Chapter 161-170 The First Goblin Wolf Rider (Patreon)

Chapter 161

The First Goblin Wolf Rider

Leaving the warriors to wrestle with the Giant Wolves, Karath headed toward one of the houses in Lake Village.

It was Berners’s temporary residence.

“You’re working hard.”

“You’re here, Grand Chief?”

Berners was exercising vigorously in the yard.

After collapsing from the effects of burning through his life force, he had recovered quickly once Karath formed a mana core inside him.

He could move freely again after about a week, and by the tenth day, he had already resumed training.

“I’ve been lying down for too long lately. I think I’m losing muscle, Grand Chief.”

After ten months of exercise, Berners had become a true training fanatic.

The possibility of losing muscle terrified him.

Since Berners had resumed exercising anyway, Karath had begun properly teaching him mana control.

“Are you getting used to moving mana?”

“Yes, Grand Chief. It moves wherever I want now!”

Karath had fed him the mana stone to save his life, but the process had also created a mana core roughly the size of a chestnut in his abdomen.

Karath was now teaching him how to absorb mana from nature, circulate it through his body, and strengthen different muscle groups.

“What I’m teaching you is fundamentally based upon an orc’s axe art. Once you become comfortable sending mana into your muscles, you should modify it to suit archery, like you did during the wyvern battle.”

“I was actually going to ask about that.”

“Ask whatever you need.”

“Heh. The orc axe art does feel slightly wrong for us. I can imitate the movements after practising, but something feels misaligned every time I swing an axe.”

“Mmm.”

The difference probably came from the physical structures of orcs and goblins.

Karath could hardly dissect them to confirm the theory, so it remained only a guess.

“Then practise swinging an axe or drawing a bow in whatever manner feels most natural while not using mana. Memorise which parts of your body are stimulated. After that, refine the movements while using the smallest possible amount of mana.”

“Why do I need to use as little mana as possible?”

“If you recklessly pour mana into an unfamiliar movement, you could twist every muscle in your body.”

Mana strengthened muscles.

If someone increased raw power while their body was unbalanced, however, that strength would destroy their own body rather than their opponent.

“Understood. I’ll research it with the other hobgoblins.”

“Have the alliance’s hobgoblins begun using mana as well?”

“Yes! As you ordered, I stopped them from using it before creating mana cores. Recently, several hobgoblins succeeded in forming them.”

It was undoubtedly good news, yet Berners looked strangely dissatisfied.

“Is there a problem?”

“They’re all too weak. They can use mana now, but they’re still weaker than female orcs.”

“What do you mean?”

“The other goblins always looked after them, so they never trained properly. They have almost no muscle to strengthen, so using mana doesn’t make much difference.”

“If the muscles themselves are feeble, mana will have little to enhance.”

Mana could strengthen the body only when there was something worth strengthening.

“It was my mistake to train only the goblin warriors. From now on, I need to work the hobgoblins half to death as well.”

A fully developed training fanatic stood before Karath.

That fanatic was now preparing to conduct group training.

The alliance would probably echo with the groans of hobgoblins for some time.

The alliance absorbed the remaining orc tribes and goblins near Lake Village.

Orga continued construction with the women and several warriors.

Whenever everyone rested in the afternoon, the warriors swarmed the Giant Wolves and created another commotion.

Karath watched them for a while before teaching Berners more about mana control.

A month passed quickly beneath that regular routine.

Every nearby orc and goblin group had joined the alliance.

Lake Village now possessed a wall taller than those of the other settlements.

Most of the Giant Wolves had also chosen riders.

Only three remained without partners, including Scar, all of them exceptionally large members of the pack.

“My turn!”

“You’ll fail anyway, so hurry up and get out of the way!”

Naturally, competition grew fiercer as the number of available wolves decreased.

While the orc warriors argued and prepared for another round of contests, an unexpected participant stepped forward.

“It’s my turn now!”

Berners had joined them.

By then, he had become reasonably familiar with mana control.

“Krahahaha! You intend to tame that enormous beast?”

“Have you never heard that smaller peppersh are hotter?”

“Smaller what?”

Chief Parker stared at him as though hearing the phrase for the first time.

Karath covered his face with both hands.

Why did Berners keep repeating that?

Karath had spoken the proverb once to encourage him.

Berners now treated it like sacred wisdom and repeated it everywhere.

Since the words had come from Karath’s mouth, he was the one whose body shrivelled with embarrassment each time.

“If you don’t understand, I’ll show you!”

Berners proudly glanced at Karath before climbing onto Scar’s back.

A suffocating contest began between the hobgoblin and the enormous wolf.

“Awoooo!”

Scar howled and violently twisted his body in every direction.

“Kiyaaaah!”

Berners released a sound somewhere between a battle cry and a scream while clinging desperately to the wolf’s back.

Even heavily muscled orc warriors had been thrown away by Scar.

No ordinary goblin strength could have endured those movements.

Berners was clearly using mana.

Only a month had passed since he began training in mana control, yet he seemed surprisingly skilled at remaining on Scar’s back.

“Kiyaaaah!”

“Hiiiii!”

Perhaps skilled was an exaggeration.

He was barely hanging on through a series of dangerous acrobatics.

“Woof! Woof!”

“Hiiiii!”

Every time Scar twisted, Berners screamed in agony.

The scene resembled a circus Karath vaguely remembered watching on television as a child.

“Krahahaha!”

“Give up and climb down, Berners!”

The surrounding orcs initially shouted playful mockery.

Then the strange performance continued beyond five minutes.

Then ten.

Gradually, their attitude changed.

“Ohhh.”

“Is he actually going to succeed?”

“Hold on, Berners!”

The orcs were creatures of determination and competition.

Moved by Berners’s persistence, they began cheering for him.

The howls of the Giant Wolves, Berners’s screams, and the encouragement of orc and goblin warriors blended together.

The spectacle continued for a long time.

“Awooo...”

Scar finally released a tired howl and stopped shaking his body.

“Haa... Haa...”

Berners looked half dead after struggling with the wolf for so long.

Even so, an enormous smile spread across his face.

“I did it!”

At that moment, the alliance gained its first goblin Wolf Rider.

“Thish is what it means when the smaller pepper ish hotter!”

Still gasping upon Scar’s back, Berners shouted proudly.

Karath stared at the scene with mixed feelings.

Scar was larger than most trolls.

Berners stood only slightly taller than one hundred and sixty centimetres.

He did not look like he was riding the wolf.

He looked like someone had placed him on top of it.

Chapter 162

A Wyvern Is Born

Several days later, the rainy season arrived in the Grimwood Mountains as it always did.

