It didn’t take long to cut the tails off and move all the bodies back to the burrow. Thomas didn’t want to leave the bodies out in the open, without knowing if that could cause a larger issues. What took some time was using his knife to cut out the mana stone from the singular mana beast. The thumbnail sized round crystal was brown in color matching its mana type. They could be sold at the guild for some good coin, tucking it away in a small pouch he attached to his belt. He knew mana stones were created when a mana beast died and their mana solidified. He also knew the size of the stone determined the price they sold for.

Now that Mila knew what they smelled like, and he knew what to look for, it didn’t take them long to find another burrow. Mila bounded around the hills until she caught the scent of another one. When they arrived and where ready Mila stuck her head in the hole and started growling until they came out. This fight was easier than the first one and there wasn’t any mana beast among them. Over the next six hours they hunted as many as they could find. Managing to find four more burrows throughout the day.

One of the biggest things that change over the course of the day was how quickly they got use to fighting together. Mila would start to react to his actions, or he would set up an opening for her to be able to attack. They started to form a rhythm with each other that would only improve the longer they traveled and fought together.

As the two sat there catching their breaths and checking their wounds. The last burrow had two mana beasts in it, and it was a hard fight. Thomas learned firsthand something that Abigail mentioned before, the armor didn’t help much when hit by a blunt strike. Unless you have proper runes on your armor. One of the stone tailed moles landed a hard hit on his side, hard enough the air was knocked out of him, and he felt it in his bones. He was just glad that he didn’t break anything. His armor even got a small dent in it, luckily not bad enough it needed to be repaired.

Mila suffered a somewhat bad cut on her hind leg from a stone spike, other than that they both only suffered some bruises. He already put some Madam Plumbs Ointment on Mila's wound and wrapped it in a bandage.

After recovering as much as they could and cleaned up their battle Thomas checked their haul. Thirty-two tails and four mana stones, not bad in his opinion. He had no clue how much the mana stones would sell for, but he was excited to find out. After resting a bit longer, Thomas ate some travel rations. Mila ate one of the stone-tailed moles earlier. They got ready to head back to Balwyn Hill.

Before they could set off Mila started growling and looking in the tall grass around them. Trusting his partner, he pulled his sword ready for whatever was going to come out. They slowly walked backwards to the top of the hill that the burrow was in and looked around the field around them. Mila didn’t stop growling the entire time.

At the top of the small hill, he finally noticed what got Mila's hackles raised. The grass was parting from something moving through it, in multiple areas around them. He managed to see a glimpse of green tinted fur, he tried to count how many were moving around but couldn’t get a true count. He did count around twelve of them, making Thomas got worried, that was a lot of whatever was in the grass.

When the first one busted through the tall grass and into the much shorter grass around the hill he saw a wolf. The first wolf making itself known with a low growl and two more of its brethren stepped out with it. He recognized the grassland wolves from the guild quests. He instantly started his body strengthening technique but withheld coating his blade. His core was already low from the constant fighting he had done all day. Already regretting not stopping to meditate more throughout the day. He was more worried about Mila; she had been using her mana way more than he had. If she was out, then couldn’t strengthen herself leaving herself open to getting hurt.

Saying in as a calm voice as he could he said, “Mila pay attention to our backs; they may try and sneak up on us when the ones in front attack.”

Dropping his pack to the ground he got ready for the inevitable fight. The first three came charging up the hill but stopped just out of range of his blade. They growled and kept prodding him like they were going to attack. Taking action he lunged forwards with his sword leading. The wolf dodged; another one jumped towards him mouth wide open to try and take him down. Ducking under the open maw of the lunging wolf, while crouched he exploded forward in a lung aiming to catching one of them with a thrust. It landed, punching clean through the chest of the wolf.

He heard Mila start her own fight, from the sound of crunching bones and yelp of pain. Mila quickly killed the one that he ducked under that landed in front of her. She had the clear weight and size advantage, so he wasn’t too worried unless they swarmed her or if she was completely out of mana.

Refocusing on the other one near him he squared off against it. Stepping forward he probed it with another stab, but it dodged out of the way. He only saw a glimpse of green from his side and instantly raised his arm to block. Teeth clamped down on his sword arms vambrace, its teeth didn’t penetrate the steel, but the beast did immobilize his dominate arm. The other wolf didn’t hesitate to attack as well, reacting he switched his sword to his off hand. Stabbing into the lunging mouth of the wolf, it buried deep through its entire body. The wolf that was clamped onto his arm, yanked even harder pulling him off balance. Blade now stuck almost to the hilt he quickly let go of the blade and was trying to stay on his feet. Using his now free hand to punch the wolf in the ribs with all his mana boosted strength. He felt its ribs break under the blow.

