Chapter Ten: The Golden Young Dragon

After ending the call with Blue Feather, Lu Yang continued to level up frantically, determined to claim the top spot on the leaderboard before the game servers shut down tomorrow morning.

This wasn’t just any ordinary first place—it was the top rank among tens of millions of players starting simultaneously, a distinction that would be officially recorded by the game developers.

In his previous life, Lu Yang had remained inconspicuous during the early stages of the game. Even after gaining the ability to create a guild later on, most of the skilled players had already been recruited by the major guilds.

Now, reborn, Lu Yang resolved to make a name for himself from the very start. Though he wouldn’t establish a guild immediately, forming a twenty-person elite squad was still feasible, which would be convenient for dungeon runs and leveling in the wild.

Lu Yang didn’t fear drawing unwanted attention. The game closely mirrored reality—no health bars or names floated above players’ heads. Without adding each other as friends, no one could tell who was in front of them. Even if someone was displeased at seeing Lu Yang top the leaderboard, with over ten million players, finding him in the vast sea of gamers was impossible.

The thought of surpassing the leaders of major guilds and various leveling maniacs to become the uncontested number one on the leaderboard exhilarated Lu Yang. After his mana fully recovered, he resumed grinding.

He hunted so many wild buffalo in the valley that none remained. Staring at the barren ground littered only with buffalo corpses, Lu Yang felt a bit frustrated.

After killing hundreds of buffalo, not a single piece of equipment dropped. Lu Yang had to admit—the drop rates in The Second World were truly abysmal.

Fortunately, The Second World replicated real life to an astonishing degree. Players could skin the buffalo and use other life skills, then sell the hides at the newbie village’s NPC vendors. Otherwise, ordinary players wouldn’t be able to afford to play the game.

After eating a piece of crispy electric eel meat to fully restore his mana, Lu Yang used a rope to descend into the hollow-shaped valley and began skinning the buffalo carcasses.

Each buffalo hide sold for three copper coins. Though the sum was small, every bit counted.

While skinning and scanning for respawned monsters, a flash of golden light suddenly appeared at the entrance of the hollow-shaped valley. Lu Yang’s entire body shivered, his eyes reddening with excitement.

“A Golden Wyrmling.”

When it came to which boss was the strongest or the toughest in The Second World, ten thousand players would give ten thousand different answers. But when it came to the boss responsible for the most player deaths, no one disputed the same choice.

As a level-5 boss roaming the outskirts of the newbie village, the Golden Wyrmling was small—about the size of a dog—with a gleaming golden body, immature wings, and a dragon head that looked more cute than fierce. Yet this tiny creature was both loved and hated by all players.

Loved because it dropped excellent gear—the best level-5 equipment in the newbie village. Hated because it hit hard, moved fast, boasted high defense, and had a thick health pool. Many players mistook encountering this boss for good luck, but in reality, it was the beginning of misfortune.

New players fresh out of the newbie village wielded only basic swords and wore starter armor. The Second World’s drop rates were low—level-5 gear didn’t represent a huge leap in power. Even knights with thick health bars would fall to the Golden Wyrmling in three hits, other classes in two, and fragile mages in just one.

Being in a group didn’t help much either. There was a legendary incident where a single Golden Wyrmling slaughtered over a hundred players before casually departing. Without skilled teamwork, sufficient numbers, and good gear, defeating it was impossible.

However, the Golden Wyrmling did have a weakness—it only attacked in close range. On flat ground, Lu Yang would keep as far away as possible. But now, standing on a cliff, if he lured the Wyrmling into the hollow valley, he could exploit the terrain’s quirks to kill it. Thinking of the top-tier gear it might drop, Lu Yang felt fortune smiling upon him.

Dropping the half-skinned buffalo hide, Lu Yang turned and climbed the cliff via the rope, rushing to the left upper edge of the hollow valley.

Just as Lu Yang arrived, the Golden Wyrmling passed the base of the cliff. As it was about to leave his attack range, Lu Yang immediately cast Fireball.

Three seconds later, just as the Wyrmling was about to exit range, the fireball struck its body with a loud “boom.”

“-35”

“Roar~”

The Golden Wyrmling, struck, turned and charged at Lu Yang. When it neared the cliff’s edge, it suddenly spread its wings and leapt high. But as it closed within two meters of Lu Yang, it fell back down.

The Wyrmling’s legs desperately clawed at the cliff face, but the steep rocks provided no foothold. After several attempts, it tumbled back to the ground.

Had the Wyrmling landed a hit, it would have instantly killed Lu Yang. But that two-meter gap was just enough to keep him safe.

Watching the Wyrmling anxiously hopping beneath the cliff, unable to fly up, a relieved smile crossed Lu Yang’s face. That initial pounce had startled him.

He lured the Golden Wyrmling deeper into the valley, wary that too many monsters outside might delay looting even if he killed it.

In his previous life, Lu Yang had never managed to kill the Golden Wyrmling. This boss was the prize of every major guild’s battles—from the early days to the late game, every respawn ignited guild wars.

Lu Yang hadn’t expected to gain such an advantage this time. After drawing the Wyrmling into the valley, he cast Fireball again.

In The Second World, players received five free attribute points with each level up. Lu Yang had invested all previous points into Intelligence. Including the automatic one-point increase per level, his Intelligence reached 16, plus 10 from the Demon God’s Heart and another 5 from the crispy electric eel meat buff, totaling 31 points.

This high Intelligence granted Lu Yang a larger mana pool—310 points—and increased spell damage to 31.

Facing the Golden Wyrmling’s 10,000 health, without such mana and magic power, Lu Yang wouldn’t dare provoke it.

After more than two minutes of continuous attacks, the Wyrmling’s health dropped to 7,000. Suddenly, Lu Yang realized awkwardly that his mana was depleted.

The game’s system NPCs did not sell instant mana potions; only players with alchemy skills could craft them. Early in the game, no one knew how to make them. Seeing his empty mana bar, most players would be frustrated, but Lu Yang had a solution. Thanks to the crispy electric eel meat buff restoring 8 mana every 5 seconds, he spent two hours slowly wearing down the Golden Wyrmling until it finally died.

With a resentful roar, the Golden Wyrmling exploded in a 4x4 item drop. Among the sixteen items, Lu Yang immediately spotted a gleaming staff in the center.

“The Arsonist’s Staff.”