The wolf's Health finally reached 30% and it started using its magic. Leiu had already used 5 Health Potions, and that was with the addition of the 9 Stamina Points spent, which meant that the battle was getting long and exhausting.
It was not guaranteed that every exchange between the two of them would result in the wolf suffering injuries. In fact, it was Leiu who got hit more, but he was able to quickly recover thanks to abusing the Health Potions whenever they were available.
After a seemingly endless struggle and lots of dodging and jumping around, Leiu somehow managed to decrease the beast's health to 5%.
The wolf was almost dead, its previously pure and white fur was coated in blood and wounds, making it look more ferocious than ever. Leiu wasn't faring better either as one of the wolf's ice-aspected projectiles hit his hand, and due to the Health Potion being on cooldown, he couldn't quickly recover.
..
Determined to finish this once and for all, Leiu charged at the enemy one last time, and when he was in range, he used [Invisible Strike]. Two lightning-fast thrusts, the second one almost invisible to the naked eye as it pierced through the wolf's fur and skin, digging deep into its body.
Although his attack was successful, Leiu couldn't pull back his weapon as the wolf twisted its body and lunged at him, striking with its long claws. Overwhelmed and unwilling to let go of his blade, Leiu ended up falling to the ground with the wolf right on top of him.
It took Leiu some effort, but he managed to free his weapon and used it to stop the incoming mouth of the wolf, which aimed for his neck. The two entered a bitter struggle as the wolf's bloodied body twitched and shook from the pain, fatigue, and grievous wounds.
Despite the force pressing down against his word, Leiu kept resisting and using the relatively thin sword to stop the wolf's fangs, which were creeping closer and closer to his exposed neck. Eventually, when Leiu was certain that he wouldn't be able to stop the wolf, he moved his body ever-so-slightly to the side and pulled his sword away, causing the fangs to bite down on his right shoulder.
His Health was decreasing at an alarming rate, but this wasn't the time to pay attention to that. Leiu gritted his teeth and, from the side, thrust the sword into the wolf's back. After that, there was a deafening silence as Leiu felt the beast's huge body lifelessly fall on his own. The notifications that popped in front of him were a clear indication of his success.
Leiu gulped down two Health Potions, took the loot, and logged off. Although he was excited by his victory, he felt too mentally tired to continue playing, moreso because it was already very late and he had to sleep for a bit before going to work.
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In the end, he only slept for 2 hours and 30 minutes, though it wasn't nearly enough to get rid of his sleepiness.
Then, after cooking a modest dinner and eating it, Leiu checked the Forums, curious about the Leaderboard.
1 Acyle Lv32
2 Emperor Lv32
3 Mister Kind Lv31
4 Kirito Lv30
5 Dylena Lv30
6 Commander Luo Lv30
7 Messiah Lv29
8 Lucky Dog Lv29
9 Frankenstein Lv28
10 Lost Lamb Lv28
Most of the names were the same, which wasn't surprising. However, what fascinated Leiu was how fast they leveled up. Generally, the higher one's Level, the harder and longer it would take them to level up.
After going through the forums and checking the new pieces of information about the cities, he changed his clothes and went to work.
..
Once in the café, Leiu saw his colleagues talking about Hell Gate, as was their wont. They were, more or less, the same age as him and also happened to be 'gamers'. Then again, Hell Gate's popularity was outside of anyone's expectations. It even grabbed the attention of media and several celebrities.
Again, Jane approached Leiu, striking up a conversation being asking him to join her party. Of course, Leiu politely rejected him, which made her mumble under her breathe and silently walk away.
He absolutely hated partying with others, first because many problems would occur between the party members, especially if they were strangers, and second, because he had to share the loot and experience. Admittedly, however, the benefits of partying up with other Players far outweighed the detriments. Still, there were far too many scenarios were more than one person would greed for a particular loot, thus leading to disagreement and rough disputes.
Therefore, while it was harder and more time-consuming, Leiu wanted to remain a solo-players and tackle everything on his own. He might not be able to tackle dungeons from the get-go, but the benefit would be that all the loot will his.
..
.
The night quickly passed and, early in the morning, Leiu finished his work and returned to his apartment after a short stop at the convenience store.
Alas, eager as he was to return to the game, his body was far too tired to handle another long session. He had no choice but to sleep for a couple hours to rejuvenate himself both physically and mentally.
Around 11AM, Leiu was woken up by his phone's alarm. Now, feeling less exhausted, he washed up and logged back into Hell Gate.
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He found himself back in the forest, at the same spot he killed the wolf.
