Spoiler:

Chapter 13: Black Zombie

After returning to the studio, I went online and appeared in the newbie village. I then headed towards the pharmacy. The pharmacy boss was an extremely old white haired grandpa. He stood there holding a crutch, his hands shuddering like he was going to drop down and die at any moment. When I arrived, he looked at me with an extremely kind look and said, "Young adventurer, why are you here?"

"I'm here to buy some healing items, grandpa shopkeeper."

"Sure. Go ahead."

With a wave of his hand, the purchase interface appeared before me.

Level 1 HP recovery potion: Recover 150 HP within 10 seconds. Level requirement: 1. Price: 1 copper coin

Level 2 HP recovery potion: Recover 300 HP within 10 seconds. Level requirement: 10. Price: 5 copper coins

Level 1 qi recovery potion: Recover 90 true qi within 10 seconds. Level requirement: 1. Price: 1 copper coin

Level 2 qi recovery potion: Recover 180 true qi within 10 seconds. Level requirement: 10. Price: 5 copper coins

Level 1 magic recovery pill: Recover 150 MP within 10 seconds. Level requirement: 1. Price: 1 copper coin

Level 2 magic recovery pill: Recover 300 MP within 10 seconds. Level requirement: 10. Price: 5 copper coins

Only these slow recovery potions were sold at the newbie village. Of course, there were also instant healing potions that could instantly heal a huge amount of HP and true qi. However, these instant potions could only be crafted by players and not be bought. And a player could only start doing this after progressing beyond the newbie village.

In any case, there was no rush to get them for now. I only bought some recovery potions for my leveling needs. We might encounter a boss again this time. And if we got lucky, we might even find a steel-rank boss. If that happened, yet another magnificent feat would be under our belt - getting the steel boss's first kill as well!

This was a beautiful dream, and having a dream was always a positive thing. After buying a bunch of level 2 HP and true qi recovery potions, I left the newbie village with the guys. We continued heading north and resumed our journey of domination on the monster zones that were now familiar to us.

While leveling, I checked the rankings of our newbie village. I found that the rankings had changed greatly while we were sleeping. We had only gone offline for six hours yet we were already surpa.s.sed on the level ranking. The first place was now occupied by a Mage called Tiramisu. Was that her? If this Tiramisu was really Tang Yun, her leveling speed was truly quite scary.

Tang Yun was still in my Wechat friend list. Evidently, she was not aware that Hopeful Present was me. Otherwise, she would have contacted me already. On the power ranking, I placed second with a power rating of 288. The first place was occupied by the Knight called Be Good For You with a power rating of 334. It was clear that he had at least two or three bronze equipments on him. Else, he wouldn't be able to reach this power rating.

After all, his level was lower than me, and the level difference alone would already give me more than 30 points of power rating over him.  This signified that the power rating his equipments had given him was nearly 100 points more than what my equipments had given me.

Talents would indeed appear anywhere. The compet.i.tion in our newbie village alone was already so intense. Next, I checked the forum of our newbie village and noticed a certain thread posted by a familiar name, Flaming Rat.

[War declaration] Chosen, do you dare fight us?

Content: Hopeful Present, Cold Autumn Water, Headshot, and Shaolin Number One. Listen. I will not forget your act of ambus.h.i.+ng a squad of Fight If Salty and s.n.a.t.c.hing the bronze boss first kill from us. Remember this. We will return with vengeance. If one is incapable of self discipline, a divine punishment shall come.  I hereby announce that I will make all four of you regret ever sp.a.w.ning in this newbie village.

Brothers of Fight If Salty, teach these Chosen fellows a lesson. Let them know that they will be punished for daring to provoke our brothers.

There were over 300 replies on the thread with every single one of them backing Flaming Rat. Not a single one of these replies were by repeat poster. This showed how strong Flaming Rat's rallying power was. With his ability to rally over 300 players, he was indeed one of the most powerful players in our newbie village.

It was of no wonder that he was so arrogant. Of course, his ability to put a spin into right and wrong was rather good as well. They were the ones who had killed Zhang Wei first. That was why we had counter attacked. Yet according to him, we were the ones ambus.h.i.+ng them.

Lin Che waved his hand and shared a screenshot of the forum with us. This was a screenshot of Flaming Rat's thread. He said with a smile, "Brother Rat here is quite shameless, eh?"

Zhang Wei flipped a Fireback Badger over with his stick and spoke, "Yeah, he's really very shameless. How different is this from a thief calling another person a thief? Truth be told, I had once done some research on the mechanics behind the account creation process of the forums. I can instantly create a spam army to spam them to death on the forums. Shall I do that, Big Chen?"

 "Nope." I swung my Bronze Longsword at a monster and smiled, "What is the point of wasting our time talking about something we can settle with force? Didn't Flaming Rat say that his squad will be hunting for us of the Chosen Studio? Fine. We will fight them every time we meet them. I am very curious as to whether they are really that powerful when battling in the wilderness."

Zhang Wei laughed.

Lin Che frowned, "When we fought them previously, we had the advantage of level, equipment, and skill. They must have completed their cla.s.s advancement by now. With them all having their cla.s.s skills, I think we should still be careful. The moment we meet them, we might be instantly killed by their long range attacks. Even with your stats, Big Brother Chen, you might be killed before you can get near them."

