Killing one Wild Boar granted 20 experience points, about 1% of the level bar.
From the corpse, he looted a Pig Hide, 20 silver coins, and a skill book with a bow icon on the cover.
Skill: Aim (White)
Effect: The archer focuses on a single target, reducing its physical defense by 20% and preventing stealth. The archer gains +20% accuracy. Duration 15 seconds. Cooldown 30 seconds.
He did not expect a skill book from the first kill. Even though it was white-tier, Aim was essential for damage-focused archers and included anti-stealth.
"It's a good skill, but I can't use it."
Tidus sighed.
In God World, learning a skill required an empty skill slot. Normal players started with one slot and gained one every five levels. Tidus currently had only one slot, already filled by Blizzard Shot. He had no empty slot left to learn Aim.
This limitation was exactly why playing a mage was pure suffering for normal players. They had few skills, long cooldowns, and once their skills were used up, they were basically useless. Only rich players or pros who obtained extra slots from hidden quests or dungeons could manage the mage class.
As Tidus thought this over, his gaze shifted to the next Wild Boar.
With no players online yet, no one was competing for monsters. He needed to kill as many as possible while he had the chance. After all, his goal was 300 Pig Hides.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh…
Tidus drew and released arrow after arrow. Each shot carried icy frost, slicing through the air like a frozen beam and slamming into the pig.
–28!
–26!
–25!
–30…
Another series of white numbers, and the pig collapsed, granting 20 experience and 10 silver. No skill book or gear this time.
God World had a notoriously low drop rate, so that was normal.
Tidus also noticed his mana bar had dropped sharply. After killing two pigs back-to-back, his MP had fallen from 220 to 120. He would need to replenish it soon.
He opened a Small Purification Potion and drank it.
A blue glow surrounded him, signaling MP recovery.
"Whoosh, whoosh…"
–57!
–24!
–26!
Even while regenerating mana, Tidus kept firing, carefully maintaining his spacing so he would not get hit. A single hit would interrupt the potion's effect. He moved like a martial arts master, slipping back and forth around the clumsy pig.
From a distance, it looked like a strange scene: a human kiting a pig in elegant footwork. The Wild Boar could not even touch him.
You have slain a Wild Boar!
Ding…
Ding…
Ding…
Wild Boars fell one after another. Unfortunately, none dropped anything beyond hides and silver.
Tidus' mana drained too quickly. Natural regeneration and Small Purification Potions were nowhere near enough to support constant Tenfold Attack Speed plus Blizzard Shot. It was becoming a problem.
Ding…
Ding…
"Congratulations! Your level has risen to Lv2!" the game suddenly announced.
A brilliant light descended on Tidus, instantly restoring his mana and health to full.
His character level rose to 2.
Because of his eleven-star aptitude, Tidus gained eleven free attribute points.
Attributes were divided into Strength, Agility, Intelligence, and Constitution. Agility was the primary stat for archers, increasing attack, attack speed, dodge, and movement speed. Intelligence increased spell power, mana, and mana regeneration.
After a moment of thought, Tidus assigned nine points to Agility and two points to Intelligence.
After leveling up, both his attack and attack speed improved noticeably. He could now fire about four and a half shots per second. At the same time, his mana consumption increased even faster.
"If only I could get a piece of gear with mana regen."
Tidus felt helpless. He was an archer but ran out of mana faster than a priest. How did that make any sense?
Just then, as his Blizzard Shot smashed into a piglet's skull, the clear sky suddenly erupted with lightning and thunder. Sheets of white ice shards fell from above along with heavy snow, descending at a forty-five-degree angle.
Booming rumbles echoed as a massive blizzard crashed down over a two-hundred-yard radius. White ice spikes slammed into every Wild Boar in the farmland. In the game, one yard was roughly one meter.
-169!
-166!
-170!
-175!
-172!
Terrifying damage numbers rose from the piglets' heads. Blizzard also had a powerful slow effect, and they could not escape the storm's area of effect.
"Ding! Your Blizzard Shot has successfully triggered the effect Blizzard!" the system announced.
Well then. Tidus grinned. He had triggered the one-in-ten-thousand chance to activate Blizzard.
Skill: Blizzard
Effect: Unleashes a devastating five-second blizzard over a two-hundred-yard area. Deals 150 ice damage per second, reduces movement speed by 50%, and reduces attack speed by 50%. Effective against structures. Scales with Intelligence.
Description: The world-shattering blizzard descends once more.
Five seconds later, the terrifying storm faded. The sky cleared, the ground was covered in white snow, and every Wild Boar within two hundred yards had turned into frozen statues lying on the ground.
Tidus swept his eyes around. This single blizzard had wiped out more than two hundred Wild Boars at once.
His experience bar shot upward, instantly jumping two levels to 3 and 50%.
Eyes shining, Tidus rushed toward the bodies of the Wild Boars, ready for a satisfying looting spree.
In short, he had hit the jackpot.