Both Frian and I continued to travel forward towards the forest in the distance as we engaged in small talk.

He told me quite a few different customs surrounding the leaders of all of these families or clans. Elder Zal did give me some information but talking with Frian was kind of enlightening in a way.

I couldn’t help but wonder if Elder Zal did this on purpose? She gave a lot of information while giving me nothing at all at the same time. Like she just threw demons out there as if that was a simple thing. I have a million questions surrounding just that. So, did she withhold things on purpose so that Frian and Lirian could provide information to me?

Who knows, maybe I’m overthinking it.

Anyway, a few of the customs Frian brought up were really interesting. Like, the Clan vs the Family dynamic. The Clan was essentially the entire organization/Country, while the family was obviously the blood relatives of the Patriarch/Matriarch and anyone that was bestowed the Eternal Flame. Of course, there were exceptions and other small details but that was the gist of it.

Which means if I did give Frian and Liran the flame like they were hoping for, they would be then considered part of my family. I asked how his parents would feel about that, and he said they would be proud beyond measure.

Which then led me to asking what family or Clan his parents belonged to, and he mentioned they weren’t a part of any. He noticed my confusion and quickly explained that you don’t have to be a part of a family or a Clan to live in that territory since Clans are essentially massive Countries that are ruled by one family on Planet Infernal.

After that I went silent for a bit because I didn’t understand how that would work for me. Infernals are all the same right? It’s like how Earth used to be, where there are a bunch of different ‘races’ who all speak different languages and lived in different countries and fought against each other.

Instead, Planet Infernal is a collection of one race who all speak the same language and from what I gather, there aren’t many internal conflicts among Infernals. Well, there aren’t many according to Frian’s knowledge. Elder Zal might be of a different opinion.

Anyway.

I think I really do prefer the earth as it is now in terms of the abundance of nature.

The air feels refreshing, the grass looks beautiful, and the sky was a perfect shade of blue. It was nice.

An hour or two later, we were at the ‘small’ forest. Although I’ve been calling it small, that was only comparing to the one I saw in the distance to the north. This was still a pretty big forest. One that I’m sure a number of different things called home.

I’m sure because it didn’t take very long for me to see one of them.

It was a wolf? Or perhaps a fox? Maybe some type of dog? I have no idea. It had four legs, a tail, and was covered in fur. Only the fur itself was black with yellow streaks mixed in, and its eyes were bright yellow, but what made it weird was the horn coming out of its head. It was pale white, like the color of bone and came out about 5 inches or so.

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A wolflike creature with a horn.

I stared at it in interest for a few moments. The entire time it’s been looking back at me growling particularly loudly.

I could tell immediately it was weaker than me, but I didn’t let my guard down as I observed it.

Eventually it let out a howl and began backing away from me.

Hm, wolves hunted in packs didn’t they.

Is it trying to do the same thing?

It only took a few minutes to find out as 4 other wolves showed up in the area and before I knew it both Frian and I were surrounded by a group of 5 Wolves. Maybe I should call them Horned Wolves? Horned Black Wolves maybe?

All of them looked exactly the same, and all of them felt like they were roughly the same strength. Somewhere in the early part of the Body Tempering realm would be their equivalent, I think.

“Frian stay back.”

“Yes Patriarch.”

After saying that I planted my spear in the ground and darted at the wolf that was closest to me and before it could even react to my sudden approach, I grabbed it by its horn and immediately lifted it off the ground and slammed it back down on its side.

It let out an agonizing yelp as its body made contact with the ground.

The other wolves immediately rushed at me with vigor and clear anger within their eyes.

It was then they did something that made me rethink what I think their name should be.

All 4 wolves rushed at me, but their horns seemed to have another purpose apart from just being a puncture tool. Electricity was gathering at the tips of their horns.

Actual electricity.

That is insane.

Now.

Perhaps this is a foolish decision.

But I’m going to let some of that electricity hit me.

Part of it is curiosity, while the other part is for…science. Yeah, let’s go with science.

I need to know exactly how damaging this could be for people who are entering this forest on my or the City’s behalf in the future.

Obviously, I can’t know everything, and I don’t think I’ll fight every single thing in the forest, but any information is good.

So, I quickly darted at the group and grabbed one of the now electric horns of the wolves and immediately the gathered electricity darted up my arm and made its way around my body for like a second before almost fizzing out.

Hm that was barely a tickle…but I knew immediately, it was barely a tickle due to Qi. The electricity had no Qi and thus couldn’t really do anything to someone like who was in the Qi Refinement Realm. But someone below that realm would’ve been in some trouble.

Interesting.

After my little experiment, I quickly dealt with Electric Horn Wolves. Yeah, I like that name. Is this how scientists feel when they discover new things and get to name them? It feels quite nice.

I stored the body of the wolves in my ring and continued on exploring the forest with Frian.

We quite literally spent the entire day roaming the forest, running into different beasts. Fighting some of them or letting some of them run away. I did most of the fighting, but the few times Frian engaged in a battle was a little embarrassing.

For me that is.

In my eyes he was an expert fighter. Compared to me, who was making mistakes I wasn’t even aware of, Frian looked extremely polished, and every battle was an efficient display of fighting skill.

Here I was being called a Patriarch at 20 years old, and a teenager is showing me up.

I have a lot of work to do as always.

Anway, I decided to name all the beasts we came across right then and there. Electric Horn Wolves, Steel Boars, Great Rabbits, Vine Snakes, and Sunspot Deer. I don’t know if my names need work or not and are up for consideration from the folks in the City, but for now they’ll work.

There were a few birds and bugs and such that were around the forest as well, but I didn’t really get a chance to interact with any of them.

Anyway, today was good. It was night now and both me and Frian were sitting next to a tree with a small fire going next to us.

We were quietly roasting one of the Great Rabbits.

I was somewhat excited about it.

It’s been quite a while since I ate meat.