Rain poured from the sky.

“How is food distribution to the villages proceeding?”

“The crops grown in Root during spring are being transported in clay jars. To be safe, they only move the supplies on days when the rain stops or weakens.”

“That’s a relief.”

Karath remained at Lake Village, still the front line of the expansion war.

He held meetings with the advisers and issued commands across the alliance through Berners.

That was not how he spent all his time.

“You’ve all worked hard. Return and rest.”

After dismissing the advisers at the end of a meeting, Karath steadied his breathing and began manipulating mana.

The pause in the conquest had given him time for self-improvement.

He was an intermediate Aura User and a Fourth Circle mage.

That placed him among the strong, but it was still nowhere near sufficient for what awaited him in the future.

Karath gathered mana, refined the spells he already knew, and studied the theories behind Fifth Circle magic.

After spending several hours on magic, he took out his axe and trained his body and aura.

Several days passed beneath that disciplined routine.

A small change arrived near the end of the rainy season.

“Woof! Woof!”

Karath was in the middle of another long session of axe practice when Buddy, who had entered the house to escape the rain, suddenly began barking.

“What is it?”

His concentration had been forcibly broken.

Karath turned toward the wolf with mild irritation.

Then his eyes widened.

The wyvern egg Buddy had continued incubating even inside the house was trembling.

“Woof! Woof!”

Buddy, who had appeared bored with the egg lately, looked between it and Karath in confusion.

Then, as though reaching a decision, he extended his claws.

“Wait!”

Karath immediately grabbed him.

Buddy flailed his front legs and looked deeply wronged, trying to explain himself through gestures.

“You can’t even help a little.”

Buddy had not intended to destroy the egg.

He merely wanted to chip away part of the shell so the creature inside could emerge more easily.

Karath understood his intention.

It still was not allowed.

He vaguely remembered hearing that young birds should break through their shells without assistance.

Whether the same rule applied to wyverns was uncertain, but it seemed safer not to interfere.

“Let’s wait calmly.”

Karath had barely restrained Buddy, yet even he felt strangely restless.

They were witnessing the mystery of a new life entering the world.

More importantly, this was a wyvern, a creature Karath had never seen hatch before.

He had no idea what they were supposed to do.

As they watched, the egg’s vibrations grew stronger.

Tap.

One part of the shell began to crack.

Karath stared.

It had actually worked.

He had entrusted the egg to Buddy with only the faintest hope, yet the wolf had genuinely succeeded in incubating it.

Tick.

Tick.

The shell continued breaking.

As the opening widened, the creature inside gradually became visible.

The egg itself was larger than a basketball, so Karath had expected a large hatchling.

Even so, the newborn wyvern was already about the size of an ordinary chicken.

He had watched it emerge from an egg and knew it was a baby, yet its size made it difficult to think of it as small.

“Byaat.”

“Byaat.”

The chicken-sized wyvern pushed its head through the broken shell.

It looked around while releasing strange little cries, as though exploring the world into which it had been born.

Buddy approached and began licking its body.

Perhaps two months of incubation had created some attachment.

He carefully cleaned away the mucus and fragments of shell clinging to the hatchling.

A broad smile naturally spread across Karath’s face.

“Heh heh. I’m your father, Wyvie.”

His future private aircraft had finally been born.

More precisely, his wyvern had been born.

Judging from its current size, it would take a long time before he could ride it.

The rainy season ended several days after the birth of the young wyvern, Wyvie.

The territorial expansion resumed naturally.

As always, Karath led the warriors in clearing roads and searching for suitable ground upon which to establish another village.

“ROOOAAAR!”

They fought countless monsters without pause along the way.

There was one major difference compared with the period before the rains.

Whoosh!

A fierce sound tore through the air in the middle of the battle.

Thud!

It was followed by the sound of a watermelon bursting.

Berners had spent roughly two months training, including the rainy season, and was now firing arrows with mana.

The short-ranged shots that once left only shallow scratches upon monster hides had disappeared.

As though poison were no longer necessary, his arrows shattered the skulls of monsters.

Berners was not the only one who had changed.

The hobgoblins who awakened mana through his shared experience were also beginning to distinguish themselves in battles around the alliance’s settlements and waystations.

Reports of their achievements arrived regularly.

Karath found the development encouraging.

From the Grand Chief’s perspective, the alliance’s military strength had increased.

At the time, however, he did not realise that the hobgoblins’ accomplishments were beginning to create changes within the alliance that extended beyond anything he had expected.

Chapter 163

The Ogre with Two Heads

The expansion project was progressing smoothly.

In the four months since the end of the rainy season, the alliance had successfully established four additional villages.

This expedition, however, marked the first time they had travelled beyond the mountain where Lake Village and the wyvern nests were located.

Lake Village protruded southward from the rest of the alliance’s territory like the point of a spear.

It resembled the alliance’s earliest expansion, when they had cleared a straight path from Root through Blacksmith Village and onward to Heritage Village.

Expanding in a single narrow line caused problems with supplies and military support.

Because of that, the alliance had been expanding in a broad semicircle centred upon Root, advancing east, south, and west while leaving the north untouched.

Karath would have preferred to expand northward as well, but doing so would bring them closer to human territory.

For now, that direction had been postponed.

The four villages built during the past four months had therefore expanded eastward and westward to connect the broader territory with the isolated Lake Village.

Now that the supply lines had been stabilised, Karath had finally begun the expedition beyond the mountain.

“Another warrior was injured in Root?”

“Yes...”

Karath sighed as Berners delivered the report during the final expedition of the year to establish a new village.

He sat upon Buddy’s back and stroked Wyvie’s head where the young wyvern rested across his lap.

The gesture did little to ease his frustration.

“The hobgoblins awakened mana, so our fighting strength increased. Yet the number of wounded has not changed at all.”

“I’m shorry.”

“You did nothing wrong. There is no reason for you to apologise.”

The injuries were not caused by hobgoblins recklessly experimenting with mana.

Most casualties were still orc warriors.

The alliance now possessed far greater ranged firepower.

Root also had sturdy walls and numerous traps.

“If they merely delayed the monsters, the ranged fighters should be able to finish them. Why are our warriors still being injured?”

If casualties remained unchanged despite the improvement in their strength, then something was wrong.

As the alliance’s leader, Karath found it deeply frustrating that he had yet to identify the problem.

It was not limited to Root.

The other villages had fewer monsters nearby, but they also possessed fewer warriors.

Berners regularly received reports of injuries from those settlements as well.

