Demon Wolf

Wolf stopped to count his gains half an hour after parting with his juniors.

First, he plucked the giant arachnids’ nubs and sampled their flesh. The torso was disgustingly sour, but after cracking their tough, blade-like shell, he found the limbs edible.

It tastes like trout.

“Assuming you apply the term loosely.”

Wolf stored the two dozen legs into the cooler, then with great care removed the yellow, fist-sized poison sacks and drained the viscous liquid into vials for later use.

With all the valuable parts salvaged, Wolf dumped the useless carcasses onto the ground and inspected the red’s holdingring.

A bunch of talismans, a couple usable healing and detox pills. The rest is junk. Well, save for this.

Wolf summoned the red’s spare robe. It’s a tad too big for me, but beggars can’t be choosers.

“I really will look like a beggar once I don that tent. Next time I go anywhere with people, I need to prepare a hundred spare uniforms. No, five hundred.”

Wolf placed the medicine in the holdingring designated for pills, he put the robe at the bottom of his spare pile, and doffed the one he wore.

There’s not a single tear on it.

“It looks and stinks like someone dragged it through a sewer channel.”

Wolf continued his journey, bickering and joking with himself. After several hours’ trek, the jungle brightened. Once he approached the lighter patch, he found a pond. The body of water was two dozen meters across, with algae covering most of its surface.

A toppled tree lay next to the pool, its massive trunk snapped and riddled with claw marks. The absence of the monarch’s towering canopy made the surroundings considerably brighter than the rest of the dusky jungle.

A perfect setting for an ambush.

Despite that thought, Wolf stepped into the clearing, his senses fully awakened. Not even a moment passed before he sensed a flicker of hostile intent, which swiftly calmed into the harmless feeling of being observed.

They don’t want to fight me?

“Hello.” Wolf turned to face the observer.

He saw nothing on the branch. However, he was certain about the location from which the stalker spotted him.

“How did you see us, half-brother?” An elven woman removed her camouflage cloak, then three others appeared, following her lead.

“I did not see you. I sensed your tension and hostility. So, you needn’t worry about your cloaks.” Wolf added the last line, as one elf checked her greenish-black poncho.

The leader nodded. “You should continue on your way. There’s nothing of value here.”

That statement seems forced. Why are you here, if there’s nothing?

“You don’t mind I’m wearing nothing but underpants?”

However, not a hint of Wolf’s thoughts reached his face. “I just wanted to clean up.”

Unexpectedly, the elf shook her head. “That water is impure. Monster Beasts don’t drink it. They just come to bask in the artificial sunlight.”

“Thank you for the warning,” Wolf smiled at the woman, but his charming smile, which disarmed human women, failed to cause a ripple in her eyes. “May I inquire about something else?”

The elf motioned Wolf to speak.

“Is it all right to wear regular clothing instead of disciple uniforms?” The elves wore normal hunting garbs, rather than combat robes affiliated with their sects.

With weird looks, the company behind her stared at the almost naked Wolf. The leader opened and closed her mouth once, and her arm twitched as she stopped herself from gesturing at Wolf’s general appearance. Seeing her reaction, he realized how stupid his question was. However, once uttered words could not be unsaid.

“It’s fine,” she said, the look in her eyes reserved for mentally challenged.

“Thank you,” Wolf gave a slight bow and left.

“Lucky fellow.”

“Yeah. I have no idea how an idiot got here alive.”

“Shush!”

Wolf heard the elves murmur behind his back, but he ignored them.

“That really was a stupid question.”

After leaving the ambushing party’s earshot, Wolf donned the clothes he had purchased back in Whitesheep and continued his journey.

Six days passed. During this period, Wolf had discarded five sets of clothing, harvested nine nubs, and slew just as many Monster Beasts. Twice he evaded the fights he found too risky. The first one was with a pair of Whiteflame Honeyeaters in heat, the nine-tipped flame on their foreheads a clear sign to steer away. The beasts were too busy and too loud to notice a stealthy manling.

The second group he circled around were several dozen Grinder Constrictors. Their exact number did not interest Wolf. Just the ones he had spotted were enough for him to mouth a ‘Nope’ and turn around, heading in a different direction.

The deeper Wolf delved into the jungle, the more signs of battle he encountered. The Monster Beasts’ territories shrunk, and territorial disputes grew more frequent.

As he left the jungle and entered the sunny world, he finally understood why. Before him stood a giant river, over four kilometers wide, with Corpsewood’s center on the other side.

They are squeezing each other, trying to get as close to the core as possible?

“I think this is the blue line from the map. Brilliant Gate’s people drew this moat on the map.”

Moat? Wait, did Gilded Apes dig this?

“Probably to separate themselves from the rest of the beasts and monopolize the area with the densest World Energy.”

That makes no sense. They are highly intelligent for Monster Beasts, but construction should be way beyond their level.

“It’s a moat point thinking about it now.”

That was horrible. Wolf shrugged, concluding the short internal dialog and went right, following the bank.

Tracks; two to three days old. A bunch of people passed here, and they didn’t mask their trail.

The Brilliant Gate’s group had also decided to head right, and Wolf followed the path they had beaten.

The prints are deep and even. They walked slowly, probably because they were searching for that treasure.

Three hours later, another set of marks appeared on the ground.

These are massive. The creature which made these is over three meters tall and weighs a ton.

“Six of them.”

Huh? They stalked them? I would expect they would charge after the intruders, but there’s no sprayed soil.

Just like Wolf, the great apes stalked the intruders. Two hours later, Wolf came across a large-scale battlefield. Miniature craters riddled the ground, blood and gore pooling in them.

Wolf tried to read the battle, but the tracks proved too chaotic to make out useful specifics.

Manlings retreated into the jungle, but their number was still huge. They killed one ape, and its fellows dragged it back into the water when they withdrew.

“There are more pools of curdled blood here, and that looks like giant butt prints.”

Wolf focused on the gore, guessing Gilded Apes had a snack to celebrate their victory.

They probably carried some bodies back with them.

Wolf returned to the shore, following the apes’ tracks. He gazed at the murky surface for several long moments before shaking his head.

It’s so green, I can’t tell how deep it is.

Wolf looked around, then stripped and stored his clothes. He covered his body in a luminous layer of Qi and set foot into the water. The river bed was hard-packed and slippery. However, Wolf ignored the minor danger, he was nearly as heavy as the Gilded Apes and his foot was ten times smaller, digging into the dense mud with each step.

The slope is very gentle. The apes made this for ease of access. However, any large Monster Beast would cause a commotion swimming to the other side.

“By the time a land-bound Monster Beast approached, the apes would probably mount an attack from dry land. Meanwhile, their opponent is mired in muck and water.”

Wolf kept walking until water reached his chin.

That’s already over a meter and a half.

For an instant Wolf hesitated, then decided against exploring any deeper. I’ll consider this later; when it’s time to cross. So far there don’t seem to be any aquatic monsters, nor traps in the water.

Wolf returned to the shore, and the water slid off his Qi shield.

Huh? That’s handy. Wait. If I constantly wrap myself with Qi, it should keep my clothes from getting dirty.

“But I would have to project the shield further from my body, and I should stick to skin-tight clothes.”

The latter did not trouble Wolf. His Earth Pavilion’s combat robe fit snuggly, except for the ones he looted from the red.

One hour. By the time he bit his lip, he had already reached a decision. He donned his woolen, civilian clothing, projected a faintly glowing screen and stepped back into the water.