Seeing that their opponent looked hurt, the Hellhounds outside were more than eager to finish him off. They quickly approached him. The other two Hellhounds from inside the house also came out of the wall by forcefully crashing into it.
All the remaining Hellhounds were ready to finish him. They attacked simultaneously. Their claws and fangs were fast approaching him, who was still fighting the pain brought by the side effects when he leveled up.
At that moment, *swoosh~!* an intense jet-black energy exploded from Tim's body. A strong pressure collided with the monsters and threw them back.
AWOOOOORRRRGGHHH!!!
That was followed by an eerie howl that sounded like a growl coming from a terrifying creature. Within the thick fog of dusts that swirled around, a silhouette enveloped in black energy could be seen. Looking closely at the silhouette, its body looked bigger resembling a bipedal beast.
When the dust that flew earlier due to the surge of sudden pressure had calmed down, a big change in Tim's form could be seen.
His head was now covered with fur like Hellhounds. His fur was jet black and white. Not only on his head but also on his body, it was also covered with thick jet black and white fur. However, his fur didn't look like real fur, it looked like it was made from black energy.
And like the Hellhound he devoured, there was a third eye on his forehead. On the contrary, these Hellhounds around him had no third eye.
His eyes gleamed brightly and his face was a mixture of his and Hellhound's face. There were two sharp fangs in his mouth.
This was what he turned to after he used his…
"Beast Blood!"
[Beast Blood Transformation: Lord Series activated!]
[Lord Hound!]
[He, who dominates countless foes in the abyss with his unrivaled strength, speed, and dexterity.]
[List of abilities: Immune to fire, pyromancy, dimensional warping and crossing, inhuman strength, speed, and dexterity, deadly gaze, and more to unlock…]
Beside him could be seen the corpse of the Hellhound with a sword stuck in it. Standing aloft beside it, his figure suddenly disappeared.
He then appeared next to one of the Hellhounds, who had just gotten up. The Hellhound looked surprised. Before it could react, blood flowed into the air as diagonal claw marks flashed in the air across the Hellhound's side. It couldn't do anything. It was late to react.
A deep wound could be seen on the Hellhound's side. The monster backed away out of reflex. The wound it received was not enough to kill the monster directly even though it was bleeding. However, their enemy disappeared again.
The Hellhound looked around to locate him, not knowing that what it was looking for appeared above. Tim immediately attacked the monster from above.
Fwoosh!
Awrr!
His hand pierced into the monster's body, hitting its core.
Standing with a bloody hand, he looked even more monster than the monster itself. That attack directly ended the life of the second Hellhound.
[+1 Exp!]
Awoooo!!!
One growled and the other two could also be seen jumping out of the broken house. Now he was surrounded by the three Hellhounds. Simultaneously, they spewed out damaging flames and directly hit Tim.
An explosion occurred and his condition was unknown.
They didn't want to use flame on their prey as it would charred them for sure. They needed them for food after all. Just that, they don't have a choice against him.
Suddenly someone jumped up from the smoke. Then, it formed a big ball of blue fire and threw it down without a second thought.
It was bigger than the fire the Hellhounds had spewed at him earlier.
Awwwrrrr…
The blue flame devoured the hellhounds. Hellhounds are also resistant to fire, but that depends on the strength of the fire. The fire that Lord Hound Tim threw at them was significantly stronger than their resistance could handle.
After killing all 5 smaller Hellhounds with maroon fur, popped-up notifications came one after another.
[+1 Exp!]
[+1 Exp!]
[Level Up!]
[+1 Exp!]
Tim suddenly felt dizzy. His butt fell into the mud. His Lord Hound transformation disappeared. *Urgh!!!* Then he was assaulted by intense pain once again. It was the third time.
He noticed that the pain this time wasn't as strong as the first and second assaults. Still painful though. Sweats resurfaced on every part of his body.
