The gaze of the "Silver Wolf" drilled deep into Chen Luo as if it had just made a epoch-making decision. Instantly, a fantastical silver-white light burst from its body, condensing into a glistening golden chain of connection that bound their minds tightly together. Chen Luo stood dazed watching this mystical scene unfold, until a rapid series of system prompts chimed in his head, snapping him out of his shock.
-"Congratulations to the player for successfully taming the first pet beast — 「Silver Wolf」! The player may now name the pet beast. For unlocking the achievement [First Pet Beast], you receive 2 skills: 「Quick Summon」 and 「Fast Command」."
Looking deep into the fierce eyes flickering with determination and absolute submission, Chen Luo felt a strange sense of familiarity rise in his heart, completely dispelling the initial awkward distance. He smiled helplessly and gently pulled the Silver Wolf closer to the flickering campfire. Seeing that it did not resist, he casually wrapped his arms around its thick, soft fur. The warmth blending between the night's dying embers and the mutated creature's body heat quietly drew Chen Luo into a sweet, deep sleep before he realized it.
As for the Silver Wolf, being suddenly pulled close and tightly hugged made its heart jump into its throat. This "foul" master acted far too naturally, causing a blush of embarrassment to ripple through its mind. Who could have guessed that the Silver Wolf Chen Luo casually tamed was actually one of the noble princesses of the proud Silver Wolf clan. An entity that should have stood majestic before countless subjects was now obediently snuggled in the arms of a human like a little puppy.
-"You... Fine then, but only this once! If you dare to be this rude next time, don't blame this princess for being merciless!"
After muttering and complaining in its heart for a while, the Silver Wolf also gradually closed its eyes and drifted off to sleep. Although it knew full well that it was no match for this human and felt a bit aggrieved over being "taken advantage of," when all was said and done, the pet contract was established on absolute mutual consent. Besides... hugging like this for warmth didn't seem like a big deal after all.
As the first ray of morning light filtered through the mountain crevice, the Silver Wolf jolted awake. A predator's instincts drilled into its marrow caused the Silver Wolf clan to wake up early to patrol and begin hunting in their territory. However, this time, it could not sense Chen Luo's aura around at all. The campfire had just gone out not long ago, and a thin wisp of pale gray smoke was still lazily rising into the air, proving that he had left only a few minutes ago. The Silver Wolf was stunned, unable to believe a human's waking time could be even earlier than the instincts of a top predator like itself.
Right on the ground, a large slab of meat roasted to a golden crispy brown, slathered with a rich, fragrant layer of butter sauce and enticing herbs, rested carefully on a clean wooden board. Beside it was a note written in neat handwriting: "Eat up when you wake up. Consider it an apology for pulling your leg last night. By the way... your fur is pretty warm to hug."
After reading the words on the note, the Silver Wolf howled softly in anger:
-"What do you mean 'pretty warm'?! This princess's fur is thick and soft; if it wasn't warm, it would be an insult to the royal name!"
Just as it aggressively uttered those harsh words, its empty stomach traitorously let out loud "gurgle" sounds. Realizing it was already starving to the bone, the wolf princess had to temporarily set aside her pride and bury her head in gobbling up the meat. Although the meal wasn't any fancy delicacy, that rich and savory flavor was enough to make any creature soften up and reveal its true nature.
Having enjoyed the roasted meat, it was just about to stretch its muscles and step out of the cave to continue hunting when suddenly, a surge of spatial light engulfed its body. The Silver Wolf was forcibly teleported right next to Chen Luo. Before it could figure out what was happening, Chen Luo had already turned around and shouted loudly in an urgent command:
-"Prepare for battle! I'm trusting that side to you!"
Before it could even recover from its shock, the Silver Wolf saw Chen Luo charge like a streak of light into the middle of the violent horde of monsters, crazily swinging his weapon to slaughter them. After a few seconds of composing itself, the wolf royal family's battle instinct inside it ignited. It let out a sky-rending howl and officially stepped into a battle of its own. Swarms of mutated monsters surged forward like a deluge, seemingly endless, dragging both of them into a long, frantic slaughter that lasted all the way until 9 AM.
...
Rewinding back to 4 AM when Chen Luo left. Taking advantage of the fog still shrouding the sky, Chen Luo quickly operated the system interface to mass-produce copies of basic equipment. He knew full well that extra supplies were better than a shortage; initial-stage gear wore out and broke very easily. If he didn't prepare spare gear in advance and ended up with broken armor and worn weapons in a crisis without crafting materials, death would be the only outcome.
-"Congratulations to the player for unlocking the achievement 「Primary Crafting」! Received 150 EXP, unlocked system features: 「Expanded Crafting」 and 「Mass Crafting」."
-"Congratulations to the player for logging in on Day 5! Unlocked recurring event — 「Sweep」. The player must defeat a total of 30 waves of monsters before 12 PM to receive rewards. Note: During the event, the player cannot obtain item drops from monsters, and total EXP gained from monsters is reduced by 75%. Battle will officially begin in 1 hour; please prepare accordingly."
