Chapter 8: Gathering Materials
Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Zhang Yang jogged all the way back to Beginner Village and found Warrior Class Instructor Farion. Panting for breath, he could not help but miss the teleport reagent that could only be bought after Level 10 in the Capital.
“Greenhorn, I’ve got to admit that I’ve underestimated you!” Farion was still wearing a smug face as he received the Iron Ores delivered by Zhang Yang. “But you’re still just a greenhorn! Here! Take your shield and get out!”
Farion threw over a shield gleaming with black luster to Zhang Yang.
“Ding! You have completed the Class Quest: A Warrior’s Test. Gained 5,000 Experience Points!”
[Thick Iron Shield] (Black-Steel, Shield)
Defense: +10
Vitality: +5
Level Requirement: 5
“Wait!” Farion’s smug expression had suddenly changed into a surprised one. “You actually have Refined Iron Ores?”
“That’s right, honorable great master!” Zhang Yang took out 10 Refined Iron Ores from his inventory and handed them to Farion, knowing full well that he had successfully triggered the hidden quest.
“What beautiful luster, it reminds me of the diamonds in Dofus Mountain!” Farion reveled, his gaze towards the Refined Iron Ores in his hands as indulgent as a lover’s.
Only after a short moment did Farion say, “I was once a blacksmith before I became a great warrior! Greenhorn, these Refined Iron Ores made my hands tingle. If you agree, I would like to use them to make an indestructible blade!”
“As you wish, honorable great master!” Zhang Yang immediately nodded and agreed.
“Very well!” Farion was delighted and said, “However, just these Refined Iron Ores are insufficient, you will also need to collect another 3 types of materials!”
“Ding! Farion has a quest for you: Materials to Craft a Blade (I). Will you accept it?”
“Accept!” Zhang Yang checked the quest log immediately after he had accepted the quest.
[Material to Craft a Blade (I)] (Difficulty Level: C)
Quest Description: Farion needs the Incisors of the Ivory Fanged Boar as crafting material for the blade. It is said that these monsters appear in the Watermelon Farm south of the village.
Progress: Collect Incisors of Ivory Fanged Boar 0/10
Ivory Fanged Boar. That would be a Level 10 monster, would it not? Zhang Yang did not leave immediately. Instead, he talked to Farion again and learned Level 5 Warrior skills: <Block> and <Shield Bash>.
[Block] (Level 1): Raise your shield, blocking one frontal attack from the enemy for 1 second. After a successful block, it will cause 100% damage to the enemy, generating a huge amount of aggro. Builds some Rage. Cooldown time: 10 seconds. Requirement: Shield.
[Shield Bash]: Bash the target with your shield, dealing 200% damage and generating a huge amount of aggro. Can only be casted after a successful Block. Cost: 10 Rage Points. Requirement: Shield.
Block would definitely be a Guardian’s most divine skill! When the cooldown time reduces to 1 second after leveling it up to Level 10, be it the immunity to offense or the burst damage that would come right after with a <Shield Bash>, its might would be utterly terrifying!
After equipping himself with the Thick Iron Shield, Zhang Yang went to Village Elder Hu An and handed him the Black Panther King’s skull.
“Ahh! Is this – is this the skull of the Black Panther King? This damned beast which had killed so many of our villagers!” Elder Hu An was absolutely delighted, looking at Zhang Yang with elation, “Praise the Lord, you are indeed a brave and kind young man, all of the villagers will be so very grateful to you!”
“Ding! You have completed the quest: Removing the Villagers’ Threat. Gained 10,000 Experience Points!”
“Ding! Your Human Race Reputation has increased by 200 points!”
