The night was painted with the beautiful echoes of the organized howling of the Timber Wolves. Much like a well conducted orchestra, their symphony filled the hollow air and would fill the hearts of any who heard it with dread. It seemed the timber wolves were angry and didn't appreciate what had just happened.
Well, who would be happy when their wise, powerful and just king just died? A lot of strife may follow, but not tonight. Tonight, they would all howl in sadness at the loss.
Up in the sky, the moon was a deep yellow, unlike its usual silvery gleam. To the timber wolves, this was a symbol of sadness. They had a tale of their patron goddess, Arcarine of the Silver Moon, that said she would paint her own silver moon yellow whenever her champion died.
The tale of Arcarine was one that created complete admiration and trust in the hearts of the wolves and their offspring to come. Particularly for this clan of wolves. It went like this.
Once in the past, there was a young wolf who was sacked from his clan. He was made to fend for himself and that was a deed nearly impossible for him. The monsters were too strong and the environment too harsh to this unfamiliar being. After a few weeks, struggling to survive, the wolf's body gave up on him.
He was going to perish and die a pathetic death in which no one would know of him. However, the silver moon shone on him and he suddenly received strength. The moon showed him a path leading to a dangerous land. There, the wolf found a beautiful wolf.
She claimed to be the champion of Arcarine of the Silver Moon. The wolf finally understood how he survived and he decided to give all his thanks to the Moon Goddess. He and the goddess' champion ended up mating and creating a family for themselves.
Soon, more and more wolves were being drawn towards them and rather than fighting them off, the two wolves decided to absorb them into their family. It did not take long for their clan to grow big. Although not possessing a lot of members, the clan became one of the strongest.
Unfortunately, the time had come for the Champion of Silver Moon, or the more commonly used term, The Silver Knight, to go to her goddess. On this night, it was said the moon shone a deep yellow and the Silver Knight's fur completely contrasted it. The young wolf did not wish to let her go, but the goddess made him a promise.
He would need to take her place as champion and if he did what she believed was a good job, she would allow him to ascend just like his mate. This wolf was Argari of the Third Moon.
Legends has it that the three moons in the sky were these three beings. As if representing the order in which the beings were born, the moons would appear in such order with a four month interval and on the last day of the year, they would shine brightly in the sky together.
The first moon, Arcarine covered the first four months. The second moon, Areari covered the second four months. Finally, the last moon Argari covered the remaining four months.
So now these wolves sang to their patron for her merciful blessings upon their king. They could not just watch him disappear forever, especially after losing his life protecting his son and entire clan.
It didn't matter if they lost their voices. They would sing to his honour. Sing for the ground to tremble. They would sing so the ears of every creature in Larm would bleed. This was their Mass Requiem. This was the only way they could honour their beloved king.
A black wolf sat on a ledge and staring off into space. His left eye had claw marks over them and has been sealed shut, without any eye and his right eye glowed dimly in the dark. His mood would not be easy to discern from one or two glances. This was a first for the others as well.
They only knew him to be violent, jumpy, hungry and strong. He never showed them any other sides of himself. Not even when his mother died would he act so solemn. Right now, they could only feel sad for him. There were the others who would feel resentment and blame him for his father's death.
Well, if it wasn't for his fight, his father wouldn't have to fight the Mad Witch, they said. If only he hadn't selfishly taken on the Mad Witch, they said.
All of them didn't know the true reason behind her arrival. Not even he himself. But he didn't care. He just wanted his rematch with the chicken. Easy as that. No one's opinions mattered to him. And never would they ever, so he wouldn't waste his energy thinking about them.
'It is time.'
The wolves alert him. The black wolf looked down the hill, towards the forest where he fought the previous night. He was angry. He was raging pissed. Still, he could respect the creature he fought. It was weaker than him. It needed tricks and schemes to fight. It even needed other creatures to help it fight. However, in the final bout. When he saw that creature's eyes, he felt like he had lost. He had never seen such determination in one's eyes before. Especially whenever one fought him. Be it a regular beast or one stronger than him. In the end, they would all bow before him. Yet, that monster didn't.
To the very end, that monster fought bravely, not fearing him. If he met that creature, he would like to fight again, but this time uninterrupted. If he could break that creature and make it know fear, then and only then, could he say he had won.
'Has the Champion Ceremony be completed?'
He asked the wolf behind him. The grey wolf barked and the black wolf stood tall and proud. His left eye burned with phantom pain, but he would fight through. This scar left a deep wound in his chest and psyche. One that would always remind him of the first time he ever truely lost a battle. The first being he could call his equal was a chicken.
'How pathetic.'
