When Ray pressed 'yes,' he saw a blinding white light, and the next moment he found himself in a forest.
Ray looked around and found various strange flora and fauna. A particularly bright yellow flower was oozing a strong scent of nectar, which attracted a glowing blue hummingbird, but when it tried to drink nectar from the flower, the dark green vines shot out from the ground and strangled the bird. In desperation, the hummingbird began burning in blue fire and finally broke free by completely burning the vines Ray spot a skeleton of a wolf near the plant.
This scene made Ray realize how dangerous his current environment is.
He found that when he now opens his status window, a quest window will also open alongside it.
"The Shadow Wolf…is probably too strong for me right now."
The main quest of defeating the shadow wolf didn't seem like something Ray was capable of doing, so he chose to hunt Gale rabbits. How hard can a bunch of rabbits be to hunt?
Ray soon finds his first prey, a white rabbit the size of a basketball; it had a golden horn on its head.
Ray tried to be as silent as possible as he approached it from behind, but before he could pounce on it, the rabbit jumped towards Ray with incredible speed, knocking him down.
Ray now has a rabbit-horn-sized hole in his chest; blood is gushing out uncontrollably.
T-This isn't right…"
A cute little rabbit killed Ray!
"I am alive?" Ray found himself back in the white room completely unharmed.
Ray felt a little embarrassed that he lost to a rabbit, but he is now also a little traumatized; death wasn't easy—the feeling of constantly losing blood and your body slowly going cold as you lay helplessly on the ground.
Ray sighed; doubts filled his mind, but when he remembered his aunt's words, he calmed down.
"Survive...no matter what you have to do."
"I will survive.. I will become stronger even if I have to die a thousand times" Ray declared in his mind.
This time Ray broke off a branch from a tree and made a spear with it, and then he searched for the rabbit and found it in the same place he did last time.
However, before he could reach his prey, Ray felt his vision blurring, he coughed up blood, and he fell to the ground.
He died again. No the rabbit didn't attack him this time, he just simply died.
"How?" Ray was back at the White Room and was trying to figure out what had happened.
He tried again, and this time he died before he even reached the rabbit, and then he died a few more times.
But he did figure out the reason for his mysterious deaths.
"So it was poison."
To be more accurate, it was the toxins in the branch Ray broke off that caused his death. Every time he broke it off, he inhaled a toxic substance from the broken part of the tree, and since this substance had no smell, Ray didn't figure it out at first.
On the next try Ray successfully turned the branch into a toxic spear; he took off his shirt and covered his face to prevent himself from inhaling the toxin.
But it was all for nothing because Ray still got killed by his supposed prey.
"Damn it!" Ray was angry and frustrated, but he didn't give up; he died two more times before finally impaling the rabbit on the toxic branch he broke off.
Ray couldn't help but roar; this small rabbit had killed him too many times, and now he finally had revenge.
But that wasn't a good idea because just 8 minutes later a black moving mass as big as a house pounced on Ray.
Ray was dead again, but unlike last time, he immediately knew what killed him this time.
"The shadow wolf…" Ray tried to think of ways to kill the wolf, but he found none; this beast was too strong, so he decided to hunt the rabbits.
Ray died again to rabbits, but this only happened once because he was someone who learns from his mistakes.
Eventually the Ray completed the Sub-Quest.
"..."
He waited for the reward, but nothing happened.
"Fuck!" Ray realized that he had to complete the main quest to revive his rewards.
Needless to say, Ray died a few more times at the hands of the shower wolf.
In the white room Ray walked back and forth trying to come up with a plan to kill the wolf.
He did try to poison the beast, but he was unable to penetrate its hide.
He tried to feed him poison, but the wolf killed him before the toxins could act.
That's when Ray remembered the hummingbird and the vines he saw when he first entered the quest world, and he couldn't help but laugh; he had a plan.
So this is why villains always laugh in movies!
The plan was simple: to guide the wolf towards the vines because, from what Ray observed, the vines are strong; the only way to break free of them was to burn them, but how can a shadow wolf use fire? So theoretically Ray has a chance of winning.
But Ray underestimated the strength of the shadow wolf.
Even though Ray guided the wolf to a bunch of 'vine plants,' it only slowed down the giant wolf.
He kept throwing toxic branches at the wolf that was slowed down by the countless vines trying to strangle it to death.
One of them injured its eye, which made the wolf furious, and it tore through the plants one by one to get to Ray.
Ray at this time was feeling sluggish.
He was being affected by the toxins, and the wolf seemed completely fine.
"Could it be resistant to poison?" Ray felt that this quest was a bit unfair.
Fortunately the toxins did affect the wolf.
It began to slow down, making the vines attack more vigorously, but the wolf still reached Ray and tried to end him with just one bite.
Ray blocked it with his left hand, sacrificing it to save his life.
The wolf bit down on his left hand and tore it off; blood was flowing out like a fountain.
Ray thought that he was going to die again, but unexpectedly the wolf collapsed on the ground, and Ray found himself back in the white room; he was confused.
Yes, he was on the verge of death but was still alive, and even though the wolf collapsed, it too should not have been dead, so what's going on?
The Quest window opened again.
Main Quest: Defeat the Shadow Wolf (1/1)
Reward: Shadow Wolf familiar
Sub-Quest: Hunt 10 Gale Rabbits (10/10)
Reward: F-Rank Skill Box
Ray noticed a new skill in his status window.
Summon Shadow Wolf (Rank E+)
And a light green cube appeared in front of him.
"Of course, Defeat! Not kill!" When he looked at the quest window, he realized what had happened.
The shadow wolf was defeated, and the quest ended. This was not a monster Ray could kill in the first place. This was an E+ ranked monster.
Ray turned his attention to the light green cube in his hand.
As expected, a window opened in front of him; there were only two words written on it: 'open' and 'cancel.'
Ray pressed Open.
The cube disappeared in a bright green light, and a new skill appeared in Ray's status window.
Name: Raymond Castro
Age: 19
Sex: Male
Strength: 5
Wisdom: 5
Agility: 5
Senses: 5
Mana: 6
Innate Skills:
[Inversed Tower OF Manas] (???)
Acquired Skills:
Summon Shadow Wolf (Rank: E+)
Minor heal (Rank: F)