Chapter 6 (Assassin Reborn)

[Translated by ChickenBakuba]

Chapter 6, The Blue-Eyed Wolf King!

Now, Xu Xiang was about to take a skill. That's right, take. Taking and stealing were not the same thing. A person of noble character took, Xu Xiang regarded himself as a man of noble character. So the correct term was take. Not steal.

Now that he was a rich person, he spent 25 coppers with a wave of his hand. He bought 5 elementary instant recovery potions from the wretched potion merchant with his wretched smile. He deposited the two pieces of level 5 bronze equipment into the equipment warehouse. The level 1 warehouse was open for free, with 20 item slots.

After he finished storing everything, he emerged from the warehouse. The target this time was a treasure chest. All the treasure chests in the novice areas were wooden chests, the lowest grade of treasure chests which did not require lock picking or unlocking skills. The estimated time to open the chests were 5 seconds. The highest from a wooden chest was 1 silver coin or 5 red enhancing stones which could enhance the level of equipment to level 4. There were also bronze-grade equipment as well as skill books.

Skill books were the hardest to determine the level of, as the use of the skills varied from person to person. Even if a professional had a basic skill, he would be able to take down a noob with all sorts of high-levelled skills. The noob would not be able to scratch the professional at all.

The chest Xu Xiang needed was in another level 5 monster area, which was the blue-eyed wolves' area. The blue-eyed wolf was the lowest levelled monster that could attack players on its own initiative.

Xu Xiang felt that the blue-eyed wolf and the white-eyed wolf were definitely gay friends. How else could the blue-eyed wolf attack on its own initiative then? The red-tailed snakes were similarly level 5, but they were unable to take the initiative to attack.

Xu Xiang left the 9527 novice village fro the third time. Many players struggling in the slime area watched Xu Xiang as he entered further into the monster area. Their eyes turned red and there were even a few people who decided to tag along.

However, as a thief, Xu Xiang was a master at shadowing people. These people were still too tender. Although Xu Xiang did not bother to hide himself from them, he easily threw them off after 7-8 turns in the forest. While losing them, he dealt with a few more large rodents, increasing his level to level 2. He distributed 7 attribute points into agility and 3 attribute points into strength.

Another ten minutes of walking saw him the blue-eyed wolf area.

Blue-eyed wolf

Level: 5

Attack: 65

Defence: 18

HP: 250

Introduction: Blue-eyed wolves is the first monster in the novice village that can take the initiative to attack. It possesses high movement speed and attack rate.

The attributes of blue-eyed wolves were lower than that of red-tailed snakes. However, the experience it yielded was more than red-tailed snakes as it was a monster that could take the initiative to attack. In <i>Dispute</i>, monsters that could attack on their own initiative yielded more experience than monsters of the same level that could not initiatively attack by 20 per cent.

Xu Xiang's eyes fell onto the treasure chest in the middle of the pack of wolves. The appearance of the wooden chest was exactly as he had remembered it in his previous life. A layer of half-rotting wood, around 0.2 yards high (approx 18.288 cm), half a yard in length (approx 45.72 cm), and 0.3 yards thick (approx 27.432 cm). Within the area packed with wolves, the wooden chest was particularly eye-catching.

The treasure chest also had 10 wolves wandering around it. This was the work of the system. Every wolf had its own established path. What Xu Xiang needed to do was to avoid the wolf's aggro radius* until he reached the treasure chest.

*The aggro radius is the distance from a player at which a mob will stop its normal behaviour and engage the player in combat. See [http://et.worldofwarcraft.wikia.com/wiki/Aggro_radius]

Xu Xiang eyed the massive figure of a wolf on the right side of the pack. Terrifyingly law maws, gleaming fangs, the muscles of the crouching canine rippled with power. The expression of 'strangers, back off' seemed to be written on its face. If it had one, of course.

It was the wolf king! Xu Xiang estimated that the distance between the treasure chest and the wolf king to be 50 yards. This was an open plain. Although the wolf king would easily spot him, its aggro radius would not be as far as its view. At this moment, the wolf king moved. From Xu Xiang's view, he could glimpse the treasure chest directly behind the wolf king's back. Xu Xiang's eyes shrunk for a second, but he quickly calmed down.

In his previous life, he had never heard of the wolf king having a treasure chest. Perhaps someone had reached the treasure chest of the wolf king before and looted it clean before the wolf king was defeated. In any case, the wolf king was definitely not an opponent that Xu Xiang could take on at this level.

