Chapter 6: Passersby

The Wild Boar King stood at a towering height of two meters, but Mingwei Zhao used the agility boost from his Fighter class to jump above the Wild Boar King!

His left hand clenched into a fist, a red glow enveloping his left glove, and Mingwei Zhao delivered a powerful downward punch directly onto the Wild Boar King's forehead.

Ground Smash!

A level five basic skill of the Fighter class.

The release condition requires jumping into the air, with higher jumps dealing more damage and having a knockback effect.

Mingwei Zhao's Ground Smash struck the Wild Boar King's head, but it didn't even budge, nor did it show any visible wounds.

However, when Mingwei Zhao's fist made contact with the Wild Boar King's head, he clearly saw ripples spread across the boar's skin in response to the punch's force.

He could truly feel that his fist hit a piece of flesh, not just numbers calculated by the system.

This delicate sense of impact could only be experienced in reality!

A damage of -7 floated above the Wild Boar King's head, and the boar let out a roar, its two-meter-long tusks thrusting upward, about to pierce Mingwei Zhao's body when suddenly, a long water string appeared behind him.

The string yanked Mingwei Zhao's body back, pulling him out of the Wild Boar King's attack range.

Mingwei Zhao glanced back to see that the string came from the Water Spirit, summoned by Jiang Qiao.

"Thanks, brother!"

Mingwei Zhao thanked Jiang Qiao as he landed on the ground and immediately jumped again, this time releasing the Fighter's level zero skill, Collapsing Fist.

Another -8 damage floated above the Wild Boar King's head.

"The skill release in this game is really simple," Jiang Qiao remarked while waving his magic wand, currently following the path of an Elemental Summoner.

The skills he learned were Water Spirit and Fire Spirit, each element controlling different skills.

Jiang Qiao only needed to think of the skill name in his mind, and the system would automatically help him release the desired skill.

The same applied to Mingwei Zhao's Fighter class; for complex moves, he only needed to think of the skill name in his mind, and the system would automatically execute it.

Of course, this combat assistance feature could be turned off, and Mingwei Zhao had turned it off after figuring out how it worked.

No matter how high Mingwei Zhao's gaming talent or how skilled his operations, an eighth-level character was still pitifully weak against a tenth-level Wild Boar King.

The Wild Boar King had a total health of 1,500 points. It took Jiang Qiao and Mingwei Zhao half an hour to deplete half of its health.

One mere swipe from the Wild Boar King could reduce Mingwei Zhao's health by half.

The margin for error in this boss fight was so slim that they could only afford one mistake, the second would result in a complete team wipe, yet Jiang Qiao and Mingwei Zhao cooperated so well that the Wild Boar King only managed to touch them once.

But now... the Wild Boar King, who had been taking the hits, was finally about to land a second hit.

It entered a Frenzy State, suddenly growing spikes all over its body, evolving from the Wild Boar King into a Steel-Backed Beast, or rather... a Porcupine King!

Mingwei Zhao didn't foresee that the boar could grow spikes. He had already thrown his punch, which collided directly with the spikes on the Wild Boar King's back.

-7 damage floated above the Wild Boar King's head, while -120 appeared over Mingwei Zhao's head.

"I'm in bleeding status, it's an over-taunt, you go first!" Mingwei Zhao's rich gaming experience immediately judged the situation, they were about to be wiped out!

"Okay! See you in the main city!" Jiang Qiao responded without hesitation.

"So, you're really ditching your teammate this decisively?"

"It's not like you can't be revived after dying."

Just as Jiang Qiao was about to log out and start over, a +32 floated above Mingwei Zhao's head as his health hit rock bottom!

'Heal-No-Milk cast Quick Healing on Happy Gaming.'

'Happy Gaming restored 32 health points.'

Two system messages popped up from the corner of Jiang Qiao's eye as he turned to see a Priestess with a cross in hand, just finishing a spell.

