The Big Saw Blade

After observing the situation inside the lumberyard, Liu Xuan estimated that there were more than two hundred monsters.

Killing them would be easy, but he needed to think of a way to make collecting the loot afterward less troublesome.

It would be best to find a narrow area and lure all the monsters there.

The entire lumberyard was open, with no walls and naturally no gates to make use of.

However, Liu Xuan noticed that the logs piled up in the open area had gaps of about two meters between them.

Perhaps he could lure the monsters over there.

Liu Xuan had no intention of poisoning every monster to stack his attributes. That would take far too much time.

Besides, these Porcupine Men were huge and packed tightly together. At most, he could poison three or four monsters at a time. Once Corpse Explosion was triggered, the result would be the same anyway.

So Liu Xuan swaggered toward the lumberyard. Under the dull, vacant gazes of the Porcupine Men, he walked right up to them, circled around in front of them, and finally beckoned to the Porcupine Chief with his finger.

“Come over here!”

These monsters had never seen such an arrogant human before. After a brief moment of silence, the Porcupine Chief let out a roar, and every Porcupine Man in the lumberyard charged at Liu Xuan.

The boss itself picked up its saw blade and door-sized shield before lumbering toward him.

Liu Xuan had already turned around and run between the piles of logs, where he waited for them.

The Porcupine Men shouted as they squeezed into the narrow gap. Since it was too narrow, only two could enter at a time, while all the others were stuck outside.

These creatures were not particularly intelligent either. They did not know how to go around and simply kept charging forward.

At that moment, the first Porcupine Warrior reached Liu Xuan. Without saying a word, it swung its axe and struck him squarely in the center of the head.

“-46!”

“-72!”

Two damage figures appeared. The former was dealt by the Porcupine Warrior, while the latter was the damage from the Nightmare Avatar’s Fear.

As magic damage, the Porcupine Warrior’s pitiful armor was completely useless.

The Porcupine Warrior, terrified, ran backward uncontrollably, only to be blocked by its companions who were still pushing forward from behind. Unable to move, it could only wave its arms around in confusion.

Once the two-second control effect ended, it finally turned around, intending to teach the hateful human a lesson.

But just as it clumsily raised its logging axe, a terrifying number exploded above its head:

“-2340!”

The Plague Source’s poison damage had triggered. The Porcupine Warrior’s mere ten points of armor were utterly insignificant beneath such tremendous damage.

Its health bar was instantly emptied, and Corpse Explosion activated.

“-4700!”

“-4700!”

“-4700!”

……

Countless damage figures erupted above the monsters’ heads. Corpse Explosion dealt true damage, rendering armor completely useless—not that armor would have made any meaningful difference even if it worked.

By then, the Porcupine Chief had shoved aside the minions in front of it and entered the range of its skill.

With a roar, it furiously launched a skill resembling a charge at Liu Xuan.

Its entire body—or rather, its entire porcine body—surged toward Liu Xuan at incredible speed, knocking its own minions over as it went.

But before it could reach Liu Xuan, Corpse Explosion had already spread to it.

The minions around it exploded one after another. Their deaths triggered further explosions, which killed more minions in turn. Amid the chain of blasts, the Porcupine Chief was blown to death by its own minions before it could even finish its charge.

“You killed Porcupine Warrior and gained 6 experience.”

“You killed Porcupine Shieldbearer and gained 6 experience.”

“……”

“You killed Porcupine Chief and gained 200 experience.”

The entire lumberyard was cleared out in an instant.

A huge pile of materials and equipment dropped at Liu Xuan’s feet.

There were more than a thousand copper coins alone.

Even more surprising was that the Porcupine Chief had dropped a gold coin outright. Its two weapons—the saw blade and the door-sized shield—had also dropped.

They now lay on the ground, glowing with a blue light that marked them as treasures.

There was a good chance that they were guaranteed drops for a first clear.

Just as Liu Xuan was about to step forward and pick them up, an announcement suddenly popped up.

“Congratulations! As the first Warrior on Blue Star to kill a boss, you have been awarded 5 free attribute points and one [Fine] quality main weapon for your class.”

“Detected that you are an experimental class with no class-specific main weapon.”

“Reward replaced with: One opportunity to upgrade the quality of a piece of equipment of [Fine] quality or lower.”

Liu Xuan scratched his head. He had not expected killing a boss to come with an additional reward.

He continued putting his attribute points into Agility. At present, he was essentially using his own legs as a mount, so the higher his Agility, the better.

As for the other reward—an equipment upgrade opportunity… Well, he should first see what the boss had dropped.

What if the boss had dropped a piece of equipment worth upgrading?

Liu Xuan turned his attention to the Porcupine Men’s loot and began “sweeping the ground.”

Besides dropping five to seven copper coins each, the Porcupine Men also dropped large quantities of [Rough Leather], a material used to craft equipment.

They had also dropped quite a bit of equipment, including the [Hide Armor] they wore, the logging axes they used, and numerous small round shields.

Altogether, there were sixty or seventy pieces of equipment.

Liu Xuan’s backpack had only twenty basic slots and four five-slot Snake Leather Bags, for a total of forty slots. There was no way he could fit everything inside.

After making a selection, he replaced his current white-quality equipment with a [Hide Armor].

[Hide Armor]

Quality: Excellent

Level Requirement: 6

Armor: +10

Strength: +1

He then picked out several pieces of white-quality equipment with higher armor values and replaced the gear he was wearing. His armor immediately rose to 30 points.

Of course, the most important items were the boss’s drops.

The two weapons had the following attributes:

[Great Saw Blade]

Quality: Fine

Level Requirement: 7

Additional Attack: 15–20

Strength: +5

Effect: When your Strength exceeds 35, you may wield this weapon in one hand and gain an additional 5 Strength.

[Door-Sized Greatshield]

Quality: Fine

Level Requirement: 7

Armor: 30

Strength: +5

Effect: When your Strength exceeds 35, you may wield this shield in one hand and gain an additional 5 Strength.

“What outrageous attributes!”

Liu Xuan could not help exclaiming in surprise.

He checked his current attributes. After putting on the [Hide Armor], he had gained one point of Strength, bringing his total to 32.

He could equip one of these items first, use the Strength it provided to break through 35, and then trigger its effect to gain another 5 Strength.

That probably did not count as a bug, right? After all, the effect did not say that it required base Strength.

With that thought in mind, Liu Xuan equipped the [Great Saw Blade] first. He immediately discovered that his Strength had risen to 42.

In other words, the effect could indeed be triggered!

He then picked up the [Door-Sized Greatshield] and equipped it as well.

His Strength shot directly up to 52, while his health reached more than 49,000!

A thoroughly satisfied smile appeared on Liu Xuan’s face.

If the two weapons had simply given him 20 points of Strength outright, he would not have been nearly this pleased.

But getting 20 points of Strength by exploiting a “bug” was a completely different story.

How should I put it? It was like finding a ten-yuan bill on the street, only to pick it up and discover another ten-yuan bill underneath.

In one word—sweet!