That was dangerous. Fortunately, the sword his father left him was really good. Not only was it extremely sharp, but it was also sturdy and had a powerful handle.
It wasn't a sword that would break easily.
He could handle this.
He jumped aside again to dodge a mage's attack and soon began running around the center of the place.
The Wight followed him with its eyes, unable to understand what he was going to do. But if he was going to kill its soldiers, he had to get past it first.
Its actions showed what it was thinking when it started running after Edward, trying to attack him.
It was faster than Edward, so if it got into a footrace, Edward would lose, and the Wight knew that, just as Edward did.
But cunning always defeats the Wight, not strength.
Edward smiled when he saw it coming up behind him very quickly, with impressive speed, then swung his sword upward, managing to cut several branches off a tree in one motion.
Gravity pulled those branches down, and they fell on the Wight, forcing it to launch a vertical attack to split them in half with its sword. Unfortunately, it wasn't a good sword.
Swords need maintenance to stay sharp, and these beasts don't have the intelligence to do that. So instead of easily splitting the branches, it ended up taking them with its sword, and they fell on it, sliding through.
The Wight couldn't attack again, despite having Edward within reach. This was because its sword was tangled in the branches. It had to watch helplessly as its enemy jumped from tree to tree to dodge several fireballs that fell to the ground.
BOOM!
The dry leaves on the ground suddenly caught fire; there were so many that the fire grew to a large scale, completely covering Edward, who had already decapitated a mage.
He took advantage of the fire to run towards the other mage, and without the interference of the Wight, who were still trying to find him in the fire, they posed no problem. They threw more fireballs, which set the dry branches and leaves on fire, but they ended up decapitated and turned into experience for a Fire Caterpillar that had been enjoying the fire...
Although Edward could tell that this fire did not like it at all.
After the initial joy, the Caterpillar returned to him with a sad expression.
The only thing that satisfied its hunger was fire, but this fire tasted terrible.
"You'll have good food soon." Edward smiled at him and grabbed his sword. "You'll have to help me like last time," he said before jumping into the fire.
The caterpillar immediately knew what to do. Its spiritual energy covered Edward from head to toe, protecting him, though not for long.
'Despite its protection, the heat is intense,' he thought.
He knew he wouldn't have much time.
Anyway, he didn't need it.
Beating a Wight wasn't difficult if you could use their environment to your advantage. And although they used fire as their power, the fire from dry leaves and branches wasn't the same kind. It produced too much smoke, preventing them from seeing clearly.
Furthermore... dry leaves and branches burning in a humid environment like this produced a peculiar smell. It smelled so awful that the Wight' powerful sense of smell could only recoil and avoid smelling it as much as possible.
So, the screams soon began to echo through the fire, but to no avail. Without having to change position every few moments to attack, the fight was simple and straightforward.
It lasted less than three minutes, and soon the head of the second Wight was in the ring. He wasted no time and ran out of there when he realized his clothes were starting to burn.
"A clean fight." Edward smiled, grateful that leveling up his Fire Caterpillar was giving him strength.
[Your Fire Caterpillar has received 260 Experience Points.]
[Fire Caterpillar has risen to Level 4.]
[Experience Points: 33/800.]
Once again, he felt that sensation of freshness enter his body and stir among his muscles, bones, and tendons. His strength had increased.
'Just one more level,' he thought.
He checked the time; he had a few more minutes before he had to take the other pill.
"One pill for two bosses. One more will be enough." He smiled and, without getting carried away by his good feelings, knowing that he still had one left, he started running towards the last zone.
This would be the most difficult one, the Mountainous Zone.
-
The difficulty of this mountainous area did not lie in how dangerous the beasts were, but in their sheer number. There were so many special beasts capable of emitting sounds or cries to summon their companions that it was possible to find oneself surrounded by a crowd of undead.
Therefore, moving through these mountains had to be done with extreme caution, killing stealthily and then running in case any beasts saw you hiding.
But perhaps the biggest problem was knowing which of all the mountains the Wight would be in, as they could be in any of the four mountains.
After a long hike, Edward reached the top of the second mountain and frowned; a helpless sigh escaped his mouth.
He had killed many level 1 and 2 beasts, considerably shortening the distance to level 5, but the bastard Wight were nowhere to be seen.
"There are so many beasts here that I don't know if I have the desire to climb another two mountains..."
Climbing mountains was not easy, especially when racing against time. He had to take pills to resist the powerful, cursed energy in this area, as the help from his caterpillar was not enough.
'I'm almost in the dungeon boss's territory, after all.'
Fortunately, his strength had increased, allowing him to climb the mountains without rest, even though his legs were already starting to hurt.
He sighed heavily and checked the time.
Exactly one hour had passed since he took that pill after killing the second Wight.
He had to resign himself to taking another pill before gathering his courage and running toward the next mountain.
Fighting all these beasts was out of the question; there were easily thousands of them. They didn't follow a set order because there were too many of them, but they knew how to communicate, and that was a real problem.
That's why his hunt was based on kill and run, as elder Owen had taught him.