Chapter 13: War Begins

When Liu Kongkong had posted the quest, he clearly hadn't thought about this — unlike ordinary players, his inventory had no weight limit and an enormous amount of space.

[Congratulations, player Liu Dameng has leveled up and gained 1 skill point.]

"Perfect timing — the last weapon is done too!" Liu Kongkong took a deep breath. He had to admit that hammering out so many weapons in one go was genuinely tiring. Before him sat the stone sword.

Stone Long Sword +5 | Required Level: 5 | Attack: 10 | Attack Speed: 1 | Durability: 100

Unfortunately, it was a weapon worth only 50 copper coins. Even enhanced to +5, its stats were identical to the Skull-Cracker Hammer — the only advantage it had over the latter was that it had no Strength requirement.

"And it takes quite a few materials." Liu Kongkong glanced at the storage, where 13 weapons lay inside, all uniformly at +5. He had broken two during the process. If calculated purely by material cost, it was clearly less profitable than just crafting Skull-Cracker Hammers.

But he had already earned quite a bit today. He had just sold the 3 gold coins he had on hand, adding forty-eight thousand yuan to his account — and that was without selling any of the silver coins or copper coins.

"Earning money is important, but I can't neglect improving myself either."

With that, he opened the skill panel.

The same four skills as before. Liu Kongkong casually clicked on [Life Needs a Miracle]. His main reason was that he had never seen a premium-quality weapon before and wanted to take a look, so he continued mass-producing stone weapons.

Meanwhile, on the other side.

Night's Gentle Chill and his party, fully stocked with supplies and equipment, had already arrived at the location of the Ten-Eyed Spider — yet they hadn't made a move. Because directly across from them, five other players were also observing the Ten-Eyed Spider in the distance.

"That's probably Big Dumb Duck's people." Ye Weinuan glanced at the Warrior in the opposing party, who was holding a Skull-Cracker Hammer. "Looks like this boss won't be easy to take today..."

In the Starter Village, each boss fight could only involve a maximum of 5 players at a time. During the fight, other players couldn't touch the boss at all — though they couldn't attack the boss, they could certainly attack other players.

"This is going to take some time." Night's Gentle Chill gripped his weapon. If they engaged right now, he had no doubt these people would immediately rush in and team up with the boss to fight them. And Big Dumb Duck was clearly not the type to be reasoned with.

"Looks like we've got competition this time." Player No. 1 had also spotted Night's Gentle Chill's party. He lowered his head and began contacting the others. "No. 2, No. 3 — both of you bring a squad over here. I've got a situation on my end."

This was where having more people paid off. As long as the other two squads came to keep an eye on Night's Gentle Chill's group, they could focus on the boss without worry.

A minute passed.

Night's Gentle Chill also sensed something was off. He suddenly recalled that Big Dumb Duck had mentioned before that their team had a lot of members.

"That group is probably calling for backup. If this keeps up, it won't be good for us. We need to discuss our options..." Night's Gentle Chill said over the party voice chat. "Two choices: first, we engage them directly — but they outnumber us, and later on we'll likely face wave after wave of them. Even if we win, we won't have enough time left to fight the boss. Second, we swallow our pride and leave. The level-3 boss Stone Wolf King should have respawned by now, but if we give ground today, the gap between us and this group will only keep growing."

After all, it was a level-5 boss, and a first kill at that. The rewards at this stage were still very generous. And with the other side having more people, they wouldn't be giving up this boss until they had farmed enough gear.

"Openly making enemies of them won't do us any good. There's no need to fight for dominance here. Later on, we can establish a guild and recruit more people..." Ye Weinuan leaned toward the second option. Their side only had five people — if the other side had more than ten or even twenty, life afterward would be miserable.

Heart and Soul and Eagle, however, were unconvinced. "Why play a game being such cowards? Sure, they've got more people, but their leader is obviously that Big Dumb Duck you mentioned. We just focus on killing him and that's that. Besides, he didn't even show up for the first kill reward — he's probably not very high level right now. I just learned [Stealth], and combined with [Backstab] plus this [Blood Fang], I can take him out in no time."

