Chapter 79: The Young Fox in a Battle of Kings

With a thunderous crash, the tornado was blocked by the den, its immense force released in an instant, as if countless explosives had detonated at once, overturning the entire front half of the werewolf lair into utter chaos.

The Ghost Wolf's expression turned as furious as boiling magma, seeming ready to explode at any moment. He let out a low growl, glaring viciously at Venigo.

Inside the den... there was still a batch of newly reborn werewolves!

The Ghost Wolf had intended to keep these werewolves as reserves, hoping not to deploy them unless absolutely necessary, allowing them to grow into a formidable force. Thus, he had stationed them in the front courtyard of the lair, assigning them only the tasks of alerting and killing stray intruders.

Yet, with Venigo's strike, almost all the young werewolves were annihilated!

"I'll kill you!" the Ghost Wolf roared, dropping Sophie and lunging at Venigo.

Venigo curled his lips, not even bothering to look up. At this moment, his strength was exhausted, the magic in the Azure Sky depleted, and due to overuse, he was in the midst of a long cooldown.

But Venigo showed no anxiety. He didn't even look up.

Because Sophie...

"Your opponent is me!" the girl declared in a clear, ringing voice.

Her greatsword stood like a steel gate, blocking the Ghost Wolf's charging assault. Sophie gritted her teeth, her face flushed, sweat glistening at her brow, and new wounds marked her body. Yet her aura was undiminished, matching the Ghost Wolf's ferocity blow for blow.

"Character construction... I made plenty of preparations to deal with you," Venigo remarked.

He pulled a moonlight cloak from his waist pouch, draped it over himself, picked up a spear, broke off its tip, and held it ready.

Character selected, parsed... reconstruction begins. Level 25 Ghost—construction complete!

"Ramen," Venigo called.

His little pet swam over his head, shook itself, and dropped the iron kettle it carried in its mouth.

It was a full jug of mercury. Ghosts always float and teleport, highly immune to physical attacks, so the consumption of mercury was immense.

Venigo swept the cloak, and the mercury vanished into the void, leaving only an empty jug clattering to the ground.

The sound acted as a signal, triggering the attack.

The remaining adventurers and werewolves charged at each other simultaneously. Clearly, both sides realized this was the moment of decision.

Victory or defeat. No draw.

With a whoosh, Venigo appeared before the Ghost Wolf, swishing his cloak to block his vision. As the claws approached, Venigo flashed behind him, lightly scratching the Ghost Wolf's muscular back.

The wound was shallow. But Venigo quickly retreated and cast a low-level black magic—Blood Drain—on the wounds at the Ghost Wolf's right shoulder and back.

This evil magic proved effective even on an equally evil werewolf. The Ghost Wolf roared, whirling around to strike Venigo, but all he managed to claw at was a dissipating cloud of dark mist.

Even a level 1 Ghost could escape the Minotaur King's ferocious attacks, let alone Venigo, who now operated at the extreme limit of a level 25 Ghost, disregarding the cost. High consumption meant superb performance; the Ghost Wolf's claws simply could not harm the nearly intangible spirit.

As for blood sorcery... ghosts have no blood.

The spirit Venigo constructed cackled wickedly in midair, then straightened his wooden staff, pointing it at the Ghost Wolf.

Black Magic—Nightmare.

A wave of drowsiness surged through the Ghost Wolf's mind; he shook his head forcefully, feeling his soul stabbed by something—this power, though not strong, targeted the opponent's soul directly and had a hypnotic effect.

That momentary distraction was enough for Sophie to sever the Ghost Wolf's left arm with a single stroke.

The Ghost Wolf let out a helpless howl. With Venigo and Sophie's combined assault, his prized blood sorcery failed to take effect, and his formerly top-tier combat skills could not suppress Sophie's greatsword.

Added to Venigo's interference, the Ghost Wolf's defeat was only a matter of time.

"Honey, now!" Venigo's voice seemed to come from the void, echoing in Honey's ear.

"All ready!" Honey cried out cheerfully.

Venigo used Nightmare again, and this time, in the instant the Ghost Wolf was distracted, Honey—who had been sheltered by the adventurers—unleashed her long-accumulated divine power in a flash: a Focused Light Sphere!

The divine light descending from the heavens did not completely dissolve the Ghost Wolf. Something seemed to protect him, yet Honey's divine art still inflicted tremendous damage.

