After sleeping for 4 hours, Chrysos got up from his laziness and mustered the strength that he had to get through extreme difficulty.
Of course, that was just an exaggeration.
He got off his wooden chair with two armrests and walked towards his table and picked up his mask.
Putting it on his head, he picked up the filter filled with the special chemical that allows him to breathe almost infinitely. His first assumption was that the chemicals consume the carbon dioxide he exhales and turns them into oxygen.
He was entirely mistaken.
The chemical's gasses actually push the carbon dioxide out of his mask through small slits at the back of the mask. The same gasses also act as breathable air making the mask airtight from any foreign gasses.
Fastening the belts in his mask, it was secured on his head.
Chrysos grabbed his light orange armor and began putting them on.
He picked up his dark green coat and wore it, he put up the hood and grabbed his dark blue sword still in its sheath. Only after that did he leave.
Locking his door with a bronze key, he made his way to the adventurer's guild.
Once he arrived, Chrysos picked an intermediate quest that includes killing a den of wolves that appeared nearby Everock Village.
Chrysos took the quest and received a map provided by the guild. He took the map and went on his way to Everock Village.
....
While whistling a soft tune, Chrysos followed the map's route carefully. When he looked around, he saw grassless paths that he assumed to lead to Everock Village.
And not too long after, he saw farmlands and farmers working on the fields. When they saw him, they only glanced back before working again.
When he arrived at the village, the village chief was already waiting for him. He was a strong looking man with a thick beard. He has an iron sword on his waist and he looked like a seasoned warrior.
"Are you the adventurer the guild sent us?" The village chief asked Chrysos. He looked at this masked man up and down.
"Yes, my name is Gerald." Chrysos introduced himself.
He could tell that the man is assessing him silently. So he naturally did the same. Protected by his mask shielding anyone from seeing his eyes and his facial expressions, he could freely judge this man in front of him without any fear. Of course, as long as he doesn't make it look too obvious.
Vargor wore a wolf's hide on his back. His gray hair was slicked back and he had a great beard. His face has a scar on the left and his eyes were orange with diamond irises. Reminiscent of a wolf's eye.
He had a large frame and his armor couldn't hide his muscles. He had a sword sheathed on his back and a leather bag on his waist filled with who knows what. Chrysos just assumed that it's probably filled with herbs or medicine.
Oblivious to Chrysos' gaze, Vargor nodded his head.
"Very well, my name is Vargor.. My men are already armed so we can kill those wolves. We aren't going to waste any more time, let's move out." Vargor signaled to his men and they walked together towards the wolf den.
Vargor's opinion of Chrysos wasn't too great. He thought of him as those adventurers who just want the reward and think that they are superior just because they have awakened Divinious. He detested those kinds of people because for him, strength also came with experience and knowledge.
You can't really blame his impression since as someone who isn't an awakened one, he felt the way awakened ones indirectly flaunted their superiority.
...
When they set out towards the forest, they walked for half an hour without stopping. Vargor looked at Chrysos from time to time and saw that he wasn't looking tired at all.
"Gerald, right?" Vargor looked at him.
"Yes, what's up?" Chrysos didn't expect that Vargor was going to talk to him so suddenly.
"The wolf den is dangerous so you better be careful.. Just because you're an adventurer, don't expect us to protect you." Vargor spoke with a deep tone.
"I never expect anyone to protect me. I wouldn't get this far alone by being a coward." Chrysos laughed as he walked.
Vargor's expression changed slightly. His impression of Chrysos improved by a bit. "If that's true, let's just see how well you'll be able to help us." Vargor clicked his tongue. "When we thought that this was just a place where one wolf lives, we didn't think much of it. Now, multiple wolves have started to gather and live here which makes the village worried."
Vargor then sighed. "So one time, we asked for the help of an adventurer. And not only did he fail his quest, he also brought multiple wolves that attacked our village. We had to gather many of our men just to repel them."
"So is that why you act so cold towards me? You're thinking that I'll do the same, don't you?" Chrysos knew what Vargor had his reasons for telling him this story.
"That's true." Vargor didn't refute it.
"Adventurers are greedy.. once they can't solve something, their confident face disappears and they just turn tail." Vargor spat on the ground before walking over it.
