Opening the textbook, complex math and physics equations came into view. Nie Yan quickly started working through them. He found that after being reborn, his memory was stronger than in his past life—not to the point of photographic recall, but still much improved. His thinking was also sharper, making learning twice as effective with half the effort.
There was another surprising discovery: after such intense exercise, he didn’t feel tired at all. And after training, his strength had increased slightly.
Nie Yan really liked his current body. As long as he replenished his nutrition, he would grow taller quickly, just like in his senior year of high school in his past life. The problem was that nutrient fluid was too expensive; Nie Yan couldn’t afford it yet. The cheapest nutrient fluid cost five hundred credits a bottle, and mid-grade ones went for several thousand. His family had only prepared two bottles, and one had already been used.
By five in the afternoon, Nie Yan logged into the game again.
When he came back online, Nie Yan found water spiders everywhere around him—all the nearby ones had respawned.
Fortunately, there's a thirty-second system protection time after logging in. You're in a void state, like a soul—can't attack monsters, and monsters can't attack you either. Nie Yan skirted around these water spiders and swam outward.
Once the thirty seconds were up, Nie Yan continued to respawn water spiders in this nearby area. By now, he had collected twenty-five Fine Silk and five Rare Fine Silk in his bag.
At Nie Yan's monster-grinding speed, he should be able to finish the quest in about three hours.
I have to earn enough money when I get back. Next time I run into a collection quest like this, I can just buy the quest items instead of working so hard to gather them myself.
About an hour later, Nie Yan's voice chat rang—it was Yao Yao.
"Nie Yan, where are you？"
"I'm still grinding water spiders. What's up？" Nie Yan asked, chatting away while his hands kept working. With a stab from his right hand, he flipped a water spider over.
"This morning, my friends and I went to the Treant Forest."
"Oh."
"Don't you want to ask how it went？" Yao Yao asked.
"No need to ask." Nie Yan was very familiar with the Treant Forest dungeon. Back in the day, he and his friends had run it five times before they cleared it. If the shield warrior's defense wasn't over sixty and HP wasn't over two hundred twenty, there was zero chance—they couldn't beat it.
"Alright, just like you said, we got wiped. We didn't even make it to the Treant King. One of my friends wants to meet you. We're running Treant Forest again tomorrow—can you join？" Yao Yao asked hopefully.
"Wait until your shield warrior's defense is high enough. I'll see if I have time. But tell your friend this: if I go to Treant Forest, I'm the party leader, and all the rogue drops go to me," Nie Yan said. There was a pretty decent rogue cloak in Treant Forest.
"You want to be party leader？ Why？" Yao Yao asked.
"I don't trust anyone else to call the shots."
"Well, I need to ask about that. It's a bit difficult to give you all the Thief equipment, our team also has a Thief." Yao Yao said with difficulty, according to the team's distribution rules, every member is equal.
"If your captain doesn't agree, then forget it." Nie Yan said, he wasn't deliberately trying to make things hard for Yao Yao, but he really didn't like the Thief in her team.
"I'll ask our captain." Yao Yao said, Nie Yan's harsh request made her opinion of him drop a few notches.
Yao Yao's captain was a beautiful woman named Yu Lan, a Berserker class player. Nie Yan's deepest impression of her was that pair of breasts, which seemed ready to burst out of her Berserker armor, the armor's hollow design revealing a deep cleavage. Just thinking about it made him shudder.
But Nie Yan wouldn't dare provoke Yu Lan. Normally she was quite amiable, but if someone angered her, her temper was as explosive as that pair of breasts. He remembered one time when a player just made a flirtatious joke at her, and Yu Lan chased him down, making him drop a full five levels.
A beauty like that could only be admired from afar, not to be trifled with, or you might end up being the one played.
"Also, besides the Thief's stuff, that gem dropped by the Treant King has to go to me as well." Nie Yan said unceremoniously.
"We're just going to run a dungeon together, what's wrong with you！" Yao Yao stomped her foot, tears welling up in her eyes with anger. Yesterday when they did a quest together, their smooth cooperation had made her think Nie Yan was a pretty good guy, she had almost considered him a friend. She never expected him to repeatedly shatter the good impression she had of him.
Nie Yan let out a faint smile, sometimes explanations were just unnecessary.
Yao Yao angrily hung up the voice call.
Nie Yan let out a soft sigh. If they were going to run a dungeon together, it was better to clarify some things first to avoid disputes later on.
At the Teleport Point of Telak Village, the Yu Lan team was gathering nearby, nineteen people in total. The most eye-catching were none other than Yu Lan in her blue swordsman armor at the center and Yao Yao in her white mage robe.
The crowd surrounded them like stars around the moon. Their team did have a few decent-looking women, but standing next to them, they were completely overshadowed.
Yu Lan was tall and slender, with a curvaceous figure, long shapely legs, and very seductive. Add to that her beautiful face, and she was practically a knockout. Though she looked only about twenty, she exuded the charm of a mature woman—especially her impressively large chest, which was hard to miss.
Yao Yao was a completely different style—a white mage robe, a delicate oval face, and her hair tied back into a ponytail, giving her a pure, bright, and adorable look.
“Yao Yao, what did he say？” Yu Lan asked as Yao Yao ended her voice call.
“He said if we want to go together, he wants to be the leader, and all rogue equipment plus a gem dropped by the Treant King belong to him.” Yao Yao flushed. Back then, she had excitedly introduced Nie Yan to Yu Lan and the others as a good friend, never expecting him to be like this.
