Mage And Wolf
Chapter 130

Chapter 130: Chapter 130

It’s midnight when things get weird. The first of the spirit poison should have activated, but that’s not what caused the sensation. At least not at first.

Dense storm clouds start forming over the city, building up lightning that is lighting up the sky. But that’s no Normal lightning, that’s tribulation lightning. Is someone breaking through to Immortality in the middle of the city?

But the lightning doesn’t focus on a target like it should. Instead it hits down on dozens of locations over and over. Often switching targets. Entire houses are leveled, bringing panicked residents out into the street.

"Where is that Priestess? Bring her out and make her tell the gods to forgive us!" Yeah, that’s not happening.

"Please, we need the Priestess, when the lightning struck struck my wife she swelled up to a huge size. A Priestess should have medicine" another man calls.

He’s right, his wife is huge, 9 months pregnant huge.

"You need a midwife, not a Priestess. But I’ll give her some pain and healing pills" she’s going to need both. He’s brought her halfway across town to me, so the innkeeper brings them in to wait in the midwife.

"Fastest pregnancy you’ll ever have girl" I smile and she grins between grimaces.

"So you really blessed us?" her husband asks and I shake my head.

"I asked and the Goddess blessed you. A half day pregnancy is well beyond my abilities." I laugh.

Jun doesn’t seem to think any of this is funny. Karl, on the other hand, has his phone out, alternating between filming the tribulation lightning and the panicked crowd.

A massive crash of lightning hitting the ground sounds out front and Karl whoops in glee "I got it. Double strike on film! We’re going to need another midwife here"

The lightning clears up after about half an hour and the city scrambles to figure out what exactly happened. There’s rubble everywhere, many casualties and thousands more reporting various ill effects. Everything from muscle pains to family members reporting those found unconscious.

Daylight brings a preliminary count. Ninety six dead, over three thousand injured or incapacitated and two hundred and sixteen newborns, all girls. Notably, only about seventy mothers gave birth early, but triplets and quadruplets were the norm.

"If this is what you look forward to as an exciting day, I’d rather cultivate in isolation" Jun sighs.

"Look on the bright side, babies everywhere, and all girls. At this rate the city won’t be short on them anymore."

Both the merchant and Devon are in a rush to get out of the city, and Karl agrees it is best to go before people start blaming me for their loved ones not recovering. So we’ve decided to head up into the mountains to cultivate while Devon works out a new plan for his revolution.

The city despises them for their low status, but didn’t even know what conditions they live in, they’ll not get the allies they hoped for out of these conditions.

Karl and Jun have been discussing good cultivation options, and there’s supposedly an abandoned temple up in the mountains that just might be perfect for us. Quiet, isolated, surrounded by monsters. No Sects for many miles. Just a good place to get ahead in our cultivation. He hasn’t seen it himself, but knows what mountain it should be on.

"I’ll contact you if we need your assistance" Jun calls as we head out of town, Devon in tow. Karl has a finger to his forehead, casting some sort of spell, so I wave back to Jun.

"Feel free, you know how we like a challenge."

Once we’re out of sight of town, Karl finishes his spell and Devon wanders away in a daze, not even looking back.

"What exactly did you do?" I ask Karl, suspicious of his intentions.

"I made him forget he had met us, since nobody in town knows he was here. He will remember everything but us and Jun. I also taught him how to make fertilizer bombs with the supplies the peasants have."

There it is, there’s the catch. I knew he was up to something shady, but this might give them a bit of a chance in their war for equal treatment.

The woods are off limits according to the peasants, the mountain flat out forbidden as too dangerous for humans. Hopefully that means there are category 2 and 3 monsters there. Something for us to hunt and train on anyhow.

Ahead I smell a river and something alive. I’m not entirely certain what species it is, maybe a form of bear? As we get closer I hear splashing and snoritng up ahead, I think the beast is hunting fish in the river.

I signal for Karl to follow me quietly, and we sneak through the woods, bringing the river in sight. At first glance, my guess was half right. There is some sort of bear in the river, but it isn’t hunting fish, it’s engaged in a battle with some form of giant, green and grey scaled python. It’s not biting, so it’s some form of huge constrictor anyhow.

The bear is doing pretty well, avoiding getting wrapped up by the huge reptile, but I can see a slithering reinforcement coming. Since when do snakes work together?

Karl indicates he’d like to take out the extra, so we head down the river bank a ways, as quietly as we can. The snake is totally focused on the fight at the moment, it’s possible with all the stomping and splashing it hasn’t noticed us.

Karl sends a pair of energy blades at the snake, just behind the head, digging deep wounds but failing to kill the creature. It strikes towards his location, attempting to crush him, but I take the pair of short swords from my storage and parry the strike, knocking it off course and adding to the horrendous injuries it has taken.

The hide is tough, most category 3 monsters lose a head to that strike. This one is not long for the world though, as Karl sets off an explosion inside its mouth, shredding its head.

"That’s strange, those blades should have passed clean through." Karl notes.

"Same with mine, very few things can take that blow. Looks like we’ve found worthy adversaries."

Karl quickly digs the core out, and it’s a regular grade 3 core, no special attributes or anything. So these snakes must specialize in a tough hide. That bear is going to have a tough fight.

The fight is almost over upstream too. The snake is mangled, torn in dozens of places and the bear has securely locked is head between huge furry jaws. The python has wrapped the bear’s leg, but it’s all too little too late.

As the battle ends the bear gives a mighty victory roar, ignoring its own wounds and drags its trophy into the trees.

"Monsters here are truly impressive. We should make for the ruins tonight, spending it out in the open once the nocturnal predators awaken night be a bad idea." Karl sighs, looking over the crude map he drew from Jun’s directions.

We leave the pythons remains partially in the river, not knowing if the scavengers will be aquatic or not, and head towards the only mountain we can see through the trees. The ruins, as Jun called them are easier than expected to spot for a supposed lost ruin. No simple temple was raised here, it was a small town made of stone and crystal, much like the cathedral in Arcana.

"Looks like the right spot. Where should we start looking for shelter? This place shouldn’t have had a human resident in a thousand years."

Karl points towards the side of the ruins of the main building. "There should have been clergy housing under the cathedral. Perhaps some still remains?"

It’s a delicate walk through loose boulders that once made the walls, plus more that seem to have come from the mountain itself, but I do find a door that seems to be leading underground. Miraculously intact and not rotted away by time, but mostly buried by huge stone blocks and dirt.

"Is the enchantment on that door still active?" I ask Karl, pointing towards my find.

"Barely, but it’s holding up. I’ll reinforce it then open the door. You’ll need to help clear the rubble though, I can’t levitate that much weight."

Being a physical cultivator has its advantages. With an enhancement spell from Karl, I can move the multi ton blocks without too much trouble, soon clearing the doorway enough to open.

I make a small fortress out of them, creating a three sided hut with a stone roof over the horizontal door. It might have been a secret entrance, once hidden by furniture, or it might be the entry to the root cellar.

I hope it’s not the root cellar.

Everything is cleared, and the doorway is again hidden from easy sight, the shelter I built over it looking like a natural pile of boulders. Now, it’s time to see if we’re sleeping indoors, or in this hastily built stone shed.