WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Irevi

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 15: Euphoria

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[The Hour of the Wolf has arrived.]

The sudden notification window was accompanied by a booming wolf howl.

-Awooooooo!

At the piercing howl, the shepherd girl and I both snapped our heads up.

This was a safe zone, so I didn't have to worry about wolves attacking us, but the atmosphere was downright ominous.

[The detection range of all wolf-type monsters has increased to its maximum. This effect will last until dawn.]

Come to think of it, the sun was already beginning to set. I'd heard wolves became stronger at dusk.

But their detection range increasing to the maximum? That had a different implication.

Normally, wolves didn't have a particularly wide detection range, but I'd heard that if a Challenger was bleeding, they could detect them regardless of distance.

Right now, every wolf-type monster was tracking me. If their detection range expanded to the point where distance no longer mattered...

That practically meant every wolf on this field would come charging straight at me. Including Wolf King Lobo, the field boss.

“Tch.”

If that was the case, I had to give up on moving until sunrise.

There was no way I could protect an NPC while making my way through hundreds of wolves.

It was a good thing I'd run straight to the safe zone without stopping to rest. The quest could've easily ended in failure otherwise.

How had the first-generation Hunters who received this quest when they first reached the second floor cleared it?

-Flap.

I took a blanket from my inventory and spread it on the ground. It was something I'd used in the Floor 1 Labyrinth Zone.

Back when I was raising my one-handed sword proficiency, I'd once eaten and slept inside the Labyrinth to improve my hunting efficiency even a little.

I needed a bed to get proper rest, but a few blankets were enough to camp out for a day.

“Um, Adventurer... what are you doing?”

The shepherd girl spoke as I set up camp. Come to think of it, I'd been treating her like part of the scenery.

I knew she was different from the NPCs in the first-floor village, but even knowing that, I still didn't pay much attention to her.

“...The wolves will be active now that the sun's down. Let's wait until daybreak before we leave.”

Even as I said it, I wasn't sure if I was speaking properly. I should've practiced this sort of thing beforehand.

“Ah, we're camping. Flanders and I sometimes spent the night outside too.”

-Woof!

“F-Flanders, don't make it sound so miserable. Let's call it a camp.”

She was a shepherd who could understand dog talk, so it seemed like I could say whatever I wanted.

* * *

The shepherd girl took some simple food from the pouch at her waist and laid it out.

Jerky, chunks of cheese, and biscuit-like hardtack. None of it looked particularly appetizing.

I took a White Roll from my inventory and chewed on it. As I brushed off the crumbs and stuffed it into my mouth, its distinctive sweetness filled my mouth.

I'd gotten sick of eating the damn things every day a long time ago, but I couldn't possibly give up the Level 3 Luck buff from consuming one.

“Wow...”

As I grimaced at the irritating sweetness and ate my White Roll, the shepherd girl sitting on the blanket looked at me with sparkling eyes.

Did she want one?

Well, even this tiresome White Roll had originally been more of a luxury dessert.

“Here, have some.”

I had more than enough rotting away in my inventory anyway, so I took out a few more White Rolls and handed them to the shepherd girl.

She drooled as she tried to refuse, but after I urged her a few more times, she reluctantly accepted them.

Then, as if she'd never hesitated, her eyes lit up as she gnawed through the White Rolls at hamster-like speed.

She was really enjoying those. Anyone would think she'd been starving for days.

Leaving the shepherd girl alone, I forced down my White Roll and opened the Open Community.

[Second Floor Field Area Monster Guide ver.3.3]

[Wolf King Lobo Pattern Guide & Strategy]

[Second Floor Field Boss Tips.txt]

I searched the community for information on the monsters in the second-floor area, especially the wolf types I'd only skimmed through before.

I skipped past the latest materials and strategy posts I'd read several times, gathering posts written mostly by the first-generation Hunters from back then.

Then I began committing every detail about the monsters in those posts to memory, memorizing all their fighting styles and patterns.

There was still plenty of time until the sun rose and I could move again.

And I had no intention of letting that time just slip away.

[The detection range of all wolf-type monsters has increased to its maximum. This effect will last until dawn.]

Why did I have to stay beside the shepherd girl and just fend off approaching wolves? Every wolf was coming for me, weren't they?

The wolves couldn't enter this safe zone anyway.

