Chapter 7 The Lianyue Crossbow
[Congratulations, player Qiyezhenzhen has reached Level 4. All Attribute Points except Luck and Magic Attribute have been increased by one. Additionally, five freely distributable Attribute Points have been granted (excluding Luck and Magic Attribute).]
Upon leveling up, Qin Zhen's HP instantly restored to full, and the bloody bite wounds on her arm vanished without a trace.
So leveling up restores your condition — that was quite the exploit to keep in mind for the future.
Feeling that Attack was still the most important stat right now, Qin Zhen chose Constitution +2 and Attack +3.
[Player: Qiyezhenzhen
Gender: Female
Level: 4 (EXP: 36/300)
Constitution: 18 (Very strong.)
Attack: 13 (Your Attack is very powerful.)
Defense: 8 (Not bad.)
Intelligence: 12 (Excellent!)
Speed: 11 (Very fast.)
Luck: 8 (Fairly lucky.)
Magic Attribute — Ice Affinity: 8; Light Affinity: 9
HP: 180
MP: 120]
But at that moment, Qin Zhen's HP was still ticking down by -5.
Right — she'd almost forgotten. She was still poisoned.
[Bamboo Pit Viper Gallbladder: Can neutralize Bamboo Pit Viper venom.]
Qin Zhen let out a sigh of relief and swallowed the gallbladder whole. Sure enough, the red -5 numbers stopped appearing, leaving her with 160 HP remaining.
With that crisis resolved, Qin Zhen's legs gave out and she collapsed onto the ground. That had been way too intense — if she hadn't had that gallbladder just now, she would have died right there!
From now on, she'd have to give anything venomous a wide berth.
Qin Zhen stared at the Iron Axe in her hand. If she'd still been using the Stone Axe today, she'd definitely be dead by now. Weapons really did make all the difference.
[Congratulations, player Qiyezhenzhen is the first to kill a Tier 1 Monster! Reward: Black Iron Chest ×1, EXP +100. A server-wide announcement is about to be made. Go anonymous?]
Qin Zhen tapped "Yes." She had no desire for fame.
[Congratulations, player **** is the first to kill a Tier 1 Monster! Reward: Black Iron Chest ×1, EXP +100.]
[Congratulations, player **** is the first to kill a Tier 1 Monster! Reward: Black Iron Chest ×1, EXP +100.]
[Congratulations, player **** is the first to kill a Tier 1 Monster! Reward: Black Iron Chest ×1, EXP +100.]
Chat Channel.
[Yidaijianku?an: Holy crap? A legend! I just barely killed a Common Monster, and someone out there is already taking down Tier 1 Monsters?]
[SwallowsFlySouth: Legend, please take me under your wing! I'm super sweet, I promise.]
[Chongerfei: Get lost, you.]
[Xiaolin Menchuang: I'm terrified of even Common Monsters — I ran the moment I saw one. Lucky it didn't Attack me.]
[The Golden House Within Books: I don't even have a weapon...]
[Xiaomihu: Wait, what? You're all running into monsters? How come I haven't encountered anything?]
[YouMustBeStarving: @Xiaomihu, haven't you gone into the forest?]
[Xiaomihu: Why would I go to the forest? I just fish up Treasure Chests every day and hang out in the Shelter.]
[YouMustBeStarving: ...You need to go gather supplies. The stuff you get from Treasure Chests alone isn't nearly enough to upgrade the Shelter.]
[Xiaomihu: Huh? The Shelter needs to be upgraded? I thought I just needed to have enough to eat.]
[JustGoMarryAGuy: The Shelter is really important. Once the Beginner Protection Period ends, monsters will Attack the Shelter at night, so you have to upgrade it — otherwise you're just waiting to die.]
[Xiaomihu: Really? You're not messing with me, are you...?]
