27 Boar King (1/2)

”Slash!”, ”Slash!”, ”Slash!”...

”Yes!! Hahahaha!!” Zheng slashed towards a dead Roughback Boar which laid on the crimson grass beneath it.

Zheng looked like a blood loving maniac who lusted for blood and slaughter. His slash was ripping chunks off of the boar's body. The purplish fur that once covered his hand and forearm had now made its way up to his shoulders.

”Enough!” Ivanic spoke with anger as he was already sick of Zheng's actions. This was the first time Ivanic had ever been so serious other than speaking about the protectors. Zheng paused his actions and looked towards Ivanic with a murderous look. Almost like a child whose fun and games had been ruined by his parents.

”Deactivate your skill. Now!” Ivanic once again ordered in a serious tone. Niko understood why Ivanic was saying this as Zheng's attitude was getting worse by the second.

Zheng's face turned ugly as if he was unwilling to part with the skill. If one were to analyze his eyes a bit more, they would be able to notice a purple hue within it. The skill that Zheng possessed was truly changing his body.

”Now!” Ivanic once more ordered, and both Niko and Candreva watched this scene as well as they wanted to see what happened next.

”Ugh!” Zheng deactivated his skill and a shocking scene occurred.

”Aoooooooo~” The image of a wolf appeared behind Zheng. The wolf looked like a normal wolf, however, there were purple strands of hairs around his body. The thing that stood out the most about the wolf was the fact that its eyes glowed in a purple color makes it look powerful and menacing. The wolf domineeringly howled towards the sky as Zheng stumbled to the floor as a purple aura began to escape his body.

Niko could feel a baleful aura leave the body of Zheng as his body went back to normal and no longer was it covered by fur. As Zheng began to stand up he looked around awkwardly, Ivanic gave him a look of almost asking him to explain himself immediately.

Scratching his head, Zheng began to explain, ” The skill I possess… [Nails of the Corrupted Dire Wolf] possess a very scary effect that causes me to become much more bloodlust the longer I keep the skill activated… There is no limit to the amount of time that I can use the skill, however, the longer I keep the crazier I will get and the harder it will be to let go of the skill… If I take too long to let go of the skill… It will control me… I will be unable to return to my body... ”

Niko was taken back. He had noticed that the effects from skills can be scary, such as the bald man for example. Although his skill was powerful when used, his hand would end up in a bloody mess. Zheng's skill was much more troublesome as it could completely take over his body, truly frightening.

”Don't use the skill for more than an hour. I've noticed that ever since we been hunting these boars, you have been getting even more reckless. We've been here for a few hours, however, it was at the hour mark that you just became too reckless.” Niko pointed out and Zheng nodded.

”Yeah… You were very manly! Very manly skill!!” Candreva showed his incapability to say more than three words as he spoke.

”We should return to the settlement. It's going to get dark soon and we have killed a good amount of them.” Niko and the group had been in this forest killing boars for hours and Niko himself has risen to 84% in his EXP. Although it might seem slow, in just one day to almost level up was pretty impressive.

”Is there any dangers in staying out during the nighttime?” Zheng asked in a low voice still embarrassed from before.

”Ah! Yes and no. More monsters would appear during the night times and even stronger and rare ones would appear as well, however, since we are in a rankless layer the monsters that can possibly appear aren't too strong, therefore, these monsters shouldn't be too difficult for a team to kill and the loot is usually pretty nice. However, since this is our first day we should head back.” Ivanic responded.

Everyone nodded as they began to walk past many trees. The sun that seemed to be setting looked magical and beautiful, it almost made Niko question if this world truly was a flat plane.

”Ivanic, there clearly are more buildings and caves farther up the mountain, how come there doesn't seem like many people are doing up there?” Zheng asked as if the events from before were no longer in his mind.

”Oh, that! Well, only those part of the protectors are allowed up there, people say that some of those caves and structures were stolen from others. In fact, there aren't a lot of caves and structures up there, however, no one knows what is in there.” ivanic responded

”But why-” As Zheng was about to ask another question, a sudden sound was heard.

”Bang!!”, ”Screech!”

Everyone's head turned towards the noise. Through the trees, they could see movements of things they were unable to identify. They looked at one another and began to speak through their thoughts. And without a single sound emitted from them, they nodded to one another.