—-

The six wolves released hostile growls while aiming deadly glares at Kieran. Identical to before, these wolves were also Lv.5 Dire Wolves. Although the Fanged Forest housed monsters ranging from Lv.5 to Lv.15, coming across the higher-level monsters required one to venture deeper into the forest’s inner area and center first.

Naturally, Kieran didn’t have the chance to do so as an abundance of monsters instantly greeted him. However, Kieran had no reason to complain. The faster enemies came towards him, the quicker he could complete his quest and exchange it for another.

Therefore, Kieran raised his blade, taunting the wolves with a subtle gesture. Almost as if his actions successfully provoked them, the wolves howled in unison before dashing towards Kieran with powerful strides. Each of their mouths dripped with feral fluids as they viewed Kieran as a piece of prey.

They couldn’t comprehend that the human before them was more of a threat than they presumed. By the time they reached Kieran, unleashing a flurry of savage swipes, Kieran had jumped to the side, avoiding them altogether.

Despite their advantage in numbers, the wolves didn’t attack properly. They didn’t use their numbers to overwhelm him or move as a cohesive unit. It was more like watching children as they tried to run through a narrow doorway at the same time, clawing at each other to get the lead advantage.

Hence, it was laughably easy for Kieran to avoid their attacks.

With the opportunity granted by their humorous movements, Kieran enveloped his sword in a powerful aura. The activation of Savage Break resulted in a violent change, drawing the attention of the wolves. Regrettably, this attack didn’t cover a wide area and only focused on one opponent, at least in its base form without any special applications, or Kieran could’ve taken control of the battle’s momentum with a single move.

Nevertheless, Kieran still wanted to understand the damage capacity of this skill.

Bang!

A frightening noise echoed throughout the forest as Kieran’s sword smashed against the back of the foremost wolf, slamming its body into the ground. Contrary to his expectations, the land was left unaffected by this attack.

‘Ah, to think my attack was so weak. What a damn letdown,’ Kieran inwardly groaned. As an individual who once had a character with thousands of points invested in his Strength, a piddling twenty-six points in Strength was indeed a disappointment.

Regardless, Kieran was overall satisfied by the effects of the skill. Because of the probable Armor Break effect activating, this skill potentially dropped the wolf’s defenses to a negligible number, permitting the maximum damage of Kieran’s skill.

As a result, a considerably high damage value appeared above the wolf’s head.

-122

Following the Savage Break skill, Kieran took advantage of the brief Armor Break state to unleash a barrage of hurried strikes upon the wolf. The wolf fell within five strikes, rewarding another sum of experience.

〈System: You have received 75 Experience.〉

However, Kieran quickly swung his body and weapon just after receiving the experience notification. A metallic screech rang out while Kieran took a step back due to the weight behind the wolf’s swipe.

Concurrently, a damage value appeared above his head.

[-19]〈Aatrox: 171/190 Health〉

Kieran’s eyebrow rose slightly after reading the notification. Although he wore a complete armor set, without any additional effects given that it was only of the uncommon grade, it still pushed his Defense past fifty. More importantly, he “defended” using his sword. Despite these factors, the wolf’s attack still shaved off ten percent of his health. If this was true, this only meant one thing.

‘Oh? This normal monster’s attack is higher than mine. Since they don’t have any skills at this stage in the game, it’s made up for by strengthened attributes. How could I forget this?’ Kieran shook his head while clicking his tongue.

If a single indirect attack ate up ten percent of his health, then Kieran couldn’t afford to be careless. The Beginner Health Potions in his possession were too precious to squander outside of a dungeon. A dungeon’s loot greatly eclipsed the floor loot of a leveling field. The only issue with dungeons was that the lowest one didn’t allow entry until Lv.5.

So, until then, players were forced to level inside the fields. Of course, this was done purposely so that the players could become accustomed to Zenith Online’s movements before diving into a difficult dungeon. After all, depending on the difficulty chosen, some dungeons presented steep failure penalties.

Since Kieran could no longer be as careless as before now that the wolf’s Attack Power posed a threat, he took a step back and created some room. As predators, the wolves mirrored his movements, following closely behind.

‘Damn, thirsty monsters,’ Kieran inwardly thought. The wolves didn’t give him time to reset, but his current movement speed was more than sufficient enough to elude the nonstop onslaught of attacks. At times, though, Kieran was forced to swing his greatsword, meeting the wolf’s attack with an attack of his own.

If a physical attack was met with another physical attack, the difference in Attack Power would be the amount of damage the losing side suffered, as experienced earlier, since it wasn’t a matter of the attack hitting the user directly.