Before he could recover something slammed into his back sending him tumbling forwards down the hill. The wolves were on him, he felt one clamp down on his thigh, arm and one went for his throat. He managed to grab it by its jaw before it got to his throat. Panic started to set in as the two that were clamped down on his limbs were whipping their entire bodies back and forth. He could feel his joints screaming in pain from the violent sudden jerking motions.

Squeezing as hard as he could he felt the jaw bend under his grip causing the wolf to welp and it tried to pull away. Letting it go he lashed out at the one on his arm and it jumped away to avoid the strike, causing the last one to do the same. Pushing to his feet he kept the two healthy ones in view as it seemed the one with the almost broken jaw fled.

The growl of Mila caused the other two to break and run too. Checking, he noticed the rest of the living wolves were fleeing. Looking at his partner he instantly panicked, she was covered in blood. He could see wounds covering her back legs and neck. In a rush he ran to her but after a single step pain lanced through his body. His left knee buckled, causing him to fall. Standing again but this time not putting his full weight on his knee he hobbled to his pack and the sack with the stone-tailed moles tails.

Mila followed him back up the hill and stopped next to him watching what he was doing. He opened the pouch Tessa gave him. Pulling out one of the red healing potions he told Mila “This is a healing potion; you have to drink this. This should work on you; I remember Tess saying that healing potions work on mana beasts as well.” She pulled back when he tried to give it to him and motioned with her head that he should take some first.

Still somewhat panicking he said “I will be fine, but you are bleeding! So please drink it!” again she pulled away. “Fine!” He took a small sip, maybe only a third of the small bottle.

The now mollified cat sat after that but somewhat winced as she did and opened her mouth. He poured the liquid down her throat, then started pulling bandages out and started wrapping the still bleeding wounds. He got Mila to lay down as he got to work on her. He didn’t know how long it would take before the potion kicked in and wanted to stop all the bleeding before something worse could happen.

After she was bandaged up and laying there, he just started petting her. Whispering “I am sorry I pushed you so hard. Get some rest I will keep you safe.” But Mila rose up and looked at him with a confused look and licked him in the face. He wasn’t exactly sure what the look was for until she huffed and looked over herself and shrugged.

He paused and thought about it before he chuckled, after he slowed down, he realized she wasn’t that injured. The bite marks weren’t even that bad and after she had a full core it would only take a few days at most to fully heal. He was just panicked after seeing her bleeding. The rational part of him noticed when he was cleaning and bandaging her wounds, that they weren’t that deep but she was his partner and he didn’t like seeing her hurt.

He sighed and said, “Okay I panicked a little bit seeing you injured.”

She huffed at him in response.

“I know that injury is a possibility.”

She huffed again at him and laid down to get some rest.

He got the feeling that she just called him an idiot.

His knee was already feeling a little better from the small amount of the health potion he drank. Still not risking putting his full weight on it he hobbled over to his sword that was stuck in the wolf and pulled it free. Quickly cleaning the blade, he looked around at the corpses around him. He counted seven, three he killed, and four that Mila killed. Based off of where their bodies where they came from behind when the fighting truly kicked off. One of hers looked like she killed with a wind attack while the other three’s throats and stomachs were split open by claws and teeth. He had a feeling that one wind attack truly depleted her mana preventing her from strengthen herself. He found out she could do that earlier today in one of their fights, it increased her speed to even higher levels and made it harder for her to get hurt. That would explain all the wounds she took from wolves that should have had a hard time hurting her.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

He sighed and said to his now relaxing partner, “Their furs are worth some good coin, rest up while I skin them.”

While he went and gathered the corpses being careful not to stress his knee. He noticed the bodies of the stone-tailed moles were gone. That’s when it hit him, he made a mistake. The wolves were to distract them, and they didn’t attack until he did. The wolves wanted the corpses of the moles and not them. With a weary sigh he got to work.

By the time he finished it was already late afternoon. Mila seemed almost fully recovered but he knew that wasn’t true, healing potions didn’t replace blood loss. She did snack on one of the skinned wolves though so that should help. She stayed laying down as he cycled, he didn’t know if she could cycle, but she did seem like she was meditating. He didn’t spend the time to fully fill his core, but he was already feeling better than he had before his last fight with the moles.

He asked Mila “You ready to head back?” She got up and stretched, with barely any signs that she was in pain and got ready for him to get on. He shook his head and said, “You aren’t recovered yet, and my knee feels tight so I should walk it out some.” She nodded at that.

