When I was about 50 meters away from the Rotting Corpses, I stopped sneaking forward. Instead, I openly picked up my Wooden Club and charged towards them with astonishing speed.
With my currently enhanced Druid body, running now truly felt like the wind. The 50-meter distance, from accelerating to reaching them, only took about four seconds.
Experiments have shown that incorporating momentum into an attack doesn't significantly increase damage, but it makes it easier to deal the weapon's maximum damage. The difference between my Wooden Club's minimum and maximum damage is six times!
That's why I started sprinting from over 50 meters away, aiming for that maximum damage strike. After several repeated tests, I found this distance to be the most suitable for me. Within those four seconds covering the 50 meters, I had enough time to gather my full strength, and my speed reached its maximum just right. Without wasting an ounce of energy, I delivered a momentum-infused strike.
"Smack!" With a sound, the head of the Rotting Corpse standing at the front was struck hard by my club. The fierce attack, combined with the immense momentum, sent the Rotting Corpse tumbling headfirst onto the ground. Given its slow movements, I believe it would take a long time for it to get back up.
Haha, it worked great! Even if this strike didn't hit the Wooden Club's maximum damage of 6, it was at least 4-5.
Seeing the Rotting Corpse fall, I didn't pay it any more mind. Instead, I used positioning while attacking another Rotting Corpse. Positioning also has its techniques; not only do you have to dodge its attacks, but you also need to keep the third Rotting Corpse separated, ensuring the one I'm attacking always stays in front of the third one, preventing it from attacking me.
Before long, under the "powerful" damage of the White Wooden Club, one Rotting Corpse fell. I took a moment to glance at the Rotting Corpse I had knocked down earlier; it had already gotten back up. That powerful blow to the back of its head had already taken away a third of its life.
"Sigh, why did you have to get up? Aren't you just forcing me to finish you off first? Why go through all this trouble, what's the point?"
I gave the brainless Rotting Corpse a look of disappointment, then temporarily ignored the third Rotting Corpse. I rushed forward and hammered away, quickly knocking down the Rotting Corpse that had just gotten up. This time, however, it wouldn't have a chance to get up again.
At this point, only the last Rotting Corpse remained, which had been flailing its limbs in front of me for a while. I grinned at it, revealing a row of stark white teeth. "I've been annoyed with you for ages! Those hands covered in blood and flesh, always trying to smear me. Let's see how I deal with you!" I turned back to face the last Rotting Corpse and, like mincing meat, struck it repeatedly from head to toe, then from toe to head, for over a dozen blows. I beat it until it was almost unrecognizable as a humanoid form before finally knocking it down with a final, satisfying strike.
*Sweatdrop.* Could I have been infected by Doug the Butcher? Why am I starting to get so twisted?
Haha, whatever, it doesn't matter. In this day and age, it's not about being cruel, it's about being ruthless. There's no "most ruthless," only "ruthless." Ruthlessness is the mainstream, ruthlessness is king...
Looking at the disgusting corpses of the Rotting Corpses, I couldn't be bothered to touch them. I'll wait for them to disappear and then see if there's anything good. This +5% Drop Rate is a good thing!
I plopped down onto the grass, slowly waiting for the corpses to disappear while digesting the combat experience I had just gained. Speaking of experience, actually, during the days Lars trained me, my opponents were mostly Rotting Corpses. I couldn't be more familiar with their methods. Even with my eyes closed, I could probably estimate their attack frequency and angles. So there wasn't much experience to digest; I just wanted to develop this good habit.
In less than three minutes, the three disgusting corpses dissolved into particles and vanished. I patted my backside and went to search the spot where the Rotting Corpses had disappeared.
The grass on the ground was only about a foot high, so if anything dropped, it should be easy to spot.
I searched the spot where the first Rotting Corpse had fallen, and a round, yellowish-orange metal piece caught my eye.
Haha, a gold coin! My first gold coin in this life! That's the price of 20 bottles of Ale! It's enough for a good meal at the Dream Inn – well, enough for me, that is. If it were Doug, that glutton, you couldn't satisfy him with less than 3 gold coins.
I searched the spots where the other two Rotting Corpses had fallen but didn't find anything. Sigh, it seems this 5% chance is still too low.
But when I opened my stats panel, I immediately beamed. Each Rotting Corpse gave 10 experience. With the bonus from the Bugged Charm, the three Rotting Corpses gave me a total of 120 experience. I already had over 300 experience, so adding this 120 means I've already gained about a tenth of the experience needed for the next level! Haha, at this rate, I can probably reach Level 1 today.
With the motivation to level up, I continued moving forward without stopping. Of course, I absolutely couldn't drop my vigilance, or it wouldn't be "without stopping," it would be "tripping immediately."
