Jack glanced over his shoulder at the quiver on his back.
The one-sided slaughter of the past stretch had burned through dozens of crude wooden arrows.
Level 1 mobs gave pathetic amounts of base experience. Even after killing all those Longhorn Hares, his EXP bar had barely crept forward a tiny sliver. At this rate, grinding to Level 2 would eat up a ton more time and arrows.
Levels mattered enormously in this world. Gaining a level didn't just boost your base stats—it also extended the length of your health bar. For a blank-slate Archer with zero lifesaving skills, his max HP was his only guarantee of survival.
Killing Level 1 mobs was just too damn slow for leveling. Jack made the call instantly. He stowed his wooden bow, strode out of the plains' edge, and headed straight for the Level 2 mob territory.
The terrain shifted as he pressed deeper. The wild grass gradually rose waist-high. Bare patches of grayish-white rock jutted out of the ground, and a few dead trees dotted the landscape here and there.
The area was packed with newly awakened pros forming parties and grinding levels. They wore preparatory academy badges of different shapes on their chests—clearly graduates from various schools across Prospect City—and their awakened classes were just as varied.
When Jack walked into this zone all alone, he quickly drew the attention of several nearby parties.
In this datafied world, high-level pros could hide their information, but for these freshly awakened newbies, nobody had the ability to cloak their level yet. Everyone could clearly see the faint Level 1 marker floating above Jack's head, along with the beat-to-hell training shortbow in his hand.
A Level 2 Warrior wielding an iron sword stopped what he was doing and nudged his teammate with an elbow, his eyes full of scorn.
"Check it out—some Level 1 newbie actually has the balls to walk into the Level 2 zone."
His teammate, a lanky Rogue, glanced over at the remark and didn't bother hiding his mockery. "Probably some broke kid who couldn't afford gear, hoping to get lucky. No frontline tank to soak hits, and he's just waltzing in all alone. You guys watch—soon as he pulls a mob, it'll chase him around in circles and he'll come bawling his way back."
The people around them burst into laughter at that. As far as they were concerned, punching above your level to fight higher-tier mobs was nothing but a death wish.
Jack tuned out the jeers completely. His eyes swept across the underbrush ahead and locked onto a Level 2 mob prowling by a rock—a Long-Haired Boar.
Its HP bar materialized in his interface. Level 2 mobs had noticeably thicker health pools than Level 1 creatures, and their bodies were bulkier too. The boar's shaggy hide already looked like it packed a decent amount of defense.
Jack halted at a safe distance forty meters away, calmly pulled an arrow from his quiver, nocked it, and drew.
Thwip.
The crude wooden arrow traced a dead-straight line through the air and buried itself squarely in the Long-Haired Boar's neck.
A vivid red number floated up: -18!
The newbies who'd been waiting around for a laugh had their jeers choke right in their throats. They stared in disbelief as the Level 2 boar's health bar plummeted by more than half from that single arrow.
The Long-Haired Boar let out a furious squeal and charged at Jack with blazing red eyes.
Jack's expression didn't waver. He backpedaled with easy strides, smoothly pulling a second arrow in the same motion. When the boar was still twenty meters away, the second shaft shrieked through the air.
-20!
The boar's huge frame stiffened mid-charge, then tumbled forward in two rolling somersaults from the sheer kinetic impact, dead. Its corpse dissolved into motes of light.
[Successfully slain Long-Haired Boar (Level 2).]
[Gained 20 Experience Points.]
Jack read the notification on his panel and nodded with satisfaction. Level 2 mobs dished out way more experience than Level 1 ones—the leveling efficiency nearly doubled. And punching above his level had gone absurdly smoothly. His sky-high attack stat completely steamrolled the minor level gap.
He walked up to collect the loot. This time the mob had dropped 2 copper coins.
Even though two copper still didn't cover the cost of the two arrows he'd fired, that was only a temporary problem. His SSS-rank talent was already working its terrifying magic.
[Infinite Plunder triggered: Permanently increase Attack Power by 1 point.]
Jack pocketed the copper and kept roaming the Level 2 zone in search of targets.
Draw, retreat, kill.
His whole sequence ran like a precision machine, zero wasted motion. After hunting for a while, with one Long-Haired Boar after another falling under his arrows, his panel attack had silently climbed to 35-36 points.
That number had already blown completely past the bounds of what made sense in the novice phase.
By now, when Jack faced a fresh Level 2 mob at full health, he only needed to loose a single arrow. The massive damage number could erase its entire HP bar in an instant. Even Level 2 mobs could be one-shot. His hunting efficiency had hit an absurd, mind-bending level.
