It felt heavy and solid in his hand. Metal armor, without a doubt, and its grade and attributes were excellent.

[Black Hillside Leggings, Bronze Grade]

[Metal Armor]

[Level Req: 15]

[Physical DEF +130]

[Magic DEF +30]

[+10 STR]

[+5 AGI]

[+10 CONSTITUTION]

[Sealed Slot: 1]

The physical defense alone was enormous, only five points less than his chest piece and leg guards combined, and at the same bronze quality. The Strength and Constitution bonuses were significantly higher than leather armor too, which explained exactly why warrior players were so durable.

Don held the leggings and let himself daydream for a full thirty seconds. If only he could equip metal armor, what a powerful, resilient rogue he would be. Small monsters couldn’t kill him. His attacks would be fatal. The only real threats would be spellcasters, and even then, if he couldn’t beat one, he could just run.

But eventually he put them in his backpack with a sigh. He couldn’t wear them himself, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t sell them. Right now, wealthy warriors were snapping up everything on the market, not just bronze-level metal armor, but even scrap iron pieces. This treasure would fetch a good price.

He glanced at his friends list and felt a pang of disappointment. He’d forgotten that Diana had already logged off.

Then he thought better of it. Maybe he shouldn’t keep pushing his drops on her just because she was rich. Her team was large enough, surely they could farm their own gear. In Realms Online, she wasn’t the only top player. There were plenty of capable people out there.

So without further deliberation, he moved to clear the area before anyone else discovered it. In Realms Online, elite monsters respawned roughly every six to eight hours, and the drop rate on the second spawn was only a third of the first. Prioritizing this place now was critical.

He swept through methodically, clearing the potato fields one by one, his kill speed increasing rapidly with experience. By the fourth field, a Brugg fell and his experience bar suddenly filled. Golden light erupted around him, Level 15 at last. He immediately equipped the Flame Cloak and opened his attribute panel.

[Bane, Human, Apprentice Thief]

[Level: 15]

[HP: 1,705]

[ATK: 1,207–1,292]

[Physical DEF: 224]

[Magic DEF: 219]

[Crit Rate: 1%]

[Reputation: 400]

[Luck: 0]

The cloak’s ten points of Strength was equivalent to two free levels’ worth of stat points. Combined with the five points from the level-up itself, multiplied by his base growth of eleven, his attack power had jumped by a total of one hundred and sixty-five points. A significant boost.

His kill speed accelerated noticeably. It took him an average of only eight minutes to clear each potato field. But the Orc Overseers weren’t always generous.

By half past ten in the morning, after clearing fifteen fields, he had only received four pieces of bronze equipment, all metal armor from the Black Hills set. Not a single piece he could actually wear. And the wine gourd, as if deliberately working against him, hadn’t dropped at all.

Still, his experience climbed rapidly. After all fifteen fields, he had reached Level 16.

He looked ahead and was somewhat disappointed to find he’d nearly swept the entire area clean, with only five or six plots remaining. But with plenty of potions still in his inventory and only two-thirds of his equipment’s durability spent, he pushed through and wiped out everything that was left.

His luck held strong, two more pieces of Black Hills metal armor dropped from the final six fields, completing a full five-piece set. He also had a spare cloak. But the resentment lingered. The gourd still hadn’t dropped.

However, when he looked up from the corner of the last potato field, he realized the Brugg base camp was more than just farmland.

A mountain road wound upward ahead, and along it he could make out low tents. It was already dusk in-game, and thin wisps of smoke rose from the encampments above.

It dawned on him suddenly, the quest item he needed was most likely dropped by monsters near those tents, and their quality would almost certainly be higher than the Orc Overseers.

With that thought, he climbed the hillside and made his way toward the first cluster of tents. Three small ones and one large one, arranged around a central campfire.

A rack sat over the fire, strung with potatoes roasting over the flames, filling the air with an enticing aroma. With his perception at full, the smell was overwhelming. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

His stomach rumbled, he checked the time and realized it was already past eleven. He was genuinely hungry.

