Chapter 14: Red-Eyed Water Buffalo

Seeing Mo Ming walk out of the Village Chief’s courtyard, the onlookers who had been nearby immediately swarmed over, like a fan club chasing after their idol.

“Brother, did you get a quest from the Village Chief?” one particularly bold person asked Mo Ming directly.

Seeing someone take the lead, the others immediately started clamoring as well.

“…” Mo Ming glanced around, then nodded.
“That’s right.”

“How did you get the quest?” seeing Mo Ming respond, the onlookers continued to press him.

Although it was a matter of privacy, in the face of potential information about a hidden quest, and with so many “companions” around, they couldn’t be bothered with such things.

Under normal circumstances, Mo Ming definitely wouldn’t want to bother with these people, but it probably wouldn’t be easy to get away… Although he had put all his points into Agility, he only had 26 points.
In combat, he could rely on his reactions and experience to pull ahead of other players, but when it came to a rigid stat like movement speed, he was powerless.

And players who hadn’t left the novice village couldn’t engage in PK.
So, it was most likely impossible for Mo Ming to just leave—if he wanted to go, he had to give them a satisfactory answer.

After thinking for a moment, Mo Ming spoke.

“This quest has a level requirement.
You can accept it once you reach level 6.”

Some players chose to believe him, while others thought he was bluffing: “The highest-level player right now hasn’t even reached level 5, and you’re saying you need to be level 6 to get the quest?
Who are you trying to fool!”

“Believe it now?” Mo Ming didn’t say much more.
He pulled up the system menu and set his level to be publicly visible.

After showing it for only 2 or 3 seconds, Mo Ming hid his level again and, while the group of players was still in shock, slipped straight through them.

The group of players stared at the Arabic numeral “6” that had flashed for a moment above Mo Ming’s head, so surprised that they forgot to even take a screenshot, and just let him walk away.

Although some people, after coming to their senses, wanted to chase after Mo Ming to see what he was up to, they quickly lost him after leaving the village and entering the mob grinding area—shaking off a few ordinary people in such a chaotic place was a very simple matter for Mo Ming.

Later, someone did post on the forums about Mo Ming being level 6, but because there were no pictures or videos, absolutely no one believed it… After all, the currently known highest-level player in the world had only just reached level 5 on his live stream.
Who would believe that someone was already level 6 without any proof?

In fact, Mo Ming was almost level 7—although due to the level difference, he hadn’t gained much experience from snatching mobs for several hours, the experience from turning in quests was not insignificant.
Coupled with the large number of quests he had done, even though the experience required to level up was high, he was already close to leveling up again.

Due to the special level difference algorithm in 【Horizon】, even if a player was only level 3 or 4, fighting a level 5 monster wouldn’t be too difficult.
So, when Mo Ming passed through the level 5 monster activity area, he could see quite a few players fighting monsters—compared to the lower-level mobs, the level 5 monster area, for which no one could get quests, undoubtedly had far fewer people.

After all, not everyone was as bored as Mo Ming, willing to complete every single quest.

Walking a little further, about 5 li, he entered the high-level monster area, where monsters of level 6 and above began to appear.

Unlike monsters below level 5, all monsters of level 6 and above were red-named monsters that would attack on sight, just like the ones in the mine.

Targeting a buffalo not far away, Mo Ming drew his Novice Sword and charged.

“Moo—” Since Mo Ming was charging straight at it without any subtlety, the moment he entered the monster’s aggro range, the buffalo immediately turned, lowered its head, aimed its pair of sharp horns at him, and charged over menacingly.

Just as the two were about to make contact, Mo Ming’s body suddenly slid to the right.
The sword in his hand swung from left to right, opening a long wound on the buffalo’s left side.

【-13】 A normal damage number, which was very high for Mo Ming, floated up from the buffalo’s head.

And the basic stats of this monster, named Red-Eyed Water Buffalo, were also displayed.
Since Mo Ming’s level was now the same as the Red-Eyed Water Buffalo’s, its health, attack, and defense values were all displayed, instead of being all question marks except for its name and level, like when he had fought the Mine Rats.

Before the Red-Eyed Water Buffalo, which had charged past him, could turn around, Mo Ming had already met it, slashing at its rump and taking away 15 health points.

The Red-Eyed Water Buffalo, having been struck from behind, lifted a hind leg in pain and kicked, but Mo Ming, who was already prepared, had circled to its side and swept his sword horizontally.

Under the incredibly precise body control of a Transcendent Being, the position of this sword sweep almost perfectly overlapped with the position of his first attack.

【-38】

The damage from this attack was higher than the previous two combined, but it wasn’t a critical hit… Critical hit damage in 【Horizon】 was displayed as purple numbers.

According to Mo Ming’s research from fighting monsters during this time, although 【Horizon】 was a data-driven game, it wasn’t entirely based on data… at least, its numerical calculations were different from other games.

A player’s attack power was not a fixed value but a range, and the damage dealt in each attack fluctuated within that range.
However, according to Mo Ming’s tests, the damage was related to the force and technique used by the player in the attack—the greater the force and the more accurate the strike, the closer the damage would be to the maximum value of the attack, and vice versa.

As a Transcendent Being with perfect control over his own body, the damage Mo Ming dealt was naturally all at the maximum… it was just that in the mine before, he had been relying on 1 point of guaranteed damage to slowly chip away, so he hadn’t been able to feel it.

