Looking at the time, I found that it was already 4am. In an hour, the sun would begin to rise.
However, I had no intention at all of sleeping. Gripping the Silver grade Golden King Bow, my heart surged with excitement. This was currently the most powerful weapon in Spirit of Grief. With this in my hands, no one would be able to beat the newbie me.
However, I knew that it was purely luck that I had found that peak level boss in the Novice Village. In two or three days, most people would also have Silver grade equipment. As such, I needed to use this precious advantage I had as much as I could! If I could level up, I would be able to fight even stronger monsters, and receive even better equipment!
The Money Exchange System would only be opened after the game had been released for two weeks. Thus, the wealth the players acc.u.mulated in the game could not be transferred into the real world, and vice versa. However, after half a month, one could link their bank account to their game account, and large corporations would begin to pour in money to boost their standing in the game. As for me, all I wanted was to get a few good equipment, kill a few baddies, and get it on with a few beauties- thus, I could use my money from the game to exchange for some RMB in the real world!
Of course, in order to do this, I would have to have a high level.
When I reached the place where I had killed the Golden Slime King half an hour ago, it was already filled with players. There were tens of parties waiting there- once a boss died, another would resp.a.w.n after a while.
I secretly laughed. Half a month ago, when I read through the Spirit of Grief manual, it stated that it took approximately one whole week for a boss to resp.a.w.n. Instead of working hard and levelling up, these guys were going to sit around waiting a whole week for the Golden Slime King to resp.a.w.n!
I did not waste any time there, and moved on. After walking for another 15 minutes, I noticed that my surroundings seemed to get a bit brighter. It was probably because dawn had broken in the real world. Some diurnal [TLN: opposite of nocturnal] animals began to come out. These included LV14 Goshawks, LV15 Short Haired Wild Pigs, LV16 Bloodthirsty Sheep. However, I did not pay attention to them as well- my goal was the LV20 Blue Eyed Lizards! [TLN: For those of you who read SW, I died laughing here].
A few streams pa.s.sed through the forest from the west. There were not any people here, and in the reeds by the streams, there were many Blue Eyed Lizards lying there. Their armoured bodies and blue eyes made them seem quite intimidating.
My level was just high enough to see their stats. As such, I immediately had a look—
[Blue Eyed Lizard] (normal monster)
Level: 20
Attack Power: 45-70
Defence: 60
HP: 1200
Attack Type: Attacks have a chance to paralyse their target
……
Holy c.r.a.p! With those stats, it would probably take as much effort to kill as that Golden Slime King from earlier!
I was surprised to see that not only did it have fairly high Attack Power, but it’s Defence was just ridiculous. If it was not for my Golden King Bow, I doubted that it would be possible for me to get through its 60 Defence!
As such, I took out an arrow, and placed it on the bowstring. I drew back the bowstring with as much strength as I could muster, and with a swish, the arrow flew out!
“Pft!”
The arrow hit the Blue Eyed Lizard squarely in the end. Instantly, it painfully took two steps back, and a damage figure of “245” rose up over its head.
Seeing this damage number, I felt very astonished. However, in this moment, the Blue Eyed Lizard had already begun to counterattack. It opened its mouth, and its disgusting tongue flew out, and hit my chest. Just that one attack took away 87 HP!
“624！”
I retreated a few steps, and once again shot out an arrow. This time, I used the ‘Ice Arrow’ skill!
“Bang!”
A blue light exploded on the Blue Eyed Lizard’s head. Immediately, its whole body had been covered in a layer of frost, and its Movement Speed greatly decreased!
I looked through the skills I had, and suddenly remembered the Armour Piercing Arrow! It could ignore 50% of the target’s Defence, so wouldn’t it be greatly effective against the Blue Eyed Lizard?
As such, I quickly retreated, and once again laid an arrow on the bowstring. As it shot out, the Armour Piercing Arrow turned into a white light that shot into the Blue Eyed Lizard’s head, and a damage figure rose up!
