Qu Weichen, furious, leapt up with both legs.
A huge gray-skinned wolf lunged out of the cave, its sharp claws swiping down and sending a chunk of earth flying.
With both daggers in hand and boosted by her qi, Qu Weichen could barely keep up with the giant wolf’s speed.
But once the two wolves, one black and one gray, boxed her in from front and back, they didn’t attack recklessly.
Instead, they just stared at her, slowly circling.
This stalemate couldn’t go on.
Wolves hold grudges, and now that they’d caught her scent, they wouldn’t let her go easily.
Even if she managed to escape, these two would just stalk her from afar, waiting to ambush—she couldn’t stay on guard forever.
She needed a breakthrough, had to kill one first… Sluggish Curse! Bad Luck Curse! —[Ding] A little black cloud instantly appeared above the black wolf’s head.
This was the first time she’d successfully used the Bad Luck Curse.
Since the wolf was unlucky now, she’d have to kill this one first! Qu Weichen suddenly stomped down, leaving a dent in the ground as her body shot forward like a cannonball, both daggers filled with qi.
She slapped the ground with one hand, launching herself into the air, aiming to land right on the giant wolf’s back.
“Awooo—!” Just as Qu Weichen slapped the ground, the earth suddenly trembled, qi surging.
She left a deep pit where she struck.
Flipping in midair, she controlled her body and drove her dagger down hard, sending a flurry of earth spikes shooting up! The black wolf tried to pounce, but its brother’s earth spikes blocked its way.
As it turned to dodge, its paw slipped for some reason and it slid straight into the pit.
Qu Weichen landed squarely on the wolf’s back, grabbed its fur with one hand to steady herself, and drove her dagger into the black wolf’s waist, ripping out a mess of blood and flesh.
“Awooo, awooo!” The wolf’s howl was piercing.
The black wolf thrashed, trying to throw Qu Weichen off, but she just gripped its hide tighter, yanked out her dagger, and stabbed down again.
The black wolf’s struggles weakened, but the gray wolf lunged at her.
Qu Weichen raised her dagger to block its claws for a moment, but the force sent her flying, slamming her into a nearby rock wall.
The gray wolf howled.
Qu Weichen barely managed to stand when she felt the earth trembling beneath and behind her.
She dodged to the side just in time as a dozen sharp earth spikes shot up, weaving into a cage where she’d just been.
If she’d stayed, she’d have been skewered.
Sluggish Curse—cooling down.
Qu Weichen hadn’t realized how slowly time was passing, but she didn’t care; she’d just used it on a whim.
She charged out again, just as the giant wolf roared and a wall of earth shot up.
Qu Weichen twisted aside, leapt up, and kicked the wall, scattering dirt everywhere.
She landed, rolled, slapped the ground for momentum, and hurled her dagger straight into the giant wolf’s gaping maw.
Too bad she wasn’t third rank, so the thrown dagger was just an ordinary dagger.
Qu Weichen’s real goal was to buy time and adjust herself, but the giant wolf just swallowed the dagger, its eyes blood-red as it lunged at her—
“Bang—” Qu Weichen was slammed down by the wolf’s paw, its claws tearing her clothes and digging into her flesh, threatening to rip off a huge chunk.
But she didn’t hesitate from the pain, instead driving her dagger hard into the giant wolf’s belly.
The gray wolf didn’t care about Qu Weichen’s deadly move.
It opened its jaws wide, aiming to bite her head off, clearly determined to take her with it even if it died.
With a dull “thud,” Qu Weichen clenched her left fist, gathered her qi, and smashed the giant wolf’s jaw shut.
Blood trickled from the corner of her mouth.
She let go of the dagger she’d just driven in, flipped her hand to pull a new one from her storage, filled it with qi, and stabbed again.
With a forceful twist, Qu Weichen pinned the giant wolf’s lower jaw with her left hand and dagger.
Her whole body surged with energy, and she managed to throw the wolf off her.
Qu Weichen forced herself up through the pain, drew two more daggers, and stood guard.
She watched from a distance as the gray wolf struggled to get up, only to collapse again.
Qu Weichen didn’t approach recklessly.
Instead, she climbed a tall tree, settled on a branch, and took out medicinal wine, gauze, and ointment from her space ring to disinfect and bandage herself, then drank some water and stubbornly stayed put.
The gray giant wolf really seemed dead.
After about ten minutes, the earth under Qu Weichen’s tree suddenly bulged, but the earth spikes stopped short of reaching her.
The gray wolf whimpered a few times, then finally died.
[Beastcall Mountain Hunt]: You’ve come to Beastcall Mountain—how can you leave without some local specialties? Come hunt! Completion reward: Skill Point_1
“Bad Luck Curse is actually this useful.” Qu Weichen glanced at the black wolf that died first.
Without the Bad Luck Curse, she probably couldn’t have handled these two wolves.
The gray wolf clearly knew earth magic, while the black one didn’t—maybe it was focused on strength and agility? Anyway, with the Bad Luck Curse, it died before it could even fight back.