Chen Luo narrowed his eyes in thought, vaguely sensing that something was extremely abnormal about this mechanism. If it was simply eliminating 30 waves of monsters, why did the system strictly limit the settlement time to before 12 PM? Drawing on his experience as a veteran gamer, he faintly realized this was by no means a regular monster-farming event, but a high-intensity stress test.
When the battle broke out, Chen Luo fully exploited his terrifying speed advantage. Moving constantly like a phantom, he unleashed lethal slashes sweeping through the monster formations. Kill notifications chimed continuously like a drumbeat. Without hesitation, Chen Luo immediately allocated an additional 15 attribute points into Agility and 5 points into Stamina. The brilliant light of leveling up flashed, injecting him with continuous energy to maintain this extreme-intensity slaughter, shattering every single wave of monster attacks in an instant.
However, things were far from easy on the Silver Wolf's side. After over two hours of uninterrupted fighting, its physical stamina began to hit exhaustion. Although it hadn't fallen into a critical danger zone yet, its ability to finish off targets had noticeably declined. Its clear speed plummeted miserably from dozens of monsters every 10 seconds initially to only around 15 monsters every 10 seconds. If it couldn't end this quickly, maintaining such a continuous state of power burst would drain the pet's life force until death.
Fortunately, that exhausted state did not last too long. When Chen Luo and the Silver Wolf joined forces to deal the fatal blow to the last monster of the 30th wave, both collapsed onto the ground simultaneously, gasping violently for air from total exhaustion. Only then did Chen Luo fully understand the reason behind the system's strict warning — this truly was a life-or-death race that drained physical stamina to the bone.
Right in that "dire" moment, three cold yet subtly admiring system notification sounds rang out in succession:
-"Congratulations to the player for completing the recurring event — 「Sweep」 for the first time! EXP gained from monsters: 7,550 EXP. Event rewards include: 10,000 EXP, 30 free attribute points, 「Copper」 x45, 「Nickel」 x30, 「Random Potion」(Uncommon) x1, 「Skill Points」 x15."
-"Congratulations to the player for reaching Level 10! Received a total of 60 free attribute points. The 30 randomly allocated attribute points are: 7 Mana, 5 AD, 4 AP, 3 Armor, 6 Magic Armor, 1 Armor Piercing, 4 Magic Piercing. Congratulations to the player for unlocking 3 new store tabs: 「Weapons & Military Gear」, 「Magic」, and 「Construction」. Congratulations to the player for unlocking hidden stats: Courage, Craftsmanship, and Resilience."
-"Randomly generating new stats... The God of Wealth continues to knock with two stats receiving triple critical hits! Congratulations to the player for receiving: 15 points of Brave, 51 points of Ingenious (base 17 points x3), and 42 points of Resilience (base 12 points x3)."
With a shift of his thought, Chen Luo immediately summoned the status panel. The pale blue fluorescent screen displayed astonishing numbers:
-------- STATUS PANEL --------
Name: Chen Luo | Age: 17
Level: LV.10 (550/10350 EXP)
Role: NPC | Faction: None | Title: Unequipped
Class: Unclassed Wanderer (Permanently Locked)
Reputation Points: 0 | Prestige Points: 0
Core Stats:
Attack Damage (AD): 84 (+20 [Lv. 1 Katana])
Magic Damage (AP): 21
HP: 29.45 (+10 [Full Leather Armor])
Mana: 1550
Crit Rate: 0%
Crit DMG: 250%
Agility: 397
Piercing: 42 | 0%
Magic Piercing: 36 | 0%
Att Speed: 5 (1%/200%)
Armor: 30 (+6 [Full Leather Armor])
Magic Armor: 50 (+3 [Full Leather Armor])
Effect Resistance: 0%
Cooldown Reduction: 0%
Lifesteal: 0 | 0%
Magic Lifesteal: 0 | 0%
Auto Regen HP: 0.5/s
Auto Regen Mana: 5/s
Basic Stats:
Strength: 30
Stamina: 43
Intelligence: 20
Knowledge: 40
Brave: 15
Ingenious: 51
Luck: 5
Resilience: 42
(Note: Special stat, can only be increased through random points or special circumstances. This stat may temporarily decrease and later recover. Equipping gear with the "Effect Resistance" stat may affect this value.)
Free Attribute Points: 160
Skill Points: 25
Looking at the stats panel, Chen Luo clicked his tongue and shook his head. He possessed a staggering 1,550 Mana points, yet he didn't have a single skill or spell in hand that consumed mana. Nevertheless, he comforted himself, considering it a long-term investment for the future.
Looking up at the gloomy sky, watching a few sparse rays of sunlight pierce through the gray clouds, Chen Luo couldn't help but feel that the surrounding atmosphere was somewhat unusual. A mystical, poetic, yet inexplicably oppressive aura rose in his heart, foreboding a massive storm about to come...