"...Next thing in our schedule is message from one of our sponsors. Get canned Fijouri fruits. They come at the extremely low price of 400 Kus a can. Don't miss on this bargain..."
The thing that woke up Soren from his sleep, was the obnoxious commercial that came from the CNC and the first thing he said half-asleep when he woke up was:
"Can you lower the volume of the radio please? Please, I want to sleep for another ten minutes or so."
"Radio? What in Poseidon's name is that?" Rohan asked a bit shocked.
"The CNC. L-Lower it's volume or something." Soren said a little bit agitated after he let that slip of the tongue.
"Fine, fine. Honestly, didn't you sleep at all last night?" Rohan asked a bit worried.
"Slept like a log. Hadn't really slept like this comfortably in a while." Soren said after rubbing his eyes a bit and streching his body.
"Well... Good to hear that. Go wash yourself up now, I have already made breakfast." Rohan said before entering the kitchen.
After Rohan left the room, Soren sighed a bit before he went to the bathroom and clean himself up a little. After leaving the bathroom, he took off the entire armor and put on his new clothes that he bought yesterday, since he wanted to repair the armor and he didn't want to take it off in the middle of the shop and in front of the customers and employees.
"New clothing, right?" Rohan asked after he saw Soren entering the kitchen with his new clothes, instead of the armor.
"Bought it yesterday. Can't have myself stripping naked when I have to repair my armor." Soren said indifferently before he sat down on one of the chairs. And while eating breakfast with Rohan, Lavenza also entered the kitchen while looking half-asleep.
"Good morning little girl. Did you sleep well?" Soren asked in a teasing manner.
"Kyuuuuuuuuuaaaaaahhhh~..." Lavenza yawned pretty loudly and with a pretty funny expression which caused Soren and Rohan burst out laughing.
After their breakfast, Soren put on the helmet and left the house with Lavenza. This time, their first destination was the armory and after requesting the armor to be fixed and paying the fee for it, he continued towards the library to try and gain more information and knowledge. Specifiaclly, Soren hoped for some information for Pallas City, but after spending 3 hours reading history books and maps, he didn't have much luck on obtaining even a clue. After leaving the library dejected, he went into the armory and took his repaired armor and returned to Rohan's home again. With nothing to do anymore, Soren decided to call it early and rest for the rest of the day.
The next day, it was the day where he could start his new quest. Soren started his day by waking up early and taking off the bandages that he had over his torso and arms and putting on the repaired armor. Lavenza had already woken up with Soren and was streching her body a bit. After eating breakfast, they left Rohan's house and they wouldn't return at least for a few days.
This time, the two of them went towards the west gates instead of the east gates and the reason for that, was that the coral forest to the east had mostly wolves at this point and he wasn't sure if anything else would appear soon, so he decided to pick a more sure-fire way of accomplishing his mission. The problem with this method though, was the fact that tgey were going to completely unknown grounds, hence if they let their gurad down, that could easily prove to be a fatal mistake.
After walking past the west gates, they saw a big cobblestone path in front of them that went deep into the forest.
'That's probably some sort transport route or a main road that allowed easy travels for carriages and merchants.' Soren thought after seeing the big cobblestone path in front of him. He also saw parties of 3 to 4 adventurers occasionally, some looking happy, while others looking sad or dejected. The parties did notice Soren going solo, but they decided not to intervene in someone's business, after all, the sacred rule of the adventurers was to not intrude to someone else's buniness, unless they asked.
After going a bit further down the path, he came into view with another coral forest, but this one was more purple with a hint of blue, rather than the pink coral forest. This change from the usual enviroment that Soren was already used to, already gave him a sense of nervousness and excitment while Lavenza felt more on edge that usual, since her senses detected a lot more danger than usual.
"Stay frosty. From here on out, it's unknown territory and I don't intend to play risky." Soren said seriously after unsheathing his sword. For the next hour or so, the duo were swimming towards only one direction and kept their guard up their entire time. While doing so, they also got to see that aside from the colors, there were also coral bushes and the trees didn't have as many branches as the pink coral trees.
As they were swimming, they noticed a lone wolf swimming around. Soren and Lavenza though to ambush it, but Soren decied to be a bit more careful and scan it to make sure it was a Sea Wolf.
[Sea Wolf
Race: Mer-Beast
LV: 6...]
"Just a normal sea wolf, but I wonder why we haven't seen any... wolf... packs..." Soren said that curiously when he noticed a couple extra sea wolves going to the one that was standing alone. After a couple of looks to each other, those three wolves left and Soren said:
"I'm glad that we didn't rush in into that lone wolf, otherwise not only would we have to deal with three wolves at the same time, but we may have to deal with the entire pack as well." Soren said before wiping his forehead and just after he said that, a wolf jumped litterally from behind Soren trying to bite on his shoulder, but Soren's fast reflexes allowed to block the bite with the sword and then Lavenza followed it up with a water ball that caused the monster lose conciousness. After the wolf fell down, another seven came out of the forest, all of them looked pissed off at the duo, but there were no different wolves between them, hence the leader must be hiding somewhere.
While looking around, a couple of wolves decided to charge at Soren from opposite directions with a pincer attack. Of course, Soren wouldn't try to stand his ground this time, because it would be impossible to guard against all of these wolves and protect Lavenza at the same time, so moving somewhere with a more advantageous position would be Soren's plan for now.
"Lavenza! Let's move it!" After Soren said that, he ducked under the attack and swam away with Lavenza following right behind him, while the two wolves knocked each other wuth their failed attack and the other 5 followed right behind them. Now with 5 wolves on pursuit, Soren had to deal with them in some way shape or form and those were the ones that were definitely following, not taking account the 2 thay knocked each other and any other wolves that may be hiding nearby.
"Lavenza, how many water balls do you believe you can conjure at the same time?" Soren asked seriously while being chased.
"Kyuu~ kyuu~ kyuu~." Lavenza said quickly.
"Three?" Lavenza nodded after Soren asked.
"Then we need to take three of them out and fast. I'll conjure a mana wall to stop their momentum and that will be you signal to shoot the water balls. For now, focus on conjuring them." Soren said seriously while he was formulating a plan.
The wolves weren't aware of the plan, so they continued chasing the duo relentlessly. After a couple of minutes, Lavenza's eyes were shining a deep blue and she nodded at Soren showing him that she was ready. At that moment, Soren and Lavenza stopped, then he conjured a mana wall that was wide enough to force all the wolves to slow down. Once they saw the mana wall, they tried to slow down, but their momentum was too high and then crashed on the mana wall with 3 wolves being stacked on one another.
"Lavenza! Now!" Soren screamed and then went behind her, while she instantly conjured 3 mana balls that went towards the pile of 3 wolves and then those wolves were no more, since the attack was lethal for them. With 2 wolves left, Soren charged instantly towards one of them and beheaded them instantly and then he used a water ball to grab it's attention and stun it for a moment, before he delivered the final attack.
After the fifth wolf died, a bigger wolf came out of the woods and two more followed right behind him with a couple of scratches on their faces. Surely enough, those were the wolves that failed the pincer attack and their leader. Soren scanned the big wolf and sure enough:
[Ravaged Wolf
Race: Mer-Beast
LV: 4
HP: 210
MP: 24
STR: 26
VIT: 14
AGL: 41
INT: 12
WIS: 18
RFL: 19
LCK: 14
S (A): Claw Swipe LV.6, Bite LV.8
S (P): Body over Mind III, Mind over Body, Leadership
"This guy is one tough monster to deal with." Soren said with a serious but slightly joking expression.