Chapter 413 Miasma

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After the battle and being healed, we quickly began doing a few warmups with Aquarina and Zack to get ready. Our bodies ended getting almost paralyzed due to the pain and exhaustion our bodies felt, which was quickly healed using an Elixir, the shock of having everything healed often paralyzes the body according to my father, so we had to warm up so our muscles could get warm and work properly.

"Phew, that was a very hard fight… I want to rest…" Aquarina sighed.

"We can't, we gotta keep moving, we are not done here yet, Aquarina." Said Zack.

"Eeehh? You're pretty tired, stop pretending you're alright!" Said Aquarina.

"I-I am not pretending…!" Zack said angrily.

"Okay, okay, relax for a bit." I sighed. "You two fought amazingly. I guess you were really upset about the previous time so you overdid it a lot… And your Beast Auras also grew stronger, or is that my idea?"

"They did, I felt like the element of ice has been merged with my element of water within my aura, it was super strange…" Said Aquarina. "But it felt like I grew stronger."

"Me too… My Wind and Lightning converged together." Said Zack. "I've been training for a long while with Ninhursag, she told me that the element of wind and lightning are compatible with one another and can form the Storm Element. Maybe I got an affinity for that…"

"You sure do! I can still remember how amazing you fought!" I said, praising Zack.

"Heheh… It's nothing!" Zack said. Despite being so complex sometimes, he was still very simple-minded, being praised was enough to make him feel embarrassed.

"And you too, Aquarina, amazingly done. Pyuku also worked hard." I said. "I didn't thought you were able to shapeshift your body like that, is this a new power?"

Pyuku seemed to nod.

"P y u! P y u k u!"

"I remember he began eating weapons the other day, maybe that's it?" Wondered Aquarina.

"W-What weapons did he ate?" I asked.

"Some rusty things that the tribe throws away sometimes. He often cleans all the dirty stuff and even the bathrooms! Slimes are very convenient and surprisingly hygienic!" Aquarina said, praising her pet.

Wait, did Pyuku ate… waste from the bathrooms?

…

I better not overthink it.

"I think as he grows stronger he'll be able to do a lot more!" Said Aquarina. "You're very useful, Pyuku!" Aquarina quickly took a few berries from her pocket and feed them to him.

As we finished warming up an felt better, we went to the side of my father and Shade, finding them inspecting the enormous, beheaded corpse of the wolf. They were looking at its fur, the armor it grew over its body, the horns, the third red eye, and everything else, even its blood and flesh.

"Papa, we hunted this one! Can we eat it?" I wondered.

"Erm… I think it could be edible if we purify it with your mother's light magic, but we can't eat it right now. Look." My father quickly showed us something, as Shade used a knife to open the sliced neck of the wolf and reveal a lot of disgusting-looking black liquid coming out, alongside small, shattered pieces of a purple crystal which were emanating a strangely dark aura.

"Uegh…" Aquarina muttered, feeling disgusted by the rancid and acidic smell of this black liquid. It was certainly not something normal that would appear inside a monster.

"This liquid is miasma…" Said my father.

"Miasma?!" I asked.

"We presume that this monster was modified by some alchemist that is working in the cult. It was given miasma in the form of its crystalized form, a Demonite Crystal." Said my father. "Demonite Crystals grow over the Demon Continent and are concentrated miasma with incredible magical power. When a monster is given these to eat, they mutate and grow incredibly strong. It is also sued as a fuel for many magic items and advanced societies once purified… but it has this method of usage as well."

"Wait, what?! So someone feed this wolf some Demonite to make it stronger?" Zack wondered.

"Yeah, that's right." Shade answered promptly after.

"We might be getting closer to whatever hideout these people had. Let's keep looking for now." My father said. "If they have Demonite in their hands, they're not merely a cult made in here, and they might be getting external help as well."

"Well, it was almost a given after they showed the ability to build up a spell that summoned a True Demon, but this might confirm it." Sighed Shade.

"I can sense something in the depths of the Steppes, we should keep going then… Kids, can you keep up?" Wondered my father.

"Yeah!" We said in unison.

"Then let's go, follow us, we'll hasten the pace!" My father suddenly began running through the forest, slowly increasing his speed. Shade was even faster and was already running ahead of him. I guess this was also an endurance test of some sort. We had to keep up with these two insane former heroes speed!

"Oof… Running so fast right after that… It's a bit too much…" Zack complained.

"Hey! Come on, are you going to stay behind? Monsters are coming." My father said teasingly.

"Eh?"

"ROAR!"

Suddenly, a pack of ten wolves appeared out of nowhere behind us, these seemed twice as strong as the black horned wolves and were covered in red fur with blazing flames on top. The fog of the mana surrounding the area had dissipated and the light of the day helped us guide ourselves across this thick forest, but these monsters appeared out of nowhere without us even being able to detect them!

"Oh, those are Blazing Wolves!" My father said.

"New test, defeat them all while keeping up with us." Shade said ruthlessly.

"AWOOOO!"

And just as if things couldn't get worse, a two-headed, six-meter-tall Blazing Wolf appeared right behind the other ten… It was another pack leader.

Is this seriously?!

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