Chapter 1 Many Wolves?

"So many wolves?" Li Miaomiao wore soft leather armor, a small shield in her left hand, and a long sword in her right. The shield was only thirty centimeters in diameter, slightly larger than her hand.

At this moment, Li Miaomiao felt a little flustered. These wolves were too big and too fast.

"This is only the first level of the Starry Sky Tower?" Li Miaomiao watched the pack of wolves surrounding her and approaching. She hurriedly ran, "I have to run and find opportunities while running! I can't let these wolves surround me."

Whoosh whoosh whoosh.

The wolves were good at cooperating and moved quickly, hunting with patience, compressing Li Miaomiao's range of movement, never attacking alone.

"These wolves are too cunning," Li Miaomiao thought bitterly, "I can't find any opportunities to defeat them one by one."

As her range of movement shrank, three wolves pounced on her.

Whoosh.

Li Miaomiao darted forward, raising her small shield in her left hand to block the wolf's claws, and thrust her sword swiftly into the wolf's neck with her right.

After all, the virtual world had been open for seven days, and Xu Jingming had been teaching Li Miaomiao every day. Xu Jingming had taught her, "You only need to learn one move now—thrust! This is the most suitable move with a sword. Advancing thrust, retreating thrust, backhand thrust, turning thrust… In short, no matter how your body moves, or even if you fall, you must be able to thrust this sword!"

"Just hold a small shield in your left hand. After all, you haven't practiced with shields before, and a large shield will affect your swordsmanship. A small shield… will also allow your left hand to block and defend." Xu Jingming taught her step by step.

Pfft pfft!

Li Miaomiao dodged left and right, using her small shield to defend with difficulty, and her thrusting sword was swift, killing three wolves in a row. But more wolves pounced on her.

"It's over." Watching the large group of wolves pouncing at her, Li Miaomiao instantly clicked to exit.

After exiting, she returned to the outside of the Starry Sky Tower. Looking at the towering Starry Sky Tower, Li Miaomiao muttered, "The first level of the Starry Sky Tower requires dealing with over a hundred wolves? What will the third level be like? I wonder how Jingming is doing."

*******

The second level of the Starry Sky Tower was a primeval mountain forest after a heavy snowfall.

"It's so cold."

Xu Jingming felt the chill seeping through his armor and invading his body. He carefully observed his surroundings.

He saw a huge cave in front of him, with five giant brown bears playing outside the cave. The appearance of these brown bears made Xu Jingming's expression turn serious. These giant brown bears were over four meters long, with high, bulging shoulders and backs, and were frighteningly strong. The dense brown fur formed in the cold environment was very thick and long. These thick furs and hides were natural armor!

"Giant brown bears over four meters long, weighing at least three tons, I estimate. With their size, a single paw strike would have tens of thousands of kilograms of impact. Once they charge, the power is even more terrifying. Humans are not suitable for head-on collisions with them." Xu Jingming observed and made his judgment, "Their thick fur and skin, plus subcutaneous fat! It won't be easy to pierce them with a spear. I have to target their vitals."

The five giant brown bears stared at Xu Jingming, an uninvited guest.

"Roar." One of the giant brown bears suddenly moved. Despite its fat and strong appearance, it charged with terrifying speed.

When this giant brown bear suddenly charged at Xu Jingming, the other four brown bears also stood up, but they didn't rush to surround him, clearly believing that their companion was enough to deal with this outsider.

Xu Jingming stood in the snow, calmly watching the charging giant brown bear.

The brown bear ran very fast, and when it got close, it jumped up and swatted with its huge paw.

"Whoosh."

Xu Jingming moved his feet, deftly dodging to the side in two steps, causing the giant brown bear to miss.

While dodging, Xu Jingming thrust out his spear.

"Chi!" The spear was like a viper striking out of its hole, instantly piercing the giant bear's neck. This was already the giant bear's 'vital point', but Xu Jingming felt immense difficulty when piercing, the resistance was enormous, and the spearhead only pierced a portion before it could go no further!

"Buzz."

Xu Jingming pulled back his spear and dodged the giant bear's counterattack, and thrust out again.

This thrust was even faster. The spear tore through the air with a strange sound, and the spearhead instantly pierced more than half the depth of the giant bear's neck. As the spear was pulled out, blood gurgled out, and the giant bear collapsed powerlessly.

"Ordinary thrusts are not powerful enough; even piercing the neck isn't deep enough. Using Shadowless Thrust is the only way to kill a giant bear," Xu Jingming secretly assessed. He looked up at the cave in the distance. The other four giant bears at the cave entrance had not considered the outsider a threat, but the outsider killed their companion in just two strikes—one strike injured, and the second killed it. This made them feel a huge threat, and they were filled with anger!

"Roar~~"

"Roar~~"

The four giant bears charged over, their roars of anger also carrying sorrow.

"Although they are a bit troublesome, I can still deal with four," Xu Jingming clearly assessed the situation. "These giant bears have the advantage in size and strength, but they are inferior to me in terms of speed and agility, and they can't block my Shadowless Thrust."

