When the HP of the Gray Wolf Leader dropped by nearly a fifth, I immediately retreated into a cleft in the rocks. Though the enraged beast growled savagely outside, its massive bulk prevented it from squeezing through, leaving it utterly helpless against me as I slowly regenerated my health.
Forty seconds—done! My health was completely full! Three points of HP recovery per second with tomato paste really makes a difference!
I leaped out of the rock cleft to continue toying with the Gray Wolf Leader. Once another fifth of its health had been worn down, I retreated to rest again, leaving the beast to stare helplessly from outside the rocks.
I used another tomato paste in the middle of it all. After five such rounds, the Gray Wolf Leader's health bar finally hit rock bottom!
The corpses of the surrounding wolf pack gradually faded away, and new gray wolves had already begun to respawn in the distance, while the Gray Wolf Leader right in front of me was holding on for dear life with a sliver of health left.
Its eyes were bloodshot, and every lunge seemed to drain its very last ounce of strength. My Wild Wolf Greaves were already cracked, though fortunately, only the durability had plummeted rather than breaking beyond repair.
Swallowing a small red potion restored over 100 points of my HP, which was more than enough to finish off the Gray Wolf Leader.
"Crack!" A critical strike landed, and the bright red number 127 popped up. The Gray Wolf Leader slowly collapsed to the ground, its eyes filled with reluctance and utter helplessness.
"Ding!"
[System Message: Congratulations, you have reached level 10!]
[System Message: Congratulations, you have reached level 11!]
And that wasn't all...
Green light flashed—wow, another green piece of equipment!
I nearly cried out with joy, reached down to toss the head of the Gray Wolf Leader into my backpack, and rummaged through its remains. A bristle glowing with green light and a long, magnificent greatsword lay right before my eyes.
I eagerly checked their stats. Green equipment—dammit, I was so looking forward to this, especially that longsword!
【Pine Forest Greatsword】(Green Equipment)
Attack: 24-45
Strength: +8
Stamina: +7
Required Level: 12
【Agility Bracers】(Green Equipment)
Defense: 14
HP: +50
Agility: +6
Intelligence: +5
Required Level: 12
Good god, my mind went completely blank!
You only appreciate the cost of living when you run a household, and unless you've tangled with monsters yourself, how could you know how alluring high attack power is? A greatsword with an attack of up to 45 was enough to look down on any other weapon of the same level. Although it was only two levels higher than that longbow, its attack was 19 points higher—do you have any idea what that means?
As if a top-tier greatsword wasn't enough, those agility bracers were also ridiculously overpowered. As far as I knew, three-stat equipment should be blue-tier gear, yet these bracers—requiring only level 12—strangely possessed three stats, and even more ridiculously, they added 50 HP. For a low-HP Mage, this was practically a custom-made god-tier item!
"How much is this worth? A thousand RMB? No, at least three thousand RMB! No wait, three thousand US dollars!"
I estimated the value of the gear. It was almost time for dinner, so I hurriedly packed up the potions on the ground. Seeing that Lu Xuehan was still online, I decided to swing past the level-9 monster area to check on her.
From afar, I could still see Lu Xuehan diligently grinding monsters. I hurried over, swung my sword to help her finish off a level-10 monster, and said to her, "It's time for dinner, we should log off. You've been online way too long today, let's just go straight to sleep after eating."
Lu Xuehan smiled and nodded, then headed back to the village with me and logged off.
When I stepped out of my room, I just happened to see Lu Xuehan rubbing her eyes as she emerged from hers. It looked like she was truly exhausted. In the living room, Xu Lin and Xinyu were already discussing things about the game.
"Someone in our village scored a level-5 green staff! The stats are really nice, plus 3 Intelligence!"
"Yeah, and some handsome guy in our village dropped pants with plus 2 Intelligence, but what a pity, his girlfriend is a total troll!"
I sat down in speechless silence. Without even guessing, that last remark definitely came from Xinyu.
Xu Lin smiled and asked, "Xiaolin, make any good catches this afternoon?"
I nodded and replied, "Yep, a pair of level-12 bracers for Mages. Defense 14, Intelligence plus 4, Agility plus 6, plus 50 HP!"
The chatter gradually died down as several pairs of beautiful eyes instantly focused on me!
"Whoa!"
In a rare burst of excitement, Xu Lin bounced up from the sofa, leaped straight into my arms, and shouted, "Lin Fan, I want them, I want them!!"
I was instantly stunned. Xu Lin's soft, delicate body was piping hot, and she was wearing only a thin pair of pajamas. I could actually feel the two soft mounds pressed against my chest, and combined with the waves of warm breath exhaling from her pretty lips, for the very first time, my cheeks burned fiercely!
Xinyu paused for a moment, then chuckled. "Oh? When did Sister Lin get so cozy with Lin Fan? Progress is lightning fast! Huh? Why is Lin Fan's face so red? Are you feeling sick?"
Blushing, Xu Lin scrambled out of my arms and stammered awkwardly, "Those bracers, I want them..."
I snapped back to my senses and immediately patted my chest, saying, "You should've just said so! I thought you were yelling so loud because you wanted something else—gave me a scare!"
Xu Lin's lovely face flushed even brighter. She glared at me and asked, "Any other loot? I've already reached level 8 today, I'm practically worked to death. I figure I can hit level 12 the day after tomorrow, and by then I can use those bracers."
I nodded. "That's right. Once you change classes and learn your skills, Intelligence will be extremely important for you. Oh, I also scored a longsword, a super god-tier weapon with 24-45 attack. My old 7-12 one is about to be phased out, does anyone want it?"
Xu Lin blinked her pretty eyes and said, "We'll be hitting level 10 soon anyway. Once we learn magic, a high-attack weapon won't be much use to us. Why don't you put that level-4 sword up for consignment in the village? It should fetch a pretty penny—at least 5 gold!"
"What, 5 gold? Isn't that a bit exaggerated?" I had worked my fingers to the bone and still didn't have 5 gold myself.
Xinyu shook her head. "5 gold won't cut it. Just slap a price of 10 gold on it, that way you won't take a loss. Weapons like this are priceless right now; nobody would be willing to sell theirs."
I nodded and said, "Let's do that, then!"
After a moment's thought, I added, "Oh right, I also dropped a green bow with attack increased by 18-32, and the bonus stats aren't bad either. Xinyu, do you want it? Wait, don't get excited! Let's talk this over!"
Xinyu beamed with delight. "Lin Fan, big sis loves you to death! We'll trade once we log back on, I'm coming right to your village."
"Don't rush, that bow requires level 10. If I remember correctly, you just hit level 7, right? We might as well trade in the main city once you hit 10!"
"Fine with me. Hurry up and eat, I want to go grind levels!"
"Damn, since when did you become so motivated?"