Chapter 47
I had fought against more massive, hideous and frightening monsters. Compared to them, these mutts were in the lowest class, just like the nicknames we gave them. However, they looked more intimidating today, just as the dungeon walls also seemed larger than I remembered.
According to the database, they were categorized as KF-07, two-legged beasts, and were called ‘Declan’s scouts.’ Their official nickname was ‘Guard Dogs,’ but we called them ‘Mutts.’ They had the face of a Doberman and the body of a bulky adult man.
Seeing them reminded me of my past. There had been occasions of superstitious fear because they somewhat resembled the god Anubis—though he actually had a jackal head.
Anyway, their defined musculature was not depicted realistically in the drawings; their muscles were actually more suited to racing than fighting. They were nimble and fast, and the three bolted towards me as soon as they saw me.
They were too fast! One was ahead of others and was rushing at me with a mouth already wide open, ready to bite my neck.
I saw a chance. I could just thrust my sword into its throat. Then, I would have to fight only two others, and that would be the actual beginning of this fight.
Do I look too easy for y’all? Die, you little brats.
***
The moment I thrust my blade, dirty blood splashed on my face, and I closed one eye by reflex. The weight at the end of my sword was heavier than I had expected. I let go of the blade and rolled back, then I felt a burning pain on my right shoulder. I hurriedly pulled the dagger out of the thigh holster and thrust it at the shadow that came up. Thankfully, I wasn’t too late.
Where’s the other one??I had some time as the third monster, which was supposed to immediately follow the second mutt, wasn’t there. I quickly pulled back the dagger and grabbed the second one’s neck. Well, I was actually blocking it from pushing its head towards me. Its sharp teeth snapped right in front of my eyes, and its drool flew everywhere as it vigorously shook its head.
However, I couldn’t plunge the dagger in its neck. I let go of its neck while kicking it in the stomach, but fuck, I was already being pushed back. The moment I kicked one of them, the other one simply jumped at me. My line of sight was blocked by its torso, though the monster wasn’t heavy enough to crush me. My lower body was left vulnerable, and I clenched my teeth instead of screaming.
I knew my screams would make them frantic. I felt a sharp pain in my right leg—it was the one I had stabbed with my dagger. It was trying to tear off my whole leg!
“Ughhh!”
After pushing off the one lying on my stomach, I saw the mutt on my leg, doing the exact thing I thought it was doing. Our eyes met, and I threw the dagger at it.
Whoosh.
The dagger traveled faster than it could dodge, and it lodged itself into the mutt’s eye. Its screams and cries of pain didn’t faze me in the least. Once I confirmed the dagger had hit the mark, I began to wrestle with the mutt that I had previously pushed away from my stomach. It was aiming at my neck this time. I felt its teeth narrowly miss my jugular as its jaw was right next to my ear.
Get away! I got on top of it and glanced at the one I had stabbed in the eye. It was rolling on the floor, grasping the handle of the dagger. Go ahead, pull it out! It’s going to be more painful if you do it!
I heard a scream behind my back as I turned my attention back to the monster under me. The sounds of me punching it in the face echoed through the corridor. Its snout finally broke after I smashed it three times, and I moved on to strangling it with my arms. I poured all of my strength into my arms until I began to grunt under the strain.
Two mutts had been incapacitated so far. One with its throat pierced by a sword, and the other with my dagger in the eye. Both couldn’t fight anymore, so it was my chance to kill one of them.
The monster under me struggled like a freshly-caught fish, and it was so powerful that it dragged me along. The mutt managed to stand up, and I clung to its back with my arms around its neck. I tried my best to shift the balance back, but it managed to stand upright.
However, I knew that the mutt would die soon. It stretched its arms behind its head and grabbed my face in a last ditch attempt. Intense pressure crushed my head, and I felt my world spin. Blurred vision was a dangerous sign, but the trait ‘The Man Who Overcomes Adversity’ hadn’t activated yet. This meant the situation was not too urgent despite my pain.
The pressure on my head and the mutt’s resistance to my stranglehold disappeared in an instant. The mutt went limp and didn’t move at all when I finally loosened my arms.
