Chapter Sixty-Nine: Passive Magic Resistance

With the matter settled, he brushed off his sleeves and left, hiding his achievements and fame deep within.

The Heaven and Earth Guild had been utterly crushed; there probably wasn't a single one of them left on the entire mass grave map. With his name marked in bright red, Zhang Shan couldn't very well camp the city gates, so he had no choice but to continue grinding monsters to level up.

He'd heard that killing monsters could cleanse red-name status much faster, though he never really looked into exactly how much faster. But with over a thousand points of infamy, it would take a long time regardless.

Damn it, he absolutely couldn't afford to die now. If he were to get killed and sent back, who knew how long he'd be locked up in that little black room? The very thought was terrifying.

He decided to find Heart Follows My Will; having someone to watch his back was always a good thing.

Returning to the spot where he'd been grinding monsters earlier, Heart Follows My Will was completely absorbed in the world of monster-hunting, so much so that he didn't even notice Zhang Shan running over—a true grinding fanatic.

"Brother Heart, enjoying the grind?" Zhang Shan's sudden greeting startled Heart Follows My Will. Seeing Zhang Shan's name glowing a deep, menacing red, he was momentarily stunned.

"How many people from the Heaven and Earth Guild did you kill just now? How did your name get so red?"

"I didn't keep count, but probably around a hundred," Zhang Shan replied.

"Jeez, are all those Heaven and Earth guys brainless? How could they let you slaughter so many? I thought you were just going to harass them a bit."

"Killing players is easier than killing monsters. The little mobs have way more health than players, and with all these glass-cannon classes running around, I can one-shot them every time."

"But don't they run? Why would they just stand there and let you kill over a hundred of them?"

"They ran pretty fast, actually. Otherwise, I'd have gotten even more."

"Did you get that Earth Dragon Saber guy? That idiot is so arrogant—seriously annoying."

"He was the first one I took out. Didn't you see the chat? He was still trash-talking me in the world channel just now."

"Nope. I usually turn off all chat channels when I'm grinding; it distracts from leveling."

A true grinder indeed, oblivious to anything outside his window, single-mindedly focused on leveling up.

"I really can't go back now—no idea how long it'll take to clear all this infamy."

"I don't really know either. Why not check the forums? There should be some relevant data."

That made sense. Asking someone who only cares about grinding was definitely asking the wrong person. The all-knowing forum experts would be far more reliable.

A quick search on the forums and Zhang Shan soon found the information he needed.

The game's red-name mechanics had been figured out by players just a few days after launch. The main points of the post went like this:

First, each player kill adds ten points of infamy—no surprise there; everyone knew that already.

Second, simply idling in the game reduces infamy by ten points per hour. So, if you only killed one person, you could just stand around in the wilderness for an hour and your infamy would be wiped clean.

That didn't mean much to Zhang Shan, though. With over a thousand points of infamy, he couldn't very well stand in the wild for over a hundred hours. That was just nonsense.

Third, killing monsters can accelerate infamy cleansing: for every ten monsters killed, one point of infamy is removed.

But not just any monsters—it only works if the monster's level is higher than the player's. If the monster is the same level or lower, there's no acceleration. Grinding lower-level mobs reduces infamy at the same rate as idling—no bonus.

Fourth, red-named players must not return to town. If they do, they're sent straight to the little black room, and the detention time is the same as the required time to clear infamy in the wild.

Aside from the third point, the post didn't really tell Zhang Shan anything useful. Most of it was old news. But the bit about only being able to reduce infamy by grinding monsters higher level than himself—that was something he hadn't known.

Fortunately, the wandering spirits here were level twenty-five, just higher than him—perfect for cleansing infamy.

Ten monsters for one point of infamy. With over a thousand points, he'd need to kill more than ten thousand monsters. He could have his name cleared today.

Turns out, being red-named wasn't so troublesome after all—cleansing wasn't hard.

He could kill a wandering spirit in two shots, or one shot if he critted. That meant around twenty monsters per minute, over a thousand per hour. Plus, the idle reduction itself—within ten hours at most, he could be rid of the red name.

He was still over three million experience short of level twenty-five, but he could grind out another two million today. If he pushed himself, he could level up before midnight.

But there was no need—there wasn't any pressure now. No need to burn himself out; just play at a normal pace.

System notification: Your passive skill, King of Talent, has been triggered by killing a wandering spirit. You have automatically acquired the skill Magic Resistance (Passive).

Huh? A new passive skill from grinding? Did being red-named increase the drop rate for passives? That didn't make sense.

No matter. He'd gotten it—time to check the skill. If it was like those monsters—making casters not even want to fight him—that would be great.

Magic Resistance (Passive): Level 1, acquired through talent, cannot be upgraded, increases magic resistance, reducing magic damage by ten percent.

Only a ten percent reduction? That seemed a bit low.

Still, better than nothing. If someone was going to hit him for a thousand damage, now it would only be nine hundred after resistance.

Looking at it that way, it was a pretty decent passive, especially since he didn't have to do anything for it.

No need for skill points, no need to buy skill books—just a free skill. He couldn't ask for more.

How delightful.

Grinding monsters was a dull affair—unless there were the occasional surprises.

But that was unlikely. After getting the Magic Resistance passive, Zhang Shan felt his luck was spent.

Two hours of grinding yielded not a single white item drop—unbelievable. Could being red-named really affect drop rates? It was a little disheartening.

Looks like he really should avoid killing players in the future. For Zhang Shan, a reduced drop rate was like losing a few big goals.

He needed something to distract himself from this melancholy.

Might as well see what the guild bigshots were up to—no harm in chatting with them.

"What are you all up to, bosses?" he asked.

"Looking for bosses! We've been searching all day—just purple bosses everywhere. Only found three orange ones so far."

"That's not bad! Three bosses in a day is a big haul; you should be satisfied."

"Come on, you killed one as if it was nothing, and it took all of us a whole day to get three. How can you tell us to be satisfied, Mr. Legendary Weapon?"

"Don't get worked up, guys. You could always look for red bosses. If you take down a red boss, you might get several red items—now, that would be delightful!"

"Easy for you to say. Where are we supposed to find one?"

"There should be some out there. In Dangyang City, we've only seen one red Priest so far. No one's taken down any other red bosses yet—there must be more."

"Of course there are, but they're all high-level. Don't even think about it. We still haven't found a level twenty red boss."

"Where are the other cities finding theirs, then?"

"We've asked around, but the maps where they've fought the bosses—we just can't find them. Who knows where the bosses are hiding?"

"Not enough people—just a thousand in the entire guild. Even if we spread out, it would take ages to search every map."

"Here's hoping we find a red boss today. By the way, if we find one, can you make it back?"

"I can't. Still red-named. I probably won't be able to clear it until around ten tonight."

"Well, no point talking about it, then. Without you, even if we find one, we probably can't take it down. Who knows how many wipes it would take?"

"So what? Just grind back the lost experience afterward."

"The issue is, we're raiding tomorrow. The boss wants to try hard mode, so it's best if nobody dies today. Otherwise, if we drop to level nineteen, we can't equip level twenty gear and we'll be useless in the raid."

That was true. They couldn't risk dying today—tomorrow was the Wednesday raid. Even finding a red boss would be pointless.

Taking down a red boss without any wipes was basically impossible—even Zhang Shan couldn't guarantee that.

"Alright, you all keep searching. I'll rejoin after I clear my red name."

Better to get rid of the red name first—having it made everything inconvenient.