After spending over an hour, I managed to kill 38 wild boars, which raised my level to 4. I gained 20 points of health and 10 points of mana, and allocated all my attribute points to agility. During this time, I finally obtained another piece of equipment, a helmet.
[Wild Boar Leather Helmet]
Quality: Common
Health +30
Defense +3
Requirement: None
In the game, clothing, pants, belts, and helmets are considered defensive equipment, mainly increasing health and defense. Weapons, rings, bracelets, and necklaces are considered offensive equipment, mainly increasing attack power and critical strike chance. Shoes primarily increase movement speed. Of course, this is just a relative categorization, not an absolute one.
I could equip the helmet myself, but I realized that selling these items would bring in a large sum of money. However, considering the wild boar king, it would be better to arm myself first and hope to defeat it sooner. That would truly be a lucrative opportunity.
After equipping the helmet, my health reached 200 and defense increased to 12. With 25 agility and the speed bonus from the shoes, my total movement speed reached 28.
"If I level up again, my speed will reach 33, higher than the wild boar king. Then I can consider taking it on," murmured Wu Shaochen to himself.
Now, should I go and fight the wolves to level up? It would be a good opportunity to upgrade my talents. I shouldn't give up on improving my talents whenever possible, as it is the key to reaching the peak of my gaming career.
After giving it some thought, I shook my head. The wolves have a 150% attack power, dealing a whopping 172 damage. Subtracting my defense, that's still 160 damage. Their bleeding effect adds another 50 damage, enough to kill me. It's better to gather more equipment first.
Glancing at my experience bar showing 4/2000, killing level 6 wild boars while being level 4 gives a 20% experience bonus. That means each wild boar grants 24 experience points. To level up, I would need to kill 84 wild boars. If I manage to acquire two more pieces of defensive equipment before leveling up, maybe I can start fighting the wolves. So, Wu Shaochen had no choice but to continue hunting the wild boars.
At this moment, there were several groups of players already hunting level 2 goats in the second-level goat area.
"South Wind, step back and heal, let Haoran take over, everyone else keep attacking," Junlin calmly commanded the battle. Soon, with the combined efforts of the team, the goat was killed.
"Junlin, equipment dropped!" Haoran, a sunny and handsome young man, excitedly held up a helmet.
"Phew... Finally got a piece of equipment," Junlin sighed in relief. This was already the thirtieth goat they had killed. For them, who had dominated various online games for years, it was the first time they faced such difficulties. The game's difficulty made even these gaming legends doubt their life choices.
"Why are the stats so bad?" Haoran looked at the helmet in front of him, feeling frustrated.
"What are the stats?" Junlin asked.
"10 points of health and 1 point of defense," Haoran replied helplessly.
"It's probably because the helmet's stats are relatively poor. Since it increases health and defense, Haoran, you should equip it directly. Let's continue, as long as we can get equipment. Slowly but surely, we'll have everything we need," Junlin said calmly.
The situation of the other teams was much worse compared to Junlin's team. Their skills and awareness were different, and it was a struggle for them to kill level 2 goats. White lights of death were often seen flashing.
Wu Shaochen spent over an hour killing a total of 32 wild boars and finally obtained another piece of equipment.
[Wild Boar Belt]
Quality: Common
Health +30
Defense +3
Requirement: None
After putting on the belt, his health increased to 230 points and defense rose to 15 points. Not bad. Just one more piece of defensive equipment, and then I can go fight the wolves.
Glancing at the three bottles of small red potions in his backpack, each restoring 10 health per second for 10 seconds, he thought that even if things didn't go well, it wouldn't hurt to use a few potions. He needed to level up his talents before reaching level 5. Otherwise, he would have to face level 10 monsters, which would be even more challenging. He realized that as the monster level increased, the difference in attributes between levels grew larger.
Let's continue hunting...
After spending another hour or so, Wu Shaochen killed 28 wild boars. Finally, another piece of equipment dropped. However, upon picking it up, he felt frustrated. It was a wild boar leather armor, which he already had.
Oh well, I'll just put it up for auction. But thinking about the impending influx of money, his frustration vanished.
