At the bottom of the gorge, Vane's final screams had long been swallowed by the sound of tearing flesh and crunching bones.
The remnants of parchment from the Summoning Scroll in Vane's torn uniform pocket finally burned away into black ash. Without the magical signal anchoring and calling them, the surviving Ancient Wolves began to grow confused.
The wild instincts of the Dire Wolves took over once more. One by one, the giant monsters howled at the fog-covered moon, before finally turning around and disappearing back into the dark depths of the Forbidden Forest.
All that remained at the bottom of the gorge was the silence of the night and puddles of blood reflecting the pale light.
The three of us descended the stone cliff back down in silence. The moment Ragnar's boots touched the blood-soaked earth, the street fighter let out a hoarse laugh that echoed in the quiet.
Ragnar paid absolutely no mind to the stinging metallic stench or the horrifying sight of the Blood Sword Faction's unrecognizable bodies.
Ragnar's eyes were fixed on the dozens of Dire Wolf carcasses littering the area around us.
"By the God of Death," muttered Ragnar, his eyes gleaming with greed. "One intact Dire Wolf fang fetches three gold coins at the explorer's guild. And here there are... dozens."
He turned to me, seemingly asking for confirmation, even though his hands were already itching to grab his hunting dagger.
"Take them all," I said flatly, sheathing the Blood-Iron sword on my back. "As per our agreement. All the harvest from this expedition is yours."
Ragnar did not waste a single second. With the enthusiasm of a child in a candy store, he began dissecting the monsters' jaws, pulling out the sharp fangs that were worth a small fortune for a commoner like him.
While Ragnar was busy with his bloody harvest, I shifted my gaze to Selena.
The black-haired girl strolled casually across the slaughter field. Her leather boots stepped with extreme precision, avoiding the pools of blood without looking disgusted or daunted in the slightest.
Selena stopped near the torn remains of Vane's uniform. With very calm and elegant movements, Selena bent down, picking up four Middle Class Cadet Badges lying among the bone fragments.
She cleaned the bloodstains off the silver badges using the edge of her handkerchief, then turned to look at me.
"A truly tragic event," said Selena. Her tone was soft, mimicking perfect condolence, yet her crystal blue eyes flashed with pure amusement.
"Cadet Vane and his brave group fell victim to an Ancient Wolf attack. They were too careless while on guard duty, and unfortunately, reinforcements arrived too late. Isn't that the story we will tell the instructors at the Second Post later, Cadet Draven?"
I narrowed my eyes, assessing this girl in front of me carefully.
"Are you aware of what you are doing, Miss Lune?" I asked in a low voice. "Hiding those badges and falsifying a report officially makes you an accomplice in premeditated murder. If the Academy Senate finds out, you will hang right next to me."
Selena chuckled, a sound like chiming bells that felt so bizarre amidst this mass grave. She walked closer, slipping the four badges into a small pouch at her waist.
"Murder? I see no murder here. I only see natural selection," answered Selena casually, tilting her head slightly. "Besides, I much prefer being on the winning side. You are very efficient, Kael. And I like efficiency."
It was the first time she addressed me by my first name. This girl voluntarily tied herself to my crime, not because she was threatened, but because she was intrigued. She cleared our tracks on her own initiative.
I nodded slowly. A silent acknowledgment of our strange alliance. "Make sure your story has no holes."
"Of course," Selena smiled sweetly. "You just handle the monsters, I will handle the humans."
The expedition mission was not over yet. Our target was to reach the Second Academy Post before midnight, which meant we had to keep moving through the heart of the forest.
After Ragnar finished shouldering his canvas sack, which now clinked with dozens of high-value fangs, we resumed walking through the night fog. However, the further we walked away from the gorge area, the more my body felt like rebelling.
The battle adrenaline slowly evaporated. In its place, the side effects of pumping the Sanguine Core into my olfactory nervous system began to exact a cruel toll.
The magical lava I previously forced to flow into my brain now left an overwhelming burning sensation.
My head throbbed violently as if a sledgehammer were striking my skull from the inside. My vision began to double. The cold night air felt like hot steam in my lungs.
I gritted my teeth, forcing my legs to keep stepping. A drop of warm fluid flowed from my nostril. I wiped it quickly with the back of my hand. Blackish blood.
