Chapter Sixty-One: Fierce Battle

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“Ooo~ ooo~” When the two arrived, they saw a wolf standing among the pack that was clearly different from the rest. Its fur was not the usual gray, but a silvery hue tinged with gray.

The boss they encountered was called “The Enraged Wolf Leader,” and it had three health bars. Around it, there were at least eight ordinary wolves.

“You handle those wolves while I hold the boss off—” Before his companion could object, Lancer charged straight in, knowing that if he hesitated, the other would surely refuse, citing the short reach of his weapon.

“…” Kirito watched as Lancer rushed ahead. He didn’t approve of this division of roles—in his view, anyone holding the boss should be the one with the longer weapon, namely himself. But wasting time arguing over weapon length now would be sheer folly.

“Slash!” With one blow, he felled a wild wolf, dodged another lunging at him from behind, then dispatched a second with a quick upward slice followed by a downward chop.

“This body is just so awkward to use.” After blocking the boss’s attack with the hilt of his dagger, Lancer quickly retreated, careful not to let the boss shift its attention to Kirito, who was still dealing with the wild wolves. He couldn’t afford to stray too far.

Though this was a virtual world, Akihiko Kayaba was no fool; the combat felt fairly realistic. When Lancer’s dagger sliced the wolf leader’s waist, its health dropped clearly by one segment.

“Kirito, its weak point is the waist—get ready to switch!” Even though this was a low-level boss, its unfair physical advantage was not something experience alone could overcome.

As Kirito finished off the last wild wolf, he heard Lancer’s shout and dashed toward the boss, intending to strike hard while it was focused on Lancer.

Through the ongoing battle, Lancer had discovered that apart from the attack patterns of regular wild wolves, this boss had no special abilities. But when Kirito attacked, Lancer realized its true uniqueness—beastly instinct. Not everything was dictated by data; when threatened, it reacted on primal intuition.

Before Kirito’s astonished eyes, the wolf leader turned and lashed him with its tail, instantly knocking his green health bar down below the danger line.

“Quick, use a potion!” Lancer stepped in front of Kirito and jammed his dagger into the wolf’s maw, then smashed his fist onto its head.

Crack—crack—bang! The dagger, already in need of repair, shattered in the wolf leader’s jaws.

“Damn it! That dagger was so hard to come by!” As the most dangerous type of weapon, Kayaba had naturally limited their respawn rate at the NPC blacksmiths. Lancer and Kirito hadn’t returned to the first town since they’d left, and in this new town, it had taken Lancer a full day to persuade the blacksmith to forge it. Now, with his weapon ruined, Lancer was understandably furious.

“Trying to swallow my weapon? Swallow my weapon, will you?” In a fit of rage, Lancer pummeled the boss with his fists. Perhaps his attack power was too low, because the wolf leader was neither knocked back nor forced to the ground, merely battered repeatedly in midair.

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Kirito watched as Lancer, who should have been at a disadvantage due to his broken weapon, completely suppressed the wolf king. The boss’s health dropped steadily, if slowly, as if eaten away. In their earlier exchanges, Lancer had already chipped away half a health bar; now, in brutal fashion, he’d battered away another. With only three health bars to begin with, the wolf king had lost half before Kirito had even recovered.

The wolf king’s fate was sealed. The only reason Kirito had taken a hit earlier was because he hadn’t expected something that should only appear on the fifth floor to show up on the first, so he’d been careless. After healing, and taking over from Lancer, he made no more mistakes. And after Lancer received Kirito’s spare weapon, he vented his frustration again.

In the end, the look of relief on the wolf leader’s face as it died left Kirito thoroughly conflicted.

“Huff… huff…” Lancer flopped down onto the ground at last. “This job is really inhuman.” With his original strength, taking down such a wolf would have been trivial, but now it was as if he’d been shackled, downgraded to below his enemy’s level. Even though his experience remained, the threat of death kept his nerves taut.

“Hey, you say it’s inhuman, but didn’t you just do it? Or are you saying you’re not human at all?” Kirito began to suspect Lancer’s true identity. These weren’t abilities a typical noble should possess, even if he was the son of a knight. Still, rest was more important now. Although Lancer had borne the brunt of the fight, Kirito, as support, had also been under tremendous pressure—the boss was supposed to require at least five players of their level.

“Well, thanks to this boss, we both leveled up. Closer to level five now.” Lancer didn’t bother arguing further; after all, only fools cared about such remarks.

“Yeah.” Kirito leaned on his sword and got to his feet. “See what loot the boss dropped. This must be the first boss killed in the game—maybe we’ll get something good.”

First were gold coins, then a pile of strange materials. They’d already gathered plenty of such things from monsters while grinding levels. But at the very bottom were two items that stood out.

“Magnificent Wolf Pelt” x1.

A material of at least grade A appeared before them.

Kirito was once again convinced of Lancer’s ability to make rare drops appear. As long as the monster could drop materials, he could get all varieties in just a few kills. This time, he’d even gotten an A-grade material.

“Seriously?” Lancer covered his face in resignation, while Kirito gave a wry smile and shook his head.

The next item was not a material—“Vengeful Soul of the Wolf Leader.”

It was a shield. Kirito stared at Lancer with a complicated look, while Lancer scratched his head with a smile. The shield was clearly superior to anything available in the shops, and it even had a special ability.

“The vengeful soul of the wolf leader, who died in anger, haunts this shield. After the shield endures ten attacks, it doubles the attack power of the main-hand weapon.”

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The stats were impressive, but they only made Kirito’s gaze grow more peculiar.

“All right, take it. I’m used to short weapons—their advantage is speed and mobility. A 100% attack boost is far more useful in your hands.” Lancer tossed the gray shield, adorned with a howling wolf’s head, to Kirito.

“But…”

“No but’s—just take it. Remember, you’ll have to compensate me with equivalent gear in the future.” No matter how good the attributes, Lancer would never use equipment that might hinder his movements. For example, he’d never wear heavy armor, and as for shields, he preferred armguards strapped to his arm—small, unobtrusive, and nonrestrictive. This round shield simply didn’t suit dagger play.

“All right, let’s head back to town and celebrate tonight.”

“Back to town? Oh, right. Sure.” Kirito, no longer bashful, fondly stroked his new shield.

“Then you’re treating tonight.” Seeing Kirito so absent-minded, Lancer suddenly said.

“Huh? Oh—wait!” Kirito, lost in his new gear, suddenly came to his senses and shouted after Lancer, who was already running ahead, “Hey! You tricked me!” He chased after him.

“Haha, serves you right!” Lancer took off, delighted at having someone else foot the bill for the evening.

And so, the third night in the virtual world descended upon them.