We hunched over and slowly moved ahead following El.

The encampment of the Fallens gradually came into view, roughly 200 meters away. Thanks to the sharper view after I arrived in this world, I can even see a large pot set up in the middle of the encampment, with boiling liquid inside from which chunks of human bones occasionally emerged, perhaps enough for more than one set of human skeletons. It must be some poor guys getting caught and boiled. May them rest in peace.

I must say that the adaptability of human beings is remarkable. After spending days in a horror-film-like environment, my nerves have become incredibly resilient. If I were the man a few days ago, I would probably faint at the sight of this horrible scene. But now, I'm somewhat desensitized. During the past few days, I had encountered several skeletons in bizarre poses, decaying zombies half-buried in the earth that suddenly leaped out, and so on. So, if I had seen that old zombie on the first day again now, I would deliver a Leo flying kick before running away.

One, two, three, four...there were nine Fallen minions surrounding the pot, dancing in a primitive tribe manner. The bright white knives in their hands were dazzling, making me jealous. Poor me, a future Druid master, was still unarmed!

However, seizing their knives was unrealistic. In this world, any equipment, unless dropped by monsters, would eventually disappear along with their corpses.

When the nine Fallens were dancing, the elite Fallen shaman was sitting beside them, with distinct dark red skin among his blood-red minions. Its posture was as stable as a mountain, exuding the composure of an enlightened monk. Occasionally, its eyes would flash a sharp gleam, looking at the dancing minions with disdain, as if a group of rookies were showing off their skills in front of a master.

Right before we started the attack, suddenly the Fallen shaman made a motion. It raised its head, and a sharp gaze shot straight toward our hiding place like a blade. I was startled. It had been keeping its head down for quite a while. Could it have sensed our presence hundreds of meters away by our scent or subtle sound? Could it not just be a shaman, but a hidden boss? Perhaps it was not too late to run away now?

The old Fallen Shaman, with his right hand tightly gripping a ghost-headed staff and his left hand waving lightly, emitted a gesture of master that made my heart skip a beat. The Fallen minions that had just been surrounding the pot immediately gathered swiftly behind him, adopting a defensive formation, transforming from slack hooligans into skilled warriors.

It was clear that they had spotted us and were preparing to charge. I thought it was time to drag El et al. to flee. But then, the Fallen shaman stood beside the large pot, dancing a strange ritual dance, like someone in the throes of epilepsy, humming with incomprehensible tone. He began to dance around the pot, with his hips rotating rapidly like an electric drill. The Fallen minions standing behind the shaman watched him with adoring eyes, like the zealots in front of God.

It turned out that it just wanted to lead the dance... I guessed he might also want to be the first to taste flesh...

As the Fallens immersed themselves in the frenzy of the meal, El waved his hand, signaling the start of the action.

The three of them slowly crouched and crept towards the Fallen encampment, while I followed closely behind as the cheering squad. I was not as relaxed as El and the barbarians. Although this elite Fallen shaman, equivalent to an ordinary level 10 monster, combined with a group of level 2 Fallen minions, should be able to handle it by El et al, who were all over level 11. Yet, considering their pathetic equipment, my confidence wavered.

Based on my years of experience in Diablo II games, the dark red skin of the Fallen shaman indicated that its elite special ability was FIRE ENCHANTED. Since the main attack pattern of an ordinary shaman was fireballs, the attribute of FIRE ENCHANTED would surely enhance the power of its fireballs, not to mention monsters with FIRE ENCHANTED would trigger an explosion upon death. Unfortunately, none of them had fire-resistant equipment, if they were not careful, they might fall into huge trouble here.

Well, it turned out I had worried too much. Once the combat began, El was the first to strike. He started the RISIST FIRE aura, then quickly bypassed the Fallen encampment and cast a sacrifice on the Fallen Shaman expertly from the other side, drawing the attention of all the Fallens to the other direction. Then, he raised his buckler and stun it with a smite. Meanwhile, the two barbarian brothers swung their axes fiercely at the shaman from the front.

After stunning the Fallen Shaman, El immediately turned around and raised his buckler to withstand the attacks of the Fallen minions. Once the sacrifice and smite had cooled down, he turned around again and performed another skill combo.