Day 13This morning I managed to beg Minerva to let me go out of the cave with her. You would expect that a NEET would prefer to be in the dark quiet cave away from all the monsters, but no! The cave would be too boring!This NEET would rather plunge into the face of death than waste around in a cave.Ok, the honest truth was that, it was simply because Minerva was an absolute beast, so I would have nothing to fear in the forest. Especially if she had the [Overlord] skill. She was practically a goddess.My other priority was finding the remaining twigs. Not because I cared about them or anything. I just felt weird since I lost my connection with them. Apparently they were too far away from me and wouldn't receive any orders from me. That meant they would go crazy in the forest and probably get killed instantly. I couldn't sit by and just let them get killed. It might affect them seeing that two of their brothers were dead. Even if I accidentally killed th
Later in the afternoon, Minerva decided to take a nap. I decided to use this opportunity to search the forest for my shrubs. She would probably have been pissed if she woke up and I wasn't back in the cave so I would make sure to come back very early. No more than an hour out. I had the agent acting as a timer for me.So now, I was flying through the forest, testing how fast I could go and damn, was I fast. It was pretty cool zooming through the forest. So this was how fast I could go with 600 speed? Then how fast was Shiro? I think she had 200 plus speed. Was that average speed for humans? But that wasn't as fast this. Ah well.How fast was Minerva? Her agility stats were crazy high. I wondered just how fast she could go, and how long it would take for me to reach that level of capability.I decided to take a break and land somewhere on the ground so I could try using my special fusion of my perception skills. I once again tried the use of [Mana Perception], [A
When they got to the front, they were surprised by the sight. There were actually nineteen dead rabbits and there was an actual chicken. It was bigger than what he had been told by the chief. But much like the stories, it had yellow feathers and looked weaker than the average bird in Larm. What was alarming though was the antenna like structure on its head and the dark violet tips it possessed, as well as black beak and talons.This was an amazing development. He was certain his brother was the cause of their victory. He was interested in the story of how his brother managed to gather this much food. He wanted to hear all about it then boast to the chief once he returned.He looked around for his brother but couldn't find him, so he went to the leader of that hunting expedition. That goblin was considered the smartest of them all, right after the chief and the sorceress, but he was also one of the physically weakest goblins in the cave. And seeing as the goblins were s
I was led towards the deepest recesses of the cave, where the chief's "throne room" was. He wasn't what I was expecting from a Hob-goblin. From manga that I've read, goblins were savages that just killed without regard for their surroundings. As long as they were satisfied, they didn't care. Although weak, they were numerous and used that fact to their advantage. Hob-goblins, although not as numerous as goblins, weren't exempt from this fact. In fact, they rarely associated with goblins, so this was weird. Sitting in front of me, was the Hob-goblin chief, who I presumed to be the most violent goblin in this village, drinking a bowl of slime. Apparently slime was like a delicacy to these goblins. I had also been offered one but was cautious about it. I then took a sip of it and surprisingly, I acquired some skills and resistances. [Due to the unique skill [Evolver] you have acquired the following skills] [You have acquired the skill [Predator]] [You ha
Dorm let out a yawn as he remembered the party that he had attended the last night. It was an extravagant one held by the goblin tribe of Krav. There was an event where chiefs of each of the goblin tribes met annually to share news about events on their sides. He didn't want to go, but as a chief and as the warrior that went on an adventure around the world, he needed to attend to trade very important information."Hey Chief! What's with the yawn? Didn't get enough sleep?"The one who asked this was a young goblin Dorm treated like his son. He had taught him a lot about fighting and survival skills needed and the young goblin looked up to him like a father. People who didn't know that Dorm had married a human woman sometimes thought that they were a father and son pair. (They knew him to act more like a human than a goblin)"Of course he didn't. Did you see all those human women they had?""I know right. Who would sleep when there was an all you can eat b
Dorm had left Ooo.That was all the goblins could think of. Their last line of defense had left them because of their selfish attitudes. They realized how grim their situation was and were arguing amongst themselves. They wanted to someone else to be chief but did not know who.There was no goblin nearly as smart or as strong as Dorm was. Even his protégé, who was the closest to him had left alongside him. The goblins reached a consensus. They needed to find Dorm and beg him to come back.Sadly when they tried, either the goblins came back with multiple injuries, or they didn't come back at all. They had sparked a very dangerous hatred in the heart of Dorm. That was why he left. He knew that if he had stayed he would have killed more of them.Now, Dorm just spent his days in the forest, searching for his child. The spirit had said that the child was safe, so he had assumed that the child was in the care of the spirit. He could only think of
"Oh, why did we even take the job?"A pained feminine voice asked."Because we are broke and we need money."A male voice answered."No! It's for the thrill of the adventure!"Another voice yelled.The owners of the other two voices stared at the last guy with disbelief. He was their party leader and had gotten them into all sorts of trouble before, but they were certain that not even he was that stupid. At least, that was what they thought.Together, they were a rank B- party. The B rank attack mage, Charlotte, The C+ rank Swordsman, Aden, and the B- ranked support mage, Ross. They were quite the infamous party back in Dirthhaven, the capital of Keiman, for the kind of dangerous jobs their useless leader would take and barely manage to complete.Right now, the reason why they were in the Larm forest was because their leader had accepted the job of going to take resources. In secret, he actually wanted to fight the Mad Witch of
Minerva had just finished hunting for dinner. Normally she and her pet, Fang would have gone out together but she told him to stay in the cave and guard it. Why did she do that? Today would mark their one month celebration of meeting so she wanted to get something nice for him.So she found a bull deer and was dragging it back, but on her way there she could smell something burning and smoke was rising to the sky. It came in the direction of her cave, so she dropped her bull deer meat and ran as fast as she could towards the cave. When she got there, she saw 3 humans standing there and Fang was dead in front of her cave which had been set on fire.She walked towards Fang's corpse, tears in her eyes. The humans hadn't noticed her presence even after she had squatted down next to Fang. The poisonous fumes had no effect on her due to her natural resistance to poisons she had acquired from eating several of them in attempts at surviving by herself.She then shifted