Sora finished talking to the head guard before heading out of the village towards the South. The bandit camp would be located in the forest, with the boss at the center. Sora positioned himself at the entrance of the camp, not worrying too much about trying to sneak in. The bandits were all level 40 so he would be able to sweep through them easily. Sora began his massacre by aggroing a couple bandits nearby. Human enemies usually used blades so Sora would have an even bigger advantage with his parry blade. The bandits looked clumsy as they attacked Sora, easily being thrown to the side as he deflected their attacks. It only took three attacks for Sora to completely drain their health bars, Sora was able to finish the fight within 15 seconds without taking a single hit. The bandits were actually below the difficulty of the kobolds for Sora since he excelled in small group fights rather than when going against large groups. The bandits were carved through until Sora hit the middle of the camp, facing the bandit boss.

Level 40 -Horace, The Wolf Exterminator-

The bandit boss was wearing a full set of armor made from wolf pelts and bones, he looked like a barbarian as he wielded his greatsword. The bandit attacked without any dialogue, starting the fight between him and Sora. The fight heavily relied on Sora’s ability to parry the attacks, even with his level advantage he still needed to be careful. The first attack had already been parried, revealing an opening for Sora to attack with [Slash]. The boss didn’t seem to have any special attacks and simply kept slashing towards Sora.

The boss fight was very straightforward, with the boss constantly being on the offensive. Sora ended up killing the boss without any issue, dropping only a little bit of money and an ordinary iron sword. Sora didn’t expect much since the boss was only really here as a final means of gaining the ‘Family’ reputation for Wind Wolf Village. Sora collected the few coins before leaving. He could be considered quite lucky that another player hadn’t already killed the boss, if he had to wait for the boss to spawn back then it would have taken even more time to get his mount. He let out a sigh of relief as he looked at his reputation.

Sora left the bandit camp from the same way he came through, not aggroing anything since he was itching to get his mount. Even the kobolds in the forest were ignored even though they were easy to kill. He went into the barracks once again, the fat bald man was still trying to persuade him to betray the village. The head guard was sitting in the same spot, this time with a smile on his face.

“Hahaha, Ethereal I have already heard the news from some of my scouts, you have really done a great service for the village. I have already told the chief of your merits and he would personally like to see you. Just show the guards this note and they should let you through.”

The head guard gave Sora a piece of paper, he grabbed the paper and left without any unnecessary words. He was at the last part of his mission and didn’t want to waste any more time. The chief’s building was easy to find since it was the biggest building in the village and located in the center. The guards stepped in front of Sora, blocking his path.

“Halt, we appreciate your services but this building is off limits to everyone.”

Sora handed the note to the guard, who quickly skimmed over it before moving out of the way. As Sora entered he saw a large reception room that was decorated with many portraits and paintings, a lot of them including a wolf. Just this room was already a bit larger than most homes within the village. Sora continued straight ahead into a room that had a small table, filled with various food dishes and drinks and the same man he had already met when he first entered the village. He had a token placed in front of him that was in the shape of a crescent moon.

“You have truly made quite the impression on our village, I wouldn’t have guessed that the random traveler would make such a huge impact.”

“I only helped a little, something like fighting just happens to be something I’m good at.”

“It was much more than that, but I won’t waste your time with sentiments and will get straight to the point. You have proven yourself worthy of being called our family and as you know our family has a certain benefit.”

“You mean the wolves?”

“Precisely, show this token to the woman you helped first and she will help you find a suitable partner, I hope you are as good at fighting as you say you are and can protect it.”

“I will not let the village down.”

“Good, but accidents do happen so if your partner ever passes then come back and we will find a way for you to compensate the loss.”

Sora took the token from the table before turning around and leaving. The token automatically inlaid itself onto his reputation badge, which now depicted a wolf howling at a silver crescent moon. Sora found his way back to the woman he had helped by cleaning up the village and catching wolf pups. She greeted Sora eagerly with a smile on her face when she saw him coming, her face changed to one of shock as he showed her his badge.

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“The chief told me to find you.”

“It seems he thinks you're worthy of trust with one of our wolves… Alright, come this way.”

The woman took Sora towards another fenced off area, further away from the village. A lot of adult wolves could be seen roaming around, most of the wolves were brown. The woman started to look at Sora, measuring him up and down. She stopped to look at his silver cloak and a thoughtful expression appeared.

“Where did you get that cloak?”

“A farmer was worried about some wolves that had been attacking his farm, I helped him out by killing their leader.”

“We recently picked up a female wolf with a silver colored fur… it has been very timid and rarely ever interacts with us. Would you like to try and see if you have a connection with it? It may be timid but it’s also one of the fastest wolves that we have.”

“I’ll give it a shot.”

