Global Descent to Sky Islands: Getting a God-level Talent from the Start - Chapter 26

[Please Note: Monsters in the advanced area will be more powerful. Survivors must exercise caution while exploring.]

“Advanced area?”

Han Xing looked around and noticed that the distant sky indeed had many clouds of various sizes.

The number of clouds was significantly higher than in his current area.

“So I’ve been stuck in the novice zone all this time. Only after defeating the strongest monster in this area can I access the advanced map,” Han Xing muttered, as if he had just understood some of the game’s mechanics. He shook his head.

“Forget it, that area is still far away. At my current pace, it’ll take at least four or five hours to reach. I’ll deal with it tomorrow.”

Thinking of this, Han Xing decided to deal with the loot in front of him first.

He walked over to the Gray Rock Giant Wolf’s corpse and began dissecting it.

[Successfully dissected Gray Rock Giant Wolf’s corpse. Recovered Refined Iron Arrow x13, Obtained 1-Star Excellent Quality Beast Skin x1, Obtained Rich Wolf Meat 104 kg, Obtained Beast Heart x1, Obtained Bl00d of the Strong x5…]

“Excellent Quality Beast Skin?”

Han Xing looked at the thick fur on the ground and said, “I remember this can be used to craft blue-grade leather armor. What a great find!”

As for the Beast Heart and Bl00d of the Strong, he wasn’t yet sure of their purpose, so he stored them away for now.

There wasn’t much else of value in the Gray Rock Giant Wolf’s territory. However, after merging the sky islands, Han Xing discovered some unexpected surprises.

Under the moonlight, on the edge of the giant wolf’s territory, several rocky areas glimmered with a faint silver light.

“There’s treasure!” Han Xing’s eyes lit up.

He walked over and squatted down to observe closely.

With some uncertainty, he murmured, “This seems to be some kind of ore.”

“Should I dig it up and see?”

Thinking of this, Han Xing took an iron pickaxe out of his bag and began striking the rocks.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

The sound of metal hitting stone echoed in the air.

As Han Xing broke off the outer layers of the rocks, silvery glimmers began to show, and at that moment, the system prompt appeared.

[Mithril Ore. Needs to be smelted. Can extract the mithril inside.]

“Smelting?”

Han Xing frowned, confused. “I don’t have the equipment. Do I need to build a smelting workshop?”

Mithril was valuable—it was a key material for crafting blue-grade equipment.

But at the current stage of the game, it seemed survivors still couldn’t extract this metal.

“Unless a future update enables territory construction…” Han Xing thought.

If that were to happen, survivors could build various facilities on their territories, such as smelting workshops, weapon research labs, defensive fortifications, and even taverns.

For now, Mithril could only occasionally be found in treasure chests, and the drop rate was incredibly low.

Han Xing remembered how he managed to acquire over 20 Mithril ingots in the past—thanks to the lucky players often referred to as “European Emperors.” But the chances of that were slim. (T/N: The “European Emperor” concept started as a light-hearted joke in Asian gaming communities, especially in gacha-based games. Players began attributing exceptional luck to “Europeans” while depicting themselves as “unlucky” (or “non-Europeans”) when they couldn’t get rare items. It’s not meant to be taken literally but rather as a playful way to talk about luck.)

Since he couldn’t extract Mithril yet, Han Xing stored the ore in his Storage Box and opened the Territory Leaderboard.

[1st Place: Star River, 184 Territory Points.]

[2nd Place: Whisperer, 162 Territory Points.]

[3rd Place: Black Hawk, 123 Territory Points.]

[4th Place: Papaya Star Spirit, 115 Territory Points.]

[5th Place: ……]

“Hmm? Whisperer is catching up? Black Hawk has also overtaken Papaya Star Spirit and claimed third place?”

Han Xing was surprised to see the leaderboard.

The gap between him and Whisperer was steadily narrowing, as the other player worked hard to close the distance.

However, after some thought, it made sense. Even though Han Xing was equipped with nearly a full set of green-grade gear, the attribute gap between him and the other survivors wasn’t too significant.

As survivors continued to explore further, they would inevitably discover new equipment, skill books, and other valuable items.

Even items they couldn’t use themselves could be traded through the Trading Channel.

The survivors’ overall strength was steadily increasing—especially the top players, who were advancing rapidly.

Of course, this progress came at a price.

Han Xing glanced at the player count for Area 107. Out of the initial 10,000 survivors, only 9,632 remained.