He listed the wild boar leather armor on the auction house, following the usual rules: bidding mode, 10-minute bidding time, anonymous. It was better to keep a low profile at this time and quietly make a fortune.
With Wu Shaochen's listing of the wild boar leather armor, the entire newbie village became active once again, with major factions competing in the bidding war.
At this time, Junlin frowned as he looked at the attributes of the wild boar leather armor in the auction house.
"What's wrong? Junlin, is there something wrong with this equipment?" Haoran asked.
"What are the stats on your helmet?" Junlin asked.
"Health +10, Defense +10," Haoran replied.
"Xiaobei, what were the stats on the shoes we just got?" Junlin asked South Wind, who had an expressionless face.
"Speed +1, Defense +1," Xiaobei said.
As his words fell, the others also quickly realized. As gaming legends, their understanding of the game far surpassed that of ordinary players.
"The stats on our equipment are all 2 points, but the equipment on the auction house has stats of 6 points, including the pig-killing knife we got earlier, which is equivalent to 6 points of strength. These two pieces of equipment should have dropped from the same monster. It must have been the same person who put them up for auction. And equipment with these stats couldn't have dropped from killing rabbits. If we speculate, it's likely that they dropped from level 6 monsters," Junlin said with a serious expression.
"What a joke, a Level 6 monster? We were struggling against Level 2 monsters, and you're telling me someone can kill Level 6 ones?" Haoran exclaimed, looking bewildered.
"Yeah, exactly! Unless they're cheating, there's no way someone can kill Level 6 monsters. Knowing this game, they would easily wipe us out," Linzi chimed in.
"There shouldn't be any cheats in this game. Xiaobei, you're fast. Go check if there are any boar-type monsters around and see their level and attributes. Based on this equipment, it seems like it drops from boars. At the next three-way fork, go left and check if there's a high chance of finding boars in the forest there," Nanfeng instructed.
"Alright."
On the other side, a woman wearing a white veil held a piece of clothing that had just dropped, deep in thought as she looked at the clothes listed on the auction house. She had underestimated the quality of the early white equipment drops. The person who listed this must have obtained it from monsters higher than Level 1 or 2.
"Liu uncle, could you help me find out if there are any boar-type monsters? Check their attributes and let me know," the woman said to a middle-aged man behind her.
"Sure, miss."
Xiaobei quickly returned to the group and solemnly shared the boar's attributes revealed by his Insight skill.
"Damn, 2000 HP, 70 attack, and a defense of 30. Are you telling me someone at our stage can kill it?" Haoran exaggeratedly exclaimed.
Junlin fell silent too. If someone could kill a monster with those attributes, even he would suspect cheating. Such overwhelming attributes couldn't be surpassed by skill or awareness alone.
"Forget it, let's not dwell on it. Since we're in the same beginner village, we'll eventually encounter them. We'll see what cards they have up their sleeve then. If this equipment is likely to drop from Level 6 monsters, which we can't handle right now, we'll see if we can obtain it later. The six-point attribute boost is significant," Junlin said in a low voice.
On the other side, the woman remained silent for a long time after examining the boar's attributes shared by the middle-aged man. Finally, she said, "Try to obtain that equipment if possible."
At that moment, Huang Shao, who had raised the bid to 20,000, looked at the lack of competition and sneered, "Hmph, no one bidding after 20,000? All poor people."
As the bidding time was about to end, Huang Shao calmly waited for the notification of a successful transaction. Suddenly, in the last second, two bids appeared simultaneously: one for 25,000 and another for 30,000. The player who bid 30,000 ultimately won.
"Damn it, what a steal!" Huang Shao exclaimed, spitting blood.
Holding the boar leather armor in his hand, Haoran admired, "You're smart, Junlin. You thought someone might have the same idea as us. I was actually prepared to bid 21,000. If that had happened, I probably wouldn't have gotten this equipment."
"Ding! Auction failed, the amount has been refunded to your linked bank account."
Hearing the system prompt, the woman in white frowned. She thought she could secure the item by directly adding 5,000 at the last second, but someone had accurately predicted her move.