Was the Assassin profession not awesome?
No, of course not.
Assassins were indeed strong, but the class had its inherent shortcomings. In group PK, especially in the later phase of aerial battles, the disadvantages would gradually become prominent.
And what Ye Chen needed was a profession that could engage in large-scale AOE killings!
The only profession that could meet the needs of Ye Chen was the Botanist profession. Although coined by many as a "self-torturing profession" and "newbie killer", among veteran adventurers, it was recognized as a truly "late-blooming" profession.
Moreover, while others had to practice to the advanced stages before the profession of botanist could exert its real power, for Ye Chen who had made many preparations, he did not need to wait that long. He only needed to advance to Level 30, inheriting attributes such as experience points. Afterwards, he could undergo rapid strengthening of the botanist profession!
This profession, which had been incessantly criticized, would soon emit a dazzling brilliance in his hands. The most powerful Botanist in the game would be born in his hands!
Although his level compared with those of high-level adventurers was indeed widely disparate, the level disparity was just a difference in mere numbers to Ye Chen. Not to mention, it was only a negligible difference of 30 levels.
A white light flashed, and Ye Chen's figure appeared in the Novice Village.
At the same time, there were also male or female adventurers streaming around, similarly clad in a pair of cloth pants or a small undergarment. Many adventurers were amateurs who had just entered the game. When they saw those female adventurers who were wearing only a white and thin piece of cloth, their eyes couldn't help but stray towards them, wanting to feast their eyes on the bountiful harvests.
"Pervert, what are you looking at?!"
Some of these female adventurers who just entered the game were not to be easily trifled with and immediately lashed out at those guys with wicked thoughts.
What a familiar scene. It felt like the time when Ye Chen had just entered the game. At that time, he almost successfully wooed a beauty, but unfortunately, his levelling got too crazy. Whenever the beauty asked him out, he would always be talking about levelling, levelling, or levelling. Finally, unable to stand his maniacal training talk anymore, the beauty angrily dumped him.
However, with so many new adventurers around, could this be a brand new village that the system released?
Ye Chen thought that the game has become crazily popular recently. With a large number of adventurers pouring into the game, the possibility of the game developers releasing a brand new novice village was not nil.
"If it's the case of a brand new novice village, then that mission may not have been completed yet."
Ye Chen remembered one of the most valuable missions in the Novice Village. This task belonged to the random-assignments category, but it was the most basic random-type World mission, with specific trigger conditions.
Random-Type World Missions were good stuff. Most will reward the most lucrative Reputation and Experience Points, so this kind of mission was often one-of-a-kind.
The way to trigger this mission was a little weird. Very few people knew about it. People in the know all regarded this mission as a very confidential matter and kept it a secret. At least, Ye Chen had not heard of this mission being discussed in public. In a brand new Novice Village, the likelihood of him receiving this chance mission was quite large.
Thinking of this, the cloak with a Defense of +2 in Ye Chen's backpack was equipped, and he quickly dashed towards the Village Chief.
"Village Chief, do you have any missions?"
"No!"
"Village Chief, can you send me a piece of equipment? Don't you find me too pitiful, with only a poor piece of clothing?"
"Go out and turn left, the equipment store is there!"
"Village Chief…"
...
The Village Chief was an old fogey. Many adventurers thought of accepting the mission from the Village Chief, but it seemed that all they faced was abject rejection.
Glancing at the old man who felt both a little familiar yet a little foreign, Ye Chen confirmed that this mission should not have been completed yet. If someone had completed the task, the Village Chief would have left, leaving a different NPC in his place.
Ye Chen looked at the hordes of adventurers hounding the Village Chief, and he smiled evilly. The Village Chief indeed had the mission here, but it required a unique trigger condition!
"Village Chief, you've gone senile!" Ye Chen walked over, looked at the aged Village Chief, and sincerely made this statement. "You are senile, your whole family is senile!"
The Village Chief glanced at Ye Chen and rebuked angrily. What he hated the most was others saying he was old, especially from a young guy he didn't know!
Drip!
Where did I go wrong?! Ye Chen could not help but break into a cold sweat. F**k me, in my rush to grab the mission, I missed some critical preparatory steps!
