Looking at the 'definitely a werewolf' creature in front of him, Matthew was ready to really turn his tail and run since after watching enough movies about werewolves, starting from the one where it fights over a girl with a vampire until the one where the werewolf was enslaved by a vampire, whichever version that Matthew had seen before, the werewolf is always a vicious and powerful creature that shouldn't be messed with. And looking at their wolf counterparts, it is surely, 100% true, especially on the powerful part.
Matthew didn't know if the werewolf in this world has the intelligence of a human or a wolf or in the middle of them and trying to play a guessing game with his life is not desirable for Matthew.
But the one thing that kept Matthew from running away at once even after seeing the werewolf-like creature is the fact that the werewolf didn't take the opportunity to pounce him the moment Matthew was at his weakest, and neither did they circle against him even though there are three of them.
Matthew was still wary about the other 2 that haven't shown their bodies yet, but from the scanner function, Matthew knew that they stayed in the bush behind the one that had come out of the bush.
Knowing that the wolves are considered to be smart for an animal, they won't be wasting a free chance to get an extra meal even though there is already a huge bear for them to take for free.
And thinking from that point, Matthew was guessing that the werewolves are even smarter than the wolves and their intelligence should be at least only a few levels below the humans or maybe even smarter, Matthew didn't know. But whichever it is, Matthew thought that the werewolf in front of him didn't just want to hunt him down.
Without relaxing his guard, Matthew kept looking at the werewolf who was really slowly walking towards him step by step with its claw-hands kept at its side. While carefully looking at the werewolf, Matthew also noticed that the werewolf didn't have that proud and intimidating aura that the wolves usually have. And looking at its eyes, although its head was definitely a wolf's head with all the wolf parts in it, somehow the werewolf's eyes didn't have the sharp feeling that a wolf usually has.
Matthew was still observing the werewolf-like creature until it was getting closer and closer until it almost reached an uncomfortable distance for Matthew, so Matthew growled a little to warn the werewolf to not go closer to him while giving the creature a serious stare straight into the werewolf's eyes.
The werewolf was startled for a second after hearing Matthew's low growl and looking at the slightly weird eyes that Matthew has. But the creature soon stopped getting closer and just stood in place before it started releasing a series of 'sounds' from its mouth.
'Wow, that thing actually could understand what I mean, maybe because my head and mouth are also a werewolf's?'
'But what is it trying to say right now? I could understand an intimidation growl or something simple like that, but what are these sounds that it makes? I don't remember the wolves ever made those kinds of sounds from their mouths.'
The sounds that came out of the werewolf's mouth were a mixture of growls, whimpers, and actual sounds as if a person was talking.
'Wait… Is it actually trying to talk to me?'
'When I think about it, other than my crocodile scutes and my slightly different limbs that I got from the monkeys, my current appearance should be quite similar to them. And even my monkey limbs have claws instead of nails on them, they may have thought that I was a banished pack member or something because of my weird-looking appearance? Wait, do they even have such things as physical discrimination?'
'But I really can't understand what he's saying so what should I do…'
Matthew was confused as to what thing he should do. He surely has the head of the wolf, complete with their ears, and snout
But Matthew couldn't just suddenly understand the 'werewolf' language just because he has the wolf part.
Matthew was currently looking at the werewolf with confused eyes while slightly tilting his head to the side as if conveying that he didn't even understand one thing that it was trying to say to him. Matthew was looking apologetically at the werewolf as if trying his best to convey that he was clueless and didn't mean any harm by not giving a response to what the werewolf was saying.
'Isn't there something that the system has to help me understand him, like a werewolf encyclopedia or something? System?'
'Does the host want to enable the translation function?'
'Of course, you have one system, why wasn't I surprised by this. I already know your 'didn't tell unless asked first' policy so I won't be throwing any fits or tantrums, but can you please give me a quick rundown on how the translation function works?'
'The translation function works by altering the sounds that the host hear and say so that the host will understand the opposite language, and the other party will also understand what the host is trying to say.'
