Random Skills: Exploring Dungeons - Chapter 3
Chapter 3: The Hunt
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
They shouldered their way through the crowd.
The militiamen were standing around a ragged corpse. Fragments of flesh hung on the bloody skeleton. There were scraps of clothing and blood traces all around.
The first sight of the corpse caused Kane both physical and psychological discomfort. Although he’d been in this world long enough to have seen his share of corpses, this was the first time he saw something as miserable as this.
“As you’ve seen, this body was attacked by wolves. She’s Leah, the girl who picked medicinal herbs. We checked with her neighbors. She didn’t return home last night.”
Gorm covered his nose and explained the situation to Kane.
After listening, Kane roughly knew the reason for calling him over. He immediately sought confirmation from Gorm.
“So the pack that attacked this lady was probably the same pack that attacked Aunt L’Oreal last month, right?”
Last month, at the Broken Barrel Tavern in town, Kane heard people around him talking about it. He had been curious enough to ask the militiamen who always went there for drinks.
He learned the gist of what had happened.
“Yeah.”
“After our cursory investigation, we’ve determined that it’s the same pack of wolves as last time. This is the second incident. There’s a good chance that a magical beast with intelligence has appeared among us. A pack led by a magical beast can do unacceptable damage to those around it.”
Gorm thought for a moment and then said grimly, “Not to mention they’ve already had a taste of human flesh.”
All intelligent creatures in this world possessed magic. They just didn’t have the talent to activate it. And meat with magic was a real tonic for these beasts. Once they tasted it, they would never forget it.
And the reason such a thing had happened was that Kane was the only hunter in the town who had ever hunted a magical beast in the woods. It was such a feat that made him the best hunter in the area.
After all, being able to defeat magical beasts and hunting them in the forest were two different things.
When Kane heard this, he knew why he was asked to come here. He asked, “So you want me to hunt that beast, the Wolf King of this pack, right?”
Gorm nodded. “That’s right. Only you have the experience of hunting magical beasts.”
Kane had no reason not to agree to hunting magical beasts. After all, it concerned the new functions and skills of the system, not to mention the loot and the town’s bounty.
Well, who doesn’t love money?
“No problem, leave this Wolf King to me. Just get the bounty ready.”
“Hahaha, of course, of course. We won’t shortchange you where the bounty is concerned.”
“How about 20 gold coins?”
“Deal.”
After negotiating the price, Kane said goodbye to Uncle Gorm and went home to start preparing his equipment.
…
The sky was overcast and rainy.
A light wind rustled through the peaceful forest of Kara. It was the kind of weather that would affect a hunter’s pursuit of his prey.
Still.
Kane wasn’t exactly a proper hunter. He had real skills.
He hung upside down from the canopy by a thick strand of spider silk. His eyes had taken the form of an eagle’s eyes. He had followed the trail of the pack of wolves to this place and found their den.
The coppery magic in the shape of a wolf a few kilometers away stood out like a sore thumb to Eagle Eyes. The bushes blocking his way were superfluous to his penetrating eyes.
He slid down the spider silk.
He drained the blood of a rabbit he had just caught and, using spider silk, he tied it to a tree as bait.
Then he weaved a web between the tree tops and stuck himself to it as he adopted a wait-and-see approach.
Now it was time to test the hunter’s patience.
However, the hunter did not have to wait long. Along with a wolf howl, the wolves had smelled their prey.
Of course, the real hunter smelled his prey too and slowed his breathing.
A slight rustling of bushes.
The wolf pack had quietly surrounded the rabbit. Looking carefully from above, this was a wolf pack consisting of a dark green Wolf King and eight ordinary gray wolves.
They seemed to be a pack of young wolves.
With caution and patience, they moved slowly toward the dying rabbit.
But by then the real hunter had found his moment.
He shook both wrists rapidly
“Sou sou.”
A few cracks in the air.
The cautious wolves had no time to react before they were wrapped in the flying spider silk and stuck to the ground, unable to move.
Only the Wolf King dodged to the side, but it was a tad late. The back of its body was entangled in the spider silk and it fell to the side.
Kane stood on the spider web and speedily released the arrow in his bow arm.
The Wolf King, who had lost its balance and was lying on the ground, was like a lamb waiting to be slaughtered. There was no way it could dodge.
“Whoosh.”
A jarring sound pierced the air.
The arrow shot through the Wolf King’s eye. It didn’t even scream before it died.
The other trapped wolves did not struggle for long before they too were downed by arrows.
They rolled over and dropped dead.
Kane crouched beside the carcass of the green-furred Wolf King, a giant wolf a size larger than Kane. He touched the fur on its body.
Hard.
The fur felt like flexible steel needles which protected the Wolf King’s body very well.
He waved his hand.
Then he took a transparent magic stone from the Book of Adventure’s magic circle and placed it on the wolf carcass to absorb its magic.
A faint arc of light surged into the magic stone like sand and dissipated quickly.
At this moment, a brass segment appeared at the bottom of the transparent magic stone.
Kane looked at the lit part of the magic stone in his hand and patted the wolf carcass. He pursed his lips. “You’re a little weak here, little brother.”
This green wolf’s magic power might only be two-thirds of the spider’s magic power. It ranked last on Kane’s magical beast hunting list.
He put the magic stone away and began to check for usable loot.
After examining the wolf carcass, he discovered that other than its teeth, the flesh on its body had returned to ordinary after the magic power was extracted.
After he kept the wolf fangs, Kane stood still and began to think.
The Kara Forest was not a large forest but it was a little dangerous to ordinary people who were not explorers.
When Kane could use Eagle Eyes, master archery, and have the ability to hunt magical beasts, he began to hunt these beasts when the forest was in trouble. The last one he hunted was the Armored Spider in this forest.
But now a magical wolf had appeared out of the blue. It seemed a little sudden.
It wasn’t that Kane was confident. Ever since he started hunting, it had become harder to find these beasts. It was as if they knew that someone was out to kill them. The last spider had taken Kane a lot of effort to find.
With that in mind, Kane began swinging the spider silk toward the wolf den he had discovered earlier.
When he arrived at the wolf den, he realized that something was wrong. With his Eagle Eyes, he could see the faint shimmer of magic dancing in the air.
This was obviously a recent change because Kane had passed through here before. The air hadn’t been like this back then.
After observing the magic in the air for a moment, Kane realized that it was drifting from one place.
Looking in that direction, he reckoned it should be the cave where the Wolf King lived.
Kane reached into his bag and lit a tiny torch. He walked slowly towards the cave.
He looked into the cave under the light of the torch. The space inside was not big. At a glance he could see the stone wall at the end. There were just some animal bones scattered on the ground.
However, the air of the cave was filled with endless magic flying in the air. It was like the night sky.
Kane had just taken a step inside.
Suddenly.
A wave of dizziness washed over him.
“F*ck.”
