The Divine Wolf... or?

Chapter 185: Forest of the Dead!

Ark almost immediately took a step forward, as if to reassure Atar and Ephine that he was there to protect them in case something happened. They knew what they were getting into when they chose this level of the dungeon, but the forest was still unnerving when they were actually there in person, and not just listening to someone else's description of it.

Although it was very creepy and unnerving, they had been through a lot, and Atar didn't really understand the concept of fear, so he was unaffected by the atmosphere.

Since the Forest of the Dead was known for only having undead monsters lurking within, Ark was confident in his ability to deal with them. Most undead were known for their strong physical defence, while their magical resistance was slightly lacking in comparison. Since that was the case, the only person who would be restricted here was Atar, since he only relied on physical attacks.

But just because they had great physical resistance didn't mean they had immunity to physical attacks, if he hit them hard enough, Atar could still obliterate them in a single punch. Unfortunately for Atar, he didn't possess that kind of strength yet.

Whilst Atar was a bit restricted, Ark couldn't be a worse opponent for the undead. With his devastating light magic, no undead would be able to escape from his attacks, since it was their inherent weakness after all. Not only did he have a perfect light magic affinity, but he also had a holy spear, as well as a special skill that could exponentially increase his raw power for a while.

Although that was the case, he had no intention of being careless, as he still valued being alive after all. Underestimating an opponent is probably one of the easiest ways possible to lose your life, and Ark wasn't stupid enough to do it.

The forest of the dead was kind of notorious for not having many adventurers willing to venture inside of it, which made it perfect for Ark, Atar and Ephine as they could walk around in their wolf forms, allowing them to be in their best condition for as long as possible, whilst also saving the little time they had in their human forms.

Since Ark was the strongest in the group, like he had always been, he walked first, with the rest close behind him.

Even though it looked like they didn't get along, they simply kept some distance, since Ark could simply blink away if he was in trouble, whilst they had no such skills. Ark wasn't unhappy with the arrangement, since he had proposed it after all.

The forest of the dead intrigued Ark greatly, especially after he had heard wolf howls just after they had entered, it was almost as if they knew that other wolves had arrived.

He had tried numerous methods to disperse the thick fog that lingered on the ground, but nothing seemed to really work. If he used a lot of mana to summon wind, he could easily blow away the fog, but it wasn't a viable solution at all, since it would drain him of mana before they would even be able to see the shadow of an opponent.

The fact that he couldn't disperse the fog easily only made him even more curious about the secrets this forest of the dead contained.

Many had explored it before, but there was no way he could satisfy his curiosity by asking other people. He wanted to explore it for himself, and he was almost certain that no one knew the secrets behind the fog.

When they had asked around about the fog, almost every single adventurer told them about the fog, but they also all said the same thing, that they didn't need to worry about it, and that they didn't know what it was, except for the fact that it wasn't harmful.

Ark didn't care whether it was harmful right now, he only wanted to know what it was and how it worked, that was all. Before he could get too caught up in his own mind, the branches of a few trees in front of them snapped fiercely. Everyone except for Ark had been on high alert and wasn't surprised by the sound, whilst Ark was visibly startled.

He felt a little ashamed of himself, but his thoughts were interrupted again, but this time by a low growl.

With a fierce gaze, Ark turned his head to see what creature had shown itself in front of them, and he was actually a little surprised. The creature in front of them was an undead monster in the form of a large bear. As he saw that his opponent was a large bear, Ark couldn't help but reminiscence about the past. One of his first real opponents had been a bear as well.

As he thought about it, Ark almost felt like laughing, he had been so weak back then, and naive too, he nearly winced a bit just thinking about it.

The bear was a type of zombie, albeit a very fierce one, as bears are naturally way fiercer than normal humans too. The stench of the bear's rotting body quickly assaulted their noses, and the closer it got, the more Ark wanted to kill it. Since the stench was quite unbearable, Ark decided to just get rid of it.

The bear tried to roar, but due to its rotting vocal cords, the only sound they could hear was a gurgling sound.

Seeing a rotting bear running at them whilst gurgling, Ark felt like laughing as he quickly conjured up a javelin of light, which he promply sent flying to nail the undead bear to the ground. The violent power of light contained in the spear quickly erupted in a flash of light, as the undead bear was vaporised.

Light particles gently bobbed around where the bear had just died, creating quite a beautiful sight, even though what had just happened was far from beautiful.

If anyone had seen this from a distance, Ark would've probably looked pretty scary considering how happy he looked even though he was fighting with another monster. In other's eyes, that was what Ark was after all, merely a monster. Ark himself couldn't care less whether he was a "monster" or not, as he was just himself either way.

The only people he cared about was basically Atar, Ephine and Thufrat.

Either way, he liked being around them, and they enjoyed being around him, so life was good. The more he thought about it, the more motivated he became, there was no way he was going to let someone snatch his happines away from him. If anyone tried to hurt those he cared about, he would show them just how much of a monster he truly was.

What he had seen in that vision was truly shocking, and no matter what Ark did, it was always there, occupying the back of his mind. Even if he got rid of all his memories, he felt like that vision would still be there. If the vision proved to be real, he would do his utmost to thank whoeveror maybe even whatever bestowed it upon him.