CHAPTER 57: WOLVES!

"Don’t even think about it. If you really think you can spend more time than the usual time required, then you’re mistaken. If you follow up with your plan, first—you will be forcefully teleported out, and your stats and stat points will be halved in the process. You will also lose your newly gained Supreme Thief Skill."

Hearing this, Leon frowned and gulped simultaneously. The punishment was severe—he couldn’t afford to stay back.

’My stats and stat points halved? Why am I just hearing of this now? So the system really has the ability to do all this?’

’Master, most things in this dungeon are not under my control... You’re the one that placed this restriction.’

’There it goes again...’ Leon rolled his eyes upon hearing its words.

’Well, whatever. I need to get out of this fuckin’ place before my stats get halved because of forced teleportation.’

With this in mind, he quietly walked to the vortex, flexing his newly grown arm simultaneously.

It was only now that he noticed the burning pain had stopped. He’d been too focused on the rewards earlier when it ended, and the system didn’t bother to notify him.

’I didn’t notify you because I’m not the one doing that. I’m not the one healing you, and my job is not to go around notifying you about every small thing.’

’You could have just told me.’

’...’

Leon sighed at its silence. By now, he was already in front of the vortex and could feel the actively swirling chaotic mana.

He found a strange sense of comfort in that feeling.

Looking around the place one last time, he engraved it deep into his heart.

He knew he wouldn’t be able to enter this place again until Level 50.

After taking that final glance, he sighed once more.

This place would remain etched in his memory—an important Chapter of his mind.

With that, he walked toward the vortex.

The vortex, not wasting any time, sucked him straight into the void.

After he was sucked in, his sight blackened.

The void was so dark that, at first thought, he truly believed he’d gone blind.

’Is there anything out there darker and more chaotic than the Void itself?’

He clenched his fists with excitement.

He wasn’t excited by that thought—but by the idea that he might have an exceptional spatial affinity.

Of course, he didn’t have it yet... but that’s the first affinity he planned to steal.

He knew how terrifying spatial attacks could be...

And how awesome it would be to teleport between short and long distances.

He was sure that when he became high-leveled, traversing galaxies wouldn’t be a problem.

And he couldn’t wait for that day to come.

The day he steals a spatial affinity would be the happiest and most exciting day of his life.

Soon, the darkness vanished without a trace, leaving him standing on his two feet.

But before he could take a proper look around, a wave of cold assaulted him.

He knew what that meant, so he instinctively activated his Mana Barrier, and the temperature of his skin dropped drastically.

If there was one thing he knew right now...

It’s that he needed to finish this dungeon as quickly as possible.

First—he was unable to reabsorb mana like normal because the Qi in the air was foggy—mixed with a massive amount of ice and frost elemental essence.

This, in turn, made his MP reduce rapidly due to the slower natural conversion rate of Qi to mana.

Secondly—the frost wave was doing his barrier no good.

Thin and thick needle-like icicles, about 2 to 7 cm, were swirling around with the wind.

Many of them kept hitting his barrier again and again.

And with less mana reinforcing it, it wouldn’t take long before his barrier got punctured.

He looked around, shivering at the sight in front of him.

The place looked like a no man’s land—there was nothing he could use for direction.

No sun. No trees. Nothing at all.

Everywhere was covered by thick mounds of snow.

And Leon was certain the snow extended about 15–20 meters deep beneath where he stood.

Ferocious winds were swirling around at an inhumane speed, carrying along with them sharp icicles.

It was similar to what you might call a blizzard.

These ice storms were many times stronger than the ones that used to occur almost half a century ago (30–49 years) before the Qi-Sensing Era.

Sigh...

’If only I had an affinity to the ice element... At least my chances of survival would increase, because my skin would be somewhat compatible with ice. But that’s not the case.’

’But Master, you can also steal affinities—once you fulfill the hidden requirements.’

’I can’t tell you that, telling you the requirements would be a huge spoiler. You have to fulfill those criteria yourself.’

Leon started walking, walking to exactly the place he faced after stepping out of the portal. With nothing like a map or anything of the sort to navigate, he would just keep going this way till he found a ’prey’.

After walking for some time, he spotted some paw prints.

"Hmm, a paw this large... this wolf sure is bigger than normal wolves," Leon said as he observed the paw of that beast carefully.

After thinking for a while, he decided to ask the system a question.

’System, is there anything I need to know about this dungeon?’

’That the beasts here are somehow a little bit weaker than the boss beast you fought some time ago, with the dungeon boss of this dungeon being as strong as ten raven bosses altogether.’

’Is that it?’ Leon relayed this message, about why it was hard for the raven dungeon boss to kill him—because of its injury and lack of ideas. But now, he was sure he could handle this dungeon well.

’That’s not all, Leon. There are other things... but you would find out yourself.’

After walking for a while, Leon spotted a lone wolf.

The wolf looked like a gray wolf, except that it was much taller, much more robust, and had a fierce-looking pair of canines.

He looked at its stats.

┏━━━━━━༻❁༺━━━━━━┓

[MUTANT GRAY WOLF]

─────⋅☾ Beast’s Details ☽⋅─────•

[LVL 7]

[HP: 3996]

[Ranking in Pack (Beta 45)]

─────⋅☾ Beast’s Stats ☽⋅─────•

[Strength: 90]

[Stamina: 94]

[Agility: 124]

[Defense: 88]

[Intelligence: 58]

┗━━━━━━༻❁༺━━━━━━┛

"Mutant Gray Wolf, huh!? What an interesting name!" Leon was amused.

’These wolves even have rankings in their pack... they must be very intelligent.’

’It is ranked 45 in Beta. Mutant wolves are surely more of a social animal than those fuckin’ ravens.’

Shaking off his thoughts, he then activated Light Steps and started walking towards the wolf, wanting to finish it from behind.

When he activated the skill, he felt refreshed and cool-headed. He felt his speed increase drastically, and all that made him feel even cooler—but he didn’t let it get into his head, even though this was the first time he was activating the skill.

He had wanted to activate the skill at that pond, but the timing did not let him. He decided to do it in the dungeon, but the dungeon’s temperature and all that made him forget about the skill completely.

But now that he activated it, he found out that this was not the type of skill that was hard to get used to—unlike the Mana Jet skill.

It did not take long for him to get close enough to be able to strike with his dagger.

He was surprised. As far as he knew, animals that have the kind of ears wolves have are very good at hearing. But why hadn’t he been detected yet?

’Is it the effect of Light Steps or am I being tricked?’

He wanted to ask the system but decided against it. No matter what, he had to face whatever was coming with his brain and hands.

But just as he was about to attack, the wolf gave out an ear-piercing howl...

And turned to look at Leon with a smug on its face.

It was like it was telling him, ’Did you think I’m that foolish!?’

Its look was a mocking one. Before Leon could even understand what was happening, he had already been surrounded by Mutant Gray Wolves.

’So that’s how things are. Here I am thinking I’m in control of the situation, not knowing I’ve been lured into a deadly trap.’

Though Leon was surrounded, he was not scared. If anything, he was ready to fly out if his life was at too much of a risk. He knew that wolves can’t fly... or can they?

Neither would they be able to send elemental attacks at their current stage.

Without wasting time, he brought out his dagger, infusing it with as much Mana as possible to ensure maximum effect before slashing at the Beta 45 beast, which was the closest wolf.

He slashed with his left-hand dagger at its ass. Then slashed with the right-hand dagger at its neck.

There was no need to think of any weak spot, because as far as he knew, all animals have softer bodies at their ass and neck.