Chapter 482: The Wolfgrave Fortresses

[Total stats points: 1079]

Just a few minutes ago, he only had 150 stats points, and now after killing 5 wolves, his total had reached more than 1000 stats points.

And with the ten Fragments he had obtained, it had been an extremely successful hunt.

He now understood how much his first evolution had changed his innate skills, at this rate, perhaps it would not even take long before he reached his stats limit again.

But that was not a bad thing, the sooner he could become stronger, the easier it would be for him to deal with any problem that appeared in front of him.

In any case, the Wolfgrave Frontier was not only a good place to increase his level, if he could hunt a large number of wolf-type monsters there, he could also obtain hundreds of Fragments.

"Try it." He then pointed at One and told him to come and absorb the cores of these monsters.

One came toward them with his jaws open, found the cores, and absorbed them without wasting any time.

[Monster cores absorbed.]

[First evolution condition is progressing.]

[Saturation: Insufficient.]

Lian expected this, so he wanted to ride him again and continue their path, but just as One was coming toward him, suddenly ...the Predator’s Instincts gave a warning!

New presences were approaching them, six monsters in total, but the strange thing was their speed.

They were coming slowly, not as if they were trying to surround or attack them.

Lian raised his hand and the giant ant stopped there, the fog between the trees moved and the first wolf came out.

Its appearance was different from the previous ones, its body was thinner but taller and its fur was almost black, parts of its shoulders and neck were covered with gray bone plates.

Its eyes had a dead blue color.

[Gravehowl Wolf.]

[Rank: Normal.]

[Level: 28.]

There were five more behind it.

[Level: 27.]

[Level: 29.]

[Level: 28.]

[Level: 29.]

One took an attacking position, but the wolves did not look at him and went directly toward the corpses.

The young Vorhelm raised an eyebrow and one of the Gravehowls grabbed the neck of a dead wolf between its jaws, another pulled the legs of another corpse, and two of them lifted a larger corpse together.

None of them started eating, they did not even look hungry, instead they were collecting the corpses.

One took a step forward as if he wanted to interfere, but Lian sent an order to stop through the link.

"Wait."

Dissatisfaction came from One, but his master’s answer did not change.

"Let them take them."

The giant ant turned his head toward him this time, why should they let these monsters leave instead of killing them?

But Lian said nothing else, although his question was clear.

Why?

Why would a group of monsters collect corpses? If they were going to eat them, they would eat them right there, but they seemed to have a specific destination.

He had never heard of monsters coming to collect the corpses of monsters of their own kind.

Well, except for what happened in the fallen border city, at that time, the monsters that Ezrak had created were also collecting the corpses of their own kind.

But that situation was different, they were doing it because Ezrak had ordered them to.

So why were these monsters doing it?

Lian fixed his eyes on one of the wolves.

[True Sequence.]

For a few seconds, the mana channels and different energy paths inside the monster’s body became visible to him.

Everything looked normal, both the mana channels and the other systems of its body seemed healthy.

But something was wrong behind its neck, and he narrowed his eyes.

Between the two upper vertebrae of its spine, there was a small piece of black bone, it did not seem to be a natural part of its body.

Instead, it looked like something that had been grown or implanted inside it.

Every few seconds, a very weak pulse came out of it.

A command?

A connection?

Tracking?

Lian still did not know, but he knew one thing, they had not decided to do this naturally or by instinct.

The Gravehowls collected the corpses and then moved toward the northwest.

The young Vorhelm let them get farther away, and when they were almost gone into the fog, he took out the map.

There was no clear path in the direction they were moving on the base’s version of the map, but the version combined with the World Memory showed something else.

An old and narrow road which, according to the information from the World Memory, was called [Wolfcrown Road.]

"Interesting."

The Awakened had still not completely recorded this path.

And at that exact moment, something inside his storage space moved, he took out the Celestial Book of Treasure, and the golden cover of the book was already glowing before it even opened.

The pages turned quickly, the purple mark appeared again, and this time its light was several times stronger.

