn by Blizzard and Mimic's provocation was none other than a giant scorpion!

[Giant Scorpion LV. 230]

It was a monster about 60 levels higher than Kai, a behemoth among behemoths! Its size was so enormous that just one of its pincers was bigger than Kai's entire body.

But it's still smaller than Aosa.

And no matter how strong, it was just a field boss monster. It couldn't compare to the hardships he'd faced before!

"Stand back!" Kai yelled.

As Blizzard and Mimic quickly hid behind a distant dune, the creature let out a roar.

"Kiieeek!"

The strong recognized the strong. Realizing that Kai was his true opponent, the creature quickly lowered its body. At the same time, its tail’s venomous stinger shot quickly toward him!

"A useless attack!"

Using Ethereal Body to avoid the attack, Kai immediately used Holy Chains.

Shh-clink

He wrapped the chains around the creature's head and used the momentum to land on its shell.

"Deactivate Ethereal Body!"

As soon as his body regained its form, he gripped his sword in reverse and drove it into the creature’s shell.

Crunch!

The giant scorpion's shell was thick and tough, but it wasn’t enough to withstand Kai's attack power.

"Kieeeeeek!"

The giant scorpion lost 20% of its health in an instant.

Considering the level difference between them, the attack power was unbelievable, but...

Considering my stats, it's more surprising if it didn’t work.

At the same time, Kai's armor began to glow blue.

[Courageous Knight effect activated.]

[All stats temporarily increased by 10.]

[Tyrant's Wrath effect activated.]

[Water trait is added to weapon for 10 minutes. +100% fire resistance.]

[Due to fire resistance, the perceived temperature decreases.]

[Decreased stats are restored to their original state.]

"Nice!"

It was an unexpected ability from the Tyrant of the Sea set!

However, the joy didn’t last long as the scorpion’s massive tail struck Kai’s side.

"Kugh!"

Kai firmly planted his strong legs on the creature’s shell and raised his left arm to guard to reduce the damage, and then endured the attack! The impact was powerful enough to make his entire body tremble, but he managed to hold his ground.

Now that I've taken the hit, it’s my turn.

Kai’s left hand began to glow brightly.

"Holy Explosion!"

It was a holy spell he hadn’t used in a while! Every time he used it, Holy Explosion’s destructive power was unmatched.

Snap!

The scorpion’s tail was severed in a single blow! But that wasn’t the end of it.

"Holy Chains."

Kai once again extended the Holy Chains and swung them around like a gymnast. In an instant, the Holy Chains wrapped around the giant scorpion’s entire body several times.

Then, Kai let go of his sword, grasped the ends of the chains with both hands and pulled with all his strength.

"Hrrrgh!"

"Kreeeeek!"

The rock-hard shell slowly began to crack under the pressure of Holy Chains.

The giant scorpion tried to attack Kai with its pincers, but...

A scorpion can’t attack an opponent on its back with short pincers. Ever.

Kai, knowing this from his accumulated experience, didn’t blink an eye.

"This is... the end!"

Heat surged as the temperature, thought to have been neutralized by Tyrant's Wrath, began to rise again. That was a sign Kai had used Holy Explosion.

At the same time, the shell, which had barely held out under the pressure, began to crack and groan.

Crack, crunch!

Then, the giant scorpion shattered into white polygons and scattered across the desert sands.

"Phew, I guess with that level difference, it’s tough even to take down one monster."

And since no title was generated, that creature wasn’t even a field boss.

That kind of absurd creature is just a regular monster?

Kai laughed in disbelief and swung his sword to shake off the green fluid on his blade.

"At least the XP points are fantastic."

Mimic, which had been level 80, gained 7 levels in one go. While Blizzard, at level 138, gained 4 levels!

As for Kai, the result was even more noticeable.

[Level increased.]

[Acquired 5 stat points.]

With about 80% of his XP bar remaining, he leveled up after defeating just one monster! Not only that, but the XP bar was already half-filled again.

"Hmm, let's see. I was really good at math back in elementary school..."

Kai, who used to excel at calculating angles, eventually nodded after mentally calculating for a moment.

"Yep, I've got it. Time for some explosive leveling."

***

In MID Online, there were rankings for various categories. Arena rankings, fame rankings, and even quest completion rankings were tracked.

However, the one ranking everyone referred to was the level ranking. Even Yoo Ha-Rin, who held the world’s number one rank, was listed here.

