Level 1 to Infinity: My Bloodline Is the Ultimate Cheat!-Chapter 188: Grind Continues

Xandria had said that the Steele Consortium has been pouring massive investments into various guilds in Blackridge.

Over 50% of the level 4 guilds in Blackridge were now under Zachary's control, that slimy bastard.

Ethan frowned. According to the timeline from his past life, Zachary should've only been the leader of a modest level 4 guild at this point.

Back then, Zachary's guild, Unity Hall, was based in Harmony City.

During that time, Unity Hall, Avalon Vanguard (Ethan's guild), and Blade Syndicate had formed a three-way power balance.

Zachary hadn't shown any signs of possessing such vast financial resources back then.

Then came the Fortress Wars expansion.

Blade Syndicate, Avalon Vanguard, and Unity Hall had divided 80% of the fortresses in Harmony City.

Blade Syndicate claimed 35%.

Avalon Vanguard secured 25%.

Unity Hall took 20%.

The remaining 20% was split among all the other guilds.

At the time, Blade Syndicate had dominated the scene.

There was no denying it—despite their members' repulsive behavior and toxic culture, Blade Syndicate had built up a formidable reputation over years of dominating multiple games.

They were a professional guild, though not exactly known for their skill. In fact, they barely had any.

Back then, Ethan and Skyblade were just regular players who had gained a solid reputation and gathered a group of independent players.

Zachary's Unity Hall had some investments in Ethereal, but nothing on the scale of what was happening now.

He had been cautious, dipping his toes in while keeping a watchful eye.

The main reason for the eventual outcome was that Blade Syndicate, despite their lack of brains, were incredibly easy to command.

When Marcus Skeiner gave the order to attack, his members charged without hesitation. Perhaps that was the upside of having no brains.

After the first fortress was captured, everyone realized just how lucrative fortresses could be.

Chaos ensued.

The day after all the open fortresses were claimed, Blade Syndicate turned on Unity Hall, launching an assault on their fortresses.

Ethan and Skyblade took advantage of the chaos, sneaking in to attack one of Unity Hall's most insignificant fortresses.

To their surprise, they discovered that Unity Hall's guild headquarters was located there.

They destroyed it, causing Unity Hall to be disbanded by the system.

Zachary had chosen that remote, seemingly worthless fortress as his guild's headquarters, thinking no one would bother with such a low-value target.

But Skyblade, in a stroke of dumb luck, had thrown a dart at the map and hit that exact fortress.

In one fell swoop, they had taken out Unity Hall's base.

This allowed Avalon Vanguard to seize a massive amount of resources and funds from Unity Hall's guild vault, propelling them to a position where they could rival Blade Syndicate.

For a time, they even had Blade Syndicate on the ropes.

Reflecting on all this, Ethan concluded that his actions since his rebirth had likely altered the timeline.

The guild war against Unity Hall in the Starter Zone.

The ambush and massacre of Blade Syndicate in Harmony City.

The trap that wiped out over 12,000 players from three guilds, including Blade Syndicate.

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And his impersonation of Zachary to buy up land in Springhaven and Blackridge.

Ethan wasn't sure where Zachary was now, but he guessed he was likely in Harmony City.

After the land scheme, Zachary's Reputation Points in the other two cities had plummeted into the negatives.

Ethan doubted Zachary could recover from that so quickly.

If it weren't for his urgent need to level up, Ethan would've taken the time to track down Zachary's current location and give him a taste of his own medicine.

Lost in thought, he ran back to the entrance of Plaguelands Outpost and turned in all his quests at the notice board.

[Ding… System Notification: Your level has increased to 35! You have gained free attribute points!]

[Ding… System Notification: Your reputation with Plaguelands Outpost has increased to Neutral!]

Level 35 already?

Ethan completely ignored the part about the free attribute points. He knew the system had already distributed them evenly across his stats.

But his reputation was only at Neutral. He needed to reach Friendly before he could start grinding NPC Friendship Points.

While he could now enter the outpost without being attacked by NPCs, they still wouldn't interact with him.

No choice but to keep grinding reputation.

Going from Hostile to Neutral required 1,000 reputation points.

Going from Neutral to Friendly required another 3,000 points.

Ethan checked his character's reputation tab. His reputation with Plaguelands Outpost was already at Neutral 435.

That meant he still needed 2,565 points. At this rate, he'd probably reach 60-70% of the way by the time the game shut down for the night.

A few more hours tomorrow, and he'd have enough.

Then he'd spend some time grinding NPC Friendship Points to finally purchase those Arcane Inscriptions and start throwing money at his leveling spree in the Life Greenhouse.

As a popular saying goes, "You only realize how much you need reputation when you're desperate, and every single point feels like a mountain to climb."

After accepting more quests, Ethan headed back out of the outpost. This time, he filled his quest log to the brim.

Twenty-five quests in total. Since he killed monsters so quickly, he didn't bother being picky about which quests to take.

At level 35, a few higher-level quests had appeared on the board, including a Bounty Quest.

The target? [Archmage Sorenth].

Ethan's jaw dropped. This guy?

Back when Sorenth had mentioned some kind of trial, Ethan had thought it was a good thing.

Instead, the mage had thrown him into the Underworld, nearly getting him killed.

But how did Sorenth have the power to open a portal to the Underworld?

Even more baffling was the fact that this Underworld seemed to have been connected to the real-world Underworld.

When Ethan had asked Morzan about it, the man had given him a strange look and avoided answering directly.

Ethan remembered that Archmage Sorenth was a level 55 elite.

At his current level, taking Sorenth down solo would be a bit of a challenge.

But Ethan didn't care. He accepted the quest anyway.

Time to get to work.

For Ethan, this was mind-numbingly boring. He preferred exploration, challenges, and adrenaline rushes.

By 7:50 AM, Ethan had been running back and forth between various monster zones and the outpost, constantly turning in quests.

His reputation was now at Neutral 2125, much faster than he'd anticipated.

Even his experience bar had reached 8% into level 35.

This efficiency was on par with grinding dungeons for experience.

Just as he was about to accept one last quest and log off…

[Ding… System Notification: You have obtained Prismatic Stone +1.]

[Ding… System Notification: Quest [Twilight War Spear] objective completed (Prismatic Stone: 3/3).]

Ethan froze for a moment, then burst into laughter.

After feeding that damn stone for so long, it finally decided to pop out the third piece…

Now he could claim the Grand Druid-exclusive artifact.

[Twilight War Spear]

'Let's go!'