“It appears the warriors are leaving the walls and traps to fight the monsters directly,” Krog said carefully from the back of his own wolf.

“In the past, the orcs had to finish every monster themselves because we lacked ranged attacks. That is no longer true.”

“That is correct, but... I think I understand why they are doing it.”

“You understand?”

Did Krog know the reason?

Karath turned toward him with a questioning expression.

“Woof! Woof!”

There was no time to hear the answer.

Buddy suddenly began barking fiercely beneath Karath.

A chill raced along Karath’s spine.

“Prepare for battle!”

He lowered Wyvie to the ground and immediately commanded the warriors.

“ROOOAAAR!”

“GRAAAAGH!”

Deep roars echoed through the forest, followed by the sound of trees snapping apart.

“Ogres!”

After encountering them so many times, Karath could identify the creatures by sound alone.

As though proving him correct, enormous figures tore through the trees and emerged before the expedition.

There were four ogres.

The alliance warriors had successfully hunted ogres many times.

Four ordinary specimens would not have been anything unusual.

“What in the ancestors’ names is that one?” an orc muttered. “Why does it have two heads?”

Karath shared the warrior’s disbelief.

One of the four ogres possessed two heads.

As though attempting to justify that unreasonable feature, the rest of its body was equally absurd.

An ordinary ogre already stood close to four metres tall.

The two-headed creature towered another metre above the others.

Its arms, legs, and entire body were proportionally larger, but its shoulders stood out most of all.

Perhaps to support two heads, they spread outward with unnatural breadth.

An unusual specimen.

After encountering the drake, the cockatrices, and the Wyvern Lord, Karath had developed an instinct for such monsters.

He had a strong suspicion that this one could use mana.

An ogre was already an unreasonable creature.

If one of them grew even larger and learned to manipulate mana...

“I will fight the two-headed ogre! Berners, support me. Krog, command the remaining warriors...”

“That leader is mine!”

“Let us face it together, Brother!”

Before Karath could finish issuing his orders, the alliance’s two half-ogres charged forward.

Kaden and Chief Parker rushed directly toward the Twin-Headed Ogre.

“Damn it!”

Karath urged Buddy after them before even completing his sentence.

“Awooo!”

Recognising the urgency, Buddy sprinted forward.

“Groups One and Two, engage the ogre on the far left!” Krog shouted. “Groups Three and Four, take the one to the leader’s right!”

“Draw them apart and create space!”

“Do not block their attacks! Evade them!”

“Goblins, support the orc warriors with your bows!”

Fortunately, Krog understood Karath’s intentions and took command without needing further instructions.

By then, Kaden and Parker had already reached the Twin-Headed Ogre.

“GROOOAAAR.”

Perhaps it found the small creatures charging it amusing.

Both mouths twisted as it released a hideous sound.

Unlike the ear-splitting roars of ordinary ogres, its voice was a deep rumble that seemed to rise from the underworld and press against every part of the body.

Whether they were fearless or simply foolish, Kaden and Parker ignored it and continued forward.

Whoosh!

The Twin-Headed Ogre swept its right arm toward them as casually as someone driving away flies.

Using their momentum, Kaden and Parker threw themselves into forward rolls.

The enormous arm passed close enough to brush across their backs.

Having escaped death by the narrowest margin, the two warriors used the momentum of their rolls to rise and rush closer.

“Hraaaah!”

“Die, monster!”

They reached the creature’s feet and swung their axes at its legs.

BOOM!

The collision produced a sound far too violent to have come from steel striking flesh.

Karath’s eyes widened.

The alliance’s two physically strongest warriors had struck with everything they possessed.

They failed to sever the ogre’s legs.

Their axes barely broke through the hide and cut shallow wounds into the flesh.

They had not reached the bone.

They had not even seriously damaged the muscle.

“GROOOAAAR!”

The attacks were not fatal, but perhaps that only made them more irritating.

The Twin-Headed Ogre roared in its terrible low voice and raised a fist to crush the warriors at its feet.

“Explosion!”

The Fourth Circle spell detonated between the creature’s two heads just before it could strike.

“Move!”

The ogre staggered from the impact.

Kaden and Parker immediately threw themselves away and escaped the descending fist.

Karath stared at the monster.

“What an absurd creature.”

It had taken a Fourth Circle spell directly between its heads.

Neither skull had exploded.

The blast had melted the skin across its faces and left blood and fluid flowing from the wounds.

The facial bones visible beneath the torn flesh appeared completely intact.

Such injuries might have been understandable after being struck by a Third Circle Fireball.

This was Fourth Circle magic.

The spell possessed destructive force comparable to a modern grenade, yet a direct hit to the face had failed to kill it.

There was no longer any question about the monster’s durability.

Chapter 164

The First Beastman

“Fall back and assist the other warriors!”

Karath ordered Kaden and Parker away before charging the creature upon Buddy.

He needed to draw its attention.

“GROOOAAAR!”

The monster seemed to understand that Karath had injured its faces.

It roared and attacked him.

Whoosh!

A fist as large as Karath’s upper body tore through the air.

Normally, saying a fist aimed at someone’s torso would mean it targeted one particular part of the body.

This fist was large enough to destroy his entire upper body at once.

“Awooo!”

Buddy evaded the blow with an acrobatic burst of movement.

Karath clutched the reins around Buddy’s neck, the tendons across his forearms bulging as he endured the violent momentum.

Buddy slipped beneath the monster’s reach in an instant.

Like Kaden and Parker before him, Karath swung at the ogre’s calf with all his strength.

BOOM!

Once again, the impact sounded nothing like an axe striking living flesh.

Aura made Karath’s wound much deeper than those created by the two half-ogres.

Even so, he only succeeded in splitting muscle.

The blade did not reach the bone.

The monster’s durability was ridiculous.

More strangely, the moment Silvertusk struck, Karath felt an unknown force pushing the axe back.

“GROOOAAAR!”

The furious Twin-Headed Ogre punched at the enemy standing near its feet.

Whoosh!

At that moment, an arrow fired by Berners buried itself in the right eye of the monster’s right head.

An ordinary creature might have been crippled after losing an eye.

This monster possessed four.

The punch continued toward Karath without losing accuracy.

“Aero Shield!”

Karath cast the Third Circle defensive spell to delay it.

The shield shattered in less than a second beneath the fist.

“Awooo!”

That brief moment was enough for Buddy to leap away.

With three axe wounds in its legs and one eye destroyed, the monster stumbled after them and swung its arms and feet wildly.

“I am Kaden, warrior of the Bloodclaw Tribe!”

“Taste the axe of Parker, warrior of the Doubleaxes Tribe!”

