Chapter 9 (The Wolf Valley)
A Quiet Village – Chapter 9 (The Wolf Valley)
This collecting tomatoes mission turned out to be unexpected. Besides the 10 tomatoes that I needed to collect for the mission, I could also collect more for my own use. Restoring 0.5 HP per second, even though that didn’t seem like a lot, but if thought carefully, each minute it would restore 30 points of health. Using this, one wouldn’t require many healing potions when training with low level monsters.
It took me 10 minutes to harvest all tomatoes in the garden. When I looked into my inventory, besides the ten tomatoes needed to complete the mission, I still had a surplus of about 60 tomatoes. According to my calculation, I could probably spend 30 hours without the need to buy any medicines.
When I picked the last tomato, the tomato garden started to vanish into thin air. It seemed to be a one-time mission only, otherwise, this garden would not disappear.
I packed my stuff and was ready to leave this Wolf Valley. Suddenly, not far from where I stood, a wolf was resp.a.w.ned. I took a closer look at it. It really was the same wolf that had dropped the three green equipment earlier!
( equipment rankings: G.o.d Artifact, Divine Artifact, Orange Equipment, Purple Equipment, Blue Equipment, Green Equipment, White non-attribute Equipment, and Grey Equipment. Generally, starting from Green Equipment, there would be some extra attributes added, like my green equipment which also had additional attributes on them. White and Grey Equipment only had basic attribute. Moreover, besides the additional attributes, the rank difference in the equipment also affect its property. For example, a level 4 white sword attack value would be 3-4; however, my beast sword had actually an abnormal attack of 7-12 points.)
‘Whish’ – The sound of the sword when I slashed it on the Wolf’s head.
‘-58!’
Nice red numbers! Before, I could only cause 6 damage on the wolf, and just now I had inflicted an awesome 58 points of damage. It was not even a critical damage. This wolf was 4 level higher than me; killing it would reward me a nice experience bonus. This way of training, wouldn’t I level up twice as fast as other players?
The wolf hit me back immediately with its claw causing a 6 points of damage, which gave me a big surprise. My current max health is 168. This level 8 wolf with 450 HP didn’t even last getting hit 10 times by me, but it’s attack had only give me less than 100 damage. Afterward, I ate a tomato and sat down to rest and let my health recover for free!
Rolling the corpse of the wild wolf, I didn’t find anything besides 40 copper coins. But the 240 experience reward made my heart full of joy.
The Wolf Valley was direct behind the tomato garden. On my way to the valley, I killed more level 8 striped ferocious wolves. And by the time I arrived there, I had already rise a level again to level 5. But it was quite depressing that even after killing nearly 20 wolves, I did not get any equipment drops at all, only 6 wolves teeth that I needed for my mission. Could it be that last time it was because of the 5 level differences that had rise the drop chances? Later on I found out that it was because of my strange method of killing the wolf. But even so, it should not have given me three green equipment. The only explanation would be my good luck.
I added the 5 attribute points that I got from leveling up to my Attack stats. Anyway, later when I had reach level 10 and choose my cla.s.s, I could still add the points to Agility in addition to wearing thief equipment that would also added my agility. Attack stats was always needed. My attack now had reached 19-33, so to cut a level 8 monster would be as easy as cutting a melon.
I came across a small and narrow path between two mountain peaks. According to the mission information, this path would lead me to the Wolf Valley.
I walked along the path while watching the surroundings carefully. The wind blowing from both sides made a whizzing sound that got me gooseb.u.mps. first night had come. Darkness started to enclose the earth, my vision had also become worse. I wasn’t sure whether it was wise for me to enter the Wolf Valley at night or not, but if I waited until the morning came, I didn’t have any idea how many players would have also came to this valley already. A lone wolf like me had to act early, otherwise I would be trampled by others. I had heard many stories like that happened before in older online games.
At afar, an even bigger than the striped ferocious wolf was wandering around. I checked carefully:
[Forest Grey Wolf]
Level: 9
Attack: ???
Defense: ???
Type: Beast creature
…
A level 9 monster. It was 4 levels higher than me!
Lightly running toward the grey wolf trying to avoid its vision. The wolf was immediately alerted that another creature invaded its territory, turned at me and ran towards me at full speed.
I turned around and dodged! Then I turned again to face the wolf and swung the sword!
‘Wheesh~’
The sound told me that my move before had escaped the wolf’s bite. However, my sword managed to cut deeply its body. A 62 damage points showed up on the air. Balancing my body, I immediately moved in to close the gap and swing the sword. Another 62 damage points showed up again, but this time the wolf’s paw actually hit me. 11 damage; it kind of surprised me. I seemed that the Attack of a level 9 monster was much higher than a level 8 one, otherwise it was impossible that the damage inflicted was doubled.
Attacking while running away was quite a stupid method, but I started to get a feel of this and got into this rhythm. This game felt so real. Even the monster seemed to sense that it was being played on.
‘128!’
After a critical hit, the gray wolf died letting out a whining sound. It dropped a tooth and 63 copper coins. I meticulously collected the coins. At this stage of game, money would be very much in demand, but perhaps to promote fairness in the game, the exchange rates of game currency would not be announced within one month of the game launch. This way, those wealthy rich boys must also strive like us to gain money by fighting monsters.
I kept wandering around in the forest. As long as I was careful, fighting a single level 9 monster would not be dangerous. I was very good at detecting the aggro-distance of the wolves that I could lure them away from their group one by one. And if other wolves were to come into the range, I would then just run for my life. This way, I could make the otherwise boring training felt more challenging.
‘Di Di~’
A ringtone sounded out, I saw a female player named Qing Cai Keke (Green Veggie Cocoa) on the caller ID, but I didn’t know who she was.
“Lin Fan, it’s me, Lu Xue Han. Sister Lin wants everyone to gather in the living room. Find a safe place to log out!”
So it was Lu Xue Han. I smiled and immediately added her to my friends list, then I searched for a place near the barrier of the hillside where it would be safe from monsters.