Ye Luo arrived outside the village, where it was already packed with people. Several people were fighting over a single monster, and when he saw the monsters' attributes, he could not help but curse.
Young toad (Semi-Domesticated) Level: 1 Attack: 3-4 Defense: 4 HP: 100 Description: A semi-domesticated monster in Novice Village. It would not attack proactively, but it still retained some demonic nature.
Looking at the dog-sized toad, Ye Luo felt like crying. It was not the ugly bumps on the young toad or the realism of Heavenly Tribulation Game that shocked him, but the monster's attributes.
Based on Ye Luo's calculations for damage in this game, his 2 Attack should only deal 1 to 2 points of damage to the toad. He would need to attack at least fifty or sixty times to kill it. Meanwhile, the toad should deal around 6 points of damage to him, and with his current frail body, he would die in only twenty hits.
In other words, with his current strength, not only could he not kill the toad, he was very likely to be killed by it instead.
Even so, since things had come to this, Ye Luo could only grit his teeth and go forward. A toad happened to appear in front of him, and with quick hands, he swung his iron sword. There was a muffled pfft, and a yellow damage number of "1" floated above the toad's head, exactly as he had calculated.
Watching other players' attacks produce damage numbers of "8" or "10" on the toad, Ye Luo once again felt like crying.
While he was distracted, the toad's sticky tongue shot out. Ye Luo felt a sharp pain in his body as a damage number of "7" appeared above his head. His HP bar instantly dropped by a small chunk, and several wounds appeared on his body.
A cool aura spread from the Battle Soul Crystal, and the wounds the toad had inflicted on Ye Luo gradually disappeared. Before long, they were completely gone.
"Interesting. So the Soul Crystal can heal injuries too. That was a feature other virtual online games didn't have, and it made things much more realistic." Ye Luo marveled, but he soon had no time to think about it, because the toad's next attack had arrived.
The Novice Sword struck the toad again, but once more it dealt only 1 point of damage. However, when Ye Luo was attacked, a red damage number of "14" floated above his head. His already depleted HP bar lost another huge chunk, nearly one-fifth of the entire bar.
"Oh no, that was a critical hit!" Ye Luo cried out as he looked at the red damage number above his head.
Heavenly Tribulation Game had specific settings for this. Normal damage numbers were yellow, double-damage critical hits were red, and healing numbers were green. There were other colors as well, but players would have to discover those themselves.
The young toad's HP was nearly the same as Ye Luo's, and their attack speeds were similar, but the damage they dealt each other was worlds apart. Without any health potions to support him, Ye Luo had no chance of winning.
Ye Luo quickly realized this as well. He had originally wanted to rely on speed or agility to circle around it, but discovered that his speed was only about one meter per second, while the young toad's speed was almost the same as his. As for agility, there was no need to mention it. With only 1 point of Agility, he could hardly toy with the toad. More likely, it would toy with him.
"Sigh, looks like beating this toad is impossible." Ye Luo sighed softly, then decisively retreated.
The monsters in Novice Village did not have much aggro. After chasing Ye Luo for a few seconds, the young toad returned to its original spot. Soon afterward, it was hacked to pieces by several players, then turned into a ball of energy that one of them absorbed.
"Huh, that ball of energy should be the equivalent of experience in other online games. Too bad it doesn't belong to me." Ye Luo murmured, then cursed indignantly. "What kind of ridiculous rule is that? Don't other games give the experience to the first player who attacks?"
Heavenly Tribulation Game had a rule for gaining experience from killing monsters: the first player to attack had to take away more than half the monster's HP before receiving any of the experience after it died. Ye Luo had taken less than one-tenth of the young toad's HP, so naturally he got no experience.
"The weakest monsters in Heavenly Tribulation Game are the level 1 novice mobs. I can't even deal with this little toad, much less any other monsters." Ye Luo muttered to himself. Watching the other players kill the little toads without much difficulty—and seeing that some had already leveled up—he gave a bitter smile. "Looks like I can only team up with other players. This game gives bonus experience for playing with others, so there should be plenty of people willing to party with me."
"Besides, in a Novice Village with so many people and so few monsters, every additional party member means a better chance of getting a monster."
With that in mind, Ye Luo began looking for a party. Some people did accept him, but after seeing his pitiful attack power, most parties promptly kicked him out. More than an hour passed, and he had only managed to get 30 experience points. He still had a long way to go before reaching level 1.
Going from level 0 to level 1 only required 100 energy experience points, but Ye Luo had spent over an hour getting just 30. He would need at least another two hours to reach level 1.
But Ye Luo soon discovered something that left him helpless: no one was willing to party with him anymore.
