Drake and Karn got back in time for dinner, when the entered the dining hall they saw the group of 3; John, Rullin, and Marn sitting at the table with the lord of the Miller Town, Lord Fang. There were a few maids going in and out of the kitchen getting ready to serve dinner.
Drake sat down two seats from the head of the table next to Karn. The men only took a brief glance at them before continuing on the conversation they were previously immersed in.
"Baron Tenebris, there is no reason to be disheartened that the Royal Army Task Force failed in their mission to create an outpost. We can always send more men."
"More men to die...sigh"
Lord Fang salacious grin did not go unnoticed by Drake, but John was to busy rubbing his temples thinking about the topic there were debating to notice.
"That land is full of natural resources that can advance the empire! Rallying more men to the cause would be beneficial for the barony and empire as a whole."
'Basically this man wants more wealth...but being a city lord won't get him anywhere. So in the name of 'betterment' and 'advancement' he pleads his case...sigh...from the way he said 'send more men' probably means they have tried a couple of times already.'
"The beasts there are all Grade S and above, even the princes failed. The Emperor must be losing his mind if he thinks that the gains outweigh the risk. This, being the forth attempt in failure doesn't surprise me. Even the talented and genius first princess couldn't accomplish it this time whose known for strategy and war field tactics."
John certainly thought that this island wasn't worth the risk. Throwing more lives into Devil Island can lead to an exposed empire. Enemy kingdoms would not miss a chance if a weakened empire could not protect its borders. Although Drake didn't care, this was genuine information. Along with the army passing through the barony on the way back Drake could get to observe a fraction of the Empire's military might.
The entire dinner Lord Fang kept preaching about the cause of Devil's Island while everyone else remained silent. Once dinner was over Drake retired to his quarters and mulled over the conversation in his head.
'If I can create weapons that could kill Grade S and above then taking Devil's Island might not be impossible...it seems no one has been able to establish a colony or settlement there. Ill mark that as a long term goal. First, weapons are a priority. With steel being the same here, I can craft basic handguns, assault rifles, and even sniper rifles. Gun powder is still an issue, but I want to make an Aether handgun...or mana gun? Either way utilizing Aether Energy to make weapons should be my most prominent goal. I need resources...and Aether crystals...but the price. I'll have to think of a way to get money soon, and lots of it.'
The next day arrived marking the second day of their expedition. Leaving in the middle of the previous day and arriving at Miller Town took a day and a half. The next part of the groups journey would require them to move into the mountains.
Drake helped the group get their horses ready after his workout and training session with John.
"How long till we reach the spot we are going to observe?"
"Shouldn't be more then a few hours. Once we leave the road it will get harder to traverse the mountains. We are going near the center, if things look good, it should be about a day in a half. If we encounter rough terrain it should be a day or maybe more. Once two days are up we will return if terrain rough."
Drake nodded while both him and John got up on their horses. The group set off towards the west side of Miller Town where miners were walking towards to go to work. Drake observed the mountains as they made their way through the lightning like road. At the top of the mountains were snow-covered peaks that looked as white as the clouds. Little forestry grew near the top due to intense vertical slopes but half way down the mountains where the incline eased, large swaths of trees and plants could be seen. Down in the valleys were large protruding rocks that stood meters high with small streams snaking their way across the floor.
Occasionally small beasts such as Grade F to E wolves and bears could be seen roaming around in search of food, if they attacked the group Hugo would quickly take care of it in a single strike. The mountainous terrain made it extremely difficult to traverse which slowed down the group to a slight degree but John decided to push forward until it was no longer visibly possible to move forward.
In the mountains, under the large overflowing green trees it became too dark to continue so John ordered the group to set up camp. After a quick dinner of bear meat, which Hugo killed earlier, everyone went to sleep. Being higher up in the mountains with no water source Drake skipped his workout and training.
Once the middle of the night had passed for some time, Karn who was in charge of late night watch heard beasts approaching their location.
'Growl~' 'Growl~'
Multiple beasts were baring their fangs and letting out vicious growls. Karn immediately reacted by alerting the group.
"John, Hugo, Marn, Rullin, Drake wake up!"
John who was used to such situations quickly opened his eyes, jumped up and grabbed his sword. Kicking the others awake silently to make sure they were up he informed them of the situation.