However, it could not be blamed on him. He had only overheard about it once when the game was first opened quite a few years ago. At that time, it was no longer possible for him to receive this task. Although his character had been reborn several times afterwards, every time, he was reborn into those established Novice Villages, hence there was no possibility of him taking up the mission.
Recalling what the person said, the fog in Ye Chen's brain gradually dissipated.
If one wanted to trigger the mission, one must first gain the trust of the villagers, that is, to obtain an "invisible" Reputation within this Novice Village.
In the Boundless World, in any village, town or city, the player had an invisible Reputation. The more frequent the player operated in that place, the higher his invisible Reputation would grow. And when the player leaves that place, the invisible Reputation would gradually disappear with the passage of time.
The fastest way to improve the player's invisible Reputation in a place was to complete missions. If Ye Chen remembered correctly, to trigger the mission from the Village Chief, all the missions within the novice village had to be completed before his invisible Reputation could barely reach the requirements to trigger the secret mission.
There were innumerable tasks in Novice Village, but many adventurers could achieve Level 10 after completing only half of the missions and chose to then leave the village. That was because, after Level 10, one must leave the novice village and transfer to the major cities outside to select a profession before one could continue to level up.
These brand-new rookie adventurers were different from the adventurers who chose to be reborn such as Ye Chen. Their professions were not predetermined once they were created, but when they reached Level 10, these adventurers could select their favourite professions.
Adventurers who choose character rebirth were similar to them. At Level 10, they must also go to a city and choose a profession again to continue levelling up. The difference only laid in their choice of professions, which has been determined during the rebirth.
Completing every single mission in Novice Village was something Ye Chen never attempted before. Although he had completed the various missions in the Novice Village several times, not once have he completed all of them. Each time he reached Level 10, he would elect to leave the Novice Village.
However, the forum had a complete list of Novice Village missions. If he were to go online and take a look, then he would know all the missions!
Ye Chen quickly went to the forum, searched for the missions within Novice Village, and quickly scanned through all the missions once at a blistering speed, before returning to the village.
"Kill the chicken, butcher the cow, deliver the letter, exterminate the pests…"
The Novice Village's missions were quite simple. Ye Chen followed the list from his memory and took on several missions at once, running back and forth in the village. Halfway through his quests, he even learned the Warrior's Straight Cleave Skill from the Novice Skill Instructor.
The Novice Skill Instructor could freely teach a skill from any profession, but this skill could only be used within the Novice Village. If one was not satisfied, one could even choose to delete the skill. When it was time to choose a profession at Level 10, the learned skill would automatically be deleted.
As for the missions, many were related to hunting monsters and collecting quest items. For convenience's sake, Ye Chen chose to add all the attributes points from levelling up to Strength.
Every time the player increases by a level, the five attributes of Physique, Strength, Agility, Intelligence, and Spirit would increase by one point, in addition to five open attribute points. Before Level 10, there was no need to leave the open attribute points unused. At Level 10, when choosing a profession at the Profession Guild, the system would allow one to redistribute one's attribute skills once for free, so Ye Chen happily added all his points to Strength. Otherwise, with the measly Attack Power of 1 to 3 of the Novice Wood Sword in his hands, killing the monster would be quite strenuous.
Since it was a newly-opened Novice Village, most of the new adventurers were busy robbing monsters from one another. Still, it was incomparable with the time when the game first released. With Ye Chen's skills, when used to snatch monsters from these rookie adventurers, it was akin to a fish in water. Ye Chen often waded into the middle of fierce infighting between adventurers, and soon there were hordes of adventurers out for his blood.
If not for the fact that adventurers could only PK after reaching Level 10, Ye Chen would really be swarmed by the angry mob.
The feeling of violently killing monsters with full power was simply too satisfying. Ye Chen's missions went smoothly. In just two hours, the missions within the village were almost half completed, and his level reached Level 7.
Before Level 10, progress was still extremely swift. One could advance to Level 10 in about three hours, but after Level 10, the experience required for levelling would exponentially increase.
Another hour passed. Ye Chen's level quickly rose to 10, but it took yet another hour for Ye Chen to complete all the novice missions in the Novice Village per what the forum said.
Then, Ye Chen went to find the Village Chief.