Chapter 1974 – Sacred Leveling Ground

A mountainous, scaled lizard lay in the center of the gorge, and a layer of poisonous, green fog covered a 50-yard radius around it. No life survived within this fog, and even the earth seemed dry beneath it as if the fog had devoured the ground’s very life force.

Despite gazing at this lizard from afar, Zero Wing’s members couldn’t help but shudder.

A Level 70 Mythic monster!

Aside from the fact that it was more than ten levels higher than they were, the potent, poisonous fog around it made the monster impossible to approach. In addition, its gigantic body, over a hundred meters in length, could easily change the terrain with a casual move. A single claw swipe could likely eliminate dozens of them.

They hadn’t even reached Level 60, but even if they were the same level as this monster, they’d likely be able to do little more than watch the giant lizard from afar. After all, the Mythic lizard wasn’t alone. Tens of thousands of Lord and Great Lord monsters lingered around the Boss.

To make matters worse, Primordial Gas filled the gorge. It would likely take a Tier 2 party of the same level to defeat any of these Lords, while defeating each Great Lord would require a full, Tier 2 20-man team.

Even the Guild’s Tier 2 MTs, Cola, Turtledove, and Ye Wumian, felt uneasy as they watched the forbidden land’s monsters, much less the team’s elite members.

With their current Attributes and combat standards, they shouldn’t have any issue tanking one or two Level 67 or 68 Great Lords by themselves without activating a Berserk Skill. They could even tank one Level 69 Grand Lord, although they’d have to push their limits to do so. But more than 20 Grand Lords wandered the forbidden land, as well as plenty of Great Lords.

If all these monsters charged at them together, only death would await these players.

“Guild Leader, even Tier 2 players like us will have trouble grinding here. With the Tier 1 players’ strength, I’m afraid that...” Shadow Sword said worriedly as he eyed the gorge below him. Ignoring the Mythic monster in the center, he could feel the threat of death from several other areas. If he felt like this while subjected to such pressure, the Tier 1 team members would fare far worse.

It was safe to say that their team didn’t have the power to grind in this forbidden land right now.

“If we try to grind these monsters as they currently are, it is impossible, but if we halve their Basic Attributes and remove the Primordial Gas’s negative effects?” Shi Feng asked, smiling.

The Witch’s Hill’s new forbidden land wouldn’t pose any threat to Level 100-plus players, but it was an immensely hazardous area to players who hadn’t yet reached Level 70. Of course, it was also a sacred area for leveling and grinding equipment.

Since no one had explored the forbidden land yet, it contained the maximum number of monsters it could hold. However, that also meant that the area’s drop-rate and monster-respawn-rate were much higher than normal. Even if 10,000 players grinded in this forbidden land, there would be plenty of resources to go around.

Unfortunately, transforming this hazardous area into a treasured land required players to fulfill one condition; they had to be strong enough to grind these monsters.

A bunch of Tier 1 players that hadn’t even reach Level 70 would be seeking their own death by coming here, but they could change that with the Void Field. If they could decrease the monsters’ Basic Attributes by nearly half and remove the Primordial Gas’s negative effects on players, even Level 60, Tier 1 players could slay these creatures. Only, their grinding efficiency would be quite poor.

However, the bonus EXP from killing monsters of a higher level would even the playing field.

Shi Feng had led so many Zero Wing members to such a dangerous area specifically to help them level up quickly, as well as collect Primordial Crystal Fragments.

He might be a particularly powerful player in God’s Domain and capable of nurturing a significant number of experts in a short time, but at the end of the day, there was a limit to what a small number of powerful players could achieve. If he wanted Zero Wing to become truly formidable, he had to improve the strength of Zero Wing’s members as a whole.

Naturally, one of the ways players could grow stronger in God’s Domain was by leveling up. Every five levels was a major turning point in the game since better weapons and equipment would become available at those intervals. Hence, Shi Feng had decided to raise his Guild members’ levels as quickly as possible. If he could help a large number of Guild members reach Level 60 within the next few days, it would elevate Zero Wing’s overall strength. After all, even the various large Guilds’ peak experts had only recently reached Level 59. They were still far from the Level 60 threshold, and the various Guilds’ elite and expert members were even further.

“Halve the monsters’ Basic Attributes and remove the Primordial Gas’s suppression?” After considering Shi Feng’s comment, Shadow Sword deemed that grinding here would be possible if that were true. Even if their Tier 1 MTs couldn’t tank these monsters, they could leave the task to the Tier 2 MTs, plenty of which had joined this expedition. “But is that possible?”

“Relax. I’ve prepared an item to do just that,” Shi Feng said as he retrieved the strengthened set of Void Field Magic Array Scrolls from his bag.

“A magic array? But, with so many monsters...” Shadow Sword roughly understood what Shi Feng intended to do when he saw the stack of Magic Array Scrolls, but with so many monsters around them, they’d need dozens or hundreds of arrays to cover the gorge.

“Wait a moment; you’ll understand what I mean,” Shi Feng said. He then passed the Void Field scrolls to Alluring Summer and a few other magical class experts. “Take these scrolls and activate them in these locations. Try to avoid any monsters while you activate the scrolls.”

“Leave it to us.”

After examining the coordinates Shi Feng had indicated, Alluring Summer and her companions went into action.

Shi Feng intended to activate the strengthened Void Field from halfway down the gorge. If they successfully activated the magic array there, it would cover nearly half of the area, giving Zero Wing’s team enough room to fight.

Once Alluring Summer and the other casters were in position, they unfurled the Magic Array Scrolls and activated them.

A gigantic, silver magic array then manifested over nearly half of the forbidden land, enveloping every monster within range. Void Field then purified the Primordial Gas in the affected area, dissipating it. In addition, every monster rapidly lost Basic Attributes.

Zero Wing’s members were stunned.

The Lord and Great Lord ranked monsters’ Attributes fell by 50%. Now, they couldn’t even compare to Level 60 monsters of the same rank. The only advantages they still had were their combat standards and high level.

“MTs, start pulling aggro! Fight in 100-man units. Do not enter each other’s combat areas! Cola, you and the other Tier 2 MTs will tank the Grand Lords! Tier 1 MTs, you only need to handle the Lords and Great Lords!” Shi Feng commanded once the Void Field was complete.

Following which, the 10,000 Zero Wing members quickly split into 100 teams of 100 players. These teams then split up and hit different areas in the forbidden land. Each team dealt with three to five Great Lords, and those with Tier 2 MTs handled at least one Level 69 Grand Lord.

Due to Void Field’s power, the forbidden land’s danger had significantly decreased.

However, Zero Wing’s members weren’t able to deal much damage due to the level suppression. Even Tier 2 damage dealers barely dealt more than -10,000 with each attack. Even so, the region’s monsters gradually lost HP.

Normally, Zero Wing’s 100-man elite teams could eliminate a party of Lords and Grand Lords of the same level in ten minutes or less, but now, it took each team half an hour to defeat a party of monsters. However, as the Lords and Great Lords died, everyone’s experience bars increased by a sizable chunk.

After gaining an abundance of EXP, the team’s regained their enthusiasm. All of the team’s Level 55 elite members reached Level 56 after around six hours of grinding, while the Level 56 elite players only needed a little more time to level up. At most, they’d need another four or five hours to reach Level 57. Their leveling speed was nearly five times as fast as experts in other areas.

However, these players were far more surprised by how much loot they gained than the awarded EXP.