Mage And Wolf
Chapter 59

Chapter 59: Chapter 59

Lala and the girls are still enjoying the luxury that is the Royal Baths as I’ve come to call the giant hot tub in my suite, so Hui’Jin returns with 3 bags, dragging them along the floor as they’re too heavy for her to lift.

I see Karl coming down the ramp and flag him over.

"Karl, buddy old pal. Want to do me a teeny tiny favor?"

"How tiny are we talking?"

"About 4 feet? I’d like you to help Hui’Jin here awaken her cultivation before we have to go to the dungeon. She’s a pretty good fire mage for her age, and I can sense she’s got potential, but we don’t have time."

"Even knowing the risks? The Dragons did mention that they’d already tried our method and people still blew up."

"Trust me, she’s one of us. It won’t be a problem. But maybe we should ask her."

"Ask me what Highness? I will do whatever you command" Yeah, maybe asking her is irrelevant, she’ll do whatever she thinks we want her to do. Karl seems to have come to the same conclusion.

"I’m going to cut this stone into 12 pieces. You eat them one at a time and try circulating the energy through your body."

"Yes your Highness" she finishes with her mouth wide open waiting for the piece. It’s kind of cute, like Lala when she’s waiting for popcorn while we watch movies.

The first piece shows her pathways are naturally clear to one point beyond her mana pool, a very good sign. Karl carefully clears away blockages one at a time, cautious not to let the energy run amok or tear any of the mana veins. By the time he’s gotten to the last piece we’ve gathered a pretty big audience. Neisa, The Blue and Lelou plus the White Priestess from downstairs are all watching the process along with Jurgen and the Ramirez Brothers.

"That was incredible, the control, the technique, everything was perfect" Neisa gushes, totally defying her usual strict personality.

"Even more importantly, it worked and she didn’t explode" Lelou adds and Hui’Jin turns pale.

"I could have exploded?"

"Well there was a chance, but the Goddess told me you’d survive, so you survived." I embellished a bit to calm her fears. I mean it’s not a total lie, right? I did have a good feeling about this.

"Now, off to the Dungeon to burn off some of that newfound energy!"

The Priestesses all shake their heads at my unwarranted confidence. All except Neisa that is, who is still busily writing her observations down in a notepad and eyeing Karl like a dirty book she’s been waiting to read. Lust for forbidden knowledge clear on her round face.

As we barrel out of the garage I can already feel the power in Hui’Jin start to settle into her body. We may have just created the world’s tiniest superhero. Or villain. After all, we both do serve the God of Death.

The area around the entrance is teeming with Powerful magical beasts by the time we arrive at the dungeon. A pack of wild boars the size of the truck are digging for something to eat in the dirt, and I can hear Jurgen’s belly rumble at the thought.

"We’re mighty glad you’re here girl" he says patting Hui’Jin on the head before swinging the door open and hopping into the bed to man the gun.

"What’s that mean?" she asks, obviously confused

"He means you’re the only one of us that can use fire magic to cook those things and they smell really good" Juan teases, making us all laugh.

The gun is sounding its staccato scream, and boars start to drop at a rapid rate as Jurgen pans from target to target, his enhanced strength easily holding the weapon on target, even from a bouncing vehicle.

Hui’Jin looks a little sick, but I reassure her that it’s no different than working in the kitchen. Just a little mess to clean up, not a big deal. That seems to help and soon enough Jurgen has the entrance cleared so we can park and get ready to head inside.

"Now, to see how well you did in the mission to find our gear." I joke at Hui’Jin.

Bag 1 is a shotgun and a full duffel of spare ammunition drums. Very nice.

Bag 2 is hammocks and sleeping bags. Not bad.

Bag 3 is nothing but breakfast boxes. Dozens of them. How did that even become a gear bag?

"All in all not bad for your first attempt. I give it a passing grade"

She is smiling like I just bought her a new puppy, making the boys look inside the duffel bags and laugh.

"It looks like Karl packed." Manuel jokes and pulls Hui’Jin into a hug. "You’re so one of us whether you like it or not."

"Now for the part you’re not going to like" I start. "We need to collect the mana stones out of all these boars." The happy smile on her face is gone in an instant.

