While both Aurora and the gray wolf that suddenly appeared stared off, seemingly ready to jump in and fight at any moments, their thoughts differed greatly.
While one of them was eyeing its enemy with caution and wariness, the other was lost in her own damn world, freaking out over a simple thing.
'No way, now way! It's an actual wolf made of flesh and bones! My eyes aren't playing tricks on me, right?' Was it really that hard to believe?
I mean, I get it, okay? All the monsters and subsequently all the sentient beings she has encountered thus far were plants. Heck, she fought with at least a dozen different species of monsters, yet all of them were plants of some sort. Well, plants and a mushroom.
But that's not the important part! The important part is that ever since she has woken up, she never met a living, sentient being made of flesh, but was her first meeting with one such creature really that big of a deal?
Well anyway, Aurora's internal outburst aside, unlike her, the gray wolf wasn't nearly as excited. Rather, he was very cautious, despite feeling that the small creature in front of him should be weaker than him.
Though the little white creature's power seemed to be less than his own, the wolf's instincts told him not to act rashly, as he could not underestimate this opponent.
But that didn't mean that his patience was endless. Soon, the wolf started to run out of it. Aurora also seemed to have felt this, so she finally turned serious and focused on the upcoming battle.
Though the wolf in front of her wasn't all that strong, it definitely wasn't weak. Even to her, it was clear that the wolf's level was higher than hers. Still, she wasn't worried at all.
As it was apparent that the two would soon jump at each other, Aurora wasted no more time and lunged forward. As she closed the distance between her and the wolf, she quickly activated Scratch and slashed down towards the wolf.
By this point, starting battles like this was basically a habit of hers, but it also served a great purpose. You see, by opening up with a scratch, she can easily judge the power, or the focus in stats, of the enemy she's fighting at that moment.
If the opponent decides to block the attack, it's probably safe to judge that its defense is higher than its agility. In this case, she can also get a slight estimate of how strong her enemy's defense is.
If Scratch manages to hurt them, even if not much, it might be a viable way to deal damage. If it fails to deal any damage, it's not worth using it for anything but the possibility of inflicting bleed on the target.
Now, if the opponent chooses to dodge instead of blocking the attack, it means that their agility is higher than their defense. In this case, Aurora can also judge how fast her opponent actually is.
But to her surprise, the wolf didn't react in either of the two usual ways. Instead of blocking or dodging, the wolf chose to counterattack with an attack similar to hers.
*Swish* *Clank*
The two attacks soon collided, which resulted in both beings getting pushed back a bit. Despite that, in this tradeoff, the wolf was the clear winner.
While the gray wolf only got pushed back by a couple of meters, Aurora was sent back by at least ten meters. This meant only one thing.
'The wolf probably also used Scratch, or at least a skill similar to it. Though, because of this, I don't know whether he's more defense-focused or agility-focused, I at least know that his strength is definitely higher than mine.'
Even if neither of the two usual events happened, she still at least got to know that in a physical exchange of blows, she's at a clear disadvantage.
'The difference isn't too big, but it's still there. Even then, if it really were to come down to an exchange of physical blows, it's difficult to say who would win.' Though barely a few seconds passed since the first exchange between the two, Aurora's was already working overtime with analyzing the fight.
'While his strength is higher by probably four or five points, my defense is probably much higher thanks to my new ring.' She briefly looked down at the wooden ring that adorned one of the small fingers of her paw.
'We would be equal in a physical match, but it's not like I'm much of a physical fighter, now am I?' Aurora grinned internally, and without waiting for any longer, she charged right back towards the gray wolf.
The wolf in question has definitely eased up a bit after his first exchange with the white creature in front of him. Even he could clearly feel that he was stronger than his opponent, so seeing the little furry creature charge at him again, he wasn't nearly as worried and tense as before.
He readied himself up again, and once his opponent got close enough, he slashed down with his claw just like before. But much to his surprise, instead of attacking like before, the white creature jumped back to avoid his strike.
But just as he didn't understand the point of such a move, soon, a large chunk of sharp ice appeared out of thin air and shot out towards him.
This attack... The wolf has seen something like this once before, but that doesn't mean he knows what magic is, much less how to counter it.
Faced with the sudden, unknown, and unexpected attack, the wolf froze up for just a second. He would have been frozen for longer were it not for his instincts screaming at him, telling him to quickly move.
Reacting to his instincts, the wolf quickly jumped to the side as he felt the imminent danger approaching him by the moment. Unfortunately, even that one second delay was enough for him not to be able to dodge the attack completely.
The approaching ice bolt was too quick, and by the time the wolf jumped to the side, his hind leg had been hit by the magical attack, albeit partially. The wound wasn't deep, nor was it anything serious.
Just as the wolf was about to relax a bit, he realized that the strange attack wasn't his main problem. But by the time he managed to realize this, it was far too late.
Aurora was already mid-lunge, her claw aiming at the gray wolf's neck. But despite all of its shock, the wolf stull somehow managed to avoid a fatal strike and quickly jumped back.
Even then, though weaker than that of his own, Aurora's Scratch was nothing to scoff at. Though the wolf managed to dodge, his front leg still got cut pretty badly.
'Tsk, annoying. His instincts are sharp. Furthermore, he's definitely more intelligent than any monster I've fought so far, so he knows how to dodge well.' Even if she sounded annoyed, which she was, as she did not expect the wolf to dodge, it was still well within her initial expectations.
It was clear that the wolf's agility could become a problem. Despite two of his limbs already being badly wounded, the wolf could still move with considerable swiftness. Though she had no doubts that she could finish the battle off in a matter of a few attacks, Aurora felt no need to take unnecessary risks.
