Study

Six days later, at dawn, William arrived at Baldur's house.

He knocked on the door. Baldur's voice came from inside. "I'm coming!"

After a few breaths, Baldur opened the door. He invited William in, but William spoke before he entered.

"Come on? Aren't we going?"

"I'm having breakfast?" Baldur replied in surprise.

"Breakfast? Are you crazy?"

"Why, what happened?"

"Dude, there is breakfast everywhere in the Black Forest. Also fresh! Why are you eating here?"

Through the opening between Baldur and the door, William had seen a few pieces of bread, sausages, and what looked like cheese.

"Come on, pack up quickly, we'll have breakfast in the forest." He said.

Baldur was someone who had hardly ever been involved in anything like this before. He had always been sheltered. Even though his huge body made him look like a strong and fierce person, he was usually either in the library of the Mage Tower or in his laboratory.

He had hardly left his lab since his arrival at the academy when he received a job offer from the academy's principal for his research.

"Then I'll be right back."

Baldur hurried in and put the rows of empty barrels, the anticoagulant potions, and a few loaves of bread into his dimensional bag. Of course, being a mage, he also had the dimensional bag.

He quickly gathered his things and came to the door. "Let's go." He said.

On the way, William asked out of curiosity, "How big is your dimensional bag?"

"Only five cubic meters."

"Five cubic meters? That's big," William said. By this time they had arrived at the East Gate.

William turned to Baldur once more and said, "Follow my steps from now on. If we do not encounter any serious problems, we should be there before evening. There aren't many creatures here, we can camp outside for the day." He said.

Baldur followed, shaking his head. They were not running at full speed, but they were not slow either.

A few hours later, the two stopped in the treetops.

"What happened? Why did we stop?" Baldur asked.

William put a finger to his lips, telling him to be quiet, and pointed again to an open area ahead.

Baldur looked in the direction of the finger and saw the head of a creature. It was quietly eating grass.

It was a green one-horned deer. Again William pointed his finger at Baldur, then at the deer, and made a neck-cutting motion with his hand.

Baldur frowned for a second or two, then nodded.

Then he grabbed the wrist of his right hand with his left. He raised the index finger of his right hand and pointed at the deer.

This time he began to cast a spell in the language William knew.

"Whether it be earth or stone, let my finger find strength." He heard what he said.

At the end of Baldur's finger, a small stone began to form out of nothing. Lines of yellow-brown light gathered around it.

In a few seconds, the spell was complete. Now the light around him was gone, only the stone remained. "Go!" Baldur said softly.

The stone shot out of his fingertip like an arrow. It was incredibly fast. It was definitely a bullet from a Glock, compared to his previous life.

It quickly reached the deer and passed through its head. In an instant, the deer turned upside down from the impact of the incoming rock and landed on its back.

William found this incredible. He was confident that he could block this stone with certainty, but he began to think that mages might be more skilled at assassination. He could easily kill the deer with an ambush at close range, but the mages didn't even have to get close. He just moved his finger from afar.

"You're amazing," William said, raising his thumb.

Then he asked. "And at what level is this stone effective?"

Baldur replied disappointedly. "For those below the iron level. If I want to cast a spell with a higher power, it will take longer and require more mana". He said.

"Anyway, we finally got some breakfast. Let's go."

The two of them quickly came to the deer. William immediately made a fire and started to skin the deer.

Seeing William struggling to skin the deer with his greatsword, Baldur took a dagger from his dimensional bag and handed it to William. "You can keep the dagger." He said.

"Thanks, buddy. I spent all my money on that sword when I came. So I have nothing else." He said with a sad face.

"It does not matter. You have to go to the academy's weapon shop. With the contributions or soul stone I will give you, you can get a nice weapon." He said.

"I hope so."

By this time, William had quickly finished skinning the creature. Then he cut off one of the hind legs and put it on the campfire.

Baldur asked as he waited for the meat to cook.

"Aren't you going to eat?" he said.

"Why? Isn't there enough for both of us?"

William was surprised. This deer's hind leg was as big as a cow's. A normal family of three could eat it for a month.

"You know, because of the worm's blood, my body is big, and I have to eat much more than that."

"Ah! I forgot, man." After saying that, he went to cut another leg.

He thought, "If he shits so much, it's going to be hard for us, too," as he cut off the deer's leg.

