Chapter 19 – Cat Dad’s Dungeon Diving (1)
Xiaomao looked at the support character and nodded in satisfaction. Then, he operated the trade menu and gifted the character 2,000 gold coins, which he had earned from selling trash items.
“Follow me!”
ve One nkly nodded. Then, Xiaomao led his first ve out of the building.
Both of them went to a shipyard, directly north of the town.
The shipyard was a rundown dome on top of a pier. Many carpenters and shipbuilders had been busy working on their new wooden fishing boats.
Xiaomao hopped toward a clerk NPC, who had been fiddling with an abacus.
“I’m here to buy a fishing boat, munya!”
Ding
A shop menu appeared before Xiaomao. He quickly selected a wooden fishing boat, which had a price tag of 400,000 gold coins!
<You have purchased Wooden Fishing Boat x 1.>
The item entered Xiaomao’s game inventory right away as an icon. However, Xiaomao hadn’t finished shopping yet.
He went to a fishing shop nearby and snagged two brand new fishing rods, ten jars of earthworms, spare fishing lines, and arge fishing.
Xiaomao turned toward his ve and passed the items to him. Then, he went to another ce.
This time, Xiaomao went to a weapon shop and bought 20 bamboo spears. He stored them in his inventory and rushed back to the dock.
ve One waited there patiently. After Xiaomao returned, he followed after thetter.
Xiaomao rushed to the pier. He clicked on the fishing boat icon on his inventory screen.
Ding
<Would you summon Wooden Fishing Boat?>
“Yes, munya!”<sub>.</sub>
A green blueprint hologram of a wooden fishing boat manifested. The hologram moved around ording to Xiaomao’s line of sight, acting as a preview of where the boat would appear upon activation.
Xiaomao moved closer to the sea and directed the hologram to the water. Then, he activated it in his mind.
A brown wooden fishing boat materialized in midair and dropped to the sea as if someone had input a GTA car summoning cheat code.
The boat was 7 meters in length and 2.5 meters in width. It came with a standing shelter and a pre-installed mana motor, which could be fueled by the yer’s MP. However, nothing was luxurious about it as no radar or bed was installed on it.
After all, it was a basic fishing boat, not a cruiser or a yacht.
ve One’s eyes glittered. He opened his mouth and drooled.
Xiaomaoughed at his support character’s behavior. He unloaded the bamboo spears on the boat.
“Get on the ship, munya! I’ll bring you to a nice ce, munya!”
ve One smiled and nodded. He hopped on the fishing boat and examined it for several minutes.
Xiaomao opened his game menu. A new tab appeared, and the status of ve One was shown.
.
Rarity: Common
Race: Human (Evolvable)
Job: Fisherman (Evolvable)
Unique Skill: Fishing Spot Finder
Racial Skill: [???]
Current Orders: Follow Xiaomao.
.
LEVEL: 1 / 50<sub></sub>
EXP: 0 / 1,000
Status Attributes
STR: 1
DEX: 1
AGI: 1
VIT: 1
INT: 1
WIS: 1
Allocable Status Points: 5
.
Combat Status
ATK: 0
DEF: 0
HP: 10 / 10
MP: 10 / 10
.
As expected of amon character, his starting allocable attribute points were low, and the level was capped at 50. However, this character’s level could be increased a lot faster than Xiaomao’s character.
Xiaomao sighed as he allocated one point to STR, DEX, AGI, VIT, and WIS each. At least, he wouldn’t be fighting against monsters other than using his basic strength to fish.
After Xiaomao had done everything, he hopped on the boat’s console and started the engine.<sub></sub>
The old mana engine let out a TA-TA-TA sound. Xiaomao moved the elerator throttle forward, and the ship began to sail.
…
The ship sailed north for five kilometers.
Xiaomao looked ahead while he operated the ship with his weight and tentacles. He could see a famous ind where many yers in his previous life alwayspeted for a farming spot.
As no scenario quest had been triggered yet, nobody knew about the worth of this abandoned ind.
Xiaomao parked the ship at a broken pier of the ind. He hopped down and turned to ve One.
“You have all the tools and the ship. From now on, the ship is yours, munya! I want you to get as many blue-rarity fishes and rare items for me. If your inventory is full or your boat can’t store more items, you can go back to thebor guild and store all fish and rare items in the chest, munya! As for the rest, sell everything and use that money to restock your weapons and baits, munya! Oh, focus on fishing around this ind. There are gold-rarity fishes around here, munya!”
ve One nodded. As if he knew what he needed to do, he got on the ship and sailed west.
Xiaomaoughed as his bot didn’t even care if his boss would be stranded on this abandoned ind.
The catopus turned around and looked at the high forest mountain. From a nce, the peak should be at least 100 meters above sea level.