No less than a second after the wolf dodged her strike, she immediately cast another spell, aiming at the wounded wolf before her. Right after, a dense mist of light snow particles shot out towards the wolf.
Surprisingly enough, the gray wolf felt no danger coming from the approaching attack. Since this was the case, he decided not to move, thinking that his enemy was trying to bait him into dodging.
Unfortunately, though the wolf was definitely intelligent, he had no idea that the seemingly harmless snow mist would mean an early death for him.
As soon as the mist hit him, realization dawned on the wolf as he felt his body freezing over and his agility dropping down.
[You have inflicted the status effect Minor Freeze on the target.]
Obviously, the spell Aurora used was the Freezing Snow. Unfortunately, she only managed to inflict a minor freeze on the wolf, and since his ice resistance was quite average, it only lowered his agility by the base amount of 5%.
'Still, that's more than enough for me.' Not wanting to waste any more of her precious time, Aurora lunged forward once more, intent on finally finishing this off.
Even the gray wolf could feel his end nearing, but even then, he refused to die just like that. Seeing the little white creature getting close once again, he steeled his resolve and prepared to fight.
*Swish* *Swish* *Clank*
...
...
...
The wolf did his best, but it was clear that he was easily outmatched. Even his strength has dropped significantly since he could basically only use one of his front claws.
And soon, the wolf met his end as he didn't manage to block or dodge Aurora's final strike that landed square on his neck. Her claw cleanly and easily slashed through the flesh, leaving a deep cut on the beast's neck.
"Auuuu!" The wolf let out his final painful cry as crimson blood gushed out from the wound on his neck. A few seconds later, the beast breathed his last as he bled out and died right after.
[You have defeated the Gray Shadow Wolf level 14.]
A simple system message flashed in front of Aurora's eyes. A message she already knew well and got used to seeing. Another message accompanied it, but it wasn't the one she was looking for.
'Tsk, no level-up, huh? Come on, that wolf was level 14. Don't be stingy, system!' Aurora complained as she didn't receive a level-up message after she defeated the wolf.
Actually, except for the kill message and archive message, she received no other messages. Still, the entry that contained the information about the Gray Shadow Wolf actually interested her quite a bit, so she decided to check it out right away.
[Gray Shadow Wolf]
- Rank: 0
- Grade: Common
- Threat level: F
– A very common, wolf-type magical beast. They can be found easily, as they are known to inhabit most of the forests. Despite their name, they cannot use any magic due to their average intelligence.
'Hmmm...' Aurora fell in thought for a moment as she carefully read through the information. There were some things that interested her, but none of them were too important.
'But at least I know that it was indeed a magical beast. That explains its intelligence. But they're still too dumb to use magic.' She even scoffed a bit at the end, feeling that the name 'magical beast' is wasted on a being that cannot use magic.
Of course, she knew that most low-grade magical beasts can't actually use magic. Only a few special races can do that, and that's also to a very limited degree. If anything, she was the weird one for being able to use magic so freely.
'Well, all that aside.' Pushing any thoughts to the back of her mind, Aurora looked at the corpse of the Gray Shadow Wolf with hungry eyes.
'I wonder what meat tastes like.' She even started to drool from just envisioning various different ways the wolf's meat could taste.
No longer being able to hold herself back, Aurora licked her lips dug in right away. Though the corpse of the magical beast looked quite gruesome and was covered with blood, to her, none of that mattered.
It's not like this was the first time she saw or ate a corpse. After all, monster corpses were the only sources of edible food for her. Of course, since all the monsters she encountered until now were plants, their corpses weren't exactly nutricious, much less tasty.
Far from it, they were gross beyond measure. The only reason she could even eat the monster corpses was because she had technically never eaten anything that tasted normally. Even then, the taste still seemed really bad, even to her.
Actually, Aurora once managed to find a patch of mushrooms. Back then, she didn't think much and immediately got to eating them as soon as she found them. But, much to her surprise, far from tasting good, the mushrooms were super bitter and tasted as if you were chewing on mud.
What's more, after just one bite, she felt that something was wrong. Back then, her Poison Resistance skill had to immediately act up and activate to the maximum amount just to protect her from the mushroom's poison. Since then, she never tried to eat a mushroom again.
So it wouldn't be exactly wrong to say that Aurora's past experiences with food were anything but pleasant. And since this was the case, it shouldn't seem like much of a surprise that Aurora's eyes went wide after she took the first bite of the meat.
'So good!' As her eyes sparkled with excitement, Aurora began to eat the corpse with great fervor. She completely ignored anything else and only focused on the amazing taste of the meat.
Of course, by normal human standards, the meat was gross. Like, really gross. Any normal human would probably throw up right after taking the first bite.
Yes, there may be people who enjoy the taste of raw meat, but even they wouldn't find the wolf's meat tasty at all.
But to Aurora, who only ever tasted gross, plant-like parts of various monsters, this meat was the best thing ever. It was so tasty, in fact, that she ended up eating all of the good meat from the wolf's corpse.
She left stuff like inner organs out, but other than that, she ate basically the entire corpse. Now, this wouldn't be weird if it weren't for the corpse being like twice her whole size!
'Ugh, I'm full.' Aurora wiped her small mouth with her paw and sighed in content. Though she felt like throwing up right now from how much she ate, she was still satisfied.
'After this, I'll never be able to eat those gross monster bodies I used to eat on a daily basis.' She snickered internally and got back up on her feet.
Soon, she left the devoured corpse of the wolf behind and resumed her little journey around this new part of the forest.
With a content smile and full stomach, Aurora went around, completely oblivious to the danger that she would soon find herself in.