After a few minutes, William felt he could use his legs and stood up. The previous stinging sensation and great numbness had healed somewhat. He thought it would be okay for him to move for now.

Baldur was still quickly changing the barrels. He kept taking out the filled ones and putting in the empty ones.

These two worms had become extremely tough rivals for them. These two bronze-level worms seemed to know how to use their bloodline power and were skilled at it. Not only that, the two of them worked well together and shared their talents with each other, just like Arthur and his apprentices did. The conclusion to be drawn from this was that they should have been more careful in the future.

He also thought about it while he was recovering. Some creatures had magic-like things they could do even before they reached a certain level. Examples would be the Fire Swallow and the Sand Snake that lived in the warm parts of the island. These fire swallows could grow to the size of a calf at the bronze level. The ability it used was fire wings. When these creatures attacked, they would flap their wings in the air and scorch their targets on the ground from a few meters above. Those who could withstand the flames were saved, while those who could not were fried.

The ability of the sand snakes was even more miraculous. Even if they were split in two, they could reunite with their other parts as long as they didn't die. Unless, of course, the time had passed for the split part to completely rot. Sometimes they would even leave half of their body on the ground as they pounced on their prey. When they split and separated into two parts, the flesh and scar tissue in that area would turn into grains of sand. That was what the books William read said.

William wanted to think about it for a long time, but he didn't have time right now. The only thing he could think of was that the creatures who could use such magic had a high bloodline purity. For now, there was no other explanation.

At that point, he knew there was no point in thinking any further. He decided to leave this research job to Baldur. He would definitely be interested if you told him about it. Ignoring the small pain in his leg, he walked over to Baldur, who was still changing the barrels. "Not done yet?" He noticed that most of the barrels were almost full and the blood flow from the worms was extremely low.

Baldur did not look at him. He was still busy with the barrels. "Almost done. William, the blood from these two worms is as thick as any I've ever used. I must congratulate you both." He said.

"You should congratulate yourself, not me, I'm doing it for you after all," William said. He smiled. "Baldur, you weren't here when we fought, but I fought a bronze-level worm before. It did not use a spell, nor was it as powerful as this one. Do you think it is because of the purity of their bloodline?" William put his hand to his chin as if curious.

Baldur quickly turned to William with a strange expression on his face. "What? Really? Have you ever killed a Bronze-level worm? And wasn't it that strong?" Baldur asked quickly.

William realized that Baldur had taken the bait. He quickly suppressed his mischievous smile and spoke. "Yes, you see. Those two worms almost hurt me. I was able to kill the other with a single sword stroke." He said. "But of course, I had to wait until I was healed to walk. I thought you should know something about that."

Bladur quickly took a book out of his dimensional bag and opened it. This was his notebook. Inside were detailed records of all his research so far.

He hastily flipped through the pages and stopped at one point. He read it quickly. Then he looked worriedly at William. "True! There are few such special creatures on the island. Your wolf, my worm, and a few more in other areas. But their total number is no more than ten! My previous theory was that these creatures were carefully selected by the owners of this place. I've even worked with the blood of other non-bloodline creatures. But no matter what I did, even if I had to exterminate them, the purity level could not exceed 10%," he said.

William nodded. "Right, I tried that on a horse too. It had so little bloodline power that it was impossible to purify." He said. Then he pointed to the full barrels. "Hey! The barrels are full." He pointed at Baldur.

Baldur turned his head immediately. "Damn!" He ran quickly to replace the full barrels. After replacing the barrels, he returned to William's side. There was very little blood flowing anyway, so they could talk for a few more minutes.

William had only one question on his mind. It was also about his horse. He didn't even know if what he wanted to do was just a theory if there was any truth to it. He just wanted to give his horse a chance. So he asked, "Do you think that if we gave the blood of another creature to another creature, we could make it evolve? Is there a way around that?"

Baldur thought for a moment, then answered quickly. "I do not know. I never thought about it, but it might be possible due to the feeding habits of the creatures. When a creature eats something stronger than itself, its growth is accelerated. In that case, we can solve it by either using the power of the food it eats as a tonic for itself or by transforming the power of the other bloodline into its own bloodline power. But as I said, I don't know. I haven't researched it yet," he said. Baldur had a helpless look on his face. William was waiting for information from him, but it seemed that his knowledge was not enough. He realized that he was extremely lacking in this regard. Still, William's questions shed a new light on the situation.

