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Crocodiles are animals that naturally possess hard and thick armor, with extremely high physical defense.

With the addition of the mutant BUFF, both their defense and attack power were raised to a despair-inducing degree.

If it was a one-on-one fight, Chen Zixuan was still confident that he could slowly wear one down.

But now, there were over a hundred down below, which was a little beyond his current capability threshold.

Of course, the game developers certainly wouldn’t force players into a dead end.

Although the Sawtooth Crocodile’s physical defense was extremely high, its magical defense was a pitiable zero point.

That meant that mage, priest, and warlock players could essentially deal true damage to these monsters.

Yet at present, Chen Zixuan had only learned three skills—two enhancements and one true damage skill, which had to hit when the enemy was at low health to produce maximum damage.

This quest seemed purposefully designed to perfectly restrain him.

What should I do, should I call Yuewu and Gu Yanxi here?

As soon as he thought about it, Chen Zixuan dismissed this unrealistic idea.

Although Yuewu and Gu Yanxi’s primary output was magical damage, with their equipment level, they simply had no place in this kind of fight.

Low damage, weak endurance—coming here would basically be sending themselves to die.

Better forget it.

This is so hard…

Chen Zixuan fell into deep thought.

“Magic… Magic…”

Just then, a sudden flash of inspiration struck his mind. He remembered a starting skill his class came with.

[Blood Magic Mastery]!

Hastily, Chen Zixuan opened his personal panel, and sure enough, saw this skill at the very bottom.

[Blood Magic Mastery] (Lv.1)

[As a noble Vampire, you can learn powerful “Blood Magic” from the Vampire Mentor; activating Blood Magic costs 10% of your max HP, converting it into blood energy, which is stored in the [Blood Pool] (Current max storage 0/100).]

…….

Blood Pool, what is that?

Looking at the skill description, Chen Zixuan was a little confused, but he at least understood the first sentence.

“So, I can practice both magic and martial arts?”

Chen Zixuan felt a bit calmer.

Looks like, if I want to wipe out these Sawtooth Crocodiles, I must first complete that [Night Visit to Vampire Mentor] quest.

Since level 4, he’d been saving up unassigned points, and by now had accumulated four.

No idea how many new skills he could learn after 9 o’clock tonight.

If only there’d be a magic damage skill.

After taking one last look at the crocodiles at the bottom of the cliff, Chen Zixuan, though unwilling, could only turn away and retrace the path back.

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Because other players were already there, going into Mired Swamp was out of the question.

Taking a bit of a detour, Chen Zixuan directly returned to the Main City, went back to the weapons shop, and spent 2 silver to restore the durability of his two backup weapons.

After finishing all that, he randomly picked an inn to log off and exit the game.

The monsters in the other wild maps were too low-level, the experience gained from killing them was too small, and grinding would only waste weapon durability—hardly worth the trouble.

Might as well return to the real world to rest for a few hours, refresh his mind, and come back after 9 p.m.

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Five o’clock in the afternoon; the sky outside was shrouded in thick clouds and a chilly breeze drifted in.

It had been sweltering and sunny at noon, but by dusk signs of an impending downpour were already showing.

There was nothing to be done—summers in Xijiang City were always unpredictable, clear one moment, gloomy the next, impossible to figure out.

Back in the real world, Chen Zixuan lay bored on the bed, wanting to catch up on sleep but feeling an inexplicable restlessness inside.

So he simply picked up the phone by his pillow and started browsing the Legend of Kaloran forums.

The forum was bustling, with various kinds of posts emerging endlessly.

Just ten minutes ago, someone had posted something like this:

[Shocking! All water ghosts in the Mired Swamp vanished overnight!]

That must be… about me, right? Chen Zixuan felt a little embarrassed.

Scrolling further, he saw another post:

[Big Reward! Seeking player Cecilia’s real-world identity and address.]

This post had a lot of replies too. After only half a day, thousands of people were already commenting below.

Curious, Chen Zixuan clicked in.

The poster was anonymous, and the comments were a mess of speculation.

But Chen Zixuan noticed that many had already mentioned keywords like “silver hair,”

“twin tails,” and “short”—all distinctive traits.

It looked like Cecilia’s identity would soon be no secret.

If it were another girl, seeing the word “short” would probably make her somewhat angry inside.

However, Chen Zixuan felt quite calm at this moment.

They’re talking about Cecilia—what does that have to do with me, Chen Zixuan?

Scrolling further down, it was all the same old trade posts, with nothing useful about any world-class boss.

No point in reading further—just a waste of time.

Chen Zixuan simply closed the forum and started resting with his eyes closed.

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Meanwhile, after getting through the day’s meal rush, Lin Wei didn’t need to help out at the shop anymore. She dragged her tired body home.

This was a rather plain room—with only a single bed, a desk, and a big wardrobe.

Wearing plaid pajamas, the girl sat quietly at the edge of the bed, holding the phone Chen Zixuan had touched, chatting with her bestie on WeChat.

[Lin Wei: Do you think… he’d really like me?]

[Xiaofang: Relax, he surely will! My Wei is so pretty, great figure, big chest—guys all like this kind of girl.]

[Lin Wei: Oh shut up! #cleaver]

Face flushing bright red, Lin Wei fiercely tapped the send button after finishing her reply, then instantly collapsed as if all strength had been drained from her.

After a moment of silence, the girl let out a long sigh.

Girls’ hearts are always poetic.

Suddenly, her bestie’s words flashed once again in her mind.

In a daze, Lin Wei raised her right hand, gently pulled her pajama collar aside, unbuttoned the two buttons at her chest, and loosened the plain thick braid behind her.

Once freed, her loose black hair spilled out like ink.

She then took off her heavy black-framed glasses, picked up her phone, turned on the camera, switched to selfie mode, tidied herself up for the lens, and—with her face blushing—took a photo.

Like this… maybe I’m not so ordinary?

Recalling the boy’s smiles and countless little gestures, a subtle, long-hidden desire slowly rose from deep within.

A flame, suppressed in her heart for so long, started to burn, leaving Lin Wei feeling parched.

Would Chen Zixuan, like me in this form?

Opening WeChat, her mind consumed with thoughts of Chen Zixuan, Lin Wei didn’t realize she had tapped on Chen Zixuan’s profile, selected the photo she meant to send to her bestie, and pressed send.

She then typed: “Do I look good?”

The confusion in her eyes gradually faded, and it was as if her soul, previously drifting, slipped back into her body.

Suddenly, Lin Wei seemed to realize something. Staring at the phone screen, she trembled all over, hurriedly tried to press and hold the photo to recall it.

But, because she was so nervous, when she reached for the [Recall] button, her finger slipped and hit [Delete] next to it instead.

The steamy, private photo vanished from the screen.

“It’s over!”

Suppressing the urge to wail aloud, the girl collapsed onto the bed, pulled the covers over her head, and let out a despairing cry.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep