Starting from Zero

Book 3, Chapter 26

The Alpha Wolf

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It's already evening when we're finishing with shopping. Ow my waist hurts! I never knew buying stuff can be so tiring.

I accompanied Rose back to her dorm. Our orders have already arrived, which caused much surprises to her roommates.

Lean asked the moment she saw us: "Did you two just rob a bank? Where did an orphan get so much money?" She took out an overall from the bags. "Oh dear. Snow Specialties, memorial edition! And--woooah!"

She was pushed aside by the other girls in the room.

I said goodbye to Rose when the others are fighting over the clothes. "You can stay in this dorm for now. I'll try to find a house for you as soon as I can. And don't worry about your parents, I've modified the database, those dogs downstairs won't let them in again."

When I'm back at my own room we entered the game at the exact same time.

Rose hugged me. "How did you know I'm online?"

"Well you won't wait to get in here again. So here I am, to keep your company."

"I like your attitude!" Rose returned to her "evil girl" mode. "You know, I understood what uncle said that night. So how about...now?"

Crap! That's too straightforward!

"Uh, Rose? Well, that day I--"

Rose pinned me on the ground. "I know what you were thinking. I was awake the whole time."

"Then why--"

"Well I wanted to see if you are a true man, or just another pervert!"

I topped Rose over. "Your conclusion?"

"Pervert! You're a beast!" Rose joked.

"You know what, you found my secret. Rawwroo!" I tried to mimic wolf howl and started to kiss Rose--got to finish what I started on that day.

But what happened next is totally out of our expectations. As I "howled" once or twice, several more realistic ones came up from nearby. And that creepiness is definitely not imitated by humans.

Did I just attract real wolves?

Arooooo--

It's getting closer. Too bad, my assumption was right.

I summoned my team in a hurry. Lucky appeared first and began to clear away the surrounding bushes, because hiding places can be deadly when dealing with wolves. Getting an open ground will improve our chances.

Night Shade and Phiona are next. Their fast movement should be good against wolf packs. Phantom is a must-have. I didn't call Loong'er though. She mainly attacks by using spell matrix, which can be too slow in this situation.

The wolves appeared not long after we got ourselves prepared. Two large black monstrous wolves leaped onto a fallen tree trunk with great speed. They scouted around for a bit and locked their gazes at us. Before I can feel confident that we can deal with just two wolves, seven or eight more showed up on the tree.

Shoot. Looks like there are a lot of them.

Another snow-white wolf jumped from behind them, probably their alpha. I became sure when I noticed its abnormally large size and that cross-shape scar between its eyes. The white wolf stared at us for a second before jumping in front of me in a blink. I immediately dragged Rose and ran. This thing's size is enough to tell me that it's deadly!

The wolves didn't scare Lucky, who just rushed towards the white wolf and swiped at it, which dodged the attack with a quick side-leap. Night Shade prepared a follow-up attack but was surrounded by the other wolves before he can reach his target. Phiona tried to provide support. One of the bigger wolves crouched and jumped up, almost catching her tail. Looks like flying isn't an advantage now.

Lucky is straight-minded though. After his claw missed, he tried another swipe using his tail. The white wolf dodged again, then jumped on top of Lucky's back and began to bite at Lucky. Lucky breathed a fireball in anger out of pain, which burned down another group of wolves. Night Shade charged out of his surrounding enemies and lunged onto Lucky's back, ramming the white wolf away. He got faster speed.

I told Rose to climb onto a tree and support us using her healing and support spells, while I grabbed an ordinary sword and joined the fray. Lucky is already engaged with the alpha wolf so I can read its stats.

It doesn't look good. [Demonized Wolf (Light aspect)], level 750 Boss, Speed 230 which is the same level with Phiona, Attack is standard, but that HP bar is beyond any tank type I've ever seen. Lucky's ultimate level is 1000 but is still having a hard time because his current level is too low. Night Shade is faster but not really a damage dealer so he can't do anything. Phiona is trying to keep the rest of the wolves busy.

I'll have to do this on my own.

"Lucky! Restrict its movement!"

We've practiced before. This means Lucky will cast two fire spells which form up a circle to trap the target inside. We can then attack freely from the outside using ranged skills.

The fire circle was a success but the wolf simply jumped out of it. Man that was high! I made a hard brake as the monster landed right in front of my face. I can almost feel its breath!

The wolf bent down and got ready to lunge at me. A well-timed black flame wall appeared and separated us. Yup. That was from Phiona.

However the wolf still jumped over the fire wall.

"Oof!" It knocked me flying with just one claw swipe, depleting my HP. That damage is expected from a boss monster who's 500 levels above me.

Rose used her healing spell in time. A warm feeling comforted me. I ordered Lucky to set the entire area aflame. That should hinder its movement.

