Chapter 4

For a full half hour, Wu Shaochen, exhilarated, watched the heavily wounded sea turtle slowly approach death after his final strike with the sword. As the last drop of blood vanished, the massive turtle unwillingly collapsed to the ground. A system notification chimed in.

"Ding, killed [Sea Turtle], gained 15 experience points. Additional 50% experience bonus for killing creatures 5 levels higher, 7 points (ignore if less than 1)."

"Ding, talent triggered: Poison damage increased by 1 point, inflicting true damage of 2 health points per second on the target."

"Awesome!" Wu Shaochen exclaimed excitedly upon hearing the system prompts. He had gained 22 experience points in one go, much faster than snatching rabbits at the village entrance. More importantly, his talent had leveled up, which was the most crucial. Now, if he fought another sea turtle, it would take half the time.

Hurrying to the side of the sea turtle's corpse, Wu Shaochen spotted two copper coins and even an equipment drop. He eagerly picked them up. Finding equipment right off the bat was a stroke of luck given the pitiful drop rates of "Oracle."

He took a look at the equipment: a pair of shoes.

[Canvas Shoes]

Quality: Common

Movement Speed +3

Physical Defense +2

Wearing Requirement: None

"Not bad, not bad," Wu Shaochen muttered as he quickly put them on. Now his speed was at 8 points, and defense at 8 points.

In "Oracle," equipment qualities ranged from lowest to highest: Common, Iron, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Dark Gold, Platinum, Diamond, Starlight, Artifact, Holy Artifact, Divine Artifact, and Super Divine Artifact. Early-game Common equipment had no wearing requirements; Iron and above did. Iron equipment began having additional attributes, and Gold equipment started having additional skills.

Feeling a slight increase in walking speed, Wu Shaochen continued happily to search for the next sea turtle. These sea turtles were definitely tailor-made monsters for him, though their numbers were limited. After circling around for a while, he finally spotted one basking in the sun on the beach.

Wu Shaochen walked straight up and slashed at the sea turtle's shell with his sword, then turned and ran. However, he still got bitten once; without superior attack and movement speed early on, it was difficult to avoid their damage.

-2, -2, -2

White markers continuously appeared above the sea turtle's head as it struggled to chase Wu Shaochen.

This time, he was noticeably faster; it took just 15 minutes for the pitiful sea turtle to collapse in tears. Wu Shaochen quickly picked up the two copper coins that dropped and continued to seek the next target.

Thus, Wu Shaochen relentlessly hunted sea turtles. Thanks to his talent upgrade, the time taken to kill each sea turtle decreased. The third one took 10 minutes, the fourth one 7 and a half minutes, and the fifth one was done in 6 minutes. At that moment, a system notification promptly arrived.

"Ding, killed [Sea Turtle], gained 22 experience points. Experience bar full. Congratulations on leveling up! Life +20, Magic +10, gained 5 free attribute points. Please allocate them wisely."

Finally leveled up. I should be pretty fast now," Wu Shaochen thought to himself. He looked at the five free attribute points and hesitated for a moment before decisively putting all of them into agility. He knew that his ability to kill level 5 sea turtles was entirely because they were slower than him. Increasing agility to boost his speed was the right choice to leverage his talent advantage.

After leveling up and allocating attribute points, his stats changed: health increased from 50 to 70 points, magic from 50 to 60 points, agility from 5 to 10 points, and movement speed from 8 to 13 points. Other attributes remained unchanged. Checking his experience:

Experience: 10/300

It would take 300 experience points to reach level 2, which seemed manageable—just around ten more sea turtles.

Wu Shaochen pondered whether to continue hunting sea turtles or go elsewhere to find level 6 wild monsters. Sea turtles were stable to hunt, and leveling up wasn't slow, but level 5 sea turtles couldn't trigger his talent anymore.

"It's a shame dying in the newbie village doesn't cause you to lose levels. Otherwise, I'd let this turtle kill me and drop back to level 0 to grind talents again. That would be so satisfying," Wu Shaochen muttered to himself.

"Oh well, let's check out some other places first. With my current movement speed of 13 points, I'm probably faster than many monsters. Maybe I'll encounter creatures suitable for grinding passive talents. If not, I can always come back to hunt sea turtles. It won't waste much time anyway."

Deciding to turn back, Wu Shaochen retraced his steps. The path ahead led only to the sea, so he had to return. Back at the crossroads, he headed straight into the forest on the left. Bamboo groves had poor visibility and were prone to ambushes. Moreover, monsters above level 5 would attack him actively, and his small stature wouldn't withstand their assaults.

The forest had decent lighting due to widely spaced trees. Wu Shaochen cautiously proceeded when suddenly a pitch-black wild boar burst out from behind a tree ahead. Its two tusks gleamed, eyes locked onto Wu Shaochen. Front hooves scratched the ground, then it charged at him with tremendous speed.

"Damn, no sportsmanship!" Wu Shaochen exclaimed in shock. Just as the wild boar was about to collide with him, he managed to sidestep narrowly. The boar grazed his clothes and crashed into a tree ahead, stars swirling around its head in dizziness.

Patting his chest in relief, Wu Shaochen was glad he had put all points into agility just now. Otherwise, he would have definitely been unable to dodge that attack. Quickly casting Insight, he assessed the situation before him.

[Wild Boar]

Level: 6

Health: 2000

Physical Attack: 70

Physical Defense: 30

Speed: 11

Skill: Fierce Charge: Charges forward at extremely high speed in a straight line, dealing 150% physical damage to targets in its path and stunning them for 1 second. Cooldown: 10 seconds.

Wu Shaochen smirked. So this is a level 6 monster? "Oracle" never fails to surprise. It's a good thing I dodged that attack just now. If it had hit me, it would have been a free teleport back to town.

Should I engage? Or should I go back to bullying the little sea turtles? Wu Shaochen hesitated. It was possible to engage, given the boar's attack of 70 while he had 70 health and 8 defense. He could withstand a few regular attacks and his speed allowed him to create distance. But the problem lay with the boar's skill. If it connected, it could send him straight home. Wu Shaochen wasn't confident he could dodge it every time. He had managed it earlier because the boar was farther away, giving him time to react. If it caught him during an attack, it would be game over.

Damn it, let's do this. With my talent toxin dealing 6 damage per second, killing a wild boar should take just over five minutes. The risk was worth taking.

With that decision made, Wu Shaochen charged straight at the wild boar. It had just used its skill and had a 10-second cooldown, so he had to be careful not to get hit. He swung his sword at the boar's back.

-1 (no armor break, forced damage)

-6 (poison damage)

The boar retaliated fiercely with its tusks.

-62

Wu Shaochen quickly backed away. Suddenly, he realized a serious problem—he couldn't regenerate health fast enough. It took 10 seconds to disengage from combat, during which he could only recover 50 health. To withstand the boar's counterattacks, he needed at least 63 health. Waiting for his health to reach that threshold would mean 13 seconds without poison on the boar, during which it could regenerate 60 health. This would significantly prolong the time needed to kill it.

Sigh. Level 6 monsters aren't easy to kill. But since I've started, I'll see it through to the end.