Blood Wolf

Chapter 04: Shadow is born from the first light

Adam made his way through the city. 

He felt bad for leaving Amy behind. He didn’t know how long it would take for him to be strong, but he had to keep the promise. After completing the system mission, he had to come back for Amy’s birthday in four months.

Travelling through the city was a painful process for him. Many people were travelling in the streets, but for his luck, many people didn’t even get close to him due to his appearance. Even so, the city of the West coast was not small at all. By the time he reached the north gate through the market district, he saw the sun located in the sky west of him. 

‘Couple more hours before the sunset,’ he thought.

‘How do I get to the east?’ he looked at the mountain range stretching far and wide. 

However, the road he got out led the way straight toward the north. Both sides were farmlands. Although he didn’t know, Adam believed most of these farmlands belonged to nobles or the royal family.

Many people were going in and out of the city. As he walked out, he realised if he came back in his shabby clothes, he might not be able to enter the city again. Because of the increasing number of refugees, guards stopped all who were in shabby clothes. And if they had no business in the city, it was very hard to pass by them.

Adam walked along the road for about an hour before traffic got thinner. Many who can travel fast left him in the dust. And the few who couldn't do that found a place to settle down in the city or around it. Not long after, Adam came to a bridge, and the river flowed peacefully from east to west. And both sides of the river were small wood separating endless farmlands from the river. Adam smelled his clothes, and he felt his stomach rolling.

He hasn’t had a shower in a week. Last time he took a quick dive in the sea near the port with Amy, but the saltiness made him reluctant to do it more often. He slowly made his way into the woods. And once he was confirmed that he couldn’t see the road or the bridge anymore, he didn’t hesitate to strip naked and get into the water. It was a pleasant sensation for his body that felt battered and painful.

As he enjoyed the peaceful bath, the metallic sound of the system appeared in his brain. 

‘Shit,’ every time this sound came, it had something to tell him. As expected, a new set of lines appeared in the blue background.

- The host is out of reach from prying eyes.

- The host is advised to change into the system designated clothes.

Adam couldn’t help but complain, 

‘The road is long and dusty. If I wear anything else, it will get dirty.’ 

‘Wait,’ suddenly he read it again. It was not asking him to wear the clothes given to him by Mr Han, ‘system designated clothes? how am I supposed to find those?’

Then he noticed the new green blinking word in the system, ‘Storage,’ He wondered what was in there as he checked he saw another thing inside.

- Believer’s Clothes - Clothes of a true believer of the wolf god.

Special effect 01- Follower of a true god’s charm - There is something special about a man who has trust in divinity. People will feel a small strand of divine presence in you.

special effect 02 - Durable - Will be cleaned and repaired by the system

‘How do I get this out?’ He wished to get it out. 

Especially because of the second option in the clothes.

And the next moment, a strange set of neatly folded black clothes appeared on the patch of grass near him.

................

Half an hour later, a new-looking Adam appeared out of the woods. 

He wore a pair of black pants and a black shirt. It came along with a matching black long mantle with a hood. And on the chest area of the mantle, joined to form a colourful head of a wolf. A piece of cloth that came with the dress covered his face. Now, only part of his forehead and clear blue eyes were exposed in his face, giving him an air of mystery.

Adam was happy his hands were finally free. The system storage allowed him to store his things inside it. And according to the system, it currently had nine cubic meters of space. And as his mental strength grows, it will expand, allowing him to store more things. And what made him happier was that at the current level it allowed him to store food in fresh condition for six months. Food was something he was always worried about, and now Adam felt safe.

Still, his body was in a bad condition, and he could only walk slowly, keeping his energy saved. 

However, now a few people who passed by gave special attention to him. As his thin body was now concealed, the slow walk gave a completely different impression. Like he was a man of power.

With mysterious clothes and dignified walk, some suspected that he was a powerful magician. 

However, what diverted Adam from magicians was that they rarely walked.

