Chapter 3 (Assassin Reborn)

[Translated by ChickenBakuba]

Chapter 3, Red-Tailed Snake King!

Upon exiting the village, Xu Xiang immediately noticed a gelatin, jelly-like organism.

A slime.

The information of low-levelled monsters could be easily accessed. As for the BOSS of a low-levelled area, players could check its attributes even if it was 5 levels higher than them. As for monsters with levels below 5, they would not take the initiative to attack the player.

Slime

Level: 0

Attack: 2

Defence: 0

HP: 50

Introduction: A low-levelled monster around novice village. Easily defeated.

Xu Xiang's slightly pale hands toyed with the dagger in his hand. This was a small habit of Xu Xiang's. It helped to divert his attention when he was somewhat distracted.

Xu Xiang walked to the back of the slime and plunged his dagger into it. 5 points of damage emerged from the head of the slime. The slime turned around with difficulty, spitting out a stream of saliva at Xu Xiang. Xu Xiang twisted to the side to avoid it. In <i>Dispute</i>, one could move their limbs to avoid monsters' attacks. However, they needed to dodge according to the system's regulated movements. Xu Xiang had already mastered this.

Sidestepping a melee attack from a monster only needed one to avoid the attack of the monster. However, dodging ranged attacks like this would not get you anywhere. If you thought that dodging arrows or magic would have the projectiles fly past you, you are gravely mistaken. Ranged attacks possessed an automatic correction system. One needed skill and technique to dodge a ranged attack. Although the slime had spat its saliva to attack, it was still considered a melee attack by the system.

Xu Xiang went around the slime and plunged his dagger into its back again, taking away 6 HP this time. As the slime struggled to turn around and face him again, he slid behind its back and stabbed its back. In this way, he began to toy with the slime. The familiar feeling of killing monsters returned to him as his rusty, sluggish movements began to change into polished, oiled actions. Although he did not have the powerful attributes of his previous life, his eyesight was no less weaker than before and his skills were still there.

"Ding~ slime killed, 5 experience points gained." A paltry 5 experience points. For one to rise to the next level, one needed 10,000 experience points, which could be translated to the staggering number of 2,000 slimes. One slime took around 10 seconds to kill, so this meant that at least five hours of grinding was needed to rise from the level 0 to level 1. It could be seen that <i>Dispute's</i> difficulty in levelling up was not low.

Moreover, finding the monsters required time. Xu Xiang had managed to enter the game 15 minutes ahead of others, but this level 0 monster area would definitely be flooded soon. Even if 30 hours were spent grinding, raising one level would be a difficult task.

After killing one slime, Xu Xiang did not bother chasing after more. He had experienced <i>Dispute</i> before, and if he obediently squandered his time grinding to level 5 before challenging the dungeon, it would be nothing short of tragic. He had only killed the slime to recover a bit of his skill from the past. After all, Xu Xiang had not touched the game for 3 years. Now that he had more or less achieved it, there was no need to hunt for more slimes.

There were already people beginning to show up at the open plaza in the village. Xu Xiang was unsurprised. He had not expected only himself to discover the early release of the game. The 15 minutes did not make much difference anyway.

Xu Xiang received 10 copper coins from the system when he entered the game. Xu Xiang spent all 10 coppers on elementary instant recovery potions. Each elementary instant recovery potion went for 5 coppers. Xu Xiang clenched his teeth as he purchased two of them. Created accounts in <i>Dispute</i> were unable to be removed and second accounts were not allowed. This prevented exploiters from creating multiple accounts and transferring money.

Elementary instant recovery potion

Use: Instantly recovers 100 HP

Cooldown period: 30 seconds

Weight: 2

Introduction: A popular potion in the continent, capable of rapidly recover one's HP.

Xu Xiang exited the village again. Now, the level 0 slime area was booming with people. More and more people were joining. Every time a slime made its appearance, at least five different weapons would fall on it. Knives, swords, staffs, you name it. As Xu Xiang passed through the slime area, he effortlessly collected a few experience points from slimes. Xu Xiang's nerves, reflex and speed outstripped the average person by far. This was his experience of playing the Thief for the past years. Naturally, he was much better at killing monsters than other people.

If there was no party or team, the first player who landed the hit on the monster would gain the experience. However, loot left behind from the monsters were up for grabs. Anybody could collect the loot. This was why robbing and killing in <i>Dispute</i> was a common sight. If one did not play <i>Dispute</i> for the action and fighting, what else would one play it for?

However, it was extremely difficult for magicians and archers to steal kills or earn experience points in their early stages. Even if they possessed the elementary ranged attack skill from the system, ranged-attacks required time. By the time your attack reached its target, the warriors and thieves would have long torn the monster apart. According to the experience distribution of <i>Dispute</i>, even the first attacker in a party earned 20 per cent of the experience. The last attacker earned 30 per cent of the experience. As for priests, they could only obediently beat the monsters with their staff.

Xu Xiang passed through the slime area and arrived at the level 1 large rodent area. The level 1 monster area only had a few specific teams hunting monsters, and was much more toned-down as compared to the level 0 slime area. A five-men squad killing monsters was not particularly difficult, and the experience was almost similar to hunting slimes. However, there was nobody snatching monster kills here. It was much better and more efficient than the level 0 area.

Large rodent

Level: 1

Attack: 8

Defence: 4

HP: 70

Introduction: A primary monster for novices. Enjoys eating crops on farmlands, an existence loathed by everyone in the village.

Xu Xiang did not stop at the level 1 monster area and nonchalantly continued straight ahead. Watching Xu Xiang advance to the next area, the players stared blankly at him.

"Does that dude want to die? Everyone's still a level 0 at this stage, does he think he can defeat monsters above level 1?" "Ignore him — Ah! Who stole my kill?!" "Does that guy think he's a main character or something? Idiot."[footnote]They do not know monsters below level 5 do not take the initiative to attack players.[/footnote]

Because it was evening, more lights were lit around the novice village. The darkness of the night did not affect their grinding. However, the deeper one advanced away from the village, the less light there would be. Only the moonlight would be left if one advanced too far from the village.

Xu Xiang passed the level 2 deer area, the level 3 goblin area, the level 4 goblin archer area until he finally hit the level 5 red-tailed snake area. He paused.

As monsters level 5 and below would not take the initiative to attack players, it was still considered safe here. However, scaly reptiles covered everything, with their hissing tongues as they wandered back and forth, so it could frighten away some girls.

Red-tailed snake

Level: 5

Attack: 60

Defence: 20

HP: 300

Introduction: The strongest primary monster of novice village. Possess high attack and decent HP.

Red-tailed snakes, as the name implied, had red tails. Although it was dark, the bright red colour of their tails were easily noticeable under the moonlight. However, Xu Xiang's objective was not the red-tailed snakes, but instead the red-tailed snake king. The first BOSS for novices. Xu Xiang easily identified it among the sea of snakes. Its body was much bigger than ordinary red-tailed snakes, and the red of its tail was also much more brilliant than the other snakes. There was no way someone could overlook it.

Red-tailed snake king (Bronze level BOSS)

Level: 7

Attack: 120

Defence: 40

HP: 3000

Skill: [Venom of the Snake King]

Introduction: King of the red-tailed snakes. Possesses extremely high attack and lethal venom.

Chapter 3, END