More than a week went by before Wolf reached the region plagued by the bandit gang from his mission. This time his opponents were common thugs. The problem was that they had gathered in a large number and made a solid mountain stronghold in very favorable terrain.
The group of brigands was over a hundred strong, and thanks to their numbers and makeshift fortification they could easily inflict dire losses even upon a thousand-man army.
At first Wolf wanted to fight them head on. The problem with this kind of exercise was that he had no guarantees he’d round up all of the bandits. Besides, there was very little practical experience Wolf could gain fighting a shabby group like this.
Since that was the case, the youth decided to take a different and completely new approach, hoping to gain something more than just Academic Credits from this mission. He first scried on the bandit fortress to get the general idea about the layout and manpower.
Then, with this most basic knowledge on his enemy, Wolf prepared several spells for the occasion and waited for night to fall.
First Wolf cast Find Creature, targeting manlings. A single casting of this spell lasted several hours and given the spell’s huge radius of over half a kilometer the odds of anyone slipping by unnoticed were slim.
Then Wolf closed in on the fortification and cast Silence. In an instant the young man found himself in a soundless world. The night was dark by human standards, but half-elf heritage coupled with extraordinarily developed perception meant that nothing other than magical darkness hindered Wolf at this point.
Still, he had to rely on the mental blip the spell had created in his mind. The bandits had a dozen sentries in various positions, but the spell only picked up the closest one, towards whom Wolf was heading.
The man sat under a tree in near perfect darkness. Wolf couldn’t tell how much this human could see, but the sentry didn’t react to the shaking of bushes as Wolf circled around to approach him from behind.
The man seemed to realize something was wrong when the sounds of the night abruptly disappeared. Wolf observed his reaction, then with a simple flick of his long-sword separated the bandit’s head from his body.
The young Mage was already used to acts of violence in absolute silence. He simply stored the head and the blood which gushed towards him into his Ring of Holding. Walking out of the reach of the hot fountain Wolf dumped the stored blood onto the grass before continuing towards the next blip.
The man was perfectly cool, acting like nothing out of the ordinary had happened. Most sane manlings would find Wolf’s relaxed expression in these circumstances terrifying beyond words.
Most of the gang’s sentries died a similar death, dead before knowing that the reaper had claimed them. All save for the last two.
This pair stood guard in front of the wooden fortification’s gate. Four torches lined the wall behind them, completely nullifying Wolf’s advantage in superior night vision, casting long, dancing shadows into the forest beyond.
Wolf thought about it for a couple of moments, but there was no way to approach these two from behind.
First I should check whether I’ve missed any of the sentries in the forest, he thought and backed away from this difficult situation.
After making another sweep through the forest to make sure hadn't missed anyone, Wolf cast another Silence and came back to the gate.
Unlike a couple of minutes ago, when the guards stood in what Wolf assumed was a bored silence, the men were now chatting. Wolf frowned seeing their lips move.
I should’ve killed them immediately, Wolf thought, regretting his pedantic approach. Now that they are talking, they’ll figure out that something’s wrong as soon as the world turns mute.
He’d noticed with the other bandits that they needed a moment or two to realize that sound had disappeared. However, suddenly being unable to hear yourself speak is a dead giveaway that something’s up.
Thinking for a moment, Wolf came to a decision and picked up a fist-sized stone.
Maybe I can try taking a page from Big brother’s book, Wolf thought, then immediately regretted the double meaning of that thought.
***
“I’m telling you, she–” the man’s words suddenly disappeared while he was looking at his mate.
He opened and closed his mouth in confusion, when suddenly something flew into his friend’s face and exploded it into pieces. Chips of bone and liquid mush splashed the sentry’s face, causing the man to silently scream in terror.
His trauma wasn’t long lived. The world suddenly started spinning around him and then everything went dark. After a brief moment of panic the bandit died completely unaware of what just happened.
Wolf placed the flying head into his Ring of Holding and looked at the other.
I ruined it, he thought, his mouth twisted as he stood motionless for a moment. Then he moved the headless corpse so that it stopped spraying him with blood.
The bounty doesn’t have the exact number of bandits anyway, he thought while deciding not to pick up the mush. If anyone asks, I’ll just tell them I destroyed some of the heads.
