Chapter 5 Chapter 5: The Wolf King Falls
Awoo...
A sound like a dying cry echoed through the trees.
The Level 3 Vicious Wolf crumpled at Ethan's feet, full health bar gone in a single hit, body dissolving into white light before it even finished falling.
Behind him, outside the forest, the crowd had gone completely silent.
Then
"He, did he just one-shot it?"
"That's a Level 3 monster. He's Level ZERO."
"What kind of damage is that?! That's not possible!"
"He's hacking! Someone report him!"
Ethan barely heard them.
【Ding~ Vicious Wolf defeated. EXP +10!】
Ten percent of his Level 0 bar in a single kill. Compared to the rabbits and chickens near the village entrance dropping 1 to 3 EXP each, this was an entirely different economy.
A copper coin clinked against the dirt beside the wolf's fading corpse.
Ethan bent down and picked it up without breaking stride.
Even a penny adds up.
He stepped over the body and kept walking, straight toward the Wolf King.
Swish. Swish. Swish.
-91! -91! -91!
Wolf after wolf lunged at him. Wolf after wolf died in a single arc of the Blade of Slaughter. The few hits that landed against him registered as a flat -1, the Vicious Wolves' 15 attack couldn't crack his 18 defense. Not even close.
【Ding~ Vicious Wolf defeated. EXP +10!】
【Ding~ Vicious Wolf defeated. EXP +10!】
【Ding~ Vicious Wolf defeated. EXP +10!】
He moved through the pack like it wasn't there.
After the tenth kill
Whoosh.
Golden light poured down from above.
【Ding~ Level Up! Attack +1, Defense +1, HP +10, Free Attribute Points +3. Current Level: 1. Next level requires 250 EXP.】
The last wolf between him and the Wolf King dissolved.
The clearing went quiet.
The Silver Moon Wolf King was alone now.
It stared at Ethan across twenty feet of open ground, this tiny human in starter gear who had just walked through its entire pack without flinching and for the first time, something shifted behind those massive red eyes.
Awoo
The howl shook the trees.
Then it moved.
Fast. Devastatingly fast.
Ethan had known it was coming and still barely had time to register it before 300 pounds of red-furred predator slammed into him and drove him into the dirt.
The Wolf King pinned him, claws raking across his chest in rapid succession
-16! -16! -16!
"Off"
Ethan drove his elbow hard into the Wolf King's jaw, used the recoil to swing the Blade of Slaughter upward
Crash!
The Wolf King stumbled back, snarling.
Ethan scrambled to his feet, breathing hard, and checked his HP.
Less than half remaining.
"Its attack is higher than the base wolves," he noted, almost clinically. "Punches through the pants' damage reduction. Good to know."
He reached into his inventory without hesitation and pulled out one of the Health Potions from his Lucky Draw.
Drank it.
+50 HP then a steady stream of +5 per second.
His bar climbed back to full within seconds.
He rolled his shoulders, adjusted his grip, and waited.
The Wolf King charged again.
This time Ethan was ready.
He sidestepped the lunge, felt the wind of it pass his left ear and slashed twice in the same motion as the Wolf King sailed past him.
-75! -75!
The Wolf King's HP bar dropped by a third.
Ethan whistled under his breath.
Higher defense than the regular wolves. But still not enough.
The fight settled into a rhythm, Wolf King lunging, Ethan reading the timing, dodging when he could, taking the hit when he couldn't, keeping his HP managed with potions. The Blade of Slaughter carved chunks out of the boss's health bar with every exchange.
Three minutes. A half-bar of HP spent and replenished.
Swish. Swish. Swish.
The Wolf King's legs buckled.
It let out one last sound, low and broken, nothing like the commanding howl from before and collapsed.
Thump.
The ground shook with the impact.
【Ding~ Lord-Class Boss defeated: Silver Moon Wolf King. EXP +300. Reputation +1.】
Then
Whoosh.
Golden light again.
【Ding~ Level Up! Current Level: 2. Next level requires 500 EXP.】
Less than a minute after the last level-up.
Ethan exhaled slowly, looked down at the massive red-furred body dissolving in front of him, and let himself feel it for exactly one second.
Boss monsters are where the real game is.
Loot scattered across the ground as the body faded, copper coins rolling in every direction, a ring gleaming with soft blue light, and one other item that Ethan clocked immediately and instinctively moved toward first.
But before he could sort through it,
He heard the crowd.
"THE WOLF KING DROPPED EQUIPMENT!"
"That's a BLUE glow, Blue Rare quality!"
"GRAB IT! GO!"
The mass of players that had been frozen at the tree line for the last ten minutes suddenly remembered they had legs.
Ethan didn't hesitate.
He swept every item off the ground in one pass
【Ding~ Copper Coins +95!】
【Ding~ Obtained: Wolf Ring, Level 3, Blue Rare quality!】
【Ding~ Obtained: Special Item, Military Command Token!】
and ran.
Not toward the village. Deeper into the forest.
He could hear the shouting behind him fade as the players hit the wolf population in the forest interior and immediately thought better of following. The Vicious Wolves were nothing to Ethan. To a crowd of Level 0 players with starter gear?
Instant death.
"He got away!"
"The Wolf King's drops are all on him!"
"Someone TRACK HIM"
The voices dropped away behind a wall of wolf snarls and player screams.
Ethan kept moving.
He came out the other side of Silverwood Forest a few minutes later, clearing a final cluster of wolves with three quick swings, and emerged into open fields.
【Ding~ Vicious Wolf defeated. EXP +10!】 × 12
He found a quiet hillside, sat down against a sun-warmed boulder, and finally opened his inventory properly.
Twenty-plus wolves through the forest clearing. Thirteen copper coins combined.
The Wolf King alone had dropped ninety-five.
"Boss monsters every time," he murmured. "Regular mobs are barely worth the swing."
He turned his attention to the blue ring.
【Wolf Ring】 (Level 3, Blue Rare, Unidentified)
Attack: +18
Description: Infused with dark energy, capable of shattering righteous power...
Status: Unidentified
Ethan turned it over in his fingers.
Eighteen attack points from an unidentified Blue Rare ring. Not bad for a Level 3 drop. For most players at this stage it would be exceptional.
For Ethan, carrying Ancient Immortal and Legendary gear, it was a placeholder at best.
But he wasn't done with it.
"The Vicious Wolves in this forest have a chance to drop Wolf Rings as regular loot," he thought. "Once the other players start leveling up and clearing this area, these rings will be everywhere. Common as dirt. Nobody will think twice about selling them c
heap."
"And when I've got sixty-four of them"
He looked at the ring one more time and tucked it away.
Then his eyes moved to the last item sitting in his inventory, which was also the most valuable core item.