Blue-eyed wolf king (Bronze level BOSS)

Level: 9

Attack: 200

Defence: 75

HP: 3500

Skill: [Roar]

Introduction: Overlord of the novice village's plains. Possesses extremely fast movement and attack speed.

The blue-eyed wolf king was higher a level than the red-tailed snake king. Hence, all its attributes were even higher than the snake king. This wolf king needed a minimum of 20 level 9s or Xu Xiang to change his profession to perhaps stand a chance against it.

Sliding his gaze back to rest on his target this time, Xu Xiang carefully observed and calculated the established paths of the wolves. The fixed aggro radius of blue-eyed wolves were 5 yards. However, you still had a chance of proccing* the wolf's hostility if you were within 5-8 yards of it. This was known as the buffer zone. Only beyond 8 yards was your safety guaranteed. Currently, even being in the buffer zone was dangerous as Xu Xiang had a higher chance of getting attacked due to his low level.*

*Proc, or proccing is a common term used primarily in game programming to refer to an event - a "procedure" - triggered under particular circumstances. For example, in WoW, a particular weapon (that hits many times) might have a 10% chance on each hit to apply a special effect, such as poison damage.

*See level-based behaviour. [https://wow.gamepedia.com/Aggro_radius]

In <i>Dispute</i>, aggro would not be proc'ed just by the monster taking notice of you. With the exception of special circumstances, unless you were already injured, you would not attract the attention of other monsters. This put the skill of players to the test. Even if ten thousand soldiers walked through a jungle, not a single leaf would touch them.

As a thief in his previous life, Xu Xiang often had to calculate the aggro range of different monsters. A thief could get to many places that other professions could not reach. Thieves never got the highest profits from fights. Instead, they lived off the earnings they got from opening treasure chests. True to their profession, when it came to opening treasure chests, the thief was unparalleled. However, now that Xu Xiang had no stealth, the aggro range of the monsters were much higher.

To top it off, the wolves loitering around the treasure chest had non-radius-based aggro.* Attract the aggro of one, and the entire pack would come running.

*Related to co-aggro is group aggro, where a predetermined group will all aggro Paula if she attacks any of them, regardless of radius. Sometimes the group aggro will not be equal - for instance it may be impossible to pull an elite monster without aggroing his "friends", but possible to pull a friend away from the elite using ranged attacks without engaging the whole group at once. This is particularly common in instances, where engaging a boss typically aggro's any remaining mobs in the room, but not vice versa.

Xu Xiang had observed the wolves for 5 minutes, mentally calculated the various aggro radius and paths before mapping out the safest route. The route he had chosen was the safest because it only had a few buffer zones. Even then, Xu Xiang could only pray to heaven not to attract the aggro of the wolves.

Xu Xiang did not have any important things on him, so even if he died it was no big deal. He would be slightly depressed about losing some experience, but it was nothing compared to the skill. This skill could provide great assistance in the future.

Xu Xiang approached the treasure chest slowly, following the route he had deemed the safest. 20 yards later, he halted.

There were 3 wolves' aggro radiuses overlapping his route, and they were <i>close</i>. One was 9 yards ahead, the other 8 yards to his right, and the third was 7 yards to his left.

3 seconds passed. Xu Xiang held his breath.

Safe. Xu Xiang released the breath was holding and continued on his way.

Walking and halting, the distance between the treasure chest closed eventually. He had almost been caught several times, but he had managed to safely pass through, more scared than hurt.

After 3 minutes of heart-stopping fear, Xu Xiang finally reached the treasure chest. Xu Xiang's back was soaked with sweat. If he failed this time, the difficulty in attempting this would increase because this would disrupt the established paths of the wolves. Xu Xiang would also lose some experience.

He did not have much time to think. Xu Xiang began to open the treasure chest. Opening the chest required 5 seconds, but the time he had left for guaranteed safety before he entered the buffer zones was also 5 seconds. That meant that he had virtually no time after opening the treasure chest. He needed to beat it out of there immediately after opening the chest. In theory, it was feasible, but in reality, the difficulty was near impossible.

System: Treasure chest opening, 20% completed, 40%, 60%...

It was open! There was something in the chest. It was a skill book. Xu Xiang grabbed and turned to throw it inside his backpack.

Chapter 6, END