Epic Of The Demonic Sage

"It's nothing." Lucius shook his head.

"I owe you my life, Lord Asher." Gellor insisted. "It should have made sense that some of the wolves were prepared to ambush us, but I failed to react properly."

"Even if I hadn't stepped in to save you, I have no doubt that you would have been able to catch it yourself." Lucius reassured Gellor, knowing the man's awareness was better than others.

"Thank you for saying that, Lord Asher." Gellor thanked him and then cleared his throat. "Your swordsmanship is incredible. I was not able to witness it before, but I think even my old mentor would have been in awe of it."

"Why thank you, but I think it's important to move on to far more immediate matters now, Gellor." Lucius said.

"Oh, of course, right away, Lord Asher." Gellor nodded.

It was the first time that Gellor's team actually saw Lord Asher's fighting capabilities and were thoroughly impressed with it.

Either way, to Lucius, that was more or less a good show of their skills and he was ready to move on from it as he eyed the corpses of the wolves.

There were several of them and if they were unable to take care of it, it would attract the attention of more creatures and especially the bugs.

More importantly though, there was something that he wished to procure from it.

"Gellor, I think we should start taking care of the corpses now." Finch clapped her hands and then looked at Lucius' way. "If we find any rune crystals, Lord Asher. We will give it to you right away."

Lucius raised a brow, but then nodded his head.

"Yes, that was what I had in mind. I'm also interested in the rune crystals of the Long Clawed Wolves and will be procuring it." Lucius said.

As the adrenaline of the fight wore off, Gellor and everyone in their team started to make quick work of the wolf corpses and collected all of them.

Kiana took over the bonfire and prepared some dinner for Asher as the two of them sat down together.

"It'll be good to cook some of the wolf meat tonight." Kiana said, but then cleared her throat. "How are you doing, Asher?"

"I'm fine, Kiana." Lucius said, already having a feeling of what she was about to say.

"Gellor would have been fine even if you haven't stepped in." Kiana coughed lightly as she eyed the team working through the corpses. "My apologies, I was quite worried because I was trying to protect you, but then you stepped away and I couldn't do a thing. I wasn't there during the assassination either and I… I'll stop. Forgive me, I was just rather put out that even with my gift, I had some difficulty with dealing with those wolves."

"I understand your frustration." Lucius said. "Of course, something like this will be easily rectified through constant practice and training, so we'll be able to address that."

It was clear that someone who had their gift become Epic ranked would become overjoyed, however it was not often that they would quickly find themselves understanding their limitations after an increase in power.

"Thank you, Asher." Kiana said.

"You're welcome," Lucius said, before looking at Gellor, who was approaching.

"We've only obtained one rune crystal, Lord Asher. From the Alpha itself." Gellor offered the crystal to him.

"Much appreciated." Lucius took the item, gave it a momentary glance with the Nexus and soon kept it with him.

It was an eventful night, compared to the ones for the past six days, and soon enough they would finally end up to where the Plow Worms were.

***

The next morning, Lucius and everyone were ready to leave once again. The pile of corpses was left where it was from last night as they got on their horses.

"These are all good meat." Albus shook his head.

"And we haven't even talked about the pelt or the claws." Ariana whistled.

"Unfortunately, bringing all of them can't be done. It's too much weight and it'll slow us all down." Finch said.

"We'll only be bringing the body of the Alpha Wolf. Compared to the others, his body is a lot more valuable and we'll also still have some extra meat for later. Sounds good?" Gellor asked everyone.

Once everyone was done, it didn't take too long for Lucius and the group to finally exit the forest, and when they did, they wounded up at the base of the mountains and a beautiful small lake right beside of it.

"… It's a really good thing that we didn't insist on those corpses, didn't we?" Albus said, looking at the mountains with an uneasy look.

"It'll be good to tie the horses here near the lake. It's unlikely they'll be attacked compared to being in the forest, and they'll be near a water source and the grass." Barty said.

"Sounds like a plan." Gellor agreed.

While Gellor and his team took care of the horses, Lucius and Kiana waited for them as they stood at the bottom of the mountain.

"This is it, isn't it, Asher?" Kiana asked.

"Yes, we'll journey our way up there and find our way into the Aisse territory." Lucius noted, remembering the contents of the map. "While there's no actual details of what this mountain terrain contains, there's a great chance that we'll encounter paths that will make it easier. And if not, we simply push through with it."

"Of course." Kiana agreed.

Once everyone was ready, they soon began their trek up the mountains. It was a long and winding time, and they took a break while on their way but after some time, they ended up seeing a pass that was hidden between the two mountains.

Everyone entered the pass and then end up seeing more mountains and hills beyond their current place.

"And now we finally enter the Aisse territory…" Lucius said, but then paused as he took in the sight of the surrounding area. "There's something strange with it."