This transaction psyched Jiang Bai up like he was injected with chicken blood; the future looked incredibly bright. He directly opened the trading interface and started searching for equipment.

“With the main player base reaching around Level 5, Level 5 white-quality accessories like rings and necklaces are really hot right now, actually going for over 1 Gold Coin each!” Jiang Bai clicked his tongue inwardly at the heated equipment market. "Not buying yet. I can't level to 5 right now anyway. I'll check the market conditions again after finishing the quest and hitting Level 5." As for Level 5 white weapons, their prices weren't as high as accessories, hovering between 7000-8000 copper coins, which wasn't unacceptable.

“Honestly, even an Ancient-quality Level 1 novice weapon still lacks a bit in base stats.” Looking at the Level 1 longbow he wore, its Ancient quality only provided +18 Physical Attack, whereas a Level 5 white weapon had at least 10 P.ATK or more. “If I were to fuse a Level 5 Ancient weapon based on current prices, it would probably cost around 20 Gold. A bit too expensive.” Moreover, although his current Ancient longbow had poor base attack due to its level, its additional attributes, especially the True Damage and [Frost] effect, were things Jiang Bai absolutely wouldn't give up. These two properties far outweighed a few dozen points of attack. Even if he fused another one, what if the resulting attributes were trash? “Honestly, if possible, I really don't want to replace this longbow.” “If only there were items that could upgrade equipment level...”

After Plundering 2 Agility points, Jiang Bai's P.ATK reached exactly 200. His attack panel now showed 200+(2), totaling around 202; the extra 2 points came from the First Blood title's effect [+1%]. Just as Jiang Bai was staring at his stat panel and drooling, a centaur suddenly entered his field of vision.

“Reached already!” Jiang Bai stopped. About twenty-five yards ahead, three different types of centaurs were walking proudly around a campfire. These centaurs' names were red, indicating they were aggressive and would attack on sight. “According to the monster encyclopedia, centaurs have a perception range of 15 yards. Entering within 15 yards will trigger their aggression.” Thinking this, Jiang Bai took a few steps back, then used [Inspect] on each of the three centaurs.

[Centaur Warrior] Level: 7 Attack: 50 Defense: 40 HP: 650

[Centaur Mage] Level: 7 Attack: 75 Defense: 15 HP: 450

[Centaur Warlock] Level: 7 Attack: 65 Defense: 20 HP: 500  

“Well damn! These damn things are organized into squad-based monster groups!” After seeing the stats, Jiang Bai exclaimed. As far as he could see, all the centaurs were distributed in three-member squads. This meant that to kill centaur monsters, one had to face three of them simultaneously. “This game really requires partying up to play.” Jiang Bai couldn't help but sigh. The difficulty was so high that a normal Level 7 player would probably be ganged up on and killed in one round. Even a five-person party of the same level would likely find it extremely perilous. However, Jiang Bai clearly didn't need to worry too much. With 810 HP and 68 Defense, besides the Mage, the Warlock and Warrior basically couldn't break his defense. If you included the fixed damage reduction from his armor, even the Mage couldn't break his defense. “Then what's there to hesitate about? Let's do this!”

Drawing his longbow fully, a faint purple light enveloped the arrow. With a swift gust, the arrow in Jiang Bai's hand transformed into a purple light shadow and shot through the air. When the arrow was nearly ten yards from the Centaur Warrior, it actually split into three in mid-air, shooting towards the three different centaur monsters respectively.

-144 (Vs Warrior) -40 -169 (Vs Mage) -40 -328 (Crit! Vs Warlock) -40

These were the different damage values dealt to the three different centaurs. "Hiss..." The moment the arrows hit, the three centaurs shrieked strangely. The Centaur Warrior, clad in worn-out black iron armor, immediately charged at Jiang Bai. Meanwhile, the remaining Centaur Mage and Warlock began chanting spells on the spot, coalescing red and black energy masses before their chests.

“Got a crit on the very first shot!” “Seems like a 5% crit chance is still pretty damn good!” Jiang Bai watched in pleasant surprise as [Multi Shot], the skill he had just used, instantly came off cooldown. Without thinking, he activated the skill again. “A-Rank skills are just strong!” Jiang Bai sighed again. The strength of [Multi Shot] wasn't its numbers, which were unremarkable on their own, but the cooldown reset mechanic on crit was just too insane, enough to elevate it to this level.

“Multi Shot!” Another round of three arrows fired simultaneously, but this time, it didn't crit. However, Jiang Bai was already very satisfied. After two rounds of [Multi Shot], the tankiest Centaur Warrior only had 266 HP left, while the Mage was left with a paper-thin 32 HP. The poor Warlock, due to the crit on the first shot, died directly during the second round of attacks, unable to even cast its spell. Jiang Bai ignored the charging Centaur Warrior and fired another arrow directly at the Centaur Mage. Simultaneously, the Centaur Mage's fireball fiercely struck Jiang Bai's chest. -1 Jiang Bai didn't even look at his health. After finishing off the Centaur Mage with one arrow, he aimed his longbow at the Centaur Warrior that had now charged right up to him. An [Aimed Shot], combined with True Damage, dealt 232 damage, followed by a basic auto-attack. He easily took the Centaur Warrior's life.

“Nice!” Jiang Bai picked up the dropped copper coins. "Normally, one centaur monster should give 40 EXP. If it weren't for the quest restriction, my leveling speed would absolutely be skyrocketing." "Genesis"'s leveling curve was extremely steep. He was only Level 4 now, and reaching Level 5 required 2000 EXP. Yet one Level 7 monster only provided 40 EXP, which normally had to be split five ways in a party. The difficulty of leveling was imaginable. Seeing his quest progress change from 0/100 to 3/100, Jiang Bai began grinding hard. Because of the AoE damage from [Multi Shot], Jiang Bai's grinding efficiency was guaranteed. Especially when crits occurred consecutively, the cooldown-free Multi Shot could completely wipe out a group in 3 rounds!

"Phew... Looks like I'll have to focus on stacking crit later. The higher the crit chance, the higher the return curve for Multi Shot. If I had max crit..." “Tsk tsk tsk... can't even imagine...” Thinking this, Jiang Bai suddenly had a bright idea. “Although I can't raise the chance right now, can't I make up for it with quantity?” “Hitting 1 monster gives a 5% crit chance. What if I hit 10 monsters simultaneously? Or 20? Surely one of them should crit, right?” Looking at the scattered centaur squads ahead, a bold idea suddenly emerged in Jiang Bai's mind.