Chapter 39: A Gang
Nith rolled his eyes upward, staring at the first monster he’d encountered in the dungeon, which was now his home and prison.
Towering before him was a tall wolf, casting a shadow over him. The wolf’s fur matched the color of the forest’s outer bark—green. Its matted fur appeared so similar to leaves that it looked like it wore an armor of them over its back.
The wolf’s light green eyes reflected Nith’s hunched posture. It couldn’t sense any fear within him, which confused the monster.
Confusion gave way to hostile intent, prompting the wolf to charge at him. As Nith conjured his spear, the monster instinctively widened its jaws in response, revealing sharp teeth with saliva bridging them.
Nith shoved his spear horizontally, preventing the jaws from closing on him.
The monster’s strength, however, pushed him back a few meters. His back hit a tree, and a close impasse unfolded between them.
Curving his lips into a wide smile, Nith let out dark-purple venom in the form of a cloud from the corner of his lips. He rolled a heavy bullet onto his tongue as well, this time in liquid form.
He fired it at the wolf’s right eye—a perfect hit. The wolf angled its head back and stared at the forest canopy for a few seconds before thrashing its head around.
While the pain and loss of sight set in, Nith took advantage of the moment, slithering around its neck.
In a double-wielding style, he brought his spear close to his head and thrust it with his full weight, sinking the weapon deeply into the monster’s tough sinew.
Having this purchase, Nith nimbly sent himself over the flailing wolf. He recalled his spear, turning it into particles, only to call it back mid-air.
With the left eye right below him, Nith repeated the deadly descent that Huxley couldn’t handle, ripping open the monster’s other eye.
Bathed in its blood, Nith triumphantly stood atop the monster’s head, seemingly enjoying the ride as if he were sitting on a mechanical bull.
He constantly exuded his dark-purple poison, feeding on the monster’s strength. If he were in a game, he would have received numerous notifications about his STR stat doubling and then doubling again over time.
“Lament louder, puppy,” Nith said. “I need your buddies here. Wolves naturally hang out in packs, right? Why did you come at me alone? Please, don’t tell me you’re the lone guardian of the border, meant to test anyone trespassing. That’d be sad.”
To Nith’s displeasure, the wolf didn’t listen to him. Or rather, it simply didn’t care about whatever he was saying. Without its sight, the wolf was at a loss, and it couldn’t shake Nith off its head.
Whenever it tried, Nith jumped onto its back and strolled around like the hunched bastard he was. Annoying to the core, in other words. Shaking him off was also a daunting task and only hastened the monster’s bleeding.
Three minutes later, other wolves gathered around him, barking at Nith, saliva dripping from their jaws.
Had Nith not been riding the wolf for a while now, he might have thought they were there solely to eat him, not to help their kin.
Smiling, Nith leaped off the first wolf and landed on a green branch before sprinting across it to assault the other wolf. Now that he had defeated the first enemy and infused Eclipse Venom into its veins, Nith’s strength kept surging.
He didn’t fear a pack, let alone a whole gang!
As he dropped onto the second wolf, Nith thrust his spear into its hide. A second later, another wolf swiped its paw at him, but Nith threw his weapon into the air and tumbled forward as if diving into water.
After rolling, he coalesced his spear again and resumed his pesky attack, inflicting wounds that stacked venom and starvation. The other wolves hadn’t given up. Another wolf bumped into its kin in an attempt to shake Nith off.
At the same time, another wolf pounced on the poor victim and glided its paw, trying to smack Nith away.
Keeping his balance, Nith remained perched on his second victim against all odds, avoiding the fourth wolf’s paw by a hair’s breadth.
His instincts warned him of an attack on his left, and he listened, dodging the jaws of death snapping shut beside him.
The longer the battle lasted, the more toxin the monsters inhaled. Nith didn’t spare them any humiliation either, spitting at them.
That said, the real humiliation came when the monsters could no longer keep up with one another, and their own attacks started hitting them. One by one, they fell like dominoes, leaving Nith standing upright as the sole victor.
And victor he was.
He stood still amidst the dead wolves, from which clouds of dark-purple poison billowed. The last bits of their strength flowed into Nith’s body, available to him until their time expired.
Nith didn’t know whether he would fight someone again soon, but for now, he felt quite drained.
Breathing heavily and hanging his head low, he gasped for air after exerting himself so much.
‘If I hadn’t practiced spearmanship for two months, it would have been much harder… or rather, I’d have wasted more poison,’ Nith thought.
A sudden rustle in the bushes warned Nith.
He turned around, noticing a bald man in his late twenties standing over the bush. The man wore actual steel armor and had a real sword at his hip, looking more like a soldier than a prisoner.
Looks couldn’t be trusted, though. Who knew that Kyouka was quite a masochist deep in her heart and liked being called a bitch?
That was quite a lesson.
For that reason, Nith didn’t jump to conclusions.
“Who are you?” he asked.
The man chuckled. “Like you, a prisoner sentenced to life here.”
“You don’t look like one,” Nith replied.
“Because I’m part of the nobles’ game,” the man stated. “What about you? Did you join the fun? Even if you didn’t, someone as strong as you has a place in our Inmates’ Gang.”
A third party interrupted the conversation between the two. The bald man was struck by a sneaky attack on his armor, which melted a hole in his protection!
Nith narrowed his eyes. ‘Poison?’
Who could wield poison in this world and age?
