Chapter 17 – Seven-Star Herbs

In Ba Huang City, on the crowded eastern exit of the plaza, I carried my newly repaired Bramble Thorn Sword and parted through the crowd. I had decided that I had to reach level 18 soon, preferably by the end of this morning, and reach level 20 as quickly as possible so that I could be recognized in my occupation.

After a player was recognized for his occupation, he could use new skills specific to his occupation. For example, as a trainee healer, the skills available were limited to [Hemostasis] and [Encourage]. After graduating from a trainee though, they could also learn new skills like [Heal] and [Therapy], etc. The good thing about [Heal] was, at level 1 it recovered 150 HP, at level 2 it recovered 300 HP. It was triple the effect that Hemostasis had!

So I walked out the city gate and took a look at the mini-map. I couldn’t raise my level by wandering mindlessly. I also needed to pick level 3 herbs to make level 3 pills. The level 3 potions created from [Alchemy] by a player could recover 200 MP, while the level 3 pills sold by the NPCs could only recover 150 MP, and they sold for 5 silver coins. So, it was quite worth it to buy the potions created by a player This was quite a rare business chance! According to Yue Qing Qian, it seemed like no one in Ba Huang City had reached level 3 in [Alchemy], so it seemed I was the only one. Yep, this was a one in a lifetime chance!

……

【Seven-Star Pill】: Recovers 200 MP, Seven-Star Herb x3, Refined Water x3, Alchemy Furnace x1

The main ingredient for level 3 pills were Seven-Star Herbs. They usually grew deep within Clear Rainforest. In addition, within the rainforest, there was a valley called the Seven-Star Valley. Unsurprisingly, the majority of the Seven-Star Herbs could be found within that valley, and the distance from the city to the valley was about 30 minutes. Usually, players were unwilling to go that far just to fight monsters, and even if they did go, they found a group to party with since there were many high leveled monsters there.

Sha sha, the breeze rattled through the leaves, disturbing the serene grace of the forest. Following the narrow path, I slowed down and took a look at my stats. I was at Level 16, 250 HP, 177 attack. I should be able to solo the monsters in the Seven-Star Valley.

I took care to avoid the level 15 Silver-Feathered Birds since they didn’t give much experience and would only dull my blade. With Bramble Thorn Sword hidden within my cloth clothing, my appearance, that of a cloth profession holding a heavy sword, was quite humorous.

After 20 or so minutes, I looked around and saw a slope towards a valley. My mini-map was also showing that I was right next to Seven-Star Valley. Hooray, I had arrived!

As I took out my sword and prepared to dash into the valley, I suddenly heard sounds coming from the other side of the forest.

“Get your act together guys! We have arrived at the Seven-Star Valley. This is our first group activity, no excuses will be tolerated!”

Crap, I had better hide!

As I hid behind some trees, a total of 10 people came out the forest. The leader of the party was holding a sword in one hand, with shiny dark armor covering his body. Then I became thunderstruck at what I saw. It was Tyrant of Western Chu, level 19, and the players in his party seemed to be his underlings. In fact, Piggy came running up to the Tyrant of Western Chu. In addition, there were two elf archers, flying 20 yards off the ground, overseeing the area.

I held my breath and dared not to say anything..

On the shoulder of Tyrant of Western Chu was the Silver-Feathered Bird pet. Incredibly, it was already level 16. The speed at which pets leveled up was pretty quick, huh?

……

Tyrant of Western Chu turned around to talk to the approaching Piggy, “Piggy, are you sure there’s a boss in this Seven-Star Valley?”

“Yes boss. At 6 am this morning, one of my friends was killed by the boss here. The monsters in Seven-Star Valley have really high levels, so we need to be careful since we didn’t bring enough healers this time.”

“Oh? Two healers is not enough?”

“Ehh, how should I say it. Killing bosses places a lot of stress on the healers. They need to use Hemostasis carefully or our casualties will be every serious. Looking at a replay of the player you guys killed, that Xiao Yao healer, he performed Hemostasis really well. If we have two healers with that kind of control, then killing this level 20 White-ranked boss would be a piece of cake.”

“Don’t you dare mention Xiao Yao Zi Zai. Next time I see him, I swear I will skin him alive, and take back my Bramble Thorn Sword. That sword has 35 attack on it! The one that I use now only has 21 attack…”

“Boss, if we want to stand on top of Ba Huang City, we need to find players with potential such as Xiao Yao. As you know, guilds such as the [Prague] and the [Flying Dragons] are also settling in Ba Huang City. We have quite a lot of rivals, and even though we have 200+ players, it may not be enough anymore. ”

“I know, I’ll pay attention. But if this Xiao Yao comes out, I’ll be sure to kill him, just you wait and see!”

“……”

……

I watched Tyrant of Western Chu’s group go into the valley from afar and waited until I could no longer see them anymore. Since they had two elves flying around, I could be spotted easily. I was quite doubtful I could win a 1v1 against Tyrant of Western Chu, and with his group of 10 people, there was no doubt that I would die instantly.

After waiting for ten minutes, I took my Bramble Thorn Sword and entered the Seven-Star Valley. This valley was quite large, so it was quite easy to avoid Tyrant of Western Chu’s group and find herbs. You know what they say: Less PKing, more monster eliminating, only then shall your level keep escalating!

