Even though he had cleaned himself with magic, Wolf was exhilarated when he ran into a pool of clear water. The winter was coming, and despite the fact that Silverhound had mild winters, the water was chilly.

Wolf jumped into the pond and scrubbed his skin until it turned red. Then he just soaked in the cold water for half an hour. Apparently, Protection from Elements allows you to take cold baths without even feeling chilly.

After bathing for an hour, Wolf finally got out of the pond. He checked his treasured robes and nodded in a satisfied manner. He had already cleaned and mended them magically without even taking them off. Now that he looked at them, Wolf decided it was time to store them. That way they won’t get damaged and he would have a treasured memento.

Wolf replaced the robe with a set of traveling clothes his father had bought for him way back at Iceowl. Then, wearing the bait backpack, Wolf continued his journey.

About an hour before dusk Wolf felt that he was being watched. Focusing on the feeling Wolf felt that he was the target of a hostile intent. He slowed down a bit and sure enough the hostile intent became clearer. Off to the side Wolf could see a group of grown men approaching with their weapons drawn.

“See, like I told you it’s just a kid,” muttered a man with a gruff voice.

“He was running, but he’s slowed down now.”

“Is that a bolt of silk he’s carrying? That’s got to be worth at least a gold coin! We’re rich!”

“I don’t know Doke. He was running awfully fast,” pointed out one of the bandits who seemed suspicious because of Wolf’s speed.

“Somebody probably attacked his companions, and he ran away in panic. That’s not bad either, we can probably sell him for a silver or two.”

Originally Wolf just listened and acted like he still hadn’t noticed the gang. He even realized he shouldn’t prepare Fleet of Foot anymore, because it would scare off more prudent groups. But when he heard that they wanted to sell him as a slave some violent shadow inside of him was triggered.

Wolf turned to face the bandits, staring darkly at the one that just spoke. When the man saw Wolf’s face he grinned lecherously.

“He’s quite a looker. We can sell him to a whorehouse after we’re done with him.” The man said without batting an eye, he even licked his lips.

Wolf looked at him with disgust. The sleazy bandit was creeping towards him with a rope in his hands. He was moving as if he was trying to catch a small critter or something.

“I’m gonna catch him,” the man said, still grinning.

Do I look like a deaf rabbit to you? Wolf was shocked. He couldn’t believe that they didn’t even try to knock him out before tying him up. Did this bandit expect him to stand still while he was binding him?

When the man was three steps away from the poor, confused boy, a silvery sword appeared in the poor, confused boy’s hand. Wolf leapt forwards. Steel flashed and with a faint sound hacked off the hands holding the damn rope.

“Aaaaaa!” the bandit screamed as his severed hands fell down to the ground.

*Splurt*

The scream was cut short when the tip of Wolf’s sword slashed the man’s throat. While the bandit was collapsing to the ground, making gurgling noises, Wolf jumped towards his mates. In a blink the poor, confused boy fully unleashed his baleful aura, freezing the bandits.

Fifteen seconds later, twelve dead bodies were lying on the muddy ground, blood pooling around them. Wolf first cleaned and stored his sword, before searching the bodies the way his father had shown him. Unfortunately, other than some bronze pieces and their weapons this group had nothing worth taking.

Having finished the gruesome work, Wolf cleaned his hands and face with a wet cloth before moving on.

I wonder if you can ever get to the point when searching the bodies is not worth your time? Dad was a True-Namer and he was still doing it…

Right, I’ll have to stop using Fleet of Foot from now on. Reaching Silver City without enchanting my movement means I’ll take an extra month to get there…

Wolf continued traveling until the sun had set and then made camp. Well, calling it a camp is an overstatement. He just moved some twenty meters away from the earthen road and decided to spend the night there.

Instead of eating, the first item on Wolf’s agenda was checking out the Portable Mansion. The only things Wolf knew about them was that unlike Rings of Holding living beings could enter them, and that they were expensive traps people walked into willingly without thinking about it.

Wolf took the item out and observed it critically.

