Five days passed.
Today was the seventh day since the Samsara Online server opened for the first time. During these seven days, the number of people entering the game not only did not decrease but instead increased exponentially every day.
This only helped to further demonstrate that Samsara Online would become the second world of humanity. Even those people who seemed skeptical at first had no choice but to accept reality.
After 7 days of the game, the average level of players increased violently, and finally, many players were between level 9 and close to level 10. Those crazy players, who did not disconnect 24 hours a day and spent their time grinding monsters to gain experience would naturally rise faster than those people who still lived their lives in the real world.
Those players who reach level 10 can take the first test to change jobs. Upon passing such a test, the player can be teleported out of the beginner's village and head to one of the main cities of the Adastreia Continent, officially starting a new journey in this new and unknown world.
However, although many players had already reached level 10, none of them had been teleported yet.
The experience rate obtained by the monsters is unfortunately low compared to the amount of experience required to level up, while the drop rate was not much better in comparison.
This means that increasing the distance of levels and the difference in the quality of equipment between players was also incredibly difficult.
According to the official Samsara Online forum, the number of silver equipment so far was only 5 in the entire Chinese server; 5 silver-grade objects among hundreds of millions or even more people.
For all these reasons together, being the first player to leave the beginner's village was a big challenge. Not only that, passing the trials with success was the problem; in case of failing and dying in the attempt, the player will lose 1 level and to try again he will have to spend hours or maybe days to raise that lost level again.
This is something that no player is willing to see, since, dying at this moment and losing a level means falling behind the rest.
In other words, players who fail the trial will become a ladder for those who pass on the first attempt.
Only from this moment on the players will be able to start moving away from the rest and fight to become the king of this world.
The trials to upgrade the occupation are divided into modes:
Normal Mode: Passing the trial in normal mode gives the player as a reward +2 points to the 4 basic attributes. That is equivalent to almost 2 levels.
Hard Mode: Passing the trial in hard mode gives the player as a reward +4 points to the 4 basic attributes. This is equivalent to 3 levels.
Nightmare Mode: Passing the trial in nightmare mode gives the player as a reward +4 points to the 4 basic attributes and +1 luck point. Besides, the system also gives as an additional reward a random piece of bronze grade equipment.
Despair Mode: Passing the trial in this level gives the player +5 points for the 4 basic attributes (STR/VIT/AGI/INT), +1 luck point, +1 charm point, and a random silver grade piece of equipment.
Despair mode awards status points equivalent to 4 levels!
(((A/N: This does not mean that the trial gives away +4 levels. It only gives 20 status points in total. When a player level up he/she receives 5 points, so 5*4=20..cough.)))
However, this is not all. Those players who pass the test in Desperation Mode receive a worldwide announcement of the system in which their name and that of their group are made known to the whole world!
Here is another clear way that players will begin to differentiate between 'weak' and 'strong'. If a player chooses and passes the test in the normal mode he/she will get +8 status points. While a player who passes the challenge in nightmare mode will get +16 status points.
Of course, the difference in names also emphasizes the difficulty of the trial.
Normal: Refers to something that players can overcome without too much trouble.
Hard: It means that the players will have to make an effort to overcome this level of difficulty.
Nightmare: Players will experience what is a real nightmare in which the hope of overcoming it successfully is practically nil.
Despair: ... Players cannot overcome this level. The meaning of the existence of this test is only for brave players to despair in the face of the impossible.
Therefore, although everyone can become stronger with a clear advantage from this point on, the difficulty of obtaining such strength and advantage is, of course, extremely difficult.
__________
[Ding!... Your level has increased to 10. +10 points of HP, +10 points of MP. You have obtained 5 points of basic attributes.]
[Ding!... Congratulations! You have reached the necessary level to head to the Adastreia continent and begin your journey. Go to the Guardian of the Village for more information.]
Upon hearing the announcement of the system, Xie Feng breathed a slight sigh of relief as he mumbled: "Finally level 10."
Because Xie Feng still sleeps at least 6 hours a day at night and has classes at the university during the day, the time he spends online is naturally less than the leveling crazies.
