Chapter 50
Chapter 50
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 50
Chapter Title: Lessons in Survival
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Hwan-in chuckled softly at the sight of the wolfman striding toward him with majestic dignity.
"A wolfman, huh."
Wondering if vampires existed too, he scrutinized the sandy-furred wolfman.
This wasn't a human raised by wolves—it was a monster that had transformed into something wolf-like.
Its legs were reverse-jointed, and its forepaws were more like arms than feet. Its forearms were as thick as Hwan-in's thighs, and its legs resembled felled logs.
The long, milky-white claws at the tips of its four fingers looked razor-sharp.
As he slowly approached the wolfman, gathering information while drawing in the soul of the dead spotted wolf to form a soul orb,
he focused his will to keep the remaining souls from dissipating, pulling them along.
'The remaining duration on Soul Shield and Spirit Possession is about eight minutes.'
Since both the ongoing Spirit Possession and the spotted wolf's soul were low-grade, rather than refilling, he decided to hold off for now and kept walking.
"……."
As the distance closed, a transparent aura began shimmer around the wolfman's body. At the same time, Hwan-in's heart pounded with excitement.
With about twenty meters still between them, the annoyance that had lingered in his chest had vanished without a trace.
In its place burned the thrilling ecstasy of fierce combat—and the anticipation of feeling it once more.
There was no vague dread like when he'd first seen the bladed boar or faced the alpha ape. Just a hunch that this fight would be fun.
Reading Hwan-in's expectations, the wolfman threw back its head and unleashed a howl born from deep in its lungs, brimming with fighting spirit.
Awoooooooo——!!
The roar pierced his eardrums and invigorated his chest like a fresh gust of wind. The spotted wolves immediately backed off, sitting on their haunches like spectators in a gallery.
It was a clear signal they wouldn't interfere. Hwan-in smirked, slipping into his most comfortable stance.
The wolfman lowered its body low, baring its sharp fangs.
Hwan-in stood with legs spread diagonally at shoulder width, gripping his spear with both hands, blade pointed downward, eyes gleaming.
The wolfman bent its knees, torso hunched low, left hand braced on the ground, right hand hidden behind its back.
Their gazes locked in fiery intensity—then both lunged at once.
The wolfman's charge was lightning-fast, true to form.
Propelled by explosive thigh muscles, it closed the twenty meters in an instant, slashing a deadly rake at Hwan-in's head that could fell a tree.
But before it connected, Hwan-in's spear had already sliced through the wolfman's right shoulder.
The shoulder gaped a full foot wide, throwing off its attack trajectory. The fifty-centimeter claws grazed Hwan-in's collar by a hair's breadth.
Krraaaang!!
"Haaap!"
They brushed past each other and whirled around, unleashing a barrage on their foe.
Ignoring the gash in its right shoulder, the wolfman's claws whipped left and right like a storm.
A single hit from those would be fatal.
Hwan-in focused utterly, parrying and deflecting each strike while stabbing and slashing at the wolfman's body.
Clang! Thud, pa-ba-bat. Tack, screeech!
The black spear shaft impossibly blocked the claws that shattered the triple Soul Shield like tofu and sliced through the tough suit coat, shirt, and vest like paper.
His trust in his weapon surging, Hwan-in felt ecstasy fizzing in his mind like carbonation, his vision sharpening as the wolfman's muscle twitches filled his sight.
Based on the influx of data, his straight spear began bend like a serpent, flawlessly deflecting every assault.
The world in Hwan-in's perception slowed mysteriously.
Attacks that once required total focus to track now played out in slow motion, each pattern searing into his brain.
He didn't just block—he read the muscle cues and attack intent, striking joints preemptively, slicing knees, carving thighs to nullify strikes before they landed.
The problem: his own movements had slowed too.
Hwan-in poured strength into his arms, waist, and legs until muscles threatened to tear, countering while inflicting more wounds.
Kuuu—Ooooh——Ooooh——!!
The wolfman's attacks grew heavier, sharper, aiming to shatter his defenses.
If you block with a weapon, I'll smash it. That was the intent pulsing through them.
