Wolf Boy
A crude mountain cave. A roaring campfire. A man perched on a rock in tattered rags, looking every inch the wild savage. Beside him lay a woman with a figure that stopped hearts — even flat on her back, her chest rose with breathtaking dimensions.
The woman's olive-green military trousers had been removed, revealing a pair of astonishing pink undergarments. The narrow scrap of fabric concealed almost nothing, leaving her mature, rounded curves fully exposed to the open air. In the dancing firelight, the sight was enough to make a man forget how to breathe.
A cave. A fire. A man and a woman. Such a scene has always had a way of conjuring all manner of vivid imaginings.
"What on earth is a woman doing in a place like this?" the man muttered to himself.
"Mmm~" The woman lying beside him let out a soft, melodious sound. The atmosphere in the cave went instantly dry, and there was a distinctly audible sound of someone swallowing.
"Damn. I forgot to put her trousers back on."
The words had barely left his mouth when Ah Li Man stirred from unconsciousness. She opened her eyes and stared at her surroundings in bleary confusion. The moment she registered the long-haired, savage-looking figure seated beside her, she went still — and instinctively reached for her magic.
"You've been poisoned," the wild-haired man said, flashing a grin full of white teeth. His canines were particularly sharp, like two blades threatening to breach his upper lip.
"You're... a Hunter-mage?" Ah Li Man steadied herself. Her voice was calm.
She had paused before the word because the man looked so utterly feral. Even the most haggard Hunter-mage managed some basic grooming. This one looked like he hadn't been anywhere near a city in a very long time.
"More or less. There's no leaving these wilds anytime soon." He smiled as he answered.
"You saved me?" Ah Li Man said.
"I did. That poison is nasty stuff — took serious effort to clear when it got me. Your constitution is stronger than I expected, though. I figured you'd be out for at least seven or eight days."
"Thank you. I'm not usually this careless," Ah Li Man offered by way of explanation.
"Why is a woman traveling alone somewhere this dangerous?" the wild man asked.
"You're alone out here too, aren't you?" Ah Li Man shot back, a quiet gleam of independence in her eyes.
"Fair point. Did you come for the treasure in the valley?" he continued, those dark eyes of his finding just the right moments to sneak a glance.
Ah Li Man shook her head. She thought back to the lightning she had glimpsed before losing consciousness, then looked the feral-seeming man over more carefully. "I'm on patrol. Something with a very high body count has been active in this area."
"Oh... oh." The wild man looked away with visible discomfort and shifted the subject. "Well, at least you weren't after the treasure. People have been dying in droves because of it."
"A lot of people have died?" Ah Li Man blinked.
"Yes. How do you think you got poisoned? I've warned several groups already. None of them listened."
Ah Li Man furrowed her brow and carefully turned over her memories — how she had been poisoned, and the unsettling presence she had sensed the moment she entered the valley.
She was a High-Level Mage. If even she had nearly come to grief here, Hunter-mage teams didn't stand a chance.
*Damn. The Sledgehammer team has no idea how dangerous this place is. I hope they haven't been caught by that poison — if they have, they're all dead in that valley.*
"The poison won't fully clear for a while yet. Stay in the cave for now," the wild man said.
"Why are you here?" Ah Li Man asked.
"Collecting something." The wild man offered a cryptic smile.
"Seen enough yet?" Ah Li Man's expression curdled, her gaze fixing on the wild man. *I've been hinting at you to leave this entire conversation.*
"Ah — I'll, uh, step outside. Put your trousers on. I had them drying for you!" The wild man beat a hasty, red-faced retreat from the cave.
Ah Li Man had reached her absolute limit. She had been dropping hints for him to leave throughout their entire exchange, and he had sat there as if none of it registered, chatting away without a care in the world.
If she weren't grateful to him for saving her life, yanking off her trousers would have been completely unforgivable.
When he returned, the woman — who radiated the coiled energy of a predator — had her trousers back on. She sat staring into the fire, turning over in her mind whether this wild man had done anything to her while she was out.
She'd done a quick check. Nothing seemed out of place. And for her specifically — as a female Military Mage — that particular kind of innocence had long since been offered up to the altar of brutal training. Men had nothing to do with it.
"Can I ask you a favor?" Ah Li Man said as the long-haired wild man ducked back inside.
She found herself quietly puzzled. How long had this man been living out here? His hair was nearly dragging on the floor, every strand as stiff as wire. Add in those fang-like canines, and if not for his otherwise ordinary face, she'd have sworn he was a boy raised by wolves — a living image of a feral wolf child.
"I don't have time," the Wolf Boy said flatly.
"I haven't even said what it is yet," Ah Li Man replied, visibly annoyed.
"Lady, I really don't have time. My own life is hanging by a thread here."
"Tell me what you're trying to do — I can help. But first, I need you to find the Hunter-mage team that entered the area not long ago and warn them: do not go any deeper into the valley. It will get them killed." Ah Li Man said.
She didn't have a bad impression of that group. They'd ogled her a bit, but she'd long since grown used to that kind of attention.
"I've basically been ready to plant a sign out there!" the Wolf Boy burst out. "The thing in the central swamp was already wounded. But for days now it's been one mage team after another practically lining up to feed it. I can't drag them back by force!"
Ah Li Man sat quietly and thought it through.
Word had spread that the valley contained an Earth Element Spirit Seed — apparently an exceptional one — which had drawn a steady stream of Hunter-mages. But the valley was a trap, and it had swallowed an untold number of lives. News of total wipeouts like these doesn't make it back to cities quickly. If word spread further, it would only draw more people to their deaths.
If even a High-Level Mage like her had been blindsided, no number of teams was going to change the outcome.
"You said the thing is wounded. How do you know that?" Ah Li Man's suspicion settled on this Wolf Boy.
Everyone else had barely made it halfway before dying. Yet somehow this man was alive and well, *living* inside the valley.
And she had clearly sensed the Dongting Lake Death God appearing nearby during her unconsciousness. So why was it this wild man who had ultimately saved her? Had she been imagining things?
"That... don't worry about it." The Wolf Boy shifted evasively.
"I don't even know your name."
"Oh. Call me Fan Mo."
"You seem to know this place well. I don't want to watch more people die — most of them are Intermediate-Level Mages." Ah Li Man fixed her gaze on this strangely extraordinary young man and spoke with quiet conviction. "Let's take out whatever is in that valley. Together."
Every hidden threat she encountered was one the military had a duty to eliminate. As a Military Commander faced with a situation like this, Ah Li Man had no choice.
Mo Fan blinked, caught off guard. He looked her up and down — this woman with her air of ineffable authority.
"I've been working on how to deal with it. The problem is, just the two of us probably won't cut it. We'd need someone nimble enough to draw the swarm of poisonous creatures away."
"There was someone shadowing our group before we entered the valley — someone who had clearly learned military tracking and concealment techniques. I'll find him," Ah Li Man said.
"That still might not be enough. We'd also need someone with the power to hold their own against a Commander-class creature, at least for a while." Mo Fan let out a breath. "Fine. Let's give it a try. But one thing upfront: whatever I came here for is mine. Don't compete with me for it, or you'll all be in danger."
"I have no interest in treasures," Ah Li Man said, as if the very concept were beneath her.