“Jonn!” A faint voice, marked by an undeniable gravity, broke the silence of the night.
Jonn immediately looked at the source of the call and recognized a middle-aged man with brown hair, blood-stained clothes, and an apathetic expression.
“Uncle Beri!”
He rushed to Alise's father's side, carrying a small cloth bag containing bandages, ointments, and other first-aid items. Eliot had grabbed this bag earlier and handed it to Jonn when the group split up.
Stopping beside Alise’s father, Jonn crouched down to administer first aid, not hesitating to use his magnifying glass.
Beri found it odd that the sweaty, dirt-covered young man would point a small magnifying glass at him, as if the small object could be of any use. But he lacked both the strength and the hope to laugh at the situation.
“Jonn, save your energy. I’ve lost a lot of blood and I’m wounded all over,” Beri said, his voice still firm, but lacking the hope that once filled him.
Just this week, Jonn had spoken to Beri about expanding fishing on East Lake and researching methods to increase fish productivity in the area. The man had been enthusiastic, but now that light was slowly fading.
Jonn quickly assessed Beri’s condition. The man had been bitten on his left arm and right heel, and had also suffered from the wolves’ claws, which had sliced into his back, chest, and abdomen. Two of his wounds were deep, while the others were more superficial. The man would certainly be left with some frightening scars, but he could recover from his predicament.
“Uncle Beri, I didn’t think you were the type to think you’d die from a few minor cuts. I’m surprised at your pessimism,” Jonn joked as he began treating the deep wounds, the ones that truly needed attention.
Beri looked at the Village Elder and couldn’t believe it. Surely his leader was trying to give him hope and ease some of his pre-dawn terror.
“It’s not nice to tease the elders, Jonn. You may be the Village Elder, but I’ve watched you grow up,” Beri replied in a dramatic tone.
Jonn smiled amidst the day’s misfortune. Fortunately, he wasn’t joking, and Beri should be fine with some rest.
There’s no immediate danger. As long as I can control the bleeding on his shoulder and one of his heels, he should be fine. I just have to watch out for any infections. Otherwise, he’s just weak from the blood loss. He’ll be fine once he eats and rests a bit.
There was no secret to first aid. If you were dealing with a bleeding person, you needed to control the bleeding, clean the affected area, protect the wound, and immobilize the wound area. Once that was done, the results could be better or worse, depending on the patient’s resources and vitality. But there wasn’t much more for someone like Jonn to do.
He managed to stop Beri’s bleeding and continued with the basic emergency care that was common knowledge among the villagers.
Even though Jonn had never practiced this on a human before, but he did it well. With only the experience of trying it on dead chickens and animals, and now, with the aid of the Celestial Magnifying Glass, he could act swiftly and effectively. In less than ten minutes, Beri’s bleeding had stopped, and Jonn turned his attention to the man’s superficial wounds.
“Feeling better, Uncle Beri? I guess you realized you will not die, right?” Jonn laughed as he asked. “Now I need your help. What happened to you earlier? I found Tedric on my way here, but he died at the wolves’ fangs.”
“He died?” Beri’s eyes widened, and he raised his voice, feeling a sudden shock run through his body.
Jonn nodded solemnly, his expression reflecting the gravity of the case.
“That was my fault,” Beri explained, disgusted with himself. “Alise and I were fishing when we heard noises and saw Tedric’s horse. When I went to see what it was, thinking it was an emergency, I found myself surrounded by wolves. But before they could kill me, Tedric jumped off his horse and chased them away, giving me room to run while his horse ran away.
I don’t know what happened after that. I ran as far as I could until I saw my daughter. I sent her back to the village, but I was already injured. Afraid of dying on the way or leading the wolves near the village, I came here to find a place to hide.
I just didn’t expect that Tedric would fall because of me...”
“It wasn’t your fault, Uncle Beri. The wolves had attacked Tedric and the others before you got involved.” After cleaning the man’s superficial wounds, Jonn stood up and looked around.
This was a small cave, likely the former home of a bear before the catastrophe that had nearly wiped out life in the surrounding Barren Hills of Deepshadow. The place was quite dry, a reflection of the drought that had persisted for the past few weeks.
I don’t think it’s dangerous to leave you here.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Jonn wanted to go to Petyr’s hideout but wasn’t sure what would be more dangerous: taking the wounded Beri with him to an unknown place or leaving the man here and potentially attracting wandering wolves.
There aren’t many wild animals around, and I’ve erased the blood trails so far. Sniffing him out won’t be easy.
With a sigh, Jonn suggested, “Uncle Beri, I need to check Petyr’s hiding place. It’s nearby, and maybe Petyr and Wy are there, protecting themselves until dawn. If that’s the case, we’ll hurry back to the village, but I still need to assess the situation. Stay here and prepare yourself. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
Beri didn’t want to be alone, but he also didn’t want to risk another villager’s life. “Fine. But what about my condition? You still haven’t told me about my problems.”
“Don’t worry. Most of your injuries are superficial. There are only two that I’m more concerned about, but it’s nothing urgent. As long as we keep them clean for the next few days, you should be as good as new by the end of your recovery.”
With these words, Jonn made his way to the exit of the small cave, using some stones to make the entrance more difficult to access. He also spread a remarkably strong herb known for its ability to repel animals with keen senses of smell.