Grabbing the sack of tails and the wolf skins he hoisted them on his shoulders and started walking. Until Mila huffed at him, he turned and looked at her. She motioned with her head at the bags then her back. Taking the hint, he used the strap on her saddle and tied them down.

The walk back to Balwyn was long and would have taken hours, but Mila wouldn’t let that happen and an hour into the walk she refused to walk more until Thomas got on her back. They kept a steady pace until they made it back to the exterior town. After asking around they found a place that had water access they could use. They both were filthy, covered in mud, blood, and who knows what else.

Taking the bandages off Mila he found that all her wounds were closed and didn’t even scar. His knee was already feeling considerably better, the healing potions were more potent than he thought. As he cleaned her up from the waterspout he told her, “I am sorry for putting you in so much danger. I didn’t think we would have to deal with the wolves. I should have noticed that they were just distracting us and not wanting to actually fight us. That was my inexperience showing.”

Mila huffed at him then got a look of irritation on her feline face. Before she growled and showed her claws. He thought he understood and said, “I know you are dangerous but still we are partners, and I should be better. I am the more experienced one here.”

She purred and then licked him in the face. Cleaning himself up as best he could without taking his armor off was a hard task. Giving up, he decided to deal with it back at the inn. Deciding to walk back to the guild the pair set off. Even though the sun was close to setting already, the walk felt refreshing.

Passing through the two gates was easy enough, simply showing his guild card got them entry. Walking into the guild with Mila in tow they did get a few looks at the massive cat but were quickly ignored. Walking up to an open counter he handed his card over to the receptionist. After the man behind the counter grabbed the card and nodded, he said “Proof of kills?”

Thomas put the sack of thirty-two tails, the five skins of the grassland wolves and the four mana stones on the counter. Two of the wolves were mauled too badly by Mila to be salvageable. The man behind the counter said in a monotone voice “Thirty-two tails, five skins in decent condition and four earth based mana stones. That’s six silver and forty copper for the tails. Three silver and fifty copper for the grassland wolves, just for future reference a perfect skins sell for one and a half silvers each instead of seventy coppers. That’s twenty silvers for the four mana stones.” He pulled out the twenty-nine silver and ninety coppers and placed them on the counter.

Thomas was stunned at the amount; it was the most he had ever earned from a single quest. He noticed earlier when looking at the quest board that the awards were higher here than back in Les. That was a massive amount of coin to him. Even here in this big city that was a decent reward, that could give him room and board in a decent inn for at least a week if not longer. Even with the inflated prices here compared to back home.

The receptionist asked in the same bored tone “Anything else I can help with?”

That snapped him back to the man and he realized there was something else he needed to do. He already asked Abigail how to best approach the problem, he nodded and said, “Be discreet with what I’m about to show you.” The man just raised an eyebrow at him, Thomas gave him a hard glare before the man nodded. He pull his junior Inquisitor emblem from behind his armor, he kept it on the on a cord around his neck. That’s what Abigail recommended he should do so it doesn’t get lost.

The man’s eyes widened at it and went slightly pale when Thomas fed a trickle of mana into it causing the eye to slightly glow silver. Sitting completely straight in his chair now he stuttered out, “What can I help you with sir.” Thomas was bothered by the clear fear on the man’s face. Abigail warned him a few times that practically anyone who recognizes the insignia of the Inquisitors will react with fear.

Thomas spoke in what he hoped was a calming voice saying, “I need a guild bank account and put my income from this,” He tapped the emblem on his chest. “Into it, also put the rest of this in it as well.” He grabbed ten silvers and all the coppers off the table and put them in a pouch.

“At once sir. Let me get the paperwork started if that’s okay with you.” The man asked.

Thomas nodded and tucked the emblem back away. The receptionist took his guild card and put it in a carved-out slot next to the man. He poked a few glowing letters that appeared, it only took thirty seconds before he nodded to himself and looked back at Thomas. Saying “Sir I need you to touch this and channel mana into it to finalize the making of the account.” He gestured to a smoother darker looking spot on the desk in front of where his card was sitting.

Thomas nodded and complied, putting his hand down on the indicated spot and starting to push his mana into it. The slot with his card started to glow before the man motioned for him to stop. Thomas finally asked, “What does that do?” indicating the spot where his card was sitting.

The receptionist explained “This is what we call an information node, it is linked to the hub that stores information at guild branches, the information hubs are linked to each other. They are mainly found in major cities, and I do apologize but I don’t know more than that. I could contact the branch director and have him come explained?” He finished in a nervous voice.

Thomas waved that off and said “no no that’s fine, it answered what I wanted to know. So, what now?”

