I Don't Want To Level Up

AFTER reaching the entrance of the forest, I decided to collect the chamomiles first, since they should be found in the outer regions. Although I wasn't sure, my years of gaming experience say that herb gathering was on the easier side of outside-village quests.

Fortunately, as I guessed, the chamomiles were easy to find. It didn't take more than three minutes before I found the first stalk of chamomile. Of course, I found more than one, but they only had one or two flowers with the rest being flower buds.

I plucked the chamomile as best as I could and placed it in my inventory. Then I continued my search for the remaining nine. It took me about twenty minutes to find the rest. When I was done, I received a system notification.

<Ding! You have learned the skill 'Foraging (Lv.1)'.>

To test the skill, I found another chamomile and activated the skill. As if guided by instincts, my hands moved on their own and within a few seconds, the chamomile was plucked beautifully while preserving its medical properties. It was better and faster than without the skill.

Thus I spent the next half an hour collecting different types of medicinal herbs like Aloe Vera, Lemon Balm and Basil. And I must comment that you could find these medicinal herbs at the most random places in the forest, probably due to game logic.

I stopped after the Foraging skill reached level 2.

<Ding! The skill 'Foraging (Lv.1)' has reached (Lv.2)'.>

'Getting it to level 3 will probably take a lot of time.' I thought to myself while remembering that the beta test had a skill cap of level 10, meaning level 10 was the maximum for active and passive skills, but not for innate skills. They had a cap of level 100.

Thus, levelling Foraging to 3 would probably take a lot of time. Although I plan to stay in the beginner village for a longer time, I don't plan to spend it levelling up my skills. Rather, I would spend it on collecting experience points.

Therefore, I headed further into the forest in search of animals to hunt. A few minutes later, I spotted my first target, coincidently, it was a wild boar. But unlike the wild boars from the real world, this boar had a long dark brown mane from the top of their head along their spinal cord. Paired with long elephant-like tusks, the wild boar appeared ferocious and dangerous.

I used the basic scan function, which was available to all players, on the wild boar.

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|> Monster Status

Name: Wild Boar

Level: 4

Type: Field Monster

Rank: Mob (F)

HP: 200

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The wild was pretty basic with very low HP since it was just a common mob. Still, I would have to hit its vitals to deal good damage.

I quickly knocked an arrow as I wanted to a sneak attack which would increase my damage by 50%, but for that one would need the innate skill Sneak. I aimed at the neck of the boar and released the arrow. Even if the bow was of common grade, the arrow flew at a fast speed and pierced the neck of the boar before it could react.

<48 DMG!>

A red number appeared above the wild boar. A quick calculation from my genius brain revealed that my initial damage was 20 due to my Strength being 2. It was further increased by 100% due to Vital Hit and another 50% due to Sneak Attack, hence, a total of 150%, making my total damage reach 50. But probably, the wild boar had 2 in Defence Points, thus, the final damage dealt was 48.

"Uhk, uhk!" The wild boar screeched in pain and started trashing around in pain. I didn't wait for it to calm down but quickly fired another two arrows.

<28 DMG!>

<28 DMG!>

Due to it trashing around, I failed to get a vital hit, but a sneak attack was still activated as the wild boar was still unaware of my location. Not for long though, as after the third hit, the wild boar, as if guided by gods, suddenly looked towards me and started charging at me. Since, I wasn't hiding, the wild boar easily found me.

Though I didn't panic. I aimed at the charging boar, specifically at its right eye and released the arrow. The arrow flew at the charging boar and missed its eye. But as luck would have it, the arrow pierced the snout dealing vital damage.

<38 DMG!> 

"UHHKK!" The wild boar screeched in pain since for animals, their snouts were one of their more sensitive parts. I quickly finished the boar with four more arrows freeing it from its misery. Not really, I just wanted its Exp and loot.

<Ding! You have killed a 'Wild Boar (Lv.4)'.>

<Ding! 10 You have received Exp. Exp Bonus: +35%>

<Ding! You have received 3.5 Exp.>

According to the beta testers, there was a certain Exp Bonus for killing higher-level monsters. For every level higher, a player would receive an additional 10% Exp. Similarly, if the monster was more than five levels lower than the player, then the player would not receive any Exp. Additionally, I also gained a 5% Exp Bonus from my talent.

The body of the wild boar disappeared leaving behind a hide, a piece of meat and one of its tusks. I collected my loot and headed in search of my next target.

<Ding! You have obtained Wild Boar Hide (F), Meat (F) and Tusk (F).>

I would probably have to buy an auto-looting talent and skill since picking up drops was quite boring, especially if the loot wasn't from a boss. But that was for the future me, for now, I would have to focus on hunting monsters and completing my quest.

One hour later, I completed my quest of collecting ten pieces of wild boar meat. However, to truly complete it, I would have to deliver it to the village butcher. During this one hour, I killed not only wild boars but also deer, foxes and rabbits. All in all, I have amassed a total of 438 Exp. But I don't want to level up.

Instead, I opened the 'Exp Shop' menu, which was only accessible to me.

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