Chapter 123 - Survival of the Fittest

Chapter 123 - Survival of the Fittest
Ice-Blue Devil Flame.
It was one of the handful of Tier 2 Mysterious Flames that could only be found in White River City. This flame held a fatal attraction towards Forgers. Moreover, the Hundred Ghost Forest that housed the Ice-Blue Devil Flame was only a short distance from Red Leaf Town. Hence, it would be a big waste if Shi Feng did not obtain it for himself.
Be it earning money or forging items, the Mysterious Flame would provide Shi Feng with a tremendous amount of aid.
Right now, Shi Feng was still several hundred Proficiency Points away from becoming an Intermediate Forging Apprentice. However, even if he became one, it would still be quite difficult for him to forge the Secret-Silver ranked Silver Dawn.
When forging Secret-Silver Equipment, an Intermediate Forging Apprentice only had a 2% chance of success, while a Basic Forging Apprentice had a pitiful 1%.
If Shi Feng included the 20% from the Book of Forging, 5% from Blacksteel’s Insignia, and 5% from the Runic Hammer, he would, at best, have a 32% success rate after becoming an Intermediate Forging Apprentice. Furthermore, forging the Silver Dawn required three extremely rare materials, which dictated that Shi Feng would be unable to create many of them. If Shi Feng forged the Silver Dawn with such low success rates, he would absolutely take an irrecoverable loss. Although the loss of tens of Silver Coins with each failure was not a problem to Shi Feng, the materials required were simply too rare. They were not items Shi Feng could obtain simply by wishing. An extensive amount of time was needed to obtain all of them.
Moreover, the Abyssal Blade probably required ten Silver Dawns to level up.
Hence, the Ice-Blue Devil Flame was a must-have for Shi Feng.
The Tier 2 Ice-Blue Devil Flame would considerably increase the forging success rate, not to mention the various benefits it would bring Shi Feng in the future. Hence, this trip to the Hundred Ghost Forest was a must for Shi Feng.
Shi Feng departed Red Leaf Town, his destination: north.
Due to the matter regarding stamina, Shi Feng did not hurry too much. The quicker he ran, the quicker he would run out of stamina. Instead, if he maintained his running speed at a certain threshold, the rate his stamina replenished was equal to its consumption. However, this threshold differed for every player as it depended on the player’s Attributes, making it extremely hard for players to obtain.
When Shi Feng passed by the Level 5 monster area, Gray Wolf Prairie...
In the midst of the grass that grew to the waist of an adult, players’ corpses randomly lay about, scattered. From a glance, the majority of players who died were solo players, while a minority consisted of parties who party-wiped.
Going several hundred yards deeper into the prairie, the thick grass suddenly grew restless. At the sight, Shi Feng immediately unsheathed both of his weapons.
Soon after, two Level 5 players rushed out from the thicket, their appearances extremely unsightly. Bloodstains littered their clothing, and their weapons were no longer on their persons. When the two of them noticed Shi Feng, without hesitation, both of them immediately rushed toward him.
After the two players ran out of the grass, a group of Level 5 White-eyed Gray Wolves similarly came running, closely pursuing the two players. The White-eyed Gray Wolves howled as they chased their prey as if announcing the location of their quarry to others of their pack.
[White-eyed Gray Wolf] (Common Monster)
Level 5
HP 540/540
Shi Feng immediately understood the two players’ intentions; they wanted to shift their calamity onto him.
“Brat, count yourself as unlucky for meeting us. Since you are going to die anyway, you might as well help us lure this wolf pack!” an Assassin looked towards Shi Feng, laughing grimly.
Saying so, the speed at which the two ran at Shi Feng increased somewhat slightly.
However, they greatly underestimated Shi Feng.
When the players were about to run past Shi Feng, Shi Feng’s hands immediately latched onto the two’s arms. With his superb Strength, he immediately tossed the players back to the pack of wolves that rushed ahead.
Before the players could even react, they landed in the middle of the wolf pack. Their bodies smashed onto a few of the White-eyed Gray Wolves as they landed, eliciting a few anguished wails from the wolves.
“You…” before the Assassin could even curse, the surrounding White-eyed Gray Wolves snapped at his neck and limbs. His flesh being torn apart, the Assassin’s HP madly fell as he let out an agonizing wail.
The Ranger beside him was naturally not spared this fate, and very quickly, the wolf pack finished him off as well.
Shi Feng held not an ounce of pity towards them.
