The Iron Spine Wolves detected the approaching monsters first due to their location surrounding the outside of the pack, ears perking up as they rose to their feet. The ember wolves immediately followed, bodies lighting aflame as they glared around aggressively. The humans they had been tasked with guarding lay in the center of the haphazard rings of wolves, still unconscious.

The iron spine wolves began to pace nervously while the ember wolves glanced around them continuously, and suddenly, the forest around them erupted into activity as insect noises began to reverberate throughout the area. Although the instincts of the wolves told them to hunt down their prey, they were hesitant to leave behind the human prisoners which they had been tasked with guarding.

That was why when a Sickle Blade Mantis swept by, raking its scythe-like blades into the back of an Iron spine wolf, only a few wolves went to chase after it; specifically, one iron spine and two ember wolves.

Although this strategy appeared to be a moment of genius for the wolves who had to juggle between their instincts to kill and their duties, they essentially fell straight into Dylan’s trap.

Are you kidding me?! This is way too easy! Dylan chortled to himself while watching the events from his safe and comfortable seat on Kuraura’s lap, surrounded by an assortment of monsters. Why aren’t they howling too? Think they can actually survive and kill my monsters? Or are they unwilling to disrupt their leader? Hehe…

As Dylan pondered their reasoning, he kept an eye on their combat capabilities and supposed skills. If he wanted to optimize their use after he acquired them, he would need to analyze their strengths and weaknesses. He noted the large size of the iron spine wolves and the larger fangs of the ember wolves and sent some monsters to fight them.

Under Dylan’s orders, three hard-shelled centipedes and two sickle blade mantises stepped out to meet the wolves from the front after they had separated a distance from the pack. Behind them, two goblin shamans equipped with spirit stone staffs and two goblin warriors with rudimentary clubs also appeared, effectively encircling the wolves.

The iron spine wolf slunk forward with its head hunched low, pushing towards the more numerous insect-type monsters. The ember wolves turned to their rear, growling in anger. The monsters glared at each other for several moments of pure silence, before one of the ember wolves impatiently leapt towards the goblin group, triggering the fight.

Leaping into action, the ember wolves leapt towards the goblin warriors, who bravely charged forward. The shamans at the back began to channel their spirit magic, and before the moment of impact, stone and packed dirt spikes rose out of the ground and slammed into the ember wolves from below them, gouging wounds into their stomachs. As the wolves whimpered in pain and stumbled in shock, the goblin warriors smashed their clubs onto the heads of the wolves, further throwing them off. The iron spine wolf on the other hand used its massive bulk to block the bites of the centipedes and mantises which sought to harm its allies from the back, taking light wounds in the process.

Hm, so the iron spine wolf can hold off those bugs on its own with its big body… It seems like it can take a beating fairly well, but it’s kind of slow… Dylan watched the wolf attempt to slam one of the centipedes in response but barely managed to shove it back, earning more light slashes along its body in response.

“Also…” Dylan inquired to the first goblin shaman he had summoned, who stood beside his core: “Why are you goblin shamans ranked only at (E) rank if you guys are able to summon such powerful golems and use such destructive spells?”

Hearing Dylan’s question, the goblin took a moment of pondering before turning back towards Dylan.

“My lord, our mana capacities aren’t high enough to manipulate the spirits into making such powerful attacks. The staff which has been bestowed upon us allows the spirits to freely access many times more mana than we can provide, given enough time. We would be significantly less powerful without the staffs.”

“Hmm, but that still doesn’t completely answer my question about the golems… Does the amount of mana you receive from the staff really allow you to summon a monster one rank above you?”

“This is based off of the time we want to summon the golem… Unlike my lord, we cannot provide the spirit with enough mana to keep the golem powered for an immeasurable amount of time. If I were to supply mana to a spirit to summon a golem, I would only be capable of providing enough mana for the golem to operate for maybe an hour or two before it shuts down and becomes incapable of moving. I can also choose to give the spirit an amount of mana at once or slowly feed the spirit mana to keep the golem alive. The differences between the two are that slowly feeding the spirit mana occupies some of our attention, yet giving a large amount at once may leave us with too little mana to do other things… In case my lord was wondering, this is only what us shamans are capable of doing, so things might be different regarding other summoners… In theory, my lord should be capable of this as well.”

After that ridiculously long yet clarifying explanation, the goblin shaman puffed a little, and Dylan thanked him. He had gleaned a surprising amount of info, and he was fairly eager to try to see if he could temporarily summon a stronger monster.

I could use a high-ranking monster as a trump card. Even if I can’t have it permanently summoned, it can save my life even with a few minutes of having it summoned…

As Dylan excitedly thought about the future prospects, the battle between the wolves and his monsters ended with the absolute defeat of the wolves. Simply put, Dylan’s monsters were too plentiful and worked too well together for the wolves to completely counter them, and were taken out after being weathered down by countless attacks and counterattacks.

