Aspen woke up around an hour ter, while I still pondered on what I saw.

  “Nnnng…” Aspen stretched and yawned, showing all her sharp teeth, “I feel like I got hit against a rock…”

  “How are you feeling?” I flew closer.

  “Sore, and with my dignity kicked through the mud, but fine.” She sat.

  “Good. You still need to rest.”

  [Her vitals are all okay, she will be back to normal in no time.]

  “So, now what?” Aspen tilted her head.

  “We return. I don’t want you to keep getting hurt, it will be dangerous.”

  “What? No! I bet I can take on more of those spiders!”

  If we go hunt for them, or even the creatures on the building, I might be able to gain a few more levels, but it was too dangerous for her. I needed power, but I knew I had to avoid going too over my head.

  We got comfortable with being able to kill anything we could find, and that almost cost me Aspen. I had to be careful, I had no idea what other stronger monsters and people I could find outside, and mistakes like those could mean losing more than what I am willing to give.

  “I believe you can, but we need to be more careful..” I got closer, “I want to come back, we need to clear this path, but we need recover. You are out of food and medicine, after all.”

  Aspen grabbed me and began to run towards the exit, guided by me.

  She was running slower, what would have taken her just a couple of seconds, took her a minute.

  We returned to the chasm. She was not tired.

  “Ugh… I cannot run as fast…”

  We stopped at the chasm… and there it was, the body of the Arakin that got dropped, spttered on the floor.

  “Ugh… how did this one get here?” Aspen approached it and sniffed it.

  “It fought a few of its own and got killed… let me see something.”

  I pushed my bde onto it, and let Erika do her job.

  [Analysing… inconclusive. This Arakin shares the same genotype as the rest, so it must belong to the same hive. I cannot establish any reason for the in-fighting. No brain damage, no nervous system damage, no signs of sickness. This Arakin seems to be a healthy specimen, besides, you know… being dead.]

  There was nothing wrong with this one except for the behavior and the attack, which only made me ponder.

  “Are you noticing anything?” Aspen finally asked.

  “Nothing… let’s go.”

  I looked up.

  “Okay, how can we go back up…? Aaah!”

  Aspen, suddenly and without warning, grabbed me again, jumped high enough, and reached the top of the chasm in mere seconds.

  “Aha! I knew I could make it… agh!” Aspen said as she fell to the floor on top and tripped.

  I got unched after the fall, and tumbled forward until I could stop myself.

  “Agh! You dummy!” I went closer to check on her, “Don’t do brave stuff just like that! Did you hurt yourself?!”

  “N-no… I don’t think so…” Aspen got up, checking her limbs. She stood up right and without limping, “Nope, just a stupid trip.”

  “Good… how did you make it up here anyway? That was impressive.”

  “I just jumped!” Aspen sat, wagging her tail tongue out like a happy dog.

  “Uhuh…”

  [Aspen speed is thanks to having strong legs. It is natural she can make a jump like that.]

  That is still crazy!

  Moments like those are what made me wonder how far we could reach. She was only Rank 1, and yet she could break through hordes of enemies and outrun a racing car.

  Crazy was the only word I could imagine.

  But before all of that.

  “Okay, if you say you are fine, let’s move. I don’t want to stay here for too long.”

  She grabbed me again and began running.

  Some of the Arakins on our way out of their territory saw us and tried to get us but Aspen was still fast enough.

  I saw no other acting weird, or getting attacked, which only made me wonder what I just saw just earlier harder.

  [I’m trying to come up with answers, but I ck information. Maybe that one had some form of malfunction, or maybe something made the other attack them. We are dealing with a corrupted hive, after all.]

  Malfunction. I hated that word, as if they were computers or parts of a machine.

  I got that they were part of a hive mind, one that was working with a Queen that was contaminated with excessive Ether, but I would not see them in that way.

  }------------------------------------------o~o------------------------------------------{

  It took us around half a day to arrive when st time it took her only a couple of hours. Luna saw us from a distance, and came to receive us.

  Aspen stopped by the entrance.

  “Agh! Stupid body…” She growled at her own paws, “I feel better but I cannot run as fast!”

  “I am impressed you can still move…”

  Luna approached us.

  “Elder Alice! Aspen! You came unscathed!” She said with glee, approaching and then bowing to me. “I hope you two had no trouble.”

  “Long story… Aspen needs to rest, so she is forbidden from going out to hunt until tomorrow.” I put the order immediately.

  “What?! Hey! I am going to bore my tail here!” She growled.

  “I take it the path is not without dangers…” Luna tilted her head.

  “It is not, but I am going to take care of that soon.” I approached Luna, while Aspen went to rest, muttering under her breath, compining at my order, “The exit exists, we found it.”

  The wolves around me froze when I said that, while Luna’s eyes went wider than I ever had seen.

  I just dropped the fact that their beliefs were all true. The promised nd existed.

  “T-then… we can actually leave the caves?” Luna stuttered.

  “Yes. But… There are the spiders, who have a Queen that is corrupted, and… a human protecting the exit. It attacked us.”

  They all whispered. A human blocking yhe exit, a being of their tales preventing their path outside.

  “A human…?”

  “I am guessing it is a human… but it is strong. It almost killed us both, Aspen taking the hardest of it.”

  Whispers followed, talking about how we confronted death at the hands of the human.

  “By the spirits of the elements!” Luna cimed, “I am thankful you two returned to us!”

