“Just that the defense is a bit lacking.” “If the boots and leg guards were Level 5, defense would probably be another twenty points higher without issue.”

Mist Forest was still some distance from the beginner village, and the levels of surrounding monsters gradually increased further away from the village. Passing through the Evil Centaurs' territory, a sunken valley lay ahead. Looking from afar, the valley above was shrouded in curling clouds and mist. Jiang Bai needed to follow the downhill slope all the way down into Mist Forest. The air here was damp, the vegetation tall, and the smell of decaying leaves permeated everything. “Have to say, the realism of full-dive games is truly unbeatable.”

Not long after Jiang Bai entered the forest, Demonized Snow Wolves appeared in his sight.

[Demonized Snow Wolf] Level: 8 Attack: 80 Defense: 40 HP: 700

The demon wolf had silver fur all over, a sturdy build, and streamlined muscle lines that truly conveyed an aesthetic sense of power. As he examined the demon wolf, it also turned its head, looking directly at Jiang Bai. Its blood-red eyes emanated wildness, and its snow-white fangs were sharp and chilling. “Putting other things aside, this wolf is really good-looking!” Though reluctant [to kill something so majestic], Jiang Bai still took the longbow off his back.

“Concussive Shot!” -298! The Level 8 demon wolf instantly lost nearly half its health. “Awooo!” With a howl, the magnificent demon wolf charged towards Jiang Bai. But the 20% slow robbed its proud speed of its advantage. Immediately following up, Jiang Bai fired an [Aimed Shot], dealing 336 damage directly. At this point, the demon wolf was still more than half the initial distance away from Jiang Bai, but its health was down to only 66 points. It was mercilessly finished off by Jiang Bai's basic auto-attack.

“Doesn't break defense. This makes things easy.” Jiang Bai's gaze fell upon the [Multi Shot] skill again. Facing melee monsters like this that couldn't break his defense, AoE grinding would be incredibly comfortable. Decided, then done. Jiang Bai held his longbow and started pulling mobs. The aggressive Demonized Snow Wolves seemed to have a larger perception range than the Evil Centaurs; some that were clearly about twenty yards away still chased after him like mad dogs. Being melee and sufficiently fast, their speed wasn't much slower than Jiang Bai's. Trailing behind him, they could occasionally land a bite. But the damage was frustratingly pointless: either -1 or MISS.

After about three minutes, Jiang Bai glanced back. “Holy moly! This dense crowd must be at least twenty or more!” Seeing his health had dropped by over a hundred points, Jiang Bai stopped, turned, and fired a [Multi Shot]. Instantly, damage numbers frantically jumped all over the screen. -224 -40 -448 (Crit!) -40 ... Basically, one normal shot dealt 268 damage to a snow wolf. But with over twenty wolves, plus Jiang Bai's 7% crit chance, getting a crit on a [Multi Shot] volley was actually a high probability event. Seeing the [Multi Shot] cooldown instantly reset, Jiang Bai exclaimed with enjoyment, "This [Multi Shot] is just too satisfying! It's practically a god-tier AoE grinding skill!"

After one Multi Shot, the snow wolves affected by the [Frost] slow instantly decelerated. Combined with Jiang Bai turning and running forward again after shooting, the distance between them gradually widened, preventing them from attacking him further—this was the awesome part of [Frost]. And with [Multi Shot]'s cooldown resetting, Jiang Bai turned and fired another volley. As numbers filled the screen again, some snow wolves that had been crit in the previous round died directly after this barrage, their health bars emptying. This round triggered another crit reset, so Jiang Bai fired a third [Multi Shot]. As the rain of arrows whistled down, the final dozen or so snow wolves fell without exception, transforming into clumps of experience that flowed into Jiang Bai.

“Sweet! Awesome!” “Got crits three times in a row!” Jiang Bai watched the rapidly rising experience bar and couldn't help but shout with enjoyment. His 7% crit chance might seem low, but it couldn't withstand the stacking effect of numbers; attacking over twenty snow wolves simultaneously made getting a crit almost certain.

[You have slain Demonized Snow Wolf. Obtained 40 EXP.] ... System prompts kept coming. Jiang Bai checked his EXP bar; Level 6 to 7 required 6000 EXP. You couldn't say it wasn't insane... “Even soloing, I'd need 150 kills to level up. If normal players came here in a party, they could grind themselves to death!” “Genesis's leveling difficulty really is insane...” Jiang Bai sighed. "But then again, everyone else has quests to do. The beginner village has lots of quests, though the EXP rewards aren't huge. I just haven't done any of them." With Jiang Bai's current ability and level, doing those quests step-by-step wasn't very meaningful and would actually slow his progress. Only these hidden quests were worth doing.

Jiang Bai started cleaning up the battlefield. The twenty-plus snow wolves dropped less than four hundred copper coins, some materials like wolf pelts and fangs. The equipment drop rate was as low as ever—not a single piece. As for the quest material Jiang Bai needed, [Demon Wolf Blood], only 5 portions dropped. “Damn it, the quest material drop rate can't be this low, can it?” Jiang Bai stared speechlessly at the five portions of Demon Wolf Blood. Based on his previous gaming experience, quest materials usually had a near-guaranteed drop rate. Who knew this thing would only drop 5 times from over twenty wolves. “Does that mean, for 100 portions of blood, I need to kill at least 500 demon wolves?” “Holy crap... Even if I can AoE grind, how long will that take?”

The AoE grinding process was stimulating and exciting at first, but as time went on, it became rather tedious. Jiang Bai roughly calculated: in about an hour, he had AoE'd over a hundred snow wolves and even reached Level 7. Yet, he had only collected thirty-odd portions of Demon Wolf Blood. The drop rate was simply despair-inducing. “Good thing this insane quest doesn't have a level restriction, otherwise I'd really have no motivation to keep grinding.” Jiang Bai estimated that by the time he collected all 100 portions of blood, he should reach Level 8 at least. Of course, killing over a hundred demon wolves yielded some rewards: two white items dropped, along with one Green necklace, which immediately netted him 6 Gold Coins. And miraculously, another [Skill Enhancement Scroll] dropped! This was truly an unexpected bonus. “Seems like these [Skill Enhancement Scrolls] do drop from normal mobs, but the probability is extremely, extremely low!” As for the [Plunder] skill, it only triggered twice. The good news was both times added points to Agility.

Seeing his body's status value [from the virtual cabin] about to drop below 10%, the somewhat bored Jiang Bai found a relatively safe spot and logged out of the game. It was time for eating, drinking, and other bodily functions again. As for rest, players didn't need to specifically worry about it, because the gaming cabin itself had a sleep simulation function. It could be said that while players were gaming, they were already fulfilling their body's need for sleep. Jiang Bai casually ordered some takeout and opened the official forums.