With a few swift moves, I took down the hyena, and my experience bar instantly jumped by a full 50%. At the same time, the hyena collapsed with a howl, dropping 2 copper coins. I picked them up cheerfully—nice haul...

Continuing forward, after slaying a second hyena, a flash of golden light enveloped me—level up! I broke through the level 1 barrier and was now a level 2 Traveling Healer. I put all 10 attribute points into strength again. The strength growth for Traveling Healer is only 0.5, so it only added 5–5 attack power. If I were a Berserker, that would be an 11–11 attack boost. That’s the downside...

Going against the grain, keep going, just be a total min-maxer to the end!

...

After killing dozens of hyenas, my mana was almost depleted. Each Hemostasis spell costs 5 mana, and I only have 60 mana in total. Without a healing spell, staying here is just asking for death. Luckily, I leveled up just in time—straight to level 3, full health and mana. I put another 10 points into strength, and now I was basically a strength-based healer—

【Free Spirit】 (Apprentice Traveling Healer)

Level: 3

Attack: 11–13

Defense: 4

HP: 120

Mana: 70

Charisma: 0

...

Although Traveling Healer is naturally weak in strength, with a decent weapon, I could still break through the defense of monsters at my level. As long as I could break their defense, I’d be fine. I could heal myself, so I wasn’t worried about dying. In a prolonged fight, I had better survival skills in the wild than any other class. Nice! The only problem with putting all points into strength is that my mana isn’t enough. I’d need supplies, or I wouldn’t last long.

Hmm, I’ll grind here for a while. Once I earn 50 copper coins, I can go back and buy some potions. With potions, I can venture deeper and hunt higher-level monsters.

“Crack!”

The iron sword split open a hyena’s skull, dropping another 2 copper coins. I picked them up and kept moving forward, killing as I went. With my higher level and increased attack power, killing hyenas no longer cost me much health—it was a breeze.

After passing through a patch of shrubs, I looked ahead and saw black bears lurking among the trees in the distance. Level 5 monsters, with high attack, defense, and HP.

Gripping my iron sword tightly, I took a deep breath and decided to try taking one down. If I couldn’t, I’d just run!

When I was about 10 yards from the black bear, I’d already drawn its aggro. It suddenly roared, its massive body charging at me, black fur bristling, and it raised its claws for a strike!

“Pfft!”

Blood splattered. The combat scenes in the game were incredibly realistic. My shoulder was covered in blood, and the damage number popped up—

“42!”

Damn, that hurt!

I hurriedly swung my sword to attack, but only dealt 15 damage. I kept attacking, and at the same time, cast Hemostasis to restore 50 HP. As soon as the cooldown was up, I healed again!

“Bang!”

The black bear suddenly opened its mouth and bit my arm, shaking me violently—another huge chunk of HP gone—

“82!”

Crap, that was a critical hit!

I was scared out of my wits—was I about to die here?

Stepping on fallen leaves, I quickly retreated two steps. The black bear lunged again, but I managed to put some distance between us, buying myself a brief moment without being attacked. I slashed with my sword and raised my left hand to cast Hemostasis, restoring 50 HP, and kept chipping away at the bear’s health.

It was just a regular level 5 monster, but it took me nearly half a minute to bring it down. Finally, with only 41 HP left, I managed to kill it as it let out a miserable howl!

“Plop!”

When the monster died, there was the sound of items dropping. It wasn’t just the clink of copper coins—there was also a piece of equipment. Sure enough, it was a clumsy-looking bracer!

I dashed forward and picked it up. Not bad—

【Black Bear Gloves】 (White Equipment)

Type: Armor

Defense: 7

Required Level: 4

...

Armor—I couldn’t equip it, so whatever, I’d just sell it. It was only white equipment anyway, probably nobody would want it.

There were also 5 copper coins on the ground. High-level monsters were definitely more generous than hyenas. I picked them up and turned to leave. No more fighting wild bears—their attack was too high, and my HP was too low to take it. Besides, except for my sword, I had no other gear. Going barefoot against a bear—what was I thinking?

Back to killing hyenas. Killing level 3s at level 3 was much easier. After more than an hour, I reached level 4, and now had 47 copper coins in my bag—practically a rich man.

Looking around, I saw quite a few players had come here to grind. This wasn’t a place to linger. Better head back to town, organize my stuff, buy some potions, and then head to a higher-level map!

...

With my iron sword in hand, I walked along the edge of the bushes with my head down. Just then, a group of people approached. A level 6 Barbarian player wielding a battle axe shouted at me, “Hey, friend, grinding here? Got any gear a Warrior can use?”

I silently took the Black Bear Armor out of my bag and said, “White equipment, no stats. Want it?”

The Barbarian grinned, “7 defense? That’s a top pick for a tank. Of course I want it. How much?”

I glanced at him, “The shop price is 21 copper coins. Your offer?”