The northern foothills were a stark contrast to the dense, oppressive darkness of the forest he had been born in. Here, the land was open, rolling hills of tough grass and wind-gnarled trees, all under a vast, pale sky. According to the quest details, the Grey-Tusked Wolves had been driven down from the higher, more magically saturated peaks by the same panicked exodus he had caused. They weren't just displaced; they were changed.
He found their trail easily enough—not through tracking skill, but by feeling the faint, ragged pull of mana in the air. It was a chaotic, aggressive energy, different from the clean, potent cores he had harvested from the hive ants. This was wild, untamed, and laced with a feral hunger.
When he crested a ridge and looked down into the small valley, he saw them. The pack was larger than the quest had indicated—at least fifteen strong. And they were not mere wolves. Their fur was a patchy, metallic grey, and their infamous tusks, which should have been bone, glinted with a sharp, obsidian-like sheen. Their eyes burned with a faint, sickly yellow light. They were gathered around the carcass of a Rock-Tusk Boar, but they weren't just eating it. Thin tendrils of visible, violet energy were being drawn from the boar's body into the lead wolf, a massive specimen whose form seemed to ripple with contained power.
[Analysis: Local fauna exhibits significant magical mutation. The creatures are passively siphoning ambient mana and life force, accelerating their evolution. The lead entity possesses a stabilized energy signature—a nascent soul core.]
A soul core. In mere wolves. This was the direct result of the magical fallout from his own existence. The dense aura that had panicked the continent was now fueling the evolution of its predators.
The lead wolf's head snapped up. Its burning yellow eyes locked onto Kaito with an intelligence that was far from animalistic. It understood him not just as prey, but as a threat, and more importantly, as a source. A low, guttural growl rumbled through the valley, and the entire pack turned as one, their hunched forms radiating a unified, predatory intent.
This was no longer an E-rank quest.
They didn't charge mindlessly. They fanned out with a terrifying, coordinated strategy. Five wolves broke off to flank him from the sides while the main group, led by the alpha, began a slow, deliberate advance up the ridge. The air grew heavy with the static charge of their collective mana.
Kaito felt a strange sense of… familiarity. This was a pale, feral echo of the hive mind's coordination. He stood his ground, the Leviathan Staff feeling cool and reassuring in his grip. He wouldn't use its full power. He wouldn't unleash the void. This was a test of his control, his ability to operate within the system's constraints.
As the first flanking wolf lunged, he didn't move to siphon it. Instead, he used the most basic application of his refined Terrakinesis. The ground beneath the wolf's front paws softened instantly into deep mud. The creature yelped in surprise as its momentum carried it forward, face-planting into the earth and skidding to a halt, trapped.
The alpha howled, a sound that tore at the air. Two more wolves charged from the front. Kaito swung the staff in a low, horizontal arc. He didn't hit them. He willed the earth in front of him to rise, a three-foot-high wall of solid dirt and stone erupting from the ground. The wolves slammed into it with a sickening crunch.
He was playing with them. Containing. Pacifying.
The alpha had seen enough. It gathered the chaotic energy swirling around it and unleashed a concentrated blast of violet force from its maw—a crude, wild imitation of a magical beam.
Kaito didn't dodge. He let it hit him.
The energy washed over him, a crackling, corrosive wave that would have shredded a normal man. To him, it was a mild tingling sensation, like static electricity. His body analyzed the magical composition instantly, adapting, filing it away. [Magical Attack - Feral Mana Type: Neutralized.] He now knew he could never be harmed by this specific, mutated energy again.
The alpha wolf stared, its intelligent eyes wide with what could only be confusion and fear. Its ultimate attack had been less than nothing.
Kaito decided the lesson was over. He took a single step forward and focused his will, not on the wolves, but on the nascent soul core within the alpha. He performed a gentle, precise Energy Siphon, targeting only the excess, mutated mana that fueled its evolution.
The violet light in the alpha's eyes dimmed. The aggressive aura surrounding it vanished. It whimpered, shaking its head as if waking from a bad dream. The rest of the pack, feeling their leader's sudden shift, faltered, their coordinated aggression breaking into confused snarls and uncertain glances.
Kaito looked at the cowed, de-powered alpha. He had the pelts he needed from the wolves that had broken themselves against his earth wall. There was no need for further slaughter. He had completed his E-rank quest and, in the process, contained a budding B-rank threat that the guild was completely unaware of.
As he gathered the pelts, he looked towards the higher, mana-rich peaks. His presence had created this problem. His journey to A-rank would undoubtedly lead him into more situations like this, where the lines between quest and consequence were blurred. He wasn't just climbing a ladder; he was cleaning up the invisible mess he had left in his wake, one mutated soul core at a time.