Mage And Wolf
Chapter 134

Chapter 134: Chapter 134

He’s even faster with this giant sword. I’m not sure if it’s the weapon, or if he’s simply better with this fighting style.

"Boss has brought out Ghost Reaver, you’re in trouble now" one of the other giants laughs.

I have to use both hands and the assistance of the Sword Flame ability, but I find I can still block these strikes.

It’s not long before his chest plate is covered in melted scars and he’s being forced back.

"What trickery is this! No armor can stand before Ghost Reaver" he bellows as a glancing strike to my side sends me spinning to the dirt.

One of his allies tries to crush me with an axe while I’m down, but a whip pulls it off balance and I quickly remove both hand from its arms.

"Wretched Mongrel" the leader shouts "I don’t care how tasty you are, I will chop you to bits"

His rage gives him a burst of energy and now I’m on the retreat, looking for a way to turn things around. Then Karl accidentally provides me one. Just as an upwards sweeping strike throws me in the air, one of the other giants steps back to get a better angle to strike.

His step takes him directly in my path and I dig my sword into his neck, spinning around his body before kicking off to launch a strike directly into the leaders chest.

It hits home deep, to the hilt and I lose my grip as his ongoing swing strikes my legs. The armor makes and ominous grating noise as the blade impacts it, but I think it holds. Hard to be sure of the damage in this much pain, but I can tell my leg is still attached.

The Giant must have changed my aim when he hit me, the blade isn’t buried in his heart, like I was aiming for, but lower, in his upper stomach. The pain has him clutching his side, I think it might have severed a rib or two.

"I shall not be defeated!" he snarls, pain clear in his voice, and I can see he’s slowing.

I extend my claws until I can find another suitable weapon and shake my head, making my braids flip from side to side.

"Defeated by a little Lycan. Such a sad end for the unworthy wielder of the Noble Sword Ghost Reaver." I say with mock sadness.

One of the two remaining patrol members turns to me in rage and Karl’s whip suddenly gains a sharp blade at the end, piecing his spine and dropping him to the ground.

The leader can no longer hold his weapon, instead crawling towards me, hands outstretched. I feel a bit bad for him, so I flip over his head to drive my claws down into his skull, ending his misery, and the fight, as Karl has taken down the last giant.

"Excellent pick" I congratulate him "But what made you switch targets?"

"When we got closer I used remote viewing. The first group was a giant woman in a tattered dress and 6 half grown children. Hardly a worthy target. Then I noticed this group crashing their way."

Killing unarmed women and children is pretty low, even for the two of us.

"Now, return for a feast, or find out where these guys came from?" I change the topic, already starting to loot the closest bodies.

"Feast first. We can look for the giant’s village another day."

The leader has a huge storage bag, over a meter across. I prop it open with a stick and step inside, finding no restriction on living beings entering. That’s different from my storage devices.

It’s full of mostly junk. Some Monster Cores, bones, half eaten meals, filthy cloth. I toss everything that’s not worth keeping out. Oh, there’s a pair of enchanted scimitar in here. A bit large for me, but usable. I wonder where it got these? Upgrade from my commandeered sword anyhow.

Most don’t have anything of worth but a few Cores and the weapons they were wielding, which are too large for us to use. They use polished rocks with marks etched in them for money it seems, no good to us. But I take the shiny rocks anyhow to decorate the gardens back in Arcana.

"That’s everything, 5 grade 3 cores, but that leader’s is so potent it’s almost a grade 4." Karl calls.

"I found us a tent!" I call to him and he walks to the entrance laughing.

"You know, if I make a frame for the outside, and sew some loops to hang it, this thing works be an awesome tent. It’s the size of a mansion in here."

"Project for later?" I ask, walking out and he nods.

I fold and roll it, but find it cannot be put into another storage device.

"Karl, I need a backpack to carry the new tent" I inform him, showing him the bundle.

What he creates me is a small black canvas camping pack, with a metal frame that sits comfortably on my back. With the ’tent’ freshly upgraded to be supported by a light aluminum external frame and some lines, we’re ready to pack up.

I throw a few of my more battered pots and nearly empty spices, along with some dried alchemy ingredients and a tiny cauldron into the top half of the bag, and jerky into the top flap compartment.

"There we go, camouflage compete." I chuckle. I know from experience that many will mistake the presence of a backpack as meaning that I don’t have a storage device, or a very small one if I do. The ring on my finger that barely holds a cubic meter finishes the disguise, holding only low grade cultivation supplies.

"Very good, the casual wear might confuse some, but the overall look screams wandering cultivator. Nobody would expect you to have real valuables beyond the swords on your hips."

"Let’s get back to our bunker, I’m getting hungry"

The walk back is shorter than expected, we weren’t exactly moving fast, and we spent half our day digging through the rubble, like we said we weren’t going to. But it’s almost full dark when we get back into the shelter.

I dig out my cooking utensils and have Karl create some fresh vegetables and sauces. The look he’s giving me is suspicious, whatever he had in mind for dinner didn’t involve vegetables.

"I’m not a Bunny, you don’t need to feed me rabbit food" Karl insists.

"Silence, I’m cooking, you’re eating." I smile back, sticking my tongue out at him. "char siu pork, and a chicken stir fry over rice both from the mystic cooking technique."

It doesn’t take long before the room smells amazing. So many flavors of roasting meat and vegetables blended together. Karl looks intrigued at the technique, anything that involves precise energy control is of interest to him.

"This is amazing, almost like the Forbidden Treasure Restaurant in Arcana" Karl gushes as he eats dinner.

"That’s the idea, these are some of the most basic, entry level recipes of the technique. To get as good as the chefs at Forbidden Treasure takes decades, but what they cook uses mostly normal ingredients with monster meat."

Karl is giving me puppy dog eyes, so I promise to let him copy the textbook later. Having another cook on hand is never a bad thing.

We’re relaxing in food related bliss when I bring a small box of cream puffs out of my storage. Nobody doesn’t like cream puffs.

"You sure you don’t want to go back to Arcana and just become my fluffy little housewife?" Karl sighs once the puffs are gone.

"Can’t yet, got to make Immortality first" I joke and he laughs.

"Have you realized yet, how much cultivation slows aging?" he asks.

"Of course it does, what do you mean?" his phrasing confused me.

"You’re a Lycan, expected to live for maybe 800 years, right?" I nod my agreement.

"So you’d look mature but youthful at what, 300 instead of 30?" again I nod, not knowing where he’s going with this.

"Condensation level cultivation extends a human cultivators potential lifespan to over 500 by also slowing aging. Your look will currently age about one year for every hundred that passes, even if you stop cultivating now." Karl laughs and I finally clue in.

"So you’re saying this baby face should stop getting mistaken for a student after what, five hundred years?" I manage to squeak out.

"Give or take a century. Good genetics can hold an innocent youthful look for a long time you see. You might start getting called milf material in about two thousand years." Oh, no. Thinking of my Lycan relatives, many of the women looked very youthful even to their four hundredth year.

"Maybe it didn’t compound like that?" I ask hopefully and he shrugs.

"Best to be prepared to be The Young Miss forever at the rate we’re cultivating" he warns me with a hug and a smile.