After three days of traveling, we had finally reached borders of forest. Many city children were not used to traveling, but I had to travel for one week with uncle and old man Keiran before, so I did not have any problems.

There was big village just three to four kilometers away from forest that we passed through on our way. With about four hundred residents, it was slightly bigger than Oakville, village I came from. When we were passing through, many villagers did not seem surprised.

We stopped about two hundred meters away from forest. Now that we arrived, we were divided into two camps based on branch of our origin. Camps were only about thirty meters away from each other, but there was enmity between our two groups and noone from either camp approached other one.

“So kids, because of repelling magic, as long as you don't go too deep into forest, there will be only weaker monsters like two-tailed foxes or black lynxes. Slightly deeper, you might encounter some blood-wolves or red lynxes. You should form groups for hunts. While you are hunting we will be monitoring situation.”

“Trees are magically marked, and you are allowed to enter areas with green and blue marking. Do not enter areas where trees are marked yellow. These are too dangerous for children of your age. Anyone who enters yellow area will be punished and their hunt spoils will be given to school. So do not even think about entering yellow area.” said the teacher, as he called us together.

“Alright. Aiken, will you be part of our group?” asked Ryan.

“We plan to skip hunting foxes and lynxes in green areas and go straight to blue areas to trace and hunt few packs of blood-wolves. Their blood is valued as alchemical ingredient, and their spirit stone is also much more valuable than that of lower tier monsters. You can get even four copper pieces for one. Also, their bones contain small amount of tungsten metal. Overall, there are best prey to hunt, but since they move in packs, they are much harder to fight. You will need to be able to take care of yourself if you want to go with us. So if you'd rather just stay in green area, tell me and I will help you find some group.”

“I will be able to protect myself. I want to go with you.” I said, trying to sound confidently. But I was just putting brave front. Every single person on this trip, after all, is at least tier seven magician and they should all have at least thousand soulpower. Even though I have already reached tier eight, I am probably weakest person participating in this hunt, since my tier eight magic is weaker than their tier seven.

Moreover, it's wolves. And wolves are pretty scary! But he said it is good way to make money, so I steeled my resolve.

“That's what I like to hear.” said Ryan smiling.

And so following teachers, we rushed into forest. Landon and Ryan were talking together, and other two boys were following. I have already learned their names during our three days journey.

Older one, already fifteen years old, was called Cail. Like Ryan, he was also close to reaching tier nine. He was of one of lower merchant families and was only child in family who was allowed to join branch of generous. All other children talented in magic would only be sent to branch of common, his younger sister included.

Younger one was called Teulor. He was only twelve, year younger than Landon, but already close to tier eight. He belonged to branch of Randolph family, and was distant cousin of Ryan. Apparently his soul power of three thousands and one hundred was highest of whole group, even higher than Ryan who had twenty eight hundred and Cail having twenty four hundred.

Compared to them, my tier eight magic with no soul power was pitifully weak and only presence of Landon, who was tier seven magician with only fourteen hundreds soulpower and was therefore just barely stronger than me, calmed me down a bit. I knew two of us would probably receive only smart part of our spoils, since our contribution would be small, but I have become part of their group and more importantly, I was too scared to go alone.

“Aiken, what do you know about monsters?” asked Ryan. He was aware of fact that first year of school did not have lecture about monsters, so he wanted to know what little knowledge I actually had.

“Monsters are beings similar to wild animals. Monster's body is protected by [Wild Aura], which also makes it stronger and faster. [Wild Aura] protects monsters from normal weapons, but magic can shred it quickly, and after that, monster loses it's extraordinary power and speed. Monsters also do not need much food to live, many times less than ordinary wild animals, only their young ones need to eat properly.” I said everything I could remember from lectures of uncle Jannon.

“You are mostly correct. But I should correct big mistake. There are three types of monsters, beasts, demonic beasts, and demons. What you described is true only for simple beasts. Well, we can be sure we will meet demonic beasts or demons here, so that knowledge is sufficient.” he said satisfied he does not need to explain anything.

“Do you have a sword?” he asked next.

“Do I need one?” I responded with surprise. Few seconds ago, we just agreed that normal weapons are not good against monsters.

“Well, after you get rid of [Wild Aura] of blood-wolf, it is better to finish them with weapon to save your mana. But I guess you wouldn't be able to use sword anyway. Well, I have old sword of mine with me as reserve one. You can borrow it just in case if you find yourself in need of sword for any reason.” he said and then he gave me short sword.

“Thanks.” I answered as I accepted short sword, even though I had no clue how could I ever find myself in situation where I would need to use it. I placed it into storage ring.

“I found some tracks of wolves.” said Cail suddenly.

“Great. Let's follow them.” responded Ryan.

Following tracks, we have easily found pack of wolves. Unlike ordinary wolves, their fur was dark red color like that of blood, hence their name.

Ordinary wolves would have run away before we would stop them. But ordinary wolves were about to die out and these blood-wolves had different idea of reacting to humans. And this pack of six adult wolves and three young ones was pretty confident.

“I don't like it. That black wolf makes me shiver.” said Ryan, looking at wolves. Three young was were basically still cubs, so we could easily discount them, but among adults, three were red and one, bigger than others, had dark black fur with single red strip.

“Should we just back off?” asked Cail.