200 Reputation Points! Zhang Yang pursed his lips. Reputation had been a confounded system in the game. Each race had their corresponding reputation divided into 7 levels in ascending order – Hostile, Unfriendly, Neutral, Friendly, Respect, Admire, and Worship. If a player’s reputation level in a specific race is lower than Neutral, he would induce attacks from that specific race whenever he entered their territory; if the reputation level had reached Friendly or higher, the player would be able to purchase items corresponding to their reputation level. Basically, the higher the reputation of a person towards that specific faction, the better the quality of items one would be able to purchase!
Zhang Yang arrived at the south of the village. There were wild boars everywhere gnawing watermelons in the 3 existing watermelon farms. To the side was a farmhouse and a white bearded man pacing around anxiously.
“Elder one, is there anything I can do for you?” Zhang Yang ran forward to strike a conversation as soon as he saw the yellow exclamation mark above the NPC’s head.
“Look at those damn wild boars trashing my watermelon farms! Kill them all and I will reward you!” the old man bellowed.
[Kill the Boars] (Difficulty Level: C)
Quest Description: Kill those damn Ivory Fanged Boars!
Progress: Kill Ivory Fanged Boar 0/10
[Ivory Fanged Boar] (Normal)
Level: 10
HP: 500
There were another 4 or 5 player parties in the watermelon farms. As the Ivory Fanged Boar’s level was slightly higher, most of the Level 5 players could not go solo when fighting the monsters and thus formed parties. Even so, the huge level gap had still made killing a single boar difficult for a team of 5.
These people showed no intention of leaving even with their slow pace. To them, at least this place still had monsters and was far better than places where a freshly spawned monster would instantly be stabbed by more than 10 swords simultaneously.
A few of them had started laughing when they saw Zhang Yang coming alone.
“Fool, are you seriously grinding here alone? A donkey must have kicked your brains out!”
“Haha, I wonder how many donkey kicks does it take to make one so stupid.”
“Let’s just wait and see how he’s gonna get his ass kicked by the wild boars!”
Of course, there were kind hearted players too.
“Buddy, the monsters around here are all Level 10. You can’t do it.”
“Our team’s Spellcaster is about to leave. There is a slot in our party, how about joining us?”
Most of them seemed to have overlooked the shield on Zhang Yang’s back. It would have been a reward received only after one had completed the Level 5’s Class Quest! While there were an incredible number of players who had already reached Level 5 currently, the number of players who had cleared the Class Quest could only be counted with less than one hand!
Zhang Yang smiled and rejected their party invitations. He gripped his Beginner Sword and moved towards the closest wild boar. He then activated the skill <Charge> when he was in its effective range.
Stunned!
“-30!”
Streams of blood gushed out as Zhang Yang swung his weapon and slashed the boar.
“Hu! Hu! Hu!” the Ivory Fanged Boar recovered and roared angrily. It stabbed towards Zhang Yang with both its sharp fangs.
Zhang Yang activated the skill <Block>.
“-27!” Successful block and counterattack!
“-64!” <Shield Bash>!
“-31!” Another normal attack!
“-29!” Rage increased to 30 points, <Force Strike>!
Dodge!
<Block> entered into cooldown. Zhang Yang easily evaded the attack of the wild boar with just a swift move – a Level 15 Black Panther King could not even come into contact with Zhang Yang, let alone a common Level 10 monster!
In just 4 to 5 seconds, Zhang Yang had delivered 181 damage points, decreasing one third of the boar’s HP. All of the players could only stare at him wide-eyed on the sideline as if they had seen a ghost. Those damage numbers were unbelievable! Was this dude really a Guardian?
Guardians actually had pretty good nuking1 power. The keypoint was the skill <Block>! The timing for using <Block> would then be the key factor during the early stages to tell the difference between an outstanding Guardian and a regular Guardian!
Characters would gain an additional effect after activating <Block>, allowing the player to block another attack for the following 1 second! Since the follow-up effect only lasted for one second, if the skill was activated too early and the attack had yet to come, the effect would have had disappeared by then! And if the activation was too late...
<Block> would have been invalid, thus the devastating <Shield Bash> that followed could not have been activated.
