Author's note: procrastination is my greatest bane...

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It had been two in game weeks since the server opened and Zaran was finally ready to head out of the secluded training area. Among the people who had started playing the game the first day he was currently dead last. Even people who had played one in game day had already passed him in level. However, comparing the amount of battle skills and life skills that the average user had, Zaran had far more. counting his stat points alone he was quite far ahead of the majority of users too. Those who had been earnestly training to get bonus skill points were very few.

Before heading off into the forest Zaran told Kirin to suppress her aura. To the way here Zaran couldn't possibly take the higher leveled monsters that roamed this forest, but now Zaran felt quite confident in himself. What's more it was time to start leveling like mad. Calculating the levels he got from training he should be about equal to a lvl 40'ish user in stat points if they hadn't gained additional stat points.

As soon as Zaran headed into the forest he found it far livelier than before. When he was walking to the clearing he hadn't paid much attention to the atmosphere in the forest as he was rushing there. Even so, he still felt that it was livelier than before, most likely due to Kirin suppressing her aura. The first few hundred meters Zaran didn't see any monsters, making Zaran quite uncomfortable. He had hoped to at least gain a few levels before nearing Virul again.

Zaran stopped for a moment to think about the situation. There had to be monsters somewhere in this huge forest as it was a level 10+ area. Zaran decided to take a detour to the center of the forest. Surely if he took a detour that way he'd run into some monsters.

Halfway to the center of the forest Zaran heard a rustling sound nearby. He advanced carefully to the direction of the sound and as he got closer more rustling sounds were heard all around me.

They have surrounded me!

Instantly brandishing his sword, he waited for the enemy to reveal himself, not daring to take one step further into their ambush. Both Kirin and Cindarrah readied themselves for battle and small dark flames appeared near Kirin's maw.

The rustling kept getting louder and the amount seemed to increase. A short while later the monsters finally showed themselves. They were thin wolves with a long body. Their fur was black with small silver lines running through it. Zaran tried to inspect them but they were above the range that he could identify. The only thing he learned was that they were Silver Line Wolves. Zaran counted at least ten of them and inwardly cursed.

So many and they are all at least level 12!

The leader of the pack urged the smallest Silver Line Wolf to attack Zaran. It let out a loud howl as it attacked and rushed forward. Zaran frowned upon seeing the wolf's speed as he found it to be quite slow and it's attack seemed to be quite shallow. Dodging to the left, the wolf which missed his attack, passed him and Zaran delivered a clean cut to it's side. Before the wolf had time to recover Cindarrah had already fire a web-shot at it, completely constricting it. When the health bar popped up Zaran saw that a third of the wolf's health had already disappeared with a single hit. After quickly using 'Flutter' on the wolf, the wolf growled in pain as it lost its life.

The leader of the pack howled and three of the wolves attacked simultaneously now.

"Kirin you take one! Cindarrah constrict another one!" Zaran roared as he charged to one of three. Cindarrah and Kirin both did what was asked from them, letting Zaran having an easy time in a one versus one. A single 'Flutter' was enough to kill one of these wolves so Zaran used it again on this wolf, instantly killing it. Afterwards the one bound by Cindarrah met the same fate. In the meantime Kirin had easily finished her opponent. A pitch-black carcass briefly entered Zaran's vision before it disappeared.

Strange... Why didn't it immediately disappear?

Not really having the time to find out Zaran focused on the matter at hand again. He had defeated four wolves now and had instantly leveled to level 7. What's more he was rather close to leveling to level 8. The exp he got from beating just a few level 10+ monsters was enormous.

Seeing as its kin was easily beaten the pack leader howled incredibly loud and soon the howl was answered by many others deep in the forest.

NOT GOOD!

The remaining wolves circled around Zaran, not giving him an opportunity to escape. While he wasn't afraid of fighting them one versus one, he didn't dare risk attacking them while they were grouping. Slowly but surely the wolves decreased the distance between them and Zaran. They thought that if it came to instant speeds they were far faster than Zaran.

Tempered body was activated and a fiery red pulsating aura started to emanate from Zaran.

