Mage And Wolf
Chapter 251

Chapter 251: Chapter 251

In the morning it is time to say goodbye to the hospitality of the Demons and go visit Alpha Conway up in Canada. His monster problem isn’t going away on its own, and I’ve heard that the entire northern half of the continent has basically been taken over by the monsters, with a few pockets of Titan Clan warriors attacking them.

The former human and supernatural populations are long gone, except a few pockets of resistance. Like Alpha Conway, a few other werewolf packs who have been able to cultivate fast enough to keep up with the influx of dangerous creatures and the three cities run in cooperation between the Witches and the Mages.

In fact, the witches seem to be doing quite well. They’ve adapted their spell craft to use magical beast parts in potions, creating magical concoctions that I am told are every bit as potent as the pills made by more traditional cultivators. That’s knowledge both myself and Elder Song would love to have, new alchemy recipes are hard to come by, much less create from scratch.

As if thinking about them has spoken to something inside the soul shrine, I get a flash of information, a long lost Death Cult cultivation technique, suitable for dark witches, the sort that make potions from animal parts. It should rapidly increase their cultivation level and help protect them from and reduce existing corruption.

That’s perfect, the corruption of Death Energy that they’re incapable of dealing with is the reason they go insane and get mutated and shunned from society.

That technique should also give me all the bargaining power that I need to obtain some of these new potions if I can find the ones making them.

Of course, saying it’s time to leave for Canada and actually being ready to leave are very different things in practice. Lelou and Hui’Jin are both still sleeping, and Lala insists she’s coming with us, using her vacation days at work to see the world. It’s hard to argue with that, it’s one of the few chances to relatively safely see what used to be Canada, plus pouty face and droopy bunny ears is a combination that will melt the coldest heart.

It is only a few minutes to our planned departure time when Lelou and Hui’Jin finally appear, having been caught up in the enthusiasm of the past last night and sporting deep circles under their eyes from lack of sleep. Cultivators don’t need much though, so a bit of light meditation before breakfast arrives should have them in close to peak shape.

The closest stable transfer location to where we want to go is over two hundred kilometers away from them, Alpha Conway and his pack were so rural as to be isolated even before everything changed with the coming of the portals. So Karl’s tentative plan is we will shift there and then run the rest of the distance, stopping to clear out any large packs of monsters that we come across.

Karl is fairly sure he could use his new skill at travel gates to go directly to Alpha Conway’s pack house, but that would still leave them surrounded, so if things take a turn for the worst we’d have to clear a path for them to leave anyhow. Alpha werewolves are prideful creatures, he wouldn’t have asked for help if it wasn’t really needed. Even going as far as to ask through a third party, and not keeping it secret.

A very chipper Lala leads us all down to breakfast so she can inspect the novelty of both dinner and breakfast being on special all the time, the excessive caffeine intake and lack of sleep seemingly not having had any adverse effects on her. The breakfast special is French toast and sausages, pretty standard, but of an excellent quality with your choice of flavors and toppings. It’s the dinner special that surprises me. Lechon and Bulalo. I didn’t even know that the demons were aware the Philippines existed, but their food made it here, or at least some combination of it did.

"So, what is the plan, the big city and head north? Or that Black witch coven and head east to get to the Pack Territory?" Lelou asks, looking at a small map she brought with her.

"It’s probably best to go to the coven. If the big city had an easy time getting to them they wouldn’t have contacted us, plus the coven is closer." Karl says. He’s got a good point, things must be getting messy up there.

"If we’re going to the coven, I think I have a technique that might help them not mutate and go crazy, or even help repair the damage that the Death Energy from black witchcraft has caused." I suggest, making it two voices for the coven route.

"You know how to get there right? We won’t just be guessing and ending up in the woods?" Lala asks, making Karl laugh.

"I’ve been there before. We haven’t heard from them in a while, but that’s normal these days. So I’ll just bring us straight into the coven house, the portal is well hidden and secure, and I checked the stability this morning." He reassures our favorite bunny, her fluffy white ears bouncing happily as she eats.

"Straight from here? Or do you need to go to a linked location first?" I ask not sure how the network operates.

"We can go direct, I’ve got enough talent with transport magic to do it without a permanent link."

After a long round of goodbyes to the demons and the leftover bunnies still recovering from the party, Karl leads everyone back to our room and opens the gate to the coven house. He’s got to hold it open from this end, so I go through first, being the least likely to be seriously injured by an attack.

It’s quiet here, too quiet. Like nobody is home. I move to the only door, waiting to hear anything from the house above us, but still nothing. It’s mid morning, there should be someone awake, even among the largely nocturnal black witches.

The others follow behind, also noticing the ominous silence, and I motion for them to stay put.

"I’ll go up first and see what’s going on, then I’ll mind link Karl to let you know if it’s safe to come up." I say quietly, opening the door to see stairs heading up.