Part-time Boss
Chapter 64 - 64 64 Leveling up by Slaying Monsters with the Army

64: Chapter 64: Leveling up by Slaying Monsters with the Army 64: Chapter 64: Leveling up by Slaying Monsters with the Army Having realized the crucial point, Mo Fei didn’t show any mercy.

“Sorry,” he said, shaking his head and waving his hand, and the captain from the barracks immediately started dragging these people away.

“Damn, that’s cold.”

“Are you kidding me, I’m begging you, bro.”

“Fuck this, I’m not playing anymore, what a crap game.

I’m going to play the monster template too, you stupid princes wait for me, watch me level up to boss and kill you one by one.”

The princes didn’t care at all upon hearing this; some even burst into laughter.

It seemed that this kind of scene was not new to them.

The NPC captain, however, became furious at the crossbowman’s curse: “You bastard, how dare you disrespect the princes like that, drag him back to the barracks for twenty lashes!”

Immediately, elite guards from the barracks rushed forward and dragged the player away to be lashed.

This scared the other players into silence.

Although the lashing didn’t cause much damage, pain was inevitable, and even at 30% of the actual pain, it was enough to be very uncomfortable.

Mo Fei hadn’t expected that having a prince title would come with such treatment; it seemed the game company really did care about the feelings of those who spent a lot on the game.

Mo Fei didn’t linger on his thoughts for too long, as he also began to pick out soldiers, of course trying to exclude players as much as possible.

Observing the actions of the other princes, he also found some tells.

Players like to customize their appearances to stand out, while NPCs usually have generic faces generated by the system; so those who look particularly handsome or particularly weird, nine out of ten, are players.

Players also tend to have unique names, like Sephiroth or James Bond – 100% players.

Names like Henry and Sam, on the other hand, were relatively safer bets.

Of course, there were some players who enjoyed role-playing and chose more down-to-earth names, making them very deceptive.

They didn’t customize their faces and used the system-generated ones instead.

In such cases, it required a good eye to distinguish them because players’ gestures and actions were generally more easily identified than NPCs’.

But there were even smarter players who knew how to disguise and act so well that their every move seemed no different from an NPC’s.

Sometimes it even took a bit of psychological tactics, like pretending to send people back.

NPCs wouldn’t care, but those who jumped out to plead their cases were definitely players.

After a thorough selection, Mo Fei finally assembled his own forces.

This troop, looking rather dull, should all be NPCs.

“Let’s move out!” With a grand wave of his hand, the army began to march in the northwest direction towards Altland City.

Mo Fei’s primary goal was still to level up by grinding monsters, and the quest for the Dragon Delight was just something he was doing along the way.

Since it all involved killing monsters, the direction he took didn’t really matter.

Once out of the basin where Altland City was located, the surrounding area was almost entirely encompassed by mountains.

The Kingdom of Altland was situated in a mountainous region surrounded by the Altland Mountains.

The kingdom was dotted with towering peaks and continuous mountain ranges, with only a few scattered patches of plains and basins suitable for human habitation—its main population concentrated in these basins and valleys.

After checking the map, Mo Fei led his troops along a mountain road to the northwest.

On the main road, the common monsters were Snow Wolves, Mountain Bandits, and Snowfield Robbers—all low-level creatures.

Five sword and shield infantry lined up in a row to clear the way, with ten Kingdom crossbowmen forming two rows behind, two Altland Hunters and a Light Infantryman, and a Hunting Dog by his side, ready to heed any command.

When they encountered monsters, it was a volley of arrows fired in succession.

The heavy crossbows were quite powerful, dealing over 50+ damage with a hit and 100+ when hitting a vital spot.

As these creatures were generally around level ten or so with a health pool of a few hundred, a single volley was usually enough to deal with them.

Mo Fei was so unbothered that he didn’t even lift a finger, letting the crossbowmen handle them from a distance and only occasionally checking the bodies to collect any spoils of war.

Whether they were Brigands, Mountain Bandits, or ferocious beasts, they were all turned into porcupines by arrows.

Before long, he leveled up.

Mo Fei put all the attribute points he gained into strength, thinking that this feeling of leveling up with an army was just different—it was so easy and joyful.

So he continued killing his way down the road with his troops, always checking the direction indicated by the statues.

By noon, Mo Fei had reached level three.

He put all ten attribute points into strength, which brought his total strength to twenty points, doubling what it was before.

Being only level three but a hero, his combat power was not to be compared with his past self, and with a bunch of minions following him, he was confident that even if he ran into a big monster, he would be strong enough to fight.

However, at that moment, the road came to an end.

“Your Highness, if we continue northwest, we’ll have to leave the road.

If we go too far into the mountains, we might encounter more fierce beasts, even legendary creatures like Ice Giants, Yetis, Ice Field Wolves…” a sword and shield infantryman cautioned.

Mo Fei nodded, “I know, keep moving forward.”

Sure enough, less than half an hour down the snow-covered mountain path, a deep roar could be heard in the distance, clearly not from a human.

“It’s a Yeti!” one of the sword and shield infantrymen declared.

Yetis were a specialty monster of Altland, mainly inhabiting snowy mountain regions.

They had thick fur, a towering stature, and a pair of antlers.

This creature was not very intelligent; to call it a beast didn’t feel quite right given its humanoid form, yet to classify it as a humanoid creature seemed misplaced as well since its skin could be used as material.

These monsters were typically between levels twenty and thirty, lived in groups, and posed a significant threat.

“All men, prepare for battle!

