The First King of Beasts

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.

With absolutely no sense of direction, Dustin set out on his journey and began moving towards a direction he had selected at random. He made sure the wolves were out at all times, and since the monsters and beasts he tamed still needed to be fed, they had to come out regularly and hunt, or eat food that Dustin had provided. This said, now that they were his tamed beasts, they didn't hunger as regularly as they did before, so it was more convenient for Dustin.

Since the wolves could grow above E+ rank, at least that was what Dustin theorized, they would in the end not last long in this kind of environment. Looking at his tamed beasts, Dustin could only see three that had the potential to grow and advance far, and that was the Sea Serpent and the tigers.

'Looks like we'll have to get closer, me and the serpent.' Dustin said in his mind.

He wasn't big on snakes, unlike his younger sibling, so he hadn't really been making use of the serpent. He simply kept it around because it was strong, and it would be useful in many fights, except for that, he had not much love for the beast. However, the serpent was too big a beast to be walking around during travels, so he only planed to bring it out when they encountered any night crawler.

Dustin kept on walking, and unlike before, it seemed like the night crawlers were starting to get attracted to him and his monsters. As the night creatures weren't undead, Dustin couldn't exactly explain the situation as the dead being attracted to the living, but they sure were acting like it.

"Things will get spiced up from now."

...

"Get back! Don't carelessly charge at the monsters like that." Mizu said, as she spoke to Kim.

Following her orders, Kim returned to the middle where it was safest, at least in this case. The formation they were maintaining was simple. Raven was in front, Kim in the middle, then Aria and Mizu at the rear.

Though this was the formation now, they had to keep changing it, as the variety of monsters was really diverse. At the moment, they were still at the first level of the dungeon which they entered initially, and ever since then were yet to make progress to the next level.

Over at this side, things were also looking grim for the 'earth's chosen warriors.' Many had actually died on their way to the dungeon. Though there were some deliberate traps put here and there by the messenger, the rest of the forest just had E rank monsters at best, and after going on different quests for a while, the people were supposed to have adjusted, but in the end not everyone was able to.

The situation within the dungeon was also bad, as stronger and weirder monsters kept appearing. The difference wasn't much, but with each of the monsters that seemed to be of the same specie kept getting harder and harder. The monsters looked like humanoid snails that instead of slime covering their bodies and insides, they had acid in place of that. The thing with this was that the acids were strong, and if you weren't hit with its acid spit, then you will be attacked physically with acid coming in direct contact with you every time the monster attacked, and low grade weapons would just melt away over a short period of time.

The difficulty was just over the roof. Even after absorbing the cores Dustin provided, Aria was still no where strong enough, but she was still very young and there was no need for her to rush.

Apart from the common monster with acid, there were similar monsters like that one, the difference was that the acid was replaced by something else. There was one that had ordinary water, while the other had poison to replace the acid.

Every person within the dungeon was struggling just to stay alive, except for a group like the Willow group (Raven and Mizu's group), and some few other groups, everyone else was finding it extremely hard to do much against the monsters, and to think these were the only monsters in this level. No one knew the number of levels the dungeon had, but also those that had entered couldn't leave. The only way to get out of there was to clear the dungeon and kill the boss monster.

...

Back at wherever the hell Dustin had been dumped was called (of course the name is the Realm of Divide, but lets add some flare), the night crawlers seemed to have been getting agitated, and had become more aggressive towards him and his tamed beasts. Dustin immediately contacted the system which seemed to know more than it was supposed to, and every time, to ask what was wrong.

'System, can you explain what is wrong with these night crawlers? Why has their behaviours changed?'

..'These beast are savages that have an immerse amount of hunger that keeps them in a constant state of hunger and hunting. The hungrier they are, the stronger they become to enable them get food quicker. These particular night crawlers have been sealed for an incredibly long time, as such, they hunger greatly for food, and will show strengths that may exceed their limits.'

"Strange, but they are clearly still weak, or maybe the hunger did not kick in immediately." Dustin said.

This was correct in the end after he analyzed some things that kept happening with his tamed beast. The E rank wolves were now dying too easily compared to before, even though they aren't facing the enemy individually, the enemy was still capable of killing a pack alone.

As Dustin kept fighting with the monsters and more kept coming, Dustin was starting to see the difference in strength in the new ones. The size of the hounds had also increased from the usual one metre in height to about 1.3 to 1.6 metres now. Armed with his twin axes, Dustin never hesitated to remove the monsters heads. The fact that he couldn't tame such a monster was a shame though, but it was not a problem.

After facing against more of these monsters without any break to rest, Dustin was finally feeling the harshness of this place, and he had become very tired and fatigued, so he began looking for a place for sleep, even if it was for a few minutes.

Sure enough in such a land like this, Dustin couldn't find a single suitable spot, so he had no other choice than to keep moving forward without stopping.

This time while Dustin wanted to get some shut eye, so he brought out the serpent and asked it to guard the surroundings while he slept for some time. The hungrier and stronger the monsters got, the more animalistic they got. Dustin had also brought out the tigers, just in case.

The red eyes that shown dimly in the dark were slowly turning to blue the hungrier the beats got, and it seemed like they had also been undergoing some evolution. Unlike before, some of the night crawlers had become something of a werewolf looking lycan monster.

While Dustin was resting, surly, the night crawlers came to attack, but as he had trained his beasts and allowed them to hunt by themselves. The monsters' flesh didn't seem exactly like their meat would taste good, but there was no way Dustin was going to go give his own food to the tamed animals. One day he would eventually have the need to eat these night crawler after his food reserves had been burned out.

The tigers didn't waste much time after the beast appeared, and charged at it fist, taking the initiative.

The serpent on the other hand was much more capable in this work. All he had to do was swallow the night crawlers, and the stomach acids would do the rest, plus his incredible incredible poisons that would work against the night crawlers to an extent. Both creatures did well to protect Dustin while he slept, and Dustin on the other hand, Dustin did well to sleep through the numerous noisy battles like it was nothing.

When he finally woke up, the surrounding place was like a butchering ground, as body parts spread all across the place. Dustin wasn't surprised, nor did he need any explanation, the beast had no reason not to be savage. Looking at the monster corpses, Dustin was mildly perplexed on whether he should take the corpses to use as food at a later time when the night crawlers would be bad.

Dustin was mildly perplexed on whether he should take the corpses to use as food at a later time when the night crawlers would be bad.