Adventure World Online (AWO)

Fwooooshhhh

At last, searing flames burst from Kitsune's mouth, burning the wasps charging in for the attack. The fire engulfed them mid-air, setting them ablaze. The whole swarm fell into chaos, colliding with one another, until they were all incinerated and dropped to the ground, turning to ash. What was more, their hundreds of souls shot into Kitsune's body like a meteor shower.

"Oh..."

"This is amazing."

"This is great—Kitsune's tails will grow faster now. We..."

Chang Long's extreme excitement and joy made her pets and the spirits under her command shiver to their cores. Especially when she said the very next sentence—just as everyone had expected her to say—it made all their faces go pale.

"Let's go hunt wasp nests!"

The wasp nest hunt was full of fun, even if it came with some danger. Besides wasp nests, hornet nests and bee hives were not spared either. Every nest became a target for her hunts. Because of this, they ended up hoarding a large supply of delicious honey. The scent of honey even attracted bear-type beasts to come attack them, leaving the group barely any time to rest or catch their breath from all the fighting.

They patrolled the entire Dark Forest and encountered many different kinds of beasts. Every type had the prefix Dark before their name. Although the beasts in Dark Forest were fairly high-level and highly skilled in combat, making the plan to split up and fight turned into grouping up and fighting by default. Yet ever since they started fighting together, this was the first time everyone had gone all out seriously at the same time. Their teamwork in combat—timing attacks, evasion maneuvers, and creating openings for others to attack or dodge—was gradually becoming more and more in sync.

The Dragon's Cultivation that Chang Long received from Wu Ming's quest came as a surprise and brought her much joy. Not only did it boost her mana by one thousand points, but what the system did not mention was that it allowed her to move freely even while using skills like Puppet Manipulation or Spirit Realm, without her mana dropping rapidly as it had before. Being able to participate in battle instead of just standing by and watching like before made Chang Long feel thoroughly excited. Around her were spirits and pets who knew her well, fighting side-by-side in high spirits.

At times, the battles got intense—like when facing a Dark Griffon. It was not even a beast king, yet it was level 127. Its strength and ferocity did not need elaboration. The fight was so fierce it cleared out the surrounding forest. Strange beasts that Chang Long had never seen, lurking nearby all fled in panic. Chang Long's group was all injured, barely able to hand out potions and blood crystals fast enough. But in the end, through teamwork, they finally managed to bring down the Dark Griffon.

That night, they decided to camp overnight in the Dark Forest, having stumbled upon a safe zone by chance. Once they entered the safe zone, the system reported a long string of kill logs and experience points—so long it almost made her faint. But enduring it was worth it. Chang Long and her pets all leveled up across the board. What's more, Kitsune's tails increased to four. Brownie reached the threshold for first-stage evolution, and everyone watched his evolution process with intense anticipation and joy.

In his evolved form, Brownie had grown a bit larger. The fur along his back stood upright like a porcupine's quills. He stood proudly, striking a pose to show off his coolness for all to see. This had to be the result of following Chang Long—he was probably the first ever thieving field mouse in the family's history to evolve, even if it was only first-stage evolution. Everyone applauded and cheered so much that Brownie could not keep up his cool pose. He broke into shy embarrassment, blushing red and rolling over, making everyone burst into laughter instead.

"Today's really great. Not only did I get to fight alongside all of you, but our levels went up too. Kitsune's tails grew to four, Brownie evolved, and I finally reached level fifty. Even though we nearly died countless times in one day, it was totally worth it. So—let's celebrate!"

Chang Long said, her face beaming with happiness.

"Celebrate!!"

The pets and spirits under her command all shouted joyfully, and they all celebrated with delicious food from the Horn of Abundance and jars upon jars of honey they had gathered—feasting merrily throughout the night.

The next morning, Chang Long and her companions were woken up by strange noises and a foul, musky stench so strong they could no longer stay asleep. Upon waking, they were all stunned to see that the source of the snorting sounds and horrible smell came from various bear-type beasts, who had been following the scent of honey since the previous night. The bears tried to reach for the honey jars scattered throughout the safe zone, but could not access them. Some began fighting among themselves, hoping to reach the front line in the scramble for the honey jars.