'I mean that's what translating essentially means and it's self-explanatory by its name, but what I'm trying to ask is if I have to do any learning first or something? I didn't think that I would have much time before the werewolf gave up on trying to communicate with me.'
'No, the system will handle everything. The moment the host enabled the translation function, the host could communicate right away.'
'Now that's OP! Thanks, system, I'm glad I didn't send out any curses to you beforehand for not informing me about this first. Now system, can you kindly enable the translation function?'
After Matthew gave his confirmation, the system went silent once again.
'Wait can you at least give me a confirmation or something before disappearing like that? How would I know that the translation system works fine or…'
"Big brother? Big brother? Can you hear me?"
Before Matthew was able to finish his sentence to scold the system, he suddenly heard a voice that seemed to belong to a 10-year-old boy calling out to him.
Matthew jerked his head to look at the source of the sound that was talking to him.
After turning his head rapidly, Matthew looked at the werewolf in front of him with an even more confused face than before. Matthew certainly saw that the werewolf was opening its mouth when he heard the boyish voice. But matching the look and the voice, the fierce-looking werewolf shouldn't have a voice that was like a 10-year-old boy, at least in Matthew's mind, it just doesn't fit.
'I think that it really is his voice, but why does it sound like a child's voice though?'
Matthew kept on staring at the werewolf blankly until finally, the werewolf spoke again.
"Umm… Big brother? Are you okay?" The werewolf said as he waved his hands directly in front of Matthew's face to get Matthew's attention.
Matthew was startled by the sudden waving of the werewolf's hands and his mouth blurted out without him realizing,
"Yes? Who? Big brother? Ah me?" Matthew said as he pointed both of his hands to himself.
-----
Somewhere inside The Forest of Firia, a lot of huge tents are built, with campfires erected periodically in an organized manner between the tents and people could be seen sitting around them. Although the night sky is not as dark as it should be with the moon and stars giving their calm greyish light, the campsite is lit bright with torches all over the place.
Inside the innermost area, inside the biggest tent in the campsite, a round device that looked like a metal plate with a glass in the middle of it and some weird inscriptions and symbols are written all over the metal part is placed on top of a wooden table.
The tent was well lit with 2 torches on the entrance and a small lantern was placed on top of the table to light it up.
A person is currently sitting on top of a wooden chair behind the table. The man holds out his hands onto the round device before mumbling some words. After the man stopped speaking, the inscription on the metal part lit up, and the round device suddenly emitted light through the glass part and the light was projected upwards then a small screen made out of light was made.
On the screen, another man could be seen sitting on a big chair that looked majestic as wooden carvings were made on the chair's armrest and the tip of the armrest was a carving of the head of a lion. The seat was also covered in a soft pad made with some type of soft animal skin. The lighting was quite poor as the man's face could only be seen as a silhouette. The man then spoke,
"How's the progress, general?"
The other man who was sitting behind the table then answered,
"Yes my prince, we are conserving our strength while we are waiting for the main army to come, but we've already made decent progress against the kobolds and we could totally defeat them in one final push tomorrow morning."
"Good job, the main army will come in about a week, so you can take your time and don't rush things out. According to the information that we got, the deeper you go inside the forest, the more powerful and dangerous the creatures are. After you get hold of the kobolds, don't go deeper and just wait for me and the main army to arrive first."
"About that my prince, the kobolds are persistent and it seems that making them our slaves and cannon fodders for our expedition is impossible as they chose to kill themselves rather than being captured by us."
"That's alright since they wouldn't help much either. Is there anything else?"
"That's all for today's report my prince."
The man on the other side of the screen then nodded before the inscriptions on the metal part of the device lost their lights and the light went back inside the glass part.
The man who was sitting behind the table then rang a bell that was placed on the other side of the table a few times before a man came running in.
The man bowed slightly before asking, "What can I help you with, general?"
"Tell the men to prepare themselves well, tomorrow morning they'll be finishing our business with the kobolds. We don't want to welcome the prince with an empty hand do we?"
"Right away, general." The man then bowed once again before running out of the tent.