Of course, when <Block> had reached Level 10, these restrictions would have been nulled so one could easily keep spamming2 the button.
Zhang Yang had been changing his position with ease until <Block>’s cooldown time had been fulfilled. He then activated another chain-skill. The Ivory Fanged Boar wailed and died with a white flash, granting Zhang Yang 500 EXP. His hands reached out and with luck, he had gotten an Incisor!
“F*ck, this guy is mighty!”
“Yeah, he killed it so quickly and did not even suffer from a single drop of HP!”
“I just finally realized that you can evade a monster’s attack by moving around!”
“Eh, I thought it’s a given that a character depends on Evasion, Parry and Block to gain attack immunity?”
“Bro, this is a virtual reality game, not a traditional online game. Gotta learn more!”
“…”
The surrounding players were having a heated conversation. Luckily, Zhang Yang had chosen to hide his name, otherwise he would have gotten famous here. Still, there were nosy players who had used the in-game recorder to record how Zhang Yang had fought the monster and posted it to the forum titling the post, ‘Unexpected Godly Player, Unscathed Killing’, raising a public commotion.
Everyone was but a beginner at this current stage of the game. How could they not be impressed when they saw Zhang Yang’s advanced skills that was at least 5 years ahead of the current game’s standard? Within a short period, countless players had turned Zhang Yang into their idol worshipping him.
Zhang Yang killed the wild boars consecutively. Although his killing speed was considerably slow compared to a 5-men party, he was killing without suffering from damages, and thus, there was no need for him to rest, increasing his efficiency.
About 7 or 8 minutes later, he had already slain 10 wild boars but had only collected 7 Incisors, requiring him to continue grinding.
Another 5 minutes had passed before Zhang Yang finally succeeded in collecting 10 Incisors. He first submitted the quest ‘Kill the Boars’ and rushed back to meet Farion. Behind him, the players had long been dumbfounded, their own fights long forgotten as they only cared about observing Zhang Yang’s fight.
“Well done. You can now start searching for the second material!” Farion granted Zhang Yang 5,000 EXP and continued instructing.
“Ding! Farion has a quest for you: Material to Craft a Blade (II). Will you accept it?”
A new entry was added to the quest log after Zhang Yang had accepted the quest.
[Material to Craft a Blade (II)] (Difficulty Level: C)
Quest Description: There is a pack of Fire Elementals wandering in the Scorched Valley. Upon death, the Fire Elementals condense into potent Refined Fire Essences! It was said that the Scorched Valley is at the end of the road towards the west of the village.
Progress: Collect Refined Fire Essence 0/3
Towards the opposite direction!
Zhang Yang sighed and followed the quest instructions, going west from Beginner Village. After about half an hour, he finally arrived at the valley, ground burnt and fuming soot. Flaming red elemental monsters wandering around his destination.
[Fire Elemental] (Normal)
Level: 10
HP: 500
This place was too far from Beginner Village and no quest would have led anyone here, so there were no one around besides Zhang Yang.
Let the killing begin!
Translator Notes
1 Nuke (Nuking) is a term used by gamers to describe a massive amount of damage. Nuking an enemy would generally mean killing it in one go, usually to prevent them from reacting, whether by healing, fleeing or retaliating. E.g. “I was nuked and died on the spot! I didn’t even know who did it!”
2 Spam (Spamming) is a term used by gamers to describe repeated casting of a spell or usage of an item. It is somewhat similar to, but is not an abuse of the system to perform a specific task. Players could be dealing good damage by spamming their highest damage dealing skill, or spamming potions to heal while tanking a high damage-dealing enemy. E.g. “Stop spamming potions and fight me like a real man!”
Chapter 9: A Handsome Reward
Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
This second quest had only asked for 3 Refined Fire Essences but that did not mean that this quest was easy to complete.
In fact, Zhang Yang had only managed to farm his first Refined Fire Essence after 20 minutes!
