Chapter 8

"Village Chief, I want to leave the village and venture out into the world." Zhao Feng arrived at the village center, a pavilion, and spoke to the white-haired elder who was sleeping in a recliner.

After level 10, players can teleport to any level 3 city from the Village Chief.

Hearing Zhao Feng's words, the elder slowly opened his eyes. Just as he was about to say it was fine, he suddenly closed his mouth and stared at Zhao Feng with a surprised look, his eyes shining brightly, without any sign of the old, dim eyes he had just a moment ago.

When Zhao Feng felt a bit uneasy under the elder's gaze, the elder's sharp eyes suddenly disappeared, replaced by the same unfocused, old eyes.

"Little friend, you're not in a hurry to go to the level 3 city, right? I have a quest here. I wonder if you can help me?" the elder said with a smile.

Quest?

Zhao Feng was taken aback. He didn't expect the game character to offer a quest on their own. In the past, he had to actively ask if there was anything he could help with before the NPC would give a quest.

The game developers had said that, in addition to a significant increase in virtual reality, the NPCs in the game had their own intelligence. Zhao Feng hadn't paid much attention to this before, but now it seemed to be true.

"Village Chief, what quest? Tell me," Zhao Feng asked, somewhat excited.

In fact, this was the first time he had accepted a quest in the game!

In the past, he had just played casually, leveling up by finding and killing monsters.

With such a high level of virtual reality in this game, he really wanted to try out what it felt like to do a quest.

"Hehe, thank you, little friend," the Village Chief said with a smile.

The next moment, a system prompt sounded in Zhao Feng's ears.

"System Prompt: The Village Chief of Newbie Village 1000 wants to give you an S-rank quest, 'Explore the Cloud Demon Cave.' Do you accept?"

"S-rank? Cloud Demon Cave?"

Hearing the system prompt, Zhao Feng was stunned.

Although he hadn't done any quests before, he knew about the quest rankings.

In the game, quests were divided into several ranks: C, B, A, S, and SS.

C-rank was the easiest, and most players could easily complete it. B-rank was moderate, requiring some effort. A-rank was difficult, and most people couldn't complete it. S-rank was very difficult, and even many game experts hesitated to take on such quests. SS-rank was considered impossible, with a difficulty level that could make players despair!

He didn't expect his first quest to be an S-rank!

The main reason Zhao Feng was stunned was the Cloud Demon Cave.

As someone who often browsed forums, he knew that each newbie village had a Cloud Demon Cave, which was a dungeon. Players could enter once they reached level 10.

Of course, only level 10 players could enter, and each player could enter a maximum of 5 times per day, with a maximum team size of 5 people!

Dungeons in the game were nothing unusual, but what was strange was that the newbie village dungeon was extremely difficult!

The difficulty of all dungeons in the game was divided into: Easy, Hard, and Hell.

The first two difficulties had been cleared by some players, but no one had cleared a Hell difficulty dungeon!

This situation had caused a stir on the forums, but after many well-known game experts tried and failed, no one paid attention anymore.

He didn't expect his quest to be related to this!

"S-rank, and related to the Cloud Demon Cave? Could it be asking me to clear the Hell mode of the Cloud Demon Cave?" Zhao Feng wondered, but he chose to accept it.

The next moment, the system prompt confirmed his thoughts: "System Prompt: Explore the Cloud Demon Cave. Please go to the Cloud Demon Cave dungeon and choose Hell mode. Complete the dungeon to finish the quest. Quest difficulty: S. Quest reward: Unknown. Failure penalty: Unknown."

Unknown reward? Unknown penalty? What is this?

Zhao Feng was speechless.

However, since he had accepted it, he couldn't back out. Moreover, he genuinely wanted to challenge this quest that had defeated countless players, so he had no regrets.

What he didn't expect was that a surprise suddenly came before he could leave.

"To help you complete the quest, I have a small skill to give you for free," the Village Chief said, not waiting for Zhao Feng's response. He waved his hand, and another system prompt sounded in Zhao Feng's ears.

"System Prompt: Congratulations, player has learned the skill: Spirit Detection."

Spirit Detection? What is it?

Zhao Feng, puzzled, opened his character panel and was filled with surprise.

Spirit Detection: Can view information of monsters up to 10 levels higher than the player (Initial Insight: 1/200).

It could view monsters 5 levels higher than normal! This was just the initial level, and it would definitely be even better at higher levels! Zhao Feng was filled with anticipation!

"Village Chief, I will complete the quest!"

As the saying goes, "When someone gives you something, you feel obligated." Although the quest reward was unknown, just for the Spirit Detection, Zhao Feng was ready to go all out!

"Okay, go. I'll be waiting for your good news," the Village Chief said with a smile, his eyes filled with anticipation.

