11 Lowest of the Food Chain

Blake's face paled at the sight of the incoming Zombie Sleeper from the sky.

As opposed to the Ivory Armored Skeleton, the Zombie Sleeper's size is even bigger.

If ivory Armored Skeletons were about two times his height, then the Zombie Sleepers are two and a half times his height. Furthermore, its body is composed of thick decayed flesh, fat, and muscles, causing them to obviously be heavier than the skeletal structure that the Ivory Armored Skeleton has.

Clasping both hands like a hammer, the Zombie Sleeper swung its arms powerfully.

Seeing the force behind the Zombie Sleeper's swing, Blake didn't doubt that a solid attack from it which is an even stronger mob than the Ivory Armored Skeleton would definitely one-shot him.

Boom!!

Under the sheer strength of the Zombie Sleeper, the ground was destroyed.

With an unfathomable level of strength coursing in its veins, the ground was obliterated completely, the point of impact curved inwards before the surroundings explode, and destruction spreads in a thirty meters radius.

A gnarly smile appeared on the Zombie Sleeper's face, expecting Blake to die.

But to its surprise, when it lifted its hands away, there was no sign of Blake's corpse underneath them. Glancing around the place, the Zombie Sleeper can't find where he goes. It roars angrily realizing that its prey managed to escape.

Just at the border of the place, Blake was panting heavily with his hands on his knees.

It was true that earlier, moments away from death, the presence of the Grim Reaper was palpable to his eyes, and its scythe was for sure about to take his soul away all thanks to the Zombie Sleeper's attack.

Yet, in that extreme moment, his brain works at full capacity for a fraction of a second.

As his brain respond and raced at full speed to his primal need for survival, Blake suddenly recalled one of the skills that he gained earlier from turning into a Spectral Vampire, the Proxy of Blood racial skill.

Since he already used the Shadow Step four times, his mana is exhausted.

But with the help of the Proxy of Blood skill, he was able to sacrifice his own hp to cast the Shadow Step skill for the fifth time. Thanks to that, Blake was able to barely escape the Domain of the Calm Sleepers.

[-150 Hp]

"Eurgh..." Blake groaned, his body is hurting all over. "Let me rest a little"

Going over to a tree, he lean on it and sat on the ground.

Meanwhile, Salana is looking at him in complete disbelief. It was not but a moment ago that she had lost hope for Blake surviving the ordeal, yet here he is, leaning on a tree trunk beside her.

It's a feat that should be considered impossible, yet Blake did it anyway.

Surely, if players knew a level 1 newbie managed to survive a C-rank Hunting Spot on the second day after launch, they would definitely vomit blood. It was probably going to be too much to believe which will lead them to disbelieve the feat.

Pausing for a second, Salana shakes her head to snap out of her daze.

"Blake, what's the Spectral Vampire's racial grade?"

Blake glanced at her briefly while he holds his stomach that is aching before he replied after hissing in pain lightly, "It's EX grade. I've never played a game with an EX grade before, but it should be above the SSS grade"

At the sound of his words, Salana gasped as she was surprised once again.

Grades of a race are a detrimental factor of that race's power, and the gap will become wider and wider the higher the race grade. An S-grade race, for instance, its innate ability would be two or three times stronger than an A-grade race.

SSS-grade race is the grade that consists of the most powerful races in existence.

Elder Dragonkin, Primordial Giants, Revered Archangels, and Godkins are a few SSS-grade races that are considered to be the strongest. Each one is a catastrophic powerhouse and has its own kingdoms, easily led by one of the strongest entities in the world.

Nine-tailed Werefox is also one of the SSS-grade races, and Salana was quite proud of it.

But an EX-grade race is an entirely different thing, races that are in the EX-grade category is called the Superior Myths. Usually, an EX-grade race is a combination of powerful races or a unique mutation.

It's extremely rare, appearing once in millions if not billions.

Searching for the Chain Racial Quest of an EX-grade race is already impossible enough for all players, it needs an extreme amount of luck to pull that off. And even after gaining it, the player would still need to complete the quest which is way harder.

In order to have an EX-grade race, players need unfathomable luck and dedication.

Although that's the case, Blake has his hand on one of them, the Spectral Vampire. Just as the extreme difficulty in becoming one, the rewards are also not a joke, and that's portrayed by Blake being able to survive the attack of above level 40 mobs as a level 1 player.

Looking down at his wound, Blake finds that it was starting to visibly heal.

[Shadow Dormancy skill is activated]

Since he was now under the canopies of the forest, the Shadow Dormancy skill started to take effect, amplifying his regenerative ability. Blake then opens his status window to monitor his HP

[Status Window]

HP: 630 / 1,500 (+2%/ minute)

MP: 1 / 200 (+0,5%/ minute)

Blake leans his head back as his wound began to heal, he was shivering from head to toe.