"Looks like we are surrounded by a wolf pack. From the aura's I'm feeling it should be about 50 of them. 35 Grade D's, 8-10 Grade C's, 4 Grade B's, and a Grade A."
"Shit, what's such a large wolf pack doing in the mountains!"
Marn was sweating bullets at such a large group of beasts. John assessed the situation and gave his orders.
"Hugo and I will be the vanguard, Marn you take the rear just in case some beasts sneak up on us, Karn you will protect Rullin and Drake."
As the noises got closer multiple eyes of sky blue started to reflect the light from the fire. Slowly inch by inch the beasts made their way into the area of light illuminated from the fire. Drake surmised that these were indeed wolves but much, much larger. The one in front of John and Hugo stood at least 5 meters tall, large claws that were shiny silver, black hair with streaks of silver and fangs that were at least 10 inches long.
In the dead of night, like the grim reaper of death descending down from the mountain top to claim its prey, the towering wolf observed the group. Drake assumed this wolf was Grade A, especially since the movement of air seemed to be moving towards the wolf as if a typhoon was whirling at a high pace. Drake felt his body get slightly lighter as it angled towards the beast as it consumed Aetheric Energy towards its mana circuits.
Luckily the surrounding wolves which resembled the Grade A wolf, just with less silver on it and smaller were also pulling Aether Energy at a decent pace balancing out the wind.
The Grade A wolf's claws and fangs started to gather a red hue before it blasted off towards John. In response John's sword started glowing with a blue hue as it gained Aetheric Energy from him. To Drake both seemed to disappear before clashing in the middle of the forest.
Boom~!
The ground and trees around the clash got uprooted due to blast. Retracting its claws, the wolf used its other paw to maul John from the side but he responded in time causing another explosion to continue deform the ground.
Hugo jumped into action to help John but was stopped by multiple Grade D wolves, 5 Grade C's and two Grade B's. Karn released multiple arrows at once to cull the number of lower grade wolves of the pack but they were resilient. Marn started condensing a blazing red fire ball that made the ground underneath him burn from the heat. Lauching the fireball into a group of lower level wolves, a large explosion took place.
Boooom~!
Fire quickly swept through the forest torching the wolves. However the resiliency of these wolves were high, the wolves quickly extinguished the fire on their bodies due to a few wolves having spewed water out of their mouths.
"Shit! John!"
Booooooom~!
"WHAT?"
Another large explosion occurred due to the clash of John and the Grade A wolf as Marn deduced fire to be ineffective.
"A few wolves have water elemental affinity! I can't help! We need to retreat!"
Hugo could only defend as high level wolves from the pack attacked him in turn, while Karn's arrows were only putting a dent into the pack, effectively making him useless against the high Grade wolves. John could only begrudgingly admit that they could not fight them now without a few more men because the Grade A wolf was giving him trouble and wouldn't be able to end the fight quickly.
"There was a cave we passed about an hour from here! If we ditch the horses we may be able to make it quicker on foot! Maybe the wolves will leave us alone and focus on the horses!"
Everyone unanimously agreed. John did not expect to see such a large number of beasts working together when they planned the expedition into the mountains. John and Hugo defended until the non fighters, Rullin and Drake had made some distance from their make shift camp.
Drake was running as fast as he can, cold sweat pouring over his body and his heart beat racing like a race horse.
'Fuck, those are some scary ass beasts.'
The curtain of darkness made Drake's sight terribly poor. He was following Rullin for awhile but about 20 minutes into the run he lost track of him. Drake continued to go the way he thought was correct.
'Howwwwllllll~'
Many howl's resounded throughout the valley as Drake ran. Some were explicitly close to him, cursing his bad luck, Drake continued to run. Not even 5 minutes later multiple sky blues dimly showed throughout the forest branches openings from the two moons causing Drake's heart to skip multiple beats as he looked on in fear. He looked behind him and noticed no eyes that way.
'Well, if I don't want to die I only have one way to go.'
Going the opposite way Drake ran because his life depended on it.
'Im not going to die this soon, that's for damn sure!'
A flash of determination went through Drake's crimson eyes with new resolve. About an hour later of the wolves tracking him a howl crackled through the darkness.
'Howl~'
Drake estimated at least 5 wolves were on his tail without knowing their rank.