New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

That was just a normal hit! He grinned as he inspected the three wolves in front of him.

Dire Wolf(1):

Level: 34

Grade: Common

Health: 6'907/7'250

Dire Wolf(2):

Level: 33

Grade: Common

Health: 6'750/6'750

Astaroth lunged back at the wolves, staying in constant movement. The more he moved, the less likely he was to get surrounded.

There were only three enemies to keep in check, so his job wasn't so difficult. After the two-minute duration of his 'Enhance Weapon' expired, Astaroth switched out his longsword for his daggers.

His transformation was expiring in less than thirty seconds, and he wanted to maximize its value. He had brought the three wolves down under fifty percent of their health, with the level thirty-four wolf being a little under thirty percent.

He quickly scanned them.

Dire Wolf:

Level: 34

Grade: Common

Health: 2'105/7'250

Dire Wolf:

Level: 33

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Grade: Common

Health: 2'966/6'750

Dire Wolf:

Level: 33

Grade: Common

Health: 3'310/6'750

He was still trying to kill the strongest wolf first. He cast 'Enhance Weapon' on his daggers and used his temporary skill 'Alpha's Howl'.

*AAAWWWOOOOOO!!!!!*

Luck was on his side. Fear struck all three of the Dire Wolves in front of him and they stopped moving, trembling to their core.

Astaroth didn't miss a beat and dashed straight to the level thirty-four wolf. He stabbed it repeatedly in the neck until it died.

*-486!* *-486!* *-486!* *-486!* *-161!*

*You have killed a Dire Wolf (Lvl 34). 5100 Exp awarded for contribution (Bonus 200% for kill two tiers higher)*

*Level up! From leveling; you gained 1 skill point and 2 free Attribute points, and all Attributes increased by 1.*

The short five-second fear wore off as the wolf he was targeting died. He had eighteen seconds left to his transformation and then he would summon White Death out to help him deal with the wolves that were left.

But until then, he still wanted to dish out the most damage he could. Armed with his two daggers, he ran to the wolf with under three thousand health left and started dancing around it, cutting at its sides as he did.

He monitored the second wolf at all times, making sure it wasn't getting behind him. Astaroth heard a branch snap in the forest to his left, but he couldn't see anything there, so he paid no attention to it.

In the forest, Korin, who had been tailing him, was so enraptured by how Astaroth fought, that he had failed to notice a small branch on the ground and had stepped on it, producing a crisp cracking sound.

He immediately froze up, hoping that his stealth would hold. He watched as Astaroth quickly glanced in his direction briefly then focused back on his fight.

He sighed in relief and focused back on his footing while following the fight with his eyes. What he was witnessing was a miracle.

The young man was just level fourteen!

'How is he fighting three monsters of double his level and some?!' He wondered.

Now he understood why Kloud had called him dishonorable. With this kind of strength, he could have overpowered Konnor in a matter of seconds.

Of course, Korin had a different mindset than Kloud. To him, having a hidden ace in your sleeve was always a good thing.

Rogues fought with wits and tricks after all. But Astaroth was just brute-forcing the fight he was in.

The wolves were faster than him, but much less smart. Even if they tried to use pack tactics on Astaroth, he seemed to always think a step ahead of them, keeping the wolves from tag-teaming him.

Back on Astaroth's side, he had just killed a second wolf.

*You have killed a Dire Wolf (Lvl 33). 4950 Exp awarded for contribution (Bonus 200% for kill two tiers higher)*

There were five seconds left to his wolf form. Decided to give himself some breathing room for when he would turn back and lose all those bonus stats.

He would need a second or two to summon White Death. Astaroth got into a defensive position while the Dire Wolf charged at him.

When it jumped at him, he leaned back and kicked the wolf's chest as it passed over him, knocking him further away behind him. He quickly got back up, and the transformation ended.

He swiftly cast 'Spirit Summoning' and summoned White Death. White Death appeared next to him with a howl.

Astaroth ordered it to go after the Dire Wolf. White Death nodded and lunged at the enemy. After less than a minute of battle, Astaroth and White Death felled the remaining Dire Wolf.

*You have killed a Dire Wolf (Lvl 33). 4950 Exp awarded for contribution (Bonus 200% for kill two tiers higher)*

*Level up! From leveling; you gained 1 skill point and 2 free Attribute points, and all Attributes increased by 1.*

Astaroth sat down and rested for fifteen minutes. Once the exhaustion had passed, he got back up and ran further into the forest.

He ran and fought in this fashion for a good part of the morning, engaging all the groups of three wolves and less, and going around the bigger groups.

Most fights lasted between two and five minutes. With his rests and the running in between, he would get two to three groups of wolves per hour.

After 4 hours in this manner, he had felled a good measure of beasts. He had killed two Lvl thirty-one, six Lvl thirty-two, four Lvl thirty-three, four Lvl thirty-four, and 4 Lvl thirty-five wolves.

That had leveled him another four times, bringing his level to twenty. He opened up his status screen to see his progress.

Status:

Name: Astaroth

Race: Ash Elf

Level: 20 (15'411/34'950)

Stats:

HP: 2'300/2'300 MP: 705/705 Stamina: 100

Mana Regen: 1/second in combat, 5/second out of combat

Strength: 23 (+20) Agility: 26 Constitution: 26 (+20)

Intelligence: 26 Wisdom: 21

Attack Power Str: 215 Attack Power Agi: 130 Magic Attack Power: 130 Healing Power: 105

Natural Defense: 4.6% Armor Defense: 14%

Luck: 0 (Stat unaffected by Level up and free points)

Available stat points: 12

Available skill points: 7

Physical Condition: Normal

Mental Condition: Normal

He smiled as he looked at his stats in satisfaction. He was making good progress, good enough to take part in the tournament if nothing went wrong.

All this running and fighting had led Astaroth deep into the wolves' territory. And he was wondering how long it still went.

But that was a question for later. In front of him was the entrance to a cave, one that didn't seem too deep, or big, but the big scratch marks near the entrance scared him a little.

"This is where I made my den." White Death said in his mind.

"Why is the area so empty, then?" Astaroth replied.

"The new alpha probably didn't want to be just a replacement and moved the main grounds away." White Death said.

"Oh well. Let's go see inside if they left anything of value." Astaroth said, shrugging his shoulders.

And into the cave he walked.