Merchant Of Yliaster

Their walk to the city started without any events, but Maxwell couldn't help but have a feeling of unease he couldn't get rid of.

They were a strong group, and he doubted they would face many problems reaching the city, but his intuition was screaming at him to be careful.

Their formation was simple. On the front, Ellie was just pushing things away as they blocked their way, and behind her walked Neivor and Erne. Maxwell was on the back, following them quietly. He was not inherently social, so he was quiet for the most part.

"We should take around three days to reach the city," Erne said as he stared at the air. He was probably using one of his skills.

Maxwell, meanwhile, was using most of his time observing Ellie. It was apparent that the woman had high strength, so he was trying to catch a moment of the woman using her strength ability. He really needed that strength empowerment. Even now, all of his mana regeneration was going towards empowering his body, as his satchel was way too heavy otherwise.

"Stop," Erne said suddenly and crouched before placing his ear on the ground. He was probably the scout of the group. The movement made Maxwell realise why he was feeling uneasy.

"I hear a group coming towards us. I can't say an exact number but I can say that they are a sizeable group." He said, looking serious.

"You mean there is experience coming?" Ellie said as she pulled something out of her pocket. It was a glove of some kind, made of a leather-like material with stubs on knuckles.

The woman wore them quickly with a practiced ease. She looked ridiculous as what little clothes she was wearing were in tatters while the glove was in pristine condition.

Wouldn't she and Bob be a great duo? A thought came to his mind. They were indeed similar.

He turned towards Neivor, being quite curious about how the man would fight. The man, though, seemed unbothered by the whole situation. He was just looking in the direction of the coming group serenely.

"He can take care of himself, don't worry," Erne told him, noticing his gaze.

Maxwell just nodded as a response. Beyond a certain curiosity he was not worried anyways. He discovered that he was more or less fearless of death after accepting it once. Maybe it would change when he established a life here.

Soon, they could hear the voices themselves too. Maxwell was pretty sure that Erne downplayed the crowd, though. The voice was so packed with different animals that it came like a constant stream.

It didn't take them long to see a swarm of creatures coming towards them. There was something wrong with the creatures, though. Now that they were closer, Maxwell could see their mana, and he could say that they were weak; they were also running away from something.

Most of the creatures were small monkeys swinging from tree to tree. Maxwell used observation on one of them.

Fruit Monkey - Lvl-9

After a couple of more observations, he couldnsee that more or less this eas the median level among the monkeys. There were a few tier twos but those were low leveled.

The party watched the monkeys as they reached them. At this point, everyone realized that the problem they would face was whatever pursuing these monkeys.

It didn't take them long to see the offending group. From the trees, a group of wolves appeared. There were many, and Maxwell could count at least 30 even now.

The wolves could see them too now, snd they seemed not to be amused by their presence. Felix whimpered beside Maxwell, seeing so many wolves.

Blueberry, meanwhile, was on a nearby branch, watching the group with an unnerving curiosity.

"I was getting all bored, look how punchable they look?" Ellie shouted in excitement towards Erne.

The man simply shook his head in exasperation, as they slowly got surrounded by wolves.

Maxwell observed to wolves to see that most of them were tier 2 but only a couple were really high leveled. There was bound to be an alpha though, so he kept his guard up.

This calculated attitude was all for nothing, though. In the next moment, Ellie rushed towards a nearby wolf with a war cry completely unfitting for a woman.

Maxwell watched, as the punch made a squelch as it reached the animal's head, making it cave in. He sighed, as the world around the turned into a pandemonium.

He immediately fused his minds before using the evolved form of meditation to isolate the rest of the world. Soon his world was slowed down, and he saw only what was important. He evaluated the situation.

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The was probably an alpha still coming towards them so using all resources now would be unwise. There were around 60 wolves around them, and Ellie seemed to be pretty good at holding at least a ten back. His metal mana recording was level 2 so it would be wise use that.

He focused and started creating his constructs. It was a gradual process for his mind, but to the outside world, it took almost an instant. Soon there, were around a thirty constructs behind Maxwell with the shape of arrows.

As a finishing touch, he started infusing metal mana into them, and he was pleasantly surprised to feel that the process was a lot easier compared to before. The compendium was really amazing. When the arrows were ready and shining with the silver light of metal mana, they made a formidable sight.

Well, I call this an improvement, he thought, remembering the time he couldn't support just sixteen mana bolts. Even one of these arrows would demolish all of those bolts without problem.