Then he looked at the door the pair stood watch over. A blip was around three meters beyond it, just beyond the range of SIlence. Apparently the bandit was still unaware that his friends had just died a couple of steps away. Wolf didn’t know how the person was oriented, nor what they were doing.
He considered scaling the palisade and jumping over, but who knows how many people would see him in the light of these torches. The alternative was to just waltz in, but that wasn’t good either.
I always have a Walk Unseen prepared. Maybe it’s about time I used it? After hesitating for a moment, Wolf copied the villagers of Oakwood Freeland. He approached the palisade and took a look inside through the cracks between the logs.
The man on the other side of the wooden wall was idling. He was focused on stripping the last bits of meat from a bone he held in his hands.
He’s not even looking at the door! Wolf thought with frustration, as if normal people sat and looked at closed doors the whole night, waiting for an invader to pop in.
The youth soundlessly cracked open the gate and slipped inside, closing the heavy portal behind himself.
The bandit, chewing on a drumstick, never even knew he was in danger before his head parted from his neck.
Wolf continued to systematically clear the bandit camp. He’d approach a building or a tent. Walk a circle around it to see whether the blips suddenly jumped positions, or if he could catch a glimpse of who’s inside through a crack or an opening. Then he estimated the number of people.
Wolf avoided large buildings with many people and started with easy targets. Groups that slept, isolated bandits, and those he encountered out in the open. Then he worked his way up to pairs.
Like that he’d found a small group of half a dozen shacks. Inside each Wolf saw a man sleeping on top of a woman. Poor things were gagged and tied in an X position.
Wolf beheaded the men, while women woke up when blood gushed and splashed their faces. Most of them still had the presence of mind to scream, but luckily for Wolf, they were both gagged and under the effect of his spell.
The youth decided to leave them alone for now, but if they turned out to be accomplices he would take their heads, just like he did with the men. Considering the shape they were in, it was unlikely, but not impossible.
*Slash*
Wolf cut off the bandit’s head and heard the splashing of blood.
“Mmumhm! Uuuhmm!” the tied woman struggled to scream as Wolf collected the head and the body of the bandit into his Ring of Holding.
Silence had expired.
Wolf inwardly cursed his carelessness and the fact that there’s no way to know your spell will end, other than actively keeping track of time. But there was another problem.
I haven’t prepared enough Silence spells, Wolf realized. He’d prepared three regular ones and two Subtle versions. Maybe I should scout out the rest of the camp without Silence and then use it just for the killing?
Moving around Wolf came across a shack in which four malnourished women, covered in nothing but bruises hung limply, chained to the ceiling.
At a glance Wolf could tell that one wasn’t breathing, while the other three should still be alive. Wolf made a mental note not to forget them and to come here as soon as he was done with his grim work. The breathing of one of them was very shallow. It was only a matter of time before life left her.
Wolf didn’t encounter any resistance as he slowly filled his Ring of Holding with heads for more than an hour. Finally, after making sure that there were no stray manlings around, Wolf came back to the shack with four chained women and opened the door.
As Wolf approached them the poor things didn’t even have enough strength to scream, they just stared at him with dull, vacant eyes which seemed to beg for death.
“I have taken care of all of them,” Wolf said softly with a face full of pity. “Do you wish to live, or do you want me to end your suffering? I guarantee you won’t feel a thing.”
He offered them release, and surprisingly the only one that reacted was the woman on her deathbed.
Her face was messed up, and she had several scabs and burn marks on her body. She didn’t even have the strength to move her head, but her gaze shot towards Wolf as soon as she’d heard his words.
“Is … true?” she whispered so softly that even Wolf missed her saying ‘that’. He was certain that the question was asked with the woman’s dying breath.
Wolf nodded and took out the bandit leader’s head out of his Ring of Holding. “I have a hundred and twelve of these inside my ring.”
In a blink of an eye the woman’s exhausted, emotionless eyes turned into those of a crazed demon. Her body quivered in an attempt to jump at the head, but she failed to even shake the chain.
“I … … live!” the woman, whom Wolf considered on her deathbed, said weakly.
She’s living on nothing but hate and willpower. Wolf realized and gave the woman a Least Healing potion. Otherwise she’d die as soon as he released her.
The woman used her newfound vitality to spit at the head and she snapped her jaws towards it in an irrational attempt to bite the remains of her tormentor. Wolf quickly stored the head into his Ring of Holding.
