Chapter 10

The King Toad's skin is a 3rd-tier tailoring material, and its quality is quite good. Most importantly, it is not a quest item, which means Ye Luo can possess it. After reading the latter part of the item description, he felt a sense of anticipation.

"I am already very familiar with Master Zhang, and my reputation with the villagers in the beginner village is so high. Asking him to tailor a piece of equipment for me shouldn't be a problem," Ye Luo thought, a broad smile spreading across his face. "After all, this is the King Toad's skin. The equipment made from it should be quite good."

With these thoughts in mind, Ye Luo continued to pick up the glowing orbs on the ground. This time, it was a bright green bead:

【Jade Poison Bead】 (Magic Treasure * Special Equipment * Beginner Tier)

Attack: 3—3

Additional Attributes: When equipped, it can add a poison attack to your weapon, causing a basic poison invasion that reduces the target's health by 3 points per second for the next 3 seconds, non-stackable.

Additional Features: Can be fused and upgraded.

Durability: 100/100.

Required Level: None.

Description: A poison bead formed from the essence of a boss-level monster like the King Toad, which is skilled in poison attacks. It can be fused and upgraded, and is currently at the beginner tier.

Seeing the attributes of the Jade Poison Bead, Ye Luo was extremely excited. Ignoring the 3 points of attack it added, the ability to add a poison attack to his weapon was already a powerful tool in the early stages of the game, and he could use it for many things.

With a thought, Ye Luo embedded the poison bead into the special equipment slot, and his attack increased to 26 points. Then he saw the fusion and upgrade feature of the Jade Poison Bead. After checking, he learned that collecting three beads of the same tier could upgrade it to the intermediate tier, and so on.

"Three Jade Poison Beads can upgrade to the intermediate tier. If the beginner tier already has such attributes, it will be even more terrifying at the intermediate tier," Ye Luo was thrilled, but he soon shook his head. "It's already quite difficult to collect one, let alone three. I can't just camp here."

Through his understanding of the game "Heavenly Tribulation," the small bosses in the beginner village respawn after 12 hours. Ye Luo didn't have the time to camp here.

"Although I can't camp, I can come here every 12 hours to try my luck. Besides, no one in the beginner village can probably kill the King Toad except me," Ye Luo thought, then shook his head. "No, even I might not be able to, since I don't have the small healing potion to restore my health anymore."

Thinking about this, Ye Luo was eager to learn alchemy. Without hesitation, he picked up the remaining two glowing orbs, which turned out to be two pieces of equipment. Seeing these, his eyes lit up again:

【Toad Skin Boots】 (Shoes - Common Equipment)

Defense: 6—7

Durability: 100/100

Required Level: 3

【Toad Ring】 (Ring - Common Equipment)

Attack: 6—8

Durability: 100/100

Required Level: 3

Equipping them quickly, Ye Luo's attack increased to 32—34 points, and his defense to 17—18 points, a significant boost. He was very excited: "These two pieces are so strong. They are common equipment, finally moving beyond the beginner equipment. And I even got a ring, my luck is pretty good."

While killing the young toads, Ye Luo had also checked the game settings on the official website. After the game had been running for so long, the developers were no longer mysterious and had released a lot of information, such as the drop rates of equipment.

In "Heavenly Tribulation," the drop rates for weapons and defensive equipment are relatively high, while the drop rates for capes and jewelry are much lower. It's no wonder Ye Luo was so happy to get a ring.

Just by killing one King Toad, Ye Luo obtained a pair of shoes, a ring, and a special equipment, as well as a King Toad skin, a bountiful harvest.

Calming down, Ye Luo swung his sword at a young toad, dealing 132 points of damage, instantly killing it. Picking up the copper coins and toad skin it dropped, he finally completed the task of collecting toad skins.

"Tsk, tsk, with my current attack, I can one-shot these young toads," Ye Luo was thrilled, but seeing that the toad only gave 8 points of energy experience after death, he shook his head. "My level is two levels higher than these toads, so the experience gained is reduced. I should look for other monsters."

With this in mind, Ye Luo continued south, encountering many low-tier herbs along the way. Determined to become an alchemist, he didn't miss any of them, collecting them one by one.

Soon, Ye Luo saw the second type of monster he encountered in "Heavenly Tribulation":

【Demonized Dragonfly】 (Semi-tamed)

Level: 2

Attack: 6—7

Defense: 8

Health: 300

Description: A semi-tamed monster in the beginner village. It does not attack on its own but still has some demonic nature.

The level 2 Demonized Dragonfly posed no threat to Ye Luo. He tried killing one, dealing about 80 points of damage with each hit, while the dragonfly only dealt 4 points of damage to him, a significant disparity in strength.

