Chapter 8: The Treant Set and the Rejuvenation Skill! - My Basic Attacks Permanently Increase HP

While Lin Tianhao was reviewing his skill attributes, a server-wide announcement had already sent shockwaves through the player base.

"Holy shit, who the hell is that? Solo-clearing a novice village boss? That's absolutely insane."

"Snow Emperor? Never heard of that ID before. Does anyone know which guild he's from?"

"Isn't the trigger condition for the novice village boss pretty strict? How did he even pull it off? I heard there are ten bosses in the novice village, and not a single one has been triggered yet."

Players were buzzing with discussion — especially the top-tier ones, who understood better than anyone just how absurd it was to solo a boss at this stage of the game.

Lin Tianhao paid none of it any mind. After learning his new skills, he turned his attention to the weapon he'd received as a reward.

Thunderstrike Bow: Silver Grade.

Equip Requirement: No level requirement. Archer class only.

Effect 1: +300 Attack.

Effect 2: +15% Crit Rate.

Effect 3: Attacks have a 15% chance to trigger a paralysis effect.

Effect 4: Attacks have a 15% chance to splash damage to nearby enemy units.

Lin Tianhao stared at the Thunderstrike Bow's stats and felt his brain short-circuit.

What a glorified paperweight.

Well, to be fair — the paralysis effect was probably the most useful thing on it, and even that had a laughably low proc rate.

As for the attack boost, it was completely irrelevant to him. As long as he kept stacking HP, raw attack power didn't matter in the slightest.

What could he even say?

At best, it was something he could use inside the novice village for a little while.

And the kicker? Fuck, this was a Silver-grade weapon. Lin Tianhao felt like the game was personally messing with his head.

Absolutely ridiculous.

Would it have killed them to throw in +1 Attack Speed?

This was a straight-up gank from the System.

He cracked his knuckles and shifted his gaze to the Twisted Treant King's corpse.

Finally — the beloved looting phase.

"Ding — You obtained equipment: Treant King's Necklace."

"Ding — You obtained skill: Rejuvenation."

"Ding — You obtained equipment: Treant King's Helm."

"Ding — You obtained: Gold +5."

"Ding — You obtained item: Heart of the Treant King."

Lin Tianhao looked over his haul. Aside from the gold, there didn't seem to be anything he could actually use right now.

Wait — that Rejuvenation skill looked interesting.

Rejuvenation: 1 Star.

Effect: Restores 1 HP per second. Cannot be interrupted by attacks.

Cooldown: None.

Cost: None.

Proficiency: 0/1,000 (Proficiency equals current HP. Note: This skill has no star cap.)

Lin Tianhao had initially brushed off the Rejuvenation skill without much thought — but the moment he read the proficiency description, he froze.

Was... was this the System giving him a gift?

His talent, Hand of Divine Punishment, could stack HP without any limit.

And this skill synergized with it perfectly.

Passive HP regeneration — in a way, it was even more broken than lifesteal.

"Learn."

Lin Tianhao learned the skill immediately.

Rejuvenation (Passive): 3 Stars.

Effect: Restores 50 HP per second. Cannot be interrupted by attacks.

Cooldown: None.

Cost: None.

Proficiency: 25,130/100,000 (Proficiency equals current HP. Note: This skill has no star cap.)

Solid.

With this skill, Lin Tianhao felt his survivability shoot straight through the roof.

"Hurry up and respawn. Ready to level up or what?"

Lin Tianhao blocked all private messages and friend request notifications, then sent a message to Futu Dunshan.

At the same time, he got back to grinding.

Whoosh!

Lin Tianhao equipped the Thunderstrike Bow and fired an arrow straight into the core of an Elite Twisted Treant.

-1,524.

A massive red number burst into the air.

Critical hit!

Simultaneously, an arc of lightning leapt from the Elite Twisted Treant and chained to five nearby Twisted Treants.

-152.

Damage numbers popped up one after another.

Agitated by the damage, all six Twisted Treants began closing in on Lin Tianhao.

He didn't even flinch.

Whoosh!

Critical hit, critical hit, critical hit again...

Lin Tianhao's current Crit Rate was sixteen percent — already impressive for this stage of the game.

On top of that, his weak-point strikes amplified his critical damage further.

What used to take twelve arrows to kill an Elite Twisted Treant now only took four.

And thanks to Lightning Leap, after killing the first Twisted Treant, the remaining ones each took an additional 608 damage.

As Lin Tianhao kited around the area, more and more Twisted Treants were drawn into his pull.

"Lightning Leap really is a double-edged sword — it generates so much aggro all at once. If you can't take the heat, you'd drop in two hits."

Watching the mob of Twisted Treants trailing behind him, Lin Tianhao felt a mix of amusement and exasperation.

Fortunately, his attack speed was extraordinary — four arrows every two seconds, enough to drop a Twisted Treant with ease.

And because of Lightning Leap, by the time he got to the later Twisted Treants, he only needed three arrows — sometimes even two.

"Ding — You have reached Level 7. Free Attribute Points +5."

Without a moment's hesitation, Lin Tianhao dumped all five points into Attack Speed.

His Attack Speed climbed from 2.13 to 2.23.

"Big Brother Snow Emperor, I'm here!"

Futu Dunshan finally arrived, fashionably late. The moment he showed up, he was greeted by the sight of Lin Tianhao's terrifying grinding pace.

"Big Brother Snow Emperor, you've gotten even stronger, haven't you?"

Lin Tianhao sent over a party invitation. This time, the experience split was still ninety-ten — but Futu Dunshan got the ninety, and Lin Tianhao took the one.

The plan from here was simple: finish Futu Dunshan's order first, then start preparing for what came next.

With an Attack Speed of 2.23 and Lightning Leap working in tandem, it took Lin Tianhao only three hours to boost Futu Dunshan all the way to Level 10.

Not only that — after hunting large numbers of Elite Twisted Treants, the Treant Set he had promised Futu Dunshan had fully dropped as well.

The moment Futu Dunshan put on the Treant Set and saw the changes to his stats, his jaw dropped.

"Big Brother Snow Emperor, this set... it's absolutely awesome."

Especially the two set bonuses — they were downright overpowered.

"I've also got two Iron-Grade pieces of equipment here — drops from the Twisted Treant King. Equipping them won't break the set bonus, and they'll boost your stats on top of it."

"How much?"

Though they hadn't known each other long, Futu Dunshan had already gotten a good read on Lin Tianhao's style.

"Fifty thousand each."

Futu Dunshan twitched the corner of his mouth. Lin Tianhao really did have some nerve asking for that.

"Iron-Grade gear at this stage... fifty thousand... fine."

After only a brief hesitation, Futu Dunshan agreed.

It was only because he had deep pockets that he could even consider spending a hundred thousand on transitional gear like this.

No matter how good the set was, it was still only Level 10 equipment.

At most, it would be obsolete within a week.

The moment the hundred-thousand transfer came through, a satisfied smile spread across Lin Tianhao's face.

"Pleasure doing business. I should be farming more gear going forward — feel free to come back anytime."