Zach finally entered the fourth floor and at the same instant he entered it a very powerful smell of blood invaded his nostrils. 'Apparently the one before got in huge fight there, I wonder what beast is there on this floor. With a bit of luck no beast is still alive on this floor.'
With his clothes tattered and small cuts on his whole body Zach started to think about a magical universe where everything would be given to him on a silver plate.
This time this floor was also a forest but this one was a more natural one, the trees and grass were green, the trees were even pine, like the one he used to see in his old world and there was luminescent rocks on the roof giving the feeling of natural light of the sun.
Zach frowned and started to think about the implication of the pines in this place. 'Maybe there is some pine in a corner of this world or this dungeon is more complex as it seems.'
Focusing back on this forest and the danger he could encounter he started to explore it. Suddenly from far away he heard small howls, he decided to climb in the pines to near the howls stealthily.
After a minute of careful progressing he stumbled upon a wolf cub which was howling at the foot of another wolf, Zach narrowed his eyes 'It seems to be its mother, maybe the luck I was waiting for answered my prayers.'
Zach almost immediatly found an oddity about those wolves 'Do ... Do they have saber tooths ??' After looking carefully, they actually had saber tooths, those were saber tooths wolves. This fact immediatly piqued Zach's interest, before finding the stairs he now wanted to observe a bit those wolves.
Zach still didn't choose what he would do about this wolf cub, even if it was a cub Zach felt that it wasn't as weak as it seemed, it wouldn't be able to threaten him but a regular human or a new cultivator would not last a minute against it. After another minute of thinking he decided to not kill it for the time being and he would try to follow it to see if he could find the rest of the pack.
OOOOooooo !
Zach stayed looking at the cub weeping for another 5 minutes before he finally heard another howl 'This time it should be coming from an older wolf, maybe the alpha of the new pack, and a more powerful one'
He had a concerned look, he could feel from this howl that the wolf wasn't weak, at least as powerful as the peak rank 1 tiger from the former floor and it was just with this howl that he thought that.
When the cub heard the howl he stopped mourning the wolf before him and reluctantly turned around and started to walk towards the source of the howl. Zach followed right behind it still high in the pines, he traveled another 350 meters and found a big wolf surrounded by other wolves.
At this time another thing stunned Zach, all the wolves were of various beatiful blue. 'At first I thought it was just because they were of the same family but all them have a beatiful blue fur.' The cub and what it seemed to be its mother had a dark blue fur so Zach thought it was just an oddity in their family but with the wolves he had under his eyes he understood that it wasn't a family oddity.
Then Zach thought about something, he didn't get discovered, it was another oddity because wolves had a very good smelling so he should have been spotted almost instantly but they didn't seem to notice him. Zach then had a look of revelation 'It must be because of the smell of blood, it is so heavy that they couldn't catch my scent.'
Zach did a quick headcount of the wolves and they were about a dozen of them, there was 3 cubs and apart from the alpha and another one with a missing ear all the others wolves were not so powerful, Zach felt that if there wasn't the alpha and the missing ear one, he may be able to kill them all while being careful.
Zach started to stroke his chin and ended with a simple yet difficult to carry out plan. 'If I can't kill them in one go, I just have to isolate the missing ear kill it, I do the same with the alpha and if I am in good enough shape I will be able to clean the rest of this pack.'
The pack walked for 10 minutes before they stopped before a river, the river had powerful currents and was rather deep. 'What will they do, they can't cross it even more so with the cubs.' However the next instant something happened that made Zach's jaw drop to the ground.
'Je... Je... Jesus ???' Zach wasn't a believer but the wolves were walking on the river's water like it was an everyday thing. One cub started to sink, obviously he didn't master the water walking perfectly and couldn't cross it but just before it was about to get carried by the currents the missing ear one caught it by the neck and brought it on the shore.
Now Zach was stuck, he couldn't follow them anymore, there was no pine to jump on and even if he could swim across the river the wolves would spot him. He was lucky that he didn't get spotted by his smell he could not hope that in addition they were also deaf and blind. He thought about it for an instant and decided to launch a ball of hell fire on the pines of the other shore.
Immediately after putting the forest ablaze the wolves reacted, the alpha lead the other wolves to go back, once agin they walked on the river but this time the cubs were in the maws of differents wolves, it was almost as if the first cross was a test for the cubs.
Seeing this Zach was overjoyed, his questionable idea worked, he had gained more time to act, he was very curious about them and maybe their corpses could give him something valuable.
Zach saw that the alpha was angered, he felt that he would have an opening to take care of them soon. After 5 minutes the alpha growled and every one of them stopped, the cubs started to play, the missing ear one went away on his own, Zach wasn't sure about why it would do that but he would not complain.
He followed it and after a few minutes he saw that the missing ear one was hunting the few small regular animals that were in this forest. 'Perfect, I will wait until it pick up its prey and I will take it by surprise.' Zach was reasdy at any instant.
Eventually the missing ear one killed a rabit and at the instant it was about to pick it up its instinct screamed at it that there was a fatal danger.
