As I ventured deeper into the grasslands, the frequency of monster appearances began to increase. Once, I even stumbled upon a camp of Sinking Demons with several hundred members and at least ten Sinking Mage elites. In such a massive group, there must be an elite-level monster serving as their leader. However, even if I were to level up and learn new skills, I still wouldn't have enough strength to take on this huge camp of Sinking Demons. Even for Larr and Akala, if they were discovered by this group of demons, it would mean certain death. It's clear that caution is necessary; one cannot simply rely on high levels to show off.

After avoiding that large gathering place of Sinking Demons from afar, I encountered some tough-skinned rats later on. These cunning but pitiful creatures could only resort to hiding in the bushes and attacking unsuspecting newcomers due to their lack of strength. For beginners like me, they posed quite a challenge; however experienced players had interesting ways of dealing with them.

Larr and Akala had both taught me how to handle these rats before - which turned out to be quite effective when put into practice! First off was finding which bush the rat was hiding in - something experienced players could do at just a glance while it took me longer since I only noticed movement after passing by occasionally.

Next came provoking them - throwing things recklessly into the small thicket until they couldn't bear it anymore and charged out screaming angrily (they're short-tempered fools). This made them easy targets since what used to provide cover now became their fatal weakness: you can lead them around while staying within range but outside their line-of-sight then attack from behind where they can't see you coming!

Don't worry about them running back into the bushes either; once enraged like this they'll keep chasing you until death or until you've been out of their sight for more than five minutes. This method is foolproof and can take down the rats without any losses.

The specific process of taking down these tough-skinned rats was as follows: first, provoke them to come out . Then, follow along the bushes and sneak up behind them to knock them unconscious with a club. After that, move around to the other side where they're facing away from you - seeing how silly they look guarding against your previous position makes it hard not to laugh! Knocking them out again is easy at this point.

I only talked about it; actually using clubs or bricks requires practice!

It turns out that my so-called "sneaky" style had already become popular on this continent long before I arrived. I thought I was some kind of pioneer but apparently not!

This sneaky method yields great results too - one rat even dropped 40 arrows which weren't just ordinary ones sold in markets since they came with additional damage stats that could stack with weapon damage when used by Amazon archers. Selling these arrows would fetch a good price.

By afternoon, my experience points had exceeded 3000; looks like tomorrow I'll be able to level up and learn new skills. That's when things will get really exciting for me! Hoho~~

Looking at my body, today I've got three bottles of slightly red potions and one bottle of slightly blue potion, in addition to the quiver of arrows that the hard-skinned rat dropped. Speaking of potions, it reminds me of belts. Even if there is no belt in different games, there are four consumable slots inside. In the world of Diablo, if you don't have a belt, you won't have any space.

Actually, I'm also very puzzled about where those four consumable slots come from without a belt! Belly button? Blizzard's game is really ridiculous.

In addition to this, I also have 12 gold coins and 39 silver coins (the common currency on the mainland; 1000 copper coins = 100 silver coins = 1 gold coin; one silver coin is equivalent to one dollar in the original world). Damn it! Just by casually killing monsters along the way, I earned value equivalent to 1800 yuan. It's so easy for job changers to make money!

I deeply feel that my shameless use of bug talismans has turned into my own luck value. Proudly shaking my index finger and pretending to be profound while talking to myself: "With good luck anything is possible."

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

Actually, if it weren't for bug talismans now even getting five gold coins would already be considered extremely lucky.

This journey has taught me a lot. Not sure whether it's because I have good luck or not but as I went further ahead even camps with more than a thousand Fallen demons were encountered by me including one camp where all Fallen demons appeared fiery red from afar until they reached up high into sky like flames engulfing everything nearby leaving nothing behind except barren land devoid even grasses which was quite an appetite whetting sight but unfortunately their meat tastes worse than grass so please don’t target me! While sweating profusely with fear, I tiptoed and ran away as fast as possible...

Camps like this with more Fallen demons are more troublesome because the more there are, the more Fallen mages there will be. They often hide in the center. Unless a ranged profession shoots them down, you can only rush into the middle of their army and kill them one by one; otherwise, just 100 or so fallen mages resurrecting continuously is enough to make you collapse.

As for the large group of zombies, I haven't encountered them. The most I've seen is a dozen or so gathered together for a small party. Even so, if there are more than five of them, I have to take a detour. Just wait and see, once I learn the skills, I'll wipe you all out...

In the evening when I was completely clueless - according to Akara's instructions, I should be getting close to the Evil Cave by now - it started to get difficult without any coordinates displayed as in legends. The whole wasteland is so vast that how can I find that damn cave entrance? Do you think this is a game where you can just follow the main road?

Looking at the endless grassland wasteland ahead of me made finding an entrance to a cave seem harder than climbing up into heaven.

Hey! What's that? Why is there such a tall pole standing upright? It's thin and high; definitely not trees. Squinting my eyes with my abnormal vision only slightly inferior to Amazon and Assassin classes', immediately spotted from several kilometers away was a tall pole with a big flag hanging on top which seemed like something written on it but too far away for me to read clearly.

Could it be...

After killing several sudden zombies halfway through less than an hour later, I had already arrived near that flag. Sure enough next to chess pieces was an abyssal black hole emitting chills down one's spine while constantly emanating putrid stench making people nauseous.

I took note of this very distinctive flag which crookedly wrote: "Evil Cave."

No need to say anything else; who else could have set up such wickedness besides those old undeads from Mage Guild...

I didn't immediately enter the cave since no one knows what conditions were inside; even though information in games cannot be trusted anymore despite Akara emphasizing repeatedly that I must form a team before entering.

I set up my tent not far from the Evil Cave, installed traps and checked the sun which had just gone down. It seemed like it was not worth wasting time so I wandered around near the campsite and killed several small monsters who were separated from their groups. As for large groups of monsters, if they were found wandering nearby, then I would have to consider moving the tent further away. The spirit of bullying the weak and fearing the strong was perfectly embodied in me at this moment; hmph, ask if you're afraid...

It wasn't until nightfall that I stopped "practicing" and returned to my campsite where I had already prepared firewood. Taking out some dried meat to eat casually, after killing monsters all day long, I was too tired both physically and mentally.

The next day when dawn broke, I couldn't wait to get up early and pack everything while checking my experience level: Level 1 with 4258/5000 points.

It seems like today is going to be a leveling-up day! The temptation of powerful skills is truly endless!

"Ding!" With the last zombie falling down, precious 40 experience points immediately caused a white light aura on my body as if soaking in hot springs; all exhaustion and fatigue disappeared instantly.

"I leveled up."

I raised my wooden stick high, as if it were not a stick but a trophy in my hand. It felt like I had just won the world championship instead of leveling up. With the flag waving behind me as a background, there was indeed some flavor to it.

Skills were what I cared about most. After laughing wildly, the first thing I did was open the skill panel.

In the first stage, there were five skills that could be learned: Poisonous Vine, Summon Crow, Werewolf Transformation, Shapeshifting and Firestorm. However, at this moment I only had one skill on hand. Which one should I upgrade? My brain which was still in an excited state began to worry.

I had vague memories of these skills from playing games before. But since many strange things happened that didn't match with the game's rules anymore, I dared not use my knowledge from games to measure Dark World anymore.

Damn it! Now I realize how good it would have been to have a master! Other newbies probably already knew about these skills' values from their masters before they even started practicing them. Only someone like me who fell out of nowhere into being a druid would know nothing at all.