"But..."

"No buts. I’ll show you where to cut, and you collect along with the rest of us"

"Even you collect stones? I thought High Priestesses delegated that to the lowest ranked?"

Jurgen pats her on the back "Not in this party. We all clean up so it’s done faster and we can move onto the next fight. The faster we clean, the faster we kill, the faster we can go home and eat."

Hui’Jin seems to be having a bit of trouble adapting to her increased speed and strength, tripping a few times and decapitating one unfortunate corpse trying to do the job with her eyes closed, but it’s only a few minutes until we’re all done.

"That’s 20 more stones. The dragons say they need 300 in total, so let’s see what we can get done."

Two steps into the labyrinth things get interesting. A black coated cat leaps onto me out of the darkness, nearly ripping my head off before I can get my claws up, tearing its soft belly open and leaving it on the ground for Jurgen to finish with a blast of his silenced rifle.

The guys all started cultivating not long after me and Karl, but none has managed to break through a second time, seemingly stuck at the first stage. Lelou warned me that innate ability or talent has a great effect, even causing the deaths of those with none at all, but it seems that it also can greatly increase cultivation time.

Hui’Jin casts a flame barrier around herself, lighting up the area.

"Good call, it’s so dark in here even I had troubles seeing."

"Definitely add extra torches or light spells to the list for anyone else coming here." Juan adds, collecting the mana stone into a pouch.

Around the corner we find 4 more of the boars and the guys quietly high five.

"We can drag the bodies out, since we’re still near the door" I reassure them.

"Hui’Jin, multiple flame strikes, see if you can take them all out at once."

Her barrage of little fireballs is magnificent, and I follow close behind them to take care of what they don’t kill. Which is everything. The boars are scorched and injured, but none fall. I might have asked too much of that spell, but injured they fall quickly to my claws, leaving the guys the happy duty of relieving them of their mana stones and dragging the bodies outside.

"Is that all the power you can put behind that spell?" I ask softly.

"Well, it’s all I can put into one set. But I could fire a second and a third immediately afterwards I think?" Hui’Jin doesn’t sound very sure of her new abilities, but we can fix that.

The guys return and I signal for Jurgen to take point while I take up the rear. This room has multiple exits and I don’t want to get jumped.

Jurgen signals 2 targets ahead and I motion for Hui’Jin to take care of them.

"If they don’t fall immediately, fire a second barrage. Overkill is the best kill and you want to make sure they’re not faking being dead" I instruct.

The same 8 fireballs launch at the two boars, dropping them where they stand without a need for more work. But now the smell of roasting bacon fills the corridor and I’m hearing growling from both directions.

"You three face front, I’ll hold the back."

Everyone quickly gets in position, the tiny form of Hui’Jin surrounded by us 4 adults in a loose diamond. Cat like growls sound from Jurgen’s side and I hear gunshots and see the flashes of fireballs. My side is still mostly quiet, but I can hear low growling from around the corner. With a streak of blue light a centaur looking creature holding a lightning covered spear charges into the hallway, only to be met with the thumping song of my shotgun.

Looks like the magical ammunition is plenty effective, it’s blasted holes in his chest and the half horse, half human warrior slumps against the wall, dropping his spear with a clatter. It’s still covered in lightning around the tip, so I approach cautiously. Who knows if it’s tied to a particular warrior or species. Hui’Jin eyes it curiously, but makes no attempt to move towards it, giving me no hints as to whether this thing is safe to pick up.

I make a quick dash and grab it around the middle, pulling it into the air with a crackle of energy. It’s not burning my hand, that’s a good sign.

Hefting my spear I motion the group forward, to give us a bit more time should another beast come from where the centaur was. He wasn’t a level 2 beast, he had a mana stone but it was soft and small. The strength to survive here must have come from his magical weapon.

We move through a few empty corridors before reaching a junction. Corridors extend in all 4 directions, with no signs of life in any of them.

"Hui’Jin, mark the hallway we have come from. I don’t want to get lost in here, in case the place has recently reset."

She sticks a little fiery circle on the floor in the hallway. It’s got an arrow in it, indicating the way we were walking. Now that’s why I wanted a mage with us. No getting lost with a symbol that obvious.