As he got closer, Lin Chen saw Ina standing guard beside a treasure chest.
"My Lord, there's a chest here," Ina said.
Lin Chen stepped up to inspect it. No glow—it was just a standard Bronze Chest.
He opened it right away.
"You opened a Bronze Chest and received: Basic Resources ×2,000, Thorny Flower ×3, Equipment Enhancement Stone ×10."
Just a small amount of resources—better than nothing.
Speaking of chests, Lin Chen actually remembered a few high-grade ones.
For example, a Gold Chest guarded by a Shadow Treant.
And a Platinum Chest near Crescent Lake, guarded by an Iron-Scaled Crocodile.
"Time is short. Let's head straight over," Lin Chen decided.
True, those chests were guarded by monsters—some even by boss-level ones.
But with 1,500 Tier 5 troops by his side, taking a chest wasn't a problem.
So what was there to hesitate for?
He was absolutely going for it!
Lin Chen opened the map and, based on memories from his previous life, marked several red spots on it.
"Follow me!"
With that command, Lin Chen led Ina and the Windrunner Archers forward.
With overwhelming strength, they practically steamrolled everything—slaying monsters, earning wave after wave of EXP.
The Windrunner Archers steadily leveled up as well.
Troops had a unified level cap of 10.
Though not absolute—some rare treasures, special items, or hero skills could raise that cap.
With each level gained, troop attributes would also increase.
So after training troops, leveling them up was absolutely essential.
With careful development, troops would only get stronger with each battle.
More than an hour later—
Lin Chen led his army across several kilometers and arrived at Crescent Lake.
Directly in front of him was a large monster zone.
Iron-Scaled Crocodiles.
These were massive crocodiles over five meters long.
Gray-brown all over, covered in barbs and armored scales.
Tier 4 monsters—among the stronger ones near Crescent Lake.
Still, they were outclassed by the Windrunner Archers.
Behind the horde of Iron-Scaled Crocodiles loomed an even bigger beast.
At twenty meters long, it was essentially a supersized version of the others.
It was the boss of the Iron-Scaled Crocodiles.
[Iron-Scaled Crocodile King]
Level: 35
HP: 986,000
Defense: 3,685
Attack: 2,560
Speed: 140
Skills:
Ironhide Defense — Increases defense by 50% for one minute. 10% chance to trigger a block effect during this time.
Death Roll — Bites the target and spins wildly, dealing heavy damage and applying a Bleed effect.
(Bleed: Loses 500 HP per second for 3 seconds.)
Deadly Claws — The crocodile king's claws are razor-sharp, delivering devastating physical blows.
Tail Sweep — Swings its massive tail, dealing massive AoE damage to all nearby targets.
Description: A mutated crocodile monster known for its formidable defenses after consuming iron ore.
These stats were… intense!
Nearly a million HP, and all other stats were similarly high.
Still, as long as they were careful, it shouldn't be too difficult.
"Attack! Clear out the Iron-Scaled Crocodiles around it first. Then we take the boss," Lin Chen ordered.
Ina nodded and led the Windrunner Archers into battle.
Swish swish swish!
A hail of arrows rained down on the crocodiles.
Very quickly, a horde of Iron-Scaled Crocodiles—at least a thousand strong—charged toward them.
And so, the battle began.
Using their long range and speed buffs, the Windrunner Archers kited the crocodiles masterfully.
–623
–563
–896
Damage numbers popped up one after another as the crocodiles' HP dropped like water from a faucet.
Soon, they burst into beams of light shooting skyward.
At the same time, system prompts rang in Lin Chen's ears:
"Your troops killed Iron-Scaled Crocodile ×100. You gained 1,000 EXP."
"Your troops killed Iron-Scaled Crocodile…"
As expected of Tier 3 monsters—they yielded way more EXP than Tier 1 or 2 mobs.
The Windrunner Archers were leveling up fast.
Lin Chen and Ina were gaining levels too.
After over an hour of continuous combat, the tens of thousands of crocodiles gathered at Crescent Lake were finally wiped out.
Only the Iron-Scaled Crocodile King remained.
Being a low-level boss, its intelligence was limited. If not attacked or disturbed, it wouldn't make a move.
Now that its underlings were all dead—
It was time to take on the boss.
"Spread out and stay sharp," Lin Chen called out.
The 1,500 Windrunner Archers immediately split into over a dozen squads and surrounded the Iron-Scaled Crocodile King.
They attacked while pulling aggro from different angles.
Ina joined in, launching arrow after arrow wreathed in flames—
While constantly applying Armor Break debuffs to maximize damage.
Under the flawless coordination of Ina and the Windrunner Archers—
The Iron-Scaled Crocodile King didn't even last five minutes.
With a bloodcurdling screech, it collapsed to the ground.
"Your troops successfully killed the Iron-Scaled Crocodile King. You gained 30,000 EXP."
Swish swish! Lin Chen's level soared several times in a row—straight to Level 8.
Ina leveled up as well.
And then—
The World Announcement rang out once more.
"Player [Evernight] is the first to slay a boss-level monster. Rewarded with: Orange Resource Pack ×5, Gold-Grade Equipment Chest ×1, Hero Advancement Gem ×1, Equipment Enhancement Stone ×100, Subject Refresh Card ×1."
"Player [Evernight] is the first to…"
For the third time, the World Announcement lit up the chat like wildfire.
Players from all over the world jumped into the conversation in a frenzy.
"Holy crap holy crap holy crap—he's killing bosses?! We're still farming trash mobs!"
"Evernight OP! Evernight God-tier! Evernight is raising Xia Country's glory!"
"Sh*t, how the hell is Evernight playing? The gap just keeps widening!"
"Pfft, it's only a temporary lead. Us M Country players are still the strongest. Urah!"
This book is provided by FunNovel Novel Book | Fan Fiction Novel [Beautiful Free Novel Book]