The clouds parted, revealing a creature that was completely snow-white.
[Frost Slime (One-Star Creature)]
[Level: LV3]
[Strength: 10, Agility: 7, Spirit: 8, Constitution: 8]
[Skills: Frost Armor, Snowball Spit.]
As soon as this round creature, exuding a chilling aura, appeared, Han Xing fired an arrow without hesitation.
"Wind-Chasing Arrow, go!"
The iron arrow carried the power of the wind, moving at an unimaginable speed.
Its powerful penetration instantly pierced through the frost slime's crystalline shell.
Crack!
With a crisp sound, the crystal shattered.
The entire arrow, including the fletching, sank deep into the slime's body.
The frost slime began to tremble violently.
Han Xing's eyes lit up; he had struck the creature's weak point.
"Tsk tsk, after changing a few pieces of equipment, my attack power is different now. I didn't expect to seriously injure a level 3 monster with just one arrow."
"Lucky you're a slime. If you were a humanoid creature, that arrow would've gone straight through your skull, hahaha."
Hearing Han Xing's eerie laughter, the frost slime's eyes widened in fear.
"Poor slime, let me shoot—no, let me put you out of your misery!"
Han Xing drew his bow again and fired a second arrow, followed by a system notification.
[You have killed Frost Slime LV3 and gained 30 experience points.]
[Your territory has expanded.]
After absorbing the slime's territory, Han Xing's land area reached 72 cubic units, keeping him firmly in first place on the leaderboard.
Han Xing pressed on, wasting no time in approaching other clouds.
[You have killed Red Fire Fox LV3 and gained 30 experience points. Your territory has expanded.]
[You have killed Black-Mane Boar LV3 and gained 30 experience points. Your territory has expanded.]
[You have killed...]
One system notification after another popped up. From morning until sunset, Han Xing barely stopped to rest.
As he continued exploring the clouds, he encountered many monsters.
Emerald Frogs, Lightning Slimes, groups of Hunchback Boars…
One by one, these monsters fell under his arrows.
Han Xing gained a huge amount of experience, with his experience bar now at 90% of level 2.
At the same time, his territory had nearly doubled in size. With 129 points, he still firmly held first place on the leaderboard.
He was also the only player whose territory had surpassed three digits.
The second place had been overtaken by Papaya Starling, who now had 95 points, surpassing both the Whisperer and Black Hawk.
However, the gap between them wasn't very large, and the other two were close behind.
Han Xing mused, "It seems like the competition on the leaderboard is fierce."
In fact, it was more than fierce. What Han Xing didn't know was that the chat channel in region 107 was in complete chaos over the rankings.
The players ranked second, third, and fourth all belonged to factions, and several other factions were within the top ten.
With some stirring things up, the chat had turned into a full-blown insult fest, aimed at disrupting the competition for the leaderboard.
Aside from the Dusk Mercenary Group, led by Black Hawk, which remained low-key, the other teams had all joined in on the verbal brawl.
Of course, none of this had anything to do with Han Xing.
...
As the sun set, a crescent moon rose.
Under the moonlight, a human clad in leather armor and holding an iron bow was locked in battle with a giant gray rock wolf.
His agile form leapt across the floating platform, repeatedly dodging the wolf's attacks. In each brief moment of distance, he nocked another arrow and let it fly.
This person was Han Xing.
"Come on, Wolfie, run faster! Didn't you eat today? My dog runs faster than you!"
"Are you really a wolf? Or are you just a little mutt wearing wolf skin?"
As he taunted the wolf, Han Xing kept up his barrage of arrows.
Although he wasn't sure if the wolf could understand him, his distraction tactics were definitely working.
The giant rock wolf's eyes turned even redder, bloodshot with fury.
With a furious howl, the wolf lunged at Han Xing.
Just then, Han Xing's eyes narrowed. A green-tinged arrow sliced through the air at terrifying speed, striking the wolf in the abdomen.
"Got it!" Han Xing shouted excitedly.
Seeing the wolf's movements slow, he knew the neurotoxin coating the arrowhead had taken effect.
Han Xing sighed in relief, thinking, "Elite monsters are tough. Even after all these arrows, it's still kicking."
Indeed, this giant gray rock wolf was an elite monster.
Han Xing had encountered it while clearing out the final cloud in the area, leading to this battle.
The monster's stats appeared before his eyes.
[Gray Rock Wolf (One-Star Elite Creature)]
[Level: LV3]
[Strength: 15, Agility: 20, Spirit: 11, Constitution: 18]
[Skills: Fierce Pounce, Bite, Bloodthirsty.]
An elite creature with three skills and formidable stats. At this stage, any human survivor encountering it was almost guaranteed to die.
Han Xing knew this was likely due to his fast exploration speed.
Having conquered nearly all the clouds in the area, this wolf was probably the strongest monster around, apart from the Dark Elf squad—a mini-boss of the region.
At this moment, the gray rock wolf had seven or eight iron arrows stuck in its body. Although none had hit vital points, the neurotoxin was gradually weakening it.
The wolf's movements slowed, and it seemed to realize its fate was sealed.
A trace of calm returned to its savage gaze as it looked around at Han Xing and its surroundings.
The gray rock wolf seemed to make a decision. It let out a long, mournful howl before suddenly leaping into Han Xing's territory.
Han Xing squinted, ready for the wolf's attack.
However, the wolf's target wasn't him—it charged straight for the five storage boxes at the edge of his territory.
"Cunning beast, trying to destroy my territory before you die?"
Han Xing remained calm, raising his bow once more.
In the next instant, he activated his Multi-Shot skill.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Five arrows flew out at terrifying speed, all aimed at the giant wolf's massive body.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Four of the five arrows struck their mark.
Already barely conscious, the gray rock wolf staggered for a moment, then finally collapsed.
[You have killed Gray Rock Wolf (Elite) LV3 and gained 150 experience points.]
[Your level has increased.]
"Level up!"
Now level 3, Han Xing checked his stats and nodded in satisfaction. "Not bad. Agility increased by 3, and strength, spirit, and constitution each went up by 1."
In the past two days, he had mostly figured out how human survivors' level-up bonuses worked.
Before reaching level 10 and becoming an advanced class, each level-up would grant 4-6 attribute points.
The specific stats increased more based on one's class specialty.
For example, hunters gained more agility, warriors more strength, mages more spirit, and priests more balanced gains in spirit and constitution.
At that moment, a different notification from the system appeared.
[You have killed the elite creature in this area. You can now explore a more advanced region.]
[Note: Creatures in advanced areas will be much stronger. Survivors are advised to proceed with caution.]
...