Chapter 25： The Legendary Place

Gray Stone Forest was home to the infamous Stone Wolves. Their aggression, high attack power, long HP and fast movements had made a nasty name for themselves amongst the lower level adventurers. For a greenhorn, they were undoubtedly a big headache. Hence, adventurers seldom choose to come to the Gray Stone Forest. When Ye Chen entered the region, it was eerily quiet, the pathway was empty. Looking into the distance, there were no silhouettes or any human movement, just the dark, ancient gray boulders, like sentinels standing guard over the forest. 

The boulders were more ancient than any other trees in sight. On its surface, twisted vines, both withered and vibrant, lined the surface like artificial veins. The once smooth rock was pitted and rugged, scarred by the winds of each past season. Beyond the boulders were a still quietness, not many adventurers roamed the woods. Compared to the bustling Kobold Forest, it was night and day. 

While the Gray Stone Forest was almost devoid of activities now, it had its glamorous days. When it first debuted, Ye Chen had swarmed here along with other adventurers, combing this ruins-like area for treasure. Then, the area was brimming with life, movement and noise. While the Stone Wolves were like an unbeatable boss to the lower levelled, ill-equipped adventurers, they had no fear. The number of adventurers far surpassed the wolves. With strength in numbers, their only worry would be that there were no more wolves to hunt!

The Gray Stone Forest had an incredible backstory. It had a legend. From the mouths of various NPCs, the adventurers had gathered that a massive treasure was hiding in the sprawling woods. After catching wind of the potential mission, everyone rushed over in a storm.

In the early days of the game, such tantalizing news had dramatic effects. Upon completing this legendary mission, the benefits of getting the rewards early were unmistakably humongous. 

The event crashed the forums. Almost every single adventurer was following the current development of the explorations within the Gray Stone Forest. Owing to the rumours and legends, adventurers reported without fail daily. 

Five years have passed since then. In this period, Ye Chen had not heard of anyone completing any question or mission with rich rewards. Even then, Ye Chen believed that there were still adventurers here searching for the unfound treasure.

Perhaps someone had completed the mission with some mind-boggling methods or triggered a special event on pure luck. Whether the mission truly existed, only those who had kept mum about their benefits knew.

In his previous visit, Ye Chen had done a thorough analysis of the Gray Stone Forest. Now, after 4 long years, he had not only forgotten most of these findings, but the developers may have also made adjustments to this not-so-popular location. After purchasing the shoes, Ye Chen still went onto the forums, digging out the hand-drawn maps of Gray Stone Forest done by other adventurers, making a comparison to his memories.

Other than for the special missions, the game system did not provide any maps. All of the regional maps of the forums were drawn by the passionate adventurers. In the past, these maps could be considered secret documents of the guilds. Now, the low-level regional maps could be easily found on the forums. Seeing that there were not many differences, Ye Chen immediately headed for the Gray Stone Forest.

In his mind, Ye Chen had decided on the central region of the Gray Stone Forest as his training area. There, he could find suitably tall boulders and the monsters regularly spawned, saving him the trouble of gathering them together. It was an efficient training location.

"OI! That Botanist there! Don't come over here! Go elsewhere! The Warring Dragon Guild has reserved the entire region for training. If you don't want to die, go elsewhere!"

As he proceeded to the central forest region, two parties appeared in front of him. They were all well-equipped, probably around Level 19 or 20. With their level and skill, killing the Stone Wolves was as easy as crushing paper.

The Warring Dragon Guild trains here? Odd, something is definitely off!

Others may have bought that blatant lie, but not Ye Chen. 

The Gray Stone Forest was far from suitable as a training ground for regular adventurers. If the Warring Dragon Guild wanted to train, they could easily terrorize and monopolize other more efficient areas. There was utterly no need to come to such a remote and ill-suited area.

"What are you doing? Scram! We, the Warring Dragon Guild, are not something a freaking Botanist can fight with!" Seeing the hesitation in Ye Chen, another party member hollered. 

With the 5-level difference, there would be a Level Suppression. However, with the Single Transplantation and the Illusions of Time, this bigot would be grilled within seconds. Then with his new shoes, he could easily make his grand escape. However, Ye Chen was not so rash, he had long grown out of that immaturity. His eyes glanced contemptuously onto that fella, sizing him up. 

Just a Level 19 idiot. With a cold snort, he turned and left.