Kaden and Parker, who had supposedly withdrawn, attacked the ogre from behind.

Boom!

Crunch!

This time, the sounds produced by their axes were slightly different.

Fire and wind swirled around the two weapons.

They had inserted the cockatrice mana stones Karath gave them the previous year into their axes.

“Move back!”

Their attack had drawn the monster’s attention again.

Karath needed to reclaim it through something even more reckless.

He pulled Buddy’s reins and charged back into the ogre’s reach.

Buddy twisted through the incoming attacks with impossible agility, passing them by the narrowest margins.

“Hraaaah!”

Karath entered the creature’s guard and created another wound.

Whenever Karath and Buddy held its attention, Berners’s arrows and the mana-stone axes of Kaden and Parker struck from other directions.

“Aero Shield!”

“Dig!”

Whenever danger became unavoidable, Karath used magic to delay the monster’s attacks for a fraction of a moment and escape.

The battle continued.

Eventually, the ogre’s legs were reduced to bloody ruins.

Only one of its four eyes remained unharmed.

“Do not approach! Support them from a distance!”

“Do not interfere with the Grand Chief’s movements!”

The other warriors joined them after killing the remaining three ogres.

With their ranged support, Karath and the others finally brought down the Twin-Headed Ogre without suffering serious casualties.

Even after the ogres fell, Karath did not lower his guard.

During the fight against the unusual monster, he had sensed something clearly.

Mana had moved nearby.

He did not know what creature had used it.

The mere fact that mana had been manipulated was enough to demand caution.

From Karath’s experience, the only beings in the forest capable of using mana, apart from members of the alliance, were absurdly dangerous monsters.

“Buddy!”

“Awooo!”

The wolf seemed to read Karath’s intentions.

Without needing the reins to guide him, Buddy sprinted toward the place where the mana disturbance had originated.

How did he know the direction?

Could Buddy sense mana?

Considering his obsession with mana stones, it was entirely possible.

Buddy must also be an unusual specimen.

Karath felt as though he was finally beginning to understand the silver wolf’s nature.

Buddy raced through the undergrowth.

The moment they reached the place where the mana had moved, Karath’s eyes widened.

Why was a human here?

A corpse lay upon the ground.

The dead man’s black robe had been soaked red with blood.

Beside the corpse stood the owner of a set of claws from which the human’s blood continued to drip.

“A wolf man...?”

Karath had seen such a being only in the murals of Heritage Village.

For the first time, he had encountered one of the beastfolk.

Chapter 165

The Silver Wolf Tribe

“Did you just call us wolf-men? An orc dares use that name?”

One of the two wolffolk growled at Karath.

As expected of someone resembling a blend of wolf and man, his teeth were as sharp as a beast’s fangs.

Why was he so angry?

Karath glanced at the human corpse sprawled across the ground and soon understood.

The word man must have offended him.

Like the orcs and goblins, these people had probably been driven into the Grimwood Mountains by humanity.

Being described in relation to their most hated enemies had apparently struck a nerve.

“I apologise for using the wrong name. But you are hardly entitled to call us mere orcs.”

They were not the only ones owed an apology.

According to the murals Karath had seen, the beastfolk had also helped drive the orcs away in ancient times.

Though if they hated being associated with humans, perhaps he should simply call them beastfolk.

“Hmph.”

The one who had growled merely snorted at Karath’s response.

His attitude was remarkably unpleasant.

“Grand Chief!”

“Wh-what are those?”

“Wolves standing on two legs?”

The alliance warriors who had followed Karath finally arrived in a rush.

“Orcs and goblins travelling together. How unusual.”

Even with dozens of alliance warriors gathering around them, the two wolffolk showed no tension.

One merely appeared mildly curious.

“They remain nothing more than orcs and goblins. Pathetic creatures.”

The hostile one continued speaking with the same contemptuous attitude.

“How dare you insult us!”

“You must be desperate to die!”

Kaden and Chief Parker immediately stepped forward.

They were only slightly faster than the other warriors.

Every orc and goblin present looked furious.

It felt less like the others were restraining themselves and more like they were allowing Kaden and Parker to represent them in a fair two-on-two contest.

“I am Kaden, warrior of the Greenskin Alliance.”

“And I am Parker, warrior of the Greenskin Alliance and chief of the Doubleaxes Tribe. You will answer for the words you just spoke.”

The two raised their enormous axes and growled.

The wolffolk’s reactions were peculiar.

“Enough, Wyg. Do not create needless conflict.”

One looked thoroughly annoyed by the entire situation.

“Hmph. Why should we care about mere orcs and goblins?”

Wyg remained as arrogant as ever.

“You wish to die?”

“Watch your wordsh!”

Their dismissive attitudes only enraged the alliance warriors further.

“How dare you!”

“We will teach you not to speak so carelessly!”

Kaden and Parker, the quickest to anger among them, could no longer restrain themselves and charged.

“Grrr.”

Wyg released a lupine growl and smiled viciously.

The expression gave Karath a sudden sense of unease.

Boom!

Wyg’s claws collided with Kaden’s enormous axe.

Every alliance warrior watching probably wore the same astonished expression as Karath.

Wyg’s claws remained completely unharmed after meeting Kaden’s monstrous strength.

More than that, Kaden was slowly being forced backward.

He can use mana.

There was no other reasonable explanation for that strength.

A vast difference existed between those capable of using mana and those who could not.

“Graagh!”

Their axe and claws collided several more times.

Kaden managed to endure the contest of strength through raw power, but he could not follow Wyg’s speed.

One slash opened a long wound across Kaden’s side.

A brave orc warrior would not stop merely because he was bleeding.

Eyes red with fury, Kaden prepared to charge again.

“Stand down, Kaden.”

Karath forced him to stop and stepped forward.

“Grand Chief! I can still fight!”

“They know how to use mana. Chief Parker, you should also withdraw.”

“Grr.”

Unlike Wyg, the calmer wolffolk had merely been humouring Parker.

Parker had suffered no injury.

Realising his opponent had deliberately gone easy on him only made his face burn with humiliation.

“Grrr. So you can sense mana?”

“I can. Those of equal rank should be the ones to fight.”

Wyg laughed with another sound resembling a wolf’s growl.

“How will you do it? Will you fight alone, or shall both of us come at you together?”

Karath looked between the two wolffolk.

He had tried to settle things peacefully, but they clearly had no interest in cooperating.

Since first seeing the murals at Heritage Village, Karath had imagined gathering the other races that had likely been driven into the Grimwood Mountains by humans.

He intended to expand the alliance by uniting them.

