Eternal Dream

The gray wolf's spawn point was not far away from the boars, but killing them would not be as easy. They stayed close together and it would be difficult to lure them away one by one. Furthermore, they had a higher level than crimson-fanged boars. Alisa looked for another way.

"Right! I could just use the terrain to my advantage since my attacks have a long-range," she said. She proceeded to climb up a tree not far away from the wolves, and with the increase in dexterity, it wasn't a challenging task for her.

The wolves didn't look any different from the gray wolves on earth. But their big size would still be surprising if one hadn't seen a wolf before. Their levels ranged from 8 to 10, although there were no puppies among them.

She picked a random target and started her familiar spell rotation. A ball of fire flew into the face of a sleeping wolf, followed by [Ignite]. The entire pack immediately sprang into action and rushed at Alisa. They howled, growled, jumped and barked, but just couldn't reach her. I should have done that from the beginning, she thought.

She was lucky that this method worked in the first place. In many other games, the monsters would just reset and regain all of their health, so that range classes wouldn't have an unfair advantage. But it sure made her life somewhat easier and she would use it more in the future.

The first gray wolf fell dead to the ground. She would have liked to keep on fighting, but she had to wait for her mana to replenish. This was the most annoying aspect of a wizard—or any other mana-based classes: running out of mana. Even though her damage has been constantly increasing by investing her attribute points into Intelligence, the HP of her enemies is also getting higher. Good equipment would make all the difference, but actually getting some is easier said than done.

Where could she even find good equipment at the moment? Besides buying them from the local stores, she doesn't have any other options. Even if a random monster happens to drop a piece of gear, it might not even possess the attributes she needed for her class. Clearing dungeons is usually the best option, but she didn't know if any existed in this world or where they could be. Furthermore, she didn't even have a party, and going into a dungeon alone would be nothing short of suicide.

A party would also be very helpful in grinding experience, but gathering competent companions was another challenge. Besides monsters, she hasn't seen a single soul in the woods. There were no people who resembled players, and there was also no adventurer's guild in the town or a function in the system for finding groups. Alisa sighed and sat down on the thick tree branch.

She leisurely watched the wolves pounce at her to no avail. Although they had no special qualities, they were quite aggressive. How great would be a powerful area of effect spell right now? It would make the grinding a lot faster. Maybe Rowen has more spells he could sell her. She would definitely ask him the next time she met him. She also considered leaving the town to adventure outside. But she didn't have the same freedom as players since death could always mean game over for her. She had to stay careful.

With her mana recovered, she picked up the fight. She proceeded to kill the wolves for the rest of the day and managed to reach level 9. Four levels in a day were great progress for her, but it wasn't unexpected because the required experience for the first levels wasn't as great. Her leveling speed would surely slow down in the future.

Alisa went down to pick up the loot dropped by the wolves. She noticed if she didn't take it, it would just disappear after a while. After she gathered everything and was about to leave, a large body running towards her entered her sight. It looked like another gray wolf, but bigger and more ferocious. Its fur had also some green to it.

[Alpha Gray Wolf]

[Status: Elite]

[Level: 12]

[Description: The leader of the gray wolves in this area. It has gray-green fur. It is bigger, stronger and faster than a regular gray wolf.]

Another elite monster popped up and Alisa instantly dashed up a tree as fast as possible. An elite monster should never be underestimated, as even among them, there are stronger and weaker ones. After the alpha gray wolf reached Alisa's casting range, she immediately used her spell rotation on it. To her surprise, the wolf managed to evade the first two [Fireballs] without a problem. It was a lot faster and nimbler than the beasts she fought before.

To conserve her mana and increase her hit chance, she waited for it to come closer. She didn't believe that it could reach her up the tree anyway—and it proved true. The alpha gray wolf tried to jump up the tree but wasn't successful. Alisa had an easier time hitting her target now, and the beast's health started to slowly go down.

But the alpha gray wolf wouldn't just go down so easy. Out of nowhere, it shot a translucent bolt of wind at Alisa, hitting her in the head for -160 damage. It was a critical blow. Alisa felt dizzy and almost fell off the tree, but managed to grip hold in time. Even though magic wasn't the beast's main source of strength, it was still dangerous to take it head-on. Just to be safe, she created a mana shield in front of her and then kept on attacking.

To her dismay, the wolf didn't completely lose its wits and kept on evading some of her attacks while spitting out more [Wind Bolts]. Although it didn't use his range attack too often, her mana still wouldn't be able to keep up the fight. Her shield broke and she immediately used a mana potion to create another one.

Maybe she should try to run away, she thought, but the wolf would definitely be faster than her. There was still a method left to her. She tried using [Sleep]. The alpha gray wolf stopped his attacks and started to look drowsy. It almost seemed drunk as it hobbled and swayed from side to side. But suddenly, he shook his head and belled angrily at Alisa before resuming his assault.

"F.u.c.k!" cursed Alisa and tried to use [Sleep] once more. This time the monster didn't even flinch. It was a complete failure and waste of mana. [Sleep] was still at level 1 and pretty unreliable. It's hit chance was just too low. It seemed like putting the worg to sleep was the biggest luck she had since coming to this world.

She could only keep on fighting and hope that she had enough potions to sustain the battle. She stopped using [Mana Shield] but made sure to protect her head. As long as it wasn't a critical blow, she could still tank his attacks.

After a long back and forth, the alpha gray wolf's health dropped below 30 percent. It suddenly howled and ran away. Alisa was confused for a brief moment but then sighed in relief as she watched the beast disappear behind the trees. So there were monsters who were smart enough to run away, after all, she thought. Although it was slightly surprising because the alpha gray wolf was so aggressive before.

Alisa wasn't going to miss this opportunity and quickly climbed down the tree. As she reached the ground, she heard another howl. She looked in the direction of the sound and saw the alpha gray wolf running back towards her. But this time, he was surrounded by three other gray wolves, and his health seemed to have somewhat recovered.

"Are you f.u.c.k.i.n.g kidding me?!" cursed Alisa. She immediately ran away as fast as she could, but the wolves still slowly caught up to her. "What kind of aggro range is this?!"

The moment they entered her spell zone, she immediately tried using [Sleep] again, but to no avail. "For f.u.c.k's sake! Just sleep already, you damned bastard!" she yelled. Grace was never one of her strong points, and she never cared for it. She gritted her teeth and used [Slow] for the first time. [Slow] slows down the target's movement speed by 20 percent for 12 seconds. This time the spell was a hit, and the alpha gray wolf started to fall behind. Alisa didn't care about the regular beasts and instantly used [Act with Grace], boosting her movement speed.

The distance between them grew more and more until the alpha gray wolf was out of sight. The normal gray wolves also gave up their chase. Alisa managed to escape successfully, but it left a sour feeling in her stomach as it reminded her of the helplessness against the worgs. Another elite monster gave her so much trouble, and it was even of the same family. But one day, she would have her revenge.

She took a deep breath and slowly calmed down. She was still way too weak and had a long way ahead of her, but there was no need to feel disheartened. As long as she was alive and didn't give up, the world would still be here for her to take.

Alisa slowly made her way through the forest towards the town and didn't forget to pick up all kinds of plants on her way.