Chapter 5 : Quest Triggered
“Wow, you already have them? So fast?
“Alright, Young Hero, please come with me.”
Rena smiled at Li Yi and waved her shapely butt as she walked into the room.
“I just need wood, bamboo, iron, and the feathers from a bird to craft a normal arrow.”
Rena’s hands glowed with a faint red light, and within a few short seconds, she had crafted 100 Brand New Arrows.
[Brand New Arrows]
[Additional ATK 1–3]
...
“Young Hero, do you still need to craft more arrows?”
“Yes!”
feathers resulted in 100 arrows, and Li Yi still had more than 400 arrows left.
Rena’s hands shone with that red glow again, and several seconds later, there was another fresh batch of 100 Brand New Arrows.
“Young Hero, do you still need to craft more arrows?”
“Yes!”
Li Yi handed over some more feathers.
The red light shone again, and she crafted another 100 arrows. Rena asked Li Yi again.
“Yes!”
As Li Yi watched Rena craft arrows for the third time, he began to grow slightly nervous.
Rena from the Novice Village would only help a player craft arrows for free up to six times. Li Yi spent several hours farming more than 500 feathers, not only because he wanted to have Rena make him arrows for free. What he truly wanted was the Beginner-level Arrow Crafting Skill that Rena could teach him, as well as the subsequent quests.
When Rena helped a player craft arrows, starting from the second round, there was a very small chance that something unexpected would happen during the crafting process, resulting in the crafting process failing.
“Mentor Rena, can I learn a skill now?”
He watched Rena’s hands glow red, and the new batch of arrows formed immediately. Panicked, Li Yi spoke out to interfere with the process.
The red light faded and Rena smiled as she handed Li Yi the 100 arrows.
“You can now learn the Archer’s Beginner-level Skill, Hunt Target. I can teach you this skill for free.”
System Notification: [Learn Hunt Target?]
Li Yi pressed [Confirm].
[Thanks to Rena’s teachings, you have learned Hunt Target. Skill Effect: Adds a mark to your target, and any attacks will cause additional damage to said target. Also, the Archer may always see the marked target, disregarding Invisibility and Stealth. Effect lasts for ten minutes.]
“Young Hero, do you still need to craft more arrows?”
Once Rena taught Li Yi the skill, she asked once more.
“Yes!”
There was a flash of red light, and another set of arrows was successfully crafted.
He only had over 100 arrows left. If he failed this time as well, he would have no choice but to collect more feathers to do the crafting one last time.
Rena took the arrows 1 , her hand glowing red. Li Yi’s heart leaped into his throat.
Pachk!
A cloud of black smoke rose from Rena’s hands, burning the arrows and bamboo into a crisp.
The arrow crafting failed!
Thank goodness!
Li Yi was so overjoyed he nearly burst out laughing.
“How could it be? Did I do something wrong?” Rena was utterly dejected.
After a long time, Rena gave a long melancholic sigh. “Looks like I’m not suited to be an Arrow Crafting Master, after all.”
“Young Hero, I am extremely sorry I burned your materials. In order to compensate for your loss, please accept this Beginner-level Arrow Crafting Skill book.”
Li Yi hurriedly pressed confirm! He accepted the Beginner-level Arrow Crafting Skill book and clapped his hands together, learning it instantly.
[Congratulations, you have learned Beginner-level Arrow Crafting. Using wood, bamboo, iron, and feathers from a bird, you can craft a regular arrow.]
“An Archer needs to use up a lot of arrows as he progresses, so learning the Beginner-level Arrow Crafting Skill can help you save a lot of money. As you grow more familiar with the process, you may even be able to craft some arrows with special attributes.”
Rena took out two more arrows, one red and the other blue. She gave them both to Li Yi.
“These are the arrows that my teacher, the Archer Skill Mentor Raoul from Shattered Frost City, crafted out of some special materials—a Frost Arrow enhanced with the Ice Attribute and a Flame Arrow with the Fire Attribute. There’s not much point in me keeping them on me, so I might as well give them to you as well.”
‘What a haul!’
Li Yi had already been very satisfied with the Beginner-level Arrow Crafting Skill. Although he used to play as a Thief in the past life, he was extremely familiar with the special quests for all eight major classes. The chances of triggering this event, where Rena gave the player the Frost and Flame Arrows, were several times lower than obtaining the Beginner-level Arrow Crafting Skill.
Eight years after King of Pantheon opened, less than ten players in total managed to trigger the free arrows event. That just showed how low the chances were.
Although the Frost and Flame Arrows were precious, they were still attainable as long as the player was willing to spend some money. The value of Rena’s giving him the arrows did not lie in the value of the arrows themselves, but it had to do with what came after triggering a quest.
Now that he had finally learned the Beginner-level Arrow Crafting Skill, Li Yi was completely satisfied. Bidding goodbye to Rena, he took the short bow and ran straight for the mountains south of the village.
Now that he had the short bow, it would naturally be no issue if he wanted to hunt more Baby Firebirds. However, Li Yi was Level 5 now, whereas the Baby Firebirds were just Level 3 monsters. If he defeated a monster that was 2 levels lower than him, he would only get 70% of the EXP, so it was not worth it.
