Chapter 40: The Novice Village's NPC

Snickersee led Li Yi into the dense forest in front of the Novice Village. They found two Earth Core Flowers underneath an unassuming clump of grass.

“Go ahead and harvest them. There’s another one underneath that clump of grass over there to the left, making three here in total.”

Li Yi was stunned.

He had come to this forest before as well. After all, this was the place he went to in order to complete that Big Yellow Dog quest.

“Thanks.”

Snickersnee smiled slightly and touched his small mustache before he turned around and walked away.

After low-level herbs were picked, they would respawn within 10 to 20 minutes. No one was fighting him here anyway, and Li Yi was too lazy to go elsewhere, so he just sat here, picking them when they spawned and just waiting around when they did not.

Soon enough, Li Yi’s mastery reached 20 points. If he continued harvesting these Earth Core Flowers, he would need to pick 5 flowers to increase his mastery by one point.

Li Yi walked out of the forest and saw Snickersnee fighting an Adult Wild Boar with a worn old mace.

Li Yi was utterly mystified.

Snickersnee’s level had once been second in the rankings, losing only to Old Li Flying Dagger. However, not long after that, he fell from the rankings altogether and was never seen there again.

“What level are you at right now?” asked Li Yi as he walked up to him.

“Level 13,” replied Snickersnee as he pummeled a Wild Boar.

“Don’t tell me you’ve been training here at the Novice Village this entire time?”

“Yup.”

Li Yi was rendered speechless. No wonder he never entered the rankings again once he dropped. To think he was still beating Wild Boars at Level 13, the difference in EXP was way too large.

“Why don’t you leave the village and go outside?”

Snickersnee shook his head. “I went out once when I was at Level 5, and died as soon as I got outside.

“Haha, I’m only playing because it gets lonely when I’m all alone at home. I don’t really understand too much, but I’m fine with beating up some Wild Boars while I’m bored. It’s pretty fun in its own right.”

“…”

“Playing around the Novice Village is pretty neat too. Other than killing Wild Boars, I also learned how to fish and forge. If I got nothing to do, I’ll just come fish by the river, or find some materials and forge a weapon or two. See this mace I’m holding? I made it myself.”

Li Yi was once more stunned speechless.

Anyone could pick up the lifestyle classes, but it was relatively difficult to level them up. It could not be said that the person before Li Yi now was lousy at the game, because his degree of familiarity with the Novice Village was far beyond that of Li Yi, someone who had played this game twice over two lifetimes.

In truth, King of Pantheon was not a simple fighting game. If a player did not want to kill monsters, they were more than free to play the game another way. There were thousands of ways to play the game casually, and each playing method would never feel stale.

“The only forging material available in the Novice Village is iron ore, right? How many pieces of iron did you have to collect to forge this… white-colored weapon?”

Snickersnee considered the mace he was holding. “It took about ten days, I guess. I’m more familiar with the Novice Village, so I’ll definitely pick up the iron ores as soon as they spawn.”

“That’s way too inefficient. You collect iron ores for ten days just to forge one weapon and gain one mastery point. In that case, you might as well buy the materials from the Auction Houses in the major cities, you’d just need 1 Gold Coin to buy enough materials for one weapon.”

“Well, I don’t have a shortage of money, I’ve collected almost 10 Gold Coins now. Do they really have everything at the Auction Houses in major cities?”

“Not exactly everything, but still a lot more materials than you can pick up on your own.”

“Can I go out now, at my current level?” Listening to Li Yi’s words, Snickersnee started to anticipate going out as well.

“Of course you can.” Li Yi smiled slightly and took out ten Return Scrolls, giving them to Snickersnee. “Take one of these and give it a wave. Within ten seconds, you’ll arrive at Shattered Frost City.

“Really?”

Snickersnee waved the Return Scroll, and his body gradually vanished…

Li Yi also crushed a Return Scroll in his hand.

“There sure are a lot of people here.” Snickersnee looked at the crowds around him in shock.

“If you want to sightsee, there’s enough here to keep you occupied for quite a few weeks.

“You’re a Warrior, right? The Warrior Skill Mentor is at the south of the city, just walk straight down this street and you’ll get there. First, you gotta register there, and then you can accept the mentor’s quest. By the time you complete the quest from your mentor, you would already be more or less familiar with Shattered Frost City.

“Thanks.”

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Snickersnee gave Li Yi a smile and ran a few steps before he turned around again.

“Let’s be friends.”

After the two of them sent and accepted each other’s friend requests, Snickersnee once more bid Li Yi good-bye.

…

Just then, the Novice Village 222 that Snickersnee had been lurking around descended into chaos.

