Chapter 27: Protagonist Opportunity
There was no surprise; all the wolves died one by one, no matter how they ran or fought back. Aur continued killing every single wolf in there.
Huff! Huff!
Aur took laboured breaths as he looked at all the corpses of the wolves, maintaining a cold expression on his face. He had already killed enough in his previous life not to care about killing anymore; he had grown numb to it by now.
His robes were all ragged, soaked in blood from head to toe—not his own, but the wolves'.
"Hmm..." Aur had a contemplative expression as he looked at the mangled corpse of the giant blue wolf, a hint of fear in his eyes.
If he didn't have the mage robe to protect him, which significantly reduced the power of the wind storm, Aur might not die, but he would be seriously injured, at the very least.
The wolf was not wrong to be confident in its attack, assuming that Aur would be incapable of fighting or might even die after taking that head-on assault. However, it didn't account for his robes, which had great resistance to magic.
That was the reason Aur was able to catch the wolf off-guard and kill it head-on.
"This wolf should at least be comparable to a tier one beast since it is able to use spells," Aur thought with a frown on his face.
Unlike humans, who had a stage called mage apprentice where they could still use spells, only tier 1 beasts could use spells because of the complexity involved, there was no mage apprentice stage for the beast.
Although Aur wasn't sure about the power system of the beasts, he knew it was very similar to humans with only some differences when starting to cultivate.
"My strength should be around tier one as well then..." Aur thought, his fist tightened, though he was still frowning.
"If this single wolf is a tier one beast, there were at least hundreds in my vision." A chill ran down Aur's spine when he thought of it, especially remembering the largest wolf which was floating in the air.
"I need more strength," he muttered with determination flashing in his eyes.
However, looking at the two knocked-out twins, Aur couldn't help but shake his head. "They are nothing more than baggage to me if they hadn't found the place..." Aur's eyes glinted with a cruel light.
Without waiting for the twins to wake up, he went towards the mine after administering some aid to them.
"Hmm, these should be quartz," Aur said as he looked at the brightly shining stones that covered his vision.
Although these weren't as valuable as the mana crystal, they were still valuable to have.
So, Aur started to take out the stones with just his bare hands. Although it was called a mine, it didn't really need digging, since all the mana crystals were stuck at the surface of the uneven walls of the cave. The only challenge that one might face is when the mana crystals are deeply imprinted on the wall, making it a challenge for anyone to take them out; special equipment was made to extract them.
Aur used his brute strength to pull the mana crystals out of the wall one by one in an efficient manner.
As time passed, he had taken out all the mana crystals and the quartz, leaving only one for the light.
"Now, how should I carry these?" Aur thought with a frown as he took out the last mana crystal.
Rumble!
Aur was stumped as he looked around, feeling the ground vibration. Unexpectedly, a large door opened in front of him, revealing a dark room.
"What's this?" he frowned, seeing this.
"Do you know what this is, little squirrel?" Aur looked at the trembling squirrel on his shoulder, which had a horrified expression on its face.
"No," the squirrel squeaked at him with terrified eyes.
"Hmm," Aur suddenly threw the squirrel right into the door.
Ahhh!
"This... this bastard..." The squirrel went right into the pitch-black darkness as Aur closed his eyes to use his five senses to sense if there was anything out of the ordinary about the place.
However, he heard nothing for a long time before a disheartened squirrel came out of the darkness with its coat messy and bruises all over its body.
"What was inside there?" Aur asked with an expressionless face.
"You still have the gall to ask me, you're a bastard," the squirrel huffed with anger as its face seemed to become red with anger.
Aur expressionlessly looked at the squirrel.
The squirrel's eyes widened as a chill ran down its spine, making all its fur stand as if it was electrocuted, and a defeated expression morphed on its face.
"There is nothing but some traps, but the great me couldn't be fazed by the traps as I reached a metallic room. However, it was so large that I couldn't push the door..."
"Really?" Aur looked at the squirrel with squinted eyes that made the squirrel break out in a cold sweat.
"Yes, yes, young master," the squirrel hurriedly said.
"Alright then, if anything goes wrong..."
"No, nothing will go wrong," the squirrel replied while shaking its head.
"Okay." Aur nodded his head as he walked into the pitch darkness while carrying the quartz as a torch, lighting the surroundings with it.
"Why couldn't this bastard give me light when I was here?" the squirrel muttered.
Aur's ears twitched. "What did you say?" He looked at the squirrel with an amused expression on his face.
"Nothing, nothing, young master."
"Alright." Aur looked at his surroundings.
There were countless activated traps; some arrows were stuck to the ground, and some green liquid melted the ground with sizzling heat.
Aur walked through the place carefully while using his five senses to sense any danger, if there was any to begin with. After all, being careful never hurts anybody.
"This squirrel was not wrong; he did activate many of the traps. But how could these squirrels survive all these..."
Aur suddenly remembered that the squirrel had taken a full-powered punch from him and still was only slightly injured, which healed in moments of time.
"This guy has thick skin. I might be able to use it." A glint flashed in Aur's eyes.
A chill ran down the squirrel's back.