“Oi, I am the one asking questions here, bud.” Aspen said, “you better begin telling me everything my Master wants to know.”
“Agh! Why are you always trying to tease me?!”
“Y-you… you are that wolf from the king’s Cn…!” Forehead yelled.
I managed to lift myself, and so did Fir. I was not happy I got affected by a status effect like that.
“Grrr… I didn’t even work for him, I just lived on his territory with my family.”
“So, is the king making a move on this cn already?” Forehead did not listen.
“I said I don’t work for him, you fool!”
“W-wha…?” Aspen looked at me in surprise, but then recovered herself and returned the question to our attacker, “tell us, is this the work of the Elder Luna?”
Wait, the elder of that cn had a name? Why did no one tell me?!
[Warning… you should keep more control on your followers, they are keeping too much from you]
I was just going to take it as there was no time for a briefing so far. We had attacks two days in a row and I just took over. Better to let it slide for now, but I was sure Fir knew I was intensely looking at him as he seemed to shudder. He never said the name of his ex-wife.
“Why do I feel a sudden murder intent directed at me?” Fir muttered.
When that was done, I was going to name everyone, or at least make them choose a name for themselves, and have them give me a rge briefing of everything that was happening in those caves!
“Hehe… she sent me to make sure the cns would band together to defend against the King, so I did as she ordered… but seeing this pack already joined forces with him, I think I have a new message to deliver for her.”
“This idiot is not even listening…” Aspen was angry, “I told you I don’t work with him!”
“Well, congrats, asshole. You and your friends will come with us to talk with your leader.”
“He… hahaha…” he ughed, “you really think you won this one? What do you think will happen when you get there? Luna will hear everything I say, and she is much more powerful than me. She will kill all of you!”
“Gggrrr…” Fir growled.
I was getting annoyed with that asshole. Laughing, believing himself in control, even when we were the ones who beat him already. I hated people like him, believing themselves more important or bigger than they are!
“You keep ughing… that is adorable, cute, even.” Aspen smirked.
“Excuse me?” his smile dropped for a few seconds.
“You should get over yourself, asshole! Look behind me, but look good, unless your eyes really are under your tail!”
Okay… again with that insult. What did that even mean?
[Warning… most likely, is a way of telling him that he has his head inside of his ass]
Oh! That made sense…
Forehead clicked his tongue, not removing his eyes from Aspen for a few good seconds before looking behind her.
The carcass of the monsters were still there. During the battle, we moved closer to them.
His eyes went wide when he saw the scales, and quickly connected the dots. He tried to distance himself from Aspen.
“W-what? H-how?! That cannot be… they are impossible to kill!”
“And you sent them here…” Aspen began to repeat what I said, “because of you, many wolves lost their lives, families lost their loved ones, who knows how long it will take them to recover… and you say this was to gather everyone together? Don’t make me ugh!”
Forehead’s tongue tangled inside of his mouth, as if he was trying to find a retort or to answer somehow. His eyes locked on Aspen, then me, then the carcass, and back to me. His pupils began to shake.
Maybe he finally figured out what he just caused, and what the consequences were.
“With pleasure!”
“N-no! Stay away from me!”
Forehead pushed Aspen with a magic spell, one that did manage to catch me by surprise. I was also pushed a few meters.
Before we all could recover our footing (my floating), something came out between the white fur on his forehead.
An Ether stone, like the ones I had, although seemed more polished.
Without saying a word, he grabbed it with his mouth and crushed it with his fangs. He fshed, the ether around him flew in multiple directions. The next second, him and his allies were gone.
[Analysing… that was a refined Ether Stone. It is a powerful artefact that holds enough energy to cast magic or a specific spell]
I didn’t notice he had some hidden on himself! All I could see was his Ether that fused with the rest of the environment like with the rest of the wolves! He escaped with such a tactic!
“He must have returned with the West Cn Elder… this is not good,” Fir said, “they might attack us now.”
“I let him escape…” Aspen looked at the spot where he was before disappearing.
“It can take 4 days to reach the cn… we have time to prepare if they decide to attack… Master Alice! What should we do?!” Fir asked.
An attack? War? When I saw that I could not prevent it, reality hit me. Just my second day taking care of those wolves, and now I had to deal with something as serious as a war?
