Chapter 1: Hunting the Demon Leopard

  Ghost Fog Ridge Silver-maned Demon Leopard (Animal System, Leader)

  Level: 13

  Attack: 93-165

  Defense: 58-93

  Blood Gas: 10837

  Water-based attack damage is halved, Shadow-based attack damage is halved.

  "A thirteen-level leader, how strange." Wu Song quietly lay behind a clump of low trees thirty meters away from the Silver-maned Demon Leopard on Ghost Mist Ridge, seriously looking at the information observed through the auxiliary device.

  The Ghost Fog Ridge Devil Leopard is one of the most ruthless and cunning mutated beasts in the Ghost Fog Ridge, with levels generally around 8-9. Their attack and defense capabilities are not very strong, but their speed is very fast. Even three to five adventurers would find it difficult to keep up with the Ghost Fog Ridge Devil Leopard.

  The Ghost Mist Ridge Demon Leopard's body doesn't have many valuable materials, its bones are not hard enough, and its teeth don't have the same defensive-piercing effect as the Wind Wolf's teeth. However, because it has grown in the harsh, cold environment of the Ghost Mist Ridge for many years, the Demon Leopard's fur is extremely soft and has a very good warming effect. At one point, coats made from the Demon Leopard's fur were extremely popular among the nobles of the Ovid Empire, but due to overhunting, it's now very rare to see a Demon Leopard in the Ghost Mist Ridge.

  Wu Song was an outsider, and since he crossed over into this world that was extremely similar to a virtual game, becoming an adventurer, his main source of income had been taking on tasks from the Adventurer's Guild and then completing them for rewards. This time, the task he took on at the Adventurer's Guild was to retrieve a whole pelt of demonic leopard fur. Originally, Wu Song had intended to cancel the task; he was very unwilling to come to this godforsaken place, Ghost Fog Ridge, where it was freezing cold and icy. However, when he saw that the reward for the task included Red Pine Stone, Wu Song made up his mind to head to Ghost Fog Ridge to complete the task.

  Hong Songshi is a very valuable material, heaven knows why the idiot who posted the task would use a fist-sized piece of Hong Songshi to exchange for a Ghost Mist Ridge Magic Leopard's pelt.

  Wu Song felt fortunate that he had just enough Red Pine Stone to upgrade his Corpse Refining to the second level.

  At the price of auctioning off the red agate, Wu Song had thought that he wouldn't be able to learn the second level Body Double Technique for another year. But now, someone was actually willing to exchange such a large piece of red agate for an entire Ghost Mist Ridge Magic Leopard pelt. Wu Song felt that this task was worth trying no matter how difficult it was!

  "This is a thirteen-level leader, and its strength should have already reached the level of a variant beast general. But I'm only a tenth-level ability holder, so the danger of confronting this guy can't be underestimated!" Wu Song stared at the Ghost Mist Ridge Silver-maned Magic Leopard in the distance, weighing whether or not to take action against it. If it were an ordinary magic leopard, Wu Song wouldn't have hesitated, but the one before him was a thirteen-level leader, with strength that had already reached the level of a variant beast general. This meant it was much stronger than a regular magic leopard, and what made Wu Song most wary about variant beast generals was their speed!

  Wu Song was a thief, and like the Ghost Mist Ridge Demon Leopard, he excelled at speed. If it were an ordinary demon leopard, Wu Song would have been confident in his ability to outrun it. However, when facing a Silver-maned Demon Leopard, he knew that even if he wore running shoes with a speed boost of over 30, he still wouldn't be able to catch up to the leopard.

  "It's been a year, I can't wait any longer. Wealth and honor are to be found in danger, this business I will do!" Wu Song hesitated for almost five minutes before gritting his teeth and making up his mind.

  The reason why Wu Song made up his mind to take the risk was just because of the word "time". A week ago, when Wu Song first entered the Ghost Fog Ridge, he was full of confidence. However, after wandering around in the Ghost Fog Ridge for a few days, Wu Song became depressed. Although he had prepared himself for a long battle before entering, it wasn't until he got inside that he realized he still underestimated the rarity of the Ghost Fog Ridge's magical leopard. Wu Song spent five whole days searching and didn't even see a single hair of the magical leopard. It wasn't until the sixth day that he finally discovered the footprints of the Ghost Fog Ridge's magical leopard. He followed the footprints for an entire day, only to find out that what he was chasing after was still just the leader.

  Facing a variant beast that excelled in speed, Wu Song had a thousand unwilling thoughts in his heart. However, the deadline for this task was only ten days. If he couldn't take care of this guy, he might miss the Red Pine Stone. Wu Song didn't want to wait another year to learn Body Double, so he chose to take the risk.

  "An adventurer should have a certain spirit of adventure." Wu Song comforted himself as he made his preparations. His right hand tightly grasped a small dagger, only the length of a palm, while his left hand pulled out two small bottles from his waist. One bottle was gray and contained paralyzing poison (which had a certain chance to paralyze the target, reducing its movement speed and attack speed). The other green bottle contained anti-coagulant poison (which had a certain chance to cause the target's wounds to bleed continuously). Wu Song looked at the two small bottles in his hand, hesitated for a moment, and finally put them both back into his waist.

  A weapon can only be coated with one type of poison, and if two types are mixed together, the effect of the poison will not increase but rather decrease due to the interaction between the potions.

  Guī Wù Lǐng Mó Bào is a speed-type variant beast. Logically, when applying poison to the weapon, one should focus on restricting its speed. Paralyzing poison would be more practical than anticoagulant poison. However, Wu Song ultimately gave up on using poison.

