Chapter 104 Materials

Two minutes later, a small stream about two meters wide suddenly appeared before Chen Zixuan.

In his mind, the nearest red dot he had marked was shown to be near this stream.

Staying vigilant as he glanced around, Chen Zixuan soon spotted the monster represented by that red dot.

About a dozen meters away, by the stream, a massive python was coiled atop a flat green stone, basking in the sun. If the snake’s body stretched out, it would be six or seven meters long, with green scales marked by black and brown patterns, and as thick as a small water barrel.

From the information that appeared before him, it was a level 5 elite monster.

[Jungle Python]

Race: Beast

Level: 5

Max HP: 600

Attack: 50

Physical Defense: 15

Magic Defense: 10

Racial Skills: [Devour], [Constrict]…

……

At the same moment, the python sensed Chen Zixuan’s approach. It immediately slithered off the stone, heading for a nearby thicket, preparing to escape.

The wild animal’s instincts told it that this seemingly frail girl was actually very dangerous.

Since the experience and materials were delivered right to his doorstep, naturally Chen Zixuan had no reason to let this go. Seeing that the python wanted to flee, he immediately pulled out his dagger from his waist, ran a few steps, and leapt at it.

After several seconds of intense struggle, the silver-haired girl’s dagger flashed down, swiftly severing the python’s head.

“System message: You have gained 27 experience points!”

“System message: You have acquired 5 [Monster Blood], 3 [Jungle Python Gallbladders], 2 [Non-toxic Fangs]…”

After gathering the materials, Chen Zixuan glanced at the python’s body—with its head gone but still twitching—and felt a wave of disgust.

He was about to leave, but just then, the Darkwing Demon Bat circling in the sky, upon seeing the python’s corpse on the ground, swooped straight down and began to eat it without a care for its surroundings.

Its moves were practiced—first, it used its sharp claws to cut open the tough snake skin, then leaned in to suck the blood, and finally tore off some meat from the python’s backbone.

At first, Chen Zixuan was a little surprised by this scene, but soon he realized that the Darkwing Demon Bat had once been at the top of the food chain in this forest, so it wasn’t strange for it to eat such a python.

Taking advantage of the time while the Darkwing Demon Bat was eating, the silver-haired girl walked over to the stream to wash the fresh blood off her hands.

After the Darkwing Demon Bat had its fill, Chen Zixuan was surprised to find that the experience bar shared by him and his pet had increased slightly due to this meal.

It seemed that a monster’s corpse still had some value even after harvesting its materials.

Though his initial outing wasn’t so smooth, Chen Zixuan was not discouraged. He continued to have the Darkwing Demon Bat emit ultrasonic waves and set off toward the next suspicious location.

It had to be said that the bat’s [Scout] skill had little combat value, but for finding monsters, it was extremely convenient.

A few minutes later, in the dense forest, Chen Zixuan discovered another elite monster, though unfortunately—it was not a brown bear but a bramble wild boar, which was easily slain by the girl in a few strikes, yielding several different materials.

For the next half hour, Chen Zixuan repeated this process.

Unlike in other wilderness zones, nightshade Forest held a great variety of monsters, and coupled with the complicated terrain and restricted visibility, finding a specific monster was not quite like searching for a needle in a haystack but wasn’t easy, either.

After killing seven elite monsters, Chen Zixuan finally encountered two brown bears and, after defeating them, managed to obtain 10 [Winter Bear Fur].

He still needed more than a dozen to forge a complete set of [Rose Maid] equipment.

Another half hour passed, but during this time, Chen Zixuan didn’t encounter a single brown bear.

The deeper he went into the forest, the darker and more oppressive the surroundings became—if someone didn’t have strong nerves, they probably wouldn’t dare enter alone.

Even though there was no monster in Nightshade Forest that could threaten Chen Zixuan now, he still felt a bit frustrated. Searching like this, it was hard to tell how many more hours he would need to collect enough [Winter Bear Fur].

Still, after only a few seconds of fretting, Chen Zixuan automatically dropped the thought.

No matter how hard the materials were to find, everyone was suffering the same way. At least he had a pet that could act as a radar, making him far more efficient than other players.

In the early phase of game progression, due to lack of experience and resources, many players get stuck at the novice stage for a long time, and while most others were still muddled, Chen Zixuan had already set a clear short-term path.

He just didn’t know how long it would take to gather all the materials needed for the [Rose Maid] equipment set.

After hunting several waves of monsters and still not finding a single brown bear, Chen Zixuan felt a bit disappointed. Expectations really couldn’t be too high. With more than twenty materials left to farm, who knew when it would ever end.

By then, he mused, maybe he’d have turned into a girl in reality as well.

After thinking it over, Chen Zixuan decided he couldn’t waste all his precious time on such trivialities.

After the anti-addiction penalty reduced his gains at night, he would head to the Main City’s player trading district and hope someone was selling these materials.

If all else failed, he could ask Yuewu and Dawn’s Light. Both were experienced in online games and might have better solutions.

So, Chen Zixuan began heading back the way he came, and at full speed, it took him less than ten minutes to leave the forest.

Looking at his inventory, now half-filled with materials, he couldn’t say he was happy, but neither was he disappointed. After all, during the afternoon he’d cleared more than a dozen elite monsters, and his experience bar had risen by about one-sixth.

If it were anyone else, they’d brag about such achievements for years.

Next, Chen Zixuan returned to the Main City to have the weapons shop restore the durability of his equipment.

While the shop owner was repairing his gear, Chen Zixuan glanced left and right and suddenly noticed a faint light leaking from a small door in the wall nearby.

“Boss, what’s that room for?” he asked curiously.

“Oh, that? That’s our shop’s new forging room. You’re a forger, right?”

The bald shopkeeper poked his head out and replied in a rough voice.

Hearing this, Chen Zixuan remembered that he possessed the [Forging] skill.

Until now, he’d wondered about how exactly to use it.

Clearly the weapons shop had lacked this small room yesterday but suddenly had it today—apparently, the game had just updated forging-related content.

So, the silver-haired girl nodded decisively. “Can I take a look inside?”

“For forgers only. Rental’s three silver per use, no time limit,” the boss replied simply.

***

New Names, locations, skills, techniques List:

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