Crossing a vast open prairie, Nie Yan arrived at a place filled with jagged rocks. Grotesque boulders were scattered haphazardly everywhere, with some narrow passages running through the rocks.
"This is the place." Nie Yan observed for a moment, confirmed this was undoubtedly the right coordinates, and cautiously crept forward, slowly and carefully. This area was where wild bull monsters were very active, filled with danger everywhere. He slipped into a pile of jagged rocks.
Coordinates 567.528.192.
The terrain here was strange. The gaps between the jagged rocks were narrow enough for only one person to pass through. Looking out through one of the gaps, about twenty-six yards away, there stood a pitch-black wild bull covered in sturdy muscles, its sharp horns like two daggers.
Level 8 Wild Bull Elite： Elite Monster, HP 300/300.
Nie Yan rested the hand crossbow on his left forearm, adjusted it—the angle was just right.
He just managed to bring the Bison Leader into his attack range. Because of its massive size, even though it spotted Nie Yan, it couldn't charge into the narrow paths among the rubble, so it couldn't attack him.
A classic terrain bug！
This was discovered by an Arcane mage friend of Nie Yan's in the game, but now, this is the only place where this terrain bug is known！
By exploiting this terrain bug, Nie Yan could easily kill a higher-level Bull Chief！
Nie Yan loaded bolts into his crossbow. In three seconds, three bolts were ready. Aiming at the Bull Chief, swoosh, swoosh, swoosh—three arrows shot out in a straight line toward the Bull Chief.
Thump, thump, thump. All three bolts hit the Bull Chief.
MISS, -1, MISS—three numbers floated up above the Bull Chief's head. Due to the huge level gap, Nie Yan's attacks dealt almost no damage to the Bull Chief; most of the time they were misses, and even when they hit, they only dealt a forced one point of damage.
After being attacked, the Bull Chief let out a blast of hot air and charged wildly toward Nie Yan.
Boom! The Bull Chief slammed into the rock and bounced back. It couldn't reach Nie Yan and could only circle around the rock, helpless.
Nie Yan skillfully loaded another set of bolts and fired volley after volley at the Bull Chief.
Although the damage was extremely low, under Nie Yan's relentless attacks, the Bull Chief's health began to drop slightly. The decline was slow—just a tiny bit falling now and then, and occasionally recovering a little.
Nie Yan's attack rhythm was steady. Enraged, the Bull Chief roared furiously after each hit but still couldn't get close to Nie Yan.
Everything was going as smoothly as expected. While attacking the Bull Chief, Nie Yan pondered his future leveling route. After rebirth, if he foolishly followed others' methods—picking a spot and grinding monsters the normal way—that would be too stupid.
After all, Nie Yan's mind was packed with a vast amount of game knowledge. He needed to follow his own plan to design a perfect leveling process.
Time ticked by, minute by minute. Half an hour later, Nie Yan had used up one quiver of bolts—a full thousand arrows！ The Wild Bull Chief's health was still around two-thirds left.
Repeating the process of loading and shooting over and over, Nie Yan felt like he was about to fall asleep, but he still tried to maintain a high firing rate, afraid that if he stopped attacking, the Wild Bull Chief's health would regenerate.
The Wild Bull Chief was getting tired, panting nonstop, and pacing anxiously as it slammed into the rock, collapsing part of it.
Nie Yan retreated a bit further in, and then his communicator rang.
“Pro, I went to that coordinate you told me to grind at, and sure enough, it’s fast—I’ve already gotten two Stealth skill books today,” Stone messaged. Leveling up at the spot Nie Yan had told him about was about 50% faster than usual, which got him really excited. Giving Nie Yan a Stealth skill book in exchange for learning about such a great farming spot was totally worth it.
“No doubt about that. Sinking Wizards also drop Night Owl Perception. If you get an extra one, don’t forget to send me a copy,” Nie Yan said without any surprise. In his past life, he had read countless guides from top players, and he remembered plenty of these little tricks. Nie Yan was the kind of guy who was scatterbrained and forgetful—he would forget a lot of things in real life—but when it came to these game guides, his memory was sharpest.
Everyone has a great memory for things they’re interested in.
“If it drops, I’ll mail you a copy. One thing I’m curious about—how did you know about this leveling spot？” Stone asked. When he had first met Nie Yan, he was only level 0.
“I played a warrior before and deleted it to reroll a thief,” Nie Yan made up on the spot. He didn’t want anyone to know his secret of being reborn.
"I see, your warrior character must be quite high-level, why delete it？ A few days from now, a friend of mine is forming a team to farm the Sunken Sorcerer Camp. Expert, give some advice." Stone said expectantly. Nie Yan really seemed to know his stuff, and those friends of his had only made it to the outer edge of the Sunken Sorcerer Camp before hitting a wall.
The Sunken Sorcerer Camp is a high-difficulty instance. Instances are divided into special instances and basic instances. A special instance disappears once players clear it, turning into an open-world map. A basic instance doesn't vanish even if someone clears it, allowing repeated resets, but the equipment drop rate is very low and the rewards aren't great.
The Sunken Sorcerer Camp is a basic instance with five difficulty levels: Easy, Normal, Hard, Expert, and Master. The higher the difficulty, the better the gear that drops. If a team clears it, the instance only resets after five days.
