A total of 9 white items dropped, none of which were particularly special, but two blue jewelry pieces fell as well.
Leo identified them immediately. Shimmering Amulet of the Bat: +7% to All Resistances, 4% Mana Stolen per Hit. Required Level: 12.
A great find. He equipped it instantly and handed his old necklace to Majesty. From now on, as long as they managed their skill usage a little, they wouldn't lack Mana.
Sea-snake's Ring of the Apprentice: +18 to Mana, 10% Faster Cast Rate.
A ring for a Sorceress; he handed it to Majesty.
Once they had organized themselves, Leo took the lead again, exploring deeper into the cave. They hadn't gone far when an excited roar echoed toward them.
The visibility in the cave was too low; Leo couldn't see what it was at all, so they formed a triangular formation to await the monster's arrival.
Heavy breathing came from ahead; it seemed this monster was quite agitated.
A massive, grayish-black beast about 3 meters tall appeared before them. The creature had thick, deformed hands but relatively thin, short legs, looking like a mutated gorilla. Its face was hideous, and its eyes glowed with a fanatical light as if it had spotted a delicious meal. It was a Brute.
Leo was initially a bit nervous, but upon realizing it was just an ordinary monster, he signaled the others to conserve their magic and stepped forward to test the Brute's strength.
With the Brute's pitiful brain capacity, it couldn't understand why this human would step forward. But it didn't matter; after eating so much rotten Zombie meat and foul Fallen flesh, a rare piece of fresh food delivering itself to the door was something to be charged at.
"Roar!" The Brute swung its fist at Leo's head. The sensation was off; before it could react, its fist was shattered by Leo's Smite.
After the exchange, Leo found that while the Brute's strength was higher than that of an average Zombie, there was still a gap between it and a Boss-level Zombie. It was too weak.
With all three of them unleashing their full power, the Brute lay on the ground before it could even figure out why these three "meals" were so troublesome.
Gerdie stepped forward and used Find Item on the corpse. A large spray of foul blood shot out. Ding! A crisp sound rang.
Leo looked at the ring on the ground with some confusion. The monsters in this cave were so wealthy that they dropped jewelry frequently; jewelry was supposed to be the hardest gear to drop in the game.
He picked it up, only to find it was another Set item. Was he destined to be with green gear? He tore open an Identify Scroll, and another brilliant green light shone out, so green it made one's heart flutter.
Cathan's Seal: Damage Reduced by 2, 6% Life Stolen per Hit. Required Level: 11.
Good attributes—a god-tier starter. Although monster damage was currently high, any reduction helped, and the Life Steal percentage was quite high. Now, as long as he didn't take a massive hit, he wouldn't even need to drink health potions.
Wearing the green ring, he felt refreshed.
Continuing their exploration, they met another pack of Fallen. The three quickly dealt with them and reached Level 14. After leveling, a prompt echoed in his mind.
{Analysis complete. Charm Minimum Damage +5, Maximum Damage +10, 20% Chance of Crushing Blow, 50% Chance of Open Wounds, Strength +8.}
He was already happy about leveling, but the prompt from the charm space made him feel like he was flying.
He rummaged through his backpack, found a two-handed weapon with the highest damage, and tossed it in.
{Unknown error occurred. Unable to analyze.}
Refusing to give up, Leo swapped it for a one-handed weapon and tossed it in.
{Analyzing item: War Sword. Estimated Charm Minimum Damage +8, Maximum Damage +20. Similar attribute detected. Overwrite?}
Seeing the overwrite prompt, Leo grew a bit cautious. He didn't know if it would overwrite just the damage attribute or the entire weapon attribute. He took out the War Sword and put a Breast Plate in instead.
{Analyzing item: Breast Plate. Estimated Charm Defense: 66. Similar attribute detected. Overwrite?}
He threw in 1,000 gold and selected confirm. An hour passed quickly.
{Analysis complete. Extracted Breast Plate defense value to overwrite charm defense. Charm Defense: 66.}
Based on the prompt, Leo estimated it was an attribute overwrite. Gritting his teeth, he threw in the War Sword and 1,000 gold. It seemed he would need to plan his analyses carefully in the future; as equipment levels rose, the analysis time and cost would increase, making reckless analysis inefficient.
Three days passed. The cave had poor visibility, a depressing atmosphere, and high danger. However, there were many benefits; the cave was narrower than the Blood Moor and the monsters were dense. With enough strength, it was a perfect spot for leveling.
After three days of frantic leveling in the sunless cave, even a leveling maniac like Leo couldn't take it anymore. There was no water source in the cave, and they couldn't bring themselves to use their precious drinking water for washing. They were disheveled, and the mud on their skin could be rolled into pellets. The two women were in even worse shape, having turned from phoenixes into muddy, bedraggled chickens.
"Just hold on a bit longer. We're almost Level 17. At Level 17, we go back." Although the two women didn't say it, Leo could feel their desperate need to return and regroup.
"That's great!"
"Okay, brother."
There was deep anticipation in the voices of both women.
After dealing with one last wave of Zombies, white light shone from their bodies. The magical power nourished their flesh and restored their physical fatigue. However, the mental exhaustion they had accumulated required a good rest to recover.
Leo didn't even have the mood to assign his stat points. Once the battlefield was cleared, he immediately tore open a Town Portal scroll, and the three of them couldn't wait to return to the Rogue Encampment.
The noon sun wasn't particularly strong, but it took Leo a long time to adjust. Looking at the people coming and going in the Rogue Encampment, he felt as if a lifetime had passed.
The three of them took out their badges and touched them to the magic stone used for registration one by one. Unbeknownst to them, the patterns on the badges had turned blue.
Seeing the text on the magic stone, the Rogue in charge was shocked and unconsciously read aloud: "Leo, Blue Warrior; Majesty, Blue Warrior; Gerdie, Blue Warrior."
"Hana, are you joking? It's only been a few days. Never mind 'Warrior' rank—three consecutive Blue-rank potentials identified?" Another Rogue was equally astonished.
"Diana, come look. I must be seeing things." Hana hurriedly called her companion over to confirm.
Watching the two young, beautiful girls confirm the results at the magic stone for a long while, their reactions differed.
"Hana, the world is truly unfair. Compared to class members, am I just trash? I feel like I'm truly wasting precious food."
"Diana, class members are really too amazing. I really want to follow such strong people in the future, just like Sister Kyoko, and save the world."
Kyoko? That name was quite something. It didn't seem to be the first time he'd heard it; he felt he'd heard it somewhere before. Thinking of Sike, who always spoke in riddles, and the favor he still owed that cunning girl, Leo's mood instantly dampened.
"Cough, cough, cough. Hana, Diana. Are we registered yet?" Looking at the two women, Leo grumbled internally. With their unprofessional attitude, they were only fit for "security guard" duties at the gate, and even then, only at the inner camp gates; he feared they'd lose their lives guarding the outer ones.
"Sirs, we are sorry!" The two women bowed ninety degrees in perfect unison. It seemed they were very practiced at this movement.
Wait, I have a bold idea.