At the job advancement guild, instructors for various professions lined up. In this small village, they didn't enjoy any special treatment. Their attire was rather shabby: the Berserker, Knight, and Swordsman instructors were all bare-chested, showing off their muscular physiques. The Mage and Cleric instructors wore coarse cloth robes, while the Assassin instructor lurked in the shadows, observing everything around him. The Archer instructor was a beautiful female NPC wearing simple leather armor.
I was thrilled and walked up to the beautiful Archer without hesitation, saying, "I want to join!"
The NPC looked at me and said, "By the grace of the great God of Light who bestows power upon us, brave warrior, from this day forward, you are a member of the Archer's Guild!"
"Whoosh!"
My title changed to "Apprentice Archer"!
"Ding!"
System notification: Congratulations! You have become the 5th Apprentice Archer in this starting village. Go talk to your instructor; she will teach you the basic skills of your profession!
"Ding!"
System notification: Your attribute growth has changed—
[Strength]: 6 stars
[Stamina]: 5 stars
[Agility]: 10 stars
[Intelligence]: 6 stars
The number of stars represents attribute growth. For example, 10 points in Strength with 10 stars would increase a character's attack power by 10-10, but with 6 stars, it would only increase by 6-6. This is why different professions develop differently. Therefore, the true physical offensive powerhouses are undoubtedly the Berserkers and Swordsmen with 10-star Strength!
...
I was slightly surprised. I thought I had leveled up quickly, but I didn't expect four people to have become Archers before me. This meant that in the entire starting village, there should be no less than 50 people who had already chosen their professions. And in the northeastern region of US alone, there were no fewer than a hundred such starting villages...
Damn, my ranking would probably be beyond ten thousand!
I walked up to the Archer instructor and opened the dialogue menu. Sure enough, there was an option to learn skills.
After clicking on it, three skills flashed before my eyes. The first was Basic Archery, and the other two were Fire Arrow and Ice Arrow—
[Basic Archery]: Passive skill, increases an Archer's accuracy and damage to a certain extent.
[Fire Arrow]: Launches a fire-elemental arrow guided by flames.
[Ice Arrow]: Launches an ice-elemental arrow guided by frost.
When I looked at the learning costs, I was shocked!
Learning Basic Archery required 50 silver coins, while learning Fire Arrow and Ice Arrow each needed 5 gold coins!
The server had only been open for a mere 8 hours; it was almost impossible to obtain that many gold coins! However, I had sold a bronze-tier armor piece, earning 20 gold coins, which came in handy here!
So, I promptly learned all three skills, spending a significant portion of my savings but still left with 12 gold coins!
I also learned Armor-Piercing Arrow, and suddenly four skills appeared in my skill bar, all at the beginner level.
[Basic Archery] (Beginner): Proficiency 0/10000, no MP cost.
[Fire Arrow] (Beginner): Proficiency 0/10000, 5 MP cost.
[Ice Arrow] (Beginner): Proficiency 0/10000, 5 MP cost.
[Armor-Piercing Arrow] (Beginner): Proficiency 0/10000, 10 MP cost.
...
Looking at my personal attributes, I now had a total of 120 MP, which wasn't enough to use these skills many times. To increase proficiency, it seemed I needed to buy some mana potions to keep on hand.
At this moment, I noticed the word "Rankings" at the bottom of the interface. I clicked on it and saw a series of rankings, including Level Rankings, Equipment Rankings, and Reputation Rankings.
First, I checked the Level Rankings and was surprised to find that the highest-level player had already reached level 16, and even the tenth place was at level 15! Moreover, among the top ten players in the level rankings, four were American players.
Selecting the American player rankings, I was shocked to see that the top-ranked player was a female Mage called "Breeze Embracing Moon"!
Damn, how could a woman level up so high? It's incredibly overpowered!
I grumbled to myself and then opened the Equipment Rankings. To my surprise, my Golden Bow was at the top of the list, far surpassing the second-place bronze greatsword! No joke, silver-tier equipment is a full tier above bronze, so naturally, it would score much higher. Plus, the Golden Bow's attributes were truly formidable! A normal level 15 bronze bow might have 50 damage at best, but the Golden Bow boasted a terrifying 125 damage. If these stats were revealed, it would surely scare quite a few people!
