Afraid of the wild boar's Savage Charge, Wu Shaozhen led it in circles around several large trees. Sure enough, after a dozen seconds, the boar stopped when it realized it couldn't catch the puny human in front of it. It scraped the ground with its front hooves, then hurtled straight at him.
Wu Shaozhen, who had been watching the boar tensely, instantly dodged to the side and just managed to avoid it.
"Phew... that was close..." Wu Shaozhen breathed out. Still, it didn't seem all that difficult. The boar had an obvious windup before using its skill: it scraped the ground twice with its front hooves. As long as he wasn't directly in front of it and wasn't too slow, dodging was fairly easy. After all, a high-damage skill with both movement and a stun would have been far too hard to handle without a windup.
After charging past Wu Shaozhen, the boar quickly came to a halt. It paused for about a second before turning around and chasing him again.
Wu Shaozhen rubbed his chin, a sharp gleam flashing in his eyes. He kept leading the boar in circles and easily dodged when it used its skill again. During its one-second pause, he quickly slashed its rump, then immediately retreated. By the time the boar turned around, he was already two body lengths away.
It really works. This way, he wouldn't have to worry about the boar recovering HP when the poison wore off, since each application refreshed its duration. He also wouldn't have to worry about it suddenly using its skill just as he approached for another hit.
A few minutes later, the boar was down to a sliver of HP. Just as he was about to reap his reward, another boar suddenly burst out of a different patch of bushes and charged straight at him.
"Fuck, are you messing with me?" Wu Shaozhen dodged by the narrowest of margins. He knew there had to be plenty of boars here, which was why he had kept circling this area instead of straying too far. He hadn't expected another one to find him anyway. Monsters that attacked on sight were such a pain.
He frowned. He should have left immediately at this point. One hit from each boar would send him to his grave. But looking at the boar that needed just one more slash to finish it off, Wu Shaozhen couldn't bear to walk away.
Licking his lips, Wu Shaozhen fixed a sharp gaze on the two boars behind him. "Then let's try really dancing on a knife's edge." With his talent, he would probably face this sort of thrill often in the future. He might as well get used to it early.
He continued leading both boars in circles. There was no way he could go in for another slash now, or both would gore him. He could only wait patiently for an opening.
Suddenly, the low-HP boar scraped its front hooves and charged at him. Wu Shaozhen calmly sidestepped and was about to follow up with a slash, but the other boar activated its skill at that very moment. He had no choice but to abandon the attack and dodge again.
"These fuckers even know how to coordinate? What the hell?" Wu Shaozhen snapped. The poison on the low-HP boar was about to wear off. If he didn't act soon, it would start recovering HP.
Watching the two boars approach side by side, Wu Shaozhen carefully analyzed the situation. My agility is 13, and theirs is 11. Our attack speeds are the same. If I hit one, it can hit me back, with no more than 0.01 seconds between us. That's nowhere near enough time to move a body length out of attack range. But what if I don't attack first? Could I dodge when they attack, then go back in and strike? No, that won't work either. At my current movement speed, one second isn't enough to move a body length away and back. I could only cover one body length at most.
Then what if I don't pull away? A thought suddenly struck Wu Shaozhen. When both boars attack, I could dodge to the side of the low-HP one. That would avoid the full-HP boar's attack while letting the low-HP one hit me. Then I could strike back and run. If I only take one hit, I can definitely survive.
He put his plan into action, slowly approaching the two boars with his heart pounding. It worked in theory, but the execution demanded precise control. One slight mistake in his timing would earn him a free trip back to town.
He soon entered their attack range. As both boars thrust their tusks toward him, a sharp gleam flashed in his eyes. "Now!" He sidestepped toward the low-HP boar. Its tusks struck him squarely, while the other boar's attack missed.
Wu Shaozhen quickly turned and slashed, then bolted. Before the boars' next attacks landed, he had moved a body length away, narrowly avoiding the second strikes from both boars behind him.
"Phew... that was close... Fuck, I nearly gave myself a heart attack playing a game. But this game really does give you so much room for skillful play. Looks like I'll have to practice more and get used to it as soon as possible."
Now he only had to wait for the low-HP boar to slowly die from the poison. All he needed to do was make sure he didn't get hit when both of them used their skills at once.
Soon, the low-HP boar collapsed reluctantly to the ground, and a system notification sounded.
"Ding! You killed [Wild Boar] and earned 20 EXP. Killing a monster five levels above you awarded an additional 10 EXP." "Ding! Talent trait triggered. Poison damage increased by 1."
"Phew... finally killed one. That was way too hard." Wu Shaozhen exhaled and glanced beside the boar's corpse. Apart from the copper coins, there seemed to be a boar's tooth.
He circled around the other boar, quickly ran over, and picked up two copper coins and the tooth.
[Tusk] A material. A villager might need it, or you can sell it to the general store for 1 copper coin.
Tch, that's it? I thought it was something good. Wu Shaozhen gave it a disdainful glance before tossing it into his bag. One copper coin was still one copper coin. Money was far too hard to earn in this game. Even now, he only had twelve copper coins on him. Despite fighting monsters five levels above him, each one only dropped two. Those groups fighting rabbits could go ages without seeing a single copper coin. That showed just how low Oracle's drop rates were.
After quickly finishing off the remaining boar, Wu Shaozhen began searching for more. Whenever he found one, he lured it back here to kill it. He really dreaded having several more boars show up again. As his talent improved, he killed them faster and faster. Finally, when he killed his eighth boar, it generously dropped another piece of equipment.
[Wild Boar Leather Armor] Quality: common HP +40 Physical defense +2 Equip requirements: none
He quickly replaced the cloth armor he was wearing. His HP reached 110, and his physical defense rose to 9. That gave him a little more security.
Keep going. Two more kills and I can level up again. By now, Wu Shaozhen's talent had stacked up to 14 poison damage, and its terrifying potential was beginning to show. Fourteen damage per second meant 840 true damage per minute. A boar had 2,000 HP, so he could now kill one in just over two minutes. That only took three slashes.
He soon killed another two boars. The long-awaited glow of a level-up flashed over him, followed by a system notification.
"Ding! Congratulations on leveling up! HP +20, MP +10. You received 5 free attribute points. Please allocate them wisely."
He put all five attribute points into agility, and his stats changed accordingly.
Name: Dustseal Level: 2 HP: 90 + 40 (equipment bonus; only the total will be shown from now on) MP: 70 Physical attack: 10 + 2 Magic attack: 10 Physical defense: 5 + 4 Magic defense: 5 Movement speed: 15 + 3 EXP: 10/500 Strength: 5 Intelligence: 5 Constitution: 5 Bone structure: 5 Spirit: 5 Agility: 15 Skill: Insight (allows you to view information on monsters no more than 10 levels above you) Talent: source of venom: basic attacks or melee skills inflict deadly poison on the target (ranged attacks cannot trigger it), dealing 16 true damage per second. Can stack up to 1 time and lasts 60 seconds. Poisoned targets cannot recover HP. Traits: each target killed at least 5 levels above you increases poison damage by 1. Each boss killed at a realm rank no lower than your own increases the maximum poison stacks by 1 (bosses of each realm can only trigger this once). Equipment [Wooden Sword] (starter equipment): physical attack +2 [Wild Boar Leather Armor] Common equipment: HP +40, physical defense +2 [Canvas Shoes] Common equipment: movement speed +3, physical defense +2
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