Ling Long's big black eyes were full of sadness and pain as she looked at her small claws. Then, Ling Long seemed to feel Xie Feng's gaze so she also looked up. However, when their gazes met, the little dragon quickly averted her gaze away as if she was embarrassed and had no face to look at him.

Seeing this, Xie Feng could not help but smile bitterly.

​​

Ling Long clearly saw how he easily defeated the Thorny Toad with a single attack while, on the other hand, her own attacks did not even manage to hurt the little monster.

The problem was, Ling Long did not know that the only reason why Xie Feng was able to defeat the Thorny Toad with a single attack was that he was simply lucky, very lucky. Not to mention killing the Thorny Toad with a single strike, the only reason Xie Feng managed to get close to the monster without any trouble was only thanks to that Ling Long was distracting it; otherwise, Xie Feng would have had to suffer a bit more.

Although the plan to use the first Thorny Toad as a training source to gain knowledge about that kind of monster was ruined, he could not be angry at Ling Long, who was so sad at the moment.

"Hey, Ling Long." Xie Feng slowly bent down and gently patted the baby dragon's head.

"Puuh..." Ling Long made a very small sound, as if she was resisting the urge to cry. But even so, she didn't look him in the eyes and kept her little head down, as if she was a small child who had done something wrong.

"Ling Long, look at me for a moment..." Xie Feng didn't know whether to laugh or cry when he saw Ling Long's behavior. Still, he couldn't help but feel a little sad to see her like that since usually, Ling Long always had a cheerful and lively attitude; so seeing her unhappy was not especially a good feeling.

After a few seconds, Ling Long finally slowly turned her little head and looked at him shyly.

"You think you're weak because you couldn't beat that ugly toad?" Xie Feng asked gently as he caressed her soft scales.

"Puuh..." Ling Long gave a small nod, admitting what Xie Feng was thinking.

Sigh...

Xie Feng sighed. Shaking his head, he looked at Ling Long and patiently explained:

"That ugly toad was actually a monster of much higher level than you. When you were fighting that toad, you were only level 2 but it was level 30!"

Ling Long blinked her big eyes and just looked at him silently.

Seeing that she was listening to him attentively, Xie Feng continued:

"Even for me it's not that easy to defeat that toad. I was only able to defeat him so easily before because I was very lucky and that you were distracting it, otherwise I would also have a bad time getting close to it." As he explained further, Xie Feng noticed that Ling Long's eyes slowly became brighter, so he continued to encourage her with the truth: "When you are a few levels higher than you are now, you will easily be able to kill that ugly toad. Just wait a little longer, big brother will kill a few more monsters, and when your level is 16 like mine you can take revenge, okay?"

Apparently the detailed explanation and Xie Feng's encouragement was fruitful because Ling Long finally seemed to come out of the shadows. With a firm nod, she flapped her small wings furiously.

Seeing her wings flapping rapidly, Xie Feng hurriedly reminded her, "Ling Long, when fighting against high-level monsters, remember not to let anger control you. Earlier, you could have evaded the attacks of the Thorny Toad, but due to your anger you forgot to use your movement skill. Remember, your head must be kept calm at all times to make the best decision in the quickest possible time depending on the enemy's movement, understand?"

Hearing his serious tone of voice, Ling Long also nodded seriously, which made Xie Feng let out a small sigh of relief.

"Alright, let's go deeper into this forest. Stay behind me for now."

Leaving those words behind, Xie Feng stood up once more and began to go deep into the Dark Forest surrounded by mist.

Ling Long, who was following Xie Feng from behind with her little legs wiggling cutely, looked at his back with shining eyes as if she was thinking about something.

* * *

Xie Feng had only advanced a few meters when suddenly his footsteps stopped. His right ear shivered slightly and Xie Feng quickly stepped slightly backwards.

*Swoosh!*

A split second after Xie Feng moved, a thick, long, dark blue tongue flashed right in front of his eyes. If it wasn't for his quick reaction, that attack would have undoubtedly hit him easily!