[YouMustBeStarving: It's true. A Level 3 Shelter can withstand attacks from Common Monsters, and a Level 4 Shelter can withstand attacks from Tier 1 Monsters. Everyone, hurry up and upgrade your Shelters!]
[JustGoMarryAGuy: Exactly. Killing monsters drops supplies and lets you power up fast. Everyone should actually go hunt monsters today — monsters won't actively Attack us today, so we have the initiative. But starting tomorrow, monsters will begin actively attacking players.]
[Xiaomihu: Holy crap! I feel like I've been playing a completely different game.]
[The Golden House Within Books: +1. Legends, where did you all get your weapons? I'm completely outmatched bare-handed.]
[JustGoMarryAGuy: Got mine from opening Treasure Chests. An axe works just fine for attacking.]
[The Golden House Within Books: I don't have one!]
[JustGoMarryAGuy: Then how are you chopping Wood to upgrade your Shelter?]
[The Golden House Within Books: I've been relying entirely on opening and dismantling Treasure Chests.]
[JustGoMarryAGuy: ...My condolences.]
[The Golden House Within Books: Waaah.]
[...]
After resting for a short while, Qin Zhen began checking through the other things she'd obtained.
Snake meat, snakeskin, and the like weren't particularly interesting, so Qin Zhen went straight for a bottle of Life Potion.
[Life Potion: Restores 100 HP.]
Qin Zhen's eyes lit up. This was a lifesaver — literally. She'd have to carry one on her at all times from now on.
She was still 20 HP short of full, but she wasn't about to use the Life Potion for that. It restored 100 HP; using it now would be a complete waste.
After packing everything into her backpack, Qin Zhen realized she'd run out of slots — she had two Black Iron Chests that wouldn't fit.
Staring at the two chests, a thought suddenly struck her: what if she put all the loose odds and ends inside a black iron chest and then put that chest into her backpack? Would that work?
Worth a try. Qin Zhen opened the Black Iron Chest that had dropped from the Bamboo Pit Viper and received:
[Lianyue Crossbow (Blue) ×1, Arrow (Blue) ×30, Fleet Boots (Green) ×1, Self-Heating Mini Hot Pot ×3, Cola 300ml ×2]
[Lianyue Crossbow (Blue): Attack Power: 50; Durability: 300/300]
[Fleet Boots (Green): Speed +10; Durability: 200/200]
A crossbow? There was actually a crossbow?
Wonderful. After the battle with the Bamboo Pit Viper, Qin Zhen had realized her reach was too short — to land a hit, she had to put herself within range of getting hit back.
With a crossbow for ranged attacks, the chance of getting injured would drop significantly.
The only downside was that she only had 30 Arrows — far too few.
Qin Zhen packed everything dropped by the Tier 1 Bamboo Pit Viper into the Black Iron Chest, then placed the Black Iron Chest into her backpack.
It fit! The trick worked.
Her backpack now had five free slots all at once. Qin Zhen tucked the other Black Iron Chest she'd received as a System reward into her backpack as well.
To her surprise, however, it couldn't stack with the previous Black Iron Chest. It seemed that once a chest had been opened, it could no longer be stacked. The System really was clever.
Then again, that made sense — if opened chests could also be stacked, she could nest them infinitely, and the Inventory Expansion Card would become completely pointless.
After resting for about ten minutes, Qin Zhen checked the time and saw it was already four o'clock. She decided to head out of the forest.
With her Speed boosted, it took Qin Zhen only about forty minutes to make her way out of the forest. She arrived at the shallow sea area and found that only one Fish Trap remained.
Qin Zhen pulled the Fish Trap up. Inside were a pile of Sea Shrimp and three or four Crabs.
[Dismantle?]
She tapped yes, and received: Shrimp Meat 200g ×1, Crab Meat 100g ×1.
As she reached the entrance to the Shelter, the sky suddenly plunged into darkness. Qin Zhen instinctively turned around — and found herself staring straight into pairs of glowing green eyes lurking in the dark.