12 Hunting Mutated Wolves (1/2)

Jin slowly advanced in the dark forest. He spotted his target a couple of trees further down. The mutated wolf looked big and menacing. There were veins protruding from the skin, the wolf's eyes glowed red, and it was two times the size of a regular wolf.

When he was close, he darted out of cover and dashed towards the mutated wolf.

”I'll draw attention! Please cover me! [Spear Thrust]!”

He thrusted his spear towards the wolf's eye before it could turn. However he missed and ended up grazing the wolf's cheek instead.

GGRRROOOAAA!!!

The wolf felt the stinging sensation as it raised it's paws to strike down Jin. He was ready as he raised his s.h.i.+eld while side-stepping.

Becky appeared at the wolf's blind side after using [Shadow Step]. ”[Dagger Thrust]!' She stabbed one dagger into the wolf's side, aiming for the lungs. ”It's b.l.o.o.d.y tough! I can't pierce it!”

Sebastian rushed towards the wolf's snout as he slashed the face with one sword. The wolf instinctively turned its head to avoid further damage from the slash. Seeing an opportunity, Sebastian stabbed into the wolf's throat with his other sword!

'[Augment] Reinforce leg muscles.' Sebastian immediately withdrew from the exchange. When the wounded wolf attempted to bite Sebastian, Jin was already drawing attention again.

”[s.h.i.+eld Bash], [Spear Thrust]!”

This time his spear thrust found its mark as he pierced through the wolf's eye. He didn't stop there as he thrusted his spear deeper in the wolf's skull.

Seeing her chance, Becky kept stabbing her dagger at the wolf's other eye. ”[Dagger Thrust]!”

With a yelp, the mutated wolf fell down.

Jin breathed a sigh of relief as he pulled the spear out of the wolf's skull with a sickening crunch.

”Don't let your guard down! 3 more by that tree!” Becky signaled with urgency as she prepared her daggers again.

”[Heal]. Jin you should be good to go now. Don't overdo it. You too Sebastian.” Rivie was a few steps behind the party as she oversaw the entire battle, focusing on healing and supporting only when needed as per their strategy meeting yesterday.

”Whew. The morning went by so fast. I'm a little bit hungry now. What do we have for lunch?” Jin slowly walked back towards the party.

”Have you removed their mana stones already?”

”Yes, I have already done my share. Here's 3 mana stones for the loot. That was a lot of mutated wolves in our a.s.signed area.”

”That was just in our a.s.signed area. In other areas it could be higher than that. Considering how close we are to Wildecross City, you all can understand why this was a C rank quest.” Rivie was calmly preparing a fire to warm the soup and the hard bread from their rations.

”Wait, did you also remove their pelt? We can't eat their meat, but pelt can be sold for good money or fas.h.i.+oned as good armour.” The image of Becky bloodied from skinning a mutated wolf while holding her two daggers looked intimidating enough.

”Uh, I thought we only wanted the mana stones. I'll go skin them again. If someone's free, please help me. Sebastian please help me.” Jin slowly backed away from Rivie as he prepared to skin the mutated wolves.

Sebastian dipped his hard bread into the soup again. He'd done it so many times by now it almost seemed like instinct at this point. They were having meat stew with their hard bread today. While waiting for the bread to soften, he opened his question to the group. ”What I don't understand is why have the mutated wolves become so aggressive to the point they are near the city? Is that a usual behavior for a mutated beast?”

”Actually no. They are aggressive, but they don't go near the general populace. They know that they will be hunted immediately. Also what makes this situation strange is that they are active even during the day. Wolves and mutated wolves are generally more active during the night.” Rivie was calmly waiting for her soup to cool down as she answered Sebastian's query.

”So that means that these mutated wolves aren't normal? But you mentioned before that there were usual quests that help cull down mutated beasts' population? What happened to that?”

”Leo actually posted several quests to help control the wolf population, but few parties came back alive. We didn't expect that either the wolves have mutated or they were wiped out by the mutated wolves already.”

”Does that mean that the mutated wolves devoured everything even the normal wolves?”

”We're actually eating you numbskull. Have you no manners?” Becky couldn't hold it back as she glared at Sebastian. Jin was simply smiling beside her, although n.o.body was eating at this point.

”Ah, I'm sorry for spoiling your appet.i.te. It's just that mutated beasts are already foreign to me, now we have erratic mutated beasts as well. I'll shut up now.” Sebastian hung his head as he munched on his hard bread dipped in soup.

***

”That makes 11 in total for today. This is a lot of mutated wolves. We've even stopped skinning them because we don't have s.p.a.ces in our rucksacks already.” Jin leaned on his spear as he took a few deep breaths.

”Let's rest for a while? I'll try to [Augment] my senses so we can detect if there are enemies near us while we rest.”

”That's actually a good idea. Let's catch our breath here everyone.” Rivie was the most senior adventurer in the group, however she never decided for the team, instead allowing them to make their own decisions.

”Okay, I'll begin. [Augment] Steel body and mind, hyper senses.”