Chapter 123: Levels Must Not Fall Behind

"You look down on us? Let's see who dares to come and stir up trouble. I'll singe every hair off their body!"

The "authoritative" voice of Akui reached him, and Lu Kuan immediately pictured a tough-looking female mage, staff in hand and eyes glinting with ferocity. He couldn't help but smile.

Lu Kuan recalled that if his memory served him correctly, in any quest involving player-versus-player combat, the drop rate for items upon death increased significantly. This was a unique feature of *Echoes of the Gods*. In normal gameplay, if a player was targeted by malicious PK-ing, the drop rate for their items was very low, and the aggressor would face severe penalties. However, when a quest specifically required confrontation, the game encouraged players to engage in combat, allowing them to fully enjoy the thrill of human-versus-human rivalry.

After hearing Lu Kuan’s explanation, the others became alert and readily agreed.

Dai Guang followed up immediately, "Old Lu, when are you coming over? Actually, grinding for experience here is pretty good, but our team is missing a heavy hitter right now~"

"What did you say? Am I not a heavy hitter? Looking down on me, are you..." Before Lu Kuan could respond, Akui’s sharp voice came through the communicator again, and Dai Guang began to explain himself in a flurry.

Lu Kuan grinned, thinking it seemed that Little Fatty and Akui were getting along quite well.

"I'll be there soon. I just got back to the city, so I'll recover for a bit before heading over."

Lu Kuan smiled, ended the call, and left his character to rest at the inn. Taking advantage of these few minutes, he logged off to browse the forums.

The hottest news today was about a player from the Americas who had successfully completed an intercity journey of over 300 kilometers, becoming the first player in the world to step foot into two major cities. However, the method of travel was a bit unconventional; he and his friends had built a raft, packed enough food and supplies, and drifted down a large river for a week to reach another city downstream. While this earned them an in-game achievement, it had little practical value. They had skipped over all the maps, missing out on treasures, monsters, and side quests, though it did make for a nice sightseeing trip.

Additionally, the highest-level player in the world had reached a staggering Level 18, reportedly supported by an entire guild that kept them grinding monsters around the clock.

Lu Kuan felt the pressure mounting. High levels offered many advantages, the most useful being early access to high-level content and the ability to explore high-level maps ahead of others.

"I've been too busy making money and getting gear lately, and the quests I've done have been limited. Especially after dying just now... I really should grind for some experience. Once my level is up, it'll be time to put finding a pet on the agenda."

Lu Kuan thought to himself. He scrolled through the posts for a while longer, and seeing that the time was right, he returned to the game.

After resting in the inn for over an hour, his character’s stamina was mostly restored. Lu Kuan left the city gates, boarded a carriage, and headed straight for Clear Creek Stronghold. After confirming the others' locations and picking up a few reputation quests in the village, he soon arrived at their side.

Upon meeting, Lu Kuan noticed that the class emblems on the chests of Bai Keke and Qing Yi had changed.

"You've successfully advanced? Congratulations!" Lu Kuan laughed.

Bai Keke lowered her head and smiled shyly, while Qing Yi simply gave a light nod as usual.

Now, all five members of the team had completed their advancement. Lu Kuan was a Beastmaster, Dai Guang had followed Lu Kuan’s advice and advanced to a Spell-Weaver Priest, Qing Yi was a Shield-Bearing Gladiator, Bai Keke was a Spirit Priest, and Akui had advanced to Archmage. It was a standard five-man squad with a balanced class composition; with a little practice, they would be a top-tier combat unit.

"Stop doing your current quests; I'm going to share some high-level ones with you," Lu Kuan said directly, then initiated a "Team Share" for his quests.

"What are these? 'Destroy the Tide-Hunter Murloc Settlement'? How come I've never seen these before?" Dai Guang asked, looking at the quest panel with curiosity.

"They require a certain reputation level to accept, but they can be shared," Lu Kuan explained briefly. "Let's go. We'll clear the ones with the best rewards first."

The group was already accustomed to Lu Kuan being a step ahead, so they skipped the surprise and followed him south, arriving at a spot slightly east of the Shoal Swamp. This area was far from the usual questing zones, and few players ventured this far. Once they reached the lakeshore, Dai Guang and the others realized that, at some point, a collection of small houses had appeared.

The houses were crude, mostly built from branches and stones, with many of the logs covered in thick, salty algae—clearly salvaged from the bottom of the lake. Wandering around the huts were dark-skinned murlocs, larger than standard murloc warriors, clad in simple wooden armor. Their weapons had been upgraded to throwable spears, and some even carried short crossbows.

As the group stepped onto the lakeshore, they received a system notification simultaneously:

"You have entered a free-PK zone. You may be attacked by hostile players."

Lu Kuan arched an eyebrow, thinking to himself that his guess was correct—someone had indeed triggered a confrontation quest. He just didn't know how strong the opposition was. If they were casual players, it wouldn't affect the quest much, but if professional players had set their sights on the "big prize" of Clear Creek Stronghold, they would need to be careful.

Lu Kuan explained the situation to the group, and they grew tense, heightening their vigilance.

They soon reached the vicinity of the murloc huts, and Dai Guang couldn't help but exclaim in wonder, "Huh? How did I not know there were murlocs here? When were all these illegal structures built?"

"They must be new arrivals. If the players' quest progress doesn't keep up, the number of murlocs on the shore will keep increasing, and the difficulty of the final quest stage will rise accordingly," Lu Kuan said, taking his hunting bow from his back. He looked at the wandering murlocs and smiled. "But since we're here, we might as well wipe them out."

"Right! Let's go!" Dai Guang shouted excitedly, drawing his shield and hammer before charging toward the shore with a roar.

"That idiot..." Akui muttered, speechless. She pointed her Blasting Staff at Dai Guang and cast a "Protection Arrow" spell on the reckless priest.

By then, Qing Yi had already charged forward in silence, blocking a murloc that tried to sneak up on Dai Guang from the right. Bai Keke smiled, following behind Qing Yi while casting "Blessing" and "Divine Favor" on the group one by one.

Lu Kuan was the only one who didn't move. He stood steadily, nocked an arrow, and fired a Bone-Splintering Arrow with lightning speed.

*Thwip!*

A murloc hunter attempting to ambush them with a short crossbow had its neck pierced by Lu Kuan’s arrow, and it staggered to the ground.