How to Cultivate a Game

A certain suicidal white furball was fighting an enormous croc...

Meanwhile, 'Oh shit, fuck, fuck…' Chaotic thoughts were running amok in Nee Chen's mind. A weakened 4th stage was not something that just dropped from the sky! "What a fuckin' waste of Exp…" 

With Bi Yuan's opening salvo and the beast's weakening in its interrupted attempt to break through the 5th stage, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity presented itself to their party.

"It could have been better if we attacked together or maybe dropped some heavy boulders while it was immobile."

Nee Chen's thoughts aside, there was no time for regrets. It was now or never!

"…"

Again... He was reminded of a problem.

If Nee Chen did manage to kill the croc, and even if his contribution was too meager, was it still possible for Nee Chen to receive the corresponding exp? Nee Chen after all was already at the max level of his current class. Nee Chen regretted being still not at the 2nd stage. He feared that he wouldn't earn any Exp points if this raid was to succeed.

With Nee Chen's class advancement at hand, killing the 4th stage beast in front of him would not mean anything as he had hit his level cap of Level 20 of the Martial Tempering realm. if he wanted to advance, he had to slay five monsters at the Martial Tempering realm.

Nee Chen glanced at the level hovering above the crocodile's head. It read [Level ???] which was enough to tell him the strength of the heinous beast. Considering that the beast was trying to reach the 5th stage, and the mechanics of the leveling system was it doubled every rank up, Nee Chen calculated that the ginormous crocodile must be at Level 160 minimum.

And from the Tutorial Booklet, there was a hint that the higher the level of the monsters they subjugated, the better the rewards and Exp points. This meant a fuck-ton of level-ups.

"Xiang Ya, would you please support Bi Yuan? I'd try my best and finish my class advancement as soon as possible."

