Ye Luo casually found a place to sit down and began calling out, offering exactly what he had planned before: buying wolf bones for 1 silver coin each, or trading 10 wolf bones for 1 Strength Pill.
Many people were killing Demon Wolves in Demon Wolf Valley, and quite a few had obtained wolf bones. Before taking up a Life Profession, these things were useless junk, and no one knew how to deal with them. Now that someone was offering a high price, they rushed over eagerly. One gave 3, another gave 5, and Ye Luo quickly collected dozens, then hundreds, of wolf bones.
Later, someone asked about the properties of the Strength Pill. Ye Luo did not waste words and directly displayed its item information for them to see. Instantly, everyone grew excited, and even more people traded wolf bones for Strength Pills.
A Strength Pill could temporarily grant players 10 Strength. For players in Novice Village, it was an exceptional pill. More importantly, its effects lasted half an hour, so one pill could be used for a long time. Naturally, they were more than happy to trade wolf bones for it.
In just a few short minutes, Ye Luo had traded for more than two or three hundred wolf bones, enough for him and Yan Hua Yi Leng to use for quite some time.
"This time, I have enough wolf bones, but I'm short on Goji Berry again. Sigh, gathering herbs alone is such a hassle." Ye Luo sighed, then recalled something and muttered to himself, "Yan Hua said Misty Pavilion has a dedicated herb-gathering team and stores all kinds of herbs. If I could join Misty Pavilion, it would save me quite a bit of trouble."
Shaking his head, Ye Luo temporarily put those thoughts aside and prepared to gather herbs. He planned to gather as he headed toward the South Gate, because some time had already passed since noon and the Toad King would respawn soon.
As he walked, a series of beeps suddenly rang out. Ye Luo hurriedly answered, and Night Rain Misty's voice came through. "Brother Ye Luo, do you still have any extra Strength Pills? I'd like to buy some."
When they had killed the Wolf King, Ye Luo and Night Rain Misty's group had added each other as friends for easier communication, so she could contact him.
Ye Luo was no fool and instantly understood why Night Rain Misty wanted to buy Strength Pills. "Misty, you're planning to use them for tomorrow's dungeon, right? How many people are you taking in, and what difficulty are you choosing?"
Knowing she could not hide it from Ye Luo, Night Rain Misty said, "Brother Ye Luo, you and Sister Yan Hua should choose the difficult two-player dungeon. The two of you are so strong that we have no chance of competing with you. We can only choose the easy six-player dungeon. I hope you can provide us with some Strength Pills. We'll pay a high price."
"You know Yan Hua and I are busy leveling, so we don't have time to gather herbs. We don't have many pills, so..." Ye Luo deliberately dragged out his words before changing his tone. "Besides, you also know we don't lack money."
Night Rain Misty immediately understood his meaning. Still, she knew that increasing their strength was the most important thing right now, so she could not blame him for raising the price. After pondering briefly, she said solemnly, "Brother Ye Luo, tell me what equipment you need. But only one piece, and I need 20 Strength Pills."
Ye Luo still had quite a few Strength Pills, and after gathering more herbs, he could refine even more. He did not care much about them. Trading 20 Strength Pills for a piece of equipment was a great deal to him. After checking his equipment, he said, "A ring or shoes. If it's a ring, it has to be at least level 5."
One of Ye Luo's rings was only level 3, and his shoes were also level 3, making them somewhat low-level for him. That was why he wanted to replace those two pieces. Comparatively speaking, his defense was already sufficient. What he needed more was equipment that increased his attack, since they planned to force their way through tomorrow's dungeon with brute strength.
Silence. A long silence. Only after quite a while did Night Rain Misty reply, her tone full of difficulty. "Brother Ye Luo, you know rings have an extremely low drop rate. Dozens of us have not even gathered 10, and that is not enough for our own Elite Squad. How about I trade you a pair of shoes instead?"
"Shoes?" Unable to get offensive equipment, Ye Luo was slightly disappointed. Still, he knew how low the drop rate for rings was. "Shoes are fine too, but they need to be level 10 or above."
After pondering for a long time, Night Rain Misty said, "Alright, deal. Brother Ye Luo, trade us the shoes you replace. Some people in our team still don't have any shoes."
"No problem." Ye Luo readily agreed. After thinking for a moment, he added, "Let's meet at the entrance to the North Gate of Novice Village."
A few minutes later, a player from the Night Rain Family appeared. He respectfully said a few things, and then the two sides traded. Ye Luo obtained a pair of shoes with fairly decent attributes:
White Iron Boots (Shoes * Heavy Armor - Normal)
Physical Defense: 20-20
Magic Defense: 10-10
Equipment Durability: 150/150
Required Level: 10
After putting on the shoes, Ye Luo's defense finally broke 100, reaching 102-103. He was now confident he could withstand several monsters attacking him alone, and he had even more confidence in brute-forcing the dungeon.
Afterward, Ye Luo headed straight for Aunt Li's house. The quest he had accepted to collect Scorpion Venom had long been completed, and he could turn it in now.
