Author’s Note: I just wanted to say, I am immensely grateful for everyone that has followed, favorited, commented, or reviewed this story. I never expected anywhere near this much of a positive response. I hope everyone continues to enjoy the story.
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Chapter 9
Reaching the top of the ship, I observed that there had been some definite progress in unearthing the ship in the last five days. I also noticed that it seems like most of the wolves had dug small burrows for themselves all over the clearing the crash landing had created. When I saw that sight, I wanted to hit myself. Why didn’t I think of having the wolves help dig the ship out? With the number of wolves I tamed, wouldn’t they be able to dig out the ship pretty fast? At least they’d be much better suited to digging than my poor maintenance droids.
It didn’t look like all the wolves were currently here though, since a quick count only turned up about sixty of them. The other half are probably out hunting or doing something. Well, the ones that are here can convey the orders to the others when they get back.
As I hopped down from the ship, all the wolves that were around quickly got up, ran toward me and sat in rows ahead of me. The former pack leader was front and center, as usual. Honestly, former pack leader is a bit of a mouthful. I wonder if I can name them. I don’t want to name only one though. Let’s see, I guess I’ll name the three highest levels and have them work as leaders for the rest. Is there a quick way to check their levels other than scanning them all again though? They are my tamed beasts, so maybe there is something on my status screen.
After checking it, there was now a new tab that had a list of tamed beasts. I started skimming it looking for the three highest levels. After identifying them on the list, I had to figure out which ones of the group in front of me were these three. Well, the former pack leader at least was obvious. After some playing around with the list and then double checking by using my terminal, I found that all the highest level wolves were the ones closest to me. I guess the formation they had adopted wasn’t just a coincidence.
I beckoned the three center wolves to come closer. “I’m going to give the three of you names.” Now to actually come up with names for them. Let’s start with the former pack leader. Fenrir? Nah, that’s a bit too generic. Oh, I have a good idea. I pointed at the former pack leader. “I think I’ll call you Sirius.” Naming it after the ‘wolf star’ probably wasn’t much better than Fenrir, though, for originality’s sake. Thankfully with the Beastmaster class, I didn’t have to rely on my psi ability to communicate with them anymore. They seem to understand my spoken words just fine now.
Now, I just need a name for the other two. I could call them Geri and Freki after the two wolves that accompanied Odin. That seems a bit too grandiose though and not really appropriate for them. I spent some minutes thinking but wasn’t really coming up with any more ideas. “This sucks. I can’t think of any other good options.”
Lynn chimed in. “Mistress, you named the large wolf after the star Sirius correct? So why not name the other two after other stars in Canis Major? Like Adhara or Murzim?”
That was a good suggestion! “Thanks Lynn.” I pointed at the left one. “Your name is Adhara.” Then shifted my hand to the one on the right. “And you will be Murzim. Those will be your names from now on.”
A pop-up appeared after I said that.
*You have named one or more of your Tamed Beasts* -Mutated Wolf L62 has become Sirius
-Mutated Wolf L40 has become Adhara
-Mutated Wolf L39 has become Murzim
I dismissed the window. “Alright, I have some instructions for you three and also the rest of the pack. I want you to split the pack up into three equal sized groups. Each of you will lead one of those groups. From now on, I want one group each day to spend their time split between guarding this immediate area and digging over there.” I directed their attention to where the maintenance droids were hard at work. “I want that whole area of my ship to be unburied so it looks similar to this side here. The other two groups will be in charge of patrolling the surrounding areas and hunting food for everyone. I don’t want any humans, or anyone really, coming anywhere near this place and leaving with information about my ship being here. Make it the top priority to turn people back, or if absolutely necessary kill them.”
The wolves all barked in acknowledgement of my orders, [Yes Leader].
I watched for a few minutes as they began to carry out my orders. Some had already started digging, while others began howling. I wonder if they’re calling for the ones that are out to return? I’ll let them handle it. “Lynn, this should speed up the excavation, hopefully. You might want to keep the maintenance droids out of their way.”
“Will do, Mistress.” Lynn replied.
It looks like that settles everything here. I started to leave when I was stopped by a bark. I turned around and saw Sirius dragging something toward me. It took me a moment to realize it was dragging a male human corpse. [Leader, Intruder]. Another wolf was dragging over a large backpack which I assumed belonged to the corpse. The corpse was pretty savaged but it looks like the wolves had kept him mostly intact.
“Sirius, when did this human come here?” After I asked, I bent down to examine the corpse and go through the pack. The human was wearing what I would say looked like an outfit a fantasy ranger might wear. Leather armor and a long green cloak, long daggers still on his belt so the wolves took him out before he had a chance to draw them. I noticed a bow and quiver was tied to the pack so definitely some kind of ranger or scout?
[Three Darks, Leader]. Sirius answered.
