Chapter 364 - A demon and a wolf (Patreon)

The panic eruption that ensues is glorious. Tens and hundreds of people from lower difficulties run away as they spot the black wolf from a distance.

I admit that I might have underestimated their survival instinct. I halfway expected them to try to take photos of the giant growling wolf that keeps calling Isabella an asshole.

But well, some of them faint just under the pressure of the wolf's telepathic messages, so maybe I shouldn’t get my hopes up for their abilities.

(Let go of my master! How dare you. Master! This is such a disgrace! Please, I beg of you, let me avenge you!) he shouts telepathically. Yet the wolf doesn’t attack.

Knowing where to look, I can sense the telepathic connection he creates with Biscuit and these two seem to communicate.

Unsure what to do with the unmoving potty-mouthed wolf, we just stand there and wait. One thing is sure: if he attacks or moves in a slightly aggressive way, a dozen or so members of Hell difficulty will pile up on him.

Similarly to Vega, there is no text over his head. Vega used to have [Disciple] floating there during the 5th Floor, but it was gone when she came back after a week. Now it isn’t there either. Does it mean there won’t be such information after the tutorial? Is this a tutorial thing only?

“Master, I want to pet him! Can you hold him down like that cute Ashenwolf?”

I ignore my disciple and keep my eyes on the giant creature. This situation, the reactions of all the people all around me, are fun. Once again, something new is thrown at us, an unexpected situation caused by a single blimp-like doggo. This burrito-shaped corgi, always doing stuff like that.

Damn, I love that silly little animal.

“Biscuit, your disciple?” I ask the only sensible thing I could come up with.

“There is no way…” Maya tries to say.

(Friend!) Biscuit interrupts her, sending it into our minds.

Oh boy.

“Sophie, please tell the other people from Hell to calm down. Group 4 will take care of Wolfy Boi,” I tell her.

Sophie does so right away, without asking questions, and the messages are sent. While with Vega still in my arms, I use kinetic energy to push myself through the air and land in front of the black wolf.

The creature is massive. Huge as a building. Just his presence feels overwhelming, and his sheer weight as he shifts his body. His golden eyes shine dangerously as he shows his teeth, each of them longer than I'm tall, and he lowers his head.

(Asshole, I have not attacked because my master doesn’t wish for me to do so, but I refuse to watch the disgrace he is put through. Tell that young female to let him go! Right away!) His voice sounds like that of a young boy, and the thought that he might be only a pup comes to mind.

Just how big must his parents be? How powerful is the wolf? He doesn’t feel as strong as Gaiathra nor as strong as Veil Weaver. Maybe around the strength of a Veil Guardian?

I want to fight him and test him out. He is the first monster I’ve met with human intelligence and capable of speech. Actually, is he considered a monster or an animal?

(Friend,) Biscuit sends through the common area.

It’s mostly meant for me as if the corgi seems to know what goes through my head.

Damn it, okay. I won’t bully the wolfy.

Biscuit floats from Isabella’s hands and slowly flies closer to me. Then he looks at the wolf who lowers his head, like a child about to be spanked by his father.

(Friend!) Biscuit sends to the wolf and floats in front of Vega I hold in my arms and sniffs at her curiously.

“Master, are these people and creatures your minions?” Vega asks, her eyes ticking between Biscuit, the wolf, and the others.

“You could say that,” I answer.

“Were they your minions even before I became your disciple?”

Knowing what she wants to hear, I answer, “You are my first minion,” to the happiness of the red eyed half demon.

She shifts in my arms, clearly satisfied, and her tiny horns poke the bottom of my chin. “Then as 1st minion and 1st disciple, my position is higher than theirs and they have to show me respect!”

(It’s you who will be showing respect to the master, youngling!) Wolfy Boi complains.

“Just wait until the master holds you with his powerful skill, I will pet you for hours!” Vega threatens.

(WHAT!?), the young black wolf seems genuinely shocked. (My lineage is that of an ancient wolf who devoured planets. I will not be petted by a weak girl smelling of that maniacal demons!)

“Your heart is weak!” my minion shouts back as if it’s the worst insult she could come up with.

Then Maya says what I think everyone’s thinking, “What the fuck.” She is almost laughing, in shock and sheer disbelief at the situation we found ourselves in.

***

As threatening as the Wolfy Boi looks, he doesn’t cause any trouble. Reined in by Biscuit, he obediently follows the orders of his master, and when we move to our house, he lays down nearby, crushing a part of the forest to do so.

I notice that everyone from Group 4 is weirdly stiff, bodies ready to explode into movement and fight. It’s as if they swapped from the playful mood most of them have during the tournament into being ready to fight with their lives on the line. They stay like that even as Biscuit explains everything with Isabella and myself translating.

The young wolf calls us assholes multiple times and I don’t even have to think for a second to know where it comes from.

Goddammit, Biscuit.

The future animal Absolute, the Overlord of Earth, Archmage born in the tutorial, and deer jerky addict, just floats between us and his disciple. Proud as he tries to introduce both sides.

I bet the corgi saw me summoning my disciple and did the same. Something probably possible because of his rewards from the events. So far, no one else has gotten the same rewards offered.

