Screw you, wolf!

I stepped back, avoiding the bite, before launching another ice lance at its face, followed by another venom bolt. I followed up with another fireball, not holding anything back. I just needed to buy some time.

The attacks seemed to do just that. They kept the wolf at a distance and I noticed its footing started to waver.

The wolf reared up its hind feet and I placed my abdomen on the tree and started producing a thread of silk. When the wolf jumped, I jumped off of the branch while hanging on my thread.

The wolf wasn’t prepared for that. It missed miserably and then fell to the ground and whimpered after impacting it. I observed it while hanging. I should be perfectly safe here. There was no reason for me to go further down.

I watched as the beast tried to stand but failed. It seemed my paralytic venom was taking its toll.

I was happy I had upgraded the skill. It appeared two bolts were enough to knock out a wolf.

Soon after I was certain that this wolf was not getting back up on its feet, I lowered myself to the ground and snapped the thread. I then walked over to the first wolf and shot two more venom bolts in its side.

I felt my reserves run dry and hesitated to use more as I still had a second wolf to take care of. Fortunately, a message popped up a minute or so later.

I skittered over to the other wolf and fired the last venom bolt that I could, before firing two more ice lances in its belly.

It seemed that did the trick.

Yep.

That was about the best I could do.

My venom reserves were completely empty, and I didn’t think I could cast many more spells, maybe two or three.

I was happy with the large amount that these two creatures had given me. One more wolf or maybe a few of those large fish would be enough to achieve my next evolution. For now, I decided to retreat back to Cellestra’s home.

I took one last look at the corpses and wondered what to do with them.

I would tell the elf. I imagined she could use them for furs. Wolves weren’t necessarily hunted for their meat as much as their furs.

It would seem that Cellestra has left the door open once more. When I made my way inside, I saw the elf kneading a ball of dough on a cutting board on the table.

“Heya,” She said as I climbed the table. “How did things go?”

I retrieved the paper which was shoved aside and started producing words.

“Went well. Killed two wolves. Wondering if you can use.”

“Two wolves?” She asked with a frown. “Damn, Kealyna. You’re becoming the alpha around here pretty fast aren’t you?”

She smiled as she said it.

I wanted to smile back so badly…

“But sure. I’ll finish kneading in a bit. I’ll have a look after. We should at least use them for furs. It’s about time I get some new furs. I haven’t been able to get my hands on any new bed covers for winter. I was almost about to go hunt on my own.”

It seemed I had removed another one of her worries. A wave of warmth flooded through me as I saw her smile again.

“Happy to help,” I spelled out.

I watched Cellestra knead the dough for a couple more minutes, smiling the entire time.

How did she appear to find so much joy doing simple things like these? It truly puzzled me. It was such a stark contrast to how she acted during the nights, too. I guess I was simply… admiring her spirit.

She formed the dough into a ball again and placed the cutting board with the dough on it in the unlit stove.

“Well, let’s see those wolves of yours, shall we?”

I led her to the stream, where the two corpses still lay. She knelt down to the wolf I’d killed last and ran her fingers over its fur.

“Seems you did damage it slightly, but it shouldn’t be much of an issue. Nice job, Kealyna.”

She pulled the wolves together and started dragging them back to her home. The elf left them in front of her home as she went inside to retrieve a large knife.

“Got some time while the dough rises. I figure I might as well work on this now.”

I waved at her and took a look at my enhancement options. I had some time to kill until my mana and venom reserves were replenished, and I got a large amount of evolution points from those two kills.

I had many points stocked up. I would at least enhance my paralytic venom to its highest attainable level. After doing that and feeling the changes happen to my body, I was left contemplating if I should upgrade any other skills.

As I had plenty of points and two more achievements that I could get, one of which was extremely simple, I decided to also evolve my jaws and teeth to their maximum rank. Maybe I would actually need them some day in combat again.

I hadn’t used them in a while for combat, but that was mainly due to me staying out of range of my targets. They would pair well with my paralytic venom as I could get close without having to fear retaliation.

After enhancing my skills, I continued observing Cellestra. She had dug a hole and was now carving open the wolves and removing their guts, which were then deposited in the hole in the ground.

She then carefully removed the flesh that was attached to the hide with a smaller knife.

Even though I had no experience with this kind of thing, I could see she had done this before. It was to be expected too if you were left to mostly fend for yourself.

I wondered how she felt about all this. It seemed she was going to great lengths to find a cure for her curse, so I would assume she wasn’t too happy about all this.

It was just…

I didn’t see it.

She always seemed to be cheerful. Maybe that was because I was around, but I couldn’t imagine someone feigning the kind smiles she showed…

Whenever I saw her smile, I wanted to smile myself. It was infuriating that I was unable to.

I sighed.

Elysa, when I am able to speak, will I also be able to smile?

This damn blessing was so worthless at times like these…

I watched and waited for another hour or so. Cellestra was almost finished with the hide cleaning part when I waved at her and she waved back as I headed out once more.

I wanted to find out if I could smile somewhere down the line of evolutions. It had become an important factor.

It was so odd how I suddenly saw this as important. Why?

I felt my mind start to wander off to Cellestra and her kind smiles as I traveled downstream. I had to snap myself back to the present and force all my willpower in trying to stay focused as I checked the water to see if any large fish were present. I didn’t find any until I’d almost reached the lake.

I saw one large reaperfish swimming about and tried to bait it with a line of thread before presenting myself to the creature when it reached the surface.

It was amusing to see just how dumb this species of fish was. As the other fish of its kind had done, it jumped out of the water in an effort to eat me. The fact that I was too big for the fish to eat was even more testament to its stupidity.

Instead of allowing it to die of suffocation, I fired a venom bolt to see how effective it was. It impaled its flank and it didn’t take long for the fish to succumb to the venom.

Killing these was too slow. I wanted to find one of the massive reaper fish. Those would be far more interesting to me.