Reader - Chapter 39
Chapter 39: Scourge of Wolves
It was definitely the Wolf King.
‘Yes!’
He would repay it for his earlier humiliation. Soo Hyuk slowly approached the Wolf King.
Walking towards the Wolf King, Soo Hyuk checked his surroundings for any other stray wolves that could interfere with his fight. It would make the fight unnecessarily harder if ordinary wolves also got involved.
‘Hmm, there are lots of wolves around. Is it because it’s a boss monster?’
Soo Hyuk counted 2 wolves to his left and 3 wolves to his right as he approached the Wolf King.
‘I’ll have to take care of them first.’
Deciding to kill the wolves on the right first, Soo Hyuk turned away from the Wolf King and headed towards the 3 wolves on the right.
‘Will the Wolf King notice the explosions?’
Soo Hyuk thought as he stopped at a suitable distance from the wolves. All his spells made a loud noise when they exploded. No matter how far away the Wolf King was, it was certain to hear at least one explosion.
‘I’ll retreat right after I cast all of my skills.’
Soo Hyuk wouldn’t be able to fight the Wolf King while his skills were on cooldown. He then rapidly cast all of his skills one after another, targeting the wolves.
“Firebolt, Fireball, Magic Missile.”
Soo Hyuk fired the firebolt which had the longest cooldown time first.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The wolves died instantly after getting hit by the spells. Soo Hyuk hurriedly collected all the drop items and dashed away.
‘As expected.’
Looking back from a safe distance, Soo Hyuk saw the Wolf King and the two other wolves moving towards the location where the 3 wolves had died.
Soo Hyuk waited for a few minutes in a safe hiding place then cautiously crept back.
‘They left.’
He couldn’t see the Wolf King anymore. It seemed to have gone back to its original spot. However, he could still see the other two wolves resting beneath a tree.
“Fireball, magic missile.”
He didn’t need Firebolt to take care of the remaining wolves, as there were only two wolves left. Jumping out from behind the tree he was hiding behind, Soo Hyuk fired the spells he had prepared at the clueless wolves.
Bang! Bang!
Explosions sounded out once again in the forest as his spells landed on the 2 resting wolves. Soo Hyuk hastily collected the drop items and quickly retreated again.
Thump! Thump!
The Wolf King ran to investigate the explosions, his footsteps booming equally as loud. Then after a few seconds of looking around , it returned to its original position again. Soo Hyuk waited calmly for his cooldowns to reset. Of course, he wasn’t just resting, he was also checking for more wolves.
‘There aren’t any more wolves.’
Apart from the 5 wolves he killed, Soo Hyuk couldn’t see any more wolves in the vicinity. There could be more behind the Wolf King, but there were currently none around him.
After he looked around once more, he slowly approached the Wolf King. His cooldowns had ended, and seeing there were no other wolves, it was his only target.
‘If I can’t kill it in three hits,’
Soo Hyuk only had 3 skills in his arsenal.
‘I won’t be able to do anything for 10 seconds.’
It wasn’t that he couldn’t attack at all as he had a sword, but it was more efficient to run away while he waited for his skills to reset again.
‘I have to run away as soon as I fire my skills.’
[Warning!]
[The King of Wolves has appeared.]
When Soo Hyuk got within a certain distance of the Wolf King, a message appeared.
Growl-
The Wolf King also stood up when the message appeared, then it turned to face Soo Hyuk. Soo Hyuk shouted the moment the Wolf King turned towards him.
“Firebolt!”
He started with firebolt.
“Fireball! Magic missile!”
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Dust clouds appeared around the explosions.
‘……Shit.’
Soo Hyuk frowned. Although he couldn’t see the Wolf King because of all the dust, no kill message nor a drop message had appeared. That meant that it wasn’t dead yet.
His decision to retreat earlier in the morning when he first encountered the Wolf King was the right decision. Soo Hyuk started to move away from the dust clouds, but he stopped not long after.
‘Why isn’t it coming after me?’
The Wolf King wasn’t moving, but it wasn’t dead either. Plus, whenever a boss monster was killed, a kill message would appear.
‘……Don’t tell me!’
Soo Hyuk suddenly thought of a possibility.
‘Is it stunned?’
Magic missiles had a 10% chance to stun targets. With that in mind, Soo Hyuk couldn’t help but think that the wolf king was stunned.
‘Huh.’
He hadn’t even considered this possibility so far, because everything had instantly died without the chance to be afflicted by status ailments.
‘How long will it be stunned for?’
The stun time wasn’t fixed, much like the damage. The species of monster, its defence and the level of the caster were all factors that affected the duration of a stun. If you were too weak, then the monster could straight up ignore the stun, but Soo Hyuk possessed an outrageous amount of wisdom, which meant that the wolf wouldn’t be able to emerge unscathed.
‘It’s a boss so maybe……’
Growl!
The wolf suddenly leapt up when Soo Hyuk was thinking, and rushed towards him.
‘What? It hasn’t even been 5 seconds!’
Soo Hyuk hurriedly turned tail and ran from the Wolf King while preparing a health potion just in case. Then he checked the cooldown for Magic Missile.
‘6, no 5 seconds.’
Magic Missile still had 5 seconds left until he could use it again, but the Wolf King didn’t wait for it to recharge and arrived right behind him in just 2 seconds.
The Wolf King casually swung its powerful front paw at Soo Hyuk. As he stared at the incoming strike, Soo Hyuk prayed,
‘Please don’t let me die in one hit.’
Soo Hyuk’s wisdom had only risen so high through levelling and reading countless books. All of his bonus stat points went to stamina, which was the stat that had the biggest effect on his healthpool. As a result, he had way more health than other magicians of the same level.
