Blood Wolf

Chapter 05: Man of the Gods

While Adam was trying to figure out the origin of Wolf God.

In a village to the east, a young girl who was resting in her room heard a weird noise outside the house.

It was like something scratching on the wall. For a few minutes, she ignored the noise until it got louder. Initially, she was hoping someone else in the house would check the situation, but since the noise was so disturbing; she decided to go and see for herself.

‘Strange,’ she found that their living room was empty.

“Ren, is that you?” she yelled her younger brother’s name, thinking he must be playing a prank on her. 

She listened for a few more seconds, but other than the scratching noise, it did not answer her. Finally, she lost her calm.

“I will catch you myself,” yelling she got out of the house.

The angered girl made her way toward the back of the house where the noise was coming from. However, her brother was not there. 

She saw a strange-looking girl with long black hair in a white dress squatting by the house wall. 

“Who are you? What are you doing here?” the girl felt strange and got angry at the same time.

It was a stranger who was disturbing her rest. However, the latter kept doing what she was doing, without turning back or giving an answer.

“Hey, I am talking to you,” she approached the girl and touched her shoulder.

And the moment she touched; her hand went numb as if the other person was made of ice. “Just who………”

Her voice trailed off looking at the face turned in an impossible angle toward her, there were no eyes, mouth and nose looked as if it was cut off from the face. The most disturbing part was the skin: it looked as if it was about to fall off at any moment.

‘No,’ she wanted to run off.

At the moment, with all her remaining strength. She turned back to find everything became dark, her house was gone, and the village had disappeared. 

“Come, let’s play,” a harsh voice called her from behind.

A moment later her scream broke out in the dark, and then everything went silent.

… 

Inside the house, a young boy who was playing with his toy looked at the opened door in confusion, “Why didn’t sister come back yet?”

“Come back from where?” a middle-aged woman who came out with a man from another room asked the boy.

“She went out just now,”

“I will check” the man got out of the house. 

“Nina….”

Within a few minutes, the whole village was on alert, even the guards came looking for the girl who had vanished from her own house.

“It’s already the fourth,” an old man who joins the search muttered under his breath

……

The standoff between Karina’s adventurer party and Adam was still going on in the faraway road.

It was because Adam was going through system introduction and pondering himself; how to brag saying he was a follower of the Wolf God? 

‘What’s with this executioner of the evil part?’ he was sure if he tried to execute someone now, it would be the other way around.

Karina and her people however were in a difficult situation. Their hands were on their weapons, as Adam was keeping his silence, making them feel immense pressure.

“Mr Adam,” she tried to speak calmly as possible to him again.

“I am a follower of the Wolf God,” finally he gave them a reply.

Even if it was only one sentence, it gave everyone some relief. Then everyone realised what the man said. 

‘Follower of the Wolf God?’ Karina barely held her words without letting them out, but she was not the only one here.

“Gods in this era?” one young girl among them let loose her tongue, making everyone feel helpless.

And at that moment, she felt the piercing blue gaze on her. She immediately looked at the ground with no courage to face the eyes that looked like judging their every move.

“Mr Adam,” Karina wanted to facepalm herself. 

Just when the things started to cool down, one of their own let her mouth run wild. 

“She is just a child, please don’t take offence,”

Karina herself was an 8th tier warrior, among the young warriors, she was powerful. Still, she had the confidence to go against even a mage at a similar level. However, she was in no mood to learn what was the limit of capability of this so-called man of the gods.

“We came here because you are alone Mr Adam,” she hopes to make sure there will be no blood tonight “If it’s convenient you can travel with us tomorrow our carriages are faster. We are travelling toward Westwood village.”

The last sentence from her caught the interest of Adam. 

‘Westwood village?’ even though he had no idea where it was, he felt it can’t be that far from the place he wants to go, right?

“I am going to Westwood forest,” he made the statement, straying to get a hint from the other side.

 To be honest, he was on full alert and panic. As he was unarmed against real adventurers. However, all his emotions were hidden under the robe.

“Great, we are heading toward the same direction, Mr Adam,” she could finally have some relief, as the latter was ready to travel with them. 

“Then, shall we go to our camp?”

“How long will it take to reach there?” Adam wanted to know if he could reach there in time.

