Hardly after tens of minutes of walking and I had found a few monsters crossing my path.

In this large grassy plains field with mountains at a distance, a few shades and hiding spots, I do expect monsters to occasionally pop out. However, I didn’t expect to see a Dire Wolf patrolling around the path to the next town. (*Author’s note: I really wanted to add in, they are like regular wolves, but dire XD)

I see some blood on its fur. Did it manage to kill a peddler or an adventurer, and got too overconfident in itself? Well, it’s too bad it met me.

As I walked closer towards it, it instantly spotted me and tensed up, growling angrily.

Twenty meters…

I pulled out the Greataxe hanging behind my back, extending it out slowly towards the side.

Fifteen meters…

“This is a great timing. I am damn pissed about everything and anything right now, so you either run fast enough now, or die.” (Gideon)

It may have understood what I said, or simply noticed the killing intent I am emitting, because I noticed a hint of fear from its expression and it moved back half a step.

But perhaps due to overconfidence of a successful hunt previously, it managed to curb its fear and stood its ground.

Ten meters…

“Very well then, I’ll play around with you awhile, before I let you see the scenery of death.” (Gideon)

I used to hunt Dire Wolves before I was even an Ogre Lord, as they were everywhere you go. They are considered one of the most common monsters around.

Therefore, I know its attack patterns inside out.

Five meters…at five meters away, the Dire Wolf leap forward and opened its jaws wide, aiming for my throat.

Of course, I have already expected it. Using my free arm, I did a simple sweeping motion and backhanded it. Even though I didn’t used much strength, the force and timing of the counter was enough to cause it to flip in the air a few times while flying towards my left.

Thump!

It landed on the ground and ceased moving. Is it dead? That was weird; I’m sure I didn’t use that much strength. I moved towards it with the intent to claim my ‘trophy’.

Just when I was a meter away, the Dire Wolf suddenly sprang alive and started kicking the ground rapidly, throwing sand and dirt into my direction.

Oh? I didn’t see that coming. I quickly jumped backwards and while I was doing so, the Dire Wolf ran away, towards the direction of a nearby mountain pass.

Ah, I think I get it…I didn’t expect such a high level of intelligence from a Dire Wolf. Perhaps those living in the plains and those living in forested areas act differently?

No matter, I’ll play along and see if my predictions are right.

I chased behind the Dire Wolf, and adjusted my speed so that I was catching up to it slowly rather than immediately chasing up to it. After all, the fun of a chase is to slowly torment the one being chased, right?

I picked up a few rocks and pebbles along the way, and started to throw it towards the escaping Dire Wolf in a left-right fashion.

“Dance for me, DANCE!” (Gideon)

Every time it dodged a rock or a pebble, the Dire Wolf picked up its running speed momentarily, as though as it’s running for its life from a menacing demon.

Eventually, we approached the mountain pass. The Dire Wolf made a sudden turn and disappeared into the mountain pass. I followed it and as expected, there was a whole group of Dire Wolves waiting in ambush.

Some were standing on the cliff ledges, some were right in front of me, and others had already jumped behind me, in an attempt to surround me. Nearby, I spotted a cleanly eaten skeleton of a human being.

So THAT’S why I didn’t see any leftover carcass of any kind. This is what the Dire Wolves constantly do; to send a lone wolf to attract prey, and then ambush them with overwhelming numbers.

Well, I guess this checkmate for me, isn’t it? Surrounded by nearly a hundred Dire Wolves, and completely isolated, I might as well kneel down on the floor and plead for mercy, isn’t that right?

HAH. HAH. HAH.

This is great, actually no; this is PERFECT. Now, I can REALLY blow off some steam after that emotional catastrophe I just suffered through.  I threw my bag on the floor, and readied myself for the assault.

“Bring it, you little bastards.” (Gideon)

As the largest Dire Wolf howled, the rest of them charged towards me, attempting to end my life and become their next prey.

