After thinking for a while, Charles Bennett opened the external game interface and carefully browsed through the contents of "Beginner's Survival Manual" again. His gaze lingered for a moment on the second rule of the survival manual. Nodding to himself, he made an effort to push through the crowd and headed toward an open area on the west side of the village. There were hardly any players there, because Charles Bennett had just learned from the Lake Warrior that behind that open space was mostly a haunt for level 5 and above evil beastmen, and even some more terrifying raptors. Some players, after suffering a loss there once, naturally wouldn't want to tempt fate again.

Charles Bennett walked toward the open area in the west simply to find a quiet spot to calm down—the crowded throng around him was giving him a bit of a headache.

When he reached the small open area on the west side of the village, he found that the only tree stump suitable for sitting was already occupied. Surprised, Charles Bennett used the faint starlight to size up the person. He saw a greatsword covered in cracks casually placed beside the stump, and the person was wearing battered armor—clearly a warrior, a human warrior.

New players entering the game naturally don't stand out much, but this human warrior before him was quite eye-catching, because he had a head of spiky golden mohawk hair.

The moment Charles Bennett saw this warrior, he had the urge to set that explosive hairstyle on fire and burn it clean.

……

Chapter Five: The Mohawk Warrior

Beginner's Survival Manual · Rule Two:

Killing monsters and doing quests—this is the most reliable path for a beginner to grow. But here's the problem: for a newly launched "Night Lord," when you're faced with a scene full of players but no monsters, what should a newbie do?

Compete for monsters? Fight monsters above your level? For a newbie player without a studio or a guild backing them, the result is nothing more than getting ganged up on for kill-stealing, or getting beaten up by monsters when fighting above your level.

As for hoping to wander around and cozy up to various NPCs, gambling on triggering hidden quests by sheer luck—my evaluation is: go take a good look at yourself in the mirror. That kind of thing belongs to top-tier gaming experts and power players. The various factors involved are not something a newbie can handle.

The solution I want to suggest—whether you're a newbie or a pro, everyone's intelligence isn't that different. Just like how every tight young girl eventually becomes a mature woman, everything has a loophole, and every gap can be exploited.

……

"A loophole to exploit, a gap to squeeze through..."

These two phrases circled in Charles Bennett's mind as he slowly walked toward the western open area, only to unexpectedly spot that golden-mohawked warrior.

Battered, dull armor, a two-handed greatsword with a blade full of cracks leaning against the tree stump—one has to admit, the character modeling in "Night Lord" is truly impressive. Even such trashy equipment, when worn by a player, may lack any heroic aura, but still manages to highlight a warrior's boldness.

It's just that the explosive mohawk and this warrior's name felt really out of place to Charles Bennett, making him want to set that mohawk on fire and burn it clean.

Vanilla Sky, that was the warrior's name.

Charles Bennett walked up to the tree stump and casually glanced at the warrior named Vanilla Sky. He didn't show any outward sign of his inner discomfort with the hairstyle. After all, when people create their characters, what hairstyle they like is none of his business. Besides, you can't judge a person's character by their appearance—especially in a game.

So, Charles Bennett just gave the warrior a casual glance, and the warrior turned his head to look at him as well. The two nodded slightly to each other, expressing their lack of hostility.

Then, Charles Bennett walked around to the other side of the stump, jumped up and sat down, lowered his head to tidy up his equipment and the pitiful five pieces of bread and one bag of cool spring water in his bag, and took the opportunity to carefully study how attributes affected his character.

"Strength: Determines melee attack power, increases the parry rate of melee weapons and the block rate of shields, and affects the hit rate for melee classes. Agility: Determines your attack speed, also affects your dodge rate, can increase the hit rate for ranged physical classes, and can slightly improve class defense."

Charles Bennett's gaze swept past these two attributes, directly ignoring them, and focused on the next three—Intelligence, Spirit, and Stamina.

"Intelligence: Determines your maximum mana (MP), spell power, and spell critical rate. Spirit: Determines your mana regeneration speed. Stamina: Determines your maximum health, and health regeneration speed."

"Maximum MP = Intelligence × 15, Maximum Health = Stamina × 10, Health regeneration speed = Stamina / 3 per minute (out of combat)."

Charles Bennett carefully studied these three attributes and compared them to his own—HP/MP: 150/225. He understood that for a druid, these three attributes, especially Intelligence and Stamina, were the most crucial factors: one determined the mana cap and spell power, the other was the foundation for survival.