Mage And Wolf
Chapter 122

Chapter 122: Chapter 122

It doesn’t take long to find another opponent. The presence of an undead is taken as a threat by almost all monsters, and this one is the tallest thing for miles around.

A dozen category 3 bugbears rush us from the distance, all wearing scale mail and carrying a well crafted looking assortment of weapons.

"Hey Karl, I think we just hit the jackpot. I can see a lot of loot coming our way."

The monsters are about 2.5 meters tall, huge for a human and barrel chested, but to a well grown male Dragonkin, those dimensions are close enough to have the equipment tailored to fit.

Another group has seen the giant, but turns away when I wave to them from its shoulder. That’s likely going to cause talk at camp tonight. Huge undead monsters aren’t exactly the most common pets.

"You do the Golems tomorrow, I think mine stands out too much" I tell Karl.

"I’ll make then as we need them. Without the base mana supply they’re fairly draining in large numbers" he shrugs.

I launch myself from the giant into the Bugbear lines when they get in range, fending off their attacks and clawing off limbs. Their armor looks high quality, but it’s got neither long sleeves nor helmets. Perhaps because of their wide range of visibility.

A huge fist crashed down next to me as the giant jobs the fray, the undead mind not thinking of fancy combat techniques, only trying to crush the enemy to death. It’s a great distraction, they’re so worried about being stomped on or grabbed and crushed that me and Karl are tearing through them every few seconds.

In fact, less than twenty seconds are needed before we’re starting to strip the armor and the better crafted weapons, quickly looting the essentials, knowing the giant will draw more enemies to us.

A patrol team of cyclops taunts the undead giant away from us, throwing javelins at it. I let it roam, the cyclops are nearly 5 meters tall, they might not view us as a threat.

That notion is sorely misplaced though, as the giant collapsed when it got near their leader.

"Come out and fight, necromancer of the Death God", the burly one eyed man yells.

"Or is the best you can do enslaving others?" Oh he’s good. I motion Karl to hide and stand up from the bodies of the fallen bugbears.

"Being able to kick my dog doesn’t mean you can kill me" I shout back, hoping the two giant species have good enough relations for the insult to work.

I can’t tell if it did, but my appearance caused their formation to fan out around their leader in a semi circle, moving to avoid being flanked.

The five man team of one eyed giants works very well together. Darting back if I rush one, throwing spears and large rocks to keep me moving. But they haven’t noticed Karl yet, and I’ve almost got the group turned enough that their backs are to him.

I return a javelin with a mighty heave, skewering one cyclops warrior through the chest and dropping him instantly. The rest roar in anger, but that’s when Karl attacks, launching entangling whips followed by high intensity Arcane explosion spells of some sort, leaving two bodies cratered and smoking.

The distraction lets me get my claws into the leader, tearing an arm free before punching them straight into its back for the finish.

The last cyclops turns to flee, but there’s nowhere to go, the fight has attracted other adventurers and the giant is surrounded. The newly arrived teams Ice Mage pelts it with frozen spears, leaving frosted over patches around the wounds, ending the warrior quickly.

"Excellent work, that one is all yours" I tell them, causing cheers to rise into the air.

"Is the rumored bounty true? We’ve got over 20 category 3 beasts today and it’s only afternoon."

"I wouldn’t lie about a Guild bounty. If you want to turn over your proof now, I can record your team name, or directly give you grade 3 pills from the agreement."

"Both our melee fighters have been heavily injured in the past few days, could we trade you for a pair of regeneration pills?" The Ice Mage asks, hope gleaming in his reptilian eyes.

I take their 20 ears into a bag in my storage and hand them the pills. I’ll incinerate all the trash later.

Grade 3 regeneration pills are actually a failure, or a result of reducing the Condensation of the pills into smaller packages, creating many more pills at the cost of majorly reduced effects. A grade 3 can heal scars and organ damage, but a grade 4 can regrow organs and limbs in seconds.

