Passing through a vast expanse of prairie land, Xavier, at last, arrived at a region of barrens and stone. As far as the eye could see, lofty and oddly shaped boulders were irregularly strewn throughout the area. Within this mess of boulders were narrow cracks and passageways.
It should be right here. Xavier surveyed the expanse for a moment. After confirming without a doubt that these were the correct coordinates, he became especially vigilant and began slowly sneaking around. This region was where Buffalos actively roamed about. The whole area permeated with a sense of dread and danger. Cautiously, he squeezed himself into one of the narrow passageways within the boulders.
Coordinates (567.528.192)
The topography of this region was strange and eccentric. The narrow passageways within these boulders only allowed enough space for a single person to pass through. As he looked out after going through the narrow passageway, a dark-coloured Buffalo in an area at a distance of about twenty-six meters away entered his vision. Large and robust, its entire body was densely packed with muscle. Above its head, two sharp horns resembling the tips of daggers protruded out.
Buffalo Boss (Leader): Level 8
Health: 300/300
Xavier took out his crossbow and held it with his left hand. He began calibrating it, making sure the angle was just right.
By lucky coincidence, the Buffalo Boss was within his attack range. Due to its body size being so massive, even if it were to discover his presence, it was still unable to traverse the narrow passageways within the mess of boulders. As a result, it was completely incapable of attacking him.
This was a typical terrain exploit!
This was an exploit his Arcane Mage friend had discovered within the game. However, at present, the only one who was aware of this terrain exploit was him!
By employing this exploit, Xavier could bypass the level disparity and effortlessly kill this Buffalo Boss!
Xavier began loading the crossbow with bolts. After three seconds, three crossbow bolts were completely loaded and the crossbow was cocked and ready to fire. [Wsh! Wsh! Wsh!] Three bolts were fired in rapid succession, flying in a straight line right towards the Buffalo Boss.
[Put! Put! Put!] The three crossbow bolts hit the Buffalo Boss nearly simultaneously.
Miss
−1
Miss
Three damage values floated above the Buffalo Boss's head. Due to the level disparity between both sides being too large, Xavier's attacks against the Buffalo Boss were weak. Most of the time it would be a miss and even if it did hit the target, it would only cause a little bit of damage.
After it had been attacked, the Buffalo Boss huffed out a large amount of musty air and began its mad charge towards Xavier's location.
Boom!
A large crashing sound burst out. The Buffalo Boss had charged into the boulders and was repelled back. Its attack was unable to reach Xavier. It could only turn around and circle the boulders, without having any other course of action.
Xavier skillfully finished reloading the crossbow and like before, shot out three bolts in rapid succession towards the Buffalo Boss.
Although the damage was extremely low, under Xavier's continuous and unrelenting attacks the Buffalo Boss's health bar began showing signs of declining ever so slightly. However, it was awfully slow, merely falling by the smallest amount. Every now and then, it even recovered by a slight fraction.
Xavier's rate of fire was quite stable. After suffering his attacks, the Buffalo Boss bellowed out furiously, precisely because it was incapable of even nearing Xavier.
Everything went as smoothly as expected. Xavier was attacking the Buffalo Boss while figuring out the next step in his leveling strategy. After being reborn, if he were like others trying to find a place to level, it would truly be an asinine waste of his time.
One must know, Xavier's mind possessed a vast amount of game knowledge. He followed his own reasoning and designed a perfect leveling plan.
The seconds and minutes continued to pass by. After half an hour, Xavier had completely used up all of the crossbow bolts within one quiver—a thousand crossbow bolts! At present, the Buffalo Boss still had approximately two-thirds of its health remaining.
The uninterrupted process of reloading and shooting made Xavier feel himself about to fall asleep. However, he still spent great effort in maintaining his high frequency of firing, so as to avoid having the Buffalo Boss's health recover again after he ceased his attacks.
The Buffalo Boss began getting somewhat weary. It continually strained for breath as it anxiously rammed against the rocks and collapsed a portion of the boulders.
Xavier quickly retreated inward a bit.
Xavier hung up and accelerated the firing rate of the crossbow in his hand. One after another, bolts rapidly left the crossbow.
Firing for one and a half hours, he had consumed around thirty-six hundred crossbow bolts.