He held the map in front of him, and the thread from the book moved along Wolfcrown Road.

Exactly in the same direction that the Gravehowls were moving.

[Treasure detected.]

[Approximate direction: Northwest.]

Lian only looked for a few seconds, naturally, it was clear that he was going to follow those wolves, he did not know where they were going, but he was sure that there was some kind of side path that went deeper into the Wolfgrave area.

He closed the book.

And he and One moved.

They kept a large distance from the Gravehowls, the pack was not in much of a hurry either, the corpses had slowed their movement.

The old road slowly appeared from under the dirt.

Large, smooth stones that had been placed next to each other hundreds of years ago could still be recognized under the layers of moss and dirt.

The path went through a dead forest, and a little farther ahead, the first real sign of the old civilization appeared.

A village.

Or what was left of it, dozens of stone houses with collapsed roofs stood on both sides of the road.

The windows were empty, the doors were broken, and some walls were completely covered under black vines.

It was clear that this had once been a village where people had lived, but after the Calamity spread, everything had been destroyed.

The Gravehowls passed through the village without stopping, and Lian and One entered a few minutes later.

In the middle of the small village square, there was a large statue, the upper part of the statue was broken.

But its shape could still be recognized, it looked like the statue of one of the gods, one of the seven gods whose traces could also be found in the nine Ruined Realms.

Lian stood in front of the statue for a few seconds.

The statue was made of dark stone and was almost seven meters tall, it had a tall and thin body and a messy robe covered it, the folds of the robe twisted in different directions, as if even the stone did not follow any clear order.

Eight arms came out from the body of the statue, some were open, some were bent, and some held something broken.

There were also eight eyes on its face, each looking in a different direction.

But the face was almost destroyed.

Hundreds of deep lines had been carved across the stone and had destroyed the nose and lips, while the strangest thing was that all eight eyes were almost completely intact.

Lian slightly frowned.

This was not the first time he had seen a sign of one of the seven Divines.

Before this, he had found the Divine of Light’s ruins, the same place where Kain had been trapped.

His eyes moved again over the eight arms, eight eyes, and the irregular robe.

"Divine of Chaos..." Lian quietly whispered.

At the foot of the statue, part of an old inscription still remained.

[...Order is the prison of those who see only one answer...]

[...Chaos is the beginning of all possibilities...]

Lian looked at the ruins around him.

The same spiral symbol could also be seen on the walls of several houses and on the stones of the square.

So this was probably not just a normal village.

The people of this place had once been followers of the Divine of Chaos.

One stood beside the statue and Lian opened the map again, the road passed through the village and then reached the part where the information was incomplete.

A place where the World Memory no longer had complete data, but the Celestial Book of Treasure was still showing the path.

They continued, and about half an hour later, when they were completely far from the village and there was no longer any sign of it, the Gravehowls suddenly stopped.

He also stopped at a distance, and the wind passed between the dead trees for a few seconds.

Then....Awooooooooooooooo—

A howl came from far away, and the sound was so powerful that even the air around them seemed to shake, the carrion birds flew into the air from the tops of the trees.

One immediately lowered his body, and the young Vorhelm also raised his eyes in the direction of the sound.

A few seconds later, a second howl answered from somewhere else.

Then a third.

And a fourth.

Within a few moments, dozens of howls rose from different parts of the forest.

Different packs were answering each other, and even the Gravehowls in front of Lian raised their heads and howled at the same time.

System notifications appeared.

[Hidden Area discovered.]

[Wolfgrave Fortresses.]

He took his eyes off the notification, and at that exact moment, he saw something behind the fog.

At a very far distance, at first only a dark shadow could be seen, and then as the fog moved, towers appeared, broken towers and huge walls whose height could be seen even from this distance.

A half-collapsed central tower stood higher than the others, and on the highest part of the fortress, there was a giant statue of a wolf.

And a crown was placed on its skull.

The Celestial Book of Treasure suddenly opened by itself, and a page between Lian’s hands began to glow, the purple mark was beating strongly.

[Treasure detected.]