Today's task is complete again. Please give me some votes, tot.
As I ventured deeper into the Prairie, the frequency of monster appearances began to increase. There was even one instance where I saw a Fallen Camp. Inside, there were several large squads of Fallen, densely packed, at least several hundred of them. There were even 10 Fallen Shamans alone. I knew that within such a massive tribe, there must be an Elite Level monster serving as the leader. But even so, what could I do? Even if I leveled up a few times now and learned skills, I wouldn't have the strength to provoke this massive Fallen Camp. Even Lars and the others, if discovered by this Fallen horde, would surely die. It seems caution is indeed necessary; I can't think I can show off just because my level is high. Even ants can kill an elephant if there are enough of them.
After staying far away from that large Fallen gathering place, I have to mention the Hardened Skin Rats I encountered later. These cunning yet pitiful fellows, due to their lack of strength, could only rely on hiding in the grass and attacking from hiding. For beginners, they are indeed quite troublesome, but for experienced people, the method to deal with them is quite interesting.
Both Lars and Akara had told me about this method. I immediately put it into practice and tried it out, and it was incredibly satisfying.
First, you must first discover which patch of grass a Hardened Skin Rat is hiding in. This is very simple; experienced people can tell at a glance. As for me, I only discovered it when I occasionally saw the Small Thicket stirring a bit as I passed by.
Then, you must provoke it. The simplest method is to desperately throw things into the Small Thicket. Hardened Skin Rats are a group of irritable and foolish creatures. Enduring and hiding in the thicket to ambush is already their limit. If you provoke them like this, they are guaranteed to bristle their hard fur and rush out of the thicket, screeching strangely, before long.
At this point, it becomes easy. The thicket that was just covering them now becomes their fatal weakness. You just need to lead them, circle around the thicket, and attack from their blind spots. It's easy to take them down one by one.
You might ask if they will burrow back into the thicket? You don't need to worry about that at all. They are an irritable bunch. In a state of frenzy, their attack will increase slightly, but their already low intelligence will infinitely approach a negative number. They will chase you continuously until death, or until you escape their line of sight for more than 5 minutes, only then will they return to the thicket.
The specific process for taking down Hardened Skin Rats in the thicket without taking damage is like this—first, provoke them and lure them out. These two points were mentioned earlier. Then, follow the thicket, circle behind them, hit them from behind, and then circle to the other side. At this point, they are again facing away from you. Seeing them standing there foolishly, guarding the direction I just appeared from, I almost felt bad hitting them.
But that's just talk; hitting them from behind and ambushing them must still be continued and promoted.
I just realized that what I originally called the Wily Style had already spread across this Continent long ago. I even thought I was the founding master, hmph.
The method is invincible in its wiliness, and the results are also very pleasing. One of the Hardened Skin Rats even dropped a quiver of 40 arrows. These aren't the common goods sold in the Market; they come with inherent damage. When stacked with the damage of the weapon (bow), even with a normal attack, the combined attack damage dealt is quite considerable. Moreover, the Amazon's bow skills must be used in conjunction with these arrows, which fall under the category of equipment. So, if I were to sell this quiver of arrows, it would definitely fetch a good price.
By the afternoon, I already had over 3000 experience points. It seems I can level up tomorrow at the latest and have my own skills. At that time, that's when I'll truly become overpowered, hoho~~
Looking at myself, throughout the entire day today, besides the quiver of arrows dropped by the Hardened Skin Rat, I also got 3 Minor Healing Potions and 1 Minor Mana Potion. Speaking of potions, it reminds me of the belt. In other games, even without a belt, there are still 4 consumable spaces. In the Diablo World, if you don't have a belt, you have no space.
Actually, I'm also very confused. If there's no belt, where do those four consumable spaces in the game come from? The belly button? Blizzard's games are really nonsensical.
Besides that, I also had 12 gold coins and 39 silver coins (Continent common currency, 1000 copper coins = 100 silver coins = 1 gold coin. 1 silver coin is roughly equivalent to 1 yuan in my original world). Damn it, I just casually fought and earned the equivalent of 1800 RMB. Adventurers are really damn good at making money!
I sighed with great emotion, shamelessly attributing the credit for the bugged small charm to my own luck value, and smugly wagged my index finger, muttering to myself in a faux-profound manner: "With good luck, anything is possible."
Actually, without the bugged charm, I could at most have dropped 5 gold coins, which would already be considered heaven-defying luck.
