4 Great Wolf

"Ah, miss again"

Sun Zhen was practicing his shooting skill with the slingshot. The target was the birds in the sky, only 8 birds out of 30 birds got shot. The reason he used the birds as target practice because they were fast and suitable to kill pebbles. Also, they shit on his head while he practiced shooting .

He also got 2 more skills.

{ Prediction lvl 5 - Limit }

{ Aiming lvl 12 }

For some reason, Prediction seemsed to be limited and couldn't LVL up. Aiming was hard to LVL up, he had been trained until Saturday.

He also prepared a leather bag, a leather armor and a book about herbs. The leather armor was prepared by his mom and the book belong to his grandpa.

The leather armor belonged to his mom. She said that when she was young, she used to "play" with her friends which involved in a lot of fights.

Thanks to the book, he also received a new skill.

{ Herbologist lvl 3 }

He studied the book when he was in school and after dinner. With his LVL, he remembered 25 basic herbs and how to mixed them. He tried to find about Silver Grass but he didn't find anything about it.

"Are you ready, Sun Zhen? If not, you can stay back at the house"

"Grandpa. Don't try to discourage me"

After saying goodbye to his mom and grandma, he and his grandpa traveled to the village entrance. His grandpa then brought out a map from his bag and gave itnto Sun Zhen.

"Kid, it is your first day on the job so I will let you the honor to choose a location"

Sun Zhen looked at the map a bit then he chose the Great Wolf Mountain.

"That mountain? You want to see Silver Grass right? Haha, don't try to hide it. When I was young, I also tried to find it but I never did, so dream on"

"Old man, you can not even let a kid dream"

Sun Zhen thought in his mind while following his grandpa.

--1 hour later--

"We're here. The Great Wolf Mountain"

The mountain looked like it hadn't been touch by people for decades. Trees were over 7 meters, vines were so long that reached the ground. Green grasses were everywhere in sight and sound of nature was so harmony that could ease people mind.

"Do you know why this mountain named Great Wolf Mountain?" His grandpa asked him while he leaded him into the forest.

"Because there was a huge wolf here once?"

"That is true but it isn't about how big the wolf was, it was about its action. You see the Great Wolf was a named after it saved our village about 150 years ago. Your great grandpa used to tell me about the Wolf and how it saved us from bandits"

"And this is its Mountain?"

"Well, no. This was its grave. The Wolf died here, in this mountain. My dad said that he saw elders carried its body into this mountain and buried it here"

"How did it die?" Sun Zhen asked while helped his grandpa collected a herb.

"From the rumor, it said that the wolf died of old age apparently"

"Do you believe it?"

"How do I suppose to know? The wolf died before I was even born"

They traveled into the forest and collected a lot of herbs. Sun Zhen tried to spot the Silver Grass but he couldn't find a single one. His grandpa said that he was leading them through the safe path so if there was a silver grass, it would be found by someone else already.

"You see that Red Fold herb, it can heal a serious wounded injury within 2 days. It extremely expensive"

Because of how precious the herb was, he had to stay back and let his grandpa handled it.

"Kid, we are lucky this time. After selling it, we will have enough money to buy some silks for your new clothes"

His grandpa successfully collected the herbs without damaging it but something suddenly came out from the bush behind him. It was a bear, a huge brown bear. Its appearance shocked him but he reacted fast enough to catch Sun Zhen and ran away.

"Grandpa drop me down. You can not run while carrying me. I can run too"

"Shut up, you little @&$&£. Your mother is going to kill me if I let you run on your own"

The bear ran after them but it looked like it wasn't in a hurry then the bear let out a roar. After the roar, another brown bear appeared in front of them. The roar was a signal for its companions.

"SHIT, there is another one"

Both sides of the road were trees and behind him, there was also a bear. He didn't see any way to escape without getting harm.

The bears stopped and watched its preys. They wondered how tasty would the preys be.

Seeing there was only 1 solution, he decided to drop Su Zhen.

"Kid, I want you to run to run to the left of my side. There is a hunter hut there, you must reach them before sundown, Ok?"

"But..."

"Kid, listen to me just once in your life. Your grandpa is going to do something cool and you are going to ruin it"

"...Grandpa, please don't die"

Su Zhen ran accordingly to his grandpa instruction. The bear in front saw the smaller prey ran away so it decided to chase it but Su Zhen's grandpa already took action.

His grandpa brought out a dagger from his bag and threw it at the bear. The dagger was prepared as a self-defense weapon for his journey to the mountains. The dagger hit the bear and penetrated its flesh.

"ROAR"

The dagger did its job well, it diverse the bear attention to him. Both of the bears started to attack him.

--Not too far away--

"Shit, Shit, SHIT why did we meet wild animals on my first quest?"

Suddenly the system interface appeared in front of him while he was running. It was another quest.

QUEST:

Save your grandpa from being eaten

(The bears have took him to their lair)

\ 4 hours left /

Difficult Grade: Super Hard

Reward: A beginner Qi skill.

Failure: Your grandpa will die before you can get help.

This quest?!!! He couldn't believe it. The quest system gave him a sudden quest and the failure condition was a warning.

"I have to go back"

When he came back, he couldn't found any trace of the bears. He decided to go deeper into the forest, he found tigers, wolfs and any dangerous wild animals but there wasn't any sign of the bears.

He kept looking for 3 hours but what he got was a bunch of monkeys that wanted to kill him but he used the slingshot and shot them in the eyes. Those animals were much easier to shoot than the birds.

After he found some safe place to rest, he checked the quest and it was going to end in 1 hour.

The time was almost up. He felt hopeless and regret, why did he have to choose this mountain. He could just wait a few more years until he old enough to do the mission.

