Chapter 40

“I’ll keep it for now and make the medicine with it when I get the formula later on,” thought Xiao Yu. Something like the instant magic health potion wouldn’t devalue so quickly.

He had gained considerable winnings in just one night. In the early morning, as the light grew brighter, he went back to the small town of Tabarka.

Xiao Yu got back in the game after he ate dinner.

By the time the morning sunlight appeared on the horizon, the players in the small town were getting to work. The players were seen going here and there on the bustling street.

Xiao Yu was headed for the mercenaries’ trade union. He was ready to take on some simple tasks so he could gain some extra rewards while killing monsters.

The next task was to deliver a letter to the spirit wizard, Hammons. In a place 30 kilometers south of the small town of Tabarka, there was an ancient tomb from the Erathia Empire era where the spirit wizard, Hammons, resided. The letter had to be delivered to him. The difficulty of the task: unknown; the reward of the task: unknown; the profession for the task: thief.

“This is a strange task.” While looking at the task released on the task board, Xiao Yu’s curiosity was piqued, and he wondered what kind of mission it would be.

“The spawned monsters in the ancient tomb are level-10 underground spiders. They shouldn’t be too hard to deal with. And I can practice and level up by killing them.” Xiao Yu wondered if he should take the next task as he looked at the information. He unconsciously spun the dagger around in his right hand; the dagger danced gracefully on the tips of his fingers like someone doing an elegant ballet number.

Xiao Yu was lost in thought for a while but ultimately couldn’t resist the allure of this strange task. As he lifted his head up and was ready to speak to NPC of the mercenaries’ trade union, he suddenly sensed a strange aura around him.

He looked around and found that all eyes were fixated on his right hand, and everyone had incredulous expressions on their faces. The dagger in his right hand hadn’t stopped moving yet, and it continued rotating on his fingers at high speed.

“I don’t believe that someone can actually use a dagger like that, that’s totally crazy! I really don’t believe it…” one thief commented while looking at the dagger in his own right hand. He tried to rotate the dagger like how Xiao Yu was doing, but the blade of the dagger cut his wrist when he started, and fresh blood gushed out.

By now, Xiao Yu had realized why these players were all watching him. He quickly stopped rotating the dagger and held it in his hand as he said to the NPC, “I’ll take this task.”

“This is the letter. You must keep it safe. The task is to be completed in two days.” The middle-aged NPC handed a strange letter to Xiao Yu. The letter was wrapped in aged sheepskin, on which the name for neither the recipient nor the sender of the letter was written.

After taking the letter and registering, Xiao Yu elbowed his way out of the mercenaries’ trade union.

He was really too stood out too much just now.

“I shouldn’t do such a thing again, it draws too much attention,” he thought to himself. Xiao Yu put the letter in his bag and headed south of the small town of Tabarka. He had two days to complete the task, so he had plenty of time.

As he was heading south of Tabarka, the plantation grew lusher and lusher. He could find many low bushes in the desert, which were good places for hiding. For a thief like Xiao Yu, who was good at stealth travel and sneak-attacks, the environment was ideal.

He encountered some low-level monsters and finished all of them off.

Xiao Yu also came across a fair amount of medicinal plants, like flavored grass and bitter taro, but they were mostly low-level medicinal plants. They were ingredients that could be used to make low-level medicine and antidotes. Though they were not as expensive as magic grass and bloody grass, they were still useful for practicing the skills of magic pharmacology.

It seemed that these medicinal plants tended to grow in the south, where the rainwater was more abundant. However, Xiao Yu didn’t venture deeper into the south because he was afraid that he would encounter dangers there. It was because the higher the monsters’ levels were, the farther they were away from town.

Xiao Yu crested a hill and looked down while standing atop it.

“There are so many monsters here.” He couldn’t help but feel astounded. There were many herds of wild buffalo in the distance, galloping on the wild field riotously and stirring up a lot of dust and smoke.

The wild buffalo was a level-8 monster. They were social animals, living together in a herd. They had very strong protective shields with high defense, and they could also mount very powerful attacks. Players would usually go around them when they met creatures like them. Few of them were foolish enough to challenge these troublesome animals.

“I’ll get there after passing through the area occupied by wild buffalo.” Though it was dangerous, Xiao Yu had no choice but to complete the task.

He avoided the herds of wild buffalo by hiding behind bushes, and he headed for his destination at high speed. Looking ahead, he saw the endless mountain range at the end of the desert.

Xiao Yu remembered overhearing someone in the night market say that there was a lot of bloody grass in Often Valley.

“I’ll be in Often Valley after walking south for 20 more minutes. And I’ll deal with the level-20 monsters after I’ve delivered the letter.” Xiao Yu intended to collect some more bloody grass to make the instant health potion. In so doing, he would be able to have more security when he was battling monsters. But he had no intention of fighting against level-20 monsters for now. Since he was a thief, he thought he should be able to collect some bloody grass without encountering any trouble.

While he was traveling through the bushes, he would search the ground from time to time in an attempt to find medicinal plants.

All of a sudden, the ground shook with a rumbling noise. The sound waves rolled forward like a collapsing mountain and flooding seawater.

Upon hearing this sound, the expression on Xiao Yu’s face changed, and he realized it was the herd of wild buffalo marching at a frantic pace.

He hid in a thick bush nearby and saw a large group of black objects in the distance. The herd of wild buffalo was drawing closer, and so Xiao Yu entered the stealth travel state while in the bush.

He still felt uneasy and wondered if the bush could keep the attacks of the wild buffalo at bay.

The earth was trembling. These animals were obviously the rulers of this piece of land. No other animals dared to challenge them.

Boom!!!

A boulder blocking the path of the marching buffalo was crushed into pieces by them. The boulder chips flew in all directions and dropped to the ground only to be trampled on by the incoming buffalo herd. All the chips were trampled to dust.

Xiao Yu was dumbfounded when he saw the scene. If a boulder could be crushed into powder, such a low bush where he hid himself had no way of withstanding the stampede of the buffalo.