It’s a big door made from dark wood. It doesn’t look very portable, nor like a mansion.

What used to be a gate fitted onto a caravan wagon was now a large, heavy door frame. Wolf tried to physically move it, but it was too heavy and unwieldy.

With a dissatisfied snort, Wolf opened the door. He looked at the pitch black surface inside for a couple of moments before entering it.

Passing through the inky blackness, Wolf found himself in a long hallway. A number of doors flanked him, and a couple dozen meters away the hallway ended with another door.

Wolf started his inspection from the door to the left and worked his way towards the furthest room. Five bedrooms, each with its own privy. A fully stocked kitchen, a salon or a living room and something that appeared to be a room for torture?

The only thing that warranted a second look was the kitchen. It had several magical appliances for cooking and preserving food, as well as a number of regular mechanical tools for mincing, grating and fine slicing.

Some of these instruments Wolf found interesting, but due to his father’s promise he didn’t touch anything. He took note of them and decided that he should buy something like that one day.

Behind the last door was a study with a library. Bookshelves lined the walls and a desk stood at the center of the room. Behind the desk was a comfortable armchair, while on top of it lay an open book, as well as a complicated contraption with a tea cup next to it.

The room shone with what appeared to be common candlelight, but was in fact a magical item that would never burn out.

A cheaper version of Light-Stone? Wolf thought for a moment, unaware that this magical item was a considerably more expensive and less practical version of a Light-Stone.

Then his attention was drawn to the books. At a glance he could tell that there were roughly a thousand of them.

I can read them before returning them, right? You can’t wear out the words by reading, and I’ll be careful not to cause any damage.

Combined with what he had found in the Northshield commander’s Ring of Holding, Wolf now had around twelve hundred tomes on him. Reading all of them would take a long while and, if he read them traditionally, Wolf might not manage to go through them all before reaching Silver City.

Fortunately, a Second Order spell called Leaf Through existed. It granted the caster a broad idea on what a book was about and you can use it on half a dozen books per casting. The spell only allowed Wolf to know the topic and general areas a piece of writing covered, but still it was good enough to filter out books Wolf had no use for. Then he could focus on the important ones.

Wolf packed a whole shelf’s worth of books into his Ring of Holding before leaving the Portable Mansion.

He didn’t know how to use this thing and didn’t know whether or not anyone could sneak up on him while he was inside. Being imprisoned inside didn’t seem like a fun prospect, and his father had warned him about it multiple times.

Once outside, Wolf set up an Alarm, then prepared two spells for book browsing. He was about to start, when his stomach growled.

Maybe I ought to eat something first? he thought.

Wolf took out a piece of jerky and started chewing on it. But then suddenly stopped. Dad used to say that it’s way healthier to eat a cooked meal than having dry rations. Even if I only boil the rations into a stew it should be much better for my stomach.

Wolf took out a pot, filled it with water and he was about to take out the magical heater from his father’s ring when he suddenly froze. He couldn’t make himself take his father’s item out of the Ring of Holding.

“I should build a fire instead. That way I might attract some more bandits, making the road safer for others.” He muttered nervously, rationalizing his reluctance.

With that excuse uttered aloud as if to convince himself, Wolf went about gathering dry branches for firewood. An hour and a half later, Wolf was munching on a freshly cooked stew. He added some spices to it, which made it considerably better than what the caravan served. However…

“It’s nothing like dad’s cooking,” Wolf sighed sadly.

Wolf’s chest ached and his throat tightened, but a moment later he forced a smile.

That just means I need to continue practicing! One day the food I make will be just as good as dad’s. Oh, right, I should feed that silver egg as well!

Instead of reading the books, Wolf once again entered his Mind Hall.

This time he carefully inspected the silver egg. He found exactly one thousand runic patterns on its shell. They seem to repeat in ten different sizes. Each size contained one hundred unique runes. It was fairly obvious what was expected of Wolf.

