Clear the Wolves

No. 13 Novice Village was a small village located inland within the Carron Empire, with fewer monster types than the coastal regions.

So Su Jiang did not have many choices.

He killed stray dogs along the village road as he headed out of the village.

Within the village's safe zone, the monsters were relatively non-aggressive. But once he left the Novice Village's boundaries, he would have to face large carnivores like wolves and tigers.

They were more aggressive and had wider alert ranges, but naturally, they also provided more experience and copper coins.

The quest Su Jiang had accepted from the Adventurer's Guild was to clear the wolf pack.

Clear the Wolf Pack (Rare, Level 6 Quest)

Quest Description: The wolves lurking everywhere were what troubled this village's travelers. Like stalkers in the night, the moment they spotted weariness on a passerby's face, they would swarm forward!

Quest Reward: Experience +300, Copper Coins +300

Current Progress: 0/100

Clear the Wolf Pack

Quest Description: ...

Clear the Wolf Pack

...

Three consecutive rare quests all required him to clear the wolf pack. Altogether, Su Jiang needed to kill 300 wolves.

The rewards were extremely generous. Leaving aside the experience, 300 copper coins alone were worth 120 yuan per quest. How could an ordinary worker earn 120 yuan that easily?

Still, these Forest Wolves were not easy to kill. Wild Dog packs moved in groups of three, while wolf packs numbered five to ten. Once their numbers increased, the difficulty of dealing with them rose exponentially.

Especially since wolves could drain blood and grow fiercer as they fought. They also had the Agility passive, making them fast and difficult to kite.

Fortunately, Kurumi had another method.

This was thanks to Kurumi being a ranged attacker. She could climb a tree and attack from above, avoiding being surrounded by the wolf pack. By the time the wolves climbed up to attack her, Kurumi would have enough time to kill them one by one.

Kurumi avoided the wolf pack's alert range and climbed a tree.

Forest Wolves wandered leisurely all around her.

Forest Wolf

Level: Lv. 6

Life Level: Ordinary Monster

Attack: 100

Defense: 5

Health: 500

Skills: Bite, Bloodlust, Agility

Description: Awoo~ Awoo~ Woof~ Awoo...

With 100 attack power, Kurumi's current body could only take nine hits. If a pack of wolves rushed her all at once, she probably would not last even a second.

"City of Eating Time."

Standing on a branch, Kurumi unleashed a dark red time barrier from beneath her feet. Crimson spiritual energy spread through the surroundings, dyeing everything the color of blood.

The Forest Wolves within the City of Eating Time felt their bodies grow heavy. In an instant, they caught the scent of prey drifting down from the tree.

"Awoo—!"

"Awoo~"

"Woof woof woof!"

The Forest Wolves' Beast Blood Boiling erupted. They went mad beneath the tree, clawing at the trunk with both paws as they tried to climb up, opening their bloody maws to devour their prey whole!

"My, my. What adorable little ones."

Kurumi was not frightened in the slightest by the wolves' savage gazes. She pulled the trigger and fired wildly at the wolves with their mouths wide open.

-85!

-123!

-85!

"Ding! You gained 12 Time Value..."

"Ding! Your normal attack triggered the Second Bullet passive. All Forest Wolf speeds decreased by 10%..."

"System Notification: You killed a Forest Wolf and gained 6 experience and 3 copper coins."

"System Notification: ..."

As long as the City of Eating Time remained active, there was no need to worry about running out of Time Value.

The moment the First Bullet came off cooldown, Kurumi cast it immediately. Her attack speed instantly increased to 2.1 attacks per second, and berserk spiritual bullets crashed into the wolves' fragile bodies like torrents of blood.

Before long, all twelve wolves beneath the tree had been eliminated.

It took around three minutes.

During that time, three wolves nearly climbed up the tree. Kurumi used the Second Bullet to halve their speed, causing them to fall, then riddled them with bullets.

She gained a total of 72 experience and 30 copper coins.

Good. At this rate, she should reach Level 10 very soon.

After killing all the wolves in this area, Kurumi switched to another tree and continued using the same method...

It had to be said that with the City of Eating Time, her monster-killing efficiency had truly skyrocketed. No need to worry about consumption, and unlimited firepower combined with Kurumi's skills was simply perfect!

An hour later, after killing more than two hundred wolves, Kurumi was nearly driven numb by the slaughter.

Grinding levels was an extremely tedious thing, even if she could kill them with ease.

After killing too many, her actions became mechanical and her mind grew exhausted, like an office worker staring at a computer for hours.

"Ha~ Let's take a break and see if there's any fresh news on the forums."

At that moment, most of the forum's front page was still filled with Rat King guides. A small portion consisted of lucky players showing off the Talents they had drawn, while unlucky players complained about how unfair it was.

Honestly, the Talent draw at the start of Meta World was a pretty exciting setup. Whether people were interested in the game or not, most would give it a try after hearing that they could draw a Talent at the start. Those who drew high-level Talents could show them off, while those who did not could still share their terrible luck with others.

"The hardest quest yet has appeared! What's the Rat King? Nightmare's Minion is the strongest monster!"

"Isn't Vengeance's Minion worse? Hit it once, and it will definitely hit you back once."

"What are you guys even talking about?"

"It seems that Novice Villages where the Rat King has been killed have a chance to spawn the rare quest Prelude to the Anomaly. This quest requires players to kill a certain special monster. So far, Fear's Minion, Nightmare's Minion, Vengeance's Minion, and others have been discovered..."

"Can't beat them... There's no way to beat them..."

With Rat King guides available, many players in the Novice Villages had raised their levels.

Furthermore, once people leveled up, they stopped farming slimes. The crowded players dispersed into various leveling areas, and the highest-level players had already reached Level 4.

One was a foreign player with the high-level Talent Lightning Control. He spent money hiring a large group of people to help him complete Adventurer's Guild quests, and his level soared.

He had even filmed a guide video, leading a huge group of players toward Nightmare's Minion, only for the entire group to be wiped out in one wave by a few minor monsters.

"This quest can't possibly be completed without reaching Level 10." Kurumi sneered.

If this quest had been easy to carry out, Meta World would not have begun interfering with reality only half a year later in her previous life.

Still, seeing that these people were leveling up so quickly, Kurumi felt a sense of urgency as well.

She guessed that killing the Rat King rewarded a Talent Enhancement Chest, so the first player to clear that dungeon would definitely receive a Talent Chest as well.