Tree Knot Monster (Low-level Monster), Level 10, Life Value 360.
Encountering this creature reminded Xiao Jie of the Tree Demon Derivative he had faced behind the mountains of Ginkgo Village, yet it was clear the two were not of the same breed. The monster before him was much uglier and weirder.
The old monkey pointed to the withered giant willow and said, "This Willow Tree Demon has been hiding in this valley, often stretching its branches to snatch any monkeys that draw near. It has killed many of my companions in the past, but fortunately, our king emerged, defeating the Tree Demon and allowing our monkey tribe to live in safety. We thus revere him as our king. However, these Tree Knot Monsters keep cropping up from the soil, impossible to completely eliminate."
"The king is too lazy to deal with them, but if you, young brother, could help us clear them out, it would be more than perfect, also a good chance for you to train your saber skill," the old monkey suggested.
"No problem, leave it to me," replied Xiao Jie with a nod.
Excited, Xiao Jie hadn’t expected to find such a stable place to level up.
With a whistle, he summoned Xiong Da and rushed towards a Tree Knot Monster with his Firewood Axe in hand.
Feeling threatened, the Tree Knot Monster immediately plunged its roots deep into the ground, beginning to stab out from beneath the earth.
Huh, this method of attack is quite unique. It feels like the Zerg spine crawler from Starcraft 2.
Xiao Jie executed a rolling dodge to avoid the roots stabbing from the ground, then swung his axe down on the Tree Knot Monster’s lump, spurting a burst of purplish-red fluid.
The Tree Knot Monster immediately swung its branch-formed hands towards Xiao Jie.
Xiao Jie timed his distance and slashed with his blade.
The One Cut, Two Pieces technique, an epiphany from Chopping Wood, successfully severed the Tree Knot Monster’s limbs with a single cut.
Another slash, and the other limb also fell. The monster was now literally a ’stump’, making it easy prey for the Gale Saber Technique’s stationary output. The fight was easily settled with a combination of moves.
Moving onto the second, Xiao Jie soon realized that the best way to deal with these monsters was also using the One Cut, Two Pieces technique.
The chance of triggering the Limb Cutting effect was frighteningly high, perhaps because the ’limbs’ of the monster were actually branches.
Once both hands were cut off, the rest was simply stationary output. Xiao Jie’s Blood-drinking Blade, having killed two players, had the Blood Blade’s buff stacked to six layers, boosting his Attack to 26 Chop, 21 Stab. Essentially, a set of Gale Saber Technique was just enough to kill a monster.
This way, he could continue leveling up while mastering his saber skill.
Xiong Da also acted as a competent meat shield. Whenever Xiao Jie encountered a group of Tree Knot Monsters, he would let Xiong Da draw their attention. After Xiong Da was entwined by the roots fired by these monsters, Xiao Jie would step in to chop them down one by one.
There were only about a dozen Tree Knot Monsters around the Willow Tree Demon. It took less than half an hour to slaughter them all.
[System Prompt: You have leveled up, currently Level 14, and you have received 5 Free Attribute Points.]
A burst of white light flashed over Xiao Jie, successfully reaching Level 14.
Not bad, Xiao Jie nodded in satisfaction as he looked at his experience bar. The experience was already mostly accumulated from fighting the merfolk, and the sporadic monsters killed over the past two days had pushed it to 95%. He had finally leveled up.
Clearing this wave of monsters had given him about a 5% increase in Experience Points. If he could clear a wave every hour, he could easily gain half a level each day.
It was getting late today. He would continue tomorrow.
After circling the Willow Tree Demon’s corpse, making sure there were no more monsters, Xiao Jie was about to leave when he suddenly noticed something stuck on the demon’s body.
Employing a Flying Cloud Chasing Moon leap, Xiao Jie landed on the body of the Tree Demon, only to discover it was a Chopping Axe deeply embedded at the bottom of a gash.