So I could leave the shepherd girl here, go outside, and fight.

If I killed every wolf in the field tonight, it'd be perfectly safe until their respawn time, right?

I didn't even need to gather mobs. How convenient could this get?

* * *

After telling the shepherd girl, “Stay here,” I grabbed my sword and shield and stepped outside the safe zone.

It seemed I still drew aggro even while inside the safe zone, because an enormous number of wolves were waiting outside.

There were too many to count. There really might have been hundreds.

I'd come out boldly enough, but could I really kill all these wolves by myself?

No idea.

Even if I killed every one of them in a single hit, fighting hundreds of them still meant attacking hundreds of times.

It reminded me of that stupid internet post I'd seen before, “McGregor vs. 500 Grandmas.jpg.”

There had been all kinds of conditions attached, but the conclusion was that the grandma army could win at an exchange rate of around fifty to one.

There was another stupid post like it: “100 bat-wielding Lee Daehos vs. 1 African Elephant.”

Opinion had been split on that one, but I thought most people had bet on Lee Daeho's army winning.

In the end, it was a matter of endurance.

How long could one strong person maintain peak condition against a large number of weaker opponents?

The Status Window only displayed four stats: Strength, Agility, Durability, and Intelligence. Endurance and stamina weren't listed separately.

Of course, I could feel my physical condition improve whenever my stats went up, so some stat definitely affected them.

Would my stats, which were equivalent to those of a Level 50 player, hold out until I'd taken down hundreds of wolves?

Well, I wouldn't know until I tried.

* * *

-Crack!

I swung the [Kingdom Knight's Straight Sword] and took off a wolf's head.

Even without using a skill, I could kill most wolves in one hit like this.

But now and then, there were wolves I couldn't kill in one blow. It wasn't because my attack power was lacking.

-Grrrrr!

A large wolf with black fur leaped at me. I wanted to dodge, but wolves already surrounded me on all sides.

I had no choice but to thrust out my shield and take the impact head-on, then drive my straight sword into its neck.

“Hup!”

I pulled out the sword, raised it again, and struck the neck I'd stabbed one more time, slicing it off.

Only then did the black wolf finally collapse and disappear in a burst of light.

These bastards were the problem. They were simply too big to take their heads off in one hit.

If the angle was right, I could probably still kill them in one blow, but that wasn't easy when wolves surrounded me on all sides.

I needed a bigger, stronger weapon. The [Kingdom Knight's Straight Sword] wasn't enough to deal with things this size.

-Thud!

In the end, I had to pull out [Graksar's Bone Axe], which I'd thought would be useless.

I hadn't enhanced it yet, so its attack power was a little disappointing. It also wasn't affected by Mastery, so its overall performance was worse.

Still, because it was big and heavy, it was more effective than the [Kingdom Knight's Straight Sword] against large wolves.

-Crack!

I took off the large black wolf's head with the bone axe in one swing. Then I stabbed a smaller brown wolf charging in behind it with my straight sword and killed it.

[Graksar's Bone Axe] had low base Durability, and unlike the [Kingdom Knight's Straight Sword], I didn't have a spare.

So I couldn't just use the bone axe recklessly. I had to switch between it and the sword, swinging it only at the right moments.

“Huff, huff... ah, fuck, huff.”

As my breathing grew heavier, I stored my shield in my inventory and held a weapon in each hand.

Wolves were charging from every direction, leaving me no time to block with my shield and counterattack. This seemed better.

-Roar!

“Fuck!”

I stabbed and killed another wolf that rushed in without giving me a second to rest. Goddamn, this was exhausting. Should I just go back?

It felt like my lungs were shrinking. My sides throbbed as if they were being squeezed. My breath smelled sweet, and my lips were drying out.

Thanks to my high defense, I hadn't suffered any serious injuries, but claws had scratched my hands and face, leaving them burning.

“Heh, hehe.”

But whenever I briefly checked the levels I'd gained in the meantime, the boiling euphoria quickly overturned those thoughts.

I could still keep going. It'd be a shame to let an opportunity for this much power leveling pass me by. I said I'd never stop.

“Come on, you dog bastards.”

Whipping my exhausted body onward, I kept knocking down and killing the wolves pouring in.

[You have acquired Passive Skill: Battle Persistence Level 2.]

Footnotes:

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