The Divine Wolf.. Or? - Chapter 186

As he was once again stuck deep in his own thoughts, a rather small voice interrupted his train of thought.

“Papa, I smell humans nearby.”

As Atar’s words brought him back to reality, Ark could feel the presence of multiple adventurers heading their way. He felt a little sweet inside when he heard what Atar said, but he didn’t feel like interacting with others right now and ruining his mood. He had noticed that people had a tendency to ogle Ephine whenever they were close, which greatly disrupted his mood.

Since that was the case, he started gathering large amounts of wind mana, before he released an earth-shattering howl. Infused with wind mana, the howl shook nearly the entire forest, even going so far as sending some trees that were close by tumbling down. The humans that were walking in their direction got one hell of surprise, as their eardrums nearly shattered from the inhuman sound. Although they had confidence in their own abilities, the howl quite frankly scared the hell out of them, so they swiftly turned tail and ran for their lives, they had never heard of a monster that could release such a roar in this dungeon, and they didn’t want to find out what it was.

“You don’t think you could’ve told us you were gonna do that earlier or something?”

Hearing Thufrat complain reminded Ark that he wasn’t alone, and he had completely forgotten to shield their eardrums before he howled. Because he was covering his ears, Thufrat spoke way louder than usual, and it sounded quite funny to Ark, as he wasn’t used to hearing Thufrat raise his voice.

Since he wasn’t in his human form, he couldn’t exactly speak in a language Thufrat understood, but he tried to convey his worry through the use of telepathy. Thufrat seemed to understand Ark’s worries, and he answered almost instantly.

“Nah I’m fine, just messing around with ya.”

Since Thufrat seemed to be fine, Ark turned to Atar and Ephine.

“Are you guys ok?”

“I’m fine, but you didn’t have to use such drastic measures to scare them away.”

Towards the end of her sentence, Ephine smiled a little, and Ark felt his heart skip a beat.

“Hahaha I’ll be a bit more careful next time. How about you Atar? Are you feeling ok?”

Hearing the question directed towards him, Atar tilted his head in confusion.

“Why would I not be ok papa? Is something wrong?”

Hearing his question, Ark felt relieved.

“Guess you’re ok then, nothing’s wrong in that case.”

Since everyone was fine, they joked around a little more before they started walking around again, looking for their next opponents. Like this, they explored the forest of the dead for a few hours before they all started feeling hungry, and they decided to head back into the city again. Although they didn’t get much in the form of levels since they had only been in the dungeon for a few hours, it was still way more than they would’ve gotten from walking around aimlessly in some random forest.

When they walked out of the dungeon, they saw a few familiar faces that they had seen before they entered the dungeon. Seeing this party of four come out of the dungeon completely unharmed, some people were actually pretty surprised. Although most people wouldn’t walk into a dungeon without confidence, it wasn’t often that you saw people walking out of a dungeon looking the exact same as they had looked when they walked into it.

Most people would come out either dirty or covered in injuries, or perhaps even both. Since some of the adventures had given them information about the dungeon, and even helped them out, Ark naturally thanked them for their help, since it made their exploration more convenient and safe, which was something Ark valued greatly. Whilst he was in the middle of talking to a group of 3 adventures, he could feel someone tugging on his sleeve, and when he turned around, he was met with Atar’s pitiful look.

Since Atar seemed very hungry, Ark could only apologise to the adventurers as they left for the city. To save as much time as possible, they travelled back to the city in their wolf forms once again. As they were back in the city, Ark was a little annoyed that they had already used over an hour in their human forms, but there was nothing he could do about it except sulk. Before they went to eat, they decided to go to the adventurer’s guild to sell their mana crystals for a reasonable price.

They didn’t really care that much about the money right now, but it wouldn’t hurt to have more right? Since they had plenty of money to spare, and they felt like treating themselves, they decided to find a nice restaurant to eat at. Luckily for them, there were plenty of nice restaurants in Moonhill, and they soon found a nice establishment.

Atar, like usual, only wanted meat, but under the persuasion of both him and Ephine, he also reluctantly ordered a nice salad. Although he was reluctant at first, he soon started liking the salad too and ate with his usual gusto. The atmosphere in the restaurant was excellent, and they enjoyed themselves to their hearts’ content for nearly half an hour before they paid the bill and left.

Since they still wanted to have some fun, they waltzed around the nearby marketplace for a while and bought some necessities that they were running out of, as well as some snacks. After they were satisfied, they decided to travel back to the dungeon once more, as there was still plenty of time left in the day. The journey to the dungeon was quite uneventful, the only noteworthy thing that happened was that some adventurers nearly started fighting them, but it never actually happened.

Compared to most people that were exploring dungeons, Ark’s party of four was incredibly relaxed, as if this excursion in the dungeon was just a normal picnic. There weren’t really monsters that could really threaten their lives in this dungeon, so they could take it easy, whilst still levelling up at a decent pace. They bumped into people a few times, but they usually tried to keep their distance, as none of them actually wanted to talk to strangers normally.

Since they had brought snacks and food with them this time, they could essentially stay in the dungeon however long they wanted. Instead of returning to the city for a break, they just ate some snacks and rested inside the dungeon. It was hard to actually relax inside the dungeon, so at one point they rested outside the entrance for a while, before going back inside.

As they went outside for another break later down the road, they noticed the setting sun in the distance.

“You guys wanna call it a day for now?”

“Yeah, today’s been pretty tiring!”

Ephine nodded in affirmation, and Atar looked pretty drowsy, so they started heading home. Today had been pretty eventful, and besides having a nice time, Ark also gained a few levels. He didn’t add the points immediately though, he liked doing it when he had some peace and quiet after all.