The Toad King’s health bar dropped rapidly.
Finally, after losing over a dozen toads, its bloated body collapsed with a loud thud.
[Successfully killed Red-Eyed Toad King. Experience Points +550, Points +120.]
[Obtained: Silver Treasure Chest x1!]
[Congratulations on completing the first open-world BOSS kill in the entire zone!]
[Reward Title: Pioneer. When equipped, experience gain rate from killing monsters increases by 5%.]
[Server-wide announcement commencing shortly!]
In the next second, a row of dazzling golden characters appeared in the center of Song Xu’s system panel:
[Zone Announcement: Congratulations to player Baobao’s Mom for being the first to kill the open-world BOSS: Red-Eyed Toad King (LV10), obtaining the Pioneer title! Special recognition awarded!]
The announcement scrolled three times in succession.
Dead silence.
The entire chat channel remained completely blank for three full seconds.
Then, information erupted with a bang!
[Small Weakling: Holy crappppp!!!!!! Baobao’s Mom?! Is it that Baobao’s Mom who sells Earth Dragon Fungus?!]
[Tomato Stir-Fried without Egg: Killed a LV10 BOSS??? What level is she??? How is that possible!]
[Cherry Little Finish: Please accept my knees! No wonder big sister had so much food! Turns out she was grinding in silence!]
[Wealth from All Directions: Turns out I was the clown all along.]
[Heaven Rewards Diligence: Incredible! Truly incredible! It’s only been a few days? Able to solo a BOSS already? Wait, how many trash mobs do you have to farm to trigger a BOSS!]
[Brother Knife: Yeah, I’ve only spawned 3 elite monsters so far and haven’t even seen what a BOSS looks like.]
[Vicious Stepmother: Sister!!! You are my god!!!]
Song Xu had no time to read the chat channel and opened the treasure chest with eager anticipation.
[Congratulations on obtaining Skill Fragment x1, Silver Storage Chest x1.]
There were actually two items!
Taking out the skill fragment, she placed it together with the other three pieces in her backpack.
Fireworks special effects suddenly exploded on the system screen as four playing cards stood floating in midair.
Two red and two black, representing Hearts, Spades, Clubs, and Diamonds respectively, accompanied by a long line of text prompts on the side.
[Detected player synthesizing basic skill cards. Please select one of the four skill cards to activate.]
[Guidance: Basic skill cards can only activate passive skills. Hearts lean toward attack and damage output; Spades focus on defense and dodge; Diamonds boost attack speed and critical hit rate; Clubs recover status, offering support and team buffs.]
[Important Prompt: Once activated, the skill is bound to the player. Unbinding requires paying a large amount of points. Skills can be upgraded by consuming skill cards of the same suit.]
Song Xu knitted her brows, feeling a bit conflicted.
She had originally wanted to choose Clubs, because her King of Clubs card was ridiculously strong.
However, this prompt stated that basic cards could only activate passive skills.
Clubs belonged to the support class.
Selecting it right now probably wouldn’t be of much use.
At present, what she lacked most was still attack power.
Taking a deep breath, her finger slid across Hearts.
Instantly, on the skill panel, a brand new icon appeared below Born Gourmet.
[Two of Hearts – Matching Game.]
[Skill Description: Wielding a kitchen knife to chop power lines, shooting sparks and lightning all the way. Every time a basic attack hits, it will bounce to 1 nearest hostile target, dealing 80% damage to it.]
Data information for this new skill was also annotated below.
Song Xu read through it carefully.
This Two of Hearts could be upgraded up to Ten of Hearts.
Every level up would add one bounce target, meaning once upgraded to LV10, she could hit 10 monsters in an area attack at once.
Song Xu felt it was a pretty good choice.
Next, she stashed away the storage chest as well, merging it into the small wooden house.
The backpack gained 10 storage slots, now totaling 20 slots.
Around her were 19 surviving green-named toads.
Song Xu patted the mud spots off her body.
The swamp was of no use to her anymore.
She had to go find higher-level monsters.
Leading the toad team, she turned north.
Just as she walked out of the swampy wetland, the soil beneath her feet grew dry and hard, while the wind turned colder, stinging her face as it blew.
Walking a bit further, her view was blocked by an endless wild grass beach.
Blown by the wind, those withered yellow wild grasses rippled like sea waves.
Waist-high was considered short; the grass waves in the distance appeared even taller than her.
Song Xu activated ‘See Food Is Eat Food’, and rows of small characters popped up in her field of vision.
[Large Desert Scallion: Spicy and aromatic, edible. Chewing directly recovers 3 Health Points. Crafting high-grade dishes increases bonus attributes.]
[Carrot: Upon consumption, recovers 15 Health Points and slightly boosts vision for a short duration.]
[Double-Hop Rabbit LV2]
[Dietary Habit: Firm meat, edible. Poor texture but high satiety.]
[Prompt: Neutral creature, extremely fast speed. Will deliver a kicking critical hit when attacked.]
Song Xu plunged into the grass patches, picking as she walked.
The Large Desert Scallions grew very tall, about one meter.
Slender strips growing in clusters, pulling a handful yielded over a dozen stalks.
Carrots were not easy to find; after digging them out, they were only thumb-sized, short, thick, chubby, and heavy.
Wiping away the soil, she took a direct bite.
Snap.
The texture was extremely crisp and slightly sweet.
[Health Points +15.]
[Obtained temporary status Eagle Eye: Vision slightly increased for 5 minutes.]
The attributes were quite good and added a fair amount of health, but they were just hard to find.
Fortunately, supported by her skill, before long she gathered dozens of jin of Large Desert Scallions and over forty carrots.
Coordinates were displayed on the small map on the system panel; she wasn’t far from the location where the quest prompt indicated the Scarecrow appeared.
Song Xu stood up and pushed aside the wild grass in front of her eyes.
A Double-Hop Rabbit flashed past.
Running too fast, she did not chase after it.
The withered grass beneath her feet became denser and denser, nearly submerging her sight.
Walking forward for another dozen minutes, the view ahead suddenly opened up.
A clearing nearly a hundred meters in diameter appeared abruptly.
There was no grass on the ground, only crushed grass stems and upturned soil.
In the clearing, dozens of human-shaped shadows of varying heights were moving slowly.
The tall ones exceeded two meters, while the short ones were only half a person high.
Bending over, they used their slender arms to tear off the withered grass on the ground, then awkwardly wrapped it around their own bodies.