Three darks? I guess that is how they think of nights? So three nights ago would have been during my lapse into craziness, so most likely this man came tracking me from the town. I probably shouldn’t have left in a straight line from the town to the ship, now that I consider it. I opened the pack and I see some rations and other things like for making camp. One of which is a sealed letter. Of course, I don’t recognize whatever kind of mark is on the seal but definitely must be from someone important in the town. The guy came too soon to be from somewhere further off. “Lynn, have a maintenance droid bring the backpack into the ship. Feel free to examine the stuff in it if you want. You can examine the letter too, but you probably won’t get much out of it without other writing samples to compare.” I turned my attention back to Sirius. “Good job Sirius, and the rest of you too, for that matter.” I was a bit surprised to see his tail briefly wag. “Make it absolutely top priority to keep humans away, there will probably be more from now on.”
I wondered if I should change my plans. If the humans from the nearby kingdom started sending stronger forces around here to look for me, then we might have a problem. Well, they don’t know exactly where I am, so that’s one good thing. This scout had enough food in his pack to last for at least a week, if not more if he planned on hunting too. This means the person who sent him won’t be expecting him back for probably at least a week. After that, the ball is back in that person’s court. What would that person do next? Depending on the reliability of the scout sent, the most likely outcome is to assume that the scout died. So will it be sending more agents or possibly if that’s not an option, giving up? Maybe sending word of the situation to someone higher up the totem pole for the kingdom’s hierarchy? It’s also possible depending on the politics involved they might have already sent notice of me off. I’m sure Malcolm most likely did, but it’s possible the local lord or noble or whoever would try to get some kind of personal connection with me first, without notifying others.
Taking all this information together and the size of the kingdom into consideration, we’re probably looking at at least a few weeks before the next human or group of humans show up. Of course it’s possible the information won’t be taken seriously by the higher ups; Kiara did mention it was considered a legendary feat to tame a pack of demon wolves. They might just ignore the report if I’m lucky. If I’m not lucky though, I might have huge groups of humans looking for me by exploring these woods in the next month or two. Would the wolves be able to handle it? I really wish I could move Lullaby right now.
“Lynn, I need to add something more to your orders. First, how many solar powered, armed hover drones could we build without depleting any of the critical resources?”
“I’ll calculate it.” A brief pause, “We could construct two, I’m assuming Mistress wants them heavily armed. If you’d settle for weaker weapons, we could have six.”
That was what I expected. “Go with the two drone option. After getting them built, I want you to have them flying on standby over the area. Try to keep them out of sight and hidden as much as possible, but if the wolves look like they need assistance, aid them.” I sighed, “This departure is taking longer than I thought it would.”
Lynn laughed into my ear. “That’s just how things always go, Mistress. Never as perfectly as we hope.”
“I know. I most definitely know.” I brought my attention back to Sirius and the other wolf. “Go back to your duties. I’ll be back in around sixty to ninety days or darks I guess.” After watching them run off, I finally started making my way away from the ship and traveling due east this time. I didn’t want to go anywhere near the town. Once I pass the town, I’ll change my heading to south-east towards the empire border.
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It took me a bit less time than a week ago to leave the forest. After all, the eastern edge was slightly closer than where I had exited then. I had seen a few of my wolves along the way, prowling around in small groups. I guess the howls had actually been to convey my orders in their entirety. I wonder why I didn’t understand the howls. Was it because they were communicating with each other rather than with me? Something else to test later I suppose. <((If you have paid money and bought this story on Amazon or some other store, please file a report and request a refund as it has been stolen and is being sold illegally.This story is only hosted for free on royalroad.com. If you are reading this series on any website other than royalroad.com, then you are doing so without the permission of the author, Xacual.))>
During my preparations earlier, I had changed my main Class to Ranger since it was the perfect class for long distance travel. The Class was designed to be used for exploring hostile environments and provided bonuses to match that description. Heightened senses, slightly reduced need for food and water, and of course improving my psi’s ability to detect any presences around me. Had I left this Class set days ago, I wouldn’t have been in such a bad condition after not getting nourishment for three and a half days. My Subclass was still set as Beastmaster because I had used it for communicating with the wolves, and because none of my other Classes would have much effect on my journey anyway.
After getting out of the forest, I had decided to keep my pace to around sixty kilometers per hour. That was a pace I could easily keep up for a long period of time. Even going that pace though, when I took into account sleep and eating, I’d probably only be able to travel 14 hours a day at most. I was looking at probably a few day just to get to the empire border. I took a glance up at the sky. Oh well, at least the weather is beautiful and clear.
Eventually just like my previous trip through the countryside, I started seeing rabbits and other small beasts. When I saw the first rabbit, I heard Lynn gasp in my ear so I stopped. “What’s wrong, Lynn?”
“Mistress, I just thought of a brilliant idea!” Lynn was speaking in a pretty confident tone so I was curious.
“Oh? And what is this brilliant idea?” I queried.
“Use your Beastmaster class to tame one of those fluffy rabbits. Then you’ll have a cuddly pet for your journey. It’s perfect.”
I was silent for a moment before responding. “You know Lynn, back when I was a young child I had a pet rabbit.”
“Mistress already knows the cuddliness of rabbits then! This was from your other life’s memories?” Lynn asked.
“Yeah. I had a rabbit and I took care of it every day. I played with it in a small pen we had for it in the yard. Then one day, it got out of its pen and disappeared. I was heartbroken over my missing pet. I cried and cried and looked for it everywhere around the house. I never saw that rabbit again. When I was older I found out that my parents had found it dead in a gutter about a block away from our house.”