Farming the second Refined Fire Essence was rather quick, as it only took the following 5 minutes. The third one though, took him a whole hour.
“What luck!” Zhang Yang examined his hands as he walked back to the village.
He checked his EXP gauge and realized it had already reached 73%, not far from advancing to the next level. After all, he had been going beyond his level and grinding on Level 10 monsters. The EXP obtained were noticeably much more.
Returning to Farion to submit the quest, the man had rewarded him a handsome amount of 5,000 EXP and said, “Young warrior, you’ve completed the task I entrusted you with, again and again, leaving me an impression that you do have slight talent! Alright, this is the last material needed – The Frost Giant’s Soul! Different Frost Giants would have different power in their souls and of course, different strength levels. You may select the difficulty to challenge according to your own capability and courage!”
“Ding! You may choose one of the following difficulty levels to complete for this quest. The higher the difficulty level, the better the reward! Please choose: Extremely Difficult, Hard, Average, Easy!”
“Extremely Difficult!” Zhang Yang decided without hesitation. Obviously, the chance of obtaining ‘Perfect’ score would only be available in this level of difficulty.
“Haha, a bold selection! I hope that you’re as what you’ve chosen to face, greenhorn!” Farion passed Zhang Yang a sparkling crystal-like rock. “Take this Frost Stone and place it in the center of the magic circle in the basement. The circle will be activated automatically and it will summon the Frost Giant!”
“Ding! You have accepted the quest: Materials to Craft a Blade (III)!”
“Ding! You have obtained the item, Frost Stone!”
[Materials to Craft a Blade (III)] (Difficulty Level: S)
Quest Description: To obtain the last material, you must use the Frost Stone to summon the Frost Giant, defeat it, collect its soul and pass it to Farion. This quest must be completed alone. The quest will fail automatically once a second player gains aggro from the Frost Giant.
Progress: Collect Frost Giant’s Soul 0/1
S-Level quest, it looked like the time to obtain the ultimate reward had finally arrived!
The basement was situated underneath the Village Hall. Zhang Yang spent 5 to 6 minutes to reach the base walking through a winding path. He had wondered about the purpose of this basement previously when he first played the game. He had finally gotten his answer now.
The basement was lit with torches all around and was very spacious. Right in the center was an intricately drawn magic circle. Zhang Yang took out the Frost Stone from his inventory and mounted it to the empty hollow within the circle.
“Hong!”
Endless white light emanated from the ground, dazzling and captivating! A low voice then echoed in the basement.
“Who…Who summons Malatog! Malatog was slumbering. Whoever awakes Malatog must receive a frosty punishment!”
“Hong!”
A giant with a height of 6 to 7 men appeared in the middle of the magic circle. Its entire body was a sky-blue color and it exuded penetrating chilliness, dropping the basement’s temperature by several degrees within seconds!
“You – a mere mortal, dares to disturb Malatog’s sweet dream! Malatog will crush you!” The blue giant immediately noticed Zhang Yang and threw its fist towards him.
[Malatog] (Elite)
Level : 10
HP : 5000
Zhang Yang stepped back and used <Charge> on it. In an instant, a starry effect appeared above Malatog’s head indicating it had been stunned.
“-18!”
He swung his sword only to inflict a pitiful 18-point damage! Such strong defense!
It was a shame that the effects of the Experimental Poison had long since disappeared and as the poison could only be bought once per player, Zhang Yang would have to rely on himself to slowly defeat it.
“Despicable ant, you’ve angered Malatog!” Malatog lifted his fist and threw it at Zhang Yang again in rage.
“<Block>!”
“-17!”
“Such a thick-skinned creature!” Zhang Yang murmured, raising his shield as he activated <Shield Bash>.
“-54!”
Malatog let out a cry of pain and anger after receiving the blow. It then raised its big foot and took a step forward, wanting to stomp on Zhang Yang.