The two left quickly after they had eaten in the small clearing in the forest. William didn't want to tell Baldur about the heart he had last encountered and the creature that had come to protect it. Besides, he wasn't sure if he could kill the worm that came after him, even if it was a bronze-level worm, because the fear he felt inside was the same as he felt for the teachers at the academy.

He thought about taking him to another rocky hill. Even if they couldn't find a cave, they could at least open it themselves.

As evening approached, William noticed that they were approaching Worm Mountains. They came a little slower. They were conserving their strength, and they were being hunted on the road.

As they approached Worm Mountains, he saw a sight that excited him.

Two silver moon wolves, one small and one large, were waiting for him.

When Baldur saw the wolves, he immediately stopped and went into battle mode. From the size of the wolf before him, he could sense that its strength was equal to or greater than his own. In addition, his mage senses told him to stay away from the wolf.

William told Baldur to follow him. Baldur agreed, looking a little desperate, and they approached until they were within fifty meters of the wolf.

The wolf lifted his head and gave a low growl. It wasn't like his growl in anger or when he was hunting.

William understood something of what the wolf meant.

"You want to fight one on one? Fine by me! Baldur! Back off a little."

Baldur wasn't surprised that William was talking to the wolf, but the fact that they were going to duel confused him.

But he backed away anyway. About a hundred meters away.

The big wolf also nodded at the little wolf next to him, and the little wolf growled at William in disgust.

William couldn't stand the way this clever little wolf kept getting on his nerves.

"Inglorious bastard! I keep letting you go, but you keep coming back like a boomerang! After I'm done with your mom or dad, it'll be your turn!" he shouted.

The little wolf started to grin as if he understood his words. "You'll have to wait a long time!"

After the little wolf left, William turned back to the big one.

"I must warn you. I'm stronger than last time. Then don't cry to me!" He said and attacked.

This time he had unlocked all the effects of his sword, using the weight of the mountain he had just learned. As he ran, his feet left a trail of fire behind him.

He made a slashing motion from top to bottom with all his might.

This time the wolf decided to raise its claws.

"Dinggg!!" There was that damned sound again. But this time, the wolf's claw had retreated quite a bit. However, William realized that he could now defeat the wolf with his strength.

"Ding!" "Ding!" "Ding!"

They struck several times in a row, but William won each time.

He surely knew that even if William defeated him, he would not be able to strike a final blow.

He spoke after stepping back a few feet.

"My next move might kill you! If you want to run now, run!"

There was a mixture of indecision and perseverance in the wolf's eyes. In the end, perseverance won out, and it charged at William with all its might.

William pointed the sword forward with both hands and activated the execution sword. His sword had transformed into a lightsaber. When the wolf saw the bright sword in front of it, it could not help but be afraid. But now it was on the attack. It couldn't come back.

He slashed at William with its left claw. William slashed at the wolf's claws with all the power of his sword.

"DINGGG!!!" He heard the same voice again, but this time it was a little different. The wolf's claws were intact, but the flesh on its side had melted. The wolf screamed in pain but continued to fight. The flesh on its two paws was almost melted. When its front claws became useless, it turned around and tried to kick with its hind claws like a horse.

William's sword was unforgiving. After burning its hind claws a bit, he cut off part of its backside as well.

The wolf ran away, both from the pain and the impact of William's strike. It howled as it ran away.

'That damn summoning howl again,' he thought.

He didn't want to risk his life by killing the wolf. He immediately called to Baldur, and they ran toward the Worm Mountains. He could hear the sound of wolves running all around him. They ran, not daring to look behind them.

The little wolf still smiled at William, even though the other wolf was defeated. It was as if various plots were running through his mind, and William was a part of them.

When the big wolf came to him, he looked at it like a general looks at a defeated soldier. There was disgust in his eyes. The big wolf collapsed with pain. After a while, the other wolves dragged it by the neck and disappeared into the forest.

The little wolf looked one last time in the direction William had fled and howled.

"Auuuuuuuyyyyyyy!!!!!" His howl was still a bit childish, but all the other wolves had responded to his howl. Even the injured big wolf howled with its weak voice.

His voice was like, 'Thank you.' It sounded like that.

AN: There might be something here to confuse you. He/Him/She/Her/It.

My goal is to call only the creatures I give personality to as 'he/she'.

If I think a creature lacks consciousness and either has no personality or no place in the story, I will call it 'it'.