[You have defeated the Declan scout.]
[You have obtained 2 points.]
[Declan Extermination: Defeat Declan scout 1/60]
Huff. Huff.
I was out of breath and saw the two other mutts that were down. The one with the sword stuck in its throat was barely breathing, and the other one covering its missing eyeball was lying on the ground, trembling.
I saw an additional notification message in the window that seemed to congratulate me on my victory.
[You have defeated the Declan scout.]
[You have obtained 2 points.]
[Declan Extermination: Defeat Declan scout 2/60]
The one with the sword had died, so I walked to the last one. It was in enough shock that it didn’t recognize me. I picked up the dagger on the ground, squatted down near its head, then stabbed it right in its forehead.
[You have defeated the Declan scout.]
***
If there were more mutts beyond the darkness, they would’ve jumped at me already. The Guard Dogs' intelligence and patience didn’t go very far.
When I concluded that I had emptied one hallway, my leg started throbbing and my shoulder suddenly burned. Of course, my head also hurt from the mutt's pressure. At that moment, it was only natural that I looked at the box that was still there. If I was lucky, I could receive a reward that was worth fifty fights from that box.
However, there was one universal truth expressed in such words as Equivalent Exchange, the Second Law of Thermodynamics, and high risk - high return. I had to risk plenty to gain a reward.
The risks of dungeon boxes varied, and while stat decreases or deep wounds were terrible enough, the worst were mental afflictions. Those were indeed curses and ranged from fear of a certain monster to complete destruction of the self.
Since the one in front of me was a bronze box, I didn’t have to worry about taking the worst risk. I had gained an escape insignia from a box like this before, but I couldn’t gamble because of the slightest possibility of something bad happening. Even Jonathan, who had been obsessed with revenge, only opened the dungeon boxes when necessary, such as when he had to find essential items to attack a high-class dungeon.
I checked my wounds, and the one on my shoulder was light. However, my leg had been injured quite seriously, and blood had splattered everywhere before I stopped the bleeding. It looked like I had bled more than the mutts.
There was only one drug currently on the market that was useful for us hunters. My backpack was messy due to the fierce fight, and I had placed liquids in steel bottles expecting this would happen. The lid of the plastic pillbox was gone, and I searched for the pills scattered on the bottom of my bag. I grabbed a codeine pill, an addictive opioid analgesic prescribed to patients with cancer. This was the best I could do for now—drugs for hunters, which had to be avoided just like dungeon boxes if possible, didn’t exist yet.
I headed to the nearest mutt corpse. Then, I cut its stomach with a dagger and put my hand inside in the same nonchalant way I had done when searching for medication. I grabbed the heart between its ribs and found what I had been looking for.
What was I doing? Bloody habits. My body was moving according to my memories, and this was why habits were scary. I didn’t need to look through its organs in search of magic stones.
I pulled out my hand and rubbed it against my pants. Even in the dark, I could feel the mutt’s blood staining my pants. They were monsters, but they had red blood like humans.
At that point, the painkiller seemed to work, as the throbbing headache vanished. As I walked towards the end of the corridor, I idly wished to only see just one mutt in the next room. Just one!
Ah, I knew that I wasn’t so lucky. When the door opened, I remembered again that a dungeon wasn’t a place that someone could conquer alone. I saw them through the door crack—at least five of them within visible range. I didn’t know how many more were there outside my field of view.
Closing the door carefully wouldn’t help at all, as their Night Eyes were glittering at me in the darkness. These things didn’t panic when they saw other beings, and they didn’t have fear. They must have been waiting with rage for an object to rip apart.
The one who saw me sprinted towards me, and the others followed it in reflex. Six, seven, eight, nine…The number was increasing.
Trying not to use my skills had been arrogance on my part, but I couldn’t believe I had to use my skills from the very first room. Shit…?I activated Sixth Sense. Using it on the weapon rather than on myself had been effective during practice.
[You have activated Odin’s Wrath.]
[Target: Weapon, your long sword.]
Zing. Zingggg -
The blade gave off blue electric arcs and sparked as I kicked the door open. Come at me, assholes!
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