Grand Endless Grassland (3)
With Susan having stunned the wolf, his stab easily penetrated its throat. Although the wolfs vitality was high, it still couldn't survive a stab through the throat. As such it soon died.
"Good job.", Susan praised Lars.
"You too. If you didn't stun it, I don't think I could have stabbed it like this.", he had seen the wolves speed when it had attacked her. And there was no way that he could cope with this kind of speed. Susan had only been able to position her shield at the right time because she was on high alert and with her skill was able to use only minimal motions.
"This won't work. We may be able to defend against single wolfs, but even two of them would be too much.", Lars then said.
"So? There is nothing we can do, right?", Tina responded.
"Well, we can at least take this opportunity to train against this kind of fast animal.", Ivan proposed. "Maybe we should stay close to the platform and not venture further yet. I think the wolves here are mostly single, while further out their number will increase."
"Right, does this dungeon floor has a time limit?", Tom suddenly thought of something.
"I don't think so.", Tina answered. Although there were dungeons which had a time limit for their floors, they were on the rarer side. Most dungeons wouldn't have a limit.
"Oh.", Tom looked disappointed.
"Then should we stay together or split up?", Ivan asked. If they were searching for single wolfs to train on, it might be better to split up. That could greatly increase the efficiency of their training.
"I think we should split up into groups. Ivan, you can go solo, since you are the only one capable of doing so. Susan and Lars should make another team and the last one would be me and my brother.", Tina agreed with the proposal and directly created the groups.
"Does that work? You and Tom lack close combat power. Would you be able to kill any wolves?"
"We will have to figure something out, but it should be alright. And if not, then we can only try again next time."
Everyone else agreed as well, to split up.
Now that he didn't have to create a path for the others in the group, Ivan could just surround himself with a thin mana barrier, which would stop the grass blades from cutting him. Thus his speed drastically increased. Of course, this would also slowly drain his mana but it was well worth it.
It didn't take long for him to meet a wolf. Just like the ones before, it jumped at him out of the thick grass. But unlike the others, his reaction speed could compare to that of the wolf. And although he didn't manage to position his sword for an instant kill, he still managed to wound the wolf, while forcing it to shift sideways. Because of its evasive movement, it wasn't able to finish its attack and its fangs went wide.
Ivan's sword, on the other hand, left a slight wound its flanks. The wound was too shallow to affect it, so after landing, it instantly catapulted itself towards him again.
This time Ivan had more preparation time, so he took a simple step aside and slid his sword along the wolfs side. Although the quality of the sword was slow, it was enough to slide through the skin of the wolf and leave a wide wound, wich profusely bled.
The wolves in this grassland were quite interesting as they would instantly retract if they were faced with a situation they deemed impossible to win. Therefore the wolf which had just gotten its side cut open resolutely continued running, instead of turning around to face Ivan again.
He was surprised by its actions, so he was a bit slow and when he reacted, the wolf had already vanished in the grass.
"Damn. These beasts are quite intelligent.", he cursed out.
Since he wouldn't be able to find the wolf, he just continued, hoping for the next one to attack him. This time he should try to either finish it instantly or to at least make the wolf unable to run. Or else he might not manage to kill even one wolf.
Although the wolves were moving around solo, there were quite a few of them, so it didn't take long for the next one to pounce towards him. This time Ivan was much faster to react. While moving to the side, he crouched and let his sword slit along the right legs of the wolf.
To his surprise, his sword wasn't able to even scratch the pelt of the wolf's legs. It seemed to be much harder than the one on its sides.
"Could it be because of the grass here?", he wondered, while changing his tactic. Since he couldn't disable the wolf this way, then the only thing left was the instant kill.
With his speed, he was unable to get a real advantage over the wolf. So he could only use his superior judgment to win. To kill the wolf instantly there were only two valid targets. Its neck or its brain. Of course, there was also the option of just splitting it open, freezing it or burning it completely. But those options would require him to spend a significant amount of mana, something he didn't want to do.
Once again the wolf pounced towards him. It seemed like this was the type of attack, they would prefer to do, as long as it was possible.
Once again he dodged the attack and this time he hacked down with his sword when the wolf flew by him. This time he was just fast enough and neatly hit the neck of the wolf.
His blade smoothly went through the neck and cleanly chopped off the head of the wolf. Thus instantly killing it.
The only problem was that it didn't teach him much. Killing a single wolf was just to simple for him.
"Hm, I should go further out. I think I need at least a group of five wolves to put pressure on me. Or else there won't be any training effect.", he mumbled to himself.
Having made his decision he changed the direction he walked in. He now once again followed the blue arrow in the cube.
While he was walking his gaze was suddenly attracted by a small blade of grass, which looked different than the other grass blades that could be seen.
He bent down and carefully studied it, with the help of the 'Inspect' skill.
<< Red Wind Grass,
An uncommon type of grass, that can only be found in large open areas, mostly filled with other types of grasses. There it collects the wind blowing through the grass and collects the blood of the animals dying in the grass.
It is wind and blood attributed, making it a perfect ingredient for speed boosting pills.
>>
The last sentence was something he got ever since he had learned enough about pill refining. It was a huge help when identifying the uses of medicinal herbs.
And this herb was exactly what he needed. With this, he would be able to refine a pill, that could help the group to challenge this dungeon floor.
At the same time, he cursed at his stupidity. They had gotten a message that the number of herbs that could be found was increased. But he hadn't even looked until now. If not for finding this herb through luck, who knew how many others he would have missed.
He carefully picked up the herb and placed it into his new Herb Ring.
Then he continued. But this time he not only watched out for attackers but also for unusual plants. Especially grasses. These would be harder to differentiate than other herbs since everything was filled with grasses. And there was such a huge variety of grasses out there, that it was nearly impossible to be able to detect them all.
What he now needed was a way to see his surroundings in detail. Thinking so far, he remembered the spiritual sense he usually only used during pill refining. There it enabled him to see the situation during the progress in great detail. But since it was possible to use spiritual sense to sense one's surroundings, then it should be possible to use it during exploring and fighting as well.
Not only would it allow him a 360-degree view of his surroundings, but it would also allow him to detect the things inside the grass. The herbs, as well as the monsters, would be sensable by him. This would enable him to find more herbs as well as reduce the risk of surprise attacks.
The only drawback was that the amount of information collected through the spiritual sense was truly huge. Usually, he would only focus on a small area, so it was still manageable. But now he wanted to sense a large area, drastically increasing the difficulty.