Chapter 1 Traversing

Crossing a large, open prairie, Nie Yan arrived at a field of jagged rocks. Rugged, bizarre stones were scattered everywhere, with narrow passages weaving between them.

"This is it." Nie Yan observed his surroundings, confirming that the coordinates were correct. He moved with extreme caution, slowly sneaking forward. This area was a hotbed for Wild Bull monsters, teeming with danger. He slipped into a pile of rocks.

Coordinates 567.528.192.

The terrain here was strange. The gaps between the rocks were narrow, barely allowing a single person to pass. Looking through one of these gaps, about twenty-six yards away, stood a Wild Bull with a jet-black hide. Its body was covered in powerful muscles, and the sharp horns on its head were like two pointed knives.

Level 8 Wild Bull Leader: Leader Monster, HP 300/300.

Nie Yan rested his hand crossbow on his left arm and adjusted his aim. The angle was perfect.

He could just barely bring the Wild Bull Leader into his attack range. Because of its massive size, even if it spotted Nie Yan, it wouldn't be able to charge through the narrow paths in the rock pile to reach him.

A classic terrain bug!

This bug had been discovered by an arcane mage friend of Nie Yan's in his previous life. But now, he was the only one who knew about it!

By exploiting this terrain bug, Nie Yan could easily kill the Wild Bull Leader, despite being a lower level!

Nie Yan loaded his crossbow with bolts. In three seconds, all three bolts were in place. He aimed at the Wild Bull Leader and, with three swift *whooshes*, three arrows shot towards it in a straight line.

*Thwack, thwack, thwack.* All three bolts struck the Wild Bull Leader simultaneously.

Miss, -1, Miss. Three values floated above the Wild Bull Leader's head. Because the level difference between them was too great, Nie Yan's attacks dealt very little damage. Most of the time, they missed, and even when they hit, they only inflicted a single point of damage.

After being attacked, the Wild Bull Leader snorted and charged towards Nie Yan.

*Boom!* The Wild Bull Leader crashed into the rocks and was thrown back. It couldn't reach Nie Yan, so it could only circle the rocks helplessly.

Nie Yan skillfully reloaded his crossbow and fired another volley of arrows at the Wild Bull Leader.

Although the damage was minimal, the Wild Bull Leader's health began to slowly decline under Nie Yan's continuous barrage. However, it was a very slow process, just a little bit at a time, and it would occasionally recover some health.

Nie Yan's attack rate was steady. The Wild Bull Leader roared furiously after being attacked, but it couldn't get close to Nie Yan.

Everything was proceeding smoothly as expected. While attacking the Wild Bull Leader, Nie Yan thought about his future leveling plans. After his rebirth, it would be foolish to simply find a spot and grind monsters like everyone else.

He had a vast amount of game information stored in his mind. He would follow his own plan and design a perfect leveling process.

Time passed. Half an hour later, Nie Yan had used up an entire quiver of crossbow bolts—a full one thousand! By this point, the Wild Bull Leader still had about two-thirds of its health remaining.

Constantly repeating the process of reloading and firing, Nie Yan felt like he was about to fall asleep. But he tried his best to maintain a high firing rate to prevent the Wild Bull Leader's health from regenerating.

The Wild Bull Leader was getting tired, panting heavily and smashing against the rocks in frustration, causing a portion of them to collapse.

Nie Yan retreated a little. Just then, his voice communication device rang.

"Expert, I went to those coordinates you told me about, and it's really fast! I've already gotten two Stealth skill books today," Shi Tou (Stone) said in a message. Leveling in the spot Nie Yan had told him about was about 50% faster than usual, which made him very excited. Giving Nie Yan a Stealth skill book in exchange for such a great leveling spot was a fantastic deal.

"That's a given. The Fallen Wizards also drop Night Owl's Perception. If you get an extra, don't forget to send me one," Nie Yan said, not at all surprised. He had read countless expert guides in his past life and remembered many of these tricks. Nie Yan was the kind of person who was absent-minded and forgetful, forgetting many things in his daily life, but he remembered these game guides perfectly.

Everyone has a better memory when it comes to things they're interested in.

"If I get one, I'll mail it to you. There's something I'm really curious about, though. How did you know about this leveling spot?" Shi Tou asked. When he had met Nie Yan, Nie Yan was only Level 0.

"I used to play a warrior character, but I deleted it and started over as a thief," Nie Yan said casually. He didn't want anyone to know about his rebirth.

"I see. Your warrior character must have been a high level. Why did you delete it? In a few days, a friend of mine wants to form a group to farm the Fallen Wizard Camp. Expert, can you give us some advice?" Shi Tou asked hopefully. Nie Yan seemed to know a lot, and his friends had only managed to clear the outer areas of the Fallen Wizard Camp.

The Fallen Wizard Camp was a difficult dungeon. Dungeons were divided into special dungeons and basic dungeons. Special dungeons disappeared and became ordinary maps after players cleared them. Basic dungeons didn't disappear even after being cleared, and could be refreshed repeatedly, but the equipment drop rate was very low and the rewards weren't very good.

The Fallen Wizard Camp was a basic dungeon with five difficulty levels: Easy, Normal, Hard, Expert, and Master. The higher the difficulty, the better the equipment that dropped. If a team cleared it, the dungeon could only be refreshed again after five days.

