Chapter 14: Leveled up!

While stroking the marten, he used last night's leftovers to solve the breakfast problem.

Chen Shicheng settled the bill and left the brothel under the morning sunlight of the game, looking at the NPCs coming and going at the door, he couldn't help but feel that the consumption at entertainment venues was indeed expensive.

A private room, a table of food and drink, plus a take-out escort who wasn't teased—these three things alone cost him a full 15 taels of silver.

Fortunately, this amount of money wasn't a big deal for him; he just considered it a necessary tuition in life.

He lowered his head to look at the U-shaped snack he was holding in his hand, Chen Shicheng was about to stuff it into his pocket to take away, but just as he raised his hand, he thought of a serious problem.

"I almost forgot, the purple marten smells bad, you're not like that, are you?" He ignored the marten's struggle and brought it to his nose to sniff.

Fortunately, this little thing turned out to be a sentient wild monster; it had no stench of real martens, but instead gave off a faint grassy fragrance, making one somewhat reluctant to let go.

After Chen Shicheng vigorously RUA'ed it for a while, he then tucked it into his pocket and continued touring the county seat he hadn't finished yesterday.

The La Tiao also writhed in his pocket, poking out a small head, imitating his manner as it looked around at the extremely unfamiliar environment.

One person and one marten roamed from morning until noon; after roughly familiarizing themselves with the main streets and various functional shops, they finally ordered a bowl of lamb offal noodles and a piece of lamb at the noodle shop by the city gate to solve lunch.

Having eaten and drunk his fill, Chen Holy no longer wasted time, heading straight out of the county seat.

At this time, it was around noon 12 o'clock; the sun hung in the sky, bright sunlight spilling over the plains outside the city and the distant woods, giving a feeling of sudden openness.

Adding the clear birdcalls from the forest and the faintly visible rabbits and deer and other herbivores, Chen Shicheng felt an urge to picnic rather than fight monsters.

Fortunately, he still knew his main goal right now was to level up, so he didn't dare delay, casually picking a direction and heading into the forest.

Huangchi County Town lies within the bounds of Bu Xian Shan; all around are dense primeval forests, with four official roads extending from the city gates into the woods, connecting the surrounding villages.

Apart from rarely seeing wild monsters on those four official roads, the forest is extremely dangerous; level-zero small animals are almost everywhere, and level-one to three beasts can be encountered every few days.

Furthermore, according to the maid, going deeper still could yield some eerie wild monsters; not only are their appearances extremely sinister, but their level can reach the peak of the Qi Refining Realm, around level 15.

So, considering his remaining life, he didn't choose to go too deep, but instead began continuously exploring forward along the official road.

Upon entering the forest, Chen Shicheng saw a wild dog in the process of marking its territory; he didn't disdain its low level, stepping forward two paces to a distance of about four or five meters from the dog.

Hearing the footsteps, the wild dog immediately ceased its uncivil behavior, turned its head toward him and began to bare its teeth and growl softly.

Drop by drop of viscous saliva dripped down from its two sharp teeth, looking somewhat ferocious and somewhat nauseating.

Chen Shicheng pressed the La Tiao, which was likewise baring its teeth and not backing down, back against his chest, then drew his Tang Sword with his right hand and gave a light swing.

A blade flash passed, instantly cleaving the wild dog in half from head to toe; it fell to the ground, a bloody mess.

【Killed Lv. 0 wild dog, gained 1 experience point, obtained a piece of dog meat.】

【Experience: 49/100】

The clean, swift end to the battle made Chen Shicheng feel refreshed from the heart! Instant kill, ask yourself if you're cool!

A skill with broken-limit level combined with an attribute-boosting elixir directly made him such an unreasonable level-zero!

"Huh?"

However, looking at the panel's prompt, Chen Shicheng felt a bit strange; this time the monster-killing pendant's special effect didn't activate—could there be some prerequisite? Gazing at the wild dog's corpse, he pondered for a long time; the only difference he found was that the previous Soulless Mountain Bandits seemed lacking in consciousness, more like game monsters, whereas this wild dog was an ordinary animal.

"Could it be that the pendant's effect also depends on monster type?"

He decided the next monster to test his blade on would be the Soulless Mountain Bandits, to see if it matched his expectation.

But soon he discovered another thing that made him regret: yesterday he seemed to have used only one of the pendant's three special effects, the other two completely wasted, even if they could only yield two instances of 1 merit point from killing Soulless Mountain Bandits.

"Forget it, take it as a lesson; from now on, even if there's no big merit extraction each day, I must never forget those other mosquito legs."

Chen Shicheng, while stroking the marten to soothe his wounded spirit, continued forward along the official road through the forest.

Three hours later. "The last one!"

He casually split the Soulless Mountain Bandit before him, and Chen Shicheng excitedly looked at his panel.

【Experience: 100/100】

【Current experience meets conditions; level up?】

This game has no setting for leveling up to fully restore status, so Chen Shicheng didn't get stuck on a bug and directly chose to level up.

There was no golden light swirling around his body or any flashy effects; he only felt his body warm up, blood began to circulate faster, and his muscles tensed all over.

Compared to when he used those five elixirs yesterday, this bit of change was hardly worth mentioning; lasting less than ten seconds, the abnormality in his body gradually eased and finally disappeared.

Chen Shicheng boredly hopped twice to adapt to his strengthened body, opened the panel and began to check his attributes.

【Name: Chen Shicheng】

【Level: Lv. 1 (Skin Refining Realm)】

【Experience: 0/100】

【Technique: Sword Technique Body Refining Chapter (Perfected)】

【Essence: 6.3+1】

【Qi: 6+1】

【Spirit: 6.7+0.5】

【Equipment: Stealing Heaven Pendant (Unique)*1, Tang Sword*1, Plain-colored Soaring Cloud Bat Pattern Vigorous Attire*1】

【Skill: Basic Sword Technique (Broken Limit)】

【Money: 399 gold 85 silver 95 copper】

【Lifespan: 25/92】

All attributes increased, except the experience remained the original 100, neither doubled nor grew exponentially.

Chen Shicheng wasn't surprised by this; the game's experience point setting is a bit strange—experience only starts doubling at each major realm; if he reached level 6 (Qi Refining Realm), his level-up experience would become 200.

It looks easy, but it's actually not simple at all.

When killing monsters of the same level, experience points are the standard one point; for killing higher-level monsters, each level gained doubles the experience, and there is also a reward double.

That is, at level one, killing a level-two monster yields two experience points; adding the reward double system, the final gain is four experience points; a level-three monster yields eight points, and so on.

Meanwhile, gaining experience from killing low-level monsters plummets off a cliff.

One level lower, the obtained experience is reduced tenfold; two levels lower, it becomes a hundredfold.

If you only care about safety and don't want to challenge wild monsters of the same or higher level, you can spend a year or two crazily slaying the small monsters outside Newbie Village, and it's estimated you could successfully reach level 5 within ten years. (End of chapter)