Yarra’s Adventure Notes
Chapter 1076 - 191 Spotted Wolves

Chapter 1076: Chapter 191 Spotted Wolves

Amidst the roaring of tigers, the large group of predators surrounding the team swiftly retreated into the dense forest. Nearly a hundred wolf-type magical beasts dispersed and fled in all directions like a well-trained troop, vanishing from sight in the blink of an eye.

Drawing from their past experiences in other forests, as well as from what Flare and Pannis had told them, the girls had always believed that the territories of solitary dominant beasts were easier to traverse than those of social magical beasts. They thought that by simply avoiding the powerful dominants, there wouldn’t be too much to worry about. However, it was only when they actually set foot in the territory of a solitary dominant that they realized their previous notions were incredibly naive. While it’s true that you won’t disturb the dominants if you’re careful in a solitary dominant’s territory and can avoid confrontation with powerful dominants, there are also significant downsides to this approach.

In the Forest of Death, there is an immense number of magical beasts, and the predators are too numerous to count. Many lower-strength beasts, unable to become dominants and claim a territory of their own, forage for food by skulking through various territories of powerful magical beasts. They too try to stay out of sight of the dominants while hunting weaker wild beasts and magical beasts within the territories. After feeding, they promptly flee, resting and living at the borders between several territories. These predator groups tend to live in large communities, swarming their prey when encountered. Their individual strength is much weaker than that of the dominants, but their numbers can cause a quite a headache. Since social magical beasts are evenly distributed throughout their territories, the predators have almost no room to poach food, hence, they tend to only operate within the territories of solitary dominants.

Therefore, traveling through the territory of solitary dominants allows one to avoid high-end battles, but at the cost of enduring frequent conflicts. The groups of predators seem almost endless, and each time the girls passed through a territory, they might face several lengthy battles against different groups of predators, each leaving them utterly exhausted.

It can’t be said that Flare and Pannis’ choice was wrong, because although fighting with the predators was incredibly tiresome, at least the risk was controllable. With Pannis and the other eight half-gods joining forces, these roaming groups of predators couldn’t possibly pose any danger to the team. In theory, as long as there were no accidents, there wouldn’t be a situation where a battle among half-gods spilled over to harm the Legendary Rank girls, which was hard to avoid in the territories of social magical beasts. Therefore, the girls could only follow the half-gods’ lead without complaint, walking an established route through the territories of the dominants.

Today was the fifth day, and it had just turned noon, but the girls had already begun their fourth battle of the day. They didn’t know whose magical beast territory they had entered since they had passed through more than a dozen territories along the way and could no longer remember the owners. However, they did know that they had just stepped into this territory not long ago when they encountered a hunting pack of wolves.

They were a group of creatures known as spotted wolves, with a sleek, black fur adorned with sparse white spots that looked quite beautiful. However, their appearance was merely an adaptation for survival. The spotted wolves were nocturnal by nature, their black fur blending perfectly with the darkness of the night, rendering them nearly invisible to any foe. The white spots, under the cover of darkness, resembled flickers of moonlight passing through the gaps in the dense canopy above, allowing them to stealthily approach their prey before encircling it for the hunt.

The most distinctive feature of the spotted wolves was their incredibly hard teeth. These magical beasts had teeth so sturdy that even a heavy hammer striking them from the side could not break them. Long ago, a scholar from the City of Knowledge attempted to cut through their teeth with a Magical Automatic Chainsaw; despite the chainsaw operating continuously for five minutes, it managed to only cut halfway through a tooth. This characteristic made their teeth an excellent additive for weapon crafting, and it was said that a one-handed sword mixed with powdered spotted wolf teeth could last several times longer than an ordinary one. Even if their teeth were broken, it would not impact them greatly, for new teeth would grow back in the broken spots within ten days—a trait common to most rodent-type magical beasts, but peculiar in spotted wolves.

Yet, what classified them as Demigod magical beasts was not the hardness of their teeth but their remarkable biting force. They could bite through two-centimeter-thick metal plates with ease, and even crush solid pebbles. In their eyes, there was nothing in the world they couldn’t bite through; if there was, then they’d simply bite again.

Now, the expedition team had disturbed a group of these frenzied and greedy spotted wolves. It remained a mystery as to why the nocturnal spotted wolves would hunt during the day, but by the time Pannis noticed their presence, they had already commenced a long-distance charge toward their intended target. There was no time to evade, and the greedy pack would not let them pass simply because they were just passing through. Hence, the only option for the team was to take up their weapons and engage in direct combat.

Battling the spotted wolves was an incredibly frustrating affair, a sentiment shared by most who had fought them. These creatures were a variant of wolves, inheriting the wolf’s brutality and cunning. They were extremely fast, their movements as elusive as the wind, attacking from the shadows like a group of assassins encircling their prey from afar, striking from unexpected angles with the speed of lightning. If an attack was successfully defended, they would not pursue a second strike, but instead retreat immediately, denying their enemy any chance for counterattack. Unless one was adept at high-speed combat or was a ranged professional, even the powerful Demigods had no effective method of dealing with this kind of assault and could only resort to using Shields to endure the attacks and strike back.

Of course, if this was all there was to it, they would not be considered such an irritant. What truly made them detestable was how easily they could damage weapons and armor. Their teeth and biting strength were so formidable that, without careful attention, armor could be punctured and weapons snapped. Losing one’s favored weapons and armor significantly reduced combat effectiveness, and on an adventure in the Forest of Death, this often meant a premature end to the journey. As a result, most adventurers in the Forest of Death despised the spotted wolves deeply, yet found themselves without a good solution.