Chapter 8

After completing the task assigned by Dr. Hua, Ye Luo successfully leveled up to level 2, and his attributes had grown somewhat, which made him extremely pleased. He said, "Tsk, tsk, as expected of a task at the E level, just one task and I gained 3000 points of energy experience."

In fact, Ye Luo didn't know that in the Sky Tribulation game, the rewards for tasks increased significantly with each difficulty level, and even more so for each major level. However, the reward was greatly reduced because Ye Luo completed the task with Dr. Hua's significant help, but this still made him very excited.

After receiving Jue Mingzi, Dr. Hua ignored Ye Luo and busied himself in the inner chamber, clearly preparing to refine the Great Detoxifying Pill.

Since he had to bring the Great Detoxifying Pill to Aunt Li, Ye Luo could only wait for Dr. Hua. During the wait, he also checked the rewards from the task. He already knew the uses of experience and village friendliness, so he glanced over them and then focused on the 10 pills.

【Minor Healing Pill】 (1st Tier Pill)

Pill Effect: Restores 30 points of health immediately, and then restores 3 points of health per second for the next 10 seconds, and cannot be interrupted by attacks.

Usage Interval: 30 seconds.

"Tsk, tsk, instantly restoring 30 points of health, and then continuing to heal for the next 10 seconds. At this stage, just two such pills can almost fully restore all health. What a good thing." Ye Luo was delighted. He knew the use of these pills: "In the early stages of the game, players can only restore a little over 1 point of health per second, which is too slow. With these pills, I can boldly fight monsters. Unfortunately, there are only 10, which is too few. I can't use them unless it's a critical moment."

"But if I take up the Alchemist profession, wouldn't it mean I would have an endless supply of pills? I wouldn't have to worry about fighting monsters anymore." Thinking about this, Ye Luo became a bit excited. He looked at Dr. Hua, who was busy in the inner chamber: "My friendliness in the village is so high now; Dr. Hua should teach me alchemy."

"I must find a way to make him teach me; this will give me a huge advantage in the early stages of the game." Ye Luo made up his mind.

After about ten minutes, Dr. Hua came out of the inner chamber, looking exhausted. He barely managed to throw a porcelain bottle to Ye Luo, which clearly contained the Great Detoxifying Pill.

"Old Hua, can I..." Ye Luo started, but was interrupted by Dr. Hua.

"Ye Luo, saving lives is urgent. We can talk about it when we return." Dr. Hua then ignored Ye Luo and took a rest.

Without further ado, Ye Luo hurriedly ran to Aunt Li's house. On the way, he checked the attributes of the Great Detoxifying Pill and found it to be an advanced version of the Minor Detoxifying Pill, with much better effects, and it was a 4th tier pill.

"The Great Detoxifying Pill can immunize against mid-level poison attacks. Since it can remove the snake venom from Uncle Li, it should also immunize against the venomous snakes in the Poison Swamp." Ye Luo thought, then shook his head: "Unfortunately, there are very few of these detoxifying pills, and even Dr. Hua is short on them. It seems difficult to buy them, so I'll have to wait until I become an alchemist."

While thinking about these things, Ye Luo arrived at Aunt Li's house. After Aunt Li took the pill, the task was completed. He received 500 points of energy experience and 50 copper coins, as well as 50 points of villager friendliness. Now he had 1 silver coin and 50 copper coins, and his village friendliness was nearly 200.

According to the rules, Ye Luo should have only received 160 points of experience for completing the task, but Aunt Li had promised triple the reward, which is why he received 500 points of energy experience. However, to level up to level 3, he needed 6500 points of experience, and his experience bar was only about one-third full, so he still had a long way to go.

After taking the pill, Uncle Li's complexion improved slightly, but he was still weak. Aunt Li then assigned Ye Luo another task, hoping he could bring Uncle Li some mountain chicken meat to nourish his body.

【Collect Mountain Chicken Meat】 (Village Task, Difficulty F)

Task Content: Go to the Mountain Chicken Ridge outside the village's south gate and kill the enchanted mountain chickens to obtain 20 pieces of mountain chicken meat.

Task Requirement: Within 1 day.

Task Method: Unrestricted.

Task Reward: Completing the task will grant a generous amount of experience and money, with a certain probability of obtaining an item of equipment.

"Hehe, another follow-up task, and it's not a running errand this time." Ye Luo accepted the task, feeling excited: "And there's a chance to get equipment, this is the second task I've received that has a chance to grant equipment. The task to collect toads guarantees an item of equipment."

"Hero Ye Luo, I need to take care of Old Li at home. When you have time, please thank Old Hua on my behalf." Aunt Li said with a smile as Ye Luo was about to leave: "You've helped our village so much, you might receive an additional reward. By the way, Old Hua is currently collecting monkey wine for his medicine. You can get monkey wine by killing the monkeys outside the south gate who steal the wine. Helping him collect some will increase your chances of receiving an additional reward."

