NOVEL NEXT WORLD Chapter 5: Masterful Maneuvers
Because of fear of the Wild Boar's Savage Charge, Ethan Carter led the Wild Boar in circling around under some big trees. Sure enough, after more than ten seconds, the Wild Boar, seeing it couldn't keep up with the small human in front, stopped. Its front hooves scraped the ground as its body instantly charged towards Ethan.
Ethan, who had been closely watching the Wild Boar, instantly dodged to the side, just managing to avoid the attack.
"Phew… that was close." Ethan Carter exhaled, but it seemed the difficulty wasn't too high. The Wild Boar had a noticeable wind-up before activating its skill—it would scrape its front hooves twice. As long as Ethan wasn't right in front of it and its speed wasn't too slow, it was still relatively easy to dodge. After all, such high-damage skills with displacement and stun would be too hard to handle if they didn't have a wind-up.
After charging past Ethan, the Wild Boar quickly stopped and then paused for about a second before turning around to continue chasing Ethan.
Touching his chin, Ethan's eyes flashed with sharp light. He continued circling with the Wild Boar. When the Wild Boar used its skill again, he easily dodged it. During the Wild Boar's one-second pause, Ethan swiftly slashed its rear and quickly retreated. By the time the Wild Boar turned around, Ethan had already run two body lengths away.
"Indeed it works. Now I don't have to worry about the Wild Boar healing when there's no poison. Since each poison application refreshes the poison duration, I don't have to worry about it suddenly using its skill when I'm close to finishing the attack."
After a few minutes, the wounded Wild Boar was close to death. Just as Ethan was about to collect the rewards, suddenly another Wild Boar emerged from a bush. Without hesitation, it charged towards Ethan.
"What the fuck?? It actually ambushed me!?" Ethan exclaimed angrily as he narrowly dodged again. He knew there were quite a few Wild Boars here, so he kept circling with the Wild Boar and didn't dare to go too far, but still, more Wild Boars found him, and having monsters that actively attack is a nuisance.
Frowning, Ethan thought that he should have decisively left by now. Each Wild Boar attack would knock him back, but seeing that the Wild Boar could be killed with one more slash, Ethan wasn't willing to just walk away.
Licking his lips, Ethan's eyes sharply stared at the two Wild Boars chasing him and said, "Then let's dance on the tip of the blade." His talent determined that such thrilling situations would happen often in the future, so it's better to adapt early.
Leading the two Wild Boars to continue circling, it was impossible to go up for a finishing strike at this time; otherwise, he would be rammed by both boars. He could only slowly look for an opportunity.
Suddenly, the wounded Wild Boar's front hooves scraped the ground and it quickly charged towards him. Ethan didn't panic and dodged to the side, preparing to strike, but at the same moment, the other Wild Boar also used its skill. Ethan had to give up the finishing strike and dodge again.
"What the fuck?? These pigs actually know how to cooperate!?" Ethan exclaimed angrily. Seeing the poison on the wounded Wild Boar was about to disappear, he realized if he didn't act soon, his blood would return.
Looking at the two Wild Boars walking side by side, Ethan seriously analyzed, "My Agility is 15, the Wild Boars' Agility is 11. My attack speed is 1% faster than theirs, meaning my attacks on both Wild Boars can hit them within 0.01 seconds. There's no way to create a distance for an attack. But what if I don't attack first? When they try to attack me, I dodge and then counter-attack? It doesn't seem to work either. With my current movement speed, it's not enough for a back-and-forth movement in one second, at most I can create a one-body-length distance."
"What if I don't create a distance?" Ethan suddenly thought, "If when both Wild Boars attack me, I dodge towards the side of the wounded Wild Boar, I can avoid the full-health Wild Boar's attack, take a hit from the wounded Wild Boar, then counter-strike and run away. This way, by only taking one attack, I can withstand it."
Thinking of this, Ethan acted. He slowly approached the two Wild Boars, nervously, though theoretically sound, the operation was extremely precise. Any mis-timing would result in being sent back to town for free.
Soon, the Wild Boars were in attack range. Seeing the two Wild Boars' tusks charging towards him side by side, "Now's the time!" Ethan's eyes flashed, his body dodged to the side of the wounded Wild Boar. The wounded Wild Boar's tusks grazed Ethan, while the other Wild Boar's attack missed.
Ethan quickly swung his sword, then ran away swiftly, dodging the second attack from the two Wild Boars by moving one body length away. He narrowly avoided the second hits.
"Phew… finally killed one, that was tough." Ethan exhaled. Looking at the Wild Boar's corpse beside him, he saw that besides the copper coins, there was also a Wild Boar tusk.
He bypassed the other Wild Boar and quickly ran over to collect the two copper coins and the Wild Boar tusk.
[Tusks] – a type of material, perhaps needed by villagers, or could be sold to a general store for 1 copper coin.
"Damn, that's it? I thought it was something good." Ethan looked disdainfully, throwing it into his backpack. One copper coin is just one copper coin. This game's money is too hard to earn. By now, he only had 12 copper coins on him. Killing monsters five levels above only drops two copper coins each. Watching those groups killing rabbits for a whole day without getting a single copper coin shows how low Oracle's drop rates are.
After quickly dealing with the remaining Wild Boar, Ethan began looking for other Wild Boars, and when he found them, led them here to kill. He was really worried about encountering more Wild Boars again. Due to his talent's upgrade, the Wild Boars' speeds were getting faster. Finally, when he killed the eighth Wild Boar, it generously dropped a piece of equipment again.
[Wild Boar Leather Armor]
Quality: White Label
Health: +40
Physical Defense: +2
Quickly replacing his cloth armor, his health increased to 130 points, and physical defense rose to 9 points, giving him more survival assurance.
Continuing, killing two more Wild Boars would allow him to level up again. At this moment, Sealed's talent's poison had stacked up to 14 points, demonstrating the terrifying power of this talent. 14 points of poison damage per second amounts to 840 true damage per minute. A Wild Boar has 2000 health points; now, with his talent, he could kill one in just over two minutes, which means slashing three times.
He quickly killed two more Wild Boars. The long-missed leveling light flashed around him, and the system notification sound came along.
"Ding, congratulations on leveling up!
Health: +20
Mana: +10
Free Attribute Points: 5
Please allocate them wisely."
Allocating all five attribute points to Agility, Sealed's attributes changed accordingly.
Name: Sealed
Level: 2
Health: 130
Mana: 70
Physical Attack: 12
Magical Attack: 10
Physical Defense: 9
Magical Defense: 5
Movement Speed: 18
Experience: 10/500
Strength: 5
Intelligence: 5
Stamina: 5
Constitution: 5
Spirit: 5
Agility: 15
Skills:
Insight (Allows viewing information of monsters up to 10 levels higher than the player's level)
Talent:
Venom Source: Basic attacks or melee skills inflict deadly poison on targets (cannot trigger on ranged attacks). This poison deals 16 points of true damage per second and can stack up to one layer, lasting for 60 seconds. While poisoned, the target cannot regenerate health. Special Feature: Each time you kill a target that is at least five levels above yourself, the poison damage increases by one point. Each time you kill a boss that is not lower than your realm level, the number of poison stacks increases by one.
Equipment
[Wooden Sword] (Novice Equipment): Physical Attack +2
[Wild Boar Leather Armor] White Label Equipment: Health +40, Physical Defense +2
[Canvas Shoes] White Label Equipment: Movement Speed +3, Physical Defense +2