Solo Leveling : Ragnarok - Chapter 17

[The ‘Title: Wolf Slayer’ buff has been activated.]

Bang!

Su-ho’s feet pushed off the ground.

Whoosh—

His body shot forward in a straight line.

In front of him, Brocky’s face was frozen in shock.

[What the…!]

Something unbelievable had happened.

Su-ho’s power and speed, the aura erupting from his entire body—everything had changed in an instant.

He had gained +1 to all stats from leveling up.

He received an additional +5 stat points from the quest reward.

On top of that, the title he obtained increased all of his abilities by a staggering 40% when facing beast-type monsters.

All of this synergy concentrated into Su-ho’s sword.

Dual-wielding. Whirlwind Slash.

[‘Skill: Whirlwind Slash’ activated.]

Rumble—!

Su-ho became a literal storm.

As the two swords crossed, a fierce gale of sword strikes roared to life.

[You have learned ‘Skill: Dual-Wielding Lv.1.’]

It was a display of sheer, merciless violence.

A one-sided massacre by a ruthless butcher.

Slash, slash, slash, slash, slash, slash, slash, slash!

[Kraaah! You bastard—!]

Brocky tried to fight back, but it was a futile struggle.

Boom, boom, boom!

In Brocky’s thrashing, the outposts built by the Hyena Guild were demolished and shattered.

[How dare you…!]

And before Brocky could even finish his sentence, a straight beam of red light surged from his wide-open mouth.

Rakhan’s Fang, pulled by Su-ho’s Ruler’s Authority, shot out.

Su-ho caught the blade in mid-air.

And then, without hesitation, he struck.

Shing!

[You have slain the Ruthless Commander Brocky.]

Boom!

At last, the massive beast fell.

[You have leveled up!]

[You have leveled up!]

“Whew.”

Su-ho landed on the ground.

[Kieeek! We did it! You’ve slain him! You’ve defeated that monstrous creature, my lord!]

As if waiting for this moment, Beru shot forward, flying toward Su-ho.

-…My god. Is this really possible? A human defeating Brocky?

Rakhan’s Fang murmured in disbelief, to which Beru responded with a snicker.

[Didn’t you know? The world operates on the law of the jungle. The strong devour the weak, and our young lord is only going to get stronger from here. Oh, by the way, my lord? May I have a bite of this one?]

Beru licked his lips, eyeing Brocky’s corpse.

Su-ho glanced at Brocky’s body.

[This target is eligible for Shadow Extraction.]

Black smoke swirled above the corpse.

A glint appeared in Su-ho’s eyes.

‘So I can extract this one too?’

No way he was letting Beru eat all of it.

“Just one bite. The rest, I’ll extract the shadow from later.”

[Yes, sir!]

Whoosh!

With Su-ho’s permission, Beru gleefully swooped down.

The dead Brocky was a potent source of magic power.

[Heh heh. Just one bite.]

Beru’s mouth twisted wickedly.

If he only had one bite, which part would be the most fulfilling?

There was only one choice.

The brain.

[Survival of the fittest. I quite like that concept.]

Muttering to himself, Beru burrowed into Brocky’s head.

* * *

Su-ho freed all the captives who had been tied up.

“I’ve reported this to the Hunter Association. Rescue teams should arrive soon. Don’t wander off; just stay here for a bit since there are still beasts roaming the mountain.”

“Sniff, sob! Thank you! Thank you so much!”

Filthy and disheveled from their captivity, the captives broke down into tears, overwhelmed with gratitude.

[Young Lord, these people were all debtors to the Hyena Guild. They were captured because they couldn’t pay back their debts and were forced to sign away their bodies.]

“Beru, how do you know that?”

[My skill is Devour. I ate Brocky’s brain and saw some of his memories.]

“You really do all sorts of things.”

[Heh. I’m a rather useful servant in many ways.]

Beru puffed out his chest, clearly pleased with himself.

[Oh, by the way, after examining Brocky’s abilities, it seems he didn’t have the power to create werewolves by feeding them blood.]

“What? Then how did these guys…”

Su-ho’s gaze shifted to the dead werewolves on the ground.

– That was the strangest thing to me from the beginning.

Rakhan’s Fang spoke up.

– The Hyena Tribe is merely one of many tribes that followed the Fang Tribe. Only the Fang Tribe has the ability to create minions by feeding them blood.

“Then…”

– It seems there’s a true member of the Fang Tribe inside that gate, apart from Brocky.

At those words, Su-ho and Beru’s eyes simultaneously turned toward the gate from which Brocky had emerged.

“So there’s another boss monster.”

Su-ho tightened his grip on his sword, his eyes resolute.

Beru shrugged and spoke.

[It’s probably not a boss monster.]

“Not a boss?”

Su-ho looked puzzled.

[Yes. If Brocky’s memories are correct, there likely won’t be any more battles.]

Beru had a somewhat bitter expression.

[You’ll understand once you go inside.]

* * *

Su-ho entered the gate.

Inside, he found a small, frail creature.

“This is…”

Su-ho’s expression hardened.

Before him lay a blood-stained wolf pup, limp and lifeless.

Its fur was a dirty gray, matted and tangled.

It was bandaged roughly and was no bigger than the span of a hand.

And nearby…

Syringes used to draw blood were scattered haphazardly.

– Brocky, you damned fool!

Seeing this, Rakhan’s Fang trembled with rage.

– Did he really bind one of our tribe’s descendants and forcibly draw its blood?

The wolf pup, weakly bound by a collar, flinched as if it had heard Rakhan’s Fang’s fury.

It slowly lifted its head.

Its unfocused eyes stared blankly at the space where Su-ho stood.

Then, it sniffed the air with its small nose.

A stranger.

