~ Adventurer"s life Day 32 (Thu) Afternoon ~ Comnes Town – Far South – Main Road

The peaceful and idling scenery of travelling to the south all completely changed into a noisy battle of shouts and howlings.

There"s a large number of people here, but the majority of them are not fit for fighting.

It seems like they"re struggling in dealing with them all.

Examining closely, these beasts all had a familiar grey fur and large frame, and moving around agilely with a teamwork that would make it annoying to deal with… 

… Ah it"s them again, the forest wolves… From what I can tell from the surrounding situation, about 20 of them appeared.

Amongst the confusion and escaping caravan members, about 3 of those appeared approaching our way.

Before, I heard from Mr Wolf who was more experienced about these sort of things. It"s that these wolves would send some to keep the stronger adventurers busy while they attack weaker allies.

So they see us as strong adventurers here huh… should I feel honored about this?

Well anyways, I"ll handle it with the usual tactics… so I shout out.

"Hold up your shields! Protect yourself for the time being!"

The wolves hesitated in attacking for just a moment in response, but the 3 split up to flank both sides… I threw some coins at the side with two, while Mario handles the other.

(… Summon!)

At that thought, 9 skeletons (armored and non armored) were surrounding tightly around the forest wolves with their shields up.

It"s the usual pattern, they restrict their movement, and then use that chance to strike them down.

Once it"s confirmed the wolves here were completely taken care of, I turned over to Mario"s side.

"Ohh!?"

Before I noticed, the wolf"s head went flying after Mario swung his battle axe right at the base of its neck.

(… Not bad!)

I threw my coin, calling out skeleton A… I handed over the skeleton for Mario to control as it"s equipped with a hatchet. With skills like that, he"s sure to make better use of it.

"Mario, I leave these guys to you. Protect Benedetta as well!"

"Master. Leave it to me."

After separating from the group, I called out the remaining 10 skeletons and a.s.sessed the situation… ah, there"s a child being targeted by a wolf on top of a carriage!?

"Take this!"

In reflex, I threw a stone at it"s flank making a deep blow and causing it to crouch and wince, to which  skeletons to gave the final blow to it… Nearby, there were 2 adventurers surrounded by 3 wolves, so I sent out some skeletons to a.s.sist them as well.

"We got back up? No!?… Why are there armed skeletons here in the middle of the day!?"

"They"re back up! So deal with the forest wolves!"

A wolf took on a blow from one of the skeletons, but still continued to stare at me right until a dagger flashed by at it… That wolf had its hind legs cut, and without giving it the chance to react, the skeletons pummelled it with their clubs… Well, that sure helped me out.

"Thanks so much for the help!"

One of the adventurers handling one of the forest wolves was an old man, but from the way he moved with that sword… had the wolf sent flying. It didn"t move after that.

Seems like that sword hit a vital spot.

The last wolf was pressed down by about 10 skeletons and is in the middle of being beaten to death.

It too stopped moving after a while.

"Uwaa! It"s a monster!"

"I thought they were adventurers, but the arms and legs are bones!! They"re monsters!"

Oops… Mario and the 9 other skeletons seemed to have started gaining some attention… I should give them an order for them to remain where they"re stationed… 

They"ve been helping out in aggroing some of the surrounding wolves, but it"s annoying since not many people here knows if they"re allies or not.

I gave out an order to them to return and protect the carriage with Benedetta, while I had 2 of the skeletons from their side group up with me.

(… Both their speed and power, they"re not as overwhelming as it was before… There"s no doubt it"s due to levelling up… With the skeletons here, even handling a group of them is no problem…)

And at that thought…

Aooooouu!!

A noticeably loud howl was heard.

Was that guy observing from the top of that hill?

It was staring right at me the whole time but… it"s really big.

It"s about twice the size of the forest wolves we defeated earlier, and it"s running towards my way!

There were other adventurers and forest wolves in front, but it pa.s.sed by them without any attention.

(… Oi, oi! It"s really coming this way!)

The two skeletons nearby immediately came in front to protect me, but the guy just jumped past right them. The skeletons were too slow to react!

"Gueh!"

It landed right on top of my shield. It"s weight alone almost crushed me.

(Gh… Somehow, this feels rather nostalgic.)

The wolf was prepared to make another attack from under my shield, but it noticed the 2 skeletons it pa.s.sed by earlier making their counter attack and swinging their weapons, so it backed off.

(… It"ll be bad if we let this guy go…)

My entire arm and shoulder that was holding the shield felt completely numb… My eyes were never taken off from the wolf, but the surrounding adventurers still seem to be stuck in the middle of battle. I can"t expect anymore back up here.

… Once this thing starts to make its move again, I doubt I might even be able to take another attack…

"Master! Are you alright!"

Mario came over to my side along with skeleton A.

It should be over 5 minutes since we"ve been attacked.

And now with a wave with my hand, apart from the ones guarding Benedetta, 9 other skeletons were called over to here regardless of their current situation… with this, the tables have turned.

As if it was hesitating on what to do for several seconds, I acted before it made its move.

Stones were thrown up into the air and landing near the wolf trying to confuse it, while I threw a stone bullet directly at it.

The boss wolf was able to barely dodge it, at which I immediately responded by having the the stone golem appear in the sky right above where it dodged to… And that"s that.

Not even a finishing blow is needed. The stone golems weight is already more than enough.

… I say that, but when walking over to it, though it"s faint it still seems to be breathing… Unbelievable… 

Taking precautions against a cornered monster, I had it held down by skeletons before slicing it"s neck with the bone dagger.

