Chapter 77 - The Wolves Den - IV

"Why are you torturing yourself for the satiety buff?" Merlin asked her while taking another whiff of the spice mix, causing his eyes to water.

"Well, it wasn't just for the buff, I just wanted some good soup, but there wasn't any." She said with a saddened expression.

"Well, if you want good food, I'm sure there's some kind of job soul for cooking." Merlin suggested, somewhat hoping that she would pick it up. If their group acquired a chef, they would be able to get high level food buffs without having to spend a ton of money.

"Well regardless, this may come in handy for the boss." Merlin lifted the bag of spices. "A pinch of this in the wolf's nose and it'll hurt."

"What about this then?" Typhoeus picked up the flask of black liquid that Merlin found at the Redmond mansion. "Is it a potion or some kind of oil?"

"Unfortunately, I need to get it inspected before I can tell you for certain, but based on where I got it and it's appearance. I'd have to say that it's most likely infected blood." Merlin explained. "So I wouldn't recommend drinking it."

"I'm not even going to ask why you just decided to pocket a vial of blood." Typhoeus gently placed the flask back on the ground while staring at Merlin.

"It might come in handy, who knows?" Merlin retorted, picking the vial up and throwing it back into his inventory. "Chances are it's a much stronger version of my rose poison, so I don't want to waste it on a level ten boss. I may get it appraised in the future."

"Our best bet would be to separate the nine basic wolves from the other three and kill them off first." Merlin explained, "So if we can abuse this narrow opening so we don't get swarmed, I think we'd have a chance."

Looking at the rest of the items laying around, Merlin picked up the two vials of oil and the shoddy net. "If we soak the net with lantern oil, we can use it to trap the boss for a few moments and deal some damage."

Typhoeus seemed interested with the idea, so Merlin gave him the task of soaking the net. While he was doing that, Merlin and Snowbunny started coming up with a way of dealing with the rest of the pack.

"So we need to bait them here from afar, and not have the entire pack chase us down immediately." Snowbunny said while staring at the supplies. "What about the rope? we could make a trip wire."

"It didn't look like there was an obvious area to tie a rope around." Merlin thought out loud, "But maybe we'll get lucky, sneak over there and check."

Snowbunny grabbed the rope and made her way back towards the opening, and as soon as she left, Merlin turned back towards Typhoeus and began asking him a question. "So why did you buy the shovel?"

"It might come in handy, who knows?" Typhoeus copied Merlin's previous retort, but repeated it in a sarcastic tone. Merlin shook his head and turned his attention back to the pile of items, his current thoughts were just to set the boss on fire and just fight his way through the rest.

A few minutes later, Snowbunny came back with the rope and an expression that made it abundantly clear she was disappointed. Merlin didn't even ask her if she had any luck, he just watched as she threw the rope back into her inventory and sat back down.

"The net is done, what are we doing now?" Typhoeus spoke up without any care for the atmosphere. "We've got a plan for the boss, what about the two extras."

"I'll take one, but I cant fight off both of those, not even if you poisoned them." Snowbunny spoke up, repeating what she said after killing the first level seven dire wolf they saw.

"I think it'd be best if we poisoned them and hit them with a pinch of spice powder each, that might give us enough of an edge to finish them off." Merlin suggested, "Then we'll all deal with the boss after everything else is dead."

"If we start getting destroyed, we've always got the option of escaping, so lets just give it a shot." Merlin said, "Now come get your weapons coated."

Merlin cut his hand on his gladius and began coating the edge, and after repeating the same process for the rapier and the scythe, he decided to spill some of his blood on his sling ammunition.

The group waited a few minutes while Merlin regained his lost health, during this time they picked up the remaining items, only leaving the three torches out. The group started making their way over to the narrow entrance once more, and Merlin made sure to recast light, just in case the battle dragged out and they were left in darkness again.

"We'll hit them from afar with the sling." Merlin said, "Then we'll block the entrance off with the torches."

Merlin started chanting while touching the tip of the torch Typhoeus was holding, and it suddenly caught fire.

「Skill ⟪Ignite⟫ Activated.」

Snowbunny used the Typhoeus' torch to set both of her torches alight as well, and she got ready to throw them both.

Merlin put one of the blood-covered metal balls into his sling, causing some of the blood to soak into it. He span it around a few times while peering into the room, and when he felt the time was right, he let the ball fly.

The ball ripped through the air and embedded itself into the side of one of the wolves who was happily sleeping with its pack. It suddenly jerked awake and began looking around its surroundings, which started waking up a few of the wolves that were asleep next to it. A few of the wolves noticed a faint light coming from around the corner of the entrance, and started charging towards it.

"Now!" Merlin yelled while firing off his sling once more, sending a ball into another wolf.

Typhoeus and Snowbunny threw the torches into the middle of the entrance to the best of their abilities, and only moments later a small group of four wolves dashed out from it, their fur coats suddenly becoming fuel for the fire.

The rest of the wolves stopped in time, but those that didn't had obtained some serious burns. The scent of burnt hair filled the cave, making Snowbunny and Typhoeus gag.

"Finish them off, quickly." Merlin shouted while slashing at one of the wolves.

The other two drew their weapons and followed his command, and after a few attacks while the wolves were distracted, they had killed them all with ease. Out of the remaining five dire wolves, it seemed that one on the other side of the entrance had caught fire, but the rest seemed fine.

Merlin stood at the entrance and began wasting the rest of his sling ammo while the wolves didn't dare charge through the fire. He managed to pick off the wolf that caught fire previously, reducing their numbers even further, as well as poison one of the mini-bosses before the torches died out.

「Passive skill ⟪Rose Blight⟫ has triggered, target's stats have been reduced.」

"Here we go." Merlin braced himself at the entrance with what remained of his shield as the remaining four low tier wolves charged at him. The two mini-bosses and the boss were behind them, but unable to get through due to the others.

"Start picking them off." Merlin shouted while swinging his blade at a wolf that leapt towards his shield, slicing its side and sending it barrelling to the floor.

Another wolf leapt up to take its place, it peaked its head over the hole left in Merlin's shield and attempted to bite his face. Fortunately a scythe appeared above his head in time, piercing the wolf's skull. 

"Thanks! Alright a big one is about to join, lets back it up." Merlin yelled as he took a few steps back while pushing back against another wolf that began slashing at his shield with its claws.

The wolf rolled out of the way as Snowbunny's rapier pierced its torso. Merlin looked to see that she had killed a wolf already, and Typhoeus had dealt with the one he impaled, leaving just two left.

She then took her stance behind Merlin once more as they continued backing back into the previous room, taking jabs at the enemies that pounced Merlin. A larger wolf poked its head through the entrance and turned to stare at Merlin's group.

"Here comes the first mini-boss, this one's all yours Snow." Merlin yelled out while stabbing a wolf in the head. "Come get a refill if you need more blood."

Snowbunny dashed past the remaining wolf that Typhoeus made quick work of shortly after, and began attacking the larger wolf. After three strikes, Merlin received another notification telling him the passive had triggered.