"Irnia, will Mistbound Magic Tower help us?" Maurin asked, worried.
Irnia shot him an annoyed glance. "No, in our current state. Not in my current status."
"And we also don't have one year like I told that fox. I did erase traces and all that, but it won't be hard for that wolf to find his wife, given our current defenses. I need to bring back a magic tool from the tower to erase her bond's resonance. But if we don't find the cubs soon, their father will surely find them fast once he learns of the situation."
Irnia's brows were creased, her eyes in deep thought. ɪꜰ ʏᴏᴜ ᴡᴀɴᴛ ᴛᴏ ʀᴇᴀᴅ ᴍᴏʀᴇ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs, ᴘʟᴇᴀsᴇ ᴠɪsɪᴛ novel-fire.ɴet
Maurin could tell this was a stressful situation even for her, and only she was the one who could do something about it.
"Tell your mages to find the damn general direction first. And then send them with the tools to see where the space fluctuated recently from the Mana's readings. The Mana of the place where the space fluctuated will have some Space elements in them."
"As for getting help from the Magic Tower, I only have one chance, and it will come after three months." Irnia's fists clenched.
"I have to participate in Sacred Pillar Alliance's tournament and raise my status by winning in the Ascendant-rank bracket. If I take the first rank, I will get resources and help to become Lord-rank, and the Magic Tower will also help me protect this kingdom from Southern Mountain's monsters."
After forming soul bonds with the foxes, Ainen could feel their presence very clearly as if they were connected by an invisible magical thread.
The foxes suddenly vanished, turning into a fabulous outfit for Ainen.
When he looked at his new appearance, Ainen was shocked.
He now wore a long, white-blue coat that shimmered like moonlight on ice. A thick fur collar framed his neck, glowing faintly, while lapis crystals embedded along the lining pulsed with soft elemental light. The coat's runic seams shifted like living embroidery, and its hem flared with each step he walked, leaving brief trails of frost and sparks.
"What?! So cool!" Ron shouted.
"They transformed…" Syl's mouth was wide open in shock.
'Master, we can turn our physical body into an elemental and transform, so we will transform into an outfit for you in order to hide.'
'T-This is amazing. I also feel strong and safer. My stats also increased.'
'Hehe, of course. It's because we have a magical bond with each other, partially sharing our powers.'
After that, the foxes resumed their beast forms again.
"Is this your innate talent?" Ainen curiously asked.
"Great. Alright, you three should finish eating. Once you're done, we'll continue with our adventure until I reach level 50."
The foxes cutely howled in agreement before going back to their big sandwiches and started eating.
Ron and Syl had finished eating to their fill, with their bellies turning round.
After ten minutes, the foxes gulped all the food.
"Alright, let's move."
Ainen had already hit 50 in all stats after eating the Sandwiches.
Now that they were in a high-level area, they only encountered level 50 Monsters, with occasional encounters with Awakened-rank Monsters around level 55 to 60.
'Let's reach level 50.'
In the next two hours, Ainen hunted monsters and encountered two such monsters of Awakened rank.
The first one was killed instantly by Fraisea since it dared to sneak upon Ron and Syl.
Ainen tried fighting against the second one, who was level 57, a Windfury Disctail Leopard.
The Leopard was faster and stronger in every way, except for when Ainen used Jet Blaze Flight's bursts and two of his skills, which he had a hard time landing since he wasn't as naturally fast and agile as the Leopard was with its skills and body.
Ainen almost died as he had a very hard time catching up to its speed of moving and attacks in an agile manner, but though dangerous, the battle helped him improve his Jet Blaze Flight ( Flight + Jet Blaze spell ).
Saffa had to save him once, or his head would have rolled off from the leopard's tail's wind-spinning disc attack that shot at him while curving at blinding speed, but aside from that one time where he was saved, he managed to kill the Windfury Disctail Leopard on his own, finishing it off by landing the strongest spell of his Tyrant Mage's Arm—Supernova Burst.
With that, he nailed the level 50 and acquired the level 50 mystery box.
Now he had seven Mystery Boxes to open. Although eager, he didn't open them right away.
Ron and Syl had yet to kill any monsters, but they were training in Mana control, and with the food they ate, all of their stats were already around 25 to 30.
He wasn't going to feed levels to Ron and Syl. For now, he would gradually train them, and their first monster hunt would be on their own when they were ready for it.
After returning to the town, Ainen first sold the Rainbow Burst Sandwiches and earned 120 Gold coins.
With that, his total wealth reached 402 gold coins.
"Where did you buy that?" Hammer blinked as he looked at Ainen's outfit of shirt and long coat, looking like a rich Adventurer. "It's no ordinary outfit."
Ainen smiled. "That's a trade secret."
Hammer laughed. "That seems like it. Anyway, since you are going to Lainark town, you can stay at Jubber's Inn. It belongs to my friend. Give him my name, and he will help you if you need anything."
"I wouldn't like to make others do work for me like that." Ainen wryly smiled. "But if I really need some help, I'll give him your name and ask him for advice."
Hammer patted his shoulder. "As you wish. Just be careful. Things can get sour quickly, and headbutting against strong people to risk lives is not worth it, especially since you are going with Ron and Syl."
"I understand." Ainen somberly nodded.
"Ah, before I leave, I wanted to give you this." Ainen waved his hand, taking out the corpses of the monsters with the Demonic attribute.
Since they had some effects when he inspected them as ingredients, he didn't add them to the food. The effect was that it could give a rather good temporary boost in all stats, but also had a chance to reduce sanity and make emotions volatile.
He didn't want Ron and Syl to eat such food, and selling such food to normal people was also a bad idea; he didn't use them at all, even if he and the foxes could resist the side effects.
Hammer was shocked, his shout almost caused Ainen to fall.
"What happened?" Ainen asked confusedly.
"These are demonic monsters," Hammer said with a frown. "This shouldn't be possible."
"Eh? So the Demonic-attribute is not common as you go deeper into the forest?" Ainen, confused, asked.
"No." Hammer shook his head as he rubbed his temples. "This is bad. And it could be disastrous depending on the source. Oh boy, this town is going to get very busy soon."
Wryly smiling, he looked at confused Ainen and explained. "Demonic energy with a source can grant a Demonic attribute to other monsters if they come into contact with it. And there are only a few sources of the Demonic energy, with the most common being dungeons and Labyrinths."
"It means that a dungeon's entrance has spawned somewhere, and it's already affecting monsters." Hammer's face was somber. "I have to contact other Adventurer's Guilds and the Kingdom's officials to report this."
"And before that, I have to send Adventurers on a quest to find the dungeon or labyrinth entrance. I just hope it's a dungeon and not a labyrinth."
Hammer patted Ainen's chest. "Good work. You did a great job despite doing it unintentionally. The strong adventurers haven't gone into the forest that deep, so they didn't encounter any such monsters, and if not for you, it could have been late."
"You go on your journey now. I'm going to get real busy."
Ainen chuckled. "Alright, good luck. Dungeon and Labyrinth sounds interesting. I'll check it out later when I return."
"Of course. For a talented chap like you, a Dungeon is a blessing paired with danger. Alright, I have to go now and start working. All the best in your journey."