Zhao Feng didn't care about all this and headed straight for the entrance of the Cloud Demon Cave.

On the way, he casually used Spirit Detection on trees, grass, and even a wild rabbit he encountered!

The rabbit suddenly went berserk! A 5-level rabbit instantly became a 10-level one, its body growing from the size of a normal rabbit to that of a small dog! Its eyes turned red, as if it had been up all night!

Berserk was a condition that could occur with any monster in the game, but the probability was extremely low, less than one in a million! He didn't expect to encounter it, and on a rabbit!

A berserk rabbit was just as dangerous as a berserk human!

With a powerful leap, the rabbit covered 10 meters in an instant. Its large, three-part mouth opened, revealing sharp fangs, looking very fierce.

"Bang~"

Just as the rabbit reached Zhao Feng, a shadow of a stick appeared, and the berserk rabbit flew back three times as fast as it came. It hit the ground and turned into a white light, leaving behind some gold coins and a pair of boots emitting a green glow!

High risk means high reward!

The berserk rabbit instantly went from level 5 to level 10, its strength greatly increased, but it was still only level 10! When Zhao Feng was level 1, he could one-shot a level 15 fire fox. This level 10 rabbit was no different from a cabbage to him, just very fresh!

Was this a special rabbit sent to give him equipment? Zhao Feng thought, somewhat surprised. It wasn't his birthday today, so why was he getting one good thing after another?

Zhao Feng even thought about logging out to call home and confirm if they had gotten his birthday wrong!

Of course, he just thought about it.

He picked up the items the rabbit dropped and checked the equipment stats, which made him smile.

Rabbit Skin Boots (Bronze Item):

Feature: Increases Agility by 20 points!

Requirement: Level 10

Although these boots weren't top-tier, the effect was excellent! At level 10, his Agility was already over 70, and with these boots, it would be nearly 100!

Without hesitation, he threw away his old white boots and put on the new ones.

Bronze items were indeed different. They felt very soft and comfortable, and Zhao Feng felt his legs weren't sore, and his feet didn't hurt. He could easily climb six floors in one breath, just like taking some health supplement!

The Cloud Demon Cave was about 5 kilometers north of the newbie village. On the way, Zhao Feng continued to use Spirit Detection casually, and although he didn't encounter any more berserk monsters, he reached the Minor Mastery level in Spirit Detection!

Spirit Detection: Can view information of monsters up to 20 levels higher than the player (Minor Mastery: 138/500).

At the Minor Mastery level, he could view monsters up to 20 levels higher. What would the higher levels be like? Zhao Feng was filled with anticipation.

Suddenly, Zhao Feng's vision went dark, and when it returned to normal, he was standing at the entrance of a cave.

The Cloud Demon Cave was at the base of a mountain about 100 meters high. The cave entrance was 3 meters high and 2 meters wide, with the words "Cloud Demon Cave" written in ancient script above it.

The cave had no door, only a constantly moving nebula pattern, mostly black, which looked somewhat terrifying.

It was around 1:00 AM, and there were no other players around. Zhao Feng casually walked towards the entrance.

When Zhao Feng was about 1 meter from the entrance, a pleasant voice sounded in his head: "System Prompt: Player has 5 remaining entries to the Cloud Demon Cave today. Please choose the difficulty: Easy, Hard, or Hell."

There was no choice: Hell!

After making his choice, Zhao Feng took a step and walked through the nebula pattern.

His vision went dark and then bright again, and Zhao Feng found himself in a damp cave.

The cave was arched, about 5 meters in diameter and 30 meters long, with a wall at the end, blocking the way. The path was wet, and water droplets occasionally fell from the walls.

As Zhao Feng was checking his surroundings, the entire passage suddenly flashed with light.

The next moment, the passage was filled with hundreds of large black-shelled spiders, each about the size of a washbasin!

A Spirit Detection revealed the spider's information.

Black-shelled Spider

Level: 15

Skill: Rending Claws: 200 damage per hit, with a potent poison that increases damage by 10 points per second!

Seeing the dense mass of black-shelled spiders, Zhao Feng's scalp tingled.

On the way, he had specifically checked the information about the Cloud Demon Cave on the forums. Although he knew the black-shelled spiders were terrifying, he didn't expect them to be this terrifying!

A 15-level spider dealing 200 damage per hit wasn't high, but the sheer number, combined with the poison damage, meant that even a team of 50 players would be wiped out here!

The most critical issue was that the newbie village had no pharmacy, and the system prohibited the use of any potions in the newbie village area.

Even if players like those from the Thunder Hall spent a lot of effort walking from the city to the newbie village, they couldn't use those potions!

"Let's fight!"

Although the situation was more challenging than Zhao Feng had anticipated, since he had entered, there was no need to regret it. The only option was to fight!