At long last, the Buffalo Boss let out a final agonizing cry before staggering to the ground. The massive body smashed heavily towards the earth, and Xavier could even feel the vibrations under his feet.
Xavier estimated a bit: if he had used the short bow, killing the Buffalo Boss would have taken at least five hours in addition to consuming over ten thousand arrows. Fortunately, this single-handed crossbow with its additional skill saved him quite a bit of time.
Two white lights shone upon Xavier's body as two clear and melodious tunes sounded out—each one represented a single level up.
[System: You've successfully slain a Buffalo Boss. +1800% experience for killing a monster above your level. You have received 8290 experience points.]
Xavier glanced at his experience bar, he had reached Level 3 with 21% of his experience bar already filled. The experience gained from killing the Buffalo Boss was enormous.
After finally completing his task, Xavier put away the crossbow in his hand and walked over towards the Buffalo Boss's corpse. Searching under the Buffalo Boss's dead body, he found that it dropped five coppers. In addition, he also managed to pick up a dagger.
Xavier glanced at the dagger's stats.
Horn Dagger (Bronze)
Properties: Unidentified
Xavier's eyelids jumped up in excitement. It was a Bronze-grade dagger!
Equipment was divided in these grades: White, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Dark Gold, Legendary and Mythical. Only equipment at Bronze Grade or above had additional properties.
The monsters within Conviction were classified into these classes: Leaders, Sub Elites, Elites, and Lords. These monsters were uncommon and very few in number as well as spawning infrequently. Equipment with additional properties only had a one in one thousand chance of dropping. The majority of players could only make do by wearing white-grade equipment. Due to this, equipment with additional properties were all fairly precious, and their prices would skyrocket to the extent that they were unbearable for ordinary players.
Bronze grade weapons normally had an additional 20% attack above that of ordinary weapons. Furthermore, they also came with additional properties.
The equipment that a Level 8 Buffalo Boss drops should be Level 5. At present, the price of a Level 5 bronze grade dagger was at least three silvers or higher. Furthermore, an average Level 3 player's total assets, for the most part, was only about twenty coppers. If one had assets valued at the level of silvers, they were definitely a very well-off person.
According to his plans, he gathered the Buffalo Boss's drops and stored away the bronze grade dagger into his bag space. Xavier retreated from the narrow passageways within the boulders and headed back towards Brun town.
Brun town's only appraiser was a short-statured white-bearded old man with narrow triangular eyes. He was very shrewd, making everyone who saw him feel very unnerved. However, he was the only appraiser in all of Brun town.
Xavier opened the trading window.
"Youngster, do you need me to appraise any items?" the short old man asked.
"A dagger." Xavier put up the Horn Dagger into the appraisal window.
"The appraisal fee is ten coppers. Do you still wish for an appraisal?"
Xavier's heart skipped a beat. This Horn Dagger's appraisal fee was ten coppers. Typically, the appraisal fee for an item was five percent of the item's price, and this was only the NPC's price for the item. The market price was frequently more than six times higher than that. In other words, this Horn Dagger had a value of at least twelve silvers!
He thought for a moment. In the next few days, I won't be needing to go anywhere that requires a lot of money. Spending ten coppers also won't be that troublesome. He pressed confirm.
The Horn Dagger blossomed with a cyan radiance; its brilliance was not understated. This radiance was a distinctive characteristic of bronze grade equipment.
The Horn Dagger's handle was cambered with the texture of wood, with an awfully sharp blade in the front. It was much thicker compared to ordinary daggers and possessed the unique characteristic of being shaped like a bull's horn.
Horn Dagger (Bronze)
Requirement: Level 5
Properties: Attack 16–19, Strength +5
Attack Speed: 2.3
Weight: 1 lb
User Restriction: Thief, can be equipped by any faction.
This Horn Dagger gave a bonus to his Strength stat. These five points in Strength were equivalent to five points of attack. Then add onto the fact that the dagger's base attack was already higher than an ordinary Level 5 daggers by three or four points, it meant this Horn Dagger was better than an ordinary dagger by nearly ten points. The influence of these ten points of attack, speaking from a new player's perspective, was indeed very large.
"Looks like I've picked up a reliable Level 5 dagger" Xavier thought.