Escape

With a slash of his sword, he cut against the leg of the bear in the hope of slowing it a little. However, Feng's attack is nothing but an ant bite to the bear.

-3.

'Shucks!' Feng thought as he quickly takes out the pepper spray. Aiming at the snout, a mist hits the bear.

-1 (incapacitated - impaired for 5 seconds. Immunity to pepper spray gained)

"Immunity!" Both Hu Wei and Feng saw the notification as they exclaimed.

"Follow me!" Feng told Hu Wei as they ran away from the bear. Unfortunately, due to the bear's position, they could not run towards the exit for the lower level area, especially for Hu Wei as he went deeper in when he was escaping earlier.

Based on Feng calculation, Hu Wei would not be able to safely escape if they headed for the exit. As such, he chooses to run deeper into the training ground filled with bears. While dangerous, there is a slightly higher chance with his game knowledge.

As they zig-zagged across the open field, the bear who had recovered chased them hot on their heels. The 5 seconds gap from earlier did open a small distance between them. Still, the speed of the charging bear is not to be underestimated.

With Hu Wei running in front due to his starting position, Feng could only guide him by shouting for him to tweak his running path to avoid getting the attention of more bears.

However, the commotion they are causing when running with the bear chasing soon got the attention of more bears.

In less than 5 minutes, another 2 more bears have joined in the chase. Relying on his shadow sense skill and the additional movement speed granted by the boots, Feng only manages to barely dodge their attack.

GROWL~

BAM!

The original chasing bear had raised its body and slam down hard into the ground once it has chased up to Feng.

Feeling the disruption in the air in his 0.5-meter radius, Feng switches his running direction at the last second, barely avoiding the slamming claws.

Occasionally, due to fatigue from running, Feng misses his timing in dodging, causing the claws the graze him. However, with his defence at 60 compared to Hu Wei 10, the damage he took was much lower.

-15 (hp) -5 (mana)

Saving grace: 25% of damage converted to MP consumption (Passive)

He could take 7 grazes or perhaps 3 direct hits from the bear with the aid of his skill saving grace. Looking at Hu Wei, who had recovered his full HP, Feng was tempted to stop and fight. With his dodging skill, he was confident he would survive.

However, his damage is too low. 1 hit from Hu Wei would draw the aggro of the bears towards him, and Feng was not sure if he could even survive a direct hit from the bears.

15 minutes had passed as they continued running. By now, even Feng, who was following behind, wasn't sure where they are. The only good news so far is that only 1 other bear had joined in the chase.

He could feel his stamina decreasing as they ran from the 4 bears. However, the same could be said for the bear as the distance between them barely changed. Once they get close, they would attempt to attack with their claws.

As their attacks hit the floor, the impact causes them to pause for a moment. Compared to Feng, who only concentrated on running away, they manage to maintain the distance. However, this is not enough for them to survive.

"Find a place where we can hide!" Feng shouted to the front where Hu Wei is located. Acknowledging his instruction, Hu Wei shouted back, "Leave it to me!"

He knew Feng is too preoccupied behind with the attacks of the 4 bear, and as he is now, he is nothing more but a burden. The best he can do is to observe their surroundings while running.

After another 40 minutes of running and dodging, their speed has obviously started to slow down.

'How far have we run? 15km? 18km? 20km?' Hu Wei questions himself as he turns back to look at Feng.

He was still dodging as before, but he is definitely taking more hits. His health is barely 50% full at the moment. Hu Wei is unsure how many more HP potions he has left since he has been consuming them each time the cooldown ends every 2 minutes for the last 10 minute.

As sweat drips into his eyes, Hu Wei wipes them off with his hands. Looking up, he realises that there is a row of bushes almost 2 meters high, stretching like a wall in the distance to the left and right that they are approaching about 10 minutes away.

'Chance!' Hu Wei thought as he ran towards the bushes, not wanting to bother the concentration of Feng behind.

Right when he reached the bushes, he stopped for a moment to wait for Feng, who had notice Hu Wei's plan.

As Feng approaches, Hu Wei jumped into the bushes slightly earlier, maintaining just a slight gap from Feng so that they do not get separated.

Looking in front of him, Feng manages to barely follow Hu Wei's body as they relied on their smaller body to dodge the branches as they squeeze through. On the other hand, the bear had to hammer down the branches as they made their way forward, causing them to be much slower.

As they move forward in the dense bushes for almost 5 minutes, finally, a ray of light shines through the front indicating the exit. The bears a distance behind, thanks to the natural barrier.

All they had to do now was exit the bushes and the direction of their run, re-enter the bush and trace their steps back.

Excited, they picked up their pace. At the final moment, they both leapt forward in excitement as they felt the feeling of freedom from being chased for the last one hour or so.

Turning their body back to face the bear as they float in the air, they both lifted their middle finger up as a parting gift to the bears they are finally going to leave behind.

Finally able to lose the tension in his body, Feng closed looks up at the blue sky as he took a deep breath in, preparing for the impact of his back hitting the ground.

Seconds pass. The impact that Feng was bracing for never came. Opening his eyes, the ground he was looking for passes by him. As he turns his head to look behind him, he came across the terrified expression on Hu Wei's face before staring down into deep darkness.

The exit of the bushes had led them to fall into a crevice in the ground.

'Dammit!' Feng thought as he quickly took out the ropes he had bought earlier.

Throwing one end towards Hu Wei, Feng twists his body into an upright position as he tied the other end to his waist. All he could do now was pray that Hu Wei manages to catch onto the other end as he had no time to look.

Piang~~~~

SCREEEEECCHHHHH~~~~

Sparks flew off the walls of the crevice they are falling into as Feng stabs his swords into the wall. Just as he felt that the speed of his falling was slowing down, he felt a heavy tug on the ropes of his waist.

Just moments earlier:

Hu Wei, who is free-falling down with Feng, is actually pretty calm about the whole situation. After all, this is just a game. Death would actually mean a quick revival back in the beginner village.

In fact, he is curious about how the pain of death would feel like. Thanks to his calmness, he notices a rope being thrown by Feng.

Hu Wei had barely managed to grab onto the other end of the rope as he quickly twists his wrist to allow the rope to go rounds around his right hand before doing the same on his left.

Noticing the action of Feng, he knew he would fall down below at a faster pace. As such, he braces for the impact on his shoulders when the rope reaches the end of its length and becomes taut.

Sure enough, the moment came as he felt a stinging pain on his shoulders and back muscle. This was the cause of the heavy pull that Feng felt above.

The tightening of the rope also caused him to swing towards the wall, crashing into it.

Rumbles~

Bam Bum BAMB...His body rolls across the floor as rubbles of rocks fall around.

Cough....

Argh~ The pain he felt from the impact hits him in one shot as Hu Wei pulls himself up.

'Damn It...is this a game, or is it not?! How can a fall feel this pain!' Hu Wei curses as he stands in a pretty vast cavern.

'?!Cavern?!'

Excited, Hu Wei gave the taut rope a heavy pull.

Up above, Feng had expected the first heavy tug as he grips his sword tightly, barely managing to hang on. The 2nd tug, however, was something he did not expect at all.

'Bloody Shit!' Feng curse as his grip on the sword hilt loosen, he falls back into free fall.

Down below, Hu Wei found a huge rock to which he went a few rounds around with the rope as he used it to secure himself.

Moments later, he heard the yell of Feng passing through

UKKK~~ was all he heard before

BAm Crash Bam Boom.

Feng had crashed into a wall as he did earlier. However, unlike him, the wall that Feng had crashed into was a hard solid wall.