It was twice the size of a fully grown buffalo with the head of a lion and a mane that was made up of razor-sharp spikes. Its red eyes glowed emitting enough bloodlust to make me want to run away in fear. I watched as it arrived next to the bush where I was hiding, its head slightly lowered sniffing the ground for what I presumed was my scent. It then lifted its head and glanced at the bush I was in and for a moment our eyes met but luckily it seemed that he had not seen me because after a few minutes, it turned around and walked away. I watched as it disappeared into the far-away thickets and only after a while, did I convince myself to crawl out of the bush.
Honestly, I was surprised that the beast hadn't seen me and the very fact that I was alive was proof of that and so in my heart I thanked the gods for my narrow escape with death as I continued my journey to the lake. Even though the temperature continued to drop, I was feeling less chilly than before. Perhaps this was due to the effect of the skill {PESERVERANCE}. I wished I could check the description of the skill but that would have to wait until I arrived at a safe place because right now, I was too busy trying to avoid any predators. I managed to avoid the rest of the monsters until I reached a point where I could catch a glimpse of the lake from a far distance. It was kind of hard to miss something that glowed orange in the night which is exactly what the lake was doing. Just as I was about to celebrate the fact that I was nearing the end of my tiresome walk, I heard the footstep of a monster behind me in the bushes a few hundreds of meters away from me.
I turned to see the beast, that I had seen one and a half hours ago, emerge from the bushes, its intelligent red eyes glowing as it stared at its next meal as it slowly walked towards me and it was at that moment that I realized why it had gone away back then. It would seem that after it had noticed me, it pretended to go look for other prey when it was in actuality slowly stalking me in order for me to lead it to other prey.
It must have realized after a while that I was the only person here and hence decided to finally attack me. That's when another realization dawned on me. What made the beast so frightening wasn't its sharp claws or spikes but rather its high intelligence that was on par with perhaps even more than human beings. It would seem that the system was connected to my brain because out of the corner of my eye I could see some information about the beast.
LYCANRIN (A – Class MONSTER)
HP:5000000/5000000 MP:2500000/2500000
An A rank mid-class predator that usually hunts at night but is also sometimes seen hunting during the day. It is a beast of high intelligence that specializes in a type of hunting in which it stalks its prey until it leads it towards other prey of the same kind. It also known to hunt in prides similar to lions and is known for its tenacity to never let go of its prey.
Based on the information from the system, this monster was not an F rank, not a C rank and not even a B rank monster …. but an A – rank monster! This was a predator among predators and to make matters worse, it was also intelligent. Also, what was up with its stats? They were so much in comparison to mine. I mean come on…its HP was five million!! Even if I had my previous HP of 500 "which I don't!", I still wouldn't have been able to survive long enough to beat it as it outclassed me in every aspect. The fact that Hades had halved most of my stats as payment for the magic circle meant that my status window now looked like this:
STATUS
NAME: JACK WELLFEN LEVEL:1 EXP: 0/10000
RACE: HUMAN HP:250/250 SXP: 10
JOB: WARRIOR MP:5/5
TITLE: DEATH'S SUCCESOR
STRENGTH: 3
AGILITY: 3
PERCEPTION: 8
INTELIGENCE: 10
CONSTITUTION: 4
RESISTANCE (PHYSICAL): 0
RESISTANCE (MAGICAL): 0
AURA: 0
PASSIVE SKILLS
CONQUEROR OF DEATH
THE VOID
ACTIVE SKILLS
PERSERVERANCE
My stats looked pitiful when compared to the Lycanrin but luckily my skills were unaffected by the payment however the skills' mastery was still too low to be of much use. This meant that there was only one thing that I could do…...RUN!!!
I had once watched a documentary that said some predators of the cat family disliked going into water and hence I headed towards Lake Azaelrious at top speed. I didn't know if the documentary applied to the feline Lycanrin but I couldn't think of any other plan of action so I could do nothing but hope that my idea was accurate.
I turned in the direction of the lake which was a few hundreds of meters away from me and ran using every ounce of power in me. I was known amongst my family for my ability to run back on Earth since I had once outrun a feral dog that had deemed me to be a worthwhile meal due to how plump I was. However, betraying all odds, I had managed to completely disappoint it by running faster than my plump body's physique could tolerate and climbed up a tree a few seconds before the dog arrived at the bottom.
That day I had been praised by my then-shocked family and even now they would joke about how I broke the laws of physics that day and now it was finally time to put my legendary physique breaking ability to good use. True enough when I glanced backwards, I saw the surprised expression of the Lycanrin who was also wondering how I was able to run so fast with a plump body but after a few seconds, it replaced its surprised face with one filled with bloodlust as it began to once again focus on the hunt. It leaped off its crouched position and began pursuit.
At this point in time, I was nearing the edge of the lake but when I got to the edge of the lake, I stopped at the horrific sight in front of me. It turns out that there was a reason why the lake glowed at night…..
It wasn't because of the moonlight but because the lake was literally on fire!...