Forty minutes later, the Ghost Wolf King, in mid-stride, crashed to the ground. Chu Tian, as usual, chose to remain hidden for the four regional first-kill rewards.
He only received 12,000 experience points, an incredibly small amount. This was because when killing monsters above his level, each level within a five-level difference granted an additional 100% experience.
Exceeding five levels added 200% per level, and exceeding ten levels added 300% per level. Thus, when Chu Tian, at level five, killed the Level 20 Swamp Crocodile, he received a 3000% bonus for killing a higher-level monster.
In Tiandao, the experience gained from ordinary wild monsters was their level multiplied by ten, elite monsters by fifty, and Bosses by one hundred.
Monsters in dungeons provided ten times the experience of wild monsters but were significantly more difficult. Without a well-coordinated team, clearing a dungeon was nearly impossible.
While the experience might seem substantial, only a select few players could level up and farm monsters solo, and even fewer could tackle dungeons.
To reduce consumption, players had to group up, and the experience divided among them became diluted. This made leveling in Tiandao extremely arduous.
Picking up the dropped items from the ground, he found nothing particularly good. There wasn't even a single silver-tier equipment piece, only a few enhancement stones and a bronze-tier belt, which still required appraisal.
The treasure chest yielded the Blazing Bracelet, and the staff dropped by the Swamp Crocodile had fixed attributes, thus not requiring appraisal. Ordinary equipment of common quality needed appraisal to randomly generate attributes and couldn't be worn without it.
However, if a player with a red name entered a city, they would be arrested by the guard and thrown into jail. They would only be released when their name turned white again, a process that could take a considerable amount of time.
Unable to return to the city for appraisal and resupply, the impact on him was not significant. After collecting the spoils, he prepared to leave to claim the first kill reward for a Level 10 Boss.
"Ding… Global System Announcement: Player 'Yu' from Dragon City Eastern Warzone, Village 1, achieves the global first kill of Level 10 Boss 'Raging Bear'. Rewards will be sent to the mailbox shortly!"
"Ding… National System Announcement…"
Two full-screen announcements appeared in the sky. Chu Tian was stunned for a moment, followed by regret. Why hadn't he killed the lower-level Bosses first? The thought of at least a hundred gold coins being claimed by someone else made him wince with pain.
Still, he acknowledged that this 'Yu' was quite capable to defeat the Level 10 Raging Bear. An arrow god was indeed a formidable opponent.
He did not believe that the first kill was achieved through team effort, as the system announcement would have been different in that case.
While still smarting from the loss, he hurried towards the Raging Bear's spawn point. He checked the bear's attributes and found it posed no threat to him. Moreover, being Level 12, he had a two-level advantage, so he directly engaged it.
Within a few minutes, the Raging Bear was defeated, and he claimed the Warzone first kill, earning over ten gold coins.
However, it dropped a bronze-tier cloak, which had a rather nice appearance, but it also required appraisal and couldn't be worn.
Using the enhancement stones from the two Bosses, he reinforced his weapon to +30. His attack power now surpassed the 500-point mark, with an additional 2 points in mastery attributes.
Currently, he was Level 12 with 41% experience. There were no higher-level Bosses left for him in the novice village. To continue leveling, he would need to start grinding monsters. As for dungeons, he knew that no matter how powerful he was alone, he couldn't solo them.
The beginner dungeon, unlocked at Level 10 in the novice village, had many areas requiring at least a ten-player team to overcome mechanical traps.
He was only two and a half levels away from leaving the novice village. He wondered what level that arrow god was when he soloed the Level 10 Boss.
If he couldn't be the first to reach the main city, he wouldn't receive the long-awaited rewards. It seemed he needed to pick up the pace.
He spent some time in the area, using a kiting method to farm Corrupted Bears. However, the monsters couldn't attack him, and they would still flee, breaking combat. Therefore, he could only aggro monsters in small groups.
After clearing one group, he moved to the next. The efficiency was quite slow. To prevent the monsters from disengaging, he had to frequently stop and allow them to hit him a few times.
After fighting a few waves like this, he would have to pause to rest and consume food to restore his health.
After defeating the current wave of Corrupted Bears, Chu Tian opened his friends list and sent a message to Jian Zhi Cang Tian: "Call Heng Dao and the others, come to the Level 12 monster zone. Brother will take you to level up."
He also sent his coordinates, telling them to follow the main road and call him when they reached the edge of the area so he could meet them.
Considering the fragility of the three Level 4 players, they probably wouldn't last a single blow from the Raging Bear.
Upon hearing that Chu Tian intended to help them level up, and specifically in the Level 12 zone, Jian Zhi Cang Tian and the others were ecstatic and hurried over.
Chu Tian didn't idle either. He continued farming monsters while waiting for their arrival.
More than an hour later, he received a message from Jian Zhi Cang Tian, informing him that they had arrived.
The four met. Jian Zhi Cang Tian, as always, carried himself with a carefree attitude, a shield on his back and a single-handed sword at his waist.
Seeing him, Chu Tian suddenly regretted suggesting he switch to a shield warrior. With his disposition, he feared something might go wrong during team dungeon raids later on.
"Heh heh, God…" Jian Zhi Cang Tian greeted Chu Tian upon seeing him emerge.
But Chu Tian simply walked past him, patted Heng Dao on the shoulder, and said, "Let's go leveling. With your healing, it's enough. You two can go back!"
"Huh?" The Paladin and Jian Zhi Cang Tian were both taken aback.
"This…" Heng Dao also showed some hesitation.
"Haha, just kidding. You two still have some use; you can help me pull monsters!"
Saying this, he sent them a party invitation.
"Ding… Heng Dao has joined the party!"
"Ding… Jian Zhi Cang Tian has joined the party!"
"Ding… Sheng Guang Hu You Zhe Ni has joined the party!"
It was only then that Chu Tian learned the Paladin's name!
Hiss… Another formidable player. Sheng Guang Hu You Zhe Ni was not an early riser in Tiandao's initial stages, but rather someone like Meng De Bi An, who entered everyone's view only after the national war commenced in the later stages – a god-tier professional player.
Chu Tian couldn't help but look at him a few more times. After all, when the national war began later, he himself had fallen to the point of surviving by working as a miner in various mines daily, searching for life crystals while selling minerals to avoid starving in reality.
However, he had never heard Jian Zhi mention Heng Dao and Sheng Guang back then. Was it because of some conflict that arose later?
Carrying his doubts, he led the three of them into the Level 12 Corrupted Bear spawn area through the path Chu Tian had cleared.
Next, he assigned Jian Zhi Cang Tian and Sheng Guang Hu You Zhe Ni to draw aggro, while Heng Dao stayed by his side, acting as a mobile blood bank, occasionally healing him.
It had to be said that having two low-level players to draw aggro was indeed convenient. They were detected from a considerable distance, and a swarm of monsters was drawn over.
As they entered Chu Tian's range, he directly threw his Flame of Sunlight, pulling the aggro of the pursuing monsters, and then they went to draw other monsters.
Initially, the two of them were trembling with fear, yelling for help.
But when the first wave of monsters fell, a shower of experience points floated up. With a 700% bonus for killing higher-level monsters, each person received 378 experience points per monster, causing their experience to surge.
The three of them were ecstatic from the experience gained by killing monsters above their level.
Chu Tian, however, received significantly less experience. While he would normally gain 240 experience points for killing a monster, he now only got 108.
This was because for every additional person in the party, there was a +20% experience bonus for team play; otherwise, he would have gained even less.