Chapter 109: The Ghost Lake, the Ghost Frog Clan

To me, every second spent in "Magic Era" is precious.

My credit balance in the real world is running low; once it’s gone, I can no longer afford the comfortable, solitary life in my spacious apartment. I have no desire to be forced into a shared dormitory for two, or worse, relegated to that four-bedroom flat I started in, where living packed in with a bunch of bachelors is an ordeal I’d rather avoid.

Therefore, immediately after Hunter’s suggestion, I logged out of the game without a moment’s hesitation and had Little Rascal search the official forums for leveling spots suitable for a high-agility archer.

The search returned hundreds of thousands of results. My head spun just looking at the sheer volume of posts. I had no choice but to have Little Rascal filter them down to leveling spots involving level 20–25 monsters.

Even then, there were thousands left. Damn it, if I tried to read all those, my month-long vacation would be over before I even started.

Frustrated, I narrowed the search parameters again:
The leveling spot had to be near Frostfrost City—because the closer the cities, the cheaper the teleportation fees. Conversely, if it were too far, my stash of less than a hundred gold coins might not be enough.
Lastly, it was best if the monsters were of the ranged-attack variety.

After such rigorous filtering, the posts finally dwindled to just over a dozen. I browsed through them one by one and finally found exactly what I was looking for: the "Ghost Lake" near Greenfields Town.

Several posts described this location. One provided a detailed "introduction" to the rugged and treacherous landscape of Greenfields Town. The environment there is notoriously harsh: surrounded by mountains on three sides, with a mid-to-high-level leveling spot, "Ghost Lake," right to the south.

New players randomly assigned to this area almost inevitably fall victim to a race of monsters called the "Ghost Frog Clan."

Consequently, once they scrape together five gold coins, most newcomers choose to teleport to Frostfrost City for their class advancement and never return to their starting town. The Blackwind Forest near Frostfrost City and other leveling spots are far superior to Greenfields, and teleporting back costs money anyway.

The monsters in Ghost Lake are distributed chaotically, yet they are extremely dense.

They range from the lowest-level 10 "Black Frogs," 12 "Magic Frogs," 14 "Frogmen," 16 "Ghost Frogs," 18 "Ghost Frog Warriors" and "Dark Magic Frogs," all the way to 20th-level "Ghost Frog Mages" and "Ghost Frog Archers." It goes up to the 30th-level quasi-boss, the "Ghost Frog Commander," and the 32nd-level boss, the "Frog Demon."

The spawn points are completely disorganized. The posts warned that one moment you might be fighting the lowest-level Black Frog, and the next, a Ghost Frog Warrior could pop up right beside you and kill you in a single hit. This is a common occurrence in Ghost Lake.

Furthermore, even a Tier 3 warrior needs to be one hundred percent cautious here. The humanoid Ghost Frogs all look nearly identical, even the quasi-bosses and bosses, making them very difficult to distinguish without close inspection. If you are careless and stumble into a quasi-boss or a boss, the outcome is predictable.

Additionally, the Ghost Frog race possesses powerful innate abilities, specifically earth-elemental magic like "Swamp" and "Earth Spike." "Sharpening" and "Solidification" are also their specialties. As a result, they are quite troublesome even for players of the same level.

Finally, it is worth mentioning that records show a large Tier 3 team once went to Greenfields to kill the "Ghost Frog Commander," but for some reason, they provoked the "Frog Demon." In an instant, the entire Ghost Frog clan in the lake received the call to arms, swarming in like a tidal wave. Thousands of high, mid, and low-level Ghost Frogs unleashed a barrage of earth magic, wiping the entire team off the face of Ghost Lake in under a minute.

The complexity and difficulty of Ghost Lake are legendary throughout the Knight Empire. It is precisely for this reason that veteran players who have deleted their characters and restarted dread being "randomly" assigned to this cursed place. As for current players, almost no one is willing to level in a place where a massive crisis can erupt at any second—after all, nobody wants to risk losing a level while trying to gain one.

Except for solo players, of course.

Especially solo archers. These players don't get close to the center of Ghost Lake; they usually lure the monsters out one by one, which significantly lowers the danger.

The only slight annoyance is the Ghost Frogs' earth-elemental defensive magic. Even when fighting them one by one, it is exhausting and time-consuming, though, on the whole, the leveling speed is still faster than competing with others for kills.

Having determined my daytime leveling spot, I felt much more relaxed. I searched for some other information on Greenfields Town and then logged back into the game. Although I couldn't level up in the game right now, I didn't want to waste the rest of the night.

Finding a corner outside Greenfields Town to practice my skills would be fine. Besides, the town has a bank, so I can just swap out my gear when morning comes.

Upon entering the game, the system immediately notified me that there was a message from a stranger.

I took one look and was stunned:
War Wolf?
It was actually this brat leaving me a message...

I frowned and chose to accept it. A moment later, War Wolf’s gnashing voice filled my ears:

"So you're not there, huh? Did you find out we were guarding the outside and get too scared to come out? You little punk! Weren't you so capable before? I almost fell for your trap in the Blackwind Forest... If you've got the guts, come out of the city and fight me now! Bring the people behind you, or fight me one-on-one! Whatever you want!"

Listening to his tedious blustering, I could almost see his face, severely twisted from the frustration of waiting at the city gates and not seeing me.

"Moron..."

In the end, I muttered that single word of appraisal, set the system to reject any further transmissions from War Wolf, and headed toward the teleportation circle in Frostfrost City.