Chapter 35 First Skirmish 1



This was quite an... interesting scene. There was a man, a bunch of whimpering mutated dogs, and one final mutated dog deep in death throes that was spraying extremely toxic body fluids and innards around as it writhed in pain.

If this was supposed to be funny, it really wasn't. If this was supposed to be horrifying... it also kinda wasn't. Neither amusing nor blood curdling left one with a feeling of speechlessness.

The other mutated dogs hung back while watching their buddy die slowly in pain while Dante remained near its body with a menacing posture. The moment the mutated dog died, he placed his hand on its corpse and activated his Absorption superpower the same way he did with Quantum Entanglement.

Immediately, one could see a visible wave of greenish-red light emerge from the corpse of the mutated dog that entered into Dante's body, looking like a mixture of mist and lightning.

Dante had always wondered what it would be like to plunder or devour, absorbing the power of another for your own and feeling your own power rise in tandem.

You might assume it was euphoric, and that would only be partially true. Dante would describe it as the feeling when a male was about to orgasm but hadn't reached the peak. In other words, those last few seconds of build-up before the explosion.

And then the absorption stopped, and it was like being forced to stop midway.

Dante's eyes became bloodshot not from anything, but from the urge to slaughter. In this moment, he understood why users of such a power were usually psychopaths with bloodthirsty natures, willing to kill anyone or anything to increase their power.

The feeling of being right about to reach the peak and then being cut off was extremely terrible. This power could not be given to the average man and the average man should never wish for it.

You would be putting yourself under the worst kind of torture that required iron-like will to survive without losing your mind completely.

Dante received the feedback from Absorption and knew how much he had become stronger. Absorption fedback a percentage of the target's stats based on the rank of the superpower.

At the F Rank, Dante only got 10% of it, hence his SDI increased as such;

「Player Name: Dante

Player Race: Human

HP: 11.5/11.5

Strength: 1 -> 1.3

Agility: 1 -> 1.35

Dexterity: 1 -> 1.4

Intelligence: 1 -> 1.02

ραndαsnοvεl.cοm Constitution: 1 -> 1.15

Vitality: 1 -> 1.15

Mutation Index: 0% (Safe)

Radiation Index: 10% (Okay)

Superpowers: Quantum Entanglement, Absorption.」

The mutated dog had increased Dante's stats by a significant amount at this early stage, making him nearly one and a half times as powerful in an instant.

And this was just one corpse!

There were 5 more dogs here. If he were to kill them all, and assuming their stats were to be the same as the one he just took down, then he could even easily surpass his SDI in real life!

Against other players and 'NPCs' of this world who all had 1 point in all fields, Dante would be like a god!

His breath hitched at this thought and his already unstable mind from the stimulus of the superpower could no longer process the risks accordingly. The normal Dante would obviously be tempted, but know that fighting five dogs came with the risk of death at the slightest mistake.

It was better to use his current deterrence to back away and flee, then hunt down single targets smartly and efficiently in order to raise his SDI in a semi-safe manner to a certain point before entering the city.

But looking at the current him, he clearly was not capable of such rational thought. Dante practically roared as he flexed his muscles and felt the increased strength, craving more.

He charged at the five remaining two-headed mutated dogs with his knife in hand, shocking the beasts but arousing their ferocity. They still held some fear from the sudden attack, but their instinct told them that Dante was not yet qualified to make them tuck their tails and flee!

They barked menacingly with drool that sizzled the ground dripping from their jaws and charged as well, spreading out to attack him. Dante ignored those that were flanking him and aimed at the mutated dog right ahead of him.

It bayed and leaped towards his throat with its jaws open, which made it easy enough for Dante to plunge his knife right into the lower part of the jaw of its left head.

In truth, dogs were quite scary to go against, but if you kept calm and had sufficient reflexes, they actually weren't that difficult to deal with. Their claws were not sharp like a feline to be used as a weapon, so they relied on their jaws to kill.

So this limited the ways in which they could attack, making them predictable in a head-on clash. Of course, this was obvious to anyone, but it was the reflexes and getting past the fear part that made most people lose to dogs in head-on brawls.

As for wolves, they were a different ball game. However, none of these beasts were anywhere as large or menacing as a wolf. They barely passed Dante's knees in terms of height and they were not that thick.

The mutated dog's eyes widened as the knife plunged in and the left head died immediately. As for the right, it whimpered with a dazed look and fell to the ground, inches from death.

Two heads didn't necessarily mean two separate brains, but more like one brain split into two. If one half of your brain died right now, you would probably follow along with it no matter how healthy the other side was.

But this was the least of Dante's worries. This dog had paid with its life for its fellows to get into position, and they sure as hell were not wasting the chance.

The mutated dogs that flanked him circled around and leaped from where they were with their jaws outstretched. From right, left, and behind, all of them pounced at the same time, leaving Dante virtually no way out.

Well, it was possible to just leap forward if one had great reflexes and reaction speed, then avoid the mutated dogs then take them down one by one, but one would need a little something called training.

Since Dante had none, he did try to dodge relying on his natural instincts to step back, or in this case, step forward, but it was not good enough. Two pairs of teeth sunk into his right and left thigh while another pair sunk into his lower back, causing him to shout in pain.

The pain sobered him up and he seemed to wake up from his haze of power lust. Immediately, Dante realized he had fucked up and was a victim of the downside of the Absorption superpower, something that was created to balance its seeming limitless utility.

Even if he could kill these mutated dogs, he would either die from bleeding out or from the poison of their body fluids or even the radiation they had directly poured into his body.

Still, where there was life, there was hope. Despite logically knowing he would probably fall over in death soon after, he was not dead yet, so he still fought for a chance of survival.

Dante took his knife and plunged it into the head of the mutated dog biting his right thigh, forcing it to yelp and let go, then fall to the ground as its legs began twitching in an almost comical manner.

As for the one biting his leg and back, they began to tear into his flesh, using their teeth to try and rip out the flesh they had bitten so Dante could start bleeding out.

Anyone who had been mauled by a dog could definitely sympathize with the pain. Dante grabbed the head of the mutated dog that was biting his left leg and stabbed his knife into it multiple times with hatred on his face.

The pain he had never felt before in his 21 years of life caused him to go berserk and crazy. Eventually, the mutated dog that got his back achieved its goal and with a horrifying rip sound, fell to the ground with a chunk of human flesh and clothing in its mouth from Dante's back.

Dante screamed and was immediately paralyzed by the pain. Luckily it did not get his spine, but it did not matter as the final mutated dog that had hung back now used this chance to bite the arm Dante used his hold his knife.

The dog with his flesh in its mouth threw its head up, and the piece of bloody meat went sky high then fell down its gullet while it chewed it with relish.

The mutated dog swallowed the meat and its two head's eyes seemed to narrow from pleasure and enjoyment. With a vicious bark, it leapt forward to get another bite of this sweet meat!