Chapter 8: Boar Equipment

After spending another hour killing 38 wild boars, he leveled up 4 times, gaining 20 HP and 10 MP. He added all the stat points to Agility. During this time, he finally got another equipment drop—a helmet.

[Boar Hide Helmet]

Quality: Common

HP +30
Defense +3
Equipment Requirement: None

In Oracle, clothes, pants, belts, and helmets are considered defensive gear, primarily increasing HP and defense. Weapons, rings, bracelets, and necklaces are offensive gear, mainly increasing attack and crit. Shoes mainly boost speed. However, this is only a general rule, not absolute.

Since he could use it himself, he equipped it immediately. While these gears could fetch a decent amount if sold, thinking about that Boar King, it was better to gear himself up first and hope to kill it sooner. That’s when the real profit begins.

After equipping it, Wu Shaochen’s HP increased to 200, his Defense reached 12, and with 25 points in Agility and the shoes’ speed bonus, his Movement Speed hit 28.

“Just one more level and my speed will hit 33, which is faster than the Boar King. Then I can start considering taking it down,” Wu Shaochen muttered.

With his current stats, should he try hunting wild wolves? That would be a great way to farm talents. As long as there’s a chance, he couldn’t miss out on talent farming—after all, this was the key to reaching the peak of his life.

He thought for a moment, then shook his head. The wild wolves’ skills dealt 150% attack, reaching up to 172 damage. Even subtracting his defense, that was still 160 damage. Plus, the bleed effect did 50 damage—just enough to kill him. Better to farm more equipment first.

He glanced at his EXP bar: 4/2000. At level 4, fighting level 6 wild boars gave 20% more experience—so 24 EXP per boar. That meant he’d need to kill 84 more to level up. If he could get two more defensive items before leveling up, he might be able to take on the wild wolves. So Wu Shaochen continued farming wild boars.

At that moment, several groups of players were farming level 2 mountain goats in the goat zone.

“Nanfeng, fall back and heal. Let Haoxuan take the front. Everyone else, keep attacking,” Junlin calmly commanded the team. Soon, the goat fell under their combined efforts.

“Junlin! It dropped gear!” Haoxuan, a cheerful and handsome young man, shouted excitedly while holding up a helmet.

“Phew… finally a drop.” Junlin let out a breath. This was the 30th goat they’d killed. As top-tier gaming veterans, they had never been so miserable before. The difficulty of this game made even them doubt their skills.

“Why are the stats so bad?” Haoxuan said, looking disappointed at the helmet.

“What are the stats?” Junlin asked.

“10 HP, 1 Defense,” Haoxuan replied, speechless.

“Maybe helmets just have worse stats. Since it adds HP and Defense, just equip it for now. As long as we can get drops, we can slowly farm everything,” Junlin said steadily.

The situation for the other teams was even worse than Junlin’s. Their operations and awareness were subpar. Fighting level 2 goats was clearly a stretch, and flashes of death lights were frequent.

Wu Shaochen spent another hour killing 32 wild boars and finally got another equipment drop.

[Boar Belt]

Quality: Common

HP +30
Defense +3
Equipment Requirement: None

After equipping the belt, his HP reached 230, and Defense reached 15. Not bad. One more piece of defensive gear and he’d go after the wild wolves.

He looked at the three Small Health Potions in his bag. Each restored 10 HP per second for 10 seconds. If needed, he’d waste a few potions to farm some talents. After all, once he hit level 5, he’d need to fight level 10 monsters to farm talents, and that would be even harder. He’d realized the higher the level of monsters, the bigger the stat difference per level.

Back to farming…

After about another hour, he killed 28 more boars and finally got another drop. But when he picked it up, he was disappointed—it was another Boar Hide Armor.

Sigh. He’d just list it on the Auction House. But thinking of the large amount of money it would bring cheered him up immediately.

He listed the Boar Hide Armor on the Auction House with the usual settings—bidding mode, 10-minute duration, anonymous to avoid spam messages. At this point, low profile was key. Getting rich quietly was the way to go.

As Wu Shaochen listed the Boar Hide Armor, the entire Beginner Village became lively again, with all the major factions bidding fiercely.

At the same time, Junlin frowned at the Boar Hide Armor stats on the auction.

“What’s wrong, Junlin? Is there something wrong with this gear?” Haoxuan asked.

“What were the stats on your helmet again?” Junlin asked.

“HP +10, Defense +1,” Haoxuan replied.

“Xiaobei, what were the stats on the shoes we just got?” Junlin asked the other side.

“Speed +1, Defense +1,” Xiaobei answered.

As his words fell, the others started realizing something too. As veteran players, their understanding of the game far surpassed average players.

“Our gear all has about 2 points worth of stats, but this gear on the auction has 6. Even that Pig Slaughtering Knife earlier gave about 6 points in Strength. These must be drops from a different monster, and obviously from the same person. This gear couldn’t have come from rabbits. Based on the naming, it was probably dropped by boars, and judging by the stats, they’re likely level 6 monsters,” Junlin said seriously.

“You’re kidding—level 6 monsters? We’re getting beat up by level 2s, and you’re telling me someone’s killing level 6s?” Haoxuan looked like he’d seen a ghost.

“Yeah, unless they’re cheating. Otherwise, how could anyone kill level 6s? At the pace of this game, level 6 monsters would probably one-shot us,” Linzi added.

“This game probably doesn’t allow cheating. Xiaobei, go check if there are any boars and see what level and stats they have. The name suggests the gear dropped from boars. Try the left side of the three-way intersection—it’s likely in the forest there,” Nanfeng said.

“Got it.”

Elsewhere, a veiled woman stared at the armor she’d just looted, then looked at the auction listing and fell into deep thought. She had assumed early-stage white gear would have similar stats, but now she realized she had underestimated the one listing that equipment. That person’s gear clearly didn’t drop from level 1 or 2 monsters.

“Uncle Liu, can you help me find if there are any boar monsters? Check their stats and let me know,” the woman said to the middle-aged man behind her.

“Yes, Miss,” the man replied.

Xiaobei quickly returned and solemnly shared the boar’s stats with the group.

“Damn, 2000 HP, 70 Attack, and 30 Defense? And you’re telling me someone killed that?” Haoxuan shouted exaggeratedly.

Even Junlin was silent. If someone could really kill a monster with those stats, even he had to wonder if they were using cheats. That kind of stat gap wasn’t something skill or awareness could overcome.

“Forget it. No point guessing. Since we’re in the same Beginner Village, we’ll eventually cross paths. When we do, we’ll see what kind of trump cards he has. Since this gear probably dropped from level 6 monsters, and we can’t get it ourselves for now, let’s at least try to buy it. A 6-point stat boost is still a big deal,” Junlin said seriously.

On the other side, the woman stared at the stats Uncle Liu had shared and stayed silent for a long time. Finally, she said, “Try to get that gear, if possible.”

At that moment, Huang Shao, who had just bid 20,000, looked around smugly and said, “Hmph, just 20K and no one’s bidding anymore? Poor scrubs.”

As the countdown reached the final second, two last-second bids appeared—25K and 30K. The final winning bid was 30,000.

“Damn it! I got sniped!” Huang Shao cursed.

Holding the Boar Hide Armor in his hand, Haoxuan said admiringly, “Junlin, you’re really smart. You guessed someone would think just like us. I was gonna bid 21K—if I had, I probably wouldn’t have won it.”

Ding! Auction failed. The amount has been refunded to your linked bank account.

Hearing the system message, the white-robed woman frowned. She had thought raising her bid by 5,000 at the last second would secure the item, but she hadn’t expected someone to anticipate her move and preempt her preemption.