After some time of fighting against the pain, he was finally freed from it. A sigh of relief came out of his mouth. A leap in his power was apparent. But unfortunately, he felt very exhausted. Although all his injuries disappeared every time he levels up, his stamina and mana weren't replenished.
Judging from how exhausted he felt right now, it wasn't wise to continue hunting in this condition.
He took a tiny bottle with red liquid inside from his pocket and drank the contents. After drinking, his eyes suddenly turned sharp. That was a stamina elixir that was sold in the association. Once you drink it, you regain some of your stamina. He bought it before coming here.
Ahhh~
He sighed in satisfaction. Somehow he felt rejuvenated a little. Since that transformation took a large amount of mana, he could not use it redundantly. Moreover, although it doubled his strength, speed, and dexterity, and gave him amazing abilities, he could be in that form for at most 15 seconds only. In his current Mana capacity, that was the best he could do because the time limit would depend on his Mana. Therefore, the higher his Mana becomes, the longer he could be in that form.
"Now let's check the bodies…" he stood up.
"Devour!"
Swirling shadows appeared beneath the lying carcass of the Hellhound he killed using his claw. Then a huge mouth came out from those swirling shadows and swallowed the whole carcass.
[Strength increased!]
[Agility increased!]
His stats increased again, but unlike before, he didn't gain any skills this time. Next, he approached the one he killed with the sword. The sword was still stuck in the beast's body.
He thought about what to do with this one, he didn't have enough mana anymore to use his Devour skill. "I'll just bring this one to sell it." He put it in the sack and carried it on his shoulder while the sword was attached to his back. As he walked away from the area, he noticed the dead bodies of Hellhounds at the corner of his eyes. They were badly burned and unrecognizable.
"Too bad I can't gain anything on them. If only I had mana left maybe I could use devour on them. This is just my guess though. I'm not certain if devour can still extract points from them, looking at how charred they are."
You could see the regret on his face when he left the place.
When Tim walked into the reception area while carrying a sack on his shoulder, everyone looked at him in wonder. They wondered what he was carrying on his back.
"What is that? Did he go to the Desolate Area and hunt?"
"Haha, why are you so stupid? I'm sure it's just a rat from the canal. Look how dirty he looks. Hahah!" Laughed one of the hunters around.
"Haha! You're right. Eww! He smells like shit!"
"But it looks big though."
"Eh? Y-You're right…"
"Idiots! It's just a pig. Hahaha!"
"That's right. It's probably a pig. This idiot is a newbie so he probably didn't know he can't sell it here! Hahaha!"
In the first place, there was no way a newbie could hunt in the Desolate Area right now. As of the moment, the nearest monsters from the gate of Desolate Area were either D-rank or C-rank. A mere rank G could not hope to kill any of them without anyone's help.
Tim ignored the laughs from around him and went directly to the reception desk. He didn't know why they were laughing.
Upon seeing him, the receptionist immediately recognized him.
"Hunter Tim! You? What are you carrying?"
"Um, Miss Lyn. This is a monster I killed. I would like to sell it if possible."
"M-monster?" Receptionist Lyn was surprised by what she heard. A while ago, she strongly advised him not to hunt alone. There was no way he could hunt a monster especially in the current situation where most monsters around the gate of Desolate Area were not suitable for newbie. She immediately convinced herself that maybe it was just a normal animal like the Horned Boar.
Horned Boars, although they had a different appearance from the normal boar, were not classified as monsters because they didn't have a Mana Stone. Only monsters with Mana Stone could be bought by the association because these monsters have many uses.
You could see the seemingly troubled smile on Receptionist Lyn's face. She didn't want to embarrass him, but how to tell him without embarrassing him? He probably did not know about this matter because she never explained it to him.
Also, this was a common mistake made by novice hunters.
"Miss Lyn?" Tim took her attention when he noticed her silence.
"Uh, yes. Please, let me see first."
"Okay."
Tim opened the sack.