Chapter 3: Demonic Dark Force

After a brief moment of excitement, Andrew Bennett carefully placed the Demonic Manual into his Qiankun Ring and walked into the passageway. Inside were countless halls, with hundreds of bookshelves stacked with hundreds of thousands of ancient texts—all martial arts manuals. The halls were bustling with crowds of people, all choosing their own techniques.

Andrew Bennett didn’t stop at all, heading straight for the innermost area. When he stepped through a gate of light, he found himself in a city. Jiuli City—this was the main city of the Wu tribe. Although there were many people from other tribes, the Wu tribe always made up the vast majority.

Andrew Bennett took out the Demonic Manual and rubbed it in his hand, turning it into a streak of black light. A basic skill appeared in his skill bar: Demonic Dark Force, similar to a mage’s fireball. The skill was of the highest grade. Andrew Bennett smiled slightly—just as he had expected, the Demonic Manual was definitely extraordinary. After learning the Shennong Herbal Classic, two more skills appeared in his skill list:

Shennong Herb Gathering: Beginner 1/1000

Shennong Alchemy: Beginner 1/1000

A young man came up to Andrew Bennett and said, “Hi, my name is Richard Grant. I just opened a high-grade martial arts manual. Most people only get mid-grade, and many get low-grade. How about yours?”

Andrew Bennett sighed, “I wasn’t lucky, only got a mid-grade one.”

Richard Grant patted Andrew Bennett on the shoulder. “It’s fine, we’re all about the same. How about we team up to level together?”

Andrew Bennett shook his head. “No need, I want to see what life skills I can learn.”

Richard Grant looked a bit disappointed. “Don’t get discouraged, bro. Learning a life skill isn’t bad either—they’re pretty profitable.”

Andrew Bennett smiled, parted ways with Richard Grant, and headed straight for the Miners’ Guild. Mining, herb gathering, and collecting were the three main life skills—essential for a professional player. Casual players could skip gathering those things for fun, but Andrew Bennett couldn’t—he still had to make a living. Mining, herb gathering, and collecting were among his sources of income—how could he give them up?

Andrew Bennett arrived at the entrance of the Miners’ Guild, a building in traditional Chinese style—simple yet elegant. He pushed the door open and saw an old man in leather armor sitting on a chair.

“Young man, what brings you here?” The old man took a sip of wine, looking thoroughly content.

Andrew Bennett stood respectfully to the side and said, “Master, I’m here to learn the mining skill.”

The old man squinted. “Learning mining costs one thousand gold coins. You also need to buy a miner’s shovel. A low-grade shovel is one thousand gold, mid-grade is five thousand, high-grade is ten thousand, and top-grade is a hundred thousand.”

Andrew Bennett was stunned. A thousand gold coins for a skill? That was outrageous. He didn’t even have a single gold coin, let alone a thousand. No wonder no one came to learn mining. And the shovels—were they made of gold?

“Sorry to bother you.” Andrew Bennett bid farewell to the old man. There was no point in staying—he couldn’t beg the man to teach him. It was better to focus on herb gathering and alchemy; having one skill was enough. He turned and left the Miners’ Guild.

The old man watched Andrew Bennett leave, unmoved. To him, people came and went every day.

Andrew Bennett hadn’t expected the cost of learning a life skill to be so high. The in-game currency exchange hadn’t even opened yet, so hardly anyone had thousands of gold coins. Was learning herb gathering and alchemy just as expensive? If so, his skills would be even more valuable. Andrew Bennett went to the Apothecary Guild to ask—learning herb gathering cost two thousand gold, and alchemy was even more expensive at five thousand. Plus, alchemy required a special cauldron: low-grade for one thousand, mid-grade for ten thousand, high-grade for a hundred thousand, and top-grade for a million. All those zeros were dizzying.

But this was even better—the harder it was to learn life skills, the more valuable the two he already had would be. For now, he would focus on training his herb gathering skill and stockpiling materials. Once he had enough gold, he could buy a cauldron for alchemy. With his mind made up, Andrew Bennett didn’t hesitate and headed out of the city. Every second was precious now—it would determine whether someone could gain a level advantage. The highest level players were already at level five. At level five, you could learn a defensive technique and a shaman class skill, but who knew if you could get the skill books by then.

There were a lot of people outside the city, most of them teaming up to kill monsters. Andrew Bennett didn’t want to compete for monsters, so he headed straight for the outskirts.

Right now, he only had Demonic Dark Force to use. Every five levels, you could learn a class skill; at level five, a defensive technique; at level ten, a movement skill. He didn’t know how effective Demonic Dark Force would be. He walked past the level one and level two monster zones—there were fewer people in the level three area. Andrew Bennett didn’t like crowded places; he could level up just fine on his own.

Demonic Dark Force!

After using Demonic Dark Force, a level three wild dog was instantly killed on the spot. Andrew Bennett was a bit surprised—he hadn’t expected the skill to be so powerful. A black orb, similar to a fireball, exploded on the monster, shattering instantly. He could even kill monsters two levels higher—Andrew Bennett was excited and began sweeping through the wild dogs around him.