The Divine Wolf... or?

Since they had nothing better to do, Alenia and Thufrat followed Ark into an inconspicuous restaurant and sat down to eat. After eating their fill, they all left to buy themselves some horses. Ark had told them the reward he would get if he completed the mission while they were eating, and Thufrat nearly choked to death on his food, it was an absurd amount of money for commoners like them after all.

This time, since they had to travel quite the distance, they bought a lesser draconic horse. This horse had a sliver of a dragon's bloodline, which boosted its physical strength and endurance to a whole new level.

This also gave Thufrat another degree of control over the horse, since his bloodline had a lot of influence over other draconic bloodlines, especially this one since the bloodline connection was pretty distant.

Now, why would they only buy one horse? They were 3 people, right? Ark didn't need a horse since he would be travelling in his wolf form. Alenia would just ride with Thufrat, instead of wasting money on another horse. Since they had no one to say goodbye to, they just left the same afternoon.

The lesser draconic horse was very fast, even considerably faster than the thunder horse Thufrat had bought last time, but to Ark, this was a piece of cake. The higher the level of his body refining skill, the more it felt like a complete cheat!

His agility was at 80 right now! That was insane considering that it had been a while since the last time he invested any points into it. Ark was confident that unless he faced someone that was more than double his level, Ark would come out ahead, or at the very least run away with his life. The journey was very smooth, and they travelled for the entire day, not stopping until nightfall.

They had eaten lunch earlier, but they were still pretty hungry now.

The night quickly passed, and they travelled without stopping the next day as well. Like so, they travelled for days on end, eating when they felt like it, and sleeping whenever they wanted. 15 days passed by in the blink of an eye, and they had already entered into Estridsen.

Ark was a little exhausted after running so much, even though his endurance was high, the muscles in his legs were a little sore.

A couple of hours past noon, they all entered a small village just outside the capital. Since Ark's mission wasn't happening for another two weeks, they decided to just settle down here for the time being. Spending time in the capital would only give the palace a chance to identify them, even though that chance would be very slim, taking risks for a mission like this was just stupid.

Even though Ark would be able to learn the layout of the city pretty intricately if he stayed there for 2 weeks, he was sure that he would be able to memorise all that he needed in a single night, besides, the villagers here were really nice, and they had all that they needed for now.

Ark decided to try and level up his body refining skill once more in these two weeks, and he shut himself inside a room.

Thufrat and Alenia had nothing better to do, and they mostly talked the days away and trained with each other every now and then. Their bond grew stronger with time, but no real steps were taken in their relationship. What they lacked wasn't affection, it wasn't courage either. For now, all they had were each other, even if Thufrat had Ark and Alenia had Laurelia.

If getting into a relationship would ruin their friendship and make things awkward, they would rather stay as they were right now, at least for the time being.

Two weeks passed peacefully in the small village. Thufrat and Alenia had basically gotten to know every single villager at this point, while Ark had just been shut inside of his room the whole time, he didn't even leave to eat, he had food in his spatial bag after all. His hard work paid off though, and his body refining skill successfully became level 8.

As he used the body refining skill, Ark could feel that his affinities were slowly growing stronger, but it would probably take a while before any of them actually upgraded, it was enough for Ark to feel satisfied though.

Rome wasn't built in a single day, and Ark didn't expect his strength to grow at an astronomical degree, he would let nature take its course, and see where he ended up. Tomorrow was the date of the tournament Ark would be fighting in, and a little after noon, the three of them left the small village and headed for the capital.

Even though Ark would've marvelled at the sight of the city's massive walls and its imposing palace in the distance a while ago, he had now seen what Frostfell had to offer, and in comparison, the capital of Estridsen fell behind. Thufrat and Alenia were even less affected, after seeing Liverence and Everspring mountain, something like this wouldn't faze them at all.

The entrance fee to the capital was fairly expensive, but they paid it nonetheless and just went on with their day. Since Ark wanted to get to know the city a little better, most of the day was spent walking around town with Thufrat and Alenia, both in human and in wolf form, since he didn't have that much time in his human form after all.

Even though Alenia and Thufrat weren't actually a part of the mission, they would help Ark nonetheless if he needed it, but the parts they would play wouldn't be too risky or big, Ark would also compensate them of course. Though they were friends, how could Ark let them put themselves in danger for free? That would be preposterous.

Compared to Liverence, the people here were a lot less jovial and happy, and the atmosphere wasn't the same at all, everyone minded their own business here, and if you slighted a noble, then you would have to look after your head! Ark didn't enjoy the atmosphere of this capital at all.

Even though it looked splendid on the surface, the alleys and slums were littered with homeless people and beggars, doing whatever in this world fraught with danger to survive for one more day.

Ark only felt pity, but there was nothing he could do about it right now. Thufrat and Alenia were also affected by the mood, and the three of them checked into an inn, dejected and tired by the time evening had arrived. Tomorrow was going to be both risky and exciting, Ark went to sleep as early as he could. He wanted to get as much sleep as possible.

Even though it was exciting, the mission he was going to go through with tomorrow would be very dangerous, a minor slip-up wouldn't only cost him his own life, but also an innocent persons life as well...