It also put some pressure on him. As much as he loved to explore, these subjects seemed too deep. Now he began to think that even if he had the power of the worm bloodline, he wouldn't be able to live long enough.

Then William stopped talking. "Anyway, we'll think about that later," he suddenly stopped talking. For the Comrade, who was a little far away from them, was staring into the darkness, growling. As if there was danger.

After a while, William felt it too. Something out of the darkness was coming towards them very fast.

"Baldur! Prepare for war! I can't fight yet." William said.

"Alright," Baldur said, understanding and stepping forward to stand beside the Comrade.

Meanwhile, William quickly began filling barrels of blood into his dimensional bag. In a short time, he collected the barrels on one side and when it was time to move to the other side. The danger became more apparent. Two hundred meters away, dozens of flying creatures, darker than inside the cave, were coming this way.

Baldur quickly formed dozens of earth spears around him. Comrade's claws grew larger. William quickly gathered the blood barrels under the other worm. Meanwhile, the shape of these flying creatures became clear. These are bats! They were all at the iron level, the size of a human.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

The moment they appeared, the duo went on the attack. Baldur fired dozens of earth spears at point-blank range without missing. A few fell quickly to the ground. The Comrade jumped in the same way and sliced them with his claw. He had killed at least five of them at once!

William thought this fight would not last long, it would be easy, but what he saw next worried him even more. The bats were not stopping! Even though their friends were dead, they pretended not to see them and continued flying towards the cave's exit. William realized they were vampire bats. Once they saw a human, it was almost impossible for them to stop sucking blood. And they always lived deep in caves! They wouldn't come out into the light no matter what! Their ugly faces were expressionless, but William was sure that they had fled from some greater danger!

He opened his eyes wide and looked into the depths of the cave. "No...No...Run...We must RUN!" His expression hardened. He immediately called Baldur and Comrade. "Baldur! Comrade! We must RUN! RUN! NOW!

Baldur and Comrade looked confused as William shouted. Baldur was even putting the bodies of the bats they had killed into his dimensional bag. After hearing William's worried voice, they realized that this was not a good thing. The Comrade took William on his back, ignoring Baldur. Baldur was not an idle man. He quickly cast a spell and flew a meter off the ground. He grabbed the Comrade's tail with his hand.

The comrade did not feel any weight. Baldur had cast a flying spell at that time. But since he was so heavy, this spell would not last long. Normally, this spell would allow someone to actually fly, but for Baldur, it only worked as a glide. That was fine for now. With this spell, which would last at least a few minutes, and the Comrade's speed, he would be able to escape as well. Worse still, with this haste had left many barrels of blood under the iron-level worms. He frowned in despair. Had he known, he would have picked them up from the beginning.

Thanks to Comrade, the trio was able to leave the cave as quickly as possible. Even the vampire bats had gone after them. Comrade had used all his strength in the previous escape. They paused as they left the area of the Worm Mountains and entered the forest zone. They stopped in front of a tree and waited for the Comrade to catch his breath. Just like William before, he had used all his strength.

Meanwhile, William dismounted from Comrade. The trio looked anxiously in the direction of the Worm Mountains. They soon became afraid. In this part of the island, even outside the Worm Mountains, a muffled sound could be heard.

"BA-DUMP!"

Even William, Baldur, and Comrade knelt down. He held them all over his head with both hands. That sound... that sound had just given them a huge headache. It was as if this voice had been sent directly into their heads.

"BA-DUMP!"

The same sound again. William had a worried look in his eyes. Now he was beginning to regret killing those worms. 'Were those two worms the children of the creature that made that sound?' He couldn't help but think.

But regret was no solution. The sound stopped, but this time they began to hear other voices. All the birds, snakes, and creatures that had made their nests in the Worm Mountains were constantly fleeing in the other direction. William even saw bronze-level creatures among them. But no creature had thought to attack the trio at that moment. They just wanted to save their lives.

William quickly made up his mind. "No matter how exhausted we are, we have to keep going. We have to run. Let's go!" He said, turning around and enduring the pain. The best among them was Baldur.

