“What do you plan to do with me?” Belladonna’s voice trembled.

“Worry not, I won’t treat you badly.” Came the reply.

“What a repulsive wolf, it can joke about such a thing?” Belladonna couldn’t help but think.

“Wow, it’s a wolf, literally and figuratively!” Jerry pointed out.

TL Note: Chinese pun, 狼 means wolf, 色狼 means pervert. Or literally, a sex wolf.

“Doesn’t seem like it’s of any danger to us for now.” Elric analyzed.

“My attack was ignored as if it was nothing,” The descendant of a glorious knight was now facing the greatest crisis in his life.

The four and the wolf began to discuss for some time after that, (the wolf had been determined to take part in conversation), and then the group took off onto the road once more.

After another two days of peaceful travel, everyone (aside from Belladonna), had become less afraid of the wolf. Jerry in particular had developed a keen interest in the wolf.

In the evening, everyone had gathered around a bonfire. But this time, Belladonna was not as afraid of the wolf as before as she heard that a wild animal that had eaten its fill would not be as bloodthirsty.

“Hey, mister wolf, do all the wolf monsters enjoy eating cooked food?” Jerry couldn’t help but ask the question on his mind.

‘Them? As if those foolish ones would know what is a delicacy or not.” The wolf glanced at Jerry.

“I can tell! You can even differentiate between Elric and Belladonna’s cooking!” Jerry had picked at the scarring of the other. Originally because of the fact that there was one more wolf in their group, the food for each meal had been increased (for the wolf ate a large amount of food.). Jerry hadn’t felt any pressure at all and was in fact feeling even more relaxed than before now that the wolf had taken it upon himself to go hunting for food. As Belladonna was the only hard working one, Elric had decided to help her out a little bit. Each meal time, the wolf would have Elric cook the meal for everyone else while it exclusively ate the food Belladonna had cooked.

“Naturally, the food you humans make utilize the same methods whether it is man or woman. But the end result is completely different from one another. Five hundred years it has been, and for five hundred years, there has been no improvement to be seen.” The wolf lamented.

“Five hundred years? That means for five hundred years the only thing you’ve grown was your appetite.” Belladonna spoke.

“Then what type of person was your previous master?” Jerry asked courageously.

The wolf turned to give a frightful glare at Jerry, “I may have eaten my fill, but I would not mind a light dessert.”

“Ye-yes!” Jerry whipped his head up and down.

“In that case, might I ask just what type of people you’ve travelled with before were like?” Elric had pressed down Kite who seemed ready to leap up. The best course of action was to divert the attention of the wolf to another topic—it was the only plausible method.

No matter how smart of an animal the elder wolf was, he had taken the bait all the same.

“They were powerful individuals. Sloan, a masterful martial artist. Lucia, an outstanding priestess. And Tekrom, the finest archer ever witnessed.”

Hearing the monster in front of him praise humans like so, Elric couldn’t help but feel somewhat relieved.

But because of what would happen after that meal, everyone wouldn’t be able to fall asleep for some time.

In their moment of sleep, everyone had felt the earth beneath them give a mighty shake while the sounds of a horde of monsters could be heard from far away.

“What’s going on?” Everyone ran out.

Seeing that the old wolf had already scuttled up a giant cliff, everyone quickly scaled it after him to look off into the distance.

The rolling of a faraway flash of lightning had illuminated the entire forest in a single flash. All that could be seen was the occasional small lightning bolt that would flash left and right throughout the air above the forest. But no one had any idea on what it was. The shadows of multiple wild animals could be seen coursing through the trees, but whether it was the wild animals or the lightning strikes itself that struck down the trees, only dust could be seen being kicked up into the air.

After all of the debris had cleared up, the four were finally able to see the scenario once more. Within two hectare worth of forestlands, several dozen monsters with spiny backs and long tails could be seen trying to race away from a net of thunder on their bipedal legs. But whenever they tried to run past it, the lightning would immediately form another electrical mesh that forced the monsters back.

“That’s got to be the lightning spell—Lightning Barrier! But it looks kind of different, too.” Jerry remarked.

Lightning magic, also known as electromancy, is a subgroup of magic within aeromancy. It required a certain level of understanding and specialization that not every aeromagus was capable of. Jerry’s master, Pierrot, was such a magus, but he had yet to deem Jerry mature enough to learn it. The man hadn’t even bothered to introduce the basics of it to Jerry yet.

“Do you guys see that,” Belladonna remarked, “There’s a blind spot in that barrier!”

“I don’t, hurry up and point it out!” Kite answered.

“I don’t see it either.” Elric agreed.

“How disappointing, I’m clearly only good to be used for bait.” Jerry grumbled.

“There’s a small opening to the southwest of the area where the electricity isn’t reaching. I can see the monsters on the verge of breaking out.” Belladonna spoke.

“Ah, I remember hearing my master tell me that electromancy has a crucial weakness. Though powerful, it can easily be redirected and dissipated into the surrounding metals in the earth.” Jerry spoke.

“I’ve got it, there has to be some sort of metallic object over there. In the future, we should stab a sword into the ground whenever we come across a lightning user.” Belladonna spoke.

“Only half a millenia has passed and yet the collective wisdom of humanity has eroded away significantly,” an exasperated sigh escaped from the wolf. “As with many of the dragonic race, thorn dragons are highly-resistant to most forms of magic. The purpose of this magic here is not to harm them, but to entrap. When all but one direction is blocked off by lightning and the sole remaining direction is safeguarded, does it not make trapping thorn dragons a simple matter? Is this not a tactic used by humanity since time immemorial?”

Kite and Elric had nearly fallen off their rocky perch when they heard what the wolf had said.

“Good Gods! A wolf that knows strategy!” Everyone had thought.

As expected, the thorn dragons made it out through the opening and into the white misty area where nothing could be seen moving in it.

Within a single moment, every single Thorn Dragon had been swallowed up into that mist.

Then, the lightning dissipated into the air and restored the natural tranquility back to the forests.

Suddenly, another bright flash of light could be seen as a ball of lightning appeared over everyone’s head. After the flash had receded, a black figure could be seen floating in the sky. Despite the intensity of the light from earlier, the figure could not be seen in clarity, but the humanoid figure could still be seen nonetheless.

“So it was you! Hahaha, I was just on my way to go and find you.” A shrill voice stabbed into the eardrums of everyone around.

“Be careful, this could be a spell!” Elric didn’t know what type of spell it was, but the intense feeling of foreboding inside of him was more than enough to make him cry out a warning to the others.

“Worry not, the voice of this one was always like this; it is no magic.” The wolf explained.

“What are these little devils up to?” The same shrill voice continued to speak.

“We are apprentices undertaking an examination from the Circle of Magi of the Sovereign Kingdom.” Kite declared first.

“Oh, then what are you doing in the Forest of Illusion?” The voice continued.

“We are currently on our way to the laboratory of the magus Crazy!”

“Those guys from the Circle are using my laboratory as a training ground and they didn’t even bother to send me a message for it?!” The voice shrieked in indignation.