If the two of them had run in a different direction, they might have had the slight hope of surviving. However, instead of doing so, they made the worst possible decision of trying to drag Shi Feng into the mess. They had absolutely no idea that, when compared to the pack of wolves chasing them, Shi Feng was much more terrifying.
While the wolf pack was attacking the two players, Shi Feng took the chance to use Thundering Flash the instant the two players were about to die.
Like a fierce tiger released from its cage, the green colored arc of lightning loosed an earth-shaking howl as it pierced the bodies of the White-eyed Gray Wolves, causing a series of damages over -300 points. The White-eyed Gray Wolves died instantly, and only piles of burnt ash remained.
Although Shi Feng had killed over ten White-eyed Gray Wolves with a single attack, he was already Level 7. The total EXP of several hundred points was almost negligible to him now.
After collecting all the loot, Shi Feng took an Isolation Scroll out from his bag.
With the evolution of God’s Domain, the monsters in the wild had similarly received a huge upgrade. Not only was their sensitivity greatly increased, but they also had a more flexible way of thinking, and their range of activity greatly widened. Their battle methods started varying, becoming more similar to real melee battle. Meanwhile, the biggest change the monsters underwent after the evolution of God’s Domain was that these monsters would no longer shrink back, even against high-leveled players. Also, their range of vigilance would no longer reduce. Hence, players needed even more caution when dealing with monsters. Otherwise, they could easily lure a large group of monsters onto themselves.
On his way to this place, Shi Feng had met many players who died in such a way. For example, a party that had killed a few White-eyed Gray Wolves failed to leave the location quickly. As a result, the scent of blood spread to the surroundings and attracted more White-eyed Gray Wolves, wiping out the party.
After using the Isolation Scroll, Shi Feng quickly departed the Gray Wolf Prairie. He then passed through Kirk Grand Canyon, Cybus Lake, and many other high-level monster areas. After traveling for six hours, Shi Feng finally arrived at the Level 15 monster area, Hundred Ghost Forest.
The Hundred Ghost Forest was a cursed location. In this dark and withered forest, where sunlight never reached, only the Cursed Apparitions lingered. These apparitions had a 60% resistance against physical attacks and possessed 20% evasion. The monsters also had insanely high Attack Power, and to the current Shi Feng, they only needed to land two or three hits to kill him. However, these monsters only had 600 HP, and magical attack damage was increased by 100%. Hence, the Hundred Ghost Forest was a leveling heaven for mage classes.
Due to God’s Domain evolving, these Cursed Apparitions had become much more sensitive to their surroundings. They were widely different from the other beast-type monsters. Instead of scent, these monsters could easily sniff out the aura of living beings within a hundred-yard radius, and even if one used Stealth, the Cursed Apparitions could still detect them.
However, Shi Feng had come prepared. He took out a bottle of Dispersing Potion, immediately emptying its contents. The potion concealed the aura of a living being for 10 minutes.
With the aid of the Dispersing Potion, Shi Feng only needed to be slightly careful to avoid the detection of the Cursed Apparitions.
According to Shi Feng’s knowledge, the location of the Ice-Blue Devil Flame was at the center of the Hundred Ghost Forest, at the fountain located at the central of Hundred Ghost Town. To obtain this Ice-Blue Devil Flame, the Guild, Glorious Light, had gone through a painstaking amount of trouble. Only after sending thousands of their members and having hundreds of them die, did they manage to clean out all the monsters found in Hundred Ghost City, obtaining the Ice-Blue Devil Flame.
Naturally, Shi Feng knew he did not possess the ability to clear out all the monsters in Hundred Ghost Town. However, he had other methods of securing the Mysterious Flame. Only, they were all filled with extreme danger.
After arriving at the Hundred Ghost Town, with much difficulty, Shi Feng halted his steps, observing the Town. When a cooling breeze blew over Shi Feng from the withered forest, he suddenly felt an indescribable chill.
Killing intent!
If Shi Feng did not have the experience of many years of blood-soaked combat, earning himself a natural instinct to detect danger, he would have been completely ignorant towards this faintly discernible killing intent. As this was not his first time feeling such a chillingly cold killing intent, Shi Feng immediately unsheathed both his swords.
At that very instant, a black figure appeared behind Shi Feng. Following which, a silver glow stabbed directly towards Shi Feng’s neck and another towards his lower back. Like a poisonous snake, the two attacks were both swift and fatal.
From these two actions alone, Shi Feng knew his attacker was a top-tier expert immediately.
Although Shi Feng was slightly on guard, the speed of the attacks was just too swift for him to dodge.