"Damn it, where the hell did this guy run off to?"
Xiao Jie looked around with his blade drawn, still seeing no sign of I Want to Become Immortal or his corpse.
He looked toward the distant forest, thinking to himself that this fellow surely couldn't have walked far away.
Not far off, a wild dog gnawing on a corpse suddenly caught Xiao Jie's attention.
He had already killed three of these creatures and felt their combat power was a full tier weaker than the Lost Soul Bandits. Of course, it was also possible that it was because he had grown stronger now.
A single wild dog gave a dozen-odd experience points, and three gave over forty, making it feel much easier than killing bandits.
He slowly closed the distance. The wild dog retreated in a panic, circled around, and then suddenly lunged forward.
Xiao Jie remained unfazed and delivered a familiar strike. A flash of blade-light cut across, and the wild dog wailed as it collapsed to the ground and died.
Too bad not even a single hair dropped.
Oh? What's this... Xiao Jie looked at the scattered corpses on the ground. Clear sword marks were visible on some of them. This surely must have been done by that brat I Want to Become Immortal.
The other party must have come here and killed quite a few monsters.
He observed his surroundings for a moment. He had come from the southeast direction, and the west was a rock wall, so the other party could only have gone north.
Xiao Jie looked at the patch of woods to the north. Compared to the sparse woodlands around them, it was noticeably lusher and also appeared more dangerous.
Damn it, this guy really is a handful.
Whatever, I'll search for another five minutes, and if I don't see anyone, I'll head back.
At this very moment, I Want to Become Immortal had completely tuned out his surroundings. He had only a single target in his field of vision—the Salvage Goblin.
Although he couldn't run as fast as that thing, he had a bow and arrow in his hand.
Whoosh! An arrow shot out, flying straight past the top of the Salvage Goblin's head. The Salvage Goblin turned back to chatter and scream at him a flurry of times, then turned and bolted deeper into the woods.
Damn it! This aim is way too terrible.
I Want to Become Immortal experienced a bout of impotent fury. Without the blessing of weapon skills, the accuracy spread of the bow and arrow was massive, and whether it hit or not depended entirely on luck.
Yet he still refused to give up. As long as he killed it, it would drop a bunch of good loot, and maybe he could even learn spells, grow increasingly stronger, and finally rescue his older brother.
The obsession in his heart made him accelerate again. Darting among the trees, the Salvage Goblin ran faster and farther. After I Want to Become Immortal chased it for a while, the surroundings gradually grew dark. But I Want to Become Immortal was completely hooked at this point, fixated only on securing this beginner starter pack, and had no intention of letting go.
Suddenly, his vision broadened as he rushed out of the forest. A dilapidated road appeared before his eyes, several mutilated corpses lay collapsed on the grass, and a few emaciated, shaggy wild dogs were swarming around a corpse and gnawing on it.
The Salvage Goblin was hiding on a large boulder directly behind the wild dogs, looking toward this side with a sneer plastered across its face.
Seeing the wild dogs, I Want to Become Immortal's heated brain quickly cooled down. He still remembered the warning in the guide: wild dogs didn't pose much of a threat when encountered alone, but became extremely dangerous once they formed packs. Fortunately, those few wild dogs hadn't spotted him yet. Just as I Want to Become Immortal was about to turn around and retreat, the Salvage Goblin let out an eerie, sinister chuckle, pulled a stone out of its small cloth pouch, and forcefully smashed it against the head of the largest wild dog.
That wild dog immediately raised its head with a dog bark. Its crimson dog eyes seemed unable to see the Salvage Goblin, and instead looked straight toward I Want to Become Immortal.
Woof! With a single dog bark, the other two wild dogs looked over at the same time.
I Want to Become Immortal inwardly cursed that things were looking bad. Did this Salvage Goblin even play dirty like this?
He was also a very decisive person. Running at this point was out of the question—how could two legs possibly outrun four? It was better to quickly kill one, leaving the remaining two much easier to handle.