After a short moment the receptionist pulled his guild card out of the slot and put it back on the table. He explained “I updated your card it will now have the ability to view your account. Please do so now sir.”

Thomas sent a sliver of mana to his card, and it lit up like normal. Unlike before it didn’t just have his name and rank on it. It now had a small pile of coins on it. Seeing this the receptionist nodded and said, “Please touch the coins.”

Doing so, the number nineteen with an S next to it appeared. The receptionist explained, “Only you can actively show the balance, the S stands for silver coins which is the remainder from the reward. The same goes for the other values, G for gold and C for copper. Your balance can only be updated at a guild node unfortunately. If you want to use your money that is in a guild account, all you need to do is go to a guild and show your current balance even if they don’t have a guild node.” the man paused and clearly looked nervous, Thomas could tell he wanted to say something more but was scared. Motioning him to continue the man said, “If the guild you are at doesn’t have a node, when you withdraw funds from your account an official courier is sent with the information to verify your funds and take the balance from your account. When you go to an information node it will be properly updated. If the funds you withdrew exceed the amount you had at the time you will be penalized. Quest rewards will be withheld until the overdrew balance is cleared. Not that I am saying you will make that mistake sir.” He was slightly trembling at the end of his explanation.

Thomas nodded and asked “Wait a courier is sent every time some makes a withdrawal from a location without a node? That doesn’t seem cost effective.”

The man shook his head and said, “No sir, they send a courier once a month with the information from everyone. It works the same if you want to deposit coin at a guild without a proper guild node. Ah almost forgot there is a form that needs to be filled out in both cases. If there is a proper node all you need to do is what we did earlier, have your guild card connected to a node and channel mana into it. Any other questions sir?”

Thomas knew he would probably have questions later but he was to tired to think of any right then. Either way he said, “Thank you for all your help.”

Sliding his guild card back into the small pouch on his belt where he kept it, he nodded to the helpful receptionist and left with Mila. As he was about to walk back to the stable, Mila could get some rest, but instead of heading that way she started wandering towards a food stand in the square.

Thomas just laughed when he noticed it was a meat stall. Laughed even harder when he saw Mila sit down and patiently wait in line. Her tail was flicking around in pure anticipation. He felt bad as the man in front of her that kept nervously looking back at her. Deciding that he was hungry too Thomas waited in line next to her. Giving her perfect scratches as they waited in line. When it was their turn Thomas had to stop Mila from trying to eat the meat on display. The stall had a type of food he had never seen before, it had some animal on a vertical spit that was slowly spinning, and the man was cutting off strips and putting it in flat bread. It looked like there was runes on the stand that was holding it up, he couldn’t tell if it was cooking the meat or just keeping it warm, but Thomas could feel some heat coming off of it.

The man behind the counter asked, “What can I get for you two?”

Thomas smiled at the unbothered tone of the man like he saw massive cats ordering food all the time. Thomas answered for them, “I will take one of those sandwich things and can she get just a large serving of meat?”

“Sure, that will be nine copper, it’s a double order for the cat.”

Thomas handed over the money and the man was nice enough to pile Mila's serving on a plate he pulled from under the counter. They duo stepped to the side to enjoy the meal so he could return the plate to the man. The food was worth the cost, and Mila seemed to agree as she devoured her serving. The man even chuckled at the enthusiasm she showed and gave her some more for free.

After their meal Thomas took her back to her stable room. Which she didn’t fight this time and promptly went to sleep as soon as he dropped her off. He gave Angel a few pats before he headed to the inn to finally get some rest.

When he got back to the Inn, he was met by Abigail sitting in the dining area nursing a drink. When she saw him approaching, she looked him up and down and said, “Looks like you had an interesting day.”

“Got a little intense there for part of it but it wasn’t too bad. Maybe a little painful too.” he told her as he sat down.

“Oh? How was it?”

Thomas went into detail about the day’s events and his speculations on what he could have done better. She asked pointed questions about the last fight and explained some of the mistakes that he made. The biggest thing she pointed out was it seemed like he couldn’t keep his body strengthening balanced and evenly spread throughout his body during the fight. The wolves shouldn’t have been able to jerk him around when he was on the ground as easily as they did if he maintained control over his technique properly. It was something he would need to work on when mana training actually started. The other thing was he needed to manage his and Mila’s mana better. They shouldn’t have gone from fight to fight without spending some time recovering. Abigail gave him the good news that her meeting went well, and they were clear to leave tomorrow.

Making back to his room he pealed off his armor, only then getting a whiff of how dirty he was. Then looking at his armor he sighed, it was filthy too. Pulling out a rag and water, he got to work cleaning it.