Chapter 57. Ghoulish Wolf (4)

Ash looked distraught before taking a look at his status info as well as Grim's.

Name: Ash

Level. 5

Age: 11

Occupations: Tamer/ Apprentice hunter/Apprentice herbalist

Status: Heavily Injured, Lack of Blood (-1.2 per stat)

Innate skills: Nurture- Beasts grow stronger under your care. Increased link benefits.

Advanced Comprehension: Learn skills and techniques faster with a beast than by yourself.

Cultivation technique: Qi-Breath- well balanced and focused on strong breath.

Skills: [crescent slash- familiar] [flash point-familiar] [Berserk- intro] [blood flash- intro] [bone shell-intro] [qi-radar- intro] [Death ball- N/A]

{Str: 3.1 (1.9) Sta: 3.1 (1.9) Agi: 2.9 (1.7) Vit: 2.4 (1.2) Int: 5.0 Spi: 6.4}

Beast: Grim (f rank)

Attributes: Blood/Death/Spirit

Sex: Male

Status Healthy

Innate skill: Battle Fanatic- Fighting becomes unconsciously easier.

Skills: [blood let- accomplished] [claw swipe-accomplished] [piercing ray- accomplished] [Necrotic shard- familiar] [Berserk- intro] [????]

{Str: 2.7 Sta: 2.7 Agi: 3.6 Vit: 2.5 Int: 3.8 Spi: 7.3}

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"Grim has a third attribute?!!!!" Ash became shocked, having a third attribute isn't unheard of but gaining one is something he'd not really heard of before. Grim's new attribute caused a boost in the spirit status while a small addition for the rest of the stats.

The Lumbering Ogre had already made it's way not too far from Ash. It's eyes betrayed the hunger it felt. The ogre huffed as the weight of it's steps created a foreboding rhythm. Ash raised his saber deciding to try another leap of faith.

Breathing steady, Ash called on the spirit concept as he felt a lightness around him. Saber in hand, Ash did as he'd done with his bow and arrow and flooded the saber with the element of spirit. Performing crescent slash the ogre didn't even bother guarding as it smirked.

Using it's belly, the beast took the attack head on delegating the damage to [fat distribution]. A small bloody cut was made but the ogre healed at a rate visible to the naked eye.

"Guess I'm fuc--" Ash hardly finished before the ogre toppled over in pain. Erratic seizure like movements popped off before it just stopped moving.

Elated Ash started to laugh before vomiting more blood and a wave of exhaustion hit him.

"Cough, Cough, Damn it." Ash was a wreck but still needed to find his partner. Looking at the ogre he thought for awhile and decided to do something drastic.

Saber in hand he gutted the beast's chest with all his might. Moving organs and fat, Ash got to the heart and took out a couple of us herbs. Quickly crushing the herbs with the heart, Ash drank the concoction.

Vigor poured from the solution and nourished Ash's body. Yet vitality continued to fill him up, causing the boy to shake from power. Ash grinned and ran off to the direction that was briefly signaled after obtaining a boost.

Vitality overflowing, Ash dashed like a junky off too many bulking pills. It took awhile but he eventually reached a hole, the same hole that Grim went down.

Feeling a weak connection to Grim, Ash went down into the hole. Saber at the ready, he heard the snarls as well as the sound of weapons slicing into flesh. Right before it became silent.

After fully going down the hole and making his way into the armory entrance, Ash chanced upon the Ghoulish Wolf. Concealing his breath and not using qi, Ash restrained himself best he could as he snuck up onto the wolf and cut into it's second head.

Black blood spewed and the wolf swung around, sending him back. It turned ethereal and lunged at him but Ash simply performed crescent slash with the spirit element.

The wolf staggered at another gash, this time ripping off a couple of arms on its back. Ash started sweating as the burst of energy provided by the ogre based concoction waned.

Gripping hard on his saber, Ash saw a black mass writhing not too far behind the muscle of the wolf. Going for another spirit charged attack, Ash stabbed it. Reaching the area the black gem laid , the wolf collapsed completely. Only a pitch black gem remained.

Turning to Grim, Ash picked his companion up and proceeded to bandage and medicate him. Once finished he went outside creating a barrier made of vegetation for the entrance to the armory. Ash moved close over to Grim and quite literally passed out.

Waking, the duo looked at each other with Ash aggravated and Grim confused.

"So you wanna explain to me what you were doing?" Grim avoided eye contact and just swung his scrawny legs around kicking up dirt.

"Oh, so we know how to play silent games now is that right?" Anger flooded the link as Ash expressed his discontent. Feeling the weight of Ash's anger, Grim tried to roughly explain what had happened.

