9. The Goat Boss's loot, [Ice Shield].

Beyond the experience points, the loot dropped by the Goat Boss was truly the most enticing.

Su Yu stepped forward and flipped open the corpse of the Goat Boss.

As a level 4 boss and the first kill server-wide, the Goat Boss’s drops were exceptionally generous!

Among the loot were: [Rockcleaver Sword (Excellent) lv4], [Linen Gloves (Excellent) lv4], skill scrolls [Deadly Strike (Excellent)] and [Frost Shield (Common)], and [Horn of the Hill Goat Leader (Excellent)] x1.

“A skill scroll again! And it’s Deadly Strike, an ultimate skill for warrior classes!” Su Yu’s eyes brightened.

[Deadly Strike (Excellent)]: Deliver a furious strike to the target in front, dealing 170% physical damage based on attack power. The lower the target’s health, the higher the damage, up to a maximum of 340% attack power physical damage.

Cooldown: 3 seconds, Rage cost: 10 points.

Required level to learn: lv1

Deadly Strike is an exceptionally useful early skill for warriors, especially a godsend for slaying wild and dungeon bosses!

At this stage, any solo warrior who learns Deadly Strike would surely be sought after by the top five guilds nationwide and become a key cultivation target.

Unfortunately, Deadly Strike is exclusive to the warrior class, so Su Yu couldn’t use it at all.

He could only stash the skill scroll into his backpack.

He’d sell it back in town later.

Besides the Deadly Strike scroll, the Goat Boss also generously dropped another skill scroll.

[Frost Shield (Common)]: Use the power of frost to form a shield around you, absorbing damage equal to 200% of your spell power. While the Frost Shield lasts, if you are hit by melee attacks, the attacking melee units’ attack speed and movement speed are reduced by 20% for 5 seconds.

Instant cast, duration 60 seconds, cooldown 60 seconds, mana cost 10 points.

Required level to learn: lv1

Frost Shield is a signature early solo leveling skill for ice mages.

It can absorb 2-3 melee hits from monsters and also slows melee attackers, making kiting easier.

In Su Yu’s previous life, when playing a mage alt, the first thing was always to save enough spirit coins to buy Frost Shield and Frostbolt skill scrolls from the newbie village’s warehouse—a feature similar to an auction house—before leveling solo.

Since Su Yu was a mage player in his past life, he was very familiar with this skill.

Without much hesitation, he clicked to use it, spending 1100 spirit coins to upgrade Frost Shield to blue rare quality.

[Frost Shield (Rare)]: Use the power of frost to form a shield around you, absorbing damage equal to 400% of your spell power. While the Frost Shield lasts, if you are hit by melee attacks, the attacking melee units’ attack speed and movement speed are reduced by 40% for 5 seconds.

Instant cast, duration 60 seconds, cooldown 60 seconds, mana cost 30 points.

Having learned the new skill, Su Yu waved his hand, and Frost Shield was released.

Frost magic gathered around him, ultimately forming a translucent ice-crystal egg-shaped shield.

Seeing the familiar egg-shaped shield stirred some emotion within Su Yu:

“Ah! At last, I have some means of self-protection. But Frost Shield consumes 30 mana points—looks like I’ll need to find some gear to increase my mana pool!”

Su Yu’s current mana capacity was 140 points, and the [Basic Mana Recovery Potion] restored 100 mana.

During leveling and boss fights, Su Yu had been drinking potions nonstop, popping one as soon as his mana ran out.

But after so many potions, his mouth had grown bitter.

It would be best to get one or two pieces of equipment that increased mana capacity, so he wouldn’t have to chug potions so frequently.

“I remember there’s a hidden quest in the newbie village that rewards an excellent quality accessory. That accessory boosts mana by a large amount, perfect for me right now,” Su Yu thought.

Looking into his backpack, it was stuffed with random gear and materials, and only 37 [Basic Mana Recovery Potions] remained.

“Forget it, I’ll head back to town to resupply and complete that accessory quest before continuing to level.”

With that decided, Su Yu left the monster area and headed toward Nolan Village in the newbie zone.

...

A few minutes later, Su Yu returned to Nolan Village.

The village was as lively as ever, with countless players coming and going.

Some were busy leveling up, others wandered about admiring the scenery, treating the game as a “tourism simulator.”

As Su Yu reached the village entrance, the players around him noticed his level displayed above his head and immediately burst into exclamations:

“Oh my god! Level 3! We actually have a level 3 expert in the newbie village!”

“Wife, come look! A godlike player!”

“Boss, how did you level so fast? Any tips?”

“Are you a solo player? Want to join our guild? We are the ‘Empire’s Blood Slayers’ guild...”

Soon, Su Yu found himself surrounded by a crowd of players, all gazing at him with a mixture of envy and admiration.

Su Yu was no stranger to such attention; in his past life, he often found himself at the center of crowds as well.

But back then, most surrounding him were beautiful women; now, it was a group of burly men, which made him rather uncomfortable.

Helpless, Su Yu hid both his name and level, then addressed the crowd:

“Don’t envy me. I was just lucky to get a hidden quest that grants a huge amount of experience.”

“Be patient and explore the game, and sooner or later, you’ll get such quests too.”

With that, Su Yu turned and squeezed through the thinnest part of the crowd.

The players took his words at face value.

Seeing him leave, they didn’t press further and instead began discussing among themselves about seeking hidden quests.

Still, four or five players stubbornly followed, calling out loudly:

“Boss, where did you get that hidden quest?”

“Boss, interested in joining our guild?”

“Leveling is so hard! Boss, can you help me level? There are benefits~”

The last was said by a fairly attractive girl.

But Su Yu didn’t even glance their way; he quickened his pace down the village street.

His shoes were reinforced, making his movement speed faster than other players.

After weaving through the village twice with these players in pursuit, he successfully shook off his “followers.”

“Sigh! Looks like I’ll have to hide my level from now on. Otherwise, everywhere I go will attract crowds. That would be too troublesome,” Su Yu sighed silently as he headed toward the village warehouse.

He planned to auction off the drops from the two bosses.