That meant accepting them as equals or bringing them beneath the alliance’s authority.

He had no intention of welcoming people who behaved like this.

The only reason Karath still showed a minimum of courtesy was that one of the two appeared reasonably sensible.

Had both behaved like lawless madmen, he would already have slaughtered them just as he had killed the knights in human territory.

“Grrr! A mere orc thinks he can fight both of us?”

“You talk far too much.”

When Wyg opened his mouth again, Karath charged without warning.

Whoosh!

Silvertusk swept toward him.

Seeing the straightforward attack, Wyg smirked and twisted aside as though the movement were obvious.

“Dig.”

The ground shifted beneath his feet.

For the first time, Wyg’s expression contorted.

“Grr!”

His lupine body recovered its balance with impressive agility, much like Buddy.

“Let us close that mouth first.”

Boom!

The brief instant of imbalance was enough for Karath’s fist to slam into Wyg’s muzzle.

“An orc using magic?”

Wyg managed to raise both arms and block the punch.

His strength felt comparable to, or perhaps slightly greater than, the knights Karath had fought in Viscount Lindberg’s territory.

“Use magic yourself if you dislike it.”

“Electric Shock.”

Lightning surged into Wyg’s arms while they were still pressed against Karath’s fist.

No amount of lupine agility could evade electricity released at near-contact range.

“GWAAARGH!”

Wyg resisted the current by reinforcing himself with mana, but he could not prevent his body from becoming paralysed.

“How does it feel to be beaten by a mere orc, wolf-man?”

Karath began the merciless punishment.

He struck every part of Wyg’s body with aura-enhanced punches and kicks.

“Oh? Trying to block?”

When Wyg reinforced himself to endure the blows, Karath switched to beating him with Silvertusk’s shaft.

“Yelp.”

After roughly twenty strikes, Wyg released the whine of a beaten dog and collapsed.

Karath turned toward the remaining wolffolk.

“Do you have no intention of joining him?”

“Wyg started this, so Wyg should bear the consequences. You also showed restraint, so I had no reason to interfere.”

The wolffolk had watched his companion being beaten with complete indifference.

“You believe I showed restraint?”

Intrigued, Karath gestured toward Wyg, who now resembled a half-starved stray dog.

“Had you wished to kill him, you could have finished him with your axe after the third exchange. You never struck him with the blade. Even your fists and feet avoided his vital points.”

“Oh.”

The wolffolk had apparently been prepared to intervene if Karath crossed the line.

“Then we will consider our debts settled. I misspoke first, but I apologised. Wyg continued provoking us and injured an alliance warrior.”

“Agreed.”

“Then let us return to the beginning. Who is the human lying there?”

Karath finally asked the question that had bothered him from the start.

This was not the outer edge of the mountains.

They stood deep within the Grimwood Mountains, where humans never ventured without an extraordinary reason.

“That is none of your concern.”

The wolffolk answered with the same detached attitude.

“Listen.”

Karath was about to object when the other man suddenly spoke more quickly.

“Our Silver Wolf Tribe wants nothing to do with humans, orcs, goblins, or anyone else. Forget what you saw and leave.”

His urgency contrasted strangely with his previously indifferent behaviour.

“You orcs and goblins must have crossed the mountain behind you. This region contains far more monsters than the land on the other side. There is nothing for you here.”

He pointed toward the mountain where the alliance had hunted the wyverns and established Lake Village.

“I hope we never meet again.”

With those words, the Silver Wolf warrior collected Wyg from the ground and disappeared into the undergrowth.

Chapter 166

The Wolf’s Evolution

Naturally, Karath did not hear the Silver Wolf warrior’s warning and decide that the region was too dangerous to continue.

After collecting the corpses of the Twin-Headed Ogre and the other ogres, the expedition travelled for about half a day before finding a suitable clearing for camp.

“Heh heh heh.”

Karath smiled happily as he examined the dismantled remains of the Twin-Headed Ogre.

There was no doubt that it had been an unusual specimen.

Unlike the drake or cockatrices, however, it had displayed no obvious special ability.

Its only remarkable trait had been its absurd durability.

After dissecting the corpse, Karath discovered the reason.

Mana flowed through everything.

The hide, bones, and tendons were all saturated with mana.

Its presence was even denser than in the remains of the drake, which Karath had considered a monster of a similar level.

Strangely, the mana stone inside the ogre was only around the size of a cockatrice’s, completely disproportionate to its enormous body.

The creature had apparently used mana to develop its physical abilities rather than produce any special power.

That hardly mattered.

These mana-filled tendons could be made into bowstrings and distributed among the hobgoblins.

The bones were tougher than drake bones and would make excellent weapons.

The hide could become armour.

With Shield magic engraved into it, the resulting equipment might be stronger than iron plate.

Ideas for improving the alliance’s equipment danced through Karath’s mind.

His instincts as an engineer had awakened for the first time in a while.

The shamans in Root were regularly forced beneath the wheels of labour.

At that moment, Karath felt eager to throw himself beneath those wheels with his own hands.

“Woof! Woof!”

Buddy dragged him out of his imagination.

The wolf was not concerned for Karath’s mental health.

Panting eagerly, Buddy stared at only one thing.

The mana stone taken from the Twin-Headed Ogre.

Karath had made a promise when Buddy agreed to incubate the wyvern egg.

According to that agreement, the mana stone belonged to him.

Karath grimaced.

It might have been no larger than one from a cockatrice, but surrendering such a valuable material still caused his engineer’s heart immense pain.

A promise was a promise.

Feeling as though he were shedding tears of blood, Karath handed the small mana stone to Buddy.

“Woof!”

The wolf swallowed it immediately.

Wyvie would take ages to grow.

Had this trade even been worth the cost?

Four months had passed since the hatchling emerged from the egg.

Born at roughly the size of a chicken, Wyvie had only grown to the size of a hawk or a small eagle.

How many years would it take to become as large as the adult wyverns Karath had seen?

Wooooom.

While Karath was making those calculations, a sudden storm of mana erupted nearby.

He froze.

More precisely, it was directly in front of him.

Mana was raging around Buddy’s body.

“This is insane.”

Even at a glance, the amount looked sufficient to cast a Fourth Circle spell.

Karath had already known Buddy was an unusual specimen.

He had never imagined the difference would be this extreme.

As he watched in astonishment, the mana swirling around Buddy slowly subsided.

A profound silence settled over the clearing.

Buddy looked at Karath with eyes that seemed noticeably deeper than before.

Perhaps it was only the atmosphere, but his silver coat also appeared glossier, thicker, and more abundant.

