"Nothing special, but they'd be good for practice." Kaido muttered to himself as he carefully plucked some plants in a special way as to not damage them, planning to use them for Alchemy.
Currently, he was a little deeper into the Outer Layer, with a small lake off in the distance. It wasn't too far away and was his next destination after finishing up here. Since the Silver Wolf, he had easily killed a couple more Low-Class monsters and taken their Cores. However, none of them were strong enough, or even able to put up a fight for that matter. It was slightly disappointing, but there was nothing he could do about it.
Finished with his plant picking, he walked over and soon arrived next to the lake. Surrounding the lake was a wide open clearing, with a few monsters and beasts drinking from the water. The closest ones looked at him warily, before backing off to the tree line. They could sense a large amount of danger rolling off him and wisely chose to back off.
But Kaido didn't care for them, only staring into the water with curious eyes. He could see something in there, creating a small invisible whirlpool of mana above the surface.
"Definitely a treasure!" A smile graced his lips as he prepared to take a plunge. By the looks of it, whatever was inside seemed to lay at the bottom of the lake.
Suddenly, the hair on the back of his neck stood up as he heard a loud booming sound behind him, similar to lightning. He had no idea what it was, but trusted his gut instinct and teleported 3 meters to the left. In his original position, a silver lightning bolt struck the ground, creating a four foot deep pit.
"Close one. If that hit..." Sweat dripped down Kaido's forehead as he lost his usual cool, his breathing a little rough. No matter how strong his willpower was, he was still a 16 year old boy. Getting so close to death for the first time would frighten most people, let alone him.
Before he could think of anything else, he witnessed as fifty silver wolves exited the tree line and dashed for him. Leading the pack was a much larger one, easily double the size of the others. A horn was in the middle of his forehead, flickering with silver lightning.
Kaido forcibly calmed down and readied himself for combat instead of running. First off, he knew it would be a fruitless endeavor since they ran countless times faster than him. Turning his back on them would be beyond idiotic. The only way for him to escape would be his short teleportation by mass spamming it. Developing some sort of long ranged version or a way to fly through the air was now definitely on his list.
Second, he wanted to fight. He wanted to prove to himself that he could defeat and kill them. The only way to get over his fear of death, was to face it head on and never look away. The wolves surrounded him on all sides, trapping him completely and blocking any escape route. The pack leader stepped forwards, visibly enraged as he howled, prompting the others to do the same.
'Hm…' Looking at them, an ambitious and fool hardy idea suddenly sprang to mind. If it worked the way he wanted, he could gain a force in The Outer Layer to do his bidding.
However, he knew he had to be careful because of one simple reason. The pack leader, The Silver Lightning Horned Wolf. Based on the mana, and the pressure he was exuding, Kaido theorized he was a Medium-Class monster.
Luckily for Kaido, the Horned Wolf wasn't impossibly stronger than him. If he had to guess, they were probably one of the weaker Medium Class monsters. The other wolves were mostly Low-Mid Class, with a few being Low-High. All in all, it was a very dangerous fight for a normal student or even a group of them, which would certainly lead to their death.
'Not for me though.' If he wanted his plan to work out the way he wanted, he couldn't kill them all. First, he had to kill the pack leader, then dominate the rest through overwhelming power.
Raising his hand, he pointed his palm towards the Horned Wolf who suddenly sensed a massive amount of danger. Using his instincts honed through multiple life or death battles, the Horned Wolf immediately jumped out of the way.
The poor wolf who was behind him collapsed to the ground out of nowhere, not even making a sound. Every orifice was bleeding massively, painting the grass red.
"Unfortunate." Kaido's calm voice echoed out, sending chills down every wolf's spine except the pack leader. The unknown cause of death terrified them deeply.
What Kaido had done was use his second spell, Soul Tear. It sends an invisible attack to the opponent's soul, grabbing onto it roughly and tearing it to pieces. It ignores all physical defense and can only be resisted in a few ways.
