Ye Chen was standing right next to the equipment. He picked it up, and tossed it towards Xiao Ai after sweeping a glance.
"Your luck is not bad. It's an Apprentice Priest's bracers. It's yours, go put it on."
It was part of the Apprentice Priest set, Level 10 Bronze-grade equipment, and also known as Apprentice Set. Of course, other than the name and appearance of the complete set of equipment resembling an equipment set, this profession-specific "Apprentice Set" did not actually come with the bonuses of an equipment set. However, as the attributes of individual pieces were the best compared to similarly-levelled Bronze-grade equipment, even matching up to some common Black-Iron-grade equipment, it was quite popular among low-level adventurers.
However, as far as Ye Chen knew, most of the profession-specific Apprentice pieces of equipment were dropped from elite mobs. The chance of ordinary mobs dropping them as loot was rather minuscule. They had only defeated a few trash mobs before one dropped, so their luck could be said to be quite good.
"Wow, it adds five extra attribute points to Spirit. It's so much better than my White-grade bracers. Xiao Ai glanced at it and happily equipped the equipment.
The two continued to clearly mobs, but not long after, the Kobold monsters dropped another piece of equipment. Although it was just White-grade, the equipment in the game did not drop so easily. If one's luck was terrible, even after defeating hundreds of monsters, he might not be able to loot a single piece of equipment.
In addition to equipment, Ye Chen found that the drop rate of copper coins was also much higher than he had expected.
Monsters dropping loot was naturally an exciting thing. Ye Chen looked at these ugly Kobolds who kept dropping items and also felt them a lot more pleasing to the eye.
"Fuck! What the hell is it today? It's another Apprentice Priest equipment." After killing for a while more, Ye Chen picked up a piece of equipment on the ground, and finally couldn't help cursing out loudly.
From the time the two started hunting, only a total of fewer than 150 monsters were killed. However, seven pieces of equipment dropped, two of which were still excellent Apprentice Priest equipment. With typical item drop rates, this was practically impossible, and Ye Chen had to wonder if the system had a bug.
Xiao Ai smiled and accepted the new piece of equipment, and the two continued to hunt monsters. It didn't take long for Ye Chen to pick up yet a piece of equipment again, and he felt an uncontrollable impulse to faint!
"Fuck your Grandma, this is simply going against the Heavens! It was another Apprentice equipment, but this time it's for a Botanist!"
"Big Brother Dust, I think it's related to this necklace…" Xiao Ai also noticed that something was a bit strange, and then posted out the attributes of a necklace on the team channel.
Looking at the equipment details sent by Xiao Ai, Ye Chen couldn't help but stare goggle-eyed!
Blessing of the White Angel's Necklace (Legendary): Already bound to an adventurer, equippable by the Priest profession. This necklace has undergone a powerful state of blessing, and the original attributes were temporarily suppressed. From the time of obtaining this necklace, even if the necklace is placed in the inventory, the blessing would still be in effect before the duration is over. In the Blessed state, the chances of items and money dropping when the user or his teammates kills a monster are significantly increased. But the more people in the team, the smaller the Blessed effect. The Blessed effect is valid for the first 5000 monsters. When the Blessed effect disappears, the necklace will revert back to its original attributes. The number of times the current Blessed effect has been activated: 688/5000.
Ye Chen believed that he was well-informed, but this was the first time he had seen such a fantastic piece of equipment!
"Where did it come from…? Well, it doesn't matter if you don't want to say it. I was just a little curious." Ye Chen couldn't help himself. This was no ordinary piece of equipment, but a legendary equipment that would leave countless adventurers green with jealousy. For Xiao Ai, a newbie to the game, how did she possibly get her hands on this legendary equipment?
Although the attribute of this necklace shining with holy silver light was unknown, Ye Chen knew that the attribute of this necklace would definitely be exceptionally excellent. He had seen many legendary equipment times in the past, but never one blessed by such a powerful blessing that it would cover the original attribute. If one were to tell him that the unique attribute of the necklace was ordinary, Ye Chen would never believe it!
"It's okay even if I tell you. Anyway, even if I said it, I think no one would be able to get it again." Xiao Ai didn't mind at all. She didn't have much idea about the equipment. She used to wear this necklace while going along Chu Bailong and others to form a team to hunt monsters. However, it didn't display any effects, and she even thought the necklace was a scam.
"When I was in Novice Village, I went to the game forum to find a quest guide, and then I saw a post saying that if I drown in the sea for two or three hours, I can learn the Diving skill," Xiao Ai thought for a while and mused wistfully.
"That's definitely a lie… Wait… Don't tell me you actually did it…" Ye Chen looked at Xiao Ai speechlessly. As long as she looked at the responses of the other adventurers below the post, she would definitely find that it was a troll post.
"Haha… Isn't Novice Village just a small island, surrounded by the sea? So, I jumped into the sea, wanting to learn the Diving skill, but I got washed away by the sea! T.T"
Ye Chen heard it and couldn't help sweating buckets. Most of the time, the only result awaiting someone swept away by the ocean beside the Novice Village was to drown and die.
