"I could feel it. Even though I hadn't leveled up, my body seemed to have become more agile." The woman glanced at her arm and sighed.
"Yes. Part of this power can be brought back to reality. You should understand what that means. Strictly speaking, I'm a newcomer just like you. The difference is that I had a bad start last time, and my teammates were wiped out, so I had no choice but to use my free retry. I didn't expect to run into even more dangerous Gray Wolves this time."
The Tall Man stepped forward and picked up the bespectacled man's shortsword. After a moment of thought, he said, "It's unlikely that we can beat wolves like that in a direct fight. I suggest making some simple traps and long-handled weapons."
"How do we do that?" Ye Qian asked.
"Dig some deep pits around the perimeter and disguise them with grass or something. Then build a ring of wooden walls behind the pits. The wolves' fireballs detonate on impact, so they'll probably explode if they hit the wooden walls too. The pits can slow the wolves down, and we can use long weapons to pierce them from a distance."
"Good idea. Let's try it."
Since they couldn't think of a better method for the moment, the group got busy following his plan.
While Ye Qian worked, she watched the man and woman raise their axes and swiftly chop the felled trees into sections. They then drove the logs into the ground and secured them, forming a simple wooden wall.
She did not waste any time either, focusing completely on her work.
After everyone had worked for around twenty minutes, Ye Qian turned around and saw twelve wooden stakes, each about 1.5 meters tall, already planted side by side in the distance.
A wooden spear had also been made.
"So fast?"
Ye Qian muttered, bringing her axe down.
Bang!
An item emitting white light dropped out.
Item: Ice Needle Card (White) Type: Consumable Description: A card sealing the first-tier spell Ice Needle. Use it by silently chanting its activation.
"Ice Needle Card?"
Holding the black card with blue lettering and several thin needles drawn on it, Ye Qian fell into thought.
This scene clearly caught the Tall Man's attention as well.
"A skill card?"
"It's Ice Needle." Seeing him approach, Ye Qian answered.
"Not bad luck. This skill should be powerful enough to deal a fatal blow to a wolf. If we get attacked later, we'll be much safer."
The man smiled, as if he had finally relaxed.
Ye Qian put it into her pocket.
After working for a while longer, she noticed another red dot appearing in the distance on the mini-map.
This time, there was only one.
It was roughly three hundred meters away, which seemed to be the mini-map's current detection range.
"It really is a Gray Wolf."
Once she saw the target clearly, she immediately hugged her hoe and ran behind the half-built wall.
"A monster is coming."
"Hm?" The man raised his head in surprise, frowning.
The woman beside him also gripped her spear nervously.
As if realizing it had been spotted, the wolf opened its mouth and fired a fireball.
"Duck!"
The man immediately shouted.
The three of them instantly crouched and retreated five meters behind the wall.
Boom!
Less than two seconds later, a violent explosion erupted from the wooden wall ahead. A log flew backward and landed beside Ye Qian.
"Take your spears and fight!" the man shouted again.
When they stood up and looked, the wolf was charging at them.
He raised his wooden spear high and thrust it forward with all his strength.
However, the target was faster than expected. Seeing this, Ye Qian pulled the card from her pocket and silently chanted, "Ice Needle!"
A frost-filled glow spread from the card.
Three ice needles over ten centimeters long instantly condensed and shot out with sharp whistles. With two muffled impacts, they pierced through the wolf's body.
One of the needles was especially accurate, passing directly through its eye socket.
Blood gushed out. The Gray Wolf rolled once and collapsed onto the ground.
Killed LV3 Gray Wolf. Obtained: Gray Wolf Pelt ×1, Wolf Meat ×1, Guidance Arrow Tower Blueprint (Green) ×1 Extracting energy... Extraction complete. You have obtained 100% of the energy from this kill, totaling 13 points.
A streak of light flew out and merged into Ye Qian's body.
Ding!
Your level has increased to: LV2 Strength +0.3, Constitution +0.2, Agility +0.2, Spirit +0.3, Intelligence +0.2, Resistance +0.1 Remaining unspent energy: 5 points Your personal attribute panel has been unlocked. You may silently chant to view it.
A mysterious power surged through her.
Ye Qian noticed the message and silently chanted.
Beep!
