Chapter 7: Killing the Ox Out of One’s League

After crossing a vast open grassland, Nie Yan arrived at an area scattered with jagged rocks. The bizarre stones stood irregularly, and narrow paths wound between them.

“This is the place,” Nie Yan confirmed after observation. He carefully crept forward, as this area was very active with buffalo monsters and full of danger. He moved into the maze of rocks.

Coordinates 567.528.192.

The terrain was peculiar here; the gaps between the rocks were narrow, barely wide enough for a single person to pass. Looking through one of the cracks, about twenty-six yards away, Nie Yan saw a pitch-black buffalo with a muscular body and sharp horns like two knives.

Level 8 Buffalo Chieftain: a leader monster, HP 300/300.

Nie Yan held his crossbow on his left arm and adjusted the angle, which was just right.

He could easily bring the buffalo chieftain into his attack range. Due to its large size, even if it noticed Nie Yan, it couldn’t charge into the narrow paths between the rocks, so it couldn’t reach him.

A classic terrain bug!

This terrain exploit was discovered by a friend who played an arcane mage in the game. However, now, he was the only one who knew about this terrain bug!

Using this terrain bug, Nie Yan could easily defeat the level 8 buffalo chieftain!

Nie Yan loaded three bolts into his crossbow; three seconds later, he aimed at the buffalo chieftain and fired with a swift “swish, swish, swish,” three arrows flying straight toward the buffalo chieftain.

Thud, thud, thud—the three bolts hit the buffalo chieftain simultaneously.

MISS, -1, MISS—three numbers floated above the buffalo chieftain’s head. Due to the large level gap, Nie Yan’s attacks dealt very little damage. Most of the time, they missed, and even when they hit, they only caused a forced one point of damage.

After being attacked, the buffalo chieftain snorted furiously and charged toward Nie Yan.

With a loud crash, the buffalo slammed into the rocks and bounced back. Unable to reach Nie Yan, it could only circle around the rocks helplessly.

Nie Yan skillfully reloaded his crossbow and fired another volley at the buffalo chieftain.

Although the damage was low, under Nie Yan’s continuous attacks, the buffalo chieftain’s health finally began to drop slightly, albeit very slowly, decreasing bit by bit and occasionally regenerating a little.

Nie Yan maintained a steady attack rhythm. The buffalo chieftain roared in frustration after each attack but remained unable to get close.

Everything was going as smoothly as planned. While attacking the buffalo chieftain, Nie Yan also thought about his future leveling steps. After being reborn, if he were to follow others’ ways and foolishly find a place to grind levels, that would be too stupid.

After all, Nie Yan’s mind contained a wealth of game knowledge. He intended to design a perfect leveling process according to his own ideas.

Minute by minute passed. Half an hour later, Nie Yan had used up an entire quiver of bolts—exactly a thousand arrows. At this point, the buffalo chieftain still had about two-thirds of its health left.

Repeating the process of loading and shooting over and over, Nie Yan felt like he was about to fall asleep. However, he still worked hard to maintain a high firing rate to prevent the buffalo chieftain from regaining health if he stopped attacking.

The buffalo chieftain began to tire, panting heavily while repeatedly charging at the rocks, collapsing part of the rock formation.

Nie Yan retreated slightly when his voice chat suddenly activated.

“Expert, I went to the coordinates you mentioned for grinding monsters. It really works fast. I’ve already obtained two Stealth skill books today,” Stone messaged him. Leveling at the location Nie Yan told him had increased his speed by about 50%, making him very excited. Receiving a Stealth skill book and discovering such a monster grinding spot was a great deal.

“There’s no doubt about it. The Fallen Warlock also drops Owl Perception. If you get any extras, don’t forget to send me one,” Nie Yan wasn’t surprised at all. He had seen countless expert guides in his past life and remembered quite a few tricks. Nie Yan was the type of person who had a thick nerve and a bad memory, often forgetting many things in life completely, except for game guides, which he remembered clearly.

Everyone remembers the things they are interested in particularly well.

“If I get any, I’ll mail you one. One thing I’m curious about is how you knew about this leveling spot?” Stone asked. When he met Nie Yan, Nie Yan was only level 0.

“I used to play a warrior character, but I deleted it to reroll as a rogue,” Nie Yan casually made up, not wanting anyone to know his secret of being reborn.

“I see. Your warrior character must have been very high level. Why did you delete it? By the way, a friend of mine is going to form a team to clear the Fallen Warlock Camp soon. Expert, do you have any advice?” Stone asked eagerly. Nie Yan looked like he really knew what he was talking about, and his friends had only managed to reach the outer area of the Fallen Warlock Camp before being unable to proceed further.

The Fallen Warlock Camp was a high-difficulty instance. Instances were divided into special and basic types. Once a special instance was cleared by players, it would disappear and become a regular map. Basic instances wouldn’t disappear even if cleared and could be refreshed repeatedly, but the equipment drop rate was very low, and the rewards were not high.

The Fallen Warlock Camp was a basic instance, divided into five difficulties: Easy, Normal, Hard, Expert, and Master. The higher the difficulty, the better the equipment dropped. If a team cleared the instance, it would take five days before it could be refreshed again.

