Chapter 200 - Flame God's Cave
Red Flame Fortress was located in the middle of the Scorching Hot Canyon; a large volcano loomed behind it. The terrain around this region was extremely hot all year round, and the air was similarly parched and blistering. A gust of wind here was like a wave of heat, and one wouldn’t feel a hint of relief from it.
Meanwhile, the surrounding environment of the canyon consisted of only scorched, barren earth and mountains. All around, web-like cracks decorated the ground.
Just this sight would cause one to lose their appetite.
As this was a virtual environment, players could fully experience the scorching heat.
Being parched and drenched in sweat were only minor inconveniences, but one’s vision blurring? That was a bigger problem. Moreover, battling in such an environment was extremely taxing to a player’s stamina.
Due to such a brutal environment, many players did not like grinding or questing here.
Moreover, the Scorching Hot Canyon wasn’t the only Level 20 to Level 25 map. There were more than 20 such maps within the White River City region. The millions of players within the White River City region could simply choose any one of these other locations to grind and do quests. For example, the Cooling Lakeside, the Shady Forest, and such were all good locations. There was no need for them to torture themselves by coming to the Scorching Hot Canyon.
For Shi Feng, however, such a brutal environment did not affect him much.
In addition to having activated the Hidden Passive Skill, Basic Body Strengthening, Shi Feng also had 20 points of Fire Resistance. As a result, the high temperature of the Scorching Hot Canyon did not have any effect on Shi Feng. Shi Feng would not greatly exhaust his stamina by fighting in this hot environment either. Moreover, the majority of the monsters in the Scorching Hot Canyon dealt fire-type damage, so this place was suitable for players like Shi Feng, who had high Fire Resistance, to level. Shi Feng’s leveling efficiency would increase by at least 20% compared to leveling up at other maps.
In God’s Domain, nature’s power was very strong. If players wanted to level up quickly, they needed to overcome many of such natural environments. As players progressed down their paths in God’s Domain, the importance of resistances would also increase.
This was why Shi Feng grew excited when he learned that the Ice-Blue Devil Flame increased both his Fire Resistance and Ice Resistance.
After arriving at the Flame Red Fortress, Shi Feng opened the system map. Confirming the location of the Flame God’s Cave, Shi Feng advanced towards it along a red dirt road.
Although there were plenty of Level 20 and higher monsters, such as the Fire Raging Bull and Violet Flame Wolf, along the way to the Flame God’s Cave, Shi Feng walked on the official road. There were normally high-level NPCs patrolling the official roads, and these NPCs were usually 15 Levels higher than the map they occupied. Moreover, they patrolled in small parties rather than individually.
If there were any foolish monsters that dared come close to the official road, these Level 40 NPC’s would immediately dispatch the offending beast. The moment they came within a 40-yard distance to the official road, the patrolling NPCs would discover these monsters and turn them into soup. Hence, all the surrounding monsters did not dare come within 40 yards of the official road at all, allowing players to travel safely through it.
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Around half an hour later, Shi Feng finally arrived at the Flame God’s Cave.
The Flame God’s Cave was situated close to a volcano at the outer edges of the Scorching Hot Canyon. Plenty of Elite monsters and Chieftain ranked Bosses resided within the cave. However, even when players discovered this location, they would normally choose to turn around and leave as the monsters here were simply too strong. If monsters had not chased that party, they would not have run to the Flame God’s Cave, incidentally discovering the Ranger’s secret of grinding Bosses and Elite monsters.
However, only Shi Feng knew of this secret right now.
The monsters in the Flame God’s Cave were all Level 25, and generally, only players who had reached Level 20 would grind here. However, Shi Feng’s equipment had the Ignore Levels Attribute, so he could barely grind here as well, though with much lower efficiency.
Regardless, he would still be grinding Level 25 monsters. Even if his speed were slower than a Level 20 player, his gains would still be much greater compared to grinding Level 14 monsters.
As for why the monsters in the Flame God’s Cave were so amazing, it was mainly because of the extraordinarily high damage of their fire-type attacks. Even if it were only a Level 25 Common monster, it could still kill an MT of the same level with just two or three moves. Not to mention, the monsters in the Flame God’s Cave all lived in groups, and one would usually meet five or six monsters at the same time. Even an MT with top-tier equipment could not handle so many monsters at once. There was also a large amount of Elite and Special Elite monsters here; they could practically one-shot an MT of the same level. Hence, even when players knew about the Flame God’s Cave, there was still nobody daring enough to grind at this place.
However, it was a different story when one had the Flaming Sun Scripture.
