AN: Another chapter of Kalim's life. Enjoy.

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- «Kalim, if you're fine with possibly not sleeping tonight, then we may have found something interesting for you. Maybe.»

Shanira had come to him while he was still watching the other train.

- «Really? Let's hear it.»

- «This last week there has been a lot of monsters attacks. A lot more than usual. And monster activity has increased in the Palam forest. That forest is full of E and D rank monster. And the task is to investigate it and possibly find the cause. It's a C rank mission due to the number of monsters and the mystery.»

- «How far is this Palam forest? I want to be back before dusk tomorrow.»

- «12 hours on foot, while walking non stop! But I'm sure you can get horses for us.»

- «We will take it!»

After leaving the guild, they went to buy a cart and horses, 3000 danars (30 silver coins) per horses and 1000 danars for a good cart, for a total amount of 7000 danars. Then Kalim, Shanira, Eryween, Alinee and Elody left the city for the forest, a trip that was supposed to take no more than 4 hours.

During the trip, Kalim examined everyone's equipment, and slightly improved them with his matter manipulation. Afterward, he told the girls how they would proceed. He would be the main fighting force, while the girls would stay in a group a little behind. Elody would cover him with her bow, with the main objective to distract opponents to give him a bit of breathing. Eryween would be on standby for healing, or intercept any stray enemy heading for their group. Shanira would protect them while Alinee would keep an eye on their rear.

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As they got near the forest, they encountered quite the number of goblins and warg wolves, and they didn't forget to get proof of the kills. The goblins were always in groups, with a few casters. They we quickly picked by Alinee and Elody while Kalim dealt with the rest. The wolves were in packs of 8 to 12, and then again, Kalim exterminated them, except for the last pack. For some reason, the grey pack leader caugh the eyes of Kalim.

- ''Wait a minute. I can enslave people, I can do the same with animal and monsters, but with the arcane element. I will tame him, and one female if there are any.' «Elody, don't do anything, I want to catch 2 of them.»

And so, Kalim proceeded to 'play' with the wolves. He moved around them like the wind, checking them out to find the females, and when he did, he targeted the most healthy one and broke her 4 legs in a second. Then, he went straight for the leader and did the same. With his target incapacitated, he slaughtered the remaining wolves.

- «Eryween dear, tell me what you know about taming, I want those 2!»

- «Yes, well. To tame a beast or a monster, you must first prove your superiority to it. Then, using arcane magic, you must etablish a connexion with the creature and affirm your position as the master. The creature will then accept you as such, and through the link, will get a little smarter and be able to understand some of your words. When the taming is complete, a mark appear on the creature as proof.»

- «Is that so? Thanks, I'll start now.»

Kalim put the 2 wolves side by side. As they tried to bit him when he moved them, he beat them up into submission. Then he put both hands on their foreheads and gathered arcane mana. After around 20 min of tinkering, he was able to discover the right method to tame them and proceeded. After a slight light show, a mark appeared on each of their foreheads, indicating that the taming was a succes. (AN: The mark looks like Sasuke's mangekyou sharingan). Then, he healed them.

- «Big boy, from now on, your name will be Amarok. And you, your name will be Asena.» "I wonder why theses names came to my mind while thinking of good names for exceptional wolves? Probably my old world again"

The 2 wolves stood up and bowed as Kalim gave them their names. Their marks shined slightly, as if to confirm their new names. Kalim pated them while observing them. Amarok had grey fur and blue eyes, and was around 150cm tall. Asena was black with green eyes, and around 140cm tall. Kalim found it funny that each of his eyes were the same color as that of his first tamed beats. He felt some kind of kinship with the 2 wolves because of that. After a short break during which the wolves got aquitained with the girls, they continued toward Palam forest.

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When they arrived at the edge of the forest, Kalim used earth magic to lower the ground under the horses and the cart until they were 80% under the ground level, then he made a solid roof with small holes for air. Of course he also let them with some water and food for the night. This way he was sure no harm would befall them while he went in the forest. With the 4 girls and the 2 wolves, he went into the forest.

- «There is something odd here» said Eryween.

- «... You do know that it's for that reason we are here, right?» replied Kalim with a raised eyebrow.

