Chapter Eleven: The Arsonist's Staff

Lu Yang’s eyes glowed with greed the moment he saw the loot. If it weren't for the wild bulls respawning all around him, he would have jumped down immediately.

In the game "Second World," equipment is categorized into Common, Bronze, Black Iron, Silver, Gold, Dark Gold, Epic, and Legendary. Generally, ordinary monsters drop Common and Bronze gear; elite monsters drop Bronze and Black Iron; and boss-level monsters drop Black Iron and Silver. The Golden Dragonling, however, is a special boss within the新手村 (Novice Village). Lu Yang had high expectations for the Arsonist’s Staff it might drop.

After spending an hour clearing out the surrounding monsters, Lu Yang rappelled down, quickly gathered the Arsonist’s Staff and other items, and climbed back up the mountain.

**Arsonist’s Staff (Gold Grade)**
Attack: 4—8
Constitution: +2
Intelligence: +10
Spell Damage: +24
Spell Critical Strike Chance: +12
Spell Hit Chance: +12
Bonus Spell: Wall of Fire

Looking at the top-tier stats of the Arsonist’s Staff, Lu Yang couldn't help but burst into laughter. "I knew it. My luck has been incredible since I was reborn."

Among all the equipment available in the Novice Village, items for other classes are typically Bronze or Black Iron, with Silver being the absolute peak. Only the Mage class has a Gold-grade staff, but its drop rate is less than one in a hundred thousand. Lu Yang never expected to be lucky enough to obtain it.

The stats on this staff are game-breaking at this level. The 10 points of Intelligence are equivalent to two extra levels of growth for a Mage, and the +24 Spell Damage is staggering. Normally, a Bronze-grade staff at this level only adds 4 Spell Damage, which is already considered decent; his staff provides six times that amount. More importantly, the Arsonist’s Staff comes with the "Wall of Fire" skill, the only area-of-effect (AoE) spell in the Novice Village.

**Wall of Fire**
Type: Fire Spell
Cost: 30 Mana
Duration: 30 seconds
Range: 30 yards
Description: Creates a 2x2 wall of fire, dealing 36 fire spell damage per tick.

With this skill, Lu Yang was confident his leveling speed would increase significantly. Excited, he immediately equipped the staff, and his Spell Damage instantly jumped to 77.

***

Walking to the edge of the valley's concave area, Lu Yang found a spot packed with wild bulls. He raised his staff, used Fireball to lure the bulls beneath him, and then cast Wall of Fire. Soon, flames erupted under the feet of dozens of bulls, and a flurry of "-71" damage numbers appeared above their heads.

When casting AoE spells, damage is typically dispersed if there are too many targets. In "Second World," the damage formula isn't just (Base Skill Damage + Spell Damage); it is actually (Base Skill Damage * Skill Level + Spell Damage) * Spell Coefficient. This spell coefficient is a floating value based on the number of targets. If there is only one target, the coefficient is 1.0; when there are many, it drops to a minimum of 0.6.

While the spell was channeling, Lu Yang opened his inventory to check the other items dropped by the Golden Dragonling.

**Hexagonal Ring (Black Iron Grade)**
Spell Damage: 2-5
Intelligence: +2
Required Level: 3

He hadn't expected another piece of high-quality gear for a Mage. Since he met the level requirement, he equipped the ring after his Fire Rain, gaining another 3 points of Spell Damage.

He continued checking the rest of the loot, and his eyes widened again. He couldn't believe his luck: he had obtained a Dragonling Shield, and it was Silver-grade.

**Dragonling Shield (Silver Grade)**
Defense: 7-22
Strength: +2
Constitution: +3
Block Value: +8

Shields in "Second World" always fetch high prices, especially in the early stages. The major guilds would likely pay more for this shield than for the Arsonist’s Staff in his hand, because clearing high-end dungeons requires the main tank to have a top-tier shield. In the Novice Village, the Dragonling Shield is the best, bar none.

**Black Iron Helmet (Black Iron Grade)**
Defense: 3-6
Strength: +1
Constitution: +1

Although the stats were average, it was definitely one of the best pieces of equipment currently available and would sell for a good price back in the village. Among the remaining items was a Fire Mage skill book, "Scorch," which Lu Yang immediately learned.

**Scorch**
Type: Fire Spell
Cost: 12 Mana
Cast Time: 1.5 seconds
Range: 30 yards
Description: Launches a bolt of fire at the target, enveloping them in flames and making them more susceptible to fire damage. Stacks up to 5 times. Each stack increases fire spell damage taken by 15 points and deals 10 points of fire spell damage. Duration: 30 seconds.

This skill wasn't very useful for mob grinding, but it would be effective against bosses. The rest of the loot consisted of 6 Small Instant Mana Potions and 7 Small Instant Health Potions.

Small Health Potion: Instantly restores 60 HP.
Small Mana Potion: Instantly restores 80 MP.

Compared to the gear, Lu Yang valued these 13 potions even more. His total health was only 100, so a single potion could restore more than half his health—a game-changer in the early stages. He carefully placed them in his potion slot and continued grinding.

***

While Lu Yang was grinding like a madman, the outside world was once again in an uproar.

Because Lu Yang had spent two hours killing the Golden Dragonling, he had fallen behind other players, even dropping out of the top 100 on the level leaderboard. The boss kill only gave him 1,100 experience points, which wasn't enough to catch up. However, once he began using Wall of Fire to attack 20 to 30 bulls at once—effectively having the power of 20 to 30 people helping him—his leveling speed skyrocketed.

One hour later, Lu Yang returned to the top 100.
Three hours later, he reached the top 10.
Five hours later, he climbed to the number one spot on the leaderboard. At the same time, he reached level 4, pulling ahead of the second-place player, Xiong Ba, by an entire level.

If people initially thought his rise to first place was just luck, they were now certain he had discovered a bug that allowed for rapid leveling. By this time, the leaders of major guilds like Xiong Ba were slowing down, as level 3 monsters were difficult to kill and required five times the experience of level 1 monsters. More importantly, while their levels were rising, their subordinates were struggling to keep up.

Faced with this, Xiong Ba told his subordinates, "Find this Lu Yang immediately. Being number one on the leaderboard on the first day is our guild's facade for recruiting high-level players. We cannot let another guild take that spot from us."

The leader of the Purple Gold Dynasty guild, Old Man Chi Mu, issued the same order. The other guilds followed suit.