Wu Xiaoming manifested inside his room in the ethereal realm again. The sword he gained yesterday was stored in his inventory and not in his hand - since he could handle the other creatures around here with relative ease, it would be a nice surprise for that pale humanoid creature should they see each other once again.
The broken door in the next room seemed to have come back to where it was. This was one of the curiosities of the ethereal realm - it seemed as long as the destruction was not too heavy, the environment would go back to the state he found it in, every time he exited the game and came back.
If the creatures would manifest again every time he did, then it would be quite similar to a particular genre of games he played back when he was still in his previous world.
With the Path to Enlightenment skill, the debuff on him imposed by this area felt no longer as heavy. He went into the staircase behind the safety exit and went up - he wanted to check if the jump point was still there.
It was. But this time it was guarded by another pair of skeletons: one skeleton archer, the other was a warrior, wielding two spiked maces.
Just like last time, Wu Xiaoming charged at the archer first, with two wooden sticks in both hands, which he got from breaking down a room door.
Another bone arrow shot at his chest. He conjured the energy shield and side stepped to the left. The arrow barely missed, hitting only the ground behind Wu Xiaoming.
"Attack!" Wu Xiaoming lunged at the skeleton archer. The energy blast blew up in the skeleton's face, knocking the skull off its neck. As he approached he bashed the hands of this enemy with the wood sticks and kicked it in its rib cage, completely disassembling its entire body.
Wu Xiaoming turned back to face the skeleton warrior, who just leapt towards him with both maces held high. He rolled on the ground, evading both maces by an arm's length, then swept the legs of the skeleton warrior. This skeleton lost its footing and fell backwards.
"Attack!" Wu Xiaoming roared, aiming at the skeleton warrior's chest.
"Crack!" This enemy was blasted into loose bones.
"Rough Wooden Bow: made of wood and ox sinew." - the same one dropped by the skeleton archer, coupled with a few bone arrows. Wu Xiaoming put it in his inventory - he was not a good shot by any means, but just in case he needed it.
"Rough Morningstar: made with chunky but untempered metal." The skeleton warrior dropped both of these, which was a pleasant surprise. Finally another actual weapon, ones that did not seem too expensive to use.
Current currencies: 5253 Spirit Fragments, 50 Vision Slivers. The two skeletons gave him 300 Spirit Fragments in total.
He put his hand on the jump point, then chose the house in the gated community where his father's house was, as he did yesterday.
300 Spirit Fragment later, he appeared on the top of a three-storey building located in a rather reclusive area in the community. The debuff on him disappeared, granting him a small boost in confidence. It was a building of modern design, with one corner in the back sticking out to face the mountain behind it, and the front had a gentle curvature.
There was no staircase leading down, but a trap door with a ladder below. He dropped down holding one morningstar. Before he landed, a red, toddler sized humanoid creature with two horns charged at him screeching and flailing its arms. With one swing of the morningstar, it turned into smithereens and cinder.
Imp, that was what this creature was called. Last night when he came here, three of them ambushed him at once and took a big chunk out of his leg. They were not very strong, and thus only provided very little experience and currencies. But the good thing was, there might be many of them - at least to his experience yesterday.
He walked around the spacious but empty top floor of the building. Nothing was on the open balcony, and nothing was hiding in the corners either. It seemed the imps might not have "refreshed" to the amount of them from yesterday.
Wu Xiaoming walked down the stairs. The second floor was separated into several bedrooms with a shared space close to the center by the stairs. This was as far as he ventured yesterday, for in one of the rooms lingered something quite dangerous. He was not able to beat it yesterday and had to escape to the top and lock the trap door before exiting the dream. Hell, he didn't even see clearly what it was. Today, he was refreshed and armed, ready for another fight.
He pushed open a door closest to him. It was empty - a spacious bedroom with a big window and plenty of closet space. He backed away, before pushing open another door.
A shadow charged at him, familiar foul wind and heat blasted him right in the face. Wu Xiaoming leapt backwards, his back almost hitting the wall by the staircase - the distance of his jump had apparently increased quite a bit.
The shadow let out a hoarse groan and continued charging at Wu Xiaoming. At this moment, Wu Xiaoming got a much better look at the shadow - it was a full body bear suit, with very realistic fangs and claws, worn by a person with long, messy hair and a face full of rashes and zits. As the person opened their cracked mouth, revealing crooked teeth, a hoarse roar actually came from the wobbly bear head on top of this human head.
