“Th-th-this… is this really a Selene Wolf, Lucen?”
Declan stood frozen, completely stunned by the massive wolf before him. Selene Wolves were larger than ordinary wolves, but even the biggest among them only stood a little taller than a regular human. The one in front of them had clearly surpassed any normal specimen. Its danger level had probably crossed the B-rank threshold long ago.
“From its appearance… yes. But this is the first time I’ve ever seen one this large.”
Lucen confirmed it, yet his eyes remained locked on the giant wolf, unwilling to look away for even a second, as if he wanted to etch every detail of it into his mind.
“A specialized Selene Wolf…”
Eileen muttered under her breath. The Resonance Crystal in her hand had already been crushed the moment the wolf appeared. Against a normal Selene Wolf, Mia and Declan might still have stood a chance. But the danger of this specialized one was practically approaching that of an S-rank magical beast. The two of them were clearly no match for it.
“Miss Eileen, what do you mean by specialized?” Atia asked. It was the first time she had heard the term.
“Simply put, it means breeding large numbers of them and culling the ones you don’t want, then specializing the rest in a particular direction,” Eileen explained. “Say I want a beast focused purely on speed. I pick the two fastest from countless others of the same kind and breed them. After many rounds of elimination and selection, you end up with a beast that is extremely specialized in speed.”
“Breeding magical beasts?!”
Atia was stunned. In the Human Realm, the number of domesticated magical beasts could be counted on two hands. Under artificial rearing, breeding them was extremely difficult. Just getting the next generation to be born was already rare enough, let alone conducting large-scale selective breeding.
“It’s rare in the Human Realm, but in the Demon Realm this method is already very common. The magic structure there is completely different from ours, so taming and raising magical beasts is much easier.”
“I didn’t expect a mere human to know so much.”
A strange voice that made it impossible to tell whether it belonged to a man or a woman suddenly rang out beside everyone’s ears. The next second, the black figure standing on the Selene Wolf’s back leaped down and landed steadily in front of Lawson.
She wore a black robe, a massive hood covering most of her face and leaving only her lips and nose exposed. The only real clue to her gender was the long strand of hair spilling out from under the hood. As for the rest of her figure… well, it could easily rival Mia’s.
“Lord Black Demon, the two Serkath adults were cruelly murdered by them! Please avenge them!”
Lawson immediately launched into a performance, acting as though he were the real victim. The black-robed figure completely ignored him and simply walked at a leisurely pace toward Mia and the others.
“An Upper-rank Mage of the Navora Principality… not bad strength, but you’ve researched in the wrong direction. A mid-tier spell producing only this little power?”
“Hmph. It’s more than enough to deal with the likes of you!” Mia shot back, unconvinced. Her main focus was not offensive magic, but she was no pushover just anyone could challenge.
The other paid her no attention and turned her gaze to Declan instead. “An elite-level warrior? Still far from that one called Kate. Those two wastes couldn’t even handle this? They deserved to die.”
“Hey, what the hell do you mean by that?”
Declan snapped the moment the words left her mouth. There was a gap between him and Kate—that much was true—but both he and everyone else believed the only difference was that he had never taken down an S-rank magical beast alone. Given the chance, he would have long since become a warrior whose name stood alongside Kate’s.
“Exactly what I said.” The black-robed figure replied lightly. “If you’re trash, practice more. Stop barking here.”
“You fucking—! Say that again if you dare!”
Declan was thoroughly enraged. He had no idea how strong this Lord Black Demon actually was, but her trash-talking skills were genuinely impressive—almost enough to make him die of anger.
Listening to the black-robed figure spew internet-level insults, Eileen suddenly felt a strange sense of familiarity.
Where the hell did this random netizen come from?
No—this was supposed to be a single-player game. When she cleared the first playthrough, she hadn’t discovered any multiplayer features. Could it be…
Eileen sucked in a sharp breath.
The game had a system that let players customize teammate dialogue, essentially replacing whatever they normally said. Because it was a single-player game with no concept of banned words, the language she had set for her teammates had been extremely edgy. It included lines like “If you’re trash, practice more,” “Stop barking here,” and other pure internet slang.
But if she remembered correctly, she had only ever set that up for one teammate. After a while she found it boring and stopped, at most just changing how they addressed her.
This world couldn’t be that small, right?
The game map hadn’t been particularly large. Thinking carefully, it had only covered a few major empires of the Human Realm and parts of the Demon Realm. But that was in the game. Now that she had arrived in this world, it shouldn’t be limited to the same size. When she and Atia fled Crisel, they had walked for an entire day without even catching a glimpse of the neighboring city. In the game, that same distance would have taken only a short walk.
Lord Black Demon paid no attention to Declan. Her gaze had already locked onto Eileen.
“There aren’t many humans who research the Demon Realm this thoroughly. Just who are you—”
“Don’t even think about getting close to her.”
Mia stepped in front of Eileen, staring coldly at the black-robed figure, and whispered over her shoulder, “Eileen, I’m about to activate the teleportation spell. Stay closer to me.”
Eileen nodded.
Selene Wolves were beasts that extremely admired the strong. Only those who could defeat them were qualified to become their masters. Ordinary ones were only B-rank, but specialized Selene Wolves approached S-rank in danger. To tame one required strength that at least matched—or far surpassed—it.
The fact that this Lord Black Demon could command such a beast was enough to show her strength had reached the peak of A-rank. Mia and Declan might not be able to handle her. To ensure Eileen’s safety, retreating was the only reliable choice.
“Crescent Moon Leap!”
Mia channeled her magic and began drawing a massive white-glowing array beneath her feet. Crescent Moon Leap was a mid-tier teleportation spell that allowed an entire group to make a short-distance jump. It couldn’t send them straight back to the city, but it was effective enough in an emergency.
Crack!
Just as the array was about to complete, a sound like shattering glass suddenly rang through the air. The light of the array vanished, and magic power scattered in every direction.
Pfft!
Mia spat out a mouthful of blood and collapsed to the ground, staring in disbelief at the black-robed woman in front of her.
It was obvious who had done it.