Chapter 27: Scout team[1]

Levi continued living with the wolves. Training both his Aether techniques and fighting skills at the same time.

He had manged to obtain a win lose ratio of 10:17 against the two wolves. And as for his progress with Aether cloak, he had actually managed to increase it's duration to an entire minute, before the irrelevant think that's conjured as a result of the technique's activation eventually screwed him. 

His Aether skin though had yet to improve at all as ge was unavle to imbue more than 2.5% of his Aether. Each time he tried to increase the output, the aether would just disperse into the air. At first, he tgoughthat it was just as a result of not mastering aether flow properly, but his numerous aether rotation exercises proved the claim wrong.

He was yet to figure out the reason behind this though. The only aspect of him which had a significant improvement was undoubtedly his fighting technique. His reactions to attacks were getting quicker, his footwork was steadily getting more refined and his hand-to-hand combat skill improved tremendously.

The fact that his battle prowess was getting better was his only consolation as more bad news followed his inability to improve aether wise. The time that Aina gave him was slowly running out, and even with all the scouts that were sent out, they were yet to see any signs of the rampaging Alpha. Levi was genuinely worried about this fact.

A small portion of him was worried about having to cancel the blood contract and losing the Elixer water, but an even larger portion was worried for his friend, Raja.

Today, Levi had taken it upon himself to join the scout team. The scout team were the ones who brought back food for the entire den, as well being on the look out for possible dangers to the den. The current number one danger right now was obviously the demon bear, Alpha.

"Levi. Are you sure that you don't want to stay and keep on practicing with Ara and Tio here?" Raja asked, turning his slightly to point to the two D-rank wolves that stood behind him.

"Yeah. I'm sure." Levi responded.

Levi and the rest were currently standing outside the den. Behind him were four hurricane wolves. Three of which were E-rank, and one was a D-rank. 

The D-rank, like Ara and Tio had a name and could also talk, his name was Swift. Like his name suggested, he was the fastest wolf in the pack. His fighting ability was slightly lower than the other D-rank's, but his speed was definitely not to be trifled with as his mastery of the movement spell; Air step, rivaled Raja's.

Swift's distinguishing feature were the black spots on his four legs.

Raja was a bit reluctant for two reasons. Firstly, he was actually worried about the boy. Levi was definitely stronger than before by a wide margin, but would he really be able to keep up with the pace of wolves trained for scouting? There was also the problem of Swift's personality. He was a very irritable person, and Levi could guess that from the scowl that plastered itself on his face.

The scout team comprised of pack members whose primary objective was to secure food for the entire den. They would go out in the early afternoon to return before late evening, before dinner, and the food they brought back was expected to last the entire den till dinner.

"Don't worry. I'll be following them." A baritone voice rang out from somewhere in the pack that stood behind Raja.

They all turned their heads to see who spoke and it was none other than John, the bodyguard that was left behind to ensure Levi's safety. He could guess what was going on and decided to come forward.

John had spent the last few days on his own. He would go out of the den to search for Alpha on his own and he would only return to eat meals and check on Levi. He was a C-rank mage and to him, there was nothing that the hurricane wolves could teach him.

His bravery though was commendable. Living in a pack of creatures whose language he coul not understand. Levi was forced to translate most of the important stuff for him.

It was good to note that he purposely ignored the fact that Levi could use a very special kind of mana, as per Aina's orders.

"I will follow them, so you can be rest assured of their safety." John said confidently. His words could not be more off point though as Raja was not in the least bit worried for his pack members. He trusted Swift that much.

"Hmm. Ok then, I agree, but do you, Swift?" Raja asked the head of the scout team, Swift.

Swift eyed the two humans for some time. He knew about John's strength since he had seen it first-hand, and he had a very good idea of Levi's since he had watched some of the training matches. 

But he was a very skeptical creature and for a currently unknown reason, he didn't like humans.

"They can come. Just don't drag us down, humans." He replied and turned away, obviously unwilling to offer any further conversation.

"Okay then, good luck to you all." Raja gave his permission and they began their scouting expedition.

"Hey boss, do you think that those two will be alright?" Tio asked Raja after the group had left the den premises.

"....to tell you the truth, I'm not so sure." Raja responded with a very eerie tone.

A few minutes later, the scout team of Swift, John, Levi and three other random wolves had walked a good distance from the den.

Suddenly, Swift stopped moving. John and Levi were a bit confused by this action, but the two wolves seemed to be aware of what was about to go down and we're already gathering Mana for a spell. 

"Before we continue, I would like to say some things." Swift said, not even bothering to turn around and face his audience. Levi and John didn't care though and allowed him to continue.

"The roles of the scouts include securing enough food for the pack, as well as securing the den's perimeter and alerting the base if any anomaly is found.

This isn't our first time and as such, we already have our hunting grounds. We will have to go around the den to reach it though. You may ask why we make use of such a far away hunting ground, but the answer should be obvious.

It would allow us to secure food, while also securing the den's perimeter. The place is a bit far from here so we will have to move fast and effectively while also keeping our eyes peeled for any potential dangers to the pack..." Swift explained and Levi translated.

