Chapter 8

“What do you mean by th— Ian?!”

Mev turned her head, her eyes widening in shock.

Ian was already far away.

“Stop right now! Come back!”

Despite her urgent shout, Ian plunged straight into the middle of the wolf pack without hesitation.

“That lunatic…!”

Philip cried out in horror at the suicidal act.

As expected, one of the charging wolves leaped directly at Ian.

Blood burst out immediately afterward.

Not Ian’s blood, but a fountain spraying from the wolf’s severed neck.

A flash of steel appeared, and the wolf’s head flew off while its jaws were still wide open.

Before the body even hit the ground, more wolves charged from every direction.

Ian jumped the instant afterward.

“……!”

Mev’s eyes twitched slightly.

For a moment, it looked like Ian’s body had leaped once more in midair.

After vaulting over the wolves charging him, Ian rolled once across the ground and immediately began running again.

Just as fast as before.

Soon, even his figure began blurring among the wolves’ afterimages.

In the blink of an eye, he had broken through the encirclement.

Several wolves chased after him, but surprisingly, Ian seemed even faster than they were.

“…….”

Staring blankly at the scene, Mev suddenly turned her head.

Slash!

A wolf trying to ambush her while she was distracted split cleanly in half.

“What do we do, my lady?! Should we chase after him?!”

Philip shouted while pushing away another wolf with his shield.

Mev looked forward again.

By then, Ian had already vanished into the darkness of the forest.

Only the faint silhouettes of the wolves chasing him remained before they too disappeared into the shadows.

Suddenly, she remembered Ian’s words from before the battle.

That there was something only he could do.

Staring into the darkness, Mev spoke.

“No. Hold your position, Philip.”

“Then at least help me, my lady! At this rate I’m really going to die!”

At Philip’s scream, Mev tightened her grip on her sword and turned around.

Because of that, she failed to notice the purple glowing eyes racing away through the darkness of the forest in a straight line.

Ian wasn’t particularly knowledgeable about hunting.

But he did know the one thing you should never do when facing a predator.

Turn your back and run.

That behavior stimulated a beast’s instincts.

Predators stayed wary of approaching targets, but instinctively saw fleeing targets as prey.

That was why Ian had deliberately sprinted away despite already knowing where the leader was.

Not long afterward, his senses warned him.

‘It’s coming.’

A rough breathing sound brushed past his ears.

Not the breathing of ordinary wolves.

It carried excitement and fury.

Ian slowed his running pace.

The wolves chasing him lunged immediately, as though they had been waiting for it.

Exactly the reaction he wanted.

Slash, crunch! Yelp—!

The wolves were butchered instantly.

Ian deliberately flicked the blood from his sword.

The breathing that had closed to point-blank range was now accompanied by a growl.

Ian stopped abruptly and turned around.

Burning purple eyes immediately seized his attention.

Huge fangs gleaming even in the darkness.

“Pissed off?”

“Grrrgh!”

The creature roared and leaped.

Purple claw marks streaked through the darkness before crashing down toward Ian.

Craaack!

The Raging Barrier that had saved him multiple times tore apart helplessly.

Watching the scene with cold blue eyes, Ian stretched out his left hand.

Mana gathered in his palm and flashed with icy blue light.

Crack—!

An ice shield instantly formed before his palm, covering Ian’s body.

Blue magic. Frost Shield.

Sharp ice spikes protruded across the shield’s surface like a sea urchin.

Crunch!

The purple claws slammed into the shield and stopped.

Meeting the glowing eyes beyond it, Ian grinned.

“Nice to meet you, mutt.”

“GRAAAH!”

Boom!

The moment its massive fanged maw opened, the shield exploded.

Ice fragments scattered directly into the creature.

They couldn’t tear through its thick hide, but they were enough to leave cuts and knock it back.

Crash!

The giant body rolled across the ground.

Before bouncing even three times, it regained its footing.

Screeeech!

Long claw marks carved across the earth.

Drops of blood splattered onto the ground as the creature slowly stood while growling.

Only then did Ian properly examine it.

It was a massive creature over two meters tall, like some horrifying combination of a gorilla and a wolf.

Its arms were longer than its legs and as thick as Ian’s waist, ending in blade-like claws.

Its face, glowing with purple eyes, looked like the worst possible fusion of man and wolf.

