Hidden chest

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The ever so nostalgic sentence was heard in Mo Shan's head whilst he was getting used to his surroundings and his aged muscular body full of vitality.

Mo Shan quickly made note of where he was since every starting town looked very similar, and after just a couple minutes of walking made his way over to the west village gates.

As for other players, he hadn't seen any yet, which came to no surprise even though the federation had billions of people probably entering the portals now, everyone would put lots of care and time into changing their appearance and studying the map or choosing a starting village or class. After all, the future of humanity depended on how they did in this world.

After leaving the city Mo Shan quickly left the path behind and made his way over towards a massive ravine.

The village was built next to it and used it as a natural protection against invaders or beasts. In Mo Shan's previous life this starter village got very famous for this ravine, which is why he instantly managed to find it on the map from memory when choosing a city.

The ravine was home to a popular levelling area in the first year in his previous life. It had an abundance of rock elementals which were basically creatures made of rock in all sorts of shapes.

People found an ingenious way to gather a ton of them up into a corner of the ravine and have their companions drop spells and arrows down from above. Thus, easily mass killing them for experience without any risk of dying. Yet, Mo Shan was not here for that reason.

He had no companions to help with this strategy and they didn't have any spells yet either. And even if he knew of better areas to instantly gain tons of levels, Mo Shan wasn't allowed to make use of them, or he would lose his hidden class.

The reason he came here was for the hidden treasure chest in this ravine in order to gain some starting capital.

The world had treasure chests all over the place usually hidden away and, just like the monsters the treasure chests would reappear after a while if they were removed. This treasure chest was a level 20 treasure chest meaning it would contain something suitable for level 20 players. Which is what Mo Shan was after. This was the highest-level treasure chest in any starting zone he was aware of, so selling its contents would give him the biggest start possible.

Swiping the air in front of him using 2 fingers the old man managed to open up his virtual stat page, though it couldn't be touched or seen by others and had no solid state, it helped to see your progression. Just like any virtual game.

[name: Mountain]

[level: 0]

[class: lifestyle]

[inventory: none]

[money: none]

[skills: none]

[status: healthy]

[titles: none]

[world announcements: none]

[name: displayed]

Seeing the stats like he remembered from the past reminded Mo Shan that players started with nothing on them, not even some basic food or several bronze coins.

"Oh well, the hard way it is, rock elementals are clumsy anyways so it shouldn't be too hard even with my level 0 physique."

The old man stopped at the edge of the ravine close to the path downwards and first threw some punches in the air and did some warmups.

"Whew, after surviving for years with a high-level body this weak feeling sure takes some getting used to. Good thing I gave it a couple minutes to try out some things otherwise I would be sorely mistaken by my power once I got into a fight due to wrong muscle memory."

Making his way down Mo Shan quickly made note of the many large boulders lying around the biggest of which was taller than him. 'All of these should be rock elementals between level 18 and 20. Let's find that rumoured treasure chest location as fast as possible and get out of here. I don't want to lose too much time here.

'According to that viral thread back then…. Yes! There it is!' Mo Shan quickly got in a great mood noticing how fast he found the so-called key.

In an inconspicuous corner of the ravine was what appeared to be a dead rock elemental. Which could be found all over the ravine like statues, yet this one had a triangle shaped indentation on its back. This rock elemental corpse was resting against a wall, but it could be pushed to the side to reveal a man-sized cave housing a small wooden chest. As for how to open it without the lockpicking skill that only thieves could learn after level 5…The same way Mo Shan had to move that large rock elemental corpse.

Since he was too low levelled to move the large rock elemental body to the side he had to resort to the rock elementals to do it for him. Thankfully they were very clumsy and after throwing a decently sized rock at one of the boulders it soon enough started to crack open revealing a rock elemental's sturdy body.

In a way they looked very cute and some summoners really loved these clumsy hunks of stone. Yet, to the level 0 Mo Shan they were a force to be reckoned with. One punch could probably turn him into an old man pancake considering the level difference.

But for an experienced player who spent many years fighting, these elementals were truly full of flaws. Even Mo Shan, who hated fighting and was famous in his last life for being a genius who was super scared of dying could dodge these monsters easily, hence why he dared to go for this chest in particular.

He easily managed to dodge all of the elemental's punches though he couldn't return any out of fear of breaking his hands whilst slowly leading it over to that rock elemental corpse with the indentation. The sounds of battle soon woke op two more elementals on the way over and at this point Mo Shan decided to start running.

The rock elementals had an annoying attack where, if a player ran away fast then the rock elementals would turn back into a boulder and roll to their target at an incredible speed. This move flattened many players in Mo Shan's past life and would surely flatten many more once the player base in the area reached level 18 until they discovered the levelling trick.

Mo Shan soon managed to run over to the dead elemental and took cover behind it right away, swiftly making a roll away from the corpse the instant he heard sounds of impact.

The elementals rolling over noticed Mo Shan taking cover behind the corpse of their clansman and since they couldn't turn at crazy angles at the speed they were going, decided to just smash into the corpse, hoping to make it move and flatten the annoying old human in the process.

The other two who arrived just behind the first one smashed into their companion in order to put more force behind the push but this only helped Mo Shan in opening the entrance to the chest, otherwise he would have to go around a couple times in order to make the entrance larger.

Bang! With an ear splitting sound the rolling elementals pushed over their companion barely missing the old man who managed to roll away the instant after hearing the impact.

Mo Shan instantly jumped up after hearing the impact and swiftly ran past the clumsy elementals who were changing back from boulder into their humanoid form. This time frame gave him just enough seconds to grab the wooden chest and make his way out. He didn't forget to skilfully dodge the incoming attacks, even using the chest as a shield to block one of them opening the chest in the process. After which the chest seemed to vanish into colorful particles of energy after dropping its contents.

Mo Shan swiftly picked up the item and several coins that fell from the chest and, after skilfully dodging some more attacks made his way out of the ravine with his treasure in hand.

The rock elementals tried catching up with the old man again by rolling over, but the old man seemed slippery like an eel and no matter how much they tried, they couldn't hit him at all.

Mo Shan Swiftly made his way over to the starting village after catching his breath, he also didn't forget to open his virtual screen again by swiping two fingers across the air which then instantly popped up some information above the item in his hand.

[boulder hat: silver]

[level requirement: 20]

Mo Shan felt ecstatic seeing the "silver" tag on the item, though he kind of expected it.

Contrary to expectation items and players didn't have statistics in this world like damage, hp etc.

These statistics were hidden and the effect of the items had to be guessed by the rarity. A level twenty bronze piece will always carry stronger effects than a similar level twenty white piece.

Of course, some items might be more suitable to certain players but when talking identical pieces the rarity decided the quality of the item. In the case of heavy armor like this [boulder hat], which looked like a helmet carved out of rocks. this meant that it would offer better protection and weigh less than a bronze [boulder hat].

Silver items were the best rarity that could be obtained below level 30. And obtaining this came to no surprise to The happy old man since the first time a chest was opened, a dungeon was cleared etc. it would give out better rewards than average.

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