Nodding his head, Chrysos didn't feel any hate towards him. "I understand how you feel.. With money involved, people will go to unreasonable lengths to get it.. They will ruin families, kill innocent people, destroy their image or their hard work and many more.
That's just how humans are. It doesn't even have to be money, what matters is the desire." Chrysos shrugged. He had already seen a lot of this back on earth. He wasn't a stranger to dirty, underhanded tactics.
Raising an eyebrow, Vargor looked at him. "For a second I thought you were a little brat just like them. But hearing you say that, I might be wrong about you." Vargor laughed. "But if you want my opinion of you to stay that way, you must prove yourself first."
"Got it." Chrysos said with a carefree tone.
...
When they reached the wolf den, they hid behind the trees and shrubs to observe the wolves silently.
"Their numbers increased again..." Vargor didn't like what he was seeing. The wolves were supposed to be around 20 back when he last saw them. But now, there were around 50 wolves.
This isn't good.
"Hey, what if I just charge in there?" Chrysos suggested. His eyes gleamed with a gold sheen and a thirst for blood.
"Are you out of your mind?! You'll be torn to shreds before you even kill ten of them!" Vargor said in a hushed tone.
The men around Vargor nodded in agreement.
"Don't worry, if I die you guys won't lose anything." Chrysos ignored them and jumped toward the wolf den.
"Are you out of your-? Hey wait!" Vargor tried to stop Chrysos but he already went ahead. "You fool! Just when I thought that you were different from them!"
....
Chrysos landed in the corner of the wolf's territory. When they heard him land, the wolves all growled at him and they were ready to attack anytime.
Chrysos unsheathed his sword and grinned under his mask. "Go ahead and attack if you want to die!"
Howl!
The wolves all rushed towards him.
Chrysos wasn't worried. He took out three potions from his belt and drank a strength potion for obvious reasons, a swiftness potion for speed, and a joint oil potion to make his joints move smoother without hindrances.
After that, everything slowed down a bit for him. The wolves continued charging at him without any intention of stopping.
Chrysos ran towards them and sliced the first wolf perfectly in half.
"…"
Silence filled the air. The wolves stopped at their tracks. Reassessing the man in front of them.
Vargor and his men were dumbfounded. They couldn't believe what they were seeing.
Without stopping, Chrysos rushed forward. His legs exhibited great amounts of power leaving heavy footsteps behind him. The wolf's skeleton felt like he was cutting plastic with a very hot blade.
With a crazed expression under his mask, the scent of blood clicked something inside his head. He could only think of one thing, and that is to kill.
Chrysos sliced one wolf after another. They were like moving flesh bags that are just waiting to be sliced. And by how light and quick Chrysos' sword was, they won't stand a single chance against him.
The wolves surrounded him and lunged at him at the same time.
"Useless tricks!" Chrysos nimbly slashed around him. Beheading all the wolves that jumped towards him. Their spines provide little resistance against his strength.
When the wolves lost their heads, the other wolves warily looked at him. Some of them had fear in their eyes.
Chrysos wiped his sword and taunted. "What's wrong? Not attacking?" The moment he looked at the wolves, they took a step back out of fear.
Seeing this, Chrysos sneered. "Alright then, I'll attack." Chrysos dashed towards one wolf in front of him.
The wolf was scared and retaliated by reflex.
Chrysos caught the wolf's neck and carried it in the air. He sheathed his sword back on the side of his waist and used his right hand to grab the wolf's neck and dug his fingers into them.
The wolf kicked, clawed and bit the air multiple times but Chrysos wasn't letting it go. When his fingers dug in deeper, the wolf's painful cries became even louder.
Chrysos slowly ripped the wolf apart. Dyeing him with a crimson color. He felt extremely powerful. He threw the wolf's separated body and walked towards the rest of the pack.
The wolves weren't going to charge at him again after seeing that Chrysos doesn't need a sword to deal with them.
"Amazing, I can't believe I'm this strong now.." Chrysos opened and closed his hands. He was satisfied with his performance. An ecstatic smile appeared on his face.
"Alright, time to finish this.." Chrysos unsheathed his sword again and walked towards the rest of the wolves with a calm and seemingly lackadaisical attitude.