Karina had nothing to wonder about as there were many places, they could reach the Westwood forest, but Westwood village was one of the closest. 

“Day after tomorrow by noon we will be there, Mr Adam,”

Adam didn’t know what to say. 

‘Maybe these clothes have some effect,’ he thought about how he became a beggar to Mr Adam. 

And getting there in two days was the best.

‘Completing this mission becomes too easy’ he thought, getting up from the ground. 

However, to Adam, there was no such thing as a free meal in this world.

…………………………….

“What a monster,” said Archer, keeping the night watch in the camp nudged at the young magician next to him.

“Who?” the young man had no idea who they were talking about

“Keep it down, he can hear us,” old hunter nodded toward Adam who was still sitting with his back against a tree

“I thought he was sleeping,” the Young man looked at Adam, who had his eyes closed and breathing steadily.

“No, since he came here, he is always half-awake, never once letting his guard down,” the old hunter couldn’t see through the mysterious man.

“Do you believe in gods?” The magician had his doubts. The only thing he knew was there was an old church in West Coast city that had a history of over a thousand years.

“In other kingdoms, there are some churches for different gods, they also have powerful knights, but most don’t have many followers except for the few,” old Archer has seen many things this young man had not seen. 

“But here in Crimson empire there is almost none, her majesty is not a believer of any God,”

“Of course, why do we need gods, we are strong,” the young man said with pride.

In the crimson empire, their blood was naturally strong. And even women were born with the ability to practise strength to become an adventurer.

“I don’t know about that, but that man was not something people like us should offend,” the old archer got up to go around the camp again. 

However, when this man was around, he felt a weird sense of security like around this man there was the protection of gods?

……………………….

The next morning the group left the camp after an early breakfast. Adam was the only one who didn’t have anything to eat. First, he didn’t trust other people’s food. Especially in this unknown land. Second, he could save some food if he ate near midday.

Adam got a space in the first carriage with few experienced adventurers who know when to speak. And Karina, as the leader, got on the last carriage to watch the rear. They had few scouts going in the front to check the road.

Adam was fully focused on the road as they diverted into the road leading to the east with much less traffic. According to these people, there were few hunting villages in this area guarded by one stronghold. However, the growing number of trees and bushes made Adam feel worried.

Along the way he got hungry and as his attention was fully focused on the road, he almost had forgotten the surrounding people. 

Adam took out a bun from system storage. Suddenly he remembered there were others, Adam immediately looked around and saw amazement in their eyes, but since there was no hostility, he decided to keep quiet and focus back on the road.

However, these experienced groups of people were wondering how to let their leader know that this man can use space-time magic. And for that, the magician should be at least around the 9th tier. They felt lucky to have accompanied this man, 9th tier magicians were not rare like 10th tier but still, they were, like magic warriors, a force to be reckoned with.

Adam, who was worried about the road, suddenly noticed the silver glow in the bushes. 

‘Not good,’

“Stop,” he immediately ordered. 

The carriage driver didn’t want to offend the 9th tier magician. And didn’t ask any more questions before stopping.

Adam waited patiently for a moment looking at the bushes and once confirmed there were no movements. He got out of the carriage to see what was in the bushes.

“Mr Adam, what is the problem?” Karina, who was angry, still kept her voice normal. 

‘if you want to do something, please wait until we stop for lunch,’ she complained in her heart. Latter however completely ignored her as he was worried about his safety.

He approached in a bit of a hurry to the location with a silver glow. And there was a broken arrowhead fallen in the bushes, but what worried him more was that the place was too clean, as if the arrowhead came here alone. However, it was new and the small red rust on the steel tip was most probably blood.

Karina also noticed the abnormal place, “we better get out of here Mr Adam,” the man impressed her. 

He noticed something their scouts didn’t see. However, if there was a danger, she was not going to face it.

“We are getting near to the Eastern stronghold, and if we don’t stop for a break, we can reach their checkpoint before sundown,” she looked at the man still keeping his eyes on the bushes. “What do you think, Mr Adam?” she asked with respect for this weird man.

Adam gave a nod and made his way back to the carriage, looking at the far where the tall stone walls could be seen

‘Hopefully, nothing happens,’