Chapter 9

"Ding! An item you listed at the auction house has been sold to a player for 30,000 yuan. After deducting a 4,500 yuan fee, 25,500 yuan has been transferred to your linked bank account."

"What?! How did the price go up?" Wu Shaochen exclaimed as he checked the transaction record in surprise. "This doesn't make sense! Logically, the second piece of equipment shouldn't be worth as much as the first, especially since the first was a weapon. How did the price increase?" Wu Shaochen couldn't figure it out. He had almost listed it for 15,000 yuan, but fortunately, he hadn't in the end.

He quickly checked his bank balance and grinned stupidly at the 43,200 yuan in it. "To be honest, I've never seen so much money in my life. It really feels like I'm dreaming."

"Bam!"

Just as Wu Shaochen was daydreaming, there was a loud crash. He was sent flying into a tree, stars appearing over his head as he was momentarily stunned.

-90

"What the hell, you ambushed me!" Wu Shaochen cursed. He had been staring at the money just moments ago and had forgotten he was fighting monsters. After killing so many wild boars, he finally tasted the brutal impact of a wild charge.

While Wu Shaochen was dizzy, he was nudged again by a wild boar.

-55

Luckily, Wu Shaochen's life was now as high as 230. Back when he was level 3, he would have already returned to the city by now. Although death in the newbie village wouldn't cause him to lose a level, he would lose equipment, and now that the equipment was so valuable, losing even one piece would be heartbreaking.

Wu Shaochen turned around and gave the wild boar a sword, then ran away, muttering angrily, "Damn, it hurts so much, even 5% pain feels this bad. Did it hit my kidney?" He glared hatefully at the wild boar chasing him. "You're dead meat."

Under the torment of Wu Shaochen's poison and trash talk, the wild boar finally broke down after enduring for two minutes. At the same time, it dropped two copper coins, a fang, and an equipment item.

"Huh, this equipment dropped pretty quickly this time. Looks like it's compensation for me." Wu Shaochen picked it up and checked.

[Wild Boar Leather Pants]

Quality: Common

Life +40

Defense +2

Wearable Requirement: None

After quickly equipping the item, Wu Shaochen opened his character interface again.

Name: Chen Feng

Level: 4

Life: 270

Mana: 90

Physical Attack: 12

Magic Attack: 10

Physical Defense: 17

Magic Defense: 5

Movement Speed: 28

Experience: 1564/2000

Strength: 5

Intelligence: 5

Physique: 5

Constitution: 5

Spirit: 5

Agility: 25

Skills: Insight

Talent: Source of Poison: Inflicts 16 true damage per second on the target for 60 seconds, stackable up to 1 layer.

Equipment:

[Wooden Sword](Newbie Equipment): Physical Attack +2

[Wild Boar Leather Armor]Common: Life +40, Defense +2

[Canvas Shoes]Common: Speed +3, Defense +2

[Wild Boar Leather Helmet]Common: Life +30, Defense +3

[Wild Boar Belt]Common: Life +30, Defense +3

[Wild Boar Leather Pants]Common: Life +40, Defense +2

Most of the defensive gear is ready; a full set of wild boar gear. It's a pity it's not a set, and it seems wild boars don't drop jewelry. However, for Wu Shaochen, attack isn't very useful; defensive gear is more valuable.

Looking at his current attributes, Wu Shaochen frowned. His stats aren't enough to handle wolves yet, but now that he's equipped with defensive gear, the only way to improve is to level up, though that wouldn't make sense.

Wu Shaochen calculated again: A wolf has 4,000 HP; poison damage is 16 per second. It takes five applications of poison to kill one wolf, which means enduring five attacks. Normal attacks are manageable, reducing the damage to just 98 points, and with his current 2 HP per second regeneration, he'll need 50 seconds. However, if hit by a skill, it'd be 155 points, which isn't bad. The problem is triggering the bleeding effect, which keeps him in combat for an additional ten seconds, reducing regeneration to just 80 HP in 40 seconds. At that point, he'll have to rely on potions.

Seeing six Small Red Potions in his backpack, Wu Shaochen resolved, "Let's do it. Worst case, I'll drink potions. Killing one is better than none, and the talent can add a point too."

