They had to weave between some trees to land on the ground properly. Their feet immediately broke the mostly unblemished snow. It crunched in that way that only snow could. It was cold beneath his bare feet, but not much colder than when he was in the storm. Turned out that snow in the sky was just as cold as snow on the ground. Which was an obvious thing in hindsight. What did he expect, snow would obviously just be snow? Mash snapped his head to the side. He was able to notice some tracks in the snow with his domain.

“Wolf tracks.”

Mash spoke confidently and pointed them out to the others. His brother had told them of some of the types of creatures that could be found here. He hadn’t mentioned the weird mana fish things, but he did mention some artic pride-wolfs. They were creatures that could blend in with the snow but didn’t really have any magical abilities. However, the monsters had significantly more raw stats to compensate for the lack of abilities. There were other more interesting types of creatures here, but he was after a specific insect species.

According to his brother’s information, there was a system of underground tunnels beneath the ravine. Mash would find some large insectoid creatures within them. His brother had said they were called icicle spiders because of how they blended into the cave. They would be indistinguishable from normal icicles, but he would be able to detect them with his domain. This is what he really wanted to find. These spiders had the ability to heal themselves with magic, and he wanted Mash to steal the ability. Monsters rarely had healing magic. It wasn’t that they wouldn’t heal, rather they would do so through a natural process. While something like that was helpful to Mash, he would gain more by gaining a magical affinity.

It seemed like they would find the wolves first. Jill started walking in the direction of the tracks, Red and Luke quickly joining her. Mash lingered for a second, looking around and taking in the forest. The snow covered the ground and partially filled the pine trees. The trees weren’t very big. Even the tallest he saw was only about as big as a house in a village. He started after the others, jogging a little as he realized that they weren’t going to wait for him. Once he caught up, he slowed down to match their pace. They had planned what to do when fighting some of the monsters with more advanced capabilities, but they should be able to handle packs of the wolves individually if they wanted to.

They would just compete for the monsters, though Mash would hold onto the corpses. Plus, he would eat whatever didn’t fit in his storage. It was a plan to maximize his gains. While it would suck to miss out on selling the monster parts, it didn’t really matter to them. They had plenty of money still and could mooch off his siblings if needed. No, money would never be an issue for them. The general plan was a simple one, and they proceeded with it in mind.

It took a while, but they all noticed once they found the wolves. Or rather, they were found by the wolves. Mash wondered if the monsters could somehow sense his domain, as they hovered just at its border. He had only noticed one because his step had taken him into its path as it skulked around them. Mash didn’t let the creature stop his movements, and he just kept walking normally. At the same time, he told Priscilla to send messages to the others. The wolves probably couldn’t hear into their minds. Now that he was looking for the wolves more carefully, he noticed more small movements just beyond his sight. A shift in the snow, or a track that hadn’t been there previously. The wolves were very good at avoiding his direct vision, but they still left a few tracks around. Judging from the tracks, they didn’t seem particularly large, though his brother had suggested they would be around as big as a horse.

When everyone was able to notice the signs of the wolves, he guessed that there was an entire pack following them now. Mash could feel himself getting a little excited now. To have a fight where he didn’t need to worry about any implications. This whole journey was designed for this purpose, and these monster bodies would be useful for advancing his path too. He didn’t run off on his own or even transform just yet. He was a little worried that doing something like that would make them run.

Without doing anything overtly, he changed his body in more imperceptible ways. Specific transformations like he was doing now used more energy, but it was well worth it. Hiding his improvements let him get a jump on something in a fight. This time he went with his dragon-form, his muscles growing denser and bulking up a bit. When the fight started, he would grow his scales, but for now, just focused on getting the stat improvements. The others didn’t have any preparations to make right away. However, they had sprung into motion the same moment he did.

The first wolf appeared from behind them, lunging at an unsuspecting Jill. She looked the frailest of the group, but she was the worst target to attack first. Mash or Luke wouldn’t have been able to dodge the surprise attack. The wolves were insanely quick, and the jumping wolf looked like a white blur. Mash wondered about how high these things' stats were and started the process of growing scales over his body. Though it was smaller than he expected. It was only about as big as a normal wolf. His brother hadn't mentioned another species though, and these were certainly fast enough to be around level 100.

Jill was the only one able to dodge such an attack perfectly, and she did exactly that. She teleported forward. She spun, her needle formed in her hand, and she plunged down at the wolf as it skidded across the snow. It was moving so quickly that it couldn’t turn, and it ran into Jill’s waiting weapon. With the way her weapon worked, the wolf's thick fur and muscles didn’t stop the spear’s tip in the slightest. It plunged into its body. It pierced through its neck and dug deep into the wolf's body. At that moment, dozens of walls sprung out at them. Mash’s body glowed. Everybody was glowing as Luke’s buffs started on all of them.

