Xie Feng mounted for about another forty minutes without stopping his steps even for a single moment. His goal was to finish the mission delivered by King Hu Yi today as the time for the mission to expire was near.

Since in the evening Xie Feng would be attending the birthday party of the Yao Family's little princess, Yao Mei, he would not be able to go online until late at night. Xie Feng planned to enjoy the whole day connected to the game and only disconnect to eat his breakfast and lunch.

​​

Of course, those were his plans. As to whether things would go as Xie Feng hoped or not, it was up to destiny to decide.

* * *

"So here we are eh..." Xie Feng said calmly as he dismounted from the back of Ferghana's Horse.

Right in front of his eyes was a completely different view from the one behind his back.

The Dark Forest was a truly strange place. Although it had the word 'forest' in its name, there were actually no trees. What surrounded the Dark Forest was a thick, dark green fog that prevented the view from penetrating beyond the first five meters. Indistinctly, among all the green mist, Xie Feng could vaguely discern some rocks with all sorts of forms; some rocks were even tall enough to be considered a tree.

In addition to the somewhat gloomy appearance of the Dark Forest, occasional beastly roars could also be heard from within the mist. The roars were so powerful that they could cause anyone's skin to turn pale.

"There won't be a mythological beast coming out from in there, will there?" joked Xie Feng as he gently lowered Ling Long from the Ferghana Horse's head.

"Puuuh!"

In response to Xie Feng's words, Ling Long swished her two claws several times, which made Xie Feng laugh.

"Hahaha... All right, you'll cut it then!"

After keeping Ferghana's Horse back in the mount space, Xie Feng together with Ling Long slowly walked into the territory that had not yet been reached and even less explored by any other player.

Xie Feng's steps were firm but careful, his grip on the Calamity Spear was strong and his eyes shone as if he could see through the fog.

The territory he was currently in was far beyond the range of strength of the players at the current stage of the game, so even if Xie Feng was powerful, he could not be careless or he might end up being bitten several times by the jaws of some unknown monster.

Xie Feng did not have to walk far before the first life form of the Dark Forest appeared in front of him.

Seeing the creature blocking his path, Xie Feng narrowed his eyes and used his Soul Eyes skill to inspect the monster.

[Thorny Toad -

Level: 30

HP: 3300

Description: A strange creature that was exposed to all kinds of poisons and ate all kinds of toxic plants. Its body is surrounded by small thorns.

(Skills):

Raptor Tongue: Shoots from inside its mouth a long and sticky tongue. Effect: It has a range of ten meters and causes 600 points of fixed damage. Use rate: Extremely high.

Toxic Thorns: If you get close, it will use its only defense. Effect: When an enemy comes within 1 meter range the Thorny Toad has a 100% chance to shoot the thorns surrounding its body in all directions, causing 200 points of poison damage for 5 seconds upon impact against a target.]

Xie Feng couldn't help but frown at the information provided by his skill. The strange red toad with green thorns a few meters away was just a normal monster but it was already powerful enough to be a level fifteen or even level twenty mini boss.

The Raptor Tongue skill was simply terrifying and annoying at the same time. With a range of ten meters, the Thorny Toad could attack any player who entered the Dark Forest without worrying too much as its enemy's sight would be obstructed by the dense fog of the place. What's more, with an extremely high usage rate and a fixed damage of 600 points, no matter which player they were, at the current stage of the game only four hits would be enough to drain the health bar of even a Shield Guardian.

The most annoying thing was that even if a player managed to get close enough, the Thorny Toad would shoot all the thorns around its body! Xie Feng could count more than ten spines at a glance and there were probably more! The most terrifying thing was that the thorns caused a fixed damage of 200 points for five seconds; that means Toxic Thorns caused 1000 points of fixed damage! Although it might not sound so scary, imagine a team of ten players facing two or three Thorny Toads firing thorns all over the place... If a player was hit twice, then he or she was as good as dead!

While looking at the red and green colored toad that was about ten centimeters long, Xie Feng couldn't help but think that this little creature was really annoying.

