Chapter 52 – Cat Dad’s Song

Ding

<Warning. Gnoll General and his men are attacking the safe zone.>

<An event quest has been initiated.>

“Ugh, let me rest, munya!”

…

Emergency Quest: Protect the Safe Zone

A safe zone in every dungeon is like an oasis in a desert. Most of the time, it is located somewhere that no monster can see. However, if any boss monster notices it, they usually launch their attack on the residents in the safe zone to take over the small territory.

You have an obligation as an adventurer to protect the safe zone for your colleagues and the community. If it is taken by the local monsters, the other adventurers will be in trouble without a place to rest and recuperate.

*During this quest, you may attack hostile monsters from inside the safe zone.

Quest Objective: Defeat the Gnoll General, or protect the safe zone for one hour.

Failure Condition: The safe zone is overrun, or you flee from the safe zone.

Quest Reward: Contribution EXP.

MVP Reward: A level 50 SR-grade weapon.

Failure Penalty: You will be banned from entering Gnoll Dungeon for 7 days, and the safe zone of this dungeon will be removed.

[?????? Instinct]: Enslave the boss monster. Try it. It will be fun!

…

Similar event quests and safe zone raids often occurred when a group of strong monsters managed to locate the area while players were resting inside. The quest automatically triggered and forced the residents of the safe zone to protect their little territory.

Although it sounded like a burden, the rewards were always rich. Normally, players only acquired items and EXP upon killing a monster. However, when they slew a monster during this event quest, they would also gain Contribution EXP!

Most importantly, the MVP of the quest would get a red-named weapon of their choice. Most of the selectable items would be items of their level, which was the main attraction of such quests._.

Unfortunately, the quest rarely triggered even if players purposely kited monsters to the safe zone areas. Only when a field boss or an important NPC was around, the quest would initiate.

In this case, Gnoll General was a roaming floor boss. Thus, he instantly triggered the quest.

Meanwhile, Xiaomao never cared about the safe zone and the obligation of an adventurer, but he couldn’t afford to abandon the safe zone. Without the NPC, he wouldn’t be able to access the market or his warehouse from far away!

Xiaomao’s eyes were bloodshot because of the anger and the frustration. He came here to casually farm, not to be gung-ho sweaty try-hard like a tarnished protagonist in a certain Soul Game.

Because of the frustration, Xiaomao opened his status menu, checking if he could allocate his stats yet.

…

LEVEL: 49

EXP: 333,000 / 9,000,000

Contribution Level: 1

PACT Weekly Income: 1/100

EXP: 10/160,000

Status Attributes

STR: 200 +100

DEX: 184 +92

AGI: 190 +205

VIT: 134 +72

INT: 200 +100

WIS: 176 +88

Allocable Status Points: 1,225

Spiritual Roots

Fire: 1

Water: 1

Wind: 1

Metal: 31

Wood: 31

Lightning: 1

Darkness: 16

Light: 1

Allocable Status Points: 1,225

Combat Status

ATK: 0 + 50

DEF: 95 + 70

M.ATK: 1,607 + 50

M.DEF: 88 + 44

HP: 2,060 / 2,210 (+150)

MP: 1,940 / 2,790 (+150)

…

The STR and INT already reached the maximum value that the [Protein from Fish] could give. They got capped at 200, but Xiaomao could increase them with his allocable stat points.

Seeing that his INT reached the desired value, Xiaomao put 800 points into INT right away even if it would risk frying his brain in the real world.

As soon as the points were added, Xiaomao received a warning message.

DING

<Your synchronization rate has decreased to 8% >

As expected, changing the game characters affected the real world’s body. The sync rate decreased as a result because the character had too high intelligence.

However, Xiaomao achieved what he needed.

DING

<Congratulations. Your intelligence has reached 1,000 points!>

<Would you like to awaken your intelligence attribute?>

Awakening an attribute was a feature of the game. By having at least 1,000 points in any attribute, a player was eligible to upgrade their classes depending on their awakening stats.

For example, if Xiaomao awakened the INT attribute, his Slavemaster Class would change into Magic Slavemaster Class, which specialized in slave-related spells.

