Chapter 46

Chapter 46: The Trail of the Wyvern

When facing a superior opponent in terms of overall strength, once you’ve seized the advantage, there’s no need to hesitate—pour all your power into knocking them down, annihilating them!

In one fell swoop, Izay launched an intense assault with lightning speed, his spear swirling so fast it left afterimages in its wake.

From a certain moment onward, the silver-gray spear began to emit a faint glow, slowly creeping up and spreading bit by bit.

Izay, caught up in the heat of battle, didn’t notice this subtle light. He only felt that the spear had become lighter, as if an extension of his arm.

The giant arm about to crush him was deflected.

The sweeping hand aimed at him was dodged.

To Izay, the massive Minotaur, covered in wounds, was riddled with openings.

The spear transformed into a deadly weapon, descending upon the Minotaur with a piercing whistle through the air, repeatedly wounding its resilient body.

Finally, a streak of silver flashed horizontally before his eyes, accompanied by the sound of tearing fabric. The Minotaur, dragging its battered body, stumbled and emitted a low, dying roar before collapsing backward.

A few seconds later, the massive body dissolved into black ash, leaving behind a magic stone glowing with a bluish-purple light on the ground.

“Minotaur… well, it wasn’t too difficult to handle.”

Izay paused before the black ash, extending a hand toward the magic stone on the ground. A bright blue glow appeared in his palm, causing the magic stone to tremble twice before quietly floating into his grasp.

“The other adventurers would probably get so angry hearing Mr. Izay say that, they’d rush forward with their weapons to cut you down!”

Ryu, who had been watching the entire battle from the side, slowly approached Izay.

This is how it had always been. She had long since grown numb to Izay’s ability to easily defeat monsters above his level.

If Ryu knew modern internet slang, she would have undoubtedly remarked sarcastically that Izay was the king of humblebragging right about now.

“Let’s return here for now, Mr. Izay. In just a day, our target shouldn’t have moved to a lower level yet.”

After surveying the surroundings, Ryu judged that they were already deep within the fifteenth layer. Moving forward would be the sixteenth layer, so she suggested they turn back.

Their primary objective was to find and slay the wyvern.

As a “Reinforced Species,” while the wyvern has the potential to move between floors, generally speaking, it will remain on the floor where it was born for some time to hunt magic stones.

After all, this is the middle layer, specifically the fifteenth floor, where the frequency and quality of monster spawns are significant. This would be an irresistible temptation for the wyvern.

“Hmm, alright.”

After putting away the Minotaur’s magic stone, Izay nodded in agreement, and the two began retracing their steps.

“—ROOOAAAARRRR!!!!”

An ear-splitting roar erupted, shaking the cavern walls.

Echoing endlessly through the cave environment, it sent shivers down everyone’s spines.

A sense of foreboding washed over all the adventurers in the area, but it quickly gave way to excitement and elation at having finally found their target!

Countless people began rushing toward the source of the sound.

“Mr. Izay, this is it!”

“Yeah, no doubt about it—it’s the wyvern making that racket, and it sounds like it’s not far from us. Someone must have spotted it first. Regardless, let’s go check it out!”

“Right!”

Hearing the roar, Izay and Ryu made a quick judgment before sprinting together down a dark tunnel.

…

At the end of the long, dark tunnel lay an incredibly vast cavern.

The entire cavern was a spacious expanse of gray-white rock, with piles of scattered boulders stacked against the walls.

A lucky group of adventurers had arrived here first. They had accepted the adventurer’s quest to slay the wyvern at the Guild Headquarters and acted accordingly.

Upon reaching this place, they stopped.

From the perspective of the adventurers, there were obvious signs of—battle damage within the cavern.

It looked like two different gigantic and ferocious monsters had been wildly fighting and trampling the ground, leaving behind craters.

And then there were the conspicuous burn marks staining the gray-white floor pitch black.

Feeling elated by these discoveries, believing they were close to their target, the adventurer party dispersed to search everywhere.

They searched through the scattered rocks and craters on the ground, even checking the uneven pits on the surrounding walls.

Ultimately, they found something atop the highest pile of countless boulders.

A body forged like molten red lava, sharp claws, long fangs, countless scales, and malformed wings.

It was a dragon.

An elite monster dwelling in the middle layers, rare and only occasionally discovered by humans, a winged member of the dragon race.

“Wyvern.”

Disturbed by the presence of humans, its still-sleeping eyelids snapped open. On the mountain of boulders, it fully revealed itself, standing tall atop the highest point, spreading its wings and roaring.

The roar sent countless fragments of rock flying, and the deafening scream struck the group of adventurers, momentarily robbing them of breath.

Roughly five meters in length, what should have been a light pink wyvern now stood before them with a robust, noticeably dark red body—a clear sign of “abnormal condition,” indicating it was a “Reinforced Species” with hidden power far surpassing the regular kind.

“So this… is a ‘Reinforced Species’…?”

The scar-faced man, leader of the adventurer team, gritted his teeth to suppress his trembling as he whispered these words.

Until now, he had never seen a “Reinforced Species.” Even the often revered “Abnormal Condition” among adventurers was rarely encountered by him.

At most, he had dealt with some “Monster Feasts” or malicious human-induced “Monster Deliveries.”

He had indeed encountered wyverns before—not only encountering them but also effortlessly slaying them.

His team consisted entirely of Level 2 upper-class adventurers who had undergone elevation. Taking down a small fry like a wyvern was no challenge for them.

It was precisely because of their experience killing a wyvern that the scar-faced man confidently led his team to accept the extermination quest issued by the guild.

For various reasons, he had held a dismissive attitude toward “Reinforced Species” until now, when he personally confronted one and realized his grave mistake.

That thing… absolutely wasn’t something that could be handled by a bunch of ordinary Level 2 lower-class adventurers thrown together.

A wyvern whose inherent potential abilities were already at Level 2 lower-class, having been reborn as a “Reinforced Species” after consuming the magic stone of a Minotaur.

This caused its strength to grow in ways unimaginable, possibly even reaching the level of a Level 2 upper-class.

(Ps: A simple combat power division system where the average of the five basic ability values reaches D rank or higher indicates upper-class strength; below D rank is lower-class.)

Don’t underestimate the difference in strength without crossing levels.

If placed on the bodies of monsters and adventurers, this gap can amplify to the point of creating an overwhelming trend.