Wood decided not to keep hiding the truth about his magic from Zenith any longer. For one, she might be childlike at times, but she wasn't a fool.
Moreover, given the dangerous environment they were in, there was no point in holding back anymore.
Who knew what kind of enemies they would face next? Revealing his full strength was inevitable, so it was better to let Zenith know now rather than have her act recklessly trying to protect him later.
After listening to Wood, Zenith was silent for a moment before walking over to him.
With a gentle smile, she pressed his head to her chest and softly said, "No matter how amazing you are, you will always be my child, someone I am proud of.
A clever, polite, and thoughtful child who always puts his family first."
Seeing Zenith hug Wood and not herself, Norn, who had been playing with the "big dog," suddenly got jealous. She rushed over, demanding a hug as well.
The youngest, Aisha, stood by watching the scene, a look of loneliness creeping across her face.
Though she was Wood and Norn's sister, Zenith wasn't her biological mother.
But Zenith, ever-sensitive and kind, quickly noticed Aisha's feelings. She walked over and pulled Aisha into her arms too.
"Aisha, you are just as much my child as Wood and Norn. And don't worry, we will find your mother and get out of here soon."
The fear and anxiety they had felt after getting lost in the dungeon and being attacked began to fade in the warmth of their family moment.
The wolf king had once commanded a large pack, but after Wood had taken out two-thirds of them, only a handful remained.
With the wolf king's submission, the remaining red wolves also chose to follow their leader and surrender.
Since their resources were limited in the dungeon, Wood decided, after consulting the wolf king, to harvest the corpses of the fallen wolves.
His shirt had been destroyed earlier, and walking around bare-chested wasn't exactly ideal.
So, Wood fashioned a coat from the wolves' fur, which not only covered him but retained some of its fire-resistant properties.
As for the wolf meat, Wood didn't waste it. He roasted some using fire magic and preserved the rest as smoked meat.
After all, they didn't know how long they'd be stuck in the dungeon. The food situation had to be taken seriously. Otherwise, it would be tragic to survive the dungeon's monsters only to die of starvation.
At first, Wood worried that skinning the wolves and eating their meat might upset the wolf king, especially since these wolves had once been his followers.
But to Wood's surprise, when he asked, the wolf king didn't care at all. In fact, it ended up eating more of the roasted meat than anyone else!
The wolf king explained that resources in the dungeon were scarce, and cannibalism wasn't uncommon among the creatures living there.
When Wood asked how to escape the dungeon, the wolf king shook its head, admitting it didn't know.
The wolf king wasn't born with intelligence. It had gained it after accidentally consuming a shard of a magical crystal found within the dungeon. This also granted it the power to communicate through telepathy.
According to the wolf king, the dungeon wasn't a regular one—it was a moving dungeon, making it easy to enter but difficult to leave.
The exit moved unpredictably, so retracing their steps wasn't a reliable option. Aside from having the luck to find the elusive exit, there was one other way out: defeat the dungeon's guardian and escape through the large magic crystal.
Unlike the mindless beasts roaming the dungeon, the intelligent wolf king also longed for the outside world. No creature with intelligence wanted to remain trapped in a confined space forever, and the wolf king was no different.
But it knew it didn't have the strength to defeat the guardian on its own. That's why it had decided to ally with Wood.
Part of the reason it submitted was to survive. The other part was the hope of gaining its freedom.
Wood was the strongest human the wolf king had ever seen enter the dungeon. Not only did he have powerful magic, but he was also skilled in combat.
If they worked together, defeating the dungeon's guardian and escaping to the outside world was no longer just a fantasy.
Though the wolf king didn't know the exact way out, its years in the dungeon allowed it to share useful information with Wood and the others.
For example, the dungeon was divided into several sections, each separated by a gate-like structure.
The monsters in each section had varying levels of strength. The Dark Druid they had fought earlier was considered one of the weakest monsters.
The wolf king and its pack, on the other hand, were on the stronger side.
Regarding the dungeon's guardian—the final boss—the wolf king shared some important details.
The guardian was a massive nine-headed dragon, each head capable of unleashing devastating breath attacks. It also had an absurd regenerative ability.
However, its regeneration wasn't invincible. If all of its heads were cut off, the dragon could be killed.
And, fortunately for Wood and the wolf king, the dragon had a significant weakness: it feared fire magic.
After skinning and roasting the wolves, Wood collected some of their teeth and claws, fashioning two crude daggers.
Ideally, he would have liked to make a sword or a long blade, but the wolves were too small for that. The claws and fangs were only big enough to create daggers.
As Wood turned his gaze to the wolf king, the beast instinctively shivered, seemingly aware of Wood's thoughts. It quickly ran over to Wood's two younger sisters, working hard to win their favor.
The moving dungeon was enormous, and for Norn and Aisha, who weren't trained and were still children, the long trek soon left them exhausted.
But it wasn't their fault. No one knew just how vast this dungeon was, and even Zenith, an experienced magic user, soon found herself worn out after so much walking.
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P/S: If you are interested, you can read up to chapter 380+ at p@treon.com/Betek and change @ to a