From their conversation, Zayen realized that they had encountered five Level 1 Magic Beasts after narrowly escaping the injured Level 2 Embertail Fox. That battle had left several of their team members injured. Now, they had returned, intent on finishing off the Embertail Fox.
Seeing the unfavorable situation, Zayen quickly crouched down and slipped into the tall grass, moving silently in the opposite direction. He had no desire for a conflict with them—there was simply no need.
Not long after, angry roars erupted from behind him.
"Who is it? Who took advantage of us?!"
"You bastard! Damn bastard!"
In the distance, Zayen heard those shouts and couldn't help but smile. He was not a kind-hearted person. Furthermore, in this bloody world full of slaughter, compassion would only lead to one's own demise. Fighting to seize resources with one's might was always the main theme of this world.
Here, one had to either become stronger or die! Zayen paid no attention to those people and continued to search for magic beasts to kill and corpses. to turn them into his redeemed holy angels.
After a quarter of an hour, he heard the sounds of a fight in the distance. Zayen's heart skipped a beat as he crouched down, taking advantage of the cover of the bushes, and silently approached the direction of the fight.
When Zayen arrived at the location, he saw five people struggling against a group of snake-like magic beasts.
Looking at the magic beast, Zayen's curiosity was piqued, and he used his system identification function to scan the beast…
[Name]: Blightjaw Python [mutant]
[Level]: 2
[Strength]: 18
[Speed]: 20
[Defect]: 18
[Skills]: Corrosive Fangs, Constriction Coil
The beasts were a group of mutant poison snakes. In terms of strength and defects, they were much weaker than the Embertail Fox that Zayen had killed before.
There were a total of three Blightjaw Pythons fighting the groups. Where the team had already killed four of them.
Although this was the first day that some of the players were fighting such a dangerous enemy, and some of them didn't even have any combat experience, the grades of their talents weren't low, after all. They were strong, so they were currently able to deal with the Blightjaw Pythons.
"So it's him!"
At that moment, Zayen's gaze was drawn to a young man among the group. He looked to be in his early twenties, with thick eyebrows, sharp eyes, and dark skin that made him stand out from the rest.
Zayen had seen this man's profile picture before in the chat channel, so he immediately recognized him.
His name was Edward, and he had awakened an S-grade talent: [Flaming Fist].
At this moment, Edward's whole arms were wrapped in flames, forming firing gauntlets.
Each of his punches releases a burst of flame that explodes on contact.
At this moment, Edward was the group's most powerful DPS—the one responsible for dealing the highest damage to enemies.
Other than Edward, Zayen also took note of a girl wearing sportswear. Although she was not strong, her talent seemed to be of a support type.
Whenever a member was in mortal danger, she would use her talent, which would cause the Blightjaw Pythons to suddenly stop and lose the opportunity to attack.
With this girl as support and Edward's powerful S-grade talent, the battle was settled in about ten minutes.
The three Blightjaw Pythons all fell to the ground. As for the players, they were gasping for breath. At the same time, their faces were filled with joy as they counted their gains.
"Haha! I got five experience points!"
"I only got three!"
"What the hell? Why did I only get one point?! Did they mess up the distribution? Was my contribution that low?!"
"Hmph, who told you to always hide at the back when we're fighting? Look at how fierce our boss is."
"Boss, how much did you get this time?" someone asked Edward.
"Ten points."
Edward grinned proudly.
"Wow! Boss is truly Boss—ten points from just one fight!"
As Zayen observed them, he realized how experience points were distributed in a team. The distribution of experience points was based on individual contributions.
This made it much fairer, preventing those who worked hard and those who slacked off from getting the same experience.
However, the experience they gained as a team was still pitifully small, as the experience points gained from killing three magic beasts had to be split among five people.
Some people only received 1 experience point, which was quite pitiful. Even Edward, who was the strongest among them, only got 10 experience points.
Zayen could only shake his head.
Five people almost died fighting three level-one beasts… and they gained so little.
Meanwhile, he could fight a level-one—or even a heavily injured level-two—by himself and keep all the experience for his own growth.
The difference was massive.
Just then, a dazzling white light burst from Edward's body, instantly drawing everyone's attention.
"W—what's happening?!"
Even Zayen was startled. Edward's entire body glowed intensely, as though he had become a living torch of holy flames.
In a few breaths, the light finally faded.
Edward's eyes snapped open—full of excitement and joy.
Edward clenched his fists, trembling slightly as the lingering white sparks faded from his skin.
"I… I leveled up!" he shouted, barely able to contain his excitement.
The others also immediately rushed over.
"Seriously?!"
"Boss leveled up?!"
"That light just now—it must've been the breakthrough effect!"
"Boss, you're too amazing!"
"That's right! I'm still at Level 1 (20/100), far from reaching Level 2!"
"With Boss here, we'll definitely survive longer!"
"We can finally hunt stronger beasts now!"
At that moment, the crowd looked at Edward with both awe and envy.
In the thicket, while they celebrated, Zayen remained hidden in the thicket, quietly observing the scene. He was also somewhat surprised. After several hours had passed, he finally encountered a Level 2 human.
"I wonder… What kind of improvements does a person get from Level 1 to Level 2?"
"Judging by Edward's confident appearance, it should be a significant improvement."
After watching the team for a while, Zayen made up his mind to leave and look for other magic beasts to hunt. He needed more experience, and staying here wasn't worth the trouble.
But just as he quietly stepped back, his foot pressed down on a patch of dry grass.
Crack.
The sound was crisp and clear in the quiet forest.
Zayen's expression froze.
"Who's there?!"
"Show yourself!"
"Everyone, get ready!"