It felt as though the wolf had undergone an evolution.

Just how much stronger had Buddy become?

Chapter 167

Beyond the Southern Frontier

Two days had passed since the expedition ignored the Silver Wolf warrior’s warning and established itself in the region.

That was more than enough time to realise he had not been lying.

“Grand Chief, our scoutsh discovered a settlement of twelve minotaursh ahead.”

For one thing, the monsters here belonged to an entirely different class from those on the other side of the mountain.

Small monsters were almost nowhere to be seen.

Medium-sized monsters travelled in organised packs, while ogres once called the kings of the forest appeared as frequently as trolls.

Even large monsters occasionally gathered in groups, just like the ogres they had encountered before.

“Did the scouts find any orc settlements this time?”

“No.”

“Haa.”

There were no orc tribes in the region either.

Perhaps expecting ordinary orcs to survive in such an absurd place had been unreasonable from the beginning.

Even the alliance warriors, armed with iron weapons and trained to fight using formations and tactics, were struggling to survive here.

Karath and Berners had awakened mana, yet the fact that not one alliance warrior had died so far was close to miraculous.

Karath stroked the mane of the silver wolf carrying him.

Without Buddy, who had grown even stronger after consuming the Twin-Headed Ogre’s mana stone, they would probably have suffered casualties already.

There was no guarantee that their luck would continue.

“There do not appear to be any orc settlements here. We will withdraw. Prepare to return to Lake Village.”

“It appears the alliance’s territorial expansion will suffer a setback, Grand Chief.”

Krog spoke with a disappointed expression, as though reading Karath’s thoughts.

“It will. Since the south is blocked, we will have to continue expanding only toward the east and west.”

“The hobgoblins did not know anything about this region, so I was concerned. Still, I never imagined there would not be a single orc settlement.”

The hobgoblins served as guides through the memories shared across their communication network.

Naturally, they could possess no information about places none of them had ever visited.

Karath had still chosen to investigate.

They had occasionally discovered orc settlements in places unknown to the hobgoblins, as well as wandering goblins without a hobgoblin among them.

The alliance had already abandoned northern expansion because it would bring them closer to human territory.

Karath had hoped to continue advancing east, west, and south.

“There is nothing to be done. There are no orcs or goblins to bring into the alliance, and the monsters are far too dangerous.”

The Greenskin Alliance’s southern expansion would have to end here.

“But this region might contain some of the special resources you seek, Grand Chief.”

“We can return after the alliance develops further and our military grows stronger.”

“I am sorry, Grand Chief. This is because we are still too weak.”

Krog lowered his head.

Perhaps this was a good opportunity to focus more attention upon the orc warriors.

After the confrontation with the Silver Wolf Tribe and the repeated battles against large monsters, Karath had begun to understand the problem within the alliance.

Learning about this region and identifying that weakness was at least some form of gain.

One concern remained.

The Silver Wolf Tribe and the identity of the dead human still bothered him.

“GRRRRRAAAH!”

While Karath considered the unresolved mystery, an enormous roar pierced through the trees and undergrowth, which were far taller and denser than those in the outer regions.

Karath’s eyes widened.

He had encountered the creature that made that sound only once before, but he recognised it instinctively.

“Grrrr.”

Buddy also lowered his body and released a threatening growl.

Thump.

Thump.

Powerful vibrations travelled through the ground from beyond the vegetation.

The other warriors sensed the approaching monster and began taking their positions.

“Prepare for battle! Spread the formation! Do not gather together!”

Karath issued an order that might have sounded irrational under ordinary circumstances.

Against the approaching creature, it was the best possible response.

If the warriors grouped together, a single attack could slaughter many of them at once.

A moment later, the monster emerged through the undergrowth.

“Drake!”

The warriors exclaimed involuntarily when they saw it.

Of all the monsters they could encounter, it had to be a drake.

Karath had killed one two years earlier, but the circumstances had been completely different.

The Bloodclaw Tribe had spent more than a month constructing traps specifically for the creature and slowly weakening it.

Even then, they had needed the village well and a massive mana stone, risking everything on what amounted to a desperate gamble.

Karath and the alliance had grown much stronger since then.

Even so, he could not guarantee victory without casualties.

Worse, the drake was not alone.

More than twenty reptilian monsters accompanied it.

They ranged from medium to large in size and resembled smaller versions of the drake.

Perhaps they were its followers.

Perhaps they were its offspring.

Yet even those creatures were not the most disturbing part of the sight.

“Hmm? Orcs and goblins?”

A human was sitting upon the drake’s head.

“How interesting.”

The man stared down at them like a biologist who had discovered an unfamiliar colony of insects.

“I thought orcs and goblins hated one another. They even carry iron weapons and use formations despite being monsters. Are they materials from someone else’s experiment?”

He examined them like animals in a cage and muttered to himself.

The content of those words disturbed Karath in several ways.

“What do you mean by an experiment?”

Karath questioned him in the human language.

The surprise on the robed man’s face deepened.

“You even understand the human language? Strange. The reports said nothing about orcs. Has someone not submitted their findings yet?”

His astonishment came only from hearing Karath speak.

He still treated the alliance as mindless monsters and continued talking to himself.

A possibility formed within Karath’s mind.

For several years, unfamiliar monsters that had never approached Bloodclaw territory had been appearing across the mountains.

Now a human was safely riding a drake as though he owned it.

The man was also speaking about experiments, reports, and other people conducting them.

There had to be a connection.

Karath needed to capture him and force the truth from him.

The discovery alone was dangerous.

Some human organisation had found the alliance and apparently viewed its people as experimental subjects.

There was no possibility of peaceful coexistence like the one they had established with Jean’s family.

For the alliance to survive, this man could not be allowed to escape.

His mention of reports and other researchers also implied he belonged to a larger group.

Karath needed to interrogate him and learn everything he could.

“Well, I can simply capture you and find out. Drake, kill them all except for a few!”

The human appeared to reach a similar conclusion and issued his command.

“GRRRRRAAAH!”

The drake roared the moment he spoke, obeying as though the man truly were its master.

“SKREEEE!”

“KRAAAK!”

At the drake’s cry, the reptilian monsters charged.

Chapter 168

Water Against Flame

“Krog, command the warriors! I will handle the drake! Berners, support me!”

“Understood!”

“Yes, Grand Chief!”

Ignoring the giant reptiles rushing toward the alliance warriors, Karath drove Buddy directly at the drake.

“Berners, conceal yourself and target the man riding it.”

“Understood!”

“Do not kill him. We need him alive for questioning.”