“I need these for my bounty. If you want to vent, their headless corpses are outside,” Wolf believed he knew what these women had gone through. But there was nothing he could do for them, save take them to a safe place.
The woman regained some of her sanity, and as her body healed a bit Wolf noticed she was quite young. At most in her mid twenties and based on her painfully obvious skeleton and withered muscles she should have an athletic build once she put some meat back on her bones.
“They also wish to live!” she croaked, shamelessly speaking for others, while pointing towards the three women with her eyes. “They, we just need some time to heal.”
Wolf nodded. He slashed through the chain using Sundering Strike, then gave the woman a blanket so she could cover up her nudity.
The other three women stared with unseeing eyes. One because she was dead, the other two because their minds were vacant and broken.
“Do you have a place to return to?” Wolf asked after hesitating a bit.
The woman remained silent for a moment before shaking her head.
“No,” she said gravely, going through horrors of her past and tightening the blanket she’d wrapped around herself. “That woman is dead. I’m nobody now.”
Something flashed through her mind as she looked at Wolf before she kowtowed and spoke with determination.
“Do you need a disciple? Someone to clean for you or to go and hunt?” she asked “Do you need a henchman? A slave? Anything?”
Wolf looked at the woman and easily noted what she was and wasn’t willing to do. He could tell that she was determined and that her mind and soul were extremely strong.
“Follow me,” he said after glancing at the two shackled women and making sure they weren’t in imminent danger of dying.
Wolf took her arm and the woman winced at the touch, but didn’t step away. After a moment Wolf saw that she didn’t need his help, and let go as he led the way out of the shack. The abused woman stumbled, but kept up. Once the two of them were a dozen meters or so away from the nearest human being, Wolf stopped. Then he fully unleashed his baleful aura.
The woman’s legs shook, but she looked Wolf straight into the eye. Her teeth chatted, her weak body trembled, but her steel-like gaze didn’t waver for a moment.
This woman’s mind is as tough as nails! Wolf thought and after a couple of moments nodded in appreciation.
Considering what she’d gone through and how she managed to stay alive the way she did, Wolf had another idea.
He started slowly releasing his soul pressure. This was the first time Wolf had ever released a part of his true soul presence ever since his father had taught him how to hide his true aura from the world and how to keep it from leaking.
The woman still stood on her own, even though she was right next to Wolf, who pressed down on her with the might of a Seventh Order Mage.
When Wolf increased the pressure to Eight Order equivalent the woman paled and wobbled a bit, but still remained standing. A moment later Wolf’s soul pressure and baleful aura slowly disappeared.
“Tell me, do you have any children?” Wolf asked and immediately realized he’d made another careless statement.
The nameless woman’s lip trembled and her face twisted. She opened her mouth, but couldn’t speak and just shook her head weakly.
Wolf understood everything. He too didn’t have a father, but that didn’t mean he’d never had one.
It’s a pity that she’s so old and no longer a virgin. If her soul had never been fragmented she could’ve even become an Archmage, or considering the extent of her trauma, maybe even a True-Namer. Wolf focused his mind on practical matters, steering it away from wounds which never healed.
“You have the potential,” Wolf finally said after several moments of thoughtful silence they both needed.
“I could take you in as a servant, however I think that would put you into a dangerous situation sooner or later.” Wolf rubbed his chin as he tried to come up with a solution, then remembered the woman had mentioned hunting.
“Do you know how to survive in the wilderness?” he asked. “If not, I could take you to a village I am helping in secret. You should be safe there until you become strong enough.”
“I was a hunter. I can survive on my own,” the woman said seriously, obviously less than willing to be in the company of manlings.
“Then you should be fine. What’s your name by the way?” Wolf asked suddenly.
“I have no name Master. You can simply call me Slave,” the nameless woman said grimly.
“I don’t want slaves,” Wolf shook his head with disgust.
“Today is Friday. I think Frida is a nice name,” he added after some thought.
“Thank you Master, I will cherish that name forever,” Frida said, dead serious.
“Come here for a moment. Give me your hand.” Wolf had another idea.
He wanted to check whether this woman had potential for Energy Refinement. Frida stood up without hesitation, still firmly clutching her blanket, and gave her hand to Wolf.
