“You found a way to awaken the animals?” Kong found himself gawking at her.“Yes.” Foxie further explained, “They give the young an injection with some kind of serum in it, and then the young awaken soon afterward. For some it takes days, and for some it takes only minutes. It depends on the person.”“Ohh…” Kong exclaimed in surprise. (The injection must have the power of a star crystal and something else. If I can get my hands on one…) “Ahem, does it work for only animals or humans, too.”“I think it only works for the animal kind.”Kong’s shoulders flailed. (Dammit. I got excited for nothing.)“Since this is your first question, I’ve answered you for free,” Foxie politely replied, “but it will cost from here onward.”“O-Okay,” Justin and Kong together said.“Can you tell me how you survived Buller’s last attack?” Foxie asked in a low voice, looking at both Justin and Biskie. “I really want to know.”“About that…” Justin glanced at Myles who shrugged his shoulders. “We don’t know. It
Hipster was a fat hippo wearing goggles and a formal checkered shirt-pant with a shoulder belt. He had only one weakness. If someone called him handsome, he would give them a 5% discount. Casey called him handsome five times and asked for a 25% discount, but he increased the price by 25% percent.Naturally, Casey didn’t buy a drink.Behind the Hippo’s hut was the Buffalo’s Inn, where Myles and others wanted to stay for the night at a price of 200 dollars per night per head.Foxie, however, told them that they could stay at her house for only half the price. Buffalo’s inn didn’t look very lean, so they went with her to her house which was a decently large burrow in the ground. It had a door and a lock. They had to crawl behind Foxie to get inside.“I never thought I’d sleep like a fox inside a hole,” Justin muttered.“Are we going to sleep on the ground?” Biskie asked, thinking she should have stayed at the inn instead.“Won’t there be bugs here?” Casey expressed her displeasure.“I st
“WHAT?” Justin was slack-jawed after hearing the price of a star-sealed sword. “It’s worth 50,000 dollars? Isn’t that too much when the sword barely spits fire?”“That’s why it’s only 50,000 dollars,” the vendor replied. “If you are not interested, leave. Don’t waste my time.”Justin felt aggravated by the vendor’s rudeness, but he could also understand where that rudeness came from. The market was buzzing with customers. At least one customer would be visiting every shop. Naturally, the vendors had swollen egos.“I was given only 10,000 dollars when I entered the city,” Justin responded. “How can I pay 50,000?”The vendor was an old man with wrinkles. He sized Justin from top to bottom. “You have all the limbs, and you look young. If you work as a porter for any group that enters the dungeon, you can easily earn 50,000 in a month or two. There’s always demand for porters, after all. If you’re lucky, and some group finds valuable goods, they might even give you a bonus.”“Porter, huh…
The dried blood marks on the floor and walls marked the entrance to one of the six paths starting at the sinister Nether Dungeon.Myles and others didn’t go more than 300 meters in, and they already came across puddles of blood, rat droppings and messy cobwebs every few steps.“Even though there’s so much traffic outside, the inside looks like nobody has passed by this way recently,” Justin opined, looking around with the help of his head-torch. “It’s giving off quite the ominous feels.”“We should be ready to face the monsters, but also keep an eye out for any locked chests or abandoned weapons,” Kong said as they kept walking through the twisted path.Myles, who was in the back, was leaving faint marks on the walls with a rusty knife he found soon after entering the dungeon.“Wait, guys, what if we get lost inside,” Biskie asked. “I forgot to buy food.”“We don’t have the luxury to buy food,” Justin replied. “If we hunt well this time, then we’ll maybe have enough money to buy food
The group of three human mages, with a tall woke-bear standing behind them, together looked anything but friendly.Out of fear, Kong and others moved to the sides of the pathway, giving them room to walk. Well, everyone except Myles.“Mr. Myles, what are you doing!” Biskie hissed and hurriedly pulled him to the side.The four men walked past them, with their hands in their pockets, showing how confident and comfortable they were.“You seem to be new to this dungeon,” the youngest one among the four, who didn’t even have a mustache, spoke, “so let me give a little piece of advice. If you don’t want to die, turn around and leave. However, if you don’t mind dying in this place, then you should be ready to fight anybody—monster and human alike. Even your teammate if necessary. Once you go deep into the dungeon, you will never know for sure who’s on your side. The moment you start trusting others, you will be making yourself vulnerable, babies.”Soon, the four of them left.“Who the hell a
A monster equipped to frighten anyone had met the man fearful of no one. A mighty clash between them was as certain as heaven above and hell beneath.The dark gray wolf reminded Myles of his younger days. It was a big, macabre wolf like this one that had attacked him but the old woman that raised him stepped in and saved him but then got killed right before his eyes. Those were times when every child wanted to be a brave warrior or a powerful mage. He, too, being an abandoned child, wanted to become strong and brave and one day take on an army by himself. However, all those dreams shattered when the wolf took the old lady by the neck and dragged her away into the distance. He couldn’t move. He sat paralyzed like a coward, and to this day, that moment was one of his biggest regrets. He wished he had run after that wolf and fought to death. Then perhaps, he might have saved the woman who saw him starving and suffering in the snow and brought him into her home and fed him and took care o
Myles swiped his hands against each other, and his nails grew in size. He immediately blocked the wolf’s claw attack.The wolf was astonished to see his claw-like nails.“Don’t look so surprised now,” Myles hissed softly. “I’m expecting you to put up a decent fight.”The wolf sucked in a breath and spat an acid bullet at Myles’ face. All he had to do was move his head a little and dodge the attack.At the same time, the wolf’s burning tail wrapped around his waist.“Double attack,” Myles nodded in appreciation. “Not bad.” His body released a chilling wave and resisted the flames.The wolf whipped its tail and smashed Myles' body into the wall. Before his feet touched the ground, the wolf’s face zoomed in to bite his head off.Myles hand moved at a blistering speed and socked the wolf’s jaw from the side, sending it packing into the distance. The wolf’s body flew across the large space and hit some stalagmites. The wolf still managed to land on its feet.Myles seemed a little surprised
The blue crystal baffled everyone alike. When the torch light fell on the crystal, it gave off an ethereal glow. It even had this strange aroma that pulled them toward it, as if asking them to consume it.Casey and Biskie especially looked like they were hypnotized. They slowly raised their hands to touch the crystal.Justin closed his fist and moved his hand away from them. The women acted normal again.“That crystal had many cracks,” Kong quickly said. “It can’t be a star-crystal.”Justin also thought the same. He had heard about the star crystals, that they were highly resistant to fire and were extremely difficult to break because they were tougher than diamonds. Since diamonds wouldn’t crack, Justin and Kong believed the same was the case for star-crystals.Justin looked at Myles. “Is this really a star-crystal?”Myles nodded. “It is the pack leader’s crystal.”Biskie’s jaw dropped. The others also looked amply shocked.“No,” Kong shook his head in defiance. “First of all, there’