Ning arrived at the Starsoar continent 10 days later and was ushered into the Azure Keep where the demons had already taken over.
It had been over 3 months since the war back in the Garland continent was over, but he didn't expect them to take over a few cities up north already.
He walked through the war-torn streets and looked at the shops on either side. He needed to find a good quest quickly and earn some experience to level up.
Getting a quest was not necessary, but it was the easiest way to get free exp. And since the shopkeepers here were desperate for materials, Ning found this to be the best way to get a quest.
He walked over to a blacksmith and spoke, "Brother, do you need any help here?"
The demon blacksmith turned around and looked at Ning. He ignored the face but looked at the wings behind him.
"A blessed one? Do you wish to help me?" the Demon blacksmith asked.
"Of course," Ning said. "I want to help those who we can in these times of need."
The demon alchemist thought for a bit. "Your thoughts are commendable, young man," he said. "Very well, if you wish to help me, take this and get me some Black Iron ore."
[You have received a quest.]
[Quest: Mine some Black Iron ores.
In the mines of Marthol lies a deposit of many different types of ores. Find Black Iron ores amongst them and bring them to the Blacksmith Delan.
The more the ores, the higher the reward.
Reward: 10 Silver and 500 Exp per ore. If you bring back over 500 Ores, Blacksmith Delan will make you an equipment of your choice.]
Ning looked at the pickaxe that Delan was handing him. He slowly moved his hands and took it.
[You have accepted the quest.]
"Great!" the demon suddenly shouted. "Now leave and don't come back until you've found some ores."
Ning was startled a bit but quickly managed to find his composure and thanked the blacksmith for the quest.
Then, he left.
"So… where is Marthol?" he wondered and opened his map. His map had been upgraded to show the different locations he knew or had a quest for.
This was to say, aside from the Azure Keep, the Blinding Forest to the east, and the Marthol mountain range even further east, he knew no other location on this continent.
He walked out of the keep, and his weapon was automatically equipped for him. In the last 3 months, he had let go of spears and had started using this sword.
Ning wanted to continue using spears, but they simply weren't as great as this sword which had a simple quirk.
1 in 5 times, it allowed him to ignore the enemy's defense completely and deal the lowest damage he could without any obstruction.
Which was to say, he had a 20% chance to deal absolute damage using the lowest roll of the attack, which was 130% of STR in almost all cases.
Ning looked at the stats he had at the moment and nodded to himself when he saw nearly 400 in STR. If he attacked and proc'd the 20% chance, he would deal 520 Absolute damage.
If he were to crit at that very moment, then even at the lowest, he would deal over 1500 Absolute Damage easily.
That sounded like a lot of damage, however, the monsters and dungeons were also becoming increasingly harder and harder to beat.
Previously, you could just run into a dungeon, kick a few butts with your buddies, and left.
However, now it had to be strategic. If you didn't plan out most of how you were going to fight the boss, you would be in a lot of trouble as the bosses got increasingly faster and stronger, and even their skills were hard to avoid.
Still, killing them gave him quite a few good equipment. Thanks to the many pieces of equipment that he had changed in the last 3 months, his stats had gotten rather good.
Even his DEF stat, which was pretty much trash was now above 180.
The most impressive improvement was perhaps his INT, which was closing in on 550 stats at the moment.
He needed 101 thousand exp to level up, but Ning thought that was possible, especially now that he was out of the other continent and into this one where the demons seemed to have started a fight against the humans and angels.
Ning walked out of the keep and went east. He walked into the Blinding forest and fought off some monsters along the way.
It was starting to get much easier now that his attacks dealt higher critical damage.
The Blinding forest was named as such because of all the golden-leaved trees in the forest that reflected light around the forest, fully illuminating it even with the least amount of light.
If looked at during the middle of the day, the forest would get so bright, that one would assume it would blind them.
The beast Ning fought here were giant birds that loved to perch on those very trees and attack whoever entered the forest.
They were all of the different types, with different elemental attributes to each of them, but their fighting style was the same, so Ning had an easier time defeating them.
He didn't search for these beasts; if they didn't attack him, he didn't go looking for a fight. As such, despite the Blinding Forest being a couple of kilometers long in either direction, he got out of there relatively quickly and was on a flat grassland.
He was in Marthol now, and to the east, he could see the barren mountain which housed the mines. Ning could see demons there that had already taken over the mine.
He walked up the slightly inclined plane towards the cave and arrived at the cave's mouth.
"Oh!" Ning was surprised when he saw what was in the cave's mouth. There was an opening there, but not one he had expected to see.
The Mines of Marthol was in fact a dungeon.