What interested Ye Luo was that the Demonized Dragonfly used ranged attacks, able to form a small energy ball by vibrating its wings.

Although ranged attacks had some advantages, they also had significant drawbacks. Ye Luo quickly noticed that the hit rate of the energy balls was lower than melee attacks and was easier to dodge.

"Ranged classes are like this. Although ranged attacks have a longer range, their hit rate is slightly lower. This could be something to consider in the future," Ye Luo thought.

After that, Ye Luo lost interest in killing the Demonized Dragonflies. He carefully searched the surroundings but found no small bosses, so he ignored them and continued to move forward, collecting herbs as he went. Fortunately, each type of herb could stack, with 100 herbs fitting into one inventory slot, otherwise, his backpack would have been full long ago.

After about five minutes, Ye Luo finally found the target of his next quest—the Demonized Mountain Chicken.

【Demonized Mountain Chicken】 (Semi-tamed)

Level: 3

Attack: 8—9

Defense: 12

Health: 450

Description: A semi-tamed monster in the beginner village. It does not attack on its own but still has some demonic nature.

The Demonized Mountain Chicken's attack was almost on par with the King Toad, and its defense was only a few points lower. If Ye Luo hadn't equipped the three new pieces of equipment, it would have been difficult to kill. Most importantly, the Demonized Mountain Chicken's health was far lower than the King Toad, making it much easier to kill.

A beginner sword attack on the mountain chicken dealt 61 points of damage, while the chicken's attack only dealt 6 points of damage to Ye Luo, which was negligible.

After seven attacks, the Demonized Mountain Chicken finally died, transforming into 90 points of energy experience. It also dropped three copper coins, but what puzzled Ye Luo was that he didn't get the quest item—mountain chicken meat.

"It seems not every mountain chicken drops the quest item," Ye Luo could only guess, shaking his head. "It looks like Aunt Li's request for 20 pieces of mountain chicken meat won't be easy to complete. Fortunately, the experience from mountain chickens is much higher than from toads, so leveling up here is not bad."

With this in mind, Ye Luo continued to kill mountain chickens. After killing about ten more, he noticed a pattern: on average, he needed to kill five mountain chickens to get one piece of meat. Thus, he would need to kill over a hundred Demonized Mountain Chickens to complete the quest.

Time passed as he killed Demonized Mountain Chickens, and his experience bar slowly increased.

Although the Demonized Mountain Chickens didn't deal much damage to Ye Luo, and he could dodge their attacks, the automatic health recovery from his soul crystal couldn't keep up with the health consumption. He had to rest and recover every three to four minutes, and each rest took nearly two minutes, significantly slowing down his killing speed. This further solidified his determination to become an alchemist.

"If I can't become an alchemist, I'll have to buy some potions. Otherwise, the monster-killing speed is too slow, and I wouldn't dare to fight small bosses," Ye Luo thought while resting. "I wonder how much these potions cost. After killing so many monsters and completing so many quests, I have about 7 or 8 silver coins."

Seeing his health fully restored, Ye Luo once again threw himself into the noble cause of killing monsters.

Time passed quietly, and over half an hour later, Ye Luo finally completed the quest to collect mountain chicken meat.

During this time, Ye Luo killed over a hundred Demonized Mountain Chickens, but what frustrated him was that he didn't get any equipment, leading him to curse the game's drop rates.

"Phew..." Taking a deep breath, Ye Luo checked his experience bar and sighed. "After half an hour of killing mountain chickens, I still haven't reached level 4. The energy experience required for each level is too much, and this is just the early game. It will only get worse later."

"It seems I can't rely on killing monsters of the same level to level up. I need to kill higher-level monsters," Ye Luo mused, then checked his equipment: "I already have a beginner longsword, beginner clothes, arm guards, leg guards, shoes, and a ring, plus a special equipment. I still need a cape, helmet, another ring, necklace, and amulet. If I complete these, my attributes will improve significantly, and killing higher-level monsters won't be impossible."

"Also, the beginner longsword's attack is too low, and the beginner clothes' defense is too low. They need to be replaced," Ye Luo said, then calculated in his mind: "If I complete my equipment and replace the beginner longsword and clothes, I should be able to kill monsters three levels higher without much trouble. Of course, I will need potions. Although maxing out my attack is powerful, my health and defense are much lower than those who max out their constitution."

"Should I add some constitution when I level up? I heard that constitution not only increases health and physical defense but also speeds up the health recovery from soul crystals," Ye Luo muttered, but soon shook his head. "No, I'll still max out my attack. Otherwise, I can't even kill monsters. What's the point of having so much health? I can supplement my health with equipment later, and I will become an alchemist..."

In the early game, Ye Luo didn't plan to team up with others. His powerful attack would be his main advantage for leveling up.