Chapter 2: Wolf's Blood
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 2: Wolf's Blood
“Tsk, look at the state of you. Barely made it back in one piece, I see. Still... good to see you back alive.”
“Yes. Thank you.”
The guard protecting the portal to the Labyrinth let out a deep sigh as he looked at me.
I was nothing but skin and bones, and the stench of blood clung to my entire body. Surprisingly, I didn't actually have any wounds, but there was no way for the guard to know whose blood was staining my clothes or what the state of the skin beneath them was.
With my hollow cheeks and tattered gear, he must have figured I’d just crawled back from the brink of death.
And surprisingly, I really had.
This was already my sixth trip to the Labyrinth, but as I wrote ‘3’ in the column for the maximum floor reached—just as I always did—the guild employee gave me a look of pure pity.
Because I’d spent most of my money stocking up on supplies and equipment, I only had about thirty bronze coins left to my name.
I bought a loaf of stale rye bread—the kind I wouldn't even want to eat inside the Labyrinth—for five bronze coins and stuffed it into my mouth. Then, I headed back to the inn where I still had two days of stay left and washed my clothes.
The innkeeper Auntie was incredibly honest. She said she didn't count the time when I wasn't actually sleeping there.
There were quite a few innkeepers who scammed low-ranking explorers.
If a weak explorer booked a room, they’d take money from a stronger explorer and put them in that same room. Naturally, the weak explorer couldn't say a word to the stronger one, and if they tried to complain to the owner, the stronger explorer would act as the owner's muscle.
I’d heard there were many low-level explorers who got cheated out of their money and kicked out of their rooms like that.
Thanks to the kind Auntie, I had paid for a week's stay in advance. While I was in the Labyrinth, someone else would use the room, but I could always get a room without any trouble on the day I came out.
“The smell of blood is overwhelming. Go wash up before you go into your room.”
“Haha, yes. Sorry, Auntie.”
“Forget it. You’re not the first one. Just don’t let the smell soak into the bed.”
“Will do.”
Leaving behind the innkeeper Auntie, whose generous heart always contrasted with her perpetually angry expression, I went to the well and thoroughly scrubbed the blood off my tunic.
Maybe it was because I’d been out in the rain so much, but it wasn't as stained as I expected. Though, if you counted the rainwater itself as filth, I was in pretty bad shape.
I washed my body in the bathhouse, which provided water that was at least not freezing, then crawled into my room and inspected myself.
“I definitely lost a lot of blood... but I don't feel dizzy.”
The gambeson had protected me to some extent, but by the end, my right forearm had been reduced to little more than a rag. Yet, that arm was perfectly fine now.
But the biggest change was my left eye.
“No matter how I look at it, this is a Direwolf’s eye...”
Beneath my blinking eyelid, the eyeball sitting in my left socket was unmistakably that of a Direwolf. Of course, since they were large canines, it felt a bit smaller than the ones I’d seen on them, but still.
“Is it really because I ate the eyeball?”
No matter how much I thought about it, that was the only explanation. Since I only had one skill to begin with, any abnormality in my body had to be because of that skill—unless it was someone else’s.
But still. Would someone really find a person collapsed in the forest who had lost their left eye and use magic to shove a wolf’s eye into the socket?
It didn't seem likely. If that were true, they couldn't be a completely terrible person, since my body had been restored to normal.
That wasn't the only strange thing.
“Why am I so hungry?”
It was as if all the food I’d stuffed into my stomach until it nearly burst had already been digested; I felt a hunger that a mere handful of bread couldn't even begin to satisfy.
I had about 25 bronze coins left. While the portions were generous, a meal at this inn usually cost 30 bronze coins. Even though I was starving right now, there was nothing I could do.
I already owed Auntie too much.
“When I first dropped into this place, I spent a week just living off her.”
Of course, I helped with chores, and since I knew how to use my strength, I did the cleaning too. I didn't just shamelessly gorge myself and lounge around.
But it was hard to say if the work I did was truly equal to what I received...
“Ah.”
I remembered. A way to make money.
‘It’s rare, right? I mean, think about how many people have gone in and out of the Labyrinth. Identifying a never-before-seen skill is a huge deal! If you find out anything about the skill, you must come see me, okay? I’ll even give you a small reward!’
That’s what the appraiser who examined my skill had said. I hadn't mentioned the part where my right arm turned into a steak the first time I used the skill. I just thought it was some useless, trash-tier skill.
But if it’s this much...
“Let’s go.”
* * *
There are countless appraisal shops in the Labyrinth City ‘Calax.’ There aren't any particularly special appraisers among them, but since the price for a single appraisal isn't very high, shops in convenient locations tend to charge a bit more.
Conversely, the further away or the worse the location, the lower the appraisal price.
Explorers with low grades like me tended to go to the far-off places for appraisals.
—Screeeak.
The door opened with the sound of old, rusted metal hinges grinding together, revealing the interior.
“Welcome! This is the Sateria Appraisal Office…. Oh, it’s you from before, right!”
“Yes. That’s right.”
“That... never-before-seen skill! Could it be?! Did you?! Did you figure out what the skill does?!”
