Gibson, a Sixth-level Warrior, was in a terrible mood. His younger brother had died, and another member of the adventuring party the brothers had formed was dead, while a third was injured. It was the party's greatest loss since its formation two years ago.
Gibson and his younger brother had the same mother but different fathers, which was common among adventurer families near the Sunset Mountain Range.
The brothers were close and had ventured into the Sunset Mountain Range together since they were level five. By the time Gibson became a peak level-six warrior and his brother became a magic archer with early level-six warrior strength and level-three magic, they had formed an adventuring party. They hoped to break through to level seven in battle, then use their savings to buy a farm and live out their old age.
They had entered the Sunset Mountain Range this time because they had bought a contract scroll, and Gibson planned to find a level-six magical beast for his magic archer brother.
Unfortunately, he had misjudged someone two days ago.
The person they had tried to rob was not a greenhorn at early level six, but a Seventh-level Warrior of exceptional talent who also had two archer teammates. Most importantly, he was the kind of person who repaid every slight.
He had fled at the time only because he had been separated from his teammates by accident and had no certainty of victory. Yesterday's surprise attack had proved that he was strong enough to take on the adventuring party at full strength. Now, with two dead and one injured, and their opponent hidden in the shadows, the party risked being wiped out.
There had just been another sneak attack. Gibson had the party's only mage set a magic trap beforehand, and they had lain in ambush, feigning weakness.
To their surprise, three arrows came flying straight at them, proving that their opponent's ability to detect them far surpassed Gibson's and his companions'.
Fortunately, Gibson and the others had been on alert and were not hit.
Now they could only try to flee to the nearest town. Once they reached a human settlement, the man would no longer dare kill them openly.
Hopefully, that would be the case.
Jason had just searched last night's battlefield.
Their opponents had left behind several weapons belonging to the dead, as well as tents and other miscellaneous items, but Jason could not carry them either. There was only a quiver containing a few refined-steel arrows, probably belonging to the magic archer, which Jason took.
The party was about to leave Jason's detection range, so he hurried after them.
Jason had no intention of letting the party go. They had clearly intended to kill him a few days ago, so it came down to who killed the other first.
He had no intention of leaving trouble behind.
But Jason was not the only hunter in the Sunset Mountain Range.
The smell of blood easily attracted predators, and in this area, Wind Wolves were the strongest pack-dwelling magical beasts.
The Sunset Mountain Range had a hot, humid climate, and no Snow Wolves lived there. Wind Wolves dominated both the outer and middle regions.
More than a dozen Wind Wolves had set their sights on the adventuring party, led by a level-six Wind Wolf. They were an ordinary pack, even a relatively weak one.
If his party had been at full strength, Gibson would not have feared these Wind Wolves. They might have been magical beasts, but their bodies were not much stronger than those of humans at the same level-both were medium-sized animals, so why should either fear the other?
With a weapon in hand, Gibson was confident he could defeat the wolf king alone. His brother, the magic archer, could have killed seven or eight Wind Wolves by himself as long as his teammates covered him.
But now, things looked bad.
"Climb the trees!" Gibson acted decisively.
All five immediately began climbing.
But the Wind Wolves were no pushovers. They leaped high, bit down on the Fifth-level Warrior whose arm Jason had broken, and dragged him down. The outcome was predictably gruesome.
The Wind Wolves began spitting Wind Blades, and the party could barely fend them off. Fortunately, they still had a level-four Earth Element mage. After she quickly cast Sacred Armor of Earthguard on them, they could just barely hold out.
Several of them took the javelins from their backs and killed three Wind Wolves amid the wolves' whimpers, causing the pack to spread out a little.
But the Wind Wolves were not their only enemies.
An arrow carrying lightning-attribute battle qi struck a tree trunk, snapping it with its tremendous force.
A Fifth-level Warrior in the tree promptly jumped onto a neighboring tree. The mage was not so lucky. Her warrior level was below one, and she fell straight into the wolf pack. Her Sacred Armor of Earthguard shattered in the blink of an eye, and she was torn apart and devoured.
Gibson's eyes were bloodshot. The mage had been his brother's classmate and girlfriend, and she had joined the party for his brother's sake. Yet in just one day, both had died, one after the other.
He looked around. The two remaining members had only joined recently and were not particularly close to Gibson.
Gibson acted decisively, leaping from tree to tree and fleeing alone.
The two remaining Fifth-level Warriors shouted and tried to follow, but they were too slow, and the Wind Blades were interfering.
Only a short while later, two bone arrows struck them as they leaped through the air.
Watching from a distance, Jason saw the two warriors, who had fallen after being struck by the arrows, hold out for less than a minute before they were swarmed and killed.
As for the Sixth-level Warrior, he was extremely fast, and his defense was strong enough to ignore the Wind Blades in his path. The skeleton archer's arrows could not stop him, but Jason did not want to let him go.
"The skeleton archer's arrows really are accurate," Jason remarked.
Jason had no trouble hitting a tree from fifty meters away, but when it came to hitting Fifth-level Warriors leaping through the air, the skeleton archer was far better than him.
He walked up to the wolf pack, which was feasting.
The wolf king had been watching the direction the arrows came from all along. It knew there was another enemy there.
The aura of a Seventh-level Warrior spread out, and the wolf king whimpered.
The surrounding wolves stopped eating and retreated to the wolf king's side.
Holding his saber in one hand, Jason picked up a backpack nearby.
Inside were some food and clothes, as well as medicine.
Jason tossed out the food and clothes, then walked to the side.
He accidentally stepped on a mangled corpse, getting entrails all over his foot.
"Disgusting." Even so, Jason picked up another backpack.
There were some magic crystals and a few gold coins, which Jason put into the bag he was carrying.
He checked them one by one and even pried the magic crystal from the mage's staff in the end, but he did not touch the Wind Wolves' corpses.
Jason slowly backed away, only to see the wolf king step forward.
"Hmm?" Jason looked around and saw that it was staring at the backpack in his hand.
Thinking of something, Jason took out a few wind-attribute magic cores and threw them on the ground. The wolf king immediately sat down, signaling that Jason could leave.
Gibson was a peak level-six warrior. The earth-attribute battle qi technique he cultivated was nothing advanced, but it was solid. He had ventured into the Sunset Mountain Range since level five, advancing steadily at every step.
He had run more than a thousand meters, already a great distance in the dense forest, and believed he had shaken off his pursuer.
Finding a hollow in a giant tree, Gibson covered the outside with branches and mud, then settled into secluded cultivation.
He felt he was about to break through. His battle qi, which had stagnated for years, was finally showing signs of gathering into a cycle within his body, on one of the darkest nights of his life.
Jason spent quite some time making his way over by following the zombie bird's position.
At the time, he had only told the zombie bird to follow Gibson, but eventually lost contact with it because the distance had grown too great.
When undead lost contact with their mage, they did not return directly to the Netherworld. The spiritual energy within them would keep them in the Material Plane for a while longer; the weaker they were, the longer they remained.
Jason had only been able to sense the zombie bird's general direction. On the way, he encountered a level-seven Green-Striped Giant Python and had to face it down for a while before he could get away.
By the time Jason found Gibson's location, he could already sense the energy fluctuations inside the tree hollow.
With a bang, the tree hollow burst apart, and a Seventh-level Warrior radiating earth-attribute battle qi emerged.