After a moment of darkness, Xi Ya opened his eyes.
‘Where did this bring me?’
In the game, the teleportation destination should have been a canyon, with a Shadow Demon blocking the exit.
But the place before him was full of trees.
Vines hung down from the branches, and the dense foliage blocked the sky above, leaving only a few stray beams of sunlight leaking through the gaps.
The air was cool and damp, with the smell of rotting leaves.
Xi Ya couldn’t help covering his nose.
‘What the hell is this place? Am I still in the Sorn Empire?’
Xi Ya used his magic staff to push aside the obstructing vines and trudged forward.
The ground was covered in soft fallen leaves, squishy like mud underfoot.
Tree roots hid beneath the leaves, making him stumble frequently.
‘Did I get teleported to the elven territory in the southwest?’
He moved forward carefully, observing his surroundings.
The trees here were tall and dense, with thick underbrush growing beneath them—it looked very unscientific.
‘No wait, this is a magic world. Since when did science matter?’
No matter how little light there was, the plants here could grow just by absorbing the Mana Particles in the air.
In short, don’t ask—the answer is magic.
After trudging through the dense forest for about half an hour, the trees finally began to thin out, and the air wasn’t as stifling.
Xi Ya leaned against a tree trunk, wanting to rest for a bit.
But he immediately sprang away from the trunk.
‘If this really is elven territory, what if this tree is a treant? If it gets startled and swings a branch at me, that’d be hilarious.’
He started recalling the map from the game.
Southwest of the Sorn Empire was the Eternal Forest, home to the elves.
The trees there were said to grow hundreds of meters tall, their leaves glowing with the faint light of various elements.
The concentration of Mana Particles in the air was over ten times that of an ordinary forest—just standing among those trees let you feel the flow of magic.
But here, there were only plain green leaves, and the Mana Particles were barely different from the outside world.
This couldn’t possibly be the Eternal Forest.
‘So where is this?’
As Xi Ya was thinking, he caught sight of two green, furry figures ahead.
He immediately hid behind a tree and poked his head out to observe.
Two cyan-green wolves emerged from a thicket, sniffing at a tree.
Their fur was so unnaturally green that it made you wonder if they could photosynthesize in sunlight.
Forest Wolves.
Xi Ya clearly remembered this beast.
Forest Wolves were a hostile beast in the early game, appearing in the canyon where the protagonist Feili was teleported by the Shadow Demon.
They weren’t fast, but they could climb trees, making them very agile in the woods.
But out in the open, they were completely inferior to ordinary wolves, becoming easy targets for Feili.
Seeing this, Xi Ya roughly knew where he was.
He should be in the forest west of the canyon; all he needed to do was walk east to get out of the woods.
However, these two Forest Wolves in front of him were a serious threat.
As early-game monsters, Forest Wolves had low stats and were basically EXP packs.
Even someone as weak as him shouldn’t have trouble dealing with them.
But the real trouble wasn’t the wolves themselves—it was their howls.
Forest Wolves would howl to summon their pack.
If he couldn’t take them down quickly and they called for more, he’d be facing dozens or even hundreds of Forest Wolves.
Getting surrounded by a wolf pack would be a huge problem.
Another option was to go around them, but Xi Ya decided against it.
With his current agility, he’d probably be spotted the moment he took two steps.
Besides, who knew if there were other Forest Wolves nearby?
He might circle around and run straight into two, dying on the spot.
Better to take them out quickly.
It’d be a good chance to level up anyway.
Xi Ya gripped his magic staff, held his breath, and aimed at one of them.
[Wind Blade]
This was the lowest-level wind attack magic.
Its damage wasn’t high, but it was fast, and hitting a vital point could kill in one strike.
An invisible blade of wind cut through the air, precisely slitting the first wolf’s throat.
It didn’t even whimper before collapsing.
Xi Ya immediately fired a second Wind Blade, and the other wolf fell to the ground with a thud.
‘Good, both taken care of.’
Xi Ya didn’t rush over.
Instead, he opened his Character Panel first.
Seeing the full, un-reduced EXP credited to his account gave him a sense of relief.
[EXP +5]
‘This is what leveling should be. What was that crap of adding point-zero-something per kill after the transformation?’
Wait, why was there only EXP for one Forest Wolf?
Xi Ya sensed something wrong—one wasn’t dead yet.
He immediately raised his staff to finish it off, but saw that the Forest Wolf had already lifted its head and opened its mouth:
“Awooo—!”
By the time his next Wind Blade struck, the howl had already echoed through the entire forest.
[EXP +5]
OH NO!
From far away, the responding howls of other Forest Wolves came.
Countless pairs of dim green eyes appeared in the shadows of the forest.
They surged toward him like a tide of water.
‘Screw, screw, screw!’
Xi Ya was at a loss.
He quickly looked around, trying to find a place to hide, but against the Forest Wolves’ keen sense of smell, hiding anywhere seemed pointless.
He spotted a relatively open clearing and decisively ran over.
Since he couldn’t hide, he needed a good spot to use magic.
At the same time, he opened his Skill Tree and used his only skill point to upgrade [Wind Blade] to level 2.
A level 1 Wind Blade was too weak.
Earlier, he had to hit a vital point just to bring the wolf to near death.
If he hit anywhere else, he’d need multiple strikes to kill.
Normally, he should transform now, but Duoluolisi’s mana had only recovered to half.
If he used it now, he might not have enough mana to deal with the Shadow Demon later.
Unless it was a critical moment, he didn’t want to transform.
Besides, he wanted to greed for as much EXP as possible.
The leveling speed with Duoluolisi was too slow, like plucking wool one strand at a time.
Real leveling had to be done by himself.
Xi Ya took a deep breath.
‘Here they come.’
The first wave of wolves burst out of the shadows.
The three leading Forest Wolves leaped at the same time, baring their fangs as they pounced on him.
Xi Ya swung his staff and cast spells at them.
The first was cut through the throat midair and crashed heavily to the ground.
The second was hit in the chest, its body landing at his feet.
The third had already reached Xi Ya.
He sidestepped, and the staff was practically pressed against its neck as he fired the Wind Blade.
[EXP +5] × 3
‘I’m fighting this easily?’
When those three Forest Wolves got close, his mind became incredibly clear.
He could accurately sense their weak points, and his body naturally made the right moves.
Every turn dodged a bite, and every Wind Blade precisely hit a vital spot.
It was just like facing those monsters in the Ancient Ruins last night.
The next two waves of attacks were the same—Xi Ya handled them with ease.
The wolf pack that was supposed to surround him had a gap carved right through it.
This level 2 Wind Blade could one-shot a Forest Wolf, like mowing grass.
‘So that’s it—Forest Wolves are this weak?’
‘Does that mean I can just slaughter them at will?’
Hmph, today Xi Ya could finally stand tall.
‘If I couldn’t beat the monsters, can’t I beat you?’
‘All of you become my EXP packs!’
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