Someone had somehow spread the word that Novice Village had produced a "Peerless Waste," whose Attack and Defense were unbelievably terrible. Ye Luo became famous, pointed at and discussed by countless people in the village. From time to time, he could hear the word "trash." Even players who entered the game later knew of his "great name," and no one was willing to party with him after that.
"I really am miserable right now. If I'd known, I would have chosen the mage class. At least mages have long attack range. I could attack while retreating, and it shouldn't be hard to kite a little toad to death." Ye Luo muttered, then gave a bitter smile. "It would be fine if I could just reach level 1 first. My attributes would increase a lot then, and killing these little toads would be a piece of cake."
For a Human Race Battle Soul, every level gained increased Strength by 2 points, Agility by 1 point, Constitution by 1 point, and Intelligence by 1 point. Each point of Strength increased Physical Attack by 1, while each point of Constitution increased HP by 10 and Physical Defense by 1.
Additionally, every level granted five free attribute points. According to Ye Luo's plan to put everything into Strength, after reaching level 1, his attack power would become 9-9 and his Defense would become 3-3. Killing those Young Toads would then be much easier.
"No, I have to reach level 1. Otherwise, I won't be able to get anywhere in this game. I might not even be able to leave Novice Village, much less seek revenge against the Dongfang Family." Ye Luo said, but soon shook his head. "But no one is willing to party with me now. How am I supposed to reach level 1?"
Thinking of something, Ye Luo's eyes lit up. He said excitedly, "That's right, I can ask Yue Er for help. It should be easy for her to carry me to level 1. We entered the game at almost the same time, and we were in the same little courtyard, so there's a good chance we were assigned to the same Novice Village."
Thinking this, Ye Luo hurriedly used the game's built-in communication function to contact Zhi Yue.
Of course, this communication function did not refer to the Special Equipment communicator in the game, but the video phone built into the device.
Zhi Yue quickly answered the call. Seeing Ye Luo take the initiative to contact her, she was quite excited. "Brother Ye, what's wrong? I'm fighting over monsters with a group of people right now. Hehe, I'm already level 2. What level are you?"
She's already level 2... Ye Luo muttered inwardly. However, he did not directly ask Zhi Yue to carry him, instead asking, "Yue Er, which Novice Village are you in? Once I know where you are, I can rest easy."
"Novice Village 0088. Hehe, isn't that a lucky number?" On the other end, Zhi Yue swung her staff as she attacked. Then she asked, "Brother Ye, which Novice Village are you in? Are we together? If we are, come carry me. You're so amazing, so you must be amazing at games too."
When Ye Luo heard that Zhi Yue was not in the same Novice Village as him, he smiled bitterly inwardly. But seeing her expectant expression, he answered, "I'm in Novice Village 0099. It looks like we won't have a chance to meet until we reach level 40 and leave Novice Village."
Hearing that Ye Luo was not in the same Novice Village, Zhi Yue was also quite disappointed. She muttered, "What a pity. I was planning to have you carry me. Summoners don't have summons in the early stages, and ranged classes can't compete with melee classes when Monster Stealing, so my leveling speed is really slow. Someone in my Novice Village has already reached level 5."
At least you've reached level 2. I'm still stuck at level 0. Ye Luo thought. Knowing that his plan to have Zhi Yue carry him to level 1 had fallen through, he settled for the next best thing and asked, "Yue Er, do you know any ways to level up early in the game besides killing monsters?"
"Doing quests, especially pure life-skill quests that don't require fighting monsters," Zhi Yue blurted out. Then she became puzzled. "The fastest way to level up is to kill monsters while doing quests. Leveling through life-skill quests alone is very slow. Brother Ye, don't tell me you're planning to level up that way?"
"Ahem, you know how crowded Novice Village is. Fighting over monsters is a hassle, and if you calculate it carefully, it isn't necessarily faster than doing life-skill quests." Ye Luo tried hard to choose his words, then hurriedly changed the subject. "Yue Er, focus on leveling up. Try to reach level 40 as soon as possible, and then I'll carry you."
"Hehe, okay. Goodbye, Brother Ye!" Zhi Yue did not suspect anything. She quickly ended the call and threw herself back into fighting over and killing monsters.
"Good thing I didn't let Yue Er find out about my predicament, or she might have laughed at me for a long time." Ye Luo let out a long breath, then a smile curled across his lips. "But at least I know how to reach level 1 now. Even if leveling through life-skill quests alone is slow, it's still better than not being able to level at all. Once I reach level 1, things will be relatively easier."
Thinking this, Ye Luo stopped watching the crowd behind him fight fiercely over monsters and headed straight for the villagers' homes in Novice Village. As he walked, he said, "So much time has passed. Most people in Novice Village should have already accepted their quests, right? Hopefully I won't have to line up now. That would save me a lot of trouble."
For the fastest updates on error-free novel, visit this site. Please bookmark this site to read the latest novel! ( )