Inside a dark cave beneath a hillside in the Novice Village, Tidus drew his bow and unleashed a flurry of shots at the grotesque Cave Lizards. Unlike Wild Boars or Wild Oxen, these lizards were troublesome monsters with basic Magic Resistance, reducing the slowing effect of Blizzard Shot.
Only Tidus, with his tenfold attack speed, could solo Cave Lizards. Even normal parties struggled to kill them.
While fighting he also noticed the constant stream of chat-channel broadcasts…
Some came from guilds, while others were from solo players who, after being killed, began raging in full-on cursing mode. At ten dollars per broadcast, these people had already blown through thousands in just a short while.
"Childish…"
Watching their insults fly back and forth, Tidus smirked coldly.
These players, especially the solo ones, still had no idea that God World was a game countless times more brutal than real life.
The company behind God World, essentially the governments of over a hundred UN member states, had designed the game to drain money from the populace to fund secret projects. To lure in big spenders, God World had given massive advantages to paying players.
Ordinary solo players were absolutely no match for the wealthy guilds and multi-billion dollar corporation-backed players.
He still remembered that, in the later stages of the game, God World had practically drained the entire world's wealth dry…
"Ding! You have killed a lizard!"
Ding! …
Ding! …
Ding! …
After fighting in the pitch-black cave for an hour and a half, Tidus finally put away his bow and left.
During this time, he had collected 300 Lizard Hides, 110 gold coins, a white-grade warrior skill book, and four whiteboard items he couldn't use.
His level had risen to four and a half.
Next, he only needed 300 Moon Wolf Eyes to finish the village chief's quest.
According to the map, the Silvermoon Wolf Nest was located on the other side of the mountain slope. Tidus fought monsters along the way as he traveled. Silvermoon Wolves were fast, magic-resistant level 7 beasts, so it would be best to reach level 5 before arriving.
He ran forward and continuously pulled monsters, rounding up several hundred mobs at once. While weaving and dodging gracefully, he fired relentlessly.
Having lived a second life, his hit-and-run technique was flawless. He wasn't touched even once. And the moment Blizzard Shot triggered, the hundreds of mobs were instantly obliterated.
If any Novice Village player had seen this carefree performance, they would have died of envy on the spot!
Finally…
After crossing the mountaintop and arriving at the wolf den shrouded in dark clouds, Tidus reached level 5.
No hesitation, he allocated nine points to Agility to ensure attack speed and movement speed, and two points to Intelligence for mana, regen, and Blizzard damage.
Then he dragged the Executioner Boots into his equipment slot.
These were top-tier silver boots with +20% movement speed, extremely useful for the upcoming wolf hunts.
Swoosh, swoosh!
-121!
-125!
Tidus fired two arrows at a Silvermoon Wolf, then kited around a large tree, retreating while shooting. The moment he equipped the Executioner Boots, he could immediately feel himself moving faster.
Dodging the wolf's charge became effortless.
Three seconds later, under Tidus' spasmodic flurry of attacks, the wolf collapsed unwillingly. It yielded 50 experience points, 40 silver, and one Moon Wolf Eye.
Ding!
"System Notice: Your level progression has been locked. Please upgrade your skills to level 2 before continuing."
"…Fine."
Tidus nodded. In God World, not only character levels but also skills had to be leveled up. And skill levels were tied to character levels: every five levels, all skills had to be raised by one level.
At level 5, all skills needed to be upgraded to level 2 before the character could level further.
At level 10, all skills needed to reach level 3…
At level 15, all skills had to be level 4…
And so on.
Since Tidus had just hit level 5, he now needed to raise Blizzard Shot to level 2 before continuing to level up. Skill leveling consumed experience.
The specific costs were as follows:
Upgrading a white-grade skill required the experience needed for the next level, i.e., the exp needed for level 5 to reach 6, which was 20,000 exp.
Green skills required double that.
Blue skills required four times.
Purple skills required eight times.
Orange skills required sixteen times.
Black skills required thirty-two times.
Yeah…
Skill leveling was a bottomless pit.
Blizzard Shot was a purple skill, so upgrading it to level 2 required eight times the exp, 160,000 exp. It was absurdly expensive!
Because of this "Skill Upgrade Mechanic," every five levels became a massive wall, and countless players were tortured by it.
Especially the veteran players.
They had far more skills and stronger skills than casual players, which meant they needed several times, dozens of times, even hundreds or thousands of times more experience to level up.
Of course, once those powerful skills were leveled, they became monstrously strong…
In conclusion, in this game, if you wanted to be more powerful than others, you had to put in several times the effort. And this too, was part of God World's charm.
Ding! East Coast Server Announcement…
Ding! East Coast Server Announcement…
Ding! East Coast Server Announcement: Due to massive slaughter of Wild Boars in Novice Village 950, the boss Gold Boar King has appeared seeking revenge. All players in Novice Village 950, proceed to the village entrance to assist with defense!
Ding! East Coast Server Announcement: The hidden boss Gold Boar King has appeared in Novice Village 950! Hurry and take it down!
Ding! All players in East Coast Server, Novice Village 950, have automatically received the temporary Boss Siege Quest: Defend the Novice Village!
If the quest succeeds, all players in the village will receive massive rewards! If the quest fails, all players in the village will lose one level's worth of experience!
At that moment, thousands of Novice Villages across the East Coast Server displayed the same banner announcement.