Following the map's guidance, Zhang Yi arrived at the Dark Forest, located about a half-hour's journey south of Hope Town.

  Under the cover of night, this vast forest, situated by a river and devoid of people, was filled with countless demon wolves whose eyes emitted a blue glow, making it appear particurly eerie and terrifying.

  Given that it's a level 6-8 map, at this stage, besides Zhang Yi, no other pyers dared to come to such a high-level pce to train.

  Awooo~

  The chilling howls of wolves echoed from the forest, sending a shiver down Zhang Yi's spine as he stood outside the Dark Forest.

  Cng—

  The rge iron hammer hit the ground as Zhang Yi, alone, dragged the hammer and stepped into the forest.

  Under the moonlight, he saw the vast forest filled with rge gray wolves with blue glowing eyes. Zhang Yi casually locked onto one of the highest-level level 8 demon wolves and used a Detection Skill—

  [Demonized Wild Wolf] (Magic Normal Monster):

  Level: 8

  Talent: Anti-Magic (The demonized wild wolf's attacks can ignore 20 points of the target's magic defense)

  Magic Attack: 65

  Physical Defense: 30

  Magic Defense: 22

  HP: 440

  Description: Originally living in the woods, these wolves mutated due to environmental pollution. These demonized wild wolves possess strong anti-magic abilities. If you don't have high enough magic resistance, try to avoid provoking them...

  Goodness, this level 8 wild wolf actually has 65 attack power!

  If it were a physical monster, that would be fine, since Zhang Yi's physical defense reached 61 points, meaning he wouldn't be threatened by the wild wolves. The headache is that it's a magic type, and Zhang Yi's magic resistance is only 45 points.

  Of course, the strongest aspect of the demonized wild wolf is its [Anti-Magic] talent, which means that Zhang Yi effectively only has 25 points of magic resistance in front of it!

  This is even with Zhang Yi equipped with the [Man-eating Bug Boots] and [Bio-Trousers], both providing 25 points of defense. Ordinary pyers would likely be bitten to death in just a few hits by these level 8 demon wolves.

  Zhang Yi checked his own stats.

  After adding the 5 points from leveling up to level 5 into Strength, his attack power had reached 78 points. Combined with the 30-point damage boost from the [Serious Injury] talent, dealing with the level 8 demon wolf with 30 points of defense wasn't much of a problem.

  However, Zhang Yi decided to start with the more manageable level 6 demon wolves. After all, the goal was to complete the Collect Wolf Pelts quest, so why take unnecessary risks with higher-level opponents?

  The level 6 demon wolves only had 50 attack power, and their [Anti-Magic] talent could only ignore 12 points of magic resistance, posing minimal threat to Zhang Yi.

  So, locking onto a nearby level 6 demon wolf, Zhang Yi approached with his rge iron hammer.

  Entering the effective attack range of 30 meters, the demon wolf let out a howl and spat a blue magic orb from its mouth, hurling it toward Zhang Yi.

  Zhang Yi quickly sidestepped to dodge, then swiftly approached the demon wolf and swung his hammer down.

  Fatal Strike!

  Bang—

  The iron hammer, glowing red, nded on the demon wolf, dispying a damage number of 97 above its head!

  The level 6 demon wolf had only 300 HP, and with this hammer strike, Zhang Yi nearly took out a third of its health. As a level 5 pyer, with the attack boosts from a level 25 weapon and a level 25 ring, Zhang Yi's damage was terrifying.

  The 11 Agility points from the [Guardian Armor] significantly increased Zhang Yi's speed. Before the demon wolf could react, he swung the hammer again—

  -88!

  Without the Fatal Strike bonus, Zhang Yi's normal attack dealt only slightly less damage.

  At this point, the demon wolf, with more than half its HP gone, lunged forward and finally managed to bite Zhang Yi.

  As a sharp pain shot through his left arm, Zhang Yi triggered the [Angel's Protection] talent of the [Guardian Armor], which manifested a faint energy shield around him. This not only absorbed the 17 points of damage from the demon wolf but also left more than two-thirds of the shield intact.

  With a 10% max HP bonus, the shield had 10% of Zhang Yi's max HP, equating to 57 HP.

  Immediately, Zhang Yi swung his hammer again, triggering the [Lucky Strike] talent of the [Lucky Ring], dealing 1.5 times the damage—

  -134!

  The remaining sliver of the demon wolf's HP bar was instantly depleted, and with a mournful howl, it colpsed to the ground.

  "Ding~ You have killed a level 6 [Demonized Wild Wolf], gaining 25 EXP!"

  Three attacks, taking out a level 6 demon wolf without a scratch, the efficiency was incredible.

  Crouching by the demon wolf's corpse, Zhang Yi collected 3 Copper Coins and a gray wolf pelt, exactly what was needed for the quest.

  Locking onto the next target, he continued the hunt.

  With a Fatal Strike, normal attack, and a Lucky Strike on the third hit, Zhang Yi could typically take down a level 6 demon wolf in three hammer strikes.

  Although the Fatal Strike only dealt 9 more damage than a normal attack, those 9 points were crucial.

  Since a level 6 demon wolf had 315 HP, repcing the Fatal Strike with a normal attack would only deal 310 damage in three hits, requiring an extra strike to finish the battle.

  One extra strike per wolf, a thousand wolves would mean a thousand extra strikes, wasting a lot of time. So Zhang Yi preferred to spend a bit more energy.

  With a 100% drop rate for wolf pelts, Zhang Yi's collection efficiency was extremely high, and his EXP bar was rapidly increasing.

  After killing over 40 demon wolves, a golden light descended, and Zhang Yi leveled up to 6.

  Adding all 5 points to Strength, Zhang Yi then shifted his focus from level 6 to level 7 demon wolves.

  Because the [Extreme Hunt] Survival Quest required killing monsters higher level than himself.

  Level 7 demon wolves had 50 more HP and slightly higher defense than level 6 wolves, requiring four hammer strikes on average to defeat, but they also offered 5 more EXP, with each level 7 demon wolf providing 30 EXP.

  Thus, starting just before 1 AM and continuing until 8 AM, Zhang Yi finally collected a thousand wolf pelts!

  By this time, Zhang Yi had leveled up from 5 to 9 by hunting a thousand demon wolves, though the [Extreme Hunt] quest progress was only two-fifths complete, as even the highest level 8 demon wolves in the Dark Forest couldn't fulfill the extreme hunt requirement after reaching level 8.