"Leveling up is great and all, but now that I can't brush up my talents, it's kind of awkward," thought Wu Shaochen. He even felt like he was leveling up too quickly, a fact that would likely get him mobbed by those players who were still busy chasing rabbits.
"Let's see if I can take on level 7 monsters. If not, I'll come back to kill some pigs," Wu Shaochen mused to himself. With that in mind, he continued walking deeper into the Wild Boar Forest. The forest was vast, and after a while, he emerged from it onto a plain. There, he encountered groups of gray wolves prowling the grassland.
"Wow, there are so many!" Wu Shaochen's heart sank halfway. "I probably can't handle this, but since I'm here, I might as well check their stats." He found the nearest wolf and cast Insight on it from a distance. Fortunately, Insight had a long enough range that he didn't have to get within aggro distance to use it.
[Wild Wolf]
Level: 9
HP: 4000
Attack: 115
Defense: 55
Speed: 20
(Since monsters in the newbie village don't have magical attacks or defenses, I won't specify physical attack and defense. Speed refers to movement speed.)
Skill: Bite - Opens its mouth wide to bite the target, dealing 150% of physical attack damage. 50% chance to cause bleeding, dealing 5 HP damage per second for 10 seconds.
"... Each time I check the stats of a new monster, it's like a challenge to my heart," Wu Shaochen sighed. "After looking at this, all I want to do is curse at the game designers. Even though this game has nothing to do with them—it's all controlled by the mainframe—but I heard the mainframe is omnipotent in the game. I dare not curse at it, so I curse at the designers instead. Damn, are these the stats of regular monsters? This is clearly the stats of a boss."
"Huh, this is a level 9 monster? The level 7 and 8 monsters are probably along that middle path. I better go check over there," Wu Shaochen decided, feeling intimidated. He turned back, feeling hesitant. Returning to the Wild Boar Forest, he continued walking outward. At that moment, a glint of gold caught his eye. Curious, Wu Shaochen walked towards where the gold light had flashed.
After a while, he pushed through some bushes and beheld an enormous wild boar looming before him. It was at least twice the size of any boar he had previously encountered. A golden halo circled its feet—a distinctive feature of bosses described in the oracle.
"Wow, a boss encounter!" Wu Shaochen exclaimed in delight, quickly casting Insight towards it.
[Wild Boar King](Black Iron-tier Boss)
Level: 6
HP: 50000
Attack: 250
Defense: 120
Speed: 30
Skill 1: Savage Charge - Charges forward at extreme speed in a straight line, dealing 150% physical damage to targets in its path and stunning them for 1 second. Cooldown: 10 seconds.
Skill 2: Berserk - When the Wild Boar King stands upright, it increases its attack power and attack speed by 50% for 30 seconds. Cooldown: 2 minutes.
Skill 3: Regeneration - Triggered when the Wild Boar King's health drops below 10%, doubling its defense and restoring 30% of its health over 10 seconds. During this time, it cannot move or attack. Cooldown: 5 minutes.
"Just a moment ago, I said that the attributes of that wild wolf were on par with a boss, and now I've been completely proven wrong. This is what a real boss looks like! Is it normal for a level 6 Black Iron-tier boss to have such terrifying attributes? Not only are its stats explosive, but its skills are also formidable. If the damage output isn't sufficient, it's practically impossible to defeat. And that last skill has a cooldown of 5 minutes—if you can't deplete that last 30% of its health within that time, you might as well forget about defeating this boss," Wu Shaochen muttered to himself.
"Forget complaining, I should be used to this by now. Besides, this boss might seem unbeatable to others, but who knows, it might not be the case for me. After all, my abilities might give me an edge. Looks like this boss is destined to be mine," Wu Shaochen thought to himself. He mentally tagged the Wild Boar King as his own. Seeing a boss never meant letting it go, and he hadn't forgotten his innate talent: dealing with bosses of equal or higher level allowed him to enhance his abilities, effectively doubling the damage.
