Equipment Upgrade

"No wonder elite monsters gave so much experience."

Qin Chuan's face was full of delight.

Although needing two flying daggers to kill a Granite Giant was not particularly efficient—indeed, it was less efficient than fighting level-ten Wild Boars—

considering the activation requirements for the Silver Tier BOSS, this minor loss was acceptable.

Once he reached level ten, he could switch to Silver Tier equipment and head to the main city. Wouldn't that be wonderful?

Of course, Qin Chuan had not forgotten the hidden quest on him. Before leaving Newbie Village, he would take down the Wolf King.

He remembered that the Wolf King was a Bronze Tier BOSS. It was not as strong as the Granite Giants, but it was still quite decent.

"Keep it up. I'll take the first kills for the Bronze Tier and Silver Tier BOSSES too."

Qin Chuan was brimming with fighting spirit as he lowered his head and began grinding.

"Ding! You have killed a level 10 Granite Giant and gained 150 experience points. Killing an enemy 6 levels above you grants an additional 90 experience points."

"You have reached level 5!"

"You have gained 5 Free Attribute Points!"

"Power of Shadow is gathering. You have additionally gained 5 Free Attribute Points!"

"Beast Blessing has activated. You have additionally gained 5 Free Attribute Points!"

After putting all fifteen Free Attribute Points into Agility and equipping the two items in his bag, Qin Chuan's attributes had been completely transformed.

[Nickname]: Night Roaming God

[Class]: Shadow Assassin

[Level]: 5 (90/5000)

[Attributes]: Strength 14, Constitution 9, Agility 91+5, Spirit 8

[Attack]: 64

[Defense]: 30

[Health]: 390

[Mana]: 90

[Equipment]: Rabbit Tooth Dagger (Attack Power +50, Agility +5), Wild Rabbit Leather Armor (Defense +20, Health +200), Newbie Legguards (Defense +1)

[Skills]: Shadow Stealth LV2 (Black Iron tier, enter stealth. Cloakbreaking Strike deals an additional (Attack Power *120% +100) damage. Costs 5 Mana. Cooldown: 18 seconds)

Shadow Flying Dagger LV1 (Use Shadow Energy to create an energy flying dagger, dealing (Attack Power *110%) damage. Costs 5 Mana. Cooldown: 10 seconds)

Shadow Strike LV1 (Launch a powerful melee attack, dealing (Attack Power *110%) damage. Costs 5 Mana. Cooldown: 5 seconds)

Rend LV1 (Black Iron tier, passive skill. Tears open wounds while dealing damage, inflicting (Attack Power *20% +20) damage per second for 3 seconds)

...

His Agility had reached 96 points.

Honestly, if Qin Chuan had not put five points into Strength at the start, his Agility would have already exceeded one hundred!

But it was no big deal.

The boost from his attributes and equipment had sent Qin Chuan's strength soaring, while his Attack Power had more than doubled several times over.

After a brief calculation, Qin Chuan worked out the upper limit of his damage from fifty meters away.

"Shadow Flying Dagger plus Cloakbreaking Strike plus Weakness Attack: 2,781 direct damage!"

"Rend deals 492 total damage over three seconds!"

"3,273 damage altogether!"

"What a shame. I still can't one-shot a Granite Giant with a single flying dagger."

Qin Chuan smacked his lips, his face filled with regret.

If other players heard him say that, they would definitely report him under their real names.

You could deal over three thousand damage at level five, and you were still dissatisfied?!

When we were level five, we were still desperately outsmarting Wild Boars!

Although he still needed two flying daggers to kill a Granite Giant, Qin Chuan was not in a hurry.

He still had a trump card: the Exotic Beast Skull.

He had been saving the Evolution Points from killing Giant Wild Rabbits, waiting until he had killed enough monsters to gain more Evolution Points and trigger Shadow Stealth's second evolution.

A Bronze Tier Shadow Stealth would receive a substantial increase in both its damage multiplier and fixed damage.

When that happened, one-shotting Granite Giants would be effortless.

[ ]

He would not even need to wait for Rend to take effect.

"Ding! You have killed a level 10 Granite Giant and gained 150 experience points. Killing an enemy 5 levels above you grants an additional 75 experience points."

Another Granite Giant fell.

Qin Chuan was getting closer and closer to leveling up again.

At this rate, by the time Qin Chuan activated the Granite Giant Lord, he would probably be close to level ten as well.

The total time needed might not even be half a day.

"So fast."

Qin Chuan sighed.

He clearly remembered that in his previous life, he had only reached level ten on the third day after the server opened.

Even that had been considered fast.

There was no helping it. On one hand, there had been too many players, making it difficult to compete for monsters.

On the other hand, monsters were killed too slowly. If one could not fight monsters above one's level, the base experience gained was not much.

And fighting lower-level monsters incurred a certain experience reduction penalty.

Overall, leveling up in Apocalypse was absolutely a painful process.

Except for Qin Chuan.

"Ding! You have killed a level 10 Granite Giant and gained 150 experience points. Killing an enemy 5 levels above you grants an additional 75 experience points."

"You have reached level 6!"

"You have gained 5 Free Attribute Points!"

"Power of Shadow is gathering. You have additionally gained 5 Free Attribute Points!"

"Beast Blessing has activated. You have additionally gained 5 Free Attribute Points!"

He had leveled up again.

Qin Chuan casually added the attribute points to Agility, feeling no ripples in his heart.

His grinding process was simply stealth, flying dagger, stealth, flying dagger. It required no technique at all and was extremely monotonous.

Fortunately, there was something else to look forward to amid the monotony.

"Just a little longer, and I'll have killed enough monsters to evolve Shadow Stealth again!"

"Having a Bronze Tier skill in Newbie Village... no one would dare believe it if I told them."

Qin Chuan felt rather pleased with himself.

In this life, his growth speed was far faster than in his previous life.

Even so, Qin Chuan did not let down his guard.

As Qin Chuan slaughtered his way through the Granite Hills, the Granite Giants there steadily dwindled in number.

Whenever a Granite Giant shattered into chunks, its remains would quickly melt into the ground under the influence of some unknown force.

Qin Chuan knew this was activating the Granite Giant Lord.

The increasingly distinct formation patterns on the ground were proof.

According to information uncovered by players, this BOSS had been sealed here.

However, as time passed, the sealing formation gradually failed. The BOSS's energy leaked out and reacted with the granite here, creating large numbers of Granite Giants without self-awareness.

To other players, this was merely some entertaining lore.

But Qin Chuan was different. Having been reborn, he knew the true nature of Apocalypse.

"This BOSS most likely came from another world that Apocalypse had merged with!"

A bold guess surfaced in Qin Chuan's heart.

And by instinct, he felt that his guess was very likely correct!

"Then if Blue Star ultimately fails to resist the Gods, will it also merge into Apocalypse, become part of the game, and descend into another world?"

The thought surfaced in Qin Chuan's mind, sending a shiver down his spine.

There were too many secrets behind Apocalypse, and they ran too deep.

"In this life, I will definitely change my fate!"

Qin Chuan took a deep breath. Shadow Energy gathered in his hand into a flying dagger, which struck the distant Granite Giant squarely in the head.

"Ding! You have killed a level 10 Granite Giant and gained 150 experience points. Killing an enemy 4 levels above you grants an additional 60 experience points."

"You have reached level 7!"

"You have gained 5 Free Attribute Points!"

"Power of Shadow is gathering. You have additionally gained 5 Free Attribute Points!"

"Beast Blessing has activated. You have additionally gained 5 Free Attribute Points!"

"Hunting Hour has activated. You have gained 1 Evolution Point!"