“Tell me when it starts to hurt,” Wolf said, slowly injecting his Internal Energy into Frida. “I don’t want to injure you. This is just to assess your potential, and it’s important for you to tell me as soon as you’re uncomfortable, otherwise I may accidentally hurt you.”
Unfortunately there was no way for Wolf to know what was happening inside Frida’s body. Once Internal Energy left your body or the weapon you held it was no longer yours. Even the energy infused into a weapon could not be fully recovered, just controlled for a couple of short moments.
Frida handled the Internal Energy well. Surprisingly well. Her body, pushed to near death, instinctively absorbed it to strengthen and restore itself. At least that was Wolf’s guess, since Frida kept getting better and better the more energy she took in.
“As far as I can tell you have great potential to become a Sword-Sage,” Wolf said while halting the outflow of his Internal Energy as soon as Frida clenched her teeth in pain. “As for your soul you could be a high Order Mage if you study diligently. Do you know how to read?”
Inwardly Wolf was shocked. He couldn’t believe such a talent was wasting away in the wilderness. Frida probably wasn’t the only one. Gods know how many hidden gems like her wasted away in wild places, away from the guidance they needed to ascend the heavens.
“I don’t know how to read, Master. I grew up in the mountains,” Frida said with undisguised shame.
“Don’t feel too bad. I will teach you one of these days,” Wolf said in a relaxed fashion before suddenly changing the topic.
“Follow me. I’ll release those two. You help them put on some clothes and watch over them until I come back.” As he said this he went back towards the building from which he’d freed Frida. “I have work to do around here. There are some women tied up in a couple of shacks. I’m guessing they aren’t with bandits?”
Frida remained silent, but shook her head in answer.
For a moment Wolf considered telling Frida to go free those women first. Maybe it would be better for them if a woman were to come to their rescue, but he wasn’t certain Frida could handle it if any of the women attacked her.
It would be better if I free them, he concluded. But first I should go to the bandits’ warehouse.
There was no telling who the rightful owners of the plundered goods were, and Wolf didn’t plan on passing up a chance to gather some donations for the needy of Oakwood Freeland and Silver City.
More than a week went by before Wolf reached the region plagued by the bandit gang from his mission. This time his opponents were common thugs. The problem was that they had gathered in a large number and made a solid mountain stronghold in very favorable terrain.
The group of brigands was over a hundred strong, and thanks to their numbers and makeshift fortification they could easily inflict dire losses even upon a thousand-man army.
At first Wolf wanted to fight them head on. The problem with this kind of exercise was that he had no guarantees he’d round up all of the bandits. Besides, there was very little practical experience Wolf could gain fighting a shabby group like this.
Since that was the case, the youth decided to take a different and completely new approach, hoping to gain something more than just Academic Credits from this mission. He first scried on the bandit fortress to get the general idea about the layout and manpower.
Then, with this most basic knowledge on his enemy, Wolf prepared several spells for the occasion and waited for night to fall.
First Wolf cast Find Creature, targeting manlings. A single casting of this spell lasted several hours and given the spell’s huge radius of over half a kilometer the odds of anyone slipping by unnoticed were slim.
Then Wolf closed in on the fortification and cast Silence. In an instant the young man found himself in a soundless world. The night was dark by human standards, but half-elf heritage coupled with extraordinarily developed perception meant that nothing other than magical darkness hindered Wolf at this point.
Still, he had to rely on the mental blip the spell had created in his mind. The bandits had a dozen sentries in various positions, but the spell only picked up the closest one, towards whom Wolf was heading.
The man sat under a tree in near perfect darkness. Wolf couldn’t tell how much this human could see, but the sentry didn’t react to the shaking of bushes as Wolf circled around to approach him from behind.
The man seemed to realize something was wrong when the sounds of the night abruptly disappeared. Wolf observed his reaction, then with a simple flick of his long-sword separated the bandit’s head from his body.
The young Mage was already used to acts of violence in absolute silence. He simply stored the head and the blood which gushed towards him into his Ring of Holding. Walking out of the reach of the hot fountain Wolf dumped the stored blood onto the grass before continuing towards the next blip.
The man was perfectly cool, acting like nothing out of the ordinary had happened. Most sane manlings would find Wolf’s relaxed expression in these circumstances terrifying beyond words.
