First Entry into the Forest

A dozen minutes later, the group arrived at the outer edge of the Nightshade Forest.

Even though it was daytime, the forest remained exceedingly dark.

The thick canopy blotted out the sun, and the undergrowth on the forest floor had grown up to waist height.

In such an environment, Players’ field of vision would be compressed to a very narrow range, which also meant it would be hard for them to spot nearby lurking dangers in advance.

The visibility in the forest was already this bad during the day, and some people even insisted on going in at night to hunt the BOSS.

Aren’t these people just courting death? Chen Zixuan thought to himself.

Dawn’s Light figured that the other teams had already entered the forest, and he was starting to get anxious.

He turned to look at Chen Zixuan.

“Should we go in directly?”

Chen Zixuan simply nodded in agreement.

She had only come out from the depths of the Nightshade Forest yesterday; going in again posed no psychological burden to her.

Dawn’s Light gazed thoughtfully at the silver-haired girl and asked, “Have you been in this forest before?”

“My spawn point wasn’t in the main city. I just came out of the forest yesterday,”

Chen Zixuan replied calmly.

Upon hearing her answer, all the members of the Dawn’s Light team looked at Chen Zixuan with mixed expressions.

Their spawn points had all been in the main city, and they hadn’t expected this unassuming girl to have been born elsewhere.

On the very first day after the server opened, she already had the strength to traverse the Nightshade Forest solo; that was no simple feat.

No wonder she could single-handedly slay a world-class BOSS.

Even if it was only the weakest of them, such an achievement was enough for any ordinary person to brag about for a lifetime.

“Your strength surpasses all of ours, and your experience is richer. Why don’t you be our team leader?”

Dawn’s Light took two steps forward and stared seriously at Chen Zixuan.

Chen Zixuan considered it.

Although leading the team was a bit more tiring, she’d be able to decide how loot and equipment drops were distributed from monsters, and the experience gained would also be much greater than the others.

Thus, Chen Zixuan calmly nodded and said, “I don’t mind being the team leader, but I don’t have much experience and I don’t really like working with others. Once we’re in the map, you should still command your own team members.”

Dawn’s Light naturally had no objections, nor did the other members. They soon disbanded the current team, and Chen Zixuan created a new one.

After forming the new party, Chen Zixuan didn’t lead them in immediately. Instead, she glanced around and said softly, “Everyone, report your stats and class. I need to know what each of you can do.”

To Chen Zixuan, these Dawn’s Light team members were no different from strangers. She knew nothing about their stats.

If she didn’t find out in advance, there would inevitably be many coordination errors once they entered the Nightshade Forest.

Always preparing for the worst and being fully ready in advance was a valuable lesson Chen Zixuan had learned after years of living alone.

“I’ll go first,”

Dawn’s Light volunteered. “Warrior, level 2, attack 38, both defenses a little over 20, hp just over 200.”

Seeing that Dawn’s Light had set the example, the others began to report their stats one by one.

“Mage, level 2, attack 15, magic 13, both defenses 5 points, hp 110.”

“Sharpshooter, level 2, attack 22, similar defenses, hp 120.”

“……”

After everyone had finished reporting, Chen Zixuan thought and asked again:

“Has anyone learned a control skill?”

The others all shook their heads. It was only the second day since the server opened—most players weren’t even level 2 yet, so where would there be so many skills to learn?

Only Dawn’s Light raised his hand, saying, “I learned [Smash]. It can stun for 2 seconds. Is that enough?”

Chen Zixuan nodded. Though two seconds was short, it was enough time for her to safely execute a full burst combo.

Next, Chen Zixuan continued to ask, “Has any priest learned a group healing skill?”

“I have.”

At this point, a female player in the team raised her right hand.

Chen Zixuan was a bit surprised, since for this world-class BOSS, it was highly probable there would be multiple group-attack skills.

Group heal was also a very rare skill in the early stages, extremely hard to obtain, and could play a huge role in team battles.

So he had actually only asked on the off chance; unexpectedly, there really was such a person in the Dawn’s Light team.

The female priest’s skill was called [Light of Healing], a common white-grade skill which, according to the setting of Douma Continent, would be classified as high-level yellow grade.

This skill had a very long cooldown, as much as 2400 seconds, so it could only be used once per battle at best, and its effect wasn’t particularly strong, restoring 25 HP to up to four players at once.

Still, something was better than nothing.

Chen Zixuan kept an open mind. He didn’t really trust these people and was even ready to solo the BOSS if necessary.

He quickly tallied the team’s composition. Now he had a tank and crowd control as cannon fodder, a healer, and he himself could barely fill the DPS slot. The remaining dozen or so could just muddle through as best as they could.

Just as Chen Zixuan was about to lead everyone into the forest, a team member suddenly stepped forward and asked her, “Leader, we’ve all reported our stats, aren’t you going to tell us yours? Also, how are we arranging DPS later?”

Dawn’s Light furrowed his brow but didn’t stop him. He too wanted to know what Cecilia’s stats were right now.

Chen Zixuan didn’t answer immediately. The group fell silent.

After a moment’s hesitation, Chen Zixuan finally said softly, “My class is Assassin, my level you already know, attack 59, hp 150. I’ll handle all the damage; the rest of you just assist, is that enough?”

Assassin was the explanation Chen Zixuan had decided upon beforehand. After all, when introducing her class to the others, it wasn’t like she could just blurt out ‘Vampire Prince’, right?

If she really proclaimed that, being laughed at would be the least of her worries.

With her overwhelming stats—an attack as high as 59—no one voiced any more questions.

The team soon set out, led by Cecilia and Dawn’s Light, heading deeper into the Nightshade Forest.

After all, the goal of this expedition was to defeat a world-class BOSS, so every team member was both nervous and excited.

So far, apart from Cecilia, no team had successfully killed a world-class BOSS.

Even the top-ranked teams in the national server had failed to take down the BOSS lurking deep in the forest.

The group advanced carefully through the waist-high undergrowth.

A few minutes later, at the front of the group, Chen Zixuan suddenly stopped and turned back to warn everyone:

“There’s a large group of monsters ahead, and two of them are probably elite class. Get ready for battle.”

————-= Clacky’s Corner ————-=

【ദ്ദി(⩌ᴗ⩌)】

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep