(Arin's POV)
The bone-chilling mountain wind blew fiercely. The freezing air slipped through the cracks of my shattered armor, carrying the thick metallic stench of blood from the giant carcass before us. The physical battle against the Sigma Wolf might have ended, but the war against pain had only just begun.
I slumped down weakly, letting my back rest against the trunk of a leaning pine tree. My hands trembled violently as I reached into my waist pouch to find the small glass bottle that had always been a savior for poor people like me.
Clink.
The bottle cap popped open. I immediately downed the clear golden liquid, Type A Antibiotic from my own factory. It tasted bitter and sharp, leaving an uncomfortable burning sensation in my throat. The fluid flowed in, carrying chemical signals for my body cells to start working.
"So incredibly slow," I complained inwardly. I grimaced, holding back the pain as I tried to move my right shoulder.
I could feel my body cells, fortified by the Grizzly Serum, beginning to knit back the torn muscle fibers and seal the scratches. However, the process felt sluggish, stinging, and utterly exhausting. I had to manually straighten my stiff right fingers one by one.
Crack. Crack.
The sound of joints being forced straight made me bite my lip hard to stifle a groan.
On the other hand, a highly contrasting sight made my eyes narrow in envy.
"Hah! So refreshing!" exclaimed Kars Benzzi with a loud voice that broke the silence.
The Duke's son had just downed the entire contents of a beautifully sparkling ruby-red crystal bottle. It was no ordinary medicine, but a Mid-Tier Regeneration Elixir. A single bottle cost the equivalent of my living expenses for an entire year in the village.
And he had just chugged two bottles at once, exactly like a thirsty person drinking mineral water after a morning jog.
A warm red glow immediately enveloped Kars's arm, which had been crushed by the wolf's bite earlier. In a matter of seconds, the purple bruises vanished, the torn flesh closed, and the cracked bones knitted back together with a crisp and instant popping sound.
"Incredible," said Kars while rotating his newly healed arm, then clenching his fist tightly. "I am ready to fight another round."
"Damn rich people," I muttered softly. This social inequality felt like it slapped my face harder than the strike of any monster's claw.
While I had to scrimp and save, concoct my own medicine, and endure pain for hours, he could buy instant health with his father's gold coins. This world was indeed unfair, and Kars was the walking, tangible proof of that injustice.
Around us, the other team members also began busying themselves treating their wounds with their remaining supplies.
Rose sat on a flat rock, tilting her head. Dried blood still clung to her left ear, which had ruptured from the sonic roar. Her beautiful face contorted in pain as she applied special ear drops. An eardrum injury was a complex nerve trauma; even an Elixir needed time to repair it fully. Her balance was still a mess; she had staggered when trying to stand earlier.
Celia sat on the ground, straightening her limping leg. She applied a blue cooling ointment to her knee hinges, which were severely swollen from bearing the weight of a Golem and a wolf simultaneously.
Elena and Erika, who had depleted their mana to absolute zero, sat leaning against each other under a tree. Their faces were deathly pale. They shared an expensive chocolate bar, an emergency glucose supply to restore blood sugar and prevent fainting.
"Rest time is over," I said while forcing myself to stand up. My legs still felt as wobbly as jelly, but I tried hard to ignore it. There was one crucial thing I had to do before we went home.
I limped toward the Sigma Wolf carcass.
"Arin, what are you doing?" asked Elena with a tone of disgust upon seeing me pull a scalpel and bone saw from my waist pouch. "We need to descend immediately before the storm returns."
"Collecting our payment," I answered flatly.
I knelt beside the carcass. The smell of its blood was overwhelmingly pungent, but to me, this was the aroma of opportunity. I began the dissection. This wolf's skin was incredibly tough; even my Mithril knife struggled to penetrate it. I had to use a mana slicing technique between the scales of its fur.
When I managed to peel back the chest skin and see the muscle structure inside, my eyes widened broadly.
"This..."
The muscle fibers I saw were not the usual fleshy red. The fibers were bluish-silver, shimmering beautifully like metal spun into fine threads. And when my knife touched its bone, the sound was not a dull thud, but a sharp ring. Exactly like tapping iron.
I turned toward my friends with a serious face.
"We were mistaken. This is no ordinary Sigma."
"What do you mean?" asked Rose, approaching with unsteady steps.
"Look at this," I pointed to the muscle fibers and the inner layer of the skin. "Its mana structure has mutated completely. Its fur contains natural Mithril particles integrated with biological tissue. This is not a random mutation. This is evolution."
I swallowed hard, realizing how incredibly close we had been to death earlier.
"This creature has already evolved into a Silver Wolf. This is a Tier 4 monster."
"Tier 4?!" shrieked Erika in shock. Her eyes bulged in disbelief. "No wonder my magic bounced off! Tier 4 monsters have natural magic resistance!"
"That explains its ability to manipulate the weather," added Celia, who now stared at the carcass with a newfound respect. "The Silver Wolf is known as the Storm King. We... we just killed a minor natural disaster."
I refocused on my work. With great effort, I skinned the most intact portion of the fur. This was the raw material for an anti-magic cloak, fetching a price of thousands of gold in the black market.
Then, I dissected deeper into its chest cavity.
There were two hearts inside its body. One in the left chest had already been pulverized by my brutal sword thrust. However, the other one hiding in the right hip remained perfectly intact.
That heart pulsed weakly.
Thump... thump...
It was the size of a coconut, dark red in color with glowing silver veins. The heart radiated a comforting warmth, the remnants of the super regeneration energy it possessed.
I took it carefully using both hands, then placed it into a special cooler box Elena had prepared beforehand with preservation magic.
"Got it," I whispered with satisfaction. My hands were now covered in thick, dark blood up to the elbows.
Elena and Rose looked away. They felt nauseous seeing me covered in monster innards like a psychopathic butcher.
"You look terrible, Arin," commented Rose while covering her nose. "You look more like a monster than the wolf itself."
"Let him be," interrupted Kars. "Borrowing this for a second."
The young man walked closer with firm steps. The effect of that expensive elixir was truly no joke. He took my Adamantium sword.
"He takes the innards for a laboratory toy; I am taking the crown for honor," declared Kars with a wide grin.
Slash!
With a single powerful strike coated in Senior Aura, Kars decapitated the wolf. He proudly lifted the still-dripping silver wolf head by its long ears. The head was massive and heavy, and the expression in its dead eyes still implied sheer ferocity.
"This is our victory trophy," said Kars, lifting the severed head high toward the rising sun. "Let us show it off to the entire academy. Let them know who rules this cohort."
Our journey home felt like a king's victory parade, even though my current appearance resembled a beggar who had just wrestled in sewer mud.
The sun was high when we reached the forest border. As we passed through the border gate, the guards who were casually keeping watch while drinking coffee immediately jumped in shock. Their coffee spilled. Their spears pointed at us in panic, assuming we were part of a monster attack.
However, those spears lowered slowly as they saw what Kars was carrying.
"By the Gods..." whispered one of the guards. His eyes bulged, staring at the giant silver wolf head Kars held. "Is that... a Silver Wolf? Tier 4? You... you are first-year students?"
"Correct," answered Kars loudly. His chest puffed out with pride. "Is there a problem, Sir?"
"N-no! Please pass!" The guard hurriedly opened the gates wide, staring at us with a mixture of fear and awe.
News spread faster than the wind in this academy.
As we walked down the main road toward the academic building, students began to gather. From a distance, they saw this strange entourage. Six students with shattered armor, bleeding, yet walking tall with a completely different aura.
"Hey, look at that!"
"Is that Kars Benzzi? What is he carrying?"
"Oh my goodness! That is a Silver Wolf head! That is a Tier 4 monster!"
"Crazy! Usually, only third-year seniors hunt that for graduation! They are just first-years!"
"Who exactly are they?"
The crowd parted to make way, much like the Red Sea.
Kars, Rose, Elena, and Celia, those nobles, walked with their chins raised high. They were born for a moment like this. Kars lifted the wolf head higher, showing off its terrifying fangs. Rose walked with a limp, but she tossed her hair stylishly, as if the wound were merely a fashion accessory. Elena walked gracefully despite her dirty cloak, her cold gaze sweeping over the crowd whispering in admiration.
Erika and I walked behind them, our heads slightly bowed.
"They keep staring at us, Arin," whispered Erika nervously, squeezing her magic staff. Her face turned beet red from being the center of attention. "I want to go home. I want to take a shower..."
"Just ignore them," I replied softly, though the corners of my lips curled up slightly.
Tired? Yes. Hurt? Extremely. My body felt like an old machine forced to work overtime. But seeing the fearful and respectful gazes from the students who used to insult me as the cripple, it tasted incredibly sweet.
They no longer looked at me as trash. They saw me as part of the group that had just killed a legend.
"You again, you again," complained Doctor Edna.
Her voice sounded like a curse chant as she wrapped a new bandage tightly around my arm. Far too tightly.
"Ow, gently, Doc!" I protested.
"Shut up!" Edna slammed her scissors onto the metal tray with a loud clanking sound. "One Arin alone gives me gray hair and migraines. Now there are six! What do you think I am? A twenty-four-hour repair shop?!"
The VIP room was packed.
Kars was sitting on the next bed with a freshly bandaged bare chest, laughing with Rose, who was having her ear compressed by a nurse. Celia was getting her swollen leg massaged. Elena and Erika sat on the plush sofa drinking warm tea provided by the hospital, enjoying the VIP facilities.
"Do not be angry, Doc. You will age quickly," teased Kars with a grin.
"Shut your mouth, Young Master! Or I will sew your lips shut as well!" snapped Edna, but her hands remained deft as she applied healing ointment to the scratch on my shoulder.
The door opened. Instructor Karim entered with a beaming face, carrying a stack of documents in his hand.
"Good job, you crazy kids!" exclaimed Karim. His voice was full of pride that he made no attempt to hide. He placed the documents on the table. "The report has been verified by the Assessor Division. It is indeed a Silver Wolf, albeit newly evolved. Even so, defeating a tier four monster is a monumental feat for Academy students."
The room fell silent for a moment, then erupted in small cheers.
"This is a new historical record!" continued Karim enthusiastically. "Never has a first-year team taken down a monster of that level without instructor assistance since this academy was founded a hundred years ago."
"Really?" Erika's eyes sparkled. She gave a small jump from the sofa, completely forgetting her fatigue. "We made history? My name will be recorded?"
"Of course!" Karim patted Kars's shoulder, who was still holding a glass of water. "Your name and your team will be displayed in the Hall of Honor, Benzzi. Your father will be thrilled to hear this."
Kars and Rose high-fived, the victorious smile of knights imprinted on their faces. Their egos were fully satisfied. Even Celia and Elena, who were usually cold and mindful of their image, snorted proudly with thin smiles they could not conceal.
"This is a massive step for our reputation," said Elena with satisfaction.
Amidst that joy, I climbed down from the bed. My body felt significantly lighter after Edna's treatment and a brief rest.
"Where are you going?" asked Edna suspiciously, holding my shoulder with her strong hand. "Your IV drip is not finished."
I pointed to the table in the corner of the room. There, the cooler box containing the silver wolf's heart lay sweetly.
"I am already healed, Doc," I reasoned. My eyes were locked tightly on that box. There was a strange hunger in my stomach, a hunger that had nothing to do with food. "This heart, this new battery cannot wait. I must process it in the laboratory immediately before its energy evaporates or degrades."
I looked at Edna with a pleading gaze. "You know, right? This is the key to the next stage."
The cheerful atmosphere around Kars and the others continued. They were too busy celebrating the victory and discussing the celebration party later tonight.
However, in the corner of the room, a heavy silence fell between me, Edna, and Karim.
Edna looked at me. Then she looked at the box. Next, her gaze shifted to Karim.
There was a weighty exchange of glances between the two adults.
They were not smiling.
In Edna's eyes, I did not see the same pride she showed when looking at Kars or Rose. I saw anxiety. A profound and fiercely protective anxiety.
Edna knew the secret of my body. She knew about the Mana Void and my cellular anomaly revealed in Ghislain's letter, portions of which she had hidden from me. She knew that every time I upgraded my body with monster serum, I was playing with fire using my own genetic structure.
To Edna, I was like a small child running joyfully while carrying a bomb he thought was a toy.
"You..." Edna opened her mouth, wanting to forbid me. Wanting to order me to stop experimenting before I lost my humanity or exploded.
Yet, she saw my eyes. Eyes hungry for power. Eyes convinced that this was the only path to survival. She knew she could not stop me.
Edna let out a long, deep sigh. Her shoulders slumped in defeat. She looked incredibly tired.
"Get out of here," Edna shooed me away roughly. She turned her face away so I would not see her eyes, which were beginning to well up with tears of worry. "Go to that rotten laboratory of yours. Do not come back here before tomorrow morning! And do not you dare blow yourself up, or I will not stitch you back together!"
"Thank you, Doc. You are the best," I grinned widely, completely unaware of the heavy concern hiding behind her scolding.
I snatched the cooler box. It felt cold and heavy in my hand.
"I will head out first!" I bid farewell to my friends.
"Hey, Arin! What about the party tonight?" called out Rose.
"You guys go ahead! I have a date with the Laboratory!" I answered while jogging out of the room.
I walked down the quiet hospital corridor with quick steps. My heart pounded loudly with sheer enthusiasm.
"Wait for me, Lab," I whispered excitedly. I hugged the box tightly, as if the object were my second life. "The next stage of evolution begins tonight. With this, I will surpass the limits of ordinary humans."
I ran toward the future, oblivious to the fact that behind me, two pairs of adult eyes watched my back with desperate prayers.
Karim sighed heavily beside Edna.
"He is running faster and faster, Edna," muttered Karim softly.
"I know," whispered Edna, squeezing her clipboard until it cracked. "He thinks he is chasing power. He does not know he is running on a tightrope over an abyss. One wrong step, and there will be no more Arin."
"Let us just hope the kid's luck has not run out," Karim concluded as he closed the room door, separating the students' joy inside from the dark worry outside.