SSS-Rank Bloodline: Wolf Evolution

Once again Arthur found himself suffering greatly while dragging the prey through the forest. For every few meters one of the carcasses would get stuck on the many obstacles in the path, and because of that he was forced to stop several times to free them before continuing.

’Dealing with one carcass was hard enough, and now two, tsk, I cannot continue like this, it is better to clear a path or something similar.’ He exhaled in exhaustion.

He could not leave one of the carcasses behind, for most likely he would not find it when he returned for it, unfortunately, he was not the only monster with extremely powerful senses.

Unlike the previous time, he did not lose his temper and continued dragging the carcasses with as much patience as possible.

Time passed very slowly, and with the approaching sunset, and after more than two hours of moving, he managed to reach the nest.

He stopped a few meters from the entrance, panting. The spider woman was watching him, yet he did not tense up, and took a brief moment to rest and organize his thoughts.

When he caught his breath he entered the nest, and placed the carcasses on the ground. A strange expression appeared on his face, and with a kind of hesitation he said: "I have brought some prey for you."

The spider woman did not reply to him directly. The silence lasted for a short while before her indifferent voice appeared inside his head, "’Very good, you are more skilled in hunting than I expected, but...’"

Suddenly, the silk threads in his body moved, and he felt intense pain, then she added in a cold tone carrying heavy killing intent, "’...why the hesitation? What are you hiding from me? Speak immediately.’"

Arthur felt as though he was being crushed from inside and outside, his heartbeats quickened, and fear took control of him.

It took him a few seconds to regain a little composure. He tried to maintain positive thoughts, then, with great difficulty, delivered the words he had prepared on the way.

"Please do not misunderstand me, I only want to ask you something, the thing is, I am afraid of your reaction, so I am hesitant."

Because of the link between them, the spider woman realized he was truly afraid of her, as for his desire to ask something, she was not certain he was being sincere, and at the same time could not say definitively that he was lying.

’This annoying wolf, does it think it will fool me with this? It seems I have been too lenient with it.’ A strange feeling of unease came over her, which quickly turned into anger.

His actions and words were very provocative, yet, the idea of killing him no longer crossed her mind as it had before, but another desire had taken over, which was to tame him and force him into complete submission.

She furrowed her brows in annoyance, took a brief moment to think about the matter, and since her curiosity got the better of her, she decided to listen to what he would say first before disciplining him for his impertinence.

"’Ask,’" she replied in a sarcastic and condescending tone, then, in the next moment, she reduced her killing intent, and stopped the silk threads that were crushing his internal organs.

His convulsed expression relaxed, and his erratic breathing steadied. "Thank you."

He felt her cold gaze full of expectation fixed on him, and even though he noticed she harbored some malicious intent, he did not worry.

He organized his thoughts, and said:

"You are very powerful and have great knowledge, and I do not know anyone other than you who can help me. I have a simple problem, which is that I am no longer able to use my Dimensional Storage skill, do you know why?"

"A simple problem?" The spider woman muttered in a low voice, unable to hide her surprise.

His actions were very obvious to her, so it was impossible not to notice that he had dragged the carcasses himself to the nest instead of bringing them in his storage.

She had intended to interrogate him about the reason, but he had brought up the subject before her. This was very strange in a way, yet she did not think about it, for the problem he had raised had captured her full attention.

The frown on her face deepened, and after a brief period of silence, she asked, "’Since when have you been unable to use it?’"

Since she was communicating with him telepathically, Arthur did not know exactly where she was, so he settled for staring at the long and empty corridor that the darkness of the night was beginning to swallow.

He pursed his lips regretfully, then answered, "Since three days ago, when I woke up from my brief slumber. I have tried using it repeatedly, but it has not responded to me at all."

The spider woman did not reply. Without asking his permission, she scanned his entire body with her silk threads, searching for anything strange or abnormal. However, she ran into an obstacle that only deepened her confusion—nothing about him was normal.

’What is this wolf?’ Again she found herself asking the same question she always asked.

’I have examined it several times over the past days, yet, I am still unable to know anything about it. Why is it intelligent? And what is wrong with its strange bloodline? Even its body seems, how do I describe it, something about it is not right, tsk, what else is it hiding?’ She let out a very long sigh, and for the first time in her life, she felt that the intelligence she was proud of was useless.

The answers refused to appear, and instead her questions only multiplied.

The fact that she was unable to explain the reason for his strangeness and uniqueness, was not something that could be overlooked, especially since it stirred that innate instinct inside her, the fear of the unknown.

And this did not come from nothing, during this short time they had spent together, she had tracked his movements, and watched his actions through the effects of the control threads, because of that, she had seen some of the strange things he had done, and also gotten several glimpses of his deep thoughts and emotions.

Naturally, she could simply eat him, and rid herself of all this nerve-wracking nuisance, but she could not push herself to do that, for he had completely taken over her attention, and even deep inside she felt challenged, and strongly desired to uncover his truth whatever it was.

’It is useless, perhaps I should torture him until he talks? No, that is not a good idea, he may appear obedient but he barely suppresses his rebellious thoughts, it is better to settle for observing him for the time being until I fully recover.’

Her thoughts fell silent for a moment, then she mocked coldly, "Who would have believed that a mere E-Rank wolf could affect my mental state so greatly? Just as he said, he truly is not like any other wolf."

She took a deep breath, and organized her thoughts, then redirected her full focus toward the main problem currently, which was his inability to use his Storage skill.

Fortunately, this time she was not completely ignorant, for when she had examined his body previously, she had noticed it was filled with many internal injuries that had not yet healed, and this led her to a logical conclusion.