Because he feared the wild boar's Fierce Charge, Wu Shaochen led it around some large trees, maneuvering cautiously. Sure enough, after about ten seconds, the boar, unable to catch up with the small human figure, halted. It scratched the ground with its front hooves and then suddenly charged towards Wu Shaochen.
Wu Shaochen, who had been closely monitoring the boar, swiftly sidestepped just in time to avoid the charge.
"Phew... that was close," Wu Shaochen breathed out, relieved. It seemed manageable after all; the boar's charge had a noticeable wind-up, indicated by the scraping of its front hooves. As long as it wasn't directly in front of him and he wasn't too slow, it was relatively easy to dodge. After all, a skill with high damage, displacement, and stun without a wind-up would be incredibly difficult to deal with.
After the wild boar charged past Wu Shaochen, it quickly stopped and paused for about a second before turning around to chase him again.
Rubbing his chin thoughtfully, Wu Shaochen's eyes gleamed with determination. He continued to lead the boar in circles, easily dodging its skill every time it tried to use it. During the brief pause after the boar's charge, Wu Shaochen swiftly struck its hindquarters before retreating. By the time the boar turned around, Wu Shaochen had already moved two body lengths away.
It worked like a charm. This way, he didn't need to worry about the boar regenerating health when the poison effect wore off, as each application of poison refreshed its duration. Nor did he need to fear suddenly being hit by the skill when moving in for an attack.
Several minutes later, the boar was severely injured, almost ready for harvest. Just as he was about to strike the finishing blow, another boar suddenly emerged from a nearby thicket and charged straight at Wu Shaochen without hesitation.
"Damn, are they playing with me?" Wu Shaochen narrowly dodged the incoming attack. He knew there were probably more boars in the vicinity, so he kept circling with the boar, not daring to venture too far. Unexpectedly, another boar found its way to him. Monsters that attacked on sight were really annoying.
Frowning, he should have left decisively at this point. Each boar would only need to touch him once to send him to respawn. However, looking at the nearly defeated boar that just needed one more hit, Wu Shaochen was reluctant to leave it like this.
Licking his lips, Wu Shaochen stared sharply at the two boars trailing behind him. "Let's try some real sword dancing," he said to himself. His talent would likely lead him into more thrilling situations in the future, so he might as well get used to it sooner rather than later.
Continuing to circle with the two boars, Wu Shaochen knew he couldn't move in for an attack at this moment. Otherwise, he'd surely get struck by the other boar's tusks. He had to wait for an opportunity.
Suddenly, the injured boar scraped its front hooves and charged towards him again. Wu Shaochen remained calm, dodging swiftly to evade its attack. However, at the same time, the other boar launched its skill. Wu Shaochen had no choice but to abandon his attack and dodge once again.
"These damn things are really cooperating," Wu Shaochen muttered in frustration. The poison on the injured boar was about to wear off. If he didn't act now, its health would start to regenerate.
Watching the two boars walking side by side, Wu Shaochen analyzed seriously. "My agility is 13 points, while the boars' agility is 11 points. Our attack speeds are the same; if I attack, they can attack back immediately, with an interval of less than 0.01 seconds. There's no way to create enough distance in that time. But what if I don't try to create distance? If I dodge to the side when they attack me, I could dodge the full-health boar's attack, endure the injured boar's strike, counterattack, and then retreat. This way, I'd only have to withstand one attack."
Thinking it through, Wu Shaochen cautiously approached the two wild boars, feeling extremely nervous. Despite the theoretical understanding, precise execution was critical; mistiming could lead to an instant respawn.
As he neared the attack range of the boars, their tusks lunged forward. "Now's the moment!" Wu Shaochen's eyes gleamed, swiftly sidestepping to the side of the injured boar. Its tusks narrowly missed him, while the other boar's attack fell short.
Quickly turning back, Wu Shaochen struck with his sword and immediately retreated. He managed to evade the second attacks from both boars by moving one body length away before they could strike again.
"Phew... that was close..." Wu Shaochen exhaled deeply. "Damn, playing this game almost made my heart leap out. But the gameplay is really intense. Looks like I need to practice more to adapt quickly."
Now, he only had to wait for the poisoned boar to slowly succumb. He made sure not to get hit simultaneously by their skills.
Soon enough, the injured boar unwillingly collapsed to the ground, accompanied by a system notification sound.
"Ding, killed [Wild Boar], gained 20 experience points. Bonus 10 experience points for killing a level five monster."
"Ding, talent triggered, poison damage increased by 1 point."
"Phew... finally took down one. That was tough," Wu Shaochen sighed in relief. Glancing at the boar's corpse, he noticed a wild boar tooth beside some copper coins.
Avoiding the other boar, he swiftly picked up the two copper coins and the wild boar tooth.
[Tusks]: A type of material. Perhaps useful to villagers or can be sold to the general store for 1 copper coin.
"Cut it out. Thought it was something good," Wu Shaochen muttered dismissively, tossing it into his backpack. "A copper coin is still a copper coin. Money is hard to come by in this game. I've only got 12 copper coins so far, and every monster I kill above level five only drops two copper coins. Those guys who hunt rabbits all day don't even see a single copper coin. Shows how low the drop rates are in Oracle."
After swiftly dealing with the remaining boar, Wu Shaochen began searching for other wild boars. Once found, he led them back here to kill them. He really didn't want to repeat the situation with multiple boars again.
Thanks to his improved talent, the speed at which he killed wild boars was increasing. Finally, upon killing the eighth wild boar, he generously obtained another piece of equipment.
[Boar Leather Armor]
Quality: Common
Life +40
Physical Defense +2
Wearing Requirements: None
Quickly replacing the cloth armor on his body, his life increased to 110 points and physical defense to 9 points, providing a bit more security.
Continuing on, killing two more boars would allow him to level up again. At this moment, Wu Shaochen's talent Poison had stacked up to 14 points, demonstrating the terrifying potential of this talent. With 14 points of damage per second, that translated to 840 points of true damage in a minute. A boar with 2000 health would now take just over two minutes for him to kill, which meant just three strikes.
Soon after, he swiftly killed two more boars. The long-awaited glow of leveling up flashed over him, followed by the system's prompt.
"Ding, congratulations on leveling up. Life +20, Mana +10, gained 5 free attribute points. Please allocate them reasonably."
Allocating all five attribute points to Agility, Wu Shaochen's attributes changed accordingly:
Name: Dusty
Level: 2
Life: 130 (including equipment bonus, henceforth total)
Mana: 80
Physical Attack: 12 (10 + 2)
Magic Attack: 10
Physical Defense: 9 (5 + 4)
Magic Defense: 5
Movement Speed: 18 (15 + 3)
Experience: 10/500
Strength: 5
Intelligence: 5
Constitution: 5
Root Bone: 5
Spirit: 5
Agility: 15
Skill: Insight (Can view information on monsters up to level 10 above own level)
Talent: Source of Poison: Basic attacks or melee skills apply poison to the target (ranged attacks cannot trigger). Inflicts 16 points of true damage per second, stackable up to one layer, lasting 60 seconds. Targets cannot regenerate health during the poisoning period. Feature: Each kill of a target higher than own level by 5 increases poison damage by one point. Each kill of a BOSS not lower than own realm level increases poison stack layers (each BOSS per realm level can trigger only once).
Equipment:
[Wooden Sword] (Beginner's equipment): Physical Attack +2
[Boar Leather Armor] (Common equipment): Life +40, Physical Defense +2
[Canvas Shoes] (Common equipment): Movement Speed +3, Physical Defense +2