[You have defeated Lv. 7 Chief Goblin]

[Level Up]

[Level Up]

[Level Up]

[15 Stat Points remaining]

I wanted to catch a break and distribute my stat points, but the situation did not let me. The reinforcements arrived shortly after I picked up the drops of the Goblin Chief.

In a matter of seconds, I was surrounded by goblins.

There was no escape route if we're talking about the usual path. However, after carefully looking around, it was not impossible to get pass through them. It just takes more effort and caution.

Not waiting for them to move first, I jumped and stepped over one of the goblin's head to reach a tree branch. Thanks to my movement training, I was able to skip over one branch to another without having my weight break it down.

I feel like a ninja doing this kind of stuff, but I know those goblins with crossbows can hit me easily because of how slow I am. But tanking one or two arrows was enough for me to successfully escape the goblins encirclement anyway.

"haa~ haa~ That was some intense workout. A single attack from the Chief took more than half of my health. If it weren't for the last rally of those guys, it would be impossible to finish it off. May their souls rest in peace."

"Excuse me."

While I was reflecting on the recent battle, the voice of the person who ran away awhile ago disturbed my thoughts.

"Did you encounter a goblin bigger than the normal size?"

Looks like these people who abandoned their teammates came back to finish the job with a new set of party members or should I say, cannon fodder. Too bad for them they came back for nothing.

"No, but be careful of the wolves in the area. I got bit hard by one them. Luckily, I was able to escape with my life intact."

He looks like he was not convinced of my lie to what happened inside the forest. The reason why I did though is because of my current appearance. From their reactions, I can conclude that they saw me as a bloody girl who just came out of the forest alone.

"Hmm~ You should be more careful especially when you're alone. Even if you want to discover new places, your level is still too low. Go back to the city and heal your wounds."

"Thank you very much."

"May I add Sister to my friend list?"

A female member from his party asked me when I was about to leave. She was one of the four who left those people to die and she did not hesitate to show hostility against me.

"Cherry Winter"

I have no other choice but let her add me since all their eyes were on me. They can kill me if they want to reassure their suspicions. However, the consequence would be heavy. They also know that killing any players will result in 24 hours in a prison cell.

With how tight the competition is, 1-day setback means hell, especially for the competitive players. No one wants to take the risk of having their account left behind because of useless conflicts. Unless of course, they are a sadist.

"Thank you very much, Sister. I hope we can party sometime soon since Sister looks strong."

"hahaha~ I'm just reckless person."

"Being reckless is sometimes good. Although don't be reckless going back to the city. Have a safe trip back."

They finally leave me alone after what seems like an interrogation. I doubt that they think I am just a passer-by. They might conclude the missing Goblin Chief back to me, so I need to run away as fast as possible.

"Her name is Ice Princess, huh. And she's already level 7."

Only when I saw the entrance of Twilight City did I remember what I wanted to do.

[2x Goblin Ears Acquired]

[4x Hard Bone Acquired]

[Cliff's Steel Axe Acquired]

[Apprentice Boots Acquired]

[Skillbook: Rapid Shot Acquired]

The best part of any boss hunt is the loot and you cannot change my mind. Besides the abundant experience I got, the drops are quite good. The lucky me was able to get a weapon and a skill book.

[Cliff's Steel Axe]

Grade: Rare

Durability: 110/180

Attack Power: 66-74

*Strength +3

"This axe was once a weapon of a young knight in training. Cliff was one of the promising talents in his groups. He was assigned to bring down a goblin camp with his group. But because of his haughty attitude, his attempt to solo the task brought his downfall. The Goblin Chief who took the head of Cliff took his axe and made it into a weapon trophy."

Condition of use: Level 6 – Strength 17 – Stamina 7

[Apprentice Boots]

Grade: Common

Durability: 50/50

Defence: 2

"Boots made out of standard leather that handle numerous weather condition. This boot is popular among commoners."

Condition of use: Level 1

The boots were mediocre at best, but this steel axe was the real thing. Beside the weirdly written lore of the weapon, the stats are quite good for a beginner whose primary stat is strength.

Nevertheless, I swapped my current boots to the new ones for additional defence.

Next thing was distributing my stat points. Both my agility and dexterity are already in the double digits because in each level up, every stat increase by one. My goal is to make my agility and dexterity capped to 20 before I start adding to stamina. So, my current stats look like this.

[Name: Cherry Winter

Level: 5

Title: None

Health: 180/180

Defence: 9

Strength: 9

Vitality: 9

Stamina: 9

Agility: 18

Dexterity: 20

Stat Points: 0

Money: 33g]

[Passive Skill: Lv. 1 Quick Hands – Acquired]

Attack speed for any melee weapons is increased by 5%. If a player is using any ranged weapons, -0.10s in reload time.

[Active Skill: Lv. 1 Rapid Shot]

Shoot 5 arrows in rapid succession dealing 30% of weapon damage each.

Cooldown: 12 seconds

Rapid Shot requirement for learning it was only 10 dexterity. Without any hesitation, I made it as one of my skill. It was may not be perfect for a longbow user such as me, but it was a skill for a bow user nonetheless, so it was no brainer to use it instead of saving it.

Quick Hands meanwhile is a product of my dexterity. I read from their forums that every 20 points of a stat will give a passive skill fitting for that attribute. This skill must be for 20 points in dexterity.

I have two skills currently but gaining skills does not easily come by. As per said, the normal player would be able to learn up to 30 different skills, active or passive one. One could also delete a skill if he/she wants to give space to a better one, but that problem is for the distant future.

The most common way to gain skills is being trained by an NPC. Most of the players will be able to get their skills through this. However, the first skill that can be learned from an NPC starts at Level 8.

Another way is having certain conditions met and Quick Hands is an example of these.

Lastly, skills dropped by monsters, especially bosses have the best chance to give amazing ones. However, this is also the rarest way to learn a skill. Players will be jumping in joy in having a skill book dropped because of how rare it is.

Those three are the only ways being discussed within the New World community yet. There may be more ways to gain skills that I do not know off.

Now that is said and done, I was itching to try these new skills at an enemy. But when I checked the in-game clock, it was already eight in the evening.

Dinner is waiting for me outside. Hunger may affect the performance of the brain in a Virtual Reality game that is why it is important for me to log out.