  “Sounds intriguing, Young Alice.” Ade appeared from a shadow between the ruins. “Thanks to the spirits that you two made it back alive, but I am guessing it is still out of our grasp.”

  “Y-yeah… but it is not unreachable. I will just need to prepare and try again. The next step, however, is getting rid of the spider problem!”

  “I take it you can beat them.” Luna smiled, “Those are good news.”

  “Yes, and they have a Queen, contaminated with Ether. If we kill her, maybe we can try to push towards the exit and finish with all of this.”

  “You and Aspen have made it to where no other wolf has so far, Elder Alice,” Luna nodded, “Impressive.”

  “D-don’t… I am sure you and Fir could reach right now if you know how to fight them… although I don’t recommend triggering a horde. That was not funny.”

  I moved further inside. “Now! I need to see Shin! Ade, I need you to come with me.”

  “Oh? Is the young one pnning something?” She asked with that all knowingly smile.

  Preparations were in order, and part of my idea was to see how Shin was doing with the mortar and pestle, and to show the alchemy set.

  }------------------------------------------o~o------------------------------------------{

  “This damn piece OF…! AAAAAGH!” We heard a scream.

  Then something breaking, all from Shins’s Workshop. Whatever was happening there, he was not having fun.

  “I hate stone! It breaks!” He yelled once more.

  Then, he is still having trouble working with it.

  “You could pass by and often hear him scream.” Luna said, “Not proper, at all.”

  Maybe I took him out of his comfort zone.

  We went inside, and there he was, trying to prepare another stone. Angry, frustrated, and about to crash out if he had not done so already.

  Maybe this was not a good idea, as he seemed rather angry that he could not fulfill my request.

  “Hey… Shin?” I approached, afraid that he was going to yell at me.

  “Hm? Oh! Elder Alice! So gd you came!” He sat and began to pant with his tongue ot in excitement. “I have been making progress, slowly being able to not break the whole thing.”

  We sighed at his change of demeanor.

  “Shin I had been hearing you yelling bloody murder this whole time.” Luna shook her head.

  “Oh, right. I just let it all out, or it builds up and I actually get angry.” He tilted his head while smiling.

  “Well… as long as you don’t explode a vein…” I answered.

  There were a ton of broken pieces of stone. He was a great tailor and made good armors for the wolves, and seemed to be natural with it, but stone working was not his strength.

  “Okay, did you try the other design I told you?” I asked.

  “The one that was just a sb? Yeah, it is there, with a pestle, but it is boring and I wanted the fancy one.”

  So he put himself through this torture just for the sake of it? Talk about hyper focusing.

  He pointed to one corner of his workshop, still panting. It was like a kid enjoying showing what he made to someone he cares about, and it was cute. I just wished he had more self care.

  There was a sb made of stone, prepared with oil and other material, seemingly ready for use as I instructed how to cure it. Random internet videos helped me this time.

  On top of it, a pestle made of stone. Much more roughly made, but should be enough.

  “Well, that one will be enough, thank you-ah!”

  “I am getting it done!” He approached me and pced his snout against my bde, looking up at my handle. “I will make the best mortar and pestle you have ever seen!”

  Luna and Ade sighed.

  I doubt he has ever seen one.

  “Better let him, Elder Alice. He is not going to let it go.” Luna said, frustrated.

  “Anyway, this is important. Bring the mortar with the pestle, we will need it.” I pulled away, then made the alchemy set appear in the middle of the room where there were no pieces of fabric. “I found these. We need to use them with care as I am not sure we will be able to repce them, but we can use them to extract the juices from the pnts and mushrooms to make more effective medicine.”

  “I see… Young Alice, you made such an incredible discovery.” Ade approached to look at the wood sb with runes, she was impressed and smiling, excited by what I brought, “And these runes… air, fire, wind… even ice, thunder and, I think, psma.”

  What? That was too advanced to be magic!

  [Psma magic is rare but not unheard of. You might never meet one that controls it, but it is a state of matter that can be exploited for power.]

  “Think you can use them, Ade?” I asked.

  “Maybe,” She seemed to hesitate, but nodded, “Some of the stories from El do tell about a few alchemists… and if I am not mistaken…”

  She used wind magic to move one of the gsses over a concave slot, fitting right in. Then she pressed her right front paw on the Air rune. Magic flowed from her core towards her paw and into the wood, making her symbol shine purpleish, and an ethereal light shone under the gss.

  “As the tales foretold. This is to infuse magic of different elements into the potion.” Ade confirmed, retracting her paw, making the magic light disappear.

  [Alchemy is…]

  “I know this one!” I happily said, actually remembering one of the stories this time, “Master Kion would prepare magic potions for the Warrior of Drakes in a tablet, gathering the pnts, extracting the oil and essences of different pnts with the different gsses, and then giving him the Dark fire potion he needed! The ingredients were… uuuuuhhhh…”

  “A molten core from a natural golem from an active volcano, salts from the northern sea, and the flowers of st summer.” Ade finished, “Gd you at least heard that much.”

  [Congrats, want a reward?]

  Yes! Wait, that sarcasm…

  “I will see what I can do with this. Shin’s mortar and pestle will be beneficial for this.” Ade took everything with an impressive magical control. “Please, leave this to me.”

  “I am gd I could help once more!” Shin began to wag his tail, almost taking flight.

  “Thanks, Shin! You are a good boy!” I said and patted him in the head.

  He only let me for a couple of seconds before pulling away.

  “Okay! I am back to work!”

  We left. Now to rest. Tomorrow we were going back to attack that Queen.