Chapter 24: Wolf Slaying

​​​​​​​Zephyrwolf was rendered speechless, his eyes looking to and fro between Drako Yau and the two dead giant wolves. Still, all he got out of him was his usual emotionless look.

‘All good? Let’s go then.’ Drako Yau then went behind Zephyrwolf, looking like he was ready to set off.

Zephyrwolf had a complicated look while walking.

The battles that followed ended without any incidents. With Drako Yau killing two giant wolves on his own every time, Zephyrwolf only had to duel with a single giant wolf, which made things a lot easier.

Rather than the difficulty, Drako Yau was more surprised at the sheer amount of experience each giant wolf gave. Zephyrwolf laughed as the light that indicated a level up shone around him.

‘The monsters here are worth tons of experience, it’s kinda my small reward despite failing both times. Or else I won’t be able to raise four levels in just two days… Speaking of levels, you’re really leveling up like crazy.’

Zephyrwolf was somewhat startled as he looked at Drako Yau. He had been merely Level 5 just two days ago, yet he was already Level 11 now, meaning he blazed through six levels in such a short time frame. While those six levels cost less experience than Zephyrwolf’s four levels, he was still leveling up at a scary speed.

On the other hand, Drako Yau wasn’t too surprised about his own growth rate. He had been farming Blazing Cave alone, so he gobbled up all the experience that was originally meant for an entire party. In that case, it wasn’t all that surprising he could level up so quickly.

In the hour which they had been fighting in the cave, Drako Yau also had a taste of the sweet experience of the giant wolves and leveled up to Level 12 not long after Zephyrwolf had his level up.

The two came to a halt before a straight, open path. Zephyrwolf tensed up and said, ‘We had to give up here in the second attempt. Three giant wolves will attack us, but one of them is black and it’s a lot stronger than the normal ones.’ (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});

Drako Yau nodded and asked, ‘Are you confident in holding off two giant wolves at the same time?’

Zephyrwolf had a good look at Drako Yau as he understood the implication of his words. The way he asked, it seemed like he was planning to single-handedly take care of the powerful black wolf.

‘Yeah, for a short while. Ten minutes at most. It’s not like I don’t have enough potions, but they hit harder than the healing rate.’

‘Then we’ll have to settle for that.’

After finishing their discussion, the two stepped forward. Soon enough, another three shadows blinked into existence, and a particularly dark and large silhouette blocked the path. It was almost four metres tall and had dark, glossy hair that almost glowed.

Without sparing any time, the three wolves howled and lunged at them. Zephyrwolf responded with a howl of his and intercepted the two regular giant wolves.

‘Remember, 10 minutes! Any more and I’m dead!’

‘Right’, Drako Yau muttered a single word and charged forward with his spear.

Just like that, the two humans and three wolves engaged in a deadly fight. Setting aside Zephyrwolf who was barely surviving the onslaught of two giant wolves, Drako Yau also sharpened his mind and engaged the dark wolf.

‘Ouuu!’ The dark wolf swung its claw at him. Instead of dodging, Drako Yau simply readied his spear horizontally in front of his body.

Claw clashed with metal. Drako Yau shuddered upon the impact, his mind also slightly shaken.

Such strength… It’s on the same level of the fire crystal giant elder in Hell difficulty.

His aim wasn’t just to defeat it, but also to probe the dark wolf’s strength in order to estimate what he had to expect on the second level. He was also trying to gauge the approximate strength of the demon wolf king which they likely had to fight against.

A monster on the first level was already comparable to the fire crystal giant elder in Hell difficulty. Making his deduction based on this… wouldn’t the demon wolf be a monster that was as strong as the Fire Crystal Master?

If that was true, Drako Yau would unhesitatingly give up on the quest.

‘Grrrr!’ Pressing on with its momentum, the dark wolf lowered its head after its claw was blocked to bash Drako Yau with a headbutt.

‘It’s quick! This has to be a skill right!’ He swiftly employed the Empyreal Dragon Step and evaded the headbutt, getting a bit more in the mood as he did. ‘I’m just going easy on you, yet you’re so arrogant!’ He thrusted his spear as he yelled at the wolf.

After reaching Level 12, he invested all his skill points into Spear Mastery, which now increased his attack when using spears by 10 per cent. Together with Might, his basic attacks now had 20 per cent increased damage, making them comparable to beginner skills of the normal classes. Of course, it was referring to Level 1 skills.

However, Drako Yau also pursued the additional damage of the Weakness Exploit system. His spear pierced through the air several times, landing on the dark wolf’s waist as red glows flashed one after another. The wolf yelped from the intense pain, but Zephyrwolf also shouted from behind at the same time, ‘Hey dude, speed up! I can’t hold on much longer!’

‘Shut up.’ Drako Yau furrowed his brows and answered like he didn’t care, but his spear was clearly thrusting in and out faster now.

While the dark wolf’s damage was similar to the fire crystal giant elder in Hell difficulty, it almost moved like a robot that simply followed the routine of using the Steel Headbutt skill and spitting out wind blades. Apart from its head, almost every point on its waist was a weak point. It was a lot weaker than the fire crystal giant elder that had rock-hard crystalised skin and a variety of attacks.

‘I’m at my limit…’ Zephyrwolf felt disappointed as he checked his health. While he still had around a third of health left, the rate of healing clearly couldn’t keep up with how much damage he was sustaining. ‘Dammit! Do we have to give up here!’

A silhouette dashed past him, and the next moment, Drako Yau was already toying around with two giant wolves. The two-metre-tall wolves were like toys in his eyes, and in just a few minutes, they were lying as corpses on the ground.

Drako Yau calmly hung his spear onto his back, feeling a bit upset as he thought, Indeed, it’s a special dungeon for encounter quests. Apart from experience, the monsters don’t drop any equipment or gold. The items that those Level 10 giant wolves drop shouldn’t be bad at all…

As he was deep in thought, he couldn’t have seen the awe-struck Zephyrwolf staring at him. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});

This guy… I don’t even know if he’s Level 12 or 21 anymore!

Zephyrwolf had better equipment and a higher level, yet Drako Yau easily slain the giant wolves he had been struggling against, not to mention the dark giant wolf which was even stronger.

The two then continued to tread further into the cave. Not long after, a seemingly endless tunnel appeared.

The quest NPC character Lelei also spoke upon arriving at the tunnel. ‘This… probably leads to the second level of the Demon Wolf Cave. The monsters will be stronger than those on the first level… Oh brave heroes, please be careful.’

Zephyrwolf and Drako Yau exchanged glances, then entered the tunnel together. They had gone through the trouble of coming all the way here—no one in the right mind would simply turn back right now. Especially after seeing the godlike strength of Drako Yau, Zephyrwolf was brimming confidence right now.