"Don't rush! We need to treat your wounds first..."
Kase waved a hand, and Colin watched as the wounds on the Half-Orc's body began to... squirm?
His powerful muscles squeezed together, successfully sealing the bleeding gashes.
Colin was dumbfounded. 'Is this the Constitution of a Half-Orc Totem Warrior?'
"We'll talk later. You're not bleeding, are you, little bro?" Kase climbed to his feet as if nothing had happened.
Colin shook his head.
The two of them quickly got up to retrieve their scattered luggage. When they ran ahead to check, the trap they had set was completely gone, leaving only a trail of blood on the ground.
This basically ruled out the possibility that the Winter Wolf was faking its injury to lure them into an ambush.
After all, the creature had definitely stepped on the trap and been wounded.
Colin hesitated for a moment before asking, "Are we sure we want to go after it?"
"Winter Wolves are smart, but not *that* smart," Kase said. "It most likely ran because it knew it couldn't beat us. That was a solid strike you landed, little bro. Have some confidence in yourself."
Hearing that, Colin was no longer willing to give up on those dozen-or-so Gold Coins.
Kase gripped his weapon and followed the blood trail. Colin, his own nerves taut, followed carefully behind.
They followed a beast trail through the mountains.
Along the way, there were no goblins, nor any Wild Wolves.
They didn't even see any threats that would warrant caution.
This, paradoxically, made Colin even more nervous.
'Goblins? Wild Wolves? Or the giant white bear with a sixty-Gold-Coin bounty?'
He unconsciously began to run through scenarios in his head for how to deal with these enemies. His heart pounded in his chest, feeling like it was about to leap out.
The blood trail led all the way to a cave entrance.
This cavern looked no different from any of the other cave openings on the mountainside.
"It's not a wolf den, is it?" Colin warned.
"There's no wolf fur or scent around. Don't panic." Kase waved his hand dismissively.
The two of them hunched over and crept to the entrance to peer inside.
This cave was not a den for wild creatures. The environment inside looked quite clean, with no loose rocks or trash.
In the corner of the room was a stone table covered in various stone vessels. A few Daggers and tools fashioned from stone were scattered around the table, and the injured Winter Wolf was curled up beside it, panting.
"Are southern goblins clean freaks?" Kase asked.
"Goblins are pretty much the same all over the world. Those things aren't keen on cleaning, so I don't think this is a Goblin Nest," Colin said.
The two of them tested the situation from the outside for a long while.
They made strange noises, observed from different angles, and even threw a few rocks inside.
Strangely, apart from the Winter Wolf, there wasn't a single other living thing in the cave, nor any sound that shouldn't be there.
Finally, with weapons raised, the two men cautiously entered the cave.
Only then could they confirm that, besides the air itself, nothing else could possibly be their enemy.
"What a waste of effort." Kase spat on the ground.
Colin said, "At least it proves our luck is good."
He'd been thinking that at least a few Wild Wolves would jump out at them.
Lately, something major always seemed to happen the moment he let his guard down, making him a little paranoid.
The grievously wounded Winter Wolf, having also been caught in a trap, had lost nearly all ability to resist. It could only lie on the ground, clinging to life. Even as the two men approached, the beast could do nothing more than glare at them.
Kase drew his Small Knife and walked forward.
Murmuring in the Orcish tongue, he plunged the blade into the Winter Wolf's throat. Chilly blood instantly pooled on the ground. The Winter Wolf struggled for a moment before slowly falling still.
Colin breathed a sigh of relief.
'At least now they wouldn't have to worry about being attacked by a Wolf Pack on the way back to Thousand Masts City.'
Once it was done, Kase gestured at the cave around them and looked at Colin. "Are there Barbarians here, too?"
"No," said Colin. "They only appear much farther north."
"Not goblins, not humans, and definitely not Orcs. So what is it?"
"I don't know," Colin said. "The only thing we can be sure of is that the owner of this cave had a good relationship with this Winter Wolf. When it was driven into a corner, its first thought was to flee here."
He then asked, "What kind of being can tame a Winter Wolf?"
"First, we can definitely rule out Giants." Kase thought for a moment. "It would have to be a Hunter or a Shaman who is close to the Spirit of Nature."
He bent down to examine the Winter Wolf more closely, lifting one of its forelegs.
A large patch of its belly was torn up, revealing several deep, parallel gashes. The wounds were several inches long and looked quite ghastly.
"Looks like it was in another vicious fight after attacking the caravan," Colin said.
"A bear did this." Kase stuck his fingers into a wound to gauge its depth, then said with certainty, "A very, very big bear."
"So maybe after attacking the caravan, it was attacked by a bear, and the Wolf Pack was scattered. A white-furred Winter Wolf would have trouble hunting alone," Colin surmised. "Then this guy saw a human trap and figured it could lie in ambush nearby to snag a meal."
Kase mulled it over for a moment, then nodded. "You've got a sharp mind."
Colin shrugged and turned to inspect the rest of the cave.
It was just as it had looked from the outside.
Besides the stone table, there was nothing special inside. The table held nothing of value either; taking those crude stone tools to market would just make people think you were a fool.
At the same time, the tabletop was covered in a thick layer of dust, suggesting no one had been here for a very long time.
Colin picked up an item from the table and glanced at it.
He happened to look back over his shoulder and was startled by what he saw.
A robed Skeleton was lying in a corner of the cave. The Skeleton itself was completely weathered, but its clothes were still relatively intact.
Moving closer, Colin saw that the corpse's clothing consisted mostly of simple leather goods. In terms of style, it rather resembled what the Barbarian Tribes living outside the civilized world wore.
"I know who owned this cave."
Colin, who had jumped in fright, complained, "Could you not sneak up and whisper in my ear at a time like this?"
"An emissary from the Frost Land. It's one of the Druids." Kase ignored him and walked over to the corpse, squatting down. "I know the kind of clothes they like to wear."
Hearing the word Druid, Colin immediately pictured a kindly old man wearing clothes made of moss and carrying an oaken staff.
He asked, "So, was he a good person?"
"Maybe. These Druids believe harsh winter is the greatest thing in the world, because the endless wind and snow automatically weed out the weak among living things, making everyone stronger."
Kase said grimly, "In any case, I ended up like this because I didn't agree with that point of view."
Colin looked at the Skeleton on the ground and said, "Good thing this guy's already dead."
After performing some basic first aid on Kase's wounds right there, the two of them simultaneously picked up their luggage.
Colin shouldered two burlap sacks.
Kase, on the other hand, hoisted the Winter Wolf's corpse onto his shoulder in one go.
Colin said in surprise, "You're this strong and you didn't say so earlier? If we went to work as laborers on the docks, we could probably earn double pay."
"You want me to be a beast of burden? I'd rather jump in the sea and feed the fish." Kase snorted like a horse.