Probe

This set of attributes is really fierce. At this point, the monsters in Novice Village pose no threat to me. Unfortunately, I can't farm for talents anymore; I need to reach level 10 quickly and head to the main city.

Better head back and store the skills and weapons first. In the game, every player has a personal storage vault where they can keep items they don't currently need. Each vault has 100 slots by default, but players can pay to expand it. All cities share access to the vault, meaning anything stored in Novice Village can also be retrieved from the main city. Another advantage of using the vault is that items stored inside are protected from being dropped upon death.

Might as well turn in the completed quests for the wild boars and toads. As for those temporary monster-hunting quests, forget it. I'm not hurting for copper coins right now.

Feeling quite pleased, Ethan Carter strode briskly back to Novice Village. He quickly found the vault keeper, stored his skill books and weapons, and then located the farmer to turn in the wild boar quest, earning 500 experience points and 200 copper coins.

Next, he went to the village's old healer to hand in 50 units of toad saliva, receiving 800 experience points and 300 copper coins in return. In total, he gained 1,300 experience points and 500 copper coins from these two quests. Honestly, questing does help level up faster, but it's a shame that each quest can only be completed once.

Stopping by the potion shop, he reluctantly spent 10 silver coins to buy 20 bottles of Medium Health Potions: each restores 50 health points per second for 10 seconds. At 50 copper coins per bottle, they were as overpriced as ever.

After purchasing the potions, Ethan was just about to head out to hunt silver wolves when he noticed a woman walking toward him. She wore a white veil that obscured her face, but her figure and bearing were impeccable, exuding an aura of elegance and beauty.

"Wow, definitely a goddess-level beauty. Even without seeing her face, her aura alone could outshine those so-called beauty streamers," Ethan thought to himself.

When the woman stopped in front of him, she hesitated for a moment before speaking, "Hello, could we add each other as friends?"

"Huh? Is this my lucky day? Did I just get approached by a goddess-level player wanting to add me as a friend?" Ethan blinked in surprise, glancing down at himself. He had switched back to his beginner gear before returning to the village, so his appearance was nothing remarkable. Sure, he wasn't bad-looking, but he doubted he could captivate someone of her caliber.

"Miss, what exactly caught your eye about me?" Ethan asked, puzzled.

"Ah?" Sophia Mueller was momentarily stunned but quickly composed herself. She did feel her approach was a bit abrupt. Though she was suspicious, it wasn't appropriate to directly question him, so she thought adding him as a friend would be a good way to learn his name and level. However, as someone who had never initiated a conversation with a stranger before, she was at a loss for how to proceed.

"Don't misunderstand. I just genuinely want to be friends," Sophia said calmly.

"Something's off. Definitely off," Ethan thought. He had never been approached by a girl before, let alone someone of her level. In real life, someone like her probably wouldn't even spare him a glance.

"This must be a trap. My good days are just beginning; I can't let myself be tempted by beauty," Ethan decided. He quickly said, "Sorry, I'm on a tight schedule and have monsters to hunt. Maybe next time."

With that, he dodged around Sophia and ran toward the village entrance.

"Rejected?" Sophia blinked, disbelief written all over her face. With her looks and status, this was the first time she had ever taken the initiative to add a man as a friend—and she got turned down. This was a serious blow to her confidence.

Watching Ethan's retreating figure, her eyes narrowed. "So fast!" She suddenly called out, "Dust Sealed!"

"Who's calling me?" Ethan paused for a moment before realizing something was wrong and quickly resumed running. "Damn it, she's trying to trick me."

After leaving the village, Ethan was still filled with doubts. "How did she become suspicious of me? I made sure to remove my equipment both times I returned to the village. I shouldn't have given anything away. Could it be... a woman's intuition?"

Watching Ethan disappear from view, Sophia nodded firmly. "It's definitely him!"

At that moment, a figure appeared behind Sophia. Clearly just logging in, the figure walked up to her and said, "Miss, the master has approved my proposal. He's preparing to transfer a significant portion of the family's assets into Oracle. Soon, he will arrange for a large group of elite players to join the game. For now, the master advises us to spare no expense in staying ahead of the competition so that we can secure more opportunities later."

"Understood. Keep an eye on the auction house, especially for any items listed by Dust Sealed. Make sure we acquire them as soon as possible," Sophia instructed.

"Dust Sealed? You mean the player who first killed the Wild Boar King? Miss, are you suspecting that he's the one who's been selling those high-attribute items in our village?" Uncle Lee asked.

"It's not a suspicion; I'm certain of it. In fact, I might already know who he is," Sophia replied confidently.

"Really? If that's the case, is there a way to recruit him to our side? Having a player of his caliber would be incredibly beneficial to our operations," Uncle Lee said excitedly. He didn't question how Sophia had figured it out—with her personality, she wouldn't say something unless she was sure.

"I'll try," Sophia said, feeling annoyed at being rejected earlier. Despite her usual confidence, she wasn't feeling very hopeful.

Meanwhile, Ethan had reached Silver Wolf Valley. The level 10 silver wolves, once an insurmountable challenge for him, were now no threat at all.

He lured out a silver wolf and quickly dispatched it with two strikes. Now that he could apply two layers of poison, he wasn't going to waste the opportunity. Two layers of poison dealt 46 damage per second, meaning the 6,000-health silver wolf would go down in just over two minutes. As for the damage he took from the wolf, it amounted to about 200 points. With his current out-of-combat regeneration of 6 health points per second, 200 points of damage was negligible.

Thus began Ethan's non-stop monster farming. Once he decided to focus on leveling up, his speed was impressive. Including the time spent gathering mobs, it took him only two hours to reach level 8. His health increased to 640, his mana to 130, while other stats remained unchanged. He decided not to allocate his attribute points for now, planning to adjust them based on the attributes of the next set of monsters he would face.

Oddly enough, despite the Wild Boar King dropping plenty of loot earlier, the silver wolves weren't as generous. Each wolf reliably dropped 5 copper coins and a wolf fang, but after two hours of hunting and over fifty kills, he had only looted one piece of equipment—and it wasn't even something he needed.

[Silver Wolf Bracelet]

Quality: White Label

Attack: +8

Attack Speed: +3%

Requirement: None

To be honest, Ethan wasn't impressed by its attributes. He wasn't sure if others would find it appealing either. Having two pieces of Black Iron gear made him picky, and he had no interest in White Label equipment anymore. He casually listed it on the auction house with a competitive bidding option, leaving the price to be determined by the players.

Meanwhile, in Boar Forest, Jeremy and his group had just taken down another wild boar and finally obtained a piece of equipment. Upon inspecting it, they found it was indeed one of the Wild Boar items frequently listed on the auction house.

"It looks like those items really do drop from wild boars. But I still don't get it—how could he manage to hunt wild boars when we were still struggling with goats? Even now, at level 5 with full gear, it's still tough for us," Harold said.

"Who knows? At least we're finally catching up. With our strength, we'll get there eventually," Nathan replied.

"Catching up? That's still a long way off. Check the auction house," Jeremy said quietly.

"Huh?" Both Harold and Nathan quickly opened the auction house.

"Damn, a Silver Wolf Bracelet? Could it be from level 10 silver wolves?" Harold exclaimed in surprise.

"Be more confident. Remove the 'could it be.' If he really killed the Wild Boar King, taking down level 10 silver wolves would be child's play for him," Nathan said.

"What a freak!"