The issue was that Wolf couldn’t prepare Eighth, Ninth and Tenth Order spells at the moment. So he wasn’t sure how he should go about filling those grooves.

Fortunately, there were more than enough lower level runes for now. As for the ones he couldn’t fill up right away, Wolf decided to leave that problem to the future Wolf. The one that has finished lighting up all the runes that he could.

Wolf spent an hour feeding the egg, all the while feeling the warm, gentle touch following his index finger. As Wolf imbued the runes with his Soul Force he noticed that the ones he had completed were slowly beginning to give off a soft, silvery light. With each rune he filled up, Wolf noticed that the glow was getting just a tad brighter.

Feeling curious, Wolf decided to fill two runes at the same time, just to see what would happen. The little guy inside the egg didn’t mind one bit. She-he mimicked Wolf’s moves perfectly. The Mental Aspect on the other hand felt drained by the time he was done. It was a strange feeling, thanks to which Wolf now knew that the speed at which you exhaust Soul Force drastically impacted the level of fatigue.

“I should’ve tried this with the lowest tier runes, not with Seventh Order equivalents,” Wolf’s Mental Aspect said, feeling the heaviness of his eyelids.

He had originally planned on reading, but one thing after another just kept cropping up, and now he was too tired to read, or even refine the sixth column.

“I should feed the egg and prepare spells in the morning. That way I can carve during the night…” Wolf’s Mental Aspect said as he climbed the dais and sat on the throne.

He closed his eyes and soundly slept.

Wolf’s dreams were plagued by nightmares and darkness. His body was panting and sweating as his mind was assaulted. Then, suddenly, a warm, scaly hand gently reached out and took his. Together the two of them faced the darkness.

Wolf’s body calmed down and a smile bloomed on his face. The warm and comforting feeling had driven the nightmares away.

Wolf woke up in the morning feeling like a new man. He was still hungry from two weeks of fasting, but a hearty breakfast was a sound way to counter this condition.

After eating his fill, Wolf prepared his spells and fed the silver egg before resuming his journey.

Now that he was paying attention to it, Wolf realized that he was moving quite a bit faster than the Johns and Josh caravan.

In the end Wolf decided to enchant his speed, but to walk more leisurely. That way he could save stamina and, if needed, explode with unexpected speed.

The end result was fairly good. Wolf moved at the speed of a grown man hustling, or a child running. This should make him appear like a panicked survivor with a roll of silk sticking out of his backpack. Hopefully, that would paint him an attractive target for any bandits.

Days passed. Over the course of three weeks Wolf dispatched several groups of brigands. More importantly, Wolf had finished imbuing the first seven tiers of runes on the silver egg’s shell.

The egg was now giving off as much light as a lit torch, but that wasn’t the only change. Wolf now felt a faint connection form between him and the little guy in the egg. This wasn’t surprising, since she-he was siphoning so much energy from Wolf’s soul.

During the day hours Wolf prepared and ate lunch, after which he would read books for a couple of hours. Thanks to his well developed soul, Wolf could memorize a whole page at a glance and then take a couple of moments to process what he had read. That way Wolf could read an average book in a quarter of an hour.

On the first day Wolf realized that Leaf Through was useless to him. The spell only granted a limited idea on what he had read, which was only useful for filtering out what you don’t want to read. But Wolf didn’t need this kind of filtering. Despite his late father’s numerous lessons, the boy sorely lacked knowledge on many topics. Meaning there were no books Wolf found useless.

Even the books about magic, which Wolf found overly simplistic and crude, served to confirm what he already knew. They also solidified the fact that his father was an extraordinary Mage and a real genius.

The boy had also found that he enjoyed reading biographies of heroic individuals that lead turbulent lives. They performed great deeds, fought against all sorts of adversities and injustices, before reaching unimaginable heights and uniting the world!

Wolf was unaware of it at the time, but the books that caught his interest the most were legends and fantasies. He even subconsciously slowed down his pace when reading them, so that he could enjoy the adventures more. Gradually, Wolf adapted to this rhythm. Time flew by without him even noticing it…