Chapter Twenty-Two: The Leveling Begins

Stepping into Dragon Sky City, I found it teeming with people—players of every profession mingled with a host of NPCs. The city’s layout was straightforward: a massive plaza at the center, with four main avenues radiating to the east, south, west, and north. Smaller side streets crisscrossed between the main roads, forming a web-like network.

Next came the stroll through the city streets. Though I wasn’t fond of such aimless wandering, I forced myself to get familiar with the surroundings to avoid future trouble. I passed by many shops: equipment stores, potion shops, auction houses, smithies, and general stores. Stepping into an equipment shop, I noticed most of the items were common or rare quality, with a handful of epic gear priced outrageously high. At the smithy, anyone could forge their own equipment of any grade, though the cost depended on the requirements and materials involved. Naturally, one could also learn the art of forging, but that, too, required a significant investment.

For now, my main goal was leveling up, so I headed directly to the quest hall. The place bustled with players. The quests themselves were posted on sheets of parchment pinned to the walls; to accept one, you simply took the paper to the counter and completed a bit of paperwork—an efficient process that took only seconds. With such a vast number of available quests, however, picking the right ones took some time. I selected several simple errands, which led me to wander the city until I arrived at a place called the Skill Academy.

It was clear this was where players learned new abilities. I stepped inside and saw the instructors for each class lined up in a row. The warrior's trainer stood bare-chested, displaying rippling muscles beneath a simple suit of armor, a massive sword planted in the ground beside him. The mage and priest instructors wore hooded robes, while the archer’s trainer, a strikingly attractive female NPC clad in leather armor, was particularly eye-catching. The summoner’s instructor, in contrast, seemed entirely out of place: draped in animal pelts, he sat cross-legged on the ground, his face half-hidden beneath a wolf-head cap. A lion lounged at his side, a bear sat behind him with a bird perching on its shoulder, while a turtle and a banana-munching monkey crouched at his feet. Countless other animals milled about, making the area resemble a miniature zoo.

Most of the players here were women—apparently the summoner class was especially popular among female players. I approached the summoner instructor and saw the name “Uruk” displayed above his head. As soon as he noticed me, Uruk greeted me, “Hey there, come to learn some new skills?”

I nodded in response.

Opening the dialogue menu, I selected the option to learn skills.

A list of skills shimmered before my eyes.

[Summoning Mastery]: Passive skill. Increases the speed of summoning and the health regeneration rate of summoned beasts.

[Summoned Beast Follow]: Passive skill. Summoned beasts default to following their master and won’t wander off. They will not attack enemies without orders, but if the master is attacked, the beast will automatically retaliate, gaining a 5% boost to all attributes until the enemy is defeated.

[Crushing Blow]: Strike the target with a heavy weapon attack, with a 2% chance to stun the opponent for 2 seconds.

[Shoulder Throw]: Throw an enemy behind you, dealing damage.

[Summoned Beast Sacrifice]: Creates a magic circle in front of you and sacrifices one of your summoned beasts within it, boosting the stats of your remaining summons.

[Excess Summon]: Release at least two summoned beasts to perform a special summon, calling forth a magical beast to fight for you. The released summons are lost forever, and the new magical beast replaces them as your summon.

[Burn]: Release a cone-shaped flame in front of you, dealing damage to all enemies in its path.

Summoner skills were not numerous, and only three were offensive. When I glanced at the learning costs, I was startled.

Learning Summoning Mastery and Summoned Beast Follow required 50 silver coins each, while Crushing Blow and Shoulder Throw cost 5 gold coins each! Burn required 12 gold coins, and Summoned Beast Sacrifice and Excess Summon each cost 1 gold coin.

I patted my pocket—thirty gold coins. I could afford it, though it felt painful to spend so much. But thinking long-term, I gritted my teeth and learned them all. Instantly, twenty-five gold coins vanished from my inventory, leaving me with only five gold coins and some loose copper. I was suddenly broke.

My skill bar now displayed seven new skills, all at the beginner level.

[Summoning Mastery] (Beginner): Proficiency 0, no cost.

[Summoned Beast Follow] (Beginner): Proficiency 0, no cost.

[Crushing Blow] (Beginner): Proficiency 0, costs 20 mana, 7-second cooldown.

[Shoulder Throw] (Beginner): Proficiency 0, costs 10 mana, 3-second cooldown.

[Summoned Beast Sacrifice] (Beginner): Proficiency 0, costs 100 mana, 10-minute cooldown.

[Excess Summon] (Beginner): Proficiency 0, no cost, 24-hour cooldown.

[Burn] (Beginner): Proficiency 0, costs 200 mana, 5-minute cooldown.

Checking my stats, I had a total of 500 mana—enough for a few uses before needing potions. To increase my proficiency and ensure I didn’t run out of mana, I’d need to buy some mana potions to keep on hand.

Next, I examined my weapon. The bronze knuckle, though not exclusive to summoners, was an epic-grade item with an impressive 100 attack power. After leaving Dragon Sky City and buying a map, I learned the city was surrounded by mountains on three sides. To the east lay the Forest of Death, to the west the Blood Wasteland, to the south Sigh Canyon, and to the north the Eternal Snow Mountain. According to the map, the Forest of Death was suitable for players between levels 10 and 30, with its deeper regions being more dangerous for those above level 30. The Blood Wasteland was ideal for players around levels 20 to 40. Sigh Canyon and Eternal Snow Mountain both required players to be at least level 30 to survive—otherwise, entering meant certain death. The map was crude, marking only these four locations, leaving the rest to be explored by players themselves.

My quest led me to the Forest of Death, where teams of players were already hunting groups of black bears. Occasionally, white flashes of light would rise—signs of players being killed and resurrecting. These were level 15 creatures: not much trouble for level 20 players, but a bit tough to solo at level 15. I picked out a black bear and tested my attacks. Crushing Blow activated, my fist smashing into the bear’s head for 201 damage. Energy Burst triggered, dealing another 430 damage, and I finished it off in a flurry, earning 200 experience points.

Unfortunately, as a level 15 monster, the black bear didn’t grant much experience, so I moved deeper into the forest.

Ahead, I encountered level 25 venomous hornets. Fighting them was tiring, so I let my Black-furred Dog handle them with its Shadow Ball attack. With over 300 attack power—higher than mine—it dispatched the hornets in just a few hits. The experience was decent, but still not enough.

After traveling for some distance, I came upon a broad meadow, dotted with cattle and horses in peaceful harmony—except all of them had humanoid bodies, which was rather disturbing.

Minotaurs, level 24, common beasts.

Centaur Warriors, level 24, common beasts.

With the system update, I could now see their details without attacking first, which saved some trouble. There were at least seventy or eighty of them, all social creatures.

Perfect. I decided to make them my targets. I threw a punch at a centaur, dealing over 200 health in a single basic attack. It kicked back with its forelegs, dealing 98 damage to me—my 200 defense points weren’t for nothing. Next, my Black-furred Dog spat out a Shadow Ball, hitting the centaur’s equine face for over 400 damage. The centaur turned its head toward my pet, but before it could react, the Black-furred Dog lunged, its Shadow Claw rending a bloody gash across the centaur’s face. The creature staggered and collapsed to the ground.

Defeating one granted me a 0.1% experience increase and dropped 80 copper coins. Generous enough. But the fallen centaur quickly alerted the others. A horde charged at us, while my Black-furred Dog unleashed Shadow Balls and I felled the rest with my fists. Experience accumulated rapidly—it was time to settle in for some serious grinding.