"My turn," Venigo called.

He flashed behind the Ghost Wolf, raised his stick, and struck down hard.

Three consecutive blows, plus one Nightmare, finally brought the Ghost Wolf to the ground. Venigo quickly dissolved the character construction, reached into the Ghost Wolf's body, and retrieved something, tucking it into his own pocket.

The adventurers did not notice. Only then did Venigo pretend to turn the Ghost Wolf over, shaking out all his belongings, signaling the white-bearded elder to come forward.

"Help sort these," Venigo said with a sunny smile, concealing his wild delight.

This time... though he had expended hundreds of gold pieces' worth of mercury, it was worth it.

The Werewolf Leader's Black Pearl. It was originally essential for the werewolf transformation ritual, but Venigo discovered this little item had a far more important use for himself.

Inside the pearl was a dark divine power. This unique energy was exactly what he needed for his imagined constructions—required to build characters with combat ratings above level 30.

Of course, it was limited to constructing evil-aligned characters, so Venigo would also have to keep the Holy Pearl—presumably the necessary item for building good-aligned characters.

The dark divine power within the pearl was limited, so Venigo estimated it wouldn't sustain long periods in powerful forms; to progress further, he'd need to collect more evil relics.

With the defeat of the Ghost Wolf and the many elite werewolves previously felled, Venigo's combat rating had now surpassed level 32.

There were no formidable foes left in the werewolf den.

Within the lair, Venigo found the ghost of Sir Corbin. The veteran knight, now a heroic spirit, lent Venigo the Holy Pearl, and with this artifact, Venigo purified the werewolf altar in the den.

As a reward, the old knight generously gifted the pearl to Venigo. He noted Venigo could exchange the pearl for a reward from Sir Wilson, lord of Ironfist Castle. But Venigo had already decided to keep the pearl, so he had no intention of exchanging it for any magical item.

Both pearls' divine powers could slowly regenerate; assuming each held ten units of divine energy, Venigo would need one unit each time he constructed a character above level 30, along with mercury proportional to the combat rating. Each week, both pearls would slowly recover about one unit of divine energy.

Thus, mastering the efficient use of divine power and mercury to construct suitable powerful characters was a skill Venigo had to perfect, or he wouldn't maximize his advantage.

"Venigo, come over here," Sophie called from afar.

He pocketed the two pearls and jogged over to the ruined werewolf altar.

There, a secret chamber awaited.

"What is this..." Venigo exclaimed, surprised to find, at the chamber's center, a delicate crystal coffin, its lights twinkling, clearly not a native artifact of this world.

Nua... his gene modulation system!

Within the crystal coffin lay a small female werewolf.

She was clearly not an ordinary werewolf created by the transformation ritual. Her face was finely human, yet bore distinct lupine features; her frame was petite, but her muscles surprisingly developed.

As Venigo, Sophie, and little Honey gathered curiously around, the werewolf girl in the crystal coffin suddenly opened her eyes.

The next instant, the little werewolf revealed her ferocious nature, smashing the crystal coffin with a swipe and leaping straight for Honey—showing no mercy, aiming for a vital spot!

Sophie reflexively raised her greatsword and struck. She didn't know this little she-wolf, and seeing her attack first, naturally showed no mercy in return. Venigo was just about to cry out to stay her hand when he saw the little she-wolf spin rapidly midair, somehow leveraging herself, darting out of the sword's reach, and landing at his side.

"This defies science!" Venigo joked.

This little one clearly operated on principles similar to Venigo's Azure Sky. She could use faint wind magic to shift direction and accelerate in midair, though she couldn't harness this power for strong attacks.

But that was enough; the werewolf's innate physical lethality ensured the little wolf princess's attack strength.

One must admit, Nua's creation was quite successful.

A petite figure, the strength of a giant—her acceleration was enough to intimidate anyone. Judging by her agile reactions, she undoubtedly possessed extraordinary reflexes. These two advantages alone made the little wolf princess a nightmare for most foes.

Seeing the wolf girl's blood-red eyes turn toward him, Venigo smiled.

He reached into his waist pouch, pulled out two tri-colored balls, and tossed them over. The wolf princess instinctively tried to dodge, but her nose twitched, and she snatched them, popping them into her mouth.

They were candies Venigo had made for little Honey—also mild healing potions.