Name: Ye Qian LV: 2 Experience: 5/20 Attributes: Strength 1.1, Constitution 1.1, Agility 0.9, Spirit 1.2, Intelligence 1.0, Resistance 0.4 (excluding Resistance, the average adult human is 1) Skills: None Money Held: 20 Copper Coins Items: None
"So this was already after the improvement?"
She had not expected that, even after reaching LV2, she was only on par with an ordinary person.
Ye Qian sensed that splitting required at least ten energy points.
She sighed in relief, then looked from afar at the items dropped by the corpse before walking over to pick them up.
Guidance Arrow Tower Blueprint (Green)
The man behind her took a deep breath in lingering fear and looked at the item in Ye Qian's hand. "Green, excellent quality. Your luck is really good."
Ye Qian shrugged and glanced at the thing's effects.
Blueprint: Guidance Arrow Tower (Green) Materials Required: Timber ×200, Iron ×20, Guidance Device ×1 Money Required: Copper Coins ×10 Description: An arrow tower capable of automatically firing arrows. Range: 300 meters. Requires a Guidance Device to be crafted and infused with mana.
"The materials can be dealt with. I'll just buy them from the market. I saved up quite a bit of money before."
The man took out a pouch from his waist and tapped several times on the screen before him.
Then all the money in the pouch vanished. A transparent crystal and twenty heavy chunks of Iron appeared in front of them.
Activate the blueprint's automatic assembly?
This line appeared before Ye Qian's eyes.
"Yes."
The blueprint emitted a ray of light, and a small tower slightly over three meters tall appeared.
At its peak was a strange device that seemed capable of rotating freely.
The man then spent another twenty Copper Coins at the market to buy twenty Iron Arrows and installed them on it.
"With this thing, we're basically safe now." Once he was done, he smiled. "From here on, we can just farm experience with the Arrow Tower. We only need to build wooden walls to hide behind. The rest of the time, we can slowly earn money and develop."
Ye Qian checked the time. Exactly one hour had passed since she arrived here.
A new prompt had appeared on the interface.
Exit this world (Optional) If you remain for 24 hours without leaving, you will be forcibly ejected. After leaving, time in the Main World will not pause. Please prepare for possible destruction.
"We can leave?" She raised an eyebrow.
As if seeing what Ye Qian was thinking, the man beside her pondered for a moment. "You can leave, but I wouldn't recommend it. Otherwise, the later stages will be hard to get through."
"Fine." Ye Qian sighed softly.
In that case, she would stay here and continue killing monsters. After all, they had the Arrow Tower.
She also needed to accumulate energy in preparation for Proliferation.
The group got busy again.
Perhaps because she had reached LV2, Ye Qian, who had been exhausted, found hoeing the ground unexpectedly easy.
At least, the hoe in her hands no longer felt so heavy.
She already knew what Copper Coins were for: exchanging them for items needed to survive in the Main World. They were essentially this place's special game currency.
Meanwhile, the chat group on the interface was still closed.
Ye Qian did not care much about it.
For the time that followed, she worked steadily with the other two.
Then, an hour later, another red dot appeared on the mini-map.
This time, however, the Arrow Tower had already turned in advance. Once the target came a little closer, it fired an arrow with a sharp whistle.
The Iron Arrow flew nearly three hundred meters, accurately piercing the target's shoulder.
The target was actually a giant rabbit. It had tried to dodge in advance, but unfortunately, it was still hit.
The second and third arrows flew out in succession, successfully killing it.
Pfft!
Killed LV1 Little White Rabbit. Obtained: Rabbit Pelt ×1, Rabbit Meat ×1 Extracting energy... Extraction complete. You have obtained one-third of the energy from this kill, totaling 1.5 points.
Looking at the other two, Ye Qian saw that they seemed to have received a share as well.
"See that? That's what buildings can do." The man smiled confidently now. "We just need to farm experience with this. As long as we stand near the tower, we can receive energy points. But things like the rabbit pelts it drops, or the arrows it uses up, have to be collected outside."
"Got it." Ye Qian nodded.
She always felt that the man in front of her was interested in her. Earlier, while they had been hoeing, he had kept glancing at her from time to time.
But there was nothing she could do about it. She really was very pretty now, and she was wearing clothes that drew attention.
Before you continue