But as he was going to kill the remaining wolves, he heard a rough voice coming from the den.
"Who actually dared to kill my wolves!?" A voice came from the wolf's den.
Chrysos was stunned.
Vargor and his men were also stunned. Why is there someone in the wolf den?
...
From the cave, a huge muscular man carrying an axe glared at Chrysos.
He has a round belly accompanied with his large and broad shoulders. He wore a leather backpack filled with food, water, taming equipment, and a necklace made of large wolf teeth.
Seeing Chrysos dyed in blood, the man's rage reached a peak. Seeing his hard work get destroyed like this, he was pissed off.
"So it's you.. I'll make you pay for this!" The man then howled like a wolf and the wolves from earlier started growing twice in size!
Awooo!
The cracking and snapping sounds from the wolves were quick, so Chrysos didn't have the chance to attack them as they transformed. They now have darker fur and a red marking of an axe on their forehead.
"Hahahaha! Now let's see if you still have the guts to go against me!" The man, now with a red axe marking on his bicep laughed confidently.
"Go!" He shouted.
The wolf pack became faster and stronger after the enhancement they received.
However, Chrysos frowned. "That energy I feel isn't Heroic Divinious.." He looked at the man commanding the wolves. "You're a corrupted beast tamer, aren't you?"
"So what if I am? You're going to stop me? Maybe you should defeat my pack before you do so! Hahahaha!" The beast tamer's aura exuded dark emotions. From this, Chrysos knew that he was indeed corrupted.
Still enthralled with his bloodlust, Chrysos wasn't thinking clearly.
"You are really arrogant.." Chrysos wasn't scared. Instead he looked at him with pity.
He dashed forward and went for the kill.
"A beast group is useless without a commander. So killing the commander means defeating the army. If the beast tamer hid himself, maybe he could've stayed alive for a longer time." Thought Chrysos.
The beast tamer looked at Chrysos and sneered. Chrysos jumped over the wolf group and when he was about to throw his sword like last time, he felt indescribable danger behind him!
The Crimson Tusked Blood Elephant has powerful detection methods to avoid stronger predators and detect prey. So Chrysos was sure that what was behind him was dangerous.
He spun around midair and saw an eagle swoop down, ready to slash his back.
Chrysos swiftly used his sword to parry the claws of the eagle.
Clank!
He successfully parried the sneak attack and landed back to the ground.
That sequence only took two seconds.
When Chrysos landed, the wolves continued their attacks. But this time, Chrysos found out that the wolves dodged more nimbly and attacked in perfect synchrony. He couldn't find any holes to exploit.
"Hm?" The beast tamer was surprised. "I didn't expect him to react to the Shadow Feathered Eagle. It seems that this man isn't easy pickings.." The beast tamer increased his Divinious output for the enhancement of the wolves.
His marking glowed and the wolves had their markings exude a very light mist dyed with red.
...
Chrysos was restrained by the wolf group. He couldn't run, he couldn't dash forward, and his mobility was greatly restricted.
What's worse is that there's the eagle who attacks him from time to time, so he has to divide his focus on the wolf group and the sky for the eagle's sneak attacks.
"Oh c'mon, now what?!" Chrysos was getting more and more frustrated. The situation wasn't in his favor and it will continue to get harder until he finally succumbs to the ferocious attacks of the wolf group.
Chrysos parried, dodged and counterattacked, but this wasn't doing anything to his enemies. Over time, his stamina was getting depleted bit by bit.
This was the moment where his mind regained clarity, no longer affected by savagery.
But this momentary pause gave his opponents an advantage to attack.
Bang!
A wolf sent Chrysos flying into a huge boulder with a headbutt.
Chrysos got up, but was attacked by another wolf. The wolf bit his arm and tried to toss him around.
Chrysos exerted force on his arm and threw the wolf into a tree. But, more and more wolves came and attacked him. He was getting more passive in this situation.
Chrysos took out an Incendiary potion and tossed it towards the wolves.
Swoosh!
Fire immediately broke out and burned three wolves who were caught by the flames. The wolves who were caught on fire rolled around to get rid of it.
