The Boar King

Leveling up was a good thing, but afterward came the awkward problem of being unable to grind his talent. Wu Shaozhen was even starting to think he leveled too quickly. If the other players still fighting over rabbits found out, they would probably gang up and beat him senseless.

I'll check whether I can handle level 7 monsters. If not, I'll come back and kill boars. With that thought, Wu Shaozhen headed deeper in. The Boar Forest was vast, and it took him quite a while to find his way out. He encountered plenty of boars along the way but shook them all off. With his movement speed of 18, these boars with only 11 speed had no hope of catching him.

Beyond the forest lay a plain, where packs of gray wolves roamed across the grass.

"Holy crap, there are so many!" Wu Shaozhen's heart sank. Fighting here probably wasn't an option, but since he had come this far, he might as well check their stats. He picked the nearest wolf and cast Insight on it. Luckily, Insight had enough range that he could use it without entering aggro range.

[Wild Wolf]

Level: 9

HP: 4,000

Attack: 115

Defense: 55

Speed: 20

(Monsters in the Novice Village had no magic attack or magic defense, so physical attack and physical defense were simply listed as attack and defense here. Speed referred to movement speed.)

Skill: Bite: Opens its jaws and bites the target, dealing damage equal to 150% of physical attack, with a 50% chance of inflicting bleeding that drains 5 HP per second for 10 seconds.

Fuck, checking a new monster's stats is a test of my heart every single time. After reading them, all he wanted to do was curse the game designers. Although the designers had little to do with this game, since everything was controlled by the central AI, he had heard that the AI was all-powerful within the game. He didn't dare curse it, so the designers would have to take the abuse. You bastards, these are normal monster stats? Those are straight-up boss stats!

Huh, this is a level 9 monster? Then the level 7 and 8 monsters are probably down the middle path. I'll check over there instead. I'm not messing with these things.

Wu Shaozhen turned back, thoroughly cowed. Once he returned to the Boar Forest, he continued toward the entrance. Just then, a glint of gold flashed at the edge of his vision. Curious, he headed toward it. After walking a short distance, he pushed aside a clump of bushes and saw an enormous boar, at least twice the size of the ones he had fought earlier. A golden ring glowed beneath its feet-the distinctive aura of bosses in Oracle.

"Wow, a boss!" Delighted, Wu Shaozhen immediately cast Insight on it.

[Boar King] (Black Iron boss)

Level: 6

HP: 50,000

Attack: 250

Defense: 120

Speed: 30

Skill 1: Savage Charge: Charges straight ahead at tremendous speed, dealing 150% physical damage to targets in its path and stunning them for 1 second. Cooldown: 10 seconds.

Skill 2: Berserk: When the Boar King rears up, its attack and attack speed increase by 50% for 30 seconds. Cooldown: 2 minutes.

Skill 3: Recovery: Triggers when the Boar King's HP falls below 10%. Its defense doubles, and its HP recovers to 30% over 10 seconds. It cannot move or attack during this period. Cooldown: 5 minutes.

"I just said that wolf had boss-level stats, and now I've been proven wrong in spectacular fashion. This is a fucking boss! A level 6 Black Iron boss has stats this terrifying? Ridiculous stats are bad enough, but those skills are even nastier. Without enough damage, there's no way to kill it. That last skill has a five-minute cooldown, so if you can't take off 30% of its HP within five minutes, you might as well forget fighting this boss."

Enough complaining. I should be used to this by now. Besides, this boss might be impossible for other people, but not necessarily for me. My poison can stop targets from recovering HP. Looks like this boss is destined to be mine, Wu Shaozhen thought. He had already claimed the Boar King for himself. How could he let a boss slip away? He hadn't forgotten the other feature of his talent: killing bosses of a tier no lower than his own could increase his poison stacks. One extra stack would effectively double his damage.

Still, he definitely couldn't handle it yet. He needed a few more levels. At the very least, he had to be faster than it and able to survive one hit before he stood a chance. Wu Shaozhen memorized the boss's location, then backed away and headed out. Nobody else would be coming here anytime soon. He wanted to see whether he could handle level 7 monsters. Improving his talent still took priority, since that was how he would increase his damage.

