Oops, I'm a Monster with a Too Long Prefix!-Chapter 35: Red Team Leveled Up

After tossing the newly looted Cragstone and shoulder armor onto the trading platform, Isaac headed straight back into Venommist Forest.

It wasn't until he started grinding the spider den again that he realized something was off—XP gains from the level 8 mobs had been cut in half. Only then did it hit him: he was already level 11.

Even though there were plenty of Elites here—seventeen per full wave—the lower XP from the regular mobs made the grind less efficient.

He already had full Venommist Sets, a handful of poison fangs, and dozens of materials. Finally, Isaac decided it was time to push deeper into the forest.

As he pressed on, venomous spiders continued to crawl from the undergrowth, now level 9 and even level 10 in some spots.

Isaac didn't bother clearing them. He just waved Red team forward.

"Yeah, no way regular players are gonna make it through this place standing around," he muttered while casually enjoying the scenery. "Gotta keep moving."

Soon the terrain shifted—the thick forest giving way to a towering bamboo grove.

"Ooh, scenery change. Gotta hand it to Aegis—their art and worldbuilding are insane." Isaac stopped to soak it in.

The bamboo was thicker than anything he'd seen in real life.

But then... something felt wrong.

Some of the "bamboo stalks" were moving.

And then—they started hissing.

"Wait—what the—oh hell no, SNAKES?!" Isaac jumped.

Right as the realization hit him, the system threw his team into combat mode.

Twenty massive, emerald-scaled serpents—level 10—slithered into view, closing in fast.

"Shit! I hate snakes!" Isaac shuddered. If this weren't a game, he'd already be halfway across the map.

And then it got worse.

Unlike the spider waves earlier, the way these serpents spawned was far more terrifying.

The entire bamboo forest was writhing.

From every direction, snakes poured in—wave after wave—so many that Isaac couldn't even count them. freēwēbnovel.com

"What the hell?! This is a whole-ass ocean of snakes!"

Isaac felt his scalp tingle. Even he was starting to panic a little.

Trying to calm himself, he scanned the incoming mobs.

Weirdly enough, there wasn't a single Elite among them.

"No Elites? This must be one of those 'flood them with trash mobs' kind of fights... Still, something feels off."

Thanks to their full Venommist Sets, Red team's poison resistance and defense had been massively boosted. Compared to when they fought the spiders, they were practically a whole new squad.

The nearest snake lunged.

"Red team, test it out!"

Red One stepped forward and smashed a serpent with its Hyenaman Club—12 damage. The snake retaliated with just 6 damage and 1 point of poison.

"Wait, only 6? That's less than what level 8 spiders hit for?" Isaac blinked.

Then it clicked—Red One was fully decked out in a Venommist Set!

Back when it only had two pieces, 8-level spiders could barely scratch it. Now with all three, its defense had gone up another 5 points.

"Red One's poison resist is 19, which means these snakes are hitting with 20 base poison damage. A level 10 normal mob hitting as hard as a level 9 Elite... Interesting."

So, as expected, the deeper you went into Venommist Forest, the more poison-based the enemies became.

Fortunately, outfitting Red team with full sets had paid off—otherwise this would've been a massacre.

Within seconds, Isaac and his team were completely surrounded by serpents.

A sea of writhing, hissing bodies, stretching to the horizon.

"Jesus. Aegis really wants players to have heart attacks, huh?"

Despite being packed in, the snakes' huge bodies meant that only 7 or 8 could attack at once.

Isaac observed carefully. The sheer number was overwhelming, but the actual danger was low. No Elites, moderate poison. Red team could tank it just fine.

"Looks like the real challenge here is endurance..."

The snakes weren't particularly strong—but they were endless.

This was clearly designed to wear players down.

And Isaac? He was bored out of his mind.

Smacking snake after snake, he muttered, "No Elites, no drops, no mats... This is so damn dull."

With nothing better to do, he remembered the healing potions he'd looted. He had nearly 300 bottles by now.

"Well, might as well make things easier. Here—you three each take 80 potions. I'll hold on to the rest."

He handed the bottles out. "You're on your own now. Manage your HP, drink when you need to."

Red team had enough basic AI to know when to chug.

As time dragged on, Isaac got sleepier and sleepier. It was already past 9 p.m., and the wave of snakes just never stopped.

"Should've just sprinted through this crap... At this rate, we'll be here all night."

His eyes grew heavy. "Can't stay awake much longer... And if I log out during combat, I'll respawn in the starter village. That'd suck."

For now, he just had to hold on.

"Red team, keep grinding. I'm gonna rest a bit."

The three monsters huddled around him protectively.

A few minutes later, Isaac noticed something odd. He wasn't being attacked anymore—and he wasn't attacking.

Then—ding—he was out of combat.

"Wait... I'm out of combat? Hell yes!" He jolted awake. "I can log out!"

And with that, he exited the game and collapsed into bed.

His dreams? A never-ending sea of giant green snakes coiling endlessly around him.

. . .

The next morning, Isaac didn't wake until 8:30 a.m.

"Ten hours of sleep. Man, that hit the spot!" He stretched with a big yawn. "New day, new grind!"

He scarfed down breakfast, then logged back in.

"Today's plan—log in and run straight through. Let's skip this snake-infested hellhole already."

Neural link established. Game booted.

Isaac opened his eyes in-game... and froze.

Red team was still fighting the snakes.

But what really stunned him—

They were level 9 now.

"Wait—WHAT?! They leveled up?!"

He stared in disbelief.

He had logged out. That should've despawned Red team, right?

Apparently not. Somehow... they had kept grinding all night.

"That's not even possible! They should've run out of stamina!"

But then he noticed something.

They were rotating.

Two were tanking nearby snakes while the third rested, slowly regenerating HP and stamina. Then they swapped roles.

"...No way. These guys figured out a rotation system?!"

It dawned on him—last night when he'd told them to keep fighting, they'd actually kept fighting. The system had left them active.

Normally, XP Orbs were split with Isaac. But while he was offline, Red team had been soaking all the XP themselves.

He stood there in stunned silence, watching the trio grind like veterans.

For the first time in a long while, Isaac felt... dumb.

But that wasn't the point.

The real point was—he'd just discovered a whole new way to level up Red team.