Great Pack
To solidify his gains in strength, Edrick needed to put his skills to good use and get into some fights. As such, he came up with an idea that would kill three birds with one stone. He would be able to fight, defeat beasts to satisfy the cravings of Beast Lord’s Authority, and explore ancient ruins to satisfy his own curiosity–Perhaps even find some good items. If the last one came to be true, then he would kill four birds with one stone instead.
Simply prodigious.
So, following his early morning training, Anoteros began heading further into the Great Plains, seeking out the ancient remnants of what he now guessed were actually past civilisations of beings the realm itself had created before finally settling with the forest-dwelling Underwood Elves.
Perhaps it had not been a fan of the more grandiose architecture of the earlier populations it had woven into existence, considering that they had not been kept by the realm. However, that did not mean that they had not achieved great things. The sheer means required to build some of the distant ruins alone indicated that they had to have been somewhat advanced…
Following his two loyal hounds, Edrick journeyed through the wavy landscape of the plains. Herds of beasts grazed off into the distance, moving away once they spotted him. A handful of predators were also spotted, hunting closer to the few wooded areas around.
It was the usual beasts–Flame-Maw Bears and Nature-Blessed Wolves.
Edrick spotted a few of the banana trees where Banana Bats enjoyed hiding. He even noticed the distant, yet still giant silhouette of a Paraceratherium Magi. Anoteros sought fights, but he knew that these particular beasts were not something he could approach lightly.
The sturdiness of his body was high, but a blast of their wild magic could definitely tear him apart with ease. He was more suited to take purely physical blows without accents of energy, but even then, these creatures were enormous and incredibly heavy.
Receiving a blow from one of these titanic herbivores would shatter countless bones... Even the ones which Edrick had reinforced using the Encyclopedia Of Self-Infliction were highly unlikely to come out unscathed in such a scenario.
He couldn’t help but look at the distant beast with interest, though. Paraceratherium Magus was a species unique to Eltysia, but they were rather famous nonetheless for their innate mastery of magic. People would sell limbs to be able to contract one as a familiar.
If he could somehow manage to find a way to capture some…
It didn’t matter if the scion was only able to catch one every three years. The price a single one would go for in a well-advertised auction would be genuinely hard to imagine.
‘For the future’ he thought to himself.
His attention was better elsewhere.
For his first expedition, Anoteros naturally went for the nearest abandoned structure. He intended to eventually explore them all anyway, so he might as well go for the most convenient one…
The architecture of this one was somewhat similar to that of the temple Xiao had gotten the puppet from. Though it was noticeably smaller. It was also built out of a different material, or at least, was of a different colouration.
The first temple had been a pale, reddish colour. This one leaned more toward orange and had been overtaken by nature far more strongly. However, the roof had been broken as several trees had seemingly grown inside, somehow managing to expand so greatly that the stone had shattered under their push.
How could trees have been able to grow so well without access to light? Edrick had an idea how that was possible…
Oswulf and Ansbach soon confirmed his theory. They could smell Nature-Blessed Wolves inside... A whole lot of them. Judging by how they were reacting, it was a number far superior to what they felt comfortable dealing with head-on.
‘Mmh… Just a naturally occurring big pack, or is one of the leaders a bit special?'
Typically, the leaders of a wolf pack were just the oldest and the parents of the rest. But if the numbers were high, it called things into question.
Two wolves couldn’t procreate this much... And even if they could, some of those offspring should eventually feel the need to leave to mate. So if their numbers were truly as exaggerated as he was being led to believe, then it wasn’t unlikely that this pack may actually be several packs cohabiting for some reason. Either that, or there was a leader with a specificity–Such as being a lord-type, for example.
Pack dynamics were a bit strange and unpredictable, though. Edrick would only be able to tell once he saw it for himself.
The best-case scenario–For him–Would be if he were lucky enough to stumble upon a lord-type with a bloodline that could be claimed. That would require a high amount of luck, however.
Lord-types were rare to begin with, and being one did not imply that a special bloodline was owned. Having a bloodline also did not mean that it could be taken by another being. So at least two factors needed to be true for Anoteros to be able to add a new bloodline to his roster, since not just lord-types could have special bloodlines.
The noble and his bestial companions backed off for now. If they could smell the Nature-Blessed Wolves, then they could certainly be smelled in return. Approaching a large pack of wolves in their territory and inside an enclosed space would be foolish.
Edrick scouted out the outside of the old monuments, identifying the places the wolves could use to get in and out of the structure. There were only four that he counted, but he believed that the sprawling nature and roof shattered by tree growth could allow them to climb up and down if they so desired.
Considering that they were Nature-Blessed Wolves, it seemed quite natural for them to use trees as platforms.
There were still many hours left in the day, so Anoteros came up with a plan and went to work immediately. The idea was simple: Block off the four paths using pieces of debris from the monument, or boulders from the Great Plains.
Some of these were a bit heavy even for Edrick–Especially since the orange stone proved far heavier than it looked–But that was a problem easily solved by transforming into a sasquatch. His strength increased exponentially in this form…
Picking everything up was simple, and if he really encountered a piece of debris that was too heavy, he could always just roll it.
This way, he quickly sealed all four entry points, including the original entrance of the structure, which had already partly collapsed.
Strangely, the Nature-Blessed Wolves did not show themselves or react at all to his actions. Either they did not care, or they were further inside the building and hadn’t noticed a thing.
Edrick went away for now, wishing to observe how the feral canines were going to react, and see whether or not the roof was truly usable by them as a way to get out.
He kept his distance, and eventually, it did seem like the wolves noticed something was wrong, as a large group of them appeared atop the monument…
Logic dictated that this group should only be scouting out the surroundings for danger, and yet, Anoteros was counting twenty-five of them. Some of them were noticeably bigger than the average Nature-Blessed Wolf as well.
They surveyed the surroundings, going down to ground level using the large trees growing against the sides alongside large vines–Vines that were definitely bigger than they should be. However, Edrick assumed they had grown to such sizes due to the massive presence of Nature-Blessed Wolves in the area. He guessed that their nature energy caused the nearby plant life to thrive beyond their usual limits.
‘Mmh… So it seems like they truly only have one entrance left. Doesn’t seem like they have the means or will to clear the obstructions I placed…’
They might have tried to do so, but the noble hadn’t just put up a single piece of obstruction and called it a day... He had meticulously sought out debris of boulders of the right size to jam them into the passageways before stacking several more on top of it.
He had done this for all four paths, so even if they had access to nifty nature spells, getting rid of his barricades was far from easy.
“Let’s come back in a few days. Let them calm down, and we’ll see whether or not they can figure out a way to get their paths back…”
The scion and his bestial companions returned to camp for now.