Praise be upon the mighty lord, Trahnesh!

I took a look around me, at my pack, after a successful hunt. We had slaughtered our enemies and emerged victorious, consuming their bodies so we may become stronger, and more able to slaughter.

My snout and pelt were absolutely drenched in blood, the sticky feeling slightly uncomfortable, but I would not wash it off, for decorating myself with the blood of my enemies was yet another way to show my devotion to the path!

I took another look at my pack, the wolves under my command, and remembered what we’d been through together. Once I evolved to a tier two monster, I earned myself the right to become an alpha, which allowed me to recruit other wolf-type monsters to my cause. My pack had been steadily growing since then, as did my abilities. We slaughtered our way across the layers, descending ever closer to the ultimate test that awaited me at the bottom.

I gave it my everything to fulfill my lord's task and paid my respects wherever I could, but even if this world was the staging grounds for my lord's followers, I knew the rest of my pack to be mere animals. They were different from me, less intelligent, primal. Since I’d spent so much time with the five of them, observing them as much as I could to look out for acts of worship, I could tell.

Of course, there was nothing wrong with them being mere animals guided by their base instinct. The wolf still represented the lord, and just like all of the other monsters in this world, they relished a good fight, tearing their opponent's limb from limb, and bathing in their blood. And they were obedient to me, following my every order, as the system promised they would.

Of course, we couldn’t communicate in any meaningful way, but my skills still allowed me to order them around. With my meticulously crafted attack plans, we had no equal, tearing through the competition mercilessly.

Not trying to become complacent, I took another look around, admiring the lush forest we were currently in. Just one of the many beautiful things the fourth layer had to offer. I sniffed the air, my racial skill not returning any concerning smells. We were safe, for now.

I sat on my haunches, bringing up my status screen and taking another look. After careful consideration, most of my attribute points had been allocated to strength and agility, playing to the strengths of a wolf. A decent amount had been invested in constitution as well, while I mostly ignored intelligence and wisdom. Since I wasn’t using the magic the system was offering to me, these two attributes were relatively irrelevant to me. I did have a few skills that needed a bit of mana to activate, but I only invested as much as I needed so I could comfortably use them in a fight.

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My recent evolution into an Apex Giant Wolf gave me a smattering of new skills to use, and both the attribute points and mutations were a welcome boost to my overall strength. I winced a bit when I remembered the third layer, and the unreasonable bonus objectives the system had presented me with. Well, retrieving a fruit of evolution had been easy enough, since we could smell it from miles away, but fighting a hunter? Preposterous.

I shuddered when I thought back to the hunter's hulking form, a massive cactus annihilating everything around it with its needles that were almost as big as my smallest companion and using thorny whips to grapple and poison anything foolish enough to get close. I relished in a challenge, I really did, but part of being smart was knowing when to retreat. I’m sure these creatures only existed to weed out the foolish followers of the lord, and I was many things, but I was not foolish.

Seeing as my pack had finished their meal and were ready to go, I decided to take off, the others slotting in behind me in perfect formation. One of my skills, Pack Hunting, allowed me to share my speed stat with those in my pack. So even though they were inferior to me, my mere presence allowed them to keep up with me.

I let out a loud bark, which combined with my echolocation skill, returned a whole bunch of information about my surroundings. Including a whole bunch of monsters fighting with each other about two kilometers south of us. I quickly changed our course, designating the group of monsters as our next target.

My high agility combined with my forest strider skill, allowed me to run through the forest smoothly as if I was running on a straight path in a stadium. It didn’t take long before we were almost at our destination and I commanded my pack to spread out and surround the other group. Once I felt everyone was in place, I opened up hostilities by letting out a fear-inducing howl, stopping all but one of the combatants in their tracks.

Like a well-oiled machine, my pack moved as one, taking control of the fight and putting our enemies on the defensive. Bite and scratch skills rained down on the opposition pulling their HP down without them being able to defend. Alas, my fear effect didn’t last forever and they soon could move again, attempting to defend themselves. But as soon as I saw them move, I commanded another of my pack to use their own fear skill, once again freezing them all.

My packmate’s skill wasn’t as effective as my own, but it would buy us time to use another attack. As one, we raised our heads to the sky and howled, calling out to the great spirit of the wolf. A mirage of a huge wolf appeared above us, summoned by our collective howling, a skill I picked up with my evolution.

The wolf in the sky swiped both his paws, sending six slashes flying downwards in an X-shape, tearing apart the monsters. The skill ended with the great wolf descending from the heavens, snatching up the monster I designated as a target and ripping it clean in half. Blood sprayed everywhere as I once again regarded the skill with awe. It had a massive cooldown of four hours, but it was as impressive as it was strong.

There were only a few monsters left, which we more than easily could tear apart on our own. I grinned, showing off my sharp teeth in the process. This was truly a paradise for the followers of Trahnesh. I once again sent my praises toward the heavens, thanking my lord for giving me this opportunity.

This was going to be a slaughter.