"Kirin, Cindarrah... RUN! Come back in five minutes!" Zaran yelled not a moment to soon. After he yelled Cindarrah jumped on Kirin's back and ran off with high speed. They both knew what the pulsating aura meant, so they did not dare stay a moment longer after Zaran yelled his command.

Not a moment later more Silver Line Wolves came running from all over and Zaran now counted more than thirty. They all started circling around Zaran in 3 big circles around him. Still all of them were in his attack range.

"FLASH FIRE!" Zaran roared. The pulsating aura shot out in all directions engulfing all the wolves in flames. Much to Zaran's surprise the forest did not catch fire, but the wolves did. The wolves winced in pain as they were set ablaze and they started to wildly run around and roll on the ground. Some where able to put out the fire while the others died due to the continuous burn damage.

Why did the wolves catch fire but not the forest, why is it different from the clearing? Don't got time to find it out now though! Here they come!

Only the bigger wolves were left now as all the others had perished. They circled around Zaran watching him very carefully as they could not be hit with that skill again. After watching him not activating the pulsating aura the leader gave a short growl as he pounced forward himself, with the others following his example. Noticing that they came from all sides Zaran used the 360° slash from "Rise and fall". As he performed it exactly like how it was done in the skill the extra damage still applied. Three wolves were killed in the spot while the leader left the fight unscathed.

Quickly counting the wolves Zaran noticed that there were only 8 left, the leader included. Killing all these wolves had already brought him to level 10 by now. Zaran charged forward for the first time in the fight. The wolf he charged to was visibly charged as it hadn't expected its prey to charge at him. Not being able to react in time this wolf was quickly cut down with one single strike.

The other wolves did react in time and now came pouncing towards Zaran, who quickly turned around and blocked 2 wolves from biting down on him. He quickly pushed them away and used 'Swiftness' to create some distance between him and the wolves. Seeing Zaran retreat the two wolves howled in rage and charged forward. An evil smile surfaced on Zaran's face as he stamped on the ground with his right leg.

"EARTH LANCE!" Zaran roared as huge earthen spikes shot up from the ground, impaling and killing the two wolves who charged at him. Afterwards the ground quickly reverted back to its previous state, making the two wolf bodies collide to the ground with a loud 'Thud' sound.

One of the wolves closer to Zaran walked close enough for 'gravity' to be used. Zaran quickly cast the spell and the wolf came flying over. He turned to face the wolf and used 'Thunderous fist' to end its life. Three more wolves boldly charged at him from the same direction and Zaran just ended their lives with another 'Earth Lance'. The largest wolf was left over and it warily looked at Zaran, barely staying out of the range of gravity.

It growled and roared at Zaran but did not dare to attack itself. Its pack had been destroyed in a mere instant and it had no confidence to face Zaran on its own. Still it felt that it couldn't leave and that it should do something. He could call more of its pack but if it the rest were to meet the same fate... that was not something the wolf leader could let happen.

Zaran could feel the wolf hesitate and sheathed his longsword. "Leave. There's no use for us fighting anymore. You know you can't win." Zaran said to the wolf. It hesitated for a while longer before it lowered it's head to Zaran, then turned around and bolted of with great speed.

"Phew!" Zaran let out a deep sigh as the battle was finished. While it had been rather easy, he still had expended a great amount of strength. He quickly sat down and tried to regain some of his strength. A minute later Kirin and Cindarrah returned. Cindarrah looked at Zaran with a worried face but he quickly said he was fine, just a little exhausted from the fight.

Still that fight had been surprisingly easy. No doubt if I faced them earlier I would've met certain doom but now... I'm quite confident in killing stronger monsters than me in a one versus one. Hell I might even be able to beat monsters that are above level 20 without getting better gear.

Zaran quickly picked up the loot and gained 5 wolf pelts and 2 silver. His storage ring could only hold two more items before he couldn't carry more so he had to go to Virul soon to drop of some things he no longer needed. He also needed to find a way to gain more storage capacity as he currently did not nearly have enough.

Letting out a deep sigh, Zaran stood up and made his way to the heart of the forest.