Severe pain shot through his legs, and the Snow Spider instantly lost its balance. Wang Lan sprang up with a leap, kicking towards the Spider's lower jaw and sending it reeling onto its back.
SHLICK—
A knife stabbed into the Snow Spider's underbelly, and with an upward slice, it spurted a stream of green blood. Wang Lan swiftly retreated as the spider struggled in its death throes for a few seconds before collapsing with a THUD.
"First Exotic Beast kill completed, reward: 500 experience points, 30 skill points!" The prompt sounded in his mind.
"Nice—" A voice of praise rang out. Wang Lan finally had the chance to look around and saw that in addition to the Snow Spider he had slain, the other four lured by Jiang Xinyu's team had also been killed.
"Ten minutes to kill a Snow Spider on your own... Lan bro, you're awesome," Xu Xiangwen excitedly cheered, brandishing his large sword.
"What's awesome about that? You guys killed four."
"Lanzi, don't puff yourself up like that. We're a four-person team, fighting together, whereas you took down one all by yourself. How can that be the same?"
"Stop flattering me. Do you really think I don't know? Could I have fought alone? Without you guys covering me and preventing a second Snow Spider from joining the fight, I would have been killed in three minutes. To call it a solo fight is a stretch; it's still teamwork with you guys. It's also cooperation; Xu Xiangwen killed three by himself, while I only took down one. The difference is obvious."
"Humblebragging, keep humblebragging, I'm all ears! Don't parade your serious-faced act in front of me; you're just fishing for compliments!"
Wang Lan turned his face innocently to look at Jiang Xinyu, who was wearing a smile. "Can you say something fair? Although I know I used to knock him down a peg back in junior high, I genuinely feel like I'm far behind you guys this time."
"Heh..." Xu Xiangwen rolled his eyes. "Xinyu, do you see? He's comparing himself to us—a Star Martial Warrior who just awakened two days ago, with us veterans who've been awakened for two years. How much more arrogant can he get?"
"Only you've been awakened for two years," Gong Feiyu grinned. "I've been at it for three, and Xinyu for eight."
"Wild Imprisonment Finger!" Annoyed, Xu Xiangwen simply extended a middle finger to show his 'respect'.
"Wang Lan is still quite impressive. I remember on my first venture into the trial grounds with a team, it took several of us half an hour just to kill a Snow Spider, and we were over the moon to get a Starlight Bead, thinking we had won a great victory. You can't compare us; we're at the Star Shine Stage," Wang Youle offered a fair comment.
"Wang Lan, what are you dawdling for? Get the Soul Bead," Jiang Xinyu urged.
"Oh!"
Wang Lan knew that the Soul Bead was found inside the head of an Exotic Beast; this was common knowledge among Star Martial Warriors.
He split open the Snow Spider's head with a knife and, suppressing his disgust, reached in to extract a Soul Bead.
*Absorbing Star Power, skill point +1.*
The Soul Bead in his hand disappeared.
"Eh? You absorbed it just like that?" Wang Youle exclaimed in surprise.
"Ah? If not absorbing, then what?"
"You should collect Soul Beads and absorb them all at once for better effect. Absorbing them now mostly just replenishes the Star Power you've used up."
"Is that so? It's all the same to me." Wang Lan smiled faintly. Being a system user, he understood that while Soul Beads could help others improve their strength, for him they could only add skill points. To increase his Star Martial level, he could only rely on experience points, either from completing tasks or from kills.
For other Star Martial Warriors, their goal in killing Exotic Beasts was solely for the Soul Beads, but for him, it was different: kills for experience points, and Soul Beads for skill points and replenishing expended Star Power—seemingly more efficient.
With the first kill rewarding him thirty skill points, his Close Combat Sword Skill was at Bronze 2. In the current situation, Close Combat Sword Skill seemed more practical, so he decided to allocate all thirty skill points to it.
Upgrading his Close Combat Sword Skill to Bronze 5, Wang Lan immediately realized the many flaws in his previous tactics and fighting style. There were far more efficient ways to kill the Snow Spiders.
"Alright, let's continue luring Snow Spiders. Second round begins!"
This time, Wang Youle and Jiang Xinyu lured ten Snow Spiders over. The previous five were just appetizers for warming up. Wang Lan once again faced a single Snow Spider.
As the Snow Spider approached, at Jiang Xinyu's command, Wang Lan instantly lunged at his target. This time, his attacks were sharper; as he closed in on the Spider, a flash of his blade warded off an attacking leg from the Snow Spider.
Moving swiftly, Wang Lan vanished from the Snow Spider's sight. The spider suddenly felt a heavy blow to its legs, its body lifted by a powerful force as a blade flashed. Wang Lan then retreated.
All his movements were smoothly executed in one go. Had it not taken about three minutes to close in on the Snow Spider, he could have finished the battle in less than five minutes.
After slaying the Snow Spider and retrieving its Soul Bead, Wang Lan saw the battle at Jiang Xinyu's side was still ongoing. Jiang Xinyu, a Mage-type Star Martial Warrior, was mainly focused on collecting enough Soul Beads for a breakthrough and refrained from using Star Martial Skills whenever possible. Hence, she was in a supportive role, with the main kills being carried out by Gong Feiyu and Xu Xiangwen.
Wang Youle was also a fire type, but it seemed his only Star Martial Skill was spewing fire, which dealt limited damage to Snow Spiders, and his close combat abilities were quite deficient. This wasn't Wang Lan being biased; his skills truly weren't up to par.
Wang Lan even felt that Wang Youle wouldn't last a minute against him.