(Food,) Biscuit declares while stopping in front of me.

When I grab his cheeks and squeeze them and then hold him to boop his nose 50 times, the black wolf shifts in his position, golden eyes watching the disgrace we put his master through.

“Master, you can do that to my nose too!” Vega fights for my attention.

Instead, I let go of Biscuit who floats to the black wolf who's conversing with Gareth and Tess. Then I grab Vega’s horn and pull her closer.

“‘Kaboom’, you said.” I shake her head.

“Kaboom!” she answers happily.

“Tell me what have you done.”

***

POV Aaron Dalton

(Fuck, this is creepy. That guy is almost smiling,) I get from Dennis through our link we keep separate from the one we made for Sophie’s web.

(He isn’t.)

(Just look closer, corners of his lips are slightly up, and look how he holds that girl. What the hell, isn’t he just a mana maniac? Why does he look like an older brother to her now?)

(More like a dad.)

“Kaboom!” the girl smiles as she answers Nathaniel.

She is even younger than Isabella but at the same time, I feel nervous just seeing her. Every time Nathaniel looks away from her, her expression changes and becomes colder.

I have yet to see a young kid like that.

For a moment my eyes also meet with hers when Nathaniel turns to the side and says something to Kim who sits there. The red eyes meet mine and they are expressionless, just like Nathaniel’s from the 1st Floor.

It reminds me of the mana rain, of us fighting to survive while drops were piercing our skin and Nathaniel coldly massacring the monsters. She is just like him back then.

But that expression disappears the moment Nathaniel starts turning her way. She smiles at me and even waves, but it feels fake. Only when Nathaniel gives her his attention do her eyes light up again, a big smile spreading on her face.

Through our link, Dennis can feel my emotions and I can feel his, and both of us have the same opinion of the little girl.

(A demon,) Dennis sends through.

Tiny pointy horns, deep red eyes. She looks like she is ready to start fighting any moment and will even try to bite your neck if she has to.

(Izzy, what do you think of her?) I ask the moment I add her to the conversation. At the same time, Aaron adds Sophie.

(She is scary!) Isabella shouts the moment she connects to the web.

(She is just a girl and probably went through a lot,) Sophie tries. (Is there a chance it’s because of that? Nat said his disciple had a harsh life.)

(It could be…) Isabella hesitates. (But she is scary! Even the pretty wolf feels less dangerous!)

(Well, fuck,) Dennis sighs.

(Don’t curse in front of Isabella!) Sophie warns him. (What emotions do you feel from her?)

Isabella is silent for a while and then says, (She is very happy and really likes Nat! Like a lot! And she doesn’t like us.)

(Maybe she is jealous and thinks we will take Nat from her,) I send through and observe the little girl.

“I found a nest of gray lizards, a LOT of them. The gray lizards I told you about, and they really were tasty and their limbs really regrow. Maybe I can get you one sometime so you will learn to regrow your limbs faster!” Nathaniel´s disciple looks at him and studies him seriously, “How is Bambi’s curse? Did it get better?”

What are they even talking about?

(She is not worried about us taking him,) Isabella disagrees. (At least not much! She just doesn’t care about us. She got very scared when she appeared here and saw us all, but the moment she noticed Nathaniel she calmed down.)

That is surprising. Other than a few gazes me and Dennis noticed she seems normal. Even now she is smiling happily while talking to him and when Nat introduces people to her she greets them. It all looks friendly and maybe just like a little kid scared by a lot of people out of nowhere.

But I just can’t help but feel nervous when her eyes change just a tiny bit every time she looks at people other than her master.

(She is really good at detecting mana too,) Sophie mentions. (She keeps her mana senses up the entire time, constantly checking for danger.)

I didn’t notice anything.

(The hell, really? I can’t sense anything!) even Dennis seems to be as shocked as me.

(Try to focus on it a bit more, like this,) Sophie shares how she senses that and I feel it too.

Only then do we notice it. The faintest touch of her mana senses.

(Oh and by the way, what she does is really similar to what Nat does. It’s just that I can’t even sense Nat doing it most of the time. But I’m sure he is sending his senses around him even now.)

(He is happy,) Isabella says out of nowhere and with the help of Sophie she shares tiny bits of feelings she gets out through Nathaniel’s defenses.

It’s so weird. Even though his face stays nearly the same as always, he seems more lively, and even his movements are quicker, affected by it. He doesn’t even mind as she snuggles to him, her head against his chest. It’s as if they are both used to it.

But then Nathaniel seems to notice something and in the middle of the sentence, his eyes light up with a golden circle around his pupils. He turns towards us and I feel him taking over part of the web as if it’s nothing. No matter how many countermeasures we have set up against this kind of influence.

(Izzy, I told you to stop doing that,) his voice sounds through the link. (But anyway, my minion sensed you guys probing so at least come and greet her. You look like creepy stalkers at the moment.)

Then his presence disappears.

Looking towards us, one of the red eyes of his disciple changes too, the faintest hint of a similar golden circle appears around its pupil.

The girl younger than Isabella smiles at us, but I still feel like a bug in her eyes.

***

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