Petyr’s hiding place must be within 500 meters of where I am.
He used his magnifying glass again, noting from the system’s message boxes his mana was at 77 out of 113. That number didn’t worry him, and he soon began searching for signs of human movement near the hiding place Asher had indicated.
----------------------------------------
Minutes later, Jonn found not only fresh human footprints but also those of horses and, most importantly, wolves.
Something told him that Petyr and Wy had abandoned their horses, letting them run far away to distract the wolves.
They weren’t so successful. The wolves are still nearby.
He continued to the last cave along the path he was following, where the footprints vanished—a likely sign that the two had either erased their tracks to take refuge or had fallen to the wolves and been taken from the area. The lack of blood and signs of a struggle on the ground suggested the first possibility was more likely.
Jonn moved forward hopefully until he slowed down in front of the cave’s entrance, where several bare stones, black as night, formed a small labyrinth leading into the depths of the underground.
This structure couldn’t have been created by natural phenomena. Surely some intelligent creature, likely humans from before the destruction of this region, had excavated this place.
Jonn put his curiosity aside and halted when he heard movement inside the cave.
The place was gloomy, situated 4 meters below the surface and 12 meters into the hill. But Jonn felt his mana coursing through his eyes, giving him a subtle advantage over the two men there.
“Wy!” he called out as the man prepared to strike with a rock, ready to defend himself if necessary.
Wy, with one arm immobile, bruised and bleeding, turned when he heard his name.
“Jonn!” Petyr, lying on the ground close to Wy, exclaimed in surprise.
“Petyr, what happened? Are you all right?” Jonn pushed past Wy and reached the prostrate hunter.
“A damn wolf nearly ate my foot! I barely escaped becoming a cripple!” Petyr calmed down when he realized Jonn was not the enemy they feared. But soon he lost the initial satisfaction of seeing a friend and warned, “But you shouldn’t have come here, Jonn. The damn wolves are surrounding us and, more importantly, there’s a damn man on their side!”
“What?” Jonn was taken aback and couldn’t hide his grimace.
Wy stepped closer to explain. “After we started tracking the animal footprints we found near the village, we encountered a man on the other side of the East Lake. We didn’t realize he might be a tamer. But later, as we were heading back to the village, he appeared in our path with a pack of wolves.
The creatures tried to kill us, but we took down two of them and split up to confuse the rest. We went in different directions, planning to regroup in this cave. That was about two hours ago, and we’re still waiting for Tedric.”
“He’s not coming back. I found him dead at the lake,” Jonn said, regretting having to deliver such tragic news again.
Petyr and Wy looked into Jonn’s eyes, the silence in the cave growing heavier. They had suspected the situation was dire, given how long they had been waiting, but they hadn’t wanted to face the worst.
“Eliot and Asher have returned to the village with him and the wolves we killed. And Beri is wounded in a cave a few minutes north of here.”
“Beri?”
“Tedric’s deadly battle took place near Uncle Beri’s fishing spot.”
Petyr didn’t need to hear any more to understand how a fisherman had become involved in all of this.
“But he’ll be fine. In fact, he was less injured than you,” Jonn reassured Petyr after analyzing the man’s condition with the Celestial Magnifying Glass.
Jonn didn’t help Petyr further, as Wy had already done what could be done, and the rest depended on Petyr’s recovery.
“Anyway, have you seen this man since you parted ways? Do you think he’s still around?”
“Probably. He commands those damned wolves. There were over a dozen of them, Jonn. You can’t imagine how bad it was,” Wy said as he sat down, worried.
“We killed four of them before getting here. What about you?” Petyr asked.
“Three. So there’s still a group of wolves big enough to scare us.” Jonn didn’t like the situation. If such a group came to the village, we would have serious problems.
I hope the villagers stay at home. What Petyr and Wy described sounds like a low-level mage. He’s probably after the mana crystals from my plantation.
[Analysis] immediately combined the information he had with his experience with the animals in the village. The wolves had likely detected the mana crystals, and the low-level mage—Jonn was fairly sure of this, given the use of common animals—had approached to investigate the situation. Upon discovering inhabitants, the man probably launched an attack to seize whatever resources were in the area.
Such actions were quite common. In this deteriorating world, most confrontations began abruptly, without threats or prior negotiations. One party simply saw something of interest and acted accordingly.
There’s a slight chance that he’s not a mage. But it’s a big if. It could be that he inherited some technique from a tamer and got that pack.
The difference between mages and non-mages performing the same work often came down to scale. A healer, for example, might be limited to treating with pastes and natural remedies or using magical methods to cleanse the body of disease and toxins. The key difference was mana.
Tamers were professionals who could command irrational creatures and were usually accompanied by beasts. Ordinary tamers, however, were almost non-existent because of the difficulty of taming creatures, even animals. Typically, one would only become a tamer if they were a mage or a beginner in magic.
But Jonn didn’t rule out the possibility that the enemy had replicated a mage’s technique, even if he wasn’t one himself.
Anyway, I’ve got to find out. It’s not good to have a stranger near the village. Especially if he’s a mage.
“Wy, can you fight?” Jonn’s eyes lit up, drawing the attention of the two men to him.