The tactic was simple but highly effective.

The elite shaman was worthy of his title, with higher defense and eight times the life of an ordinary shaman, allowing him to stand firmly even under initial fierce attacks of the level 11 barbarian brothers and the skill attacks of the level 12 El. It regained consciousness in less than a second. Until then, the barbarian brothers had only left four wounds on it.

Then the Fallen shaman immediately stepped back and unleashed a bright red fireball filled with rolling heat waves at Hector. Normally, this enhanced fireball would cause Hector considerable pain, but the resist fire aura from El reduced its damage to less than one-tenth of Hector's life.

With El's striking combo and defensive skills and the barbarian brothers' crazy axes, the elite Fallen shaman could not retaliate. The teamwork among the three was flawless. In a short while, the elite Fallen Shaman let out a final scream, and its dark red skin suddenly brightened. El shouted, "Retreat!" The three of them simultaneously attacked the Fallen minions on the other side, and kept them away from the Fallen Shaman, leaving its final explosion futile and dying ignominiously. On the other hand, the Fallen minions were killed in succession: Two were killed by El when they still focused on the Shaman, and three were chopped down during the counter-charge just now. Then, the remaining four were just a piece of cake.

Finally, El cleaned up the battlefield, while Rogoff and Hector took turns using the FIND POTION, trying to search for small potions from the Fallen minions to replenish their supplies. Barbarians had little useful attack skill in the early stages, so the mana of the Hector brothers was barely used, sufficient to perform four potion finding. Finally, they found a minor mana potion from the Fallen shaman. Mana exhausted and panting, the two brothers sat on the ground, but they were not disappointed. In other words, this outcome was considered a slight gain.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

"Brother Hector, what level is your AXE MASTERY?" I asked Hector, who was sitting beside me resting and regaining mana.

"Oh, it's only level 3," Hector told me.

"You should have learned SHOUT already, right? It can increase team defense? Why didn't you use it?" I asked curiously.

"Isn't shout learned at level 12?" Hector looked at me even more curiously than me.

"Oh, haha, I forgot it. I remember someone told me that level 12 is a skill threshold. Shitty memory!" I patted my head as if finally remembered and laughed to cover up my shock.

"Yes, indeed. 12, 24, 36, 48, and 60, are all skill thresholds. It takes until level 60 to learn all the skills," I said.

Hector nodded, "Skills like WHIRLWIND, BERSERK, BATTLE COMMAND, and NATURAL RESISTANCE, all the top-tier skills, can only be learned at level 60. That's when one can truly be called a barbarian warrior." Hector's eyes sparkled with excitement, probably envisioning his majestic-looking casting berserker or whirlwind and standing still facing fire, wind, lightning, and poison.

No wonder El chose SACRIFICE as the first strike instead of CHARGE, which is faster and more sudden. Based on this, CHARGE could be learned at level 24.

"Everyone, come here! Quick!" El suddenly shouted excitedly towards us, who was cleaning up nearby.

"There must be something good!" Hector also became excited and rushed over. Years of partnership gave him the reason why El's got excited.

El was standing beside the corpse of the Fallen shaman, holding a ring in his hand. The drop rate of elite monsters was indeed impressive.

"We've had a good harvest today. The Fallen Shaman dropped not only two minor healing potions and one minor mana potion but also a ring," El said excitedly, as the ring was rare during their adventure. El had been a Paladin for three years and ventured with Hector and Rogoff for over two years. However, among the three of them, only El had a ring with +2 strength, which made the Barbarian brothers yearning. Now they had one more ring, like a timely rain after a long drought.

"Beyond that, it's a fire-resistant ring! Oh my God, he must have heard our prayers." El said with devotion, just like an ordinary Paladin.

Hector and I examined the ring carefully, lying quietly in El's palm, glowing faint blue. It had already been identified by El using a scroll.

"Bronze Crimson Ring: +11 to attack rating, fire resist +8%."

Honestly, any Diablo II player wouldn't even bother picking up such a trash ring, while at this moment, it was a rare treasure, being gently held in El's palm, as if it wasn't a ring but his son.

