Chapter 120 - Finally! (1/2)

Time kept passing, and now, 4 more days had already passed in the blink of an eye. Even though these 4 days should've been very boring, Ark had liked these days quite a lot, and he had a great time, even though he didn't have too much to do. The antics of the small cub were enough to tide him over until he had healed its mother back to full health again. Though that was what Ark thought on the surface, deep inside, he really didn't want to part with them just yet.

And why would he? He had nothing better to do with his life right now anyway. Sure, he wanted to get stronger to be able to one day get revenge, but Ark had patience. Whether it took him one year or three years wouldn't really matter when it came to his revenge. And what good would taking revenge be if he didn't even get to enjoy his life? Ark's current goals were as such: get stronger for the sake of revenge, find and reunite with Thufrat, and just enjoy his life in general. With the third and last goal currently being his priority.

When he thought about it, Ark always came to the conclusion that living was essentially meaningless. Whenever he heard the question ”What is the meaning of life?” all he could think of was nothing. There was no meaning. Therefore Ark had made it his goal to just enjoy his life in general. Though, to enjoy it to the fullest, he needed strength, not only to protect himself and those he enjoyed spending his time with, but also to be able to take control of his own fate, to get what he wanted out of life.

If he needed money in the future? Then all he needed to rely on was his strength. If he wanted to protect someone? He had to rely on strength. If he wanted to attack someone? He also needed strength. A lot of things stemmed from strength, which was why it was so important in Ark's eyes. With that being said, his first priority right now was still to heal this wolf. After about a week of healing, the scar on the wolf's back was completely gone, and Ark had basically gotten rid of any internal injuries now as well, all that remained was for the wolf to wake up.

[Papa, danger!]

Hearing the urgent calling of the cub, Ark could feel that something was wrong. Even though he had already faced off against plenty of magical beasts these last couple of days, the cub had never reacted like this before, which meant that something terribly strong was coming. Even though Ark didn't feel any urgent danger, his instincts were not as sharp as an animal that had lived in the wild all of its life. Sure, Ark could feel mana fluctuations and determine danger that way, and he still had fairly sharp instincts of his own, but that wasn't really the same thing.

Ark trusted the cub though, and he decided to stand up and stretch a little. [Don't worry, while I'm still here, neither you nor your mother will be hurt ok?] The cub instantly felt reassured after Ark's lofty words, and he nodded his head slightly. The wolf's way of communicating with him was still very primitive, but he suspected that it would evolve and surpass that of even a normal human being as he grew up. These were elemental wolves, after all, a race that was only a step below his own.

As he was just about to stand up, a dreadful and suppressive aura suddenly hit him like a train out of nowhere. Since he wasn't ready, Ark was pressed back down on the ground for a second before he struggled to stand up again. He wasn't ready for this at all! What the hell was this? It seemed like he had underestimated his enemy even though he tried to be careful. Just from the pressure alone, Ark was pretty sure that this wasn't an enemy he could fight against. Normally he would opt to run away, but with the cub's mother lying behind him, could he really just ditch them and run away?

Of course not! He had already gotten to know this little cub too well to just abandon it, especially when it depended on him for survival at the moment. Ark wasn't heartless, and even if he was, he wouldn't leave them behind, they had something that he wanted, after all, that special feeling. Though it might sound laughable to some, Ark considered that feeling a real treasure, something which he couldn't replace, and he wouldn't even dare try to abandon them for that very reason.

In front of them, a large creature appeared. Ark could only gulp at the sight of the overbearing, large and grotesque monster that appeared in front of them. At first, Ark had no idea what kind of creature it was, but after looking a little closer, he could draw some similarities between the large green creature and a pesky little creature that he had run into long ago, a goblin. Although he knew for a fact that this wasn't an actual goblin, Ark was pretty sure that it was at the very least related to goblins in some way.

The large monster was over 5 meters tall, and though Ark thought it looked a little like a goblin, it was more reminiscent of a troll if anything. The troll had greasy and thick green skin covering its entire body, with nothing but an oversized loincloth covering up its family jewels. The troll was completely bald and had a primitive-looking bone club in one of his rather gigantic hands. The scariest part about this troll, if you disregarded the horrible stench that almost made Ark want to puke, was the troll's eyes.

Even if the stench was frightening by itself when you considered Ark's exceptional nose, the eyes of the troll were daunting. Complete darkness. That was all there was to them. With no irises or white in its eyes, the troll's eyes looked like two pitch-black pupils. Just from exteriors, Ark was able to guess just how stupid this troll was, only based on the troll's frankly disgusting bearing. He didn't dare underestimate the troll though since he had experienced its stifling pressure beforehand, and underestimating your enemy went hand in hand with death.

”Inspect”