"Huh? You're still alive?"
Wind Snow Traveler came out of the forest carrying his white great axe.
Eight people followed behind him. Aside from the four novice players who had run away, the other four were veteran novice players from Zone 18.
Seeing that Xiao Fan and the others were unharmed, Wind Snow Traveler looked surprised.
Xiao Fan: ...So they came to collect our bodies?
" you're still alive? That's great!"
The speaker was someone whose ID was "Can't Figure It Out," one of the four who had run away earlier.
As soon as he finished speaking, Han the Person punched him in the face.
He'd put all five points into Strength, so he hit hard!
"You... Why are you hitting us!" Can't Figure It Out clutched his instantly swollen face and stumbled back two steps.
"I'm hitting you traitorous bastards who ditched your teammates! Get them!"
Xiao Fan waved his hand. Behind him, Garfield Without Fat and the other two eagerly charged at the four who had run away and pinned them down to beat them.
Wind Snow Traveler and the other four didn't say a word.
Can't Figure It Out had already told him what happened. It was only natural that Xiao Fan and the others were angry.
A beating to let them blow off steam was already getting off lightly.
"All right, stop. It's almost dark. Let's get back to the village first."
Only after Han the Person and the others had beaten them for a while did Wind Snow Traveler step in.
Han the Person and the others stopped, glaring fiercely at the four.
"At least you're alive." Wind Snow Traveler spoke up.
Xiao Fan gave a cold laugh. "Thanks to them, we're not dead yet."
A trace of awkwardness and guilt flickered in the eyes of Can't Figure It Out and the other three.
They had indeed acted dishonorably.
But...
"That was a level-four Fierce Beast. We're only level one. How could we beat it? We ran back to the village to bring help." Can't Figure It Out still tried to explain.
Swift as Wind snorted. "What good would it have done to go back for help in that situation? If Brother Chen hadn't led us in killing that beast, by the time you came back with help, the grass on our graves would've been a foot tall."
Can't Figure It Out: ...It wouldn't have grown that fast, would it?
Wait!
No!
What had they just said?
They'd killed that Diamond Behemoth?
Impossible! There was no way!
Can't Figure It Out's eyes widened. He shook his head, refusing to believe what Swift as Wind had said.
"You're saying the five of you killed that Diamond Behemoth? Are you kidding? How could that be possible!"
"Who the hell's kidding? You morons can't even imagine how powerful Brother Chen is!" Garfield Without Fat said, then raised his fist and jabbed Can't Figure It Out in the chest again.
Wind Snow Traveler and the other four nearby were also stunned.
What had they just heard? These five novice players had killed a level-four Diamond Behemoth?
Could it get any more ridiculous?
That was a Diamond Behemoth, famous for its brute force! Who would dare provoke one before reaching level four?
Wind Snow Traveler looked at Xiao Fan, hoping to see in his eyes that it was a joke. But out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of the Diamond Behemoth's enormous body lying not far behind Xiao Fan.
In that moment, what he'd thought absurd became reality.
Behind him, Can't Figure It Out and the others noticed the Diamond Behemoth's corpse.
Their voices, which had just been full of disbelief, seemed to catch in their throats. Not another sound came out.
It wasn't unheard of for players in Cloud Sea to challenge foes above their level, but every one of those players had been a peerless talent in the game, a big shot on the Leaderboard.
But Xiao Fan and the others? They'd only been in the game for less than two days!
And they'd beaten a foe two levels above them!
It was practically unheard of.
At that moment, Wind Snow Traveler had only one thought.
Why had players with this kind of talent been assigned to Zone 18?
Seeing everyone's shocked expressions, Han the Person and the others lifted their chins, looking proud.
Look, look. We're the ones who killed it.
"We should head back."
Xiao Fan reminded them.
Only then did Wind Snow Traveler and the others snap out of their shock. They looked up and saw that the sun had already set. It wouldn't be long before darkness fell completely.
"Take them to find Purple Charm's body and bring it back," Wind Snow Traveler instructed Can't Figure It Out.
Only then did Xiao Fan and the others learn that Purple Charm had been killed by the Diamond Behemoth before they arrived to help.
No wonder only Can't Figure It Out and the other three had run away.
On the way back, the mood in the group was heavy.
The twenty novice players had only entered the Novice Zone yesterday. Today was their first day hunting Magic Beasts, yet one of them had been left here forever.
At that moment, they truly felt how cruel Cloud Sea was.
"Didn't the map say that the forest outskirts only had Red-Eyed Rabbits, with the occasional level-two Fierce Beast? Why did a level-four one show up today?"
Can't Figure It Out's voice was choked with tears. When he'd heard Purple Charm's cries for help that day, he hadn't even dared look back. Remembering that helplessness still made him feel powerless.
Without turning around, Wind Snow Traveler said, "I told you before: nothing in Cloud Sea is set in stone. The Fierce Beasts here aren't restricted to staying in any particular place. You were just unlucky today."
The group fell silent at once. No one spoke for the rest of the way.
The level-four Fierce Beast, the Diamond Behemoth, had provided Xiao Fan Team with 16 points of Core Power. Xiao Fan received four points, while the other four each received three.
ID: Jiu Chen
Level: 3 (0/1000)
HP: 310/310
MP: 1011/1011 (+666)
Strength: 10
Intelligence: 14
Spirit: 14
Agility: 12
Constitution: 10
Trait: Saint
Skills: Halo of the Saint, Gift of the Saint 3
Equipment: None
Core Power: 447
Today's battle had permanently increased his mana by another 115 points. He now had over a thousand mana.
Also, reaching level four required 1,000 experience points, which was also 1,000 Core Power.
Xiao Fan frowned. He'd gained less than twenty points of Core Power all day.
"I get too little energy from killing Fierce Beasts!"
At that moment, Xiao Fan missed the Core Power the Game System had rewarded him for creating a skill.
He'd complained before that creating a second skill had only earned him 200 Core Power. Looking back, he'd really been an ungrateful bastard.
"Maybe I can take them to the level-two Fierce Beast area tomorrow."
Xiao Fan urgently needed to reach level five and create an attack skill. He was too dependent on the team as things stood.
Darkness had fully fallen by the time the group finally returned to Novice Village.
The barricade at the village entrance still hadn't been put up. Under the lights, everyone from Zone 18 was there.
"You're finally back."
A man around thirty years old with the ID Blade Shadow visibly relaxed when he saw them.
Once the group entered the village, people immediately crowded around them.
Blade Shadow glanced at the group behind Wind Snow Traveler. When his eyes fell on Purple Charm's battered corpse, he visibly froze. In the end, he let out a sigh.
"Given that you ran into a level-four Fierce Beast, things actually turned out pretty well."
That was Blade Shadow's honest opinion. He'd thought all five of Xiao Fan's group would die in the forest. He hadn't expected every one of them to make it back alive.
If not for the somber mood, he would've asked them what had happened.
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