That was Xiaomao’s plan. As a catopus couldn’t wear defensive equipment, he had to pick a role that specialized in long-ranged attacks, such as mages or snipers.

“Not now, munya!”

DING

<Your attribute awakening has been postponed.>

Unfortunately, a player could awaken their attribute once, but they could awaken many attributes at the same time. Thus, Xiaomao delayed the class awakening and waited for his other attributes to reach 1,000.

For now, Xiaomao only needed the INT to increase magic damage to the boss and the gnolls.

The catopus rode the sword again and brought out the crossbow. Since he couldn’t leave the safe zone, his flying sword circled around the tower, attracting the gnolls from the cliff.

While riding the flying sword, Xiaomao aimed down, concentrated firing at the Gnoll General.

BOOM

The bolt hit the gnoll’s chest armor and exploded. The magic damage bypassed his defense and showed a huge four digits of damage. A couple low-HP mobs fell because of the collateral damage.

Ding

<You have slain Gnoll Soldier Level 42.>

<You have gained 42,000 EXP.>

<You have gained 420 Contribution EXP.>

The EXP gain decreased as Xiaomao’s level surpassed the mob levels. However, he still obtained the precious Contribution EXP.

He needed 160,000 EXP for level 2. And then, he could do something about the boss.

Meanwhile, Shamans counterattacked with their fireballs, but Xiaomao had already flown away from their trajectory. He aimed with his eyes and locked on an area, and he activated a skill.

One Man Thousand Arrows!

Once again, a thousand bolts rained upon the crowd of gnolls at the foot of the tower. More monsters fell while shamans and the Gnoll General’s HP continued to decrease.

“CLIMB THE TOWER! CATCH THAT CAT!”

The general caught a subordinate nearby and threw it toward Xiaomao. The latter simply wiggled his tentacles to operate his hologram joystick, and he was out of the attack range.

Shamans were busy healing their soldiers. They chanted OWOWO-LOLOLOL while raising their staffs, ignoring the explosions and the bombardment from the flying catopus.

Xiaomao kept aiming at the climbing gnolls and fired an explosive arrow one at a time while he ate cat food to replenish his hunger. His flying sword orbited around the tower, sending the climbers back to the ground.

Soon, the Gnoll General lost his temper. He kicked the ground and climbed the tower himself.

Seeing that the boss made his move, Xiaomao loaded a barbed bolt and fired at the boss. The bolt pierced into the armor as if it was tofu and exploded, causing flame damage to the surroundings.

The soldiers screamed in pain and fell from the tower because of the heat. However, the general ignored the pain and kept climbing.

On the ground, the shamans turned to their general and WOLOLOLed him, replenishing his health bar to the full.

Xiaomao widened his eyes in frustration.

This was a dilemma. Had Xiaomao attacked the shamans, the gnoll soldiers would reach the top in no time. But had Xiaomao focused on the soldiers, the boss would reach the rooftop safe zone soon.

‘I can’t continue like this!’

Xiaomao glanced at his Contribution EXP gauge.

The previous volley killed 500 gnoll soldiers and a couple shamans. Xiaomao got 219,000 Contribution EXP from the attack, and his Contribution Level reached level 2!

He had one extra retainer slot to use!

Xiaomao got creative. He flew closer to the boss while he kept himself inside the safe zone.

As soon as the flying sword and the rider got close to the gnoll general, the latter stopped climbing and grabbed his bastard sword. Then, he swung it toward Xiaomao.

The cat maneuvered the sword away. He took a deep breath and bellowed with all his might.

Ultimate Skill: Providence Song!

“MUNYAAAAAA!!”

The gnolls within a radius of 20 meters widened their eyes and pluck their ears. They vomited yellowish fluid while their eyes and ears were bleeding.

The Gnoll General also did the same and fell from the tower.

Next to their HP bars, a heart icon appeared. Everyone within Xiaomao’s skill radius now suffered from an abnormal status [Charmed].

“OWOWO LOLOLOL!”

The shamans ignored the commotion and healed everybody as usual. They instantly increased the general’s HP to the max.

Xiaomao took a deep breath and tried the combo for the first time. He stared at the Gnoll General, who had fallen on top of his men.

Enslavement!