Chapter 230: Breaking the Level Cap
Those three skills all looked pretty mediocre—at least, that was Zhou Ning's initial conclusion after a quick glance.
Of course, since these were universal skills that every class could learn, their raw power was inevitably limited. What Zhou Ning valued more was their support potential.
The first skill, Stealth, sounded nice—perfect for an Assassin's Creed–style approach—but it didn't really fit his current combat style, which favored direct confrontation and agile, fluid movement. He'd keep it in mind for later.
The second skill wasn't bad. A two-second stun was a very eye-catching control ability. Unfortunately, it could only be used with blunt weapons. In the game Apocalypse, blunt weapons included hammers, clubs, and staves—clumsy, awkward things that didn't suit him at all.
The third skill was a simple and straightforward healing ability. Its recovery wasn't on par with a dedicated healer class like the Priest, but for a universal skill, it was actually decent. At the very least, it was a good choice for players—it could significantly improve sustain in fights. Some early-game underpowered classes, like Warriors, could even double as emergency healers to avoid getting shunned from parties. Tsk, I really am too kindhearted.
Zhou Ning made his choice. "Quick Heal."
[You have acquired the universal skill: Quick Heal!]
Zhou Ning opened the personal and faction shops, listed the Quick Heal skill book, and priced it at 15,000 XP or 9 Vecktas—small profit, quick turnover.
The players would probably never know just how much effort an impossibly handsome, tall, and dashing man had silently put in for their sake.
Next came the dungeon creation rights for Austin Manor. With the panel, he could freely generate dungeon summoning stones. This dungeon was for levels 20–30, perfect for players who had just cleared Gnomeregan. Zhou Ning generated several summoning stones and priced them at 300 contribution points. Once they reached level 30, he could use Sunwatcher contribution points to exchange for the level 30–45 dungeon Shadow Raid, offering a neat one-stop service.
Overall, the rewards from this dungeon quest were quite generous—no worse than what he'd earned during Weather Tides. More importantly, destroying Austin Manor meant cutting off one of the Cursed God Cult's major avenues to directly contact players—at least in Darkland and Bryston. Weakening the enemy was the same as strengthening himself.
In his past life, during the first version he hadn't been around for, the Cursed God Cult had been one of the first forces to discover players' special nature. They'd profited heavily, eventually becoming a faction that rivaled nations themselves, like the Alliance and Horde in World of Warcraft. But now, thanks to his interference, the sect's influence was far weaker than before. Zhou Ning could hardly wait to see how things would develop next.
Shaking off those thoughts, Zhou Ning glanced at his panel. With the quest rewards from this run, he now had a full 6.7 million XP—more than enough for a spending spree.
Leveling Demon Hunter from 30 to 31 required 1.45 million XP. The higher the class level, the more it cost to level up.
[Your main class Demon Hunter has reached Lv31. Agility +4 (Legendary Physique +1), Spirit +2 (Legendary Physique +1), Stamina +2, Willpower +1, and 3 free attribute points gained.]
[…]
[Your main class Demon Hunter has reached Lv32. Agility +4 (Legendary Physique +1), Spirit +2 (Legendary Physique +1), Stamina +2, Willpower +1, and 3 free attribute points gained.]
Without hesitation, Zhou Ning powered his Demon Hunter up to level 34, burning through 5.9 million XP in under ten seconds.
This also pushed his total level to 60!
He vaguely remembered joining the game in August. Now it was November—three whole months later, and he had finally reached the peak of the first game version, becoming a max-level character. That didn't interest him nearly as much as whether he could, like other NPCs, break past the version's level cap and keep leveling.
In his past life, once players hit level 60, they received a level-cap unlock quest, usually involving killing certain types of monsters. Zhou Ning's had been to head to the Northlands and kill five Frost Giants.
Sure enough, he wasn't disappointed—a quest window popped up.
[You have triggered the personal quest: Level-60 Cap Unlock.]
[Quest Summary: You have reached the first bottleneck of the Supernatural. To move forward, you must push beyond your limits through battle with formidable foes.]
[Quest Requirement: Kill or defeat 10 boss-rank monsters of level 60 or higher, any weapon allowed.]
[Reward: Increase level cap to 70.]
As expected!!!
Although Zhou Ning had predicted it, he still couldn't stop a surge of excitement. This meant that as long as he completed the advancement quest—and had enough XP—he could easily hit level 70, maybe even level 80.
But the quest requirement was nasty. It was similar to the Wandering Gunslinger's class-change quest, but the Gunslinger only had to kill five boss monsters with no level requirement. This one demanded ten bosses at level 60 or higher—that was more than twice as hard.
Even if he farmed in the Stratholme dungeon, only the level-62 Mad Clown would qualify. And just hearing "Mad Clown" made him feel rebellious—he instinctively wanted to avoid it…
Conveniently, he had to head to the swamps in South Westshire County to complete Mr. Turing's commission: collect 10 or more high-purity Life Cores. That area had one of the rare extreme climates where Life Elementals thrived—perfect for finding high-level Life Elemental monsters.
Along the way, he could grab a swamp-related bounty from the Adventurers' Guild, then swing by the South Westshire County starter village to harvest some rookies. That would be four birds with one stone—absolutely airtight.
Zhou Ning took out his pocket watch—just past 1 a.m. The Lucky Clover's effect still had seven hours left. Since the luck buff was already active, not using it would be a waste. He began seriously considering entering a BONUS stage—one of those reward maps—for a quick run.
As long as he didn't get too greedy, the consequences shouldn't be too bad, right?
Forget it… go in!!
Crossing into an unknown BONUS map required 180 traversal coins. The simulator had refunded him 101 earlier, plus his daily stipend brought it to 102.
After spending 780 Vecktas to recharge, his funds dipped again—only 1,272 Veckta left. And this was after a good day's business!
With a pained heart, Zhou Ning opened the map interface and, without hesitation, selected the BONUS map.
[Preparing to traverse… Traversal Coins −180]
[Please select traversal mode…]
[1. Direct traversal.]
[2. Use parallel-world template for traversal.]
[3. Use random template for traversal.]
Even broke, he still wanted to check the templates first. As usual, he chose option 2 to take a look.
…
Meanwhile, a few videos uploaded by players were causing a stir on the forums.
A thread titled "Tonight, I fought fiercely with the main character…" was posted in the main section. At first, forum users thought it was some girl's self-indulgent fanfiction. But once they clicked in, the content got the thread instantly pinned.
Not just because Wayne Sturwell was the protagonist and the game's poster boy, but because the footage was simply too shocking.