A flurry of claw swipes rained down upon my body, and some of the bigger Dire Wolves even used [Air Claw], a very common offensive technique of monsters.

Blades of wind and an endless number of claw strikes landed upon me with perfect co-ordination, as I just stood there, taking all the attacks. However, most of the attacks barely tear through evening the thinnest layer of my skin, and the worst damage I received so far was a small cut on the forearm.

So, this is how it feels to be powerful, to be almighty? It’s been more than a year since I had this sensation, I’ve missed it. Even though I’m only strong against weakling trashes such as Dire Wolves, it’s still a good feeling to have absolute dominance over one’s life and death.

Now, it’s time for my counter-attack.

With a clean strike to the left, I slice through tens of Dire Wolves, and those fortunate (?) enough to receive the pole of the Greataxe instead had their bones fractured and sent flying, knocking on other Dire Wolves or crashing straight onto the mountain.

Before anyone else could react, I rushed around in all directions, with a crazy grin on my face, slashing and hacking down erratically. I yelled madly, louder and louder as blood splatters everywhere. Rage fuelled by blood and destruction was the only thought that surfaced in my mind. The blood of the Dire Wolves mixed with the tears rolling down my eyes; I accidentally tasted it before wiping the bloody mixture of my face with my free arm.

Hmm, taste metallic and salty. Not something I want to try again.

After a few seconds, I ceased my crazed assault. Only a few survivors were left, along with the Dire Wolf Boss. They finally realized that they have met an existence that they can never hope to best, and had a petrified look on their faces. Taking in a deep breathe, I roared out to my maximum capacity, while lifting up the axe in a threatening manner.

The Dire Wolves instantly ran away, even their Boss; though he tried to stand his ground for a second or so.

I had half a mind to chase them down, but I dispelled the idea quickly. After all, I had my mindless ‘fun’ and relieved some of my previous emotional frustration; it wouldn’t be nice to chase down those without any more intention to fight. Besides, I’m not that evil as to massacre the very last one of them just because they attacked me first.

Also, the most important reason is that I want to collect my trophy!

I went to every one of the Dire Wolves’ carcass and removed their longest canine. Every Dire Wolf has a slightly longer canine tooth that grows out on the right. In the past, I made a necklace out of the canine teeth of the Dire Wolves I’ve killed as a symbol of pride. Now, since I’m back to a weaker state again, it serves as motivation for my growth.

After collecting all the teeth I can find that wasn’t broken, I went over to my bag and realized it was torn up and beaten. Unfortunately, most of the items such as my food supplies and some clothing were trampled and torn. Even the wooden box I got from Lilithia had a long and deep claw mark on it.

“Ah crap, the wooden rod!”

I quickly opened and inspected the wooden rod. Surprisingly, there isn’t a single mark of it. In fact, now that I take a closer look at it, there is not a single blemish on it! Not a single tiny scratch of any sort.

Curious, I grind the rod lightly with my Greataxe. No indent or scratch was made, to my upmost surprise. Is this rod really made out of wood?! It really piques my interest.

Sadly, I have no clues of any sort to follow-up with, so I can’t trace down the maker, that is, my parents. I decided to keep it with me at all times, seeing that it’s so unique and mysterious, it don’t want to lose an item such as this.

Oh, and my bag is still torn to shreds…oh well, the skin of a Dire Wolf would work just as well, I guess.

I randomly chose a Dire Wolf, skin it and made a make-shift bag out of it, just like how would one make a cloth bag out of a piece of cloth.

After changing out of the bloody clothes that I am currently wearing, into a new one, I packed anything else salvageable and continued my journey to the next town.

I picked up the pace slightly since I made quite the detour. After all, I want to reach the next town before sunset.

——-

In the end, I did not manage to reach the town by nightfall. It looks like a night of camping out for me today.