"I'm sorry, grandpa. I...'m so...rry" *Crying*

[ Child, ... follow my voice ]

A strange voice entered his mind so he looked around but he couldn't found anyone. Maybe he had become crazy.

[ Child, ... Follow My Voice ]

This time, the voice was clearer and it sounded like a female. Sun Zhen decided to follow the voice because he was desperate for help.

--Somewhere in the forest--

Sun Zhen arrived at an empty field, the field was as big as a football stadium and there wasn't any grass or tree on the field. Seem like the place was dead.

[ Follow my voice ]

He felt like he was being lured to his death but what could he do, he didn't know where to go back.

He kept listening to the voice and walked into the field. He walked until he reached the middle of the field then the voice stopped.

"Hello? Are you still there? Please don't leave me alone"

Suddenly a hole appeared below him and he felt down. The way down wasn't pleasant.

"Ouch. Fck. Shit my face... Why... AH, my leg... No, my other leg..."

The fall finally stopped and he fall down on his back. The ground was soft enough to handle his fall. During his way down, he was hit by rocks and hard surfaces. Luckily, he was only hurt, not injured.

He stood up then looked around so that he could know where he was. It was a big cave but it wasn't dark because surrounding him was Silver Grass, they were everywhere and they illuminated the whole care.

"Siver Grass, there are so many"

[ Child, you are here. Good, go deeper ]

He saw that he couldn't do anything to look for his grandpa if he gathered the grass so he went deeper into the cave.

Eventually, he arrived at the end of the cave and what he saw made him hold his breath.

It was a huge skeleton of an animal. It was so big that he couldn't identify what kind of animal it was.

[ Child, come and take the stone inside the skull ]

"Why? I will not do it"

[ Child, do you want to save your grandpa ]

"I... Yes, I will do what you said"

He went closer to the skull and looked through its eye. He saw a white stone just like what the voice told him so he jumped in and reached out his hand to pick up the stone.

The moment he touched the stone. His mind started getting weird visions.

*Unknow vision*

"Easy there boy, you are hurt. Let me help you"

A man, who dressed like a forest hunter with a bow in his hand, was coming closer to an injured wolf.

The wolf was the same size as an adult dog and its fur was pure white. Its blue eyes kept looking at the hunter and showed its teeth to threaten him.

The Hunter then brought out something from his bag which alarmed the wolf and it stood up then bit his arm. Despite the wolf bit his arm and showed pain on his face, he didn't scream or run away. He just used his other hand and scratched the wolf's head.

After seeing the man not doing anything harmful, the wolf slowly let go of his arm. He smiled then brought out a woven strip bandage and Red Fold herbs.

The wolf saw the Red Fold before, its kinds always used that herb to applied on injuries.

The man gently applied the herbs then bandaged the injuries. The wolf then stood up and tried to run away but it couldn't stand up for long so it felt down the ground again.

The hunter slowly walked to it and lifted wolf then placed it on his shoulder. The wolf didn't fight back and let the man carried it.

*Another Vision*

Inside the small wooden house, a man was cooking while the injured wolf slept near the fire.

"Come here boy, it's dinner time"

The wolf stood up and ate its food that the man just gave. He then went behind the wolf and lift its tail up.

"Oh so you are a girl. You have been living for the past few days but I didn't know your gender"

The wolf turned around and bit him in the arm again.

"Oh, shit not again. Haha, I'm sorry. Ouch that hurt"

*Another Vision*

The man and the wolf stood outside of a forest

"Go now. All your injuries have been healed so go on"

The wolf looked at the man who saved it then it jumped on him and licked his face.

"HAHA, I am going to miss you too"

The wolf ran back to the wolf after that and the hunter went back to his house

*Another Vision*

The hunter heard a howling voice outside his house so he went out and saw the same white wolf that he saved months ago. Its body was the same, full of injuries.

He then come out and brought the wolf back to his house.

The cycle of healing and let it go continued. Again and again.

Every time the wolf came back, it became bigger and the hunter became older.

*Another Vision*

The wolf was now 3 meter tall and the hunter was now 68 years old.

The wolf stood outside, bathing under the sun while the old man sat on his chair, enjoying the peacefulness.

Despite the wolf appearance would cause a stir when the village was so near the hunter place, it chose to stay here because the old man was going to die soon.

"Hehe, you still getting bigger. Imagine someday you could reach the sky. I wish I could see that"

He laughed out a bit then he coughed out some blood. His life force was going to burn out soon.

The wolf couldn't do anything, it could only look at the old man. It wanted to share its life force but knowing it would be too dangerous for the man to take.

"Hey, can I ask you for a favor?... I want you to look out for the village down there. My wife and daughter are staying at that village. Yeah, a favor how I saved you many times, Hehe... I just want to say that, it had been fun staying here with you. Goodbye old friend"

The old man finally closed his eyes and drew his last breath.

The wolf didn't know why he had stayed out here and choose not to go back to his family. But it would do what the man had told me to do.

After burying his body, the wolf went into the forest again and disappeared without a trace.

When the village was in danger, the wolf came and took care of it. To made sure the village was out of danger, it stayed near the entrance but well hidden from people sight.

--Almost 90 years passed--

The wolf also reached the end of its life so it chose the same place where the hunter was buried. Some elders saw its moved to the mountain but knowing how weak it showed the past few years, they decided to follow. The wolf didn't care about the people and arrived at the place.

The house wasn't there, only a field of grass. The wolf started digging and created a cave there. The elders only stayed until it stopped and moved deep into the cave. Some elder decided to open a shrine for it.

Unfortunately, there was a huge storm the next day and the cave was covered by mud. The whole place changed and the elders couldn't find the cave. So they decided to name the mountain, the Great Wolf Mountain.

*Vision ended*