Ch 9 - The Woods

Halberd clapped his hand and dusted off the dirt from his hands.
“Hey, we should get going now.”

Metrina hearing this hurriedly followed Halberd.
Both the pair then stood in front of the rocky wall.

She then gripped her staff tightly and looked a bit nervous for some reason. She let out a sigh and then glanced at Halberd and nodded.

Halberd just smiled and then turned his head and glanced at me,
“Hey kid, alert the town authorities and inform them what happened here. I will return to take down this stone wall, until I return no one should approach the woods.”

After saying so he turned back and picked his hammer and lugged it on his shoulder.

He then stretched out one of his hands and waved it in the air.

Suddenly a portion of the rocky wall opened like a door and the two walked outside.
After the two people entered the woods, the stone door quickly closed back as if the doorway never even existed.

Metrina mentioned there was more than one gray wolf.
So did they somehow break through the protecting array and found a way inside the woods?

Usually, Gray wolves are social creatures.
They tend to live in a pack.

The way Metrina and Halberd seemed to be in a hurry must be because they planned to hunt down the other wolves.

Halberd had mentioned he was in a party, maybe the other party members are currently engaged with wolves as we speak. That must be it.

I’ve heard a lot of tales and even read a lot of books about how brave adventurers travel around the world in their quest to seek treasure, defeat various strong monsters, etc.

I already had my fill of adventure in my previous life but what I am curious about was the way the human adventures fight. The way mana is used by humans is different from what I could use as a demon.

So if I get to see these adventurers in action I might be able to get some insight.

There was no time to waste, I quickly made up my mind.

This loud rumbling and the sudden appearance of the rocky walls might have already alerted the townsfolk. They must be on their way as we speak.

I ran back to Heather and told her to stay with mom. I also told her to warn other villagers to not approach the woods. She nodded like a good girl but asked me where I was going.

I didn’t answer, just patted her head and told her, I’ll be back soon.

After saying so I rushed back towards where the rocky wall stood.
These walls had a quite rough surface and I could tell that Halberd just made this in a hurry. Still, it’s not something your ordinary mage can make.

Although the walls were tall and long they can still be easily scaled.
I quickly found a suitable wall that allowed me to get some grip to climb. I have been training for so long, of course climbing the wall was a cinch.

After I reached the top of the wall I glanced back at our town.
I could certainly see some commotion rising in our town. There were many people on the streets and from the looks of it, they were approaching in our direction.

I then turned back my head towards the woods.
In the woods, I could see Halberd and Metrina heading deep inside woods. They seemed to be in a hurry but also were on guard.

I quickly ducked so that I won’t attract their attention.
After a few minutes, the pair disappeared completely out of sight.

I then glanced down and saw the river. This river actually separated our village from the woods but the wall now gave much more security.

Near the river, I saw a makeshift stone bridge that never existed before.
This must be created by Halberd to cross the river.

The river wasn’t too deep here, they could just cross the river by walking.
Nevermind.

Just when I heard loud noises coming from deep within the woods.

There was a lot of howling and growling sounds accompanied by loud explosions.

Without wasting any time I ran on top of the wall looking for a certain area.
The rocky wall was about 2 meters thick and it was easy to run around.

After reaching a certain area, I quickly dived into the river.
I knew this river like the back of my hand. The area in this river was a little deep and just about right to dive in.

After diving in, I crossed the river I glanced around.

From the direction I heard noises, I had little guess where this battle was taking place.

The gray wolves usually live in packs. A single wolf will be easy to kill but a pack operating like a team would give even a veteran adventurer a hard time.

The woods here create a decent cover for wolves to hide giving adventurers a hard time to hunt these wolves. The trees here would certainly obstruct the adventurer's vision, on the other hand, the wolves have a great sense of smell and easily track other adventurers.

So the only way to hunt wolves down is by luring them out to open space.
But even if you lure them to open space the adventurers should also have to be strong enough to kill them. This task also needs a good number of adventurers working together as a team.

Right now the most suitable place to lure the wolves would be the place near the rocky cliff waterfall. That area is quite spacious and wide enough for this task. The area around that place is a rocky formation and there are very few trees.

From the direction of the explosions and growls, it was certainly coming from the same place.

After determining the place I didn’t immediately start heading in that direction.

The wolves have a strong sense of smell and if they sense me, I will be good as dead.
I went in ran around the woods in a certain path and then stopped in front of a particular tree.

The tree wasn’t anything special, it looked like any other tree but there were a lot of red small cherry-like fruits hanging. I quickly climbed up and plucked a handful of these fruits.

These cherry-like fruits weren’t edible for direct human consumption. They weren’t poisonous but too sour for anyone to eat. They were used to create pickles and sometimes dried to create condiments to be used in various dishes. These fruits were common around the world and in abundant quantity in our woods, nothing special.

After collecting a lot of fruits, I squashed them in my hands and then started to rub the juices on my body. I applied them all over my body, my head, armpits, my hair, legs, etc. Once I neatly applied the paste of the fruits, I jumped back on the ground and took fresh soil, and then rubbed it to my body the same way as before.

I did this to hide my stench from getting detected by the wolves.

Once I thoroughly applied mud and the fruit paste, I was ready to head to the cliff waterfall.

In the woods, there were a lot of scattered rocky hills all over the place. These hills were actually the source of stream water which all connected to create the river near our town.

The place where Halberd and Metrina are heading is also the waterfall cliff but to go there directly, there was a huge rocky hill obstructing their path. This particular rocky hill was the largest hill in the area and it’s not easy to climb over this thing. The rocky walls of this hill were quite steep and climbing it would be too much of a hassle. So I am pretty sure, Halberd and Metrina will go around the hill to reach the waterfall cliff.

But I just directly went to where the Rocky hill was.
After I reached the big rocky hill, I then headed to a cave. This cave was particularly small and a kid like myself could easily enter it.

Others might not aware of it but this cave is actually a natural passageway that could help anyone cross over and reach the other end of this hill.

I didn't waste any time and went inside the small tunnel.
It was a little dark inside but I had transverse many times in this tunnel, so even in the dark, it was easy to travel.

It took me about 15 minutes to cross this hill to reach the other end of this hill.

Before exiting I checked the area around me to make sure there were no wolves in the vicinity. After making sure the area was safe, I quickly rushed and climbed on top of a tree.

From this point on, it’s better to use trees to travel around.
Running around the ground would be too dangerous and I won't know when I run into a stray wolf.

I jumped by grabbing on to tree branches and leaped to other trees heading to the waterfall cliff. My reflexes were like a monkey as I leaped from tree to tree. I had also trained my handgrip in the woods so that I could be as agile as a monkey.

I was also on my guard on the lookout to see if there were any wolves nearby. If I ever spot a wolf, it’s best to hide in the trees until it passes away. Thankfully I didn't see any wolves on my way.

As I started to get closer to the water cliff, the noise also started to increase as well.

There was a lot of howling and growling of wolves and then there would be a sound of a loud explosion that shook the land. There would be at least 1 or 2 explosions every minute.

While standing on the top of the trees, I could see smoke coming and flashes of light in midst of faraway trees. The place where smoke was coming was just around the corner.
That place is the cliff waterfall.