After killing the Aqua Bear, the group gained a crazy amount of experience. After all, they were not like Draco who was condemned to receive 10% of his experience earnings.
Apart from Eva who was made to receive 70%, the three other beauties got the whole amount without any wicked deductions from the system, despite being the ones who needed it more than Draco and Eva.
The total amount of experience earned was 11,425%, which was split among the four of them through their equal share distribution through the party settings.
What, did that amount seem small? Heh, truly asking for an ocean when given a bottle of water to drink.
The Aqua Bear was Rank 2 sure, but it was the bottommost tier of that Rank. As a Specialist Rank monster, its experience payout after death would not be much to a Rank 2 player.
Basically, it would be the same as a Rank 1 player killing a Rank 1 Private monster. You need to kill an unholy amount of them if you want to move anywhere at all.
Of course, since the four of them were Rank 1, and were not even at the maximum level of the Rank - especially Zaine who was only level 20 - the experience gain was massive.
If they cleared an Area Zone of Rank 2 monsters like Draco did, their experience gain would be horrendous. Then again, that was why they were here, wasn't it?
However, Eva wasn't too excited. Ranking up and leveling up worked differently for players than it did for NPCs. When a player Ranked up, they kept their stockpiled experience and had it converted upwards, losing most of it.
This prevented players from abusing mechanics to stockpile experience and shoot up many Ranks in one shot. NPCs naturally did not have this problem.
Now, one had to ask, how the hell did NPCs Rank up anyway? If one mentioned the Training Hall, that would be nonsensical. After all, the Training Halls were introduced in the recent Update 1 for players specifically.
No, NPCs Ranked up organically. Once they hit the level cap for their Rank and gained a certain threshold of experience, they would automatically Rank up after going through a metamorphosis.
After the threshold experience was consumed, they would lose all excess and have to start again. So basically, they had no such thing as 'stockpiled' experience.
So no matter how huge the gained experience was, as soon as they Ranked up, the rest would dissipate into the air. Normally, they wouldn't have a problem with this as they couldn't even see their own stat sheets, but in the previous timeline, many players had families and organizations with NPCs.
It was obvious that after 15 years, such a mechanic would have been discovered, and it caused many players who were raising NPCs great distress. Not only did the AI bully and brutalize players, but it didn't even let off its own creations!
Eva gained 2,000% experience which was enough to let her reach level 50 and hit the Rank cap. She had been level 49, 60% but was now level 50, 1940%. Her current stockpile would be extremely useful when she classed up, whenever that might be.
She gained her final 3 stat points for Rank 1 and allocated them into Dexterity and Strength, with the former receiving 1 point and the latter 2 points. This was her current stat sheet.
｢ Name: Riveting Night
Class: Shadow Assassin (Optimal)
Rank: Adventurer (1)
Level: 50
Exp: 1,940%
Str: 14
Dex: 90
End: 10
Int: 5
Spr: 5
Cha: 5
Lck: 40
Combat Skills: Stealth, Short Blink, Instant Healing, Multishot, Assasinate, Shadow Tendrils, Shadow Veil.
Non-Combat Skills: Revenger, Cloud Feet, Speed Break, Escapism, Shadow Illusion, Dark Interrogation.
Tradeskills: Slave Trading (level 21, 90%), Negotiation (level 10, 12%), Tracking (level 34, 90%), Intelligence (level 1,20%)｣
Next was Hikari. She had gained the full 2,857% experience that was meant to be allocated to her. She had previously been level 46, 31%, on the cusp of Rank 2 really.
With this hefty amount though, she easily reached the maximum level cap of level 50. Not only that, but her experience threshold was quite high as a Dragon, at a whopping 2,000% for Rank 1.
Since she only needed 369% experience to reach the Rank cap, she still had an easy 2,488% experience remaining. So in essence, Hikari was good to go for her Rank up and the remaining 488% would be donated to 'charity'.
As for her new 15 stat points, Eva unceremoniously dumped it into Spirit as usual, which brought it to 345 points. The road to 1000 points in Spirit for Hikari was long, but once she got there, she would become unparalleled under heaven.
Roma also gained the full 2,857% experience and her former level of 36, 84% easily climbed to level 50, 0%. Roma gained 65 stat points, of which Eva placed 50 into Intelligence to bring it to 200 points and 15 into Spirit which brought it to 65 points.
Her experience threshold was actually a whole 1,500%! This was not because of her Gypsy heritage or Mystic Arts. While special, they were not enough to require such a steep price just to move from Rank 1 to Rank 2.
The source was naturally her Ultima Sunt bloodline. Luckily, Roma had about 1,541% experience remaining after the various deductions, so she was able to satisfy her threshold.
As for the meager 41% that was discarded, who cared about such a small amount?
As for Zaine, she was the most unfortunate of the group. She sat at level 20, 60% meaning that the 2,857% experience was not enough to send her to the Rank cap, much less satisfy her experience threshold.
She had climbed from her low level to level 49, 17%. She was so close, yet so far away that it was quite depressing. If that damned Aqua Bear could have coughed up even slightly more experience, she could also Rank up.
