Formless Ascension: My Affinity Is Limitless

[Notice:]

You have slain 1x {Brown Scaled Monitor Lizard - Level 4}

Trial Of First Blood: 6/10 complete

Time Left: {00:35:22}

"Dammit!" Uhtred yelled and flung the carcass of the lizard down in frustration. He almost wanted to leave it and look for his next prey without bothering to harvest its core, but he didn’t let his haste cloud his judgement.

He removed his beast extraction artifact and harvested the core as quickly as he could, then took off in haste. He was already very close to the river he’d seen from the sky earlier and he was hoping he’d find some Level 5 beasts there at the very least. If he didn’t, then he was in some real trouble.

There were only thirty-five minutes left till he failed the quest and faced the immediate biological termination penalty the System had mentioned. Uhtred was not looking to die anytime soon, so his fingers were literally crossed as the trees began to thin out and he finally heard the sound of rushing water ahead of him.

He slowed his pace down to a jog and spotted a large tree where he could observe the riverfront, deciding to err on the side of caution. He hid behind the tree and peeked to scan the entire length of the riverside. And the moment he did, he was immediately glad he had chosen to be cautious.

A fair distance upriver, a small pack of what looked to be large, bear-sized wolves were face-deep in the carcass of a large elk, devouring its meat and bones ravenously.

Uhtred felt his heart pound rapidly in his chest. Those were all above Level 5 for sure — in fact, most likely way higher than Level 5. Enough that it would be dangerous for him to face any one of them one-on-one, not to mention now that they were a pack.

There’s five of them there, Uhtred scanned carefully with his enhanced vision, then withdrew his gaze and hid behind the tree quickly. He’d once heard that wild animals could feel when they were being watched.

Of course, how true that was remained debatable, but in this new world that had been doused with cosmic essence, one couldn’t be sure what kind of abilities these animals had developed. There was the perception attribute in his status panel after all. Who was to say the wolves didn’t have some form of the same?

Uhtred pulled up his quest panel and checked the amount of time left.

Thirty-four minutes, he clenched his jaw. All of a sudden this wasn’t looking like a game anymore. The true reality of the situation was now very apparent.

If I don’t complete this quest, I can actually die here, just like that...

The System had given him a difficult task to be achieved within a short time frame... But who cared? Certainly not the System. If he failed, then it simply meant he was not fit for this new world. That was it.

A sort of grim clarity settled into Uhtred’s mind, and in that moment, his last meagre bit of civilized naivety vanished entirely. This was no longer the Earth he knew. It was a dog-eat-dog world where if you couldn’t meet up with the System’s demands of your talent level, you simply died.

And Uhtred was not about to die so easily.

His cold eyes peered at the five wolves upriver, calmly thinking of a way to draw one of them away somehow.

Huh? There’s only four of them? Uhtred’s brows furrowed. Where’s the last—?

Before he could finish his thought, a terrible feeling of danger filled him wholly, and he dove to the side without a thought.

A large paw slammed into the spot he’d been standing, shattering the bark of the tree and sending splinters flying dangerously.

Uhtred crashed into the ground, rolling into a tumble before coming to a crouched position as quickly as he could, eyes trained on the wolf that had nearly killed him.

A sharp, biting pain flared from his left side, making him grimace. In the end he hadn’t been quick enough to dodge cleanly.

He could feel blood trickling down his side, where deep claw cuts were, but he did not spare a single glance at it. He kept his eyes on the wolf in alert as it observed him with curiosity.

It seemed visibly intrigued, tilting its head as if trying to understand what kind of creature Uhtred was. The short lull gave Uhtred enough time to also analyze the wolf clearly. And he quickly came to the realization that this was no wolf at all... at least not the kind he was familiar with.

Some fucked up extinct variation, then? Uhtred cursed internally.

The creature’s head was massive and blocky. Instead of the long snout of a wolf, its face was more compressed, like a mix between a pug and a wolf. To top it all off, its jaws were terrifyingly muscular and defined, like a "chad" of a wolf... if that made sense.

Except, unlike a chad, those jaws housed thick, oversized teeth that looked like they were designed to crush solid bones with ease.

Uhtred’s brain was working a mile a minute trying to come up with a plan of action to kill this behemoth. He also kept his attention on the other four upriver. Those were the greater threat. They had paused their eating to watch their pack mate toy with this small creature.

Right now they only watched and stayed still, but Uhtred knew the whole situation would worsen to impossible levels if they simply decided to come downriver.

An idea finally came to his mind in the midst of his rapid analysis, and without hesitation, he implemented it.

Under the curious gaze of the wolf-hyena beast which was bearing down on him slowly, he staggered to the ground in such a weak and dramatic manner that even the beast had to pause for a beat.

As if that fall was not enough, Uhtred began to "scamper back" and "trip over himself" in a pitiful attempt to escape.

The wolf-hyenas watching from upriver looked away, completely unimpressed. It was as if they had expected the small creature to put up a real fight, but seeing him look so pitiful, they dismissed him as something entirely beneath their notice. Turning their backs, they resumed tearing ravenously into the elk carcass.

The beast directly in front of Uhtred shared the same sentiment. The curious look in its eyes changed, becoming playful and even condescending. It relaxed its posture slightly, dropping its guard as it prepared to toy with its food before the kill.

...But Uhtred was no food.

The exact second the four wolves upriver lowered their heads back into their meat, Uhtred exploded into action. He didn’t hesitate for a single breath.

Channeling a sudden, violent burst of cosmic essence straight into his feet, he propelled himself forward, catching the beast completely off guard.

However, the creature was fast. It reacted instantly, swinging its massive claw in a vicious downward swipe intended to tear Uhtred to pieces.

But Uhtred’s eyes were peeled in anticipation for that counter. With a sharp, ankle-breaking fakeout that would make even the world’s greatest football dribbler green with envy, he planted his weight and entire motion onto one leg, forcing the beast’s momentum into that direction, then weaved sharply into the other.

The movement created a sudden gap at the beast’s side, and Uhtred committed without hesitation. He dove straight underneath the wolf’s large body, targeting its soft underbelly. If his fight with the thick-skinned monitor lizard had taught him anything, it was to always go for the weakest point.

Now positioned directly beneath the beast, Uhtred thrust his fist upward, forcing every single drop of cosmic essence circulating in his upper body into his knuckles, aiming straight for where he assumed the beast’s core resided.