The sight of the NPC shop's key prices made Chu Tian wince. In his previous life, he had played a rogue and recorded the locations of many high-level treasure chests. It seemed that would be beyond him this time.
Bronze Key: 1 Silver Coin
Platinum Key: 1 Gold Coin
Gold Key: 100 Gold Coins
Dark Gold Key: 10,000 Gold Coins
It was practically daylight robbery. In the early game, no one would spend money on keys to open chests.
As the gold coin prices gradually stabilized, rogues also leveled up their lockpicking skills, making it even less likely for anyone to buy keys. This was probably a perk for rogues, a class that leveled up relatively slowly when grinding alone. Opening a treasure chest encountered in the wild could bring in a substantial income, and there was even experience gained from opening chests. Chu Tian had once opened a Dark Gold Chest at level 109, which directly granted him more than a level's worth of experience. However, that was a chest that spawned in the wild; these chests that were picked up and then opened didn't give experience.
The treasure chest spawn locations in Tian Dao were fixed. Once opened, they would disappear and not respawn.
He spent one gold coin to buy a Platinum Key, which was equivalent to spending six thousand yuan. He hoped it wouldn't just yield a pile of junk!
Watching the lockpicking progress bar: 1%… 20%… 50%… Chu Tian prayed inwardly, "Come on, give me something good, something good. Old man, don't mess with me anymore!"
"Ding… Lockpicking successful!"
He quickly opened the treasure chest, reached inside, fumbled around for a while, and pulled out a bracelet. Chu Tian's eyes lit up. It was jewelry! No matter how bad the stats were, a piece of jewelry was worth 1 gold coin.
[Scorching Bracelet]
Rarity: Gold Tier (Upgradeable)
Equipment Level: 5
Defense: 18-32
Attribute: Increases wearer's Physical and Magical Defense by 10%.
Set Attribute 1/3 (Unactivated): Players wearing the Scorching Bracelet, Scorching Ring, and Scorching Necklace will gain the skill [Scorching Defense].
Description:
Death's Reprieve: Upon use, lasts for 8 seconds. During this time, damage taken is reduced by 20%, death is immune once, and HP is restored to 100%. (3-day cooldown)
Looking at the bracelet in his hand, it was a set item. Although the level was a bit low and the base defense stats were lower, its attributes were very powerful. The increase might not be noticeable in the early game, but in the later stages, as other equipment's defense improved, this attribute bonus would become much more significant. This one gold coin was a massive profit, practically graduation gear, the kind you'd use until you died. If he could collect the full set, he would possess a powerful life-saving skill.
He took out his prized possession, the [Wish Treasure Box]. In his inventory, besides the nineteen enhancement stones he had purchased, there were also enhancement stones he and Meng De Bi An had dropped in the Crow Nest, totaling thirty-three. He had to admit, the drop rate in the Crow Nest was quite high, yielding fourteen enhancement stones in total. It was probably because all the monsters they killed were being killed for the first time, counted as an exploration, so the drop rate was higher. At the time of item distribution, Chu Tian had only taken the enhancement stones, giving all other items, including a skill book for the Ancient Tree Form, to Meng De Bi An.
He first enhanced his weapon to +10, activating a rare attribute: All stats +2. Each point of All Stats increased all damage and healing by 1%, and reduced all damage taken by 0.5%. With the remaining thirty enhancement stones, he directly enhanced the Scorching Bracelet to +30. Normally, in the early game, the focus should be on attack power, as faster monster killing leads to faster leveling. However, the path Chu Tian intended to take meant that the slight attack boost from enhancements wouldn't compensate for the level disparity; no matter how much attack power he had, damage would still be reduced by a fixed amount.
After enhancing the Scorching Bracelet to +30, its defense directly reached a super high level of 54-96. Chu Tian's current maximum base defense had reached 138 points. With the attribute bonus from the Scorching Bracelet, it reached 152 defense. In the新手村 (novice village), he could practically walk sideways. Apart from monsters and boss-level creatures in dungeons, no monster could break through his defense.
With everything ready, all he needed was the right opportunity. He went to the blacksmith and spent another gold coin to buy 10 repair hammers, each usable 30 times. Leaving the blacksmith's shop, Chu Tian immediately entered stealth mode, concealing his figure. Although his movement speed was a bit slow, he didn't want anyone to discover his destination. The monsters around the town were levels 1-10. The further away, the higher the monster levels. Once players reached level 10, they would face Tian Dao's first dungeon. Dungeons offered significantly faster experience than the wild, and clearing dungeons also involved a rating system. The higher the rating, the more experience rewards, which were then distributed evenly among all players participating in the dungeon clear. Chu Tian continuously traversed various leveling areas. Almost all leveling areas were overcrowded. This was one of the reasons why leveling was slow in the early stages of Tian Dao: more players than monsters, greatly slowing down the leveling speed. Gradually, he reached the level 4 areas, where the player count became sparser. Players who had reached level 4 at this point were still a minority. Most of the players here were small teams of four or five people. The team limit in Tian Dao was six people. Once a team mode was activated, five small teams formed a large team, and ten large teams could form a complete raid, meaning a team of three hundred people. However, the more people in a group, the thinner the experience gained per person after killing monsters. The advantage was that they could occupy large areas and even clear them out. In this early stage, forming groups of three to five people to level together was already quite good; clearing out monster spawns was not very realistic. After all, they were strangers to each other. If someone slacked off and leech experience, or if valuable items dropped and were unevenly distributed, leading to being ambushed and killed by teammates to loot equipment, these things happened from time to time. These small teams occupied different areas. Some Paladins, Warriors, and Rogues, being melee players, moved among the monsters, responsible for aggroing them. Mages and Sharpshooters, being ranged classes, constantly unleashed attacks. Many Priests were just watching the fun, occasionally casting a Smite skill, but the damage was negligible. Although Priests had no damage or healing in the early game, many people still liked to bring one along as a dead weight. This was because, in the later stages, a team would be at a standstill without the support of a Priest, who served as a mobile blood bank. In past games, players had experience with this: the player population for support classes like healers was very low. If they didn't build good relationships with them now, those Priests might ignore them in the future. Chu Tian carefully navigated through these player grinding areas. In reality, he could have taken the main road, where no monsters spawned, but it would have been a long detour. Therefore, he chose a direct route, which required him to pass through these monster grinding areas. As he gradually approached the level 5 Corrupted Giant Bear grinding area, he was surprised to find that there were still people there. He opened the level leaderboard to check, confirming that he was still first in the level rankings, at level 5 with 98% experience. The second place was still at level 4 with 7% experience, named 'Ren Si Niao Chao Tian' (When People Die, Birds Fly to the Sky). Chu Tian had never heard of this name in his previous life; otherwise, such a distinctive character name would not have been forgotten. Therefore, the two groups in front of him should both be level 4. Daring to grind in a level 5 area proved that their equipment was quite good. However, the two groups seemed to be having a dispute. Chu Tian thought to himself, "A bunch of idiots. The level 5 area is so vast, and there are so few of you. Why don't you just grind separately? Are you really fighting over territory?" Curiosity drove him to approach slowly, stopping about ten meters away from them, which was a safe distance. In reality, with his higher level, he could have gotten closer, but his previous life's experience had made him accustomed to positioning himself safely. After arriving here, he understood why the two groups were so tense.