Testing the waters

The attributes are formidable now; the monsters in the starting village pose no threat to me. It's a pity I can't farm talent points anymore. I need to quickly level up to 10 and head to the main city.

First, I'll return to store my skills and weapons. In the game, every player has a personal storage, and items that are temporarily useless can be kept with the warehouse manager. The storage has 100 slots, and if that's not enough, you can pay to expand it. All cities are interconnected, so anything stored in the starting village can be retrieved in the main city, and the items stored are safe from being dropped upon death.

I'll also turn in the Wild Boar and Toad quests. As for the temporary monster-hunting tasks, I'll pass. I'm not in need of those few copper coins.

In a good mood, Wu Shaochen briskly returned to the starting village, found the warehouse manager, and stored his skill books and weapons. Then he approached the farmer to turn in the Wild Boar task, earning 500 experience and 200 copper coins.

Next, he submitted 50 Toad Salivas to the village's old healer, gaining 800 experience and 300 copper coins. In total, he earned 1,300 experience and 500 copper coins from the two quests. Honestly, completing quests was a quick way to level up, but sadly, each quest could only be done once.

He then reluctantly spent 10 silver coins at the pharmacy to buy 20 Medium Healing Potions (each restoring 50 health per second for 10 seconds), costing 50 copper coins each—just as overpriced as always.

After buying the potions, Wu Shaochen was about to head out to farm Silver Wolves when a woman, her face hidden behind a white veil, approached. Her figure and presence were nothing short of perfect.

"Wow, definitely a goddess level. Even though I can't see her face, her aura is enough to outshine all those beauty streamers," Wu Shaochen thought to himself.

The woman stood in front of him, hesitating for a moment before speaking: "Hello, could we be friends?"

"Wait, is this my lucky day? A goddess-level beauty is asking to be friends?" Wu Shaochen thought, blinking in surprise. He glanced at his attire—he had switched back to the beginner gear when he returned to the village, and though he didn't consider himself unattractive, he certainly didn't think he could charm someone like her.

"Beautiful lady, what is it that has caught your interest?" Wu Shaochen asked, confused.

"Ah?" Su Muxue blinked, realizing her abruptness. She had been suspicious but didn't want to ask directly, so she simply decided to add him as a friend, thinking that would reveal his name and level. However, having never approached a stranger this way before, she wasn't sure how to begin.

"Please don't misunderstand, I just wanted to make a friend," Su Muxue said calmly.

"There's definitely something going on. This is too odd," Wu Shaochen thought to himself. He had never been approached by a girl like this, let alone a beauty of her caliber. In reality, she probably wouldn't have even noticed him.

"This is definitely some kind of trap. My lucky days have just begun, but I can't be swayed by beauty," Wu Shaochen concluded, then quickly said to Su Muxue, "I'm sorry, but I have urgent tasks to attend to. Let's talk next time."

Without waiting for a reply, he swiftly maneuvered around her and dashed towards the village entrance.

"Rejected?" Su Muxue blinked in disbelief. To be the first to initiate a friend request to a man of her choosing, and to be turned down—it was a blow to her, both unexpected and crushing.

She watched his retreating back, her eyes narrowing, "He's fast!" Then, she called out, "Dust Sealed!"

"Who's calling me?" Wu Shaochen paused for a moment, then quickly realized and began running faster, thinking, "Damn, this woman is trying to trick me."

Once out of the village, Wu Shaochen was still perplexed. "How did she figure me out? I've always unequipped my gear when I return to the village; there shouldn't have been any clues. Could it be some sixth sense? Damn, women really are terrifying creatures—better stay out of their way."

As she watched Wu Shaochen disappear from sight, Su Muxue confidently muttered, "It's him."

At that moment, a figure appeared behind her—clearly someone who had just logged in. Walking up beside her, the man said, "Miss, the master has agreed with my suggestion to transfer most of his assets into *Divine Oracle*. Soon, a large group of elite players will enter the game. The master said we shouldn't be afraid to spend money early on, as being ahead of others is crucial to gaining more opportunities for growth."

"Mm, keep an eye on the auction house, especially Dust Sealed's equipment. We need to be the first to grab it," Su Muxue replied.

"Dust Sealed? Is that the one who defeated the Wild Boar King first? Are you suspecting that person is the one who has been selling high-stat equipment in our starting village?" Liu Shu asked.

"I'm not suspecting—I'm certain! And perhaps I already know who that person is," Su Muxue said confidently.

"Really? If that's the case, do you think we can recruit him to our side? Having such a powerful individual with us would be an incomparable advantage for our development," Liu Shu exclaimed eagerly. He didn't question how she knew, trusting that Su Muxue was certain before making such a claim.

"I'll try my best," Su Muxue replied, feeling a bit vexed after being rejected earlier. Normally confident, she wasn't so sure this time.

Wu Shaochen had arrived at the Silver Wolf Valley. The level-10 Silver Wolves, which had once been an insurmountable challenge, now posed no difficulty at all.

He quickly aggroed a Silver Wolf and struck it twice. Now that he could stack two layers of poison, he made sure not to waste it. Two layers of poison meant 46 damage per second. With the Silver Wolf's 6,000 health, it took a little over two minutes to defeat it. As for the 200 points of damage he would take, it was negligible. With his health regeneration of 6 per second after leaving combat, 200 damage wasn't much to worry about.

Wu Shaochen then activated his farming mode. When he decided to level up, his progress was rapid. After two hours of grinding and pulling monsters, he reached level 8. His health increased to 640, mana to 130, and other stats remained the same. He decided not to allocate attribute points yet and would wait until he encountered the next boss to choose where to invest them.

Perhaps because of the Wild Boar King's abundant loot, in the two hours he spent hunting Silver Wolves, he obtained only one piece of equipment—a bracelet he didn't need.

[Silver Wolf Bracelet]

Quality: White-tier 

Attack +8 

Attack Speed +3% 

Required Level: None

He honestly didn't care much for its attributes and wasn't sure if others would either. With two pieces of Black Iron-tier equipment, Wu Shaochen was starting to become picky about White-tier gear. He quickly listed it on the auction house, opting for the auction format and letting others place their bids.

Meanwhile, in the Wild Boar Forest, Junlin and his group had just taken down a Wild Boar and found the expected loot. Sure enough, it was the same Wild Boar gear frequently listed on the auction house.

"It seems those items are indeed dropped by the Wild Boar. But I still can't figure out how he was able to kill the Wild Boar while we were still struggling with the goats. Even now that we're all level 5 with full gear, we're still having a tough time," Haoran remarked.

"Who knows? But now we've caught up. With our strength, we'll eventually catch up to him," Nan Feng replied.

"It'll still take time. You guys should check the auction house," Junlin said with a hint of amusement.

"Huh?" The two quickly opened the auction house.

"Damn, [Silver Wolf Bracelet]? Did it drop from a level-10 Silver Wolf?" Haoran exclaimed.

"Be more confident, remove the 'did it drop' part. If Dust Sealed really killed the Wild Boar King, then taking down a level-10 Silver Wolf must be child's play," Nan Feng said.

"Freaking insane!"