When his thoughts touched the Soul Crystal slots, different information surfaced. Ye Luo fell into thought. There was still some time before the game officially began, so he carefully examined the Battle Soul Crystal, hoping to learn more.
A few minutes later, Ye Luo finally figured it out:
The slots on the Battle Soul Crystal were equivalent to the equipment slots, inventory, and other spaces in other virtual online games. Upon closer inspection, Ye Luo discovered that two of the three upper faces of the Battle Soul Crystal were the Weapon Equipment Slot and Skill Slot respectively. The remaining face was more cluttered, containing the inventory space, Pet Space, Mount Space, and other things.
The Weapon Equipment Slot had relatively few slots, only a dozen or so. There were two weapon slots, divided into the main weapon and off-hand weapon. The main weapon could currently be used, but the off-hand weapon bore the word "Forbidden," clearly indicating that it could not yet be used.
Besides the main and off-hand weapon slots, there were also slots for helmets, chest armor, bracers, leg guards, shoes, cloaks, rings, necklaces, and talismans. There were two ring slots, clearly meaning that one game character could equip two rings.
Whether weapon slots or slots for helmets and the like, they were collectively known as Normal Equipment. Beneath these equipment slots were several more, called Special Equipment Slots, where some special equipment could be equipped.
Ye Luo examined them carefully. When his thoughts touched these Special Equipment Slots, they did not display the types of equipment they could hold like Normal Equipment slots such as chest armor did. They were simply blank, clearly meaning that special equipment could be freely placed into any one of the slots.
To Ye Luo's surprise, two Special Equipment Slots already held equipment. He hurriedly inspected them:
Basic Detector (Special Equipment) Function: Can detect the attributes of monsters no more than 5 levels higher than the character. (Cannot be used on game characters.) Additional Traits: Cannot be dropped, traded, or damaged. Equipment Requirement: None Communicator (Special Equipment) Function: Communicate with friends. (Cannot be used in certain special states or locations.) Additional Traits: Cannot be dropped, traded, or damaged. Equipment Requirement: None
After reading the attributes of these two pieces of equipment, Ye Luo immediately wilted like an eggplant struck by frost. These were merely the most basic items granted by the system. How could they possibly be divine weapons or peerless artifacts?
Shaking his head, Ye Luo stopped looking at the Equipment Slot and instead gained a basic understanding of the Skill Slot on another face of the Soul Crystal.
As the name implied, the Skill Slot contained the skills mastered by the game character. This face had many slots, dozens or even over a hundred. There were also plenty of blank areas, and he had no idea whether new skill slots could be opened there.
Of course, based on Ye Luo's understanding of games, even if skill slots could be opened, it would require incredibly rare items. Such things could not possibly be obtained in the early stages of the game.
Although the third face of the Soul Crystal was cluttered, it was easy enough to understand. As the name implied, it was used to store game equipment, items, pets, and mounts.
What concerned Ye Luo more was the large blank area behind the twenty slots in the inventory space. Based on his experience with other virtual online games, twenty spaces were nowhere near enough. That huge blank area could surely be opened into additional space, which also confirmed that the blank area behind the Skill Slot could be used to open new skill slots with special items and the like.
Besides that, when Ye Luo's thoughts settled on the Battle Soul Crystal, he also received information about the Soul Crystal:
Battle Soul Crystal Rank: None, initial state HP: 100 Mana: 100
Ye Luo's total HP was 110, and his mana was 110. The Battle Soul Crystal's base attributes added 100 HP and 100 mana, while the extra 10 HP and mana came from the bonuses provided by 1 point of Constitution and 1 point of Intelligence respectively.
"Right, there are still two pieces of equipment in the inventory space." Ye Luo suddenly remembered and hurriedly sent his thoughts into the inventory space to inspect them:
Novice Iron Sword (Weapon * System Gift) Attack: 1–1 Attack Interval: 2 seconds Additional Traits: Cannot be dropped, sold to the System Store, or damaged. Can be traded. Required Level: 0 Novice Clothes (Chest Armor * System Gift) Defense: 1–1 Additional Traits: Cannot be dropped, sold to the System Store, or damaged. Can be traded. Required Level: 0
After reading the attributes of the two pieces of equipment, Ye Luo was thoroughly disappointed, though something was still better than nothing. With a thought, he controlled the two items and sent them toward the main weapon slot and chest armor slot on the Soul Crystal. The two balls of light immediately embedded themselves there, and his attack power became 2–2 while his Defense became 2–2.
"In the Heavenly Tribulation Game, 1 point of Strength increases Physical Attack by 1 point, while 1 point of Constitution increases HP by 10 points and Physical Defense by 1 point. A level 0 character should have an average attack power of around 6, Defense around 6, and 160 HP. My attributes are probably utter trash." Ye Luo muttered, then seemed to recall something. His expression faintly brightened. "Luckily, I still have a Heavenly Tribulation Trial Mission. I hope I can pass the trial and take up a Hidden Profession. That would improve my growth aptitude considerably and make up for my character's innate shortcomings."
