Volume One, Chapter 15: The Brave Warrior's Armguard!
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A Long: "What's going on? Why?"
High Altitude Chill: "I saw someone kill an elder goblin, and shortly after, countless frenzied goblins tore him apart! Even the plant spirit was devoured!"
High Altitude Chill: "You must never kill goblins in the forest—only run!"
Chen He’s voice: "No, it can’t be! So the rustling sounds around me are...? Help! Someone save me!"
A Long: "What are you saying!"
...
Li Chuan grinned but felt a chill run down his spine.
“Maru-la!”
If they hadn’t encountered something strange, these two wouldn’t have broken their sentences so oddly together.
...
In the Land of Chaos, within a dense forest.
A Long, clad in leather armor, was running frantically.
Behind him, a horde of goblins with wild expressions chased him fiercely, baring sharp teeth, eyes blood-red as if confronting the murderer of their kin.
These short, ugly green-skinned creatures stood on two legs wielding wooden sticks or ran on all fours with incredible speed like wild beasts.
“Damn it, stop chasing me! Stop!”
A Long clenched his teeth and sprinted with all his might.
“Ah!!!”
But he was too slow; after only a few steps, he was surrounded by endless goblins and torn to shreds before he could even summon his plant spirit.
...
Perched atop a large tree, Li Chuan kept watching the chat channel.
High Altitude Chill: "More and more goblins are appearing in the forest. All players who see this message, please quickly reach level eight and enter the White Zone!"
High Altitude Chill: "Also, do not kill goblins, do not kill goblins!"
Is the situation really this dire?
The description of Newbie Task Four said the Land of Chaos was just beginning and greater dangers were imminent.
Could this be referring to the sudden appearance of goblins in the forest?
Suddenly!
Li Chuan, jogging along, felt a cold breeze at his back.
He rolled sideways!
Drew his sword and turned back!
A white-bearded goblin stood on the grass wielding a thin wooden stick, baring its teeth as it charged.
Its aged legs, however, were quite slow.
Li Chuan made two side rolls to put distance between them, then activated the identification function of his probability glasses.
[Elder Goblin: White]
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[Health: 100/100]
[Level: 25, the eldest among the goblin clan, severely leveled down, fond of wandering the forest. Killing it will cause the entire goblin clan to hunt you relentlessly. Weakness marked!]
Luckily, I was paying attention to the area channel, or I might have easily killed it with a single sword strike.
A level 25 monster with only 100 health? Isn’t that just pure bait?
Usually, baiting means money, but this old creature means death!
Li Chuan turned and ran, afraid to linger lest the old goblin catch him.
...
Half an hour later, Li Chuan happily spotted a small tree covered in spikes in the forest.
Another white plant spirit!
A level 20 white Thornwood, which Li Chuan dispatched almost effortlessly.
[Evolution Core: White]
[A specialty of the Plant Spirit World, packed with rich life energy with broad uses.]
[Evaluation: Want to try its taste?]
Packing away the Evolution Core, Li Chuan carefully continued his search.
There—another one!
Li Chuan beamed with delight.
He had found some patterns in hunting unowned plant spirits: most were small trees, and their aura and form usually differed slightly from the surrounding environment.
With experience, Li Chuan’s efficiency in locating plant spirits improved significantly.
Meanwhile, the chat channel buzzed with players complaining about too few monsters or them being too powerful.
Most players, whether forced or willingly, formed teams to avoid elder goblins while battling fiercely against treasure chest guardians.
One player even claimed to have killed a plant spirit, catching Li Chuan’s attention.
But the comment barely stirred any reaction.
Even though plant spirits were easier to kill, the forest had billions of trees and plants. Apart from Li Chuan, who could recognize which was a plant spirit? You couldn’t just swing at every plant you saw.
[Sporegrass (Plant Spirit): Blue]
[Health: 1500/1500]
[Level 10, herbaceous plant spirit type, slow-moving, capable of launching powerful spore bombs. Weakness marked!]
Whoa! A blue-grade plant spirit?
Though excited, Li Chuan remained cautious, hiding behind a large tree before attacking.
Whizz! Whizz! Whizz!
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Three apple-sized bombs were hurled by the sporegrass and exploded swiftly! If Li Chuan hadn’t reacted quickly and rolled three times away from the tree, he would have been reduced to charred wood alongside it.
This plant spirit had a powerful attack and long range.
But its reload speed was slow, and lacking intelligence, it simply threw bombs without predicting escape routes.
Ten minutes later, Li Chuan easily took it down.
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[Ding, killed level 10 Sporegrass (Leader) *1, experience +50]
[Ding, player ‘Li Chuan’ experience full, level +1, gained 5 free attribute points.]
He quickly allocated the free attribute points.
The exhilarating sensation of growing stronger surged through his mind again.
Besides the blue-grade Evolution Core, the sporegrass also dropped a blue piece of equipment.
[Heroic Bracers: Blue]
[Equip Level: 10]
[Strength +10, 1.2% chance to knock back enemies when attacking!]
[Evaluation: Full of power...]
Just now, Li Chuan was complaining about the low drop rate of plant spirits, yet he ended up with a blue-grade piece of gear.
How delightful.
Smiling, Li Chuan stored the equipment in his backpack, waiting to equip it at level ten.
Onward!
Over the next six hours, Li Chuan only took one break, eating three loaves of bread and drinking half a bucket of water.
The rest of the time was spent either harvesting plant spirits or searching for them.
During this time, Li Chuan discovered a goblin tribe.
Their settlement had many tent-like houses woven from vines, arranged in rows.
Li Chuan estimated the tribe had at least a thousand goblins.
Most were around level 35, though some might be higher. He even saw one at level 60 that could shoot magical bubbles.
No wonder High Altitude Chill insisted on never killing goblins. Witnessing thousands of high-level monsters slaughtering people would terrify anyone.
Li Chuan only glanced briefly from the treetop and quickly left that perilous place.
Meanwhile, in the Land of Chaos area channel, complaints, pleas for help, and curses grew more frequent.
It seemed that players’ efforts to cooperate and level up to complete the task were not going smoothly.
After browsing, Li Chuan noticed something odd.
He hadn’t seen anyone say they had entered the White Zone yet.
By now, Li Chuan was level nine with forty experience points; others should have at least reached level eight and entered the White Zone.
Could it be that players who have entered are deliberately silent, or perhaps their messages are hidden from us?
...
[Ding, game announcement: Less than one hour remains for Newbie Task Four. All players, please enter the White Zone as soon as possible!]