The Novice Village map was a medium-sized island. After Tidus left the village entrance, he walked downstream along the small river. Before long, he arrived at an abandoned dock.
Outside a small wooden house at the dock, an NPC guard was standing there.
"Dear Tyrant, the dock is being harassed by a group of [Demonized Serrated Crocodiles]. Could you please help us eliminate them?" The NPC looked at Tidus eagerly.
"Ding! Do you accept the quest [Sweep the Dock]!"
"Quest Details: Eliminate the Demonized Serrated Crocodiles occupying the area near the Novice Village dock. Bring back [Demonized Crocodile Skin] to claim rewards. There is no limit to the number of quest items. For every crocodile skin you bring back, you will receive 50 experience points and 10 silver coins."
"Accept."
Tidus nodded. The quest reward was very generous, 50 experience points and 10 silver coins, basically equivalent to a 50% increase in monster-grinding income.
Of course, this [Demonized Serrated Crocodile] wasn't easy to deal with either. It was a level 10 wild monster, and they grouped together heavily. In his previous life, it took over a hundred players forming a team to dare accept this quest to grind experience.
However, Tidus had his own clever plan.
On one side of the dock was a cliff dozens of meters high.
Tidus didn't go directly to the dock but came to the cliff. Looking down, a large group of huge black crocodiles were lazily sunbathing...
[Demonized Serrated Crocodile] (Level 10)
Attack: 120
HP: 1450
Skills: Cold Hunter, Bloodthirsty Bite.
Description: Crocodiles infected by the Scourge Legion's dark magic, possessing huge bodies and teeth like sharp knives, will tear any approaching creature to shreds.
With 120 attack, basically they could kill an ordinary player in two or three bites...
"Spider Silk Suspension."
Tidus used the Spider Silk Ring he had just obtained. A spider silk shot out from the ring and wrapped around a rock, and he descended from the cliff along the spider silk, finally hanging seven or eight meters above the ground in mid-air...
Below, the Demonized Serrated Crocodiles also discovered the "intruder." They immediately went crazy, opening their bloody mouths and biting toward Tidus...
But Tidus was suspended in the air, and these short-legged crocodiles couldn't bite him at all...
"Grandsons, come bite your grandpa..."
An mischievous smile appeared at the corner of Tidus's mouth. He drew his longbow and shot wildly at the crocodiles below...
-142!
-156!
-145!
...
"Ding! Your [Blizzard Shot] triggered special effect: Pierce!"
"Ding! Your [Blizzard Shot] triggered skill: Blizzard!"
"Ding! You killed a Demonized Serrated Crocodile and gained Experience x150!"
"Ding!..."
"Ding!..."
"Ding!..."
Tidus attacked while drinking mana regeneration potions, completely unconcerned about being interrupted. He was only level 5 now, a full half lower than the crocodile level, so he gained more experience than imagined.
After a while, he triggered a [Blizzard]. Combined with finishing blows, he quickly eliminated dozens of crocodiles within a 200-yard radius. He also harvested a total of 5,500 experience points.
He checked his skill experience bar.
[Blizzard Shot], Lv1, (14900/16000).
[Phantom Archer], Lv1, (0/8000).
Very good...
At this rate, in about half a day, he could level both skills to Lv2, and then his character could level up.
Next, Tidus let the spider silk lower him to the ground. He happily picked up the silver coins, equipment, and crocodile skins dropped by the Demonized Serrated Crocodiles and put them in his backpack, then climbed back up the cliff along the spider silk.
After doing this, Tidus retracted the spider silk and went to find another place where crocodiles gathered, used the [Spider Silk Ring] again, and repeated the scene just now...
It had to be said, this monster-grinding efficiency was indeed very high...
But it was also very boring...
He was mechanically shooting continuously, with no challenge. Tidus felt like he was about to fall asleep. To perk himself up, he opened the game forum to see if there was any news.
On the forum homepage, there were posts everywhere about the Novice Village dungeon [Scourge Camp].
"Battle Report! Star Ocean, one of USA's top ten ranked guilds, pioneering [Scourge Camp] dungeon, completely wiped out!"
"Battle Report! East Coast Server, Speed God Guild, five professional players pioneering [Scourge Camp], team wiped by small mobs in ten minutes!"
"Battle Report! Russian Guild Alpha Dominators, failed at [Scourge Camp]..."
"Battle Report! French Caesar Guild, team wiped in [Scourge Camp]..."
"Battle Report..."
"Battle Report..."
Scanning the posts, basically all the major mainstream gaming guilds globally were desperately competing for the [Scourge Camp] first clear for the world banner and other rewards. Moreover, to increase their fame, some were live streaming the pioneering attempts.
But without exception, the results were all disastrous defeats. They didn't even see the Boss's face...
Tidus wasn't surprised by this result.
Because the [Scourge Camp] rewards were too generous, God World set an extremely high difficulty for the dungeon, and it could only be cleared once.
In his previous life, the standard configuration for clearing this dungeon was level 10, a full set of Silver equipment, two Lv2 green skills, and excellent team coordination. Many players spent a full half month grinding in the Novice Village for this set of equipment and skills...
In his previous life, less than 1% of players actually cleared the [Scourge Camp] dungeon.
And current major guild players, in order to rush to level 10 as quickly as possible, basically only learned one or two white skills. Their combat power was weak as hell. As for equipment, at most they had two or three Silver pieces.
In short, in God World blindly rushing levels was completely inadvisable behavior.
In the future God World there would be many quests and dungeons that rewarded "attribute points," "rare skills," and even "skill slots." Players who blindly rushed levels couldn't complete these quests and dungeons with their combat power, they couldn't even beat small mobs in the late game.
In the late game, their attributes would be at least several times worse than players who leveled up step by step.
Basically ruined accounts...
Just then, Tidus received a friend message from Crimson Rose. Well, when they traded yesterday, they had added each other as friends.
"Tyrant, what level are you now? We sisters are going to conquer [Scourge Camp]. Are you coming?"
Crimson Rose asked.
"Level 5, big-tits."
Tidus replied.
"Oh, never mind then. Little brother, keep working hard. We sisters won't take you along first..."
Crimson Rose ended with a row of ellipses. The meaning was obvious, Tyrant was only level 5, too much of a burden. He definitely wasn't suitable to pioneer [Scourge Camp] with them.
"Uh, what the hell 'little brother', my brother is very big, okay..." Tidus complained weakly.
"Pfft, men all love to brag."
Outside a valley, Crimson Rose was made to giggle by Tidus's words. Then she prepared to close the chat window. Just then, Tidus sent another message:
"Hey, big-tits, you're getting cocky... With Rose's current strength, pioneering [Scourge Camp] is suicide."
"Bah, you're jealous. Jealous that our Rose young ladies have fair skin, beautiful faces, great temperament, and strength that crushes you men... So, bye bye now..."
Crimson Rose happily closed the chat window. She had finally gotten back at this aloof Tyrant once.
Then, with a wave of her hand, the Blood Rose Garden members charged into the dungeon in the valley.