Chapter 13: The Level Rankings and Equipment Rankings!
Lin Tianhao was momentarily stunned. No wonder the Hydra Bard only had that one skill — all its other skills had been sacrificed.
During this dungeon run, after setting aside Dead Wood Meets Spring, Lin Tianhao still had twelve skill books in hand.
All of them were dropped by Twisted Treants, and their usefulness to Lin Tianhao was minimal at best.
"Learn Dead Wood Meets Spring."
"Sacrifice skill books."
Lin Tianhao sacrificed ten of the Treant skill books, successfully upgrading Dead Wood Meets Spring to 2 stars.
Dead Wood Meets Spring (Passive Skill): 2 Stars.
Effect: When your HP drops to 10%, you will immediately recover 20% of your maximum HP.
Cooldown: 12 hours.
Cost: None.
Proficiency: 0/100 (Proficiency is gained by sacrificing skill books. Each skill book sacrificed grants 1 point of Proficiency. Certain special skills may grant multiple points.)
Just as Lin Tianhao had expected — upgrading by one star increased the HP recovery by 10% and significantly reduced the cooldown.
That was no small improvement.
And with this skill, his survivability had once again received a massive boost.
What's more, Dead Wood Meets Spring recovered HP based on a percentage, which meant that even in the late game, it would absolutely be considered an insanely powerful skill.
Right now, Lin Tianhao's total HP was over thirty thousand — 20% of that was over six thousand points.
But what if his total HP reached three million, thirty million, or even higher?
The skill would still recover based on percentage.
He pulled his thoughts back to the present.
Lin Tianhao glanced at his experience bar — he still needed another half to reach Level 10.
With that experience bar, if he wanted to, he could reach Level 10 in at most thirty minutes.
But leveling up wasn't the only thing Lin Tianhao had in mind.
He opened the Level Rankings.
Lin Tianhao wanted to check the current standings.
1st: Shura Emperor, Level 11, 25%.
2nd: Dream Chaser Snowfall, Level 10, 95%.
3rd: I Don't Love Money, Level 10, 91%.
4th: Futu Shenlang, Level 10, 90%.
5th: I'm Really 20 Centimeters, Level 10, 88%.
The gaps on the Level Rankings weren't particularly wide. Lin Tianhao recognized most of these players.
Three of the top five were high-ranking guild members, and the other two — one was a top-tier Second-generation wealthy kid from the Dragon Nation, whose level had been stacked purely through money.
The thing was, this guy wasn't just rich — he also had incredible luck and a fair amount of skill. He was practically inhuman.
As for the fifth-place player, he was somewhat similar to Zhou Xiaopang — he'd had some Fortuitous Encounter early in the game that let him burst onto the scene.
But in the mid-to-late game, that early advantage gradually eroded.
And eventually, he faded from the public eye entirely.
Besides the Level Rankings, Ragnarok also had an Equipment Rankings board.
Lin Tianhao opened the Equipment Rankings.
1st: Golden Scepter (Gold Grade).
2nd: Thunderstrike Bow (Silver Grade).
3rd: Hydra Shield (Bronze Grade).
4th: Hydra Pauldron (Bronze Grade).
5th: Hydra Cloak (Bronze Grade).
Of the top five, aside from the first-place Golden Scepter, everything else belonged to Lin Tianhao.
"Sure enough, it's just like my previous life."
Lin Tianhao thought to himself — that Golden Scepter belonged to Dream Chaser Snowfall.
It was a summoning scepter with only one attached effect: summoning six Level 10 Iron-Grade Bosses.
In the early game, that was practically a bug-level existence.
A single Level 10 Iron-Grade Boss was already something that could walk sideways through the current meta — let alone six of them.
Come to think of it, Dream Chaser Snowfall was actually the owner of the Dream Chaser Club where he used to work.
She wasn't bad-looking, but unfortunately she practiced nepotism — quite a few of the club's executives were her relatives, which made the whole place a mess.
But none of that mattered anymore. With his God-Transcending Grade talent, Lin Tianhao was fully confident he could surpass Dream Chaser Snowfall.
The fifty free attribute points rewarded for clearing the dungeon first — Lin Tianhao put all of them into attack speed.
His attack speed rose from 2.63 to 3.63.
In truth, while allocating the points, Lin Tianhao had considered whether to put some into movement speed.
But in the end, he gave up on the idea.
Because what synergized best with his Hand of Divine Punishment was attack speed.
As long as his attack speed was fast enough, he could stack his HP higher and faster.
Finally, there was that quest scroll.
This kind of quest scroll was extraordinarily rare.
Because the quests inside weren't given by ordinary NPCs — they were quests from the gods themselves. Completing them could potentially earn the blessings of the gods.
The blessings of the gods ranged from attribute boosts at the very least, and at best were said to grant permanent traits.
Lin Tianhao unrolled the quest scroll and read the quest that appeared inside — and couldn't help but be utterly shocked.
"A Drought Demon is sealed beneath the novice village. Should it break free, it will bring devastation to all living things."
"Quest Requirement: Kill all NPCs in the novice village and destroy the altar, forcing all otherworld adventurers to spawn only in the main city, forever barring them from entering the novice village again."
"Quest Penalty: None."
"Quest Reward: Unknown."
Reading this quest, Lin Tianhao's expression darkened to its absolute limit.
This quest…
Was absolutely outrageous — outrageous opening the door for more outrageous, outrageous to the very core!
In his previous life, Lin Tianhao had encountered all kinds of bizarre and unusual quests.
But this quest today?
Destroy the novice village?
Was this a quest? Was he sure this wasn't just asking him to go get himself killed?
In his previous life, there had been players who tried to pick fights with NPCs — but even the little barmaid at the tavern could wave her hand and deal over a thousand damage.
As for the novice village chief, the blacksmith, and the others — their stats were probably even more absurd.
He put the quest scroll away.
Lin Tianhao didn't immediately accept the quest.
Even though there was no penalty, he still wanted to think it over more carefully.
He exited the dungeon.
At this point, quite a few players had gathered at the dungeon entrance.
"Looking for one strong Priest — whoever has the best heals, come quick. We've got two strong DPS in the party, damage output is more than enough."
Two DPS — meaning an Archer and a Mage. One for sustained damage, the other for burst.
"It's been so long — is there really no other player who's cleared the dungeon besides the great Snow Emperor? I want to buy equipment! I've got more money than sense."
Lin Tianhao swept a glance over the crowd and didn't pay them much mind.
This was Novice Village #10086 — there weren't many truly skilled players here.
The real veterans were probably clustered in the lower-numbered novice villages.
Setting off from the dungeon entrance, Lin Tianhao headed in a different direction.
By Lin Tianhao's estimation, the village chief's quest to hunt ten bosses would likely offer richer rewards the higher the boss's level.
There was one particularly special boss still in the novice village.
That was the Bard that Zhou Xiaopang had encountered.
Rumor had it that his true form was a yellow weasel spirit who, through a stroke of luck in seeking divine recognition, had taken on human form.
But his demonic nature hadn't changed, and he seemed to be scheming something within the novice village.
The guides from his previous life hadn't gone into much detail about it, and Lin Tianhao only had a rough idea of the situation.
Just then, Lin Tianhao's eyes flickered. In an instant, he swung his longbow toward whatever was behind him.
That's right — not drawing and firing an arrow, but using the Thunderstrike Bow as a blade and slashing outward.
This kind of attack didn't deal much damage, but it was enough to break through a sudden, unexpected threat.
Riiip!