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I had 11,609 accumulated experience points out of the required 12,800 for level four. I was on the verge of leveling up; all I needed to do was find this wolf den. It was an easy quest.
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A recommended party size of four? Should I contact Drake, Astrid, and Xebec? I considered it but decided to attempt it on my own first.
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There was not one, but dozens of them, growling and snarling at me as soon as I stepped into the first chamber of their den. There were more, evident due to the passage that led deeper inside. But first things first, I took out my frail stick and waited, as the one who makes the first move loses.
They all leapt at me with their maws open and claws unsheathed. However, I had faced a situation like this before when I fought the matriarch wolf, swinging my frail stick in an arc and hitting most of them.
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<<-151>>
<<-159>
…
<<-160>>
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I quickly pulled out another frail stick from my inventory; twenty-seven were now left.
Some wolves landed on their feet while others fell to their sides. They were only snarling now as they began to surround me, leaving me with only one option: dashing forward.
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I had to kill as many as possible with as few frail sticks as possible.
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Again, again, and again, until none were left, amounting to slightly over thirty wolves killed. That was enough to level me up to the fifth level. I was down to nineteen frail sticks.
A wolf howled, but it was different. Or rather, he was different. The son of a matriarch I killed and the patriarch I intended to kill. A prince of wolves.
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The one who makes the first move loses, and it seemed he understood that too, taunting me to attack first, which didn't work or wouldn't have worked if I hadn't had the blessing of pride that reared its head. "You dare!"
I made the first move and paid the price for doing so, completely missing, and I used the dash in combination with the swordsman's dark slash too. No, I didn't miss; he sidestepped me.
As I was recovering and wide open, he tore into my shoulder.
<<-94>>
I felt some pain, but it was nothing serious, as I lost only 8% of my health pool.
I swung my frail stick down towards the prince wolf's head, but struck nothing but air as he released my shoulder in time and jumped back.
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<<5% of health will be lost every second>>
Not only that, but I also found that I couldn't move my injured arm. I had to fight one-handed; however, I didn't know how. Kendo was, after all, a two-handed sport.
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Blessing of greed activated, I don't want to lose anything
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It all happened in the manner of a single moment.
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"This game really is interesting." I held the frail stick with my single functional hand and attacked, continuously using dash. I had to kill the prince wolf before I bled out.
The prince wolf sidestepped me again, but this time, since I was using the frail stick with only one hand, I recovered more quickly, allowing me to dodge him and even deliver a blow.
<<-181>>
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This was just the beginning, though – or so I thought – but it was severely one-sided. If I hadn't had that bleed on me, then I simply wouldn't have lost any health apart from that initial bite.
One, two, three, four hits, and the prince wolf was now at half health; however, so was I because of that bleed.
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Five, six, seven, eight, and it was dead.
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I didn't pay any attention to the notification messages as I had to stop the bleeding or I would die in the next few seconds. I tore my vagrant rags apart so that I could bandage my shoulder. Thankfully, it worked, and the bleeding stopped. But my getup now was even sexier than before.
<<3/1,058>>
I breathed a sigh of relief and waited for my health to recover. However, I didn't just stand around doing nothing; I had items to equip and skill trees to check out.