In addition, 【Horizon】, being a game that was very close to reality, had another setting: fatal damage—

Just as every living creature has its weaknesses and vital points, such as the abdomen and eyes for most creatures, and of course, the soul fire for undead creatures, if one could attack a weak point, the damage dealt would be greatly increased.

If one could deliver a sufficiently powerful blow to a vital point, the damage could even instantly kill the monster.
Just like if a person’s head were to be cut off, they would naturally not be able to live.

This was also the reason why Mo Ming, with his 20-plus attack power, could one-shot a level 5 monster… Of course, the level suppression also played a part in this.

Besides the naturally existing weak points of monsters, there was another type of weakness that could be created—wounds.

No matter how tough a creature’s hide was, a wound was always a very vulnerable spot.

In 【Horizon】, attacking a monster, or being attacked by one, would leave a wound depending on the force of the attack.
If one could attack the wound, they could deal damage exceeding their attack power.
And as the wound was attacked more times and enlarged, the damage would continue to increase.

However, hitting an opponent’s wound in battle was not a simple matter… After all, for an ordinary person, even when attacking a stationary target, it was difficult to make two attacks land precisely on the same spot.

Even Mo Ming, with his current Agility, could only guarantee that he could make two attacks hit the same spot when dealing with a relatively slow, large monster like this.

After its wound was attacked, the already rampaging Red-Eyed Water Buffalo naturally became even more enraged.
It swung its head frantically, trying to teach Mo Ming a painful lesson with the sharp horns on its head.

But this kind of attack was only a little troublesome for Mo Ming—and that was only because his Agility was too low.

While dodging the Red-Eyed Water Buffalo’s attacks, Mo Ming looked for opportunities in the gaps, the sword in his hand continuously landing on the monster’s body.
Under Mo Ming’s deliberate control, the Novice Sword’s attacks generally landed near the Red-Eyed Water Buffalo’s neck.

For a creature like a buffalo, the only weak points Mo Ming could think of were its eyes and abdomen.

Because the Red-Eyed Water Buffalo was tossing its head around wildly, Mo Ming couldn’t attack its eyes, and its abdomen was too low, making it equally difficult to attack.
So, Mo Ming chose the next best thing and targeted its neck.

Seeing the moment when the Red-Eyed Water Buffalo’s momentum was spent, Mo Ming swung his body dramatically, using the force generated from the swing to thrust his sword into a wound on its neck.
The not-so-sharp Novice Sword, propelled by Mo Ming’s explosive power, successfully pierced into the wound on the Red-Eyed Water Buffalo’s neck.

【-183】

A huge yellow number popped up from the Red-Eyed Water Buffalo’s head.
The high damage instantly brought the Red-Eyed Water Buffalo, which still had half its health, down to critical health.

After landing the hit, Mo Ming immediately tried to pull out the Novice Sword.
However, due to the Red-Eyed Water Buffalo’s muscles contracting from the pain, the Novice Sword was stuck in the wound.
Lacking enough strength, Mo Ming couldn’t pull it out on his first try.

While Mo Ming was trying to pull out the sword, the Red-Eyed Water Buffalo reared up on its hind legs, its two front hooves high in the air.
Then, the two hooves stomped fiercely on the ground, and two circles of earthy yellow shockwaves spread out from its front hooves.

【-31】

This time, it was Mo Ming who took the damage.
His already meager health was instantly reduced by more than half.

But the loss of health was not the key; the system notification he received at the same time was the real reason Mo Ming became serious.

【You have been affected by the skill “Stomp,” your speed is reduced by 30% for 5 seconds.】

Compared to a stat like health, speed was the key attribute Mo Ming relied on for survival.
Although he didn’t know what a “30% reduction in movement speed” would feel like, it should have a significant impact on him.

But Mo Ming, despite taking a heavy blow, did not panic.
Instead, he calmly analyzed the situation—from the momentum of this attack, it should be a skill attack.
Since it was a skill, it should have a cooldown and couldn’t be used again for a short time… The Red-Eyed Water Buffalo was already low on health; he could finish it off.

As a level 6 mob, being able to use an AOE (Area of Effect) skill was already impressive.
After using 【Stomp】, the Red-Eyed Water Buffalo, with its health almost depleted, immediately became much weaker.

Mo Ming lifted a foot and stepped on the Red-Eyed Water Buffalo, fiercely yanking out the Novice Sword, and then used his only skill, 【Bash】.

A faint white light enveloped the blade of the plain Novice Sword as it swung in a large arc towards a wound on the Red-Eyed Water Buffalo’s neck.

Bash (Level 1): Attack with all your might, dealing 130% damage.

Bash was the initial skill given to players who chose the physical type during character creation.
Since Mo Ming had never even looked at his skill bar at the beginning, he didn’t even know he had this skill—it was only after seeing other players use it that he had noticed it.

Using this skill would increase the force of the attack to a certain extent.
But as a trade-off, it would feel a bit cumbersome, so Mo Ming didn’t particularly like this skill and only used it for snatching mobs and for finishing blows like this.

【-56】

Its health depleted, the Red-Eyed Water Buffalo immediately contributed its experience and drops, disappearing in a flash of white light.