Chapter 34: Black Wind Stronghold

After accepting the mission, the map displayed the mission destination, and Wu Shaochen followed the marked path. He crossed the Black Bear Ridge and continued for a while. Eventually, he spotted a long fence enclosing a wall with a large gate in the center, guarded by two men dressed like bandits.

The area on the map had originally been black, but now that he was here, it lit up. The map indicated that this was the Black Wind Ridge, and the place ahead was the Black Wind Stronghold.

Wu Shaochen quietly crept closer and cast his Insight skill on one of the bandits.

[Black Wind Stronghold Bandit]
Level: 20
Health: 40,000
Physical Attack: 450
Physical Defense: 230
Magic Defense: 150
Movement Speed: 78
Skill: Eat My Blade: Swings a large blade forward, dealing 160% of physical attack damage to the target. Cooldown: 20 seconds.

Level 20 enemy, not too bad. It’s manageable. Should I start clearing here? Or should I farm level 19 monsters first? Grinding monsters 6 levels lower might make the leveling too fast.

Forget it. Since there’s a talent cap, there’s no need to hunt 19-level monsters. I’ll just start from here.

Wu Shaochen moved a little closer but was quickly spotted.

“Who dares approach the Black Wind Stronghold? Grab him!” The bandits wasted no time and immediately charged at Wu Shaochen.

“Heh? You’re asking for it,” Wu Shaochen muttered, irritated by their arrogance.

Activating his extreme speed, he increased his movement speed by over 300%, and his attack speed reached 104%, meaning he could strike twice per second. He dashed forward, landing two strikes on each bandit before retreating. He created some distance and went into stealth, watching the two bandits slowly succumb to the poison. Each second dealt 337 damage for two layers, totaling 674 per second. They would be dead in a minute.

However, at that moment, Wu Shaochen felt something pass by, and his stealth was broken. Two arrows shot into his body.

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“Damn, there’s an archer?” Wu Shaochen looked in the direction of the arrows and saw two arrow towers on either side of the gate, each manned by an archer. He quickly moved away from the towers and cast his Insight skill.

[Black Wind Stronghold Guard]
Level: 20
Health: 38,000
Physical Attack: 480
Physical Defense: 180
Magic Defense: 120
Attack Speed: 100%
Movement Speed: 85
Skill: Eagle Eye: Increases vision and improves arrow accuracy. Can see through stealth skills.

“Damn, this guy has Eagle Eye? This is going to be troublesome,” Wu Shaochen muttered. Although each archer wasn’t too strong individually, their high attack speed meant that in one second, they could shoot four arrows, each dealing about 200 damage. Even if he activated his extreme speed, it would take 3 seconds to reach the tower, and he would already be hit by 12 arrows by then. It would be difficult to fight them directly.

“There’s no way to fight them head-on,” Wu Shaochen sighed. Then he remembered his Silver Wolf, which he had forgotten about. Although it was rarely used during monster grinding, it was still quite strong, and now, with its A-rank potential, its power was significantly improved.

[Silver Wolf]
Pet
Potential: A
Level: 12
Health: 14,200
Mana: 1,300
Physical Attack: 400
Physical Defense: 280
Magic Defense: 140
Speed: 60

Given its stats, the Silver Wolf could easily surpass Wu Shaochen in terms of strength, though its speed was somewhat slow. However, since the pet could be summoned in specific locations, Wu Shaochen decided to summon it near the arrow towers and use it as a damage sponge. With over 10,000 health and 280 physical defense, it could take the hits.

“Perfect! I should probably use more defensive pets in the future. The Silver Wolf King is more of an attacker, but it can definitely take some damage.”

The two bandits with knives soon collapsed, and Wu Shaochen didn’t bother collecting the copper coins. He called back the Silver Wolf into the pet space and waited for the cooldown to end. After a minute, he summoned the Silver Wolf near the first arrow tower, and sure enough, the archers immediately targeted the wolf.

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Each hit caused 200 damage to the Silver Wolf.

Wu Shaochen didn’t waste any time and quickly activated extreme speed to rush towards the first arrow tower.

In just three seconds, he reached the tower and climbed up to strike two times. With the poison from the Silver Wolf, it didn’t take long for the first archer guard to fall.

Once attacked, the archer shifted its target to Wu Shaochen, who, despite dodging, was quickly hit by two arrows per second.

“Wind’s picking up, I need to go!” Wu Shaochen shouted, calling the Silver Wolf to retreat. Since he couldn’t recall a pet during combat, he had no choice but to rely on the Silver Wolf’s high health and defense. Fortunately, it was able to run out of range, leaving it with over 8,000 health.

After the first archer died, Wu Shaochen waited for the Silver Wolf to recover health, then summoned it again to take the damage while he attacked. He rushed in, dealing two swift strikes before running off.

Not long after, the second archer also succumbed to the poison. Each level 20 monster gave 300 experience points, and with his experience boost, the total reward for all four bandits was a hefty 1,536 experience points.

However, after the second archer fell, the stronghold seemed to trigger an alarm, and bandits started pouring out from inside.

“Shit, they can do that?” Wu Shaochen realized the situation was dire and quickly began to run.

It wasn’t long before the gates of the stronghold were filled with bandits: some with swords, some with shields, some with bows, and some with staves.

“Great, I barely escaped. If I hadn’t moved fast, I’d be heading back to town now,” Wu Shaochen muttered, feeling a bit frustrated. With so many enemies emerging, it felt like facing an entire army.

“I really dug myself into a hole,” Wu Shaochen thought as he watched the approaching bandits. There were more than twenty archers, ten or so mages, and a variety of other bandits. He knew that if he got too close, both he and his Silver Wolf would be overwhelmed.

“What to do? I need to split them up and take them out one by one, but the archers’ hate range is the same. I can’t just rush in.”

“Ugh, it’s a pain not having ranged DPS. The assassin’s stealth is useless against them, and it’s just frustrating.” Wu Shaochen glanced at the three scrolls in his inventory: a [Lucky Scroll], a [Protective Shield Scroll], and a [Stone Skin Scroll].

Suddenly, an idea struck him. The [Stone Skin Scroll], which he had previously considered useless, was actually perfect for this situation.

His physical defense was 246, and after using the scroll, it would increase to 492. The bandits wouldn’t be able to penetrate his defense, and with a magic defense of 432, he could likely withstand the mages’ attacks. Though he wasn’t sure of their exact power, it was unlikely that their magic attacks would exceed 500 damage.

Most importantly, the scroll lasted for 5 minutes, which was enough time for him to poison all the archers and mages.