In a blink of an eye, more than three hours passed, and my stomach started grumbling.
A few minutes ago, Lu Xuehan finally reached Level 10; she excitedly told me that her world ranking had already entered the top 10,000!
I was still a little short of reaching Level 13, but I wasn't in a hurry.
I looked outside and saw there weren't many monsters left.
Counting the time, it had been 12 hours since I last defeated the Dire Wolf Leader, so this mini-boss was due to respawn.
After clearing out all the small monsters, I led Lu Xuehan around the rocks, and sure enough, the Dire Wolf Leader was already sitting peacefully on a stone.
"Oh my god, it's a Boss!" Lu Xuehan exclaimed.
I smiled and said, "That's right.
I'll go first; you can come and hit it a few times later, ideally landing the final blow."
"Okay," Lu Xuehan nodded obediently.
I immediately charged forward and landed a Heavy Strike, which even turned into a critical hit!
The number "244!" made Lu Xuehan's mouth widen, and I was surprised too.
I swung another sword, "119!"—normal.
With my current attack and defense, I no longer needed to run into the rock crevices to rest, and with Little beauty by my side, I couldn't lose face as an expert.
Coupled with Lu Xuehan's not-so-low attack, the Dire Wolf Leader's health bar quickly dwindled at a visible rate.
About ten minutes later, the Dire Wolf Leader had only a sliver of health left, while I still had less than a third of my health.
It seemed I was indeed powerful enough...
"Lu Xuehan, you attack; I'll tank the monster!"
After I gave the command, Lu Xuehan immediately attacked with all her might.
After her "pink fists and delicate legs" ravaged it, the Dire Wolf Leader once again fell helplessly.
This time, it died at the hands of a little Priestess.
"There's equipment!" Lu Xuehan exclaimed in surprise, but she didn't pick it up immediately.
I knew what Lu Xuehan was concerned about.
She probably thought that since I did most of the damage to this Boss, any equipment drops should belong to me.
Without much ado, I immediately picked up the equipment.
There were two items in total: a staff and a ring.
I didn't examine them closely; I directly shared the item properties with Lu Xuehan:
[Sorcerer's Staff] (green equipment)
Magic Attack: 8-15
Intelligence: +7
Stamina: +3
Required Level: 8
[Ring of Healing] (green equipment)
Intelligence: +5
Stamina: +1
Additional: Increases healing effect by up to 5 points
Required Level: 7
...
Lu Xuehan blinked, and a sweet smile spread across her fair, delicate face.
A ring!
Finally, a ring dropped! And it even increased healing effects!
I don't know if it was a system default, but when I fought this Boss for the third time, I found that the required level for the items it dropped was getting lower and lower.
Could it be to prevent players from infinitely farming equipment?
The staff added a good amount of Intelligence and also increased magic attack, so it was naturally for Xu Lin, the Mage.
As for the ring, it was practically tailor-made for Lu Xuehan.
Without hesitation, I traded the ring to Lu Xuehan and then said, "You use the ring.
I'll tell Sister Lin.
I'll take this staff and give it to her along with that wristguard!"
Lu Xuehan nodded and said, "Okay, I need to go back for my job advancement now, and then we'll leave Novice Village together."
"Alright, wait!" I quickly called out to Lu Xuehan, then traded her 3 gold coins: "Job advancement requires a lot of money.
Learn more professional skills!"
Watching Lu Xuehan return to her village, I looked at the three pieces of equipment in my inventory.
Two were for Xu Lin, and there was also a bow to save for Xin Yu.
Since I had promised it to her, I couldn't go back on my word, otherwise, she might become invincible and publicly rape me.
Before long, Lu Xuehan returned after her job advancement, and from a distance, she cast a skill.
I looked at my status and was amused:
Additional Status — Mind Fire: Increases the defense and attack of oneself or teammates by 1%, effect depends on skill level.
Although it wasn't much, it was still nice to play around with.
I immediately complimented her, "Not bad.
How many skills did you learn?"
Lu Xuehan smiled and said, "I learned 5 skills: a Major Healing Spell, which takes a long time but heals a lot of health; a Minor Healing Spell, which has a short cooldown but heals less health; a Curse skill, probably for leveling; and the other two are status skills."
"Let's go.
We'll head to Hurricane City now, first to pick up some quests and find leveling spots!"
"Okay."
Lu Xuehan's obedient demeanor was very endearing...
After bidding farewell to the Village Chief, I received a pass, which was the necessary document for traveling to the major cities.
Hurricane City was one of the hundred main cities established on the Chinese server.
Players from Jiangsu and Shanghai, among other places, were basically born in the Novice Villages near Hurricane City.
This was probably to make it convenient for groups of players from the same city to gather without much hassle.
As for players who wanted to roam the world, it was simple: every major city had a city teleportation magic circle.
For just 10 gold coins, one could travel to all major cities in China.
After a while, when connections to other continents opened up, it would even be possible to travel abroad.
After I handed the pass to the city guard, he immediately activated our access to the city.
Unlike Novice Village, the main city's buildings were primarily constructed from huge stones.
Rows of various small shops occupied the central area of the city.
Aside from NPCs and the two of us, there were no other players on the vast streets.
I looked at the excited Lu Xuehan and said, "Do you want to split up to get quests?
Many quests are unique, so if we get them early, others won't be able to.
This is a huge advantage; once you miss this village, you won't find this shop again."
Lu Xuehan immediately agreed: "Then let's go get quests.
Once we have enough, we'll do them together!"
I nodded in agreement, then Lu Xuehan and I went our separate ways, one heading east and one heading west, to pick up quests.
Just like in Novice Village, I still received a monster-killing quest from the main city's defense officer:
[Clear the Farm]
Quest Content: Matthew's Farm, east of Hurricane City, has recently been harassed by a group of vicious Snake-Head Men, resulting in significant losses of provisions supplied to the town's border defense forces.
Due to Sunset Town, which is under the city's jurisdiction, currently suffering from an undead plague, a large number of city defense forces are engaged in fierce combat there with the plague spreaders, unable to rescue the farm.
We hope you can help clear the Snake-Head Men from the farm and return with 50 Snake-Headed Man eyes to Squad Leader Roger of the defense force.
According to the quest display, Snake-Head Men are generally between Level 12 and 14.
With my current strength, doing it alone shouldn't be a problem.