Chapter 5 Bang Bang Bang

The gray wolf whimpered as it finally ran out of health. It collapsed, eyes closing. In the whole fight, it had only gotten one hit in while Xiaofeng was distracted. He’d dodged the rest.

"Hey! You've killed a 5th-Level Wild Wolf and gained 50 points of experience!"

There was a pleasant chime and half of Xiaofeng’s experience bar filled. After all, he was a level 0 player. Killing a level five monster was rewarding.

Still, even if the experience was good, the rewards weren’t impressive. It had only dropped a few copper coins.

Xiaofeng looked for better loot, found none, then picked the coins. If he tried to exchange these for real money, he’d be lucky to get a couple of cents.

Xiaofeng shook his head and looked for the next gray wolf. It took him ten hits to bring down, and the experience was enough to level up. All he needed to do was avoid being hit, something that came easily to him.

With his high base stats, he could level up here easily.

It wouldn’t be a good plan for most novices. Most would do even less damage. Worse, it would only take a handful of attacks to kill them.

He wondered if he was the first priest to put all his points into strength.

He took this one down a bit faster. As it fell, Xiaofeng began to shine with light.

"Hey! You've killed the 5th-Level Grey Wolf and gained 50 points of experience!"

"Hey! Congratulations! You've reached Level 1! You have been awarded 1 free attribute point!”

This wolf also dropped a piece of equipment.

Wolf Fur Armor

Equipment type: jacket

Equipment grade: ordinary

Equipment level: 5

Equipment requirement: none

Attribute:

Defense: 1-2

Agility +2

It was basic, but it was much better than a novice’s cloth top, but he wouldn’t be able to equip it until he reached level 5. Still, Xiaofeng picked it up with satisfaction.

He pulled back up his attribute panel. In Myth, their five basic attributes would each increase by one point, and they would be given one point to put into whatever attribute they wanted.

Hit points and defense only improved when you increased constitution, and did not increase on level up.

That made the one free attribute point important. Xiaofeng looked at it, unsure what he should do, and looked back at the explanation of the attributes.

Strength: With 1 point, ATN increases by 1 point

Constitution: With 1 point, Max HP goes up by 2 points and defense increases by 0.5 points

Agility: With 1 point, the movement speed, attack rate, crit rate, and dodge chance will increase.

Intelligence: With 1 point, MGD increases by 1 point

Spirit: with 1 point, the Max MP increases by 2 points and the speed of mana regeneration increases by 0.5 points

"Alright, add it to the strength. It can help me upgrade more quickly in the earlier stage."

Honestly, it wasn’t a calculated decision. Xiaofeng wasn’t used to online games or playing this sort of class. He had no idea what to choose, and just wanted to stop thinking about it, so put it in strength. If he could do more damage, he could level up faster. Then he went to find more wolves.

Making it to level two would take ten times more experience. Xiaofeng was surprised. Apparently the quick leveling had been yet another boon to new players.

The trees in the forest rustled and Xiaofeng went to hunt.

After half an hour of work, Xiaofeng reached level 3. He added both new attribute points to his strength. He still wore novice clothes, but his ATN was at 20 points. Now he could take down a gray wolf in three or four hits. If he could hit them in the head, he’d get a critical hit. Once he knew that, he could finish them off even more quickly.

At level 3, the gray wolf wasn’t enough experience. He went deeper into the forest, collecting experience and copper along the way. Behind him, he heard footsteps.

Someone was coming.

Xiaofeng turned his head and saw that there was only one person walking behind him. He was following the trail of wolves deeper into the woods as well.

He was a short, thin player, holding a small iron knife which marked him as an assassin player. The label over his head declared that he was named Night Whispers. Instead of the novice outfit, he wore the black garb of an ancient assassin. Only his eyes were exposed.

Xiaofeng looked at him with interest. It wasn’t the skill he was curious about. If he could dodge the gray wolf, then he could make it here alone.

What really interested Xiaofeng was Night Whispers’ equipment. His dark clothing and iron knives were way better than Xiaofeng’s novice gown and wood stick. Xiaofeng gazed at it with envy.

