Strength (STR): 13(+7)
Intelligence (INT): 18(+2)
Dexterity (DEX): 12(+2)
Skill Power (SKL): 8(+2)
Constitution (CON): 10(+7)
Skills held: 5/10
- (A-Tier Skill) Conjure Fireball
- (B-Tier Skill) Goblin Mania ← Active (00:00:30 remaining) | Empowering (D-Tier Weapon) Goblin Longsword
- (C-Tier Skill) Overpower ← Active (00:03:00 remaining) | +2 to all stats
- (E-Tier Skill) Beast Attractor ← Active | +5 to STR and CON
- (V-Tier Skill) Forced Casting
Inventory Space: 3/10
- (B-Tier Item) Ammonium Nitrate Cube
- (D-Tier Potion) Potion of Energy Drink
- (J-Tier Potion) Potion of Permanent Buff
As the massive [START!]
flashed onto my vision, I braced for my feet and waited for the direwolf
to attack… but it didn’t. Even after the preparation time was over and
we were now unfrozen from place, the direwolf did not lunge at us as I
expected. It was trying to circle around us, its claws audibly scraping
against the pavement with each step, and its low growl vibrating the
air.
Why wasn’t it attacking?
A thought ran through my head. What if it’s trying to gauge that we weren’t a threat?
I exhaled. The theory was reckless, even borderline suicidal, but
this was a D-Tier encounter—one that yielded the same rewards as beating
the first wave boss. We could try to fight it as Yuna was already
strong with her explosive puppets, but if the wolf were to close its
distance to her, it’d mean the end of her. It felt impossible to
out-hunt something that had been doing it for their entire existence.
So, I made a decision.
I returned my longsword to my inventory.
“What are you doing?!” Yuna exclaimed.
The weapon vanished, still empowered, with Goblin Mania’s timer still
frozen in place. The System did not forbid me for it. That alone told
me I was still playing within its rules. Without turning to the girl, I
said, “Yuna, if it tries to attack me, I’m counting on you to get me
out.”
“Are you—?” Yuna caught on to my plan. “It’s a freaking direwolf,
it’s not a dog you can tame! You’re trying to get yourself killed!”
“I know,” I said. “If it was wild and wanted to kill us, it should’ve already done so.”
Whatever the GREED System was trying to make us do here, it was
trying to perpetuate a cycle of killing. Beings like Baekhel had a mind
of their own; he mentioned he was a general that was part of the goblin
army, forced only to participate in this EVENT if they did not want to
die. His words even sounded like the goblins were forced to be there, just like us. They might be doing the same to these wolves.
Maybe I was wrong. Maybe this wolf didn’t have a mind of its own, and
this was just part of its usual behavior. I exhaled deeply, only hoping
that I wasn’t digging my own grave here. I walked to the direwolf in a
slow, predictable pace. I spotted Yuna’s puppets slowly moving across
the red border out of its sight. The direwolf doesn’t seem to notice the
puppets, or maybe it doesn’t see it as a threat.
The monster watched me intently with glowing blue eyes, its movement
still passive as it watched me approach it. And when I got close enough,
just within arm’s reach, I raised my right hand. It trembled despite my
effort to steady it. The direwolf noticed. Its ears twitched, and it
stepped forward, lowering its massive head. My fingers brushed against
its smooth black fur, past the translucent shadows that seemed to be
part of its very being.
At that moment, I celebrated with a thought, No way, did it actually work…?
Suddenly, the familiar tone of a Pop-up Quest chimed in my head. The
Elimination Quest timer was already beneath the EVENT timer, so the new
quest appeared alongside it.
[Pop
Fulfill any of the following conditions to get a special reward!
- KILL. THE. FUCKING. WOLF.
- Reward: (A-Tier Potion) Potion of Stupidity
- OR DIE.
- Reward: (A-Tier Potion) Potion of Stupidity
Expiration: 00:00:10
The moment it appeared, the direwolf suddenly stopped. Its eyes
changed, its body shook as if it was having a seizure. Its peaceful blue
eyes dilated into something similar to that of a rabid animal.
