“If we keep going any further, we’ll leave the depths of Mirkwood and enter the core part,” Matilda said when the party broke camp on the morning of the seventh day.

“We’re going to the heart of the danger zone,” Alfred said after hesitating for a moment.

Tommy looked at him darkly, while everyone else froze.

Allegedly, Ninth and maybe even Tenth Order Monster Beasts lived at the center of Mirkwood, which is why those words stunned everyone, including Wolf.

“Absolutely not,” the youth said, immediately turning around to leave back the way they came from.

Wolf could keep himself safe against Ninth Order Monster Beasts and most likely kill them after a tough battle without resorting to those talisman scrolls he had on him. However, he couldn’t guarantee the safety of those around him. And risking his life and the lives of his friends for some cocky strangers was out of the question.

“We’re looking to collect Pureflame Salamander eggs,” Alfred said, gritting his teeth.

“Alfred,” Tommy shouted.

“Pfft, hell no,” Wolf said resolutely, before Alfred could say anything. “We’re going back. No amount of Academic Credits is worth it if we wind up dead.”

The Monster Beast’s name scared the other students even more. Enough for them to fail to notice that Wolf didn’t want to risk their lives for money.

Wolf drilled information on various Monster Beasts into them. Pureflame Salamanders hatched as Fifth Order Monster Beasts, and lived in places of extreme fire element.

As soon as they hatched these monsters had the ability to manipulate fire and store heat inside their bodies. Fully grown specimens were recorded to have reached the Ninth Order. But, due to its inaccessible habitat, it was unknown whether that was their maximum, and many scholars guessed that they had the potential to grow further.

“Wait! Your mission is just to escort us to its den. We don’t expect you to help us fight the Pureflame Salamander,” Alfred hurriedly added. “We won’t fight it either. We’ve already prepared everything to keep the mother caged for twenty-four hours. If we head in fresh and then run away as fast as possible there’s no way it can catch us. Trust me.”

Wolf looked at the two Alchemists for a couple of moments. Finally, he nodded and Alfred breathed out in relief, then the man almost choked.

“What do you guys say?” Wolf asked his friends. The fact that he was willing didn’t mean everyone wanted to follow him.

The girls were silent for a moment, however Wayde had something to say.

“I think we should help them,” he said confidently.

Having a pair of Alchemists from Highseat owe him a favor could prove a great boon in his future endeavors, whether it’s taking over Northshield or establishing trade connections for the time when he rules the dukedom.

The girls remained silent, but then Barbara nodded, followed by Anna. Matilda hesitated for a moment longer and shot Alfred a glance.

“There shouldn’t be any stronger Monster Beasts in this region. The volcano and its surroundings are the Salamander’s hunting grounds. But since it’s in labor, it shouldn’t leave the grotto.” The pleading look the Alchemist gave her was enough for the young noblewoman to nod her agreement.

“All right then, we’re headed towards that volcano. Right?” Wolf asked, pointing at a mountain north-north-east of them and Alfred nodded.

The trek was a couple of dozen kilometers long and the party arrived at the foot of the volcano early in the afternoon.

“We'll camp here. Prepare your spells, eat and rest,” Alfred said. “Once everyone’s in their peak state, Tommy and I’ll retrieve the eggs from the grotto. Then, we run like the Fourteen Devils and Demons are on our heels. Is everyone alright with that?”

Wolf and his gang nodded. Alfred’s plan was logical, and as long as they didn’t have to climb that volcano to fight a Ninth Order Monster Beast, they were perfectly fine with following it.

Everyone sat down to prepare spells focusing on speed and stealth, since the idea was to flee down the path they’d already cleared. That way they should make it out in two to three days, even if an occasional stray Monster Beast appeared.

Everyone focused on such spells, except for Wolf. His selection of spells remained unchanged, since he always had Greater Fleet of Foot ready and for stealth he had Van Dale’s cloak and several pouches of Remove Trace.

Instead, the young Mage surveyed the terrain. It was plain to see why animals and Monster Beasts alike avoided this part of the danger zone.

Volcano’s hillside was bare volcanic rock, which looked like layers of melted wax. The heat was unholy, reminding him of the seven infernal hells from legends. Even at such a distance and through Protection from Elements, Wolf felt the heat.

