Chapter Seventy-Six: The Distribution of Supplies

There were eight archers present—quite a sizeable number for that profession. Since the game launched, archers had been lackluster, with only one noteworthy skill, Meteor Arrow, which was notoriously inaccurate and rarely managed to stun anyone. The rest of their abilities were bland, with damage output far inferior to mages, and even worse than hunters.

Each of the eight archers eagerly rolled their dice. In the end, an experienced player named Gale at the Western Tower won the ultimate skill book by a margin of two points.

“Haha! From now on, call me the Proud Sky. Anyone who dares cross me, I’ll wipe out their whole family with a single arrow.”

“Quit showing off. Let’s see if you can even use it first.”

“Why wouldn’t I? I’ll camp in the auction house every day—I refuse to believe I can’t buy a special item to boost my magic cap.”

“Hmph, by the time you get it, we’ll all have ultimate skills too.”

“Jealous, aren’t you?”

“Next up is the skill book for Jump. Everyone’s welcome to roll for it,” said Gale Under Heaven, and opened the roll for the Jump skill book.

Zhang Shan’s heart burned with anticipation—if only he could win it. Imagine, when a mob is about to swarm him, he could leap away with style, leaving his pursuers eating dust.

He hoped luck would be on his side this time.

Zhang Shan tossed his dice with hope—61 points. Damn, luck failed him at the critical moment. Though some people hadn’t rolled yet, someone had already scored over ninety points. This skill book was clearly not meant for him.

Gale Under Heaven, exuding a leader’s charisma and a streak of luck, rolled 99 and took the Jump skill book.

“Boss is still awesome, what luck!”

Next was the rogue’s weapon, the Wolffang Dagger. The stats needed no explanation—extremely powerful, with a three percent boost to critical hit rate. Rogues craved crit effects most of all. With a sneak attack and a kidney shot, backstab damage doubled. If they landed a crit during the stun, squishy targets would drop like flies. The more crit, the stronger the rogue.

The Wolffang Dagger was won by Killer Gale, the perpetually unlucky bigshot who finally got his moment.

“Haha, I need to level up fast so I can wield this red weapon sooner.”

“As if nobody else will have a red weapon by level thirty.”

“You’ll change your tune if you reach thirty without a red weapon.”

Next up were the Sirius Bracers—also excellent, especially for Zhang Shan. He needed to stack attack speed as much as possible; higher attack speed meant more frequent triggers of passives and effects.

But after failing to win the skill book, Zhang Shan didn’t expect much from the bracers. After all, every agility-based player was eligible, over ten people, so his odds weren’t great.

He casually rolled the dice: 91 points—not bad. He checked the others’ numbers: 31, 65, 12, 80…

When all the dice had been rolled, Zhang Shan’s score was still the highest.

“Haha, finally, a stroke of good luck!”

“Come on, Artifact Bro, don’t be so ruthless. Your gear’s already insane—can’t you leave us a few scraps?”

“Heh, sorry, just lucky,” Zhang Shan replied modestly.

Once the last two orange items and the materials were distributed, the boss fight was officially over.

“Let’s grind nearby for now. Once support revives everyone, we’ll head back together.”

“Alright.”

While grinding, Zhang Shan rarely teamed up. He was simply too fast—teaming up felt like power-leveling others’ alts, which hurt his own efficiency. Generally, no one took advantage of him.

Everyone spread out nearby to farm mobs. Zhang Shan picked a direction and continued his sacred work as a grinder. Defeating the Wolf King earlier had netted him over half a million experience; he was now about six hundred thousand short of level twenty-five.

If he pushed, he might hit level twenty-five today—just over two hours would be enough. It was only a bit past ten; he wouldn’t have to stay up until one in the morning. Just a short grind tonight, level up, then sleep.

Boss fights were the best—not only did they drop gear and skill books, but the experience gains were huge. Even with so many people splitting the boss XP, he still got over half a million.

If only there were bosses to fight every day, leveling wouldn’t be so hard. Of course, that was wishful thinking—wild bosses in New World weren’t common, and their respawn times were unpredictable. You couldn’t camp them easily; fighting wild bosses depended on luck.

After half an hour, everyone on the ground had been revived, and they left Wolf Ridge—at their level, it wasn’t an ideal place to grind.

Zhang Shan was left alone in the quiet of Wolf Ridge, toppling one wolf after another. Unfortunately, the Wolf Clan passive still hadn’t dropped. That passive was absurdly rare—he’d been grinding here for almost three days, killing over ten thousand wolves a day, yet still hadn’t gotten it.

Would it really take a million kills?

Oh well, he’d leave it to fate. It probably only gave a one percent crit boost anyway—not a huge upgrade. That’s how he consoled himself. If he still hadn’t gotten it by level thirty, he’d give up and go farm another passive elsewhere.

The night was silent. Most players had logged off to sleep; only a few diehards remained. Zhang Shan finally reached level twenty-five, equipping the orange ring dropped by the Wandering Wraith Lord.

Exquisite Nether Ring (Orange): Level 25, Physical Attack 227-243, Agility 82, Special Effect: Critical Hit.

Critical Hit: Increases critical chance by one percent.

All orange accessories had a crit effect. With the level fifteen Sanctuary Ring, he now had two orange accessories.

With another crit bonus added, plus Heavy Strike and Divine Strike, he now had four crit effects in total. The chances of landing a crit were higher than ever—if only he could get the Wolf passive too, it would be perfect.

He checked his character stats.

Character: Six-Barreled Bodhisattva
Class: Hunter
Title: Nemesis of the Demon Race
Merit: 2784 (Corporal)
Level: 25
HP: 18,100
MP: 800
Physical Attack: 3759-3794
Magic Attack: 50-50
Strength: 50
Agility: 685
Intelligence: 50
Defense: 407
Luck: 9 (randomly generated between 1-10; hidden stat, never changes)
Talent: King of Passives (Chance to randomly acquire one of a defeated monster’s passives; odds: one in a million)
Skills:
1. Headshot (Passive)
2. Heavy Strike (Passive)
3. Tame
4. Bestow Power (Passive)
5. Eagle Eye (Passive)
6. Rebirth (Passive)
7. Mastery (Guild Skill)
8. Frenzy
9. Magic Resistance (Passive)

Equipment: Arug’s Hand Cannon, Midas’ Hand, Gale Boots, Priest’s Cloak, Nether Ring, Sanctuary Ring…

With the new accessory, his damage increased by over a hundred; his attack was now close to 3,800.

At level twenty-five, even level thirty wolves barely posed a threat. He could take down a wolf in two shots, with damage to spare.

Still, he kept grinding wolves, not switching maps. First, he still hadn’t gotten the Wolf passive. Second, fighting higher-level monsters would mean suppression effects, and his leveling speed would actually be slower than farming wolves.

He’d stay at Wolf Ridge until level thirty—it would take just over a week.

Leveling to twenty-six would require 7.5 million experience. Each level now demanded fifty percent more experience than the last.

Who knew if it would always be like that—if so, the experience requirements in the future would be terrifying.

He’d take it one step at a time. Time to log off and sleep.