Chapter 103: Hunting Wolves
Four tasks that would force him to go through significant effort just to keep spending time with Lucretia.
He was not pleased with the requirements but he would get them done to prove that they were not enough to make him leave.
Each task had a problem however.
Firstly the core of a territory king simply meant he had to slay a miniboss located in any territory, he could use a core given by the queen since she was adamant over the individual that gave the task had clearly done so.
The second problem with the quest was that he had to actually travel a bit to find infernal wolves and finding a target he'd be satisfied with was likely to take time.
The third and final problem actually came from the council's own quest.
Execution of a kingdom's leader would be incredibly difficult no matter what he did so he would have to get creative with his skills there.
"If I kill this leader wouldn't it cause problems for your kingdom and it's people? I would be committing an act of war."
Lucretia simply shrugged.
"They swore loyalty to the church, they already declared war on us."
"Huh? Wait how does that work? The war is between the celestials and the church."
She giggled sweetly and cupped his cheek.
"Oh darling, the church has been an enemy of ours ever since they were created by the ratty pope."
She shook her head and turned back to the city.
"An escort must go with you but I have made sure it's Leya so you won't be uncomfortable... be safe my darling."
She squeezed his hand one final time before entering her tent.
As he left the city walls he flew over the small army of slimes he had seen respawn endlessly as fodder for young devils and demons.
He easily found Leya and upon landing greeted her.
"Hey Leya, so where could I locate some Infernal Wolves? I need to kill one for this obnoxious quest."
She laughed a bit before shaking her head.
"I had heard rumors of challenges to your courtship but that seems like an excessive way to push you."
"Nah they actually have very low restrictions on that quest but I want to try to blow that one out of the water by killing a strong wolf to show them that they are not worth my time."
She grins.
"Well said! The infernal wolves are known to live in the forests near the ravine and the caves inside of both regions."
He nods and begins to think about his possible moves here.
By killing a powerful miniboss he could make them regret targeting him and if he completed his tasks quickly then he would show them even more of their own weakness.
"Another task is that I have to get the core of a territory leader so what would be the best method there? I don't have to kill it but I want to so that I can prove a point."
She nods and began to think.
"Well there is a creature that solves both requirements actually, there is an infernal wolf territory king."
When he heard this he almost cheered until he began to think about the requirements of the two quests.
"I can't use more than one spell against the wolf and the core doesn't have to be something that I personally killed so I may have to go after a different wolf and then another boss..."
'Killing that miniboss would easily earn me the respect I wanted but if I did so it would be incredibly tough to handle a miniboss in this region using only one spell.'
He shook his head and just focused on finding another wolf before the boss since he could kill the boss after the lesser target was killed which would still get him the success.
~
The woods near the infernal kingdom were very strange, trees that reeked of coal dust and the occasional line of red in their trunks that Leya confirmed as fire mana.
"Ok this place really does feel like Hell now, why are the trees full of fire mana?"
She gave him a grin before showing him the axe she carried, the handle of which was a deep black that he originally thought was metal or some other tough material but turned out to be wood with faint red lines in the rings of the wood.
"It is a qood that channels fire mana very well so anyone with a fire affinity benefits greatly from weapons used to make it, this means we cultivate the mana rich trees while the norm trees are culled."
He nodded and continued walking beside her while looking for signs of anything else that was odd by using his new eye based skill.
All he saw so far was a mana dense forest that made the dungeon look like a lake compared to this ocean of it.
"Hey would you mind if I stopped to cultivate? I never realized this place had insane mana density."
She gave another silent nod and stood watch while he sat with his legs crossed.
'This is my first time cultivating my mana gem since getting here so I wonder what all the crazy new skills will do?'
And so he began to cultivate by drawing in the mana in his surroundings.
He pulled mana like a vortex with his lesser mana manipulation bringing the energy in so easily, he also noticed that his body drank mana in greedily the more his skin was exposed to it so he tested this idea by expanding his wings.
With his wings acting like great solar pannels for mana he started to absorb the latent energy in the air like a sinkhole with no visible bottom.
He absorbed mana so rapidly that the creatures of the forest actually began to take notice as well.
He saw through his strange mana sense that Leya was being approached by several mana saturated figures which made him use his item skill to teleport over and stop the attacker.
It turned out to be a rabbit with a very strange look to it and when he saw the first he began to see the rest.
~~~~~~~~~~
Abyssal Hare lv437
~~~~~~~~~~
'Damn that's strong for a rabbit.'
He began to cast his wide range effects using his frenzy bombs in particular to damage multiple at a time.
Leya sat back for a moment to watch the slaughter with a smug expression until he dispatched the last one.
"You could take their pelts, the fur on it sells very well for noble clothing..."
For a moment be thought she was messing with him before he nodded.
"I don't have a bag..."
She tossed him a leather bag before the words fully peft his mouth.
"The queen demanded this be given to you so do not destroy it ok? Make sure you use ot well for her majesty."
He smiled and nodded his head as he put everything in the bag which shockingly held more than it's size implied, a bag with an extra dimensional space within.
He thanked her quickly before continuing down the path, he made sure to use one particularly mangled hare to try to act as bait for other creatures while walking.
"So how far away are these wolves? Is it normally this hard to find any?"
She shook her head and had a troubled expression.
Experience more tales on m v|l e'm,p| y- r
"A noble may ne playing dirty, I suspect the wolf population in the forest has been culled to prevent your success for as long as possible."
He nods and started searching for mana signatures again and while he saw many they were primarily underground.
"I think the ravine has caves in it right? I see things underground ao they may be hidden in caves."
Leya looked surprised before looking around.
"You may be right, that's impressive that you could swe where their mana was from so far away you know."
He smirked and followed her to the ravine edge where they would soon be hunding infernal wolves.
"I can only use one spell and the quest seemed to imply that I could kill an already weakened wolf but I want to select one myself and kill it on my own."
The reason he said this was due to the level of the wolvea.
~~~~~~~~~~
Infernal Wolf (Omega) lv521
~~~~~~~~~~
An omega was the lowest class of wolf, technically the weak and old were below that in the wild but if an omega was lv500 then he would be in for a world of trouble.
'These things have some scary levels, damn. How am I meant to kill these things?'
She watched his reaction with interest before walking out.
He cursed before following.
"You will kill a wolf, you will succeed and you will court the queen that cares deeply for your happiness. If you do not court the queen then I will be there to personally beat you do you understand?"
He nods.