This one was still eagerly chasing after him.
He glanced at it; its body wasn't large, all skin and bones. Why was it so aggressive?
Why not kill it?
But to increase his odds of winning, he felt he needed to make some preparations.
His pockets contained already peeled demon oranges and nuts.
He grabbed them all and stuffed them into his mouth, chewing vigorously.
Once he swallowed them, he felt their effects kicking in.
His strength and agility had both improved to a certain extent, most noticeably, his movements felt more coordinated, and he had more energy.
He stopped, took out the dog-tooth dagger, and faced the wolf.
It rushed to within five meters but also stopped. They faced off against each other.
Ma Lin thought, he wouldn't drag this out.
With a sudden leap, he was in front of it, raising his dagger to strike.
It dodged nimbly and tried to counterattack.
But Ma Lin felt that it was a bit slow. He quickly adjusted his posture and stabbed again.
The wolf dodged carefully, and although it looked quite awkward, Ma Lin couldn't bring it down in twenty rounds.
He was consuming a lot of energy.
He thought it over. Not knowing if there were other predators around where he lived and the sun was setting, it was better to head back early.
So he left it behind and turned to walk back. It didn't dare to follow.
Finally, he returned to the familiar stone outpost. When he arrived at the cave entrance, he said, "I am the servant of the master."
The door materialized and opened.
He walked in, closed the door, and then flopped onto the bed.
The sun finally set outside.
He felt that his day had been tough. Is this what surviving in this world is like?
It was too easy to die.
Both escapes had been extremely close calls; there was no way to live like this.
If it hadn't been for the "Book of the Servant" giving him hints twice, enabling him to start running in time and choose the correct routes, he would have been dead by now.
It took him half an hour to calm down.
Then, he felt a bit excited.
"Today, I killed several demon monkeys, and twice I escaped from predators' attacks. That long-necked beast and that pack of wolves were so formidable, but they couldn't do anything to me, could they?"
There was a stack of firewood in the cave and a fire pit, where he roasted meat and cooked rice. He opened the door halfway to let the smoke out.
Soon, the aroma of the meat filled the air.
He closed the door, slowly eating the roasted meat and drinking soup.
He tried to adjust his mood. The tougher the environment, the more one needed to be optimistic.
Before he finished eating, he heard the howling of wolves not far away.
The moon was still very bright, and through the transparent door, Ma Lin saw about two hundred meters away, seven wolves sniffing something and walking towards him.
His door was truly magical. You couldn't see inside from the outside, but from inside, you could see clearly outside. And the door had the ability to camouflage, almost blending in with the rock walls.
He realized that when he emitted smoke from his cave, the beasts could smell it.
It used to be the residence of the great demon bird, but now it was his, and they should be able to detect something different.
He just thought it strange. There were so many spiked deer and so many sheep outside, those wolves shouldn't be bothering him, should they?
Yet, they came all the way to the entrance of his cave and sniffed around.
Then they started to scratch at the location of the door. Despite the door's excellent camouflage, they still managed to detect something unusual.
Ma Lin just watched as they paced back and forth outside, not leaving.
What were they doing?
He had his fill of food and drink. He washed the dishes and utensils. He extinguished the fire, leaving only a single fire starter. It was a piece of strange wood that would keep its spark for a full day and night without going out.
Then he sat by the door, watching the wolves outside.
They were aware of his presence but couldn't see him.
They howled and scratched furiously at the door, growing impatient.
"Are you prepared to guard my door? I'm not afraid at all," Ma Lin declared.
After thinking for a while, he took out the "Servant's Book" again to browse through its pages.
The book contained many illustrations and texts. They seemed meaningless to him when he had looked at them the previous two nights, but now they started to make a little sense.
For example, some illustrations were actually telling a story.
The howling of the wolves outside was really noisy. He couldn't understand why they didn't leave.
He observed them for over an hour. They didn't realize they were being watched.
Ma Lin thought he was quite skilled with his dagger, having killed four demon monkeys in succession that morning. But in the evening, he couldn't kill even one wolf, which suggested that they were stronger than the demon monkeys?
Eventually, he grew tired of watching and turned his attention back to the "Servant's Book." Now he didn't find the term 'servant' to be particularly insulting anymore.
Suddenly, he flipped to a page.
It depicted a wolf.
Next to it was some tadpole script, which seemed to make some sense to him after looking at it for half the day.
When he touched different spots on the illustration with his finger, small characters would appear next to them.
He studied it for a whole hour.
He discovered that the text on the drawing meant: Wraith Summoning Ceremony.
The two paragraphs to the left provided an introduction to this ceremony, which he couldn't fully understand.
Below, there was a line of text that he could comprehend.
"Spend twenty Contribution Points to summon a wolf wraith, which can serve as a training opponent in combat. It won't cause any real harm to the summoner, but in all other aspects, its fighting ability is equal to that of a real wolf. It can last for five days."
In order to summon it, one had to recite a very long incantation.
After some thought, he decided that twenty Contribution Points wasn't too much. So, why not give it a try?
Thus, he began to attempt the incantation.
It took him over a hundred tries to recite it successfully.
A wolf wraith appeared in the cave.
It bore no ill will towards Ma Lin; instead, it seemed a bit confused about its own situation.
Ma Lin glanced at the instructions in the system book again.
Then he recited an incantation of two words.
It seemed to grasp his intent and assumed an attacking posture.
The battle began.
Wielding his canine fang dagger, Ma Lin initiated the attack.
Their exchange went back and forth.
About a dozen rounds later, Ma Lin was bitten in the thigh by the wraith. Even though it didn't cause any real damage, his leg hurt so much that he couldn't walk at all. The wraith had cleverly exploited his opening, biting his neck and causing another burst of severe pain.
Then, he lay on the ground for almost a minute, the pain was too intense. If it had been a real fight, he would have died.
That counted as one round.
The wraith returned to the Array, standing still.
Ma Lin recited the incantation again and commenced the next round.
It had to be said, this wolf wraith was an excellent training opponent for combat; it perfectly simulated a real fight, including the sensation of pain, yet it didn't cause any actual injuries.
After several consecutive rounds of training, Ma Lin was completely exhausted, sweating profusely, and had to rest. Besides, he was feeling a bit hungry.
Under these circumstances, a bath was unattainable. He simply washed his hands, face, neck, and feet, then ate some boiled corn. The demon corn tasted rather good once cooked.
After the meal, he felt drowsy, climbed into bed, and with the doors and windows tightly shut, quickly fell asleep, undisturbed by any sounds from outside.
Several times during the night, he heard the wolves howling.
By daylight, he found three wolves blocking the entrance, while the other wolves had disappeared.
This meant he didn't even have a chance to go outside to use the restroom.
Luckily, the clay pot was quite magical; as long as he didn't get too close, he couldn't smell anything even after urinating in it.
The training wolf wraith was still in the Array. The reason he used it for training was precisely to prepare for the wolves outside.
Ma Lin cooked breakfast; there was plenty of food and firewood. After a leisurely meal, the battle training with the wolf wraith began again.
Through the system book, he had mastered the basic dagger techniques, but without real combat experience, it was difficult to unleash its full power. Now, during training, he was progressing rapidly and the results were impressive.
This wolf wraith was powerful, stronger than the ones outside, and he knew it.