"Well, I guess we don't need to go looking for beasts anymore. They've come crowding in like this themselves."

Hisa-chan joked, now wide awake.

"There are so many of them, how do we even start? If we charge out blindly, we'll get mauled to death by these hungry bears for sure."

Chang Long said, her face pale.

"What's so hard about it? Just use the honey jars to lure them apart and then split up to take them down—end of story. Besides, you can now fight too, even while using skills like Puppet Manipulation or Spirit Realm, right?"

Devi-chan offered his opinion, clearly enjoying the situation.

"That's true, master. The bears aren't that high-level. If we work together, we can handle it."

Brownie, now in his first-stage evolved form, spoke up, full of fighting spirit.

"No need to go out looking—experience points are coming to us. This one's a double blessing, huh?"

Fluffy Head-chan was just as pumped up. Even Kitsune and Flatear looked ready to jump into action. So Chang Long activated Spirit Realm and Puppet Manipulation, then they scattered the honey jars—each still containing a little leftover honey—in all directions to get the bears to spread out. Then, they followed to take them out one by one while the bears were too focused on the honey to defend themselves.

A single drop of honey was enough to kill a bear in droves, and they also acquired valuable materials like bear gall, bear paws, and full hides—perfect for selling and funding city-building. While they were still reveling in their spoils, something unexpected happened. A giant bear with dark grey fur walked out of the forest depths on two legs, its presence menacing. On its head was a crown made of wood. It scanned the area before locking eyes with Chang Long's group. Then it opened its mouth wide and let out a deafening roar, baring gleaming white fangs.

"Dark Bear King Beast King, Level 148 — preparing to engage."

"L... level one hundred and forty-eight?"

Chang Long's jaw dropped in shock, and the blood crystal she had just popped into her mouth slipped out.

"Should we fall back into the safe zone first, master?"

Hisa-chan suggested, since the earlier fight with dozens of bears had already left them all quite injured.

"We can't. When a Beast king appears, the safe zone ceases to exist. We also can't use a teleportation scroll. This time, we have to go all out—no holding back, and no dying. Got it?"

Chang Long spoke, even though she felt deeply uneasy. She could sense that this Bear King was no ordinary beast king.

The large bear, its fur nearly black and crowned with wood, looked over the scattered bear corpses with an unreadable gaze. It advanced toward them step by step, while Chang Long's group stood on full alert, not knowing how it would attack. But then, it did something completely unexpected—it started pawing through the dead bear corpses, trying to retrieve the honey jars beneath them. It searched through every fallen jar for honey. Some jars had only a few drops left, and others were completely empty. In the end, it turned to look directly at Chang Long—as if it knew exactly who it had to take the prized honey from.

Dark Bear King dropped down on all fours, then charged at Chang Long. It let out a thunderous roar as if to say, hand over the honey right now. Chang Long stood agape, then bolted at full speed without a second thought, the bear hot on her heels, under the bewildered stares of her pets and spirits. But really, anyone who saw this would probably react the same way—the Reaper King fleeing headlong from a beast, instead of turning to face it in majestic battle!

Chang Long ran to a tree. She leapt into the air, used her foot to spring off the trunk, and backflipped over the body of the Dark Bear King, causing it to crash head-on into the tree. The impact was so massive that the tree snapped and toppled over. The bear landed flat on its back, missing Chang Long's heels by only a fraction of an inch.

"Phew, now that's more like it."

Devi-chan sighed in relief. At least his heir was not just good at running for her life.

"But can this really work? That bear's level is 148. Master's only at level fifty-two. There's no way she can beat it alone."

Hisa-chan spoke up worriedly. But before everyone could even reach Chang Long, her body was already swatted through the air by the enormous paw of the Dark Bear King. It stood back up on two legs with lightning speed, opened its mouth wide, and prepared to chomp down on her as she fell.

