The Divine Wolf... or?

Chapter 142: First Venture!

Even though they set off, they didn't really move very fast. Atar was barely able to walk, and Ephine got tired pretty fast, which was why they took breaks very often. As time passed, they both grew more and more accustomed to their new forms, and walking became less of a hassle overall. They still needed to rest every now and then, but walking was almost natural now, which was a large improvement.

Even if they had already seen a lot of different magical beasts that they could try to fight, Ark wanted them to grow a little more accustomed to walking before he let them do anything else, just as a safety measure.

It didn't take more than an hour until they could both use their bodies proficiently, which meant that they had around 2 hours or so left, which was plenty of time to get some combat training. "Are you guys feeling comfortable enough to try and fight now?"

Neither Atar nor Ephine said anything, they both just nodded in silence. As they had been walking around, Ark had taught them a little about how they should breathe and walk to make as little noise as possible. Even though there were no magical beasts around, they still chose to be quiet. Ark didn't really care, he got his answer either way, and he just took a step back.

Since they were supposed to learn, Ark didn't want to help them with anything unless they were in danger, and he just watched as they tried their best to navigate the forest, to find prey. Unlike in their wolf forms, there was no way for them to use their sense of smell to locate their prey, which they would otherwise do.

Instead, they had to learn how to manipulate the mana around them to expand their area of detection. When you knew how to do it, it was very easy, and something that Ark could do almost subconsciously.

But if you had never done it before, then it was an entire different story. Atar had no idea how he was supposed to do it, and even after Ark's simple explanation, he was completely lost. Fortunately, his mother was a lot more adept in the use of magic, and she was able to quickly figure out how to do it.

Ark wanted them both to learn how to do it, but he knew that Atar wasn't that good at magic, so he figured that he would teach him later. Atar was able to use elementary magic, as Ark witnessed earlier, but he would much rather use his body to fight, as it felt much more natural to him.

After another ten minutes or so passed, Ephine had finally found the first opponent that she thought they would be able to beat on the first try. The opponent they had found was an Aqua Hound. Like the name suggested, this magical beast was a hound, which was adept in the use of water magic, and it was almost 2 meters tall, with ferocious fangs lined up inside of its mouth.

Its fur was a dark shade of brown, almost dark enough to be called black, but not quite.

Had Ark not been as strong as he was, even he would probably be a little intimidated, fortunately, he was way stronger than this little pup, and he wasn't going to pay much attention to this fight. He was confident that Atar and Ephine could win without any sort of troubles.

The hound glared at the trio when they walked out from behind a couple of trees, but when it saw Ark, it quickly grew quiet. The hound just stared at him blankly for a while, before taking a step back. Even though it wasn't really sure how strong this human in front of it was, it could still feel some of Ark's hidden power, which was enough for it to want to run for its life.

Since he didn't want to scare away the hound, Ark simply backed off a little, and let Atar and Ephine do what they were supposed to do.

Ephine elegantly retrieved her bow from her back, and took half a step back, getting ready to fire. The attention of the hound was immediately drawn, and so was the bowstring. An arrow made completely out of water materialised on the bowstring, and Ephine was just about to release it. Before she could fire, she heard a crunching noise, and the hound simply disappeared.

Where it was once standing, laid a pool of blood. In front of it stood Atar, covered in the blood of the creature he had just killed.

Ark was surprised, but so was Atar! He had never expected to become so strong all of a sudden, and he couldn't really wrap his head around it, he knew that it was because of his new name, but he didn't understand why the difference was so big. Ephine could feel her increase in power more clearly than Atar could, but she was still surprised by his power.

Judging by his expression, Ephine could tell that her son had no idea that was going to happen, and she didn't know if she was supposed to be happy or worried about him.

Power was a good thing in a world like this, as it allowed them to stay alive and take care of each other, but too much power, and too suddenly at that, could often lead to mental problems, and in extreme cases even insanity. Ephine sighed. She was beginning to overthink things again. It was a new habit of hers that she had picked up recently, but she just couldn't help it sometimes.

Atar was quite the opposite, and his mind-set was a little too simple sometimes, but he still had his young age to blame for it.

Seeing as he was covered in blood, he shot a quick glance at Ark. Ark immediately responded by conjuring up some water to clean him, and then some wind to dry him off, and finally some heat to warm him up.

"Thank you papa!"

Hearing Atar speak as a human was something odd for both Ephine and Ark, but Ark actually quite liked it, his voice was cute, he was a child after all. Unlike some children Ark had heard before, Atar didn't have an annoying voice at all.

"Oh Atar, if you had asked me I could've done it for you!"

Ephine pouted as she spoke, making Atar giggle a little, before he responded earnestly. "Of course mama! Next time!"

Ark was trying his hardest to keep a straight face, but he was struggling. Hearing her speak in her human form was really cute and all, but the pouting just made it so much better. Both his eyes and ears were captivated at the same time, and he had to try his hardest to keep himself in check, and not look like a fool. In reality, Ark just wanted to smile foolishly.

The minute changes in his expression didn't go unnoticed by Ephine, but she didn't understand what was going on, and she just decided to ignore it, as usual.