Most of the gang’s sentries died a similar death, dead before knowing that the reaper had claimed them. All save for the last two.
This pair stood guard in front of the wooden fortification’s gate. Four torches lined the wall behind them, completely nullifying Wolf’s advantage in superior night vision, casting long, dancing shadows into the forest beyond.
Wolf thought about it for a couple of moments, but there was no way to approach these two from behind.
First I should check whether I’ve missed any of the sentries in the forest, he thought and backed away from this difficult situation.
After making another sweep through the forest to make sure hadn't missed anyone, Wolf cast another Silence and came back to the gate.
Unlike a couple of minutes ago, when the guards stood in what Wolf assumed was a bored silence, the men were now chatting. Wolf frowned seeing their lips move.
I should’ve killed them immediately, Wolf thought, regretting his pedantic approach. Now that they are talking, they’ll figure out that something’s wrong as soon as the world turns mute.
He’d noticed with the other bandits that they needed a moment or two to realize that sound had disappeared. However, suddenly being unable to hear yourself speak is a dead giveaway that something’s up.
Thinking for a moment, Wolf came to a decision and picked up a fist-sized stone.
Maybe I can try taking a page from Big brother’s book, Wolf thought, then immediately regretted the double meaning of that thought.
***
“I’m telling you, she–” the man’s words suddenly disappeared while he was looking at his mate.
He opened and closed his mouth in confusion, when suddenly something flew into his friend’s face and exploded it into pieces. Chips of bone and liquid mush splashed the sentry’s face, causing the man to silently scream in terror.
His trauma wasn’t long lived. The world suddenly started spinning around him and then everything went dark. After a brief moment of panic the bandit died completely unaware of what just happened.
Wolf placed the flying head into his Ring of Holding and looked at the other.
I ruined it, he thought, his mouth twisted as he stood motionless for a moment. Then he moved the headless corpse so that it stopped spraying him with blood.
The bounty doesn’t have the exact number of bandits anyway, he thought while deciding not to pick up the mush. If anyone asks, I’ll just tell them I destroyed some of the heads.
Then he looked at the door the pair stood watch over. A blip was around three meters beyond it, just beyond the range of SIlence. Apparently the bandit was still unaware that his friends had just died a couple of steps away. Wolf didn’t know how the person was oriented, nor what they were doing.
He considered scaling the palisade and jumping over, but who knows how many people would see him in the light of these torches. The alternative was to just waltz in, but that wasn’t good either.
I always have a Walk Unseen prepared. Maybe it’s about time I used it? After hesitating for a moment, Wolf copied the villagers of Oakwood Freeland. He approached the palisade and took a look inside through the cracks between the logs.
The man on the other side of the wooden wall was idling. He was focused on stripping the last bits of meat from a bone he held in his hands.
He’s not even looking at the door! Wolf thought with frustration, as if normal people sat and looked at closed doors the whole night, waiting for an invader to pop in.
The youth soundlessly cracked open the gate and slipped inside, closing the heavy portal behind himself.
The bandit, chewing on a drumstick, never even knew he was in danger before his head parted from his neck.
Wolf continued to systematically clear the bandit camp. He’d approach a building or a tent. Walk a circle around it to see whether the blips suddenly jumped positions, or if he could catch a glimpse of who’s inside through a crack or an opening. Then he estimated the number of people.
Wolf avoided large buildings with many people and started with easy targets. Groups that slept, isolated bandits, and those he encountered out in the open. Then he worked his way up to pairs.
Like that he’d found a small group of half a dozen shacks. Inside each Wolf saw a man sleeping on top of a woman. Poor things were gagged and tied in an X position.
Wolf beheaded the men, while women woke up when blood gushed and splashed their faces. Most of them still had the presence of mind to scream, but luckily for Wolf, they were both gagged and under the effect of his spell.
The youth decided to leave them alone for now, but if they turned out to be accomplices he would take their heads, just like he did with the men. Considering the shape they were in, it was unlikely, but not impossible.
*Slash*
Wolf cut off the bandit’s head and heard the splashing of blood.
“Mmumhm! Uuuhmm!” the tied woman struggled to scream as Wolf collected the head and the body of the bandit into his Ring of Holding.
Silence had expired.