I smiled slightly, thinking to myself that it wasn't bad at all. At least I had one piece of equipment at the top of the rankings. Although my level wasn't as high as that female Mage called Breeze Embracing Moon, if we were to PvP, with my Golden Bow, I'd have a 90% chance of one-shot killing her!
Looking at my own level, I was at level 12 with 92% experience. Actually, I wasn't that far behind, and I still hadn't turned in the outpost clearing quest. After spending 6 hours collecting 100 medals, the reward should be substantial!
I approached the village chief and found the old man peering outside. As soon as he saw me, his face lit up with a smile, his wrinkles resembling a peeled orange—
"Young man, you actually did it! Those vile liquid monsters were truly despicable. You've done our village a great service. Come, here's your reward!"
"Ding!"
System notification: Congratulations on completing the quest [Clear the Outpost]. You've gained 50,000 experience points, 5 gold coins, +250 reputation, and received the quest reward [Windwalker]!
With two flashes, the quest's rich experience reward instantly leveled me up to 14. Upon closer inspection, I was just 98 points away from reaching level 15!
Overjoyed, I opened my inventory to check the equipment—
[Windwalker] (Bronze-grade — Leather Armor)
Defense: 24
Agility: +4
Stamina: +2
Required Level: 10
It was a pair of leather boots, exactly what I needed now. My previous Wilderness Boots were no longer wearable, as Archers can't wear plate armor, only leather. The Wilderness Boots were now lying quietly in my inventory. Not only that, but even the Gleaming War Axe had automatically unequipped itself, as Archers can only equip bows and dagger-type weapons.
Now I was barehanded, but it wouldn't take long to kill a few more monsters to gain the 100 experience points needed to reach level 15. Once I equip the Golden Bow, it'll be like trading a pop gun for a cannon!
I laughed heartily and walked to the starting village's square, shouting, "Iron-tier armor boots for sale! Act fast!"
In an instant, the square erupted. Countless newbies swarmed over, craning their necks and shouting, "Someone's selling iron-grade equipment? Damn! Let's go take a look, even if we can't afford it, we can at least feast our eyes!"
Within minutes, I was surrounded by a sea of people. However, only a few could actually afford it. In the end, a small warrior bought the Wilderness Combat Boots for 5 gold coins. After all, it was just iron-tier gear, and in a day or two, it would be absolute junk. Selling it early was definitely a wise choice!
Then, I decided to sell the Gleaming War Axe as well, earning 10 gold coins, as the demand for weapons was higher than for armor, so the price was much better.
With this, I once again had 27 gold coins. I went to the potion shop and directly bought half an inventory of low-level health and mana potions, spending less than 7 gold coins in total. Next, I went to the weapon shop and bought several quivers of iron arrows. These arrows added 1 point of attack power, which should be enough for a long time.
Looking around at the other players, most were busy leveling up, only returning to the village occasionally to resupply or repair equipment.
So, I hid my name again and retrieved the Golden Bow from storage. Of course, it was only called Golden Bow, but its tier was actually silver-tier. If I were to reveal a gold-tier item now, others might as well just give up...
Basically, the areas around the village were already occupied by players. It was impossible for me to achieve anything significant there, so I chose to head west of the village, past the Slime area, and explore deeper into the forest. Who knows, there might be some unexpected gains!
Along the way, I took care of a few small monsters. With a flash of golden light, I leveled up to 15. I immediately equipped the Golden Bow, and with a shimmer of light, the long bow appeared in my hand, gleaming brilliantly and looking absolutely gorgeous!
The radiance of the Golden Bow immediately attracted the attention of many players. Following the principle of staying low-key while leveling and high-profile in PvP, I quickly turned off the Golden Bow's visual effects. Instantly, the golden light dimmed, and in a blink of an eye, the Golden Bow transformed into a dull-colored long bow, looking like nothing more than a decent-looking piece of common gear!
After equipping the Golden Bow and Windwalker, I was shocked when I looked at my attributes again!
Frivolous Scholar (Apprentice Archer)
Level: 15
Health: 440
Attack: 125-180
Defense: 51
Reputation: 551
Luck: 0
The attack power was terrifyingly high!