He nocked an arrow and drew the bow, loosing a shot. Unfortunately, lacking weapon skill blessings, the crosshair was too wide, and this arrow flew completely off to god knows where.
I Want to Become Immortal didn't fire a second arrow because the three wild dogs had already charged right at him.
He directly switched to his sword and shield, charging toward the wild dog closest to him.
That wild dog instantly showed a look of fear and retreated in a panic, causing I Want to Become Immortal's sword to slash at empty air. Meanwhile, the other two pincered him from the left and right respectively. In the blink of an eye, the three wild dogs had surrounded I Want to Become Immortal in a triangular formation.
Before he could swing his second strike, the two wild dogs behind him launched attacks simultaneously.
Snap, snap. Two bites.
-7! -8!
Good thing he was wearing armor; the damage wasn't very high, but the lunge from the two dogs still knocked him into a stagger against his chest.
Just as he steadied his footing, the dog in front lunged again.
I Want to Become Immortal hurriedly raised his shield for defense, blocking the incoming dog-claw attack.
Yet the two dogs behind him immediately followed up with another assault.
I Want to Become Immortal hurriedly spun around and slashed out with a sword. The dog he struck immediately backed off, but he himself took another bite in return.
He hastily executed a roll, hoping to tumble out of the encirclement, but the three wild dogs moved in sync as if they shared a single mind. After rolling twice, he was still trapped in the center. The moment he stopped rolling, all three dogs lunged forward together.
Snap, snap, snap, snap!
A round of tearing and biting shaved away a full quarter of his health bar.
This is bad!
Watching his continuously plummeting health bar, I Want to Become Immortal felt a wave of panic, his scalp tingling numbly.
Was he really going to die right here?
He had only just started playing this game.
Even as he thought this, he kept trying to break through the encirclement. But the three wild dogs cooperated with seamless tacit understanding; whenever he attacked one, the other two instantly launched sneak attacks, making it difficult for him to cope.
After a few rounds, his health was gradually depleted. If he hadn't invested 5 points into constitution earlier, he probably would have kicked the bucket long ago.
He hurriedly pulled out a bottle of wound medicine, wanting to gulp it down. The moment he raised his hand, a wild dog lunged fiercely forward and clamped its jaws onto him with an "Awooo," directly interrupting his potion-drinking action.
Finished! I Want to Become Immortal felt a flash of despair in his heart. Only at this moment did he realize that drinking potions in this game was not instantaneous; instead, there was an animation of raising one's hand and consuming the item, taking about a full second to complete. If attacked during this window, the potion-drinking action would be interrupted.
Not only did he fail to recover any health, but he had also wasted a bottle of medicine for nothing.
Now surrounded in the center by the three wild dogs who kept launching relentless attacks, he feared he wouldn't even be able to swallow a single drop of the blood potions in his bag.
Was he really going to die here on the very first day?
The Salvage Goblin cackled wildly on the sidelines, an exceptionally grating sound.
Amidst his frantic agitation, a wild dog leaped forward once more.
Red-eyed by this point, I Want to Become Immortal threw caution to the wind and swung his sword straight ahead to meet it. This time, he finally scored a hit!
Splat!
-19!
The wild dog only had sixty health points, so a single sword strike dealt a full third of its health in damage, but the price was that he took two more hits in return.
He was left with only a dozen-odd health points.
The injured wild dog let out a miserable screech and quickly retreated, only for a figure to suddenly appear directly behind it.
One Cut Two Pieces!
A flash of cold light swept past, and the wild dog was cleanly split in two without a sound.
Who else could it be but Xiao Jie?
Xiao Jie was utterly speechless. This fellow had actually run so far away, and the moment they met, he was being swarmed and besieged by three wild dogs, looking like he was about to kick the bucket. This morning he had spoken with absolute certainty about slowly figuring things out from the weakest monsters, yet he was pulling a stunt like this on day one.
No wonder the death rate in this game was so high; if everyone was an idiot like this, it would be strange if the death rate wasn't high.
Before you continue