CHAPTER 20: KILLING CLICHES

Feeling tired, Ray put a point into stamina.

[-1 SP]

[Your Stamina has increased from 1 to 2.]

[Remaining SP: 5]

Instantly, he felt a lot better.

What should I do with the remaining 5?

***

Rustle!

Ray was thinking about how to distribute them when he heard a rustle.

Turning towards the source of the noise, he saw a bush shaking suspiciously, and his vigilance rose.

Suddenly, a demonic boar burst out of it, charging forward madly, intending to devour Ray whole.

Its eyes were bloodshot, its body covered in bite and claw marks — it seemed like it had escaped a brutal struggle.

Ray’s eyes gleamed.

An injured prey was the easiest to hunt.

He jumped just as it was about to crash into him, landing on its back.

Immediately, the stabbing began.

The demonic boar did everything it could to get him off its back, but he held on tightly, securing his legs around its side and his arm around its neck in a chokehold, all the while using his free hand to stab it again and again with his dagger.

The boar was already deeply wounded and driven mad with hunger and pain. Getting stabbed repeatedly sent it crashing to the ground, where it breathed its last when the dagger was plunged into its head.

[You’ve killed an advanced stage iron rank beast. You have gained +50 EXP!]

Ray’s experience points surged to 270. Now he was only 50 experience points away from leveling up.

"Once I level up, my accumulated stat points will reach 7. If I invest them carefully, with my armor’s ability to channel magic power into shields and shockwaves, even advanced-stage iron rank beasts won’t be a threat. Even if I can’t kill them, they won’t be able to stop me from running away."

Suddenly, his ears twitched.

He picked up a lot of footsteps, along with howls.

Awooo! Awooo!

The howls came from the same direction the demonic boar had appeared, and when Ray turned to look in that direction, his face fell.

He saw not one, not two, but dozens of demonized wolves.

These demonized wolves were twice as big as wolves of the 21st century.

Their fangs and claws were like iron blades, and their speed was like lightning.

They were like shadows darting through trees as they converged towards him, their mouths salivating at the sight of him and the dead demonic boar.

If his stats were any lower, he wouldn’t even be able to get a clear look at them—that’s how fast they were.

"The demonic boar was running from them. I have made a grave mistake."

The wounds on the demonic boar had come from these demonized wolves. After being attacked, it had forced its way out of their encirclement, only to meet its end at Ray’s hand during its maddened charge. Even if Ray hadn’t killed it, the demonized wolves would have hunted it down eventually.

"I shouldn’t have tangled with the demonic boar. The claw and bite marks were a warning, yet I ignored them. The promise of more than 200 silver clouded my judgment."

Ray ran at the sight of them.

What pride? What honor? As long as he lived another day, he would have the chance to grow stronger and slaughter these beasts.

Besides, even teams of beast tamers who dared to fight bronze-rank beasts wouldn’t risk tangling with a pack of demonic wolves.

The bigger the pack, the more fearsome they were!

Awooo! Awooo!

Howels erupted from behind him.

While running away, Ray looked over his shoulder.

Some wolves pounced on the demonic boar’s corpse, but the rest chased after him!

"Greedy bastards," he cursed them as such as he aimed to reach the White Sparrow Town. It was the closest place with beast tamers to his location. If the wolves followed him into town, they would be slaughtered.

"Shit."

A cursed escaped his lips as a group of them led by the biggest demonized wolf he had seen yet blocked his path back to White Sparrow Town, forcing him to change course.

"Damn, these wolves are fast."

He ran at top speed, but the wolves chased playfully, and the distance between them kept shrinking.

"I need to speed up."

Ray dumped all his stat points into agility.

[-5 SP]

[Your agility has increased from 3 → 8]

[Remaining stat points: 0]

Instantly, he felt a huge boost in speed. The gap between him and the wolves stopped closing and instead started widening.

Demonic wolves were all-rounders, excelling in strength, stamina, and speed. Their intelligence was also comparable to humans. In this pack, even the weakest was intermediate iron rank, some were advanced iron rank, and a few had even reached peak iron rank. Yet Ray was outrunning them. That could only mean his speed had reached the level of a peak iron rank beast.

At this speed, he would have escaped, if the wolves weren’t so clever.

Using their numbers, they set up clever and impassable blockades all over the wilderness, forcing him into a dead end.

"What do I do now?"

Ray found himself stuck between a rock and a hard place. He stood at the edge of a cliff with the wolves close to catching up to him. Below the cliff, a sea stretched as far as he could see.

The White Sparrow Town was build close to a sea!

Awooo!

Wolves howl sounded from incredibly close, reminding him he didn’t have more than a few seconds to make a choice.

He clenched his jaw, knowing it was better to drown than get torn to shreds and eaten alive by demonized wolves.

And there was no certainty that he would absolutely die if he jumped into the sea.

"No choice then. I have to take this leap of faith."

And then.

Without a moment’s doubt, he leapt off the cliff, plummeting toward the sea like a rock thrown from above a building.

Plop!

He fell into the sea, vanishing from sight.

A breath passed.

Then two.

The wolves reached the cliff and saw no sign of him.

Just as it seemed like he had drowned, his head popped out of the sea. He gasped for breath, filling his lungs with much-needed oxygen.

The demonized wolves saw him in the sea, but they weren’t desperate like him, so they didn’t jump. Instead, they backed away from the cliff.

Awoooooo!

Just then, the howl of their alpha came from behind.

The alpha demonized wolf leaped off the cliff, falling into the sea. Motivated by the bravery of their leader, the rest followed.

"These beasts are so persistent. Truly, they are the worst enemies to have."

Seeing one wolf after another leaping into the raging river, Ray’s pale face turned paler. These beasts were excellent swimmers, and they dared to even chase their prey through tricky biome.

He turned around to swim away from them as they swam toward him.

"Oh shit!"

Bam!

He could only manage a curse before a massive wave crashed into him, pulling him underwater.

Which way is up?

Which way is down?

Ray had no idea.

He simply swam toward the first source of light he saw while underwater while holding his breath as best as he could so as to not choke on salty sea water.

To his surprise—

Instead of resurfacing, he appeared in a magical cave.

Stones were embedded in the walls and ceiling, each glowing with a warm light. The glow he had seen underwater was coming from these stones.

The cave wasn’t big. Standing at its entrance, Ray’s gaze swept across all of it.

At the end of it was a swirling blue vortex!

When he saw it, his eyes widened in unhidden delight.

"Gate to the birth place of beast tamers? It’s the gate to the birth place of beast tamers!!!"