The skeletal wolves were the remains of ordinary wolves whose flesh had been consumed by low-level undead. They resembled wolf skeletons, moved quickly, but lacked magical abilities and didn't have high attack power. They were easy to deal with—perfect for a warm-up.
Rita pulled out her crossbow, aimed, and shot. A regular attack could take off 50 points of health, and a critical hit would deal 100. With her **Explosive Arrow** skill, not only could she instantly kill the targeted enemy, but nearby monsters would also take 50–60 points of damage.
Even though she was using the most basic crossbow, her stats and her skill, which guaranteed a critical hit every seventh shot, made her extremely efficient at killing monsters.
Before the battle, she had also eaten food that increased her movement speed by 15%. With the triple critical hit boost, her speed was nearly doubled, allowing her to react quickly and dodge even when aggroing a large number of monsters.
After warming up, Rita began pulling more monsters, drawing a group of over ten skeletal wolves before systematically wiping them out.
She continued fighting from 10 AM until noon, replenishing her mana with coffee when needed. In two hours of non-stop combat, her experience had risen from 0.001% to 0.268%.
Taking a break, Rita created a **Wheel of Fate** skill crystal and ate a dish that increased her attack speed as her lunch.
She wasn't discouraged by the slow XP gain. In fact, this was the normal leveling pace in the game, and even faster than most, considering she had an abundance of weapons, food, and potions to replenish health and mana.
In a dungeon, where the monsters were more concentrated and there were bosses to fight, her progress would likely be even quicker. Bosses gave extra experience points, after all.
For higher-level players who were relentless and lucky, leveling up once in a little over a month was possible—but only if they had ample dungeons and resources. Regular players would level even slower.
While the initial levels required less experience, players also had fewer combat skills at their disposal. In the later stages, while they would have more abilities, the amount of experience required to level up increased dramatically.
In her previous life, when she died at the end of the third year of the invasion, the top player on the leaderboards was only level 27. Zoey and Rick, both blessed with resources and luck, had only reached level 25.
The fact that the alien world was connected to Earth via a game made sense—the world here felt like one enormous game itself. Monsters dropped loot when they died. Skeletal wolves had a low drop rate—about one in every ten monsters dropped something. Most of the time, it was just a few copper coins.
In two hours, she had managed to loot a **Bone Bracer** with +1 Constitution—an exceptionally high drop rate thanks to her **Luck 10**.
Rita didn't complain about the meager rewards. She picked up every copper coin that dropped, and even equipped the bracer. In the real world, she might be picky about cleanliness, like when she had turned her nose up at Theodore's belt, but in battle, she couldn't afford to be.
Occasionally, when arrows dropped along with the coins, she picked those up too. But she didn't go out of her way to retrieve arrows lodged in corpses or those that had fallen far away. Arrows could be bought at the shop—99 arrows for just one silver coin—and in the real world, custom-made arrows cost less than 10 yuan apiece and were of decent quality.
She fully agreed with the goblin saying, "Time is money."
A creak from underfoot drew her attention to a copper coin on the ground.
Rita bent down and picked it up. "Time is money... yeah, well, I've got time."
Combat was the best way to sharpen one's skills. In just this one afternoon, she had improved her moving target accuracy more than she had after hours at the archery range.
Once she had fully acclimated to the battle rhythm, Rita ventured deeper into the forest, where the monsters were slightly stronger, with some being level 3.
At 9 PM, Minglang Xing, who was on duty from 9 PM to 9 AM, had just finished swapping shifts with a colleague at the treehouse base when he heard a knock followed by the correct passcode. He pressed a button on his desk to activate the device that verified the person outside was human, then opened the door, finding that it was the cow-patterned cat—no, one of the players with a rather unique skill.
He welcomed her inside and made small talk, "Good harvest today?"
Rita cleaned herself up with her newly acquired **Clean Sweep** spell, washing away the bloodstains, and casually replied, "Not bad." She then asked, "Do you guys buy translators?"
Minglang raised an eyebrow. "You're already at intermediate engineering?"
"Impressive, but no, we don't buy them."
Rita silently accepted this—it seemed place only took in, never gave out.
Reluctantly, she handed over 2 silver coins to pay for another night's stay. The price was right at the threshold of what she could tolerate as a lone player. After a day of grinding, her total earnings were 2 silver and 67 copper.
However, Minglang wasn't satisfied. "You know, you can get a monthly pass. Just pay one skill crystal, and you'll get free lodging for an entire month. We'll even provide three meals a day and one free treatment session per day."
One skill crystal equaled 3 gold.
The offer of a month of lodging with meals and treatment didn't sound too bad.
But Rita still chose to pay with silver coins. To her, **Wheel of Fate** skill crystals were far more valuable than gold coins.
She had been grinding monsters from 10 AM until 9 PM, with breaks for meals and rest. In total, she had farmed for about 10 hours, yielding three pieces of equipment.
That was the power of **Luck 10**.
In her previous life, with **Luck 8**, she had often spent entire days grinding solo and ended up with only one piece of equipment. On a lucky day, she might get two, but those days were rare.
Yet the difference between **Luck 8** and **Luck 10** was like night and day.
Despite selling over a hundred **Wheel of Fate** skill crystals to the officials, Rita didn't feel she had been shortchanged.
Equipment was divided into five ranks: Poor, Common, Fine, Rare, Legendary, and Epic. Poor and Common gear didn't emit any glow, but from Fine gear onward, equipment began to radiate light. Fine gear glowed green, Rare gear blue, Legendary purple, and Epic orange.
Sets, which were separate from these ranks, could have bonuses stronger than Epic gear, though individual pieces might be weaker than Legendary items. For example, Rita's **Chávez** was an S-rank set, but individually the pieces were A-rank.
The rank of equipment indicated its quality, but not its level. There were even level 5 Legendary items in the auction house.
However, gear below level 5 wasn't worth much. Even level 5 purple gear only sold for dozens of gold.
But the more gear you had, the stronger you became, making it easier and faster to grind for more.
Ultimately, Rita felt that both she and the officials had benefited equally from their deal. It was a fair partnership where neither party took advantage of the other.
She doubted the officials would hold off on using her skill until level 10 or beyond. While the rewards would be better then, falling behind at this stage could have lasting consequences. Holding out for "later" could mean there was no "later" at all.