Still, playing less than 10 hours a day, which is less than half the time that others play and getting half the experience due to the Heaven forbidden curse, Xie Feng was not left behind and is shoulder to shoulder with all the players in the world.
"Well...let's finish this", said Xie Feng with a slight smile as he headed to the rookie village to receive his advance mission.
While walking slowly, Xie Feng opened his status window to check his available basic attribute points.
"20, uh", said Xie Feng as he rubbed his chin.
From level 6 to the recent level 10, Xie Feng did not use the 5 status points that the system gives each player after leveling up.
This is because, for some reason, Xie Feng was feeling uncomfortable these days. That discomfort was strange and for no apparent reason, so he could not describe exactly what it was about.
As he went along, Xie Feng shook his head and decided to increase his strength attribute (STR) and his intelligence attribute (INT) by 10 points respectively.
When he arrived at the beginner's village, Xie Feng did not immediately go to the Guardian and instead went to the Evaluation Shop.
The Evaluation Shop serves, as its name implies, to identify those objects that need to be pre-screened before they can be viewed and equipped
After entering the store, a pretty dark-skinned NPC welcomed him with a smile and said: "Welcome to my store, hero from another world. My name is Murong Qi, how can I help you?"
Xie Feng nodded courteously and expressed his purpose: "It is a pleasure to meet you, Murong Qi. I would like to identify some items of bronze and silver degree, the price for it varies according to the level, right?"
[Ding!... The favorable impression of Murong Qi towards you +10.]
When Murong Qi heard that the handsome young man in front of her actually had bronze and silver items, she was very surprised, however, as a professional, she responded quickly: "Yes, the price of identification varies according to the grade and level of the item, as the difficulty also increases accordingly."
Xie Feng nodded in understanding and said nothing more, he took 3 items from his inventory:
The silver-grade shoulder pads he got from the Lord BOSS-grade Demon Tiger he killed days ago, a bronze sword that needed to be identified, and a bronze upper armor that also needed to be identified to see its properties.
During these 5 days, Xie Feng met another Lord BOSS and killed it, unfortunately, this BOSS did not drop any silver equipment. However, it did drop a bronze sword and an upper body armor made of bronze; this will increase his physical attack and defense notably.
Murong Qi looked at the 3 objects for a moment and raised her head to talk to Xie Feng: "The price for the sword and armor is the same, 3 gold coins each. While the price for the silver shoulder pads is 10 gold coins. In total, that would be 16 gold coins."
Xie Feng almost fainted when he heard the price. He opened his inventory and looked at the number of gold coins he currently has: 16 gold coins, 5 silver coins.
Xie Feng couldn't help but thank all the gods for his luck and also rejoiced that he had sold all the steel and iron items he wasn't going to use, as that way he could get more coins to meet the necessary price.
Seeing him nod, Murong Qi also nodded and went to work. She held out her hand and touched an option that floated over the 3 items. Only 10 seconds later, the 3 items were returned to Xie Feng's inventory automatically and the 16 gold coins were removed and delivered to Murong Qi.
[Toothed Sword]
[Equipment grade: Bronze]
[Requirements: Level 10]
[Attributes: Physical attack power +20 / STR +1]
[Note: A long sword with sharp edges.]
.
[Vitality Armor]
[Equipment grade: Bronze]
[Requirements: Level 10]
[Attributes: Defense +25 / VIT +5]
[Note: An armor with good defense and vitality.]
.
[Shoulder pads of the Demon Tiger]
[Equipment grade: Silver]
[Requirements: Level 10]
[Attributes: Defense +20 / HP +40 / AGI +5]
[Note: They are so light that, instead of being heavy, they make you lighter!]
Xie Feng smiled with satisfaction after seeing the properties of the 3 items but did not equip them immediately.
Xie Feng thanked Murong Qi and left the Evaluation Shop, heading to the center of the square to talk to the Village Guardian.
His purpose? Naturally, to take the trial and then head to the Adastreia continent.