Shortly before lunch time we spot the pack of wolves, there are thirteen of them. These wolves are leaner and smaller than the forest wolves that I have encountered. To my surprise when the wolves spot us they stop and wait for us, I was expecting them to run.

As we get closer and the wolves get a good look at Lizzy the rest of the pack hides behind the two biggest wolves. Those two wolves are a male and a female, they seem to be the pack leaders. As I dismount and walk towards them they stare at me with no trace of fear.

To my surprise as I get closer I can sense that they are both maxed out as mana beasts. Meaning I can make both of them evolve into sacred beasts. Both of them give off an impression of intelligence but don't seem to be capable of speech.

When I explain to them what I want to do and what will happen they seem to understand. The male steps forward, he gives me the impression he is going to be first to make sure it's safe. Since I am not in a rush, evolving them one at a time is no big deal, so I put my hand on his neck.

Then I release a small amount of sacred power into his body through my hand. I carefully guide it in first scanning his body and then merging it into his core. Since the scan shows no problems I go ahead and trigger his evolution into a sacred beast.

Then as he is evolving I continue to scan and use my power to smooth out his evolution. This makes it less painful while allowing him to get the maximum benefits possible. I can only do this because I have now had a decent amount of practice.

When the evolution is complete the male wolf is obviously overjoyed at the result. When I glance at the female she steps forward with no hesitation at all. So I repeat the process with her while the male looks on, he seems more nervous than she is.

It is obvious that they care about each other a lot, which makes me happy. Since as sacred beasts they will live a lot longer now, if they hated each other that would suck! It does make me wonder if Great Mother Wolf knew about the two of them or only sensed one of them.

Either way, this is definitely going to make them the king and queen of the plains. Now the plains and the forest are under the control of sacred beasts. Oh, I guess I should say both forests, since the forest of fangs already has a sacred beast.

Surprisingly that is the next location marked on the map, maybe I will meet Brother Tiger again. Although, if I am not going there for a tiger, maybe Brother Tiger won't be happy about this. Either way, maybe I should seek him out to speak with him about it first.

After all, from what I can remember of him I am probably still not a match for him. Although Lizzy and I together might be, but I would prefer not to find out. After all, I am supposed to be making sacred beasts, not killing them.

When the female finishes evolving she and the male dance around happily. Then they both rush over to me and express their gratitude with their wet tounges. Once my face is thoroughly soaked they run off to rejoin the pack and lead them away.

Since we are already stopped we have lunch before turning due west toward the forest of fangs. Taking it easy as we are, I expect to reach the forest the day after tomorrow. I am tempted to visit the church village, but there really is no point since we moved the people to Illium.

Along the way I see military units several times, it looks like Mercy dispersed the army. Considering all the chaos during the civil war it is a good idea, lots of places probably need help. The fastest way to restore order is to use the army, it just costs more.

However, restoring order is important, she can't send out tax collectors until it is calm. If the first thing the people see is the tax collectors they are likely to revolt. I trust Mercy to be smarter than that, especially with how much she cares about her people.

No matter how good she is, it is going to take a while for the kingdom to recover. Especially the capital, since all its inhabitants were massacred and turned into hosts for shadow demons. The capital will probably take years to fully recover, no matter how much gold Mercy spends.

When I get back to Illium I will ask Pol about sending useful goods up to help Mercy. If things have progressed as planned, Pol should control the market from the beastmen by now. That will give us a lot of power and we should have plenty of goods that Mercy could use.

Even if we just give the goods to Mercy, we should certainly be able to afford a bit of a loss. Thinking about it makes me wonder how things are progressing with everything. I haven't been gone too long, but it doesn't take much time for things to change.

If we keep going at a slow pace it will take about two weeks to hit the points on the map that I have chosen. We could probably cut that down if we started moving faster, but right now I am enjoying the relaxed pace. Maybe once I am feeling better I will ask Lizzy to move faster, or maybe not.

There is no real reason to rush, it's not like I have a time limit or anything. I have been rushing here or there practically ever since I was summoned. Maybe this would be a good time to relax a bit, once I return to Illium things will get hectic again.

It is my own fault, it isn't like I have a boss telling me what to do or setting goals. The goddesses only provide objectives, they don't try to tell me how to do things. Although, they do seem to constantly tell me to be careful, as if I am reckless.

Of course, I keep that thought to myself, who knows if they are paying attention to me right now. Seronia only recently forgave me, no need to make her mad at me again. I need to try and avoid doing anything stupid for a while, or at least not let them know about it.

Right now I am hoping that they haven't been paying attention and don't know what I did to myself with shapeshifting. Considering I haven't heard anything from them I am guessing that they haven't been watching. That makes sense, they are goddesses with all sorts of responsibilities, they can't watch me all the time.

It also helps that I haven't needed to pray for anything recently, so they shouldn't know my condition. I am sure that if they did I would have gotten a lecture about it by now. So I just need to avoid calling their attention to me until after I am all healed up.

Taking it slow and easy should help with that, they pay more attention when I am running around. Right now if they check on me all they will see is me relaxing and Ekard enjoying the ride. I am not really sure if they would approve of me making more sacred beasts or not.