This journey has also broadened my horizons considerably. I don't know if it's due to good luck, but as I went further, let alone the several large squads of Fallen Camps I saw earlier, I even encountered a Fallen Camp with a quantity of over 1000. Looking at the Fallen in the entire Camp from a distance, they were a fiery red expanse stretching all the way to the horizon. The area nearby was completely devastated, not even a chicken or dog left, and even the grass was pulled out. What a good appetite! Alas, unfortunately, my meat is even less palatable than grass, please don't take a liking to me. While breaking out in a cold sweat, I tiptoed and ran away quickly...
For Camps like this, the more Fallen there are, the more troublesome it is. Because the more Fallen there are, the more Fallen Shamans there are. They often hide in the center. Unless a ranged class shoots them down, you can only charge through the Fallen army to get inside and hack them all to death one by one. Otherwise, just having over 100 Fallen Shamans resurrecting them there is enough to drive you to collapse.
As for large groups of Rotting Corpses, I haven't encountered any. The most I've seen is a dozen or so gathered together having a small party. That being said, if there are more than 5, I still have to take a detour. Hmph, just you wait, when I learn skills, I'll wipe you all out...
In the evening, when I was completely lost—according to the place Akara pointed out, I should be pretty close to the Den of Evil by now. But damn it, there's no legendary coordinate display, and the entire Wilderness is so big, how am I supposed to find that damn Cave Entrance? Do you think this is a game where you can just follow the main road to get there?
Looking at the vast Prairie Wilderness, boundless as far as the eye could see, finding a Cave Entrance here was harder than ascending to heaven.
Hmm, what's that? Why is there such a tall pole standing up? It's thin and tall, definitely not a tree. I squinted my eyes. With my abnormally good eyesight, only slightly inferior to an Amazon or Assassin, I immediately spotted a tall pole standing up several thousand meters away. There was also a large flag hanging on it. Something seemed to be written on the flag, but it was too far away for me to see clearly.
Could it be...
After killing a few Rotting Corpses that suddenly appeared along the way, less than an hour later, I had arrived near that flag. Indeed, next to the flag was a pitch-black, deep, and eerie Cave Entrance. A spine-chilling cold emanated from within, and a foul stench continuously poured out, making one nauseous.
I examined this large flag, which had a lot of character. It was written crookedly: "Den of Evil".
Needless to say, I already knew who had put up this flag with a dark sense of humor. Who else but those old geezers from the Mage Guild...
I didn't enter the Cave immediately. After all, no one knew the situation inside. Even if you killed me, I wouldn't believe the information from the game anymore. When Akara instructed me, she repeatedly cautioned me that I had to form a party to enter.
I pitched my tent not far from the Den of Evil and set up the traps. Seeing that the sun had just set, it seemed I shouldn't waste time. So, I wandered around the Camp area and took care of a few straggling monsters. As for large groups of monsters, if I found them wandering nearby, I would have to consider moving the tent further away. The spirit of bullying the weak and fearing the strong was perfectly embodied in me at this moment. Hmph, are you scared now?
It wasn't until the sky had completely darkened that I stopped my training and returned to the Camp. I lit the wood I had prepared earlier, took out some dried meat and ate casually, and then burrowed into the tent and went to sleep. Killing monsters all day was truly too tiring, both physically and mentally.
The next day, the sky had just brightened when I impatiently climbed out. I packed up my things and checked my experience: Level 1, 4258/5000.
It looks like I'll be able to level up today. I was so excited my whole body trembled. The allure of powerful skills is truly endless.
"Ding!" As the last Rotting Corpse fell, the precious 40 experience points immediately caused a white radiant aura to shoot up around me. It felt as if I were soaking in a hot spring; all the fatigue and weariness in my body vanished.
"Leveled Up!"
I held up my wooden club high, as if the wooden club in my hand was a trophy, as if I hadn't just leveled up but had won a world championship. Coupled with the flag fluttering in the wind behind me as a backdrop, it really had a bit of that feel to it.
Skills, the skills I was most looking forward to. After laughing wildly, the first thing I did was open the skill menu.
In the first stage, there are 5 skills I can learn: Poison Creeper, Summon Raven, Werewolf Form, Shape Shifting, and Firestorm. And now I only have one skill point in my hand. Which one should I level up? My brain, which had just been in an excited, blood-rushed state, now started to feel troubled.
I still had vague memories of these skills from the game, but since many strange things completely inconsistent with the game had happened, I no longer dared to use knowledge from the game to measure the Diablo World.
Damn it, only now do I realize how great it would be to have a master. Other people, before starting their training, surely already learned the stats of these skills from their masters. Only I, a Druid who fell from the sky, would know absolutely nothing.
(end of chapter)