The Divine Wolf... or?

It had levelled to level 2, which had improved it slightly, but the core of the skill had not changed at all, he could only convey his emotions to a certain extent. Still, the feeling the parents were getting were way more than enough for them to lower their swords. This telepathy skill worked wonders for him, as in the parents eyes, he looked more like a deity than some beast.

Glowing with a golden light, the feeling Ark was conveying was compassion, which was why the parents had both dropped their weapons.

Seeing their mutilated hands, Ark sighed a little, before he enveloped them in his light magic, quickly healing them and repairing any damaged bones. Since his priority wasn\'t the parents, Ark kept on walking until he arrived in front of the little girl. When he did, he quickly let his light mana gush out of his body, enveloping the little girl within.

The amount of mana he released this time was enormous, even to the point where the little girl disappeared from his view entirely.

Even though the parents didn\'t think that Ark was going to do anything bad to their daughter, they were still nervous, they couldn\'t be sure after all. After some time passed, the light mana left the girl, and receded back into Ark\'s body, disappearing completely. Ark was done, and he was too tired to deal with anything else right now, he just wanted to get some rest.

It had been a long and annoying day, and he just wanted it to end already.

The parents frantically looked for their daughter to see if she was ok, and upon seeing her sleeping soundly on the ground, no wounds to speak of on her body, they both let out a sigh of relief. Not only that, but they both bowed to Ark with gratitude. "Thank you for saving our daughter!"

Ark just nodded, before he turned around, and started to leave. Ephine and Atar both followed shortly behind him, as they had nothing else they wanted to do here. Before they left, Atar stopped in his tracks for a second, looking back at the small girl. His gaze lingered on her for a second, before he quickly followed behind his mother again.

The family of three was thus left behind all alone in this dangerous forest, with nothing but corpses surrounding them. Even though the forest was dangerous, if Ark wasn\'t confident in the parents\' strength, he wouldn\'t have left them to fend for themselves.

From the looks of things, it looked like they had important identities, to be protected by so many demons, and even though they were severely weakened when they tried to face him, Ark could feel their real strength after he had healed them.

Even though he had saved their lives and helped them, he didn\'t really want anything to do with them. But who knows, maybe they would cross paths again in the future.

…

In a tavern somewhere in the middle of a fairly remote village, the mood was jovial. The villagers were having fun and chatting with each other, drinking merrily. Adventurers had just passed through and taken care of the magical beasts that had been destroying their farms and even hurting the villagers, which was a cause for celebration.

The atmosphere was joyful, but the air was quite damp, and in a remote corner of the tavern, a dwarf sat, drinking some mead by himself.

As per usual, no one dared get too close, but Thufrat was already used to such a life. The fact that people were disgusted by his mere presence was something that he just had to live with his entire life, it had always been like this after all. The only people that didn\'t care about the fact that he was a dwarf were not here, and he was all alone.

Ark was nowhere to be found, and Alenia was still in Liverence, doing whatever she was supposed to be doing. Even though he was lonely, Thufrat still had plenty of money to enjoy himself, and he wasn\'t feeling too depressed.

But that could change at the drop of a hat. As he had nothing better to do, Thufrat just sat in silence, and listened in on some of the conversations that the villagers were having. Sure, it wasn\'t really polite, but they weren\'t polite to him in the first place, so why should he care? If you don\'t show someone any respect, then don\'t expect to get any in return either.

"Did you hear about the battle at Calmond Forest?"

"Hmm? The one the adventurers spoke about?"

"Which other battle was there? Idiot."

"Okay okay, calm down man, I was just making sure, but what about it?"

Throughout all the noises, this conversation caught Thufrat\'s interest the most.

"Did you know that vice-commander Balan perished in a duel against a magical beast?"

"Wait, really? What kind of monster would be able to take on Balan? Was it the king of the forest?"

"The king of the forest? No, I heard that it was some kind of elemental wolf, and it was even an overwhelming victory!"

"Really? But won\'t his family send their troops to take care of it then?"

"Who knows? Either way it doesn\'t really concern us, I just hope they get rid of that monster quickly!"

Thufrat listened intently, and when he heard about how an elemental wolf was involved, there was only one person who came to mind, Ark! If that was the case, then maybe he would finally be able to meet him again! Thufrat was excited to say the least, if he was finally able to meet Ark again, then his dull life would finally be able to regain some of its colour again.

It had been too long since they had seen each other.

Thufrat wasn\'t really sure how Ark was doing either, and he was concerned for him. Thufrat didn\'t know what Ark had been through when he was captured by the royalty of Estridsen, but he knew for a fact that it wasn\'t something good, why would it be?

Not only that, but Ark had already been lonely before he met Thufrat, now that he was all alone in a forest, especially after such a haunting event, Thufrat was sure that he wouldn\'t be feeling well.

Finding Ark in a random forest he wasn\'t familiar with wasn\'t going to be easy, but he had nothing better to do either way. Not only that, but he wasn\'t sure if it was actually Ark. It could\'ve just been another elemental wolf, but Thufrat felt like it would\'ve been too much of a coincidence, and he would take any lead he could get to find his friend.