"It seems you want to take the shield-defense route? Perfect timing. You can tank the monsters' damage while I unleash magic from behind," Zhong Wen said, already imagining their future battle scenes.
"With an SSS-level ability plus my S-level one, even elite monsters won't stand a chance."
The two continued walking through the novice village and soon arrived at the blacksmith's shop.
NPCs in the Doomsday Game possessed high intelligence and self-awareness. However, their faction was aligned with the players.
For novices, the first recommended task was usually to find the blacksmith. This strategy had been summarized by senior professionals after years of experience.
Zhao Yuan and Zhong Wen formed a team. Teammates were immune to friendly fire. Even if Zhao Yuan was hit by Zhong Wen's magic, he would not take any damage.
Additionally, team missions scaled according to the number of members.
Zhao Yuan spoke to the muscular blacksmith, "Uncle Blacksmith, I heard the village guards are short on weapons. The two of us would like to help."
The blacksmith did not look up. He continued swinging his massive square hammer, shaping a red-hot sword blank on the anvil.
"I do need help. But are you two capable of handling it?"
"Of course. We're adults now," Zhong Wen replied confidently.
"Very well." The blacksmith finally glanced at them. "I need a large number of gray wolf teeth and bones. They are excellent forging materials."
"I will purchase however many materials you bring back, paying market price."
[System: The team has received the mission "Collect Gray Wolf Carcass Materials." Time limit: 12 hours.]
The blacksmith pointed toward a scrap furnace nearby. "You're unarmed. Facing gray wolves without weapons would be suicide. Take one scrap weapon each."
With permission granted, Zhao Yuan and Zhong Wen entered the storage area.
Zhao Yuan originally wanted to find a shield, but there were none suitable among the scraps. Instead, he chose a long knife.
There was no staff available, so Zhong Wen picked up a rust-covered sword.
The advantage of this novice mission was that weapons were provided for free. Furthermore, the final reward would correspond to the number of wolf materials collected.
The more carcass materials they gathered, the better the reward.
The two crossed the street and arrived at the village entrance.
A four-meter-high barrier built from massive logs surrounded the settlement. Heavily armed guards patrolled constantly. Some were players, but most were NPCs.
"The gray wolves are located in the northern zone. Let's use the north gate," Zhong Wen suggested.
They stepped into a blazing white teleportation array and were transported outside the village.
They had now left the safe zone.
The wilderness stretched endlessly ahead, filled with ferocious creatures. Death here was permanent. There was no resurrection.
Soon, massive gray wolves entered their field of vision.
Though only Level 1 monsters, they were the size of tigers on Blue Star.
Monsters in the wilderness did not have a limited aggro range. This wasn't a simple online game , it was a doomsday world where lives were at stake.
Once a gray wolf detected a human, it would attack relentlessly, regardless of distance.
The moment Zhao Yuan and Zhong Wen appeared, seven or eight gray wolves locked onto them and charged forward.
"Eight Level 1 gray wolves," Zhong Wen muttered. "Zhao Yuan, are you sure you can handle this? The sounds of battle might attract more."
"Fortunately, gray wolves rarely howl to call others when hunting. They prefer to monopolize their prey."
Zhong Wen raised his sword. Magic energy flowed along its surface. Since he hadn't learned proper spells yet, he could only condense small magic bullets to attack.
Zhao Yuan stepped forward alone.
SSS-level Anti-Armor was a passive ability. At this stage, he could only rely on basic attacks.
Roar!
A violent aura rushed toward him. An ordinary person would have collapsed in fear when facing beasts of this size.
Zhao Yuan felt fear but he trusted his SSS-level Anti-Armor even more.
Clang! Clang!
The gray wolves' sharp fangs sank into Zhao Yuan's skin only to shatter as if they had bitten into steel.
Faint white marks appeared on his skin, but there wasn't even a scratch.
This was the defensive power granted by SSS-level Anti-Armor.
The wolves couldn't even break his defense.
Zhao Yuan slashed with his long knife. The blade itself dealt minimal damage.
However, the reflected true damage was terrifying.
One wolf's health bar dropped by nearly a quarter instantly.
The eight gray wolves frantically attacked him. Claws and fangs struck again and again.
Zhao Yuan's health bar barely moved.
Meanwhile, the wolves' own health drained rapidly from the reflected true damage. One after another, they collapsed to the ground.
[You have killed a Lv1 Gray Wolf. +7 EXP.]
[Anti-Armor proficiency +25.]
[Triggered: Billion-Times Proficiency. Proficiency multiplier increased to 1.6x.]
"Isn't this insane?" Zhong Wen exclaimed. He had barely launched a few attacks before all the wolves had already fallen.
"Your reflection scales with the attacker's Strength attribute and deals true damage. That's basically equivalent to a skill's damage!"
Zhao Yuan smiled faintly.
"It's even stronger than I imagined."
"My health bar hasn't even dropped."
"Which means my HP has only dropped by about one percent."
"It looks like we can handle even more gray wolves. If we manage to attract a hundred of them, they'll still die just as fast!"
Zhong Wen pointed at a crooked tree not far away. "We could climb up that tree and lure hundreds of gray wolves over. Leveling up like that would be insane!"
Since they had accepted the mission "Collect Gray Wolf Carcass Materials," the corpses of the wolves they killed were automatically converted into materials and stored in their backpacks.
Moreover, within the 12-hour time limit, storage slots for gray wolf materials were unlimited.
The two changed positions.
Climbing trees wasn't particularly useful. Humans could climb trees and so could gray wolves.
Instead, Zhao Yuan decided to run straight into the wolf pack without hesitation.
The team setting shared experience points. The eight Level 1 gray wolves they had just killed provided Zhao Yuan with 13% of his experience bar.
Roar—
Several gray wolves spotted Zhao Yuan, their bloodthirsty instincts driving them to charge forward immediately.
More wolves soon caught the scent of humans.
Some detected the blood of their fallen kin on Zhao Yuan and raised their heads to howl. The entire grassland was instantly thrown into chaos.
Densely packed gray wolves surged forward like a tidal wave, their only target being Zhao Yuan.
Even nearby players were alarmed.
"What's going on? Did someone provoke that many monsters?"
"Even a Level 5 player would get torn apart by a pack of Level 1 gray wolves! This is a semi-digital world , if your head gets severed, you die instantly, even at full health!"
"Forget that. Let's just stay alive. Hunt carefully, don't make noise. That's the safest way."