Chapter 10: If I Can’t Beat Monsters, Can’t I Beat You Guys?

After a stretch of darkness, Xia opened his eyes.

Where the hell did they send him?

In the game, the teleportation destination should have been a canyon, with the Shadow Demon waiting at the exit.

But this place was filled entirely with trees.

Countless vines hung from the branches above, while the dense canopy blocked out nearly all the sunlight, leaving only a few thin rays filtering through the gaps.

The air was damp and chilly, carrying the smell of rotting leaves.

Xia instinctively covered his nose.

What kind of place is this?

Is this even still inside the Thorn Empire?

Using his wand to push aside the vines blocking his path, Xia trudged forward with difficulty.

The ground beneath his feet was covered in soft fallen leaves that felt like stepping through wet mud.

Hidden roots constantly lurked beneath the leaf layer, repeatedly causing him to stumble.

Don’t tell me they teleported him all the way to the elves’ territory in the southwest?

He cautiously advanced while carefully observing his surroundings.

The trees here were incredibly tall and dense.

There were even thick shrubs growing beneath them, which looked completely unscientific.

Wait.

This was a magic world.

Why was he trying to apply science here?

No matter how little sunlight there was, these plants could simply absorb the magical essence floating in the air and continue growing.

In short, don’t ask.

Magic explains everything.

After struggling through the dense forest for roughly half an hour, the surrounding trees finally began thinning out, and the air became less suffocating.

Xia leaned against a tree trunk, wanting to rest for a bit.

But he immediately sprang away from it.

If this really was elf territory, what if the tree turned out to be a treant?

If it got startled and smacked him with a branch, that would be hilarious in all the worst ways.

He began recalling the game’s map.

To the southwest of the Thorn Empire lay the Eternal Forest, home of the elves.

The trees there were rumored to reach hundreds of meters tall.

Their branches and leaves glowed faintly with various elemental lights, and the concentration of magical essence in the air was more than ten times greater than in ordinary forests.

Just standing inside the woods allowed people to feel the flow of mana around them.

But here, the leaves were ordinary green leaves.

The magical essence wasn’t much different from outside either.

This definitely wasn’t the Eternal Forest.

So where exactly was he?

While Xia was thinking, the corner of his eye suddenly caught sight of two fuzzy green figures ahead.

He immediately hid behind a tree and peeked out cautiously.

Two green wolves emerged from a patch of bushes, sniffing around a nearby tree.

Their fur was absurdly green.

So green it looked like they could probably perform photosynthesis under sunlight.

Forest Wolves.

Xia remembered these beasts very clearly.

Forest Wolves were an early-game hostile beast found in the canyon where the protagonist Philly was teleported after the Shadow Demon incident.

Their speed wasn’t particularly fast, but they could climb trees and moved extremely flexibly through forests.

However, once forced into open terrain, they became far weaker than ordinary wolves and basically turned into living target practice for Philly.

Seeing this, Xia roughly figured out his location.

He was probably somewhere in the western forest near the canyon.

As long as he continued heading east, he should eventually leave the forest.

However, these two Forest Wolves posed a significant threat.

As early-game enemies, their stats were relatively low.

They were basically walking experience packs.

Even weaklings like him shouldn’t struggle too much against them.

But the real problem wasn’t the wolves themselves.

It was their mouths.

Forest Wolves howled to summon companions.

If he couldn’t kill them quickly enough, they’d call in reinforcements.

Then he’d be facing dozens or even hundreds of Forest Wolves.

Once surrounded by a wolf pack, things would become truly dangerous.

Another option was sneaking around them.

But Xia quickly abandoned that idea.

With his physical abilities, he’d probably expose himself within two steps anyway.

Besides, who knew whether more Forest Wolves were nearby?

He might circle around only to run directly into another pair and instantly die.

Better to eliminate them quickly.

He could even level up a little in the process.

Xia tightened his grip on the wand and held his breath while aiming at one of the wolves.

【Wind Blade】

This was the lowest-level wind attack spell.

Although its damage wasn’t very high, its speed was excellent.

And if it struck a vital point, it could still kill instantly.

An invisible blade sliced through the air and precisely cut open the throat of the first wolf.

It didn’t even have time to whimper before collapsing.

Xia immediately launched a second Wind Blade.

The other wolf also fell in response.

Good.

Both are dealt with.

Xia didn’t rush forward immediately.

Instead, he first opened his status panel.

Seeing the completely unpenalized experience gain made him feel deeply reassured.

【EXP +5】

Now this is what leveling feels like.

Compared to this, those tiny 0-point-something gains after transforming were complete garbage.

Wait.

Why was there only experience from one Forest Wolf?

Xia instantly sensed danger.

One of them wasn’t dead.

He immediately raised his wand to finish it off.

But the Forest Wolf had already lifted its head and opened its mouth—

“Awooooo—!”

By the time his next Wind Blade struck, the howl had already echoed throughout the entire forest.

【EXP +5】

We’re screwed!

Responses from other Forest Wolves soon echoed from the distance.

Within the shadows of the forest, countless glowing green eyes appeared.

Like a tide, they surged toward him.

Crap crap crap!

Xia panicked slightly.

He hurriedly scanned the surroundings for somewhere to hide, but against the wolves’ sharp sense of smell, hiding anywhere probably wouldn’t help.

Then he spotted a relatively open clearing and decisively ran toward it.

Since hiding was impossible, he might as well fight somewhere suitable for casting magic.

At the same time, he opened his skill tree and used his only skill point to upgrade 【Wind Blade】 to level two.

Level one Wind Blade was too weak.

Earlier, he had only managed to critically wound that wolf because he hit a vital point.

If the attack struck elsewhere, wouldn’t it require several hits to kill?

Logically speaking, he should transform right now.

But Dolores’s mana had only recovered to half.

If he used it now, he might not have enough mana left to deal with the Shadow Demon later.

Unless absolutely necessary, he really didn’t want to transform.

Besides, he wanted to greedily farm as much experience as possible.

Dolores’s leveling speed was way too slow.

It felt like plucking wool one strand at a time.

Real leveling still had to be done by him personally.

Xia slowly took a deep breath.

They were coming.

The first wave of wolves burst from the shadows.

Three Forest Wolves at the front leapt simultaneously, baring their fangs as they lunged toward him.

Xia swung his wand and cast his spell.

The first wolf’s throat was sliced open midair before it crashed heavily onto the ground.

The second wolf was struck directly in the chest, its corpse landing at Xia’s feet.

The third had already reached him.

Xia sidestepped, pressing the wand almost directly against its neck before releasing Wind Blade.

【EXP +5】×3

He was handling this surprisingly easily.

As those three Forest Wolves approached, his mind became incredibly clear.

He could accurately sense their weak points.

His body also naturally responded on its own.

Every turn perfectly avoided their bites.

Every Wind Blade precisely struck a fatal area.

It felt exactly like last night inside the ruins when he fought those monsters.

The next two waves went exactly the same way.

Xia effortlessly dealt with them.

The wolf pack that had tried to surround him was forcibly torn open by him instead.

This level two Wind Blade could instantly kill Forest Wolves in a single shot.

It was basically mowing grass.

So after all this, Forest Wolves were actually this weak?

Then doesn’t that mean he can slaughter them however he wants?

Hehe.

Today, Xia could finally stand proud for once.

If he couldn’t beat powerful monsters, couldn’t he at least beat these guys?

All of you can become his experience packs instead!