But at this moment—

"Roar~~~~~" Suddenly, a much deeper and more powerful roar came from the cave. This roar changed Xu Jingming's expression. The cave shook, and an incomparably huge bear rushed out of the cave. This was a super-giant brown bear with a body length of six meters. Compared to it, the previous five giant bears were like cubs.

"Could these five smaller bears really be its children?" Xu Jingming muttered to himself, but a cold glint flashed in his eyes. Instead of running away, he took the initiative to meet the four angry giant bears.

His footwork was ghostly, and as he approached the four giant bears, he made a sudden change of direction, followed by a spear thrust.

In seven days, Xu Jingming's spearmanship and shield techniques had improved, but his footwork had improved the most! These four giant bears seemed too clumsy in front of Xu Jingming.

"Pfft!"

A spear thrust deeply into the neck of one giant bear. As another giant bear angrily pounced, swinging its paw, Xu Jingming immediately retracted his spear and dodged away. While dodging, he turned around and unleashed a counter-thrust! The spear was also used with full force, again piercing the neck of a giant bear.

In just a few steps, he killed two giant bears in a row.

"Those top experts would keep their distance and defend carefully, not giving me a chance to use Shadowless Thrust. But these giant bears… don't defend at all; they just know how to charge." After killing two giant bears, Xu Jingming glanced at the super-giant brown bear that was charging frantically in the distance.

"The Bear King is coming; it's faster than me and very difficult to deal with."

Xu Jingming thought to himself.

Pfft!

While moving, he used another Shadowless Thrust, leaving a large hole in the neck of a giant bear. Now only the last giant bear was left. That giant bear was scared and turned to run towards the Bear King!

"So, I have to get rid of the other small bears as soon as possible." Xu Jingming didn't care about the Bear King charging at him. Instead, he took the initiative to chase after the last giant bear. He was still faster than these giant bears.

"Boom!"

Head-on pursuit, a fierce and violent Mountain Split! It pierced through the mouth of the giant bear, which turned around to defend in a flustered manner, and penetrated its head.

"Roar—" The Bear King roared in extreme anger and charged over.

Xu Jingming calmly pulled out his spear and dodged, avoiding the pounce.

"I am inferior to this Bear King in terms of size, strength, and speed. Only agility and skill are my advantages." Xu Jingming understood a principle when he was young: in a one-on-one fight in the arena, once you lose your composure, you lose most of the battle.

One-on-one combat is about avoiding your weaknesses and exploiting your strengths.

"Tear—"

The Bear King was six meters long and too huge. When its pair of bear paws swung, they could cover a large area. Xu Jingming used the trees in the forest to dodge. These trees… were helpful for him, who was small.

"Bang." The bear paw slapped a large tree, and the tree trunk snapped directly under the impact, causing Xu Jingming's eyes to twitch.

He knew that the Bear King's strength must be terrifying. But it was too terrifying.

"As long as I get hit by one of its paws, I'm done for." Xu Jingming carefully dodged, looking for an opportunity to attack.

The Bear King pursued.

Xu Jingming used the terrain to his advantage, constantly dodging.

For a time, trees fell one after another, and the heavy snow was shaken and thrown into the air.

In the flying snow, a spear suddenly thrust out! The spear was as fast as lightning and appeared suddenly at close range. The Bear King, which was charging angrily, crashed into the spear.

"Pfft." The spear pierced into one of the Bear King's eyes, but it only pierced a part and got stuck.

Whoosh.

Xu Jingming instantly pulled out his spear and retreated violently.

"Roar~~~" The Bear King, which had been blinded in one eye, became even more angry and crazy.

"It's not dead after all that?" Xu Jingming couldn't believe it.

……

The crazy Bear King chased and killed Xu Jingming. Xu Jingming used the terrain of the mountain forest to constantly dodge, occasionally counterattacking with a spear. The Bear King was also very careful to protect its only remaining eye, but its neck was also stabbed with hole after hole by Xu Jingming.

After a full eighteen minutes of difficult fighting, the Bear King finally collapsed powerlessly.

Xu Jingming was also exhausted.

Eighteen minutes!

Eighteen minutes of high tension and full-strength fighting!

"I stabbed so many holes in the Bear King's neck; it was still bleeding to death." Xu Jingming was also helpless. "It's really too thick-skinned."

"Stabbing it in the chest or back, I couldn't pierce it at all." Xu Jingming was also quite helpless. He looked around at the large number of fallen trees and the mess in the snow. "Fortunately, my footwork has improved a lot since the virtual world opened seven days ago. If I had encountered this Bear King on the first day, I would have been slapped to death, unable to maneuver for so long."

Long-term training in body exertion and being surrounded by hundreds of brave bandits had made Xu Jingming's footwork much smoother.

"You have passed the second level. Prepare to enter the third level of the Starry Sky Tower." A voice sounded in his ears.

Xu Jingming's fatigue faded away, and his body returned to its peak state. His spear and armor became clean.

The scene in front of him also began to change, and he arrived at the third level of the Starry Sky Tower.