Crossbowmen, get into firing formation; infantry, form a defensive line in front, move a bit to the right, don’t block the crossbowmen’s line of fire.

And you—,” he pointed to an Altland Hunter, “go scout ahead, and remember to run back at the first sign of monsters.”

“Yes, Your Highness,” replied the hunter, who wasted no time and took his hunting bow to scout ahead.

This was the benefit of having NPC subordinates—orders were followed without question or delay.

After turning a snowy slope, the hunter seemed to have spotted something, shouted, and immediately turned to flee.

At the same time, a chorus of roars erupted from behind the snowbank.

The hunter had just returned when seven or eight giant Yetis, each standing about two and a half meters tall and with bodies as wide as walls, charged out from behind the snow slope.

“Crossbowmen, fire!”

A volley of arrows shot out, killing one and wounding another.

The second volley took down another Yeti, and the third, due to the short range, killed two more.

Only three yetis remained, and in the blink of an eye, they closed in.

“Infantry, follow me!

Hold off the yetis on the left and right!” Mo Fei roared, charging towards the yeti in the middle.

Five infantrymen engaged the yetis on each side, respectively.

As sword and shield infantry at level 26, they didn’t face much pressure against a single yeti.

Mo Fei, on the other hand, was only level 3, and facing a level 28 yeti alone was somewhat stressful.

Combat Technique—Ready Stance!

[Ready Stance: A combative posture that is both offensive and defensive, allowing one to deflect an incoming attack and counterattack opportunistically.]

He raised his shield in front of him with one hand, and lifted his sword above his head with the other.

This move, seemingly unremarkable, was actually a well-balanced defense technique.

As the yeti threw a punch, Mo Fei caught it with his shield—deflecting!

While dissipating the enemy’s force, he counterattacked with a backhand sword slash on the yeti.

-55!

The damage is so low!

Mo Fei sighed internally.

Used to the black dragon’s style of annihilating enemies with a blast of dragonfire, this meager damage looked rather pathetic.

However, this didn’t stop him from making moves.

He swung his sword once and then again, blocked with his shield, took the Ready Stance—and counterattacked!

While the sword and shield combination wasn’t very high in damage, it was indeed very reliable.

With a good use of the shield, one could basically take little to no damage.

In this game, combat mainly revolved around skill; with enough skill, one could kill monsters unscathed.

The yeti’s health gradually dropped to about one-third after being slashed five or six times, and it suddenly entered a berserk state.

It let out a roar, spreading its arms wide, attempting to perform a bear hug technique on Mo Fei.

If this two-and-a-half-meter tall creature really got its arms around him, that would pose a real danger.

Mo Fei, however, didn’t panic; the yeti leaving its chest wide open was a perfect opportunity.

He stepped back, sword held horizontal, and executed the Combat Technique—Thrust!

[Thrust: Level the weapon with the ground, charge up, and thrust through the enemy in one go.

This combat technique cannot be blocked.]

With a squelching sound, the long sword plunged deep into the yeti’s chest, -164!

The yeti screamed and collapsed with a thud.

System Notification: Killed a level 28 yeti and received 264 experience points.

Defeating higher-level monsters is truly exhilarating.

Just as Mo Fei extracted his sword from the corpse, a cry of alarm rose from nearby—”Watch out!”

Mo Fei turned his head only to see a yeti burst out of a pile of snow and furiously charge at him, its sharp horns just inches away.

“Moo!”

Barbaric Charge!

Damn it!

Mo Fei cursed inwardly, thinking where did this yeti come from?

He hadn’t noticed it at all before.

Crap, could this one actually be a player?

A thought flashed through Mo Fei’s mind.

This sort of Voldemort-like behavior definitely wasn’t something a normal beast would do.

It was too late to block or dodge, and as he braced himself for the impact, a sword and shield infantryman suddenly stepped in front of him.

Bang!

The infantryman’s shield took the hit, and he was sent flying.

But that momentary hindrance was enough.

Mo Fei raised his shield and smashed it into the stopped yeti’s face, then followed through with two hasty sword slashes.

The yeti screamed continuously, and then the hunting dogs pounced.

Two hunters circled around, shooting arrows.

Seeing the situation turn bleak, the yeti let out a roar and turned to flee.

What took Mo Fei by surprise was the yeti’s peculiar escape route, which seemed to intentionally weave around the sword and shield infantrymen and Mo Fei, effectively preventing the kingdom’s crossbowmen from having a clear angle to shoot it.

The two Altland hunters did keep shooting arrows, hitting the yeti several times, but the damage was too low to be fatal.

Heh, you think you can mess with me and run!

Mo Fei dropped his shield and gripped his sword with both hands.

A whirlwind swirled around the blade as he exerted strength into a swing.

Stormblade!

With a slicing sound, a blade of wind slashed the last bit of health from the yeti, and it crashed to the ground.

Phew—not bad at all.

Fighting in human form might not be as overwhelmingly powerful as a dragon, but it’s more skillful.

This kind of back-and-forth combat is truly exciting.

Well done, he said to the sword and shield infantryman who had intercepted the tackle for him.

“Thank you, Prince,” the soldier said, patting the snow off his body.

Mo Fei watched the soldier’s action and suddenly felt something was off.

He glanced at the other soldiers—some of them were also covered in snow, but none seemed to be making an effort to clean it off.

“Are you a player?” he suddenly realized.

The soldier stiffened for a moment and then chuckled awkwardly, “Heh, you still managed to see through it, huh?”