It jumped forward, Zach who had took out his scythe and jumped on it to slash it in two was surprised by the powerfulness of this wolf instinct, he only cut out its tail, now in addition to have a missing ear it had also a missing tail, it made Zach want to laugh.
OWOOOOoo ! The missing ear and tail one howled to call the pack at its rescue. OWOoo ! Just after another howl was heard, it was certainly to notify their arrival.
'I have missed my one shot kill and I don't have much time to kill it. Why everything doesn't go according to the plan' Zach sighed.
Zach used a death gaze on the wolf and like he had expected it didn't end petrified but it gave him enough time to close the gap between the two of them and Zach slash towards its neck but the wolf used its tooths to bloch it and something which made Zach worried happened.
At the place his scythe's blade hit against the tooths the blade was chipped and dented, this scythe was already the second one he used from the Void Conqueror inheritance and the first one which was of higher quality already broke so it was the best scythe he had in his hands for now.
At the moment Zach decided to put back his scythe and fight it with his bare fists. He jumped on the back of the wolf and the wolf started to roll on the ground to make Zach fall and go off its body. However Zach held tightly and started to focus on his hands getting in fire, a second later great fire covered its hand and the wolf started to howl in agony.
It was doing its best to survive and it tried to attack back Zach, but after a few moments the wolf stopped, its body was in a too miserable state to continue this fight, it had lost. Zach took out a dagger and plunged it in its neck. He received the usual notification and collected its soul.
This time Zach heard the howls of the others wolves, they were about to arrive, he took a quick look on his mana, he had only 300 points left, it wasn't much compared to what was coming.
Zach saw the alpha, it was the first to arrive, he had a bit of time before it got tougher, against the alpha and the pack he wouldn't be able to manage it. Zach took out his scythe again but this time he took the lead and coated it on hell fire, he injected 50 mana, so if he only used his mana for it he would last 6 minutes which wasn't enough in Zach's opinion.
The flame on his scythe was huge and menacing, he decided to try to pierce its head so he would be able to dodge the tooths problem. However the wolf raised its head and it launch a powerful blast of water. When Zach saw this he had a look of revelation and trouble 'So this why they can walk on the water but now my hell fire lost a great deal of its efficiency.'
He fought against the alpha for another minute where he would swing his scythe hoping to claim the wolf live but every time the water blast prevented him from hitting. Another 50 mana got consumed, this time he had only 200 mana points, he was becoming short on it.
He decided to try a combo with his death gaze and at the moment he was about to launch it, the alpha which was in a passive position until now launched a water blast on Zach.
Zach face darkened, it was able to stop his swing of scythe when he was giving it all his power so it definitely was powerful. He didn't seek to block it and try to dodge it, however when he dodge it he saw that another blast, less powerful, was following.
'Bastard ! He profited of the first to hide another one.' Zach contracted all his muscles and gritted his teeths waiting for the impact because he wouldn't be able to avoid it.
Zach go hit on the abdomen, he spat a few moutful of blood and got up immediatly, he could become an easy prey, even more when he was injured. He gritted his teeths harder and gathered all the power he had left and dashed towards the alpha. The alpha dashed towards Zach as well, they were about 6 meters from each other and when Zach saw it open its maw he lauched a death gaze.
The alpha stopped itself for a fraction of second but it was enough to prevent it from launching another water blast before Zach could hit it. Zach swung donwn his scythe and he pierced its back, the scythe still on fire. The alpha let a great howl of pain and try to launch another water blast on Zach but he had disappeared from the place he was.
In fact Zach felt that he would not be able to finish the wolf with this attack so he released his scythe. He just got the time to get behind the alpha and to climb in a pine. The alpha still confused about Zach disappearance looked around, at this moment he felt danger. Zach had used a branch as a support to jump down on the apha, he was going to punch the alpha with all his forces.
The alpha that only felt danger coming and didn't saw it looked at the sole place he hadn't above however it was too late. Zach punched the back of the alpha and a loud CRACK echoed, he had shattered its spine, yet this move costed him a few fractures in his fist.
The alpha wasn't dead but all his spinal nerves were destroyes, it couldn't move anything apart its head. Zach collected the scythe he had let in the wolf back and took out a dagger, he tried to plunge it in its neck but he had to try a few times before finally putting an end at the alpha life.
A minute after the whole pack arrived, Zach thought that he would have a hard time finishing but all the wolves were terrorized, he just got to swing his scythe here and there and dodge a few paw but nothing too hard. After he finished killing all the pack he collected the souls of the wolves and took a look at the notifications.
[Ding ! Low rank 1 being killed + 10 EXP]
...
[Ding ! high rank 1 being killed + 100 EXP]
...
[Ding ! peak rank 1 being killed + 350 EXP]
[Ding ! Low rank 2 being killed + 2000 EXP]
[Ding ! + 12 souls]
[Ding ! Level up !]
[Ding ! Level up !]
'I need more souls to get another skill, right now my versatility isn't enough, I can only fight with the hell fire and my scythe, I saw a skill which could help me diversify my fighting strategy.' Zach was concerned, he had to improve his body as well as he had to get another mean to fight as soon as possible.