Then the youth glanced at the Alchemists with a deep frown.

That Tommy is a dick, but that’s not the main reason I’ve acted the way I did. I have to find a way to handle these random artifacts from Reforge Mind, Wolf thought with an ugly expression.

The Alchemist opened his eyes, sensing hostility directed at him and he scowled back at Wolf.

This kid’s been pushing his luck from the moment we met. He even dared pull a sword on us, Tommy thought, gritting his teeth.

Wolf humiliated him every chance he got, confusing and infuriating the man.

He doesn’t even have that much ability, the Alchemist assured himself. He has guts and doesn’t value his own life, but the most he achieved was to make a Monster Beast accidentally kill itself while trying to kill him.

The man wondered what in the world gave a peasant the guts to look down on him, a noble Alchemist. Such thoughts kept cropping up in Tommy’s mind for days now, only serving to fuel his dissatisfaction with Wolf and make his ill will grow into full fledged hatred. Ever since he’d met the youth, Tommy went to bed hating Wolf, and as he thought about that day’s events, he’d wake up hating him even more.

And Wolf was partly to blame. Instead of trying to settle and defuse the situation, he kept irritating Tommy more and more. Usually for no good reason at all, and sometimes even by accident. Just like right now.

Once we have the eggs, we can ditch our bodyguards. We’ll see who laughs in a couple hours you snotty brat, Tommy thought as he tried to hide his sinister smile, then he went back to preparing his spells.

A moment later, Tommy inwardly cursed in his Mind Hall. Because of Wolf’s gaze he’d messed up preparing a spell and he had to start over from scratch.

Wolf saw that smile and made a note to warn everyone once they prepared their spells.

“If all of you are ready, we would like to start now,” Alfred said two hours later, when everyone was done eating and preparing spells. “As soon as we run out of the grotto just follow after us. We’ll still be relying on your help once we’re in the forest.”

Alfred maintained a friendly smile when suddenly a thought struck him. “Right, how old are you kids?”

“I’ll be sixteen soon,” Barbara said.

She tried to sound indifferent, but failed to hide how proud she was with her achievements.

“I thought you were a couple of years older,” Alfred said after a moment of stunned silence.

Even in Highseat, there weren’t many youngsters as calm and collected as these four. As for the levelheadedness, air of leadership and combat experience Wolf displayed, Alfred had only heard of one sixteen-year-old youth who had such traits.

I have to make sure Tommy doesn’t do anything stupid. This kid is worth making friends with. Alfred had already decided to make Wolf an ally and partner for all his risky ventures in Silverhound duchy.

Now that he’d learned of Wolf's prodigious age, he considered roping him into the Alchemists’ Guild as a bodyguard or trainer. If he could train these four random Mage Academy students to such a level, he could do wonders with the Alchemists’ Guild’s armed forces. Doubly so considering Barbara and Anna, who Alfred noted were rather lacking in combat.

“Make sure to stay safe. There shouldn’t be any hiccups, but just in case, be mindful of everything. See you soon,” Alfred said with a friendly smile, then turned around and left with Tommy.

“He’s not bad,” Wayde said.

“He’s all right. But the other one is the problem,” Wolf subvocalized so that only those near him could hear.

Matilda subconsciously nodded. She also felt uneasy about Tommy.

The party packed up and opened up some more space from the volcano.

They watched Alfred and Tommy drink some potions and fly towards the grotto.

“What those guys are using is Greater Flight, a Ninth Order spell. It’s four times as fast as Fly and lasts for hours, instead of minutes. In general…” While Barbara greedily gazed at the vials which used to hold a potion that was equivalent to a Ninth Order spell, Wolf pointed out the differences and how you used each of these spells until the Alchemists were out of their sight.

Then, once he was certain those two couldn’t overhear him, Wolf warned the group and then they started planning contingencies.

The group came up with a dozen scenarios. They ranged from everything working out smoothly, to the two Alchemists joining forces with the Pureflame Salamander to exterminate them.

Over the course of their adventures, Wayde referred to Wolf as crazy prepared more than once, but there was no denying that there was only one lethal surprise up until now.