Berners had been following on Scar.

At Karath’s quiet order, he pulled the wolf’s reins and veered away in another direction instead of continuing behind him.

“Oh? They are surprisingly intelligent orcs and goblins.”

A peculiar smile appeared on the human’s face when he saw them moving tactically.

His eyes resembled those of a deranged researcher who had discovered an exceptionally valuable specimen.

Regardless of the man’s actual strength, that gaze alone sent a chill down Karath’s spine.

Buddy continued charging at full speed.

“GRRRRRAAAH!”

The drake swung an enormous foreleg at the approaching wolf.

Buddy slipped around the attack with his usual agility.

Karath used the opening to swing Silvertusk.

Crunch!

“SKREEEE!”

The axe shattered through the drake’s scales and carved deeply enough to reach bone.

The creature screamed.

Then its furious rampage began.

It struck at Karath with its forelegs and snapped at him with its enormous jaws.

“I want that wolf as well!”

Apparently finding it difficult to remain on the drake’s head while it thrashed, the human used Fly and moved to the top of a towering tree.

“SKREEEE!”

Freed from the rider upon its head, the drake began swinging its absurdly long and heavy tail.

Buddy threw his entire body aside again and again to avoid the attacks.

Then the enormous tail swept toward them from an angle that left no space to evade.

“Aero Shield!”

As always, Karath cast magic to gain even a fraction of a second for Buddy.

Boom!

The shield shattered instantly.

The brief delay was enough.

Buddy leapt again and narrowly escaped the tail.

“An orc used magic?”

The mage standing in the tree cried out in shock.

His astonishment came too soon.

Whoosh!

An arrow fired by Berners tore toward him.

“Frozen Shield!”

The man reacted as though he had prepared for the attack and formed a magical defence.

Crack!

Berners’s aura-enhanced arrow shattered the Third Circle spell.

The impact drained the arrow’s remaining force, preventing it from piercing the mage.

“A goblin using aura?”

That was more than enough to cover the human’s face with disbelief.

“Drake! Kill everything and leave only those two alive!”

Greed burned even more intensely in his eyes.

“SKREEEE!”

Obeying the command, the drake ignored the wounds inflicted by Karath and Buddy and raised its head.

Wooooom.

Mana surged toward its open jaws.

“Damn it!”

Karath understood what it intended.

He pulled Buddy’s reins and retreated while gathering mana.

The drake planned to ignore them and release its breath directly upon the alliance warriors.

Wooooom.

Yet even as Karath manipulated his mana, he felt the surrounding energy being drawn elsewhere.

More precisely, it was being pulled toward Buddy.

The silver wolf had raised his own head.

Mana gathered inside his mouth just as it did within the drake’s.

“ROOOAAAR!”

The drake unleashed a torrent of flame.

“GRAAAAH!”

A breath of water erupted from Buddy’s jaws.

Karath’s eyes widened.

Steam billowed outward as fire and water collided.

The human standing atop the tree stared in utter shock.

For once, Karath wore the same expression.

He had never imagined Buddy could use breath.

This was no time to remain astonished.

The drake’s flames were pushing back Buddy’s stream of water.

“Water Cannon!”

Karath released the spell he had prepared while the drake gathered mana.

The flames had already forced Buddy’s breath almost back to his face.

Once Karath’s magic joined the struggle, however, the clash between fire and water briefly reached equilibrium.

Then the combined torrent overwhelmed the flames.

A vast cloud of steam erupted as the fire was extinguished.

Boom!

The remaining water struck the drake directly in the face.

Chapter 169

Krog’s Awakening

Meanwhile, while Karath, Buddy, and Berners fought the drake and the human mage, the rest of the alliance warriors were locked in a desperate battle against nearly twenty medium and large reptilian monsters.

Krog commanded the entire force.

With too few hands to spare, he led from the front as well, issuing orders while swinging his axe without pause.

He had taken command in Karath’s place dozens, perhaps hundreds, of times.

By now, he had learned to observe the entire battlefield even while fighting within it.

From time to time, his broad awareness followed Karath’s battle against the drake.

Damn it.

Every time Krog looked, the hand gripping his axe trembled with anger.

Whenever a dangerous monster appeared, Karath, his Grand Chief, always fought the most difficult battle at the very front.

Krog had trained relentlessly to follow him and become even slightly useful.

Yet instead of narrowing, the distance between them only seemed to grow greater.

He had not felt this way until several months earlier.

After Karath, the strongest members of the alliance had been orc advisers such as Krog, Kaden, and Chief Parker.

Then Berners awakened mana.

The hobgoblins gradually caught up with the orc warriors and eventually surpassed them.

Not long afterward, Kaden and Parker, both warriors of roughly Krog’s level, were defeated by two men from the wolf beastfolk.

Since entering this region, Karath and Buddy had fought at the front in every battle to compensate for everyone else’s weakness.

Berners at least supported them with his bow.

Krog and the others felt more like obstacles than assistance.

The brave warriors who had once protected their tribes were now unable to protect anyone.

They were the ones being protected.

That must be why they keep fighting recklessly and getting injured.

Krog understood why the warriors left behind at villages and waystations continued suffering wounds.

As descendants of courageous warriors, they could not accept being protected by supposedly weak goblins.

Here, Karath’s presence prevented them from acting recklessly.

Elsewhere, the situation was different.

Some positions were even commanded by hobgoblins.

There was no chance every orc warrior would obediently listen.

Still, the orcs’ reckless charges were not born from ugly jealousy.

It was something closer to rage.

Why can’t I do it?

“RAAAAGH!”

Krog swung his axe with all his strength at the jaws of a reptilian monster threatening an alliance warrior.

Crunch!

His axe shattered the scales and tore into its flesh, but failed to kill it instantly.

In the past, he would have been satisfied with such a strike.

Now he was furious that this was all he could accomplish.

If only I could sense mana.

Nearly a year had passed since Karath first taught them Muhe Lionheart’s axe art.

Not one orc warrior had managed to sense mana.

Krog believed he understood why.

Karath had ordered them to practise every morning and evening.

Outside those sessions, however, almost no orc warrior trained in the axe art.

They were a race with hot blood.

Fighting monsters or duelling other warriors was far more enjoyable than swinging an axe alone through empty air.

As Karath became too busy to supervise them properly, fewer and fewer orcs continued individual practice beyond the required morning and evening sessions.

A year later, only one orc still repeated the training with desperate persistence.

“Die, monster!”

Krog.

He had grown up beside Karath as his closest childhood companion.

To Krog, Karath was more than an old friend.

