"Are you done playing yet?"

Alice watched Lin Zhong bat the werewolves through the air like volleyballs. Her heart pounded—this magic couldn’t last forever.

Lin Zhong caught her anxious glance but kept slamming the beasts down, then flicking them skyward again.

"Hn."

This time, his War Spear stilled. Snowfall Thousand Chills tapped the ice spikes below the three werewolves. They began to grow.

*Thud! Thud! Thud!*

Thick ice spears pierced their bodies. Their howls faded. Blood dripped down the frozen shafts.

"It’s over," Alice murmured. The werewolves looked thoroughly dead. Yet no system alert chimed.

*Not finished.*

Lin Zhong knew it. This was an S-rank Dungeon Instance. These werewolves? Barely S-rank minions.

*Where’s the boss?*

*Three minions for a whole dungeon? Ridiculous.*

The howling wind died. Ice melted around Lin Zhong, watering the grass beneath his boots. The tornado vanished. Though unharmed in the gale’s eye, deep gouges scarred the earth around them.

Debris rained down—wood splinters, shattered planks. And something else.

Mangled flesh. Crushed, twisted bones.

As the mist cleared, the dungeon’s true form emerged: a shattered village. Alice’s Forbidden Spell had reduced its buildings to rubble. Nearby lay human corpses, torn beyond recognition.

*Gag!*

Alice retched. A noble-born girl, she’d never seen such horrors. Fear crept across her delicate face.

"Did I… do this?" She clutched her head. Only her spell could’ve caused this carnage.

*I killed them…*

"No."

Lin Zhong’s voice cut sharp. "Corpses this rotten couldn’t have died minutes ago. And these wounds? Not human-made. If it were wind magic, the bodies would be pulp—not still shaped like people."

"I know what Little Gray smelled now."

The meat-stench was thick, but only the spell’s vortex had carried it to him. Cats had 240 million scent receptors—Little Gray would’ve caught it earlier. *Why couldn’t it lead us here?*

Lin Zhong scanned the area. His gaze locked onto their starting point: the small cabin.

And atop it—a massive shadow. A colossal white shape.

A werewolf.

The earlier three were pups beside it. This beast stood ten times Lin Zhong’s height, one claw crushing the cabin roof.

*Crunch.*

The cabin shattered like a toy.

*ROOOOAR!*

The howl vibrated their eardrums. Then—eyes glowed in the mist. Gray werewolves emerged, encircling the white giant.

The fog thinned.

*Finally.*

*This* was an S-rank dungeon. Those Deep Divers last time? Pathetic. No boss. Minions fragile as paper.

"Ugh…" Alice stumbled back. The pack could shred them in seconds.

"Magic left?" Lin Zhong raised his War Spear. He couldn’t handle this horde alone. Alice, a Magic Division prodigy, had cast a Forbidden Spell—she could unleash another.

"Are you joking?!" Her spell had drained every drop of mana. She was weaker than a commoner now.

"You’re not—"

A pill forced into her mouth cut her off.

"Swallow. It’ll restore enough mana for one wide-range Forbidden Spell. I’ll cover you."

Lin Zhong withdrew his finger from her lips, glistening with saliva. He flicked it off, eyes locked on the wolves.

"Hurry."

Ice mist gathered in his palm. The white werewolf roared. The pack charged.

*Thousand Miles of Frozen Land.*

Thin ice spread from Lin Zhong’s feet, freezing paws to the earth.

*Crack! Snap! Shatter!*

The werewolves ripped free, shattering the ice with monstrous strength.

*Trouble.*

He glanced back. Alice’s mana was returning. Her staff, Sage Thousand Thoughts, stood planted in the ground, its book pages flipping wildly.

*Can’t leave her side.*

A chanting mage was defenseless. Even a child could kill her now.

Let alone these beasts.

He could only defend.

"Thrust!"