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Watching the Magic Missile approach, the leader of the wolf pack's eyes flashed with fear. It had the feeling that if it let that attack land, it would definitely be killed on the spot.

At that time it was filled with regret. If it had known this human was so strong, it would have run away immediately, even if it had to leave the treasure it found. Even if it meant not growing stronger as quickly, wasn't that better than dying?

However, there was no medicine for regret in this world. Not for humans and certainly not for monsters.

In its last moments, it tried to backpedal and dodge but the attack was just to fast. Completely unable to defend itself, a mighty Elite High-Grade Immature monster died as its skull burst apart.

The leader of the wolf pack died just like that. It wasn't the strongest monster in the world, it may not even have been the strongest monster near Cloud City, but without a doubt it was the first of its kind to die. The first Elite High-Grade monster killed in this lifetime.

Although Cheng Yang had killed the leader, he couldn't avoid being swarmed by the dozens of wolves left. He was unable to defend in the slightest and was bitten several times.

His Physical Defense was well above what a Low-Grade Venom-Fanged Wolf could deal with, so every attack was incredibly weak. Even so, the minimum damage an attack could deal was one point. With so many wolves attacking him, Cheng Yang still lost almost forty percent of his health in just ten seconds.

Cheng Yang couldn't afford to spend another second here! With just 53 Mana left, there was no way to defeat the wolf pack, and if he stayed still, they would eventually whittle his health to zero.

As soon as Cheng Yang managed to free himself from under the wolves, he immediately made a U-turn and ran away.

Cheng Yang's speed was leagues beyond the Low-Grade wolves and within seconds, he had opened up a huge gap between them. A minute later, they weren't even visible anymore. Once the pack was out of site, Cheng Yang sat down and used the Meditation skill. He wouldn't have time to fully recharge his Mana, but every point counted.

Ten seconds later, the wolves were less than forty meters away from Cheng Yang. He hopped up and charged a Magic Missile. There were still thirty-two wolves left, so he didn't dare to slack off.

He fired two Magic Missiles at the wolves in the front, promptly killing them. The ten Mana he had just regained were spent instantly. Not wanting to risk taking more damage, Cheng Yang started running again before they got within ten meters of him.

With only a single Standard-Level monster left, the horde wasn't able to threaten Cheng Yang anymore. After all, in a battle of attrition, he would definitely win thanks to his speed.

It took Cheng Yang twenty-five minutes to mop up the rest of the wolf pack.

When the last wolf died, Cheng Yang flopped to the ground and lay on his back. He had been in a tight spot earlier as it was common knowledge in his past life that; even if you were strong, you shouldn't fight even medium hordes alone. Unless you had enough magic potions, you were in for a long grind. The worst part about this encounter was that the hunting efficiency was just too low! After half an hour of stressful work, Cheng Yang had only gained 62 Experience Fragments! If he had focused on smaller hordes, his gains would have been much higher.

Cheng Yang quickly returned to the area he had originally encountered the wolves. It was time to collect the loot he had risked his life for.

Cheng Yang quickly rushed to pick up the stave allowing its status pane to open up.

Wolf King's Sorrow

A stave crafted from the leg bones of the once mighty Wolf King, a Pinnacle-Grade Evolved monster that ruled a pack of millions. Shoddy construction has caused its power to diminish over time.

Grade: Black Iron

Class: Mage

Requirements: Standard-Grade Apprentice

Durability: 80/80

Effect: Increase Magic Attack by 4

It really was a Black Iron stave! Although Cheng Yang was able to guess that based on its appearance and the strength of the horde leader, it was only speculation. Now that he actually had his hands on such a good piece of equipment, he couldn't help but shout with joy.

Although, a Black Iron piece of equipment that increased an Attack stat by 4 was fairly average. In his previous life, the most powerful weapon publicly known to humanity was a Purple Silver longbow named Garuda's Clavicle. It boasted an insane nine point increase to Physical Attack. It allowed the wielder to fight monsters two levels higher than them.

Moreover, Black Iron equipment was only suitable to be used by Apprentices. Purple Silver equipment and grades above that were considered standard for higher levels. Cheng Yang had only heard rumors of such equipment in his past life, but never seen it.

Cheng Yang equipped the new stave but was left with a dilemma. If he wanted to take his old stave with him, it would only get in the way but he was reluctant to just toss it into the wilderness. Every single piece of equipment was a valuable treasure to Phoenix Village.