Thwack—Boom-boom—Crack, screeech—
Dozens of clashes between claws and shaft sent shocks up his arms. The strain of piercing and slashing tough hide dulled sensation in his forearms.
No doubt the wolfman's strength surpassed his own. Its short-burst speed was overwhelming too.
But his dynamic vision, reflexes, and explosiveness were superior.
Proving it, the wolfman took hits more frequently. Sandy fur split open across its body, spewing blood.
Yet why did it ignore defense entirely?
The reason revealed itself soon enough: wounds Hwan-in inflicted were healing in real time.
Like time rewinding in slow motion.
A chill of goosebumps and thrill prickled Hwan-in's skin.
His attacks barely fazed it. But one solid hit on him would be lethal. And they traded two volleys per second in hyper-speed chaos.
His muscles screamed in ecstatic joy at facing a worthy foe, unleashing full power.
He regretted not being able to laugh aloud amid breath control.
After a dozen exchanges in seconds, Hwan-in felt his breath rise to his chin. But he stayed calm, eyes alight, waiting.
And the moment came. A chance to break the deadlock.
Watching the wolfman's shoulder muscles, Hwan-in's eyes narrowed, veins bulging in his arms.
'Now!'
Spotting the wind-up for a rightward sweep with its left arm, he stabbed its left forearm, carving off a third.
The preemptive hit unbalanced it slightly, twisting its body left. The follow-up diagonal overhead from the right arm delayed by a comma-second.
Hwan-in retracted the blade, stepped back, and whipped the butt end using centrifugal force.
Targeting the wolfman's approaching right elbow.
Crack!
Kruk?!
The spear shaft struck like lightning, a perfect parry spinning the wolfman's torso left.
Hwan-in's view: its right ribs exposed.
"Haaap!!"
Pouring power into the blade that had swung right for the parry, he whipped it left. A one-meter flash like moonlight gashed deep into the wolfman's flank.
Slash—Boom!!
"Kuh…!?"
Hwan-in flew back from an abdominal impact like his guts would burst.
As he soared, he saw the wolfman—flank torn open—mid side-kick.
Luckily, its obliques and torn internals robbed the leg of power and torque. Otherwise, his belly would've ruptured.
Amid excruciating pain that choked his breath, Hwan-in laughed darkly and flipped the bird with his left hand.
Boom!!
A double-compressed Soul Explosion erupted from the wolfman's gaping flank.
Its body folded sideways like a snapped spine, slamming into the dirt.
Even as shredded organs flew instead of blood, it rose. Hwan-in ignored the pain and sprang up too.
Facing the wolfman that spewed blood from nose and mouth yet burned with unbroken will, Hwan-in severed nerves to his numb gut and charged.
Ignoring its flank, entrails dangling like ropes, the wolfman charged too.
"Haaaaap!!"
Krraaaagh!
What followed was more of the same brutal melee.
Differences: the wolfman barely used its right arm, speed and power greatly reduced; Hwan-in lost sharpness, swinging his spear like a club.
Boom!
Krruk!
Thud!
Crunch……!
But Hwan-in still had soul manipulation.
Focusing on blocking, he triggered a Soul Explosion in the wolfman's ragged flank, like a beast devouring itself.
Relentlessly, multiple times.
With each blast, the gash widened to split its abdomen. Pale spine visible through the tear.
The wolfman had lost over ninety percent of speed and power.
Its log-thick legs and man-thigh arms still packed punch, but without speed to back it...
Slash—
Staggering and exposing an opening, the wolfman took a thigh gash nearly severing it halfway and collapsed in a heap.
My victory.
As Hwan-in raised his spear two-handed for the throat coup de grâce—
=Aaaah!!=
=Benefactor!!=
Hwan-in, about to test if decapitating the berserk wolfman would finally kill it, whipped around at the women's screams piercing his adrenaline-deafened ears.
I'm winning—why the screams?
=Run awaaaay!!=
=Side!! The sideee!!=
=Look to your side, Benefactor!!=
'Side?'
Glancing right naturally, Hwan-in blanked for a second.
Anyone from the modern world—not just him—would stun at a building-sized boulder crashing from the sky.
Thus, he missed his dodge window. The boulder slammed down.
