Under the moonlight, a happy little skeleton was skipping along the valley, stopping every now and then, as he depleted the number of glutinous rice in the valley. The whole scene looked so peaceful, so serene.
“Ding~!”
System Announcement: Congratulations, your Hunting Skill has risen a level!
……
Seeing this message, an indescribable feeling of pride burst forth from my heart. Heck, the Ultimate Hunter and Ultimate Cook will finally be unleashed!
Turning around, I observed that there were still one third of the glutinous rice left in the valley. But the 37 slots of my inventory was already filled to the brim. Each slot could contain 50 glutinous rice, and there were 37×50 patties of glutinous rice in my inventory. Without question, I was already at full capacity!
If I go now, would I leave one third of the glutinous rice to other players to harvest?
Nah, that’s not my style. Walking on my own path, and leaving others with no way out. That’s the way I dominate!
Wait…Forget it. Whatever I just said was nonsense. I should just go back to report the quest first. I already gathered so many glutinous rice that I had to throw away some potions. This was definitely a waste of resources.
Speeding through the Wildfire Plains towards the Undead Alliance Camp, I handed my quest items to the soldier. He examined me closely before suddenly bursting into a loud laugh, “Oh mighty Asura, have you sent me a brave and courageous Undead to my rescue? Young one, I’m beginning to see your abilities in a different light. Come and take your rightful reward!”
“Ding~!”
System Announcement: You have finished the quest [Clearing Wild Beasts], You have received 5000 experience, 50 fame and a quest reward [Army Pouch]!
……
“Shua!”
A golden pillar of light falls upon me as I rose to level 27. Once again, my name rose on the Floating Ice City Player Ranking. I even managed to enter the top three, ranking second on the board. Not only that, first place was still the level 28 Wind Fantasy!
Furthermore, the quest had also rewarded me with an item. Army Pouch?
Opening my inventory, there was a grey-coloured pouch sitting in the only empty slot in my inventory. Taking it out, I was immediately overjoyed. I examined it—
[Army Pouch]: Gives an additional 20 inventory slots when equipped.
……
In the darkness of night, a lone skeleton suddenly howled loudly. The roar sounded like he was crying yet laughing at the same time. Of course, I was actually laughing. This was simply an item that was tailor-made for me!
This pouch didn’t even affect movement speed. I immediately equipped the Army Pouch on my waist then quickly went back to the valley. I spent another hour harvesting the rest of the glutinous rice. This way, it would take at least two to three days before this place was filled with glutinous rice again.
I then retraced my path to return back to the city. It was finally time for me to create a level 2 mp-replenishing food item.
I arrived back at Floating Ice City. Although things here were a little bit more expensive, there were a lot of players, so the market was bigger.
[Sticky Rice] Level 2 food item. Materials required: Glutinous Rice x 15, Chicken x 5 & Salt x 5. Restores 200 mana
……
I had almost gotten all the requirements needed. I had enough glutinous rice, and I could buy salt in the Item Store. Only chicken meat was left. Sigh, I still need to run about, trying to find it. However, for the sake of gold, for the sake of XX, let’s go!
I stored all of my glutinous rice into the vault, then I forked out another two gold to open another 100-slot vault. There was no other way. I just had too many food materials with me, and it wasn’t realistic if I didn’t open another account.
Repairing my equipment and buying a few dozen health potions, I set off once again.
Outside the city, I opened the forums while journeying onward. There was no hope of finding information on the game’s website, so I could only rely on other players for information.
I searched for chicken meat and found a few hundred results, but every link was asking for the location of the chicken meat, instead of providing the answer.
This was a headache. Truly the plight of the pioneer.
After searching for a while, my eyes lit up. Finally, a worthy post had appeared.
“Pets are going to be released soon, what kind of pet would you want?”
