Fleeing

The Steel Blade gifted by the system had been reinforced several times, and it was now a massive blade two meters long and weighing a hundred catties.

As Garen approached the Earth-Walking Dragon, the beast, which had been sleeping soundly, woke up.

"Whoosh."

The dragon tail lashed out with Extreme Speed. Garen stomped his feet hard against the ground, his speed surging once more as he narrowly dodged the tail, leaping up to land directly on the head of the Earth-Walking Dragon.

He thrust the tip of his blade downward with all his might.

"Squelch."

The outer dragon scales offered only slight resistance to the blade tip before the entire length of the weapon plunged inside.

"Roar..."

The Earth-Walking Dragon let out a pained cry and thrashed violently, flinging Garen more than ten meters away.

With a roll to absorb the momentum, Garen stood up steadily, completely unharmed.

Not far away, the Earth-Walking Dragon, having suffered a fatal blow to its brain, struggled frantically before crashing into several large trees and collapsing to the ground, dead.

Ding, killed a Level 6 Magical Beast Earth-Walking Dragon, gained 287 experience points.

"With the God-Slaying Blade (a name Garen chose himself), killing magical beasts of the same level is completely devoid of any challenge."

Reaching this area, the magical beasts were clearly a level stronger, consisting mostly of Level 5 and Level 6 beasts, so Garen continued to push forward.

To hone his swordsmanship, he needed more and stronger opponents.

Garen utilized the Map Function, and within two minutes, he located another Level 6 magical beast, a Tri-Horned Venomous Snake, coiled on a tree branch.

If not for the Map Function, it would have been truly difficult to discover it.

The Tri-Horned Venomous Snake excelled at concealment and sneak attacks, and it possessed a lethal venom; if one were accidentally bitten and the toxin entered the body, even a Level 7 warrior could not last more than a few minutes before dying, making it a terrifying killer within the Magical Beast Mountain Range.

Although the Tri-Horned Venomous Snake lacked the size of other large magical beasts, an adult was still three meters long, its body as thick as an adult's arm, and its snake skin possessed extreme toughness.

Garen used a magical Wind Blade from afar to sever the branch the Tri-Horned Venomous Snake was coiled around.

The Tri-Horned Venomous Snake fell from the tree, which stood dozens of meters high, along with the branch.

By the time it reacted and tried to leap to another branch, Garen had already vaulted over twenty meters into the air and slashed his blade into its vital spot.

Severed in two, it was dead beyond any doubt.

The God-Slaying Blade truly made dealing with such magical beasts effortless.

If it were a super-large magical beast with thick scales and flesh, a single strike might fail to damage its internal organs or bones, requiring a slow war of attrition. However, against small magical beasts, given the sharpness of the God-Slaying Blade combined with Garen's Level 6 warrior battle qi and strength, it was essentially an instant kill.

Ding, killed a Level 6 Magical Beast Tri-Horned Venomous Snake, gained 265 experience points.

"Among Level 6 magical beasts, there aren't any of those super-large types, so with the God-Slaying Blade, it's basically a slaughter. If I run into something like a Velociraptor that's over ten meters tall and dozens of meters long, I don't seem to have any way to deal with it without transforming."

Garen felt that with the God-Slaying Blade, dealing with Level 6 magical beasts was too easy now. But if he were to face a large-bodied Level 7 magical beast, it would be like Bebe—sharp teeth could break through defenses, but even after dozens of bites, the beast would only suffer minor injuries, as it could control its muscles and scales to prevent fatal damage, making it very hard to kill.

If he encountered a small-bodied one, he could use his partial tiger transformation to reach the strength of a Level 7 warrior, which, combined with the God-Slaying Blade, should make it quite easy to kill.

He would focus on grinding experience and consolidating his swordsmanship foundation first. Once his foundation was solid and he had created his own unique ultimate move, it should be easier to kill large Level 7 magical beasts.

And so, Garen continued to rapidly grind experience in the Magical Beast Mountain Range, steadily improving his swordsmanship.

Chopping, slashing, thrusting, and lifting—he repeated these basic moves countless times every day. As time passed, he felt as if the God-Slaying Blade had become an extension of his own body.