He had personally witnessed and experienced every transformation Karath brought to their people.

Because of that, Karath’s words were truth.

Krog followed that truth.

Whenever he found a spare moment, he repeated the axe art again and again.

“Hraaaah!”

Even in the middle of a battle filled with blood and torn flesh, Krog’s stance as he swung at the reptile’s head matched exactly what Karath had taught.

Still, he sensed nothing.

Why?

Had Karath taught him something false?

No.

That was impossible.

To Krog, Karath was something close to faith.

His words could not be lies.

Only one conclusion remained.

I am inadequate.

That was why Krog raged.

He raged at himself for being a brave orc warrior who needed goblins to protect him.

He raged at his inability to support Karath.

He raged because he had followed Karath’s teachings and still failed to sense mana.

“Grrrr.”

As his fury accumulated, his hot orc blood surged.

His eyes grew redder.

The cool reason he forced himself to maintain while commanding in Karath’s place slowly disappeared.

Then his rage reached its peak.

“RAAAAGH!”

His body moved according to instinct rather than thought.

Perhaps because he had practised the axe art for a year with something close to obsession, the strike he unleashed after losing his reason still preserved Karath’s form perfectly.

Krog remained unaware of that fact.

He simply swung.

An unfamiliar vitality erupted throughout his body.

Slice!

A grey-white line appeared in the air.

Thud.

The enormous reptilian monster fell to the ground, split cleanly in two along that line.

The torrent of water struck the drake’s head and knocked it backward.

Most of its force had been consumed overpowering the fiery breath, so the blow did not appear to inflict much damage.

“Grrrr.”

Buddy caught his breath with an irritated expression, apparently dissatisfied with the result.

“Go!”

Buddy looked exhausted from forcing out the breath attack, but Karath urged him forward.

The drake was equally drained after using its own breath.

It was also disoriented after taking the water blast directly to the face.

“Woof!”

Understanding Karath’s intention, Buddy forced his tired legs to move and charged.

Crunch!

Before the drake could recover, they reached its side and carved another deep wound into its body.

“SKREEEE!”

The pain snapped it back to awareness, and it began thrashing again.

Its movements, however, were noticeably slower than before.

The drake was beginning to tire.

Buddy nimbly evaded its sluggish attacks.

Each time an opening appeared, Karath buried Silvertusk into its body.

After dozens of wounds accumulated, the drake’s enormous form became drenched in blood.

The price was Buddy’s stamina.

His speed gradually declined as exhaustion overtook him.

Then the drake swung its huge tail in one final desperate attack.

“Dodge, Buddy!”

At the last moment, Karath released the reins and leapt from Buddy’s back.

Freed from Karath’s weight, the silver wolf became lighter and narrowly escaped the tail.

“Hraaaah!”

Karath landed upon the passing tail.

He ran up the drake’s body as though climbing a mountain.

The monster twisted wildly in an attempt to throw him off, but it had lost too much strength.

Karath somehow maintained his balance and raced along its spine until he reached its head.

“Die!”

He circulated aura to its limit and drove Silvertusk downward.

The axe shattered the drake’s skull and reduced its brain to pulp.

“SKREEEE!”

With its brain destroyed, the drake released one final death cry and convulsed violently.

Moments later, its enormous body collapsed.

Karath turned toward the tree where the human had flown.

Berners was handling him well.

The man was neither dead nor unconscious, but Berners’s continuous arrows had trapped him in place.

The hobgoblin had cleverly prevented the mage from casting anything meaningful.

Had Berners fired every arrow with aura, he would have exhausted himself first.

Instead, he fired ordinary shots and mixed in aura-enhanced arrows unpredictably, forcing the man to keep using Shield spells.

It was probably a fighting method goblins had developed after spending their lives confronting stronger enemies.

“Fly.”

Karath cast the spell and approached the tree to capture the human Berners had pinned down.

“H-how could a mere orc defeat a drake?”

The greed that had once filled the man’s face was gone.

Only shock and fear remained.

Even now, he called Karath a mere orc.

It revealed how deeply his contempt had become ingrained.

“Taste the fist of a mere orc.”

Thud!

Karath punched him directly in the face.

The man possessed little physical resilience.

Karath had not even used aura, yet one punch made his eyes roll back before he lost consciousness.

Holding the unconscious mage, Karath cast Fly again and descended.

“Keep him unconscious with poison.”

“Understood!”

After handing the prisoner to Berners, Karath inspected the battlefield.

Wounded warriors lay in several places, but the alliance had fortunately finished the remaining reptilian monsters while he killed the drake.

“Krog?”

For some reason, Krog had not approached to deliver his usual report.

“Grand Chief! Krog collapsed over here!”

Kaden’s urgent shout rang out.

Karath hurried toward him.

The moment he saw Krog lying on the ground, he understood.

It resembled what had happened to Berners.

Krog had apparently awakened mana during the battle.

“Bring the drake’s corpse!”

Karath had already dealt with this once.

He treated Krog in the same manner he had treated Berners.

Fortunately, Karath still had more mana than during the wyvern battle.

He first used Healing to help Krog regain consciousness.

Then he removed the mana stone from the drake.

Karath consumed roughly two-thirds and fed the remainder to Krog.

The drake’s stone was slightly larger than the Wyvern Lord’s.

Giving too much to someone who could not yet control mana properly would only waste it.

Using his own mana, Karath guided Krog through the first steps of circulation.

While Krog absorbed the mana stone, Karath treated the wounded warriors.

Even after that, considerable mana remained.

“Berners, make certain the human does not wake. Everyone else, secure the area.”

After issuing the orders, Karath sat cross-legged and closed his eyes.

Chapter 170

The Fifth Circle

Karath rotated the mana circles around his heart.

At the same time, he absorbed mana from nature to replenish what he had spent and drew in the energy remaining from the mana stone within his stomach.

Natural mana gradually restored the amount his four circles ordinarily held.

Wooooom.

Then the mana stone’s energy continued adding more.

His four completed circles were already full.

Unable to contain any additional mana, they began vibrating violently.

I will create the fifth ring.

Karath extracted part of the surging mana and began tracing a thin new circle outside the fourth.

Wooooom.

The newborn ring was far too thin.

Again and again, it tried to collapse and merge into the fourth circle.

Karath directed the last remnants of the mana stone’s power into that fragile fifth ring.

He absorbed even more mana from nature and added it as well.

The ring, once as thin as a single thread, gradually thickened until it resembled three threads twisted together.

Woom.

For a moment, the fourth and fifth circles pushed against each other.

Then the resistance slowly faded.

Both rings began settling into a stable rotation.