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Ryan did not respond. He remained silent, observing wolves who were observing us as well, while neither side moved.

“I have this terrible feeling that even if we want to retreat, they will follow us.” he said after while.

“It feel same. Especially that black wolf seems to be unusually dangerous.” responded Cail.

“Everyone, we should slowly back away. No running away, just slowly step back, without turning away from them.” said Ryan as he finally decided what we should do.

However as we retreated, two red adult wolves led by their black leader followed us, while last one remained with cubs.

“Seriously, this is bad.” said Cail.

“Alright, we will need to fight them. Landon, Aiken, I will need both of you to take care of those two normal blood-wolves. You don't need to win, just keep them away from us until we finish the big one.” ordered Ryan.

I was scared but I did as I was told. I expelled water from ring to cast [Water Ram] against wolf that already had his eyes on me.

The blood-wolf stayed in distance, in order to dodge the spell moment I release it and then attack. I on the other hand had no clue about battle tactics, so as soon as I could, I sent spinning pillar of water towards him.

Blood-wolf tried to jump sideways, but was hit by my spell. It was pure luck that he got hit, and he was forced to back away, and if not for that, I would probably be damned.

Ordinary blood-wolves were tier five to tier seven monsters, which meant that to destroy their [Wild Aura], you would have to spend amount of mana average magician of same tier had. This wolf in front of me was only barely tier six, and therefore spell right now weakened his [Wild Aura] by almost half. It could only afford to be hit one more time at best.

I heard loud scream of pain. “Fuck, fuck, fuck!” cursed Landon, as wolf bit his leg. Cail who was fighting big wolf together with Teulor and Ryan left their formation and sent tier eight freezing spell, making wolf jump away. As I was distracted, wolf that I was supposed to fight attacked me. As I noticed him approaching, I panicked and casted spell I got most used to over last year, [Wind Blade].

Spell hit the wolf mid-jump, and slightly decreased his momentum, making him land on his side, instead of legs and do roll on the ground.

I sent another [Wind Blade] and then one more, and last one finally penetrated [Wild Aura], creating shallow cut across his whole body, from head to tail. Wolf howled in pain, to which big black wolf responded by bark and by ignoring three magicians who were holding him back, as he started running towards injured wolf.

Since black wolf no longer avoided attacks, and was running in straight line, he was hit by all magic of Ryan, Cail and Teulor, and before he could reach injured wolf, his [Wild Aura] was destroyed. As he was running to me, I also sent my magic against it, and my [Wind Blade] hit his legs, cutting in deeply. It fell to ground and could no longer walk, but was crawling towards injured wolf. His eyes ignored me and anything around him.

Ryan quickly reached wolf, and stabbed it in its heart. It was simple, since black blood-wolf could no longer move. Eyes of big wolf slowly closed, and other wolf, previously injured by me howled. It stood up, and started slowly walking towards dead wolf. Ryan slowly approached it as well. Since it ignored him, it was not hard. Once more, with single stab, he ended it's life.

Third wolf stood afar, showing it's teeth bloody from biting Landon, but instead of attacking it was slowly retreating, while making sure we are not following it.

“We should chase it and hunt rest of pack.” said Cail.

I wanted to protest. While those wolves scared me first, at the end of their life, they have shown care for each other and killing them felt just wrong. I wanted to stop this, I did not want this hunt to continue.

“Landon is still bleeding bit, Cail. We should seek the teacher. Also, I think today's hunt was successful enough. This weird black blood-wolf was tier eight or maybe even tier nine monster. His spirit stone should be worth few times more than that of ordinary blood-wolf. I will stay here and take care of this, so you can go to ahead.” said Ryan.

Reason why Ryan wanted us to leave was not only because of Landon. He also noticed that both me and Teulor had expressions of disgust and pity. Even he was bit surprised by actions of blood-wolves this time, since it was something he has never seen before and felt like he has done something bad. He took out spirit stones from wolf, inspected them and smiled, then he stored both dead bodies into storage rings, and then he also left.

Thankfully injury of Landon was only light. If blood-wolf had bitten slightly to side, it would have opened artery and Landon would bleed to death before we would be able to find help. After teacher healed the wound, reprimanded us, and told us to move with some tier nine magician if we want to go to blue zone or stay in green one, we returned to our camp outside of forest and before sunset, other groups joined us as well.

Before we went to sleep, Ryan called us together.

“Listen, I have inspected spirit stone we gained from that big black blood-wolf, and it seems it was not ordinary beast, but rather demonic beast. From the fact we beat it, I think it was tier eight or tier nine demonic beast. That means this spirit stone is worth about ten gold coins already. On the first day, we have already gained more than best hunters gain usually over whole trip.” he said.

We could not believe the luck.

“Really?” asked Landon.

“Yes. We are really lucky. Demon beasts are usually much stronger, and this one was only tier nine. We have gotten lot of money. But we should keep hunting anyways. It is good way to train for battles. But Landon, you should stay here for next two or three days.”

It was hard to fall asleep that night. Knowing how much we managed earn so early, we all got blinded by our greed. And none of us asked important question. What was demonic beast doing so close to border of forest? How come it was not repelled by magic? And if monster like this was so close, was it also not possible for even more dangerous monster to be here?

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I am sorry, but I had some things to do and could not post earlier. I will try to post chapter 13 on tuesday or wednesday. Thanks for understanding.