Roughly four hours ago…
Ashton was carefully following the wolven skeletons through the forest. It wasn't like he was scared of facing off against the wolves, after all, he had finished the quest that Lucifer had so graciously given him. He just didn't want to waste any more time than necessary inside the cave.
'I'm pretty sure there are hundreds if not thousands of those wolves here. Even if they are weak, it would be a stupid decision to face all of them together.' Ashton thought, 'It's better to sneak in and out of here with the flower.'
While Ashton was doing that, he was forced to face another problem. The skeletons were often getting confused with his commands. He would ask one of them to do something, and the other one would jump to do the task instead, thinking it was asked to do the work.
Finding a solution to this problem was quite easy. He just named the skeletons Skelly1 and Skelly2. The names weren't the most creative, but eh, it wasn't like Ashton gave a fck about it. After that, it took them an hour to arrive at their destination.
There was a garden right in the middle of the forest. A garden filled with weird-looking white flowers. But that wasn't all… around the garden, numerous skeletons were scattered around. As if they were some sort of decorative piece for the garden.
"What the hell is that thing…" The flew right out of Ashton's mouth when he saw the gigantic creature sleeping in the middle of the garden as its protector.
It was another wraith wolf, but at the same time, it was nothing like the ones Ashton had seen before. For starters, this wolf was at least 5 times as large as the one he had fought before. Also, it had more horns than the rest. Hell, they even covered his spine to probably give it some more protection.
"Were you guys afraid of this?" Ashton asked the skeletons to which they nodded in reply, "I can see why you would be… I need those flowers but the only way I'll be able to do so is by killing the creature. But do I even stand a chance against it?"
Unlike before, Ashton no longer was a fool who would judge any creature simply on the basis of their levels. But with the skeleton's help, he might be able to poison the creature enough times to kill it.
'They might not be much effective in combat, but they can surely act as perfect distractions.'
The next moment Ashton instructed one of the skeletons to take the aggro on itself. While the skeleton did that, the remaining skeleton was instructed to irritate the Elder wolf even more from behind.
It was a cowardly plan but Ashton was left with no choice as Blood poison was the only thing that could work against wolves. He would be stupid to even think about using [Revenge] on the creatures who were immune to physical damage. Thankfully, he had the perfect skills and weapons to take care of the Elder Wraith Wolf from a distance.
[Unique Skill: Blood Mist has been activated.]
[Unique Skill: Blood Poison has been activated.]
A moment later, Ashton stabbed himself in numerous places to let the blood flow out of him freely in the form of a dense reddish-brown mist. While simultaneously helping him to soak the arrows for the crossbow with his blood.
A thick stench of blood covered the air, so it was no surprise that the Elder Wolf had woken up from his slumber and he did not look happy about his sleep getting interrupted. But when it tried looking for the ones who dared disturb it, it could not see anything through the dense red mist.
As the poison mist entered the elder wolf's respiratory system, Ashton received a notification along with a new quest.
[Elder Wraith Wolf has been affected with Poison.]
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You have received a new mission!
[Introduction]: You have found the dungeon boss. Kill the creature to receive lucrative rewards.
[Objective]: Conquer the dungeon.
[Task]: Slay the Elder Wraith Wolf.
[Progress]: 0/1 Elder Wraith Wolf killed.
[Reward]: Authority over the dungeon.
[Mission Commissioned by]: System
[Priority Level]: 1 (The host cannot ignore the mission but would miss out on the rewards forever.)
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"Well, I was already planning on killing the damned bastard, now I got one more reason to do so." Ashton mumbled with a smile as the wolves charged into the mist, "You might not be able to see shit through the mist, but I can."
The next moment, he fired a series of arrows straight towards the Elder wolf who was too busy chasing the skeletons around. Ashton knew he could not sustain the mist for a long duration as it was rapidly consuming his HP, as a result, he rained the arrows on the elder wolf as a hailstorm.
The skeletons were already immune to the blood poison, hence he did not have to worry about injuring them. Hence he kept shooting arrows after arrows, hitting the wolf again and again.
Ashton knew his plan was working as slowly but steadily, more and more poison was accumulating inside the Elder wolf's body. But there was a problem. As the Elder wolf's health got lower, his agility increased tremendously.
Soon, it was evident the skeletons won't be able to distract the boss any longer. The Elder's strength and agility were both too much for them to handle. However, Ashton didn't care.
He could always make more skeletons but he would only get this chance to kill the dungeon boss and gain the authority over the dungeon… whatever that meant.
A moment later, both the skeletons were destroyed and the elder wolf finally set his eyes on Ashton. But by now, the poison had done its job and Ashton cancelled the [Blood Mist] skill.
He knew the Elder wolf would be in a bad shape, but he didn't expect it to get completely buried with his arrows. Hell, there wasn't an inch of skin that hadn't been injured with his arrows. Still, the beast took a step towards him, before collapsing on the garden floor.
It wasn't dead yet, but it was as good as dead. The creature still had the will to fight and live on, but its body didn't.
"It hurts doesn't it?" Ashton felt like an asshole to himself saying those words, "Let me put you out of your misery."
The following moment, he punched a hole inside the Elder Wolf's body and ripped its heart out before the beast could do anything.
"I should steel my nerves for what comes next…" Ashton mumbled while remembering what happened after levelling up his Vampire genes, "Here goes nothing…."