Leander stared at the Elven Queen's stats, momentarily lost in thought.
Her level wasn't particularly high, and her attack power wasn't overwhelming either. She seemed more like a commander than a direct combatant.
Before he could think further, the statue of the Elven Queen began to crack. Pieces of stone exploded outward, revealing a stunning yet dark-skinned Corrupted Elven Queen standing before him.
"An intruder has entered! My followers, come forth and fight!"
With a low, commanding voice, the queen's scepter emitted a faint green glow. Moments later, twenty-five Corrupted Elves materialized in front of Leander.
He froze for a moment. The difficulty of this dungeon was clearly much higher than the beginner dungeon.
What made it worse was that among the summoned elves, fifteen were archers, and the remaining ten were warriors.
The moment they appeared, they charged straight at Leander.
Leander considered retreating to avoid the initial onslaught, but suddenly, dozens of vines sprouted from the ground behind him. One of them even wrapped around his ankle, trying to immobilize him.
"Damn it!"
The Elven Queen had wasted no time, using both her skills right at the start. She remained safely behind her summoned elves, launching green energy orbs at Leander from a distance.
"You think numbers will overwhelm me? Bring it on!"
Leander wasn't fazed.
"Tempest Slash!"
Before entering the dungeon, Leander had used his remaining Evolution Points to upgrade Tempest Slash to Tier 3.
[Tempest Slash (Tier 3): A ranged AoE skill. Consumes 10 MP to deal 80–98 damage to all enemies within a 3-meter radius. Cooldown: 4 seconds.]
The cooldown was short—barely a blink of an eye.
As expected, the skill's first use immediately reduced the health of the Corrupted Elf warriors to critical levels.
With their remaining slivers of health, Leander easily finished them off with a single strike each.
He quickly closed the distance to the archers.
By the time his skill refreshed, he unleashed Tempest Slash again, targeting the fifteen Corrupted Elf archers.
In their weakened state, it only took Leander about ten seconds to eliminate them all.
At this point, the Elven Queen's summoning skill was still on cooldown.
Now, only the queen herself remained.
Dodging her green energy orbs, Leander charged forward without hesitation. His sword slashed directly at the queen's chest, striking her ample breasts with precision.
[-78], [-89], [-101]
A series of bright red damage numbers floated up as the Elven Queen's health rapidly dropped.
In no time, she had lost over 500 HP.
When her health fell below 1,000, the Elven Queen let out a piercing scream.
To Leander's shock, she suddenly reached up and removed her bra, exposing her bare breasts.
Before he could react, she plunged her hand into her chest, pulling out a beating heart.
The heart pulsed with a green glow as she placed it atop her scepter, where it merged with the emerald gem.
The Elven Queen's aura surged dramatically. Her health instantly returned to full, and her skills refreshed.
"So that's the Heart of the Elves?"
Leander's eyes gleamed with excitement as he stared at the glowing, pulsating heart.
The next moment, the Elven Queen summoned her followers again.
This time, she called forth 100 Corrupted Elves.
The small space was now packed with elves, their angry cries echoing as they charged at Leander from all directions.
Leander took a deep breath.
He had never faced such overwhelming numbers before.
"Tempest Slash!"
The skill's cooldown had just ended, and Leander unleashed it again.
However, this time, the elves' health only dropped by half.
Leander quickly dodged backward, but a few attacks still landed on him.
A sharp pain shot through his body as his health dropped by 5%.
Looking down at his wounds, Leander's eyes flashed with anger. The pain only fueled his fighting spirit.
With a roar, he charged back into the fray.
Using his high attack speed, he managed to eliminate half of the elf warriors by the time his skill refreshed again.
With the reduced pressure, cleaning up the remaining warriors became much easier.
Next, he turned his attention to the 75 Corrupted Elf archers.
Fortunately, their health was similar to the archers he had faced earlier.
Leander charged at them, cutting them down one by one. Even as they fell, they clung tightly to their bows, refusing to retreat.
It took him three minutes to clear them all.
Just as he finished, the Elven Queen pointed her scepter at him.
"Sigh of the Forest!"
Countless vines shot up from the ground, encasing Leander in a cage of greenery.
But Leander wasn't an ordinary player. His talent made his skills far more powerful than anyone else's.
The seemingly impenetrable vines were shredded in less than a second as Leander broke free.
At this point, the Elven Queen's skills were still on cooldown for another 30 seconds.
Leander unleashed all his remaining skills, finishing the fight in just ten seconds.
The Elven Queen let out a final, anguished scream before disintegrating into specks of green light.
On the ground, she left behind her scepter and a pile of materials.
Leander picked up the loot and noticed a new backpack among the items.
[Backpack: Capacity 100 slots.]
Without hesitation, he equipped it, instantly freeing up space in his inventory.
Grinning, he collected the rest of the loot and began reviewing his rewards.
What he saw made him laugh out loud.
The Corrupted Elves summoned by the Elven Queen had also provided EXP and Evolution Points!
In total, he had earned 20,000 EXP and over 2,000 Evolution Points.
The Elven Queen herself had contributed 800 EXP and 75 Evolution Points.
While the EXP wasn't as high as the beginner dungeon, it was still impressive for a standard dungeon.
His level had skyrocketed to Level 8.
Experienced MMO players knew that early-game leveling was the fastest and most critical phase for creating a gap between players.
By the time others caught up in levels, the early risers would have already accumulated significant resources, making them nearly unbeatable.
[Global Announcement: Congratulations to Player Leander for setting the first clear record for the dungeon Elven Swamp! Clear time: 29 minutes and 18 seconds.]
[Congratulations to Player Leander for defeating the Elven Queen. Rewards: Heart of the Elves ×1, various materials, Elven Scepter ×1, Elven Tears ×several, Elven Longbows ×8...]
Another record?
The world chat exploded once again.
"Oh my god, Leander, please tell us how you cleared the dungeon!"
"We're still stuck at Level 3, and he's already soloing dungeons!"
"People like him are just built different!"
"Check the leaderboard! Leander's level jumped by three!"
"Damn it! Varek from the Ironclad family just hit Level 7, and now Leander's ahead again!"
"Look at the leaderboard! Someone's already Level 9!"
"So what? Can that Level 9 player solo a dungeon?"
Suddenly, a message appeared in the world chat:
"Soloing a dungeon? Big deal. I can do it too. Watch me!"
The sender? The Level 9 player everyone had just been discussing.