[Warning… I am detecting high levels of stress]
I didn’t need Erika to tell me! I didn’t expect things to go that way. Just 2 days in and I was already under threats of war? I was in no way prepared for any of this. I was already doubtful about taking control over the cn of wolves!
Okay… no need to panic. This could be fixed. Maybe if we talked with that Luna wolf and asked her to sign a peace treaty or something…
“Are you sure? Who knows what he must be telling to their elder at this very moment!" Fir expined, “If only we could reach there fast, we could avoid a tragedy, but it takes around 4 days to reach their nd!”
“Then we must move fast!” Aspen said, “if that idiot liked to run his mouth when under threat, then he must be saying anything he wants to push us further into fighting each other!”
“Then it is decided!”
Aspen jumped and caught me with her mouth, and held me tightly.
“We are going fast, and I am sure I am the fastest one here!”
“Master Alice, if you are going, then I will stay here and take care of the people! Please, be careful!” Fir answered.
“W-what?! But only being like you can-!”
Aspen was faster than the rest of the wolves, and she seemed to have gained more speed after evolving. So, maybe it was a good choice to check on her stats. And how long was that travel going to take? If on average it was around 4 days, then…
“Hold your tail!” Aspen yelled, and then we were gone from the cn.
I just managed to register in the final second how Fir’s jaw dropped after witnessing Aspen’s speed. She darted like a bullet train and we were traveling at an insane speed! She was fast before? When we were going to the West Cn, she was actually damn fast! We passed by rooms like it was nothing!
[You gained XP!]
[You gained 4 levels! Your level is now 05/20]
[All your stats increased!]
[Aspen and Fir gained 3 levels!]
[Aspen is now level 04/10! Fir is now level 04/10!]
[All their stats increased!]
Eh? But we didn’t kill them!
[Warning… any form of combat situation can provide XP, as long as you survive it. Even on defeat something can be learned for the future]
Knowing that I didn’t need to kill everything to progress was actually making me feel happier than anything else.
[Do note, you won’t get extra Ether to gain bonus XP or even produce Ether Stones]
I imagined… for the meantime, I was still saving the Ether stones I gathered through my travels in the caves, but knowing I could not make them without killing was worrying.
The trip did not take us 4 days.
We were there only a few hours after thanks to her impressive and impossible to believe speed.
“We are here!” Aspen warned.
[Analysing… Aspen evolved into a Silver Quick Mountain Wolf. She got the unique skill [Bullet Speed], allowing her to reach speeds only imaginable by her own kind]
Damn! She became a speedster! We went through whole biomes with how she moved, and I barely could see what we passed by.
But I could see where we were going.
The wolf cn took over some ruins that were inside of the caves. Human ruins.
Tall walls of forgotten past, towering in the caverns with only the mushrooms on top as light. It was a group of structures which I could not tell what they were for, their past buried in forgotten memories of people that no longer were with us.
“Yep! We believe they were part of an old human civilization!”
I hoped that there would still be humans out there, and they were not gone with whatever happened to the city those ruins belonged to.
“Hey! Who goes there?!” a wolf asked.
As we approached, I saw some of the Western wolves standing on the walls and entrances to the cn territory, noticing us.
“Hold yourself!” Aspen told me.
Then she jumped over one of the walls.
}------------------------------------------o~o------------------------------------------{
“I demand to see Elder Luna!”
While Aspen and I ran towards the wall, the wolf who attacked us was talking with one of the guards that was outside of Luna’s burrow.
“The Elder is busy, we already told you!” the guard yelled at him, “go rest, you and your party are all injured, she will come to speak with you when she is done doing business with…”
“Agh, you damn fool! You don’t get it, don’t you?! This is a matter of security by the whole cn! We are going to get attacked soon by the people that did this to us! The north cn decred war on us!”
“I-I know you said that, but she said no one should interrupt them, even if it meant-”
“Agh! Let me pass or I will push you to the side!”
And before he could use any of his spells, white forehead turned when he heard a commotion from other members of his cn, who began to scream and call attention to something that was running between the ruins.
Aspen ran with both speed and agility, dodging and avoiding all the wolves who decided to try to stop us, until she jumped over the derelict of a tower in the middle of a pza that overlooked where our attacker was discussing with the guard.
“Hey, forehead!” she called his attention with a smirk while she let me go, “sorry for interrupting!”