Elvis could feel his heart racing at the sight of the charging feral wolves.
"Keep yourself safe and play your role. Hayden and Freda, keep your distance. Elvis and Caelithia, come with me," Luke instructed before dashing toward the incoming wolves like a released arrow.
Elvis let out a sharp puff, a wisp of frosty breath escaping his lips as he steadied himself. But Caelithia had already sprinted ahead, her speed making Elvis squint.
"Getting cold feet, old man?" Hayden taunted.
Elvis didn’t even look at him.
He bolted forward toward the ongoing fight ahead.
Luke had already smacked the alpha wolf away from its pack, shifting the battlefield away from them.
The nine wolves were ready to pounce on Caelithia as the distance between them shortened. Just before they could reach her, Caelithia suddenly cut sharply to the right and dashed away.
Three wolves broke away from the pack and chased after her.
’Sh*t! They left me with six wolves.’
Just as the thought crossed his mind, a black streak whizzed past his side.
Ahead, an arrow pierced through the chest of a wolf, slowing it down as it broke away from the pack.
’Five more! Should I use [Shadow Mist] to blind them and finish them? No! I’m many times faster than them,’ he quickly concluded as the wolves were already in front of him.
Following Caelithia’s example, he cut sharply to the left and took off. Glancing from the corner of his eye, he spotted two wolves hot on his heels, though the distance between them was slowly widening.
A faint panel suddenly flickered into view:
[Your Spirit Beast has slain a Lv. 1 Arctic Wolf!]
[50 Life Mana Extracted]
He turned to glance at Caelithia and was surprised to see one dead wolf lying on the snow, its throat bleeding, while the other two were injured.
The brief distraction allowed the wolves to close the distance.
However, having seen Caelithia kill a wolf, Elvis felt his shaky confidence bolster.
He pivoted to face them and lunged forward.
The two wolves pounced one after another.
Elvis sidestepped, dodging the first while positioning himself in front of the second. He thrust his sword forward.
The wolf impaled its chest on his thrusting sword.
[You have slain a Lv. 1 Arctic Wolf!]
[1 Life Mana Extracted]
Snapping his head around, he saw the other wolf already closing in with its fangs bared.
Elvis kicked the dead wolf off his sword and spun, whipping his blade in a wild arc at the wolf. The blade gruesomely split through its skull and into its neck, spraying blood across the snow.
[You have slain a Lv. 1 Arctic Wolf!]
[1 Life Mana Extracted] Read this novel at novelping.com for the best experience.
He exhaled in relief and stood up, pulling his sword from the corpse.
However, he also felt a pang of frustration when he thought about the meager amount of Life Mana he had extracted from his kills.
’The system is using my Devourer System rank to calculate Life Mana extraction.’
Just in time, as two more notifications popped up.
[Your Spirit Beast has slain a Lv. 1 Arctic Wolf!]
[50 Life Mana Extracted]
[Your Spirit Beast has slain a Lv. 1 Arctic Wolf!]
[50 Life Mana Extracted]
He turned to see Caelithia standing over three dead wolves, their battered bodies covered in numerous deep gashes, unlike his one-shotted kills. Blood seeped from their wounds, slowly freezing in the biting cold.
’She’s this strong at Level 0. An absolute nut. But killing monsters a level higher than yourself is really profitable. The extraction rate should be somewhere between fifty and seventy Life Mana, so why did she get the lowest amount from all three kills? Wait! Hayden didn’t help?’
Another notification interrupted his thoughts.
[Your Awakener Class has leveled up!]
[Level: 0 → 1]
[All Attributes Increased.]
[+1 Strength]
[+1 Agility]
[+1 Constitution]
[+3 Intelligence]
[+10 Mana]
[+2 Free Attributes]
A cozy, warm sensation surged through him.
’I’ve gained Free Attributes now. Good. Looks like the Devourer System doesn’t come with a Free Attributes panel. Should I invest it now?’ Elvis thought.
"Freda, come and kill this one so you can level up." Luke’s voice snapped Elvis out of his thoughts.
Looking around, he saw blood splattered across the pristine white snow, along with the corpses of the wolves.
Elvis picked up a wolf and brought it close to the mouth of his storage bag. He watched in fascination as the wolf shrank and vanished inside.
Within a minute, everyone was ready, and they ventured farther into the forest.
Elvis was now feeling confident.
Although he had seen the numerical panel displaying his increased strength and speed, he hadn’t been entirely convinced. Even after experiencing the improvements firsthand, a doubtful voice in his mind suggested that it might all be a mental delusion.
But after one-shotting Level 1 wolves, he knew the increase in his strength was no mere misconception.
Soon, they came across another pack of eight Arctic Wolves.
Before the wolves could react, Elvis and Caelithia rushed forward like starving beasts that had caught sight of fresh meat. This chapter was copied from g.com without permission.
"Take four wolves and leave the rest for the others to level up!" Luke yelled from behind.
Following Caelithia’s technique, they surprisingly managed to draw two wolves each away from the pack. In a brief moment, Elvis finished off his targets and turned to observe Caelithia.
He had to admit, she was incredibly fast.
Unlike ordinary Awakeners, who could level up by hunting, Caelithia needed monster cores to increase her strength because she was a Spirit Beast. But she hadn’t consumed any.
Now, he couldn’t shake the itch of curiosity about her covered up attributes.
Turning back, he saw Hayden launch one final ice spear to take out the last, already injured wolf.
They cleared five packs that crossed their path.
’Thirty percent of the way to Level 2 in my Awakener System,’ Elvis thought.
The farther they ventured, the thinner the haze became. However, the temperature kept dropping. Every exhale released a puff of white mist from their mouths.
Even when they encountered a pack of Level 2 Arctic Wolves led by a Level 3 alpha, they brushed through without much trouble.
That was how they slaughtered everything in their path.
An hour later, they finally encountered a tough opponent.
Gazing at the six Arctic Wolves with white fur, which looked little different from the others they had killed, Elvis grew vigilant. Fortunately, the thinning haze allowed them to spot the wolves from a distance.
Although he couldn’t quite put his finger on it, something about the wolves made them look particularly menacing. Their presence alone seemed to exert an oppressive pressure on him.
"Luke, use [Life Inspection] to scan them," Hayden said, his eyes narrowed.
"Those are at least Level 3 wolves, so we’ll have to change our battle formation. Elvis, Caelithia, and I will attack the wolves head-on, while you two ranged fighters target the flanking wolves to ease the pressure," Luke said.
Elvis quickly scanned the wolves. All of them had Agility as their dominant attribute.
He had just noticed one of the most glaring flaws of 〈Blood Appraisal〉—it couldn’t tell him how powerful a beast actually was. Maybe it would at least give him a hint about its general battle style.
’I can’t wait to reach Level 5 and awaken [Life Inspection]. Fortunately, my Awakener System has reached Level 2, all thanks to Caelithia killing monsters two levels higher than herself,’ Elvis thought.
Suddenly, a panel flickered into view:
〈Blood Appraisal Mastery Increased!〉
〈Mastery: Basic → Intermediate〉
A loud roar from the wolves jolted Elvis back to reality, and he quickly dismissed the panel before his eyes. The wolves were already charging toward them.
"Let’s go!" Luke called out, dashing forward.
Elvis and Caelithia quickly followed.
While sprinting forward, Elvis scanned the strongest wolf with 〈Blood Appraisal〉, but the result remained the same.
He pushed the thought aside and focused on the approaching wolves.