The task difficulty had increased, and David Bolton knew it was because he was about to encounter level 4 monsters, which were higher than his current level, so the system marked the quest as C-level.

He carried his novice sword and headed straight for the cemetery in the eastern part of the novice village. Rows of tombstones stood closely together, but the place was empty—not a single monster in sight. With no monsters, naturally there were no players either. The eerie and desolate environment instantly gave off a spine-chilling feeling.

David Bolton found a tomb chamber, and after entering, he pressed on a slightly glowing piece of iron inside. Immediately, a rumbling sound echoed, and a half-man-high entrance appeared right before him.

David Bolton crouched down and crawled through the opening, and his view suddenly widened.

It was a massive underground catacomb, with a corridor stretching into the distance. On both sides were rows of stone chambers, and faintly, he could hear hair-raising low growls.

David Bolton walked a few steps forward and turned into the first stone chamber on the left. By the dim firelight, he could see seven or eight ragged undead wandering aimlessly inside. As he stepped forward, he immediately entered the alert range of the nearest monster. That undead let out a low growl and lunged at David Bolton with bared fangs and claws.

【Dead Villager】 (Normal)

Level: 4

HP: 200

"-11!"

David Bolton slashed with his sword, and a white damage number flashed above the monster's head. In "Miracle," normal attack damage is displayed in white, skill damage in yellow, damage received in red, and healing received in green. If damage or healing is a critical or lucky hit, the font size increases.

Level 4 monsters had much higher HP and armor than level 1 wild wolves. Although David Bolton's strike took 11 HP from the undead, it was negligible compared to its 200 HP!

Chapter 5: Rapid Leveling

Slash!

David Bolton crouched and dodged the monster's attack!

If another player had seen this dodge, they would have exclaimed "Unbelievable!" or "You can do that?!" In traditional games, whether a character is hit by a monster is determined by the system based on the character's dodge rate—even if the player stands still, attacks that should be dodged will still be dodged.

But in "Miracle," player characters have no dodge attribute! However, this doesn't mean players can't dodge monster or other player attacks. Instead, the system gives the initiative to the player—it requires players to actively perform dodging maneuvers!

The faster the player's reaction, the higher the success rate of dodging! Of course, quick reflexes alone aren't enough; movement speed must keep up as well! A character's movement speed is affected by agility—the higher the agility, the faster the movement speed. That's why David Bolton allocates attribute points to agility—it's not just to increase critical hit rate!

At this stage, the vast majority of players were still unaccustomed to or completely unaware of this change. It wasn't until a few months later, when some experts' combat videos were uploaded to the forums, that the concept of active dodging gradually gained acceptance among players.

David Bolton let out a low shout, swinging his novice sword every two seconds, and whenever his rage reached 30, he unleashed a powerful strike. After nearly half a minute, the undead monster turned into a flash of white light and fell to the ground.

"Ding! You have killed a dead villager and gained 200 experience points!"

"Ding! You have picked up 5 copper coins! You have picked up Linen Cloth*2!"

No quest item dropped, but that was fine—he still needed to collect a lot of linen cloth anyway, and for now, this was the only place without other players competing for monsters! For players aiming for the level rankings, the biggest challenge was too many people and too few monsters. Although this catacomb was gloomy and eerie, for David Bolton it was nothing short of a holy land!

After storing his loot, David Bolton continued to lure the next monster over to kill. In areas where monsters were densely packed, David Bolton didn't use the "Charge" skill, as it was very easy to drag two or more monsters into battle at once. Although he was skilled enough to dodge attacks from seventeen monsters at the same time, since he didn't have any area-of-effect skills yet, there was no need to waste energy unnecessarily!

Level 4 monsters were slow to kill, but gave a lot of experience. After just over ten minutes, a flash of golden light signaled that David Bolton had reached level 2. He allocated his five free attribute points in a four-strength, one-agility distribution, raised his sword, and continued slaying monsters.

"Ding! You have picked up a Strange Black Box!"

【Strange Black Box】 (Quest Item)

Description: Engraved with complex magic circles, it exudes an evil and ancient aura. Perhaps you should show it to the village elder Juan!

The quest was now complete, but David Bolton was reluctant to leave this leveling paradise. Naturally, he wanted to take advantage of the fact that no other players had discovered this place yet and level up as much as possible!

One tomb chamber after another was cleared out. This underground catacomb had a total of twelve chambers, each with about seven or eight monsters. David Bolton was alone, and his monster-killing speed was far slower than the monster respawn rate. Usually, after clearing just three chambers, the monsters in the first chamber would already start to respawn.