"Fallen Wizard Camp full walkthrough, two silver coins, no bargaining," Nie Yan said. Two silver coins were two hundred copper coins, which was a huge sum for beginner players. Since Shi Tou's friend could lead a team to farm the Fallen Wizard Camp, two silver coins shouldn't be a problem.

"I'll go back and discuss it with my friend," Shi Tou said, a little skeptical. Could Nie Yan really have a full walkthrough for the Fallen Wizard Camp? There wasn't even one online.

Clearing the Fallen Wizard Camp on Easy difficulty would yield about three silver coins. If they were lucky, they might get one or two pieces of decent equipment. More importantly, the Fallen Wizard Camp dropped Minor Healing skill books. Nie Yan's asking price of two silver coins for information was outrageously high. If they didn't get any good drops, they'd be working for Nie Yan for nothing.

The Fallen Wizard Camp was a somewhat difficult dungeon. After wiping a few times, those people would naturally realize that the price Nie Yan was asking was not expensive at all.

"If your friend agrees, get back to me. If not, don't bother me," Nie Yan said as he continued firing. Under his continuous assault, the Wild Bull Leader was gradually showing signs of faltering.

"Okay, I'll talk to our leader," Shi Tou said. In his mind, Nie Yan was already synonymous with "expert." He didn't even feel any resentment towards Nie Yan's aloofness. It was normal for an expert to be a little eccentric. Shi Tou wondered, "What level was Nie Yan's warrior character? He must have been really strong. But why did he delete it? Was there some hidden reason?"

As soon as Shi Tou finished speaking, the communication device beeped with a busy signal.

Nie Yan hung up and increased the firing rate of his hand crossbow, sending arrows flying.

After firing for a full hour and a half, consuming three thousand six hundred crossbow bolts, the Wild Bull Leader finally let out a long bellow and collapsed to the ground. Its massive body crashed heavily onto the ground, and Nie Yan could feel the vibrations beneath his feet.

Nie Yan estimated that if he had used a short bow, it would have taken at least five hours and over ten thousand arrows to kill the Wild Bull Leader. Luckily, he had this small, powerful crossbow with the Heavy Shot enchantment, which saved him a lot of time.

Two beams of white light fell on Nie Yan, and two crisp leveling-up notification sounds rang out.

System: You have killed the Wild Bull Leader. Experience bonus for killing a monster above your level: 1800%. You have gained 8290 experience.

Nie Yan checked his level and saw that he was now Level 2, 21%. The Wild Bull Leader gave a lot of experience.

Finally done, Nie Yan thought as he put away his crossbow and walked towards the Wild Bull Leader's corpse. He rummaged around under the Wild Bull Leader's body and found five copper coins and a dagger.

He looked at the dagger's stats.

Bull Horn Dagger: Bronze Grade, Stats Unidentified.

Nie Yan's eyes widened. It was a bronze-grade dagger! Equipment grades were divided into Common, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Dark Gold, and Legendary. Occasionally, there would also be Green Sets.

Since rare monsters like Leaders, Sub-Elites, Elites, and Lords were extremely rare and sparsely distributed in Faith, only about one in a thousand pieces of equipment had stats. Most players could only make do with Common equipment. Any equipment with stats was extremely valuable, and its price was inflated to the point where ordinary players couldn't afford it.

Bronze-grade weapons usually had about 20% higher attack power than ordinary weapons of the same level, and they also came with an additional stat.

Since it dropped from an Level 8 Wild Bull Leader, it should be Level 5 equipment. Currently, a Level 5 bronze dagger was worth at least three silver coins, while the total assets of an ordinary Level 3 player were mostly around twenty copper coins. If someone had one silver coin in assets, they were considered a very wealthy player.

Having successfully harvested the Wild Bull Leader according to plan, Nie Yan put the Bull Horn Dagger into his backpack and retreated from the rocks, heading towards Thrak Village.

The appraiser in Thrak Village was a short, white-bearded old man with beady, triangular eyes. He was very shrewd, which made him unpleasant to look at. But he was the only appraiser in Thrak Village.

Nie Yan opened the trade window.

"Young man, what item do you need appraised?" the short old man asked.

"A dagger," Nie Yan said, placing the Bull Horn Dagger into the window.

"Appraisal fee: ten copper coins. Do you wish to proceed?"

Nie Yan thought to himself, "The appraisal fee for this dagger is ten copper coins. Appraisal fees are usually charged at 5% of the item's price." This item price referred to the price among NPCs, and the market price was often more than six times that amount. That meant this bronze dagger was worth at least twelve silver coins.

He thought for a moment. He didn't need money for anything in the near future, so spending ten copper coins wasn't a big deal. He clicked confirm.

The Bull Horn Dagger emitted a bronze glow, both brilliant and restrained, a light unique to bronze-grade equipment.

The Bull Horn Dagger had curved lines on it, and the front was very sharp. The thickness was higher than ordinary daggers, giving it a unique bull horn shape.

Bull Horn Dagger (Bronze): Level Requirement: Level 5.

Stats: Attack 16-19, Strength +5.

Attack Speed: 2.3

Weight: 1 lb.

Usable By: Thieves, any faction.

This Bull Horn Dagger had a strength attribute. Five points of strength equaled five points of attack, plus its attack was three or four points higher than ordinary Level 5 daggers. This Bull Horn Dagger had almost ten points more attack than ordinary Level 5 daggers, which had a huge impact on beginner players.

"I have a Level 5 dagger now," Nie Yan thought.

(Author's note: Rushing the charts tomorrow, reserving tomorrow's votes...)