"I thought that I was done for, but then a massive piece of wood floated from the sea. I held on to the wood and drifted for another half a day, arriving at another deserted island. On the island, I found that there were many very high-level monsters on the shore. But when these monsters saw me, they all ignored me, and I walked all the way up to a small valley. There was an old granny NPC in the valley, who seemed to have fainted on the ground. I gave her some water, and when she woke up, she asked me to find food for her."
That worked as well...?! Ye Chen was really left at a loss for words. This was truly the textbook example of the Miraculous Encounter system. Other than seeing it being mentioned on the forum, Ye Chen had really never seen anyone around him relying on pure dumb luck to trigger a Miraculous Encounter event.
"After feeding her, she said that she was injured and asked me to help treat her. The skill I learned in Novice Village was healing, so I used the skill to help her replenish HP. But the old granny's HP was so strange! I only added 1 point of HP after one treatment. I labored for a long time, and her blood only increased by a teensy-weensy bit! The old granny got annoyed when she saw this, so she sent me to gather a herb, wanting to rely on refining medicine to treat her injuries."
"So you agreed, and came back after gathering the herb?" As Ye Chen asked, he couldn't help but sigh.
Xiao Ai's luck truly left one flabbergasted. As the skills learned in Novice Village belonged to the Practice-type and were only to get a feel for the skill, the effects of the skills usually only applied within Novice Village. Outside of Novice Village, no matter what skill it was, the effect would only become 1 point. That was to say, if it was another Priest, who had chosen the profession, using a healing skill to treat the NPC, it would only take a short time for the old granny NPC's injuries to be cured.
Given Ye Chen's understanding of the pain-in-the-arse, seemingly pointless missions within the game, he had no doubt that if the damage to the NPC was immediately cured, the next herb-picking mission would not be triggered. The quest chain would just end there.
"No, a colossal scorpion was guarding the area where I was supposed to gather the herbs. When it saw me from a distance, it immediately glared over, and I was too scared to approach. But I quickly found out that this scorpion was located at the bottom of a cliff, so I ran to the top of the cliff and smashed it with stones…"
"And you smashed it to death?" Ye Chen found her words a little unbelievable. In theory, monsters would not be hurt by this.
"It's not that simple." Xiao Ai scrunched her small face. "At first, I tossed several rocks, but they didn't cause even a single point of damage to it. After the bastard was smashed, it raised its giant hook-shaped tail to threaten me. Of course, I got angry at this sight, and I declared war on this stupid scorpion. I relentlessly smashed it with rocks, and unknowingly I used up all the rocks on the top of the cliff. When I threw down the last boulder, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the ugly scorpion was actually smashed into a big hole by the boulder and died!"
As Xiao Ai spoke up to this point, as though remembering the unbelievable appearance of the scorpion being killed, she boisterously chuckled while clutching her stomach.
When Ye Chen heard this, he was beyond the point of speechlessness. This couldn't even be described as luck anymore. For any other person, he was afraid that it was impossible to get this legendary piece of equipment!
"After bringing the herb back, the old lady saw that I didn't have the Medicine Refinement skill. After shooting me a look of contempt, she then taught me the Medicine Refinement skill. Thus, I refined the herb into medicine and gave it to her. After taking the medicine, she said she was all right and rewarded me with this necklace."
"She even taught you the Herb Refinement skill?!" Ye Chen broke out into cold sweat again. Medicine Refinement was a secondary profession skill. One needed to achieve at least Level 15 within the game to take up a secondary profession and then learn the corresponding secondary profession skills. The Miraculous Encounter of this loli was about to pierce through the Heavens!
"Yeah, she even instructed me to be a Pharmacist in the future."
"What is the name of the Medicine Refinement skill you learned?"
"Legend of Medicine Refinement."
Ye Chen was silent.
A badass life required no justification! The importance of a Priest in the game, a powerful Priest nonetheless, would always be a hot commodity within the game.
Xiao Ai already had a Priest's legendary equipment, as well as a unique refining technique. Furthermore, Xiao Ai herself had excellent plasticity, brimming with immense potential. Ye Chen had already foreseen Xiao Ai's glamorous future ahead.
Ye Chen already felt his heart stirring for Xiao Ai, but… it was still too early to tell. He and Xiao Ai hadn't known each other for a long time, and Xiao Ai was just a complete newcomer. When she might decide to suddenly stop playing was still uncertain. Hence Ye Chen was not in a hurry to recruit her.
"Oh right, Xiao Ai, have you done the mission 'The Thief in the Rice Field'?" Ye Chen suddenly remembered something and asked.
Xiao Ai's necklace will take effect no matter whether it was equipped on her body or not. It was simply too wasteful to kill trivial mobs like this and loot these worthless items. He then remembered a mission. With this necklace, there was a possibility of striking a huge jackpot!