Repet.i.tive work always causes people to become annoyed and lose track of time. Just as Li Huailin was sick and tired of dying, a "ding!" sound was heard and a flash of golden light enveloped Li Huailin.

[System Notice]: You have leveled up to Level 2.

Li Huailin immediately looked at his character page. Due to the bugged nature of his character, he was not sure what would happen to his stats after leveling up.

Name: Forest

Profession: None (Not yet chosen)

Secondary profession: Mining

Level: 2

EXP: 0/1400

Stats:

HP: 140/140

MP: 140/140

Physical attack: 5~10

Physical defence: 5~7

Magic attack: 4~7

Magic defence: 2~2

Strength: 9

Agility: 11

Const.i.tution: 7

Intelligence: 9

Mind: 7

Luck: 5

Fame: 1200

Free stat points: 5

"Phew~ Luckily…" Li Huailin patted his chest. Fortunately, his stats wouldn't be deducted after leveling up. Or else, won't all his stats be negative after leveling up 3-4 times?

After calculating the increase in his stats, it looks like《Heart of Glory》raises all stats by 2, and gives you 5 free stat points after a level up. Seems like this game emphasises a lot on leveling up. After all, the difference in stat points between a high-leveled player and a low-leveled player was too much.

Li Huailin also contemplated about what to do with his free points. His sacred mission was to court death, so the more fragile he was and the less HP he had, the better. Thus, agility which could increase physical defence by a little was out. Const.i.tution was even worse. Intelligence and Mind were both stats for a wizard, so for Li Huailin who was planning to become a warrior, these two stats were out too. Thus, his build will be an all-strength warrior…

"This stat allocation is…" Li Huailin laughed at himself. If one's character was not bugged, one would normally choose between a 2 Strength 3 Const.i.tution tank or 2 Strength 2 Agility 1 Const.i.tution striker. However, Li Huailin didn't have a choice. Stats that increased defence or HP will lengthen his leveling (dying) process, so he could only use such a weird build.

After adding 5 points to Strength, his Strength became 14, and his physical attack became 8~17 too. There was not much difference other than this. Well, his HP had increased by a little (due to +2 all stats after leveling up), so now the bats needed four hits instead of three to kill him.

After confirming he could level up with no problems, Li Huailin who was tired of dying after dying 20 times in a row got excited again. Riding this wave, Li Huailin began his n.o.ble job of leveling (dying) again.

At the mine entrance, a miner saw from the corner of his eyes the figure of Li Huailin running past him. The miner patted the shoulder of his miner friend beside him.

"Say, don't you think that guy has already run past us many times already?"

"Hmm?" The miner friend raised his head and looked at the running Li Huailin. "Now that you talk about it, I think so too!"

"What is he doing running into the mine all the time?" The miner asked, confused.

"A quest, what else? He must have received a quest that requires him to get into the depths of the mine, and is trying to sprint all the way in to complete it. But well, the mine's monsters are numerous and pervertedly strong, so he probably won't be able to finish it. Don't care about him anymore. Let's just do our mining." The miner friend casually said before going back to mining.

All the miners cared about was mining, so not many noticed Li Huailin who has died and revived many times. The two who noticed a little didn't think care about it as it didn't concern them too. Thus, Li Huailin continued his life and death business undisturbed for a day until 7 pm when he couldn't take it anymore.

After a golden flash enveloped him, Li Huailin who revived at the resp.a.w.n point immediately logged off. This way of leveling was just too dreary, causing Li Huailin to be on the verge of a mental breakdown already. He was only Level 7 now but he was already fed up with dying.

After taking off the helmet, Li Huailin poured himself a gla.s.s of water and gulped it down. "I will leave the Beginner Village tomorrow after dying thirty more times. I really don't want to play anymore today. All I did was run, and I had calculated the time wrongly too. I didn't factor in the stats increase from leveling up. At Level 7, without even adding Const.i.tution, I already have 340 HP. To die, a bat needs to give me 11-12 hits, and if I'm lucky to meet a mummy, 7-8 times. Haaa… The leveling time has increased again…"

Li Huailin who was bored to death opened up the game forum and looked at the information available on it.

Post t.i.tle: Brother Niubi strikes again! Beginner Village blacksmith succ.u.mbs to beating and gives out hidden quest.