Black fur protruded like spikes from the bridge of its nose, rising and falling with each breath.

At that moment, a translucent window appeared before Ian.

Side Quest.

Taking his stance, Ian muttered,

“I expected it, but you became even uglier, Andolf.”

Cursed Andolf.

The name of both the side quest and the werewolf.

“GROOOOOOOAR!”

Andolf roared.

To Ian’s eyes, the purple mana erupting from the creature was perfectly visible.

The howl made his skin sting.

But that was all.

In the game, the howl had inflicted fear status on characters.

To the current Ian, it was nothing more than noise.

Perhaps realizing it had no effect, Andolf kicked off the ground again.

Purple claws slashed through the darkness in a long arc.

To Ian, who had already prepared for it, the attack was painfully obvious.

CRASH!

The tree behind Ian snapped like a twig.

Dirt exploded into the air where the claws struck.

Through the cloud of dust, gray glowing eyes shimmered like heat haze.

Ian had avoided the attack simply by stepping diagonally backward twice.

Immediately afterward, a violent gust burst through the dust cloud.

Crunch!

Ian’s sword slammed deep into Andolf’s outstretched forearm.

Even Wind Blade wasn’t enough to completely sever the limb.

“SKREEEECH!”

While Ian clicked his tongue, Andolf shrieked and raised its other arm.

Just before the purple claws descended—

BOOM!

A thunderous explosion erupted, and Andolf’s massive body lost balance.

A formless explosion had detonated from the sword embedded in its arm.

Gray magic: Vacuum Explosion.

Like most lower gray magic, its range was extremely short, but its destructive power was unquestionable.

Flesh exploded outward in a spray of blood.

“SKREEEEEEECH!”

Supporting itself with its remaining arm, Andolf screamed in agony.

Black blood pumped violently from its shredded right arm.

Crunch!

Before it could even process what happened, Ian’s sword stabbed into the arm supporting its body.

Another explosion followed.

“KRAAAAAAH!”

Andolf collapsed amid a storm of blood after losing both arms in an instant.

The effect of Wind Blade faded, leaving Ian covered in flesh and blood as he jumped backward.

“God damn it.”

Ian’s face twisted, not because of the blood and flesh coating him.

But because his sword had broken in half again.

He had barely left the village, and it was already ruined.

“KRAAAH…!”

Meanwhile, Andolf, writhing on the ground in agony, suddenly curled its body inward.

The fur all over its body stood on end.

Ian’s eyebrows rose.

“Already?”

BOOOOOOM!

Almost at the exact moment Ian instinctively summoned Frost Shield again, a purple explosion erupted from Andolf’s body.

Pure mana exploding outward without any technique whatsoever.

Ian barely hid behind the shield before being blown away.

As he rolled across the ground, Andolf pushed itself up using only its legs and leaped high.

Directly opposite Ian.

Blood sprayed from its severed arms in long arcs.

BANG!

The arcs abruptly stopped when Andolf slammed into something.

An ice wall.

The wall collapsed together with the crashing Andolf.

Crackcrackcrack—

The shattered wall instantly froze again into a honeycomb-like structure.

By the time Andolf shook its head and stood, it had already become trapped inside a prison of jagged ice bars.

“KRAAAAAAH!”

Andolf hurled itself against the prison while roaring, but the ice cage only shook violently instead of breaking.

“Same pattern, but slightly different…”

Beyond the cage, Ian slowly rose with one hand extended forward.

In the game, Andolf also fled once its health dropped below a certain point.

Even if you blew off its head, it escaped anyway, impossible to catch.

And a few days later, it would reappear completely healthy, leading another wolf pack.

Which meant that if you wanted to kill it, the first step was cutting off all its limbs so it couldn’t escape.

Or using movement-restricting skills like Ice Prison.

Still, even Ian hadn’t expected it to attempt escape the moment it lost both arms.

In the game, even severed limbs hadn’t reduced its health enough for that.

However, Ian did remember that Andolf only unleashed its mana explosion either right before escaping or right before losing all its limbs.

That was why, even while being caught in the explosion, Ian had cast Ice Prison.

And it had worked perfectly.

“You scared the hell out of me. Thought you escaped, bastard.”

Spitting out blood-mixed saliva, Ian’s eyes flickered gray.

The mana in his hand shifted from blue to gray.

The dust and blood mist around him swirled violently into his palm.