Returning to the fork, Wu Shaozhen took the middle path toward the Bamboo Grove.

The moment he entered the Bamboo Grove, the air felt damp and gloomy, and the light was poor. Wu Shaozhen advanced cautiously. Suddenly, he spotted green snakes clinging to the bamboo ahead, flicking their tongues at him. Goose bumps rose all over his skin. He cast Insight on one.

[Green Snake]

Level: 3

HP: 550

Attack: 32

Defense: 12

Speed: 7

Skill: Snake Venom: Targets attacked by a Green Snake have a 50% chance of being poisoned, losing 2 HP per second for 30 seconds.

So this is where the level 3 monsters are. No wonder I hadn't seen any. These Green Snakes would probably disgust plenty of people. They'd rather fight crabs than these things. That venom is nasty. Then he suddenly remembered his own talent. Actually, poison is great. How could I call it nasty?

He kept going and emerged from the Bamboo Grove into a stretch of woodland. The trees were slender but densely packed, completely unlike the forest from before, and the light remained dim. After walking a while, he finally spotted monsters: enormous spiders crawling over the trees and the ground. Fighting down his revulsion, Wu Shaozhen cast Insight.

[Giant Spider]

Level: 7

HP: 2,500

Attack: 90

Defense: 40

Speed: 13

Skill: Cast Web: Casts a massive web over an area 2 meters ahead, trapping targets. Trapped targets cannot attack or move for 3 seconds. Cooldown: 20 seconds.

"Damn, I can't fight these," Wu Shaozhen said gloomily. He never should have taken this path. Every monster along it seemed to counter him.

Forget it. I can't improve my talent for now. I'll go back to killing boars, gain a few more levels, then take down that Boar King.

And so Wu Shaozhen returned to the Boar Forest once more and began his boar-killing spree. With his poison now dealing 16 damage per second, each boar took only about two minutes to kill, making the grind fairly quick. A boar gave 20 base EXP. After he reached level 2, the bonus EXP was only 40%, or 8 points, so each boar yielded 28 EXP. That meant he only needed to kill another 18 boars to reach level 3.

While Wu Shaozhen ground boars alone in the Boar Forest, countless players were still fighting over rabbits on the grassland outside the Novice Village. In truth, the grassland was so vast that at least several thousand rabbits appeared with every respawn, but there were simply too many players. In the end, there still wasn't enough to go around.

Among the crowd, a group of more than a dozen players had gathered around several rabbit spawn points. Working in coordination, they weakened the rabbits and left the finishing blows to an arrogant-looking young man in their midst. After he killed another rabbit, golden light flashed beneath his feet. He had leveled up.

"Congratulations on leveling up, Young Master Huang!" Those around him offered their congratulations. "Young Master Huang is definitely the first player in our Novice Village to level up. I've been watching the area this whole time, and nobody else has had that golden level-up flash."

"Mm." Young Master Huang nodded in satisfaction, then put all his free attribute points into strength. Looking at his attack, now a whopping 22, he smiled. "I've got 22 attack now. Killing these rabbits will be a breeze. Should we check out the level 2 area?"

"Don't, Young Master Huang. Some of our people have been to the level 2 area. Those Goats hit really hard. We can't withstand them as we are now. Unless all the guys reach level 1 and we have a few people putting every point into constitution to tank up front, we won't stand a chance."

"Fuck, why did they make this shitty game so hard? And they won't even let us buy our way ahead. This is so frustrating," Young Master Huang complained.

After a moment's thought, he asked, "Has anyone in our group gotten any equipment drops? Have them hand everything over. Get me geared up first so we can move into the level 2 area sooner. I'm so sick of killing these rabbits I could puke."

"None of our people have gotten any equipment yet. This game's drop rate is fucking terrible. With so many of us, we still haven't seen a single piece of equipment. Nobody's listed any at the auction house either," one man replied.

"Fuck," Young Master Huang cursed. "Keep an eye on the auction house. If anyone lists equipment, buy it immediately."

"Yes."