Night Whispers slashed the gray wolf with his knives, sidestepping the counterattack. His hits didn’t do as magic damage as Xiaofeng. He had probably put more attribute points towards agility.

[-8!] [-9]

Night Whispers saw Xiaofeng too but looked him over and returned his focus to the wolf. Xiaofeng’s clothes made him look like a lost newbie, not a respectable ally.

"Awooo!"

A gray wolf spawned between Xiaofeng and Night Whispers. Night Whispers took a step back, leaving the gray wolf’s aggro range. That was, it would aggro on the newbie and he could return to hunting in piece.

The wolf looked around, and, seeing Xiaofeng was close, rushed towards him. Night Whispers waited off to the side. Once the wolf killed the newbie, he could sneak an attack on it.

Xiaofeng smiled, thinking how polite it was that Night Whispers had let him have the easy kill.

"Thanks dude, but you don't need to give it to me. There’s plenty of monsters here for the both of us."

Xiaofeng he picked up the wooden stick and struck the gray wolf hard on the head.

"Thud!"

[Critical! -42]

With the muffled crack, the health points over the wolf’s head dropped below half.

"..."

Night Whispers staggered in shock as he watched the stranger beat a wolf to death with a stick. He studied Xiaofeng more carefully. ‘Dad’? It was best to get away from this weirdo. He decided to look for distant targets.

Xiaofeng didn’t mind being ignored. He picked up his stick and kept moving forward, leaving a trail of dead monsters behind him.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!”

The distant steady thuds sounded like some sort curse. With every hit, Night Whispers tensed. When the distraction nearly got him killed, he turned to look at Xiaofeng.

Xiaofeng, meanwhile, was happily racking up experience. He efficiently dispatched every wolf he saw until the area was totally empty and he had to move forward.

He’d passed the edge of the forest now. The gray wolves were replaced with black wolves. They gave him more experience, but they took far longer to kill.

Night Whispers was getting more annoyed. All the gray wolves were dead, so he had to follow Xiaofeng and kill black wolves instead, but he didn’t do much damage. Killing a single wolf took a long time.

Looking at Xiaofeng cheerfully dealing with the black wolves, Night Whispers was pissed. Instead, he got the attention of seven or eight black wolves. With them in tow, he went straight to Xiaofeng. He stepped out of their range and started to retreat, leaving them focused on him.

"Hey, you don’t bring me enemies! There are plenty here! Or we can form a team and kill them together."

Xiaofeng was touched by his consideration, and send a team offer to Night Whispers, but Night Whispers rejected it. He stood at this distance, watching Xiaofeng be swarmed with satisfaction.

Xiaofeng thought the gift was too kind, and he wanted to catch up with him and make friends, but he couldn’t ignore the chance he’d been given. He had to take care of the wolves first.

"Awooo!"

All eight wolves rushed him in unison.

Black wolves were level 6 creatures. Their attacks did 20 damage each. That meant if even four hit him, he’d be sent back to Novice Village to respawn.

Still Xiaofeng wasn’t flustered in the slightest. His eyes were as he blocked the attacks and got outside of the vicious circle to begin cheerfully taking them down.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!”

Night Whispers was fuming now. He still couldn’t deal with two wolves. Four would have killed him, but this stranger had easily taken down eight! Was this player a newbie or a master?

Night Whispers had been playing the closed beta. He was in the top 100 players in the Hall of Fame. He was familiar with the other top players too. None of them were middle aged men in a white gown.

It was time to walk away. There was nothing fun about sitting watching somebody play better than him, but he froze when he turned around.

A gigantic wolf stood before him, jaws dripping blood. It was flanked by four white wolves and, wherever it walked, wolves retreated.

Was this a boss?

Night Whispers clutched the knife in his hand and carefully glanced behind him. Maybe he was lucky, and it hadn’t seen him.

"Ha! Is this the boss? Ah, you gave me those monsters because you were after this big guy, right?"

To his disappointment, Xiaofeng stood behind him. The man looked excitedly at the bloody wolf. He clearly wanted to have a try.