The First King of Beasts

'I wonder what their body is made of? Flesh or something else entirely.' Dustin said. He knew that the moment he moved from where he stood, he would get attacked, so he prepared himself well.

'Wait, what was that?' Dustin said in his mind.

The moment he was about to move to attack the creatures before him, he felt something off about one of his tamed wolves, and following that, he felt another. It was a new feeling, but then it was also an inexplicable feeling, something he needed no explanation to know what it meant. One of his tamed beast had just died, and it was clear that it had just been killed by one of the night creatures.

Dustin immediately sent out an order asking all the wolves to return to his position. There was no need to lose more of his tamed animals, even though he already expected deaths to occur for the wolves that were below E rank.

The night creatures were definitely of a higher tier when it came to bloodline and things like that, so even though an E rank wolf faced an E rank night creature, the night creature will triumph over the wolf. The only chance the wolves have is if they don't come across any D rank night creature.

'It looks bad, but the highest rank achievable by the wild wolves is E+ rank. They will die eventually if stronger night creatures are to appear.' Dustin thought to himself.

One thing was clear, he had to train his other tamed beasts to a higher rank. The serpent was a good one for example, and it seemed to have a very high potential so it would last long, though Dustin did not know of this now, he would eventually come to realize it.

Just as he thought, the moment he moved, the night creature before him charged at him with a remarkable speed, though he seemed to be faster than it by a lot. Using his taming skill, Dustin activated it and stopped the night creature half way before it got to him. In the end, these night creatures were a blessing, as they would become his EXP, and the endless spawn of them would only serve as his EXP farm.

This, was Dustin's thoughts anyway. After activating his skill, the night creatures seemed to not be affected by the taming skill, and after slowing down for a second, it resumed its charge at Dustin without stopping.

Dustin was a little shocked at what he had just witnessed, but he had not been spoiled too much after getting his A rank taming skill, so he could still react on time and dodge the night creature while burying one of his twin axe in its throat.

He skilfully turned his body after that, making a half crescent movement as he turned towards the side with more night creatures. Dashing forward, he was able to take out multiple night creatures before they could even react properly. It was evident that these were E rank night creatures, so he was confident in taking them head on. After a while of killing the night creature, the mound that they spawned from stopped bringing forth any night creatures.

By this time, Dustin had completely killed the night creatures in the surrounding area, and each one he killed gave 50 exp. Looking at his status window, Dustin could almost call this a blessing that he was surrounded by these night creatures that were so hostile, too bad he couldn't just gather them together with his taming skill and kill them.

After the initial fight with the night creatures that turned out to be a one sided slaughter, Dustin was curious as to why his skill didn't work on the night creatures, despite them being a kind of beast or maybe beasts that were monsters. He had stopped using his skill while fighting against the beasts in the forest to prepare for things like this when his taming skill did not work, but he would have never guessed that it would fail here.

He asked the system if it knew why his skill failed, and the answer was that it was because of the night creatures attribution to darkness. Since they were practically creatures born from darkness, their affinity for it was just so high that it gave them an edge over many things. Normally, those with a darkness attribute were less susceptible to illusions and mind controls. Basically, things that controlled or confused the mind don't affect them much. But since the night creatures were monsters born from darkness, their resistance to these things was very and unnaturally high.

In a way, Dustin's taming skill was more of a controlling skill than one that make a bond with the beast or monster. It was just that the beast were also controlled to like him more, not that they even have a choice. Normal taming is done through creating a special bond with the beast or monster, and then both tamer and the creature they are trying to tame would naturally form a pact. Apart from this method of taming, there are other tamers that forcefully enslave the monsters. Between these two types of tamers, Dustin was neither of them, as he was something of a combination of both, since he practically did not ask for consent from the other party, but yet does not put them in a pact where they feel enslaved.

Overall, no matter the method of taming, the night creatures were still going to be resistant to it in the end, so it didn't matter. Dustin waited for the wolves to come as he just walked normally instead of using the tiger. By the time all the remaining wolves got to him, their number had greatly reduced. In the end, only about 200 of the wolves survived, and all of them were E class, with 9 among them being E+ rank.

After killing the night creatures, Dustin had gained so much experience points that he only needed some more before he reached his next level up. In addition to the experience points he attained from visiting the forest regularly instead of focussing on completing quests, the ones he got from killing the night creatures just brought him closer to the next level up.

Using his will, Dustin pulled up the status panel to check his stats.

..

<<Status>>

Level: 17 (8,470/8,960)

Name: Dustin

Title: Progenitor, Slaughterer

Class:

Nature: Cold-Blooded

Hp: 1,130

Mp: 1050

[Stat]

Strength: 27

Agility: 34

Sense: 26

Vitality: 27

Intelligence: 21

Unallocated stat point: 54

[Skill tab]

Passive: Bloodlust (A)

Active: Taming Master (A), Reality Manipulation (A)

..

Dustin continued going towards the mound he had seen earlier from the first wolf that found it to see if it was still intact. He had a feeling that the night creatures must have destroyed it, so he just wanted to make sure.

After getting there, he found that the night creatures had truly destroyed the mound, and probably the same thing that happened with the other one happened here to.

When Dustin confirmed this, he looked around and realised just how empty the entire place was. With the number of night creatures that emerged from one mound alone, they should be everywhere by now, but even after looking around he couldn't find any. It only helped to emphasise how large this place was, wherever it was.

The more time he spent here, the clearer it became to him that this was not the second trial that the messenger spoke of when the announcement was made, and it didn't seem like it would be easy to find his way back either. He looked to the sky, but the blankness of it just was not up lifting in the least. Maybe it was because of his cold hearted nature, but he wasn't feeling any particular emotion at the moment. He thought of what to do next, but there was nothing he could do. He returned to the magic circle from which he came here, but to his surprise, the circle had disappeared leaving behind a patch on the ground and nothing else. Dustin was completely stranded.

After sitting around for a while, he came to a conclusion. As there was no clear path to take going forward, there was only one thing he could do. In such a land where nothing seemed to survive except the plants, it was clearly a barren land, and the only one who survive in such places where those who never stopped going forward, who never stopped moving. The worst thing to do right now was give up and remain in the same situation, so he just had to move forward no matter what. Besides, there was soothing he noticed around the mounds.

The grass that grew close to the mounds had become dead, almost like its life expired before its time, like it was sucked away. The mound definitely had something to do with it, but it was not like Dustin knew, and also, he didn't know if this would spread to the surrounding area. Either way, he had made his decision to start moving.

Since there was nothing else to do, he could as well grow stronger while looking for a solution, and what better way to do so than hunt night crawler.