(Phew-, that could"ve been dangerous…)

Seeing as their strongest had been slain, the rest started fleeing one after another in numbers much less than it was originally.

Once I don"t see any wolves around us anymore, I hurried back to the carriage we were originally in, and found Benedetta out of the carriage with a drawn sword. From the looks of things, she seems to be trying to protect the children hiding underneath the carriage… her and along with several other skeletons a.s.sisting her.

From this attack, there was a number that died, and many injured.

There were pharmacists and monks within the group, helping others out. I was wondering whether to give out my potions, to which Benedetta pointed out that I can just say I bought these from Comnes.

… It"s a bit of a shocking revelation, but  it seems like I would hesitate when making use of my divine protection to help other adventurers who I"m not acquainted with… 

I also applied some of the potion to myself, on the arm and shoulder that hurt. The pain disappeared after only applying a little… It really seems to have gotten much more effective than before…

At that, a merchant, who seemed to be some sort of top bra.s.s around here, walks towards some adventurers.

"d.a.m.n it! Why were the forest wolves in such a place, not to mention in such a group!?"

"Even the information from Comnes stated that there were only stray wolves seen wandering around the forest."

They seemed to be a.s.sessing the damage of the situation while walking around. Checking for damages on carriages and injured people, but they stopped when arriving here.

"So it"s caused by this guy!?"

"… Seems to be…"

Their stares stop at the giant wolf laying by my feet.

"This one"s an "Alpha"…"

A seemingly competent adventurer said so after taking a look at the giant wolf"s carca.s.s.

""Alpha"?"

"Yeah… Many people don"t really know much about this, but it"s really rare for a forest wolf to grow this big and strong. I"m not really sure myself but this guy can command together a large group of wolves, along with its unusual size, while being plenty strong itself. It"s really a troublesome guy. Though this is the first time I"ve seen one."

The reason the caravans were attacked was because of this guy huh. It"s not possible for wolves to group up with ones outside of their blood relations.

I don"t recall it happening in the game, but I suppose in this world,irregular occurrences like this would happen… It"s probably best to keep a look out for these… 

Including the ones the other skeletons defeated themselves, the number we defeated was 9.

There were people who died here though, so I can"t really be happy about this… 

At that, a caravan merchant shouted out to me,

"Is that the "Alpha" forest wolf you say! Not to mention, the fur had barely been damaged! Certainly, could you sell this to me!?"

U-wa… The amount he offered was 30 times the price for an ordinary wolf.

I look to the former merchant Mario on his opinion, and he gave me back the OK sign. The money is so high here, I can"t properly a.s.sess whether it"s appropriate or not… 

The merchant seems quite pleased with himself, having acquired a possibly mutated forest wolf as he left… I actually wanted to dismantle that myself.

… I was a little out of it, but I remembered there were other wolves I needed to dismantle.

I had the skeletons and Golem recalled and began preparing to dismantle.

With a hunting knife, I took out the most valuable portions of the fur from every one of them.

Mario also seemed quite proficient as he was swiftly dismantling.

Since the three of us was quite used to this, we already finished with the 8 carca.s.ses in a short amount of time…

We can"t really bring the meat with us, so we gave the rest to the other adventurers and keeping a couple with us for food and souvenirs when arriving at the village.

Once the dead were buried, the caravans continued on moving…

It took until evening for us to finally arrive to the village.

~ Adventurer"s life Day 32 (Thu) Evening ~ Gado Village

We"re finally here…

It"s kinda similar size to the village I was born in, about 300 people… That village was north of Comnes though.

The merchant in charge of organising the trip was conversing with the village chief about their start for the night, but Mario walked further away to the edge of the village.

Eventually, we reached a house there with a number of wheels leaned up against the wall. Mario knocked onto the door.

"Zem! You in? Open up for me!"

After a moment of waiting, a black haired middle aged man with a red face opened the door… he"s about the same age as Mario when he was alive.

However, his physique was much different. He was sort of tall and thin..

"… That voice, is it Mario? What the sudden visit?"

"Lemme just get some complications out of the way first. Look at this."

Eh!?

Right off the bat, Mario already took off his helmet.

A skeleton head with a Kaiser mustache was shown inside of it!

However, the man didn"t get shook at all.

"Seems like some things happened… well, might as well come inside."

Zem responds somewhat nonchalantly…

Wow, he really didn"t mind at all…

—- Divine Protection and Skills —-
Necromancer level 6: Undead Servant 21 Summons; Bone manipulation; Ghost Servant; Bonuses < bone="" weapon;="" bone="" armor;="" gathering;="" night="" vision="">
Alchemist level 6: (Health/Poison/Mana) potion create; Extraction; Plating; Bonuses < throw;="" gathering="">
Sculptor level 6: Engrave; Golem (Wood/Earth/Stone); Bonuses < dagger;="" hammer;="" sculpting;="" gathering;="" mining="">

—- Summon Equipment —-
A: Hatchet + 6/6, Kite shield (metal) + 6/6, Blood stained leather armor + 0/6.
B: Mace + 6/6, Round shield with iron frame (wood) + 6/6
C: Battle axe, Heavy round shield (bone) + 6/6, Greek armor and helmet, Mantle
D-O: Club + 6/6, Heavy round shield (bone) + 6/6, Greek armor and helmet

—- Equipment —-
Pig femur Bone dagger - 2 sets + 6/6
Barbarian robe + 0/3
Half-face guarded Viking helmet (bone) + 5/4
Heavy Round Shield (bone) + 5/4

※: + X/Y Arbitrary level of engraving and plating respectively.