"For real. What kind of rotten luck is this? Just when it seemed like things were finally going my way." I gripped the spear tightly as I took a step back.
Two larger wolves approached the dead body and rubbed their heads against it.
Great. Vengeful wolf parents.
'I can't make a smart decision now. I'm just a few seconds away from death, and I can't outrun them.' I quickly opened the system.
I poured all of my gained experience into Chi Bending.
Had this been the South Pole or the ocean, I would have gone for waterbending. But since I was on land, I needed to use this.
[Chi Bending up to Level 7 (400/1600)]
[Can circulate Chi around the whole body now.]
[All boosts from Chi increased by 5%.]
I would have loved to calculate how much 5% from this level and 5% from the previous level had stacked up, but I wasn't in the mental state to do math.
All I did was channel my Qi around my body to increase my speed and power, and I summoned a barrel of water from storage.
I turned quickly and began running, the water leaving the barrel and following me.
The wolves ran after me, their speed greater than mine, despite my boost.
The water surrounded my hands, turning into tentacles, which I used to help me climb quickly and pull myself up.
'Come on. Come on.' I thought, sweat dripping from my forehead. Just an inch below me, a wolf opened its mouth wide, about to bite my backside. But I managed to escape at the last second.
I continued climbing to the highest point in the tree and looked down. All the wolves were circling the base, staring up at me with fury in their eyes.
Unconsciously, I patted my rear.
"It's safe," I breathed a sigh of relief. I moved the water from around my hands to my shoulder and deactivated the Chi boost to conserve my energy.
I looked down again.
The wolves surrounded the tree, occasionally jumping and growling, glaring at me.
"Sho. Sho." I shooed them away.
But they didn't seem to want to leave.
"What am I supposed to do now? Dance like a pole dancer while hanging at the top of the tree?" I muttered to myself. 'I hate waterbending. Why couldn't I have been born as an airbender or an earthbender?'
'Okay. There are twelve of them. They're not very intelligent, and I am. I can use this to my advantage.'
'Let's see. I have one water barrel in my storage. Now that they're all gathered around me in one spot, a wide-area attack might work. But I don't know any. I'll just freeze one of them and use the remaining experience points to level up Freeze to make it deadlier.'
I started weaving my arms slowly and pushed. The water poured down.
One thing I liked about water was how easy it was to manipulate.
The water fell on one of the wolves. It tried to escape, but I made the water surround its neck. Then, I froze it.
[Killing a long-necked wolf]
[+1200 XP]
[Freeze +200 XP]
[Waterbending +100 XP]
"Meh." I broke the ice, and with it, the neck of the wolf. I tried to turn it into water and pull it back, but the distance was too far, and I only managed to pull about 25% of it back to the surface.
The wolves didn't seem to be scared after seeing two of their pack die.
Well, it's instinct.
If animals that hunt in packs could retreat every time one or two of them fell, they wouldn't have survived natural selection.
I opened my system and poured all the gained experience into Freeze.
You know, the higher the Freeze level, the colder the ice I could create.
The colder the ice, the less water I would need to make them suffer.
Extreme coldness can burn just like fire and hurt just as much.
[Freeze up to Level 7]
I circled my hand, and water appeared, creating a surface of water that fell as soon as I put my hands down.
'My aim is the head and neck.'
The water fell on a couple of the wolves while the rest of the pack backed away. The two didn't get surrounded by a large amount of water, but they were drenched enough.
Layers of frost surrounded their faces and necks.
They lurched and howled, hitting their heads against the rocks, trying to break the ice.
'They look more like white-faced wolves now.' I waved my finger, concentrating on the freezing process.
Unfortunately, they didn't die immediately, and I had to wait for half an hour for the freezing to take effect. Maybe it was the necessary time for their brains to freeze? Or maybe I didn't use enough water.
[Killing 2 long-necked wolves]
[+2400 XP]
[Freeze +200 XP (200/8000)]
[Waterbending +400 XP]
"Okay, this is progress," I muttered. At the same time, I didn't like how things were going. I had come here to level up Chi Bending and Waterbending. While I was gaining experience at a good rate, my skills weren't leveling up as quickly as I'd hoped. However, my Freeze skill was leveling up fast.
'Think about it from a different perspective. I'm gaining more tools to use. With less water, the ability to create extreme cold ice could be the key to survival.' I thought. 'This skill has already saved me from the firebenders and trapped them.'
I summoned my second water barrel.
I poured half the water out of it. I planned to use the rest to escape, as I had an idea of how to do so. As for the remaining half, I would use it to finish off the wolves.
I poured a small amount of water on them, and they immediately dodged. They seemed to have learned the pattern.
"I expected you to do that," I smirked. The water they dodged surrounded their feet, getting them wet. A layer of frost began to form, hindering their movements. I then finished them off by pouring more water on them before freezing it. I sat back and waited for them to die. I bent the unused water back into the barrel and stored it away.
The remaining pack members escaped, realizing they would only die if they waited for me to come down.
"It's okay. I'm not getting down until I hear the notification," I muttered as I put my hands behind my neck.
[Killing x4 Long-Necked Wolves]
[+4800 accumulated XP]
[Freeze +500 XP]
[Waterbending +200 XP]
[+ Title acquired: The Beasts Hunter]
[Extra 40% experience when dealing with monsters]
[Do you want to equip the title? (y/n)]
I looked at the system. It seemed I could equip one title now. But I would need a massive 50,000 XP to equip another.
[- Skill Trees:
Waterbending - 8
Chi Bending - 7
Skills:
Hunting - 8
Fishing - 4
Freeze - 7
Titles: (1/1)
The Beasts Hunter
Accumulated XP: 7200]
'What's this? The storage needs experience to expand, and the titles require experience too.'
'I just gained 7200 XP. It's a decent amount. Maybe I'll have enough if I farm the rest of the beasts and hunt the docile ones.'
tststststs
Another chill ran down my spine.
'Don't tell me the wolves called their cousins.' I thought as a massive tree was knocked down.
A giant insect, 20 meters long—bigger than the red-furred giraffes—was crawling toward me. It had many long, sharp spiky legs and looked like a centipede with blue-black patterns.
I have a confession.
I have a phobia of poisonous creatures and giant animals. Now combine them.
It walked over one of the dead wolves, and as it passed, the bodies vanished. It continued its way and didn't stop in front of my tree. Instead, it started crawling upward.
I split the water and shot a small water jet at its head, freezing it. But it didn't stop and continued moving.
'The freezing didn't do anything. This thing is huge.' I stood up. There was only one thing I could do.