Fang Yue's stats were high. The problem was... the Anomaly was too fast.
When he faced the Lesser Anomaly, he could do little more than stand there and take a beating.
Only after he deflected its attack and caught it off guard did he manage to land a flurry of hits and kill it. Otherwise, it really would've been a matter of life and death.
After calming himself down, Fang Yue considered what to do next.
"What now?"
This lousy game didn't even have a tutorial... No, it did. Those two Anomalies had taught Fang Yue one hell of a lesson.
But what kind of tutorial was that? If he hadn't gotten lucky, he'd already be dead!
The only thing Fang Yue knew for sure was that killing [Anomalies] raised his stats. He knew nothing else; he was completely in the dark.
After thinking it over, Fang Yue first inspected the Ruined Temple.
The Ruined Temple wasn't big. He finished checking it in a few minutes.
A battered oil-paper umbrella.
Some firewood.
That was it.
He rubbed his hands together. Maybe it was because the Ruined Temple had a few more holes in it now and the wind was blowing right through, but Fang Yue felt much colder.
"This can't go on. I'd better start a fire."
"But how do I start one?"
The answer was to make fire by rubbing sticks together.
The oil-paper umbrella in particular would make excellent fuel.
He brought the firewood over and piled it together, then set the umbrella beside it.
Fang Yue laid one stick on the ground, then picked up another and tried to force its end into a sharp point with his bare hands.
After killing the [Nascent Anomaly], Fang Yue's stats had gone up again.
With a whopping 32 points of Strength, he crushed the stick in his hand.
He tried a few more before finally managing something that could pass for a finished product.
It was still just a stick, but its end was unevenly dented and jagged, like a mouse had gnawed on it. That was Fang Yue's masterpiece.
He placed both hands on his "masterpiece" and rubbed as fast as he could.
Crack.
The stick on the ground snapped in half.
Fang Yue tried a few more times, until all the sticks had become a pile of splinters of various lengths.
Maybe he just didn't have a knack for this.
"That's weird. On TV, rubbing sticks together always looks so easy. Why isn't brute force working?"
Fang Yue didn't give up. He looked at one of the Ruined Temple's round support pillars. That was wood, too.
"Brute force... gets results?"
A dangerous idea popped into his head, but he quickly pushed it aside.
"Forget it. What if the Ruined Temple collapses..."
He sighed and looked outside. The rain seemed to have eased up a little.
After a moment's thought, Fang Yue got up and headed out.
As soon as he stood, his legs went numb, and he nearly fell over.
No, they weren't just numb. They were a little stiff, too.
Like frozen meat straight out of the fridge.
Fang Yue moved around for a while, and the stiffness eased, but he could clearly feel that the Ruined Temple had gotten even colder.
"I can't stay here any longer."
Fang Yue suspected that if he slept in the Ruined Temple tonight, he'd freeze to death by morning.
He got to his feet and decided to scout the surrounding area.
When he left the Ruined Temple, Fang Yue naturally stepped straight into the rain.
The next moment, his expression changed, and his body went rigid.
Patter, patter!
The rain beat down furiously on Fang Yue.
At the same time, numbers rapidly appeared above him.
-1!
-1!
-1!
-1!
-1!
Fang Yue: ???
He could lose health from this, too? Fang Yue was dumbfounded.
Luckily, [Night's Breath] was doing its job. His health was dropping fast, but it was recovering just as fast, going up and down like a roller coaster.
Fang Yue checked his stats. In the rain, his health plunged to just over 70, then [Night's Breath] sent it soaring to around 97, before it started dropping and recovering again.
Fang Yue quickly figured it out.
The rain wasn't falling at a steady rate, and the amount of his body exposed to it kept changing.
Sometimes he lost more health, sometimes less, but [Night's Breath] could always restore it. His total health was still going down, though.
After a short while, his health only recovered to around 88 at best. Combined with the roller-coaster fluctuations, it left Fang Yue feeling uneasy.
He backed up a couple of steps and ducked into the Ruined Temple.
His health shot right back up to 100.
"If I had something to keep the rain off for a while, I could explore outside with my 'breathe-and-heal' trick."
Fang Yue looked at the battered oil-paper umbrella he'd tossed on the ground to use as fuel.