Stepping on a pile of crumbled rocks at the valley’s entrance, I stuck my head forward and looked into the valley. It seemed that the entire Seven-Star Valley was windy, and there was no shortage of high-leveled monsters within it. 10 meters away from me, there seemed to be a group of wolf monsters. One of the large wolves, whose body was covered with red fur and strangely, green grass, growled menacingly at me. Its level wasn’t low either…

【Wild Wolf】 (Normal Monster)

Level: 18

Attack: 77-100

Defense: 30

Health: 500

Skill: 【Whirling Claws (LV-2)】

Description: Wild Wolves, a group of creatures that occupy the wilderness, seen to attack players and pets. Although Ba Huang City sent troops to annihilate them long ago, the Wild Wolves still go on abnormal rampages around Ba Huang City.

…….

Looking at the creature’s attributes, I was a bit shocked. It was obvious that I couldn’t fight it. No, it wouldn’t even be a fight, it would be a one-sided massacre and obviously not in my favor. With an attack of 100, my cloth armor defense had no way of holding up. So I grabbed my Bramble Thorn Sword and went around the bushes, then I turned slightly right and went straight towards the middle plain of the valley. This way I would avoid the hordes of creatures in the forest.

Far away, in the open grassland, Tyrant of Western Chu and his 10-man team were killing monsters. He shouted out, then a golden hexagram glowed and hovered over the edge of his sword. Sha sha! The Wild Wolf received a combo of two slices and lost almost 300 HP. It made me jealous looking at the special combo moves that Tyrant of Western Chu had. It was both elegant and powerful, unlike himself.

Looking at my own skills, other than [Turmoil Sword], the rest of my skills were centered around healing and buffs. If I wanted a main attack move, then I needed to create a new skill. Thankfully, it was possible within this game. But, creating skills was no easy feat. If you didn’t have enough experience or practice, you couldn’t create one. By my estimates, only 2 or 3 players in the entire game had made unique skills.

Whatever, money came first. As long as I had an active and strong heart, this era belonged to me!…

I avoided Tyrant of Western Chu’s training group like the plague, and entered the eastern region of the Seven-Star Valley. Stepping on the soft moist grass, I walked slowly in the jungle. Of course, I would like to be anywhere but there in the jungle where wolves could ambush me at every angle, but I had be in the jungle to get the Seven-Star Herbs. There was a saying for this, no pain meant no gain. Before long, I saw dots of luster on top of the rocks that were in front of me. Awesome! So I raced ahead, and indeed, on top of the rock was a seven-colored herb, growing like grapes on a vine. It was a level 3 Seven-Star Herb!

After picking countless amounts of Silver-Leaf Herbs, my [Herb-Picking] skill was already level 3. I took out my shovel, carefully traced along the roots of the Seven-Star Herb, and gently dug it out. This was a basic herb picking technique. In various books that I read before, they also said: “The sap of plants comes from the roots”. A lot of medicine used roots as its ingredients. The same probably applied to the Seven-Star Herbs in front of me, and..done!

After digging the herb out, a sound rang——

Ding!

System Notification: Congratulations! You have collected 【Seven-Star Herb】x2

Indeed, if you picked up the herbs with the roots, you got double the amount. Looked like my magnificent plan to create level 3 pills was no longer so far away now!

……

While I was still absorbed in the frenzy of uprooting the Seven-Star Herbs, I heard a low growl behind me. Grrrr! On instinct, I dropped the shovel and spun around. Holy crap! A Wild Wolf was about 10 meters away and ready to pounce.

Raising my hand, I drew my Bramble Thorn Sword. [Turmoil Sword] immediately activated, giving me an extra 10% attack damage, which was currently +11.7 attack. When I level up later and get better gear, this 10% bonus attack damage would become more useful but it was still quite an impressive skill right now. With such a great effect, [Turmoil Sword] deserved its rank of being an SS rank skill. The SS rank was inferior only to the SSS rank, so it should be a near God-Tier skill right?

I went and slashed at the wolf. The Bramble Thorn Sword arced through the air and landed on head of the Wild Wolf. Ouch!

“142!”

Good attack! At the same time, the wolf jumped and also slashed at me with his claws. Weirdly, there was some sort of red glow on the tip of its claws. Wait! It was【Whirling Claws (LV-2)】 . Before I could finish my thought, the wolf’s claws reached my shoulder, gifting me with a wave of pain. I assure you that the pain was not fake. It felt like my shoulder just got hit by a brick. At the same time, my HP also dropped by 119 points!

I waved my hand to cast Hemostasis which recovered 100 of my HP. At the same time, I continued to attack with two continuous strikes. Although they were both solid hits, I didn’t push on and prepared my legs to dodge when the Wild Wolf attacked. After eating the two attacks, the wolf suddenly pounced. Should I dodge left, right, LEFT. But I didn’t dodge completely, even though I could have sworn that I dodged the attack, my speed was lacking and the hit glanced off of me. I lost 71 HP. Looked like this wouldn’t be too hard as long as the wolf didn’t use his skill too much.

Every time the wolf attacked, I leaped away trying to dodge its attacks. But I failed time after time because of my lack of speed, and finally, I gave up trying to dodge. The Wild Wolf’s agility was high, far higher than mine, and even if I dodged earlier, I would still get hit because the wolf would see me shifting and change its attack accordingly. I was not going to bother anymore and would attack it straight on…

……

I heard the wolf cry Wuuu. A final howl before it dropped dead beside me. I picked up the coins, and turn to leave. It was tough beating the wolf, but I must move on. There was money around here, I could smell it.

After picking quite a few Seven-Star Herbs, I realized that the Seven-Star Herbs only grew on rocks. So in the valley, I circled around the scattered rocks, trying to find stalks of Seven-Star Herbs. If my luck held up, I wouldn’t run into the Tyrant of Western Chu’s group.