Kuuuung——!!!
The massive rock, hundreds of meters around, struck five meters away. Ears rang like they'd burst; innards churned with violent vibration.
For Hwan-in, it was a godsend. The quake snapped him alert—he spun and bolted toward the women.
Boom-boom-boom…!!
Not forgetting to hurl all remaining soul orbs into the wolfman for internal blasts.
If it survived that, fate willed it so.
"Huff, huff!"
=Benefactor!=
=Waaaah! I thought you were dead~!
Reaching the women amid their frantic welcome, Hwan-in glanced back and finally identified the building-sized boulder.
Kududududu…… Kuung—
Kugugugugu… Kuuwung—
An aircraft-carrier-sized mountain tortoise lumbered past, utterly indifferent to them—mere specks.
"Ha……."
Realizing he'd seen its foreleg, Hwan-in let out a hollow laugh. Then his face hardened.
Had the tortoise intervened to save the wolfman?
'Unlikely.'
People don't fuss over ants squabbling at their feet.
Same for the tortoise.
It bore a mountain instead of a shell, but acted just like a land turtle—slowly traversing the ridge.
Kuuwung……. Kuuwuung…….
Watching with the women as it left massive footprints crossing the ridge, Hwan-in suddenly noticed the wolfman gone.
Where it lay: a blood puddle with floating organ bits.
"……."
A trail from the puddle led down the slope—dragging its lower body to flee.
The women gawked at the trail.
=Dragging its gut like that and still escaped?=
=Whoa. Tenacity like a cockroach.
=Must be a Barteum thing…….
Perhaps because the brief fight brimmed with excitement and that electric thrill, the nagging annoyance in his chest and head had cleared. Hwan-in asked in his usual gentle tone.
"You call that wolfman a Barteum?"
=Ah, yes. They were once a branch of our Luke and Unified Tribe, but they rejected the gods' blessings, lived like beasts, and eventually became them.
"……."
I'd called it a wolfman because it stood bipedal like a person, but it sure didn't look human—and they were the same species?
Curious, but not important enough to press. He took their word for it.
More pressing: sensation returning to his kicked gut, throbbing painfully.
'No ruptured organs, I hope.'
If so, he couldn't stand like this.
=……?=
Ennel, peeking at the puddle, picked up a finger-sized blood-red stone. Huini approached.
=What's that?=
=Dunno. Not just a bloody rock…… Dropped by the Barteum?=
=Equipment material, then?=
Ennel nodded, wiped it clean on her leather garb, and offered it politely to Hwan-in.
Bladed boar tusks were too big for them to carry, but this small item suited him.
=Here, Benefactor.
"……?"
Taking the blood-red pebble, Hwan-in felt a pearl-like subtleness spread from palm to body.
Pearl stones smoothed Warm Ki and Cold Ki flow; this one made his body faintly warm or cool?
'Another stone with special power, like the pearls.'
Its texture and soothing warmth felt great. Like alternating hot and cold packs.
Muscle fatigue from the wolfman fight melted away.
Fiddling with the stone, Hwan-in eyed the mountain tortoise vanishing beyond the ridge and told the women.
"Wolfman and spotted wolves are gone. Let's cross the canyon now."
=Yes!=
=Yep!=
No ambushes en route through the canyon.
Maintaining Spirit Possession, they ran an hour to where low ridges merged with high ones. Hwan-in wiped forehead sweat, surveying the broadened vista.
=The lake! I see the lake!!=
=Aaaah…… Finally, finally…….
=…….
Ahead stretched an emerald sea-like great lake to the horizon.
An unnatural mountain rose unnaturally by the shore—likely the tortoise's shell.
Not close, though. Low hills and forests lay between; a half-day's walk at least.
Looking back: breathtaking scenery unrecognizable as their passage.
Ridges like earth's spine, lush forests guarding them, distant river threads.
Stunning—but if told to reenter...
'I'd go alone, at least.'
Shaking his head slightly, Hwan-in looked skyward. Emergency Ration met his eyes but circled leisurely, silent—perhaps spooked by the tortoise quake, clearing beasts.
"The tortoise scared off all nearby animals. Let's close the distance fast while we can."