“-19!”
“-19!”
Although the resulting damage from one normal attack followed by a <Force Strike> was not much at all, it had instead made Malatog even angrier.
Battling someone as agile as Zhang Yang, it would seem like Malatog was playing a game of Whack-a-Mole. Even though he had the advantage with his outstanding strength, he could hardly land a hit on Zhang Yang but instead kept receiving damage.
“90%! 80%! 70%! 60% 50%!”
“Puny mortal! Taste the Frost God’s rage!” Malatog suddenly crouched and slammed the ground with both his fists. Immediately, countless spear-like ice spikes pierced up through the ground.
Zhang Yang had never encountered such a monster, so naturally he would not have known what kind of attacks it would use. Even though he was already cautious the moment it spoke, because he would never have known what to expect, how was he supposed to figure out his strategy to counter?!
In an instance, Zhang Yang had maximized his athletic skill to the best he could, skillfully dodging each icicle with grace.
“Ding! You have been attacked by an icicle. You have lost 30 HP!”
“Ding! You have been attacked by an icicle. You have lost 30 HP!”
“Ding…”
The system notification had rang 5 times consecutively in his ears. Even though Zhang Yang had pushed his speed to the limit, he was still unable to be at his best due to the character’s own agility constraint. As a result of it, he had received damage from 5 icicles and had his HP reduced tremendously.
And this was Zhang Yang. If it had been someone else, they would have been completely annihilated by this monster’s special skill.
Zhang Yang only had a total HP of 190 and it had been instantly reduced to 40. He tapped a bottle of Beginner Healing Potion. A “+100” green text floated across his head and his HP bar instantly went up again.
The Red Pot had a 30-second cooldown time, so it was fortunate that the move by Malatog did not appear frequently, otherwise the cooldown period would have been too long.
“Malatog will smash your bones to smithereens!” the Frost Giant stood up again and everything returned to how it was.
“40%! 30%! 20%! 10%!”
Zhang Yang began to feel anxious. There would be a chance for a monster to turn ‘berserk’ when its HP had fallen to 10%. Once they had entered the state, their attack activation rate would drastically increase, and that would be the most dangerous part of a battle. Even if Zhang Yang was highly skilled, he would not have been able to withstand 3 to 4 continuous waves of a boss’ special attack.
Luckily, it did not turn red!
Zhang Yang let out a sigh of relief and thought to himself. This quest could only be completed by a single player. The monster’s skill was already capable of killing a player instantly, if it had entered Berserk state, how would it be possible to clear?
“3%! 2%! 1%!”
“Despicable mortal! Malatog will return! Malatog will…!” As the last drop of HP vanished, Malatog was finally defeated. Its gigantic body fell with a thundering thud.
“Hu!” Zhang Yang exhaled a puff of air. He finally completed it!
The magic circle reactivated and the Frost Giant’s corpse began to shrink until it finally became a small blue marble the size of a regular fist.
“So this is the Frost Giant’s Soul?” Zhang Yang picked up the marble as he scanned the entire room. “F*cking hell! How come there aren’t any drops when I’ve just killed a freaking boss!”
Zhang Yang returned from the basement annoyed and handed over the marble to Farion.
“Young man, you’ve proven your strength and ability. I have to admit, you would be an amazing Warrior in the future!” Farion waved his hand invitingly and said, “Come with me. Now that all the materials have been gathered, I will craft you an indestructible blade!”
“Ding! You’ve completed the quest : Materials to Craft a Blade (III). Gained 10,000EXP!”
Still, he had yet to receive the ultimate reward. Zhang Yang patiently followed Farion to the village’s Blacksmith Shop.
Farion and the owner greeted each other and he took out all sorts of materials. “Dang! Dang! Dang!” Farion lifted the metal hammer and began to smith.
Fortunately since this was a game, everything progressed very quickly. Within half a minute, a shiny sharp sword had appeared in Farion’s hands.