A whirlwind spinning fast enough to be visible.

Crackle, crackle—!

Blue sparks began bursting within it.

“KRAAAAH!”

Sensing danger, Andolf charged at the ice prison again.

BOOM! Crack! Craaack!

Without additional mana support, cracks spread across the prison before it finally began collapsing.

CRASH!

Andolf burst free through the shattered ice.

Cracklecrackle—!

Waiting outside was a whirlwind filled with blue lightning.

The Ice Prison had bought Ian more than enough time to finish the spell.

CRACKBOOM!

The Lightning Gale engulfed Andolf.

A blinding flash exploded outward, intense enough to numb vision.

Every hair on Andolf’s body stood upright while tiny electric currents danced around its arched body.

“Guh… aaah…”

Smoke rose from Andolf’s mouth as its eyes rolled white.

Thud.

The creature dropped to its knees.

Whoosh!

Ian charged forward, Wind Blade wrapped around him.

He thrust his open palm toward Andolf’s abdomen.

A blade of wind protruded from his palm.

His hand pierced directly into Andolf’s stomach.

BOOOOM!

Vacuum Explosion detonated inside Andolf’s body.

The sound resembled a drum of leather bursting apart.

Andolf collapsed backward.

Entrails and blood poured from its torn-open abdomen.

Panting heavily, Ian still observed the creature with cold eyes.

His head throbbed from using mana continuously, but he remained ready to cast another spell at any moment.

Unlike the game, there was no health bar now.

With the stubborn vitality of a werewolf, there was always the possibility it could still escape in this condition.

Fwooosh—

Then Andolf’s flickering purple eyes finally dimmed.

Purple mana rose from its body like heat haze before dispersing.

Crack, crack—

Soon its body began convulsing, twisting, and shrinking.

“Hoo…”

Only then did Ian lower his raised arm and sit down.

Crunch, crack—

The giant body gradually became smaller.

Its beast-like head slowly regained a more human shape.

And within its eyes, filled only with savagery moments ago, faint traces of reason returned.

“Tha…”

Its lips trembled.

“Thank… you…”

“Then at least leave clues about your curse or some loot behind. Don’t think gratitude alone is enough.”

Ian spoke while wiping the blood and entrails stuck to his hands onto the creature’s fur.

Even Ian didn’t know what curse Andolf had suffered.

Maybe it had been another side quest he missed.

Andolf’s lips parted again.

“Old… deer…”

“Deer? What about it?”

No answer came back.

Its breathing had stopped.

Ian let out a hollow laugh.

“What, did you eat the wrong deer or something?”

Though obviously that wasn’t what it meant.

Still, the hunt hadn’t been without rewards.

Completing the Cursed Andolf quest had increased his Stamina stat by one.

Since he no longer planned to spend points on anything besides Intelligence and Mental Strength, it was an extremely valuable reward.

“At least… it doesn’t look like it died by magic.”

Ian nodded while looking over Andolf’s corpse.

Using red magic would have made the fight far easier, but then he would’ve returned carrying nothing but charcoal.

He wanted to avoid troublesome situations.

Ian tightened his grip on the broken sword and stood up.

Then he placed one knee onto Andolf’s chest.

Since he couldn’t carry the entire corpse back, he grabbed the half-human face and turned it sideways, intending to cut off only the head.

Tap.

Something fell from Andolf’s open mouth at that moment.

A bead.

One with a purple tint.

“This thing had an essence too…?”

Tilting his head, Ian picked up the bead.

Condensed Essence of Curse.

It contained corrupted mana of a completely different type from the essences Ian already possessed.

“…Don’t think I saw this in the game.”

And unlike the others, this one could be used immediately.

Though with the fatal drawback of instantly dragging the user into madness.

“Still, this should be purifiable too.”

Ian stored the essence in subspace.

It replaced the essence he had sold to Mev.

Now all he needed was a priest.

Thinking that, Ian resumed cutting off the head.

Since the sword didn’t seem durable enough, he even reinforced it with Wind Blade.

Finally separating the head completely, he tossed aside the broken sword and straightened up.

The headache and hunger hit him all at once afterward.

“I want fried chicken and beer… then a long sleep.”

Muttering quietly, Ian grabbed Andolf’s head by the hair and began walking.

It had been an unbelievably long night.

Yet dawn was still far away.