“Well, more or less....”
A girl with soft, wavy bright red hair pushed up her broken glasses and smiled brightly.
The appraiser, Ravi Sateria. She was a girl who had set up her shop in a location so bad it made you wonder if she’d done it on purpose.
It was good for me since I could get my skill appraised for a pittance of ten bronze coins, but then I remembered I was supposed to be getting a reward.
‘She doesn't look like she has much money either... Should I go to a more expensive appraisal office to get paid?’
While I was debating this internally, Ravi hopped around the desk and grabbed my arm.
“Hurry! I’ll listen while I check the skill!”
“I haven't exactly gained a new skill, so there’s no need for an appraisal.”
“No! I’m going to re-examine the skill you got last time! I can see how it works by looking at the circuits!”
“Well, if you say so...”
I’d already come this far. Seeing her face made it hard to just turn around and go somewhere else.
Maybe it was because I was a beggar too, but I felt a sense of kinship. Ravi, who had her own shop, probably wasn't desperately poor, but compared to other appraisers, she was definitely a pauper.
Following Ravi’s instructions, I took off my shirt and lay face down on a wide cot.
According to her, the location where my skill was engraved started from the back of my head and spread throughout my body along the spine.
“Hehe... Has your body changed somehow...?”
And... every time I saw this kid, she vividly reminded me that this was another world.
If she had a face like that back in South Korea, she could have made hundreds of millions a month as an internet streamer.
“H-Hyaaa... As expected, the difference in gender is huge even for animals... Is this what a man’s body looks like...?”
“Stop staring at my body and just do your job.”
“Ugh, right....”
Soft, pale hands that had likely never held anything heavier than a pen or a staff moved slowly past the back of my head toward my spine.
“Yes! The circuits have appeared! Now, could you tell me how you found out and what you think the effect is?”
First, I explained the circumstances. How I encountered a Direwolf on the 3rd floor of the Labyrinth and was pushed to the brink of death. How my right arm was shredded and I’d lost a lot of blood.
How I’d desperately ripped open the Direwolf’s belly and gorged myself on its meat, heart, lungs, and eyeballs, and drank its blood.
And how, when I woke up in the morning, my eye had changed into that of a Direwolf.
“What?! Your eye?!”
“Didn't you see it?”
“Gek... Sorry... I’m not very good at making eye contact....”
Come to think of it, she always did avert her gaze.
“C-Could you sit up for a moment then..? I’d like to see that eye too....”
“Sure. It’s the left one.”
When I sat up from the cot and faced her, Ravi’s cheeks turned as red as her hair. She clutched her face with both hands, her eyes darting everywhere.
“What are you doing? You need to look at the eye.”
“Uuu... R-Right....”
Ravi, who had squeezed her eyes shut, managed to make eye contact for all of three seconds. She immediately turned away and spent the next thirty seconds fanning her flushed cheeks with her hands.
“Hoooouuu...!!”
“Well?”
“I-I’m sorry, but... it’s black...?”
What? That couldn't be right. Just in case, I looked into the small hand mirror on the desk, and the yellow pupil of a Direwolf was staring right back at me.
“What are you talking about? It’s yellow.”
“R-Really?! I’m sorry! I only looked at the eye on my left!”
Apparently, it was so hard for her to look at both eyes that she only looked at the one on her left side. I felt like giving her a light flick on the forehead, but I held back.
“Look again. Here, it’s a Direwolf’s eye.”
“It really is...!”
After confirming the eye, I lay back down on the cot, and Ravi approached to examine the circuits that had appeared in red.
“Ah! Unlike last time, there are circuits that are activated! So this part is like this... and that part has this function....”
Ravi peered at them for a long time, tilting her head several times as if something was strange. Then, after muttering something to herself, she asked me.
“By any chance, has anything else changed?”
“Why? Is there a problem?”
“No..? It’s just, how should I put it. In my opinion... I don't think a single eyeball would cause this much activation...? The active circuits are spread throughout your entire body...”
My entire body? Nothing else should have changed yet. One eyeball was enough. It’s not like I chewed through the Direwolf from head to toe. If I had changed because of that, I’d probably be turning into some kind of werewolf by now.
“Ah! Did you say... you drank the Direwolf’s blood...?”
“Yes. I did.”
Wait.
“Motherfucker.”
“I-I’ll try taking a blood sample! Just a tiny bit is enough!”
“Yeah. Go ahead. If that’s true, I’m going to feel a bit sick.”
Suddenly, wolf blood was flowing through my body? What kind of bullshit situation was this? That was a bit much. Honestly, the eyeball? Even by Korean standards, it wasn't too bad.
As long as I wasn't colorblind, I thought it was fine. A wolf’s eyesight was better than that of an office worker, after all.
But having that wild dog’s blood flowing through me... there were issues with blood types and all sorts of other problems, weren't there?
“Uh, uhhh....”
Ravi dropped a special solution into my blood contained in a thin flask and shook it. Her expression began to change by the second.
“T-This... half of it is Direwolf blood....”
Suddenly, wolf blood had begun to flow through my veins.