Just as Jack was about to lock onto his next target, an excited yell rang out from somewhere in the distance.
"Get over here! An Elite just spawned nearby!"
The shout instantly yanked the attention of everyone in the area. Elites were a rare sight in this world. Not only were their stats monstrous, but more importantly, killing an Elite guaranteed a big pile of copper coins and even had a chance to drop high-quality gear with actual attributes.
A nearby three-man party immediately lit up with excitement. The Swordsman leading them took a fierce swing with his weapon and started heading that way.
"Perfect! Time to show what we can do!" the Swordsman called to his teammates as he walked. "The three of us coordinating can definitely take it down. Once we bag this Elite, we'll rake in way more copper—tomorrow we can head into the city and gear up in all-new equipment."
They rushed straight at the Elite. It was an Ironhide Boar, twice the size of a regular boar, its whole body sheathed in a thick layer of rock-like armor plating.
The three-man party didn't hesitate. They launched their attack immediately. The Swordsman charged in and brought his blade down hard against the Ironhide Boar's armor.
Clang!
A crisp metallic ring echoed out. The Swordsman felt a numbing shock jolt through his hand. He looked up to see a pitiful damage number drift lazily upward: -2.
The Mage behind him quickly fired off a Mana Bolt, but it only managed to cough up a weak -3.
The three of them were completely dumbfounded.
The Ironhide Boar let out a deafening roar and slammed its thick front hooves into the ground, sending the Swordsman flying. His HP bar dropped by more than half in an instant. The group that had been so fired up moments ago was now getting absolutely wrecked, fleeing with their tails between their legs while chugging Low-Grade Recovery Potions for dear life.
Now that the world had been gamified, the attack calculation mechanics were actually pretty complex. But the general rule was simple: if your attack power was far below your target's defense, your damage output was going to take a massive hit.
Sure, they were Level 2 and the Elite was Level 2, but an Elite's template stats were grotesquely inflated—its defense was sky-high. With their piddly ten-something attack slapping against that armor, they couldn't even break through its damage threshold. All they could do was tickle it for a forced 2 or 3 points of damage.
To grind down a high-defense monster like this, you'd need a dozen or more people rotating in and wearing it down. Expecting a single run-of-the-mill three-man party to pull it off was pure delusion.
While the trio scrambled away in a panic and the other newbies around looked on with fear, too scared to step up, Jack gripped his wooden bow and walked steadily toward the Elite.
He came to a stop 40 meters out—the perfect safe zone for an Archer.
The other Level 2 pros around noticed that this Level 1 guy wasn't running away and was even taking an attacking stance, and they were thoroughly baffled.
"Is that Level 1 newbie insane?!" someone shouted in disbelief.
Someone with a scouting skill had already checked earlier: this Elite had a massive 120 HP and absurdly high defense. The Level 2 parties couldn't even break through its armor because their attack was too low. And now this Level 1 guy who didn't even look like he had proper gear was stepping up? What was he trying to do? Serve himself up as monster chow?
While everyone stood there stunned, Jack raised his bow and attacked.
No fancy skills. He just pulled that beat-up wooden bow to full draw, plain and simple.
Thwip!
The first arrow punched clean into a gap in the Ironhide Boar's thick armor plating.
-28!
A red damage number so huge it made hearts skip a beat burst into view. The once-untouchable Elite's health bar dropped by a visible chunk.
The entire area fell into dead silence. The newbies who'd been fleeing moments ago all stopped in their tracks, eyes wide.
The Ironhide Boar roared in pain and immediately switched its aggro onto Jack, charging at him on all fours.
Jack backpedaled while attacking, his footwork eerily steady. He kept the distance locked inside his safe zone the entire time.
Next came the second arrow, then the third.
-31!
-29!
The arrows flew in rapid succession, each hit ripping away a huge chunk of the Elite's health. Jack's attack, already past 30 points, tore through the Elite's vaunted defense like wet paper.
When the boar had closed to just ten meters, Jack's fourth arrow drove mercilessly through its skull.
Four shots in a row, and the Elite's entire 120-HP bar was wiped clean.
The colossal Ironhide Boar crashed to the ground, dissolving into a burst of shimmering light and a fat scattering of copper coins.
The other newbies around stood frozen, staring at the young Archer like he was some kind of monster himself.
And in front of Jack's eyes, a system notification popped up that made his pulse pound.
[Infinite Plunder triggered: Slaying an Elite counts as slaying 10 normal mobs. Permanently increase Attack Power by 10 points!]