Chapter 6: Keeping it steady
Inwardly, I started howling with laughter while my hands were shuddering. After spending 50 copper coins, the Thicket Steel Shield with requirement of level 1 entered my inventory. I then continued browsing the store and found a white sword with an attack range of 3 – 7 priced at only 30 copper coins. It had suffered the same fate as the shield as it was currently one of the cheapest items being sold here.
I immediately sold my newbie sword for 10 copper coins. With this, I had enough money to get the white sword.
Ding!
When the sword entered my inventory, I was filled with excitement. I immediately equipped the sword and the Thicket Steel Shield. I felt like a changed person with my new equipments. Stat-wise, I was definitely the king of the newbie village now. n.o.body would be able to compete against me.
Hopeful Present (Probationary Horseman)
Level: 1
Attack: 5 – 10
Defense: 11
HP: 100
MP: 100/100
Luck: 0
Great achievement: 0
Power rating: 15
This was amazing! Even my power rating had increased to 15. By my side, Lin Che, w.a.n.g Jinhai and Zhang Wei watched on blankly.
“Holy s.h.i.t…”
w.a.n.g Jinhai’s mouth was opened wide, “Boss, is this a magic trick? How did you manage to get the shield worth 50 silver coins?”
“Shh…”
I gestured him to shut his mouth before pointing forward, “Let’s go. Leave the village quietly and don’t attract any attention to us. We are not going to fight any level 1 monsters. Instead, we will be fighting monsters above level 4. With my current stats, I can both tank and DPS. I can hold the aggro for the team.”
“Ok. Let’s go.”
I valiantly walked in front with an iron sword on one hand and a steel shield on the other, looking like a high level warrior. Following behind me were three stark naked guys. To be precise, they only had a pair of default underwear on them. Other players started looking at us while some female players started laughing while covering their mouths. Lin Che and the guys went pale from embarra.s.sment.
“Big Brother Chen, this…” Lin Che clenched his teeth, “Is this an example of a person selling out his teammates?”
“That’s not true at all. You have to look at the bigger picture, Little Che!” I looked at them with kindness filling my eyes and continued, “I hereby vow that by the time you return here once again, each of you will be equipped in new equipments!”
“Nice!”
w.a.n.g Jinhai was filled with expectation. As for Zhang Wei, he still appeared bewildered as his mind was still stuck at the earlier scene, “How had Big Chen bought so many equipments? Why? How was that possible?”
Outside the newbie village, players were everywhere. Chaos ensued as everyone started their hunt. The monsters they were hunting were the level 1 Groundhogs. These Groundhogs had all been tainted by the devilish aura. They were extremely ferocious with an attack range of 3 – 5. Most of the newbie players only had a defense of 2 points. Facing these Groundhogs, many were beaten to the point they started crying out miserably.
The sight of players turning into a clump of white radiance after a whimper was everywhere. These players were all killed and sent back into the newbie village. Of course, a newborn calf would not fear the tiger. Players who were part of a guild would simply swarm the level 1 monsters to death.
Unfortunately, there were a limited amount monsters around. Therefore, each level 1 monster would be ganged up by up to four or five players. The Groundhogs would basically be instantly killed the moment they sp.a.w.ned. Despite the lack of monsters, the distant level 2 zone was devoid of people. n.o.body dared to enter that zone. The players who had entered that zone before reaching level 2 had all been one-shotted by the monsters there.
I studied the monsters on the map before pointing at a certain direction, “Let’s go there.”
The level 1 zone of Groundhogs was separated from the level 1 zone of Pheasants by a tiny valley. If one maintained a sufficient distant from the two zones, they would not attract any aggro from the monsters. Zhang Wei gasped in amazement when he saw that we were travelling safely, “Big Chen, how did you know that this is a safe path?”
I was speechless, “Isn’t this common sense? Most games would have similar rules in it. There would be a neutral zone between zones of different monsters. Any players would be able to avoid the monsters by travelling in the safe zone. And even if we really do encounter a monster, it will be much easier for us to deal with it in the safe zone. Do you understand now?”
“Nope.”
“Don’t bother asking then. This is a waste of my time.”
“Hahaha!”
w.a.n.g Jinhai laughed loudly. The ease with which he was carrying himself was the evidence that he was slowly a.s.similating into our group. We had been staying together for the past three months. It wouldn’t be long we became a true team.
It was late autumn in game. Within the valley, dead leaves were everywhere. The rustling sound when we stepped on them gave off a serene feeling. Not far ahead of us, a different monster had appeared. That was a level 3 monster, Boar. As its level was higher than us, its name was highlighted in a red font, looking quite ominous. When we approached the monster, its stats appeared:
Boar (Common monster)
Level: 3
Attack: 4 – 7
Defense: 5
HP: 300
Skill: Dash
Introduction: Residents of the jungle, these Boars can be raised into plump livestock. However, one should never look down on them. The Boars are no simple animals. A single Dash is all it takes to send you flying.
“Fight!”
Since I had no skills, my only option was to charge it. While charging, I spoke, “After I get the aggro on me, start hitting it with your fists. Deal whatever damage you can and attack as fast as you can. We will be doing this while travelling through this zone.”
“Ok.”
In the blink of an eye, the Boar was already before me. This Boar probably weighted 200 catties. The ground would shake when it moved. It abruptly bent down before using the Dash skill to charge at me. Blood red aura appeared around its two tusks and with a bang, the two tusks bashed onto my legs. I only felt a slight pain as the attack had only dealt me 5 damage.