Cheng Yang found himself daydreaming about a certain ring that was sold in the Silversmithy. Spacial Rings! They were able to store items inside of them and reducing their weight to nothing! The item was a must have for anyone that wanted to make a long journey or run a far away instance dungeon. The only downside was that they were outrageously expensive, expensive to the point that hardly anyone could buy them. Even if Phoenix Village had a Silversmithy, Cheng Yang would only be able to gaze wistfully at the Spacial Ring section.

In the end, Cheng Yang tied his old stave to his back using the sinews of the wolves he killed.

As Cheng Yang continued his journey, he ran into a horde with a little over thirty monsters and entirely exterminated it with ease. His damage was so high that the Standard-Grade leader had directly keeled over in pain, unable to dodge the follow up that killed it. He was confident that if he were to face that wolf pack again, he definitely wouldn't fall into such a dangerous situation.

Even if he encountered large hordes with several high level monsters, Cheng Yang was unafraid to kill the leaders because he would run before he was noticed. After recharging his Mana quickly, he would rush back and massacre the remaining mobs.

His only regret was that his luck had run out and he didn't find anything else of value. On the upside, he didn't run into anything stronger than Elite Standard-Grade.

After advancing another two kilometers, Cheng Yang had obtained 300 Experience Fragments. In addition to the ones he had earned earlier, his total was now over 1000 once again.

At this point, he was only about a kilometer from Cloud City so he started to act more conservatively. In his previous life, each of the roads leading out of Cloud City had been guarded by pretty big monster hordes. One of the reasons the army didn't leave the city until late March was that they couldn't defeat those wardens.

After the initial earthquake, a natural wonder was formed around every city. A pit was dug around the city, seventy meters wide, and seemingly endless. The only way in or out of each city were bridges at each of the cardinal directions 100 meters wide.

As for how many monsters who were currently guarding those passages, Cheng Yang had no clue. They were only discovered after two weeks in his previous life, so he didn't know what they looked like in the first few days of the apocalypse.

When he first brought Old Lee out on the first night, he hadn't told them this since they would only have thought he was trying to trick them into not going.

As he got closer, Cheng Yang couldn't help but feel anxious. If he was lucky, the number of monsters in the horde would only be in the low hundreds, but if he wasn't it, could be thousands.

At the same time that Cheng Yang left Phoenix Village, Yuan Jianzhe had just sent the latest batch of soldiers out of the safe zone.

It didn't take long for him to realize just how much better Professionals were compared to guns. However, that revelation had only been a source of stress and anxiety for him. He was worried that if he couldn't produce enough Professionals in time, the next horde would completely wipe them out.

In order to gain even the slightest advantage, he planned to visit the six buildings surrounding the statues. The first one he visited was a spindly building with a sign reading "Alchemy Tower".

Right now, Yuan Jianzhe was just going in to take a look. When he had entered the safe zone, he was told that these buildings would sell certain items but never specified what items were sold. The only issue was that money from the old world wouldn't work, they could only use Experience Values gained from killing monsters.

Since everyone's Experience Values were being used to perform class change ceremonies, no one had used a shop yet. The reason he came in was to determine what items were good and to make future spending plans early.

However, when Yuan Jianzhe entered the Alchemy Tower, he was shocked.

Yuan Jianzhe had prepared himself before walking in, so that even if a dragon was inside he wouldn't be surprised, but how could he not be surprised to see a human? A living, breathing human!

The middle aged man was casually standing there dressed in ancient clothes.

Who the hell was that man?

Yuan Jianzhe suddenly had a terrifying thought. What if that man was related to the god that had destroyed the world?

He took a few cautious step forward and then bowed to the man. "Your Excellency, may I ask who you are? How did you find yourself in this place?"

The man smiled brightly. "Welcome to the Alchemy Tower, we can fit all of your alchemical needs, what are you looking to purcha- … huh? You don't even have a single Experience Fragment. What's a bum like you doing in my store? Get the hell out and come back when you aren't so poor!"

Yuan Jianzhe was flustered, to say the least. He hadn't been spoken to so disrespectfully since before he became an executive in the military. Even so, he was a very calm person and didn't show his true feelings. "Your Excellency, I just wanted to ask-"

"You annoying brat, if you want to ask questions, go to the Tavern! The only thing you can do here is to buy potions, and you're too poor to even get a cheap salve!" When he finished berating Yuan Jianzhe, he waved his hand and Yuan Jianzhe was forcefully pushed out of the shop by an invisible barrier.

As he picked himself up from the ground, Yuan Jianzhe couldn't help but fear the shopkeeper. If wasn't just because of how powerful the man was, but that he couldn't even tell what he had done.

He then visited the other stores, only to suffer a similar fate. It seemed that those shopkeepers wouldn't even give you the time of day if you didn't have money.