Leaving the rabbit territory, Marcus saw a group of hedgehogs with only a few players soloing them, all looking frantic and chaotic. It took teams of four or five players to easily handle a hedgehog. These hedgehogs were clearly tougher.
Insight revealed: Corrupted Hedgehog, Level 3, 150 HP, Can reflect attacks.
One strike dealt 80 damage to the Corrupted Hedgehog. Two more quick slashes and the hedgehog became his experience. His stats were so broken that killing level 3 monsters was easier than a level 1 player killing level 1 Corrupted Rabbits.
Fortunately, everyone was focused on grinding and leveling, not paying attention to his overpowered performance. Otherwise, people would definitely complain.
Level 3 Corrupted Hedgehogs couldn't satisfy his attack power. Marcus continued forward, leaving hedgehog territory and rounding a hill where the crowds disappeared. He spotted a group of tiger-sized rats with gray fur and fiery red eyes prowling around, guarding some glowing metal deposits.
Insight showed: Corrupted Rat, Level 5, 200 HP, Guards Iron Ore.
Corrupted Rats, exactly what he was looking for! How dare they steal the blacksmith's beloved Golden Hammer. Time for payback. Marcus charged forward.
One strike dealt 50 damage to the Corrupted Rat. Taking a claw swipe in return, Marcus saw -10 appear above his head. Not bad, a level 5 Corrupted Rat posed no real threat to his level 1 character.
-100, -100.
"Ding! Congratulations, Stonehaven has leveled up to Level 1. HP increased by 10, MP increased by 10. You have 5 attribute points to allocate." His luck was incredible, consecutive critical hits! This Corrupted Rat was pretty lucky too, taking two crits in a row before dying quickly. Marcus also gained a level.
Opening his status screen, he allocated the 5 attribute points in a 3:2 ratio to Strength and Constitution.
Fighters could advance to Warrior, Knight, Archer, or Assassin at level 10. Marcus had decided to become a Knight, so he allocated points accordingly. While Knights typically required a 2:3 ratio of Strength to Constitution, his stats were so overpowered that Constitution was sufficient for now. Adding Strength increased attack power and leveling speed.
One step ahead meant staying ahead, that principle was never wrong.
'Wait, what was this glowing metal?'
"Insight." Iron Ore: Low-grade mineral, can be used to craft simple equipment.
Perfect, exactly what the blacksmith needed. Marcus pulled out his Iron Pickaxe and started mining with loud clanging sounds.
He immediately moved to mine the iron ore next to another Corrupted Rat.
Corrupted Rats guarded iron ore and would attack players who tried to steal it. It was time to deal with the pets first.
After killing over twenty Corrupted Rats, a yellow hammer dropped to the ground, glowing with golden light. Golden equipment! Getting golden gear this quickly, high Luck really made a difference. Marcus was overjoyed and quickly picked it up.
Golden Hammer: Golden weapon, effects unknown, quest item, cannot be equipped.
So it was the blacksmith's Golden Hammer. False alarm.
Through a series of slashing attacks, thanks to the experience bonus from fighting higher-level monsters, Marcus leveled up quickly. After an hour, with his maxed-out Luck of 20, he'd collected 10 pieces of level 5 Fighter equipment, 8 pieces of Mage equipment, half of which were blue quality, plus 13 small health potions, 15 small mana potions, 1 gold coin and 60 silver coins. He also had enough iron ore for the blacksmith.
Drop rates for equipment and money in Dominion were extremely low. While low-level gear in the newbie village was easier to obtain, getting 18 pieces in such a short time was something only a maxed-Luck player like Marcus could achieve.
"Ding! Congratulations, Stonehaven has leveled up to Level 5. HP increased by 10, MP increased by 10, Luck increased by 1. You have 5 attribute points to allocate."
Level 5 already? Fighting higher-level monsters was definitely the way to go. He'd stick to this strategy.
3 points to Strength, 2 to Constitution, continuing the same allocation pattern.
'Time to equip the level 5 Fighter gear.'