There were seven or eight clusters like this scattered across the mountainside, all with smoke rising from their fires.

The monsters here were markedly different from those below. Three Brugg scouts in tattered leather armor sat around the campfire, and inside the large tent, a pair of enormous dark-green feet poked out, easily wider than Don’s own, covered in coarse black hair. They had to belong to a half-orc.

Don checked the scouts’ attributes and felt a surge of excitement.

[Brugg Scout, Elite Monster]

[Level 19]

[HP: 80,000]

[ATK: 440–480]

[Physical DEF: 300]

[Magic DEF: 300]

[Skills: Combo Slash, Killing Intent, Backstab]

Elite monsters that almost certainly dropped leather armor. All three of his minor equipment pieces were still basic grade, this was exactly what he needed.

As for how to separate them, that wasn’t a problem. He just needed to shoot one with an arrow and run. The others would lose aggro soon enough and return to their positions.

Mind made up, Don drew the Scout’s Bow, nocked an arrow, pulled the string into a full arc, and fired at the nearest scout. The arrow thudded into its chest with a satisfying impact. The creature screamed and charged straight at him, and just as expected, its two companions came howling after it.

Don ran calmly up the hillside, turning to fire as he moved. The second arrow missed, but it didn’t matter, as long as he kept attacking the target, even with misses, he wouldn’t lose aggro. By the time he fired his fifth arrow, the other two scouts had given up the chase and turned back, trotting helplessly toward their fire to resume roasting potatoes.

The moment they disengaged, Don sheathed the bow, drew his dagger, and charged.

Bruggs were small to begin with, and as scouts they were incredibly agile. This one managed to dodge his Backstab in the split second he brushed past it. Don reversed direction instantly, his dagger slashing repeatedly at its chest. Two damage numbers appeared in quick succession.

[789!]

[Critical, 1,784!]

The Brugg retaliated with its own blade. Don dodged left and right but still couldn’t avoid every strike, two hits landed, costing him over four hundred HP. Unpleasant, but acceptable.

He bit down on the red potion already in his mouth and activated Evasion, slipping to the side and circling behind the scout. To his frustration, the little creature was absurdly quick, it spun around before he could land a clean Backstab, and his dagger struck its chest awkwardly instead.

[1,109!]

’Damn it. Missing the weak point is infuriating, look at that pathetic damage.’

But what happened next sent a genuine chill down his spine. The scout shuddered, and a layer of crimson energy washed over its entire body.

<Ding!>

[Brugg Scout has activated Killing Intent, ATK +40%, Crit Rate +5% for 10 seconds]*

Before Don could react, a seemingly ordinary slash landed on his leg, and he felt searing pain. His HP dropped by more than half in an instant.

[Critical, 1,104!]

Time to run. No debate. Don bolted like an arrow loosed from a bowstring. In that moment he was silently grateful for the Flame Cloak, that 0.2 m/s speed bonus was the only thing allowing him to gradually increase the gap. He drew the Scout’s Bow and fired over his shoulder as he ran.

About a minute later, his health was fully restored through potions. He switched back to his dagger and charged in again. But their second engagement lasted only ten seconds before the scout activated Killing Intent once more. This time Don had learned his lesson, the instant the creature’s body trembled, he reflexively broke away and switched back to the bow.

’That’s the disadvantage of not having proper equipment.’ he sighed

If he could stack his physical defense to four hundred, would he still need to run? He’d fight this thing to the death.

Despite the frustration, the scout couldn’t withstand three minutes of his relentless kiting. Its HP and defense were noticeably lower than the Orc Overseers in the potato fields, making it faster to bring down overall.

Unfortunately, it only dropped two gold coins. No equipment, no quest items.

He pulled the second and third scouts one by one using the same method and took them down. Both dropped nothing of note. But Don maintained an optimistic attitude, there were plenty of small hills above, and he was certain there would be plenty more elite monsters.

His gaze fell on the orc sleeping soundly inside the large tent. But the moment he checked its attributes, he froze completely.