"Hurray!" Hector rubbed his hands excitedly and cheered.

After a brief discussion, the ring was given to Hector. El already had a ring, and the +11 to attack rating was more suitable for a barbarian. After all, powerful attacks and a high miss rate had always been unique characteristics of barbarians. Rogoff and El both considered that although Hector fought bravely, his style was too aggressive and reckless. Therefore he needed the accuracy boost more urgently.

"El, I want to learn some combat skills too," I begged El that night as we gathered around the campfire.

"Huh? Didn't your tutor teach you?" El asked with a puzzled look.

"Uh, my tutor disappeared after I chose my class," I said. I had been thinking about how to explain my past experiences to others these days. So, I invented a tutor and made him disappear, which explained the discrepancy between my game knowledge and this realistic Diablo II world. Nobody could find a fictional person anyway.

"What an irresponsible tutor. No wonder you ran deep in the wilderness alone so recklessly," El said angrily as if it was he who was abandoned.

Every venture hero was a treasure of this world. The existence of these venturers was the reason that the entire human world had not been annexed by hell. Especially those geniuses who can choose their class at my age were even more precious. In the Diablo world, there would be only one venture hero among every 10,000 civilians on average, and the average age of a venture hero was above 30. Those who could choose their class before 30 would be called geniuses. Yet it was very irresponsible that such a genius was left behind on his own so early. That was the reason why El got very angry.

By the way, the average lifespan of civilians on the Dark Continent was around 100 years, while venture heroes could live for at least 200 years. Even the legendary sorcerer Tal Rasha lived for thousands of years.

"Uh-huh, absolutely..." I quickly agreed with El, pretending to denounce this imaginary tutor together.

"First of all, every venture hero has their own interface. You should know that, right?" El explained, taking that for granted.

"Sorry about that..." I shook my head, playing the role of an abandoned lamb. El's face immediately showed up an extremely expressive motley of colors, as if he was simultaneously frozen, burned, paralyzed, and poisoned.

"Damned bastard, Milo, what's your tutor’s name? I'll give him a proper greeting on behalf of the gods when I see him!" El almost gritted his teeth when saying the last few words.

It was unexpected that El was so pissed. I felt somewhat embarrassed, and could only chuckle.

"Alas！” El was very angry about my “tutor”. He couldn't allow a genius venture hero like me to die due to a lack of basic knowledge.

"First, close your eyes and silently recite ‘attribute status’ in your heart."

I closed my eyes and silently thought about what El just told me.

"Don't worry, it will be always more difficult at the first time. It will be easier when you get used to it"

I had always doubted whether I was a real druid as they recognized. I didn't know what would happen if my identity of being a traveler from another world was discovered. This possibility lingered in my mind like a nightmare.

While El's constant guidance echoed in my ears, I took a deep breath and suddenly opened my eyes. A translucent attribute frame appeared before me, finally relieving me. Fortunately, I could now venture into this world with a little confidence.

Name: Milo

Class: Druid Redeemer

Level: 1

Experience: 0

Experience to next level: 5000

Strength: 15, Dexterity: 20, Vitality: 25, Energy: 20

Attack: 0-1

Life: 55, Stamina: 84, Mana: 20, Defense: 11 (Other attributes omitted)

Redeemer? 5000 experience to the next level??

"How is it?" El couldn't wait to ask, as I just stood there watching.

It looked like they couldn't see my attribute frame. I was a little relieved as I was not sure if they also had the title “Redeemer”.

"Umm, it's open now, but I'm only level 1 with 0 experience. It takes a lot of experience to level up." I replied.

"Haha, dear Milo, don't worry. It's just 5000 experiences. You are so young. I believe with enough diligence and luck, you can surpass level 24 before 30." El said admiringly.

So everyone needs the same amount of experience to level up. The only thing that mattered was the suffix "Redeemer". Well, it was not a good idea to inquire about it. Maybe I could figure it out later.

"Oh? That’s awesome!" I was also excited. Although I was not sure how this venture would be, at least my starting point was not bad.

Next, under El's guidance, I tried my inventory, skill bar, and quest log. Until now, El had taught me all the basics he knew. The rest I had to experience slowly during the venture on my own.