Fighter Steel Blade: Blue equipment, Requires Level 5, Attack +10, Additional: Strength +5, Attack +10, Critical Hit +2%
Fighter Shirt: Blue equipment, Requires Level 5, Defense +10, Additional: Constitution +5
Fighter Pants: Blue equipment, Requires Level 5, Defense +10, Additional: Constitution +5
Fighter Boots: Blue equipment, Requires Level 5, Defense +10, Additional: Agility +5
His attributes changed:
Character Stats: Stonehaven
- Class: Fighter
- Secondary Class: None
- Level: 5
- Basic Attributes: Strength: 40, Constitution: 40, Agility: 25, Focus: 15
- Fixed Attribute: Luck: 21
- Reputation: 0
- Skills:
- Slash: Level 1 (0/500), Basic, Active skill, costs 3 MP, adds 10 attack damage
- Insight: Level 1 (6/5000), Active skill, costs 30 MP, detects basic information within 5 meters, reveals basic traps and stealth, observes monsters up to 10 levels higher, views attributes of players at or below user's level
- Soul of Attack: Not activated, effects unknown
- Boiling Blood: Not activated, effects unknown
- Heart of Agility: Not activated, effects unknown
- Secondary Skills: Mining: Basic (2/10000), Herb Gathering: Basic (0/10000)
- Pet: None
- Guild: None
- HP: 450
- MP: 200
- Attack: 100
- Defense: 110
- Accuracy: 25
- Dodge: 25
- Attack Speed: 1
- Movement Speed: 2
With new weapons and equipment equipped, Marcus was speechless. This growth was absolutely perfect. Since he'd upgraded his gear and completed the blacksmith's quest, it was time to find new hunting grounds and test his new equipment's power.
Now with health and mana potions, he felt confident. Even if he encountered high-level monsters, he could hold his own.
Small Health Potion: Restores 20 HP per second for 10 seconds
Small Mana Potion: Restores 20 MP per second for 10 seconds
Following the path forward and climbing a small hill to search for higher-level monsters, Marcus spotted three Corrupted Rabbits wandering around.
'Wait, why are there Corrupted Rabbits here?'
No, these three were different from regular Corrupted Rabbits. Besides being larger, the middle rabbit had pure white fur and looked even more adorable with its chubby appearance.
"A boss! It's a boss! Jackpot! What incredible luck!"
Not fighting a boss when you encountered one would be stupid. Many bosses appeared randomly at unpredictable times and locations, so dealing with bosses required both skill and luck.
"Insight."
Fluffy Rabbit: Level 10 Boss, 1000 HP, Skill: Carrot Attack. Golden Rabbit King's girlfriend, loves wandering the grasslands.
Rabbit Guard: Level 8, 800 HP. Protects the Golden Rabbit King's girlfriend.
'Girlfriend, loves wandering…' As absurd as the description sounded, Marcus didn't care if it was the Golden Rabbit King's girlfriend or boyfriend. He'd kill it all the same. It was a monster, and worse, a corrupted creature supposedly in the dark path, according to the game's lore.
Not knowing these three rabbits' attack and defense capabilities, Marcus didn't dare charge recklessly. He had to wait for the right opportunity and strike when ready. If only he had a Knight's "Taunt" skill to lure them one by one.
"Charge!"
Spotting one Rabbit Guard lagging behind, Marcus rushed forward and unleashed "Slash" without mercy.
Now that he had mana potions, he could use skills freely without worry.
-80, -100, -90, a series of damage numbers appeared above the Rabbit Guard's head.
'Shit.'
He took a hit for -30 damage. Not bad, he could handle it. After all, this was a level 1 area boss, so it wasn't too powerful. Plus his stats were somewhat broken, so soloing was manageable.
The other Rabbit Guard saw the attack and immediately came to help. Fluffy Rabbit ignored their fight, apparently confident that her guards were skilled enough to handle this intruder without her intervention.
Without Fluffy Rabbit's help, Marcus wasn't afraid. After defeating both Rabbit Guards, he'd only lost about 200 HP. He picked up the dropped equipment, drank a health potion, waited for his HP to recover, then attacked Fluffy Rabbit.
Fluffy Rabbit was just the Golden Rabbit King's 'girlfriend' and wasn't particularly powerful. Marcus's attacks consistently dealt 100 damage, but Fluffy Rabbit's attacks were somewhat high, usually dealing 40 damage. Her special skill "Carrot Attack" was particularly dangerous, a giant carrot would suddenly appear in the sky and crash down, dealing 100 damage.
Fortunately, Fluffy Rabbit moved gracefully and elegantly, seemingly always mindful of her appearance, so her attack frequency was low. By the time she hit Marcus three times, he had already hit her six times.
When Marcus's HP dropped to 200, he drank a health potion and continued attacking. Although this was his first time playing Dominion, he was a gaming veteran, having played several online games. His technique was definitely solid.
"Stun!" With a quick cast, Fluffy Rabbit was stunned, as she stood motionless. Marcus didn't hold back.
-200, -200!
'Haha, critical hits!'
The creature's HP plummeted. Two more quick strikes and Fluffy Rabbit died, dropping two items.
"Ding! Congratulations, Stonehaven has leveled up to Level 6. HP increased by 10, MP increased by 10. You have 5 attribute points to allocate."
"Congratulations, Stonehaven killed boss Fluffy Rabbit. Reputation +10."
"Player Stonehaven is the first to kill a boss in Dominion. Reward: 100 Reputation, 10 gold coins."