After turning in the quest, Ye Luo received 32,000 energy experience, 100 Novice Village favorability, and 20 silver coins. What delighted him most was that he had luckily received a piece of equipment—the very type of equipment he had wanted to trade with Night Rain Misty for not long ago:
Wolf Fang Ring (Ring - Normal)
Physical Attack: 20-20
Magic Attack: 20-20
Equipment Durability: 150/150
Required Level: 10
It was a level 10 Normal Equipment ring. Although its attributes were far worse than the Wolf King Ring's, it was much stronger than the Toad Ring. Ye Luo hurriedly equipped it, and his Physical Attack rose another notch.
"Hehe, just what I needed. My attack has gone up again." Ye Luo was thrilled. After accepting another quest from Aunt Li to kill wild cattle and obtain cattle horns, he headed toward the South Gate of Novice Village.
"Yan Hua and I were just discussing where to find bull-type monsters, but Aunt Li directly told me: level 18 monsters outside the North Gate of Novice Village. It would be difficult alone, and Yan Hua also said leveling up right now is not very worthwhile. Forget it." Ye Luo gave up on going to the North Gate.
"The worst piece of equipment I have now is the Novice Iron Sword. Too bad I still haven't come across a sword-type weapon." Ye Luo said as he looked through his Equipment Slot, faintly anticipating, "It would be great if I could get a Bronze Grade longsword. Yan Hua's Bronze Grade long bow has such incredible attributes..."
Thinking about this, Ye Luo left through the South Gate of Novice Village. After checking the system time and seeing that there was still some time before the Toad King respawned, he began wandering around.
After so much time had passed, the herbs had respawned. Ye Luo made a large circuit, and the herbs in his backpack increased considerably.
Calculating that there were still over ten minutes left, Ye Luo returned to Toad Slope. He found the place where the Toad King had appeared last time, sat down cross-legged, and refined pills while waiting for the Toad King to respawn.
The game had been open for over half a day. Although newcomers continued entering the game, Young Toads were, after all, the lowest-level monsters. Only a few scattered players were desperately killing monsters on Toad Slope. Most of them were only level 1 or 2. Facing the Toad King would mean certain death, so Ye Luo was not worried that anyone could steal the monster.
After reaching level 10, his Soul Crystal's growth aptitude had doubled, greatly increasing Ye Luo's attributes. Minor Blood Recovery Pills were no longer useful to him, so he refined only Major Blood Recovery Pills.
A few minutes later, he had harvested more than 300 Major Blood Recovery Pills, along with over 10 mutated Blood Recovery Pills. This made him quite happy, and he began refining Strength Pills.
For Ye Luo, ordinary Strength Pills could no longer satisfy him. What he needed were mutated Strength Pills.
A few more minutes passed, and Ye Luo refined more than 200 Strength Pills. This time, he was rather lucky. There were 15 mutated Strength Pills, one more than the mutated Major Blood Recovery Pills. These pills should last him for quite a while.
Seeing that the time was nearly up, Ye Luo stood and vigilantly looked around. The Novice Iron Sword in his hand rose slightly as he prepared to strike at any moment.
However, a small accident occurred next. Since the Toad King's spawn location was random, it did not appear where Ye Luo was waiting this time. Instead, it spawned thirty meters away, where several level 1 and 2 players were killing toads.
A gigantic toad appeared, and those people were instantly stunned. Then they shouted things like "Kill the boss!" and "Drop divine equipment!" as they charged forward.
"Don't attack the Toad King! You're no match for it!" Ye Luo hurriedly warned them.
Ye Luo meant well and did not want them to throw their lives away. But they did not appreciate it, thinking he was trying to steal their monster. They charged even harder, and Novice Iron Swords slashed down onto the Toad King.
What followed was far more tragic. How could players equipped with only Novice Iron Swords and Novice Clothes possibly be a match for the Toad King? One Toad Poison Bullet and several pounces killed one player, while the rest rapidly lost health in the poisonous gas. Before the Toad Poison Bullet's effects even ended, they turned into white light and died, leaving behind only the Toad King with ninety percent of its health remaining.
"Sigh, I told you that you weren't its match." Ye Luo sighed as he headed toward the Toad King.
With Ye Luo's current strength, he could practically instantly kill the Toad King with a single Combination Skill. However, perhaps because it had not been killed for the first time, the Toad King only dropped one piece of equipment and one Jade Poison Bead this time. It did not even drop Toad Skin.
Additionally, because the level difference was too great, Ye Luo gained almost no experience.
The equipment was a pair of level 3 shoes. Their defense was far inferior to what Ye Luo was currently wearing, so they could only be sold off to someone else. Ignoring that, he combined three first-tier Jade Poison Beads into one second-tier bead, then put it into his backpack, intending to trade it to Yan Hua Yi Leng when he saw her tomorrow.
"I remember Tailor Zhang should finish that cape in about half an hour." Ye Luo muttered, faint anticipation rising within him. "A Bronze Grade cape. It definitely won't compare to Yan Hua Yi Leng's Flying Snow Robe, but it should still be much stronger than other Normal Equipment. Forget it for today. I'll check it after logging in tomorrow."
Before you continue