This meant that over the past 3 days, more than 300 people had lost their lives in this area alone!

At this rate, the total number of human deaths across all areas had likely reached a terrifying figure.

Although most of the people here died in accidents, as survival becomes increasingly difficult and the monsters grow stronger, this number will continue to rise rapidly.

At this moment, Cheng Jianyong said in the group chat: “Brother Xing, that Whisperer is quite something—he’s almost catching up to you!”

Ever since learning that Han Xing was Star River, Cheng Jianyong had been closely watching the rankings.

Han Xing replied: “Yeah, he’s indeed strong. If I’m not mistaken, he should be from the Mage class.”

“Mage?”

“Yes.”

Han Xing confirmed: “Among the Mage class’s five early-stage skills, four are offensive. As the captain of a team, Whisperer has probably collected all of them with his teammates’ help. Combined with equipment boosts, the Mage class does have a much faster exploration speed compared to other classes.”

“Ah, I see.” Cheng Jianyong suddenly understood and continued to ask, “Brother Xing, how do you know all this?”

“Just read the game introduction more carefully, and you’ll figure it out too.”

Han Xing paused and added, “By the way, what are your current rankings?”

“Huh?” Cheng Jianyong seemed a bit confused. “Brother Xing, haven’t you checked the leaderboard? Brother Yun and I are both on it!”

“You never told me your in-game names. How would I know what you’re called?”

“You never asked either.”

Han Xing: “…”

“Quit messing around and just tell me your name.”

Cheng Jianyong laughed and said, “Alright, my name is ‘Lonely Hero,’ and Brother Yun’s is ‘Cloud Dawn.'”

“…”

Han Xing: “What a cringe-worthy name…”

“Right? I also think ‘Cloud Dawn’ is pretty edgy.”

“I’m talking about you.”

Cheng Jianyong: “???”

At this time, Shen Yun was grinding territory points overnight and hadn’t seen the conversation between the two in the group chat. Otherwise, he would have spent at least half an hour arguing with Cheng Jianyong.

Han Xing opened the leaderboard and was surprised to see that “Lonely Hero” had already climbed to 65th place with 33 points.

Meanwhile, “Cloud Dawn,” which was Shen Yun’s in-game name, had astonishingly entered the top 40, ranking 37th with 57 points.

Han Xing was slightly surprised, but after thinking it through, he found it unsurprising.

After all, he had provided them with almost a full set of high-quality green gear, numerous skill books, and a generous amount of Spirit Spring Water, allowing them to explore without restraint.

Achieving this ranking speed was only natural.

After closing the chat, Han Xing continued moving toward other clouds.

After upgrading to level 3, the speed of the sky island increased to 8 meters per second, equivalent to 28.8 kilometers per hour—already quite fast.

While navigating the sky island, Han Xing took a moment to glance at the chat channel.

After a whole day of fighting and exploring, the survivors were sharing their experiences in the chat.

“Damn, my luck was terrible today. While exploring the territory, I ran into an elite-level jungle tiger. I was nearly bitten to death. If it weren’t for my ancestral magic skill—the sliding shovel—I’d be done for.”

“Upstairs, that’s nothing! I ran into a massive bear today. It broke more than a dozen of my ribs with just one slap. Luckily, I’m a PE student—I carried it on my back and ran for over ten kilometers until it got too tired and let me go.”

“You guys are amazing. Compared to you, getting bitten by a five-step snake feels like nothing.”

“Bro, you were bitten by a Deinagkistrodon Acutus, and you’re still alive to talk about it?”

“Oh, I pulled out its fangs, so it’s harmless now. It actually feels pretty nice when it bites. I’m planning to keep it as a pet.”

“…”

“…”

“Bro, you’re seriously twisted…”

A flood of speechless emojis filled the chat channel.

At that moment, someone said, “Stop fooling around and check this out—Papaya Star Spirit has dropped another guide.”

“Another guide? I read one of his posts before and used the tips to avoid several monster-filled clouds.”

“Same here! Thanks to Papaya Star Spirit’s strategy, I easily unlocked a Bronze Treasure Chest.”

“Quick, check out what it is this time!”

Everyone clicked on it and saw that it was indeed a strategy post by Papaya Star Spirit. In just a short time, it had already gathered hundreds of replies.

However, unlike previous posts, the title of this one carried a serious tone.

《Warning! Dark Elves Group!》

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