The smell of blood on his clothes.

“Whimper…”

A weak whine.

With that, the wolf pup’s head drooped again.

There was not a trace of will or hope left in its small, frail body.

– Brocky, you insane mongrel!

Rakhan’s Fang cursed the already-dead Brocky in extreme anger.

Beru, reading Brocky’s memories, murmured calmly.

[After losing the war against the Shadow Army, Brocky was one of the first to flee the battlefield. In reality, he was less of a survivor and more of a deserter.]

Brocky’s actions afterward were utterly disgraceful.

[He hid in the sanctuary of the Fang Tribe, which he believed to be the safest place, and there he found the young wolf.]

All the adults had gone to war, leaving the young pup alone.

In the memory, the pup wagged its tail happily when Brocky entered the sanctuary.

But.

[When Brocky saw that, he had an idea.]

‘Yes, this is it! If I use the blood of the Fang Tribe, I can create as many guardians as I want!’

‘I’ll make these guardians protect me!’

‘I’ll create my own army! A tribe that serves only me!’

‘You’d like that too, right? Heh heh.’

Brocky grinned wickedly at the pup wagging its tail at him.

[After that, the sanctuary was torn into pieces, drifting through dimensional rifts. One day, a portal connected to Earth appeared before Brocky.]

And he found a group of humans.

[Without hesitation, Brocky drew the pup’s blood and fed it to them.]

What followed was something Su-ho already knew.

The guardians created in this manner became Brocky’s army under the name of the Hyena Guild.

For a full year, they hunted other humans and offered them as food to Brocky.

However, there was one major problem.

The reason for Rakhan’s Fang’s fury was this.

– The power of the guardians isn’t permanent. At most, it lasts ten days. Once that time passes, the blood’s power vanishes, and they revert to their original state. Which means…!

“Every ten days, they drew blood from this pup and fed it to the guild members. For a whole year.”

– Aaaaargh! Brocky! Brocky!

Su-ho picked up the limp wolf pup with one hand.

It was lighter than he expected, which surprised him.

[Kieek? Are you planning to take it with you?]

Beru’s eyes widened.

This young wolf wasn’t a direct descendant of the Fang Lord, but it still carried the blood of the tribe.

[If you let it live, it could grow into the second Fang Lord and threaten Earth again.]

“Didn’t we win last time anyway?”

[That… that’s true? Hmm.]

At Su-ho’s words, Beru stared intently at the wolf pup in Su-ho’s hand.

Seeing it struggling to even breathe, Beru nodded.

[Well, given that we’re already facing invasions from the Outer Gods, it wouldn’t make sense for us to fight among ourselves.]

Even though the tribe had lost the war, the surviving children were not to blame.

In fact, considering how it had survived this long with such a small and fragile body, wasn’t that admirable in itself?

But Su-ho wasn’t just taking the wolf pup for sentimental reasons.

‘I have a feeling this little one could be helpful later. Besides…’

“If it dies here, its last memories will be too tragic. It was captured by someone it trusted and had its blood drained for a whole year.”

With that, Su-ho cradled the pup in his arms.

“So let’s feed it first and then see what happens.”

* * *

Su-ho returned home with the wolf pup.

As for the Hyena Guild and the Gwanaksan field, he decided not to worry about it for now since he had already reported everything to the Association.

The civilian survivors would provide much more detailed testimonies than Su-ho could.

What mattered more was the pup’s condition, which looked like it could die at any moment.

“Beru, you’re a healer, can’t you treat something like this?”

[Healing magic can only cure wounds. It can’t restore lost blood or alleviate hunger.]

“So healing skills aren’t all-powerful. Then, for now…”

Su-ho turned on an electric heater and placed it in front of the pup.

“Arf.”

“What? It feels good, right?”

The wolf pup seemed a bit confused.

Its tail tucked between its legs, it shivered but couldn’t take its eyes off the warm glow of the heater.

“Come to think of it, this might be the first time you’ve ever seen fire.”

Su-ho left the pup by the heater and started cooking seaweed soup.

Once it cooled down enough, he poured some into a small dish.

“You should feel lucky today. This is my mom’s special recipe, something she always made for me on my birthday.”

Su-ho, with a bit of pride, placed the dish in front of the pup’s short snout.

“Try it. Seaweed soup is supposed to be good for blood deficiency.”

…Sniff, sniff.

As the pup sniffed the soup, its tail twitched slightly.

“It’s okay. Go ahead and eat.”

Su-ho gently nudged the pup’s nose into the soup, and instinctively, its tongue flicked out.

Lick?

…!

“Oh, I didn’t know wolves could make surprised faces like that.”

Slurp, slurp.

The wolf pup began to lap up the soup, its nose buried in the dish.

Its scruffy, shedding tail wagged weakly.

Watching this scene from Beru’s hands, Rakhan’s Fang quietly murmured.

-…Thank you. For everything.

He felt conflicted in many ways.

After all, the reason they were in this situation was because they lost the war against the Shadow Army.

But even though they had lost the war, the surviving children were not to blame.

They had to step on the present and rise to live the future.

And perhaps… this young wolf was the last survivor of the Fang Tribe.

As Beru had warned, one day it might grow into the successor to the Fang Lord.

How ironic that the heir to the Shadow Monarch would extend a helping hand to such a child.

“What? Is it good?”

Su-ho crouched down in front of the small pup, who was lapping up the warm soup, and smiled.

Seeing this, Rakhan’s Fang had no choice but to accept the fact that the war was truly over.

-…Fine. You’ve won. I entrust all our fates to you.

At that moment, the will of Rakhan, the great king of beasts, was passed onto Su-ho.

Ding.

[You have obtained the ‘Pet: Fang Wolf Lv.1.’]