----

After the third goblin fell, Kieran retreated momentarily and thought about something that dawned upon him. 'If my level is frozen, doesn't this mean I can exploit the Medallion of Growth? After all, the last usable level is Lv.20. Only once a character reaches Lv.21 would the effect become unusable.'

It was indeed plausible. One might label it an exploit, but that wasn't really the case. The Zero Loss of Potential existed precisely to give an edge to anyone who possessed it. While the advantage of the trait seemed excessive in theory, it wasn't.

One of the main factors limiting how extreme the trait could be was the existence of increasing Experience requirements. Even if a user amassed an insane amount of Experience, it would come a time when the losses outweighed the gains.

In the end, a higher level wasn't the only way to acquire power inside Zenith Online. In fact, primarily focusing on increasing your level was advised against so much that guilds would stress that their members spend a certain amount of time at each level in the past. If this demand wasn't heeded, there was a high chance of being demoted within the guild hierarchy.

In addition to favoring obedient guild members, there was an abundance of content available within Zenith Online that was level restricted. What would happen if the majority of the guild's forces were over-leveled? They'd be unable to engage in the content and miss out on whatever crucial material and opportunities this content may provide.

Eventually, Kieran decided to test out his theory. The only issue was.. he wasn't currently in possession of the Medallion of Growth. For this, Kieran contacted Altair to see if he was done with it.

Both Kieran and Altair were in a video call within a few minutes.

"Sup Aatrox?" Altair greeted.

"Not much. But, I have to ask—are you done with the Medallion of Growth?" Kieran answered.

"Oh yeah, I finished with it a few days ago. I knew I had forgotten to finish that. I'll mail it back to you in a second. Let me just finish with my mentor," Altair replied.

After hearing this, Kieran rubbed his chin in thought. "Your Class Promotion is finished?"

"For the most part.. it was quite odd, though, since it wasn't a normal task," Altair scratched his head with a bewildered expression. In truth, he expected to slay monsters to complete his quest. Never would he have expected that he'd be required to assassinate an NPC!

"Oh?" Kieran's eyebrow rose as Altair recounted his experience. 'That mentor of his may have connections to the Assassin Agency. It's the only NPC organization that'll commission assassination quests in this manner. For now, this is neither good nor bad.. but it could evolve or devolve depending upon our next actions.'

"If you get the chance, make sure to remain cautious. Your mentor may be more dangerous than you know," Kieran warned. Even though he doubted that the mentor meant any harm currently, it was better to be safe than sorry when it involved assassins. Some of their aptitudes for ensuring their kills simply defied common sense!

"Without a doubt. Do you think I'm one to not watch my surroundings? But enough of that, how long before you arrive here? I've more or less seen everyone else waltz into the city. Will you reach the Aeredale Kingdom soon?" Altair questioned.

As for the "everyone" in mention, it included Bastion, Alice, and the others.

Before answering, Kieran leaned his head from side to side while judging his situation. With the help of his weapon, it wasn't too difficult to kill the Normal and Elite monsters. Furthermore, the kills were accomplished on time. "Not sure. But I'll try to get there before another natural day passes."

Just as the call was about to end, Kieran informed Altair about another matter on his mind, "Although we doubt that the Sunset Triad and Shadow Cartel will make any move, you should remain vigilant. At the same time, begin working on your World Fame."

"World Fame? Got it," Altair nodded.

Afterward, Kieran also checked up on Sithik and Cygnus's progress before ending the call. Aspaira's progress didn't require any monitoring since she decided to walk the path of Alchemy.

A few minutes after the call finished, Kieran's mail icon flashed. He retrieved the Medallion of Growth and placed it within his inventory before resuming his battle with the Goblins.historical

A weakened Lv.21 Normal Goblin Minion was killed within seconds.

〈System: You have gained 1,200 Experience! [Current Accumulation Value: 1,200/?〉

Just as Kieran suspected, the Medallion of Growth's effects were still very much functional. The experience was doubled, and even more conveniently, the system actively tracked the accumulation progress. Thanks to this nifty feature, Kieran wouldn't have to worry about being scammed by the system as far as the accumulation went.

"Nice," Kieran chuckled while also dashing through the encirclement of goblins. He swung his blade and unleashed a Savage Break that caused a sound so disturbing that Kieran thought he cleaved the goblin's body in half. A large indent appeared in the goblin's skull.

-6,400! [Critical]

The effects of 140 Strength and Savage Break's destructive nature were shocking, to say the least. Normal monsters didn't fare well against it at all.

