Limitless Summoner: Rise of the Soul God-Chapter 180: Hunting

The trail carved into the wilderness wasn't paved or marked—just a faint path of trampled grass and claw-gouged bark where others had passed.

Ethan followed it, his senses sharp, every rustling leaf and distant growl setting his nerves on edge. Unlike dungeons, the wilderness had no system-generated spawn zones or predictable aggro patterns. The danger was real, wild, and often smarter than it had any right to be.

As he crept deeper into the overgrowth, a thick fog began to roll in. Ethan paused, narrowing his eyes. This wasn't in the mission details. Then came a howl. It was unmistakably from a mutated howler.

Ethan immediately erected a mana barrier and just in time as a beast launched itself out of the mist like a cannonball, jaws wide and eyes gleaming with savage intelligence. It slammed into the barrier with a crunch of impact, claws screeching against the magical shield, sending out a ripple of force that shook the leaves overhead.

Ethan took a sharp breath, assessing. Now he understood why these were called mutated beasts. While howlers were almost the same creatures as wolves, except they tended to howl more, the mutated beast in front of him was stronger and bigger, and its canines were longer than any natural predator should have.

Jagged and uneven, they looked more like obsidian blades than teeth—made to tear, not bite. Worse, its body was twitching erratically, like its muscles weren't used to the strength they now carried. Its fur was mottled with patches of slick, dark scales, and faint purple veins pulsed beneath the surface.

Ethan's eyes narrowed. This was very similar to the demonic corruption he had seen before. Maybe a different kind of corruption?

The beast clawed his mana barrier down, and he fired a quick volley of spells—three water bullets and one fire streak, all aimed at the joints. The beast twisted unnaturally, dodging the worst of it, but still took a hit to the front leg. It stumbled, growled, and then let out a shriek-howl that vibrated in Ethan's bones.

Ethan took advantage of the pause. A bolt of pure flame burst from his palm, not aimed at the howler directly but at a thick, sap-laden tree branch above it. The fire struck true, and the branch exploded in a burst of hissing smoke and shrapnel. The beast reared back instinctively, opening its chest for a second.

That was all Ethan needed. A whip-thin stream of pressurized water—denser and sharper than any previous spell he'd used—lashed out, slicing across the creature's torso. It didn't kill the beast, but it drew blood. Black and bubbling. He repeated it a couple of times, losing more than half of his mana. At the end of it, the beast dropped dead on the ground.

[Ding! You have killed a Mutated Howler beast.]

[Ding! You have gained experience points.]

[Ding! The entity Mutated Howler beast has been added to your summoning list]

Ethan was wondering whether the mutation would reverse before the beast was added to his list, but it looked like it would not. He tossed the beast into his spatial ring and started walking further in. The fog started clearing, and soon one more howler beast appeared.

This time, he used a different strategy and took care of the beast with only his fireblast. A well-placed fireblast right in its eyes, followed by a couple more aimed straight at its mouth and head.

This brought his mana to almost 20%. He did not want to empty out his mana in case something unexpected happened. Instead, he took out his daggers.

Back in the first week he joined the academy, he made sure to purchase a pair of decent daggers. Later, he also purchased a sword and tried using both weapons alternatingly. He was more comfortable with daggers and decided to stick with them for the time being.

With his mana dangerously low, he took out these daggers. It was time to get real up close and personal with these mutated howlers, time for close combat. To be honest, this aspect made Ethan the most nervous. However, he was forcing himself to get used to it and train more.

The third howler didn't make him wait long. It stalked from the underbrush, warier than the first two, muscles rippling with unnatural tension.

When it lunged, it did so without warning. No growl. No snarl. Just a sudden blur of claws and teeth. Ethan sidestepped, barely, one dagger slashing across its flank as he pivoted behind a tree. The creature howled—not in pain, but in fury—and circled wide, testing his movements.

Ethan gritted his teeth, waited for it to charge again, then darted forward himself instead. He ducked under its leap and drove both daggers upward into its exposed stomach, twisting. The creature shrieked, flailing. Ethan rolled free, blood splattering across his robe.

He then immediately landed another slash, then another, followed by yet another until the beast finally collapsed.

"This was easy." He smiled. He knew it was probably because his attributes were a lot higher than the beast's, but he still gave himself a small pat on the back, a bit of encouragement for forcing himself to fight the hard way.

[Ding! You have killed a Mutated Howler beast.]

[Ding! You have gained experience points.]

[Ding! The entity Mutated Howler beast has been added to your summoning list]

Ethan tossed the corpse into his spatial ring. He already had three for the mission, but since he was here, he decided to stick around and hunt some more. He also wanted to see if he could stack these missions and submit three corpses every day to get some credits.

He continued wandering around the area to hunt for more mutated howlers when suddenly a new creature appeared in his path—an elephant-like beast.

It was massive—twice the height of any howler he'd fought- with thick, stone-colored skin that shimmered faintly with residual mana. But it wasn't the size that made Ethan freeze. It was the grotesque distortions.

The beast's trunk had split into three separate tendrils, each ending in a sharpened bone spike. Its tusks were jagged, and glowing lines of violet ran across its body like veins filled with corrupted energy.