“Devon!” Yuna urgently shouted, but it was too late.
Before I could pull my hand out, the direwolf lunged straight into me.
I found it surprising that I even managed to react to its movement at
all—let alone fast enough to catch it. Somehow, I stopped it mid-lunge,
my arms wedged into both of its open jaws. Even more shocking, I was
able to hold it in place.
I could feel it struggling immediately. Its claws dug into the
ground, scraping against the pavement as it tried to push itself away
from me, but I refused to let go. I held my stance firmly as it thrashed
against my grip.
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With [Overpower] and [Beast Attractor] active, I had twenty points in
my Strength stat. Was that really enough to hurt something like this?
I had expected the direwolf to be overwhelmingly strong, something
that would instantly overpower me. But being able to hold it like
this—feeling as if our strength was almost even—made me think twice
about this monster’s strength. It made me wonder whether this wolf was
considered weak or if I had actually become strong enough to match it.
Or maybe the difference between a LVL 5 human and a LVL 7 direwolf was so small that my stat buffs more than made up for it.
I clenched my fists while holding it, trying to crush its nose and
edge of its jaws, before realizing it was too ambitious of a move to
accomplish. The direwolf’s jaws were strong.
Too strong. They weren’t brittle like goblin bones at all. Instead,
they felt metal-hard and unyielding that it was probably much easier to
crack someone’s arm. Realizing brute force alone wasn’t going to work, I
pivoted on my heel and launched a hard kick into its body.
That was a mistake. Not only did it to not do any damage, but the
moment I shifted my balance and relied on one leg to support my weight,
the wolf pulled itself out of my grasp. I stumbled forward that almost
made me fall. If I had actually fallen, I wouldn’t have been able to
react at the direwolf suddenly lunging forward.
Its claws were now heading for my torso. I didn’t even have time to
see it react properly. For a split second, I was sure I was about to get
hurt. Then, the magical shifting breastplate activated. A yellow
outline of an armored breastplate flared to life, covering only my torso
just in time. A large gash immediately appeared into it, then it broke
into fragments that scattered into the air, then disappeared.
[Your (D-Tier Armor) Magical Shifting Breastplate is recharging.]
[Duration: 00:10:00]
Shit, I cursed. With my armor gone, I can’t keep taking any more damage.
Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Yuna keeping her distance
from the fight. That was good. The direwolf was only focused on me, most
likely because of the [Beast Attractor] skill still active. I forced
myself to keep engaging it, trading blows with the wolf again and again,
punching it and holding it still to keep it from utilizing its innate
agility.
But brawling it in close range without using my weapon now had its
consequences. The direwolf lunged again, and this time I couldn’t hold
it in place. I tried to dodge, twisting my body away, but my arm flailed
in its direction at the worst possible moment.
Its jaws clamped down on my arm.
Pain exploded instantly as it pulled back, tugging with terrifying
force, as if it was trying to rip my arm straight out of my torso. I
barely registered my own voice tearing itself out of my throat as I
screamed.
At the moment, I realized something.
The timing between the direwolf becoming feral and the aggressive Pop-up Quest was too close together to be a coincidence.
The System had done something to the wolf.
As my anger flared with that realization, I took out my empowered
Goblin Longsword with my free hand and stabbed it directly into its
neck, trying my hardest to ignore what felt like the most painful
experience I’ve ever felt so far. The blade sank halfway through its
body, but it was not enough to kill it. The wolf threw me out of its
reach, slamming into the invisible barrier. I quickly got on my feet,
ignoring my bloodied arm.
