Online Game Era: Hundred Times Reward
Chapter 8 - Venomous Salamander

Chapter 8: Venomous Salamander

Before changing classes, players cannot continue to gain experience, so Jiang Chen could conveniently use this time to level up his skills.

“Ding! Congratulations, you have slain a Demonized Giant Lizard. Skill [Barrage Arrow] has gained 100 experience points!”

“Ding! ……”

“Ding! ……”

As time ticked by, one Demonized Giant Lizard after another collapsed at Jiang Chen’s feet. However, the experience required to level up skills was extremely high. The silver-grade skill [Barrage Arrow] required triple the amount of experience needed to level up a character. After two hours, his skill had only reached level 7.

[Barrage Arrow] (Lv7)

Experience: (900/15000)

Description: The archer uses exquisite archery skills to unleash a rapid series of three attacks. Each hit deals 100% damage. Cooldown: 10 seconds. Mana cost: 30 points.

Three shots, each dealing 100% damage—utterly terrifying.

Even more crucially, this skill had only a 10-second cooldown.

But this was also reasonable. Right now, even if players had skills, they wouldn’t spend the time to level them up. Just like Jiang Chen’s [Barrage Arrow]—the experience needed to upgrade it could level up three players.

Moreover, current skill qualities were simply too low. Even if you trained them, they wouldn’t be of much use.

Every player in the newbie village was solely focused on getting out of the village as quickly as possible, because upon reaching the main city, they could learn class-specific skills from mentors. That was when leveling up skills really mattered.

As Jiang Chen couldn’t gain experience from doing quests, he used the opportunity to upgrade his skills instead.

But the result was unexpectedly satisfying—[Barrage Arrow] shot three arrows at once, for a total of 300% damage.

No player could withstand Jiang Chen’s skill.

“Ding!”

“You have entered the dangerous map [Spirit Spring Cave]. Please proceed with caution.”

As he was thinking, Jiang Chen also found the quest location for this journey.

Without hesitation, he stepped right in.

“Drip…”

“Drip…”

The cave was extremely damp, and the sound of water droplets hitting the ground echoed clearly in the silence.

Wearing the Wind Spirit Boots that shimmered with a bluish light, Jiang Chen stepped forward through the damp soil with his longbow in hand, advancing step by step.

According to the village chief, there was a powerful monster inside. But with the dim lighting and unclear enemy positions, Jiang Chen didn’t dare to let his guard down.

Two minutes later.

A massive, grotesque lizard appeared before Jiang Chen.

Its body was five or six meters long, covered in nauseating, poisonous boils, and it had a pair of scarlet eyes that spun wildly, offering 360-degree vision with no blind spots.

Suppressing his nausea, Jiang Chen stepped forward and summoned its stat panel.

[Venomous Salamander]

Rarity: Bronze-tier BOSS

Level: Lv15

HP: 315,000

Attack: 175–233

Defense: 109

Skill: Venom (Attacks are infused with salamander venom. Target loses 10 HP per second for 30 seconds)

Skill: Claw Combo (Rapidly slashes three times, each hit deals 100% damage)

Description: A monstrously powerful creature from the Waterfall Cliff. After being nourished by the spirit spring’s energy, its strength greatly increased.

It was practically a chunk of solid rock!

Three hundred fifteen thousand HP—more than double the Wild Dog King. While its attack wasn’t overwhelming, the venom was deadly enough. What’s more, its defense was absurdly high—109 points. At this stage, no one besides Jiang Chen could possibly break through that kind of defense.

However, his Wind Spirit Longbow came with 20% armor penetration, making it extremely effective against this BOSS.

Behind the BOSS stood a stone platform faintly glowing with light. That should be the mission objective—the Spirit Spring.

“Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!”

There was no avoiding this fight. Jiang Chen raised his longbow, and a burst of [Barrage Arrow] launched the battle.

The longbow trembled repeatedly, instantly releasing three arrows like chained iron, bursting forth and hitting the Venomous Salamander head-on.

–219!

–219!

–219!

The Venomous Salamander had tough skin and thick flesh with high defense, but Jiang Chen’s Wind Spirit Longbow had 20% armor penetration. Against Jiang Chen, the BOSS’s defense was effectively only 87 points.

So Jiang Chen’s attacks weren’t significantly blocked. Moreover, the monster had a major flaw—it was laughably slow, completely unable to keep up with his movements, making it easy to dodge its attacks.

Although the Venomous Salamander was a level 15 BOSS, at this moment it was nothing more than a moving target. Jiang Chen backpedaled and fired, keeping up a perfect rhythm.

The BOSS had no speed-boosting skills, and only a melee triple strike—there was no way it could ever land a hit on Jiang Chen with 70 Agility.

“Whoosh whoosh whoosh…”

Arrows flew rapidly. [Barrage Arrow] had only a 10-second cooldown and dealt solid damage with every burst. On top of that, Jiang Chen’s normal attacks didn’t lag either. He had entered his “kiting” showcase—dodging every skill is an archer’s highest discipline.

Very soon, the Venomous Salamander’s HP steadily declined. In about five minutes, a third of its health had already been shaved off, and it stood no chance of fighting back against Jiang Chen.

…

Jiang Chen didn’t know what tier the hidden class from the village chief was. If it was Epic or higher, that would be ideal.

In Hope World, hidden classes also had grades. They were roughly divided into: Common, Elite, Epic, Legendary, and Divine.

What Jiang Chen really wanted deep down was a Divine-class. But could some old man in a newbie village really have something that precious? Clearly unlikely.

His minimum requirement was at least an Epic class. Anything lower wouldn’t be worth switching—Common or Elite were just too low-end, barely stronger than the five basic classes, making them hardly worth the effort.

If it really was an Epic hidden class, would it trigger the [Hundredfold Reward] effect?

Jiang Chen held high hopes for this.

Any item affected by [Hundredfold Reward] would transform into an overwhelmingly powerful artifact. If an Epic-class hidden class were enhanced by his talent, could it directly become Divine-class?

Just imagining it was enough to get his blood pumping.

While Jiang Chen was lost in thought, the Venomous Salamander’s health had nearly been emptied. Even with 300,000+ HP, it couldn’t last twenty minutes under Jiang Chen’s assault.

Thud…

With a final [Barrage Arrow], the massive body of the Venomous Salamander finally collapsed with a heavy crash.

“Ding! Congratulations, you have slain a Demonized Giant Lizard. Skill [Barrage Arrow] has gained 10,000 experience points!”

The experience was massive—but still not enough to level up the Lv7 [Barrage Arrow].

But that wasn’t the most important thing. What really mattered was—what kind of loot did the BOSS drop?

Fighting off his disgust, Jiang Chen placed his hand on the salamander’s corpse.

The next second, the system notification rang out.

“Ding!”

“Congratulations! You have received the loot…”