One is to have a surplus of mana and use it to defend against the spell before it reaches them. The second way is to have armor, or some type of item, that specifically blocks Soul attacks. The third is what the Horned Wolf did, have primal animal instinct of death approaching.
The surrounding wolves whimpered as they backed up, trying to retreat. However, a loud bark from the Horned Wolf made them halt in place. Despite the fear still inside them, they all advanced towards Kaido quickly, wanting to tear him apart. While this happened, the Horned Wolf sent another lightning bolt at his position. Clicking his tongue in annoyance, Kaido teleported out of the way multiple times to avoid all the attacks.
At the same time, he sent multiple Space Blades at the Horned Wolf, all the while ignoring the lesser wolves. His opponent cleanly dodged all of them, not suffering a single wound while firing more lightning at him.
Kaido teleported to the right and successfully avoided the deadly attack. However, a wolf soon appeared right next to him mid attack.
"Shit!" He cursed and teleported away once more, but not before getting a parting gift. A deep claw mark on his left arm that bled badly. Luckily, the leather armor saved him from any permanent damage.
"Filthy trash!" Enraged, Kaido constantly teleported to avoid all the wolf's attacks and at the same time, threw several Space Blades at the one who harmed him.
The poor wolf went pale and tried it's hardest to dodge, but still got sliced in half. The Horned Wolf saw this and narrowed their eyes, howling out their orders. The formation of the wolves changed, attacking Kaido at different angles and forcing him to keep dodging.
As for the Horned Wolf, he stopped in place and watched his enemy teleport around like a hawk. He needed to focus as hard as he could so he could predict his next landing point. Suddenly, his horn sparked and he shot a silver lightning bolt at his target.
Kaido, who teleported to avoid another wolf's jaws, appeared just in time to see the silver lightning bolt about to strike his head. With wide eyes and superior instincts, Kaido delved into his potential and raised both hands, manipulating the Space around him to create a visible rippling wall.
It managed to block most of the strike before shattering, creating a loud boom. His arms were a bit numb, but wasn't enough to hinder him. With coldness mixed with fury in his eyes, he began teleporting multiple times towards the Horned Wolf.
As he did, he raised his right hand at him while his left casually swung and let loose a Space Blade to seemingly nowhere. The Horned Wolf was far more concerned with the right hand, so much so he didn't focus on anything else. Sensing death once more, he hurriedly jumped out of the way.
Before he could even catch his breath, he noticed the Space Blade almost directly in front of his face. He was shocked and knew there was no time to dodge. Instead, he used his horn to send a lightning bolt at the blade, destroying most of it.
Unfortunately, a portion still hit the side of his face, ruining the left eye.
"Gotcha~" Hearing the teasing voice, he turned his head to see Kaido right next to him, his hand placed on his side.
Suddenly, he felt a massive amount of pain as something tore his organs to pieces. The Horned Wolf was in such agony, he couldn't even think to fight back. After coughing up a massive amount of blood filled with chunks, he collapsed to the ground. The only reason he still breathed, was because Kaido stopped his attack.
"Phew! Not too bad I'd say." This was his third spell he had created, Space Rend.
Ignoring the surface of their body, it directly teleports multiple tiny space blades into the inside of his opponent's body. They spin around wildly and shred whatever they come into contact with. If caught unprepared, such an attack would even slaughter a Dragon.
"Unfortunately, it requires me to touch them." He frowned slightly before shrugging his shoulders and turning around. At the moment, it was a great attack and could even be a trump card.
The wolves had lost their mind to fear due to the death if their leader and started to run away. But this wasn't what Kaido wanted. Using teleportation, he quickly caught up to them and rounded them all up back at the lake, where their pack leader lay unconscious.
"Little bastards. You should be thanking me." If he wasn't trying to keep them alive, he could have easily killed most of them before focusing solely on their pack leader, which would have made the fight much easier. But because he wanted to capture them, he suffered a bit.
