Chapter 5 Terror Man

  Axel walked while checking the map. “Uugh, where is the village…? I’ve been walking for so long.”

  Even though Axel had been walking for quite a while, he didn’t feel any pain or exhaustion.

  “I want to eat, but looking around, there aren’t any trees to make a fire, and I don’t even have a fire spell. How unlucky.”

  After some time, Axel’s stomach began to growl.

  “I’m really hungry. I need to find someone who can help me as soon as possible.”

  Then a scream for help echoed through the area.

  “Help!!!”

  When Axel heard the cry, a wide smile spread across his face. “Finally, someone in the middle of this place.”

  He quickly rushed toward the source of the voice. Soon, he saw a demihuman with cat ears, covered in blood, being surrounded and attacked by an Inferno Wolf.

  “I don’t want to die…” the demihuman cried.

  She whimpered in fear, tears streaming down her face. Slowly, she closed her eyes in resignation accepting her fate.

  Suddenly, the sound of a powerful projectile striking something echoed loudly.

  PLETAK!!!!

  The wolf that was about to pounce on the demihuman instantly died after Axel threw a stone straight at it. Two more wolves followed right after.

  PLETAK!!! PLETAK!!!

  One by one, the wolves collapsed, leaving only their leader behind, which looked much larger than the other Inferno Wolves.

  Axel then slowly approached the wolf.

  “Oh? You’re not running away? That’s quite some courage.”

  The wolf’s sharp animal instincts flared the instant its gaze met Axel’s figure. Every fiber of its being screamed of danger. The air around Axel felt unnatural heavy, oppressive, like the silent pressure before a catastrophic storm. To the wolf’s primal senses, the man standing before it did not resemble ordinary prey or even a typical predator. He felt more like a calamity wearing human skin.

  A low growl rumbled from the wolf’s throat, but beneath that display of aggression lay unmistakable fear. Its muscles tensed, its fur bristled, and its burning eyes never left Axel’s calm figure. The beast understood, in the most instinctive corner of its mind, that the being before it was something far beyond its ability to challenge.

  Driven by desperation, the Inferno Wolf leader acted on raw survival instinct. With a sudden motion, it seized the injured demihuman and dragged her close, positioning her trembling body between itself and Axel. The unconscious girl became an unwilling shield, her fragile form held tightly beneath the wolf’s clawed paw.

  The beast bared its fangs and snarled, as if declaring a silent warning one step closer, and the girl would suffer first. Yet even as it attempted this desperate gamble, the wolf’s body trembled ever so slightly, for deep within its instincts it already knew: no ordinary threat stood before it, but a presence that felt closer to a sovereign of destruction.

  “Hm? What? An animal with intelligence like this? Hmm… this is really new and very different from the game,” Axel muttered.

  The demihuman’s trembling eyes slowly lifted toward the figure who had suddenly appeared before the battlefield. At first, she only saw the silhouette of a man standing calmly amidst the chaos. But the moment her gaze fully met Axel’s, something within her instincts violently reacted.

  As a demihuman half-beast by nature her senses were far sharper than those of ordinary humans. She could feel presences, emotions, and killing intent far more vividly. And what she felt from Axel was not merely danger.

  It was something far more terrifying.

  An invisible pressure seemed to radiate from him vast and suffocating, like standing before an ancient predator at the top of the world’s food chain. The air around him felt heavy, almost distorted as if the very atmosphere acknowledged the overwhelming existence that stood there. To her instincts, Axel did not feel like a human at all.

  He felt like a calamity given form.

  “H–HIIIK!!!”

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  A sharp gasp escaped her lips as her entire body stiffened. Her ears flattened against her head and her pupils shrank in pure, primal terror. Even though the Inferno Wolf was still holding her hostage, the fear she felt toward the man before her was far greater.

  Her body refused to move.

  Her mind went blank.

  Completely overwhelmed by the crushing presence she could not comprehend, the demihuman’s consciousness faded. Her eyes rolled back slightly before her body went limp, fainting while still trapped beneath the Inferno Wolf’s grasp.

  Axel, however, simply stared at the scene in confusion.

  He tilted his head slightly, unable to understand what had just happened.

  “...Huh?”

  In his mind, the explanation seemed obvious she must have been too terrified after being captured by the wolf. That was the most logical conclusion he could come up with.

  But in truth, Axel was completely mistaken.

  The demihuman had not fainted because of the Inferno Wolf.

  She had fainted because of him.

  “Hey, release that woman, or you’ll end up like the rest of your pack. How about it?” Axel said calmly.

  He then tried to use his Insight skill to check its HP and MP.

  “Let’s see how strong you really are.”

  A faint red and purple aura appeared, though it looked somewhat unclear.

  “Hm… is it because my Insight level is too low?”