Sora started to feel he had touched upon a secret interaction, a silver wolf that was faster than the normal mounts sounded a bit rare. He wanted to try to get it, even if he fails he wouldn’t lose anything. The woman led Sora towards a tree trunk that was near the edge of the fencing, the ground under the trunk had been dug up and a silver color could be seen where the rays of light filtered in.

“Come here girl, don’t be shy.”

The silver wolf within the ground slightly shifted, popping her head out from under the trunk. She had golden irises and a dark gray crescent moon shape on her forehead, she seemed a little confused when she looked at Sora. The woman helping Sora had some hope when she saw that the wolf seemed interested. After a little beckoning, the wolf crawled out from under the trunk, carefully walking towards Sora.

Sora put his hand out as the wolf approached, she sniffed his hand before gently licking his palm. The woman was shocked at the intimacy that the wolf showed towards Sora, it was hard for her to even get the wolf to come out of its hole sometimes.

[Silver Wolf Mount obtained]

The silver wolf, which Sora named Luna since that’s who she looked like, circled around Sora a couple times before sitting next to him. The wolf was as tall as him even when sitting down, with soft fur and extremely sharp claws that looked like they were made from metal. The woman who had been helping Sora could only bow her head in defeat as she saw the silver wolf submit to him.

“It seems that fate has brought you two together, please take good care of her.”

“I will, thank you for your help. Please let the villagers know that I am thankful for their warm treatment towards me. Alright Luna, let’s go.”

The NPC woman watched as Sora jumped on top of the wolf, making a spectacular sight of a powerful warrior riding on a beautiful mount. Luna ran through the forest at nearly triple the speed that Sora could, making the trees zoom as Luna skillfully weaved her way through the forest. Sora was heading towards Tidal Wave Pass, he had been grinding reputation for so long and had been thinking about fishing ever since he passed through this town.

Tidal Wave Pass was bustling with players, most of which were simply relaxing or buying luxury items. The streets were fairly quiet since the peaceful atmosphere was what people wanted most, making conversations quiet or short. There was a bit of commotion as a Sora rode through the town on his wolf. A lot of girls could be heard gasping at the beauty of the wolf, some even asking to touch it. Sora simply declined since the wolf felt a little uncomfortable within the hordes of people, using the excuse of ‘it might bite’ as a way to keep people away. Even the girls who only knew about cute things could see the vicious claws and teeth that the wolf had. The town was shaken up, making a rare moment where the entire town was a bit noisy.

Sora stopped at a shop near the edge of the city, right along the coast. It was a shop that sold things like bait, fishing gear, and even rented boats out for people who wanted to go further into the ocean. As Sora walked in he saw a familiar looking man that was currently talking to the owner of the store. It was Grandpa Blossom and by the looks of it, he was upset.

“10 gold for a day at sea is a little steep.”

“I’m sorry sir but the smallest boat we rent out has enough room for a few people, most people just find someone to take along and split the cost.”

“Do I look like someone who has that many friends?!”

Sora stepped in and put 5 gold on the counter. Grandpa Blossom was irritated at first since he didn’t want anybody to go along with him, he would rather fish alone. When he saw that Sora was the person who had shown up his attitude completely turned around.

“Hahaha, to think I would see you here, aren’t you quite busy?”

“Don’t even get me started, I have been dying to take a break and do some fishing for the last week. How about we split the cost?”

“If it’s you then I suppose we could share a boat, I was planning a day trip.”

“That sounds perfect, honestly I wish I could take a week off but there are still many things that need to be done.”

“Hahaha, hard work is a good thing, young man.”

The two men paid 5 gold each and got a small boat that had to be paddled manually. The waves were calm so the journey was smooth. Sora was impressed by the rod that the old man took out, it looked like he was quite lucky to be able to get one from the fishing quest. Luna had been recalled into his mount space, which could be viewed. When Sora looked into the space he saw a silver shadow running through a forest, Luna looked quite happy to be able to run freely. Sora suddenly remembered that he should inform his guild on how to get the mount, he had been waiting until he was done so he didn’t have to share the tasks with others. The boss alone took half a day to respawn, so it could be seen how hard it was to get the mount when there are hundreds of players fighting over resources.

The boat finally stopped after getting a decent distance away from the coast. Grandpa Blossom threw his line out into the water, looking at Sora who was sitting motionless. He was wondering what had happened until he got a guild message, which he skimmed over. After the message popped up Sora also started fishing, he had plenty of bait from digging, including a couple Solar Worms which would be used to catch legendary fish. The two men peacefully started to fish, with the only sound being the waves crashing against the boat and the reels of their fishing rods when they hooked a fish. Sora took a deep breathe as he enjoyed this moment of tranquility.