He had a better option for leveling up now, and he was going to the back of the mountain to try it out.
“Roar– Roar–”
A herd of Black-Furred Large Wild Boars would cry out occasionally, their voices echoing down to the foot of the mountain...
[Adult Wild Boar, Normal Monster, Level 9. Attacking method: Tackle, Tearing Fangs.]
Li Yi went around the herd of wild boars carefully, slowly inching toward the back of the mountain.
With his current abilities, it was not too hard to kill an Adult Wild Boar, but he did not come here just to kill a normal wild boar. Instead, his target was to kill the Level 15 boss behind the herd of wild boars, the Wild Boar King!
Compared to the rowdiness of the Novice Village, the Adult Wild Boar farming zone behind the mountain was relatively quieter. However, there was still the occasional fearless player who ran all the way here. Such players tended to form groups, waving their pocket knives around as they rushed toward the Adult Wild Boars. However, regardless of how many people they had in their groups, they only ever met with one fate.
They were all bitten to death by the Adult Wild Boars, earning a free ride back to the village.
To come here without being at least Level Seven was nothing short of a death wish.
The way Li Yi circled around the wild boar herd now was the result of extensive research by an extremely famous Elemental Wizard from his past life, a player whose ID was Lonely Semi City.
Avoiding battle and taking some very precise steps to walk around all the Adult Wild Boars allowed him to go straight to the Wild Boar King and challenge it.
Li Yi was in the middle of the wild boar herd. If he entered a battle now, all the Adult Wild Boars nearby would enter Battle Mode. In that case, he would be dead as a doornail.
He took every step with utmost caution, terrified of provoking the Adult Wild Boars.
After walking for a whole twenty minutes and more, Li Yi successfully went around all the Adult Wild Boars, arriving at the back of the mountain.
The yellow-brown ground was full of little craters and gigantic boulders jutting out, but it allowed for a wide field of vision. The Wild Boar King, larger in size than an elephant, was lying down lazily on the ground not too far away from him. It would occasionally grunt a few times.
The Wild Boar King’s pair of extra-large tusks looked particularly frightening. In truth, at least a hundred thousand novice players died as a result of those tusks. He remembered how, in his previous life, the Pantheon company had once held a voting event to see who was the strongest boss in the eyes of the players. In the end, this little Level 15 boss appeared on the list as the third strongest boss in the game.
[Wild Boar King, Boss Level Monster, Level 15. Skills: Charge, Berserk, Stomp, Tear.]
It had more than 30,000 HP and over 300 points in ATK. If he were to go against it head-on, forget the fact that Li Yi was Level 5 right now, even if he was Level 15, he would still die without a doubt.
Li Yi ran to the left. There was a large and thick tree there, and a giant boulder jutted out of the ground beside it. The key to whether or not he could kill the Wild Boar King lay here.
Li Yi stood in front of the tree and held up his bow, aiming for the Wild Boar King that was currently sound asleep.
“Whoosh!”
The arrow shot out but could not hit the Wild Boar King, falling to the ground due to loss of momentum before it could reach.
The arrow was more than twenty meters away from the Wild Boar King. He had stood too far away.
Li Yi took a few more steps forward and drew his bow once more.
“Patter!”
The arrow landed five meters in front of the Wild Boar King.
Stepping forth once more, he let loose another arrow.
“Poof!”
The arrow hit its target, and −2 floated out of the top of the Wild Boar King’s head.
“Roar–”
The Wild Boar King flew into a fury, jumping up from the ground. Li Yi instantly took several steps back.
The Wild Boar King paced back and forth, glaring with its beady eyes for quite a long time before its rage slowly faded. (Li Yi had already left its attack range.)
[Player Dark Wing has left the battle...]
When he received the System Notification, Li Yi’s heart finally relaxed. He waited until the Wild Boar King stopped moving before he stepped forth again and unleashed another arrow.
“Poof!”
[−1]
The Wild Boar King was furious, roaring as it looked for its target.
Li Yi retreated and then froze there. Not long later, he received the notification: [Player Dark Wing has left the battle...]
If he shot out an arrow and then left the battle like this, he would not be able to kill the boss, because as soon as a monster left the battle, their HP would immediately return to the maximum value.
He wanted to make sure that once the Wild Boar King charged at him, its body would definitely get stuck between the large tree and the giant boulder. Only then would he be able to kill off the defenseless Wild Boar King.
Li Yi shot out more than twenty arrows before he finally adjusted the Wild Boar King to a position he was satisfied with.
He drew the bow, and unleashed the arrow!
[−1]
This time, Li Yi did not leave the battle. Instead, when the Wild Boar King jumped up, he immediately shot out a second arrow.
The Wild Boar King roared and finally saw its target. There was a flash of red light around its body, and then it came crashing toward Li Yi fiercely like a speeding car.
The Wild Boar used Charge!
Li Yi retreated!
“Bang!”
When the Wild Boar King’s giant tusks were less than half a meter away from Li Yi, they stopped suddenly. However, the immense momentum still sent Li Yi flying head over heels, −29 floating out from the top of his head.
He did not die.
Then he looked again at the Wild Boar King, stuck between a large tree and a giant boulder. Its legs were suspended in mid-air, its head shaking wildly as it roared furiously.
Success!