After forcibly keeping them in place with a rope made out of pure mana, he returned to the Horned Wolf. He kneeled down next to them, patting their bloody head before grabbing it roughly.
"Don't fret. I'll take care of them. Well, for a while at least." Grinning, he closed his eyes and forced his way into the Horned Wolf's soul. It's eyes opened, but were pure white as it screamed horribly.
'Not as easy as I thought!' Kaido grit his teeth as he tried to read the wolf's memories. It was much harder than he originally assumed, with him accidentally shredding most of the soul.
Fortunately, he was able to get what he wanted. The Silver Wolf Den. Turns out, there was another Silver Lightning Horned Wolf, female this time, in there for defense while the male and his hunting party searched for food. Other than them, only the females and children were left behind, ripe for the picking.
"Ah! I wasn't done yet…" Kaido said depressingly, sighing as the last of the wolf's soul dissipated.
"Oh well. Now, let's get to you lot." He stood up, after carving the Core out, and spoke to the shivering wolves who were almost as large as an adult human.
A few short teleports later, and he was in front of the first one. With a surprising amount of gentleness, he grabbed their head and pet it softly. But the lack of emotion in Kaido's eyes, didn't make the wolf feel any warmth. Two swirling black holes, full of emptiness.
"Won't you Bond with me? Don't make me do something I'll regret."
The wolf shivered even more when his intentions were sent into it's soul. It was nothing more than a Slave Contract, chaining them to his will. He also sent a picture of what would happen if the wolf dared to resist him. Terrified, it swiftly accepted and was successfully Bonded with Kaido.
Done with the first one, Kaido looked to all the others, smiling kindly.
"Next?"
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After taming all the wolves, Kaido breathed out a sigh of relief. A hint of exhaustion was on his face as he massaged his neck. How many monsters one can Bond with is determined by how strong their soul is. In simple terms, it's as if the Tamer has a limited number of slots.
However, if the monster is very strong, then taming them takes up more slots than a weaker one. Yin for example would easily take up more than even 100 Silver Lightning Horned Wolves. Thankfully, Kaido had an unusually strong soul, so it all worked out.
"Wait here, I'll be back soon." Saying so, Kaido took off his leather armor and uniform, neatly placing it off to the side. He hissed in pain due to the cut on his arm, but ignored it. Finding an herb to heal it wouldn't take very long so he wasn't worried.
Kaido quickly walked into the water, soon submerging himself under the surface. It was clear and easy to see, so he had no problems with his vision. Looking around, he didn't spot any predators so he started diving deeper. It was odd to him though. This place should be crawling with underwater monsters.
After diving for close to two minutes, he finally saw his prize. A large, blue colored, and sparkling oyster with white lines going down vertically across it's body. It was seven feet in diameter, with little bubbles surrounding it. The oyster constantly hummed lightly, the music it produced very calming and soothing.
Despite the object of his quest right in front of him, no joy was found on Kaido's face. Instead, he frowned deeply as he thought to himself.
'No wonder there's no predators in the water. Fucking dumbass.' Right next to the oyster, soundly asleep and curled into a ball, was a massive snake.
It easily must have been close to thirty meters long, with two horns on it's forehead. The face was especially vicious looking as it slept. Going down it's spine were these foot long spikes that looked very dangerous.
'No possible way of winning.' That was the conclusion he came to. He didn't even need his eyes, as just the sheer pressure it released unconsciously made his heart sink.
'But why is this in the Outer Layer? This thing would be more at home in the Inner Layer at least'
Based on the dense mana inside it's body, he guessed it was a High Class Monster, a decently strong one at that. No matter how much of a badass talented genius he was, fighting this thing would spell immediate death. His only true chance was using Space Rend while the snake was asleep, but there was a chance it wouldn't kill it. Then he'd be truly fucked.
However, he didn't want to give up such a boon like this as there was a chance this oyster might be an extremely worthwhile treasure. Going back up to the surface, as he was running out of air, Kaido laid on the water and thought deeply.
"How the fuck am I to make this work?"