"Spread Wings!"

Chang Long shouted quickly, unfurling her wings to hover in midair just before she reached the bear's jaws. Dark Bear King roared in frustration, leaping and swiping to snatch her again and again.

"That was close. I know I can't beat you without letting Devi-chan possess me. But I want to train myself too, so I don't want to do that. Just having allies may not be enough. So, I'll use a skill to summon someone else to help me fight."

Chang Long spoke to the bear, which was gnashing its teeth, glaring at her like she was its next snack.

"What are you doing, missy!"

Devi-chan shouted as he approached the battle zone.

"Surround it, Devi-chan. But keep a little distance—we're calling in backup."

Chang Long shouted back to everyone. They all moved to surround Dark Bear King from afar, watching to see what their master would do.

"Infernal Demons!"

Massive, hulking, black-bodied Infernal Demons dropped from the sky. Five of them landed in a tight circle around the Dark Bear King. The hostile aura made Dark Bear King forget all about Chang Long and attack the Infernal Demons instead. They dodged swiftly back and forth, even though their levels were far lower than the beast.

"Take it down."

Chang Long commanded, joining the Infernal Demons in the battle right away. At her word, everyone joined the fight. Dark Bear King entered berserk mode—every one of its attacks radiated murderous energy capable of causing real injury. For those with much lower levels, like Chang Long and her pets, it was impossible to stay in the fray. They had no choice but to retreat and regroup outside the battlefield.

"This isn't good. That murderous aura is intense—it's strong enough to injure us."

Chang Long muttered while looking at the wound on her arm, which looked like it had been cut by a blade.

"Then what should we do, master?"

Brownie asked.

"It wants honey, right? So let's go find it some more. What's so hard about that?"

Chang Long replied without a second thought. Brownie's face went pale before he asked,

"You're not gonna use the same trick again, are you, master?"

"Exactly. You're pretty smart. Meeting adjourned—let's go look for beehives."

Chang Long ordered with a smile. The Infernal Demons blocked the Dark Bear King while Chang Long and her pets went to find and disturb the bee hives. It was not long before everyone ran full speed to the meeting point, with a swarm of bees chasing after them. They ran straight toward the Dark Bear King, who was standing, looking confused.

Chang Long and her pets ran under the Dark Bear King's legs, hoping to shake off the bees chasing them and have them surround the giant bear to fight the beast in their stead. It seemed to work. The bees united and swarmed the Dark Bear King, making it roar in pain. It tried swatting the bees away with its front paws, not caring for its own safety, in an attempt to clear a path to escape. The bees pursued the giant bear in fury, much to Chang Long's satisfaction.

"So, what now, missy? At that high level, it'd be a shame if we let it escape."

Devi-chan floated over and asked with regret. The chance for Chang Long to level up with so many pets seemed nearly impossible, but if they could kill a large number of beasts at once—or even high-level ones—the future could still hold some potential, though it would be difficult.

"Who said I was going to let it go, Devi-chan? I'll just have the bees weaken it, then we'll go in for the kill later."

Chang Long replied with a bright smile, then calmly followed the trail left by the Dark Bear King.

Before long, Chang Long found herself facing the giant, angry grey bear, its body covered in wounds from bee stings, looking almost comical. Charred, burned bee carcasses were scattered across the ground. For a moment, Chang Long thought the bear might have used some kind of skill, but she noticed that its fur had scorch marks, as if it had been burned by fire as well.

The trees around them seemed to watch them both. They stepped cautiously, knowing the mysterious eyes watching them belonged to the owner of the flames that had incinerated the bees. Chang Long glanced at the bear, silently asking, but it seemed still too angry to give any clues or reveal anything.

Then she saw it with her own eyes—a strange creature, its species unclear, barely visible. At first, Chang Long thought the trees around her were spitting fire, but upon closer inspection, she realized the flames came from a small creature clinging to the tree. It had large, round eyes that could swivel in all directions. As soon as its eyes met Chang Long's, the system announced that it was a Dark Chameleon Spit Fire Beast.