"Hmmm… Okay." Xiang Ya watched the quickly changing expression of Nee Chen on the sidelines, as she showed an understanding look. After all, Xiang Ya knew it too… the hunger for Exp points was a bottomless pit every 'player' desired to fill up.

~~~

The Crocodilian was a mighty beast. Even among his tier, only a few would challenge him. That's why he felt too humiliated for him to so easily lose his temper against such an insignificant foe. no. The rabbit wasn't even a foe to him, but a pest.

"I'D DESTROY YOU! CRETIN!"

The Crocodilian rampaged, using his claws and fearsome jaws. However, the creek was too small for him to maneuver thus why he kept on missing his mark. His claw barely reached the bunny. The Crocodilian didn't want the narrow creek to collapse as the Dragon Vein might get buried. That would be a hassle if his home got wrecked.

Moreover, the Crocodilian wanted to vent his anger. It would take him at least a century for him to recover from the hurt he suffered from being ambushed by the little bunny. "TAKE THIS!" The Crocodilian was not one who had great control, and as a result, he put more strength on his forelimb than he intended.

Rubble rained from above. "ENOUGH!" The Crocodilian snarled, his ugly mug turning into a ferocious scowl.

Sure, the creek was big enough to allow the Crocodilian to make use of it as his den, but as a battlefield, this creek worked against his size putting him at a disadvantage. "ROOOAR!!" The Crocodilian roared menacingly interlacing his voice with his qi. He tried to replicate the sound skills of a lion with his roar.

The Crocodilian was relatively experienced and had fought against all manners of beast. Though the sound waves he released were just an imitation of that of a lion, it seemed that they worked just fine. The little bunny froze for a millisecond. 

However, against all odds, the little bunny quickly recovered. 

The Crocodilian's forelimb missed the little bunny the nth time as shackles of mysterious attributes stopped him just right on time. With his keen sense of touch that could detect qi through vibrations, the Crocodilian understood that the bunny was using a martial art that could fortify body parts from bones, appendages, and organs.

"YOU AMUSE ME." Frowning, the big reptile repeated his stunt of roaring and interlacing qi with his voice. "YOU WOULD NOT LAST FOR LONG, LITTLE ONE! SURRENDER AND I MIGHT JUST SHOW YOU MERCY!"

The little bunny was nimble and small. Though the Crocodilian could achieve greater speeds with his cultivation, he could not risk the Dragon Vein. It was a conundrum.

What the Crocodilian could only do is make use of the hand he was dealt.

"GOT YOU!" The Crocodilian felt a weak tugging force from the pull of gravity, as he almost hit the rabbit. More rubbles rained from above, and the sides of the creek got disturbed to the point that mini-tsunamis began to ripple from where the reptile stood.

The Crocodilian observed the sudden increase in the bunny's speed as his jagged teeth slipped by a fur's breath away. "DAMN IT!"

The little bunny drifted into the shallow waters of the creek and jumped from one boulder to another. The small white fur ball bounced with unpredictability and incredible daringness going so far as to tease the Crocodilian.

"You little thing, come here!" The Crocodilian used his claws to take a swipe at the little bunny, but he missed.

Like a mosquito, the bunny acrobatically alternated from the Crocodilian's hide, shallow waters, and rocks making it extra difficult for the Crocodilian to act.

More annoying was the casual restorative martial spell that kept on pouring on the bunny once in a while. Looking above, the Crocodilian's reptilian cold eyes landed on a female cultivator. "Since when were you there?" The Crocodilian's nostrils widened with hate. Perhaps out of anger, he did not pay careful attention to his surroundings, thus the female cultivator escaped his attention.

The bunny's restricting martial spells and empowerment martial arts were certainly special. The healing arts were also quite something else. The Crocodilian only had compliments for the little bunny, but he wouldn't care about the female cultivator.

'Were they perhaps in a master and servant relationship? Perhaps, a spirit contract?' The Crocodilian's random thoughts were of separate matter… what was important right now was for the Crocodilian to decide.

What was more important for him?

Though he was in an injured state, the bunny clearly posed no threat to him as the Crocodilian was now awake. The martial art that was used to inflict damage on his eye might be telling a different story, but like what the facts represent, the Crocodilian was now... awake. And that was what all mattered.

In fact, he would not need to pay any attention to the little bunny. At first, he feared the little thing might escape if he just let it go. He wanted to inflict death on the little creature, but did he have to do it within this shallow creek? When clarity returned to him, the Crocodilian had become more sensible about what he should prioritize.

Like the little bunny, the Crocodilian also possessed martial arts, more impressively so, a 4th stage martial arts. As a cultivator beast, his martial arts were deduced from his own beastly origin, and while it was generally inferior to human martial arts, he was confident that he would not necessarily lose against any human.

The Crocodilian's eyes narrowed on the female cultivator just above the creek.

As the pure white light took shape in the little bunny's little paws, the Crocodilian just watched. This time, he was conscious of his true foe's presence. "Human, I always hated your kind."

While the little bunny's martial arts were profound, the bunny's owner was just a small 2nd stage. What harm could they actually do? Once enlightened that this Great Crocodilian would not need to play at his foe's tune, he decided to use his own deduced martial arts.

The little bunny gathered the pure white light and compressed it multiple times until the orb had become so small that it began to flicker. "Kyu~!" From the bunny's little paws, an orb of great destructive light was unleashed.

When the martial technique was fully formed and launched, the Crocodilian just stayed in his place as he showed full contempt for the bunny's flashy display. "DENSE JADE ARMOR!"

The Crocodilian's hide burned in an iridescent verdant hue, as scale after scale covered his body. Deduced from the defenses of a turtle shell, the Crocodilian wore thick qi armor with incredible defenses. Like a breeze, the white light unleashed by the little bunny was scattered at the dense qi that surrounded the Crocodilian.

"2nd stage, mind enlightenment realm," Strong contempt filled the Crocodilian's eyes as he physically confirmed the cultivation base of the little bunny. "Just what in the world gave you the thought that you were qualified to fight me?"

With its ultimate defensive martial arts already activated, the Crocodilian felt that it was fine now. The stupidity of him fighting the little creature at its own pace was grating to him. He was annoyed and embarrassed. He was a 4th stage majestic beast, and he must act like it!

"Oh, I pity you."

With a calmer outlook and an enlightened mind, the Crocodilian realized that he still had the opportunity to reach the next stage. His vitality was surging with activity, and his mind was calmer than it ever was.