Gaining five experience points and one skill point from that kill, he didn't hesitate and instantly joined the wider battle, using Wang Youle's flames as cover to get close to another Snow Spider in a flash.
An Inch Strength explosive uppercut followed by a straightforward stab into its chest and an upward slice.
The sprint, the kill—it all took less than ten seconds.
"Holy shit—"
Wang Youle, who had been watching Wang Lan execute a beautiful kill, couldn't help but curse out loud.
Previously, Wang Youle had looked down on Wang Lan from his higher standing as a Star Shine Stage Star Martial Warrior, while Wang Lan was only at the Starlight Stage. But at this moment, Wang Youle suddenly realized just how naive his own understanding had been and how greatly he had underestimated Wang Lan's strength.
Considering the killing ability Wang Lan just displayed, killing me would be as easy as flipping his hand! Wang Youle thought, a strong sense of crisis instantly arising in his heart.
Before, I only thought Wang Lan *might* threaten my position, but now I'm certain he *can*, Wang Youle mused. It took me a year of building a good relationship with Xu Xiangwen to join Jiang Xinyu's squad, where I've always been obedient, clever, and hardworking.
How can I be replaced? How can I allow myself to be replaced? At this moment, Wang Youle's heart churned with complex emotions.
"Holy shit, a one-hit kill? Lan bro, are you an assassin?" Xu Xiangwen, having just dealt with a Snow Spider, called out in amazement.
"Sigh, what could I do? The Snow Spider's position was just too perfect. I wouldn't have felt right if I hadn't stabbed it—that felt incredibly satisfying, like everything just clicked," Wang Lan said with a flick of his sword, looking quite pleased with his recent move.
"Alright, time is limited. Let's go for another round."
"No problem, send two Snow Spiders my way this time. I want to take on two!"
As Wang Lan became more familiar with the Snow Spiders and his Close Combat Sword Skill progressed rapidly, he became faster and faster at killing them. Gradually, Wang Lan no longer needed to fight the Snow Spiders alone but instead teamed up with Xu Xiangwen to decapitate them.
The tactic was simple: the other three would restrict the Snow Spiders, and then Wang Lan and Xu Xiangwen would rush in and kill the enemy with one move.
After two continuous hours, they had killed about ten waves of Exotic Beasts.
"That's about it. A large group of Snow Spiders has become alert and is heading this way. Let's withdraw for now," Xu Xiangwen said calmly after his group finished off a wave of Snow Spiders, his Heavenly Eye active.
"Alright, let's head back to recuperate and wait for half an hour," Jiang Xinyu decided, as the leader of the squad.
The place they chose for rest was a cave with an entrance two meters wide, easily defendable by one person. After more than an hour of intense fighting, it was exhausting even for Star Shine Stage Star Martial Warriors. Wang Lan, however, was in high spirits, counting his skill points in his Spiritual Sea of Consciousness.
After more than an hour of combat, killing a total of twenty Snow Spiders had yielded twenty skill points, pushing his Close Combat Sword Skill to Bronze 7.
Although it was still at the Bronze level, its application in real combat made a huge difference. The sword skill was sharper, speeding up his kills. From the last encounter, it was evident that it only took him a few seconds to strike and kill. If timed perfectly, he could achieve a one-hit kill.
But time on the battlefield isn't calculated that way. An effective kill might be quick, but the actual combat engagement could be lengthy. After all, the Snow Spiders were fast, and their attack power wasn't something this group could ignore or be immune to.
Currently, his sword skill combined with his movement technique was already sufficient. For the next step, he needed to enhance his overall capabilities. It was rare to get a chance to enter the trial grounds, so it was important to accumulate as many skill points as possible to upgrade skills. Who knew when the next chance would come?
"The Snow Spiders have retreated; we can continue," Xu Xiangwen said, after scanning the area with his Heavenly Eye.
"Alright, let's continue then."
Killing Exotic Beasts in the trial grounds was monotonous but never boring. One was always in danger, so boredom was impossible. Perhaps the trial grounds were vast, or maybe there really were very few people; for three straight days, they hadn't seen a single Star Martial Warrior other than themselves.
「Three days later.」
Wang Lan and his four companions were covered in blood and showed signs of exhaustion. However, these three days had brought immense gains for Wang Lan.
Having killed so many Exotic Beasts, his level had risen from Starlight Stage 5 to Starlight Stage 7, and he had accumulated three hundred skill points. Wang Lan allocated all of them to upgrading his skills. When he first entered, his skills were all in the early Bronze stage; now, they had all reached the late stage.
Wang Lan noticed a problem: Basic Skills couldn't be developed in isolation. They were akin to the various hardware components of a computer—interconnected and mutually limiting.
For example, if his movement technique was at Bronze 1 and his sword skill at Bronze 9, then in actual combat, he could only exert Bronze 5 combat power. This was because the weakness in his movement technique restricted his sword skill's potential.
The same principle applied to how the sword skill's combat power was influenced by overall fighting ability. Most close combat involved general fighting moves, and the sword skill only came into play when specifically wielding and swinging the sword.
This realization made Wang Lan cautious about recklessly focusing his points. The freewheeling skill point allocation that worked in games clearly wasn't suitable in reality. The various skills had to complement each other.
The ideal balance was to have movement technique and fighting skill at equal levels. Other abilities like sword skill, spear skill, and other Basic Combat Skills were built on top of these two. Movement technique reflected agility and reaction speed, while fighting skill represented practical combat application and adaptability.
At this moment, Wang Lan's movement technique and fighting skill had reached Bronze 8, while his sword skill was at Bronze 7. Compared to when he first entered, his combat strength had at least doubled.