“Take this, young warrior. Let it be your most loyal companion and drink up your enemies’ blood!” Furion tossed the sword to Zhang Yang and retrieved a red-colored book, “This is filled with skills I’ve learned in battles. Now, I shall give it to you!”
“Ding! You have obtained the item Refined Iron Sword!”
“Ding! You have obtained the skill book ‘Horizontal Sweep’!”
“Ding! You have completed the Hidden Class Quest: Farion’s Request. Quest Score: Perfect! Gained 20,000 EXP!”
“Ding! You have obtained the reward: 1 SP!”
“Ding! Congratulations on achieving Level 8. All attributes +1 and obtained 5 free AP!”
“Ding! Congratulations! You are the first player to complete a hidden quest and to obtain a ‘Perfect’ score. This achievement will be recorded in the Hall of Fame! Do you wish to announce your name so that the world can praise your mightiness?”
Announcing it again? Zhang Yang gave it some thought but eventually still decided on “Reject”.
In an instant, the neglected quiet world channel was once again filled with the server announcement’s red text!
“Server announcement: Player (Name Hidden) is the first to have successfully completed a hidden quest and obtained a ‘Perfect’ score (China Server). This achievement will be recorded in the Hall of Fame! Please celebrate and cheer for him!”
“Server announcement: Player (Name Hidden) is the first to have successfully completed a hidden quest and obtained a ‘Perfect’ score (China Server), obtaining 10 Gold Coins from the System Rewards!”
“Server announcement: Player (Name Hidden) is the first to have successfully completed a hidden quest and obtained a ‘Perfect’ score (China Server). 500 Reputation Points across all races in the league are awarded!”
“Ding! You’ve received an extra reward: Luck +1!”
Within a day, the server had flashed red twice, causing commotion among the players in the entire China region once again.
“That is just crazy! He actually completed a hidden quest?”
“God! He even got a ‘Perfect’ score! I saw a statement on the official website saying the difficulty setting in achieving a ‘Perfect’ score could only be completed by one in a million!”
“I wonder what the rewards are.”
“Fucking shit server, why have I not encountered a hidden quest?”
“Face problem!”
“Character problem!”
“Wash your hands after taking a dump!”
“Eh, just throwing it out there. Which hand do you use to wipe your ass after taking a shit?”
“Left hand!”
“Right hand!”
“Right hand!”
“I use toilet paper! You guys have a weird fetish!”
Just like that, the conversation took a rather interesting yet different turn very quickly.
Zhang Yang opened his inventory to check the rewards from this quest.
[Refined Iron Sword] (Black-Steel, One-Handed Sword)
Weapon Attack: 16 – 24
Attack Interval: 2 seconds
Level Requirement: 10
-- At present, most players were still grinding tirelessly to obtain rewarded weapons from completing the Level 5 Class Quest while Zhang Yang had already obtained a Level 10 Black –Steel rarity weapon! If word got out, those players who had been grinding relentlessly would definitely be devastated!
[Horizontal Sweep] (Skill Book)
Use: Grants the skill “Horizontal Sweep”
Bound.
Zhang Yang was a little furious. He had obviously gotten a ‘Perfect’ score yet his reward was similar to those of ‘Average’ score? This was ridiculous! Zhang Yang tapped the skill book against his body and a new skill appeared in his skill window after giving out a bright light.
[Horizontal Sweep]: Attacks all nearby enemies, dealing 200% melee damage to every target. Cost: 20 Rage. Cooldown time: 10 seconds. Requirement: Melee Weapon.
200% melee damage?!
Zhang Yang’s eyes glinted. He clearly remembered the <Horizontal Sweep> which the mining fanatic had gotten could only deal 100% melee damage!
Oh perfect! Now this reward would have been the right match for ‘Perfect’ score!
Hooray!
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
200+ Power
Ranking 
34 Power
stone 
Paragraph comment