"Just what are you?" Aur asked with interest in his eyes.
"I am just a squirrel, human. Nothing more…"
"Really?" Aur had a smile on his face, which made the squirrel tremble for some reason.
"Yes." The squirrel made a pitiful expression as it trembled.
"I will deal with you later."
Aur squinted his eyes as he caught the little squirrel by its back neck, put it back on his shoulder, and walked forward with a shrug.
Although the place was pitch darkness, he could still see most of the darkness ever since he reached the one stat in the muscle attribute.
Aur's five senses were stronger with it, and he even now had the ability to faintly sense in the dark, so he didn't really need a torch.
In fact, he could feel everything while his eyes were closed, even better when he was in this pitch darkness.
"Aur, come look at this."
Chloe's voice came, which made Aur's pace increase.
"Coming."
Swish!
"What is it?"
He almost instantly arrived right behind them.
"Ahhh…" Emma fell to the floor as if she had seen a ghost as she looked at Aur.
"How did you get here so fast?"
Aur looked in front. "What is it?"
"Well, look here." She pointed at the narrow walls of the cave, which were filled with small claw marks.
Aur frowned as he tried to search his memory, but it couldn't match with any of the marks he had studied till now.
"Any clues?"
"No." Aur just shook his head with a sigh.
"Then what should we do, Aur? Retreat or advance?"
"Advance," Aur said without hesitation. He was still missing some stat points to fully upgrade his blood and Qi from maxing out at the cap of one.
Although he had a gut feeling that it could exponentially help him gather strength, he didn't know if that was the limit of his system. To be on the safe side, Aur wanted to explore more potential that could help him grow stronger in the meantime for the future he had seen with his talent.
The party of three slowly made their way.
Grr…
The trio suddenly heard a sound, causing Chloe in front of them to put her finger to her mouth, thinly touching her lips.
Aur nodded while Emma also had a serious expression on her face.
Slowly, they moved in a nimble pace, trying to reduce the sound as much as possible as the noise got louder and louder.
Aur's eyes narrowed as he finally saw a green figure the size of a child sleeping soundly.
"Are they goblins or rather imps…"
He raised his hands and made a slashing movement towards his own neck.
To that, Chloe nodded her head while Emma was entirely silent.
Without a moment's delay, Aur slowly made his way towards the imp.
Suddenly, the imp opened its green eyes, only to find that its mouth was blocked.
Crack!
The poor imp's neck bent, its green eyes filled with fear as it flailed its body around before finally succumbing to death.
Aur beckoned as the twins followed him further.
Since he was taking fifty percent, Aur had to do his job properly as well. His experience had already taught him how to kill the imp without making much noise.
"Let's go further," Chloe said with a frown on her face. Imps were usually the weakest race and were always bullied for it. They were even weaker than a human toddler. The only reason they had managed to exist for this long was simply because of their fertility period; female goblins were very fertile and produced ten babies in just one batch.
This was the only reason they hadn't gone extinct yet. However, a newly formed dungeon shouldn't only attract weak beasts like this.
"Alright," Aur spoke in a whisper as they walked farther and farther.
Finally, they saw a thin, malnourished wolf soundly sleeping as well.
Aur's eyes narrowed to a sliver as he looked at the wolf with a strange expression. The wolf was relatively smaller; however, its fur was in a familiar blue coat.
"Aur, aur, aur…"
Aur snapped out of his daze state as he looked at Chloe.
"Why were you in such a daze?"
"Nothing," Aur just rubbed his head with an expressionless face.
"Do we need to handle it together, or do you want to handle it yourself?" Emma said with a mocking tone; after all, the danger level of this beast was around level "A," and even Aur couldn't handle it himself, at least that was what she believed from the strength he had shown till now.
Aur was, at most, a person who could solo "C" level beasts.
This ranking was a simple one created by the Mercenary based on the danger level of the beast. However, it was only for mortals, with wizards excluded because they were too powerful to be included.
The level "S'' was the highest level that the Mercenary could deal with, being about the strength of a peak-tier martial apprentice, and the ranking descended in order of strength.
Although Aur was technically a mage apprentice, without spells, Wizards were entirely useless, and he hadn't obtained a spell yet, meaning his combat strength was null to begin with if we want to count his mage talent.
"Nothing," Aur looked at the wolf, "I can handle it myself." He casually disappeared from his position and reappeared directly in front of the wolf.
Chloe's and Emma's eyes widened with shock when they saw this.
"This guy is so reckless." Suddenly, Emma felt guilty, thinking that Aur went so recklessly just because of her mocking him. If Aur heard this, he would have been speechless; how could the mocking of a little girl annoy him?
He appeared right in front of the wolf and casually punched the wolf directly in its head.
Bang!
The wolf suddenly stood up as if on instinct, and its eyes opened slightly before it saw a fist descending at a terrifying speed.
It opened its mouth, trying to utter a roar.
Aw…
The head of the wolf exploded, a grotesque scene unfolded as Aur casually crushed its skull.
Blood splattered in all directions, creating a gruesome scene that stained the surrounding walls of the cave.
The headless body of the wolf collapsed to the ground with a heavy thud, as it couldn't even utter a final roar.
Chloe and Emma stood frozen, their eyes wide with horror, as they witnessed the brutal efficiency with which Aur dispatched the creature.