Post author: I have a dream… that one day, I will be able to soar freely in the skies and over the four oceans, inspiring awe in all. I have a dream… that one day, I will be able to lift all the unscrupulous store owners in the Beginner Village by the collar, and while slapping them, tell them you can't be so unscrupulous when doing business.

After the speech was a video clip.

Comment 1: Begging on my knees for the method to be able to slap the blacksmith like that.

Comment 2: I express my sympathies to the blacksmith and am deeply concerned about this matter.

Comment 3: Here's my protection fee for this person's gang.

Comment 4: Why is it that when I tried this I got killed and even got 20 friendliness points deducted? Can this game even be played?

"Weird… There have already been two posts about me, so Sky Universe should have noticed that something is wrong already, right? Why does it feel like n.o.body cares…?"

Well, Li Huailin didn't care why the game admins haven't noticed him yet. Since n.o.body cared, he would just continue playing.

Li Huailin went to sleep after roaming the forums for a while. His sleeping schedule was very normal. Sleep at 11, wake up at 7. This has already become a habit, and his body clock has been finely tuned too.

After eating some things, Li Huailin went online and continued to go level (court) up (death). His mission today was to get to Level 10 and leave the village!

While running to the mine in an experienced manner, Li Huailin didn't see many players as it was still 7 in the morning. Most of the players were still sleeping. Li Huailin immediately ran into a random tunnel once again, not wanting to waste a single second.

However, after running for a while, Li Huailin noticed something strange. He hadn't met a single monster so far. He had already run 700-800 metres. Normally, he would have died from the mobs already, but these mobs were nowhere to be seen now.

Just as he was thinking about this problem, Li Huailin suddenly found the corpse of a mummy, if that is even a thing. The system removes corpse of monsters after around 1-3 minutes, so this meant that someone had just slashed their way through this tunnel.

"d.a.m.nit, to think that such a situation would occur!" Li Huailin didn't even meet a single person who was training in the mine yesterday. This is because training here was really not worthwhile. First of all, the mobs here were all stronger than the one outside, with higher HP and attack. Secondly, you had to use torches to be able to see here, and they were not cheap. One could only last for 1 hour, so using it here was a huge waste. Training on monsters outside was much better as they are of the same level, but much weaker and didn't require the use of consumable too. The only perk to this place was that it was close to the village, making restocking and coming back after dying faster. Still, not many people trained here.

Li Huailin didn't want to turn back. In the end, it was just some people training. All he had to do was run past them and make the mobs deeper in kill him. This was much faster than turning back and running to another tunnel again.

With these thoughts in mind, Li Huailin continued rus.h.i.+ng in deeper into the tunnel. After running for a few minutes, Li Huailin could see the glow of a torch and hear the sounds of metal clas.h.i.+ng and humans and mummies' shouts.

Li Huailin walked over and contrary to his expectations, saw ten people instead of one. They grouped themselves into two groups. As beginners didn't have professions, all of them were busy slas.h.i.+ng away at the mummies.

"Hmm? Huailin?"

Li Huailin stalled for a while. He had wanted to walk past them from the side, and didn't expect someone to call him. There weren't many people who knew his name in this game, so Li Huailin could guess who the person was already without looking.

"Ye Hang?" The one who called him was indeed the vice-leader of Spirit World who bought the hidden quest from him two days ago, Ye Hang. Those who accepted the hidden quest, Firehead and the others, were also here and battling with the mummies.

""Why are you here?"" Both of them asked at the same time.

"I'm here to train." Li Huailin answered first. He was really here to 'train'. After thinking for awhile, he decided to explain further. "The training areas out there have too many people and I can't win over them, so I came over here to train."

"I see." Ye Hang accepted the explanation and said, "We are doing a quest here, the hidden one you gave us. The first stage was to go to the south area to investigate, and we arrived here after completing the subsequent stages of the quest. This is already the fifth stage, and probably the final stage. A pity that we are already Level 10 and the 30,000 EXP is going to be wasted.1 Luckily, the quest also rewards you with a rare Level 15 equipment of your choice.

Ye Hang unexpectedly revealed the rewards of his quest. A rare Level 15 equipment can be considered to be G.o.dlike in the current phase of the game, and could invite the greed of many. Yet, he still said it. He did so firstly because Li Huailin already knew about this quest, and secondly, Spirit World was one of the top guilds and wasn't scared of others vying for their things at all.

Saquacon (Translator)

Saquacon (PR)