Following that, the forum post elaborated on the different kind of pets that would be popular. For example the Wasp that lived in the Poison Wasp Forest, and the Green Praying Mantis from the Breaking Dawn Forest. These were all good choices. Furthermore, there was also the Pheasant that lived in the Wild Pheasants Ridge that could also be one of the more popular choices.
Right! It’s here. it’s the pheasants!
Everyone knows that pheasants are just wild chickens, and wild chicken meat is most certainly chicken meat. But the quality of the meat would probably be of higher quality than normal chicken meat.
I was excited beyond words. Wild Pheasant Ridge was definitely the place!
Opening the search function once again, I searched for the Wild Pheasant Ridge. The search results showed that the Wild Pheasant Ridge was located west of Floating Ice City, and it would take about 20 minutes to get there by foot. These pheasants were also LV 30 monsters, so mostly likely in the near future they would become the main leveling opponent for the majority of players. You could train and collect chicken meat at the same time. It would be a very fruitful process.
With a goal in mind, I departed for the Wild Pheasant Ridge!
As I pa.s.sed through the mist-filled Frozen Forest, LV 25-30 monsters started to sp.a.w.n. Unfortunately for them, they no longer posed any threat to me. Soon, a green patch of land appeared on the map. This was exactly the place I wanted to go, Wild Pheasant Ridge!
“Chirp, chirp!”
Hearing the pheasants chirping, I excitedly rushed forward, brandishing my sword. Brushing away the bushes in front of me, I was shocked by the scene that greeted me. I saw four pheasants huddled together, like they were having a meeting, with all their levels being around 28.
I was already at LV 27 currently, and though I was a level lower than these creatures, I was equipped with two bronze-tier equips. So I was fearless and simply charged forward brandishing my sword, swiftly killing the pheasants.
In a flash, a bunch of pheasants dropped dead on the ground. I started to use my Hunting Skill on them one by one —
System Announcement: You have acquired Pheasant Meat x2, your Hunting Skill gains +2 exp!
System Announcement: You have acquired Pheasant Meat x3, your Hunting Skill gains +2 exp!
System Announcement: You have acquired Pheasant Meat x2, your Hunting Skill gains +2 exp!
System Announcement: You have acquired Pheasant Meat x3, your Hunting Skill gains +2 exp!
……
This gave me a very satisfying feeling. Not only could you level, you could also increase your crafting skills and earn money from selling the mp-replenishing food items you produced. Doing this simple task alone could serve multiple uses!
Energized, I cruised through the ridge like a madman. Since I was the only player here, I went on a rampage, killing everything in sight.
“Pa-ta!”
Another pheasant died, and it dropped a thin axe. I picked it up and looked at the stats. it was black-tier-
【Pheasant Battle Axe】（Black-tier）
Attack: 12-24
Stamina: +4
Required Level: 20
……
This was a very good weapon. Its attack, although not as high as my Weeping Fireblade, could still be counted as a G.o.dly weapon to players in the early stages of this game. If anyone owned such a weapon, their leveling efficiency would need half the effort to yield the same results.
Happily, I threw the weapon into my inventory. When I got back, I should ask Shi San if he had a good weapon. If he didn’t, I would give it to him. As for why I didn’t give the Green Forest Blade to him, there was no other way, I needed the money. Everything, from leveling up and training my skills, needed money.
……
Three hours later, I was 43% away from LV 28. Killing LV 28 monsters didn’t really gave bountiful experience. Had I been training in Wildfire Plains instead, I would probably be level 28 by now.
Stuffing the chicken meat into my bulging inventory, I looked at the time and saw that it was already three a.m. But I didn’t feel sleepy at all. In fact, I feel my blood boiling in my body. When I thought about the money shower that was going to happen, I couldn’t help but want to laugh out loud!
With my materials gathered, I started to head back towards Floating Ice City. At the same time, I sent Du Shi San a message, “Shi San, do you have time?”
“Yeah, what happened?”
“Meet me at Floating Ice City’s east square.”