My vessel has reached its limit, I thought in frustration.
I tripped over a protruding tree root. My body stumbled forward.
Before my knees hit the ground, a small but surprisingly strong hand gripped my arm.
Instantly, a bone-piercing coldness spread from the point of contact. Healing magic. Instead of triggering rejection from the Sanguine Core, the cold seeped into my blood vessels like ice water poured over an overheating iron engine. The burning sensation in my head subsided rapidly, replaced by a soothing coolness.
I turned my head, panting. Selena stood beside me, her left hand still holding my arm tightly, radiating a pale blue magical glow.
"Your body is incredibly hot, Kael," whispered Selena. Her face was only a few handspans away from mine. Her eyes stared sharply into mine, dissecting every inch of my reaction. "Your magic... it eats you from the inside, doesn't it? Like a furnace burning its own wood."
I took a deep breath, stabilizing my stance, but did not brush her hand away. Her cold energy was the only reason I hadn't passed out yet.
"You don't ask what is wrong with me?" I asked warily, my voice hoarse. "An outcast Basic Class cadet shouldn't be able to slaughter Dire Wolves like cutting grass, or smell blood from hundreds of meters away. Aren't you curious, Selena?"
Selena did not answer immediately. She continued channeling her cooling magic into my body. Under the moonlight filtering through the leaves, a genuine smile radiating pure curiosity slowly bloomed on her lips.
"Everyone has secrets to survive in this cruel world," answered Selena in a whisper, as if this were a confession between the two of us. "I have my secrets. You have your secrets. Asking would ruin the mystery, and I very much like mysteries."
Selena leaned in slightly closer, the scent of night jasmine and ozone from her body dominating my sense of smell.
"As long as that secret of yours does not target my neck, Kael," she continued, her voice as smooth as silk yet carrying an absolute promise, "I will ensure you stay alive to tell it to me yourself later."
I stared into her unpredictable blue eyes. A partnership with a mysterious psychopath was the last thing I wanted in my second life, yet right now, she was my most valuable trump card.
"I would rather die taking my secrets with me," I replied coldly.
Selena offered her sweetest smile. "Even so... I will still look forward to that secret of yours."
Just as the heat in my head truly dissipated, the sound of Ragnar's footsteps, about ten meters ahead of us, stopped abruptly.
"Hey," called Ragnar with a raspy voice filled with tension. He gripped his greatsword with both hands. "Do you guys feel that?"
I broke free from Selena's hold and immediately stepped forward beside Ragnar.
The moment my focus returned to the surroundings, I realized what made the street fighter freeze. The Forbidden Forest... had died.
There were no more wolf howls in the distance. The sounds of flapping bats, chirping crickets, even the rustling wind through the pine leaves vanished instantly. The silence that descended was so absolute it felt like pressure on the eardrums. At the same time, the air temperature plummeted unnaturally.
This smell...
I sniffed the air. This was not the metallic scent of fresh blood from the slaughter in the gorge. This was an incredibly ancient stench. The smell of toxic moss, centuries-rotting bones, and exceptionally dense pure mana.
"Back off," I ordered quietly to Ragnar and Selena. My hand slowly drew the Blood-Iron from its sheath. "Do not make sudden movements."
The mass slaughter we committed in the gorge, combined with the residual spatial energy from Vane's Summoning Scroll, had apparently disrupted the ecological balance of the Forbidden Forest.
The blood seeping into the earth had awakened something that should have remained asleep in the deepest zone. Something whose size far exceeded the comprehension limits of academy cadets.
CRACK!
A giant pine tree with a trunk as wide as three grown men's embrace snapped like a dry twig, destroyed by something stepping right through it behind the thick fog ahead of us. The ground vibrated in rhythm with our heartbeats.
From behind the veil of the night's white fog, a pair of eyes emerged.
Those eyes were the size of lanterns, glowing with a toxic emerald green luminescence. The pupils were vertical like a reptile's, glaring down at the three of us with a primal intelligence filled with pure malice. The silhouette of its body blocked out the moonlight, creating a giant shadow that swallowed the entire path leading to the Second Post.
The true ruler of the Forbidden Forest had come to collect the blood tax on its territory, and the three of us stood directly in the path of its wrath.