'This skillset really is terrifying,' Kieran inwardly noted while swinging his sword about in a flurry. Sometimes, the clubs of Elite Goblin Minions would land upon his back, and Kieran would retaliate with a Heavy Slash that dealt more damage than what should be possible.

Naturally, this increased return damage originated from his Strengthened Soul Trait. A vengeful person invariably strived to repay any wrong done to them. The same applied to combat. If Kieran could counter within the desired timeframe, his next attack would experience a 40% increase in damage.

However, the imperfect window granted by his current strengthening completion was tiny at best. A mere 0.01 of a second. Even Kieran would struggle to nail that narrow of a window. To accomplish that, he'd need to increase his Agility and Perception and many other areas that were currently inaccessible.

As the minutes passed, Kieran rapidly accumulated Experience, mainly from the Normal monsters.

Luckily, as the Normal monsters thinned out, it grew less challenging to combat the Elite ones, especially those who reached Lv.22 and 23.

With each level, the defense increased by 30 or 40 points!

Moreover, while Kieran's Experience accumulated, so did the mastery of his skills, chiefly Force Slash and Warrior's Aura. Warrior's Aura was the easiest since it was continuously active, allowing it to gain mastery progress steadily.

Force Slash could also be unleashed frequently, a maximum of 8 times per minute. Each usage netted 0.10% on the progress meter, so it would only take 1000 usages to level up the skill without Skill Points. When translated into time, it would take approximately 16 hours and 40 minutes to level up this skill once.

Slower progress was the trade-off when rapidly leveling skills with Skill Points. Once they reached extreme thresholds, the progress reached a snail's pace.

By the third hour, Kieran was forced to retreat and recover both his Stamina and Mana.

Once he returned to battle, many Goblin Minions had respawned. Unlike last time, a more significant percentage of the monsters were Elite, with one Special Elite appearing.

「Lv.22 Goblin Minion (Special Elite)

Goblin Type

Health: 38,000/38,000 (100%)

Special Trait: ?Stagger?」

Its Health was approximately 50% greater than the Elite versions and possessed the Special Trait: Stagger. Once Kieran saw that trait, he knew it was better to avoid its attacks than defend against them, so he paid particular attention to the monster. If he was hit by its attack, he would stumble defenselessly, granting the other goblins the opportunity to attack together.

Despite high Health and Defense, he would undoubtedly die if he received an outrageous number of attacks simultaneously. There were roughly 50 Goblin Minions in the area with their current spawn rate.

As soon as the Special Elite approached him, Kieran activated the Spirit of the Bear King. Once the Special Elite was left in a daze, Kieran reduced its defense with Savage Break and quickly followed up with a Charge.

-1,474

-905

With the perfect scenario for optimum damage established, Kieran unleashed a tremendous Force Slash.

BOOM!

-7,576! [Critical]

Any goblin within the Force Slash's area of effect suffered at least 3,000 damage.

Two seconds later, Kieran unleashed a Flaming Circle upon that general area before focusing his attention elsewhere. With the Force Slash on cooldown, it wasn't like he could rush into the ring.

He, too, would suffer damage since he wasn't immune to it.

While focusing on the surrounding enemies, Kieran executed seamless strikes that chained together into a fluid yet savage combo. The size of the Scarlet Steel Greatsword made it far from a graceful display. However, Kieran stressed practicality over gracefulness.

Although he took some meager damage throughout the fight, Kieran managed to kill all of the spawned goblins in just over two and a half hours. It'd be a few minutes until they all respawned, so Kieran looted and recovered during that period.

However, Kieran came across an issue when he collected all of the Blood Essence dropped from the monster.

〈System: Blood Essence's rating is inadequate! Item discarded as a Quest Item!

〈System: Blood Essence's rating is inadequate! Item discarded as a Quest Item!〉

〈System: Blood Essence's rating is inadequate! Item discarded as a Quest Item!〉

〈System: Blood Essence's quality is acceptable. [Elite Blood Essence: 20/500]〉

Only one in four Blood Essences were of satisfactory quality!

"Why didn't you god damn say that in the first place?!" Kieran shouted in frustration. The quest didn't indicate the importance of quality, so Kieran thought it was irrelevant. Sadly, it seemed that wasn't the case.

Based on the accepted essence, the lowest acceptable quality for Blood Essence extracted from Elite monsters was Ordinary (45).

"It just can't be simple, can it?" Kieran groaned while slapping his forehead. It appeared that 500 Elites was far from the actual number of monsters he needed to kill.