Chapter 103: The Wolf’s Gratitude

Asking Little Dragon Daughter about such matters is definitely pointless. Even though she spends more time with Snow Wing, she wouldn’t know the specific changes happening to the latter’s body. She’s never been the delicate type, and besides, Snow Wing still hasn’t grasped a language for communication.

It seems like I need to find time to have a good chat with Snow Wing in the pet space.

As for now, it’s best to send her back.

After all, we ate, dealt with the enemies, and if this giant white bird, akin to a small sun, keeps fluttering around in the sky, it won’t be long before the chaotic powerful beings from the Mountains of Ten Thousand Demons come knocking.

Vilyric could feel that Snow Wing had significantly toned down her brightness, but even then, she had lit up the basin surrounded by the low hills and dozens of peaks like it was broad daylight. If she rose any higher without suppressing her radiance…

She could really become the second sun of this world, eclipsing even the brilliance of March.

Switching to her outer avatar, Vilyric had a brief chat with Snow Wing through their bond. Although Snow Wing seemed a bit reluctant, she appeared to understand that staying here would cause trouble for Miss Priestess, so she obediently returned to the pet space through the reactivated door of the divine kingdom in the sky, restoring the mountains to their quiet night.

At this point, Vilyric finally had time to leave the equally dumbfounded wolf, Savor, and approach her several companions who were still confused about what had just transpired.

You can’t really blame them. Any normal person would feel lost and bewildered when witnessing a giant bird descending from the sky, radiating white light, and suddenly crashing into a mountain, effortlessly crushing the enemies and whisking them away before disappearing without a trace.

“Lady Vilyric, what was that just now…?”

After pondering for a moment, the black-haired girl pointed at the blonde dragon daughter beside her with a smile.

“Don’t worry, that wasn’t an enemy! Just consider it my pet and companion, similar to Xiao Guang; I’ll introduce you all to her later when the opportunity arises.”

Leila, Renée, and Tilysha nodded thoughtfully. Aiste, who didn’t know much about Vilyric, looked a bit perplexed, but the oddly reactive Holy Knight suddenly exclaimed excitedly!

“Oh! I understand! That light bird is Miss Vilyric’s mount, right? How magnificent! Truly worthy of Miss Vilyric!!!”

“?”

Glancing at Edwina, who had suddenly pulled out a hefty notebook filled with records tucked within her holy emblem, and was now frantically scribbling by the dim light of the campfire, Vilyric twitched the corner of her mouth. However, having gotten used to it, she chose to ignore her.

After all, if one were to put it that way, Snow Wing could indeed be considered her mount, so she wasn’t entirely wrong.

At that moment, Savor the mountain wolf, who had been dazed after witnessing the strong enemy being taken down by an even more terrifying force, finally regained his senses. He approached Vilyric with a somewhat shaky wolf leg, bowing his head earnestly.

“Though it feels a bit abrupt and hard to believe, I, on behalf of my tribe, sincerely thank you foreign strong ones for eliminating that vile snake. I owe you all a favor. Mountain wolves never forget their benefactors; if there’s anything we can do for you, please don’t hesitate to ask.”

“Huh?”

So direct?

Magical beasts usually twist their words, but Vilyric found this straightforward attitude refreshing, especially after the complicated political games back in the United Kingdom that had given her a headache.

“Well… if that’s the case, could you help us with a small favor?~”

……

“Wow! How amazing!!!”

Sitting on the back of the galloping tawny giant wolf, Tilysha, with her teal hair and eyes, squealed with joy while rocking back and forth.

After helping the mountain wolf tribe resolve their survival and territorial crisis, Vilyric and her companions took a night’s rest in the cave before setting off towards the Moonshadow Clan’s territory the next morning.

Of course, they were also accompanied by six robust young mountain wolves. Everyone had mounted their temporary rides, except Aiste, who, unwilling to ride any other magical wolf, transformed into her true form—a dark blue magical wolf over five meters long—and tied the little wolf cub, Noviya, to her back for the journey.

Mountain wolves are incredibly fast, especially on such rugged terrain. They glide with ease, utilizing their long tails for balance and remarkable grip, effortlessly leaping and bounding over various rough patches, even jumping over ten meters across a mountain fissure.

What’s even more impressive is that they manage to maintain an overall stability for their riders during these high-difficulty maneuvers. Even someone of Tilysha’s physical fitness and reaction speed could sit securely as long as she was careful.

No wonder Aiste had recommended them so highly back then.

Savor, as the leader of the tribe, certainly couldn’t just run around with Vilyric and her crew, but when he heard that the priestess wanted a few mountain wolves for transport, he readily sent out a few strong members of the tribe.

As he’d said, mountain wolves always repay their debts, no matter the difficulty.

Of course, Vilyric wasn’t the kind of person to stomp on someone when they were down, ruthlessly squeezing out whatever extra value was left. She had helped Savor heal his leg injury last night, as well as tending to some hidden injuries incurred during the battle with that massive snake. Many hurt tribe members had also been treated seriously by Edwina and the others, and she left some food with them to help get through their current crisis.

Although the food wasn’t abundant, it was still a substantial effort, especially since Vilyric herself didn’t require much in the way of food. The items in her backpack mostly consisted of delicious but low-energy snacks, special treats, or drinks, and she didn’t have much in the way of filling sustenance stored.

Others, due to limited inventory space, couldn’t possibly fill their bags with food while traveling.

By the way, although Vilyric’s inventory was quite large—developed to a top-tier player’s pack—it had its limits. Most of the space was already filled with numerous precious items, equipment, potions, materials, and random souvenirs, leaving little room left for usable space.

Additionally, after repeated experiments, the priestess had figured out some drawbacks of the game’s built-in backpack.

Firstly, it naturally couldn’t hold living creatures, which is a common limitation with this type of space. Secondly, in this world, she couldn’t fit storage items, or specifically, magic equipment with internal spaces into her backpack. If she forcibly stuffed them inside, the two different spaces would overlap and collide, leading to the destruction of the weaker item—essentially the storage tool.

So, even though Vilyric was a player, she couldn’t create any infinite space like a nesting doll.

Sitting atop the swiftly galloping mountain wolf, Vilyric pulled out the comprehensive map of the Mountains of Ten Thousand Demons that Walter had given her and spread it out across the giant wolf’s somewhat stiff tawny fur. After studying it for a while, she noted that they had just recently departed from Savor’s mountain wolf tribe’s territory and had about four hundred kilometers to the core residence of the Moonshadow Clan. With the speed of the mountain wolves, factoring in the time for rest and eating, they could indeed reach the Moonshadow Clan’s territory before dusk tomorrow, as Aiste had said.

However, the earlier disappearance of the mountain wolf warriors and the peculiar fellows that had visited their territory continued to nag at Vilyric’s mind.

Putting aside the others, the fact that the enemies who had come and gone sent that giant snake to attack Savor and the others definitely did not point towards a struggle for territory.

After giving it some thought, Vilyric concluded that the most logical inference was “killing wolves to silence them.”

They were probably engaged in some secret plotting and couldn’t, or at least wouldn’t want to be easily discovered by the Mountains of Ten Thousand Demons, but needed the support of sufficiently strong allies to keep expanding their strength while conducting covert operations.

Thus, the mountain wolf tribe could hardly be an isolated case.

   

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