  Axel then upgraded his Insight skill to the maximum level, which only cost him 10 skill points.

  Insight HP/MP Lv.1 → Max

  “Let’s try again.”

  This time, the Insight skill no longer displayed a vague aura. Instead, it showed clear numbers, character type, and other information.

  Inferno Wolf Lv.30

  HP: 3000

  MP: 1000

  STR: 20??INT: 10

  AGI: 50??WIS: 5

  VIT: 30??PER: 15

  END: 35??LUK: 10

  Element: Fire

  “Hmm… your stats are pretty decent.”

  Axel then looked at the corpses of the other Inferno Wolves lying on the ground. Their levels were only around 20, while this one was clearly much higher.

  “Looks like you’re the leader of this wolf pack, huh? Well… sorry about killing your friends. But I only killed them because you attacked that demihuman, and besides, I have some business with her. You understand, right?”

  Axel let out a long sigh.

  “What am I even thinking… trying to talk to an animal. Haaah… Is it because I’ve been alone in this place for too long?”

  The wolf remained extremely wary of Axel’s movements. It stood its ground, growling threateningly at him, yet its entire body trembled with fear. Deep down, it also knew that it could die at any moment.

  Seeing that the wolf had no intention of backing down, Axel decided to use another skill.

  “Hmm… I want to test another one of my skills, if you don’t mind.”

  Axel then activated Overlord Aura. Since the wolf was only level 30, it could be affected by the skill.

  Axel Level 1897 × 10% = 187

  This meant that any creature below level 187 would be affected by the fear effect.

  The wolf lifted its head once more and fixed its burning gaze upon Axel.

  But this time, what stood before it no longer resembled the same man from moments ago.

  The moment Axel released his Overlord Aura, the atmosphere itself seemed to change. An invisible wave of authority spread across the surroundings like the silent descent of a tyrant’s dominion. The air grew unbearably heavy, and the very ground beneath them felt as though it had fallen under the rule of an unseen sovereign.

  To the wolf’s primal senses, the figure before it no longer appeared human.

  Instead, it felt as if an ancient, monstrous existence something far beyond the natural order had revealed itself.

  Axel’s calm figure stood unmoving, yet to the wolf he appeared like a towering predator at the peak of all life, a being whose mere presence demanded absolute submission. Its instincts screamed warnings without end, every nerve in its body telling it the same undeniable truth:

  This was not an enemy it could challenge.

  Foam began to gather at the corners of the wolf’s mouth as terror overwhelmed its mind. Its legs trembled violently, muscles spasming as if they could no longer support its own weight. The beast tried to growl, tried to resist the crushing pressure bearing down upon its spirit.

  “Grrh ”

  But the sound that escaped was weak, broken no longer the roar of a predator, but the desperate whimper of a creature standing before an absolute ruler.

  The pressure continued to mount, suffocating its will.

  Its vision blurred. Its heartbeat thundered wildly in its chest. The world itself seemed to darken beneath the oppressive force of Axel’s aura.

  In the end, the wolf could endure no longer.

  Its body gave out completely.

  With a dull thud, the once-ferocious leader of the pack collapsed onto the ground, its consciousness shattered by fear as it fell into complete unconsciousness.

  Axel observed the result with mild curiosity before giving a small, satisfied nod.

  “Wow… that’s really effective.”

  He crossed his arms thoughtfully, glancing down at the unconscious beast.

  “But if its level were around 200 or higher… this skill probably wouldn’t work.”

  After that, he finished off the Inferno Wolf and looked at the bodies of the wolves lying on the ground. However, something felt strange to him.

  “Hmm… why did the items from the dragons I killed automatically go into my inventory? But these wolf corpses don’t do that?”

  Axel then made sure that all three wolves were truly dead by using Insight.

  “Hmm… their status clearly says they’re dead. Then why…?”

  He thought about it more deeply before forming a hypothesis.

  “Could it be because of the effect of the Blackhole Bomb item? So that’s why I received the items automatically?”

  “Ah, right… I should have realized it earlier. When I killed those dragons before, there wasn’t any notification saying their items would automatically enter my inventory.”

  Axel let out a sigh.

  “What a shame.”

  Then his gaze shifted toward the unconscious demihuman lying on the ground.

  “Hm… she’s really beautiful. I just realized that real-life graphics are completely different from the game. In the game, you only see 3D graphics in third person, and the pixels are nothing compared to the realism here…”

  Axel then noticed the demihuman’s cat ears. In his mind, he thought,

  (Wow… I kind of want to touch them. Even though I’m not really a cat person, I’m curious about how they feel.)

  Almost unconsciously, Axel’s hand slowly reached toward the ears.

  At that moment, the demihuman regained consciousness and opened her eyes. The instant she saw Axel, she was startled and immediately screamed.

  “Help!!! Please don’t kill me!!!”