Wolf inwardly cursed his carelessness and the fact that there’s no way to know your spell will end, other than actively keeping track of time. But there was another problem.
I haven’t prepared enough Silence spells, Wolf realized. He’d prepared three regular ones and two Subtle versions. Maybe I should scout out the rest of the camp without Silence and then use it just for the killing?
Moving around Wolf came across a shack in which four malnourished women, covered in nothing but bruises hung limply, chained to the ceiling.
At a glance Wolf could tell that one wasn’t breathing, while the other three should still be alive. Wolf made a mental note not to forget them and to come here as soon as he was done with his grim work. The breathing of one of them was very shallow. It was only a matter of time before life left her.
Wolf didn’t encounter any resistance as he slowly filled his Ring of Holding with heads for more than an hour. Finally, after making sure that there were no stray manlings around, Wolf came back to the shack with four chained women and opened the door.
As Wolf approached them the poor things didn’t even have enough strength to scream, they just stared at him with dull, vacant eyes which seemed to beg for death.
“I have taken care of all of them,” Wolf said softly with a face full of pity. “Do you wish to live, or do you want me to end your suffering? I guarantee you won’t feel a thing.”
He offered them release, and surprisingly the only one that reacted was the woman on her deathbed.
Her face was messed up, and she had several scabs and burn marks on her body. She didn’t even have the strength to move her head, but her gaze shot towards Wolf as soon as she’d heard his words.
“Is … true?” she whispered so softly that even Wolf missed her saying ‘that’. He was certain that the question was asked with the woman’s dying breath.
Wolf nodded and took out the bandit leader’s head out of his Ring of Holding. “I have a hundred and twelve of these inside my ring.”
In a blink of an eye the woman’s exhausted, emotionless eyes turned into those of a crazed demon. Her body quivered in an attempt to jump at the head, but she failed to even shake the chain.
“I … … live!” the woman, whom Wolf considered on her deathbed, said weakly.
She’s living on nothing but hate and willpower. Wolf realized and gave the woman a Least Healing potion. Otherwise she’d die as soon as he released her.
The woman used her newfound vitality to spit at the head and she snapped her jaws towards it in an irrational attempt to bite the remains of her tormentor. Wolf quickly stored the head into his Ring of Holding.
“I need these for my bounty. If you want to vent, their headless corpses are outside,” Wolf believed he knew what these women had gone through. But there was nothing he could do for them, save take them to a safe place.
The woman regained some of her sanity, and as her body healed a bit Wolf noticed she was quite young. At most in her mid twenties and based on her painfully obvious skeleton and withered muscles she should have an athletic build once she put some meat back on her bones.
“They also wish to live!” she croaked, shamelessly speaking for others, while pointing towards the three women with her eyes. “They, we just need some time to heal.”
Wolf nodded. He slashed through the chain using Sundering Strike, then gave the woman a blanket so she could cover up her nudity.
The other three women stared with unseeing eyes. One because she was dead, the other two because their minds were vacant and broken.
“Do you have a place to return to?” Wolf asked after hesitating a bit.
The woman remained silent for a moment before shaking her head.
“No,” she said gravely, going through horrors of her past and tightening the blanket she’d wrapped around herself. “That woman is dead. I’m nobody now.”
Something flashed through her mind as she looked at Wolf before she kowtowed and spoke with determination.
“Do you need a disciple? Someone to clean for you or to go and hunt?” she asked “Do you need a henchman? A slave? Anything?”
Wolf looked at the woman and easily noted what she was and wasn’t willing to do. He could tell that she was determined and that her mind and soul were extremely strong.
“Follow me,” he said after glancing at the two shackled women and making sure they weren’t in imminent danger of dying.
Wolf took her arm and the woman winced at the touch, but didn’t step away. After a moment Wolf saw that she didn’t need his help, and let go as he led the way out of the shack. The abused woman stumbled, but kept up. Once the two of them were a dozen meters or so away from the nearest human being, Wolf stopped. Then he fully unleashed his baleful aura.
The woman’s legs shook, but she looked Wolf straight into the eye. Her teeth chatted, her weak body trembled, but her steel-like gaze didn’t waver for a moment.
This woman’s mind is as tough as nails! Wolf thought and after a couple of moments nodded in appreciation.
Considering what she’d gone through and how she managed to stay alive the way she did, Wolf had another idea.
