The Master of Strength

“Did they just finish hunting him?”

Myeonghu had arrived at the Great Wolf King’s lair but was welcomed with a deathly silence.

He walked in and immediately made his way to its deepest parts. Of course there wasn’t any guarantee that the entrance would also be located at the end, so he could only advance slowly, taking his time to properly examine the walls.

“So you’re also located at the end…”

Myeonghu made it to the back of the cave and found the keyhole in a similar spot.

He inserted the Fang Key into the groove.

Suaah!

Immediately the magic rushed out of the key, summoning a portal which he stepped into.

Suaak!

“It looks a lot like the Nine Tails’ Forest.”

In truth there were some differences, but unless you were an expert which most certainly was not, they were hard to spot.

Myeonghu set forth in search of monsters. If it were anything like the other forest, there would the Great Wolf Kings, Giant Wolves and then the Boss Monster.

-Grrr!

-Grr!

It didn’t take long for him to spot some.

“Those are Great Wolf Kings.”

He stayed there, staring at the pack of Great Wolf Kings.

“Just how many are there? One, two… twelve?”

There were twelve of them gathered in a pack. This was a monster which was no weaker than the Great Fox Kings, which spoke volumes as to the difficulty of this forest.

He watched them a while longer before melting back into the forest. They weren’t his goal here as he was searching for the Giant Wolves.

“I’m a bit worried now that the Giant Wolves also stay in such large packs.”

Just imagining it cause his face to contort in worry.

It was easy for him to forget, but the great Wolf King was a boss class monster. That means Giant Wolves would be stronger and the Boss Monster likely as strong as Nine Tailed Fox.

“How was someone supposed to hunt them?”

They are not common monsters, but rather Boss class monsters which also happened to gather in a pack. Hunting it would be next to impossible for normal players, they’d at the very least require a large party. Of course he was an exception.

–Grrr!

-Grrrr!

After exploring the forest for some time, he finally heard a growl which differed from that the Great Wolf Kings.

‘Wow…so I had guessed correctly.”

His worries had manifested themselves as Myeonghu found a pack of Giant Wolves.

‘I won’t be able to one shot them all with a single Quake Strike.’

Myeonghu thought to himself as he examined the group of wolves before him. They weren’t bunched up together due to their large frames, so those which weren’t in the maximum 10m range of the skill, wouldn’t be affected.

“It’s been a while since I’ve had a good fight.”

Of course the he was confident in his ability to hunt the Giant Wolves even without the Quake Strike.

Myeonghu walked into the clearing

Grrr?
Grrr!
Grrr!

One of the wolves spotted him and his growls alerted the others.

Aoooooooooo!

As soon as the wolf howled, its echo spread across the forest.

“What a powerful voice!”

Myeonghu simply smiled at the wolf, clueless as to what the howling might mean.

Grrr!

The Giant Wolf Which roared loudest rushed him head on, while the rest of the pack circled around and approached from all direction. Myeonghu smiled as he saw the many Giant Wolves close in on him.

Suaah!

A white light began to gather in his fist.

“Do I do it now?”

He wouldn’t be able to catch them all with a single Quake Strike anyways, so he simply waited for the opportune moment.

“Maybe this like this?”

He could probably hit a few if he struck now, but he waited for them to get a bit closer.

–Grrr!

Bang!

Just as a Giant Wolf was about to chomp down on him with its powerful jaws, Myeonghu sent his skill into the ground.

UwooOng!

The earth trembled as a majestic sound rang out.

–GRrr!

-Grrr!

The three closest Giant Wolves were sent flying into the air, but he didn’t have time to check what would happen to them.

Thud!

[Level Up!]

It was only after seeing the level up message that he knew they had died.

–Grrr!

A Giant Wolf slashed with its sharp claws, but Myeonghu disregarded the attack and countered with a punch of his own.

Sriik! Bang!

They struck each other at the same time, but it was the Giant Wolf which succumbed to the punch. Although Myeonghu was glad to find out that he could one shot them, a message appeared which startled him.

[You have been afflicted with Bleeding for 10 seconds, -200 HP per second]

‘B… Bleeding?’

It was that cursed Bleeding state, but that wasn’t all. When the Giant Wolf had slashed he checked and saw that his Health had actually dropped more than expected.

‘…1500?’

He had been expecting to take almost no damage. Myeonghu swallowed down nervously as the rest of the Wolves slowly closed in on him. He had killed 4 and there were still 11 left.

–Grrr!

-Grrr!

At their signal they all charged together. On Myeonghu’s end he simply picked the closest target and punched.

Sriik! Bang! Sriik! Sriik!

[You have been afflicted with Bleeding for 10 seconds, -220 HP per second]

[You have been afflicted with Bleeding for 10 seconds, -210 HP per second]

[You have been afflicted with Bleeding for 10 seconds, -200 HP per second]

[You have been afflicted with Bleeding for 10 seconds, -210 HP per second]

‘What!? That’s insane!’

Myeonghu had just received four slashes from the Giant Wolves and every single one of them had triggered a Bleeding effect. It was to be somewhat expected since they were renowned for having claws which could cut through steel, but the fact that their Bleeding could stack was simply absurd.

‘Ten more left….’

Myeonghu checked his health and became a bit worried as he saw it drop every second due to the Bleeding stacks.

Sriik! Sriik! Sriik!

He suffered three more attacks, but was relieved to not see any additional Bleeding messages.

However, the last attack had reset the counter to 10 seconds, from the remaining 7 seconds. Still, it was still nice to know that they couldn’t stack endlessly.

Bang! Sriik! Sriik! Sriik!

He could only endure their slashes as he cut down their numbers one punch at a time.

Crunch!

A Giant Wolf bit down hard on his shoulder instead of the usual slash.

[- 40% Defense for the next 4 seconds.]

The Monstrous Foxes had the special ability to stun with their tails, while the Giant Wolves could reduce his Defense.

Bang!

Myeonghu grabbed the wolves throat and punched its head, causing it to collapse to the ground.

Sriik! Sriik!

‘…7000?’

With the 40% Defense debuff, the two attacks managed to hit him for 7000 points of damage, and this didn’t even include the constant health he was losing due to Bleeding.

‘I need to end this quickly.’

He went all out in an effort to end the fight as soon as possible.

Sriik! Bang!

The last of the Giant Wolves had finally fallen.

“Huu… it’s over.”

Myeonghu sighed as he looked at the 15 Giant Wolf corpses around him. This time had been truly dangerous.

“About half.”

He had lost around half of his 300,00 HP, not to mention that it was still ticking down due to the Bleeding effect.

“At least it’s doable.’

At the beginning when the Bleeding stacks had reached the maximum of 8, he thought that he would die here. However, now that he had successfully hunted them, he knew it was possible.

“Oh, right.”

Myeonghu chuckled as he remembered the best part. Now that the hunting part was done, it was time to gather all the loot.

“Let’s pick up all of it!”

Myeonghu walked up to the closest corpse.

-Grrrr!

“…?”

A he heard the loud growling of a Giant Wolf coming from behind him. Confused, he turned around to have a look. He had hunted all of the wolves in the clearing so why would there be another?

After seeing the scene behind him, he couldn’t help but freeze.

-Grrr!

-Grrr!

-Grrrr!

A large pack of wolves had appeared in the clearing causing Myeonghu to gulp nervously.

-AOOOoo!

The leading Giant Wolf howled loudly.