Weapons of Mass Destruction

Chapter 364: A demon and a wolf

The panic erupting around us is glorious. Hundreds of people from the lower difficulties turn in flight as they spot the black wolf from a distance.

I admit that I might have underestimated their survival instinct. I halfway expected them to stand around taking photos of the giant wolf snarling at Isabella and calling her an asshole.

But well, some of them faint just from the pressure of the wolf's telepathic messages, so maybe I shouldn’t get my hopes up for their abilities.

(Let go of my master! How dare you, human! Master, this is such a disgrace! Please, I beg of you, let me avenge you!) he shouts telepathically. Yet the wolf still doesn’t attack.

Knowing where to look, I can sense his telepathic connection to Biscuit as they communicate.

Unsure what to do with the unmoving potty-mouthed wolf, we opt to stand there and wait it out. One thing is for sure: if he so much as moves in an aggressive manner, he’ll have a few dozen members of Hell difficulty piling up on him in moments.

Like Vega, he doesn’t have any text floating over his head. Vega used to have the title of [Disciple] over hers on the 5th Floor, but it was gone when she returned after her week off. It hasn’t returned either. Does that mean we won’t have access to this information after we leave the tutorial? Is this a tutorial thing only?

“Master, I want to pet him! Can you hold him down like you did with that Ashenwolf?”

I ignore my disciple and keep my eyes on the giant creature. This situation, especially the reactions of the people around me, has become highly entertaining. Once again, something new has been thrown our way, an unexpected situation caused by a single blimp-like doggo. This burrito-shaped corgi is always doing stuff like this.

“Biscuit, is this your disciple?” I ask, it’s the only sensible thing I could think to ask.

“There is no way…” Maya tries to say.

(Friend!) Biscuit interrupts her, speaking into our minds.

Oh boy.

“Sophie, please tell the others from Hell to calm down. Group 4 will take care of Wolfy,” I tell her.

Sophie acts immediately, without asking questions, and relays the message. With Vega in my arms, I use kinetic energy to push myself through the air and land in front of the black wolf.

The creature is massive. About the size of a building. His mere presence feels overwhelming, not to mention the sheer weight of him as he shifts his body. His golden eyes shine dangerously as he bears his teeth, each one longer than I'm tall, and he lowers his head.

(Asshole, I have not attacked because my master doesn’t wish for me to do so, but I refuse to watch the disgrace he is being subjected to. Tell that young female to let him go! Right away!) His voice sounds like that of a young boy, and the thought that he might be little more than a pup comes to mind.

Just how big must his parents be? How powerful is the wolf? He doesn’t feel as strong as Gaiathra nor as strong as Veil Weaver. Maybe he’s around the level of a Veil Guardian?

I want to fight him and test him out. He is the first monster I’ve met with human intelligence and capable of speech. Actually, is he considered a monster or an animal?

(Friend,) Biscuit says, relaying the message through the common area.

It feels like the declaration was mostly meant for me, almost as if the corgi knows what’s going through my head.

Damn it, okay. I won’t bully the wolfy.

Biscuit floats from Isabella’s hands and slowly flies over to me. Then he looks at the wolf who lowers his head in response, like a child expecting a spanking from his father.

(Friend!) Biscuit tells the wolf and floats over to Vega who I hold in my arms and sniffs at her curiously.

“Master, are these people and creatures your minions?” Vega asks, her eyes ticking between Biscuit, the wolf, and the others.

“You could say that,” I reply.

“Were they your minions even before I became your disciple?”

“You are my first minion,” I respond, knowing what she wants to hear, much to the happiness of the red eyed half demon.

She shifts in my arms, clearly satisfied, her tiny horns poking the bottom of my chin. “Then as First minion and First disciple, I outrank them and they have to show me respect!”

(It’s you who will be showing respect to the master, youngling!) Wolfy complains.

“Just wait until the master holds you with his powerful skill, I will pet you for hours!” Vega threatens.

(WHAT!?), the young black wolf seems genuinely shocked. (My lineage is that of an ancient wolf who devoured planets. I will not allow myself to be petted by a weak girl smelling of those maniacal demons!)

“Your heart is weak!” my minion shouts back as if it’s the worst insult she could come up with.

Then Maya says what I can only believe everyone’s been thinking, “What the fuck.” She is almost laughing, in shock and sheer disbelief at the situation we’ve found ourselves in.

As threatening as the Wolfy Boi looks, he doesn’t cause any trouble. Having been reined in by Biscuit, he obediently follows his master’s orders, and when we move on to our house, he lays down nearby, crushing part of the forest as he does so.

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I notice that everyone from Group 4 is weirdly stiff, bodies ready to explode into movement and fight. It’s as if they were yanked out of the playful mood engendered by the tournament and into a life threatening struggle. They stay like that even as Biscuit explains everything with Isabella and myself to translate.

The young wolf calls us assholes multiple times and I don’t even have to think for a second to know where it comes from.

Goddammit, Biscuit.

The future animal Absolute, Overlord of Earth, Archmage of the tutorial, and deer jerky addict, just floats between us and his disciple. Proud as he tries to introduce both sides.

I bet the corgi saw me summoning my disciple and did the same. Something he probably managed with one of his rewards from the events. So far, no one else seems to have received the same reward.