This number completely blew my mind. I hurriedly rubbed my eyes, and confirmed that the damage figure was really 624. With one attack, I had wiped out half of this LV20 monster’s HP!
Immediately, I felt incredibly overjoyed. However, just to dispel all doubts, I once again shot out an Armour Piercing Arrow. As the white light once again pierced into its head, a damage figure of 678 appeared!
The Blue Eyed Lizard gave a pitiful cry as it died, and dropped a few silver coins.
Killing a monster 5 levels above me gave me quite a bit of EXP- just this one Blue Eyed Lizard gave me 550 EXP. Moreover, the greater the level difference, the greater chance of items appearing. However, apart from the 5 silver coins that it had dropped, there was not anything else.
This was understandable. The drop rate of good equipment from normal monsters was quite low. After killing slimes for 5 hours, I had found one piece of Silver equipment. As such, it was important to remember not to expect too much when farming off normal monsters.
Looking around me, I found that this small map was called the ‘Shallow Swamp’. Within the Shallow Swamp there were many, many Blue Eyed Lizards, which ranged from LV20 to LV25. I could probably level up all the way to LV20 here. Not too far away, I spotted an NPC lying on the ground, weakly groaning.
I immediately ran over, and found that it was a middle aged soldier wearing a set of full body armour. He was lying on the gra.s.s, his legs covered in blood. It looked as if he had been ambushed by something.
The NPC looked at me, and seemed to be pleasantly surprised, “Young warrior, it’s great that you’re here. Can you help me with something?”
“Ding~!”
System Announcement: Accept the Captain’s request?
I immediately accepted, and another system announcement rang out—
“Ding~!”
System Announcement: You have accepted the quest [Collect Lizard Skin] (Difficulty: 80)
Quest Details: Kill the Blue Eyed Lizards nearby, and collect 50 Lizard Skins. Deliver them to Captain Aaron, and he will make you a set of leather armour!
……
I couldn’t help but smile- there wasn’t even a furnace here, and yet this injured Captain was going to make a set of leather armour for me. The designer of this game’s head must have problems!
The difficulty of this quest was once again higher than the previous ones. It was now 80 points. It must be because the system recognised my level, LV15, challenging a group of LV20 Blue Eyed Lizards was suicidal. However, the system didn’t take into account the treasure I had in my hands, the Golden King Bow, which made it more than just easy!
With this quest, levelling up was going to be even easier.
I took a quick look at the Level Rankings- I was number 4087 in China. However, the 1000th ranked player was only LV16!
Alright, let’s see if I can get to LV18 before I sleep, and enter China’s top 1000!
I turned towards a Blue Eyed Lizard and shot an Ice Arrow. After being slowed, it slowly crawled towards me. While it did this, it was finished off by two of my Armour Piercing Arrows. In fact, if I was lucky and got a critical hit, just one Armour Piercing Arrow would be able to insta-kill the LV20 Blue Eyed Lizard!
While gaining extravagant amounts of EXP, time quickly flowed away. When I took another look at the time, it was already 5am. The speed at which I killed the Blue Eyed Lizards was incredible- I killed about 3-5 Blue Eyed Lizards per minute, and in just one hour, I had levelled up twice to LV17, as well as collected 50 Lizard Skins!
Seeing that it was still early in the morning, and work started at 9am, I decided that I would go to sleep soon. 3 hours should be sufficient; even if it wasn’t enough, I could take a small nap at work, then continue to game at home. As they say, youth is wealth- we can afford it!
As such, I went to hand in my quest!
In the distance, the Captain who was lying on the ground seemed to be in a better condition. After receiving the 50 Lizard Skins, he cheerfully laughed, “Brave warrior, your courage has conquered this swamp. Please wait, I will make a set of leather armour for you!”
The Captain bustled about, and who knew how he did it, but after a prismatic light shone, a s.h.i.+ny leather armour appeared in his hands!
“Ding~!”
System Announcement: Congratulations, you have completed the quest [Collect Lizard Skins]. You have gained 25,000 EXP, 5 gold coins, Fame+150 and received an item [Pristine Luminous Leather Amour]!