Chapter Fourteen: The Rabbit Killer

After closing the forum, Zhang Shan glanced at his experience bar: 3562 out of 6000. Defeating the boss had given him nearly a level and a half, saving a significant amount of time. More importantly, the experience required to reach level six was no longer increasing exponentially—only a thousand more than for level five. It seemed that after level five, the experience requirements would stabilize. Of course, the experience gained from minor monsters probably wouldn’t increase much anymore either.

The two of them continued grinding for a while, and soon, Wind and Cloud Supreme and the others logged in one after another.

“Boss, what’s the plan? Are we still farming wild boars here?” asked Lone Rider of a Thousand Miles.

“No, by now everyone’s probably caught up in levels, especially after we took down the boss. There’ll definitely be a lot of people coming to the Wild Boar Forest. Even though the map is large, it won’t be enough for all of us. I’m planning to hunt level ten monsters. According to the guild thieves, there’s a sort of one-horned mountain goat among the level ten monsters, which should be good for grinding. It has 2000 HP and less than 100 attack power. With Little Secretary’s defense, she can tank them easily,” Wind and Cloud Supreme replied directly.

“So should we go as a group?”

“Let’s split into two teams: I’ll stay with Little Secretary, you three form another group. In New World, there’s no experience bonus for grouping, and larger parties are actually less efficient.”

“OK, let’s get moving then.”

After thinking it over, Zhang Shan said, “You guys go ahead. I’ll farm rabbits by myself. Most people should be level three or four by now, so there probably aren’t many left farming level two rabbits. I want to see if I can get the passive from them.”

“I really don’t think you should try. With a one-in-a-million chance, you can’t be lucky all the time. Getting the rabbit’s passive could take days, maybe even ten days or half a month. You can’t stay in the Novice Village that long, can you? At our current leveling pace, we’ll hit level ten and leave the Novice Village before we even go to bed tonight. Besides, the rabbit’s passive skill description says it’s a power bestowed by the Demon God—so it can’t be exclusive to rabbits. Other monsters probably have it too. It’s better to leave the Novice Village early; every step ahead counts,” Wind Chimes in the Breeze tried to persuade him.

“She’s right, leveling up comes first,” Lone Rider of a Thousand Miles agreed.

Zhang Shan hesitated. He knew that leaving the Novice Village early would give him an advantage, but he was unwilling to give up just like that. The rabbit’s passive skill was simply too enticing. Even if there would be other opportunities later, what if different monsters had different passive descriptions? Could they stack for double effect? After leaving the Novice Village, he’d never be able to return, and once the chance was gone, it’d be gone for good.

After much deliberation, Zhang Shan said, “I still want to give it a try. I’ll just grind for the afternoon—if I don’t get it after dinner, I’ll let it go. I’m only level five now, and there’s no experience penalty for farming level two rabbits; I still get full experience, just a bit slower than grinding higher-level monsters. It’s not a big deal.”

“Alright, you guys go farm goats, I’ll go farm rabbits. Reaching level ten won’t be that easy anyway; I bet there’s a hurdle from level nine to ten. Even if I fall a bit behind, I might catch up when we grind together tonight.” With that, Zhang Shan waved and ran back toward the Novice Village.

With boots, his speed was much improved. In less than ten minutes, he was back at the Novice Village. He had fewer than four thousand bullets left and one gold and sixty-three silver coins, plus some copper. The boss had dropped a gold coin for him, making him feel a bit like a local tycoon.

He spent sixty silver coins to buy sixty thousand bullets—enough to last him until bedtime. Bullets could be stacked infinitely in the inventory; no matter how many, as long as they were the same type, they only took up one slot.

He checked his equipment durability: still 10/10, no need for repairs. In New World, only equipment that absorbs damage loses durability quickly. If you aren’t tanking, you can go a long time without needing repairs—unless your character dies, in which case durability drops rapidly.

Restocked on bullets, he jogged to the rabbit map. As expected, a few hours ago, the rabbit map had been a bloodbath, but now, there were barely any players. After more than five hours since the game opened, anyone who had been grinding seriously would be level three or four by now. There was no need to grind rabbits, and even if rabbits dropped equipment, it would only be level one and no longer appealing.

Rabbits only had 150 HP. With Zhang Shan’s current attack power, he could take down a rabbit in three shots at most, and a critical hit would kill instantly. Each rabbit gave ten experience points, so his leveling speed wasn’t much slower than when he was grouped with two others.

Of course, his friends now had upgraded gear—especially Lone Rider of a Thousand Miles with his axe—so their efficiency was certainly much higher now.

Including the time spent running to find monsters, Zhang Shan could kill one rabbit roughly every ten seconds, about three to four hundred per hour. By nightfall, he could probably grind around two thousand. He hoped luck would be on his side and the heavens would smile upon him.

Zhang Shan became a grinding machine—a rabbit slayer—sweeping through every corner of the rabbit map, leaving trails of defeated rabbits in his wake.

Gradually, he became a hot topic in the Novice Village region channel.

