Mage And Wolf
Chapter 133

Chapter 133: Chapter 133

This cathedral must have been glorious back in its prime. Even the ruins still have an aura of splendor.

No monsters have entered the ruins proper, so we decide to look around before hunting. The sun is just coming up, so I’m not sure if we’ve only been here a night or a full day on top of that. Possibly two, keeping track of time underground without the cycled lights of the base gardens is not my strong point.

A few of the enchantments are still salvageable, so Karl amuses himself by repairing them, joking that if he can find enough he can rebuild his own cathedral. But by the concentration it takes, I think it’s mostly an exercise in spell crafting and energy control on his part.

There are a few relics left in the ruins, which I carefully store away for later examination. Did the battle end in mutual annihilation, or was there some other reason that this area was never looted after the battle?

They’re relics of the Dragon Gods though, surely it can’t hurt if I relocate them to somewhere with more worshipers? Yeah, certainly can’t hurt.

Karl has a small barracks, two booths that look like confessionals and a wood shed repaired before lunch. The shed is even creating split lumber, two pieces in the last hour. I duck inside and find the barracks is a bare shell, nothing but a rough stone floor inside.

"It’s all enchanted individually, likely to make spell maintenance and room modification easier" Karl says from behind me. "Come on, I’ve got the good meal packs ready. Spicy breakfast burrito special."

Of course it’s breakfast. But since we didn’t eat before coming up here, I suppose it really is breakfast time. We’re through three breakfast containers each before we’re done, the hunger of a day spent distracted, plus an extended advancement finally making itself known once we started eating.

I dig out the handful of small artifacts I found. All have damaged spells Karl notes, not unexpected given the situation, but all were defensive trinkets. One still has a long, black pearl beaded necklace attached, or is that a belt? It’s quite long for a necklace. So I think many of these were worn regularly.

Karl examines it closely, noting that the belt once self repaired. He spends a few minutes fixing it while we talk about the things we found in the ruins. No skeletons so far, but many other things, from intact dishes to an embroidered table cloth and personal effects like the trinkets I collected.

A bunch of carved metal figurines caught Karl’s attention, they’re not enchanted, and they’re not created with magic, they seem to have been a hand carved set, all stored in the same area.

We make plans to explore this place a little more every day. In some places the former ground and basement levels are partially intact, buried under the rubble of the cathedral, so a full exploration will be a long and delicate job.

But now, it is time to hunt. We’ve both made gains and are eager to try them out. A few minutes from the ruins I can smell all sorts of monsters, there must be something keeping the monsters away from them.

Karl makes a note to look for a totem in the ruins and says if I find any, don’t move or store them. The heavy enchantment and design of totems lets them hold an enchantment virtually forever, drawing in some surrounding energy to feed themselves.

We decide to hunt the boars I smell. I’ve learned a great number of ham and bacon based recipes from the mystic cooking textbook I received, and Karl loves few things more than bacon. It might even be the basis of his preference for breakfast over any other meal of the day.

Actually, I’m not sure Karl has had a chance to try my mystic cooking skills. We’ve been eating meals from the creation spell, and went out to dinner when we were at the base. This should be a fun surprise for him.

These are good ones, a grade up from the ones at the Arcana dungeon, and well over 400 kilos. This is going to be a great haul.

Karl started the attack with a barrage of Arcane missiles, skewering four of the six, and slowing their pace. I go for the remaining two, slashing the front legs out from under one and leaping on the back of the second. I see purple energy flash, with the distinctive feeling of Karl’s magic and know the first group is down.

I drive my sword down hard into the beasts skull, dropping it instantly and turn to dodge an attack by the other. The missed strike takes him over top of me, exposing his chest and stomach, so I stab through the heart, sword wreathed in black flames. He twists around his front hooves to try to get his tusks at me, but the blood loss is too much, he collapses half way back.

"Well that was short and easy" Karl smiles "With all the paperwork and bureaucracy that got foisted on me I haven’t been out in the woods on a decent hunt in months"

"I’ll cook you a pork feast to celebrate tonight then" I smile at him "I’ve been practicing"

"What’s this? You’ve remembered you have a domestic side? I almost thought Petros was joking about you knowing how to cook" Karl teases me, so I bring out the mystic cooking textbook.

"Not just cooking, but Cooking, in the trade skill sense as well. And I’ll have you know, I often cooked in the other realm I went to. Poor savages didn’t even season their food"

"Very nice" Karl whistles impressed "I’ll be looking forward to it then"

Karl decides his tracking skills need work, so he’s hunting the next pack while I take the rear. I’m not sure what spell he’s using, but it seems to work. We’re headed straight for what smells like a Giant’s camp. It’s like we’ve got some fated connection, everywhere I go, angry Giants.

We’re close when Karl stops dead and motions me down.

"New target, we’ll leave these ones alone" he whispers and turns left towards where I smell more Giants.

The second group is coming this way, stomping heavily and cheering, not even trying to hide their presence. This group is definitely the better option, they sound like proud and prepared warriors.

It’s a standard patrol of five. One heavily armored leader, two axe wielders with swords on their hips and two spears.

"You get the tank, I’ll take the rest" Karl whispers. The tank is always a pain to deal with, but Karl’s whips work so well on multiple enemies that it is hard to argue.

I activate Shadow Meld and the Dragon Armor skill and sneak around behind the group. They’re almost to Karl’s hiding spot when I make my move, dashing forward to hamstring the tank.

The armored giant limps heavily, his armor split wide and swings his twin axes brutally through the tall bushes.

"Come out here little wolf and let me crush your bones" he bellows enraged. That’s new, none of the previous Giants we fought were capable of human speech. By the equipment, these are better craftsmen too. Maybe this is an older world and they’ve evolved?

"Not a chance you overgrown troll" I call back and he smashes everything around him, enraged.

I don’t even have time to check on Karl as everything around me seems to be filled with steel. His attack pattern is flawless, shredding everything around him, if I wasn’t so small and agile, able to dodge between his blades I’d be a goner.

I throw a knife hard into one inner elbow, sticking in the chain armor but doing little damage and he launches a double handed strike at my location. I sidestep and jump to drive a hard sword into his gut from the lower joint of his armor and the ground shakes beneath us.

That’s a proper martial skill he used. A variation of earthquake. The stomach wound has slowed him a bit, but the blood had broken my Shadow Meld and he can see me now.

"There you are pup. You’ll be a fine snack before dinner tonight" He growls at me and begins a fresh set of attacks.

My small swords will do me no good now, I store them away and take out a two handed blade taller than I am that once served as a Giant’s short sword.

"And a magical blade too? You’re too kind to me, lunch." The giant laughs and I put my all into parrying. Simply deflecting the strikes would leave me crushed by the massive weight behind them, but meeting them force for force is enough to keep them at bay.

"I thought Giants were supposed to be strong?" I taunt him, hoping to break his rhythm. It doesn’t work, but his rage is building.

Out of nowhere, he produces a giant two handed blade, throwing his smaller axes down into the ground to create obstacles for me.

Not good, I’m not sure I can block that.