"I'm aware of that."

I looked ahead of us and said, "That's why we can't stay here anymore. When we reached level 14, leave this place to hunt some higher leveled monsters. The higher the monster level of the zone we're at, the harder it will be for them to find us. We can't allow them to mess with our first kill. Things had gotten quite dangerous during our previous first kill attempt."

"Ok."

After two hours, we showered in radiance and reached level 14. I allocated all my stat points into strength. Then, we left the Fireback Badger zone and headed straight towards the next zone. After going through the valley, we reached a sinister looking location. The forest was no longer green, while the ground beneath us looked as if it had been tainted by some plague.

A flock of noisy crows flew past above us. On the mini-map, the area ahead of us was marked in red. This signified that this was a zone that would be very dangerous for players our level. We went through the polluted forest and when we left the forest, a village appeared. It looked like this village had been abandoned for a long time. Distantly, miserable wails sounded in the air.

"Young man!"

Suddenly, a deep voice shouted from above the hill beside us. We turned and found that several NPC soldiers of the Great Xia Dynasty were there. One of them was a middle aged man holding a sword in his hand. He was staring at us, and above his head, "Scout Captain Li Wei" was written in green font. He looked at us sternly and said, "The village ahead had been tainted by the undead plague. You can't advance. Otherwise, you might not be able to survive."

I walked towards him and replied politely, "Lord, how will we know if we will survive without trying?

He sneered, "Young adventurer. You are very confident. If you really want to go seek your own death, I will give you a hand. Here. This is a bounty issued by the empire. If you can kill the Black Zombie King and bring its heart back, you will be handsomely rewarded."

A mission! My heat throbbed as I walked forward to accept the bounty. A portrait of a monster resembling the zombies of the Qing Dynasty folklore was on the poster. Below the portrait, a huge "Wanted" was written. Then, a melodious sound rang beside my ears.

Ding!

System notification: Your party has accepted the mission [Kill the Black Zombie King] (E-rank mission). The Black Zombie King has been committing all sort of evil deeds and has been slaughtering the hunter families residing here. Head into the village and kill it before bringing its heart out to Scout Captain Li Wei. Please be careful. The moment you entered the tainted area, you will start receiving damage over time to your HP.

 "A boss killing mission?"

Lin Che smiled, "We're going to earn big this time!"

"Yeap. Let's go."

I walked ahead and said, "Get your HP recovery potions ready. We will receive damage over time after stepping into the tainted area. Anytime your HP dropped below 70%, take a potion. Don't bother saving them up."

"Ok."

We travelled through a path covered with weeds. The moment we entered the dilapidated village, numerous stiff looking monsters with blank eyes appeared before us. Their entire body was filled with black furs. These were the Black Zombies, a high leveled monster.

Black Zombie (Bronze monster)

Level: 18

Attack: 78 - 115

Defense: 60

HP: 2000

Skills: Poison Mist, Claw Pierce

Introduction: The undead of the north has never given up on taking over the Great Xia Dynasty. Using any means available to them, they continue spreading the undead plague to the lands of the empire. As a result, ordinary citizens were transformed into zombies that were neither dead nor alive, becoming spreaders of the plague.

 "Go!"

Taking the lead, I leapt forward and unleashed a four combo attack of normal attack + Heavy Slash + normal attack + Breaker. In the span of two seconds, I finished my combo. Rumbling sounds of explosion roared on as my true qi blasted on the zombie loudly roaring zombie, leaving many wounds on the zombie's chest. The zombie howled loudly in pain.

In an instant, half its HP was gone. It howled and pounced at me. It whipped its arms at me while activating its Claw Pierce and Poison Mist at the same time, sending a three combo attack my way. The instant the zombie attacked, I lowered my center of gravity and placed my s.h.i.+eld before me. A heavy aura appeared around me as I activated my defensive stance.

Then, two clangs sounded as my s.h.i.+eld blocked the normal attack and the Claw Pierce. Unfortunately, I was unable to block the Poison Mist which was a magic attack. Instantly, my HP was reduced by nearly 300 points. That wasn't too bad. With my current strength, fighting level 18 monsters alone was an easy feat.

"Split up."

Lin Che suggested, "Big Brother Wei, we will level together. Big Hai and Big Brother Chen will level together. This will be more efficient for our party. We can also look for the Black Zombie King while we're at it."

"Ok."

The Black Zombies were four levels higher than us. With our party splitting up, each of us was able to get even more EXP. After less than half an hour, my EXP bar had already increased by 25%. With this speed, I would probably reach level 15 in two hours.

Only the sounds of us attacking and defending could be heard in the dilapidated village. Zhang Wei was trying to use the defensive stance as well. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to do much with it. Again and again, he was struck five times in a row by the monsters to trigger the backlash. His attempts at using the defensive stance sent him into a sorry state.

On the other hand, the Black Zombies were dropping pretty impressive loots. In less than 10 minutes, we had obtained three white equipments. With such a progress, we would be rich by the time we return to the newbie village.