Region Channel:

“There’s an idiot in our village—he’s already level six and still competing with low-levels for rabbits!”

“That’s not an idiot, that’s a pro—the hunter who stalled the boss earlier.”

“Pro, my foot! He’s just hogging all the monsters. I bet half the rabbits have been killed by him alone. I just got delayed this morning and missed some leveling, but I figured it was fine. Once everyone leveled up, no one would compete for monsters and I could grind in peace. But now? That idiot’s taken them all. Whatever, I’ll go kill chickens.”

“Anyone want to team up and kill that idiot and send him back home?”

“Forget it. Who dares PK now? You can’t get rid of red names easily. The last guy who went red had a miserable time.”

“Yeah, plus he’s with the Wind and Cloud Guild. Us solo players can’t afford to mess with him.”

“I don’t think he’s with Wind and Cloud. None of them are playing with him anymore; why else would he be grinding rabbits alone?”

The Novice Village chat was lively, but Zhang Shan had no idea. He usually kept it turned off. Even if he knew, he wouldn’t care—grinding is its own world, no explanations needed.

Time passed, and the sky outside slowly darkened. But the passive skill Zhang Shan hoped for still hadn’t dropped. Utter despair. What’s the point of these odds? Why not just say you get it after a million kills—at least then you’d have a goal. Now he had given up hope and decided to let fate decide; if it didn’t drop, so be it.

He spent the entire afternoon grinding, but it wasn’t without results: he’d reached level eight. After level seven, when your character outlevels monsters by five levels, there’s an experience penalty—a rabbit only gave eight experience points now. Otherwise, he could have gained even more levels.

He’d also gotten quite a bit of equipment, though most of it was level one trash nobody would want anymore—just items to sell to NPCs. He’d also found two level one green items, but they weren’t worth much now.

His most important gain was a skill book—a hunter skill.

Tame: Level 1. Chance to tame non-demonized beasts as pets. After taming, pet attributes increase by ten percent. Cooldown: 30 seconds. Mana Cost: 30. Class: Hunter.

Zhang Shan had no idea how valuable this skill book was, nor its drop rate. Although the skill was clearly useful for hunters, in games, the value of an item isn’t based solely on usefulness—rarity matters too. Only items that are both powerful and rare are truly valuable. Otherwise, even the best item is worthless if everyone has one.

He learned Tame immediately.

Character Info:

Name: Six-Barreled Bodhisattva
Class: Hunter
Title: Foe of the Demonic
Level: 8
HP: 220
Mana: 110
Physical Attack: 71-78
Magic Attack: 16
Strength: 16
Agility: 65
Intelligence: 16
Defense: 17
Luck: 9 (randomly generated within 1-10, a hidden stat, never changes)
Talent: King of Passives (Each time you kill a monster, you have a one-in-a-million chance to randomly gain one of its passive skills.)

Skill 1, Headshot (passive), Level 9: Each hunter attack has a chance to trigger Headshot, dealing an extra 50 damage and stunning for 0.05 seconds. Trigger rate: 4.5%.

Skill 2, Heavy Strike (passive), Level 1 (talent-acquired, cannot be upgraded): Each attack has a chance to deal five times damage. Trigger rate: 1%.

Skill 3, Tame: Level 1. Chance to tame non-demonized beasts as pets, increasing pet stats by ten percent. Cooldown: 30 seconds. Mana Cost: 30. Class: Hunter.

Equipment: Novice Musket, Elven Leather Boots, Black Iron Ring, Rough Leather Armor, Rough Leather Cap.

Upon reaching level eight, he added twenty-one points to Agility. His attack power looked decent now, though his two new pieces of equipment were just white-grade, adding a couple points of defense but nothing that helped him grind faster.

As for offensive accessories, he was still missing a necklace and a ring, and he hadn’t found any Agility-class bracers. Farming all his own class gear was just too hard; he’d have to buy or trade for them later. But Zhang Shan didn’t want to waste time on that now. He couldn’t afford good gear, and bad gear wasn’t much use anyway.

“How’s the grind going? Did you get the passive skill? I’m level nine now, but getting from nine to ten is insane—it takes a hundred thousand experience! It’s killing me,” Lone Rider of a Thousand Miles messaged him.

“No luck; I’ve given up on it. I’ll join you guys after dinner. I’ve got some trash level one white gear—want it?”

“Bring some for me and Wind Chimes. The monsters here drop level ten gear, which we can’t use yet. Also, buy some extra small blue potions for Wind Chimes—her Lightning Art is wasted without mana, so she’s stuck whacking monsters with her peachwood sword, ha ha.”

“Sure thing.”

“Buy me a gold coin’s worth of small blues,” Wind Chimes added.

Although Zhang Shan hadn’t been grinding with them, he hadn’t left the party and was chatting in the party channel.

“Okay. Should I buy supplies for Wind and Cloud’s group too?”

“No need. My brother’s got a mana regeneration talent, and his orange robe has Mana Surge. He doesn’t use much mana. If he runs low, I’ll share some with him.”

“Alright, logging off for dinner now.”