"But I definitely can't take it on now. I need to level up more, increase my speed at least to be faster than it, and withstand its damage before I can engage," Wu Shaochen noted the boss's location and then retreated outward. There wouldn't be anyone coming here in the short term; he needed to check if there were any level 7 monsters around. After all, improving his talents was still the priority to increase his damage output.
Returning to the fork in the road, Wu Shaochen headed towards the middle path leading to the bamboo forest. As he entered, he felt the atmosphere grow damp and gloomy with poor lighting. Proceeding cautiously, he suddenly saw green snakes slithering on the bamboo ahead, hissing venomously at him. Wu Shaochen got goosebumps and quickly cast Insight towards them.
[Green Snake]
Level: 3
HP: 550
Attack: 32
Defense: 12
Speed: 7
Skill: Snake Poison - Targets hit by the Green Snake have a 50% chance to be poisoned, losing 2 HP per second for 30 seconds.
"So these level 3 monsters are around here, no wonder I haven't encountered them before. But this Green Snake is probably disgusting enough to deter many players. They'd rather fight crabs than deal with its poison. But come to think of it, with my talent, poison is actually quite useful. How can I call it disgusting?" Wu Shaochen thought to himself as he continued forward.
Moving out of the bamboo forest, he entered a jungle area. The trees were thin but dense, completely different from the forest he had just left. The lighting remained dim, and after walking for a while, he finally spotted monsters—giant spiders crawling both on the trees and the ground. Wu Shaochen, suppressing his disgust, cast Insight towards one of them.
[Giant Spider]
Level: 7
HP: 2500
Attack: 90
Defense: 40
Speed: 13
Skill: Web Spray - Sprays a large net within a 2-meter range in front, trapping targets. Trapped targets cannot attack or move for 3 seconds. Cooldown: 20 seconds.
"Oh man, there's no way I can handle this," Wu Shaochen lamented. He shouldn't have come down this path; it seemed like all the monsters here were his counters.
"Forget about improving talents for now. I should go back to hunting pigs, level up some more, and then take down that Wild Boar King," he decided.
And so Wu Shaochen returned to the Wild Boar Forest, embarking once again on his pig-slaying journey. With his current poison damage of 16 points per second, he could take down a wild boar in just two minutes. The basic experience gained from each wild boar was 20 points, and with an additional 40% experience bonus after level 2, each boar now yielded 28 experience points. This meant he only needed to kill another 18 wild boars to reach level 3.
Alone in the forest, Wu Shaochen hunted the wild boars. Meanwhile, on the grasslands in front of the newbie village, countless players were busy chasing rabbits. Despite the vast expanse of grasslands, each rabbit respawned with thousands in number, but with so many players, the meat was scarce.
Among the crowd, a group of over ten people gathered around several rabbit spawn points. They skillfully left the rabbits almost killed and waited for the arrogant young man in the middle to take the kill. After killing another rabbit, the young man shone and was promoted
"Congratulations on leveling up, Huang Shao," the people around him congratulated. "Huang Shao is definitely the first player in our newbie village to level up. I've been keeping an eye out, and no one else has flashed that upgrade glow nearby."
"Yeah," Huang Shao nodded satisfactorily, then allocated all his free attribute points into strength. With his attack now at an impressive 22 points, he smiled, saying, "With 22 attack points, these rabbits are easy pickings. Should we check out the second-level area?"
"Don't, Huang Shao. Some of our folks ventured into the second-level area, and those goats hit hard. It's not something we can handle right now unless everyone's at level 1. There are a few all-strength players up front tanking, otherwise, we wouldn't stand a chance."
"Damn, this game is unnecessarily hard, and they don't even let us pay to win. So frustrating," Huang Shao complained.
After a moment's thought, he continued, "Has anyone in our group found any gear drops? Let's gather whatever's been found so I can gear up and get into the second-level area sooner. I'm sick of these rabbits."
"So far, none of us have found any gear drops. The drop rates in this game are ridiculously low. With so many of us, we haven't seen a single piece of equipment yet. And there's nothing listed on the auction house either," someone responded.
"Damn," Huang Shao cursed. "Keep an eye on the auction house. If anyone lists gear, I'll snatch it up immediately."
"Got it."