If the attack did land a direct hit, then it would obviously be calculated using the receiving side’s Defense.

Nevertheless, unless he used Force Slash, he would suffer losses to his Health. Although his situation was strange, Kieran remained excited. He needed stimulation to keep him going; otherwise, he would grow incredibly bored. If their numbers couldn’t bridge the gap separating Kieran’s capabilities and the monsters, then their numbers would have to!

Even though his shallow skill arsenal currently limited him, Kieran felt fine because identical constraints limited everyone. However, the “basic warrior mechanics” mentioned in the quest details was something Kieran excelled in with years of experience under his belt.

A Warrior was meant to lead an assault and sometimes defend during disadvantageous situations. The specifications of a Warrior’s behavior wouldn’t diverge until it was time for class promotion. Though, according to Kieran’s knowledge, many specialized individuals conditioned their unique way of combat from the start.

In Kieran’s case, it didn’t really matter because he couldn’t gain access to his desired skills until after his class promotion. Thus, Kieran could play interchangeable roles in combat if he felt like it.

Approximately 45 seconds later, Savage Break came off cooldown. Kieran unleashed another fierce attack, followed by using Charge on another wolf. One was left with low defenses as the other was forced into a stunned state. Kieran quickly dealt with those two, which resulted in an abrupt level up.

〈System: You have leveled up! [Lv.2 → Lv.3]〉

〈System: You have received 5 Unassigned Attribute Points and 2 Skill Points.〉

〈Experience: 50/400〉

Although he leveled up, Kieran’s expression didn’t seem joyful because he possessed an intricate understanding of Zenith Online’s experience system. These monsters would no longer reward 75 experience points now that he was Lv.3.

Furthermore, he was sure that the value would take a drastic hit because the experience bonus granted by one or two levels became almost negligible.

Nevertheless, Kieran exhaled and dealt with the remaining wolves in under one minute. But as a result, he drained a considerable amount of Stamina, forcing him to sit on a rock as it steadily recovered.

“The Stamina usage of a new character is downright atrocious!” Kieran groaned.

Early combat wasn’t designed to promote constant solo content since a party could attack together and minimize the use of Stamina and even Mana. Anyone who chose to play alone would be at a visible disadvantage.

But, to correct this problem, Kieran focused his attention on his skills. Since he currently possessed 18 Skill Points, he could level up some of the skills in his arsenal to increase his damage-dealing capabilities.

Out of all of his skills, only the ones given by Scar were powerful enough to justify him forcibly increasing their level right now. There were two ways to improve a skill’s level. The first option was to use skill points with an increasing cost dependent upon the skill’s rank. The second option was to manually increase the skill’s level by regularly filling up the mastery bar, which was only possible through using the skill. Regardless, the first option was the preferred choice unless the skill description stated otherwise.

Fortunately, the cost to increase a skill’s level stayed constant.

Kieran eventually figured out what to do with his ample Skill Points, and it translated to a few notable upgrades.

Ding! Ding! Ding!

〈System: Do you wish to upgrade «Savage Break» twice at the cost of 8 SP? [Y / N]?〉

〈System: Do you wish to upgrade «Warrior’s Aura» twice at the cost of 8 SP? [Y / N]?〉

〈System: Do you wish to upgrade «Force Slash» at the cost of 2 SP? [Y / N]?〉

Kieran obviously agreed; otherwise, why would he bring up the menu? As a result, these three skills, primarily Savage Break and Warrior’s Aura, experienced a considerable power up.

「Force Slash (Lv.2)

Skill Rank: E Rank Active

Mastery (00.00%)

Skill Description: Deals 165% of the user’s Attack Power by focusing their Strength into their arm and unleashing a strike powerful enough to produce a wave of force.

Consumption: 1 Mana Point

Prerequisites: Warrior Class, «Warrior’s Aura»

Cooldown: 13 seconds 」

「Savage Break (Lv.3)

Skill Rank: D Rank Active

Mastery (00.00%)

Skill Description: Unleashes a decisive blow of destruction that deals 250% of the user’s Attack Power and can trigger a Defense Break effect, lowering the enemy’s defense by 15% for 3 seconds.

Consumption: 2 → 3 Mana Points

Prerequisites: Warrior Class, «Warrior’s Aura»

Cooldown: 40 seconds 」

「Warrior’s Aura (Lv.3)

Skill Rank: D Rank Active

Mastery (00.00%)

Skill Description: At the cost of Mana, summons an aura that increases your attack damage by 18%.

Consumption: 1 Mana Point per 5 seconds

Prerequisites: Warrior Class

Cooldown: 57 seconds (Only begins after deactivation of the skill.) 」

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep