…

Darkness, once again.

But this time, it is different.

It feels.. More familiar than not.

For some reason, my eyes are fixed on something.

As if it was sucking the darkness itself.

The outline cannot be made, but I’m certain something is there.

I float towards it, then it ‘moved’ its head towards me.

“Who are you?”

It asked.

The voice, with a solemn tone in their voice.

“I’m Archillies, where is this?”

“I don’t know… I just came to right now.”

Huh..

I try to float towards it, and the darkness starts escaping away from me.

Once I reach ‘It’, I could see..

A girl?

A young girl, possibly at my age.

With a white hair going down to her feet, and large, blue eyes.

And… she is naked.

Plus she is flat.

No matter.. No matter…

Need to concentrate.

I take off my jacket, which I somehow never felt hot underneath, and put it around her.

She looked at me, with a confused face.

“Do you know me?”

She asks.

I don’t..

Looking back at it, she feels familiar, yet I don’t know her.

As if.. She was part of me?

“Do you know where you came from?”

“No.. I was here the first time I opened my eyes.”

“I-i see..”

Time to put my naming sense to the test.

Uh..

Let’s call her..

Snow White?

Nah… Too cliche..

Aha!

“You will be called, Rain, how’s that sound?”

“Rain?”

She looks down and starts pondering.

If I may say… she looks cute.

Finally, after some pondering, she looks at me with a bright smile.

“Thank you, it sounds great!”

Mustering all I can to not break my poker face, I released a small, pure smile.

…

I opened my eyes, to find myself on the bed once again.

Looking at my clothes, my jacket is still on me.

So that was a dream.. Huh..

With a sigh, I stood up, and washed my face with water magic.

I stared absentmindedly at the walls, before Larry tapped on my shoulders.

For one reason or another, I feel as if that dream was real, but I can’t make up who that girl is.

Like the idiot I am, I could have obviously used ‘Inspect’ on her..

Ugh..

After making sure that I didn’t miss anything, I went outside, greeted Rudolf and Adam, then got to the streets.

Smelling the crude smell of rust once again, I headed for the Adventurer’s guild, to gain some income.

Why, you ask?

According to the books, clothes are pretty expensive, ranging from a few silvers to hundreds of golds.

I stepped into the guild, with people avoiding my eyes, and went for the bulletin board.

Let’s see here…

This works.

I pulled off the request, and went to the receptionist.

“Sir, are you sure you would like to do this request? It is S ranked.”

Without saying a word, I pull out my card, which she looks at with disbelief.

The request is an extermination.

Due to the amount of Direwolves increasing in the forest nearby, people have been unable to safely transverse.

After having it registered on my card, I went to the nearest weapons shop, and ordered 3 bows, a quiver with a 100 arrows, and a Great Axe.

Totaling up to 10 silvers, I now have about 9 golds.

Welp..

I gave two bows to Larry and Henry, and the Great Axe for Bob.

Why didn’t I get 4 bows?

Well, each ‘Arm’ is only one, not a pair, thus John and James will pull the strings while Larry and Henry aim.

Easier than said, I thought, until they did it perfectly on first try.

Such a great teamwork..

Anyhow, I got on my way to the forest east from the city.

Bob kept swinging the axe as if to test it on the way, while thankfully avoiding injuries to anyone near us.

After about 30 minutes of straight walking, we reached the entrance to the forest, feeling a mysterious, yet repelling vibe.

Without any thinking, we stepped into the forest, and went deeper..

…

Direwolves are usually B rank.

Alpha Direwolf is an A rank.

What makes them S rank, you might ask.

Their numbers.

If a 5-10 group of Direwolves exist, then they are A rank.

If it has an Alpha, then it is an S rank.

Or, if it has between 10-50, then it is an S rank.

Anyhow, the report says that it is 40 Direwolves, with 3 Alphas.

Shouldn’t only one Alpha exist per group?

Well, that doesn’t matter for them.

Alpha is what we call the ‘Stronger than usual’ ones, but the Direwolves don’t care.

As long as they are in a group and earn enough food without dying, then that is it.

My mission is to locate them and kill them all.

The Card will determine whether the mission is completed or not.

But then you might ask, what if you kill small groups or Direwolves, and a few lone Alphas, wouldn’t that count?

It would, but soon the authorities would notice that you did not do your job correctly, and then you are sentenced for a year or two of labor.

How’s that for a living?

Anyhow, I ignored all the small groups, until I stumbled upon a large group, with half of them sleeping.

Making sure that I had ‘Stealth’ on, I climbed onto the tree to have a better vantage point.

I instructed the bow-arms to spread out, so we could hit them from other sides.

If I were to imagine it, I’m in the front, Larry and John are at my left, Henry and James are on my right.

Bob?

Bob will take them on from the back, rampaging with his new weapon.

Communicating using my mana link with them, and making sure they were in place, I nocked the first arrow and aimed at an Alpha Direwolf.

I knew using ‘Inspect, so let us omit the details.

Even if I couldn’t use ‘Inspect’, their ears have a red, glowing outline, in case their eyes were closed/not in view.

The Direwolves are just like Wolves, except bigger and more terrifying, both in terms of prowess and appearance.

Releasing the arrow, it went straight through it’s skull, making it drop dead with a thud.

Since half of them were sleeping, while the other half was awake, the Arms shot at the other two Alphas, ending them in one go.

They started to wake up one by one, but Bob didn’t give them a chance, going from the back and swinging sideways like a madman, either cutting through them or bashing them away with incredible strength.

Looking closely at the Axe, I could see dents forming.

Should have brought a better one, I thought to myself.

After a minute or so of constant shooting and continuous rampaging, the Direwolves were killed, ending my mission.

Obviously due to my ‘Consume’ skill, I was constantly annoyed with pop ups about me gaining their abilities, while others telling me that I leveled up.

There is a notable thing when you kill monsters.

They drop items.

No no, not gold or anything like that, items as in ‘Their’ items.

Of course, their corpses don’t disappear, so a person can ‘loot’ them however they want.

The item drops, which are generated by the system, are usually parts, such as a horn or a tooth.

However, Alphas are different.

They might give Ability Books, but they are one-time use, so they are both incredibly rare and expensive.

‘Luckily’, I had a double drop per Alpha, and a few good drops from the normal ones.

I should have told Bob to tune it down a bit as I skin them, I thought to myself.

With a sigh, I got down from the tree, and the Arms followed suit.

I gave Henry and Larry the daggers, and told them to skin the wolves, since they have that knowledge by accessing mine.

As for the rest, I told them to go and gather the dropped items, while I went to check on the Alpha drops.

The Alpha’s teeth are used as an Alchemical ingredient, although not used for important things, it is still an ingredient, so I kept them for myself, while I skinned them and pulled off the teeth.

After about an hour of constant skinning, I realized that my clothes were dirtied, so using the cloth-washing ability ‘Wash’, I used it on them, feeling that they are as a good as new.

Which they actually were, heh.

Sadly, I can’t use that on my body, so I’ll have to put up with water and air magics.

Looking at the gathered loot, I had :

40 Sets of Direwolf teeth. 3 Sets of Alpha Direwolf teeth. 40 Direwolf pelts. 3 Alpha Direwolf pelts. 40 Pairs of Direwolf claws. 3 Pairs of Alpha Direwolf claws.

And lastly, 6 Ability books.

Two of them were ‘Intimidate’, but I already have that, and higher leveled as well.

Three ‘Predator’s Eyes’, which show the nearby life forms.

Although I have ‘Map’ and ‘Battle Sense’, which are more than enough, I decided to take one of the ‘Predator’s Eyes’, and read it.

Once I held the book, I pressed read, and.. It didn’t disappear.

If I remember correctly, information said that Ability books, once they are read, they will disappear.

Not ‘Become Empty’, just disappear.

However, that didn’t happen for me.

Feeling daring, I picked up the other books and did the same, giving me an even higher level of their abilities.

With a happy expression, I put off all the other loot in my ‘Pocket Dimension’, and went on my merry way to the adventurer’s guild..

…