“Has anyone seen where that NPC called Snickersnee spawns? I just received a quest but I don’t know what to do next.”

“Same here. That NPC’s always lurking around the front of the village, helping out with quests and even giving directions. Why has he suddenly gone missing now?”

“10 Silver Coins for the NPC Snickersnee’s coordinates. If anyone knows where he is, PM me. Be quick about it, yeah?”

“Me too, me too…”

…

Not far from Eastcloud Valley, there was a tall red ring-shaped mountain called Inferno Mountain. It was a Level 40 to 50 farming spot with many monsters and a rugged mountain path. If a player slipped and fell, they would still be considered lucky if their soul could find their body. If they could not even find their body, they would have no choice but to revive at the temple and lose a level.

Only one type of creature spawned on Inferno Mountain, and that was the Lightning Leopard. It was quick and agile, and it could use Charge. Once they entered Battle Mode, four or five Lightning Leopards would use Charge consecutively, and even a player around Level 40 or so might not be able to get out of there alive.

Li Yi traversed Inferno Mountain extremely carefully, using his hand hoe to pick herbs.

Inferno Mountain did not spawn low-level herbs, but other than that, it spawned an almost complete collection of the herbs available in the game. Harvesting herbs here would easily allow him to increase his Harvester level up to Beginner.

Harvesters only needed 1000 mastery points to rise from no level to Beginner Level.

The black Lightning Leopards ran around the mountain nimbly. Even though he knew the map very well, Li Yi was still unnerved by these things. There was no helping it; with his current level, only certain death awaited him should he bump into a Lightning Leopard.

The most dangerous places tended to bring the most profits. Li Yi just ran Inferno Mountain for slightly over an hour and easily reached 289 mastery points.

The herbs that he harvested also were quite the windfall for him. Fire Flowers, Fire Nuts… these were all herbs that Apothecarists needed to level up.

Li Yi practiced his apothecary as he harvested the herbs. Apothecarists without a level were only allowed to refine two types of potions, namely the Fire Resistance Potion and the Underwater Breathing Potion.

According to the difference in the Apothecarists’ degree of mastery, even if two Apothecarists refined the same type of potion, the effects would be vastly different.

It was still quite some time before the Underwater Dungeon would be opened up, so the Underwater Breathing Potion would not come in use at all right now. Add that to the fact that it required a slightly more complicated array of ingredients that was not easy to collect, and most Apothecarists chose to focus instead on the simpler Fire Resistance Potion when grinding levels.

Li Yi was different. He switched between refining both types in turn, refining the Fire Resistance Potion and then the Underwater Breathing Potion. That way, the probability of failure was drastically reduced. He succeeded about once in every three attempts, saving him quite the considerable sum.

To open up the Pinnacle of the Fire Dungeon, the conditions required a player that was Level 15 and above to complete quests around Fire Mountain. Li Yi could not really remember how long they would have to go at it, but he did remember that those quests were somewhat OP, and you needed to die at least seven or eight times to complete them all.

That was why he did not intend to open up the great door to the Pinnacle of the Fire Dungeon. He would rather deal with having less EXP than rush headlong to his death.

First, he was going to increase his Apothecary and Harvesting. Once he established a large enough distance between himself and others, it would not be that easy for them to catch up.

Li Yi was fully prepared to reach Beginner Level as an Apothecarist here on Inferno Mountain!

Three days passed in the blink of an eye, and Li Yi’s Harvesting Mastery rose to 896 points, and his Apothecary Mastery reached over 1000 points as well.

Just a few more hours and he would be able to graduate, leaving the mountain.

“Clang! Clang! Clang!”

Li Yi avoided a Lightning Leopard who had been patrolling by and heard a strange sound coming from the distance.

Pulling the grass aside, he saw a mid-sized Human Warrior raising his pickaxe high above his head before bringing it down hard on the crystal mine underneath his feet.

Just then, the Lightning Leopard nearby that had been on patrol was startled by the sound and charged forward, pouncing onto the Human Warrior and pinning him to the ground…

Not long later, the Human Warrior stood up once more, but by then, all his equipment and buffs had totally vanished. Right now, the only thing he wore was the pair of large underwear known as the novice’s strongest defensive item. At least that managed to cover up his unmentionables.

“Clang! Clang! Clang!”

The Human Warrior continued to swing his pickaxe.

Just then, the Lightning Leopard used Charge on him again…

That was when Li Yi saw that Human Warrior’s face and caught sight of that extremely characteristic mustache.

The Human Warrior before him was none other than Snickersnee!

“Clang! Clang! Clang!”

Snickersnee stood up again and continued to swing his pickaxe…