Level rankings didn’t change easily, especially in a virtual reality game like MID Online where macros were nonexistent.

Running hard today will slow you down tomorrow.

Leveling up isn’t a sprint.

Pacing is key. It’s not about running the fastest, but about lasting the longest.

Thankfully, no one’s been on fire lately, so things have been a bit easier.

The rankings, especially from 1st to 1,000th place, rarely changed, and the reason for that was simple. If a player ranked 1,001st sped up their grinding, the player ranked 1,000th would feel pressured and increase their pace too.

This chain reaction would ripple through the entire top-ranking players, and because of this, an unspoken rule had developed among the top ranks.

Hey, let’s take it easy now.

You’re not going to climb any higher anyway.

If you increase your grinding speed, I’ll do the same.

Is this your first day gaming? We’ve got to stretch this out for our retirement plans.

If we keep this up for years, we’ll all burn out. Let’s compromise.

The ranking list had become a prime example of how society was built on mutual consideration and compromisation!

However, in the last two weeks, that ranking list had undergone a massive disturbance. And of course, the spark that ignited it was none other than the collaboration between Unknown and Cheonhwa for the hunt of the Black Bees.

Wow, Cheonhwa and Unknown really wiped out Black Bee.

I never paid attention to this before, but thanks anyway!

Wait, doesn’t that mean the Black Bee guys... have a three-day login penalty?

If not now, then when?

Now is the time! Let’s grind!

With many of Black Bee’s rankers temporarily out of the game, a war erupted as others tried to claim their spots. The competition in the top hunting grounds became so fierce that even rankers who usually uploaded videos daily were now focused solely on grinding.

But now, after two weeks, things were starting to stabilize again.

-In the end, Cheonhwa benefited the most, while the top rankers made some gains too.

-And the Black Bees got wrecked.

That was the general consensus. Everyone except the Black Bees was satisfied, and it seemed the ranking war was finally over.

-Huh? What’s going on now?

-Did the rankers suddenly realize something?

-Isn’t it about time for them to take a break? Why are they still grinding?

-Did they all take some drugs...?

The nonstop grinding by the rankers puzzled the normal players, but the rankers weren't doing so because they wanted to.

There are lunatics catching up from below, what do you expect us to do?!

Why are they grinding like crazy?

You’ve already gained enough. What’s the deal?

Ugh... I’ve only been sleeping three hours a night for the past two weeks!

The second marathon that neither normal players nor rankers themselves could understand had been forcefully initiated by a single player.

[Rank No. 32,000. Kai LV. 249]

"Who is this guy?!"

"It’s gotta be a bug! How else do you gain 86 levels in two weeks?!"

"I don’t care! I’ve already reported it, so if you don’t want to get caught, just keep grinding!"

A new rookie with a level of 249 had appeared, ranked at 32,000. Two weeks ago, he had been stuck in the mid-100s, but now he was achieving blinding growth.

At first, there weren’t many who paid attention to him. Only a few players whose ranks overlapped with his noticed.

Wow, this guy is leveling up fast. Must’ve hit a jackpot dungeon and gained a lot of levels. Lucky.

Huh? He’s still leveling up. Did he find two dungeons in a row by luck?

... Wait, why is this guy leveling up every few hours?

Is this... a bug?

This must be... a bug!

Even when it seemed like his leveling speed was slowing down, it only sped up again after hitting level 200. He was the perfect example of someone you could call insane!

-Who is this guy, does he think he’s the king of leveling up?

└ It’s gotta be a bug. I’ve already reported it.

-Yeah, I mean, MID Online’s first anniversary is in a couple of months. It’s held up pretty well, but a bug was bound to show up sooner or later.

-But I feel like I’ve seen this username before...

└ You probably just saw it in passing. Kai is a pretty common username, after all.

└ No, wait. I know this name. I heard it in Whitehall. They called him a saint.

└ Huh? I work as a dishwasher at a tavern in Glendale. The NPCs there talk about some adventurer named Kai, calling him the Saint of Glendale.

└ What are you all talking about? Are you saying this player is a Cleric or something?

└ Of course. How else could he be a saint if he’s not a Cleric?

└ No, but how does he get called a saint in two different cities?

└ Excuse me, I’m a newbie who just arrived in Frica Village, and they call this guy a hero here.

└ ????

└ ????

It was utter chaos!

Kai’s name had suddenly and unexpectedly etched itself into everyone’s minds in a way that shattered all expectations.