Contending for Supremacy

Yu Xian watched for a moment and decided to go for the kill! He immediately ordered the Giant Ghoul to charge, simultaneously casting Chaos Curse on his chosen monster serpent. [Whirlwind Cross Ball Python] [Level: 20] [Skills:] [Cross Whirlwind: Spins its body at high speed, whipping the target with tremendous force.] [Cross Strangle: Rapidly constricts the target's limbs, slowly strangling the target.] [Cross Tornado: Ultimate skill. Upon activation, generates dozens of miniature tornadoes that attack all surrounding enemies.] [Note: Despite having four heads, it couldn't piece together a single working brain.] Taking a moment to check the serpent monster's stats, Yu Xian more or less understood something after reading through them. The Fukang Mountains actually had plenty of Level 15 monsters, so why was everyone fighting on the two plains flanking Fukang City? Because the monsters here were stupider. Moreover, there was no need to climb mountains or deal with a chaotic assortment of bizarre monsters. Not every class holder possessed formidable combat capability; many class holders were completely unsuited for battle. Take Little Nora, for example. Its class barely had any combat power; it was just a special case capable of summoning food to crush enemies to death. And what about ordinary class holders? If they were stuck with Little Nora's class, they would probably cry their eyes out. Without frontal combat skills, grinding monsters to level up was virtually out of the question, and without food, the route of leveling up by eating wouldn't work either. Just imagining it was enough to see how hopeless it would be. At that moment, the Giant Ghoul's arms had already grabbed one of the Whirlwind Cross Ball Python's heads. Lifting the massive python's body, it swung it wildly through the air. Normally, grabbing a Whirlwind Cross Ball Python's head was no easy feat. The issue was that Yu Xian had cast Chaos Curse on the creature, and the random debuff it received happened to be carsickness. With all four heads suffering from carsickness at once, one could easily imagine how terrible its condition was. In a single moment of inattention, the Giant Ghoul seized the opening, and after that, there was no "after that." The Giant Ghoul had monstrous stamina. It swung the Whirlwind Cross Ball Python nonstop, slamming its body violently against the ground every now and then. After five minutes, the python's body dissolved into white light and vanished, while a cross-shaped snakeskin dropped to the ground. A drop. Yu Xian walked over, picked it up, and inspected it. [Snakeskin of the Whirlwind Cross Ball Python] [Effect: Crafting material. Can be crafted into snakeskin trousers, granting decent resistance to wind-attribute attacks.] [Note: Word is that wearing leather pants gives a bonus to singing!] These crafting materials could be taken back to Fukang City to have blacksmith NPCs forge equipment, or brought to player class holders to craft gear. Equipment forged by the former was fairly standard, while the latter might yield top-tier masterpieces or complete junk. Simply put, having an NPC forge equipment guaranteed a safe baseline, whereas having a class holder craft it was a gamble. When leaving the city, Yu Xian had noticed quite a few class holders setting up stalls by the city gates, holding up large signs declaring they would craft equipment for free. Presumably, these people were like Little Nora. Little Nora gained experience from eating to raise its level, whereas they gained experience through forging equipment. Hence, after price wars and relentless cutthroat competition, these crafters simply made their services entirely free. Why did Yu Xian believe they had waged a price war? Because it was free now. If only one person could forge equipment, they would definitely charge a fee. With two people, things changed; with three, competition grew fierce; and with four... needless to say, when three monks carry no water, what happens with four? From then on, Yu Xian continued grinding monsters. The class holders in the area also began noticing Yu Xian and Little Nora. In particular, when they realized that Yu Xian and Little Nora didn't have to fight at all, leaving all the frontal combat to the Giant Ghoul, everyone grew green with envy. While they were all out here risking their lives, Yu Xian's team killed monsters far too effortlessly. Yu Xian would first hit a Whirlwind Cross Ball Python with Chaos Curse, and then the Giant Ghoul would move in to beat it down. Even though it was at a lower level than the python, it could literally bash the python to death with sheer brute force. "Hey friend, I'm a Spider Mage. Care to team up?" Finally, a class holder couldn't hold back. A blond young man stepped forward and asked with a smile. Yu Xian shook his head. "Not interested." "Wait a second! You can hear what a Spider Mage can do first before making up your mind," the blond class holder pressed on relentlessly. Yu Xian looked at him. The man beamed back at Yu Xian. Sighing, Yu Xian nodded. "All right, let's hear it." "I can cast Sticky Spiderweb to restrict a monster's movements, and I also have a skill to inject venom. If we coordinate the two skills, it should greatly speed up our grinding. What do you think?" the blond class holder explained. In truth, the reason he wanted to team up with Yu Xian was precisely that his direct combat capability was too weak. Although he could trap the Whirlwind Cross Ball Python in webs to restrict its movements and even poison it, the issue was that the venom took far too long to work. From webbing the python to poisoning it to death took at least fifteen minutes. The efficiency was simply abysmal. After listening, Yu Xian looked past the blond class holder and called out, "What about you, buddy?" The blond class holder paused in surprise, then turned around to see a burly man approaching. The burly man grinned. "My class is Boulder Guard. My combat strength is average, but my defense is top-notch. You guys should be in need of a meat shield like me, right?" "Anyone else want to team up?" After hearing him out, Yu Xian glanced at the two of them, then looked around and called out loudly. To their astonishment, surrounding class holders chimed in one after another in response. Both the blond man and the burly fellow froze. It looked like there was quite a lot of competition. A party could hold at most five people. With so many wanting to team up with Yu Xian, they would have to fight for the spots. However, Yu Xian spoke up: "Since everyone wants to team up with me, why don't we just form a group? A small group can hold 30 people, a medium group 300, a large group 30,000, and a mega group can even hold three million. We'll start with a small group and slowly grow into the Zhen Realm's number one force!" "..." Everyone present fell silent. They were having a perfectly normal conversation about forming a party—how did it suddenly turn into an ambitious group-building campaign? And the Zhen Realm's number one force at that—isn't that way too far-fetched? For small fry like them, a Level 100 big shot could wipe them out with a single skill. "Anyone interested, step right up!" Yu Xian didn't care what they thought; he had just realized something. The Zhen Realm was essentially equivalent to an MMO. If you played an MMO without building a massive guild, wouldn't the whole endeavor be for nothing? Moreover, the low-level class holders of Fukang City didn't grasp the true worth of unlimited food. Little Nora's ability would inevitably be exposed sooner or later. Once high-level class holders found out, Yu Xian alone wouldn't be able to protect Little Nora. But if he had a major faction behind him, it would be the enemies' turn to tremble in fear. Unlimited food, once placed on the auction house, was practically equivalent to infinite resources. Whoever held Little Nora held half the world.