Chapter 15: Testing the Waters

This attribute is really impressive. Now, the monsters in the newbie village pose no threat to me at all. The only problem is I can’t grind for talents right now. I need to level up to level 10 as quickly as possible to head to the city of Jiuhuan.

First, I should go back and store my skills and weapons. In the game, every player has a personal storage, where items that aren’t immediately useful can be kept with the warehouse manager. The storage has 100 slots, and if that’s not enough, you can pay to expand it. The best part is that it’s accessible in every city. For example, items stored in the newbie village can be retrieved in Jiuhuan City, and there’s no need to worry about them getting lost.

I’ll also hand in the tasks for the wild boar and toad. Those tasks that require hunting temporary monsters can be skipped—I’m not short on copper coins anyway.

Wu Shaochen was in a great mood. He walked quickly back to the newbie village, found the warehouse manager, and stored the skill books and weapons. Then, he went to the farmer to submit the wild boar task, earning 500 experience and 200 copper coins.

Next, he found the village’s old doctor and handed in the 50 toad saliva, gaining 800 experience and 300 copper coins. Completing both tasks earned him 1,300 experience and 500 copper coins. Honestly, doing tasks is a faster way to level up, but sadly, each task can only be done once.

He visited the pharmacy and reluctantly spent 10 silver coins to buy 20 medium health potions (red): 50 health points per second, lasting for 10 seconds. At 50 copper coins per bottle, it’s as overpriced as ever.

After buying the potions, Wu Shaochen was about to head out to hunt silver wolves, but he saw a woman wearing a white veil walking toward him.

“She has a nice aura. Too bad I can’t see her face,” Wu Shaochen thought to himself.

The woman walked straight up to Wu Shaochen and, tentatively, asked, “Chén Fēng?”

Wu Shaochen was stunned. How did she figure it out? Or was she just testing me?

Though surprised, Wu Shaochen didn’t show it. He calmly replied, “Miss, you’ve mistaken me.”

Su Muxue studied the man in front of her, trying to find some clue in his face. Unfortunately, he was calm and composed, and there was nothing unusual about his expression.

“Could I be wrong?” Su Muxue thought. Then she apologized, “I’m sorry, I might have mistaken you.”

“Well, if there’s nothing else, I’ll be on my way.” Wu Shaochen said as he moved to walk around her and leave.

“Wait,” Su Muxue hurriedly called. “Could we add each other as friends?”

Even if he wasn’t Chén Fēng, this person was likely a strong player. For someone like her, trying to develop in the game, it was always a good idea to make connections when possible.

Wu Shaochen almost agreed, but then he remembered that if he added her as a friend, she would be able to see his profile, and she would easily find out that he was Chén Fēng.

“Forget it, women only slow down my speed in battle,” Wu Shaochen thought. He waved his hand and replied, “I’m not adding friends. If we meet again, maybe we can talk then.” And with that, he walked away.

“Wait… what?” Su Muxue was left in a daze.

She secretly sent him a friend request, but it was rejected with the message: “The other party has set their privacy settings to not allow strangers to add them as friends.”

Su Muxue frowned. This notification was the same as when she tried to add Chén Fēng’s ID.

“Is it a coincidence? Or do experts just like to set up their profiles this way?” Su Muxue wondered.

She stared at Wu Shaochen’s retreating figure, her eyes narrowing. “This speed…!”

After leaving the village, Wu Shaochen couldn’t help but feel puzzled. “How did she suspect me? The only times I’ve returned to the newbie village, I’ve removed my gear. I shouldn’t have exposed any flaws.”

At that moment, a figure suddenly appeared behind Su Muxue. It seemed like the person had just logged in. The figure walked up to her and spoke, “Miss, the master has agreed with my suggestion and plans to develop in the game’s divine realm. Soon, he will send a large group of elite players into the game. The master told us not to worry about spending money early on. We need to lead the pack so we can secure more opportunities for development later.”

“Okay, keep an eye on the auction house, especially for Chén Fēng’s equipment. Make sure to grab it as soon as it appears,” Su Muxue responded.

“Chén Fēng? The person who killed the Wild Boar King first? Miss, do you suspect that he is the one selling high-attribute equipment in our newbie village?” Liu Shu asked.

“Most likely. No other village has players selling advanced equipment yet. If someone is killing the Wild Boar King, it’s probably him. And I think I might know who it is,” Su Muxue said.

“Really? If that’s the case, do you think you could bring him to our side? If we had someone like that, it would be invaluable to our business development,” Liu Shu said excitedly.

“I’ll try my best,” Su Muxue replied quietly. But deep down, she wasn’t confident at all.

Wu Shaochen had already arrived at the Silver Wolf Valley. The level 10 silver wolves, which had once been an insurmountable challenge, now posed no problem.

He quickly pulled out one silver wolf and killed it with just two hits. Now, with the ability to stack two layers of poison, he couldn’t waste it. Two layers of poison meant 46 health points per second, and the 6,000 health of the silver wolf would be gone in just two minutes. With the after-battle regeneration of 6 health per second, the 200 damage was nothing.

Wu Shaochen then entered a grinding frenzy. Once he decided to level up, his speed was impressive. After two hours, he reached level 8. His health had risen to 640, and his mana was at 130. Other stats remained unchanged, and he decided not to allocate his attribute points just yet. He would wait until he faced an enemy with specific attributes and then allocate them accordingly.

It seemed that the items he had received from the Wild Boar King had been quite abundant. Besides the five copper coins and a wolf fang that dropped from every wolf, after killing fifty silver wolves over the past two hours, he had received a piece of equipment—something he didn’t need: a bracelet.

【Silver Wolf Bracelet】

Quality: Common

Attack +10

Attack Speed +1%

Requirements: None

Honestly, Wu Shaochen wasn’t impressed. He didn’t know if anyone else would be, but after wearing two pieces of Black Iron equipment, he found himself too picky to bother with such low-tier items. He tossed it into the auction house with a bidding option, letting others compete for it.

Meanwhile, in the Wild Boar Forest, Jun Lin and his team had just defeated a wild boar and were pleased to finally see some equipment drop. Upon inspecting it, they confirmed it was one of the most common items from the auction house.

“It seems those pieces of equipment really do drop from wild boars. But I still don’t understand—when we were still hunting goats, how could he have defeated a wild boar? Even now, with all our gear, it’s still a tough battle,” Haoran said.

“Who knows? But now, at least, we’re catching up. With our strength, we’ll eventually catch up to him,” Nan Feng said.

“We’re still a long way from catching up. Let’s check the auction house,” Jun Lin said softly.

“Okay.” The two quickly opened the auction house.

“Damn, a Silver Wolf Bracelet? Did it really drop from the level 10 silver wolves?” Haoran was shocked.

“Be confident. If he really killed the Wild Boar King, killing the silver wolves would be a walk in the park for him,” Nan Feng said.

“A freak!”