The boost from the buffs and his transformation was enough. He could keep up with the wolf's movements. At least he could do it with his eyes. His body was a different matter, and two wolves crashed into him. Even if he wasn’t able to move as fast as them, his scales had made him into a wall, a mountain. Snow erupted outward from the impact in a circular puff from the wolves’ fur. Which felt weirdly hard against his scales. They were almost needles, and they made a scraping noise as they brushed his hardened scales. Mash wasn’t paying much attention to the wolves; his mind was focused on his clothes.

The path did a lot of interesting skills when used with his skills. His clothing also scraped against the wolf’s fur. It was like it had hardened partially to match the change to his own skin. It reminded him a little of Jeral’s robes, though he didn’t grow blades. Another wolf jumped him, it attempted to bite through his neck, but it couldn’t pierce his scales. It did manage to push on his neck though, and he felt like it was harder to get a proper breath out. He decided it was time to refocus on the fight.

Three wolves clung to him. One was pressing on his neck while the other two were attempting to restrain his arms. They were succeeding in stopping his movements, but they weren’t able to get through his scales. The worst injury he would get from them would be an internal one. Plus, they couldn’t stop his magic, and he discharged some lightning all over his arms. It wasn’t strong enough to kill the wolves as he was worried about hitting the others, but he made sure to use enough power to get them to release his arms. Once his arms were free, he used one to grab the wolf that was on his neck. His clawed fingers dug into the wolf’s eye sockets. He heard a yelp of pain from the beast as it released him, but Mash didn’t hesitate and crushed the wolf’s skull.

The monsters were fast and strong, but they were not durable. The two wolves that had been holding his arms were still stunned. Wood grew around his free hand, changing its shape to match a dragon’s mouth. He used it to take a bite out of one of the wolves. The chunk of flesh he was hoping to get didn’t come off as easily as he had wanted, and the other wolf managed to flee. The stun from the lightning hadn’t lasted very long on the monsters. They weren’t as durable as Mash, but they weren’t frail either.

That was evident by how much Red was struggling to get any killing blows. Normally, her new abilities would let her kill these beasts with even the smallest scratch. Maybe it was the cold temperature, but he thought it had more to do with the monsters’ natural resistances. They were clearly adept at withstanding her infection. That didn’t stop her from infecting as many wolves as she could. Mash wondered if her skill would spread from things other than attacks. If it was possible then she might end up destroying the entire ecosystem here. He turned his body roughly to the side, the motion managed to tear the wolf’s body apart.

He started eating it immediately, his wooden limb handling the digestion. With his other hand, he did something else. It was a test. He didn’t consume the other body but used chimeric reconstruction instead. The wolf’s body began to dissolve and melt into his own. It restored some of the damaged muscles but didn’t give him the same rush of power as before. The skill didn’t seem to count as consumption for his mimic’s avarice. He was glad about the test. That was the only thing he wanted to try with these wolves. Now he could focus on the fight alone. The others were already doing just that, and they had killed many more wolves than him. Although it was hard to tell how much Red had done with how her skills functioned.

He let himself slip into the flow of the fight. He relied more on his wood magic than lightning. His friends were too close for him to use such indiscriminate magic. With his wood, he grew spears from his body jabbing them at any wolf that he could. Many of the spears just broke against the force of a dashing wolf, but some managed to punch into them. When that happened, he began consuming them from the inside out. Even if he didn’t save any corpses that he killed, there would still be plenty of usable material from the others’ fights.

Luke was especially good at killing them without doing too much damage. His attacks did damage to something deeper than the body, and the monsters died with little more than bruises. He would harvest those. As the ones Jill killed were covered in blood or were squished from falling from a great height. The ones Red killed didn’t look like they were safe for consumption of any kind.

Mash noticed something beyond the wolves that were attacking them. He had seen a larger wolf in the back. Caught only a glimpse of it when he had turned and grabbed another one which was jumping at him. He guessed that was the pack leader. It was bigger than the others and had noticeably darker fur. Well, it was greyer than white. Mash edged towards it a little and his domain touched the creature. As it turned out it was not the pack leader. There were several of the larger wolves just beyond their current fight. It seemed like the monsters were more intelligent than they seemed. The wolves they were fighting must be something like scouts. He knew he was smiling now and let it stretch from cheek to cheek.