He hadn't cast many spells, and he hadn't fought one-on-one. So he tried to make headway for them. They were not the only ones to run. Dozens of snakes, bears, and other creatures unknown to them ran with them. After five minutes of running, they came to a large hill. Worm Mountains could be seen from here. The trio turned and looked back. They felt that the drum-like sound they had been hearing since they started running had stopped. They even thought that the danger had passed. The trio sat down and tried to recover quickly. William drank another potion. Later he brought one to Comrade. He quickly asked Baldur if the creatures would drink the potion, and after receiving a positive answer, he poured it into Comrade's mouth.

He quickly began to meditate. He had to be at his best. After about a minute, the ground began to shake. It was like an earthquake!

William opened his eyes and looked solemnly at the Worm Mountains. Then the top of the mountain they had just chased exploded like a volcano! Huge boulders had just crushed and flattened the trees in front of them! Some smaller boulders had reached their present location.

Later, William saw what had frightened them and all those creatures! This was no volcanic eruption! A giant earthworm was coming out of the exploding top of Worm Mountains! William couldn't see any eyes on this worm! Its body was full of cracks. It was at least twice the size of the cave where they were hunting before! It had smashed its way through! The creature screamed, turning its huge mouth to the side of the trio as if to signal its rebirth.

"ZUUUUOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!" Its teeth were so big! Each of them was at least the size of a three-story house. The inside of his mouth had even more teeth than an ordinary bronze-level worm. William saw thousands of them. Their scalps went numb as the trio saw the worm turn its head and scream at them. All three knelt down and began holding their heads in their hands. It was as if the pain was trying to tear their souls apart!

But at this time, other voices began to be heard.

"GRAAAAAAAIIIIIIAAAAAAAAAAAAAA" The voice sounded like a protest against the worm William thought his head would explode. He even tried to drown out the worm's voice, but it was not enough. He seemed to be only a notch weaker than it. The worm was not afraid. But it was enough to relax the trio.

It sounded like a hyena William had heard in his previous world. But the scene that followed was more interesting. Different howls came from different places in this part of the island and responded to Worm.

"ROAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRR!" It was like a lion roaring.

"HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOTTTTTTTTTTTTT!" Then an owl.

"CCCHHHHHHHHIIIIIIRRRRPPPPPPPP!" An unknown bird right after the owl.

"AAAAOOOOUUUUUUUUUUU!" and finally a wolf. William recognized the last voice. It was Reyis' voice! He too had come out and howled in response to the worm.

The island could now be compared to a boiling cauldron. None of the other voices were stronger than the worm's voice alone, but together, even the worm had to be careful in this situation. Then the worm screamed again.

"ZUOOOOOOOOO!" As if this was its last warning. Slowly, like melting ice, it retreated back into the hole.

William kept thanking the other creatures in his mind for keeping the worm from going mad. If it weren't for them, they could have died just because of the worm's voice. Fortunately, there was no fear, and the worm went back into its hole.

"You see, right? You will become this in the future, so know your ancestor well." Looking at Baldur's worried and frightened face, William spoke. All three were on their knees and looked like they had lost at least a few pounds. They had lost at least a few liters of water through sweating.

"No time for jokes." Baldur frowned. "We have to leave immediately." He said.

"Go? Go where? We are very weak right now, and the forest is full of creatures. Best to call for help." William spoke. He wasn't happy either, but there was no other way.

He took the horn from his dimensional bag and blew with all his might. Then howls rose in response to him. The other wolves were probably worried about Comrade and were already looking for him.

The Comrade was not feeling well either. In case of danger, a fight would be their last option.

Soon, three angry-eyed silver-level wolves and hundreds of iron-level wolves with dozens of bronze-level wolves behind them came to their side. It was as if they were a search and rescue team looking for the missing children. They did not speak much, although their faces showed anger. William and Comrade asked for help to take them away. All three were riding on the back of a silver-level wolf.

If there's anything funnier than a wolf riding on another wolf's back, it's the look the wolf gave Baldur when Baldur got on the wolf's back. It was as if he cursed all his ancestors.

The Comrade had seen this before but kept his mischievous smile a secret.

And the three troublemakers, accompanied by hundreds of wolves, left for the Valley of the Wolves.

The entire eastern part of the island had heard those sounds today. Everyone had different interpretations. Some said the creatures were fighting for the realm, some said they were fighting the gods, and some even said that the new king, Thedo, was negotiating with the creatures to open a way out of the island. But none of them could have guessed that the three troublemakers had caused this for a few barrels of blood.