The Flaming Sun Scripture could grant players a Flaming Sun’s Blessing effect. The effect was closely related to the surrounding environment; the denser the fire-type mana present in a location, the greater were its effects. The effect lasted for two hours.
However, the introduction of the Flaming Sun Scripture did not reveal such an effect, so players in the past couldn’t discover its exact purpose.
The Flame God’s Cave could be considered as one of the locations within Scorching Hot Canyon that had the densest fire-type mana. As a result, the fire-type damage of the monsters inside was extraordinarily high. However, precisely because of this same reason, the Flame God’s Cave was also a perfect place for one to use the Flaming Sun Scripture.
However, even with the Flaming Sun Scripture, Shi Feng needed to be extremely careful while he was here. After all, the Flame God’s Cave was a nest for Level 25 monsters. With the level gap of 11 Levels, these monsters could easily extinguish Shi Feng’s life with just two moves, and Shi Feng would not even have the chance to resist before dying. Moreover, Shi Feng’s level was just too low; these monsters could detect him easily. Hence, he needed to act with extreme caution.
The moment Shi Feng carefully set foot in the cave, a wave of hot air swept past him from within the cave. Just when Shi Feng’s five senses heightened to their maximum limit, his system communication suddenly rang out.
“Crap! That nearly gave me a heart attack!” Shi Feng jumped, taken by surprise. He glanced at the system notification.
Fortunately, monsters could not hear the system notifications. In the same way team chat worked, only specified players could hear them, while outsiders would remain unaffected.
“Flying Dragon? Why is he playing God’s Domain as well?” Shi Feng wrinkled his eyebrows at the sight of the caller ID blinking before him.
This Flying Dragon was none other than Shi Feng’s classmate and the ninth-ranked in Jin Hai University’s fighting competition, Ling Feilong. However, in Shi Feng’s previous life, Ling Feilong only joined God’s Domain long after the game’s release. At that time, Shi Feng had already become the Guild Leader of Shadow.
For Ling Feilong to join God’s Domain in advance, could this be the result of the butterfly effect? Shi Feng lowered his head in thought. However, he soon revealed a smirk. In this life, he had not revealed his character’s ID to anyone else. As for Blackie, Shi Feng had long since told him not to reveal anything. Hence, no one in Jin Hai University knew Shi Feng was Ye Feng. Similarly, nobody else knew that Blackie was Black Cloud in God’s Domain. Blackie’s friends only knew that he was getting by fairly well in the game.
“Who are you? What business do you have with me?” Shi Feng answered the call with a cold and imposing tone as if he were a god looking down on an ant.
Ling Feilong immediately felt chills all down his body when he heard Shi Feng’s voice, followed by immense pressure. He felt like he had just walked out of a cold pool of water. His heartbeat instantly soared to 180 beats per minute.
This is Ye Feng, the god-ranked expert that caused even Martial Union to submit? His voice alone is already so imposing and threatening… The pressure he gives off is even stronger than Brother Zhang’s! It’s as expected of a god-ranked expert. No wonder Brother Zhang wanted me to recruit him. Ling Feilong was inwardly shocked, and he grew even more respectful towards Shi Feng.
Originally, Zhou Yuhu should have been the one to contact the god-ranked expert. However, Zhou Yuhu previously had a falling out with the god-ranked expert, so the responsibility had been pushed onto him, Ling Feilong, instead. Ling Feilong felt that his chance to shine had arrived.
As long as he could deal with this matter appropriately and gain the favor of such a god-ranked expert, his position in Shadow would rise quickly in the future; he would surely surpass Zhou Yuhu. After all, Zhou Yuhu had once found conflict with this god-ranked expert. In the future, Zhou Yuhu would certainly have difficulty getting by in Shadow.
Before Ling Feilong had personally felt Ye Feng’s imposing aura, he always thought that nobody could be as strong as Brother Zhang. However, Ling Feilong was now completely certain that, if this god-ranked expert joined Shadow, even Zhang Luowei would have to submit to his strength. Meanwhile, Shadow would similarly fall under the control of this expert.
“How are you, expert? I am Shadow’s representative, Flying Dragon. We sincerely want to recruit a god-ranked expert like yourself into Shadow. As for the treatment you will receive, please rest assured. We at Shadow will certainly not mistreat you,” Ling Feilong’s tone was both soft and respectful when he spoke. After all, the god-ranked expert before his eyes right now someone he needed to fawn over desperately in the future. He was truly afraid that this god-ranked expert would immediately disconnect his call.