With our arrival in the village we were greeted by a woman named Sarah who is acting as a leader in the village. By her report the village is being targeted by a pack of wolves that has been growing for the past two weeks and they have already killed half the population of the village. Their number may be small but this level of mortality caused a blow to the morale of the survivors which is aggravated that half of the dead were people with the ability to fight level one magical animals.
As I listened to Sara's explanations and descriptions of the wolf pack I noticed several strange points and some of them very problematic. This mission will be much more problematic than Vania expected when she accepted it. The first information that caught my attention was the growth of the pack the number of level two wolves went from two in the first attack on the village to eight in the last attack these numbers are very different and a very difficult task for a wolf in a region that tends to be low on resources like this leveling up, having six doing this in an approximate period of fifteen days cannot be a coincidence.
Even the number of level one wolves doubled from twenty to forty between the first and last attack even though the villagers couldn't kill as many wolves the number doubles even though the pack leader develops an intelligence compared to an adult human and he decides to recruit the wolves of the region it shouldn't be possible for the pack to have such a big raise despite not having the exact numbers to work with I theorize the pack has had at least a forty wolves raise in the last few weeks.
The number can vary by the amount of wolves killed during the attacks. The second troubling point is the strategy the pack is using. She's been avoiding direct attacks for the past few days and like she doesn't want to wipe out the village all at once and make them last longer.
When I asked about the other animals in the region Sara told me that most disappeared only a few poisonous animals still live in the aria the group that is most often seen here are the poisonous scorpions as they hide in the sand the wolves probably didn't attack them much.
Ah, now the attacks happen at dawn or at night it seems that the wolves avoid attacking during the day, which is very normal for those who want to travel through a slightly desert aria like this one at the hottest time of day.
But it's not all bad news as there isn't even a magical beast or different animals in the pack our enemy are wolves even the strongest ones at level two are not a problem for us to kill if there was a stronger or more problematic enemy than wolves if we wisely choose our battleground, exterminating this pack will not be a very difficult problem.
Vania and the one in charge of deciding our next move so it's not up to me to feel guilty for not being able to find a solution that preserves the villagers' lives it's up to her to come up with a plan I particularly believe our best chance to deal with the wolves and risk locating the pack and ambush her to kill as many wolves as possible just so we can save as many villagers as possible.
Even if we face a pack larger than the one that attacked the village four days ago, we won't risk losing some of the pack if the number of wolves doesn't magically double again, we won't have a single death in the pack. Our biggest problem and logistics is not many supplies to stay in this village until the wolves decide to attack even though water is not an issue since we have Ingredi not food here to spend a whole week here the villagers are already starving.
"So Vania has already decided what the group's strategy will be?"
"Yes, we don't have many options we'll have to track down the pack and exterminate the wolves just so we can get the villagers out to a new village this village is doomed to not much water anymore and the food is running out even though we managed to kill all the wolves what and very unlikely they won't be able to keep up for very long. Most of the village's food sources have been destroyed or need to be grown from scratch again and they only have half their numbers and most of them are very young and old."
"Do you think they'll accept this?"
"They're going to have to move to the village that is east of here I've been there before she should be able to accept that amount of refugee. Killing the wolves and the priority now to convince them will be the problem for later."
"So who will volunteer to track the wolves?"
The rest of the group looks like an unmotivated polco plus Isis and Benjamin have volunteered to track down the wolf it seems they have experience doing that. I don't intend to stand out too much and ignore the look of Ingredi and Torris. They must be wondering why I don't volunteer to do this since I'm good at it and the reason why it's going to take a lot of work to convince Vania's group that I can do this they look at us like we're incompetent novices and the task of tracking the pack is difficult.
With the departure of Isis and Benjamin Vania I went to talk to Sara to convince her to leave the village and begin the necessary arrangements to move what was left of the village far away according to Vania it will be three and a half days of travel to reach the next village.
And I'm thinking how to dodge this big mess I've refused to come here before because I didn't want to waste my time on this mission if I have to escort the villagers to their possible new home and then go back to town. Let's spend at least seven days to get back for the institute.
If that happens I will blame Torris that he is responsible for dragging us on this mission.
The next few hours have been uneventful as it will not be my job to convince the villagers to leave their doomed village. To my surprise Vania didn't have much trouble convincing the villagers by taking out some old ones who seem to want to stay here to die.
Probably the idea of moving is not new with the mine closing three years ago it was time to leave this place without a source of income to support the village in this poor region it was already doomed I don't know why so many people still insisted on living here . Because of this stubbornness they find themselves without much resources to break into a new place, their lives will be anything but easy for years to come.
While the villagers packed the three wagons that were still intact to store the supplies and items needed for the trip and probably any items of value our group prepared to fight the wolves this afternoon before nightfall the two trackers shouldn't take many hours to find the pack's trail.
After eating lunch and resting for a whole hour Isis and Benjamin have come back and dusting them off, but since I don't see any sign of injury it seems they haven't found a problem.
"We couldn't even find a trace of the pack, they must not have approached the village since the last attack. There isn't even a trace to locate them."
That's bad without dealing with the wolves we can't move the villagers a poorly structured convoy will be a very easy target to attack and for us it will be very difficult to defend.
"We can't leave here without exterminating this pack. Isis you must increase your search aria!"
"We'll make four more groups to track the pack before nightfall Isis, Benjamin, James and Jason choose one of the rookies to make a pair each will go out in one direction and look for tracks and those who are left will stay here and protect the village if the wolves attack before nightfall."
"Remember to get back before nightfall the pack can attack today."
"Captain Vania I don't want to meddle in your decision anymore Hilda and Ingredi can use her mounts to cover a bigger looking aria both weasels are much faster and stronger than the other mounts we just need Isis to go with Ingredi and Hilda can go alone the rest of the group can stay here protecting the village."
"I did not think you were too lazy to go out in the sun Ulric?"
"The problem is not going out in the sun, captain, but that the horses here, even if they are level one mounts, will not be able to cover much terrain until nightfall, as Ingredi and Hilda's weasels can. And let's not forget that our arrival may have alerted the pack that the two weasels have the ability to escape the pack."
I feel like I've become the least favorite of two pairs of sisters who are going into the desert now even the weasels are looking at me angrily now. But the best strategy I have is to use them as bait to lure the pack but I'm not dumb enough to say that to Hilda's face I don't want to be attacked by her and they won't be in any real danger the wolves aren't fast enough to surround them.
Even with the protest of the weasels the five ladies leave in search of the pack of wolves now and just wait for them to return by nightfall.
Receiving a mortal Hilda look she did not like the idea of putting in danger Ingredi I continue to explain my idea to Vania.