Zaine snorted with dissatisfaction when she thought of this, and had the Aqua Bear possessed an untouched corpse, she might have just mauled it again.
Zaine had gained a whopping 145 stat points. Eva allocated 100 points into her Intelligence, bringing it to 200 points and the remaining 45 she allocated to Charisma - a vital stat for a succubus like Zaine - bringing it to 60 points.
Now, both Zaine and Roma had the same amount of Intelligence. As ranged casters, this would make their combat effectiveness soar to untold heights individually. When one considered the fact that they were together in one party, it was enough to even give a Rank 3 monster cause for concern.
Eva was silent this whole time. She rubbed her cheek lightly as she pondered what to do, then nodded to herself. "We'll kill one more monster here before returning to Vita City-State for your Rank ups."
Zaine beamed at Eva with gratitude. Hikari and Roma grinned widely, patting Zaine on the back, eliciting a smile from the succubus to her two sisters under Draco.
Eva quickly led the group to their next target, which happened to be a large hippopotamus that was sleeping on the bank of a large lake. It had yellow skin and extremely thick blubber that would probably force most attacks to bounce off harmlessly.
｢Name: Golden Hippo – Specialist Rank monster
Level: 75
HP: 1,200,000/1,200,000｣
The group didn't waste time here. Roma immediately called out her Witch Slaves, then cast Necrotic Hands and Evil Curse on the Golden Hippo, inflicting the rare but overpowered <Decaying> Status. This horrendous effect made the very flesh of the monster rot at a noticeable pace.
Its HP dropped by 1% per second, which was a flat rate for the <Decaying> status. As the arguably most damaging status effect discovered so far, its reputation was definitely well-earned.
The success in casting this effect had nothing to do with Intelligence or Spirit, but all to do with Luck. Roma though, only had 10 points in Luck, so it basically meant that the RNG Gods had condemned the Golden Hippo to death.
She then continued by casting Illusion on the Golden Hippo at the same time that Zaine did, which layered their illusions together and made it absurdly powerful.
Now that the two casters had 200 points in Intelligence, their effectiveness with this ability was no longer in the realm of common sense. Its ability was almost absolute, and it still had room to grow.
The Golden Hippo, who didn't even get a chance to stand up after feeling this opening salvo, fell right back down to its stomach and displayed a dazed expression. Zaine also used this chance to toss a few bottles into the air.
With a blue glow appearing in her eyes, as well as shrouding the outline of the thrown bottles, they flew over to the body of the Golden Hippo and crashed against its skin, releasing its contents.
A sizzling sound erupted as the highly viscous liquid that was contained within the bottles poured out and ate away at the Golden Hippo's already decaying skin.
This liquid was a batch of Common to Epic Rank poisons Draco made in the past but had no use for. Poison wasn't really part of his fighting style and he no longer had to sell such items for money.
Eva had collected them for Zaine when they went back to Vita City-State to have their stats re-allocated. Now, they played a role in allowing Zaine to use minuscule effort to deal great damage.
She could - of course - use her knives and all, but the blubber of the Golden Hippo would make it a thankless job. Not to mention that it might take away from her concentration, which she had dedicated a large majority to the illusion the Rank 2 monster was under.
Even Roma had stopped casting, her eyes simply flashing with a green light as her hair rose like snakes. A green outline shrouded her form and her face showed that she was completely focused on her current task.
The same held true for Zaine as well. Behind them stood Hikari, who was watching them sharply, making sure that nothing could harm them before she could intervene.
Eva simply stood back, watching all this with folded arms and a smirk. After all, this was the result she wanted to see. After fighting together for a while, they had gone through subtle changes in their demeanors and chemistry.
Soon enough, they would become perfectly fluid in such things as long as they kept it up, which was also what Eva planned to keep on doing. She was certain that after a few months of this, these women would become powerhouses no lesser than herself or Draco.
The poor Golden Hippo lasted about 2 minutes under this intense beating. The <Decaying> effect alone tore away 60% HP after 1 minute, which was the duration of the Evil Curse active skill.
As for the final minute, it only took so long because Roma and Zaine were experimenting with their fused illusion. As such, only the poisons thrown out by Zaine occasionally dealt the necessary damage-over-time.
Even when the unfortunate Golden Hippo died, Zaine and Roma displayed sad expressions, as if they wanted to go on for a bit more. The hippo though, had a look of relief and freedom.
It decided that the next time it reincarnated, it would just become a sugar cane. Being a living being was too stressful nowadays.
The party gained 10,953% experience for this particular kill. The only reason why they earned this much despite their average levels being higher was because this hippo was far harder to kill than the Aqua Bear on paper.
As for Roma and Hikari, the 2,739% experience they got vanished into dust as it claimed that it was not feeling so good.
Zaine naturally reached level 50, and her experience threshold was 1,200% experience because she was a Royal Devil. As for the rest of her experience, it followed the lead of those that came before and entered the nether realm.
Only Eva came out with something good, as her stockpiled experience grew again. As for Zaine, her final 5 points for Rank 1 was allocated into Charisma.