114: Three Trials

Xu Shian accepted the quest Limping Liu had delivered to his doorstep.

Xu Shian dismissed him directly.

In reality, Liu Ming had already been exposed, and he could no longer even maintain his human appearance!

It was during this time that Xu Shian had been busy leveling up.

As for Limping Liu, apart from hiding, he had no ambition to improve.

Knowing there was such an enemy in the village, he dared neither report it to Jia Hu nor pay too much attention himself...

Xu Shian did not have so many concerns!

However, taking care of important business was still the priority!

...

"Village Chief, I am here to accept the trial quest!"

Village Chief stared at Xu Shian in shock, looking him up and down.

A smile instantly spread across his wrinkled face.

"Hehehe... Young man, from the very first day you arrived at the Novice Village, I knew you were a talent! Facts have proven that my judgment was not wrong!"

As he spoke, he gestured to the old man beside him...

"Look, you reached level ten in just fifteen days, and that's even under the condition of experience suppression. Remarkable..."

The old man beside him also offered some comments, stroking his beard with a smile.

You probably just realized that now, didn't you?

Xu Shian grumbled inwardly, but he still had to wear a smile on his face to agree.

"Village Chief... about my trial quest...?"

"Oh... right, let's talk about business first!"

Village Chief straightened his expression and began to explain to Xu Shian.

"The trial quest is a hurdle that everyone who wants to improve their strength must pass! The trials at level ten are divided into the Normal Trial and the Black Iron Trial!"

"The Normal Trial is actually quite simple: kill the BOSS, the Silver Wolf King, in the 'Trial Secret Realm' of the Silver Wolf Plains!"

"The quest reward is 1 experience point, 50 free stat points, one active skill slot, and one passive skill slot!"

Xu Shian asked, feeling a bit surprised upon hearing this.

"A secret realm? Isn't the Silver Wolf Plains right there?"

"Hehehe... the ordinary Trial Secret Realm only allows a maximum party size of 20 people to enter!"

Good grief... a BOSS that was already powerful, and they didn't even allow zerg tactics...

"Then why does it only give one experience point?"

Village Chief stroked his beard.

"This one experience point is to allow your level to break through to level 11, so you can leave the Novice Village and head to the main city to develop!"

"I heard that one can leave without participating in the trials, and can level up after leaving?"

"Yes, you can request to leave at any time! But if you do that, your path forward is effectively cut off!"

"How so?"

"Think about it, how much less do you have compared to others if you don't participate in the trials? 50 free stat points—you'd have to level up ten times to get those, right? And you'd be missing two skills compared to others. The distance between you and them will only grow larger... and that's just the Normal Trial..."

This was indeed a fatal flaw! A flaw that couldn't be any more fatal!

"Then... what about the Black Iron Trial?"

"The Black Iron Trial requires killing the BOSS, Grog, in the Corrupted Swamp within the 'Trial Secret Realm'! This secret realm only allows a maximum party size of ten people to enter..."

Xu Shian was speechless!

Grog was that level ten toad BOSS. It was said that in the beginning, it was just an ordinary poison dart frog in the swamp, which later mutated into a Heaven-Swallowing Toad...

Heading south from the Novice Village, past the woodlands, was the swamp area where Grog resided.

Swamps, sigh, those who know, know. Almost no players liked to go to the wet, soggy swamps.

Why was the Eastern Plains so overcrowded? Everyone liked the terrain there...

Xu Shian also hadn't met this BOSS face-to-face to this day!

But since it was a toad, it must be a beast-type. And this thing also used poison?

Xu Shian decided that when he went back, he would catch this guy to be his underling...

"As for the Trial Secret Realm... this BOSS shouldn't have wild BOSS characteristics, right?"

Xu Shian tentatively asked a couple of questions.

"What are you thinking? Of course it does! The main purpose of the Trial Secret Realm is to limit the number of people, and the other is to reduce wait times... Otherwise, with a three-day respawn time for a Black Iron Tier BOSS, you'd be waiting forever..."

This secret realm is just a thing of the Novice Village; here, it's all about fairness and justice... Once you leave this place, you can fight over the future trial BOSSes... Hehehe...

"What is the reward for the Black Iron Trial?"

Village Chief saw that Xu Shian had asked the most critical question.

"1 experience point, 100 free stat points, and from then on, every time you level up, the free stat points you receive will increase from 5 to 10! Two active skill slots, one passive skill slot, and one weapon skill slot!"

Hiss...

Xu Shian felt his teeth aching again!

He knew the trials were important, but he never expected them to be this important?

"I heard there is also a Bronze Trial?"

Village Chief looked Xu Shian up and down.

"That is true, but this Bronze Trial is not simple!"

"This... is there anything special about it?"

"No, the Bronze BOSS is in the depths of the North Mountain Range. Walk along the mountain road behind the Dungeon at the foot of the mountain all the way up, and at the end of the road, you will see this Bronze BOSS, the Corrupted Ancient Tree - Wosguer. Go kill it, and the Bronze Trial is passed!"

Xu Shian had actually known about this for a long time!

After all, he had an NPC mole in the Novice Village under his command...

"Then what is the reward for the Bronze Trial?"

"1 experience point, 150 free stat points, and from then on, the free stat points given per level will be 15 points! Additionally, two active skill slots, one passive skill slot, one weapon skill slot, and one profession skill slot!"

Xu Shian pondered to himself that the biggest difference from the Black Iron Trial was in the stats!

As for the profession skill slot?

Xu Shian had indeed looked forward to this thing before.

But now that he had Wu Lun, his thoughts had changed!

Why would he want to toil away doing handicrafts himself?

It would be easier to wait until he went to the main city, encountered more intelligent races, and then practiced entrapment and card crafting by killing them...

"Uncle Wang, I also want to ask when the next trial is?"

Since the first day the game opened, Village Chief had basically been in a state of having nothing to do, so he didn't mind saying a few more words to Xu Shian today!

"I don't know about the ones further off! But I do know about the next one... when you reach level 60!"

...

In the days to come, the gap between people would truly be even larger than the gap between humans and dogs...

"This Bronze Trial... is there no Trial Secret Realm?"

Village Chief looked at Xu Shian in surprise at this moment!

He had always thought this person was just asking casually! He didn't expect him to be getting more and more serious?

Participate in the Bronze Trial?

This is good!

Village Chief leaned in a bit and whispered enticingly to Xu Shian, "No, there is no secret realm, and there are no requirements. There are no restrictions on any means. As long as you accept the quest and kill the BOSS, the Bronze Trial is considered complete!"

Xu Shian was speechless. Damn it, the way you say it makes me even more panicked. What should I do?

"Is this BOSS very strong?"

Village Chief curled his lips.

"Do you want me to give you a detailed introduction of the BOSS's stats and skills?"

"Sure!"

"And find an old friend to help you ask about the strategy and tactics for the BOSS?"

"Would that be too much trouble for you?"

"How about I also help you borrow a few Dark Gold items for you to use?"

Xu Shian could tell that the old man was pulling his leg.

He decisively shut his mouth...

Now, Village Chief was anxious. Continue, why did you stop talking?

Just one last push...

Xu Shian thought for a moment!

"Can I accept all three trial quests at the same time?"

Village Chief didn't really want to pay attention to this kid anymore, but it was his duty to answer any questions.

"You can, but when turning in the quest, once you turn in one, the remaining two will automatically fail!"

"That is truly a pity!"