“好！”
“Okay!”
……
As entered Floating Ice City, I could see Du Shi San standing in the distance. He was a LV 23 warrior. That wasn’t so bad.
Walking up, I inspected the iron sword in his hand: “What are the stats for your weapon?”
“Eh?” Du Shi San stared blankly then replied, “LV 5 White-tier, attack 4-7. Why?”
Casually, I took out the Pheasant Battle Axe and gave it to him. “Use this one instead. The one you have is far too c.r.a.ppy.”
“Eeh?!”
Receiving the axe, Shi San’s face immediately turned ecstatic, and he suddenly hugged me, shouting, “Lu Chen, I love you! I love you! Ha ha ha……”
“Scram, I already have someone that I liked,” I said while mercilessly kicking his face, leaving a footprint there.
“Right, why did you come to find me,” Shi San energetically asked.
I gave him 2 pieces of gold and said, “Go buy me 20 sachets of salt. You can can get it from the NPC Grocery. After you buy it, meet me at the warehouse.”
“Oh, ok then!”
As Shi San eagerly went to buy the salt , I went to the warehouse to deposit half of my obtained chicken meat inside then filled the empty s.p.a.ce with glutinous rice. To make the mp-replenishing LV 2 sticky rice food item, you needed 15 units of glutinous rice, 5 units of salt and 5 pieces of chicken. Furthermore, every time one produced a sticky rice, it would consume 10 mp. As for level 1 food items, the materials needed were different. When I made apple jam, I also didn’t consume any mp at all. I only relied on my agile hands.
Soon after, Shi San returned with the salt. I said, “Just give me 10 portions for now.”
“Okay!”
When he gave me the 10 portions of salt, I immediately called out the cooking interface and placed 15 portions of glutinous rice, 5 chicken pieces and 5 salt. Then the system sounded —-
“Ding～!”
System Announcement: You have produced Sticky Rice x1, your Cooking Skill gained +3 exp!
……
Hey, this was really was worthy of being called a high-grade food item!
Sticky Rice: LV 2 Food, instantly restores 200 mana.
Tsk tsk, this must become the most sought out of all mana potions.
I continued to make the sticky rice. Since I was in no shortage of glutinous rice, I worked for a full hour, and, finally, all my resources were consumed. In my inventory were 190 sets of sticky rice. Each was stacked in groups of 10. Making it a total of 19 slots filled.
The Cooking skill was really hard to raise. After all that effort, only 45 percent exp was filled. Ah, I still had such a long way to go!
I happily looked at my new mana potions, and laughed out, “Shi San, when you are levelling, do feel as if you don’t have enough mana?”
Shi San just blankly asked, “Huh? What’s mana?”
“Eh, don’t worry then. You can go level grinding now. ”
“Never mind, I’m too tired, so I’ll go to sleep now.”
“Okay.”
……
After Shi San logged out, I went to the city square and started to shout, “LV 2 Sticky Rice. One sale costs 10 silvers, but if you buy 10, you’ll get it at 90 silvers! Those of you leveling will need it. This item will be very useful, for each one recovers 200 mana. Hurry, while stocks last!”
Immediately all the surrounding players were dumbstruck—
“LV 2 mana potion? Fu*k, did we mishear it? There’s already someone who can make a LV 2 potion?“
“It’s definitely a swindler!”
“Let’s buy one to see if it’s true!”
……
After a few seconds, someone had initiated a trade to buy one. Immediately I accepted and received 10 silvers, while they cried in horror, “d.a.m.n! It really is a LV 2 potion. Amazing, who made it?!”
Following this, players all started transactions. I was very happy at the prospect of earning money, and, in less than 10 minutes, all my stock was sold out. Meanwhile, I had earned more than 9 gold! Mwha ha ha, I really am rich now!
……
Just then I heard a voice from behind me, “Brother Fallen Hero, can we talk for a bit?”