For a whole half hour, Wu Shaochen excitedly watched as the sea turtle with its remaining sliver of health slowly approached death. As the last drop of blood vanished, the turtle's massive body finally fell to the ground unwillingly. A system notification followed.
[Ding, you have slain [Sea Turtle], gaining 15 experience points. Killing a creature 5 levels higher grants an additional 50% experience, totaling 7 points (rounded down).]
[Ding, Talent Trait activated, poison damage increased by 1 point, dealing 2 points of true damage per second to the target.]
"Awesome!" Wu Shaochen exclaimed with excitement upon hearing the system notification. Gaining 22 experience points at once was much faster than snatching rabbits at the village entrance. The most important thing was the talent upgrade, which was crucial. Now, it would take half the time to deal with sea turtles.
He quickly approached the large sea turtle's corpse, noticing two copper coins and a piece of equipment on the ground. Wu Shaochen eagerly picked them up, thrilled to have found equipment. Although killing creatures 5 levels higher increased the drop rate by 50%, getting equipment from the first monster was a stroke of incredible luck given the pitifully low drop rate in "Oracle."
The equipment turned out to be a pair of shoes.
[Canvas Shoes]
Quality: Blank Slate
Movement Speed +3
Physical Defense +2
Requirements: None
Not bad, just what I needed. He quickly put them on, increasing his speed to 8 points and defense to 8 points.
In "Oracle," equipment quality ranges from low to high as follows: Blank Slate - Black Iron - Bronze - Silver - Gold - Dark Gold - Platinum - Diamond - Star Glory - Immortal Artifact - Sacred Artifact - Divine Artifact - Super Divine Artifact.
Early-stage Blank Slate equipment has no requirements, while Black Iron and above do. Black Iron gear starts having additional attributes, and Gold gear begins to have additional skills.
Wearing the shoes made walking feel slightly faster, and Wu Shaochen happily continued searching for the next sea turtle. These turtles seemed tailor-made for him, though there weren't many of them. After wandering for a while, he finally spotted a sea turtle basking in the sun on the beach.
Wu Shaochen walked over and struck the turtle's shell with his sword, then turned and ran, but still got bitten. In the early stages, without overwhelming attack and movement speed, it's hard to avoid taking damage.
-2, -2, -2
White numbers continuously appeared above the turtle's head as it struggled to chase Wu Shaochen.
This time, it was noticeably faster, taking only 15 minutes for the poor turtle to fall with tears in its eyes. Wu Shaochen quickly picked up the two copper coins it dropped and continued searching for the next target.
Wu Shaochen kept hunting sea turtles, and with his talent upgrade, the time to kill them decreased. The third one took 10 minutes, the fourth 7 and a half minutes, and the fifth only 6 minutes. Then, a system notification came.
[Ding, you have slain [Sea Turtle], gaining 22 experience points. Experience is full, congratulations on leveling up. Health +20, Mana +10, and you have gained 5 Free Attribute Points. Please allocate them wisely.]
Finally leveled up, my speed should be considered fast, Wu Shaochen thought to himself. Looking at the five Free Attribute Points, he hesitated for a moment before decisively adding them all to Agility. Being able to kill level 5 sea turtles was entirely due to their slower speed compared to his. To leverage his talent's advantage, increasing his speed by adding to Agility was definitely the right choice.
After leveling up and allocating the attribute points, his attributes changed: Health increased from 50 to 70 points, Mana from 50 to 60 points, Agility from 5 to 10 points, and Movement Speed from 8 to 13 points. Other attributes remained unchanged. He checked his experience points.
Experience Points: 10/300
Leveling from 1 to 2 requires 300 experience points, which isn't too bad, just about a dozen sea turtles.
Wu Shaochen pondered whether to continue farming sea turtles or move to other areas to hunt level 6 wild creatures. Although farming sea turtles was stable and the leveling speed wasn't slow, level 5 sea turtles could no longer trigger his talent's traits.
"It's a pity that dying in the Novice Village doesn't cause you to lose levels; otherwise, I'd love for this turtle to kill me, drop back to level 0, and continue farming talent. That would be awesome," Wu Shaochen mused.
"Forget it, let's check out other areas first. With my current movement speed of 13 points, I'm probably faster than many creatures. Maybe I'll encounter monsters suitable for farming talent passives. If not, I can always come back to farm sea turtles; it won't waste much time."
With that thought, Wu Shaochen turned around and headed back. He had reached the end of the area, and beyond lay the ocean, so he had to return. Back at the three-way intersection, Wu Shaochen headed left into the forest. The bamboo grove ahead had poor visibility, making it easy to get ambushed. Monsters above level 5 would actively attack, and his small frame couldn't withstand attacks from creatures above level 5.
The forest had decent lighting because the trees were spaced far apart. Wu Shaochen walked cautiously when suddenly, a pitch-black wild boar with glowing tusks emerged from behind a tree, its eyes fixed on Wu Shaochen. It scraped its front hooves on the ground and charged at him at high speed.
"Fuck!" Wu Shaochen was startled. Just as the boar was about to hit him, he narrowly sidestepped, and the boar grazed his clothes, crashing into a tree ahead, stars of dizziness appearing above its head.
Wu Shaochen patted his chest, relieved that he had just added all his attribute points to Agility; otherwise, he wouldn't have dodged that. He quickly cast an Insight.
[Wild Boar]
Level: 6
Health: 2000
Physical Attack: 70
Physical Defense: 30
Speed: 11
Skill: Savage Charge: Charges forward in a straight line at high speed, dealing 150% physical damage to targets in its path and stunning them for one second. Cooldown Time: 10 seconds.
Wu Shaochen smirked. Is this a level 6 monster? "Oracle" is as ruthless as ever. Luckily, he dodged it; otherwise, he'd be enjoying a free town return right now.
Should I take it on or go back to bullying sea turtles? Wu Shaochen was torn. It's possible to take it on. The boar's attack is 70, and he has 70 health and 8 defense. He can withstand a normal attack, and his movement speed is faster, allowing him to create distance. But the problem lies in the boar's skill; if it hits him, it's a one-way ticket home. Wu Shaochen wasn't confident he could dodge every time. Earlier, the boar was far enough to give him time to react, but if it attacked while he was finishing off a monster, he'd be done for.
Damn it, let's go for it. With his talent's poison dealing 6 damage per second, it would only take a little over five minutes to kill a wild boar. It's worth the risk.
With that thought, Wu Shaochen charged at the boar. It had just used its skill and had a 10-second cooldown. If he didn't seize the opportunity, he'd get rammed. He struck the boar's back with his sword.
-1 (Unbreakable Defense, forced damage)
-6 (Poison Damage)
The boar wasn't easy prey either; its tusks thrust forward.
-62
Wu Shaochen quickly retreated, suddenly realizing a serious oversight: his health regeneration couldn't keep up. Exiting combat required 10 seconds, meaning he could only regain 50 health in the remaining 50 seconds. To withstand the boar's counterattack, his health needed to be above 63 points. If he waited for his health to recover to 63 points before attacking again, the boar would be poison-free for 13 seconds, regaining 1% health per second after exiting combat. That meant it would recover 60 health in those 3 seconds, significantly extending the kill time.
Sigh, as expected, level 6 monsters aren't easy to kill. But since I've started, I have to see it through.
Proofreader & Editor: Peter Pan