Anomaly Zone

Ryan pushed through the bustling crowd, heading for his secret spot. It was in the Windrest Plains, right by that old, broken-down cart. You know, the one where the wagon wreckage was scattered for what felt like miles? A few Level 3 Frenzied Wolf Cubs usually hung out there in small groups.

He pulled up the stats for one of them:

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Frenzied Wolf Cub

Level: 3

Health: 142

Type: Beast

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Now, the wolf cub's armor was a bit of a mystery. Ryan couldn't quite see the exact numbers, but it didn't really matter. His Paladin skills dished out magical damage, which pretty much ignored armor anyway. At worst, his regular attacks would just hit for a tiny bit less.

He had just gotten a new ability from the Retribution's Path quest, called Fist of Light. It was one of two skills new players got at Level 1.

Fist of Light: Deals 120% weapon damage as holy damage. Costs mana, grants 1 Holy Power. 5-second cooldown.

His starting weapon was pretty slow, attacking only once every 3.8 seconds. And Fist of Light had a 5-second cooldown. So, in a 5-second window, Ryan could hit a wolf cub with two basic attacks and two ability attacks, tops. A third basic attack wouldn't land until 7.6 seconds, and a third ability attack would take 10 seconds.

Ryan did some quick mental math. He remembered from way back when that he probably wouldn't last 10 seconds against a Frenzied Wolf Cub. He could maybe take three hits before he was toast.

Creatures like Beasts, Dragons, and Constructs usually attacked every 2 seconds or so. Since the Frenzied Wolf Cub was a Beast, it would be hitting Ryan every two seconds.

If his memory served him right, a Level 1 character would usually take about 30 to 50 damage from a Frenzied Wolf Cub's attack, depending on their armor. His current armor would probably knock that down to just over 30 physical damage. With only 80 Health Points, a third hit would definitely send him to the respawn point.

But Ryan wasn't there to die. He was totally confident his plan to level up here would work.

Finding that Weapon Oil was a huge bonus. Even without it, he could still level up, just a bit slower.

Most creatures under Level 10 were slower than players. It wasn't until you hit Level 10 and moved into new areas that some monsters would actually keep up with you. Later on, though, they'd be way faster.

Knowing this, Ryan could slowly chip away at the Level 3 Frenzied Wolf Cubs. He'd just hit them with a basic attack and an ability right at the start, then bolt out of their attack range. He'd run for a few seconds to shake them off, then heal up with Radiant Light.

If he kept doing that every 5 seconds, he could take down a Frenzied Wolf Cub in about 20 seconds.

But with the Weapon Oil, he wouldn't have to deal with that boring routine.

He pulled the Weapon Oil out of his bag, coated his longsword, and got ready to hunt.

-62

-85

The weapon, now slick with Weapon Oil, dropped the Frenzied Wolf Cub instantly with just one basic attack and an ability strike. Ryan was ecstatic! The cub didn't even get a chance to hit back.

The 62 was white damage, meaning it was from his basic attack, and the 85 was from his Fist of Light ability. A quick calculation told Ryan that the Frenzied Wolf Cub's armor was indeed pretty tough, reducing his basic attack damage by about 8 points.

The area around the broken cart wasn't huge, just a few dozen yards across. But it was crawling with seven or eight Frenzied Wolf Cubs, and a big grin spread across Ryan's face.

Five seconds was plenty of time for Ryan to move to the next cub after taking one down. He didn't rush his attacks, waiting for his Fist of Light to come off cooldown, then combining it with a basic attack to instantly finish off another cub.

Soon, most of the Frenzied Wolf Cubs around the cart were gone. But just as Ryan killed the last one, four new ones suddenly popped up around him.

Ryan couldn't help but laugh. Just as he remembered, it was an anomaly zone!

Anomaly zones in Kingdom Forge were a special thing. In these areas, the monster population stayed constant. No matter how fast you killed them, you could never completely clear them out.

There was this old video of a mage who did an experiment, and it was still pinned in the strategy section of the forums. The location of that experiment? Right here, at the derelict cart.

The mage used a maximum-range Blizzard, covering the entire cart area. The area-of-effect attack, hitting every second, instantly killed all the Frenzied Wolf Cubs. But as soon as one dropped, several new ones immediately reappeared nearby.

By the time the minute-long ability ended, the cart area was covered in glowing corpses, a sight that made everyone gasp.

Even after all that, four Frenzied Wolf Cubs were still roaming around the derelict cart. It always amazed people who knew about anomaly zones.

That video was how Ryan had learned about this place.

Each Frenzied Wolf Cub gave Ryan 30 experience points, and he was killing them super fast. He could take down about nine cubs a minute. If nothing went wrong, like a missed attack, he could even hit twelve kills a minute.

About an hour later, the Weapon Oil on Ryan's longsword finally wore off after he killed another cub. He paused, looking at all the shimmering monster corpses scattered on the ground, and let out a whoop of pure joy, diving in to grab the loot.

In Kingdom Forge, dead monsters didn't just drop their loot automatically. Players had to manually take it from the corpses. This system made 'loot stealing' almost impossible. You could only claim the treasures if you had the right to loot before the creature was killed.

In that hour, Ryan had racked up a total of 16,500 experience points, having killed 550 Frenzied Wolf Cubs!

Now, all those scattered corpses held a treasure trove, just waiting for him to collect!