One month later.

Garen

Warrior Level: 6 (49892/50000 experience)

Transformation Level: 8

Magic Level: 6 (39295/50000 experience)

God-Slaying Blade: Can cause massive damage to magical beasts below Level 9, Gem Smelting enabled (two slots)

Level 1 Sun Stone: Increases the power of the user's fire-type magic or battle qi by 10%

Level 1 Breeze Stone: Increases the power of the user's wind-type magic or battle qi by 10%

Tiger God Armor (the name given to the armor gifted by the system): Provides strong protection against magical beasts below Level 8, Gem Smelting enabled (one slot)

Level 1 Black Gem: Increases the user's speed by 5%

After a month of slaughter, Garen had finally raised his magic level to Level 6 as well.

He could have raised his warrior level to Level 7 long ago, but Garen realized that once he hit Level 7, he would no longer gain experience from killing Level 6 magical beasts. Furthermore, his magic level was harder to upgrade through meditation than his warrior level was through training, so he held his warrior level back just before it hit Level 7 and funneled all the experience gained from subsequent kills into his magic level.

Over this month, Garen had killed hundreds of Level 6 magical beasts and over a dozen Level 7 magical beasts.

He had also killed several assassins who were training in the Magical Beast Mountain Range. To him, those assassins were easier to kill than magical beasts; with the system map, no matter how well they hid or how well they suppressed their presence, they were easily discovered by him. Before the assassins even noticed him, he would snipe them with the Purple Dragon Bow, as they never kept their battle qi shields active while hiding their presence.

The equipment dropped over this month had allowed him to reinforce the God-Slaying Blade and the Tiger God Armor several times, and he had also looted some slotting stones and enchantment stones.

Don't be fooled by the fact that he was only socketing Level 1 gems, which might seem like a small boost, but the system had already indicated that two Level 1 gems could be synthesized into a Level 2 gem. If the gem levels were higher in the future, their effects would be significant.

He still had two Level 1 gems in his inventory, but without slotting stones to open sockets, he couldn't use them for the time being.

He also looted a few primary experience cards, which he stored away to keep as a trump card for future use.

The power of the Purple Dragon Bow had also increased significantly, as the two level-six Magic Crystal Cores originally embedded in it had been replaced with level-seven ones.

Garen planned to gradually upgrade the Purple Dragon Bow once his own strength grew, as he had grown accustomed to using it.

Garen slowly realized that the Upgrade System was becoming increasingly game-like, even introducing gem embedding; he had no idea what other flashy features might appear later.

Could it be that once I catch a pet, a pet system will unlock, and catching a mount will trigger a mount system? Garen wondered.

Just as Garen was lost in his wild thoughts, the ground suddenly began to tremble slightly, and countless red dots appeared on his Map Function.

A few seconds later, Garen saw an endless swarm of magical beast rats, numbering in the tens of thousands.

Leading them were two half-meter-tall golden Stone-Slaying Rats.

"Holy crap!"

Garen let out a strange cry, activated his Tiger-Striped Warrior transformation, and instinctively fled in a panic toward the outer perimeter of the Magical Beast Mountain Range.

Several hours later, Garen finally escaped the danger, leaning against a large tree and gasping for air.

"Damn it, that was too close; I almost kicked the bucket."

Those two Stone-Slaying Rats were likely level-nine magical beasts. Even in my Tiger-Striped Warrior form, they almost caught up to me. When I turned back to land a strike, I barely managed to scratch their fur. It was only at the critical moment, after casting a level-six Extreme Speed spell on myself, that I barely managed to get away.

It was fortunate that I ran into a swarm of level-nine Stone-Slaying Rats this time, as I at least had a slight advantage in speed. If I had encountered a swarm of level-nine Shadow Rats, I probably would have been reporting to the Underworld by now. However, the defense of these Stone-Slaying Rats truly lives up to their reputation as the best among magical beasts; the God-Slaying Blade couldn't even break through their hide.

This experience made Garen realize why rumors always claimed that rat swarms were the most terrifying existence.

(End of chapter)

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