After walking out the village, I looked around, and the vast forest was filled with green colour creatures. There are no players around the region yet.
I look back and saw to my horror, a stampede of new players rus.h.i.+ng towards this area!
I immediately ran up ahead, and was about to do my job – start killing the mobs to gain experience and money.
I saw that not far away, there was a woman dressed in sackcloth. She was looking everywhere, as if she was seeking help.
“Yi? Looks that there is a mission!”
I did not hesitate, and immediately made my way towards her.
When I reached the NPC girl, she begins to speak to me: “My grandfather lost his axe when he went to cut firewood in the forest. It was rumoured that a goblin has stolen the axe! Please, can you help me to retrieve my grandfather’s axe?
“Ding ~!”
System Prompt: Will you accept the quest [Retrieve Goblin War Axe]?
……
Of course, why would I reject this quest?
I immediately chose to accept.
“Ding ~!”
System notice: You have accepted the quest [Retrieve Goblin War Axe] ! (Beginner’s Quest, difficultly level 10)
Quest Details: Help the woman [Little Flower] to find the missing axe. The axe should be in the hands of the goblins that are outside the village. Kill the goblins and retrieve ten axes from their corpses.
I was surprised. Little Flower’s grandpa only lost a single axe. How come my question requires me to find ten axes? This is definitely my type of expertise – making a small sacrifice for a big gain!
After speaking to me, Little Flower began to sit under the tree, and it seems that she will not give up any more missions.
I set out to find these goblins.
At this time, a goblin that was quite closed to me seemed to discover me, and it come at me with its small axe. It is very short like a winter melon, and the funniest thing is – it even wore a green colour hat.
[In Cantonese, wearing a green colour hat had another meaning: It means your wife is having an affair with another man. Yes I know, this Chinese author’s jokes does not translate well among non-Chinese. ]
I looked at the goblin and discovered that I could see its specs.
【Small Goblin】（Normal Beast）
Level：1
Attack：1-3
Defence：1
Life：100
……
The small goblin attack only does 1-3 points of damage. With my 2 points of defence, it should not be too hard for me to take it on.
Therefore I quickly go up, and smashed my staff on the small goblin’s head.
“Bong!”
On the top of the goblin head suddenly appear “-12” number. This number should be the damage I inflicted on the goblin.
But the goblin’s axe also landed on my shoulder. There was a slight pain as I discovered I lost 5 points of life.
Great! My life is about the same as the goblin, but I do more damage with each hit. I should be able to kill it off.
The most important thing is, my attack is much faster than the goblin. As a beginning level monster, the goblin should not instant kill a player.
I repeatedly hit the goblin on its head with my weapon. After several hits, it finally collapsed and dropped several copper coins.
“Ding !”
Combat result: You killed a small goblin, and received ten experience points.
I immediately picked up the copper coins, and found that it had dropped three copper coins, and kept all of these into my backpack.
Seemed like grinding mobs is not going to be effective if I want to get two gold coins. I estimate that if each small goblins drop 1-3 copper coins, I will need to kill 10,000 small goblins to hit my target. Holy s.h.i.+t!
Only, after killing this goblin, only half of my hit points remains. Luckily there is only one goblin nearby. If there is another goblin, that would be very dangerous for me!
I immediately look at my character profile. Then I face palm. I just discovered that when I entered this game, I had not even a.s.sign the 5 points of attributes to my stats!
Apparently, each time you level up, you get 5 points of attributes that you can a.s.sign to any stats. I just entered this game, and I immediately hit level 2.
s.h.i.+t! No wonder it is so darn hard to kill a single goblin! To think a pro-gamer like I would make such a stupid mistake.
With a mixture of shame and embarra.s.sment, I add all five attributes points to my strength. Right now, my attack is very weak. I need something to increase the damage dealt. As well, I like close combat cla.s.ses. There is nothing like the feeling of getting up close and wham!
After adding 5 points of strength, my attack stats immediately increased from 0-3 to 0-8. With this, it should be much easier to take care of small goblins!
Therefore, I choose another small goblin nearby, and smashed it on its head as usual. But this time, the number on top of its head is a staggering….
“-34！”
Wow! My attack is overpowered! Just 5 points of strength had made me so f.u.c.king awesome!
Just another two hits of my staff, and the poor little goblin dropped dead. Wait a minute, what is this? With a “Pa Ta” sound, an axe and some copper coins dropped onto the floor.