(Food,) Biscuit declares stopping in front of me.

When I grab his cheeks and squeeze them and then hold him to boop his nose 50 times, the black wolf shifts in his position, golden eyes watching the disgrace I subject his master to.

“Master, you can do that to my nose too!” Vega fights for my attention.

Instead, I let go of Biscuit who floats to the black wolf who's conversing with Gareth and Tess. Then I grab Vega’s horn and pull her closer.

“‘Kaboom’, you said.” I shake her head.

“Kaboom!” she answers happily.

“Tell me what you’ve done.”

POV Aaron Dalton

(Fuck, this is creepy. That guy almost seems to be smiling,) Dennis tells me through the link we’ve kept separate from the one integrated into Sophie’s web.

(He isn’t.)

(Just look closer, the corners of his lips are twitching up, and look at the way he’s holding that girl. What the hell, isn’t he just a mana maniac? Why does he look like her older brother now?)

(More like a dad.)

“Kaboom!” the girl smiles as she replies to Nathaniel.

She’s even younger than Isabella but at the same time, I feel nervous just seeing her. Every time Nathaniel looks away, her expression grows cold.

I’ve never seen a child like that before.

For a moment my eyes meet hers as well when Nathaniel turns to the side to say something to Kim sitting next to him. Her red eyes are devoid of expression, just like Nathaniel on the 1st Floor.

It reminds me of the mana rain, of us fighting to survive as the drops pierced our skin and Nathaniel coldly massacred the monsters. She’s just like he was then.

But that expression disappears the moment Nathaniel starts turning her way. She smiles at me and even waves, but it feels fake. Her eyes only seem to light up again when Nathaniel turns his attention back to her, a big smile overtaking her face.

Through our link, Dennis can feel my emotions and I can feel his, and we are of one mind when it comes to the little girl.

(She’s a demon,) Dennis says.

Tiny pointy horns, deep red eyes. She looks like she is ready to start a fight at any moment and will try to bite out your neck if she has to.

(Izzy, what do you think of her?) I ask, adding her to the conversation. At the same time, Aaron adds Sophie.

(She is scary!) Isabella shouts the moment she connects to the web.

(She is just a girl, she’s probably been through a lot,) Sophie tries. (Is there a chance it’s that? Nat said his disciple had a harsh life.)

(It could be…) Isabella hesitates. (But she is scary! Even the pretty wolf feels less dangerous!)

(Well, fuck,) Dennis sighs.

(Don’t curse in front of Isabella!) Sophie warns. (What emotions do you feel from her?)

Isabella is silent for a while and then says, (She is very happy and really likes Nat! But she doesn’t like us.)

(Maybe she’s jealous, maybe she thinks we’re going to take Nat from her,) I offer as we observe the little girl.

“I found a nest of gray lizards, a LOT of them. The gray lizards I told you about, and they really were tasty and their limbs really do grow back. Maybe I can get you one sometime so that you can learn to regrow your limbs faster!” Nathaniel´s disciple looks at him and studies him seriously, “How is Bambi’s curse? Did it get better?”

What are they even talking about?

(She is not worried about us taking him,) Isabella disagrees. (At least not much! She just doesn’t care about us. She got very scared when she appeared here and saw us all, but the moment she noticed Nathaniel she calmed down.)

That is surprising. Other than the few glances Dennis and I’ve caught she seems normal. Even now she is smiling happily while talking to him and when Nat introduces people to her she greets them. She seems friendly, almost like she’s just a kid, scared of meeting a lot of new people out of nowhere.

But I just can’t help but feel nervous when her eyes change just a tiny bit every time she looks at anyone other than her master.

(She is really good at detecting mana too,) Sophie mentions. (She’s had her mana senses up the entire time, constantly checking for danger.)

I didn’t notice anything.

(The hell, really? I can’t sense anything either!) even Dennis seems to be as shocked as me.

(Try to focus on it a bit more, like this,) Sophie implores as she shares her method for detecting the interference and I feel it too.

Only then do we notice. The faintest touch of her mana senses.

(Oh and by the way, what she’s doing feels extremely similar to what Nat’s been doing. It’s just that I can’t even sense Nat doing it most of the time. But I’m sure he’s expanding his senses around himself even now.)

(He’s happy,) Isabella says out of nowhere and with Sophie’s help she shares what tiny bits of feelings she can detect through Nathaniel’s defenses.

It’s so weird. Even though his face stays nearly the same as always, he seems more lively, even his movements are quicker, as if his whole being has been affected. He doesn’t even seem to mind as she snuggles up to him, her head pressing into his chest. As if it were routine.

But then Nathaniel seems to notice something and mid sentence, his eyes light up with a golden circle around his pupils. He turns to us and I feel him take over a section of the web as if it were nothing. No matter how many countermeasures we’ve placed to limit this kind of influence.

(Izzy, I told you to stop doing that,) his voice admonishes through the link. (But anyway, my minion sensed you guys probing so at least come and greet her. You’re acting like a bunch of creepy stalkers.)

Then his presence disappears.

Looking towards us, one of the red eyes of his disciple changes too, the faintest hint of a golden circle appearing around the pupil.

The girl younger than Isabella smiles at us, but I still feel like a bug in her eyes.