The boar’s attack was only 7 while my defense was 11. When the defense far surpa.s.sed the attack, the damage would be greatly reduced. In extreme cases, the attack would only be able to deal 1 damage.
As the Boar attacked me, my sword slashed at the Boar’s head. With a splat, blood sprayed out of the Boar and a huge 72 popped out above the Boar. This was the damage the Boar had received. Judging by the damage I could deal it, this Boar would not be able to take more than four attacks from me.
Unfortunately, I was still using s.h.i.tty equipments and had no skills. Therefore, my attack speed was extremely lacking. I could only attack every 1.5 seconds. Lin Che, w.a.n.g Jinhai and Zhang Wei arrived and started beating the Boar with their fists. They dealt less than 10 damage every time they attacked. However, it was still better than nothing.
Before long, the Boar collapsed onto the ground with a loud roar. A boar skin and 5 copper coins were dropped. Lin Che immediately picked the loots up. He was temporarily in charge of picking up loots. He took a look at the boar skin and said, “I doubt we can get much selling this. Should we keep it?”
“Of course we keep it. Even a mosquito meat is still meat.” I said.
“Yeah. Keep it. At least we can sell it to buy some pants for ourselves.” w.a.n.g Jinhai said while covering his crotch with his hands.
“Forward! Let’s go.”
We were now facing a wheat field. The wheat had mostly been destroyed by the Boars. We advanced forward and after killing seven level 3 Boars, a golden glow rippled through all four of us. Level up! We were now level 2!
I gained 10 stat points from the level up. These points could be freely allocated into the four main stats which were strength, stamina, magic power, and agility. Although the Horseman cla.s.s specialized in defense, I pursued the path of balanced defense and attack. I could make up for my defense with equipments and skills but the Horseman cla.s.s would usually be rather bad in terms of offense.
Therefore, I did not need to think much before allocating all 10 points to increase my attack. A Horseman’s attack would scale off strength with a rate of 0.9 attack per strength. Therefore, after adding 10 points into my strength, my attack was increased by a range of 6 – 9. My other stats were also increased greatly with my HP reaching 200 while my power rating reached 34.
A new Boar sp.a.w.ned before me. It directly activated its Dash skill and charged me. I met the charge with a slash of my sword.
175!
This felt so good! With this new damage, I could now kill a level 3 Boar with two attacks. Before the others could do anything, the Boar was already dead. With a pop, an equipment dropped out of the Boar. It was a white heavy chest armor. Lin Che picked it up and shared the stats in the party chat:
Boar Breastplate (White equipment)
Type: Heavy
Defense: 5
“Let Big Brother Chen have this.” Lin Che grinned, “None of us can equip a heavy armor anyway. We will reach the level 4 zone if we continue forward. If Big Brother Chen has a higher defense, he won’t need to keep sitting down to recover his HP.”
I nodded and equipped the Boar Breastplate. Immediately, my defense reached 16 points. I took off the newbie cloth chest armor and gave it to Lin Che. He was playing a cla.s.s that used cloth armor and was the squishiest among us. Therefore, we needed to protect him properly.
At this point, we were already far away from the other players of the newbie village. We could still see numerous players rushing out of the newbie village from atop the hill. However, we were the only ones that could enter the level 3 zone. This proved that stacking stats was indeed the way to go. With absolute stat, skill would not be as important.
We continued our advance and left the wheat field. A dense forest was ahead of us. Howls of wolves could be heard from the distant. Vague figures of wolves were starting to appear as well.
“Big Brother Chen, there’s a soldier over there.” Lin Che pointed. A soldier of Great Xia holding a sword in his hands were seating under a low tent. He was staring forward in daze while a pot of water was being boiled on the campfire before him. He seemed worn-out while his pair of eyes was completely lifeless. He only noticed us when we got near him. Like he had just been awakened from a dream, he stared at us with a cautious look in his eyes before he spoke, “Are you the adventurers from the village?”
“Yes.”
Lin Che went straight to the point, “Do you have any mission for us? We are very strong!”
The soldier was slightly stunned. Evidently, he had not expected such a candid way of speaking. He coughed and answered, “I am here on a mission to guard the forest and expel the wolves that were causing trouble for the villagers. If you guys are looking for a mission, go kill 20 Earthwolves. You will be amply rewarded when you return.”
Ding!
System notification: F-rank mission [Earthwolf Killing] has been accepted. Enter the forest and kill 20 Earthwolves before returning to the soldier for the reward.
Excellent, we got the lowest ranked mission. In Skyroad, missions were separated into ranks of F till SSS. F-rank missions were the easiest, also the missions with the worst rewards. Nonetheless, having a mission was still better than aimlessly killing monsters.
After accepting the mission, we entered the forest with me at the lead. After all, I was the tankiest character of the party for now. Even if I were to attract the aggro of the monsters here, I wouldn’t die.
Howl! Howl!
A two meters long Earthwolf nearby noticed me. Its ears stood up as it immediately tensed up. Soon, it stood up and pounced at me. While it was on its way, Lin Che shared its stats in the party chat and warned us, “Careful. This is a level 5 monster. Its stats are crazy!”
Earthwolf (Common monster)
Level: 5
Attack: 9 – 15
Defense: 8
HP: 500
Skill: Bite
Introduction: The Earthwolf is a resident of the forest. Young adventurers, never ever provoke a pack of wolves. Or else, they will make you regret being alive.
Phew! Even the maximum attack of this wolf would not be able to break through my defense. With my sword on hand, I charged out. To obtain power and wealth, one had to fight!