Heart and Soul held up the weapon in his hand. This was the premium-quality item that had dropped from the Stone Wolf King yesterday. Its Attack was only 7, but daggers had an Attack Speed of 2, and hitting a target applied a bleed effect. Right now, it was the best weapon in Starter Village No. 0113.

Night's Gentle Chill himself was feeling a bit indignant too. Back in the Starter Village, Big Dumb Duck had already been picking fights with him. If he backed down today, he'd never be able to hold his head up in front of that guy again!

"How about we go big?" Night's Gentle Chill looked at his teammates. Ye Weinuan let out a sigh. Hit Me Please indicated he was fine with whatever. Eagle and Heart and Soul had excitement written all over their faces, looking like they were ready to throw down at any moment.

"When I say go big, I don't just mean killing them — everyone should know the consequences of making a move today. If we fight, we fight to crush them completely! We need to dominate them in every aspect, and we need to invest heavily upfront..."

"Been waiting for you to say that." Heart and Soul grinned. "I'm not going out to have fun this month — I'm throwing all my spending money into this with you." The others all chimed in, saying they were willing to contribute money and effort.

"Alright, then we'll clash with this group next. After that, we'll..." Night's Gentle Chill laid out his plan to the group, and as they listened, the excitement in their eyes grew more and more intense.

"Nice, Old Ye — turns out you had this planned all along!" Heart and Soul happily slapped Night's Gentle Chill on the shoulder, while simultaneously going on a buying spree at the trading exchange for in-game currency!

"Save the talk for later — let's take these punks down first!" Night's Gentle Chill smiled. Heart and Soul vanished from the spot in an instant.

No. 1 had been keeping a close eye on Night's Gentle Chill's side the whole time. The moment he saw someone disappear, he immediately realized the other side had an Assassin.

"Everyone on alert — they're probably about to make their move!"

The words had barely left his mouth when two numbers popped up above the head of the party's healer!

-55! -21!

What terrifying damage! No. 1 was stunned. Their healer only had 150 HP to begin with — nearly half of it was gone in an instant!

"His weapon has a bleed effect — everyone be careful!" The healer was a seasoned gamer. Seeing her health bar plummet so sharply, she didn't panic at all. She casually cast a heal on herself, took two steps to stand beside No. 1, and instantly shared the critical information with the whole party.

After his opening strike, Heart and Soul's Stealth effect broke immediately. He didn't linger to fight, quickly retreating back toward Night's Gentle Chill and the others.

"You think you can just run after coming at us?!" No. 4 raised his bow and fired a [Crippling Arrow] straight at Heart and Soul's right leg!

A sharp pain shot through him, and Heart and Soul stumbled. The arrow's damage wasn't high, but he could clearly feel his movement speed drop drastically. Before he could even steady himself, he heard a rush of wind by his ear!

"Take this hammer!" No. 1 raised the Skull-Cracker Hammer and was in Heart and Soul's face almost instantly! A [Heavy Strike] came crashing down directly onto the latter's back!

-97!

That much attack?! Heart and Soul was dumbfounded. He only had 150 HP total — one more hit like that and he'd be taking a free trip back to town!

This guy dumped all his points into attack?!

But surviving without getting one-shot was good enough. An arrow flashed past his ear — Eagle's [Crippling Arrow] had landed squarely on No. 1, and No. 1 immediately felt his feet slow to a halt.

The next second, another number popped up above Heart and Soul's head!

-42!

The Assassin with the ID "No. 7" had also made his move. But seeing this, No. 1's expression didn't improve at all — because he could see that Night's Gentle Chill and the others had already charged right up to them, and every single one of them except Night's Gentle Chill was holding a club...

-71!

-42!

-23!

-19!

No. 7 didn't even have time to react. In an instant, he turned into a beam of white light and was sent back to the respawn point in the village...