The wolf turned his head ever so slightly as wind Mana began to gather around him. He was casting a spell.

"....so you understand. Try to keep up". Swift said and turned around.

"Air step." He said and zoomed off. Covering a massive 15 meters with a single movement, the other three wolves followed right behind him.

"Holy sh*t...." John muttered. Even he, a C-rank, couldn't help but be amazed at Swift's mastery of the 2nd tier wind spell.

'woah. I don't think Raja can do something like this.' Grim said.

'yeah....'

"Oi. Kid. I don't need to carry you on my back now, do I?" John asked. He was by now a little more than vaguely aware of Levi's abilities.

"Nope." Levi said. Not offering any further conversation, he activated aether skin. Passing aether into his leg muscles he ran after Swift.

"Huh? Hey wait up!" John said, but Levi didn't even look back at him and just forged ahead.

"Damn it..." John muttered under his breath and started gathering Mana for a spell.

He said the chant for the spell and called out the spell's name, "Gliding Earth." It was a 3rd tier earth magic spell.

Suddenly, the ground under his feet protruded out to form a stone platform with a diameter of 1 meter, and then the stone platform started moving. 

The stone platform moved, unhindered, through the ground. It was as though the platform was gliding through the earth itself.

Truly, it was a feat which was only possible with magic.

John was moving very quickly, and so it didn't take too long for him to catch up to Levi, who was right behind the three E-rank wolves. Swift, though, was ahead of the entire group by at least thirty meters!

They were all moving at very impressive speeds and so they arrived at their destination very quickly. Swift arrived first, followed by John, then Levi and the other three wolves.

"What took you guys so long. I even had enough time for a nap before you guys arrived." Swift said. He had a very spiteful personality.

"Che.." John scoffed. He could not understand what the wolf was saying, but it was quite obvious from the condescending gaze plastered on his face.

  Levi couldn't even say anything as he breathed heavily. Even with his enhanced muscles, it still ate through a lot of stamina to get here. He even had to stop a few times on the way. 

"There is a herd of deer in the inner parts of these woods. We will go hunt a few so you two humans are to to stay here and not do anything. We will be back in an hour or so and then we'll return. Got it?" Swift asked and John just tilted his head confusedly. He could not understand what the wolf was saying.

The entire process of communication was delayed until Levi regained his breath. After he did, he began repeating all of Swift's words.

"Uh..no. I don't got it. Do you seriously expect us to just sit on our asses here and do nothing?" John asked. His voice was practically oozing annoyance and irritation at Swift's statement. 

"Yes." Swift simply said.

"W-why you..." John fumed. A white coloured aura began to emanate from his body, it was his Mana. John was trying to use his raw magical energy to intimidate Swift.

If the wolf was actually afraid or shocked, then he did a really good job hiding it. Swift didn't even bat an eye at John's obvious threat. Somehow, the wolf was resisting the aura of a C-4ank mage.

"Oi, oi. There's no need for you to throw a tantrum. If you really want to do something then you can hunt rabbits or mice. That should be a fitting level of difficulty for a human like you." Swift said and then disappeared from sight, followed by the other two Mana beasts.

"Tch. Damn wolf...if he had stayed then I would have taught him a good lesson. Anyway, there is nothing for us to do here so let's go back." John said and turned to his right, where Levi was. Or where he was supposed to be.

John looked left and right for Levi. Untill he found him crouching down near the bushes. The boy was steadily getting better at the disappearing act 

"Huh? What the hell are you doing over there?"

Levi looked at the bodyguard with contempt in his eyes and then ignored him to walk away.

"Hey! Wait up!" John shouted and ran towards Levi's position. He arrived near the bushes where he sighted the young man, but for some reason, Levi was gone again.

John turned his head left and right in search of the young man, but all of his efforts were rewarded with an a*s load of nothing.

"Oi. Quit playing games with me, dammit!" John shouted and proceeded to use a spell.

He gathered Mana and chanted a few words, before shouting; "earth location."

Mana passed through the ground and John received information of all possible matches with Levi within a thirty meter radius.

The earth location spell was a good tracking spell, but it had a downside. It wasn't very exact. It only gave information of the possible matches to fit the caster's bill. It wasn't good for locating a particular person in a crowd, and that was why it was only a 3rd tier spell despite it's potential range.

Information regarding all creatures with sizes similar to Levi's flooded into John's head and there were multiple results, both far and near.

"Damn. He couldn't have gotten that far, so I'll start with the closet ones. That brat. If it wasn't for lady Aina, then I would have kicked his a*s already!" John shouted and ran off, in search of Levi.

As he ran off, a pair of light blue eyes gazed at his back from behind. Immediately the bodyguard disappeared from sight, a wide smile appeared on the beholder's face. It was Levi.

He came out from where he was hiding behind a particular tree with Aether cloak. He had purposely sent the poor bodyguard on a wild goose chase.

"While you see it as an annoyance, I see it as an opportunity to practice my aether technique." Levi said. The mischievous grin still plastered on his face.

A/N:

Special thanks to halis_eren_balaban and Epic_Buddie123. Thanks guys!

We did it guys! I managed to update today! A good night's rest works wonders for your fatigue!