He started slowly releasing his soul pressure. This was the first time Wolf had ever released a part of his true soul presence ever since his father had taught him how to hide his true aura from the world and how to keep it from leaking.
The woman still stood on her own, even though she was right next to Wolf, who pressed down on her with the might of a Seventh Order Mage.
When Wolf increased the pressure to Eight Order equivalent the woman paled and wobbled a bit, but still remained standing. A moment later Wolf’s soul pressure and baleful aura slowly disappeared.
“Tell me, do you have any children?” Wolf asked and immediately realized he’d made another careless statement.
The nameless woman’s lip trembled and her face twisted. She opened her mouth, but couldn’t speak and just shook her head weakly.
Wolf understood everything. He too didn’t have a father, but that didn’t mean he’d never had one.
It’s a pity that she’s so old and no longer a virgin. If her soul had never been fragmented she could’ve even become an Archmage, or considering the extent of her trauma, maybe even a True-Namer. Wolf focused his mind on practical matters, steering it away from wounds which never healed.
“You have the potential,” Wolf finally said after several moments of thoughtful silence they both needed.
“I could take you in as a servant, however I think that would put you into a dangerous situation sooner or later.” Wolf rubbed his chin as he tried to come up with a solution, then remembered the woman had mentioned hunting.
“Do you know how to survive in the wilderness?” he asked. “If not, I could take you to a village I am helping in secret. You should be safe there until you become strong enough.”
“I was a hunter. I can survive on my own,” the woman said seriously, obviously less than willing to be in the company of manlings.
“Then you should be fine. What’s your name by the way?” Wolf asked suddenly.
“I have no name Master. You can simply call me Slave,” the nameless woman said grimly.
“I don’t want slaves,” Wolf shook his head with disgust.
“Today is Friday. I think Frida is a nice name,” he added after some thought.
“Thank you Master, I will cherish that name forever,” Frida said, dead serious.
“Come here for a moment. Give me your hand.” Wolf had another idea.
He wanted to check whether this woman had potential for Energy Refinement. Frida stood up without hesitation, still firmly clutching her blanket, and gave her hand to Wolf.
“Tell me when it starts to hurt,” Wolf said, slowly injecting his Internal Energy into Frida. “I don’t want to injure you. This is just to assess your potential, and it’s important for you to tell me as soon as you’re uncomfortable, otherwise I may accidentally hurt you.”
Unfortunately there was no way for Wolf to know what was happening inside Frida’s body. Once Internal Energy left your body or the weapon you held it was no longer yours. Even the energy infused into a weapon could not be fully recovered, just controlled for a couple of short moments.
Frida handled the Internal Energy well. Surprisingly well. Her body, pushed to near death, instinctively absorbed it to strengthen and restore itself. At least that was Wolf’s guess, since Frida kept getting better and better the more energy she took in.
“As far as I can tell you have great potential to become a Sword-Sage,” Wolf said while halting the outflow of his Internal Energy as soon as Frida clenched her teeth in pain. “As for your soul you could be a high Order Mage if you study diligently. Do you know how to read?”
Inwardly Wolf was shocked. He couldn’t believe such a talent was wasting away in the wilderness. Frida probably wasn’t the only one. Gods know how many hidden gems like her wasted away in wild places, away from the guidance they needed to ascend the heavens.
“I don’t know how to read, Master. I grew up in the mountains,” Frida said with undisguised shame.
“Don’t feel too bad. I will teach you one of these days,” Wolf said in a relaxed fashion before suddenly changing the topic.
“Follow me. I’ll release those two. You help them put on some clothes and watch over them until I come back.” As he said this he went back towards the building from which he’d freed Frida. “I have work to do around here. There are some women tied up in a couple of shacks. I’m guessing they aren’t with bandits?”
Frida remained silent, but shook her head in answer.
For a moment Wolf considered telling Frida to go free those women first. Maybe it would be better for them if a woman were to come to their rescue, but he wasn’t certain Frida could handle it if any of the women attacked her.
It would be better if I free them, he concluded. But first I should go to the bandits’ warehouse.
There was no telling who the rightful owners of the plundered goods were, and Wolf didn’t plan on passing up a chance to gather some donations for the needy of Oakwood Freeland and Silver City.