There was a pretty awkward silence before Lynn finally said something. “Definitely not a rabbit then. Why not try to look for something else though? I still think it would be a good idea for Mistress to consider having a pet with her.”
I had a good idea myself of why she was pushing this suggestion. Having and taking care of a pet is good therapy for mental health and she’s still obviously worried about me. Especially since she can’t be physically at my side like she wants to be. “Alright Lynn. If I come across a pet I find interesting, I’ll try to tame it. No promises though, since I might not find anything.”
The rest of the day passed by pretty quickly. After a few more hours, I stopped for a short break to refresh myself. I had a few containers full of water but I’d probably need to hope to stumble across a water source at some point in the next week. Rehydrated, I finally changed my heading and was on my way again. I still had another six hours until nightfall when I’d need to make camp and I wanted to find a good spot to set up my tent.
I was being careful to avoid any villages that I knew of, but my map wasn’t perfect. Right now I was travelling across ground I had full detail of, but tomorrow I’d go beyond the limit of my knowledge. I hadn’t bothered to hide my odd features this time because of being told the empire was open to members of the non-human races. I really hope that decision wasn’t going to be a mistake later. Regardless, I didn’t want random villagers along the way crying about seeing a demon or something stupid along those lines. The last thing I needed was even more interest being drawn to this general area.
Lynn would occasionally point out various animals she saw to try to tempt me. She even pointed out this one group of small creatures that looked like large grey squirrels. Well not too large, maybe about twice the size of the ones I know of. Anyway, there had been a large group of about ten of them traveling together. When Lynn drew my attention to them, I stopped to have a look and the little bastards started throwing rocks at me! They had surprisingly good aim and eight of the ten rocks plinked off my shield. I was a bit annoyed, so I caught the next volley of rocks with my psi and then started slinging them back at the squirrels. I didn’t throw them hard enough to kill the damn things though. After all even without my shield there’s no way level 10 critters would be able to hurt me. This was just for amusement. Eventually after noticing their attacks weren’t working and they were just being injured instead, they turned and bounded away.
By sundown, I had traveled approximately 750 kilometers. I could have travelled further but I came across a small thicket and decided to stop there. It seemed the best place I was likely to find for a campsite since I didn’t want to set up my tent out in the open plains.
As it turned to night, I took some time to just observe the night sky for a while. Now that I thought about it, this was the first time I had been outside on this world when it was night. I took note of the two moons in the sky. One of them looked pretty large while the other one was smaller. None of the stars look familiar though. I really wonder where this world was located.
I fixed myself some food and then set up an proximity alarm that should wake me up if anything above level 40 gets near. After that I got into my bedroll and went to sleep.
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I woke the next morning with no recollection of any dreams. I’m not completely sure if I dream every night or not. Some mornings, I’ve woken up very sure of the dreams I’ve had, while others have been like this morning. It’s probably the case that only the ones that are very different from my own memories stand out enough for me to notice them. I think that’s the most likely conclusion at any rate.
After taking care of all my morning business and packing back up my tent and other goods, I continued along my way. Like the previous day, not too much happened. About noon, I saw glimpses of farm fields far off in the distance so I quickly changed my direction so I could pass widely around them before returning to my original route.
Moving into the evening, my detection picked up a somewhat large hostile presence coming up from underground. It was decently fast, though not enough to actually hit me and I easily dodged out of the way as it tried to burst out of the ground under my feet. Now that it was out of the ground, I got a glimpse at it and it was pretty disgusting looking. It was some kind of beast called a Tunneler Worm around level 25. It was wriggling around as it’s large mouth bit around in the air trying to reach me. A quick throw aided by psi with my dagger and it was dead.
Around the time the sun started setting and it was time to make camp, I caught sight of snowcapped mountain peaks in the distance directly ahead of me. I couldn’t make out any detail, but the little I could see it looked like they were running north and south from my position. Well, I’ll definitely get a better look at them tomorrow. I wonder if those mountains are the reason Malcolm said the only safe route to take was from the capital. I’ll likely have to make the decision tomorrow about whether to cross them or turn north or south and go around them.
I didn’t find any handy thicket this night, so I set up my tent in an especially tall patch of grass instead. I set my proximity alarm for level 25 and up rather than 40. I was pretty sure one of those worms wouldn’t be able to penetrate the material used for my tent, but I didn’t want to take any needless chances. <((If you are reading this series on any website other than royalroad.com, then you are doing so without the permission of the author, Xacual. If you have paid money and bought the story on Amazon or some other store, please file a report and request a refund as it has been stolen and is being sold illegally.))>
After eating dinner and getting into my bedroll, Lynn and I had a chat about pretty much nothing. We just exchanged words and ideas on a wide variety of subjects quite randomly. Overall, the conversation made me feel much more relaxed which I assumed was Lynn’s goal. Even during the day she had started conversations at random, probably just to remind me she was there. As if I could forget.
My last thought before going to sleep was that I was really, really thankful for her.