- «Yes, sorry. I mean, elves are sensitive to nature and forests. We can generaly tell when something unnatural or extraordinary takes place. In this case, I doubt the increase in monsters activity is due to a natural factor.»

- «... So either someone accidentally left something here that caused this phenomenon, either someone deliberatly did something... Once again, Shanira, Alinee, Eryween, your priority is your own safety. If you aren't targeted, ignore the opponents. Elody, your job is to hinder those who try to attack from my blind spots. Amarok,with me, Asena, defend them. Eryween, don't let my wolves die, and Elody, don't hit Amarok.»

- «I would never, master.»

As soon as he said that, him, Eryween, Shanira and the wolves turned their heads in the same direction. 10 seconds later, they were attacked by giants spiders the size of a dog. There were already plenty of them on the ground, but more were moving on the trees and making jumping attacks. However, when Kalim noticed their presence, he cast both strenght and speed enhancement on everyone.

Kalim charged in the middle of their ranks, his spear slashing and piercing multiples spiders with each strikes while his new short sword dealt with those that came from above, making their innards and body fluids rain on him. Amarok bit the legs and crushed the heads of the ones that tried to attack Kalim from behind. Alinee, Shanira and Asena were fighting while circling around Eryween and Elody to protect them. Elody and Eryween were dealing with the spiders that tried to attack from above.

The assault only lasted for a minute, but within that minute they killed nearly 200 spiders, more than half the work of Kalim. Amarok and Asena had been injured a lot and Eryween spent most of her time healing them. At the end, Kalim had to personally heal them because they had been poisoned. And before advancing they didn't forget to get the hunting proofs. From before noon to the middle of the afternoon, the group had to deal with an incredible amount of monsters, always in groups no less than 30. The girls were exhausted so they rested into a makeshift earth cabin for 2 hours.

- «That's more serious than what the request said. The amount of monsters is insane. Investigation? They should have organised a large scale subjugation.» said Shanira in a low voice tinged with irritation.

- «Not if the situation wasn't that serious when they received the first reports... The night will be interesting.»

- «... I would rather have the other kind of interesting night for once. Just look at Alinee and Elody.»

The 2 girls were sprawled on the ground, their heads resting on the sides of the wolves. They were just F and E rank. This mission was very taxing for them. Kalim and Eryween had to give them a massage to help them recover. Kalim even developped a recovery spell. Now, those 2, Eryween and the wolves were sleeping.

Shanira was the only one awake, sitting on Kalim's lap, her head resting on his chest while he was playing with her tail and caressing her head. Despite the situation, she couldn't help but find it relaxing, after all, her feline part love to be cuddled. As for Kalim, his stamina was on a whole different level, he could probably go on at this rythm for another 12 hours before needing to rest.

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At dusk, Kalim woke up everyone, even Shanira who got lulled by his gentle strokes, to her surprise and embarrassement. Eryween was the only supposed to achieve that. While they were asleep Kalim took care of everyone's equipment. The reason Elody didn't run out of arrows was because Kalim would restore them after each battle.

They ate a light meal, and since they were about to battle in the darkness, Kalim cast the shadow cloak spell he used on Elody and Alinee before on all of them. Kalim also experimented a bit with magic and cast the nocturnal vision spell on them. He finished with speed and strenght enhancement and they set out in the darkness of the night.

After several other battles with monsters, Kalim slowed down, then stopped.

- «Hmm, Eryween, which direction gives you the most sense of unease?»

- «... There is no particular direction, the feeling comes from everywhere.»

- «Is that so? Because I think there is something in that direction» he said while pointing with his finger. «I will use wind magic to mask our scent and noise, and we are already concealed in the shadows. I believe the answers to our questions is there.»

They all advanced carefully for nearly 20min when Kalim's focused senses detected presences ahead. He signaled the others to stop, and went ahead. As he got close, he smelled them, humans. He focused his senses to the maximum while advancing at a snail pace, almost crawling, probing the ground with matter manipulation, carefull not to trigger any traps.

Then he stopped. His instincts told him that if he went further he would be noticed. The closest presence was still 50m away, but he just knew that getting closer would reveal him to the others, no, to one of them, one who was definitly very strong.

As carefully as before, he retreated. He needed to formulate a plan with the girls.

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