Outside the Novice Village.
Not long after leaving the farmland, Tidus suddenly remembered something. He opened the settings menu, went to the privacy tab, and hid his name and level on the Novice Village Leaderboard.
He was not trying to act humble. He simply did not want anyone guessing that he possessed one of the ten global God World Rings.
While thinking, Tidus crossed the winding river near the village entrance and arrived at a small hillside overlooking a great plain filled with wild oxen.
Wild Ox
Level: 3
Attack: 72
Health: 820
Skills: Haste, Rage, Ox Charge
Description: Minions and food of the Fear Legion. They are violent and easily angered. Do not provoke them, or they will happily stab your butthole with their horns.
Although they were level 3 monsters, their stats were not much higher than Wild Boars. The only real concern was their faster speed.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh…
Tidus set his hand on the bowstring and activated Tenfold Attack Speed. Arrows streaked out like icy comets, trailing frost.
-65!
-70!
-69!
Damage numbers popped from the nearest Wild Ox.
Tidus was now level 3, with 39 points in Agility. Combined with the Royal Archer's 10% attack bonus, his damage was terrifying. He could fire four to five shots per second.
Under the effect of Blizzard Shot, the ox was coated in frost and slowed by 20%.
With a dull thud, the ox finally reached Tidus only to collapse helplessly at his feet, dropping 30 experience points, 15 silver coins, and one Wild Ox Horn.
"You have killed a Wild Ox…"
Ding…
Ding…
With Tidus' monstrous attack power and ridiculous firing speed, oxen fell one after another. At his pace, he could kill fifteen to twenty per minute, assuming he had enough mana.
With his current 280 mana, he could only sustain rapid-fire combat for a little over half a minute before running dry.
Even factoring in his natural mana regeneration from 17 Intelligence and the Small Purification Potions he drank, it still was not enough.
"This damn game wants me to play a full-Intelligence archer, doesn't it…"
Tidus felt tears of frustration in his soul.
After ten minutes of farming oxen, Blizzard Shot finally triggered Blizzard again.
Thunder roared in the sky… Jagged ice spikes glimmered with cold light, mixed with swirling snow, and crashed down at a forty-five-degree angle across the ox plains.
-190!
-185!
-191!
-195!
A dense wall of damage numbers floated upward.
Since Tidus had added six points to Intelligence, Blizzard's damage had increased slightly, though he was still far from the hundred-plus Intelligence mages who could unleash devastating storms.
Moo… moo… moo…
The agonized cries of Wild Oxen echoed across the two-hundred-yard radius. Tidus stood at the edge of the blizzard, bow in hand, sniping any ox that tried to escape.
After five seconds, the ground was littered with corpses. Tidus happily began looting.
The truth was, God World's drop rate was miserably low.
Even after looting more than two hundred ox corpses in one go, he only found a little over seven gold coins, a few potions, a heap of Wild Ox Horns, and nothing else.
"Ding! You have obtained a rare loot item!"
Just as he looted the final corpse, a pleasant chime rang out.
Executioner Boots (Executioner Set: 1/7)
Quality: Silver
Effect: +5 Agility, +10% critical chance, +20% movement speed
Description: The boots worn by an executioner, stained with the blood of the innocent.
Required Level: 5
Executioner Set Bonuses:
One piece: Ignore 2 defense
Two pieces: Ignore 4 defense
Three pieces: Ignore 6 defense
…
Seven pieces: Ignore 20 defense
Tidus had just complained about low drop rates when he immediately picked up a silver-grade item. Even better, it was part of a rare seven-piece set.
In God World, characters could equip ten pieces: helmet, gloves, shoulders, chest, legs, boots, weapon, necklace, and two rings.
A seven-piece set meant everything except helmet, gloves, and shoulders, plus the weapon.
The set bonuses were excellent. With all seven pieces, he would ignore twenty defense. Aside from warriors and knights, no class would reach fifteen defense at level ten. Against the Executioner Set, they might as well have zero defense. He could deal his full damage potential even while farming.
This pair of Executioner Boots alone had impressive stats.
Unfortunately, he needed to reach level five to equip them.
An hour later, Tidus put away his bow and left the ox plains. His total gains included about seventy gold, two whiteboard items, three hundred Wild Ox Horns, and one black-iron leg armor piece suitable for archers.
His level had also passed four.
Not long after Tidus left, a large group of players who had just finished the Slay Wild Boars quest arrived at the ox plains.
They immediately saw something odd. Snow was spread across the grasslands, and the number of oxen was significantly lower than in other Novice Villages. In God World, because gold was tied to real currency, monster respawn rates were deliberately slow to prevent players from farming excessive amounts of gold.
"Damn, another weird bug!"
"Our Novice Village is cursed as hell man!"
"Less monsters means less money and slower progress… this is robbery!"
Players grumbled in frustration.
Soon after, several knights wearing the Overlord Alliance tag stepped forward and began spamming the Novice Village broadcast channel.
"Overlord Alliance now claims the ox plains. All solo players leave immediately, or we kill on sight!"
"Overlord Alliance now claims the ox plains. All solo players leave immediately, or we kill on sight!"
"Overlord Alliance…"
Each announcement cost ten gold, and the guild blasted hundreds of messages, spending thousands of gold. Since the game had just launched, they obviously hadn't farmed that much. They had simply charged real money.
For large gaming guilds or corporations, spending a few thousand or even tens of thousands of dollars for progress was nothing.
Before God World even launched, top-up totals across North America servers had already exceeded one billion dollars.
Its money-making power was undeniable.
After Overlord Alliance, major guilds like Blood Rose Garden and United Dynasty also started broadcasting, claiming different sections of the ox plains.
The major guilds eventually carved out their own territories and began farming with their members.
Ordinary solo players could only watch helplessly.
Anyone who tried to sneak a hit on a monster was instantly killed by guild members and sent back to town in a flash of white light.