  Indeed, no matter which poison is applied, it will have a positive effect on the upcoming battle, but the problem is that the thief's poison requires the opponent's skin to be cut open with a weapon and see blood before it takes effect. However, the task requires an entire Ghostmist Panther hide, heaven knows how intact this so-called entire Ghostmist Panther hide needs to be.

  Light Body Technique!

  Sneak!

  Wu Song inserted the dagger into his waist and then disappeared directly into the vast expanse of white snow.

  Stealth is a very important skill for thieves, it's the greatest guarantee for thieves to take the initiative in battle. However, now that it's winter, Ghost Mist Ridge has half-man-deep snow, which means that even if the thief is stealthy, walking in the snow will still leave footprints and crunching sounds. Within thirty meters, due to the strong wind, the demonic leopard may not necessarily notice Wu Song's existence, but once he enters a closer distance, stealth is likely to be broken. Therefore, before using stealth, Wu Song first used a light body technique.

  The effect of Light Body Technique was to lighten the caster's body weight. Although with Wu Song's current skill level, casting this skill only had a lightening effect and not completely making the caster's weight disappear, but for Wu Song, it was already enough.

  The Guimeng Ridge is always blowing with a loud and mournful wind, the sound of which can cover up the sound of footsteps after using the light body technique, and the faint footprints will also quickly disappear in the strong wind.

  Wu Song carefully emerged from the thicket and moved towards his target, which was not far away. The demonic leopard was currently feeding, half-crouched under a large tree, vigorously tearing at the carcass of a snow leopard that had been left with only half its body intact. Its attention was completely focused on its food, and it hadn't even noticed Wu Song's presence. However, despite this, Wu Song still didn't dare to be careless. He slowly moved forward, one step at a time, stopping for several seconds after each step to wait for the strong wind to blow away his footprints before taking the next step. It took him over five minutes to creep up to within two meters of the demonic leopard. Just as he was about to pounce and jump onto its back, the leopard suddenly turned around without warning and quickly climbed up a large tree that was over ten meters tall behind it. It then crouched on a branch, vigilantly watching the area below.

  "Been discovered?" Seeing the cooked duck flying away, Wu Song was stunned for a moment. He couldn't understand how the demon leopard behind him had become aware of an enemy approaching. He thought he had done enough preparation and shouldn't have been discovered. However, seeing the demon leopard's constantly trembling nose on the tree, Wu Song suddenly understood where the problem lay.

  "Damn it, how could I forget to cover up the smell, so careless!" Wu Song let out a depressed sigh, realizing that he was probably not seen by the opponent, but rather smelled out by that guy.

  The Ghost Mist Ridge Demon Leopard's sense of smell was extremely keen, and the leader's sense of smell must be even more sensitive than that of ordinary demon leopards. Under normal circumstances, Wu Song thought he would likely be discovered by his target from over ten meters away. However, due to the wind direction and the scent of Snowy Weasel's blood masking other smells, the Demon Leopard only became alert when it was less than three meters away. Nevertheless, whether it was discovered at ten meters or three meters, the outcome would be the same - that guy had climbed up a tree, and Wu Song would no longer have any opportunity.

  "Ah, Laozi's Red Pine Stone." Seeing the demonic leopard climb up the tree, Wu Song knew that this action had thoroughly failed. He sighed and retreated backwards, planning to lie low for a while and see if he could find another opportunity. However, just as Wu Song was about to become despondent, the demonic leopard suddenly jumped down from the tree and pounced towards him.

  The vigilance of the Ghost Mist Ridge Demon Leopard is among the top three in the many mutated creatures of Ghost Mist Ridge. When it smelled the scent of a human, it didn't hesitate to climb up a tree. However, when it discovered that the sneaky figure approaching it was only one human, the leader of the demon leopards became somewhat annoyed.

  But any ability to enter the variant beast level of the variant beast has a strong sense of enemy breath, they can rely on breath sensing out the target's strength and weakness, and the ghost mist ridge magic leopard is particularly prominent in this aspect. When it was discovered that the human under the tree who was plotting against himself did not have very strong power, the positions between the hunter and the prey were reversed. The magic leopard decided to launch a counterattack, giving the guy below who didn't know the height of the sky and the thickness of the earth a profound lesson.

  The leopard's speed was fast, and when Wu Song had a sense of it, the leopard had already agilely jumped from the tree to his front, with one sharp claw directly slashing towards Wu Song's throat.

  "Damn it!" Wu Song cursed, knowing his stealth had been completely blown. The target swiftly and stiffly took a step to the right, barely moving his throat out of the way of the leopard's paw. However, his left shoulder came into intimate contact with the leopard's claw, and the water buffalo hide armor on his shoulder was torn open like paper, revealing four gashes as fresh blood gushed out.

  "Damn it, this guy looks like he's going to play with his life!" Wu Song was hit by this paw and his mood had reached a terrible point. Although the wound on his shoulder wasn't fatal and wouldn't have too much of an impact on his combat strength, what made him unhappy was that the leopard, after missing its first strike, actually jumped back three or four meters to stare at Wu Song from a distance.

  Wu Song was somewhat annoyed, his hand reaching for the dagger at his waist. He really wanted to give this guy who only knew how to launch sneak attacks two slashes. This fellow thought it was shameless of the other party to launch a sneak attack, but he didn't realize that in reality, he had been planning to sneak up on the Magic Leopard first.

  Wu Song thought about the task's requirements and reluctantly gave up his plan to use a dagger. He gritted his teeth, beckoned to the Magic Leopard, and cursed, "Come on, you little beast! Now let you taste the flavor of my fist!"

  The leopard licked the bloodstains on its paws, and instead of charging at Wu Song due to his provocation, it just stared straight at him with an icy gaze that sent chills down one's spine.