Chapter 124 : Corrupted Forest Wolves
Corrupted Forest Wolves
With Chen Zixuan's current level and equipment, while he couldn't claim to be truly invincible, he was already more than capable of doing as he pleased within the wilds of the Nightshade Forest.
Therefore, he no longer acted as cautiously as before. Instead, after confirming the direction, he headed straight toward the spot he had sensed earlier.
Chen Zixuan advanced at full speed. With the boost of nearly 400 points in Agility, the scenery on both sides blurred rapidly, and within the dense woods, it was as if a silver whirlwind had swept close to the ground and vanished.
It took him less than two minutes before a small forest clearing appeared before him.
Instinctively, he hid behind a towering ancient tree, revealing only a strand of his silver ponytail, as Chen Zixuan quietly observed the situation ahead.
Around twenty meters away, six players stood with their backs to him, weapons in hand. Encircling them were dozens of wolf-like monsters with grey and white fur, completely surrounding the team.
The reason he thought of them as "wolf-like monsters" instead of just forest wolves was that Chen Zixuan had never seen monsters quite like these.
Although they had the bodies of forest wolves, in place of tails, there was a huge rhizome-like vine, resembling a long flail. As these tails swung from side to side, they emitted a constant "shish-shish" sound as they whipped through the air, chilling to behold.
"Is this... a forest wolf?"
Sweeping his gaze over the large group of wolf-like monsters, Chen Zixuan was slightly surprised.
He had seen sheep with grass growing from their heads, but never wolves with plants growing from their tails. This was a first for him.
Could it be that these monsters were called forest wolves precisely because their tails would morph into plant-like structures?
However, Chen Zixuan quickly dismissed that notion.
He had previously killed quite a few of these monsters in Nightshade Forest. Neither the regular forest wolves nor the elite forest wolf kings showed any sign of such plant-animal hybrid structure.
"Could it be that these monsters have been parasitized by some kind of plant?"
As this thought crossed his mind, Chen Zixuan found it increasingly plausible. His gaze locked onto one forest wolf whose eyes glowed white. The space before him rippled briefly, and a translucent interface appeared.
[Corrupted Forest Wolf]
Level: 3
Attack: 45
Max HP: 195
Physical Defense: 23
Magic Defense: 5
Skills: [Thorn Whip], [Corrupted Bite]
......
(Description: Forest wolves tainted by Angel's dark magic, fused with a plant in the forest called [Serpentvine]. Possessing formidable vitality and immunity to all pain, their iron-spiked whip-like tails can shred any living thing that approaches, turning it into fodder for parasitism.)
......
"Angel again..."
The translucent panel before him faded, and Chen Zixuan instinctively frowned.
According to the hunter NPC's account, the Sawtooth Crocodiles of the Mutant Jungle had turned so difficult to deal with precisely because of Angel's corruption. Unexpectedly, now even the forest wolves of Nightshade Forest had been tainted by Angel's dark magic.
Not only had their level been raised from 1 to 3, but their attack power and HP had also increased significantly.
Moreover, they now had two additional skills—a nearly unimaginable improvement for regular monsters.
"This group of players is about to have bad luck..."
A little schadenfreude surfaced in his heart as Chen Zixuan turned his gaze to the six players surrounded by the wolf pack: four men and two women. Judging by their weapons, their professions were two warriors, two mages, one priest, and one Holy Knight.
They didn't have even the most basic team composition—obviously, not a premade party but a random group of players put together ad hoc.
Since the game's open beta, some veteran players had posted the most optimal team compositions on the forums. Many others had adopted these set-ups.
Take a five-man party, for instance: when tackling wild maps or dungeons, there should at least be a Holy Knight acting as main tank to absorb most of the damage; a warrior as off-tank providing crowd control; mages and sharpshooters as sustained DPS; with a priest for healing and buffs.
That would be considered the most basic pioneer party.
Yet the group before him didn't even have a sharpshooter for ranged DPS, clearly demonstrating their lack of skill.
It was like playing LOL without an ADC—the team would never have reliable sustained physical output in fights.
In the brutally hard Legend of Kaloran, perhaps only all-rounders like Cecilia dared to play as a lone wolf.
Of course, it was also possible that their ADC was a newbie and had already been killed by the forest wolves.
While Chen Zixuan was observing in secret, the six-person party at the center kept communicating.
"Captain, how about we give up on this quest? These monsters are just too strong. If we keep fighting, we'll all die here," one warrior player said, glancing nervously at the eerie monsters ahead before speaking to the mage in the party.
The mage referred to as Captain was one of the team's two female players, appearing around twenty, her looks just barely a six—which was a far cry from Gu Yanxi, but still enough to be fawned over by hordes of simps in the game.
"We've come this far; let's push a bit longer. With how hard this quest is, the rewards must be good. It's not like we lose much if we die anyway," the female captain hesitated before choosing to stay.
At the mention of "reward," spirits lifted somewhat. Although Legend of Kaloran was crazy tough and often unfair, its rewards were generous—there were plenty of rich players. Get your hands on a rare item or weapon, and you could easily buy a house in a second- or third-tier city.
Still, a few people's legs trembled. The game's sense of immersion was so realistic, it barely felt different from the real world.
Modern folk were accustomed to easy living; suddenly thrusting them into confrontation with terrifying monsters, with cold weapons in hand, it's no surprise that all but the steeliest would feel fear.
The group's highest-level member was just level 5, while all these monsters were around level 3 or 4, and there were so many... The odds were stacked so high, they'd almost certainly be torn apart if a fight broke out.
"Awooo!"
Just then, a shrill wolf howl rose from the woods. At the sound, the watching forest wolves immediately stiffened, drool dripping from their mouths, and began closing in step by step toward the six players at the center.