This fellow is truly intelligent. If he waits for two Skills to cool off and uses them at the same time, I’ll be stuck as long as I’m hit by either one of them, Blue Maple realized instantly. The Snow Wolf King was incensed once again, as he watched Blue Maple retrieve another sword.

The Snow Wolf King roared as he charged towards Blue Maple.

I can only do this…, Blue Maple quickly dodged as he thought of that. He didn’t counter-attack, but quickly fled after that.

Blue Maple couldn’t possibly run as fast as the Snow Wolf King, but he did still have a slim chance. If he was going to be caught, he would make turns after turns. In the meantime, the Snow Wolf King stopped unleashing his Arctic Icicle after firing it once. It seemed he knew that waiting for two long-range control Skills to be used at the same time was the most effective.

“I’m still not there yet.” Blue Maple furrowed his brow.

A minute was almost up. The Snow Wolf King’s Freezing Light Ray had almost finished cooling down, but he was not at the place he wanted to be yet.

I can only give this bronze sword up again. After all, it’s just an item I randomly picked up, Blue Maple thought as he was running for his life.

It was actually a top-quality bronze sword. Otherwise, Blue Maple wouldn’t have picked it up.

Arctic Icicle! Freezing Light Ray!

“Scoundrel!” He gave the bronze sword up and earned some time to catch his breath.

However, he had no backup swords to use now, while the Snow Wolf King was getting more and more enraged. The first two strategies that he thought of were ruined, but he had not managed to kill this annoying human in front of him yet.

In fact, the Snow Wolf King’s HP were barely thirty percent right now. It was possible for Blue Maple to kill him as long as he could use his Lightning Chain Strike or Instant Chain Strike. However, Blue Maple was simply too far away from him now. Also, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see the Snow Wolf King mutate, given that he was already so infuriated after being unable to kill Blue Maple after such a long time. Blue Maple was only trying to be cautious right now. Right now, he didn’t want to play anymore. He wanted to end this fight as soon as possible!

Only Blue Maple would treat such a dangerous fight as a game. However, he had been killing monsters for a week, and was already tired from doing that…

---

He finally saw an end to the patch of snow in front of him. It was a cliff!

It was the cliff from before, the cliff that Blue Maple wanted to look down from earlier, but he was too afraid. Right now, he was charging towards it and wanted to force the Snow Wolf King down the cliff.

“I’ve been playing with this husky for some time. It’s time to end it.” Husky… only Blue Maple would think of it that way. Perhaps it was his way of making things more fun.

He was already at the edge of cliff. There was no way he could move forward anymore. The snow in front could be soft and he might just fall off.

He kicked the Snow Wolf King, which widened the gap between him and the Snow Wolf King. After this, he suavely performed a pose, pointing his sword directly at the Snow Wolf King. The cliff was just behind him. To be honest, it was a brave pose to execute now. There was no way someone could do something like that at the edge of the cliff if he didn’t possess any courage.

Indeed, the Snow Wolf King’s EQ was that of a husky. He was enraged when he saw Blue Maple posing like that. He charged Blue Maple!

However, he was still afraid of the cliff. Therefore, the Snow Wolf King only jumped slightly instead of charging forward with all his might. However, it was enough, right?

Blue Maple stabbed his sword forward and unleashed his Instant Chain Strike! He hacked, used his Cold Light Slash and hacked again. He swiftly rushed behind the Snow Wolf King and used all his strength to pound the Snow Wolf King. The point wasn’t to cause damage, but to exploit the Snow Wolf King’s momentum to push him off the cliff. The Snow Wolf King realized this point and attempted to stop in his tracks using his front two legs. He was about to stop, but-!

Although Blue Maple didn’t have dual swords, it wasn’t over yet!

Who said that he could invoke his dual-wielding ability only through swords? He possessed the Skill as long as he had both hands! It was just that he needed his swords to activate it. He had activated the Skill with his right hand, so he couldn’t activate it again.

However, what if he used his left hand instead? In that case, he used his Instant Chain Strike for a second time, at exactly where he was! He switched his right-hand sword to his left hand and unleashed his Skill once again.

After using his Instant Chain Strike, he could hack, use his Cold Light Slash, and hack once more. Causing damage was no longer the priority. The Snow Wolf King was almost at the edge. He was no longer able to hold on with both his front legs. His back legs were also about to cave in too.

The snow at the edges had yet to collapse. Blue Maple had to keep his attack going. Sweeping Sword Slash! He switched hands and used his Sweeping Sword Slash for the second time.

The snow was on the verge of collapsing. If that was the case, Blue Maple had to go for one last push!

Swoosh, swoosh... Blue Maple heard two separate sounds of collapsing snow. Blue Maple and the Snow Wolf King froze instantly.

The Snow Wolf King didn’t dare move. Any movement might cause the snow beneath his legs to collapse.

Blue Maple heaved a long sigh of relief.

“Hoo… it’s finally over. Seems like this result is more fun.” Blue Maple muttered to himself, as if a huge burden had been lifted from his shoulders.

“Ah ooo~”

“Aiyo.” Blue Maple was a little astonished as he looked at the Snow Wolf King, who was slowly turning his head around.

“Ah ooo~” He appeared to be pleading. He was really like a husky right now.

