Volume One: First Arrival Chapter Two: The Attack

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With sleep eluding him, Meng Xingchen opened the system panel to distract himself from wandering thoughts. The attribute panel offered little of interest—only the character rank value behind "Biological Tier" had changed from 0/50 to 23/50; everything else remained the same.

Switching to the task panel, the topmost entry was the first main quest: "Survival in Another World." The requirement was for the host to endure seven days in this foreign realm, overcoming hardships. Upon completion, rewards would be granted based on the host’s performance. Below that was a system notification: “Killed a Tier 1 Shadow Leopard (juvenile), gained 23 points of biological energy, and 1 point of Human Contribution.”

From his conversation with Li Daniu, Meng Xingchen learned just how fortunate he had been to escape the leopard’s jaws yesterday and even manage to kill it.

Li Daniu was the hunter who had assisted Meng Xingchen by shooting the black panther. After rescuing him, learning that he was a traveler lost in the mountains who had lost all his belongings while fleeing, Li Daniu warmly brought him back to a small village called Lijia Village and settled him in his own home.

The Shadow Leopard was no ordinary beast; it was a magical creature innate with shadow powers. From birth, it could hide within shadows, and once it grew a little, it could perform shadow jumps. Adult Shadow Leopards were said to be Tier 3 beasts, with claws imbued with shadow energy capable of tearing through iron armor effortlessly. Moreover, their wounds would not heal naturally and would continue to bleed indefinitely. What other special abilities they possessed was beyond the knowledge of a humble mountain hunter like Li Daniu.

Normally, such mid-tier beasts should not appear on the outskirts of a forest village like Lijia. It was unclear how this juvenile Shadow Leopard had wandered here, but it had been lurking in the surrounding woods for over ten days.

Despite being only a Tier 1 juvenile, it naturally could vanish into shadows and perform shadow jumps, making it virtually invincible in a forested environment. Even beasts above Tier 3 found it difficult to kill.

In just over ten days, this juvenile Shadow Leopard had wreaked havoc on Lijia Village, a small mountain village reliant on farming, fishing, and hunting. It had killed two children playing in the woods and wounded three hunters who ventured into the mountains.

Upon mentioning this, Li Daniu’s honest, weathered face was marked with sorrow. Among the two children killed was his own son.

Having lost his wife early on, Li Daniu had painstakingly raised his son alone. The boy was his whole world. His death nearly shattered him, but only hatred kept him going through the darkest days.

In truth, no one in Lijia Village had dared to hunt in the mountains recently. Although this made their already hard lives even more difficult, it was better than being injured or killed. Li Daniu’s purpose in venturing into the mountains was not mainly for hunting, but to seek vengeance for his son by tracking down the Shadow Leopard.

Meng Xingchen only then realized that for others, when the Shadow Leopard slipped into the shadows, it was effectively invisible and undetectable.

This Shadow Leopard had been incredibly unlucky to encounter Meng Xingchen, whose awakened supernatural ability countered all its powers. Its shadow concealment was neutralized by the passive insight ability, making its hiding futile. Its penchant for ambush was thoroughly exposed by the comprehensive vision. Had it grown even a little stronger, relying on pure physical strength, it could easily have crushed Meng Xingchen, a rank-five warrior of limited power. But as a juvenile, it held no such advantage.

This gave Meng Xingchen a clear understanding of the difficulty of the "Survival in Another World" quest. Although he currently lived relatively well, with food and shelter provided and residing in a comparatively safe village, encountering magical beasts wielding supernatural powers right after transmigration meant that without an awakened ability that happened to counter them, his fate would have been sealed immediately.

He did not believe he could quietly survive in this village for the remaining six days.

He had to find a way to grow stronger, Meng Xingchen thought silently. Otherwise, with his frail physique, even a robust wild animal could end his life.

At that moment, noises came from outside—it seemed Li Daniu was up. Meng Xingchen quickly dressed and stepped outside to find the sky already tinged with dawn.

Li Daniu was in the courtyard, working on the body of the Shadow Leopard—the so-called courtyard was a small fenced area in front of three earthen houses.

Seeing Meng Xingchen awake, Li Daniu greeted him with a simple, sincere smile before returning to his task.

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Meng Xingchen did not disturb him, fetched some water from the kitchen to wash up, then picked up a machete leaning by the firewood pile and left the yard.

When he had followed Li Daniu back to the village yesterday, Meng Xingchen noticed a bamboo grove at the village entrance. Now, he headed straight for that bamboo grove.

The club activity that led to Meng Xingchen’s transmigration was organized by a group called the Javelin Club, of which he was a member. This club was rather unconventional in a university full of eccentric talents.

When Meng Xingchen first entered university, out of curiosity for college life, he joined clubs like everyone else. But his only real interest was reading novels; he had no other hobbies. Wandering aimlessly at the club recruitment fair, he was inexplicably recruited into the Javelin Club.