Still, “local specialties”? That’s a pretty unique way to describe magical beasts.
Qu Weichen dragged both giant wolf corpses into the cave, tossed the sack of rabbits in too, and quickly cleaned up the blood, spraying some insect repellent before heading inside.
She used some branches she’d picked up earlier to start a fire and sat down to rest.
Wolf meat probably tastes terrible.
After a while, Qu Weichen took out a big sack, stuffed both wolf corpses inside, and put them in her space ring.
Once she got out, she could sell the bodies for some source coins.
She washed her hands with clean water, ate a piece of flatbread to fill her stomach, rested a bit, and looked around the simple cave.
There were only some half-eaten magical beast bones inside—no treasures to be found.
She changed into clean clothes, tightened the bandages on her chest and stomach, and started marking her path as she went to look for water.
Qu Weichen filled up some water first, then processed the two rabbits by the river.
With one star in dagger mastery, skinning and gutting them was easy.
Once done, she followed her marks back to the cave, picking up more branches along the way.
Back in the cave, she built up the fire, eyes watering from the smoke as she skewered the rabbits, sprinkled on various spices she’d bought, and stubbornly set out to roast them.
[Is this roasting rabbit or smoking rabbit? Can’t you just make a fire outside the cave?]
“Cough, cough… What if I accidentally set the forest on fire? Cough, cough, and you didn’t tell me to pick good firewood—this stuff is all damp, cough, cough.”
[If I knew about that, I’d be a wilderness survival system, not a Necromancer Growth System.] Number Nine wasn’t the least bit ashamed.
Seeing Qu Weichen’s face turn red and black from the smoke, it finally spoke up, [Just go outside, hurry up! Don’t get killed by the wolves only to die from rabbit smoke.]
Meanwhile, Constance watched the thick smoke from afar, wondering how there could be such a commotion after killing wolves.
She crept closer and saw Qu Weichen stumbling out of the cave, covered in soot, still clutching two skewers of half-cooked rabbit.
Constance: “…”
Qu Weichen ran back and forth, resigned, putting out the fire.
Then she found a spot outside the cave sheltered from the wind, cleared away leaves and grass, and started a new fire to properly roast the rabbit.
After eating and drinking her fill, Qu Weichen boiled some water, let it cool, and drank a bit.
Since she was injured, she rested in the cave for a while, planning to wait until nightfall before deciding what to do next.
She had three days—no need to rush.
But when she stepped out of the cave at midnight, she found a metal box left at the entrance.
Inside were several pale blue potions and a note saying they were all for wound healing.
Clearly, they were from Constance.
Qu Weichen looked them over, opened one, and drank it down.
The rest she stored in her space ring.
She wandered around the cave a bit, not going far.
She sprayed some insect repellent, which also masked her scent.
After all that, Qu Weichen went back inside to practice her stance training.
When she got sleepy, she poked Number Nine and asked, “Check for me—anyone nearby? Is Constance around?”
[What are you up to? There’s definitely no one in the cave, and Constance is obviously following you from a distance, not watching or protecting you every second.]
“I want to see what the Skeleton Archer looks like.” Qu Weichen said.
The Skeleton Soldier fell apart at a touch—no need to mention that, it was just a beginner skill.
But the Skeleton Archer was at least a second-tier summon; it couldn’t be that shabby, right? If she couldn’t even see it here, she’d never dare summon it in the Prison Sanctuary or the Academy.
[Relax, there’s no one.
I’ll watch the entrance for you.] Number Nine perked up, promising, [Don’t worry, the Skeleton Archer is different from the Skeleton Soldier—it comes with its own weapons and gear!]
Qu Weichen got her hopes up.
She carefully used the skill at the back of the cave, watching the magic circle light up.
Soon, as the glow faded, a skinny little skeleton stepped out.
Qu Weichen stared at the skeleton, about her own height, and fell silent again.
“Weapons? Gear?”
Weapons—did that mean the shoddy-looking wooden bow and arrows? Gear—was that the ring of wooden planks strung around its body as ‘armor’?
[It’s mass-produced, you know.
This quality is already pretty good.] Number Nine wasn’t embarrassed at all, and even started pitching the next skill, [Look, next you can learn [Skeleton Axeman Summon]! The axeman definitely comes with iron weapons and armor.]
“Seven skill points.” Qu Weichen was heartbroken.
She couldn’t help but question Number Nine, “Have you really trained a necromancer before? How can a necromancer be this weak? The early game is just too rough!”
[Well, that’s why you have to grow, right?]
Qu Weichen: “…”
Still, she couldn’t help but wonder: if she ever met another necromancer on this continent, they’d probably be shocked—how could a necromancer be this weak?
Good thing she also walked the martial artist’s path.
That achievement really was a slap in the face: “As a necromancer, awakening as a martial artist and surviving nine rounds of body tempering is normal, right? No way, no way, no way there are mages who haven’t even awakened as martial artists, right?” If she hadn’t succeeded in nine rounds of body tempering… who knows what she’d be like now.
[…Well, I’m not that weak, am I?]