To the wounded fighters, it doesn’t matter one single bit though. It gets them back into top fighting shape at the cost of a day’s labor they can repay to their companions later.

"Thank you so much, High Priestess. We’re off to earn our treatment costs back." One of the warriors bows to me.

"Think nothing of it. Your team fulfilled the quest like any other" I smile and wave as they head off in search of targets.

They make it all of twenty meters before they’re waylaid by large insect looking beasts, still clearly in sight of us. They must have been attracted by either the carrion or the undead giant. With their front line in top form the group has no trouble with the half dozen huge insects, cheering at their fortune.

"The God of Death has brought us great luck today. Healing for our warriors and plentiful targets abound!" I hear their group cheer at the six more proofs they’ve obtained so soon after spending their last lot.

More bugbears have appeared near where we met the last ones. What is going on around here? I don’t see a portal anywhere, and Karl would have said something if he’d sensed one.

"I think the whole area might be cursed" he tells he softly. "We’ve sent teams to kill so many that the density dropped and the cursed region is starting to replace them."

"Look there, It’s fireweed. That isn’t an Earth native plant, and it just appeared as the bugbears did. I think you’re right, some grand magic is replacing the killed monsters."

I carefully pick the fireweed, seeing a few more useful herbs in the area and grabbing them on our way.

"The bounty might require a rework, or I’ll offer to buy alchemy materials when I get low. But if this is a lasting thing, we’re going to need a full time market to serve the region."

We kill the bugbears and head back to where the giants were. The portal is still gone, so it’s not part of the curse, it just happened to be here.

"That’s good news anyhow. We can sort out what to do about the curse later. First, we need to get everyone’s combat strength up enough to actually deal with it once we’ve got a solution."

"We should head back to camp early, let the second camp know where the turn in point is and get ready for the evening."

"You really do know how to make an adventure feel like paperwork don’t you?" Karl whines and we head to where we left the Toyota. Fortunately, it’s in mint condition. Or at least as good as we left it in.

"Call it community outreach. But in the meantime, how do we keep interest up and warriors fighting here without running out of pill materials? We can pick some every day for now, but if I’m turning out dozens or hundreds a day, just leaving someone to distribute them won’t be enough."

"A lot of the necessary materials are in the category 1 and 2 monster areas. A secondary bounty on the materials and a hired alchemist and staff should do the trick. But it will get expensive."

We instruct everyone at the first camp we pass through to post a note that the bounty can be claimed at the other camp before midnight, or here in the morning when we pass through.

It’s also announced that a kilo of the required herbs will be counted as a proof of kill by grade of the herbs. Most of the herbs are rank 2 and 3 plants, so the ones found in the category 1 area are a motivation to the hunters. Ten kilos of plants will get them a better reward than ten category 1 beasts. Significantly better if they find enough of the grade 3 plants.

Karl sets up a Qi gathering formation for our tent, making it more comfortable to those of us used to high energy densities, and making pill crafting easier. Without enough energy in the air, you need to supply it yourself.

Materials start pouring in, most teams prefer a left hand, or front left paw if the monster isn’t too huge. But some being ears or noses.

A pair of green robes Acolytes approach us just after midnight "Sorry ladies, exchange is closed for the evening" I hear Karl say and poke my head outside from my alchemy work.

Grade 1, and to a lesser extent grade 2 pills went like crazy today. Many of the category 3 monster hunters opted to bank their gains for now, so my supplies are still good on that front.

"Forgive us Highness, we are Nature Disciples specialized in pill crafting. We came here to gather materials to improve our craft and couldn’t help but notice the scent of a master Alchemist working."

Karl looks intrigued "Continue" he says in a monotone.

"If we could learn from the Master here, we would be proud to help craft the pills to pay the bounties."

Those are the magic words. "Send them in Karl, I’ll put them to work. Have you ladies ever split the Condensation of grade 3 pills to create large numbers of lower grade pills?"