Endless Leveling Done Right!-Chapter 47: Playing With Fire [Part 1]

The sound of an explosion spread through the surroundings as a flame scarab burst into flames.

"I hate monsters with suicidal abilities." Alex wiped the sweat on his forehead. That was really close. The flame scarab’s detonation had nearly hit him at point-blank range.

Two of them had teamed up to fight him at once. Although he had killed one of them fast enough, he had been too hard-pressed to deal with the other on time, and the scarabs had nearly succeeded in their kamikaze attack.

Flame scarabs were around one meter long, could fly, and liked to detonate their bodies whenever they were close to death.

That was why they must be killed as fast as possible.

"Dim!" Dim Dim shouted, warning Alex as the explosion had caught the attention of the other nearby scarabs, who were now flying in their direction.

"Sh*t!" Alex cursed aloud before running away as fast as he could.

Fighting two at once had already been hard enough, yet three times as many were headed in his direction.

Fortunately, they couldn’t fly for a very long time. Sure enough, they gave up after a two-minute pursuit.

But that didn’t mean Alex was safe. Before the young man could even catch his breath, he heard a growl from his right. When he turned, he found an ash hound charging at him with bloodshot eyes.

This time, Alex didn’t run away. Instead, he welcomed the approaching monster with his shield and sword.

After fighting a handful of ash hounds along the way, he had already gotten used to their pretty straightforward attack patterns.

Charge, lunge, and bite.

It hadn’t taken Alex much time to develop a simple strategy, which was very effective against these bastards with strong barks but weak bites.

"Shield Bash!" he shouted as he bashed his shield on the ash hound’s head, creating a dull sound upon collision.

Of course, he didn’t really have the Shield Bash Skill, a very common skill for Tankers in ELO.

However, that didn’t stop him from using his shield to bash the dog’s head, stopping its advance, before following up with three sword strikes to finish it off.

[Level Up!]

The young man panted for breath for nearly a minute before picking up the monster core that had dropped after the ash hound’s death.

He then opened his status page and dumped one stat point to Strength, then added the rest to Agility.

*****

Alex Stratos

Age: 17

Mana: (N/A)

Job Class: (N/A)

Strength - 25

Intelligence - 17

Dexterity - 10

Agility - 42

Constitution - 39

Stamina - 39

Magic - 0

Luck - 4

Available Stat Points: 0

AP: 240

Active Skills: (N/A)

Passive Skills: Improved Stone Throw, Head Shot.

[Difficulty Level: Hell Mode]

*****

"Looking good." Alex smiled faintly. His plan to farm experience points had only just begun.

After another two hours of travel, the young man finally arrived at his destination.

’Those must be the guardian golems Master mentioned earlier,’ Alex realized.

The two golems were red in color and seemed to be made of rocks. As Alex’s gaze landed on them, their information appeared in a blue window screen.

*****

< Guardian Golem >

Monster Rank: Rank 3 Monster

Monster Grade: Uncommon

Health: 800 / 800

Attack: 70 - 90

Note: They were built to protect, not to question. Long after kings have turned to dust and empires have crumbled, they still guard doors no one remembers.

*****

Although he was feeling anxious, Alex decided to test whether the golems would really not hurt him.

The core of his strategy would revolve around them, so if they treated him as an ally, then his plan might just work.

"Um, hi guys?" Alex said as he stood in front of the two golems, who remained in place.

They turned their heads in his direction for a moment before turning their eyes back to the Scorched Barrens, watching closely for any signs of the enemy.

Feeling a little bolder, Alex moved closer and reached out to touch a golem’s foot to see if it would react to him.

Seeing that the golem didn’t even bother to push him away, Alex decided to sit on its foot.

When that didn’t even get a reaction from it, he asked Dim Dim to see if the golem would react to it.

Treating this as some sort of challenge, Dim Dim crawled all the way up the golem’s body to its head.

"Dim Dim!" Dim Dim shouted, as if declaring that he had completed the challenge.

"Good." Alex nodded. "Now, come back. We will proceed as planned."

"Dim." Dim Dim nodded and crawled back down.

Now that he had confirmed that the golems didn’t treat him as a hostile threat, Alex decided to continue with his plan.

"Dim Dim, can you tell me where the fire salamanders are?"

"Dim!"

The Dim Sum God then pointed in a direction where the nearest Rank 2 Monster was located.

Alex then picked up the little guy and headed in that direction.

Twenty minutes later, the young man finally saw the monster he was looking for.

*****

< Flame Salamander >

Monster Rank: Rank 2 Monster

Monster Grade: Common

Health: 320/320

Attack: 40 - 60

Note: Some say it’s just a lizard with a bad attitude and an even worse temper. Others swear it’s a fire spirit sent to ruin your day. Either way, don’t get too close unless you want to play with fire.

*****

’Lucky! It’s alone,’ Alex thought as he eyed the monster behind a boulder. ’I just hope I can dodge its Fire Bullets.’

The three-meter-long fire salamander had jet-black skin adorned with bright yellow markings.

Its body is smooth and slightly glossy, often appearing slick with moisture due to its preference for hot environments.

The vibrant yellow patterns vary greatly between individuals, ranging from speckles and blotches to bold stripes

This made each fire salamander uniquely marked, like a living ember etched in ink.

Gritting his teeth, Alex took out a stone from his storage ring and threw it at the monster that seemed to be taking a nap.

The stone bounced off the monster’s head, dealing one damage.

However, that was enough to provoke the flame salamander, who immediately made its anger known by hissing loudly.

The moment its gaze locked on Alex, it didn’t hesitate to unleash Fire Bullets in the young man’s direction.

Knowing that the moment of truth had arrived, the young man hurriedly hid himself behind the boulder.

The sound of the explosion spread as the fire salamander bombarded the boulder in anger, chipping parts of it with every shot.

When it realized that the boulder wouldn’t be destroyed anytime soon, it angrily crawled toward the boulder so it could tear the young man apart with its claws.

But when it looked behind the boulder, the young man was no longer there.

Hissing furiously, it scanned its surroundings and finally saw Alex running eastward.

"Come here, ugly!" Alex shouted. "Or are you too weak to follow m—ooof!"

The young man wasn’t able to finish whatever it was going to say because the fire salamander began bombarding him with Fire Bullets that were as fast as baseballs thrown by a professional pitcher.

Fortunately, they weren’t insanely fast, so Alex could still react to it.

He dodged what he could, but the fire salamander did something tricky and unleashed two Fire Bullets in quick succession, aiming for the place where it assumed Alex would dodge.

And just as it expected, Alex did move in that direction.

Left with no other alternative, he raised Svalinn to block the Fire Bullet and braced for impact.

A dull thud reached Alex’s ears, but that was it.

He wasn’t blown away, didn’t feel his arm growing numb, nor did he suffer any injuries from tanking the blow.

Perhaps the fire salamander was also surprised by this outcome because it completely stopped its attacks.

The two stared at each other in disbelief before the young man coughed lightly.

"Can you do that again?" Alex asked.

As if agreeing to the request, the fire salamander once again unleashed a Fire Bullet in the young man’s direction.

This time, Alex didn’t run away and braced himself for impact.

But just like what had happened earlier, the Fire Bullet simply turned into sparks the moment it collided with Svalinn.

After confirming that he really hadn’t received any damage from the attack, Alex and Dim Dim both smiled evilly at the same time.

"Kukuku!" he chuckled like a second-rate villain before storing his sword back into his storage ring.

He then took out one of his brittle vials and charged at the fire salamander, whose main source of damage—its magical fire attack—was completely negated by the round, black shield in the young man’s hand.