It had been quite a while since I had to camp outdoors. It is quite an interesting experience since I haven’t done so after I had obtained this new human body. After all, skirmishes happen often enough that I spend most of my time living outdoors, in the wild when I was still an Ogre Lord.

Though, I’m so used to living in houses now that it feels uncomfortable not to do so. Better get used to it quickly, since I’m predicting that I’m going to spend quite a bit of time camping out in the future again.

I started a fire with some nearby kindle and roasted a nice, juicy piece of Dire Wolf meat that I picked up just now. Yup, it tasted just like old times.

I heard a rustle from the distance. I turned my head around to the direction of the sound, sensing many wild monsters approaching.

Ah, it’s a group of Salamanders. Four legged reptilian monsters that have the ability to breathe fire.

They must have gathered here due to the scent of food, or have just simply spotted the fire. They don’t look too friendly, judging by the way they are poised to strike and making threatening noises.

That’s fine, since Salamander glands make perfect fire-starters; I could definitely use a few on my journey ahead.

At the same time, all four of the Salamanders started to breathe columns of fire directly at me, attempting to burn me up alive before feasting on their prey.

That is, if I was any ordinary prey. Even if I’m weak against fire, it wouldn’t be against these kinds of weak flames!

I jumped straight into the flames of one of the Salamanders, stick my arm into its mouth and ripped out its glands. Even though the fire hurts my skin, it didn’t manage to do much damage to me.

The rest of the Salamanders were instantly stunned by how I seemingly burst straight into their flames unharmed, and decided to flee instantly, in all directions.

“I will not give you the chance to run away.” (Gideon)

I threw my Greataxe at one of them, bisecting it and killing it instantly. Then, I chased down the other one and tore through its head with my bare hands, plucking out the gland at the same time. By the time I kept both glands, the final Salamander has already fled fifty meters away from me.

Well, I haven’t tested my technique for a while now, so let’s see how well this works.

[Burst Stream].

I did a crouching jump towards the Salamander, and with another [Burst Stream] I covered the entire distance and stood in front of it. Not bad, to cover 25 meters in one jump and to do consecutive jumps; the toughness of my physique is certainly holding up nicely.

“Where did you think you’re going?” (Gideon)

Desperate and surprised, it jumps up to bite me with its razor sharp teeth. I avoided that and gave it an uppercut straight on the jaw, severing the physical connection between the head and the body.

I collected the gland of this Salamander and the first one I bisected, before going back to my campfire. I threw in one of the freshly obtained glands and the campfire burst into life.

Since I have a lot of time on my hands, I can review my own current condition.

Firstly, I currently possess the strength about roughly, slightly more than half of what I used to have. However, due to my smaller yet tough physique combined with the dexterity of a human being, my current combat capability should be close to sixty percent of what I possessed previously.

For a year’s worth of progress, it is considered slow to me. Looks like I really need to find a stronger opponent or person to help boost my training speed, otherwise even if I kill hundreds or thousands of Dire Wolves, my combat capabilities isn’t going to improve much, or at all.

Hopefully, the next town would have some sort of expert that I can challenge or learn from. If I can find anyone skilful enough, there’s always the worst-case scenario plan: To purposely gain notoriety by causing death and destruction, and hopefully strong challengers would flock over to try and defeat me. However, if I want to maintain a proper livelihood in human lands, I better not do anything as rash as that.

After all, I’m neither demon nor human. If I’m prosecuted in human lands, I can’t go into the demon lands without being given the evil eye as there are only two kinds of humans living in demon lands – turncoats and slaves, both with are usually frowned upon by demons.

Once I reach town, I’ll sign up to be a human adventurer. Then, I’ll be able to receive quests that allow me to gain information of powerful monsters or humans to hunt. Yeah, that’s a good idea as well. If I can’t find a skilful human, I might as well hunt down strong monsters or humans and earn something out of it.
Hmm, yeah that would work. Oh well, time to rest up, and start fresh tomorrow.

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Author : Kiribou

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