Their vision turned hazy, and they could feel themselves standing on solid ground again in no time. The moment they landed, Drako Yau felt something wasn’t right.

Such a terrifying aura…

Although only darkness awaited at the far end of the tunnel, he was flooded by a petrifying aura emanating from the depths of the cave.

“Zephyrwolf, I’m not trying to throw water on your idea,” Drako Yau said bluntly, “but the demon wolf king might be incredibly powerful. The moment I realise it’s impossible, I’ll immediately tell the NPC that I give up the quest. If you feel like it’s unfair, I can quit the quest right now while you continue your expedition. I’m different from you, I never gamble with my life.”

Zephyrwolf didn’t pick up on the part where Drako Yau said he was different, so he only thought that the man was afraid of the death penalty of losing levels, but there wasn’t much he could say about it. After all, it was his own quest. It might be different if the guy was an underling from his guild, but asking someone who wasn’t really related to him to die for him was a bit too much. Nor did he believe that such a nice person would really exist, to be honest.

Zephyrwolf understood his reasons and nodded. “Fair enough. How ’bout this, let’s just keep going for now and see how far we can go. Other things aside, the experience from killing the giant wolves is so damn good.”

Drako Yau nodded. The two players and the NPC then started walking into the cave. Once they reached the second level, there were a lot fewer forks, and the monsters weren’t spawning as frequently, but…

Before Zephyrwolf could relax, three shadows flashed before their eyes again. Those shadows almost scared the soul out of him.

“One… Two… Three…” Zephyrwolf’s fingers trembled as he counted the monsters.

Three dark wolves! With his gaming experience, he quickly calculated things in his mind and came to the conclusion that two dark wolves could kill him within a minute.

Drako Yau also frowned, but after his battle with the Fire Crystal Master, his vision and attitude had reached new heights.

“If it’s just one dark wolf, how long can you hold on for?”

Having yet to recover from the shock, Zephyrwolf stuttered, “Ugh… No idea… I’m not sure, five… Five minutes then!”

“Right.” Drako Yau once again responded with just a word and lunged forward, thrusting his spear to both sides and blocking the path of two dark wolves.

The wolves howled and turned into two black tornadoes, intertwining as they stormed their way towards him.

Hm… so it’s not just a matter of double the numbers… They’re making some simple coordinated moves.

The two dark wolves circled around to either side of his flanks, using Steel Headbutt as they closed in on him. They might be working together, but that only merely made things a tad bit more troublesome for him, nothing more than that. Compared to the extremely agile Fire Crystal Master that almost made him feel hopeless, these two dark wolves still had a long way to go.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Drako Yau didn’t bother thinking too much, but instead focused his mind on the battle. He knew that while Zephyrwolf was stronger than average players, his strength was far from sufficient for this situation.

He himself, though, was different. He had undergone hellish training with the old geezer, enhancing his agility and reflexes to an almost superhuman degree. It could be said that Drako Yau was one of the few remaining martial arts masters in the world.

Drako Yau pulled his foot back and twisted his body, dodging at the perfect moment as the two wolves grazed past him. The muscles in his arms swelled as he smashed his spear downward twice at lightning speed.

Two loud bangs almost emerged at the same time, and the two wolves had their skulls smashed heavily into the ground.

The crazy old geezer’s spearmanship wasn’t your typical spearmanship. Apart from merging all sorts of eastern spearmanship styles, it also included styles that used other polearms like rods, sticks, and staves. The attack he had just used was a staff attack called Double Hound Strike, and to use this attack on the two dark wolves was pretty befitting of its name.

Upon landing the strike, Drako Yau was delighted as he thought, As expected! Martial arts and their techniques work here!

Looking from a game perspective, with him being merely Level 12, it would be hard pressed for him to overcome the skill priority of the wolves’ Steel Headbutt even if he had used a skill. In normal games, even if his Double Hound Strike was an attack that required great skills in real life, it would only be counted as two quick basic attacks.

However, he was able to overcome the skill priority of the headbutts with two ‘basic attacks’ that landed on their heads, which was their toughest spot. This meant that techniques in real life were recognised here in Real World. Obviously, techniques weren’t everything either. If Drako Yau had tried to use his spearmanship to block the Fire Crystal Master’s most powerful punch, it would have ended with him flying into a wall.

So attributes also affect things… When my attributes get higher, my basic attacks have higher skill priority also.

Drako Yau kept thinking, but his arms and legs were still moving around swiftly, his spear striking, stabbing, and slashing at the wolves’ relatively soft waists.

Drako Yau finally got rid of a dark wolf in three minutes. In the meantime, Zephyrwolf was already in tatters and barely surviving.

“Look closely.” Drako Yau’s voice rang out from behind.

As he spoke, he snuck close to the final dark wolf and rained strikes upon its waist, all of which landed squarely on their intended target. With just that, he easily drew the aggro of the dark wolf that had been fighting Zephyrwolf for a whole three minutes.

“As long as you figure out their patterns, they’re pretty easy to deal with.”

Drako Yau waltzed around the dark wolf, moving just a few centimetres away from its attacks every time, but that was enough to dodge them.

“Steel Headbutt isn’t slow at all, but they can’t turn around very well after casting it. So, as long as you move five centimetres out of the way, it’ll miss.” Drako Yau intentionally guided the wolf, and he almost ceased attacking completely. Flashing his legs, he then thrust his spear. “Look, it’s a hit. This is their weakness. Remember to hit their waists, it’s their weak point.”

“See, another hit.”

“Again, again, again…”

Zephyrwolf’s jaw almost dropped as he watched the battle that was more like a tutorial. He wasn’t dumb enough to not know that Drako Yau was teaching him how to deal with the dark wolves, so he watched carefully and memorised his teachings. Drako Yau was pretty much a guide on how to defeat dark wolves, live in action.

Zephyrwolf had a great time watching the tutorial. He had confidence that after he memorised the patterns, he could hold out for ten minutes, or even defeat one on his own!

“Ouuu…” The dark wolf fell to the ground, yelping, and never got back up.

Drako Yau then asked, “You got it all memorised?”

“Almost…” Zephyrwolf replied hesitatingly.

“Then it’s your turn.”

“What?”

Just when Zephyrwolf was showing an awestruck look on his face, Drako Yau had already slung his spear onto his back and stood at the rear with a look that implied “take care of it yourself”.

Looking at the ferocious dark wolf, Zephyrwolf made a weird scream and charged in.