Grinding (7)

The wolf, by instinct, felt that its prey was mocking it.

With an angry growl, it lunged towards me, a blur of fur and fury.

But in my eyes, it appeared so slow, even with the transformation.

As it leaped, trying to bite me with its powerful jaws, I sidestepped with ease.

The wolf's momentum carried it past me, and I couldn't help but let out a chuckle.

It reminded me of the bull fighting with the red cloth.

I turned around and faced the wolf again as it regained its footing.

Its eyes flashed with a mix of surprise and anger. It charged again, faster this time but still as predictable.

With the same movement as last time, I sidestepped, and it propelled forward.

We repeated this exchange a few times until I got bored.

As it charged one more time, I caught the wolf mid-leap with my grip firm around its neck.

It pushed me a few meters back, but I did not let go of my grip around its neck.

The wolf struggled against my hold, trying to get out of it.

"Calm down". I said it with a calm tone.

And just like how you would command a dog,

"Sit! Bad dog!". I said it with a commanding tone.

I could feel the rapid beat of its heart and the heat of its breath.

But no matter what, it still resisted with all its might, trying to get out of my hold.

"It's useless. I won't let go".

With a little adjustment of my grip, I applied more and more pressure.

Soon I could hear it whimper in pain, but I never relaxed the grip as I put even more pressure on it.

If I looked into it's eyes, it would probably be filled with fear. And as I was about to kill it,

"Wait! It's in pain, stop!".

I heard a small girl's voice telling me to stop.

"Yon?" I was confused as I looked at the direction of the voice.

Her eyes were fixed on me and the subdued creature in my hands.

"Please stop! The wolf says it doesn't want to fight anymore". She said it with her voice trembling.

'Are you f*cking kidding me?'

The wolf doesn't want to fight me anymore? So are you saying that it killed all those people for fun, and as soon as it meets a stronger opponent, it gives up?

I tightened my grip a little while trying to listen to Yon, and as the wolf noticed my grip, it whimpered even more.

"The wolf says it will leave if you let it go". Yon said.

'So the wolf says it will politely leave if I let it go?'

"Is that so?"

I tightened my grip even harder as it whimpered even more in pain.

"Wait, the wolf says it will tell you how to exit the floor". Yon said it hurriedly as she noticed my tightened grip.

"Yeah, well, tell that wolf that I already know how to exit the floor". I said it with a passive, aggressive tone.

The wolf probably knew about the hidden exit, but I guess it was unlucky as I had already found it.

I tightened my grip harder.

"The wolf says it has the item that you need, and if you release it, it will give it to you".

The item that I need? I relaxed my grip a little.

"Tell it that I want to see that item before I let it live".

Yon looked at the wolf without making a single sound.

But I could feel the wolf's jaw move slightly, much to my surprise. It spat out a small transparent object into the ground.

It was formed like a circle, but it was not a sphere. The top and bottom sides were flat.

This was when I realized that the small hole on top of the mountain had that exact shape.

'That object must be the key to that hole'.

So it has been inside the wolf this whole time?

"The wolf says it is the guardian of this floor, and it tests the hearts of those who come here". Yon said.

"I see, so the wolf is the guardian of this floor, and he is just testing the people here?" I said it with a sarcastic tone.

"Yeah, that is exactly it!" Yon said.

I guess small children believe anything these days. Well, the wolf shouldn't have spat out that key. Because now there is no reason to let it live.

I tightened my grip on the wolf.

"Wait, stop," she hurriedly said, trying to stop me.

The wolf whimpered in louder pain until,

Crack!

I broke the neck of the wolf, and it lifelessly fell to the ground.

[Announcement: The special monster has been killed; new enemies will spawn.]

[Announcement: You have killed the special monster as the biggest contributor; please choose a reward.]

The announcement appeared again, indicating that I had killed the wolf.

As I looked at the dead wolf on the ground, I knew that it was lying when it said it was the guardian of this floor, and it was just testing the people.

The dead bodies that I saw that day were not an illusion; the wolf had unmistakably killed them all. There was no way it was just testing people.

In that sense, I had also tested the wolf, like it had tested us.

The item being the key that I needed was a nice surprise, but now that I knew that it was inside the wolf,

I could just kill it again and dig it out of its dead body.

As I looked at Yon, she had a shocked face at what I did.

'She will forget all of this when I regress'.

I know that Park Jihye told me to treat every regression as a serious attempt. But I felt like this should be an exception, as I didn't want Yon to look at me in disgust.

I knew that she could talk with animals, but I didn't know that the wolf counted as one.

Well, now that I said it in my head, I sound f*cking stupid. But why, of all times, did she approach me now?

How did she have the guts to approach me and the wolf? Does she not realize the situation we are in?

As I looked around, I noticed that all the other people were scared.

'Is that why no one stopped her?'

Well, it doesn't matter now. I picked up the round object and entered the forest.

As I was sprinting, I looked closer at the round object.

It was transparent and very smooth to hold.

It didn't matter to me what it signified. The only thing that matters is clearing this floor so I can go home.

I quickly exited the forest and ran over to climb the mountain in the elite forest.

[Congratulations for finding the hidden exit!] If the hidden exit is used, you will return to earth.

[Do you want to use the hidden exit?]

[Yes] or [No]

The announcements appeared again, and I pressed [no].

[The hidden exit will be closed for the rest of the floor.]

After clicking on [no], I looked for the hole in the ground.

"Found it"

I placed the round object that I got from the wolf inside the hole.