“Complete guide to the Fallen Warlock Camp, priced at two silver coins, no haggling,” Nie Yan replied. Two silver coins equaled two hundred copper coins, which was a significant sum for a beginner player. However, since Stone’s friend could lead a team to clear the Fallen Warlock Camp, two silver coins should not be a big deal.

“I’ll discuss it with my friend,” Stone was somewhat doubtful. Did Nie Yan really have a complete guide to the Fallen Warlock Camp? Even online, such information was hard to find.

Clearing the Fallen Warlock Camp on the Easy difficulty usually yielded about three silver coins. With good luck, one or two decent rare items might be obtained. More importantly, the Fallen Warlock Camp dropped Healing Minor Wounds skill books. Nie Yan’s asking price of two silver coins for the guide was extremely high. If they failed to obtain equipment, they would be working for him for free.

The Fallen Warlock Camp was quite challenging. After a few wipes, those people would naturally realize that Nie Yan’s price was not high at all.

“Let me know if your friend agrees. If not, please don’t bother me,” Nie Yan continued shooting. Under his continuous fire, the buffalo chieftain gradually showed signs of fatigue.

“Okay, I’ll tell our leader,” in Stone’s mind, Nie Yan had already become synonymous with an expert. Consequently, he felt no resentment toward Nie Yan’s coldness; it was normal for experts to have some personality. Stone wondered, how high was Nie Yan’s previous warrior character? It must have been very strong. But why did he delete the character? Could there be some hidden reason?

After Stone finished speaking, the voice chat emitted a busy tone.

Nie Yan hung up the voice chat and accelerated the firing rate of his hand cannon, firing volley after volley of bolts.

After shooting for a full hour and a half, consuming 3,600 bolts, the buffalo chieftain finally let out a long bellow and staggered to the ground. Its massive body crashed heavily onto the ground, and Nie Yan could feel the tremors beneath his feet.

Nie Yan estimated that if he had used a shortbow with the Power Shot ability, killing the buffalo chieftain would have taken at least five hours and over ten thousand arrows. Fortunately, with this small crossbow that had the Heavy Shot ability, he saved a lot of time.

Two beams of white light fell on Nie Yan, and two crisp level-up notifications sounded.

System: You have killed the Buffalo Chieftain, gaining a 1800% experience bonus for defeating a higher-level monster. You have received 8290 experience.

Nie Yan checked his level, which was now at level 2, 21%. The experience from the buffalo was indeed quite substantial.

Finally done, Nie Yan put away his crossbow and walked toward the buffalo chieftain’s corpse, searching it. The buffalo dropped five copper coins and a dagger.

Looking at the dagger’s attributes:

Buffalo Horn Dagger: Bronze quality, unappraised.

Nie Yan’s eyes widened. It was a bronze-quality dagger. Equipment was categorized into white, bronze, silver, gold, dark gold, and legendary qualities, with the occasional green set item.

Since in Faith, rare monsters such as leader, sub-elite, elite, and lord levels were extremely rare and sparsely distributed, only about one in a thousand pieces of equipment had attributes. Most players could only manage with white gear, making every piece of attribute gear highly valuable and priced beyond the reach of ordinary players.

Bronze-quality weapons typically had 20% more attack than regular weapons of the same level and also came with one additional attribute.

The eight-level buffalo chieftain dropped this, which should be level 5 equipment. Currently, a level 5 bronze dagger was worth at least three silver coins. Most level 3 players had total assets of around twenty copper coins, and having one silver coin made one a very wealthy player.

Following his plan, Nie Yan harvested the buffalo chieftain, placed the buffalo horn dagger in his backpack, exited through the rock crevice, and headed toward Trak Town.

The appraiser in Trak Town was a short old man with a white beard and sharp eyes, appearing very shrewd and making people feel uncomfortable. However, he was the only appraiser in Trak Town.

Nie Yan opened the trade mode.

“Young man, what item do you need appraised?” the short old man asked.

“A dagger,” Nie Yan placed the buffalo horn dagger on the counter.

“Appraisal fee is ten copper coins. Do you want to proceed?”

Nie Yan thought for a moment. The appraisal fee for this dagger was ten copper coins. Appraisal fees were usually 5% of the item’s price, which referred to the NPC price. The market price would be more than six times higher. In other words, this bronze dagger was worth at least twelve silver coins.

He thought for a moment. Since he didn’t have any immediate need for money recently, spending ten copper coins wasn’t a big deal. He clicked confirm.

The buffalo horn dagger emitted a bluish glow, elegant yet unassuming, a unique radiance of bronze-quality equipment.

The buffalo horn dagger had arc-shaped patterns, a sharp tip, and a thicker build than ordinary daggers, shaped uniquely like a buffalo horn.

Buffalo Horn Dagger (Bronze Equipment): Required level 5.

Attributes: Attack 16-19, Strength +5.

Attack Speed: 2.3

Weight: 1 pound.

User Restriction: Rogue, usable by any faction.

This buffalo horn dagger added a strength attribute. Five points of strength equaled five points of attack. Combined with an attack power higher than ordinary level 5 daggers by three to four points, this buffalo horn dagger had nearly ten points more attack than a regular level 5 dagger. For a beginner player, this ten-point attack increase made a significant difference.

Nie Yan thought, finally having a level 5 dagger.