With a last show of will, he commanded the arrows, to move. He commanded them one by, one assigning them a target with his rapidly working mind. He really wanted to watch how it looked from a normal perspective so he quickly seperated his mind into two once again.

World once again flowed in it's regular speed and Maxwell watched the arrows he created. For a moment they stayed where they are, slowly turning towards their assigned targets, then, they were gone. Their speed was simply too much for usual perception.

There was a sound similar to ballistic weapons of old times, as the arrows moved, and thirty wolves swiftly met their demise without understanding what happened. The arrows pierced through the creatures without any resistance, dissolving immediately after they were done with their task so as not to cause unnecessary damage. This was a new detail Maxwell added, because he didn't want to create a landscape riddled with arrows.

Notifications flowed in, but there were no level notifications. It made sense, as these were just cannon fodder in the grand scheme of things. He checked the situation of the others. Now that half of the pack was gone, they had some breathing room.

Erne was at the center, and he was calmly shooting arrows at the pack. His arrows seemed regular enough, but they impacted wolves with an unnatural force. The guy didn't seem to have any flashy skills. He sent him a weird look, apparently having noticed the carnage he caused.

Neivor, on the other hand, was completely different even from Maxwell. The guy was just standing and looking at the pack, exuding a sense of peace. There was a group of wolves around the man, but there was something off about it. Maxwell watched as a wolf tried to attack the man.

It was a relatively strong member of the pack from the looks of it. It ran towards Neivor but the guy seemed to not care about the iminent danger he was in. A moment later, the attacking wolf just stopped. Maxwell watched as the wolf stood dazedly near the man, a vacant look in its eyes.

He probably has something like a domain skill. Maxwell thought. His telepathy was unable to overwhelm animal minds, so he was quite curious how the man did it. There were around a dozen wolves circling the man, looking at him as if he were something like a dog prophet. That itself was probably a hint about the skill's nature.

He heard a crazed laugh coming from his left, and he was not surprised to see Ellie pummelling wolves like they were the victims. The scene was oddly familiar, making Maxwell remember Bob before he lost his berserker trait.

The woman, though, was much more technical in her approach. He could actually see that the woman was trained in at least some form of martial art, despite fighting like a maniac. She punched and kicked with a certain efficiency, and she didn't keep attacking the same enemy when it was already crippled or incapacitated.

It didn't take them long to finish off the remaining wolves, but Maxwell had a bad feeling about the whole ordeal. The pack didn't have a leader for once.

"Anyone leveled?" Ellie asked. She seemed disappointed by the lack of difficulty.

"There might be more coming; this was not a whole pack," Erne replied, not seeing the need to answer the exact question. He apparently thought the same as Maxwell. If a scouting group of the pack consisted of 60 wolves, how big would the full pack be?

"How strong is the strongest beast you guys ever seen?" he asked the group to get a better insight. This alpha would probably be around that level as it would eventually run out of prey.

"Nothing over 25 around the city. We seen some higher ones in the rifts though, but back then we were not strong enough to approach them." Erne asnwered.

"I would approach them alright if you guys let me," Ellie shouted from the side. She was wiping his gloves from the grime acquired from the battle.

"Any you wouldn't be here," Neivor interjected softly. The wolves around the guy was long killed by the others, but he looked really creepy, standing completely clean in a circle of dead wolves.

They suddenly hear a howl in the distance, making them turn to the east.

"If this were a scouting party only, that might still be the case soon," Erne said, concerned, as he glanced at the forest.

"We will be fine," Neivor said, as he smiled knowingly, looking at Maxwell. He is starting to act like a creep... In the battle Neivor had the best place to watch Maxwell's attack, even without the former weird event it made sense that the guy would trust him to beat anything coming their way.

Maxwell couldn't say that he was not excited. While being different to most people, he was still human, and humans liked progression. If he could gain some levels out of this, he would be happy. It would also make the rifts a lot safer if they were as dangerous as the group said.

Soon, they could hear footsteps coming towards them. They were muffled as paddy feet of the wolves didn't make much noise, but the sheer amount of animals was enough to make the sound easily heard.

This time, it was not hard to see which wolf was the alpha. There was a giant pack of wolves coming out of the forest, numbering above a hundred, and one of them stood apart from the others like a sore thumb.

The creature's body was half white, half black, and it had one small difference to normal wolves, it had two heads. Maxwell quickly observed the animal and he was more than satisfied with what he found out.

Wolf of Duality – Level – 32

Here we go, then.