Xu Feng's vision blurred for a few moments before it cleared up, having returned to his original place in the Verdant Valley.
'I'm surprised Kai didn't message me at all.' He glanced around his surroundings and realized Zhao Kai was no longer nearby.
However, he did detect that the Ironwood Treant he found earlier had been killed already.
The area of that spot was vacant now, and it would take some time before it would regrow into an ordinary tree or another Ironwood Treant.
"Where did this Shadow Blade go?" Xu Feng mumbled softly, checking for footsteps or traces that could lead him to Zhao Kai.
Now that he realized just how close proximity he was to Zhao Kai's eldest sister, he needed to be careful of how to address Zhao Kai in the open.
Thus, he decided to call for Shadow Blade, and not Kai aloud.
Who knows if there might be some hidden lurkers spying on him?
Paranoid or not, it was best to play it safe and ensure nothing could go wrong.
A few seconds later, Xu Feng straightened up, his eyes following the trail of disturbed foliage and subtle footprints as he moved cautiously.
Although the Ironwood Treant monster did not attack players, it was hard to say that there weren't going to be some random monsters that had ventured here accidentally.
After all, not all monsters were zone-restricted, meaning some monsters could legitimately chase you to the end of the world until you escaped from them or killed them.
Following the trails cautiously, Xu Feng finally heard some gunshots from afar, followed by a maniacal laughter.
'That should be Kai, alright.' Xu Feng smiled helplessly at how enthusiastic Zhao Kai could be from hunting these Ironwood Treants.
In his memories, most players dreaded when tasked to fight these lifeless monsters because the experience points were trash and all you did was constantly attack and attack without break.
It was no exaggeration to compare these Ironwood Treants to the training dummies that one used to practice their skills.
Sometime later, Xu Feng arrived deeper into the trees-filled zone and spotted Zhao Kai from afar.
He was kneeling down on one knee, sweat trickling down his forehead as he angled his Ironbolt Rifle.
As his finger pulled on the trigger, a loud bang echoed through and the bullet quickly penetrated the body of the Ironwood Treant. It was a hit on its critical flesh point, amplifying the damage of the bullet.
Just when Xu Feng was about to call for him, he suddenly made a pause.
'This Kai… he figured this out without needing my reminder.' Xu Feng curled his mouth slightly upward, making a brief grin. He leaned his back on the tree and watched Zhao Kai changing his aim angle to another spot.
With another shot fired, Zhao Kai landed on the critical flesh point again.
His eyes were firm and determined, clearly focused on the Ironwood Treant.
There was literally no distraction and Zhao Kai's gaze was fully locked on the monster.
He kept firing in different spots after the first shot, but by the fifth time, Zhao Kai smiled bitterly once he realized his damage hadn't been amplified.
"Sigh, I failed at the 5th mark again." Zhao Kai shook his head and stopped his shooting, allowing the Ironwood Treant to slowly recover its health points.
While he patiently waited, he began murmuring to himself about his failure.
"The critical flesh point constantly changed after it was hit, but there are still noticeable transitions to let you spot it. Ugh, but these damn transitions get harder to spot as you continuously hit them consecutively. How am I supposed to deal with that?" Frustrated, Zhao Kai scratched his head, seemingly helpless by the situation.
"Heh, I didn't expect you to overthink that much. What happened to the person who brute-forced everything?"
"WHO?"
Alerted, Zhao Kai held his Ironbolt Rifle, ready to attack, but halted himself when he noticed who it was.
"Feng, can you not scare me like that?" Relieved, Zhao Kai placed his gun down and patted his chest.
"Haha, I didn't mean to spook you." Xu Feng chuckled lightly in response.
He then glanced at the recovering Ironwood Treant, and with a smile, "Your eyesight is quite keen to detect that critical flesh points are interchangeable."
"That's a given, of course." Zhao Kai rubbed his nose and said quite pridefully.
"After I killed a few more Ironwood Treants, I realized that even though I shot at the same spot where the critical flesh points were originally, I didn't receive any damage amplifier. That was when I realized they changed after being hit." He added, raising his chin up.
"Not bad indeed. And here I thought you would waste more time making an X label mark continuously." Xu Feng nodded.
"Hmph, you knew I was heading in the wrong direction but still didn't warn me about it. How generous of you!" Zhao Kai clicked his tongue and pouted, seemingly blaming Xu Feng for his lack of advice.
However, Xu Feng knew that he was just fooling around and was actually grateful that he had concealed such a matter.
To be babysit constantly and be told what to do.
What fun could there be?
Part of the fun in playing games is the joy of discovering something new and adapting it to further improve their gameplay.
"Haha, I guess I'll need to compensate you a little for having you suffer." Xu Feng suddenly exclaimed, shocking Zhao Kai.
"What? You, a cheapskate will actually compensate me?" Zhao Kai tilted his head and nearly had his eyes popping out as he stared at Xu Feng in disbelief.
"What do you mean by cheapskate?" Xu Feng rolled his eyes, raised his leg, and gave Zhao Kai a kick.
"Anyway, take a closer look at this small demonstration. Watch carefully because I'm only doing it once." He then said, taking his staff out.
Confused, Zhao Kai watched silently, unsure of what he was planning.
Xu Feng paced himself steadily as he walked close to the Ironwood Treant, and under the scrutiny of Zhao Kai, he began to swing his staff.
THUMP!
A critical flesh point was hit and triggered the damage multiplier.
However, Xu Feng was not done as he gracefully moved a few meters to the right and swung his staff again.
"A-Another critical flesh point hit instantly?!" Zhao Kai's mouth was left open as he witnessed something that could be said to be a miracle.