Ash listened as Grim finished and suddenly laughed. "Hope you had a wonderful time." Grim looked up seemingly excited, it sounded like Ash wasn't mad. Reality was funny when it came to results though. Switching to anger Grim had never seen, Ash screamed at Grim for the first time ever.

"YOU UNDERSTAND THAT IF I DIDN'T MAKE IT YOU'D BE DEAD RIGHT?!! WHAT THE LIVING FUCK WERE YOU THINKING?!!!" Grim froze as Ash released his bellow.

"I mean, you didn't even think about that 'partner' of yours. How trustworthy was he??" Ash pointed at the cretin while Grim tried to offer a slight rebuttal, but Ash wasn't having it.

"Just because he got you here doesn't mean he has good intentions. What if that was a setup, or what if he used you as bait." Grim thought for a second realizing that the moment the crown was tossed to him that the goblin fled, he was used as bait.

"Buddy, I get you wanted to go on an adventure with your friend, but I should've been right there with you. We are too weak to stand against the true monsters and elites that are in this realm. I almost died trying to get to you."

Ash could see a bit of contemplation in Grim's eyes as he tried to absorb what his tamer wanted him to see. Deciding that today's scolding was enough, Ash kneeled before Grim.

"We're in this together buddy, thick and thin. Let's call this one for one with me almost dying after we got kidnapped." Extending a fist to Grim, Grim hopped atop of Ash's hand and flew to his head and pecked at him. Their bond increasing at that moment.

"Welp, let's get a look at the surroundings. What exactly is this place?" Ash looked around and saw a lot of old, broken weapons and decided to put them in a storage pouch so he could sell them to a blacksmith. He could identify metals but with the rust on all of them he didn't know.

"Might as well take all of these just in case." Ash observed the armory and looked at a cracked wall that had a certain symbol. It looked like a burning head with blindfolds on it's eyes.

After picking up the weapon there wasn't much in there except the two corpses. Deciding to check the wolf, Ash saw a pool of black blood where the wolf's corpse had once been. Only a black gem lying unabated in the middle of it.

Squinting, Ash took out a small square box and a procuring tool that would allow him to put the gem in the box with no contact. Having done so, Ash stored the box in his storage pouch. About to leave Ash heard a slight movement and turned to a certain dilapidated section of the armory.

Walking over with Grim on his shoulder he saw the snake like goblin damn near dead. It was completely immobile with weak breath. Grim looked at him while Ash's eyebrow twitched.

"Funny, the bird which has part of it's powers derive from death, wants to be kind. Sorry Grim, this guy is too far gone, and even if he wasn't I don't like this creature."

Ash started to walk away until both of their eyes flashed white. A vision appearing before the two. A creature was being battled against by Ash, Grim, and two other figures. Yet both blurry figures seemed to be beasts.

Trying to focus in, Ash saw that one of the figures was a serpentine like figure and realized that it may be the little goblin. Turning to the other figure, it was big but blurry. Finally, turning to the enemy they were fighting, all Ash heard was a sneer.

The sound of broken glass echoed as the two came out of it. Ash's face paling a bit from the jarring experience. Thinking for a moment, Ash couldn't understand what had happened until he remembered a similar feeling, only stronger. Face darkening, Ash's eyes flashed in annoyance.

"God...." Ash was quietly contemplating but Grim pecked his head and pointed back to the goblin. Ash wanted to move forward but resisted as he look back at the little goblin before looking back at Grim. Grim's white eye mirrored his as they stared at one another.

"Sigh, Alright, fine, fucking fine." Walking to the goblin, Ash looked at it's condition and frowned. The goblin's body was covered in debris but the blood around the area was extensive. Gently moving the debris while destroying the surrounding structure to make room for him to operate, Ash started on the goblin in earnest.

Removing the stuck shards from the goblin's body, blood pooled faster. Ash took out a small cauldron and heated it by using fire rocks. Using an entire vial of upper rank one healing pills and dissolving them in some of the ogre fat he took. He then took, out Lily ginger, Panna root, and Gago leaf.

Gently crushing the ingredients with a pestle, Ash tried to be quick as the goblin's life was slowly slipping away. Taking out a previously made solution he poured it on the goblin as the main healing agent boiled.

The solution sprayed all over the goblin causing him to weakly shake, smoke rising from it's body. Infusing his qi into the main agent, Ash caused the previously orange solution to become purple.

Pouring the liquid out on the goblin, it hissed loudly despite it's near-death state. A purple casing cast over the goblin, Ash pressed his hand on it and filled it with qi.

The gelatin like casing started to vibrate before it turned into pure liquid losing all it's color. The goblin now without a scratch, started to move. It sat up and looked at Ash, then Grim and then it just burst out in serpentine laughter. Looking further, it greedily eyed the crown in Ash's hands.