The direwolf lunged at me again. Yuna’s puppets jumped into its head
before it reached me, all exploding simultaneously. When the smoke
cleared, its balance began to stumble. The wolf growled and suddenly,
the shadows from its skin began to erupt like a raging flame, detaching
from its body. Its corporeal form destabilized as its entire body
liquefied and sunk into the darkness of the shadows beneath it. The
sword that I’d stabbed into its neck now clattered onto the ground. The
monster had vanished completely.
it wasn’t over yet. I quickly took out a Potion of Moderate Healing
from my inventory and drank it. My crushed bones began realigning and
fixing itself at a rapid pace, so much so that I could feel them
grinding inside me. The healing numbed the pain, but the deep wounds
left by its jaws refused to close as quickly.
In the ground, a trail of blood was seemingly appearing out of
nowhere. It was moving swiftly, as if blood was painting itself into
existence. It plastered itself on the ground, to the buildings, and when
that shadow stepped out of the light on the building… The direwolf
emerged. It leapt out from the side of building under its own shadow,
and from the sky, it was heading straight for me.
I rolled, barely avoiding it, snatching my fallen sword as I moved.
The moment it landed, I rushed, closing the distance between us.
The wolf was looking at me the entire time that I tried to attack it.
I gave it too much time to react, and because of that, my sword
effortlessly phased through it as if it had become shadow. The tip of
the already-dull longsword struck the ground, and the monster took that
opportunity to get close to my head in an attempt to devour it.
In an instinctive sequence of movements, I let go of my sword, formed
a fist with that hand, and punched it away before it could do any
damage to me. My punch connected, the wolf stumbling away and crying,
almost as if it was hurt.
I used that time to grab hold of my sword. As I spaced myself from
it, Yuna’s puppets have been waiting on the sideline. Three of her
puppets, which she just summoned, jumped to its head as they
collectively exploded again. The direwolf stumbled on its balance,
crying and roaring. I tried to rush at it again with my longsword when
it immediately retreated into the shadows without a second thought.
The wolf’s shadow was nearly impossible to see with the buildings’
shadows obscuring it, but the blood trail from its earlier wounds gave
its location away. Again, it went into the ground, then into the sides
of the buildings...
And it stopped beneath Yuna’s feet.
Desperate, I screamed, “YUNA!”
She tried to run but she quickly stumbled on her feet. I rushed to
her—but I noticed too late that the direwolf didn’t emerge to attack
Yuna.
She used her as a decoy.
Because the moment I tried to run, the wolf’s shadow immediately
rushed below me. I threw myself backward as I narrowly avoided the
direwolf from completely obliterating my legs. I could see its
silver-colored jaws but it was also leaking blood when I hadn’t even
wounded it.
Blood? In its teeth? My eyes
widened at the realization. As Yuna struggled to stand up again using
the spear as support, I shouted, “Yuna! Give me one of your puppets!
Detonate it on my signal!”
“But your hand—!”
“Just do it!”
An explosive puppet spawned on my free hand as my other hand from
earlier was still healing itself. I intentionally closed my distanced
from the direwolf, brawling at it in close distance. It lunged straight
at me, jaws aiming at my head, but I narrowly avoided it and offered my
arm instead—the one with the explosive puppet. I used my entire core to
keep it in place for a moment, at least until I put this puppet inside
it
And with that hand, even if it was crushed already and the adrenaline
muting every pain I was feeling, I jammed another item alongside the
puppet inside it.
The wolf immediately recognized I just buried two things down its
throat. It tried to puke it by coughed violently. I forced my arms to
move and mustered all of my strength, clamping its jaws shut to keep the
items inside. My mangled arms eruipted in pain once again, but I
endured it. It was nothing compared to that Agony debuff from [Forced
Casting].
While in close proximity with the wolf, the shadows surrounding its
fur began to move again—trying to turn into a shadow again to escape
from its place.
I was not about to let it happen.
“DO IT NOW!” I shouted.
The second item I jammed in the wolf’s throat, along with the puppet, was my B-Tier Item.
The Ammonium Nitrate Cube. While generally harmless in itself,
ammonium nitrate is a compound used in ammonia-based dynamites. If hooked to anything that introduced intense heat and energy in a short period of time, and in our current case, Yuna’s puppet as a primer…
BOOM.