I felt a little disappointed because, after all, elite-level monsters have limited drops. However, I was pleasantly surprised when I saw that it was a bottle of vitality recovery potion!

Even if Lal hadn't told me how precious and rare this cute little thing is, I could still recognize the importance of this potion in the real world. One bottle of such a vitality recovery potion is equivalent to a life-saving tool.

Let's do some calculations: without equipment or attribute bonuses, mana only recovers 1 point every 10 minutes. Drinking a bottle of minor mana recovery potion increases it by 10 points for 40 minutes. Meanwhile, drinking lightweight mana recovery potions increase it by 20 points for 10 minutes and lasts for 40 minutes (these are just examples; other types of potions have different effects).

Therefore, one can see how valuable a potion that instantly restores 35% can be. In an emergency situation, having one such potion can often turn the tide of battle or even save your life. To put it bluntly, if I were to exchange this vitality recovery potion on the market right now for blue equipment - assuming someone had extra blue equipment - I could easily get what I want.

Of course, there's no way I would sell it! While gear can be obtained over time through hard work and dedication in-game playtime but something as important as this cannot be sold.

However, at present my current mana level is too low to use this vital resource effectively since my maximum mana pool is only at twenty-four points while my werewolf form has only one hundred thirty-seven health points which means that using the vitality recovery potion won't make much difference unless its truly necessary.

After carefully wiping off the dust from the bottle with care before placing it into my inventory space reserved specifically for storing valuable items like these along with bug repellent talismans.

I continued searching around without paying any attention to the rotting corpse of the fallen mage.

"Yi."

Why are there so many bottles? I reached out and immediately found one. Moreover, there seemed to be many identical bottles nearby. I was puzzled; did I come across a legendary alchemist?

Upon closer inspection, it turned out that they were bundled together in a dozen small slender vials tied with string. The color of these vials was somewhat similar to life potions - red but with a hint of yellow - yet had some differences in appearance such as being smaller and more exquisitely designed.

Explosive Potion: Quantity 15 Damage 5-15

There were fifteen vials in total, which meant that there were fifteen explosive potions. It's really unfair for this elite-level fallen mage; how could its weak and frail body produce fifteen such potent potions?

Nevertheless, this is still good stuff! I almost couldn't contain my excitement because while explosive potions may not have an outstanding effect in-game playtime, they are rare treasures in this world. Just by looking at their damage output alone compared to my current wooden stick which only deals 1-6 points of damage (and even then it's ranged), makes them seem like specialized items for sneaky players who want to deal massive amounts of damage quickly especially during early stages where newbies can use all the help they can get.

It's just too bad that there aren't more than just fifteen vials available.

If only we had some neck-wringing gas potion instead! If explosive potions are hand grenades then neck-wringing gas potion is definitely a small poison gas bomb. When thrown out into the air, its poisonous fumes spread rapidly causing significant harm comparable or even greater than my venomous flower vine spell! However, obtaining these "newbie treasure" neck-wringing gas potion is as difficult as getting vitality recovery potions since both types are hard-to-find.

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I continued to search around, and it seemed like I had already found quite a few things. However, it wasn't until the fallen mage's body was about to disappear that I finally touched something else.

It was equipment! Based on the feeling transmitted through my hand, I excitedly made this judgment.

Quickly pulling out this piece of equipment for closer inspection revealed that it was a belt - specifically a white belt. While exciting at first glance, there is still some small disappointment since belts are considered the most useless type of gear in early stages due to their low defense rating.

What? You say they also have consumable space? That's true but think carefully: is consumable space useful during early stages?

Perhaps in-game playtime belts are indeed loved by countless lazy players because pressing hotkeys makes everything easier. It's certainly very convenient!

But don't forget that this isn't just any game; it's reality! Putting potions into your belt may be more convenient than putting them into inventory spaces when you need quick access but remember that at present all I have are minor red and blue potions which only increase mana by 10 points every ten

Therefore, these eight consumable slots are basically useless for newcomers who only have some low-level potions on hand. Putting minor red and blue potions in them is no different from putting them in the inventory space.

However, this is my first piece of equipment that dropped from a boss, so it has great commemorative value to me. Besides, it's not entirely useless because I still have a bottle of healing potion on hand. With the healing potion, those few seconds saved by the belt seem to be useful again.

After thinking about it, I transferred the healing potion that was just placed in the corner into the belt and added a few minor red potions to fill up space. After all, saving inventory space is always good. Even ants know that every little bit counts.

During this time period, the body of the sunken mage had disappeared. When I looked down at the ground, there were still five gold coins that I hadn't picked up yet! Elite monsters are really wealthy creatures! Feeling satisfied with what this elite monster had dropped for me already, picking up these five gold coins made me even happier.

I laughed foolishly for a while before slowly standing up. During my battlefield cleanup, the Venomous Flower Vine had already taken care of its opponents - four Sunken Demons were no more than a dessert to it.

Unexpectedly, I was given another big surprise when cleaning up the Sunken Demon battlefield. Not only did I find a bottle of light red liquid and over one gold coin, but also a cloth hat with an amazing bug protection charm that even small monsters would drop their equipment for. The equipment on Lahr and his team wasn't as good as this elite item.

There is a saying that goes something like "closed for three years and open for three years' worth of business." Hoho... I was so happy that I couldn't find my way north anymore. Although the defense of the hat was not as high as that of clothes, it was still valuable at this stage. At least compared to accessories, it felt useful.

Perhaps someone might say: "Is it really necessary to make such a fuss about just some points in defense?"

Whoever says that should come forward and slap themselves 100 times on their little JJ (penis). Saying such things means you are confusing the game with this dark world reality.

Honestly speaking, if we were talking about within the game itself, then maybe I wouldn't care too much about defense. However, in this real world reality, I truly experienced how important defense can be. The warmth generated by having some extra defense spread throughout my body made me feel its existence very clearly; even just slightly more defense could give me an added sense of security.

The damaged hat had 4 points in defense with durability between 5-7.

It's unfortunate there are two words preceding 'damaged', which reduced its value somewhat since durability can be repaired easily enough by Chaxiushu (a character name). Anyway, now that I've entered into petty bourgeoisie class, I'm not lacking in money anymore. However, the lost defense cannot be repaired.

But thinking about it again, I let go of my regrets. One should not be too greedy as it's already good enough that small monsters can drop equipment at all; being a bit shabby is to be expected.

I carefully examined the hat - its texture was somewhat old and there were some scratches on it. Fortunately, there were no holes.

Putting on the crooked hat made me look quite ridiculous. How to describe it? It was like Chen Peisi (a comedian) wearing a twisted little cloth cap during the Anti-Japanese War period with one side saying "Imperial Army" and the other side saying "Communist bandit".

However, there was nothing I could do since I couldn't wear this damaged hat properly anyway. The ear flaps hung down like two pieces of dog skin plaster stuck to my ears no matter how much I tried to adjust them; so forget about looking cool or anything like that! Well... just take off this traitorous-looking thing before returning to campsite; absolutely cannot let Lahr see me wearing this or he'll mock me endlessly! Humph! Actually what he wears on his head is also just an item without 'damaged' written on it...