Xiao Yu chose his character from a race called Goblins without much thought as he did not plan to stick to it all the way. The game was rather radical, but Goblins were just feeble-looking. Xiao Yu chose one randomly, named it Eric, and entered the game.
The reason he had chosen the Goblin was because they had the widest spread in Firmament, hence they could be found everywhere. In other words, he could choose from a variety of spawn points.
Goblins could advance rather rapidly as the game's ideology was that the stronger the character was at the beginning, the harder the advancement was. Examples included Draconian, Ogre, Young Dragons.
Weaklings such as Goblins and Kobolds advanced rapidly in order to balance out the game.
Xiao Yu did not select a difficult map. Instead, he chose a secluded Goblin horde near an Alliance Night Elf newbie village as his spawn spot. Newbies were usually lower level, which made them perfect training targets.
Upon entering the game, Xiao Yu had a bird's eye view and rotated 360 degrees around his spawn location. His spawn spot was a Goblin camp that resembled an earthen dike.
The camp ground was surrounded by a thick and dense forest. This was Night Whisper Forest, the Night Elves' territory. Deep within the forest, a forest tower could vaguely be seen. That was Night Whisper Village—one out of the over 100 Night Elf newbie villages.
His perspective soon descended and swooped past the tent roof. It finally landed on a newly spawned Goblin, and their field-of-views soon combined.
The freshly spawned Goblin was barely one meter tall. It looked silly with its stubby build and grassy green skin. Xiao Yu flexed and soon gained control of the body.
"Hmph!" A Goblin Chief that held a skeleton staff coughed. "Welcome to this world, young Goblin. From now on, you will be a part of the Mud Horde. As one of us, you have to fight for the horde. Do you understand?"
Xiao Yu sized up the Goblin Chief's avatar. Craigan (Mud Horde Chief)—he was only a level 9 Elite monster. If this was their chief's strength, the Mud Horde's capability could be inferred. However, this was to be expected as this was a monster camp near a newbie village; there shouldn't be any high level monsters here.
Eric asked, "Elder, do you have any missions for me?"
The Goblin Chief nodded. "Recently, several greedy Adventurers have killed many of our horde members."
Xiao Yu replied instantly, "Do you want me to kill those Adventurers to help the tribe? No problem, how many Adventurers do you want me to kill?"
The Goblin Chief huffed and glared. "Scoundrel, how can you defeat those terrifying Adventurers? Hurry to the Goblin Trainer for your test. You can only join the battle after you pass the exam. Even after you do so, you will have to join an army for us to win. Do you understand?"
Xiao Yu shrugged and exited the tent. Of course he knew that monsters did not attack Adventurers individually. Usually, a large pack would swarm and surround them. Even so, the monsters were usually trashed and defeated. That was expected as they were monsters.
Xiao Yu took in his surroundings and found that there were many Goblins littered around the tents in bunches. There were Goblin Warriors at levels 5-7 that were clad in Leather Armor. They either held rusty swords or small axes, coupled with small wooden shields. Level 4-6 Goblin Scouts used weapons such as daggers or small bows, while level 3-5 Goblin Slaves only had wooden batons in hand. Besides them, there were many other level 1 Small Goblins that were naked without any weapons.
These level 1 Small Goblins did not even belong to the normal monster category. Instead, they were the weakest henchmen monsters. Even their names were colored grey.
Henchmen monsters were the wild monsters' minions. For example, a level 6 She-Wolf would have three level 1 Wolf Cubs. The level 6 She-Wolf would be a normal monster, while the three Wolf Cubs were henchmen monsters. Another example would be a level 9 Ghost Summoner with a level 5 Ghost—the Ghost would be the henchmen monster.
It seemed like he was only a level 1 Small Goblin.
He held his small wooden stick and found the Goblin Trainer, Shrek (Goblin Trainer), a level 8 Goblin Fighter. He donned old, leather armor and held a large chopper in one hand. Although he still looked pretty feeble, he looked to be one of the mightiest in the camp ground.
"Hi, Shrek. The Elder told me to approach you for the recruit training."
Shrek (Goblin Trainer) replied, "Very well, follow me. Let me tell you more about the recruit training rules. Do you see the mud cave in front? That is the horde's sacred ground. The frogs inside are our food source. I want you to kill as many frogs as you can in half an hour and bring the frog meat back up. I will allocate you a job based on how many you bring."
Xiao Yu thought that the jobs he was referring to were the Goblin Warrior, Goblin Scout, Goblin Slave, and Goblin Fighter. However, it seemed like the Goblin Fighter was the only elite job. Alright, his goal was to become a Goblin Fighter.
He eyed the dark and damp cave and saw that there were indeed many frogs hopping around. However, the frogs were displayed as yellow neutral units. Upon closer inspection, Xiao Yu realized that these frogs were not even considered to be monsters, and were Small Animals at most.
No wonder a level 1 monster had been sent here. It was pretty cost-efficient to send the lousiest monster to fight an even lousier animal.
He plopped down into the muddy puddle and landed a punch on a frog. A -3 popped from its head.
A frog had 15 HP and could only be killed with five punches. However, after two punches, the frog crashed towards him and knocked 1 HP out of him. Damn it, this frog dared to retaliate. "Do you think that I cannot even beat an animal?" Xiao Yu could not bother cursing and blasted out his punches.
He killed a frog in two to three moves.
System prompt message: Killed Frog (Small Animal), gained 3 EXP.
Xiao Yu felt a little sense of accomplishment when he saw his EXP bar rising.
After slaying over a dozen frogs and obtaining the frog meat, he advanced to level 2. His health bar increased from 30 to 45 points. He also acquired one strength point and one endurance point.
It was obvious that the Goblin was a trashy race based on the meagre points obtained from levelling up. For comparison, Adventurers would acquire five attribute points upon advancement, and Hero Mode would entitle them to have ten attribute points, with an additional five free points. At his rate of only getting two attribute points, he might not be powerful enough in the future.
However, you get what you pay for. He could not complain much, given that he was playing a free game. After killing two more frogs, Xiao Yu grew impatient because this process was way too slow. Was it possible to speed it up?