With all of their plans made, the only thing left was to wait for the Alchemists to return. Ten minutes had already passed and Wolf squinted through his monocle towards the grotto.

As minutes trickled by, Wolf’s party slowly started sweating, not because of the heat, but because of their taut nerves. Finally, twenty-five minutes after entering the grotto, two figures shot out of it.

“Run,” Alfred shouted, flying as fast as his spell allowed him.

The Alchemists are going to fly out of the forest? Isn’t that dangerous? Wolf thought as he saw Alfred and Tommy heading towards them.

After watching for a moment Wolf noticed no signs of pursuit, but there were other problems with flying above a danger zone. Monster Beasts could see you more clearly and you’d be a target for any avians from which treetops offered shelter.

Even though Greater Flight was much faster than Fly, it was still roughly as fast as a person jogging while under the effect of Greater Fleet of Foot. Thinking up to here Wolf realized why the Alchemists were using it instead of Greater Fleet of Foot.

If those two had to jog for a couple of hours, they’d drop dead even without Monster Beasts getting them, he thought for a moment, but he had more important matters to attend to.

“Everyone run,” Wolf commanded, then looked at Alfred.

“What happened?” he asked.

“There were two bloody lizards inside,” the old Alchemist cursed. “The Soul Force Cage trap we brought was made for only one of them! A pair of them will break the ward in an hour. Two if we’re lucky.”

“Stop talking to the fodder and fly,” Tommy shouted with frustration.

What hour? Tommy cried inwardly. Those Pureflame Salamanders could break free any moment.

Suddenly Tommy flashed Wolf a vicious smile as he thought of something. He retrieved an egg from his Ring of Holding and threw it straight at Anna.

The egg was the size of a watermelon. Even if Anna survived being struck by such a large and heavy missile, the smell on her would make Salamanders hound her until they ripped her to shreds.

All of those thoughts ran through Wolf’s mind in an instant. By the time he came to the conclusion, he was already mid-air, jumping to push Anna out of the way.

Wolf controlled his strength perfectly and with a slight nudge just made Anna fall on her butt as he appeared in front of her. Then, with his other outstretched hand Wolf grasped the egg, which then immediately disappeared.

Alfred saw everything. By the time he gathered himself and thought to shout a warning everything was already over.

Instead a new thought popped up in his mind.

Where did the egg go? he wondered.

Storing items into Rings of Holding took a moment or two, so he dismissed that possibility.

Tommy’s mind was even less academically inclined. He saw his plan fail, but didn’t give up.

Using these kids as scapegoats would buy them enough time to escape with the rest of the eggs. He threw a pouch towards them and a moment later muttered “explode”.

The bag burst in a shower of orange powder, which stuck to the young Mages.

“Ewww, this thing stinks,” Barbara squealed with a disgusted expression on her face. Anna and Matilda revealed the same nauseated looks, but at least didn’t say anything.

“What’s this?” Wayde asked.

“Tommy! Why did you do that?” Alfred shouted, not understanding why Tommy was so adamant on having those Salamanders chase after the kids.

“If the cage shatters now we’re screwed! There’s no guarantee it will last more than a couple of minutes! We’ve got better chances of surviving if they chase someone else.” Tommy gave a reasonable explanation to Alfred, then turned towards Wolf and the gang.

“If you spread out some of you might survive!” He gave “helpful” advice before flying off. Alfred looked at the Wolf and the company apologetically one last time and then flew after his colleague.

Anna, Barbara, Matilda and Wayde stopped and looked at Wolf. Originally this was scenario three - mission succeeded, escaping without the Alchemists while the Salamander gave chase.

In this scenario Wolf was to hold the rear and use Remove Trace to remove the first dozen kilometers of tracks they left. But now, now they had two Ninth Order Monster Beasts on their tails, the Alchemists sprayed them with something, and Tommy knew Wolf had Remove Trace. Meaning, there was no way Remove Trace could cover this disgusting scent.

“We stay together,” Wolf said. “This powder doesn’t seem toxic, just hard to get rid of. Wayde, you always have Clean. Try removing this thing with magic. As for everything else, I’ll handle it.”