Chapter Seventy-One: The Wolf King

He stored the damaged ring and some other temporarily useless items in the warehouse, repaired his equipment, stocked up on supplies, and set out for Wolf Ridge. He still hadn’t managed to get the wild wolf’s critical strike passive, even after farming for several days—he really liked that critical strike skill. He had to get it; with more critical passives, every shot could be a critical hit. The thought was thrilling, so he pressed on with renewed determination.

Wolf Ridge was a bit far and required a long run. While running, Zhang Shan checked the guild chat channel to see what everyone else was up to. It seemed they had stopped hunting bosses. It made sense; at this stage, they could only go after bosses below level twenty, and after a whole day, they’d probably cleared out all the available ones.

“Hey bosses, no more boss hunting?”
“Nope. Hunting bosses on purpose just takes too much time. Better to keep leveling up.”
“Artifact Bro, you’re back in Anyang City?”
“Yeah, I’m back.”
“How many people did you take out? Took you forever to clear your evil points.”
“Around a hundred or so, over a thousand evil points.”
“Impressive.”
“Damn, chased down two hundred people by yourself and took out over a hundred of them? Artifact Bro, you’re a real monster.”
“Watch your mouth. For Artifact Bro, killing people is like slaughtering chickens—perfectly normal, right?”
“True, no explanation needed.”

These big shots were a bit endearing. Zhang Shan wondered if, after fighting so many bosses today, they’d managed to get anything good. Even if they were just purple or orange bosses, they’d fought a lot today, so they should have gotten something decent.

“Did you guys get anything good today?”
“Yeah, there was an orange boss that actually dropped a red item. Totally unexpected—I thought only red bosses dropped red gear.”
“Artifact Bro is asking about good stuff, and you’re talking about red gear? As if red gear is good enough for him.”

Tsk, these guys were cheeky. He was actually quite envious of red equipment—how could he not be? He only had one piece of red gear himself.

“Haha, we also got an awesome skill book: the Taoist’s Enhanced Rejuvenation. The healing is insane.”
“You guys are set. Tomorrow’s dungeon run should be a breeze.”
“Heh, shouldn’t be a problem. It’s just hard mode. I’m thinking we should ask the boss to try extreme mode instead.”

“Too bad Artifact Bro’s level is too high. If you could run the dungeon with us, we might actually clear extreme mode.”
“Yeah, don’t level up too fast, Artifact Bro—or you’ll leave us behind.”

Nonsense. If he didn’t level quickly, that guy “Heart Follows Me” would catch up. But it looked like they’d gotten some good loot today. Tomorrow’s dungeon should go fine, so he might as well focus on grinding mobs and mind his own business.

After half an hour of running, he finally reached Wolf Ridge. “Little wolves, I’m back again!” he chuckled.

Upon entering the Wolf Ridge map, a giant wolf appeared before him, with “Wolf King” above its head. As soon as the Wolf King spotted Zhang Shan, it charged straight at him. Startled, Zhang Shan quickly exited the map. Thankfully, no matter how strong a boss was, it couldn’t chase players across maps—or else he’d be doomed. A level thirty red boss could easily kill him in two hits.

But with a big boss guarding the map’s entrance, how was he supposed to farm mobs? On second thought, maybe it was better with the boss at the entrance. He could hit the boss once and exit the map to check its stats without any real danger.

He decided to give it a try and see just how strong a level thirty red boss was. After all, wolves were physical monsters—they shouldn’t be too overpowered. Maybe if he called in the guild bigshots, they could actually take it down.

He re-entered Wolf Ridge. The Wolf King was still at the entrance and charged at Zhang Shan the moment he appeared. This time, instead of leaving immediately, Zhang Shan quickly attacked, retrieved the boss’s stats, and then exited. As he struck, the Wolf King’s attack landed on him—a critical hit for over nine thousand damage.

What a fierce boss—could it be like the other wild wolves, with every attack a critical? He checked the stats:

Wolf King (Red): Level 30, HP: 10 million, Attack: 5,000
Skill 1: Wolf Clan Talent
Skill 2: Savage Bite
Skill 3: Will of the Wolf God
Skill 4: Wolf Pack Assault

Wolf Clan Talent (Passive): Wolves are innately sharp, target weak spots, and have a high chance to deal double damage.

Savage Bite: Increases damage by 100% and causes bleeding—1,000 damage per second for 5 seconds.

Will of the Wolf God: Summons an avatar of the Wolf God to assist in battle.

Wolf Pack Assault: Summons a large number of wolves to protect the Wolf King and attack all targets.

The stats looked terrifying: ten million HP, five thousand attack, and with critical hits, each attack was nearly ten thousand damage. Still, the boss wasn’t actually that tough—its skills were rather mediocre. The first skill was nothing special; it seemed all wild wolves could crit. The second skill was also underwhelming for a red boss—just double damage and bleeding, a bit weak.

As for the third skill, it was probably similar to the Priest’s Demon God Avatar; maybe the summoned shadow would be stronger since the boss was higher level. But everyone’s gear was much better now than when they fought the Priest, so they could probably handle the avatar’s damage.

The fourth skill was the only unknown—how many wolves would that be, and would they have the same stats as regular wild wolves? That was uncertain, but as the final skill of a red boss, it was probably quite powerful.

It was time to call reinforcements and see if anyone was interested.

“Found a red boss—Wolf King at the entrance to Wolf Ridge. I can’t even get in to farm mobs.”

“Whoa, a red field boss! We’ve never taken one down before. Boss, let’s go—it’s a rare chance!”

“What are its stats? Can you see them?”

Zhang Shan posted the Wolf King’s stats in the channel.

“Damn, that’s one tough boss—ten million HP, five thousand attack, that’s a bit over the top.”

“It’s not so bad. The boss’s skills are average. As long as we can take its normal attacks, we can bring it down.”

“I can take five thousand normal damage, no problem,” the secretary chimed in confidently.

“The Wolf King crits with every hit—treat its normal attack as ten thousand damage,” Zhang Shan warned.

“Damn, ten thousand per normal hit—how are we supposed to survive that?”

“Hey secretary, how much HP do you have now?”

“Just over forty thousand, with a blue cloak. It’s hard to improve further.”

“I’ll lend you my cloak—it should help a lot. You should be able to hold out, right?”

“That could work, but I’m not sure if the healers can keep up.”

“What’s there to worry about? We’ve got Enhanced Rejuvenation now—it’ll heal you right up.”

“Alright, let’s give it a shot. It’d be a shame not to fight a red boss. Let’s all meet at Wolf Ridge’s entrance.”

With the guild leader Fengyun Tianxia deciding to go for it, things were settled. The group began to gather at Zhang Shan’s location.