The Divine Wolf... or?
Chapter 20: Travelling!

It had already been a day since Ark had parted with the youth that had been left behind. But to Ark, it felt like much more than a simple parting with a youth. To Ark, it felt like he had parted with all of humanity since he wasn't going to see any humans anytime soon, and if he does then he will probably have to avoid them.

He still didn't really trust humans, he didn't have a real reason to do it anyway.

He had never had any close contact with a human that he felt that he could really trust, he might have the chance to actually get really close to a human in this life, but he didn't think that it would be that easy since he was currently a wolf, and he didn't even have a form of communication other than just nodding and gestures.

After about a days travel Ark had managed to cover quite the distance, since he kind of wanted to get away from humanity for a while to train up both his combat skills and his level. If he could, he also wanted to further evolve, leaving most humans in the dust. He felt that if he was powerful enough he wouldn't have to be afraid of living with humans since they wouldn't be able to hurt him then.

This goal, however, would most likely take a lot of time since power wasn't obtained that easily, even if he had levels and stuff. There was also a lot of risks in trying to get stronger by gaining levels.

Right now Ark was in a forest, this wasn't the same forest that had been bordering the city, it was actually another forest which he had found a while after he had left the other forest. This new forest was actually very special, it wasn't your standard forest. The trees in this forest was a dark shade of gray, and the leaves on the trees were brown.

This made the forest very off-putting as it felt kind of spooky. Ark had gained a skill which granted him mental fortitude, otherwise, he would probably not be able to stay as calm. Ark had noticed that this forest not only looked spooky, but it also seemed to affect the minds of the people who wandered into it in some kind of way.

This, however, didn't seem to be that bad since Ark didn't even need to use Mana to defend himself. Other people would probably have to use Mana to defend themselves, since the only reason Ark didn't need to was because of his skill.

Ark had only been in this forest for a couple of hours, he had found a couple of monsters earlier but he decided to not kill them since he had not found his temporary base as of yet. And he didn't want to make any stupid mistakes before he had somewhere to escape to if things weren't looking too good.

It didn't take him that long to replace a water source this time when he was looking and he actually found one with a very favorable location. The lake that he had found was connected to a smaller stream, which seemed to be going somewhere. It was surrounded by forest on three of the sides, but at the north side, it was facing a minor mountain.

This mountain couldn't even compare to the mountain that Ark had come to this world in. This mountain didn't look majestic at all. It was quite small and it was not very pointy. What it did have though were numerous caves. Some of them were pretty big and easy to identify, while some of them were really well hidden and hard to replace.

The cave that Ark had decided to make his base of operations, for the time being, was a cave that was hidden behind a boulder. If you went to the right of said boulder you could replace a slight opening into the mountain. This was however neatly hidden behind some vines.

Ark actually got very lucky when he found this cave since it had a great strategic location and was very hard to replace. Since he was also very close to the water Ark knew there would be monsters coming here daily. This meant that he had secured a hiding spot, water, and food, these were the most important things for him right now. Which made this spot perfect for him.

He could also use the monsters that would come to drink as a source of experience, which would help him in gaining levels since he wouldn't need to actively search for his enemies.

What Ark was a little skeptic about however was the other caves, there were bound to be monster and beasts lurking in some of them, that had already set up their territory, if this had happened then Ark hoped that they wouldn't be too strong since it would mess with his plans.

But if they were truly strong then Ark wouldn't complain too much, since this was a prime opportunity to temper himself. One of the most important aspects to strength was battle experience, even if you were super powerful you would still die to a weak opponent if they had a lot more experience than you, and you would probably be too afraid to do anything.

After having settled down in the cave for a little while Ark decided to drink some water, after that he would wait by the lake until he found suitable prey. He hadn't eaten in a while now, so he was very hungry. Fortunately for him, he didn't feel any hunger when he woke up after his evolution, which probably meant that his vitality and such was restored when he evolved.

Ark quickly arrived by the water as quiet as he could be, trying to not attract any attention just in case there was a monster nearby. Whilst he was drinking he heard some noises coming from his right side. After hearing these noises Ark quickly dived into the bushes behind him while activating his "Stealth" and regulating his breathing as well as he could.

This was a skill he picked up recently since he felt that breathing was too loud, he came up with his own most efficient way of doing it. Since Ark's paws were pretty soft, to begin with, he barely generated any sound at all when he used stealth.

The monster that had made the noises had quickly scurried out of the bushes, it seemed very scared as it tried to drink the water to the best of its abilities as fast as it could. This monster looked like a mutated rat, and upon seeing this rat-like creature, Ark decided to check out its status just in case.

He didn't think it would be any powerful, but he felt that it would benefit him to be a little cautious since he was in a foreign world. A thing that was a little interesting however was the fact that Ark felt more connected to this world compared to his old one.

[Ratling]

A weak rat monster, likes to live in swarms.

Lv.7 (7)

Agility: 16

Strength: 9

Vitality: 14

Dexterity: 15

Seeing these stats Ark felt relieved. Since it wasn't a threat at all he quickly snuck up into the bushes behind it. What happened next shocked him greatly though. Just as Ark was about to lunge on the rat he heard an ear-piercing howl. Following this, he felt an immense heat well up in front of him. Since he wasn't very experienced yet he had closed his eyes due to his reflexes.

And when he opened them again, he found that the rat was gone, what was left was only a patch of burnt grass...