I was stunned for a moment. Aren’t online game novels always about grinding hard to kill some badass monster and then leveling up all the way to the top of the server? How come I only leveled up once? But it’s already pretty good—just after reaching level 3, I’m already at level 4. Totally worth it!

I finally saw the wild wolf’s level!

Level 8!

A full 5 levels higher than level 3! No wonder I couldn’t see it before.

Wait, it even dropped equipment!

I quickly gathered up the loot: 40 copper coins, a wild wolf’s tooth, a pair of leggings, a cloth robe, and a gleaming longsword.

The other stuff didn’t matter—let’s check the sword’s stats right away:

【Beast Sword】 (Green Equipment)

Attack: 7-12

Stamina: +3

Strength: +1

Required Level: 4

Wahaha~! Drooling...

This is absolutely top-tier. A longsword that can be equipped at level 4 with a whopping 12 attack! You know, the short sword I’ve been using until now only had 2 attack. Now with this green-grade sword, it’s definitely a must-have for leveling up and PvP!

Oh right, there’s also the leggings and robe—better check them out!

【Wild Wolf Leggings】 (Green Equipment)

Defense: +8

Stamina: +3

Strength: +2

Required Level: 4

【Warlock’s Robe】 (Green Equipment)

Defense: +6

Intelligence: +4

Required Level: 6

……

I was about to laugh myself silly—the bonus stats on the wild wolf leggings are even more awesome than the beast sword, and they’re melee gear too. Put them on right away! The warlock’s robe gives +4 intelligence, which is pretty impressive at this stage. Whether I give it to the mage Linda Harris or the priest Hannah Cooper, it’s a great choice. Now I just hope they’ll be generous enough to treat me to KFC or something.

After equipping the new leggings, I swung my big sword around, showing off for a bit, then put all 10 attribute points I’d gained from the last two levels into strength. That’s when I realized—I’m basically a pro now!

Vegetable Soup

Level: 4

HP: 168

Attack: 15-29 (Beast Sword 7-12)

Defense: 20

Reputation: 0

Luck: 0

……

Chapter 9: Wild Wolf Valley

The tomato gathering totally surprised me. Turns out, besides collecting 10 for the quest, you can actually gather more for your own use. Even though restoring 0.5 HP per second doesn’t seem like much, if you think about it, that’s 30 HP per minute for free—so you basically don’t need to use many potions when grinding low-level monsters.

I spent a full 10 minutes in the tomato field before I finished picking all the tomatoes. Checking my inventory, besides the 10 for the quest, I had nearly 60 more. That means I can go about 30 hours without needing to buy potions.

The tomato garden disappeared as soon as I picked the last tomato, so this quest must be a one-time thing—otherwise, the field wouldn’t vanish.

After tidying up, I was about to leave for Wild Wolf Valley when suddenly a wolf respawned not far away. Looking closely, it was the same one that had just dropped three pieces of green equipment for me. What am I waiting for? Charge!

(In ""Yueheng,"" equipment grades are: Divine, Spirit, Orange, Purple, Blue, Green, White (no attributes), and Gray. Generally, starting from green equipment, items come with one or more bonus stats. All the green gear I have now has bonus stats. White gear has no attributes at all, and its base stats are much lower than same-level gear. For example, a level 4 white greatsword usually has 3-4 attack, but my beast longsword has a crazy 7-12 attack.)

With a crisp ""slash,"" the longsword struck the wild wolf’s skull.

“-58!”

That bright red number was just adorable! At level 3, the most I’d ever hit a wild wolf for was 6 damage, but now, even without a critical, I dealt a terrifying 58 damage in one swing. And this wolf is 4 levels higher than me! Killing higher-level monsters gives bonus experience, so at this rate, I’ll be leveling up way faster than the average newbie.

The wild wolf immediately swiped back, dealing 6 damage, which really surprised me. With my current 168 HP, I was more than fine. The level 8 wild wolf had 450 HP, so I finished it off in less than 10 hits, and the total damage it did to me was barely 100. After eating a tomato, I didn’t even need to sit down to recover!

I rummaged through the wild wolf’s corpse and found nothing but 40 copper coins, but the 240 bonus experience for killing a higher-level monster had me grinning from ear to ear.

Behind the tomato garden was Wild Wolf Valley. On the way there, I kept killing level 8 scruffy wild wolves, and by the time I reached the valley, I’d already shot up to level 5. The only downside was that after killing nearly 20 wolves, I didn’t get a single piece of equipment—just collected 6 quest items: wild wolf teeth. Maybe killing monsters 5 levels above me increased the drop rate? Later I found out it was because I dealt full damage to the level 8 monsters, which greatly boosted the drop rate. But even so, it’s not normal for a single level 8 monster to drop three pieces of green gear. I guess I just got lucky.