His aim was to level up and train. Acting in a fit of rage and killing this man would force him to relook for a training ground. Leaving the wastage of time aside, dealing with the Warring Dragon Guild would be a massive pain in the ass.

"BITCH! What are you looking at?!" The fearsome Adventurer felt the ice-cold look and the condescending smirk. Immediately, he screamed and raised the bow in his hands. In the next instant, an arrow was slicing through the air in a beeline onto Ye Chen's back.

A devilish smirk surfaced onto the Adventurer's face. He could not wait to see how Ye Chen could not retaliate despite suffering the sneak attack. Alas, with an intricate and timely sidestep, Ye Chen dodged it. The arrow brushed across his shoulders, not even grazing a millimetre onto his clothing. 

"What the… How did this guy do that?"

Surprise and confusion washed over the two parties' faces. This Botanist, he dodged the sneak attack without even turning back to take a look? 

"Fuck! I don't believe that you will be lucky again!" While it may seem like a matter of luck, it was a tough mouthful of embarrassment and humiliation for the archer to swallow. Once again, he aimed and pulled his bow.

"Hunter! Enough! Don't forget the orders we received!" When their leader saw Ye Chen's reaction, he immediately stopped the archer. Ye Chen had continued walking away without even turning back after the blatant aggression. The sirens in the leader's heart had begun blaring deafeningly. He could tell that this man was not so simple.

"TCH! Count yourself lucky!" Very unwillingly, the archer out down his bow as he hissed through his teeth. 

...

The Warring Dragon Guild must have received some form of a mission in this place…

Without a doubt, the levelling training was fake. Then, the only possibility left was a mission. The only question that remained was, what sort of mission?

In any case, it had no relation to him. Attempting to ruin a mission attempt for others was not easy. What's more, most of the missions were fixed and ruining it was impossible. Ye Chen had no time or energy to waste on such trivial, immature antics, minding his own business.

Now, he had to worry about his new training location. Fortunately, the Gray Stone Forest had several decent spawn points. Before coming here, he had already made plans for change if other adventurers were using his desired spot. He arrived at another area, far from the Warring Dragon Guild.

"Single Transplantation!"

Ye Chen observed the density and monster density of the region and climbed onto a two-meter tall boulder and transplanted the Durian Bomb Tree that he had prepared beforehand. He did not begin his assault on the beasts immediately. Instead, he ran to a Stone Wolve on the outer edges of the forest.

Pulling monsters was a skill of its own, especially for the fast-moving beast like the Stone Wolves. Even if the additional 5 points of Movement Speed, Ye Chen was still a tad slower than these beasts. If more wolves were chasing after him, utilizing natural obstacles to slow them down would increase in difficulty. In the worst-case scenario, they could catch up to him, reducing him to a mere pile of bones within seconds.

Under such circumstances, pulling the monsters from the outside inwards was a wiser decision. 

The area around Ye Chen was cloaked in silence. From within the shadows, the gentle rustlings of the lurking wolves were deafening, Sweeping across, the traces of the countless beasts were prominent. 

Ye Chen could not remember the aggression zone of this monster that he fought years ago. However, after pulling one or two of them, his memories returned. Once he regained this understanding, pulling them towards him was a piece of cake. For the further ones, he had even just sent a beam of Withering Light, attracting the aggression.

About thirty seconds later, Ye Chen was already pulling fourteen or fifteen Stone Wolves on his back. With deep wheezing breath, he dashed at his top speed back towards the durian bomb tree!

Fourteen or fifteen monsters was already a massive problem, much less the Stone Wolves. Even the classic combination of Mage, Priest, and Knight party would never dare to pull so many monsters at once. This number of monsters was enough to cause a total annihilation of the party!

But this was Ye Chen. He was not like any Tom, Dick, or Harry!

"Illusions of Time!"

Gray glowing rays encircled the Durian Bomb Tree. Immediately, a torrential downpour of durians welcomed the incoming beasts. One after another, sounds of explosions resounded as dense clouds of dust engulfed the forest.

"Haha, this amount of experience! DAMN"

The DPS of the Durian Bomb Tree was incredibly astounding under the effects of the Illusions of Time. Even with the Stone Wolves' 1000HP, they were almost instantaneously killed. Together with the dissipating dust when the wolves died, tons of experience floated in front of Ye Chen's eyes!