After weighing his options, Dylan chose to summon an iron spine wolf and two ember wolves at the location of the battle, ordering them to roll around in the dirt and blood before ordering the sickle blade mantises to slice superficial wounds along their bodies. Dylan chose to send them back to the wolf pack to prevent the wolves from alerting the werewolf that something was up. Luckily for him, the wolves didn’t seem to suspect anything.

Are you kidding me? This is quite disappointing in the end… Dylan had gotten everything he possibly could from his opponents, and although the werewolf mage was a formidable beast, it didn’t have omniscient abilities which allowed it to sense Dylan’s core, and thus in the end it never put any serious pressure on Dylan.

Ding!

Congratulations!

You have completed the quest issued by Gehennia!

You have received the following rewards:

[Subordinated] 3 human prisoners (Maynard, Calphas, Aron)

[Summon]: Psychoceros (C+) (Rare)

[Summon]: Rampant Lesser Raptor (C ) (Rare)

[Summon]: Long-Necked Lesser Drake (C ) (Rare)

[Summon]: Snapping Turtle

[Skill] (Passive) (New): Catching Gehennia’s Attention

Dylan saw the notification and immediately felt pumped. He watched all of the wolves pause momentarily as magic circles appeared underneath their feet. The werewolf was livid, howling towards the ceiling of the cave with glowing red eyes. Dylan had no clue what the werewolf was saying, nor did he care. All he wanted to do now was look at his rewards.

Sweeeet rewards! Dylan was pumped, and he looked through all of the new skills he had gained from the quest. Looking through the wolf skills, he was satisfied by the skills he got from them.

[Iron Bones] (Passive) (New): The skill user’s bones become iron. The weight of the bones may damage the user’s body if they aren’t powerful enough.

[Iron Muscles] (Passive) (New): The skill user’s muscles become iron. The muscles can still move normally.

[Iron Tendons] (Passive) (New): The skill user’s tendons become iron. The tendons can still move normally.

[Light Body] (Passive) (New): The skill’s user has a lighter body than its body structure should allow.

[Swift Movement] (Passive) (New): The skill’s user can move faster than its body structure should allow.

[Fire Resistance] (B) (Passive) (New): Allows the user to reduce harm from heat or heat-based attacks.

[Fire Absorption] (New): Allows the user to absorb fire or fire magic and convert it into energy. If the fire is strong enough to damage the user, it cannot be absorbed.

[Power Surge] (New): Allows the user to grow in size and power by using up massive amounts of energy.

[Fire Flight] (New): By coating themselves in fire, the skill user can fly for short periods of time.

[Werewolf Language] (New): The user can communicate with wolves and werewolves easily.

[Wolf Monarch] (Passive) (New): The user of the skill can influence the actions of wolves or wolf monsters below their rank. The skill does not work on constructs, but can influence summoned monsters to an extent. The affinity between the skill user and the controlled subjects influences the effectiveness of the skill.

These are quite good skills, but it also helps me to understand the capabilities these monsters have shown me. It also explains the Iron Spine wolves as well… Dylan was relieved to find out that the iron spine wolves had a skill which made them iron, as Dylan could pass this skill onto other monsters without spending exorbitant amounts of mana to reinforce their bodies. This also could mean that only Dungeons could produce creatures which had body parts made out of inorganic material. Although Dylan wasn’t quite sure about this, he was at least hopeful.

I’ll look through those human skills later. What the hell is this mess now? Dylan had caught a problem with the system after killing the wolves.

After Dylan had killed the black wolves, he had received the ability to summon those a [Wolf] again, and Dylan wanted to test it.

[Summon]: Wolf!

Select the species of [Wolf] to be summoned:

Grey Wolf

Black Wolf

…Can I change the system so that it displays separate species? Dylan thought to himself before receiving a message from the Voice of the World confirming that he could do just that. Finally, he could see all of his species of animals separate instead of generalized. This made him surprisingly happy despite the simple change which had happened. Suddenly remembering his other reward, Dylan immediately used [Mana Healing] on the humans who had been subordinated to him.

Idiot! What if they had died…? Dylan muttered to himself as he watched them heal. Even the girl who had missing legs or the man who was burnt to a crisp slowly were constructed back together under the effects of the skill. Apparently, any injury could be solved with the effects of [Mana Healing] if one had enough mana. The humans were still unconscious, so Dylan couldn’t converse with them yet. They were the first humans Dylan had ever met since entering this world, and he found himself mildly desiring for new companions to talk to.

Sighing, Dylan brought up the next skills to read through, but at the exact same time he received another message.

This message was different than Gehennia’s pitch black message, or the blinding white of the Voice of the World. The screen which appeared in front of Dylan was a striking bright green with pale white words.

I see that you’ve completed Gehennia’s Dungeon challenge hehe, if you don’t know me, I’m the god of knowledge and history, Clikchia. Let’s Talk!