"Fuck!" Wu Xiaoming was blasted right in the face by the shockwave. His entire body was paralyzed for a brief moment, and was only able to dodge while the sharp claw was almost at his face.
The claw left four gashes on Wu Xiaoming's cheek and temple. His face was burning and blood was dripping onto the floor.
"Attack!" Wu Xiaoming roared, while swinging the morningstar at the man-bear's left ankle.
The spiked mace head struck the fur-covered ankle right after the energy blast. A loud crack exploded from the impact. Wu Xiaoming retracted the morningstar just as the man-bear swung its claw at his back again.
"Crash!" The spiked mace head collided with the claw of the man-bear. The spikes clearly went into the paw, but the hit itself felt empty, as if he just hit an airbag.
Wu Xiaoming pulled back, turned and unleashed a kick at the man-bear's waist. The fur caved in quite easily without much flesh and bone to absorb the shock. He lept backwards without hesitation, just in time to evade another swing of the claw.
He took a few more steps back and readied his morningstar again. From the feedback he got from hitting its body, this man-bear could just be a humanoid creature inside of a bear suit, which meant his attacks should aim for the human part.
The man-bear let out another roar, this time Wu Xiaoming just conjured the energy shield in an attempt to block it - it seemed to have worked a little bit, for he recovered rather quickly after the initial flinch. It charged again at Wu Xiaoming, limping slightly from the injured leg but still waving its claws, cleaving up gashes on the walls on both sides.
"Slash!" Wu Xiaoming focused on the man-bear's neck - the bear neck, which was the section right above the human head.
A thin gash appeared on the fur under the bear head, dark liquid oozed out and black smoke arose. Wu Xiaoming lowered his body and dived forward below the man-bear's right arm. The man-bear lost its aim and clawed only the ground and the walls beside Wu Xiaoming's original position.
"Shield!" Wu Xiaoming roared as he jumped up and swung the morningstar against the man-bear's back. The sounds of bones breaking exploded from the impact, coupled with foul dark liquid shooting from the puncture holes created by the spikes. Wu Xiaoming retreated, gagging and almost puking from the foul splash he took with his chest and face - the energy shield prevented the liquid from sticking to his skin and clothes, but did not block the smell and heat at all.
"Slash attack slash!" He tried to focus on the man-bear's back wound, but the attacks all ended on the target's right arm and chest, as it turned back to growl at him.
Two bear arms raised up high, then slammed on the ground. A powerful shockwave exploded from the impact and tossed Wu Xiaoming into the air and against the wall.
"Fuck!" Wu Xiaoming cursed in his mind, he almost lost grip of the morningstar, his entire body became stiff from the collision against his back and the rumbling of his internal organs.
The man-bear seemed visibly weakened after this explosive attack, yet it still managed to collect itself and charge at Wu Xiaoming, wheezing and roaring.
Unable to command his limbs, he could think of only one way to get out of here: "Move!"
It worked, his entire body was enclosed by an invisible force and thrown to the side, rather carelessly and even violently. The man-bear crashed into the wall he was just leaning against, its claw left a nasty mark on his right ankle.
This was no time to save on equipment durability. The morningstar disappeared from his hand in a flash, and in its place was a long sword glowing in light blue.
"Grim Slash!" Wu Xiaoming roared as he swung the blade in an arc in front of him.
A light blue, crescent-shaped energy blade shot at the man-bear from this swing. The creature only had enough time to cross its arms in front of itself, before the energy blade cleaved through its arms and struck its chest, leaving a long, deep cut in its fur, which began leaking in dark liquid and black smoke.
Wu Xiaoming yelled at the full power of his lungs and he shot forward with the sword, sinking the dimming blade into the man-bear's human face, right through the nose and out of its fur-covered back. Without delay, he pulled the blade out by kicking the creature on its belly, then impaled its bear head with the blade.
Current currencies: 9083 Spirit Fragments, 65 Vision Slivers. The man-bear gave him possibly the biggest bounty he had ever had. What was more, he was now almost halfway to level 7, what a giant boost that was.
"Damn." Looking at his bleeding leg, Wu Xiaoming shook his head as he sat powerlessly next to the man-bear's body. He shouldn't have been so stingy with the sword. If he had used it sooner, it would have probably saved him all this trouble. Right now, the only option for him would be to exit the dream, for he was in no state to continue fighting, unless -
As the body of the man-bear dried up, crumbled and turned into ash and dust, two glowing red bubbles and what looked like a fur vest were left on the ground.