Xiaomao grinned. He hopped into the dense forest of the ind.
Even though no road existed here, Xiaomao strolled through the thick bushes and dense nts as if he had been here a thousand times in the past.
In five minutes, Xiaomao stood in front of a cave, located on the top of the mountain.
A totem of human skulls was ced in front of the cave while several dirty clothes were made into banners. Scratch marks and dried feces of animals were everywhere nearby.
No matter how Xiaomao looked at it, it was a gnoll dungeon – One of the low-leveled monster dens in the game.
However, that was not the case here. This cave of gnolls was a disguise as there was another hidden main scenario dungeon underground beneath the mountain.
The average level of the local monsters in the cave was 20 while the boss monster’s level was 30. However, the gnolls always moved and hunted in packs, and every pack had at least one elite monster as the pack leader. Most yers came here with their party members as the gnolls were too difficult for solo yers.
But if the yers could kill the boss, they had a small chance of obtaining a quest item, which was required to unseal the secret dungeon below the gnoll dungeon.
And that dungeon hid countless level 30 to 50 elite monsters there, which made this ce so popr. Everybody could grind here from level 20 to 50 without the need to search for another grinding spot, so yers withmon NFT characters used this ce to grind their characters to the max level and farm some blue-named items to sell for pocket money.
‘Here we go. I’m be grinding here for those spirit stones!’
Xiaomao walked toward a pile of dung. He closed his mouth and scooped them and smeared it on his body.
It smelt disgusting, but it was a sure-fire way to not get swarmed by the packs of dog-like humanoid monsters.
Xiaomao picked a few pieces of rock and put them in his inventory. Then, he strolled into the cave.
Ding
<You have discovered Fishy Gnoll Dungeon.>
<You are the first to enter this dungeon. Please select one of the following rewards.>
<One: Temporarily increase the monster drop rate by 50 % for 72 hours.>
<Two: Temporarily increase the acquired experience points by 50 % upon killing monsters in this dungeon for 72 hours.>
<Three: Temporarily increase your status attributes by 50% for 72 hours.>
Xiaomao only nced at his notification panel and picked choice number three right away.
Ding
<Your status attributes will be increased by 50% for 72 hours.>
<Will you announce your discovery to the global server? You will obtain a rare weapon summoning ticket as a reward.>
“No, munya. Also, hide my name as well, munya.”
Xiaomao would have been a fool had he publicized the existence of this dungeon to the world. A good grinding spot like this would have been overrun by top guilds and greedy gold farmingpanies instantly, and Xiaomao would have been kicked out of the dungeon.
<You have chosen to hide your discovery.>
Even though the system message said that Xiaomao had chosen not to disclose the dungeon to the public, the game suddenly sent an announcement to every yer on the server.
DING
<An anonymous yer has discovered a new dungeon. The detail and the location are ssified.>
“…”
Xiaomao scoffed and entered the dungeon.
…
The cave was pitch ck. Unless the yer could see through the dark or bring a source of light, they wouldn’t be able to see anything in here.
This was when a catopus like Xiaomao could disy its hidden potential. Most monster NFT characters came with the Night Sight ability, but it was never shown in the status menu as a racial passive skill.
There was an exception. A few races, such as Vampires, Werewolves, and demi-humans, had different versions of Night Sight Passive Skill as their racial abilities due to the extra perks.
For example, Vampires had infrared eyes that could see the heat of yers or mammal creatures through walls, but it wouldn’t work against spirit monsters or non-mammal creatures. Werewolves could see and sense everything in a radius of 100 meters as long as they were injured or wounded. But they could only see things in green, including the daytime.
As for Xiaomao, his pupils worked the same way as a night scope. When there was no light, Xiaomao saw everything in grey as his eyes produced the light for him.
After walking 10 meters, the first group of gnolls was before Xiaomao.
The leader of the pact was a two meters tall demi-human with a hyena head. He wore leather armor and wield arge club.
As for the other gnolls, they walked around naked and sniffed around.
Xiaomao quietly hid behind a rock and made himself as smallest as possible.
One of the gnolls twitched his nose. He snorted and panted while he approached Xiaomao.
Xiaomao pretended to be a rock and sat still.
Soon, the gnoll stood before Xiaomao. He crawled on all four and raised one of his legs.
Golden liquid sshed on the rock next to Xiaomao. A few drops got on his fur.
The gnoll was remarking his territory as he sensed the smell of another gnoll’s poop!
While the gnoll was peeing, Xiaomao crawled behind it. He brought out the Fuiyoh Cleaver. Then, he leaped at the gnolls, who had shown his butt and balls.
SUEK
With one sh, the round balls of the gnoll was cut off!