Upon seeing Blake's state of condition, Salana smiled lightly as she can tell that he was not expecting to feel this much pain despite still having almost half of his HP, "It's different isn't it, compared to seeing your HP drops in a normal game?"

"Yeah, I can barely move even though I still have HP left" Blake replied with a wry smile.

As he said that, his lips quivered from the loss of blood.

Salana then sits beside him and shrugs her shoulders, "No problem, you'll just have to learn to deal with the pain. In the future, there's going to be tougher fights, and you need to get used to it quickly"

"I know, but for now, I'm going to stick with easy fights" Blake replied again.

Despite surviving the Domain of the Calm Sleepers in his state, he couldn't kill one of them. It's quite obvious to him that he couldn't, and thus he intends to take on easier fight first and level up.

Maybe, when he leveled up some more, he can go back here and exact his revenge.

In about half an hour, Blake recovered his HP to full.

But this was made possible thanks to the Shadow Dormancy skill, half an hour is all it takes to recover to his peak condition. If not for that skill then it would take him a couple of hours, it would be a waste of time.

Standing up and stretching, Blake then looks around the huge forest that he was in.

[Whistling Yellow Forest]

Looking at the name of the place, relief can be seen on Blake's face as he finds that it was written in grey color. It's supposed to be an E-rank difficulty, and that's two ranks below the Domain of the Calm Sleepers.

Putting both of his hands on his waist, Blake takes a deep breath of fresh air.

Despite the name of the forest, the theme is still similar to that of the lifeless and barren land that constitutes the Domain of the Calm Sleepers. The Whistling Yellow Forest is filled with tall ashy aspen trees that ascend to the sky.

It's quite darksome due to the dominant ashy color and its canopies that provide shadows.

One and the only feature that decoreates the forest that is not adopting the ashen color is the yellow leaves, glowing with a magical hue that at the very least prevents the forest to be extremely dark.

Because of that, the forest still could be described as breathtaking and beautiful.

"Hmmm... do I still need to go to the Safe Zone? I think I'm going to be okay. Well, it's probably nothing, so I'll start my grind here" Blake mutters to himself, nodding inwardly. Now the real game began, he can now start leveling up and grow his avatar.

Coursing through the forest for a couple of minutes, Blake finds quite a big glade.

As he turned into a Spectral Vampire, the dark forest didn't faze his vision at all.

Inspecting the place from the cover of a bush, a smile appeared on his face when he finds numerous small gooey creatures that should be yellow slimes roaming about and eating grass. 'What kind of MMORPG game without killing slimes? This is perfect...'

[Peaceful Yellow Slime]

Level: 5

Grade: Common

Hp: 150 / 150

Skill:

Camouflage - Change the color of its body to blend with the surroundings.

Refreshing Aid - Its body content holds nutritious value, refreshing anyone that eats it.

Blake thanked God when he finds these slimes, lady luck began to smile at him again. As his physical stats has undergone a huge increase from turning into a Spectral Vampire, these slimes would be easy to deal with.

Without much thought, he stepped out of the bushes and spreads his arms open.

"Come here little slimes, Daddy is here to play with you!"

"Daddy? Really? Can't you be more childish than that?"

"Shut up! I've just survived the attacks of horrifying mobs, leave me alone with this one"

Upon hearing this, Salana can only roll her eyes in response.

Shifting his attention back to the Peaceful Yellow Slimes, Blake chuckled at the sight of them surprised by his sudden appearance, and tries to slime away. Each of their bodies also instantly turns color and blends with the ground.

Despite their attempts, Blake can still see them.

Moreover, their movements are also slower than his nonchalant walk.

Blake strides with huge steps to the nearest one and raises his foot, a devilish smile appeared on his face as he disregards the cuteness of the Peaceful Yellow Slime that is being shadowed by his rising foot.

A squeaking voice came out to the slime as it sensed danger.

It tries to run away more vigorously, yet there's not that much increase in its movement.

Splash!

[Damage: 1,000]

After stomping on the Peaceful Yellow Slime, Blake saw a damage text written in red float to his vision. Following that was the death notification of the Peaceful Yellow Slime he stomped.

Under his foot, the Peaceful Yellow Slime has no chance.

Since he was bullied by those strong mobs earlier and was forced to turn tail and run like a chicken, Blake now has the sudden urge to bully these Peaceful Yellow Slimes. It was a way to vent his frustration.

[Level difference bonus exp: 50%]

[Obtained 600 Exp!]

[Level up!]

Looking at the notifications, a smile appeared on Blake's face.

Stretching both of his hands as his eyes scanned the dozens of Yellow Peaceful Slimes in the area, his eyes flashes with excitement, "Alright, let's start the grind. I'll start with this before slowly moving up the food chain!"

Stomp!

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