Unknowingly, a grin formed on his face as he remembered his triumph over that Elite wolf, which would have taken at least four players to kill.
+1 Gold
Snow Mountain Fur(Rare)
White Edge(Rare) : +6 Strength / +4 Agility / +4 Dexterity
Unique Skill : Icy Shot(Normal): The user can shoot a maximum of five icicles.
Cost : 4 Mana
Cooldown : One icicle is restored each hour.
Durability 40/40
(A System-generated Copy of the Replica of the White Flower Sword of Emir Gold, Lorence SIlverheart's Second Apprentice.)
Only three things were looted, but Leiu was more than happy when he saw the thin double-edged blade. It was pure white from top to bottom, and though Leiu didn't know which alloy it was made from, he was still impressed by the craftsmanship.
The Sword not only added a decent amount of stats, but also had Unique Skill. It was a huge boon for Leiu, who, so far, relied on the standard and relatively weak Steel Swords found in nearly all stores. Furthermore, the integrated skill [Icy Shot] was a good long-range attack for someone like him.
Leiu closely inspected White Edge before spending quite some time testing it. It was noticeably lighter than the Steel Sword, much thinner and shorter too, almost like a Rapier.
'Who's Emir Gold and Lorence Silverheart? Why give me Lore when I'm still at the Beginner Area'
The description at the end did pique his interest a bit, but beyond simple curiosity, Leiu didn't think too much about it.
Level: 22 CLASS: Dark Knight TITLE(S): Invincible | A Like In The Blink of an Eye -- STATS -- STRENGTH : 57 HEALTH: 45 INTELLIGENCE: 42 MANA: 42 WISDOM: 46 STAMINA: 43 AGILITY: 61 -- DEXTERITY: 56 -- VITALITY: 46 --
..
With White Edge equipped and ready to be used, Leiu went back near the village to finish the achievements for the Bees and Rabbits. They weren't going to increase his stats by a lot, nevertheless, he wouldn't miss permanent 'buffs'.
With his current Strength, getting those achievements wasn't going to be difficult. Furthermore, after checking the forums, he didn't see anyone talk about Achievements. There were two possible reasons; One, whoever discovered their existence wasn't stupid enough to disclose such information, and two, this 'secret' was still undiscovered by the rest of the Players.
Even on the off-chance that someone did know about Achievements, it was still too much of a time-sunk to stay in the System-generated Beginning Area and hunt low-levelled monsters for a meagre increase in Stats.
Achievement Gained! You managed to kill 250 Bees : +5 Strength
'Finally!'
It took Leiu about 1 hour to kill all those: the problem was that he couldn't find enough of them and had to look everywhere.
There were some players lingering around and doing the beginner quests, which made things even more annoying.
Fortunately, the rabbits were much numerous than the Bees.
Achievement Gained! You managed to kill 250 Rabbits : +5 Vitality
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Now that Leiu had nothing to do in this place, It was time to go to the city, and the only way to do so was by visiting the village Chief and paying 10 coppers.
At least, that's what all the players did, so Leiu also went to the village hall, where the chief was, to teleport the Main City.
The village chief was a middle-aged man in his forties, with a grizzly face and thick black beard, a tall and muscular body, and a seemingly oily bronze skin.
"Hahaha, if it isn't another young adventurer! Welcome to our village's Hall!"
The man let out a hearty laugh while scrutinizing the relatively short Leiu.
'Huh?'
For a split second, Leiu saw the man's figure glitch and turn blurry. This was becoming a rather common occurrence in the Beginning Area yet he didn't see any posts concerning bugs or glitches. As he was momentarily startled, Leiu saw the 'man', or at least his barely visible figure, talk, but the sound that came out was like a buzzing and unpleasant sound, akin to clanking metal.
'What's going on? Why does this keep happening?'
As he frowned and focused on the Village Chief, Leiu saw a formless and ominous Darkness burst from his body, however, when he blinked, it was gone.
"Not so talkative are you? Hahaha, no worries no worries! I see that you want to go to the Main City.."
Everything returned to normal, much to his surprise and confusion.
The man stared at Leiu for a bit, maintaining an unusual silence, before nodding his head in approval.
"Hmm, this young hero is indeed special. You helped the villagers a lot, and not only that, you also got all the possible Achievements. You have great potential, so how about becoming a Monster Bounty Hunter?"
'Achievements? Isn't this immersion-breaking?'
Leiu sighed and looked at the light-blue System Window that appeared in front of him.
Monster Bounty Hunter(Unique) is now unlocked: Do you want to change to this class?
'