Back in the city, I took the ring to an appraiser, but the appraiser said his level wasn’t high enough and told me to find the chief appraiser. I went to the Appraisers’ Guild and found the president. That old man stared at the ring for a full ten minutes, then suddenly said, “I’ll give you a 20% discount.” I thought, does he mean 8 gold coins? (Normal appraisers usually charge in silver coins.) He shook his head. 80? Still shook his head. 800? Still no. The old man got angry: “8,000! This is a peerless artifact! 8,000 is already a bargain for you.”

Hearing that price, my first reaction was to want to give him countless middle fingers to vent my contempt. But I calmed down and asked about its attributes. The old man acted mysterious, saying, “Unspeakable, unspeakable,” but actually, he didn’t know either since it hadn’t been appraised. I figured, I don’t have that much money now anyway, so I’ll deal with it later. I left the guild under the old man’s regretful gaze.

Looks like it really is something good. Normally, appraising an item only costs 1 gold coin; the best I’d ever heard of was 100 gold coins. I put the ring away for safekeeping—leveling up is still the priority right now. Little Henry heard that opening a shop requires reputation, so he’s grinding levels like crazy too. His dream is to open the best restaurant. I heard that winners of the tournament will gain reputation, which can be used to form guilds, establish territories, open shops, and other functions are still being developed.

Chapter Two: A Newcomers’ Tournament Without Old Faces

“Boss, did you hear? The pet feature is live. There’s a Greenfield Forest on the west side of Sunset Canyon, filled with all kinds of monsters already existing in the Second World, including various bosses—even the boss dragons and phoenixes living in East and West Kunlun are there. (East Kunlun is the world of dragons, full of dangers, producing all kinds of ores, treasures, and ultimate equipment—a paradise for adventurers. West Kunlun is the home of phoenixes, similar to East Kunlun, except the former yields more weapons, while the latter yields more jewelry.)”

“Oh, that’s great news.” I’d been waiting for this for so long—how could a game like this not have pets! Heh, I want a cute pet too. “But how do you get one? Don’t tell me I have to find Brother Dragon and ask him to give me a baby—he’d probably send me home with a single dragon breath.”

“Challenges make things exciting! Greenfield Forest has three layers—the deeper you go, the higher the monsters’ levels. After killing a monster, you might randomly get its egg. I hope I get a giant dragon, that would be so cool.”

Dream on! Dragons are all level 90 to 100 monsters—being a dragon slayer isn’t that easy. Even the weakest wyverns are level 60 (a type of dragon, with relatively low intelligence and strength, not recognized by the dragon clan. In their words, they’re just flying lizards—give me a break). Plus, wyverns usually live in groups.

Let’s go check it out. Little Henry and I arrived at the edge of Greenfield Forest. It really is a beautiful place, full of cute, harmless animals and flowers. So many people! Looks like everyone wants to try their luck. Some people already got pets. There was a warrior strutting around with a bear, making the girls around him laugh. Since you can only have one pet right now, you have to choose carefully. After watching for a while, I saw that low-level pets are pretty easy to get—usually level 3 or below—but it’s much harder for higher levels (first layer produces level 1–3; second layer, level 4–6; third layer, level 7–9). Of course, low-level pets may be lacking at first, but if you level them up, they can still be great helpers. Pets below level 8 all have attributes: earth, water, fire, wind. Attributes counter each other in pairs, and the side being countered takes more damage. Level 9 pets are holy beasts and aren’t restricted by attribute rules.

Once inside, we found it pretty hard to get good pets, so we went back to the city, planning to return when we were higher level. Anyway, pets aren’t allowed in the first tournament. People in the city were already selling pet eggs, but the prices were outrageous: a level 5 wind-attribute demon wolf cost 10,000 gold coins. That’s daylight robbery—if someone got a holy beast, they’d be rich. Oh right, I could make money selling pet eggs! I told Little Henry my idea, and we both happily got ready to go.

We started by getting low-level pets on the outskirts—after all, not everyone can get them, so there’s a market. We went to the second layer a few times and got three: one for Little Henry, a level 5 wind-attribute spirit monkey; one for Little Grace, a level 4 water-attribute long-haired rabbit; and a level 5 fire-attribute pentagon snake. Since Grace and Little Grace are both terrified of snakes, we could only sell it. It actually auctioned for 25,000 gold coins, and after all the random fees, I still made a net profit of 21,000. I’m rich, hoho. I accidentally thought of that strange ring, but considering it costs 8,000 gold coins, sigh, forget it—maybe later.

The next few days, I need to focus on leveling up. If someone surpasses me, I’ll lose face.

Tournament Introduction:

The tournament is divided into preliminaries and finals, all in knockout format. Victory is determined by one side dying or surrendering; players don’t lose experience when they die. First is the team competition, with teams of five, then the individual competition.

Rewards:

Teams that reach the finals: each member gets 1,000 gold coins. Champions each get 100 reputation points, runners-up 40, third place 20.

Individuals who reach the finals: 5,000 gold coins each, four people in total. Champion gets 500 reputation points, runner-up 200, third place 100.