This transaction left Jiang Bai feeling as if he had been injected with adrenaline; the future seemed incredibly bright.
He immediately opened the trading interface and began to search for equipment.
"As the majority of players reach around level 5, level 5 white rings, necklaces, and other accessories are in high demand, with prices all above 1 gold coin!"
Jiang Bai clicked his tongue in amazement at the hot equipment market. "I won't buy for now. I can't reach level 5 anyway. I'll check the market again after completing the quest and leveling up to 5."
As for level 5 white weapons, their prices were not as high as accessories, hovering between 7,000 and 8,000 copper coins, which was not unacceptable.
"To be honest, even ancient-level beginner weapons at level 1 still fall short in basic attributes."
Looking at his level 1 longbow, which had an attack attribute of only 18 points due to its ancient level, he compared it to the level 5 white weapons, which had at least 10 points of attack.
"If I were to synthesize a level 5 ancient weapon at the current price, it would probably cost around 20 gold coins. That's a bit too expensive."
Moreover, although the ancient longbow in his hand had poor attack due to its level, its additional attributes, especially the true damage and Frost special effect, were something Jiang Bai was unwilling to give up. These two attributes were far from comparable to just a few or a dozen points of attack.
What if he synthesized another one and the attributes turned out to be poor?
"To be honest, if I could, I really wouldn't want to replace this longbow."
"If only there were items to upgrade equipment..."
After plundering 2 points of agility, Jiang Bai's attack power reached a full 200 points. At this point, his attack panel read 200 (2), totaling 202, with the additional 2 points being the effect of the title First Blood.
As Jiang Bai was drooling over his attribute panel, a centaur suddenly entered his line of sight.
"Already here so soon!"
Jiang Bai stopped in his tracks. About twenty-five yards in front of him, three centaurs of different forms were walking around a bonfire with their heads held high.
The names of these centaurs were red, indicating that they had the ability to attack on sight.
"According to the monster guide, the perception range of centaurs is 15 yards. If you enter within 15 yards, they will attack," Jiang Bai thought to himself. He then took a few steps back and cast Scouting Skill on each of the three centaurs.
Centaur Warrior
Level: 7
Attack: 50
Defense: 40
Health: 650
Centaur Mage
Level: 7
Attack: 75
Defense: 15
Health: 450
Centaur Warlock
Level: 7
Attack: 65
Defense: 20
Health: 500
"Whoa! These are monster groups formed in small squads!" Jiang Bai exclaimed in surprise after checking the attributes. At a glance, all the centaurs were distributed in groups of three, which meant that if he wanted to kill a centaur monster, he would have to face three centaurs at the same time.
"This game really requires teaming up to play," Jiang Bai couldn't help but sigh. The difficulty was so high that an ordinary level 7 player would probably be killed in one round, and even a five-person team of the same level would face great danger.
However, Jiang Bai didn't need to worry too much. With 810 health points and 68 defense, the warriors, warlocks, and mages basically couldn't break through his defense. If he added the fixed damage reduction from his clothes, even the mage's attack wouldn't break through.
"What are you waiting for? Let's do it!"
The longbow was drawn to full tension, and a pale purple glow enveloped the arrow. With a gust of wind, the arrow shot out from Jiang Bai's hand, turning into a purple shadow that pierced through the air.
When the arrow was about ten yards away from the centaur warrior, it suddenly split into three in mid-air, each shooting towards a different centaur monster.
-144
-40
-169
-40
-328
-40
These were the different amounts of damage dealt to the three different centaurs.
"Whoa..."
The moment the arrows hit, the three centaurs let out strange cries.
The centaur warrior, wearing tattered black iron armor on its upper body, charged directly at Jiang Bai. The remaining centaur mage and centaur warlock each condensed a red and black energy sphere in front of their chests, respectively, and began to chant spells on the spot.
"Actually got a critical hit on the first try!"
"It seems that a 5% critical hit chance is still pretty awesome!"
Jiang Bai watched in delight as the skill Multi-Shot he had just used cooled down instantly. Without hesitation, he activated the skill again.
"A-rank skills are just strong!"
Jiang Bai once again marveled that the strength of Multi-Shot was not in the numbers. The numbers themselves were unremarkable, but the mechanism of resetting the cooldown to zero on a critical hit was too overpowered, which elevated it to this level.
"Multi-Shot!"
Another round of three arrows was fired, but this time it didn't result in a critical hit.
However, Jiang Bai was already very satisfied. After two rounds of Multi-Shot, the centaur warrior with the most health was left with only 266 health points, while the mage had a mere 32 thin health points remaining.
Poor warlock, due to the critical hit on the first attack, it was killed outright in the second round of attacks without even having the chance to cast a spell.
Jiang Bai completely ignored the charging centaur warrior and fired another arrow directly at the centaur mage.
At the same time, the fireball from the centaur mage fiercely struck Jiang Bai's chest.
-1
Jiang Bai didn't even glance at his health points. After taking out the centaur mage with one arrow, he aimed his longbow at the centaur warrior that was charging right in front of him, used Aimed Shot, and combined with true damage, he dealt 232 points of damage, followed by a regular attack.
He effortlessly took the life of the centaur warrior.
"Comfortable!"
Jiang Bai picked up the copper coins that had dropped on the ground. "A normal centaur monster should give 40 experience points. If it weren't for the quest limit, my leveling speed would definitely soar like a rocket."
The leveling difficulty in Genesis was extremely high. He was currently level 4, and it required 2000 experience points to reach level 5. A level 7 monster only provided 40 experience points, and normally they would be split among five people. The difficulty of leveling up was unimaginable.
Seeing his quest progress change from 0/100 to 3/100, Jiang Bai began to grind fiercely.
Thanks to the area damage of Multi-Shot, it ensured Jiang Bai's monster-killing efficiency, especially when critical hits occurred consecutively. The no-cooldown Multi-Shot could completely wipe out a group in three rounds!
"Phew... It seems I should focus on stacking critical hit chance in the future. The higher the critical hit chance, the higher the benefit curve of Multi-Shot. If it were full critical hits..."
"Tsck tsck tsck... I dare not even think about it..."
Thinking of this, Jiang Bai suddenly had a brainstorm.
"Although the chance is low now, can I stack it with quantity?"
"If the drop rate for one monster is 5%, what if I fight 10 monsters at the same time? 20 monsters? There should be at least one critical hit, right?"
Looking at the scattered centaur squads ahead, a bold idea suddenly popped into Jiang Bai's mind.