Hearing this, Ye Luo's heart stirred, and he immediately wanted to go to Dr. Hua. However, considering that Dr. Hua was exhausted after refining the pill, he temporarily put this idea aside and decided to go back after collecting some monkey wine.

"Now I need to go and kill those toads and obtain the guaranteed piece of equipment." Ye Luo thought and ran towards the village's south gate.

Since the game had been running for a while, most players had leveled up to 4 or 5, so there were few players still dealing with level 1 toads. This made it easier for Ye Luo, who swung his beginner's sword at the toads.

At this point, Ye Luo's attack power had reached 16 points, and he could deal about 40 points of damage to the toads. If he got a critical hit, he could deal over 80 points of damage, almost killing a young toad in two or three hits.

His defense had also reached 4 points, and the young toads could only deal about 3 points of damage to him. With his current 130 points of health, he could easily withstand the attacks.

Sure enough, when the beginner's sword hit the young toad, it displayed 41 points of damage, and Ye Luo's health only decreased by 3 points. Two more swings, and the young toad was dead, turning into a 10-point energy experience that he absorbed.

"Clank..." A light sound, and two light orbs and a copper coin fell from the young toad.

Picking up the copper coin and one of the light orbs, which was the toad skin required for the task, Ye Luo was excited by the other light orb, as it was a piece of equipment. Collecting it, the equipment turned into a small crystal-like object, about the size of the slot on the soul crystal. The attributes of the equipment also appeared:

【Toad Leg Guards】 (Leg Guards * Village Equipment)

Defense: 3—3

Durability: 100/100

Required Level: 1

With a thought, the equipment was embedded in the 'leg guards' slot of the battle soul, and Ye Luo's defense increased from 4 points to 7 points, a significant improvement.

"Tsk, tsk, focusing on strength points is indeed powerful. I managed to kill this young toad in just two or three hits." Easily killing the young toad and obtaining a piece of equipment, Ye Luo was in a good mood: "The drop rate in the Sky Tribulation game is pretty good. I got equipment from the first monster I killed."

Ye Luo's last statement was a bit premature. The drop rate in the Sky Tribulation game was notoriously low, and a player might not get a piece of equipment even after killing dozens or hundreds of monsters. Ye Luo didn't know what luck he had to get equipment from the first monster he killed.

However, Ye Luo soon realized how low the drop rate in the Sky Tribulation game was. After killing dozens of young toads, he only obtained toad skins and a fixed copper coin, but no more equipment.

Time passed as he killed monsters, and after about ten minutes, Ye Luo became more familiar with the game, at least with the rhythm of attacks. He also tried to incorporate real-world combat experience into the game.

Similar to real-world enemies, monsters have attack ranges and attack frequencies. If you can move out of their attack range before they attack, you can avoid being hit. The attack frequency of the village's monsters is about 2 seconds. Even though Ye Luo's speed was much slower than in real life, it was still possible to dodge.

Of course, these experiences were summarized after Ye Luo had killed monsters for some time. At first, he took the toads' attacks, and even with the leg guards, the young toads could only deal 2 points of damage to him. However, the damage accumulated, and his health gradually dropped below 50 points.

Although Ye Luo had minor healing pills, he knew how precious they were and didn't want to waste them on the weakest monsters, so he had to retreat and wait for his health to recover to over 100 before fighting again.

It was during these breaks that he realized that since the game was so realistic, it should have many similarities to real life. So he started to try to dodge the toads, and gradually adapted.

As Ye Luo became more familiar with the combat, his success rate in dodging attacks increased. He could dodge two out of every three attacks, which significantly reduced the rate at which his health decreased. His natural health recovery rate was enough to sustain him.

This change made Ye Luo very excited. He fought while incorporating real-world combat techniques into the game. Although there were still many issues, he believed he would eventually find the most suitable way.

After ten minutes, Ye Luo had killed over ninety young toads, and he was only a few toad skins away from the 100 required by the tailor.

Swinging his sword to kill a toad, Ye Luo picked up the dropped copper coin and a toad skin, and said angrily, "Another poor toad. I've killed nearly a hundred, and only the first one dropped a leg guard. I haven't seen any more equipment."

"Well, I might as well collect the 100 toad skins quickly. With my current strength, I can handle 2 or 3-level monsters without much difficulty." Ye Luo muttered to himself, having grown tired of killing toads for so long.

Indeed, level 1 toads not only dropped few copper coins, but killing so many only gave him nearly a thousand points of energy experience. He still had a long way to go to level up to level 3, and he wanted to go and kill slightly higher-level monsters as soon as possible.