Suddenly, the Thorny Toad's mouth opened without warning, completely catching Xie Feng off guard.

*Swoosh!*

At a frightening speed, Xie Feng could indistinctly see a blue-colored whip-like tongue sticking out from inside the monster's mouth and, before he could react, he was struck in the chest.

-600!

Fast!' Xie Feng's eyes widened. Fast, simply too fast! Although he was a bit distracted by the Thorny Toad's high stats, which made the monster's attack more chance to hit him, still Xie Feng was sure that the attack that had just hit him was the fastest skill he had seen since he started playing Samsara Online!

"Damn it. Good is hard and easy isn't always good!"

Even as he cursed, Xie Feng advanced instead of retreating, trying to close the distance. Moving away was pointless since Raptor Tongue's range was ten meters! Although Xie Feng could use some magic spells, he preferred to suffer for several minutes with a single Thorny Toad to learn its attack patterns and habits before going deeper into the Dark Forest.

Otherwise, if Xie Feng was surrounded by a few Thorny Toads without knowledge about them, he would be beaten to death by their tongues and thorns.

*Wooosh!*

However, someone was quicker than Xie Feng.

With a movement speed of 150 points, Ling Long passed beside Xie Feng and charged towards the Thorny Toad!

Ling Long's dark eyes shone brightly as she looked at the monster slightly smaller than her a few meters away. It was as if Ling Long had finally found her goal in life as Xie Feng could swear he had never seen her so excited about anything.

Seeing Ling Long charge towards it, the two big bulging eyes of the Thorny Toad fluttered and it quickly began to shoot its tongue over and over again.

*Swoosh!*

The first attack, Ling Long was able to dodge it correctly.

*Swoosh!*

However, the Spiny Toad's attack was simply too high, so the closer Ling Long got, the more likely she was to be hit.

-600!

After dodging two attacks, Ling Long was hit and 1/4 of her health bar immediately emptied. However, that attack seemed to completely enrage the little dragon as she completely ignored the next incoming attack, which drained another 600 health points, to finally reach the Thorny Toad's side.

Without hesitation, Ling Long raised both hands and slashed downward swiftly.

Miss... Miss... Miss... Miss...

Miss... Miss... Miss... Miss...

However, none of Ling Long's powerful attacks had any effect. This did not mean that Ling Long was weak, on the contrary, she was very powerful. The problem was the huge difference in levels! Ling Long was a pet that was currently only level 2, so it was extremely difficult for her attacks to have any effect on a high-level monster like the Thorny Toad.

Seeing that her attacks didn't work, the brightness in Ling Long's eyes dimmed and a look of pain appeared for a moment.

It was at that moment that Xie Feng finally arrived next to the Thorny Toad. Thanks to the monster being too focused on the speedy Ling Long, it did not even have time to activate Toxic Thorns before Xie Feng's spear finally reached its attack range.

-1899!

-1899!

-1899!

Although Xie Feng's level was also lower than that of the Thorny Toad, the difference was not abysmal as with Ling Long. Therefore, although his attacks could miss many times, it seemed that his luck stat was working as he not only managed to hit successfully on the first try, but also activated the special skill of the Calamity Spear, Trishula, which tripled the damage.

[Ding!... Your pet Ling Long has leveled up. Your pet Ling Long has reached level 3 and got: +100 HP, +100 MP, Physical Attack Power +25, Defense +10, Accuracy +10, Evasion +2.]

[Ding!... Your pet Ling Long has leveled up. Your pet Ling Long has reached level 4 and got: +100 HP, +100 MP, Physical Attack Power +25, Defense +10, Accuracy +10, Evasion +2.]

[Ding!... Your pet Ling Long has leveled up. Your pet Ling Long has reached level 5 and got: +100 HP, +100 MP, Physical Attack Power +25, Defense +10, Accuracy +10, Evasion +2.]

Due to the large amount of experience of a level 30 monster, Ling Long managed to level up three levels, reaching level 5 immediately.

However, Xie Feng could not care about the system announcements right now as he could see how discouraged Ling Long was while looking at her little claws helplessly.