Xie Feng quickly jumped back while looking in the direction from which the attack came. There, in the midst of the dense fog, Xie Feng could indistinctly notice a pair of bright yellow eyes staring at him.

Having found his target, Xie Feng did not hesitate and charged forward swiftly in an attempt to close the breach as quickly as possible.

The Thorny Toad that was ten meters away also responded quickly with several attacks and its tongue shot out of its mouth at a speed no slower than an assassin's attacks.

*Swoosh!*

*Swoosh!*

*Swoosh!*

Although it was only ten meters away, it was extremely difficult to close the distance. The closer Xie Feng got, the faster the tongues reached him because the Thorny Toad could contract it easier and faster.

Ten meters was a distance that Xie Feng could close in a matter of one or two seconds with his movement speed, however, only after five seconds passed did Xie Feng finally close the distance between him and the Thorny Toad. This was due to the fact that many times, as Xie Feng observed the monster's attack pattern, he had no choice but to take a few steps back to avoid being hit. But even after he reached the Thorny Toad, the danger was not over.

Suddenly, the Thorny Toad's entire body swelled up like an air balloon.

Seeing the extremely obvious action of the monster, Xie Feng tried to retreat in a hurry, unfortunately, the thorns flew out at a speed no less than the Thorny Toad's tongue attack.

-200

"Damn it!"

Xie Feng couldn't help but curse as he moved his body in various strange patterns and dodged most of the flying thorns. Still, he didn't manage to avoid getting hit by a thorn.

-200...

The poison damage per second began to work and in just five seconds 1000 HP points were drained from his health bar.

Xie Feng avoided to attack the Thorny Toad since he wanted to try to get used to the monster's attacks as quickly as possible to finally get into the deepest part of the forest without having to waste too much time when encountering several monsters of the same type.

A mistake that many players made was to look for immediate benefits. For example, the first thought that 95% of the players would have after getting close to the Thorny Toad would be to start attacking it indiscriminately. This would be fine if the level difference was not so wide, if the levels were equal, or if the player's level was higher than the monster's; but killing a lone monster like that was undoubtedly nonsense.

Going deeper into a map, the number of monsters always increased exponentially and, if those monsters were of high level as it was in the current case of Xie Feng, but the players did not take the opportunity to get to know them better when they were still few, they would undoubtedly be killed by their own mistakes... That was also one of the reasons why Xie Feng liked to play alone or at best with friends.

Xie Feng hated to team up with unknown players because in previous games he was killed many times by monsters due to the carelessness of the team.

The only disadvantage of playing alone was that one had to have the capacity to accept and adapt to the silence and loneliness. Even Xie Feng himself felt lonely at times as he wandered alone in an uninhabited dark and monster-filled forests like the Dark Forest he was in right now.

* * *

Due to the various attack patterns the Thorny Toad had, Xie Feng spent more than twenty minutes jumping back and forth, ducking, running, and doing his best to dodge the monster's attacks while studying it and getting used to its attacks.

Although it was somewhat annoying, boring, and exhausting; it was for a necessary good. Fortunately, twenty minutes later, Xie Feng was finally confident enough to fight several level 30 Thorny Toads at the same time.

A level 16 player against several level 30 monsters... If other players knew about it they would probably faint from shock.

Even if that player was the mighty Shiva, the shock would only lighten a bit. You should know that when the level difference comes into play, it doesn't matter how strong your equipment was; unless your stats were overwhelmingly high in common, your attacks would never manage to hit the enemy.

Furthermore, the greater the level difference, the less damage the attacks and skills caused.

Having decided that this was enough training, Xie Feng easily dodged the swift tongue of the Thorny Toad and waved his spear horizontally.

Miss

Without changing his expression, Xie Feng again dodged another attack from the Thorny Toad with a single step to the left and stabbed forward with his spear.

-1897

The Thorny Toad had 3300 HP so unless Trishula activated, Xie Feng would need two normal attacks or a critical hit to end the monster's life.

The Thorny Toad, like a machine that only knew how to repeat the same actions over and over again, jumped backwards in an intent to get away from its enemy and attacked with its tongue once more.