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On the way back, Wu Shaochen thought for a moment, then took off all his equipment and put on the newbie cloth armor. Holding the wooden sword, he headed back to the village. He had no idea how much gear other players had acquired, but it definitely couldn’t be more than his. After all, he’d been killing monsters above his level efficiently. Better to stay low-key—being surrounded by curious onlookers wouldn’t be fun.
When he returned to the goat area, he saw countless players grinding goats in groups of two or three. Their equipment was uniformly the same: newbie cloth armor and newbie wooden swords. Occasionally, you’d see someone with different gear, but they were rare. Clearly, the drop rate in this game was painfully low. Good thing he unequipped everything before coming back—otherwise, he’d definitely have drawn a crowd. Without lingering, Wu Shaochen quickly walked out of the goat area.
Not long after he left, a woman wearing a light green face veil frowned as she watched the direction he disappeared in.
“That guy… his speed seems off…” the woman muttered to herself. “Even with full agility build, everyone’s only level two at most. He shouldn’t be that fast.”
“What’s wrong, miss? Is there something odd about that person?” Uncle Liu asked as he looked in the same direction, though the person had already vanished from view.
“It’s nothing,” the woman shook her head. Maybe she was just overthinking things.
Wu Shaochen quickly returned to the village. At the moment, there weren’t many people left in the village—everyone had gone out to kill monsters.
“Let’s see what quests are available,” Wu Shaochen thought to himself. He then ran straight toward an old man with white hair standing at the village entrance—he was probably the village chief.
“Hello, Village Chief. Is there anything I can help you with?” Wu Shaochen asked politely.
“Adventurer, your strength is too low to help me right now. Go see Granny Liu in the north of the village—she might need your help,” the village chief replied.
Well then, not enough level, quest denied. So Wu Shaochen cheerfully ran toward the north of the village. There, he saw an old granny sitting in a chair, basking in the sun. He quickly walked over.
“Hello Granny Liu, is there anything I can help you with?”
“Oh, hello Adventurer. Actually, there is something you could help with. Lately, there’s been a rabbit infestation outside the village, and they’ve eaten all my carrots. Could you go kill those pesky rabbits for me?” the old lady said.
“Ding! Granny Liu has issued a quest: Kill rabbits in the grassland and bring back 10 rabbit tails. Quest reward: +10 EXP, +10 copper coins. Accept quest?”
Uhh, seriously? Can I say no thanks? Wouldn’t hunting wolves be better use of my time? He firmly chose to decline and quickly ran off, escaping Granny Liu’s resentful gaze.
Are all quests in this game so stingy with rewards? Or maybe this one is just the lowest-tier quest? Wu Shaochen wandered around the newbie village for a bit, when he suddenly saw a farmer sitting in front of his house sighing heavily. That had to mean a quest! Wu Shaochen quickly walked over and politely asked:
“Hello sir, is there anything I can help you with?”
“Hello Adventurer. I’ve actually run into some trouble lately. Wild boars have been showing up in the forest and destroying my crops. Could you go eliminate those vile creatures for me?” the farmer said.
“Ding! The farmer has issued a quest: Go to the forest and kill wild boars, then bring back 50 wild boar tusks. Quest reward: +500 EXP, +200 copper coins. Accept quest?”
Ha! This is perfect! Looking at the more than a hundred wild boar tusks in his backpack, Wu Shaochen didn’t hesitate to click accept. Just as he was about to hand in the quest, he suddenly froze. Crap—if I hand this in now, won’t I level up immediately? Then how will I keep farming talent points? He quickly put the tusks back into his bag. This old man’s scheming—trying to rob me of my talents!
Forget it, the quest has no time limit anyway. I’ll just come back to hand it in after I’m done farming talent points in the newbie village. By then, I’ll clear all the quests in one go. I don’t care about EXP—what I want is the copper coins.
Having made up his mind, Wu Shaochen turned and headed for the pharmacy. No need to look for other quests now—farming talents is the top priority.
At the pharmacy, he checked the goods. Seeing the price tag—Small Health Potion: 20 copper coins—Wu Shaochen’s face went dark. That expensive?
He had assumed the lowest-grade potions would cost one or two copper coins at most. With his 200+ coins, he figured he could buy over a hundred. Now, he could only afford 10.
“Highway robbery, total daylight robbery!” Wu Shaochen muttered angrily, but in the end, he gritted his teeth and bought 10 bottles. Looking at the 16 copper coins left in his bag, his heart ached—he had picked up those coins one by one off the ground, after all.
He then went to the general store and sold off the 81 extra wild boar tusks. The quest only needed 50, and he had 131 total, so the rest had to go. After all, each player can only complete a quest once, unless it’s a chain quest. That earned him 81 more copper coins, which he used to buy four more potions at the pharmacy before heading out of the village.
As he walked, Wu Shaochen opened the chat channel. Honestly, he’d been playing for several hours, grinding monsters the whole time, and hadn’t even glanced at the chat yet. Felt like he was disconnected from society. Time to see what everyone was talking about. For now, only the Area Chat and Private Chat were open. Clicking on Area Chat, it was buzzing with activity.
“Forming a team to fight goats. Must be level 1+, preferably full Strength or Vitality builds.”
“Looking for two DPS with full Strength build to fight goats.”
“Anyone willing to help me farm goats? I just hit level 1.”
“Damn it, I died again! Luckily, there’s no death penalty before level 10, or I’d have to go back to killing rabbits. These goats hit way too hard.”
Seeing that everyone in the chat was talking about goats, Wu Shaochen shook his head. Good thing his talent allowed him to fight above his level, or he’d be stuck fighting over spawns with the rest of them.
“I heard some level 2 pros tried to fight level 3 monsters, but they all came back not long after. Are level 3 mobs really that scary?”
“Of course they are! I even checked the Green Snake’s stats—its venom is disgusting. Without potions, you can’t fight it at all, and the potions from the shop are ridiculously expensive. So the top players gave up on the Green Snake.”
At this moment, Jun Lin and his team, who had just returned from the bamboo forest, all looked displeased.
“Let’s go back to grinding goats. Forget the Green Snake. Once we level up again and get some gear, we’ll take on the level 4 crabs. Skip the snake,” Jun Lin said.
“Yeah, it’s not worth it. The snake eats up too many potions,” Nan Feng replied.
“Sigh… but if we keep doing this, the gap between us and that guy will only grow,” Hao Ran said.
“Our talents are all late-game focused. We don’t have much of an edge early on. There’s no need to compete with him now. His talent might be strong early-game, but who knows about later on? With our strength, we’ll catch up and surpass him eventually,” Jun Lin said.
Wu Shaochen soon arrived back at the wild wolf area. Looking at the 16 health potions in his backpack, he suddenly felt confident. After luring out a wild wolf in just a few minutes, he immediately charged into battle.