A series of notifications sounded within his consciousness.
-Ding!!!,
"Skill: [Lightning Bolt] has leveled up." [Lightning Bolt] - Level 2 [0/150].
Ray saw the notification and was quite relieved when he got another notification.
-Ding!!, "Skill [SLASH] has leveled up." [SLASH]: Level 3 (0/300).
Ray was very happy; now that he had leveled up another skill, he could also feel that he was getting stronger.
Thus, Ray got up and pierced the wolf's body to search for its spirit core. After about a minute of searching, Ray found the wolf's spirit core. It looked like an uneven sphere with rough edges, and it was as if a murky cloud of blackness remained moving within the spirit core. Without a second glance, Ray put the spirit core in his system inventory.
Ray had enough space to store a lot of things in his system inventory; this was due to the fact that "Aurora" was a Supreme system, while only systems of a higher grade had an inventory space of their own.
Ray kept the wolf's corpse in his inventory as well, because he could sell it for money.
Now that his stamina had been replenished, Ray got back to work. He moved towards the east side of the first layer of the forest. as the map indicated that a pack of five wolves lived there.
As he advanced east, Ray noticed that the trees got denser and the presence of other animals decreased considerably. After half an hour of movement towards the east of the forest, Ray reached his location.
In front of him was a cave, which emitted a thick stench of blood.
Ray was sure that he was in the right place due to the thick stench of blood. Therefore, he equipped his beast souls but did not make the foolish mistake of heading into the wolf's den; instead, he cast a spell of his own.
[FireBall]:-
"Uses mana to condense a ball of flame capable of widespread destruction."
Moreover, he also equipped his third beast soul,
[Halo of Enhancement]
Immediately after, a halo of light hung above his head that increased his stats by 15% for a total of 30 minutes.
Other than that, Ray also activated his abilities, empowering him further.
As he was doing all of this, the fireball he released hit the target, and along with it, a howl of pain sounded from within the cave, and five figures dashed out.
Due to the activation of his speed ability, Ray could see the five wolves that had dashed out of the cave; the five wolves matched the characteristics of the first wolf he had killed, so he got into a fighting stance for a serious battle.
Therefore, without waiting for a moment, Ray dashed out and slashed at the wolf he had injured with his fireball. Along with it, he released a [Lightning Bolt] from his free hand to distract the other wolves; he also noticed that his spell had formed faster and its attack power had also increased. Yet Ray did not linger on that thought for long and continued with his attacks.
The injured wolf let out a cry of pain as Ray severed one of its limbs with his sword, and blood gushed out of it uncontrollably.
Then, after Ray completed his attack, he dashed towards the larger wolf amongst them because he sensed more danger from the larger wolf, who seemed to be the alpha of the pack.
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Ray engaged in a melee clash against the wolf, often using his skills.
[SLASH],
[BLOCK],
He used the former to attack and the latter to defend, while also keeping his ability "light dome" activated to stop any other wolves from launching a sneak attack.
A few moments into the clash with the alpha, Ray's hunch proved to be true as two wolves lunged forward to attack him.
However, to their dismay, a barrier that glowed faintly with a yellowish hue stopped their advance. They pounced on the barrier many times, but they only hurt themselves.
While the wolves attacked the barrier, Ray and the Alpha clashed with each other.
A couple of clashes later, both Ray and the Alpha took a step back, knowing they could not hurt the other party.
Ray also realized that if not for his [Armour-type beast soul], he would have long suffered bloody gashes all across his body due to the wolf's sharp claws.
Thus, Ray thought for a while, and a strange glint flashed in his eyes as the mana in his body surged forward, and he sent out two magic spells, with one masked behind the other.
He sent out a [Fireball] and followed it with a [lightning bolt]. .
The purpose for this attack was clear as he knew that even if the first attack did not hit the wolf, the second attack would surely hit while the lightning bolt's paralyzing effect would make further clashes against the alpha wolf easier. Just as Ray predicted, the Alpha wolf sensed danger from the fireball and defended against it, but failed to notice the lightning bolt behind it and was sent flying towards a bunch of trees as the attack hit it in the chest while the paralysis effect slowed down its movements.
Ray did not give the wolf a chance to catch its breath and immediately dashed forward to force it into another confrontation.
Crash!, clank!, slash! Splatt!!,
After several confrontations, Ray found an opening and slashed at the wolf. A large gash opened up on the wolf's back.
Pant!! Pant!!,
Ray was exhausted due to a loss of stamina and consumption of energy, as he was constantly supplying energy to the barrier so he could be safe from any sneak attacks.
Moreover, it seemed that the alpha was quite tenacious as well, as it still lunged forward to attack Ray.
Ray immediately used his sword and blocked its claw.
The [block] skill was handy at times like this, and Ray was really happy to have it.
After the wolf's attack was blocked, Ray held his sword in a backhand grip and slashed while he spun a full 360°, and this dealt a huge blow to the wolf. Splatt! Awolowo!!!,
Ray cut the wolf deeply, and it was inches away from its heart, while some white bones belonging to the rib cage could also be seen.
As the wolf howled in pain, Ray launched a fireball and immediately attacked it, but the alpha wolf had no strength to counter or dodge Ray's attack, and it died shortly after.
Then Ray turned to face the three remaining wolves.
-----------------------------------------
Clank!, Splatt!, Clank!
Ray fought against the wolves for half an hour and a while ago, and the enhancement-type beast soul had also lost its effect as it had reached its time limit.
Therefore, Ray's fighting power was greatly affected. Moreover, one of the three wolves had died, and the other two had received various injuries as well.
However, Ray was also not faring much better, as he had consumed almost all of his stamina and did not have many options left; if not for his armor, he would have suffered even more.
Then suddenly,
Urghh!, spat!
Ray spat out a mouthful of blood, which showed that his internal organs had been shaking from all of the attacks.
Ray knew he was on his last legs, so he immediately thought of a way to kill the remaining wolves. Then, an idea came to him, and he started kiting the wolves towards the cave where they previously lived. The wolves, on the other hand, were lost in bloodlust and did not seem to notice Ray's tactics as they relentlessly approached him.
Ray, on the other hand, reached the entrance of the cave while the wolves fiercely lunged at him; he sidestepped then rolled over the ground to dodge the wolves, while the wolves skidded into the cave due to their momentum.
Ray, on the other hand, used all of his remaining mana to create a huge fireball and also condensed a lightning bolt; he then encased both of them in a barrier and launched them towards the caves while shrinking the barrier and merging both attacks as they reached the cave; then the whole cave shook and a blast occurred.
Boom!!!
Right after the blast, tremors occurred in the cave, and many rocks fell within it, leaving it on the verge of collapsing while Ray, whose face was as pale as a piece of paper, fell heavily to the ground.
Thudd!!!,
While he was gasping for breath, a series of notifications sounded in his consciousness, and Ray's strength gradually increased and his condition started to improve.