"We have a healer? I think we can save this! Can you heal me again?" Mingwei Zhao's health was lifted just in time, and he rolled on the ground, dodging the Wild Boar King's charge, but his bleeding status persisted.

If this continued, Mingwei Zhao would die from blood loss in ten seconds.

"That last heal was 30 copper coins, pay up and I'll keep healing!" Heal-No-Milk suddenly shouted.

"What the heck? It's an ambush and robbery?" Jiang Qiao thought Heal-No-Milk was being kind and helping out.

"MP potions aren't free! Thirty copper coins, I guarantee you won't die. Even if you do, I have the Resurrection Technique!" Heal-No-Milk stood by, ready to stop healing unless they paid up.

"Can we pay after the boss fight?"

All the Wild Boar King's aggro was on Mingwei Zhao, leaving him no chance to trade.

"No way!" She was very decisive.

"I just sent you sixty copper coins by mail, hurry up!" Jiang Qiao took the time to send an email to the Priestess. She checked her mail and nodded contently.

"Alright! Add me to the party!"

Jiang Qiao added her to the group, a level ten Priest.

With the healer on board, the margin for error against the Wild Boar King increased significantly, but it still took the trio another half hour to deplete the last half of the Wild Boar King's health.

Finally, a small fireball cast by Jiang Qiao's Fire Spirit set the Wild Boar King's spikes ablaze, and the entire boar let out a wail before collapsing to the ground.

Jiang Qiao's experience went from level eleven at ninety-five percent to level twelve at two percent, while Mingwei Zhao leveled up directly to nine, and Heal-No-Milk remained at level ten.

"Phew..." Mingwei Zhao sat down heavily on the ground.

"Are you okay?" Heal-No-Milk looked at him, who seemed exhausted.

Earlier, Mingwei Zhao had been rammed by the Wild Boar King multiple times. Jiang Qiao remembered setting the pain sensitivity of this world to zero.

In other words, no matter how the game character was attacked, there would be no pain, just a red warning effect to alert players.

But some players could still adjust their pain perception.

"My legs... are numb." Mingwei Zhao found he couldn't stand and collapsed onto the grass. "But it felt great..."

"Great? That Wild Boar King nearly finished you off several times. Are you guys masochists?" Heal-No-Milk recalled the battle, filled with many tense moments. If not for Jiang Qiao and Mingwei Zhao's incredible skills, they would have met in the graveyard for sure.

"It's the exhilaration of defeating a formidable foe. I can feel it too. And the Wild Boar King dropped five pieces of loot, all beginner gear. How should we split these?"

Jiang Qiao spread his hand, and five blue equipment illusions floated before them.

"You first." Mingwei Zhao initially called Jiang Qiao "master" as a tease, but this time, he was genuinely in awe. During the Wild Boar King raid, Jiang Qiao's multiple saves and his ability to control the Wild Boar King's movements had impressed Mingwei Zhao deeply.

He hadn't fully understood the game's system yet, but Jiang Qiao, as a Summoner, controlled two summoned beasts like he had over twenty different skills.

If this was seven years ago, during his time in Conquest, Mingwei Zhao would have recruited Jiang Qiao into his guild immediately. Unfortunately, he hadn't established a guild in this game.

"Spirit Light Cloak and Spirit Light Gloves. The remaining three are yours." Jiang Qiao didn't hesitate, taking the two components of the Spirit Light set, a level ten gear usable by any magic class.

The set effect increased intellect by 20 points and granted a five-second invisibility skill.

Mingwei Zhao took two of the remaining pieces, and due to her previous payment, Heal-No-Milk hesitated to ask for equipment but Jiang Qiao kindly gave her a necklace.

After distributing the loot, Mingwei Zhao and the Priestess both logged off, as it was six in the morning in the real world, and Jiang Qiao also chose to log off.

On the Saint Spirit app, Jiang Qiao had another feature to test, named 'Spirit Descent.' This function had a simple purpose: to bring game characters into the real world!