With that thought, Ye Luo hurriedly checked his quest log. It was also located on the third face of the Soul Crystal. He quickly found his Heavenly Tribulation Trial Mission, but when he saw it, he was dumbfounded. Unable to hold back any longer, he cursed furiously, "Damn it, are you really trying to kill me?"
Heavenly Tribulation Trial (Trial Mission, Difficulty: SS-Upper) Mission Details: Unknown Mission Trigger Method: Unknown Mission Rewards and Penalties: Unknown Mission Requirements: Unknown Mission Participants: 1
Almost everything was unknown. Only the number of participants was known, but that was useless to Ye Luo. Anyone who encountered a mission like this would probably be depressed to death.
Taking a deep breath, Ye Luo forced himself to calm down. He carefully examined the mission several more times, but naturally gained nothing. He muttered, "I paid the price of having the worst possible attribute points, only to receive a mission whose details I know nothing about. I have to say, my luck is a little..."
"But this mission's difficulty rating is rather high. Double S. The highest mission difficulty in Heavenly Tribulation seems to be SSS, right?" Ye Luo said. He brought up the game system to ask about it and learned the specific difficulty rankings for missions in the Heavenly Tribulation Game.
There were nine major difficulty tiers in the Heavenly Tribulation Game. From easiest to hardest, they were F, E, D, C, B, A, S, SS, and SSS. Each major tier also had three minor ranks: Upper, Middle, and Lower. The Trial Mission Ye Luo had received was SS-Upper, making it almost the most difficult mission in the game.
"With the worst attributes, I'm supposed to complete an almost impossibly difficult mission. Isn't that asking too much?" For the first time, Ye Luo somewhat regretted his choice. He let out a long sigh. "I don't even know what punishment I'll receive if I fail. They wouldn't reduce all my attributes to zero, would they?"
"Sigh, I can only take things one step at a time. If it really comes down to it, I'll delete account and re-train." Ye Luo sighed, though he was extremely reluctant to delete account and re-train.
According to the game's rules, players could only delete account and re-train after reaching level 40. Level 40 was still a distant goal for Ye Luo. If he deleted his account and started over by then, he would probably fall far behind everyone else, which was not something he wanted to see.
Ding~! A crisp chime suddenly pulled Ye Luo back to reality.
System Notification: Dear player, please note that only 10 seconds remain before the game begins. Please prepare to enter the game. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Entering the game!
As the countdown ended, Ye Luo felt his vision brighten, and he appeared in a small village.
The village was not large. Its boundary fences could be seen at a glance, clearly marking the village's borders. There were only a dozen or so buildings, all extremely crude. Some simply dressed villagers busied themselves with their own work, seemingly unaware of Ye Luo and the others suddenly appearing.
Ding~! System Notification: Dear player, welcome to Novice Village 0099. This Novice Village initially contains 100,000 players. We wish you an enjoyable time in the game!
"Enjoyable my ass. With attributes as terrible as mine..." Ye Luo cursed resentfully, but his attention was soon drawn to the system notification. He muttered, "Novice Village 0099. Every Novice Village has 100,000 players. That's a lot of people."
As Ye Luo spoke, beams of white light appeared one after another, and figures descended around him by the thousands. After a brief moment of daze, they all rushed off. Some carried Novice Swords, while others waved staffs. Some charged into the village, while others ran outside it, all looking terrified of falling behind.
From what Ye Luo had learned about other online games, the early stages of a game were extremely important. Laying a good foundation was highly beneficial for future development, so it was vital to either accept quests in the Novice Village or head outside to kill monsters as soon as possible.
Seeing several thousand people clogging the entire village so tightly that not even water could pass through, Ye Luo temporarily gave up on accepting quests. He decided to head outside and kill monsters, to experience the differences between the game and reality.
The Novice Village had four gates, one in each direction. Ye Luo casually identified his bearings, then headed toward the South Gate while lightly swinging the Novice Sword in his hand.
"The attack frequency is very slow. I can only attack once every two seconds or so. So that's what the Novice Sword's two-second Attack Interval means." Ye Luo frowned slightly. "This attack frequency is far too slow, at least much slower than in reality. It'll feel very unfamiliar, so I'll have to adapt gradually."
"The game introduction says that Agility, one of the four basic attributes, increases attack speed. Should I add some Agility later?" Ye Luo muttered, then shook his head with a bitter smile. "I should wait until I level up first. I don't even know how strong the monsters in the Novice Village are. Can I beat them with my current attributes?"
As he spoke, Ye Luo had already reached the outskirts of the village. However, when he saw several or even over a dozen players fighting over a single monster, his brows furrowed tightly. After using his special equipment detector to inspect the monsters' attributes, his frown deepened further, and he cursed again:
"Damn it, are you really trying to kill me?"