The Almighty Ring

“So many items… So little space!”

Jiang Fei clutched his head, staring at his overloaded inventory. When he glanced at the ring’s inventory, he noticed that the ring’s scar, or rather, experience bar, was no longer moving all that quickly! In fact, it had only moved up as little as 10%!

“What’s going on? It’s barely budging!”

Jiang Fei remembered how swiftly it had leveled up the first time.

“Does it gain far lesser experience from random ETC items now?” Jiang Fei thought to himself.

“Let’s try this one out.”

Jiang Fei pulled out a White grade dagger that had long outlived its use and placed it in the red slots of the ring’s inventory.

*Woosh*

Lo and behold, the ring “swallowed” the dagger five minutes later, and the ring’s mark had increased by roughly 5%. It was a significantly more massive leap, compared to the other items it had recently ingested!

“What the hell? Looks like you’re getting picky all of a sudden eh? Can’t feed you rubbish anymore.”

Jiang Fei sighed. Obviously, that simple experimentation had paid off. After gaining levels, the ring had developed a far classier palate for food.

Back at the Beginner’s Village, Jiang Fei went to the closest NPC he could find and sold all his trash off. After that, he went back to the grinding zone and started to train. As the monsters were only Level 7 or Level 8, the experience points per monster were horribly low for Jiang Fei, who was already Level 9.

Even though the monsters available there were of lower level, they were quite a ways from the village, which meant that after that abrasive the trio from earlier, no one else would be coming around to disturb his grinding session. Of course, it meant that Jiang Sei was now free to fight the monsters and hog all the experience points alone.

“Ding! You have killed Fork-Wielding Cat. Obtained 50 Experience Points.”

“MEOW!”

Just as Jiang Fei was collecting the loot, he heard an extraordinary roar.

“Ding! You have killed over 500 Fork-Wielding Cats. For that, the Chief himself has set out for your head!”

“What the? Did I just trigger some special event?!”

Jiang Fei was surprised.

This was the spawning of a mini-boss, triggered by the killing of a certain number of monsters. It was basically a slightly larger version of that specific monster. Players typically jumped training grounds upon reaching a certain level. Hence, they rarely ever killed that many monsters, and in extension to that, trigger the spawning of a mini-boss. No one in their right mind would spend that much time in a fixed location to grind. That was why no other player had encountered such a scenario.

Following the sound of the roar, Jiang Fei spotted a larger version of the Fork-Wielding Cat. It was at least three times larger than the normal monster. Even the fork in its paws was larger than normal! AND SHINING AT THAT TOO! One might not want to poke its tail…

Fork-Wielding Cat Chief (Humanoid, Rare Elite)

Level: 10

Health Points: 700

Attack Power: 12

Skill: Power Strike, Deals 5 times the basic attack damage.

Note: The Chief of the Fork-Wielding Cats. Low Threat. Related Quest: None.

In the game, monsters were categorized in three tiers: Normal, Elite, and Advanced Elite. bosses, on the other hand, had four tiers; Rare Elite, Leader, Lord, and Overlord. Rare Elites were not exactly real bosses, per se. They were more of an Easter egg for players. They were only slightly stronger than Normal monsters, yet weaker than Elite monsters of the same level. You could call them Easter eggs because they had a 100% drop rate of Green equipment!

Leader tier and higher tier bosses were the real deal. Any one of the bosses could easily trample an Advanced Elite tier monster of the same level. Players would have to form complete parties to the best of their organizations to defeat any boss.

When Jiang Fei saw the mini-boss spawning, contrary to how an average player would immediately flee, he was extremely delighted. It was Chinese new year! A Red Envelope for free!

“Hehe! Taste my sword, bastard!”

Jiang Fei jumped forth and brandished his sword.

-33!

“MEOW!”

The mini-boss wailed painfully and immediately retaliated by swinging its pitchfork at Jiang Fei.

-7!

As expected, an Easter egg boss was weak. Even with a nearly full set of White tier equipment, Jiang Fei had over 300Health Points. It was less than half of that of the mini-boss, but he struck much harder! The outcome of this battle was obvious!

“Meow…”

The massive cat let out a final mewl, marking Jiang Fei’s easy victory.

“Ding! You have killed Fork-Wielding Cat Chief. Obtained 380 Experience Points!”

“Jackpot!”

Jiang Fei cheered. The experience points gained from the not-so-strong mini-boss was at least seven times more than the normal Fork-Wielding Cat!

“Ding! You have obtained Cat Spirit Boots of Accuracy!”

Jiang Fei had just found himself another piece of Green tier equipment.

Cat Spirit Boots of Accuracy (Shoe, Fine)

Movement Speed +3

Jump +1

Agility: +2

Accuracy: +2

Equipment Level: 9

“Awesome! Boots!”

Jiang Fei was delighted. The most commonly found equipment drop was the Breastplate, pants, and weapon, while others had a lower drop rate. Especially boots, since they carried unique attributes.

In the game, weapons and five accessories had properties that increased attacks. The five equipable accessories would be the necklace, two rings, and two accessories. The six other equipment slots that contributed to defense would be the head, body, arm, wrist, leg, and shoulder. Shoes and capes also had special attributes. Shoes could increase movement speed and jump capabilities. On the other hand, capes came with their own packages of special, basic skills!

After putting on the boots, Jiang Fei could feel himself walking faster than he normally would! 3 meters a second was rather quick, even for a game… Especially since he was in a hyper-realistic game! Jiang Fei was literally moving twice as fast as before! The surprise did not stop there! Jiang Fei’s jump height had also increased by a meter! Jiang Fei could now reach new heights, literally!

“Nice!” Jiang Fei was excited. It was just a single pair of boots, but Jiang Fei was greatly pleased. Jiang Fei went back to his grind with renewed vigor.

…

“Ding! Attention players. The server will shut down in 30 minutes. Please make the adequate preparations before the server disconnects! Enjoy a new day, a new life!”

“Ah! That’s too soon!” Jiang Fei cursed. His experience bar was almost at the 90% mark! Five or six more monsters would be enough for him to reach the next level!

Jiang Fei’s experienced calculation was actually on point. He knew that reaching Level 10 before the end of the day was entirely possible. However, what he did not account for was how the killing of the mini-boss; the Fork-Wielding Cat had completely halted the spawning of its lesser brethren! After that, Jiang Fei had been forced to join the other players in more common areas. It had resulted in a drop in his grinding efficiency.

…

“Ding! You have killed Walking Bird. Obtained 65 Experience Points!”

“Ding! Congratulations to player Verdure Glider for reaching Level 10! All attributes +2!”

“Ding! Player Verdure Glider. You have successfully graduated from the Beginner’s Village! Please head back to the village and talk to the Village Chief about your progression to the next city and class! Before accepting a new class, you would be unable to obtain any experience points!”

A big red arrow appeared beneath his feet and pointed towards the general direction of the village.

“Ding! Attention players. The server will shut down in 5 minutes. Please make the adequate preparations before the server disconnects! Enjoy a new day, a new life!”

“Yes! I was just in time! 5 minutes is just enough for me to return to the village and log out!”

Jiang Fei grinned from ear to ear. That minor hiccough aside, his primary goal of the day had been accomplished! Welcome to the double digits!