Good thing he hadn't burned it...
Fang Yue felt a little relieved.
He'd planned to wait for the rain to stop before exploring outside.
But he hadn't even managed to start a fire by rubbing sticks together, and the Ruined Temple was freezing. He'd have to find another way.
The oil-paper umbrella had a large hole in its canopy. Its surface was coated in black, greasy grime, and it smelled awful. It was disgusting.
Fang Yue opened the umbrella, held it over his head, and stepped into the rain.
Patter, patter.
The rain beat down on the umbrella. Water poured through the hole, soaking a patch of Fang Yue in an instant.
At the same time, his health began ticking down rapidly.
-1!
-1!
-1!
But compared to before, the health loss was nothing. [Night's Breath] restored it right away.
Feeling more at ease, Fang Yue headed out through the Ruined Temple's entrance.
He hadn't gone far before he spotted a winding stone path leading downhill.
Fang Yue picked up a pebble from the path. It was a grayish white and very hard, but he couldn't tell what kind of stone it was.
Beside the stone path stood a wooden sign.
Three large characters were written vertically on it: Ancient Moon Temple.
Beside Ancient Moon Temple, three smaller characters had been added: Ancient Moon Village.
A village!
Fang Yue perked up and peered down the stone path.
Unfortunately, it was pitch-black below. He couldn't see a thing...
Boom!
Thunder crashed, lighting up the path.
Fang Yue saw it clearly at once.
The stone path led down the mountain, and a little farther ahead, there really was a village.
The village didn't seem to have any fires burning, which was why he couldn't see it in the dark.
The thunder passed, and darkness returned.
Fang Yue started down the stone path.
Tall willow trees lined both sides of the path.
Their leaves blocked out some of the moonlight, leaving the surroundings shrouded in a gloomy darkness.
Walking down the path felt like walking straight into the dark.
Fang Yue gritted his teeth and kept going. He felt colder and colder, and his legs grew as heavy as lead.
At last, Fang Yue realized something was wrong.
The reason he kept getting colder had nothing to do with the Ruined Temple. It was him.
His body was losing its warmth.
And for some reason, his feet felt greasy.
He reached down and touched one, then raised his hand to look. Fang Yue froze.
His right hand was covered in a greasy, black, viscous liquid.
Boom!
Thunder crashed again just then.
Fang Yue looked down and saw that everything below his knees was pitch-black, covered in the same strange black slime.
As if stirred by the thunder, the slime suddenly began crawling up Fang Yue's legs. He stomped in alarm.
Thud, thud, thud!
The stone path beneath his feet shattered. The black slime was shaken loose and fell to the ground, where it wriggled and slowly gathered back together.
What the hell was that?!
Fang Yue grimaced. Ignoring the slime still clinging to his feet, he broke into a run.
As expected, once he started moving, the black slime was flung off bit by bit.
But as he ran, the strong wind tore the oil-paper umbrella to shreds.
Fang Yue was frustrated. All he could do was run for a while, take shelter under a tree to recover his health, then run again.
At least the rain was gradually easing up.
By the time Fang Yue finally reached the village, head down and pushing on,
the rain had eased to a downpour.
The village looked ordinary.
A mud wall surrounded it, marking its boundaries.
Outside the village entrance stood a large shelter.
It looked like a makeshift pigsty. It was crude, but still offered some protection from the wind and rain.
A crowd of people lay scattered inside, dressed in rags and gaunt, their faces sallow. They huddled around the tiny flames of a fire for warmth, shivering. They seemed to be refugees.
Some were already fast asleep, completely unfazed.
At the village entrance, a group of decently dressed people patrolled back and forth. Each held a torch with no flame in their left hand and an umbrella in their right.
"Holy crap! I finally found living people!"
Fang Yue was so excited that he immediately sprinted toward the village through the rain.
The people patrolling the entrance spotted him and all froze.
When they came to their senses, their faces turned white as paper, filled with despair and terror.
They dropped their torches and scrambled to run back inside.
"Close the gates! Close the gates! Great danger!"
"Great danger!!"
"Rain-grade Anomaly! Rain-grade Anomaly!! Great danger!!!"
"Great danger! Get Lord Han! Get Lord Han!!"
Before you continue