Plus, even if the Wolf King was a boss monster, it was the boss of a beginner area. Granted, it would be much stronger than a regular monster, but it would be too powerful if one casual swipe could deal 3000 damage.
The claws struck his back and sent him flying. While he was in the air, reeling from the impact, Soo Hyuk fought against his dizzying headache as he struggled to check his remaining health.
‘500?’
The corners of his mouth lifted slightly as he checked the damage. It was only 10 times a regular wolf’s attack. It wasn’t a big problem for Soo Hyuk, who had over 3000 health and 20 health potions.
“Ugh!”
Soo Hyuk crashed into a tree after being sent flying by the attack. An extra 200 damage was dealt because of the impact of the crash. Soo Hyuk quickly opened the potion he was holding and drank it while he stood up shakily.
-Roar!
Soo Hyuk then turned to face the charging Wolf King and murmured,
“Magic Missile.”
The cooldown time was up. It was now his turn.
Bang!
The Magic Missile crashed into the charging wolf, blasting it away. But unlike last time, it wasn’t stunned. More specifically, it couldn’t be stunned.
[The King of Wolves has been defeated.]
[All wolves will fall into a ‘fear’ state for 5 minutes.]
[You have slain the King of Wolves alone.]
[Title: Scourge of Wolves received.]
[Level Up!]
The Wolf King had been defeated by the magic missile.
‘Nice!’
Soo Hyuk grinned at the messages. He had levelled up and received a title as well. Then his grin widened further when he checked the drops.
– 1 Wolf King’s Pelt
– 1 Wolf King’s Fang
– 1 Wolf King’s Gauntlets
– 1 Wolf King’s Boots
‘2 rare drops!’
The Wolf King had dropped 2 pieces of gear. He had been afraid that he wouldn’t receive any rare drops.
In Matab, boss raids didn’t happen often as there were only magicians. But on the other regions, a large boss raid would happen every time a boss respawned, and only a few people would be able to obtain rare items or equipment. Soo Hyuk was relieved that he had gotten 2 pieces of rare gear.
Rustle-rustle.
‘……?’
Soo Hyuk suddenly heard the crunch of leaves underfoot. Someone or something was clearly moving in his direction. It definitely wasn’t a wolf’s footsteps. And that wasn’t the end of the problem, there was more than one set of footsteps.
Soo Hyuk first hid behind a tree a few metres away from him. He waited for a little while, and he began to hear voices along with the distant footsteps.
“Huh, there’s no one here?”
“I think it was a high-level player. Looks like they used a rare scroll.”
‘……Players?’
Soo Hyuk was surprised when he heard the voices. It was because he hadn’t encountered even one player when he was hunting wolves.
“But isn’t it kind of scary here?”
“Yeah, let’s return to the edge of the forest.”
“Okay. Let’s go.”
The players disappeared after a few minutes. But Soo Hyuk didn’t return to the corpse even after they left. He had already looted everything.
Soo Hyuk walked in the opposite direction the players went. He then opened his character tab after leaving the forest.
‘Level 12……’
If you considered the amount of time Soo Hyuk had spent on the hunt, then he was staggeringly fast at levelling. Soo Hyuk assigned all his bonus stat points into stamina then opened his title list to check his new title.
-Scourge of Wolves (Strength, Agility, Stamina, Wisdom +1)
‘All stats are raised by one.’
His new title raised all his basic stats by one.
‘It’s not bad.’
Although it wasn’t great, it wasn’t bad either. In Pangea, where the effects of your titles would stack, titles that gave special effects or extra stats were considered valuable. Soo Hyuk then closed his character and title tabs and opened his inventory.
He was going to check his new gear.
[<Rare>Wolf King’s Gauntlets]
Conditions: Level 10
Physical defence: 70
Special Effects: Agility +3
He checked the gloves first. The level restriction was level 10. Even if it could be considered a low-leveled piece of gear, it gave 3 extra agility which would make it popular amongst players who focused on agility. Even up to mid-leveled players. Soo Hyuk equipped the gauntlets and checked the boots next.
[<Rare> Wolf King’s Boots]
Conditions: Level 10
Physical Defence: 100
Special Effects: Agility +3
The effect of the boots was similar to that of the gauntlets. The only difference was that it had a higher physical defence. Soo Hyuk equipped the boots as well and closed his inventory.
‘Hunting will probably be less painful now.’
Before he had equipped the new gear, the wolves dealt around 50 damage each hit. Just because his physical defence had risen by 170 didn’t mean that they wouldn’t deal any damage at all, but it would be reduced by a large amount.
‘Let’s keep hunting.’
Soo Hyuk had planned to hunt more after he checked his equipment, so he started searching for wolves again.
* * *
‘He looks tired.’
If he wasn’t tired after all that work, then he wouldn’t be human. Yang Joo Hyuk decided not to wake Jang Yool and concentrated on his own work.
A few minutes later…
“Hyak!”
Yang Joo Hyuk, who was concentrating on his work, heard Jang Yul’s surprised voice.
“What kind of nightmare did you have?”
Yang Joo Hyuk teased as he heard Jang Yool’s panicked breathing. Of course, he was still concentrating on his work.
“N-no, it’s not that.”,
Stuttered Jang Yool.
“……?”
Then Yang Joo Hyuk felt something was wrong after hearing Jang Yool’s voice. Jang Yool’s voice was always hoarse for 5 minutes after waking up. That meant, his previous shout wasn’t due to a nightmare. Yang Joo Hyuk turned to stare at Jang Yool, who had a flustered expression on his face.
“What is it?”
“He’s started hunting.”
“Hunting?”
Yang Joo Hyuk was taken aback by him. Hunting? How could that make Jang Yool exclaim so strangely?
“The Archmage’s Descendant.”
Jang Yool replied.
“He’s already level 18.”