Adam, however, was oblivious to these things as the sky was getting darker. He was planning on finishing his dinner early and resting to regain some energy. By now farmlands covering both sides of the road were gone. And the growth of trees was increasing, alarming Adam to rest and continue tomorrow.

Months of travelling from the Black Dragon empire as a kid has given him many memories of travelling. Adam finally saw a few wagons stopped by the side of the road and a large bonfire on the field with at least twenty or more people in the surrounding. He didn’t have any mind joining them.

He passed their location silently and found a place a bit far from the group to settle himself. It didn’t take him long to build his fire. And not long after he ate a bit of food taken from the storage. He was happy now he could keep food for a long time. That also made him greedy too, because the amount of food would only decrease with time.

Finally, Adam had the time to think about how his life has changed over one night. Still, he had no idea if he could reach Westwood within one week, but he had to try, for himself and Amy.  

He sat on the ground with his back against a large tree and faced toward the fire. As usual, he would be half-awake through the night. He couldn’t remember the last time he had a peaceful sleep, but as long as safety was not guaranteed, he would not sleep like an idiot.

...

While Adam was resting, not far away from him, one of the adventurers started to notice the small fire through the trees.

“Ms Karina, someone is camping nearby,” Dean was acceding to classifications, 5th tier Hunter, who was very good at tracking. Therefore, Karina, their party leader, didn’t have any doubts about his observation.

However, there was no reason to be alarmed if the other party was openly camping, which means there was very little chance that they were hostile. Still, she wondered what alerted this man.

“Well, there is no problem with it, right?” she was curious about why Dean was worried.

“There is only one person,”

Karina’s eyes opened wide. Not only her, but all the people listening also got alert. This road which led from West Coast city led to many places, but there were very few villages between them. And it was rare to see someone travelling alone.

Either a person was a madman or a man with power.

‘A magician,’ she thought, then discarded the possibility.

Magicians’, even the low-level ones, had money, and they hired adventurers like them to protect themselves. Otherwise, they travelled by simply joining a group of adventurers. Because even for a lower-tier magician, this road might carry too many surprises.

If it was a higher tier magician, they might fly over the area and reach one of the cities within a day. 

‘Can it be a powerful magic warrior?’ No, even if he was, he would still fly over this place. 

Even though this road was under the protection of the Crimson empire and bandits and robbers had no guts to stay around, still, animal attacks and disappearances were not very rare here.

“Let’s go and check,” she finally made the decision. Others were also interested in looking into this mysterious person, and a few got up to follow them.

Then they started moving through the trees. And automatically, everyone became careful with their steps and started moving to make fewer sounds. They started to see the dark figure sitting cross-legged against a tree.

However, the moment Karina stepped into the open area, Adam who was half awake immediately opened his eyes, making everyone feel alert. And for some reason, Karina felt a bit worried by the mysterious blue eyes looking at them.

Adam, who lived the last year of his life on alert, heard them from far. However, he was too tired to react immediately, and the moment they came to his camping ground he opened his eyes.

“We mean no ill will sir,” Karina who felt that they shouldn’t offend this man first made the move to show goodwill.

But Adam was observing them, thinking about what he should do, and he had no mind to answer their greeting.

“I am Karina, I am the leader of our party, sir, may I know your name?” Karina felt she made the wrong move the moment the other party stayed in silence. 

Even others, usually stubborn adventurers, felt the air around man make the impossible to look at him directly.

“Adam,” he simply replied, it’s not like he could introduce himself as a refugee, right?

Suddenly the system appeared,

- The host is a follower of the Wolf God, please have some dignity, and the host can introduce himself as such.

- Followers of the wolf god were the executioners of evil who carry the wrath of dawn and shadow.

‘What’s with the dawn and shadow? I thought Wolf god is the god of Shadows,’ Adam completely ignored others as he felt like this system was making him confused.

- Wolf God is born with the dawn, and as a follower, you’re also bound to protect dawn. A Shadow is born from the first light