"You- You really completed the Quest!"
Even after the training session in the morning had finished, Stivi still could not digest the fact that I had obtained the Evasion skill earlier than her. That too with my dysfunctional body!
With my ego inflated by Stivi's disbelief, I looked at my Status Window with a smug grin.
—-------
Samar
Level 1
Race: Deathless (Elf) Faction: Coven of Elves
Combat Class: NA
Life Profession: NA
HP: 107 MP: 50
STR: 12 AGI: 11
VIG: 7 INT: 5
Unused Stat Points: 0
[Hidden Stats Unlocked - 1]
DEX: 5
—---
[Skills]
Mastery-
1. Bow Mastery - Initiate (412/2000)
Active Skills-
1. Rapid Shot (Tier 0, Lv1)
2. Counter ( Lv 1)
Passive Skills-
1. Evasion (Tier - less)
Utility Skills-
1. Arrow Forging Technique (Novice, Lv1)
—----
My eyes especially stopped on Evasion. This was a must have skill for every player.
Evasion offered an extra 10% chance of successfully evading a melee attack. It also increased the probability of dodging untargeted ranged attacks by a whopping 30%.
Hence, it was a skill dear to every skilled player.
Counter, on the other hand, complemented very well with Evasion. After dodging an enemy attack, the player's immediate next attack was guaranteed to deal 200% damage.
If the next attack was a critical hit, it would deal 400% damage!
This insane amount of damage amplification was the reason why many aspiring Warriors and Assassins went mad over this skill. It was impossible to find a better skill at this point.
Yet, by some freak accident, someone like me, who could not wield any melee weapon properly, had learned it and it frustrated Stivi very much.
She could accept the fact that I had somehow completed the quest for 'Evasion' by anticipating my opponent's moves in advance. After all, I was good at it.
However, that sweeping kick was completely accidental. As a result, the chance to learn the skill desired by many had just fallen into my lap without any special efforts on my part.
I would've been a fool had I not chosen to learn the skill. It's not like my skill slots were limited.
Still, now that I had chosen to learn the skill, I had to at least try and get the hang of it or else Stivi and Zamir would literally kill me.
Thus, I decided to part ways with Stivi and go on my first solo-hunting excursion. My target? The Lv1 Biter Sheeps in the Cross Grass Valley.
Before that I decided to take on a few hunting and gathering quests.
It was the 6th day since the Dreamverse had launched. By now most players had leveled up and moved on to Lv3 and higher maps, making this starter map fall out of their favor.
It was so unpopular that I even managed to snag two of those limited Hunting and Gathering Quests related to Cross Grass Valley before leaving the Village.
—----
{Herbalist Borsica's Gathering Quest}
[Task: Gather 20 Stalks of Red Cross Grass.]
[Reward: 100 Exp, 3 Copper Coins, 1 HP Recovery Salve (S).]
—---
{Shepherd Luni's Hunting Quest}
[Task: Hunt 10 Biter Sheeps that are invading the Village's Pasture. 0/10]
[Reward: 150 Exp, 3 Copper Coins, 1 Jar of Sheep's Milk.]
—-----
The HP Recovery Salve rewarded by Herbalist Borsica's quest worked especially well when applied to external wounds. It also cured status ailments like bleeding and burning but its HP recovery effect was far from desirable.
Once applied the Salve recovered only 2 HP every 5 seconds and the effect lasted for a minute. It meant that the Salve only recovered 24 HP in sixty seconds. Still, it was better than nothing.
The reward for the Hunting quest, the Jar of Sheep's Milk fell in the category of Food-type Mana Recovery items. It instantly recovered 5% MP and boosted Mana Recovery rate by 50% for the next 10 minutes.
As impressive as the effects sounded, 5% MP of the current players only amounted to around 10 to 30 MP.
20 MP was just enough to cast an Lv1 Fireball or Icy Wind once. The 50% boost in Mana Recovery rate was also nothing impressive considering that the natural Mana Recovery rate for Jobless players was 1% of MP per minute. Increasing it to 1.5% simply did not make a difference.
Considering the fact that Players received less exp as the level gap increased, it simply was not worthwhile for higher leveled players to complete these low end quests.
Hence, when I reached the Cross Grass Valley, there were abundant numbers of Biter Sheeps with scarce few players hunting them.
I quickly picked a secluded corner with few sheeps around and made my way over. Once I had settled down, I observed the Biter Sheeps which were notoriously hard to kill.
—---
Biter Sheep
Attack: ★☆
Defense: ★
HP: 100
Skills: Ramming Charge, Bite
—---
This monster looked no different than an ordinary sheep. They had curled horns and thick brown wool all over the body. What distinguished them from the ordinary sheeps was their reddish teeth tainted by the blood of their kin and humans.
After observing the Sheeps and seeing the players fight them, I had formed a strategy to kill the monsters in my mind.
I singled out a lone sheep grazing nearby and approached it with stealthy steps. The Sheep noticed me despite my caution and immediately used its skill, Ramming Charge.
The sheep trampled on the grass and kicked up dirt as it rapidly closed the distance between us. Its relatively simple attack pattern was easy to deduce and exploit and I did just that.
I jumped out of its way at the last moment. As it harmlessly passed by my side, I activated Counter and stabbed the Broken Knife into its plump behind.
-120 (Critical hit!)
The large red number flashed in the air before the Sheep bleated for the last time. Coincidentally, the knife had pierced through the Sheep's asshole, thus triggering a critical hit.
This meant my attack had dealt 400% of the normal damage!
Only after killing a sheep in one hit did I fully realize just how OP this skill was. I had dealt the same amount of damage as when I was Lv7 as an Lv1!
It was no wonder people were crazy for this skill.
Even the few distant players looked at me in shock after they realized what had just happened. They silently went even farther away, respecting my territory.
Amused by their response, I shook my head and picked up the Sheepskin left behind by the Sheep.
I also clicked on the blinking notification icon to check how much exp killing a sheep had netted me.
[You have killed a Lv1 Biter Sheep. You have received 25 Exp.]
This meant I had to kill 5 more Sheeps to reach Lv2.
It would be a breeze in a park with an OP skill like Counter. However, such powerful skills were not without their flaws.
For Counter, it was the long Cooldown time of 300 seconds.
I naturally wanted to wait for the cooldown to pass before aggroing another monster but a nearby sheep had already wandered over before the cooldown could end.