……
[Goblin War Axe] (Quest item)
I picked it up, and was disappointed to note that that the axe could not be equipped. It did not even do a single point of damage, and is just junk. @#@@#$.
I kept the axe in my backpack and continued to hunt small goblins.
The rate of dropping of an axe is not high. I estimated that it dropped once for every five small goblins I kill.
But the thing that irks me most is the ma.s.sive number of players. When I managed to collect nine goblin axe, I was shocked to discover that the region was filled with players. For each goblin that sp.a.w.ned, several beginner staffs would wrack it on its head at the same time. Then it would disappear.
Somehow, I understood why the poor goblins were wearing a green helmet. This game is supposed to a cutting edge role-playing game, but it had turned into a version of whack-a-mole. Poor goblins!
Looks like I should move on quickly. Or else I will never pull ahead.
At this time, suddenly a small goblin sp.a.w.n next to me, and was looking around in a daze.
I immediately wracked it on its head. At the same time, four other players immediately rushed up and wracked it at the same time.
“Bong Bong Bong! “
With just three hits, the small goblin is slain immediately, and drop a small goblin axe.
I was feeling proud. Luckily I was quick as lightning, and hit the goblin first, and did the most damage. If not, the kill would not belong to me.
I immediately picked up the goblin axe, and threw it into my bag. I had completed my mission at last!
The four players who were trying to steal my prey seemed to be looking at me in a daze, and wants to ask me something. But I did not have time to explain, and immediately rushed back towards Little Flower.
After I gave her the quest items, Little Flower’s face displayed an amazing smile: “Thank you! You had helped me find my grandpa’s axe. This is your reward!”
“Ding ~! “
System notification: Congratulations for completing the quest [Goblin War Axe], you have gained 500 points of experience, two silver coins, reputation +1, and a special reward for being the first player to complete this quest [Rough Iron Sword]!
“Ding ~!”
System notice: You have gained a level!
“Yi? A piece of equipment at last!”
I was very happy, and immediately opened my backpack. There is a really a sword inside there.
Attack: 1-4
Required Level: 2
Hahaha. Now I got a level 2 item! Although it is the lowest rubbish level item, its attack is much higher than the staff in my hand.
In the game of > all items are cla.s.sified as rubbish level, white colour regular item, steel item, bronze item, silver item, gold item, unique item, ghost level item, earth level item, and unique artifacts. It is rumoured that there are grades above unique artifact level, but you have to be reborn to know and to obtain these treasures.I quickly equipped my sword, and right now, I became the first and only man who have a sword in the beginner’s village!
Many other players seemed to be full of envy as they looked at my equipment. Perhaps in their eyes, I have become the most powerful noob among them.
Now that I have hit level 3, the goblin forest is no longer suitable for me. Especially after I have equipped my new weapon, and allocated all 5 points of my stats to strength. At the moment, my attack does an impressive 1-17 point of damage.
With this type of damage, if I did not fight stronger creatures, it would be a waste of my talents!
Therefore, I quickly returned to the village, and purchase ten bottles of life recovery potion. Each vial of potion can recover 100 points of life. This is expensive as s.h.i.+t, and each bottle cost 20 coppers. Thankfully I had two silver coins from my reward for completing the quest, and I spent them on potions.
I believe that my big investment will bring greater rewards.
Just when I was about to leave the village, I saw that there is another soldier in the village. He seemed to be looking around for help.
I immediately walked over, and as I expected, this is an NPC. This NPC is the captain of the guards in the town. He glanced at me, and spoke, “Young brave man, you look like you are strong enough! Will you a.s.sist me?”
I nodded my head.
The captain said: “Recently, to the North of the village, a group of Flame Bats. These creatures use a strange poison. These Flame Bats poisoned many of our soldiers. I hope you can go to wipe out these bats, and return with some antidote to the poison. “
I immediately confirm that I accept this quest!
“Ding ~!”
System announcement: You have accepted the Quest [Clear the Field]! (Beginner’s Quest. Level of Difficulty: 50)
Quest Details: Clear the field north of the village of all the Flame bats, and collect 20 vials of Bat’s blood and give it to the Captain Ma Su!
……
I was shocked. Just now, in the Goblin Axe quest the level of the difficulty was 10, but now this quest is of 50 difficulty. It seems like this time; there is a high risk of no return!
I felt a chill down my spine, but still I set out for the north of the village.
[To be continued….]