Chrysos threw more incendiary potions and surrounded himself by a protective wall of fire.
"Hahaha! See? You couldn't do anything!" The beast tamer slowly approached Chrysos with the shadow eagle perched on his shoulder. "Without numbers, you're nothing." The beast tamer revealed a mocking smile.
"But don't worry, I'll make sure to behead you myself." The beast tamer commanded his wolf group to attack once more.
...
Thu!
An arrow was shot.
The arrow found its mark on the beast tamer's back.
"What the -?" The beast tamer exclaimed in shock.
Without waiting for him to finish, Vargor shouted. "Fire at will!"
Thu! Thu! Thu!
...
A hailstorm of arrows was shot and impaled the beast tamer.
"No! Protect m- Agh!!" The beast tamer was shot by one arrow after another. He didn't even have the chance to command his wolves.
Seeing this, Chrysos took this chance and jumped out of the fiery wall. Without the beast tamer's enhancement, the wolves became weak again. Chrysos took this opportunity to slice them up with everything he had!
Slash!
Wolf after wolf, they eventually died from Chrysos' sword.
The shadow eagle tried to escape, but Chrysos was one step ahead of it.
He jumped from the group and sliced that damned eagle in half.
When he landed, he continued on with his slaughter.
...
"Yeah!!" Vargor's men shouted and joined the slaughter. The wolves were disoriented and lost most of their strength during their battle with Chrysos.
"Gerald! Are you alright?!" Vargor shouted.
"Yeah!" Chrysos laughed and beheaded another wolf as he turned.
"Sorry, that took so long. We had to wait for him to lower his guard or else we won't be able to ambush him." Vargor sighed.
"It's fine. Just help me kill these wolves." Chrysos patted his shoulder. "After all, it was stupid of me to attack by myself."
"Ah, don't mention it." Vargor struck his sword to his left, leaving a deep gash on a wolf's body.
The battle took only 5 minutes before concluding.
Everyone including Vargor and Chrysos gasped for air.
"That was a good killing spree..." Chrysos laughed.
"If it wasn't for that beast tamer, you wouldn't need us to fight with you." Vargor shook his head and drank some water.
Chrysos turned to Vargor and said, "Thank you."
Vargor turned to his men and said, "Hear that boys? An adventurer is thanking us."
They all laughed together.
"Hahahaha!"
"Never went in my imagination for an adventurer to thank lower folk like us!"
"Hey, pinch me because I might be dreaming. Hahaha!"
Seeing Chrysos being so confused, Vargor laughed even more and said, "Come to the village with us. This deserves a celebration!"
"Yeah!" Vargor's men shouted in unison.
...
After that bloody battle, Vargor and his men were sitting in front of a campfire eating fresh meat.
Everyone was tired.
"Thank you for your help. Here's the reward." Vargor gave Chrysos a bag of silver.
"No need, you guys saved my life." Chrysos wasn't shameless enough to take it.
"Hahaha! if we attacked mindlessly, we wouldn't have stayed alive since those wolves were too strong! If it wasn't for you, we would've been the ones killed. So please, take it." Vargor placed the bag of silver on Chrysos' lap.
"Indeed! Sir adventurer is too polite!"
"Go on, take it!"
They all urged Chrysos to accept the gold coins.
Seeing that Vargor and his men were so insistent, Chrysos took it. "Thank you again."
"No problem.. If you need anything in the future, as the chief of Everock, we will do our best to help. Ain't that right boys?" Vargor laughed.
"Yeah!" The men shouted with vigor.
"Now, let's have a feast!" Vargor raised a cup of wine. "To Chrysos!"
"To Chrysos!" The rest of them shouted.
"To all of us." Chrysos raised his cup and drank.
"To all of us!" Everyone gulped down their wine and laughed as they celebrated around the fire.
The villagers sang, danced and ate. After their problems were resolved, this was a very needed celebration for all of them
Chrysos lifted a compartment from his mask, revealing his mouth.
This allowed him to eat with his mask on. He looked around at the happy atmosphere around him and decided to enjoy this beautiful time.
"Maybe life here isn't so bad after all.." Chrysos looked at the night sky with five moons. He ate his fill and took his time to rest.