Saltwater Crocodile

The latter half of the road was fraught with danger. Taylor could already feel many greedy, bloodthirsty gazes staring at the two of them without restraint. Taifas had tensed every muscle in his body, his nose constantly twitching.

"Taylor, I can smell at least seven magical beasts right now, and they're less than twenty meters away."

After inspecting a wizarding item that looked like a piece of rotten wood, Taifas suddenly stopped, his gaze turning grave as he looked toward the swamp ahead.

"Besides the seven magical beasts around us, there are also two Saltwater Crocodiles lying in the swamp ahead. The kind I told you about—the kind you don't need to add salt to when making smoked meat."

Ah, so this was an ambush in front and pursuers behind. There was no avoiding a fight.

Taylor grinned. So nine magical beasts had their eyes on them now?

He walked over to Taifas and asked in a low voice.

"How are we supposed to deal with this? Why do I feel like the round badge the steward gave us isn't enough to handle nine magical beasts?"

"Of course it isn't enough. One badge might deter one or two magical beasts, but there are nine now. If they attack from all sides, then according to the contracts Wizards signed with them, as long as they don't see the badge, it doesn't count as a restriction."

As expected of the patrol mission with the highest rewards and the most Wizard points. High-reward missions really did come with high risks.

Fine by me. I haven't properly fought magical beasts yet.

Taylor silently increased the Flame Medal's magical output. The Spider's Eye hanging from his chest began to emit a faint glow, fireballs floated above his palm, and he held the round badge in his other hand as he vigilantly watched his surroundings.

"Do you know why no one takes the patrol missions in the southern Monster Forest?"

"Why?"

"Because food is scarce in the south. There are basically no major problems in the north, west, or east—at most one or two magical beasts looking for trouble. But in the south, there are usually at least five."

"..."

"Put away that round badge in your hand. Holding a round badge during a fight will only hold you back."

As they spoke, a string of muddy bubbles rose from the swamp ahead. Within Taifas's range of smell, the seven magical beasts nearby were also growing restless, seemingly unable to suppress their hunger any longer.

At that moment, Taylor held out his hand to Taifas. "Give me your round badge first."

"What do you want it for?"

"Just give it to me. It's not like I'm going to let the two of us get eaten by magical beasts together, right?"

Hearing that, Taifas placed a small round badge in Taylor's palm.

"When the fight starts, can you handle the two crocodiles in the swamp?"

"That won't be a problem. Those two crocodiles together can't beat me. But what about the seven magical beasts behind us?"

That was the helplessness of hand-to-hand Wizards like him. At most, he could fight two or three enemies alone. Once there were too many enemies, there was nothing he could do.

Perhaps sensing that the magical beasts were drawing closer and closer, Taifas's eyes began to take on flecks of red. His nose twitched continuously as he grew increasingly irritable, while the crocodile tail behind him swayed from side to side.

"I naturally have my own way. Point out the magical beast with the weakest defense first."

"On a tree five meters ahead. There's a black snake coiled around the second branch. That kind of snake is called a Black Demon Snake. Its venom is extremely potent, but it has no scales for protection and is very fragile."

The moment he finished speaking, Taylor struck. Five Crescent Wind Blades shot toward the direction Taifas had pointed, slicing the black, fleshy venomous snake into several pieces.

A huge gorilla and a three-eyed tiger suddenly leaped out from the depths of the distant forest, preparing to pounce on them. With a wave of Taylor's hand, two strands of spider silk carrying two round badges stuck to the magical beasts, freezing them in place.

"Come on!"

Taifas's body suddenly expanded. Streams of magic surged through his muscles, transforming him from a skinny bespectacled apprentice into a muscular man standing nearly two meters tall.

He lunged forward like a tiger, clad in thick crocodile scales, and crashed directly into the swamp. With one hand, he pressed down the head of a Saltwater Giant Crocodile, then turned and pinned it with the sturdy scales on his back. As the other Saltwater Giant Crocodile tried to launch a sneak attack, one of his hands transformed into a tentacle, wrapping around the crocodile's jaws and slamming it into the swamp.

The three massive creatures sank into the swamp and tore into one another. Taylor's situation was no better. He had killed a Black Demon Snake the moment he attacked and forcibly silenced two magical beasts that looked anything but ordinary.

But he still had to deal with a four-horned buffalo, a two-headed fox that breathed fire, a green-furred monkey wielding a brick, and an enormous python covered in thick scales and coiled around a large tree.

The two-headed fire-breathing fox was the first to lose patience. It opened its mouths and spat two fireballs toward Taylor, but the pale red barrier around him instantly absorbed them without letting him get hurt.

Next, the four-horned buffalo lowered its head, pawed at the ground, and charged fiercely at Taylor. Greenish winds swirled beneath Taylor's feet. He instantly dodged aside, then released two clouds of Black Fog over the heads of the fox and buffalo.

The improved and optimized Black Mist could not only interfere with a target's sense of smell, sight, and hearing, but also cause considerable mental confusion.

The two heads of the fire-breathing fox swayed unsteadily, already affected by its disordered mental energy. The buffalo was wrapped in the most Black Fog, over the widest area.

The buffalo bellowed madly and charged about everywhere, yet it still could not escape the Black Fog. In Taylor's view, it was simply running in circles.

The green-furred monkey howled and shrieked from the tree, constantly throwing bricks, branches, stones, and all sorts of other things. It kept screaming at the top of its lungs.

When the continuous shrieking reached Taylor's ears, he felt a stabbing pain in his temples, and his mental energy began to scatter slightly.

The Spider's Eye on his chest shot out a beam of illusion light that struck the green-furred monkey between the brows. Several strands of spider silk, hard as steel, immediately bound the monkey to a tree trunk.

The giant python coiled around the tree suddenly moved. It slithered down from the tree, arching its body high into the air. It was actually taller than Taylor himself, and its thick body and intimidating snake head displayed the magical beast's strength in every way.

"Hiss..."

The giant python flicked its forked tongue between its nose and chin. After crawling down from the tree, it swept its tail, whipping the four-horned buffalo straight out of the Black Fog. It then instantly wrapped around the buffalo's body, crushing all its internal organs by brute force.

Taylor took the opportunity to use two wind blades to cut off the two heads of the fire-breathing fox trapped in the other cloud of Black Fog.

After moving the dead buffalo aside, the giant python crawled in front of Taylor. It seemed to think it should eat the appetizer first to grease its gut before moving on to the classic main course.