“Yao Yao, you're just too trusting. Guys like this are all over the place. He's definitely a fraud with no real skill, just here to mooch gear,” said a rogue beside Yao Yao. He looked about twenty, with a handsome face.
Yao Yao wanted to defend Nie Yan, but thinking it over, she pouted and fell silent. For some reason, she still kind of sided with Nie Yan. Nie Yan was really strong—definitely not a gear-mooch—and not as bad as Chen Bo made him out to be.
"That's not necessarily the case. He knows the Treant King drops gems, so he's definitely cleared Treant Forest, and since he managed to stick with the group till the end, it means the group he joined is pretty capable, more experienced than us. It's not unreasonable for him to ask to be the leader and take all the Thief gear plus the gems from the Treant King. Since he was honest enough to tell you, it shows he has a clear conscience." Yu Lan patted Yao Yao on the shoulder and said, "No need to take it to heart, Yao Yao."
After hearing Yu Lan's words, Yao Yao still felt a bit annoyed at Nie Yan, but she felt much better and broke into a smile.
Seeing Yao Yao's bright smile, Chen Bo's heart sank. For some reason, this sudden appearance of Nie Yan made him feel a sense of crisis.
"Tomorrow we'll rent a piece of Shield Warrior Bronze gear. You tell him to invite him to team up and go to Treant Forest tomorrow." Yu Lan said, having already made her arrangements.
"I don't even want to talk to him in the morning. I'll tell him in the afternoon." Yao Yao pouted.
"Alright, contact him in the afternoon then." Yu Lan shook her head with a smile.
Nie Yan was still grinding water spiders. Lucky for him, three Fine Silk dropped in a row. He checked his backpack—there were twenty-nine now, just one short of a full set.
There are perks to grinding early in the morning, the drop rates for various items are higher.
Nie Yan killed a water spider, reached out with his right hand, and grabbed something. When he brought it up to look, it was a skill book for Thief.
Skill Book： Lacerate.
Skill Description： The Thief can use a dagger to slash the enemy's skin, causing a bleeding secondary damage effect.
Activation Requirement： Action （requires a weapon）
Skill Attributes： When slashing the wound, gain an additional +1 bonus on the attack roll, causing 5 damage per second from bleeding, lasting 6 seconds.
Skill Cooldown： Thirty seconds.
User Restriction： Thief, any faction can use.
Slash is a basic follow-up skill that can be used after skills like Assassinate, attaching a bleeding wound effect that causes 5 points of damage per second for 6 seconds.
In terms of lethality, the combined damage of Slash plus the bleeding effect is only slightly weaker than a Vital Strike; it's still pretty decent.
What Nie Yan needed most right now was skill books.
Nie Yan learned Slash and turned toward the next water spider when his voice communicator rang—it was Yao Yao. This little girl had sent another voice request.
Nie Yan connected the voice call with Yao Yao, and neither spoke for a while.
“I originally wanted to never talk to you again, but I'm magnanimous and broad-minded, so I decided not to bother with you. Tomorrow our team is going to farm the Treant Grove—are you coming or not？” Yao Yao pouted.
Nie Yan could easily imagine in his mind how cute Yao Yao's angry expression must be, and couldn't help but smile knowingly.
“I have something to do tomorrow...”
“Don't say you have something to do tomorrow. Just tell me yes or no.”
Just as Nie Yan was about to speak, Yao Yao cut him off.
“Alright, tomorrow just tell me a time, and I'll definitely be there.” Nie Yan laughed helplessly. He was completely defeated by this little princess.
“That's more like it. We'll call you tomorrow morning. Okay, get busy.” Yao Yao was very satisfied with Nie Yan's answer, and without waiting for him to say anything else, she hung up.
Hmph, squirt, I can still handle you, Yao Yao thought smugly, imagining Nie Yan's awkward expression in her mind, and couldn't help but giggle out loud.
Hearing the beeping sound from the voice communicator, Nie Yan smiled wryly. He had to go to the Treant Grove tomorrow, so it looked like he needed to speed up his progress.
With Slice unlocked, Nie Yan's farming speed increased significantly. A single Assassination followed by a Slice was enough to easily take down a Water Spider.
Ding-dong, a crisp system notification sounded, and Nie Yan reached level three.
After a while, he had collected thirty units of Fine Silk.
"Finally done." Nie Yan thought to himself, swimming toward the island to turn in the quest.
System： Player Flying Stone has deposited one silver coin into your personal warehouse.
"Master, the guide you provided really works. We've cleared out the Forsaken Warlock camp. The other silver coin has been mailed to your personal warehouse." Stone sent a message, saying excitedly.
"Got it. Anything else？" Nie Yan asked. With Stone's two silver coins plus his recent earnings, he was close to three silver coins—the starting capital was practically secured.
"A friend of mine said a group is going to the Ogrimat Mud Swamp the day after tomorrow. You in？" Stone asked expectantly.
"I've got something to do the day after tomorrow." Nie Yan said. The Ogrimat Mud Swamp was still somewhat challenging. For Stone's team to have cleared the Forsaken Warlock camp, their strength must be pretty good.
"Alright then. Do you have a guide for the Ogrimat Mud Swamp, Master？"}
"Think I'm a god? The Ogrimat Mud Swamp is the hardest among the level-three dungeons. You think I can get a guide that fast?" Nie Yan said. He couldn't keep selling dungeon map guides, or it would raise suspicion. He'd wait until Stone's team wiped a few times in Ogrimat, then name his price properly.
"Sorry, force of habit." Stone said with an awkward laugh.