Facts proved that I was absolutely being overly optimistic. Not to mention how vast the Wilderness is, even if I specifically searched, I might not encounter a wave of monsters on average every half hour. Plus, I had to exclude those I didn't dare provoke. As a result, by the time the entire sunset had sunk below the horizon, my total experience had only reached just over 1500, enough to reach Level 1.
Looking at the gradually darkening sky, my heart jolted. I didn't have the Amazon's Dark Sight ability! I'd better quickly pitch the tent, or it would be bad once it got completely dark.
Following Akara's instructions, I found a slightly lower depression in the nearby terrain and clumsily pitched the tent. Luckily, Lars had taught me before; pitching a tent properly is not as simple as it seems.
By then, the sky had completely darkened. I looked at the sturdy little tent I had erected and nodded in satisfaction. Although it wasn't as well-pitched as Lars could do, it wasn't much worse than the two Barbarian brothers.
The next step was setting up traps. Since I was alone now and had no one to keep watch, traps were essential. I placed some small traps about 10 meters around the tent. Some would make noise when a monster got close, and others could slow down a monster's steps. Although rudimentary, they were enough to deal with the low-intelligence monsters in the Wilderness.
Next came starting a fire. The wood I used was dry wood I had picked up along the way. The wood I bought at the Rogue Encampment was reserve supplies, meant only for when it rained. It was a type of wood called Liu Wood, said to be able to burn even in the rain, and a small piece could burn for five or six hours. Damn, no wonder it was so expensive!
Finally, I could rest for a bit. I sat by the fire and pulled out a large dried meat slice. Uh... speaking of which, why did I buy this kind of rations? Could I have been infected with Doug's dried meat addiction bacteria?
Today, I killed over a dozen waves of monsters, including several Fallen Camps without Fallen Shamans. In total, they dropped 11 gold coins and one Minor Healing Potion. Compared to a day's haul with Lars and the others, I knew this Small Charm played a big role. Unfortunately, the Charm I originally crafted in the Game was supposed to increase the chance of getting magic equipment. When I came to this world, it was probably changed to Increased Drop Rate to adapt to the rules. Looking at it this way, it seems like the scope increased, but in reality, I lost big time. The chance of equipment dropping has all turned into the easiest thing to drop: gold coins.
I took a sip of water and bit hard into the dried meat. It had been about 5 hours since I left the West Gate. Following the method Akara taught me for recognizing directions, I had been heading in a direction slightly north of west. Akara told me there was a Den of Evil over there, a place very suitable for people to "train" in a party. If a few people could go there in a party, I believed they would have good gains. But before I left, she repeatedly reminded me that deep inside the Den of Evil, there was a powerful boss monster, Corpsefire. If I saw it, I absolutely had to run away. That was something Adventurers above Level 10 could only contend with when in a party, a boss monster even stronger than elite monsters!
What is a boss monster? Generally speaking, mutated varieties of monsters with special attributes are called elite monsters. Above that are boss monsters. They usually have their own unique names, such as the Corpsefire I just mentioned, Bishibosh of the Cold Plains, and Blood Raven of the Burial Grounds, and so on. Above that are probably those Demon Lords and Demon God Monsters.
I do plan to meet that Corpsefire. With the Bugged Charm, as long as I level up a few levels and learn all the first-stage skills, I will have 5 Ravens, 1 Vine, my own Werewolf Form, and the elemental skill Firestorm. In terms of attributes, a Level 8 Raven's attack is equivalent to a Level 8 Adventurer holding a white item. Akara said it would take a party (at least 3 people) of Adventurers above Level 10 to challenge it, meaning a complete victory. But I wouldn't mind sacrificing a few Ravens to take it down. Plus, with the Vine that has powerful Poison Damage, and the Level 8 Firestorm with terrifying damage, I am fully capable of winning. And even if I fail in the end, I can leave the Ravens behind to cover my retreat, so I don't have to worry about safety at all. It can be said that as long as I have these few skills, my strength will increase by dozens of times, if not more.
Since leaving the West Gate, I've walked about 10 kilometers. Following the route Akara gave me, I should be able to find the entrance to the Den of Evil tomorrow.
The night in the Wilderness was very cold. I looked up at the sky. The Eerie Red Moon hanging there looked especially lonely at this moment. Even surrounded by countless stars, its loneliness couldn't be dispelled in the slightest. The Red Moon is the Red Moon; it is not the stars. Therefore, it is destined for endless emptiness and solitude. Am I like this too? As the sole Transmigrator, can I truly become a star and integrate into the Dark Continent?
Night deepened, and it grew colder. The cold wind howled. I pulled my neck back and stomped out the campfire. On such a windy night, if I accidentally caused a fire, I would truly have nowhere to run.
The night passed without incident. The next day, I woke up early, packed up the tent and traps, and continued on my way.
(end of chapter)