It didn't go as planned though. The alpha charged straight at me, completely unaffected by the surrounding fire. It was just trying to jump over the flames out of instinct. But now it noticed that these low-level spells don't cause much damage at all so it simply decided to run through them!

There's no way I can avoid such a fast attack. I was knocked outside the flaming field and crashed into a tree, breaking it. I heard shrieking from Lucky and Phiona, the collars transferred my damage to them, keeping me alive. Another attack from one of the wolves managed to finish off Phiona. She can revive, though.

I don't really have anything to deal with the situation now. I jumped onto a nearby tree and used [Capture] three times at the alpha -- which completely pissed it off. The wolf opened its jaw. A white, crescent shaped object flew towards me. No idea what it is but obviously something I'd better avoid.

I [Blink]'d away from my spot. Snap! The tree broke in half from where I was standing, with the cut clean as if slashed by a sharp blade.

Phantom explained: "That's a typical skill used by beast type monsters, [Pressure Blast], an advanced version of wind blade."

"So it's dangerous?"

"They are dangerous enough without the skill!"

I looked at Rose who is still standing on her tree, then shouted:" Rose! Decamping tactic!"

Rose was confused by my unusual choice of word, but she soon realized what I meant when she saw me de-summoning my companions. She jumped from the tree and fell onto my arms.

I threw another [Capture] at the alpha and turned tail. I never expected it to work. Never hurts to try, though.

I activated my ring and teleported us to some random plains. Then I lay on the ground to take a breather. That was some awful experience!

But I heard a system notice. "Congratulations, player Ziri successfully captured level 750 Boss monster."

"Huh?"

I saw a white pet egg in my inventory.

"That was...unexpected."

I checked the egg. Yup, it's from that alpha wolf.

Rose moved closer. "What's this?"

"A companion egg. All my companions are hatched from eggs I captured like this one. They can help you fight, or you can play with them just like normal pets if you wish to. Though I don't think I can do that with these big guys of mine."

"I see now! I never saw one of these eggs before. No one had any from where I came for that matter."

I took Rose's hand and put the egg on it. "Yours now!"

"You don't need it?"

"I have five companions and you have none. Take it to protect yourself. This thing's fast. Should be a good companion for a wizard like you."

"Thank you thank you!" She gave me an abrupt kiss on the face and, ugh. I can't control my smiling now.

"Are you still going to call me Ziri from now on?"

"Honey!''

Man she's...open. "Sounds good to me."

"How do I hatch it?" Rose turned the egg around without figuring out anything.

I took her hand again and made a small cut on it, dropping her blood on the egg. She froze. Must be communicating with the system.

The process didn't take much time. The egg burst open in her hands, leaving a small, white furball behind. But I thought it was a wolf?

The little thing stretched itself soon. It surely is the wolf before, just...tiny, and looks like a ball with all that long hair covering its body.

"Aww it's so cute!" Rose won't stop rubbing the creature against her face. "It looks beautiful! I love the pure white color. And that cross mark between the eyebrows is such a nice touch!"

I tried to explain like a professional: "Don't get confident just yet. It's level 0 now, you need to bring it to at least level 100 before it can help you fight off anything."

"Don't worry. As long as it's cute!"

Now I'm worried Rose may accidentally pluck off some of the fur from the little pup.

"Good day my friends!" Someone with full blue wizard robe showed up near us. Appears to be a player. "Nice bumping into you two here!" He stretched out one hand.

I can feel something is off with this guy but can't really tell what it is. However Rose didn't give it much thought and shook his hand.

The moment they contacted with each other, a strange shaped ring came off his hand and locked itself onto Rose's. Before we can react, Rose disappeared after a flash!

"What did you do??" I drew my sword and pointed it at him.

"Ziri! I got you now! Just surrender!" The wizard looked at me with an "I already won" attitude.

"What have you done to her?" I prepared to cut his head off the instant he gives me an answer.

"Oh nothing really. I just sent her to the prison."

"Prison?"

"Yes! I'm a bounty hunter."

"What do you mean?"

"Wait, you don't know?" He looked at me in shock. "Players like us accept these quests from various bounty hunter agencies located in different cities. We get certain reward by finishing the quest, based on its difficulty and how much Evilness the target has. Each quest has a time limit of three weeks. If we can kill or arrest the target within that limit, we get the reward, with no Evilness penalty on ourselves. But we will need to pay 1% of the bounty reward as a compensation if we fail it."

"How did you find us?"

"Bounty hunters have the right to acquire target location once per day. I happened to notice that you teleported near my city so here I am. Give up now! Surrender and you won't lose anything. You can't beat me anyway. Be a good boy and go to prison with me, or do you want to lose a level first?"

I chuckled. "So Rose is in that city nearby?"

"That's right. I'd just go there and keep her company if I were you. That place sucks!" He approached me.

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