“Ding! Congratulations to your team for successfully defeating the Level 15 Lord BOSS—’Lava Giant Thais,’ gaining 1500 Reputation Points.”
The system’s notification chimed, marking the Lava Giant’s demise and, concurrently, the trial’s conclusion.
Her taut nerves finally relaxing, Bai Xia exhaled deeply, her legs weakening to the point where she nearly collapsed onto the ground.
The ability to defeat such a formidable BOSS as the Lava Giant was, in part, due to their strength, but more significantly, it stemmed from good fortune and Qingcheng’s assistance.
As for luck, there was little to say; had her previous luck not been so favorable, Bai Xia would undoubtedly be streaking through the新手村 (TL Note: newbie village) right now.
Then came Qingcheng’s aid.
Despite appearing stern, this enigmatic NPC had subtly provided them with numerous advantages, offering not only extensive equipment support but even selecting a BOSS that was relatively vulnerable to their specific strengths.
Had the trial BOSS been one that excelled in speed and attack, the outcome would have been an entirely different story.
Regardless, whether by luck or by skill, a win was a win.
Freed from the prospect of streaking before countless onlookers and poised to claim a trove of treasures, Bai Xia would have clutched her waist and burst into peals of laughter, had the circumstances been more appropriate.
As the victor, she now held the privilege of inspecting the spoils of battle.
Monsters slain by Bai Xia generally proved to be quite generous, and the Lava Giant was no exception.
First, regarding level, a Level 15 Lord BOSS was unequivocally the highest-tier monster players had managed to defeat at this stage, and the experience points gained from its defeat were, naturally, immense.
Although the experience required to level up past Level 10 far surpassed what was needed during the beginner phase, Bai Xia still ascended directly from Level 9 to Level 12, a staggering three-level leap!
While this seemed like an effortless promotion, accumulating an equivalent amount of experience by merely defeating ordinary monsters would likely have taken several days.
Next came reputation; an astonishing fifteen hundred points.
Bai Xia mused that if a reputation leaderboard were ever introduced in the game, she and Tian Zheng would likely remain at the forefront for a considerable period.
However, neither level nor reputation held the utmost importance for her; the true prize, as always, lay in… equipment and items.
“I feel like I can add an extra sausage to my instant noodles later, hmm… maybe an egg too.”
Gazing at the multitude of items scattered around the Lava Giant’s corpse, Bai Xia wiped away a non-existent trickle of drool from the corner of her mouth, then quickly began collecting them, one by one.
Lava Giant Thais had dropped a total of nine pieces of equipment, none of them common, trashy white-grade items; five were of Excellent quality, two of Superior quality, and two were… Rare quality!
Over three hundred gold coins had dropped, a sum greater than all the previous system rewards combined from exploring ruins, not to mention the countless uncounted silver coins.
Beyond the equipment and gold coins, there were also two other exceptionally rare and valuable items.
[Heart of Lava]: A Rare-grade energy stone, the core of the Lava Giant, brimming with immense fiery power.
It can be socketed into Superior-grade weapons or higher, adding fire attribute burning damage to weapon attacks upon successful embedding, and granting a 10% chance to trigger a Lava Attack.
An energy stone, and a Rare-grade one at that, was an item that would be priceless and highly sought after in the mid-to-late stages of the game.
This single, small energy stone alone was worth several pieces of equipment, for it was not every BOSS that dropped energy stones; the probability of such a drop was not high, indeed, it could be considered quite low.
However, since the opponent had so generously bestowed it upon them, there was no doubt… they had struck it rich!
Then there was another, even more extraordinary item.
[Whirlwind Slash]: A skill scroll usable by Warrior-class professions.
Upon use, the skill ‘Whirlwind Slash’ will be acquired.
Attributes: Spin the body and weapon, striking surrounding enemies furiously like a storm, lasting for 5 seconds.
Each enemy can suffer a maximum of three hits.
The final blow before the skill ends will unleash a charged Storm Slash, dealing wind attribute damage and slowing all surrounding enemies.
In the game ‘Otherworld’, players typically acquired new skills through four main methods.
The first involved skills automatically unlocking on each profession’s panel upon reaching a certain level.
This method had no significant prerequisites; anyone could learn the skills once they met the level requirement, though higher-tier skills would demand a certain amount of gold.
This was precisely why Tian Zheng, despite having reached Level 10, had yet to learn the Warrior’s Level 10 skill.
The second method involved being taught by certain NPCs.
Given the game’s high degree of freedom, it was indeed possible to learn special skills from in-game NPCs.
An existence as utterly mysterious as Qingcheng, for instance, clearly belonged to the highest tier of NPCs; hadn’t she freely bestowed rare equipment?
Teaching a skill would be an even simpler matter for her.
However, this method was incredibly rare and serendipitous; even if one encountered an NPC, it was impossible to force them to teach a skill.
Provoking a high-level NPC might even lead to one’s demise, hence this method typically only occurred for the exceptionally fortunate.
The third method was self-created skills.
Frankly, players possessing such aptitude and comprehension were exceedingly rare, akin to phoenix feathers and qilin horns among all players, and would likely only become more prevalent once the majority had reached max level.
And finally, the last method was undoubtedly the skill scroll now laid before Bai Xia and Tian Zheng.
Various BOSSes would drop skill scrolls, but high-tier skill scrolls were far rarer than high-tier energy stones!
Consequently, their value was also significantly higher.
Bai Xia had never imagined the Lava Giant would be so generous, bestowing both items upon them.
Its already battered stone body now seemed almost endearing, though she had, on a whim, attempted to use her Gathering skill on it, only to find nothing collectible, which left her feeling a tad annoyed.
Still, since it had given all it could, the failed gathering attempt was inconsequential.
The real question, however, was… how should they distribute these treasures?
Gazing at the pile of items before her, the young woman felt a surge of excitement, yet also a pang of headache.
Each of these items held immense value at their current stage, and precisely because of this, determining a truly fair distribution would prove challenging.
Tian Zheng, who had remained silent until now, seemed to perceive her predicament.
His eyes flickered before he spoke, “Are you wondering how to distribute them?”
“Indeed, so many good things make me incredibly happy, but the thought of having to split half with you, Great God… ah, my heart aches!”
Of course, Bai Xia was merely jesting.
As mentioned before, while she harbored a fondness for wealth, she was not without principles.
Moreover, without Tian Zheng’s assistance, they would never have defeated the Lava Giant; at that point, she might have lost more than just her ‘virtue’, let alone acquired so many valuable drops.
The man, evidently not taking her words seriously, curved his lips into a somewhat mysterious smile.
“How about we each take half, then?”