Lucas was about to try persuading her again when her mother also spoke up. "Listen to us. Going with him now really would cause him trouble."
Lucas hurriedly added, "Don't worry. I'll be back soon."
Windsor's father also dissuaded her in an authoritative voice. Seeing that everyone had talked Windsor out of it, Lucas found he had little else to say if he stayed. It was awkward, after all, so he simply bowed and said, "Uncle, Auntie, I'll take my leave."
After Windsor saw Lucas to the door, he heard her father say mildly, "Be careful while you're out training."
Lucas acknowledged him, then went home.
At home, his father was quite supportive of Lucas going out to train, but his mother really did not want him to leave. After all, she knew how dangerous the world outside was. Her son had been able to grow up safely within the tribe because there were so many people around, so she did not want Lucas to go out to train.
Lucas insisted and packed his things. He had only a simple bundle containing some salt and dry rations, along with the helmet, armor, and dagger he had forged himself, and his Blood Courage Bright Silver Spear.
After saying goodbye to his parents, Lucas headed straight in the direction he had taken on his last trip out. He planned to head east, first training around the mountain where his tribe lived. After all, he was currently only a warrior with fifth-rank physical strength and fourth-rank Battle Qi. His spiritual energy, comparable to that of a fifth-level magus, could not help him in combat at present because he had no magic.
Lucas remembered that in the original story, Linley had gone barefoot when he visited the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts, allowing him to feel closer to the earth. So Lucas planned to follow his example. On the first night, Lucas chose a fairly tall tree and made a rope out of grass. He tied himself to the tree, which ordinary magical beasts could not climb, so he slept fairly peacefully through the first half of the night!
In the second half of the night, a boom jolted Lucas awake. He felt himself and the tree he was tied to falling in one direction. Lucas hurriedly drew the dagger at his waist with his left hand and cut through the grass rope binding him, but he still fell flat onto the clearing below. Unable to worry about anything else, Lucas immediately kipped up onto his feet.
Fortunately, he had been holding his spear horizontally in his right hand, and the fall had not knocked it loose. He immediately took a fighting stance, not even having had time to return the dagger in his left hand to his waist.
Lucas saw a pair of green eyes lunging straight at him. He rolled with the movement. There was no time to swing his spear, so he could only thrust out the dagger in his left hand.
Then, once he found his footing, he abandoned the dagger outright. Gripping his spear with both hands, he lashed it out to the right, then hurriedly stepped toward another tree after that strike.
The pack of Wind Wolves clearly understood what Lucas wanted to do and lunged straight at him, thwarting his plan to leap up using the branches and get back into a tree.
Lucas knew it was too dark now, and the trees around him were dense. He was using a long weapon, while these towering trees provided hiding places for the Wind Wolves.
If he tangled with them under these conditions, even if he were a sixth-rank warrior, he would probably be wolf dung by the following morning. And he was only a fifth rank warrior now, still far from the sixth rank.
Fortunately, he still had his half-baked Wielding Something Light as Though It Were Heavy. Even if it only worked intermittently, it was still a technique approaching the Saint level, so an all-out strike could still give him the upper hand in clashes with these fifth-rank Wind Wolves. Unfortunately, the surroundings were far too unfavorable for him!
After landing another successful strike, Lucas remembered that when he had fallen to the ground earlier, he had not heard the tree he had been in hit the ground at all. He thus realized that it was probably caught on the tree beside it.
Lucas also understood that this tree was currently his only way back up into the trees.
He moved straight toward that tree. After exchanging another blow, he leaped straight onto it and ran toward its crown! The wolves clearly did not want to let him get up there and lunged at Lucas. At this moment, Lucas knew that putting himself in midair was too dangerous, but he had no choice.
Sure enough, when he leaped into the air, the opportunity the Wind Wolf King had been waiting for arrived. The Wind Blades he had gathered shot straight at Lucas, who now had nothing to push off against. He could only hope that his attack using Wielding Something Light as Though It Were Heavy would succeed this time. He had already understood that the sixth-rank wolf king certainly possessed considerable intelligence and could not possibly let Lucas approach that fallen tree for nothing.
And then use it to return to the trees. While directing his subordinates' attacks, he had already been guarding against that tree. He also understood that the prey before him would inevitably have to leap when trying to return to the trees. Only then could Lucas evade the pack's attacks and get back up into the trees!
Lucas naturally knew that he would have this dangerous opening, so before leaping, he had chosen the direction from which the loudest howls had come earlier. He could only gamble that the loudest howls were the wolf king directing the battle.
Fortunately, his luck was good. He unleashed a strike imbued with his Battle Qi straight ahead. This attack, using Wielding Something Light as Though It Were Heavy, collided directly with the Wind Wolf's magical Wind Blades.
In the darkness, he naturally could not see the direction of the magical attack. By the time he noticed it, the attack was already upon him. Lucas used the recoil from this strike to propel himself backward into the tree.
Once back up high, he immediately leaped between the trees and left. After running some distance, Lucas laughed loudly and said to the Wind Wolves, "I predicted your attack, you bastards! How mad are you now?"
Having said that, he ran off without caring whether they understood him. Lucas could clearly sense that the Wind Wolves were still chasing him. Sometimes, just after he leaped away from a tree he had landed on, Wind Blades would cut it down!
Unfortunately for them, Lucas would not run in just one direction. He also understood that if he kept running in one direction, they would be faster than him on the ground and could overtake him, knocking down the trees ahead of him. That would put him in danger of being surrounded again!
After roughly an hour of pursuit, Lucas found that they had stopped chasing him. He did not stop either, running for another hour before finally stopping to rest!
To be honest, he had his old mountain village getting internet access to thank for his escape today. Later, after his son had started working, he would come home for the New Year and play mobile games with several of his cousins. Back then, Lucas had always pestered him and had him teach him to play mobile games. He remembered that whenever he played badly, his son would always say in exasperation, "Dad, predict their moves! You wouldn't have died if you'd used Flash!"
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