Heading back

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"This..."

"Makes me a bit sick." Dale said as he looked at the body of the Yirg

'What an abomination of nature.'

Its body seemed to have no skin, having its muscles exposed.

But a closer look and inspection showed that there was indeed a thin transparent layer of film covering its body.

It was extremely elastic, slippery, and oddly resistant... Likely such to facilitate its transforming capabilities.

There was no symmetry to its body, and it seemed more like an amalgamation of flesh than an actual creature, not even its muscles seemed to follow some sort of order like the fibers of the Human body.

Even in death, several parts of its body still twitched, moving and changing as a testimony to its ability to alter itself.

It was in a sense, amazing and in another, grotesque and sickening.

"Dale!" Testros exclaimed as he ran to his side after confirming the death of the Yirg

"I'm okay…"

"No, you're fucking not." Testros replied with a rare worried expression

"I…"

But before he could reply, Testros pointed at several areas around his body, and Dale finally realized he was indeed not okay.

Multiple small cuts all around the upper left section of his body, becoming more severe as you went up his torso, finally ending with a deep cut on his left shoulder, although not deep enough to reach the bone, it was still gushing out a bit of blood…

Without thinking, Dale took out a strong potion and drank it, while at the same time, he gave a medkit to Testros so he could help him bandage his wounds.

As a Hardcore character, Dale could get hurt, and recovering could take quite some time…

It was still faster than what a normal person would take, several times more in fact, and with the use of a potion healing out of such a wound might just take a few hours…

But being hurt in this forest is not good…

"I didn't even realize I was so hurt…" He mumbled to himself as Testros bandaged his body

"It's normal, you were in a state of confusion from its screech and a Yirg has a weak numbing poison..."

"Well... It's not weak, it's rather potent, although, seeing as how you are still up, it didn't seem to have that much of an effect, which is good."

"... I'm sorry, I was careless." Dale said as he dropped his head a little

"What are you sorry for, kid?" Misgurd asked out loud as he tapped his uninjured shoulder

He looked extremely frustrated.

"My rash actions caused this event, I am the one who should apologize." He said as he dropped his head to bow

"This Yirg was smarter than I expected, it dashed beyond us... I've never seen such behaviour, but then again, it was a variant, I should've been ready for the uneexpected."

"..."

He and Testros remained silent, but none of them passed the blame to him.

"It was no one's fault, the scream was just that unexpected, dealing with a variant is always like this, as veterans, we should've taken more precautions and not given it time to even morph into its true body." Testros said

"It doesn't matter how fast it could change, I should've pressed on and attacked…"

"But then you would've exposed yourself to danger." Dale replied

"To be honest, what happened doesn't matter anymore to me, it hurts a bit but I will be okay by tomorrow." He said with a smile as he touched his shoulder lightly

He pointed towards the fallen body of the Yirg and said:

"What matters now is that."

"... You're right..."

"Let's focus first, we can blame each other later." Testros said as he looked at Misgurd after he finished bandaging Dale

"Took the words right out of my mouth!"

The two went near the body of the fallen Yirg, with Dale right behind them.

And the first thing he noticed was a hole passing right through the center portion of its body, and a deep cut that almost sliced through the body of the creature.

Those were the two attacks he delivered when the creature struck him, the first one pinned the creature in the air, making his spear cut straight through it.

That was when he was attacked by one of its limbs, a long tentacle-like arm with several spikes. It looked like a biological flail.

Dale remembered the pain of being hit by that and it wasn't pretty…

If his body wasn't very strong, and the armor he wore wasn't of high quality…

Although he didn't know now, his armor did almost nothing as it came from the tutorial area, and hence, even though its quality was high, it was akin to paper to be shredded by these high-Level monsters…

He should be proud, as with the sole power of his body, Dale resisted being shattered to pieces by this monster.

This story would later be shared with the villagers, making his Reputation rise even further.

Dale's second attack was just him tossing its body back. The motion of doing so left a cut that almost split apart the monster's torso in 2.

Even though these two actions were done within a single second, Dale's body's current state shows how tenacious and violent the creature was, as even in that split second, it attacked him with overwhelming violence.

It was surprising how such a creature, just a few moments ago, was posing as a hurt wolf in the middle of a clearing in the forest…

"No matter how I look at it, it's way too hard to think this was once that wolf…" Dale said with surprise in his tone

"The stronger the Yirg is, the better its metamorphic ability becomes and the bigger is the discrepancy between its normal state and the one it takes to hunt becomes." Misgurd said

"The stronger ones often take the least obvious appearance…"

"How is it possible that these creatures haven't taken over the forest yet given their strange abilities?"

"Because there are more dangerous things out there, some of which see these creatures as nothing more than prey..." Testros replied as he let out a sigh

"This time… I can't deny that." Misgurd said as he agreed with him

"..."

'More dangerous…'

"What do we do now?" He asked as he looked around

"Now we leave, this is enough for today." Testros replied with a frown as he looked at the sky

He looked at the sky and determined the time to be around 2-3 Pm.

"We've been here for quite a while, leaving this forest will take no more than half an hour, and you're hurt."

"You're right, we got enough for today, we can make a feast for everyone in the village for a few days!" Misgurd said with a smile

"... Yeah, I've got beaten enough for one day already..."

'I would like to keep being carried by these guys until I hit Level 30, but I can wait for tomorrow.'

'No need to be overly greedy right?...'

But somehow, Dale felt conflicted...

"..."

They stared at each other for a few seconds until Misgurd started to laugh…

"Haha… BuwaHahaha!..."

"Hohoho!"

"... Haa… Haha…"

All of them suddenly started to laugh, and even Dale chuckled a bit.

Once the tension went away, the feeling of joy remained…

"Let's leave, Dale, would you mind?" Asked Testros as he looked at Dale

"No problem."

He kneeled near the creature and stored its body in his inventory…

"..."

'Shit.'

But it failed.

Feeling a bit embarrassed, Dale cut one of its arms and tried again, but it still failed…

'Shit! Why isn't it entering my inventory?...'

'Wait! Was it because I wasn't the one to slay it?'

"... No space left?" Testros asked with a small smile

"Y-Yes…" Dale said embarrassed as he kicked the Yirg's body in frustration

Misgurd patted his back and asked for a sack, so Dale grabbed one from his inventory and with it, they carried the bloody pieces of the monster back to the Village in the old-fashioned way.

"..."

Meanwhile, Dale thought about what happened, and the rewards he received...

'I'll have to keep an eye open.'

'Next time, I need to deal the final blow to receive the full rewards.'

'And I also need to find out why I wasn't able to store it, my inventory seems to still have some space left.'

'Are there some unique restrictions for items?... Hum...'

Dale followed the two out of the forest, back to the Village, his home.

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Notes