The Snow Wolf King was imploring with his eyes as he screeched. His limbs were even shaking.

Blue Maple hesitated for a moment...

Just as the Snow Wolf King appeared to be surprised and thought that he was saved, Blue Maple gave him a kick.

Bye husky!

“Ah ooo~~~” A grieving howl slowly vanished down the cliff.

------

Blue Maple waited quietly at the edge of the cliff as the brutally cold wind swept against his body, messing his hair up. Snowflakes were swirling in the air and kept on landing on Blue Maple’s shoulders as well as his head…

“Pretty similar…” Blue Maple muttered to himself before turning around. He walked away and disappeared into the snow.

When he first learned how to survive on his own, he often couldn’t bear to kill his enemies when they begged for lives. It was like he couldn’t kill someone that had repented. Then, he chose to let them off…

However, he almost died once because of his benevolence. When he put down his weapon, the enemy suddenly attacked him. They drew a dagger they had concealed around their waist and stabbed Blue Maple with it. If not for Blue Maple’s reflexes, he wouldn’t have avoided the fatal attack and lived until now. That incident also left him with an injury that heralded a tough period for him, when he faced countless obstacles.

---

After a few minutes, Blue Maple returned to the U-shaped entrance where the Snow Lotus was. The Snow Wolf King wasn’t around this time. There was only the opening and the Snow Lotus, which was silently rooted to the top of the cave.

Just as Blue Maple came to the cave entrance and was ready to jump up to pluck the Snow Lotus, he suddenly discovered there was something deep in the cave.

“There’s something in the cave? Don’t tell me it’s a cub.” As Blue Maple thought of that, he leaned into the cave. He hoped that his conjecture wasn’t true. The cave opening was almost his height, but he still needed to bend over a little.

When he bent down into the cave, he discovered that it was actually a chest. It also seemed like a lot of work had gone into making that chest.

At this moment, Blue Maple suddenly thought of something from the game summary: Special items hidden in chests might appear in concealed areas on duplicated/special maps and the living habitats of bosses. The value of these special items depend on the rank of their respective chests, and the grade of the chests often depended on the ranks of a boss or the difficulty of a map.

Is this a chest?, Blue Maple wondered as he reached out for the chest.

===

Ding! Game announcement: You’ve discovered a Rank B Treasure Chest.

===

Rank B? Sounds right. The Snow Wolf King is only very powerful compared to the players right now. When most of them can come to this place and kill a few ordinary Snow Wolves, then the Snow Wolf King wouldn’t be considered too strong anymore. After all, he isn’t some kind of special-ranked boss.

Seems like some kind of button to open it. Blue Maple pressed on a device that seemed to be a switch.

Kacha! The chest opened.

Fortunately, no key was needed. Otherwise, that key might come from the Snow Wolf King. As for the Snow Wolf King, he had already fallen off……

It was a semi-real online game. It had to be semi-real. How could the Snow Wolf King possibly have made such a chest?

He didn’t know what was in it. He reached his hand into the chest.

He touched something!

Blue Maple took it out.

===

Ding! Game Announcement: You’ve obtained a rare item, the Snow Pearl!

[Snow Pearl] (Special Item): Requires authentication.

===

“Forget, I’ll go and pluck the lotus.” Blue Maple was a little speechless.

Blue Maple exited the cave. He used his sword to knock off some rocks beneath the Snow Lotus before jumping up and plucking the lotus out. He didn’t even put any care into it, and didn’t know how the lotus grew, either.

===

Ding! Game Announcement: “You’ve obtained the quest item, Snow Lotus.”

===

Just after Blue Maple received the notification, Blue Maple’s Winter Robe suddenly burst into blue flames. He didn’t even need to think to know that he was being teleported back.

===

Ding! Game Announcement: The quest is completed. You’ll be teleported back to where you received the quest.

===

A husky-killing flower-plucking quest was finally completed. Blue Maple stretched his body as he looked around him. He discovered that the old man wasn’t back yet. In fact, less than an hour had passed.

Blue Maple removed his Winter Robe before he quietly waited where he was. He didn’t venture around, but guessed that the environment should be pretty good. There was really no comparison between the snow mountain and this place.

However, it should be winter now if the game followed the actual seasonal cycle on Earth. It was just that the place Blue Maple descended upon belonged to a main city that only experienced spring throughout the year. This was why there was no snow at all. Otherwise, Blue Maple might not even try to level up anymore if it snowed, and would just find a place to hide.

------

After twenty minutes had passed, a flame appeared in front of Blue Maple. At the same, he heard a wicked voice say, “Not bad rascal. I specially triangulated your position and even offered to collect your corpse. I didn’t expect you to return so early,” the old man spouted more gibberish.

“All thanks to you,” Blue Maple responded. At the same time, he returned the Winter Robe to the old man.

“Hey, it’s nothing to do with me. It’s all the result of your own hard work,” the old man jokingly retorted.

“Eh? You didn’t even use the immunity against full-body control that came with the robe. Not bad. No wonder you’re my disciple.” The old man was astonished as he received the robe from Blue Maple. However, his astonishment quickly turned to delight.

It actually has that effect too? Blue Maple was stunned.

However, he also felt some warmth in his heart. At least the old man wasn’t just trying to fool around with him...