Chapter 73: Night of the hungry wolves - the skills' upgrade
Cranberry and Zombie were unable to arrive at the mansion before the guard raised the alarm.
Why?
"Someone's here...!"
/Servant's quest failed
Because they were spotted by a group of werewolves that stayed behind when the whole pack rushed to storm the mansion.
Six massive werewolves approached them.
Cranberry casually lifted up her baseball bat and rested it on her shoulder while Zombie dug in his heels, preparing to lunch at the opponents.
"Whoa! Relax there, buddy! We don't mean any charm!"
Suddenly one of the werewolves raised his hands, showing that he has no evil intentions, and stepped in front of his group.
Cranberry raised her brow and waited.
Since she didn't attack, the werewolf took it as a sign of willingness to listen.
"Your hair is red, and you have a large undead puppet with you, are you the young lady Cranberry by any chance...?"
The werewolf asked giving his best into acting as non-threatening as possible even with his monstrous physique.
"Yes, that's me."
Cranberry confirmed while staring coldly at the monsters, and she gripped her bat a bit harder.
"Do you have an order to get rid of me first?"
She asked provocatively and her body started glowing.
"No, no, no! Nothing like that!"
The werewolf quickly denied the accusation shaking his head.
"Let me just..."
His eyes shone and his body morphed back into a human, the pieces of armor were hanging loosely from his now much smaller body and he spread his arms showing that he means no harm.
"Young lady, what I'm about to say may seem hard to believe at first but... URGH!"
Four long claws pierced the human-form werewolf from behind and he coughed blood before the life left his eyes.
"Yes, we've come here to kill you."
Growled the werewolf who killed the friendly one, and threw aside the dead body of his former comrade.
The other four monsters didn't even wait for him to finish talking and rushed at the Master-Servant pair with their claws and jaws shining with active skills.
"Ha. That was odd."
Cranberry shrugged her shoulders and blew off the upper half of the fastest werewolf, spraying the ones behind him with blood and viscera of their friend.
The next one got his chest torn open by the returning strike and all of his intestines fell out as he ricocheted back.
The ones left alive begun to reconsider their approach but before they could do so, the third one's head got bashed in and similarly, the fourth one got decapitated.
"Graough. (See? And you were against me wearing the ones with the thinner heels.) Graugh! (Look! It's like a blade!)"
Zombie growled confidently, bending his leg, showing off the heel of his boot dripping with the werewolf's blood.
"...! H-how can it be...?!"
The last remaining werewolf trembled and started backing off.
"Graough? (Huh? Did you guys attack us not knowing our strength?) Graough? (Seriously?) Graough! (The one you've killed even knew about my master!)"
Hearing him growl, the last werewolf flinched and covered his head as if he expected an attack.
"This is weird..."
Cranberry tilted her head while approaching the retreating werewolf.
"I've read that the werewolves are affected by the beastmaster skill... but he doesn't seem to understand you."
She frowned already preparing to deliver another strike.
/Mid-level player defeated
Master and servant receive EXP
But even before she struck, a series of messages popped up for her and her servant.
/Servant receives a title
Lord of pride
/Servant receives a skill
Pride's will (level 1)
/Servant's skill upgrade
Dragon madness (level 1) + Pride's will (level 1) + Undead body ([max]) »» Superbia (level 1)
/Error
/Servant unlocked end game content before reaching the corresponding stage of the story
Uninstalling the skill
/Error
/Unable to uninstall superbia
/Calculating...
/Adjusting the story
/Error
/No administrator's input detected
Abandoning the issue
/Master receives a title
Usurper of pride
/Master receives multiple skills
Pride's loss (level 1)
Status effect immunity (level 1)
Pride's will (level 1)
/Master's skill upgrade
Dragon rage (level 6[max]) + Pride's will (level 1) + Iron will (level 2) »» Rage of the unbreakable (level 1)
/The avatar of pride has been slain
Title transfer impossible
The pride's throne stands empty
The wheels of fate begin to spin
"What does that supposed to mean...? Where is my new role?!"
Cranberry froze momentarily staring at the final message of the chain.
"...!"
The last werewolf certainly wasn't going to miss that chance.
Within the same heartbeat, his claws shone deadly and he went for the stunned girl's throat.
*crunch*
"UGHAAAAAAA!"
The werewolf roared in pain when all of his claws got ripped out when he struck against not the red-haired girl but the chest of the blue-skinned undead.
While Cranberry became shocked because of the mysterious message, Zombie simply ignored it as irrelevant and rushed in, the moment he sensed his master was in danger, protecting her with his body while activating his newest skill.
The effect was rather spectacular.
Instead of the usual pale light, his body was giving out strong and vivid purple light.
And of course, there was the small detail of completely reflecting the force of the attack causing the werewolf to literally grate his hand on Zombie's muscles.
"Zombie, duck."
Cranberry already regained her composure and called at Zombie's back.
The blue undead followed her order instantly, and the next second the last werewolf got horizontally bisected by Cranberry's baseball bat.
His upper half plopped on the ground with a rather pitiful sound.
"Guhua...!"
He gasped for air.
"See? If you hit hard enough, you don't even need an edge to cut something in half."
Cranberry smirked poking the fallen foe with her weapon
Werewolf's face twisted and he turned back into a human.
"It... wasn't supposed to be like... this... Rambutan, you've... tricked me..."
He groaned and used his last words to spite whoever had sent him after Cranberry.
"Haa... at least this new skill feels better than dragon rage... how do you feel?"
She breathed out, ignoring the dying words of the werewolf, and nudged her servant.
"Graough. (Invincible.)"
Zombie gave a short answer and took off the shirt torn by the werewolf's claws and used it to wipe off the remaining werewolf's blood from his torso.
"Haa... Not receiving a new role is a problem, but unfortunately, we have more pressing matters to attend to. Do you want to go and test out those new skills against the rest of those cheeky mutts?"
Cranberry walked in front of the blue undead, stealing glances at his bare upper body.
"Graough. (If that is your wish, master.)"
Zombie nodded and threw away the ruined shirt.