"Full walkthrough for the Sunken Sorcerer Camp, priced at two silver coins, no haggling." Nie Yan said. Two silver coins equaled two hundred copper coins, a massive sum for a beginner player. Since Stone's friend could lead a team through the Sunken Sorcerer Camp, two silver coins shouldn't be a problem.
"I'll go discuss it with that friend." Stone was a bit skeptical. Could Nie Yan really have a full walkthrough for the Sunken Sorcerer Camp? Even the internet didn't have that.
Clearing the Sunken Sorcerer Camp on Easy difficulty yielded a profit of about three silver coins. With good luck, they might even snag a piece or two of decent small-time gear. The key was that the Sunken Sorcerer Camp dropped the Cure Light Wounds skill book. Nie Yan demanding two silver coins for information was ridiculously high. If they didn't get any gear drops, they'd be working for Nie Yan for nothing.
The Sunken Sorcerer Camp instance was quite challenging. After they wiped a few times, those guys would naturally realize that Nie Yan's price wasn't expensive at all.
"If your friend agrees, reply to me. If not, don't bother me." Nie Yan continued shooting. Under his relentless assault, the Bison Chief gradually showed signs of faltering.
"Alright, I'll talk to our squad leader." In Stone's mind, Nie Yan had already been equated with an expert. As a result, he didn't even feel the slightest resentment towards Nie Yan's coldness—after all, it was normal for experts to have some attitude. Stone wondered, what level was Nie Yan's original warrior character? It must have been impressive, so why did he delete it? Could there be some unspeakable reason?
Stone's words ended, and a busy tone came through the voice chat.
Nie Yan ended the call, and the crossbow in his hand fired faster, bolts whistling off the strings one after another.
After shooting for a full hour and a half and consuming 3,600 bolts, the Bison Chief finally let out a long moan and stumbled to the ground. Its massive body crashed heavily onto the ground, and Nie Yan could feel the ground trembling beneath his feet.
Nie Yan estimated that if he had used the Force Shot Shortbow, killing the Bison Chief would have taken at least five hours and consumed over ten thousand arrows. Fortunately, he had this small Force Shot Crossbow with a heavy shot attachment, which saved him a lot of time.
Two white lights fell upon Nie Yan, and two crisp level-up notification sounds rang out.
System： You have slain the Bison Chief. Cross-level kill experience bonus 1800%. Obtained 8,290 experience.
Nie Yan checked his level. He was already at Level 2 with 21% progress. The bison really gave a lot of experience.
Finally done. Nie Yan put away his crossbow, walked over to the Bison Chief's corpse, and began searching underneath it. The bison had dropped five copper coins, and he also picked up a dagger.
He checked the dagger's stats.
Horn Dagger： Bronze-tier, unidentified.
Nie Yan's eyelids twitched. It was a bronze-grade dagger. Equipment grades were divided into white-grade, bronze-grade, silver-grade, gold-grade, dark gold-grade, and legendary-grade, with occasional green sets.
Due to the extremely small number of rare monsters like chieftain, sub-elite, elite, and lord class in Conviction, their distribution was sparse. Only about one in a thousand pieces of equipment had stats. The vast majority of players could only make do with white-grade gear. Every piece of stat-boosting equipment was extremely precious, and their prices were driven up to a level unbearable for ordinary players.
Bronze-grade weapons usually boasted about 20% higher attack than ordinary weapons of the same level, and they also came with an additional stat.
Dropped from a level 8 bison chieftain, it should be level 5 equipment. Currently, the price of a level 5 bronze dagger was at least over three silver coins. Meanwhile, most ordinary level 3 players had total assets of around twenty copper coins. Having a single silver coin in assets already meant a player was very wealthy.
Following the plan, Nie Yan harvested the bison chieftain, stowed the Horn Dagger into his backpack, retreated from the crevice in the rocks, and headed toward Terak Village.
The appraiser in Terak Village was a short old man with a white beard, a pair of triangular eyes, and a shrewd look that rubbed people the wrong way. Still, he was the only appraiser in Terak Village.
Nie Yan opened the trading interface.
"Young man, what item do you need appraised？" the short old man asked.
"A dagger." Nie Yan placed the Horn Dagger into the interface.
"Appraisal fee: ten copper coins. Do you wish to proceed with the appraisal？"
Nie Yan's mind stirred. The appraisal fee for this dagger was ten copper coins. Appraisal fees were generally charged at 5% of an item's price, referring to the NPC's internal price. The market price was often more than six times that. In other words, this bronze dagger was worth at least twelve silver coins.
He thought for a moment. Recently, there wasn't anything he needed to spend money on, so spending 10 copper coins was no big deal. He clicked confirm.
The Horn Dagger glowed with a cyan shimmer, gorgeous yet restrained—the signature radiance of a Bronze-grade item.
The Horn Dagger had arc-shaped patterns along its blade. The tip was sharp, and the blade was thicker than an ordinary dagger, giving it a unique horn-like shape.
Horn Dagger （Bronze）： Level Requirement 5.
Stats： Attack 16-19, Strength +5.
Attack Speed： 2.3
Weight： 1 lb.
Restrictions： Thief, usable by any faction.
This Horn Dagger boosted Strength. Five points of Strength equaled five points of Attack. Combined with the fact that its base Attack was three to four points higher than an ordinary level 5 dagger, this Horn Dagger gave nearly ten extra Attack points. For a beginner player, those ten Attack points made a huge difference.
He had a level 5 dagger settled now, Nie Yan thought.