This club was niche and unconventional; their goal was not to throw the javelin far but to throw it accurately.

When thinking about how to grow stronger, Meng Xingchen immediately thought of his only offensive skill. The damage from throwing a spear was considerable, and making one was simple—just carve bamboo. More importantly, it was a form of ranged attack, prioritizing safety. For Meng Xingchen, who urgently needed to develop cautiously, this was perfect.

When he returned to Li Daniu’s yard carrying several bamboo stalks stripped of branches, he found the yard crowded with people. Villagers gathered around the skinned and gutted Shadow Leopard carcass, pointing and discussing it animatedly. One woman, appearing about thirty years old, was weeping uncontrollably.

Li Daniu, surrounded and somewhat bewildered, brightened upon seeing Meng Xingchen and pulled him into the crowd, recounting the story of how Meng Xingchen had killed the Shadow Leopard.

For a time, Meng Xingchen was drowned in the villagers’ words of gratitude.

Once the enthusiastic villagers finally dispersed, both Meng Xingchen and Li Daniu sighed in relief. Neither was skilled in social interaction, and the villagers’ warmth had been overwhelming.

As Meng Xingchen prepared to process the bamboo into roughly one-meter-long spears, Li Daniu handed him a gray-black, thumb-sized orb.

As Meng Xingchen took it, the system chimed: “Ding, detected absorptive biological energy. Extract now?”

After asking Li Daniu, he learned it was a beast core, which only beasts of Tier 1 or above would form. This item was very valuable and could be exchanged for a fine hunting bow at the market more than twenty miles away. Li Daniu’s own bow had been traded for a beast core obtained when he killed an old wounded Wind Wolf.

Though aware of its high value, Meng Xingchen decided to let the system extract the biological energy. His urgent priority was to increase his strength to face the dangers ahead.

While Li Daniu went to prepare breakfast, Meng Xingchen held the beast core in his palm and silently commanded, “Begin extraction.”

The beast core visibly dimmed, eventually turning into powder in his palm and scattering with the wind.

Opening the system panel, he saw a notification beneath the task panel: “Extracted biological energy from Tier 1 beast core, gained 100 points of biological energy.”

Switching to the attribute panel, the biological tier value changed to 123/50 and flashed continuously. Meng Xingchen knew he was ready to level up.

He inhaled deeply, whispering, “Level up.”

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The biological tier in the attribute panel changed to Tier 0, Level 1, with the value adjusting to 73/100. A new entry appeared between agility and human contribution: Free Attribute Point: 1. The values for spirit, constitution, and agility began to flash.

Planning to make javelin throwing his primary attack, Meng Xingchen decided constitution was the attribute he needed most. Without hesitation, he allocated the free point to constitution.

As soon as he finished, a warm current arose from his heart and spread throughout his body with the blood. He could distinctly feel his previously weak muscles tightening. Other changes were less obvious, imperceptible for now.

Seeing that only 27 points of biological energy were needed for the next level, Meng Xingchen calmed himself and began processing the bamboo stalks he had carefully selected, each about the thickness of a human wrist.

He intended to craft short spears—easy to carry and capable of inflicting considerable damage when thrown. The process was simple: cut bamboo into one-meter lengths, sharpen one end, and smooth the other.

Just as he began working on the tenth spear, Li Daniu called him to eat.

Putting down his tools, Meng Xingchen headed to the kitchen, having risen early and worked hard all morning; he was very hungry.

Breakfast was a bowl of porridge resembling boiled sorghum grains, mixed with some wild vegetables. The texture was coarse, and the taste was hard to describe, but Li Daniu ate it with relish.

With no choice but to fill his stomach, Meng Xingchen forced himself to eat as well.

Suddenly, a sharp whistle sounded from the back mountain. Li Daniu immediately set down his bowl and rushed to his room.

Meng Xingchen followed, asking, “Brother Li, what’s going on?”

Li Daniu emerged with his hunting bow, replying, “That was an alarm whistle. Looks like some goblins have approached the village.” With that, he dashed toward the back mountain.

Meng Xingchen grabbed five of his short spears, leaving some behind for convenience, and followed.

As they hurried toward the source of the alarm, Meng Xingchen quickly realized the effect of the extra point in constitution was far greater than he had initially felt.

Previously, he would have been gasping and his calves aching after a few hundred meters of jogging. Now, he had run nearly a thousand meters over rough mountain paths with Li Daniu, feeling only slightly out of breath and warm.

They soon found the villager who had sounded the alarm—a middle-aged man with a hunting bow and a hunting knife at his waist, whom Meng Xingchen had seen earlier in Li Daniu’s yard. Without wasting words, the man explained, “They’re goblins. We don’t know how many. You two go search over there.” He pointed in a direction with his hand.