Having decided, Wu Shaochen got up and headed towards the wolf area. Quickly passing through the wild boar forest, he reached the wolf plains and felt anxious seeing packs of wolves.

Pulling mobs is also a skill because he doesn't know the monsters' aggro range. Trying to pull just one is quite difficult, but fortunately, Wu Shaochen is faster than the wolves now. If he pulls too many, he can always run back to the wild boar forest; once he's out of their territory, they won't chase him anymore.

Step by step, Wu Shaochen approached the closest wolves, attempting to lure one out. Soon, he entered the aggro range of several wolves, and four or five started chasing him.

"Damn! So many!" Wu Shaochen hurried back to the wild boar forest, and after a while, the wolves returned slowly.

This way, Wu Shaochen kept trying. After more than ten minutes and countless attempts, he finally managed to lure out a lone stupid wolf to follow him.

Wu Shaochen grinned like he was having a nightmare, watching the wolf approach, and struck with his sword.

-1

-16

Perhaps Wu Shaochen's grin insulted the wolf, as it immediately retaliated with a bite.

-155

"Ding! You are suffering from bleeding effect, losing 5 HP per second for 10 seconds."

"Damn it..." Wu Shaochen cursed inwardly. This luck was unbelievable; he got hit with bleeding immediately.

Wu Shaochen quickly ran away, leading the wolf in circles while taking out a Small Red Potion from his backpack and reluctantly drinking it. With such a low drop rate, each potion was precious.

Timing it right, just as the poison was about to wear off, Wu Shaochen struck the wolf again. The wolf retaliated with a claw, but thankfully, it wasn't a skill attack, which relieved Wu Shaochen.

Unfortunately, his relief didn't last long. On his third attack, he was bitten again, triggering the bleeding effect once more.

...

"Isn't this bleeding supposed to have a 50% chance? How come I'm hit every single time?" Wu Shaochen gritted his teeth and drank another potion. It took him two potions to deal with just one wolf; this was definitely not cost-effective.

On the fourth attempt, he safely survived a normal attack. On the fifth attack, he was bitten again, but luckily, this time it didn't trigger bleeding. If it had been the last attack, even if bleeding occurred, he wouldn't have needed to use a potion. He could have waited a bit before going to lure another wolf.

Soon, the first wolf met its end, lying on the ground.

"Ding! You have killed a [Wild Wolf] and gained 40 experience points. For every five levels above, you gain an additional 20 experience points."

"Ding! Talent effect triggered, poison damage increased by 1."

It had been a while since he'd heard these notifications, and they brought back nostalgic feelings. Though he had wasted two red potions, hearing these notifications made everything worthwhile.

Running to the wolf's body, Wu Shaochen was pleasantly surprised to find it quite generous, dropping 4 copper coins and a wolf claw, similar to the wild boar's fangs. He'd check for any missions back in the village later.

However, the experience from these wolves was quite high. If this continued, he'd level up after fighting another six. That meant he could only raise his talent by six more points at most. It was annoying; why did the experience have to be so high?

Embarking on another round of luring monsters, this time was faster. Just as he lured away the wolves from earlier, there was a gap, making it easy to lure out another one.

With his talent now at 17 points, Wu Shaochen only needed to attack the wolves four times, saving one attack. Unfortunately, Wu Shaochen's luck wasn't great. Out of four attacks, three were skill attacks, and two included bleeding. He could only sigh and drink two more red potions, cursing the entire wolf family in his mouth.

As the wolf fell, his talent increased by another point, reaching 18. However, looking at the two potions left in his backpack, Wu Shaochen dared not continue. If three out of four attacks resulted in skill attacks with bleeding, he'd be done for. Although the odds were low, Wu Shaochen felt the mainframe harbored ill intentions towards him.

Forget it; he decided to go back to the village and buy some more potions. He had lost interest in hunting wild boars now; it was all about wolves. Glancing at the over two hundred copper coins in his backpack, Wu Shaochen thought to himself, "I'll buy plenty of potions and stay here; money allows me to be willful."