They rested in the alcove for twenty minutes.

Damon tracked the recovery draught’s progress through his system, the warmth settling deeper into his ribs with each passing minute. The ache had faded to a faint tenderness by the time he pushed himself to his feet.

"Ready?" he asked.

Sera stretched her arms overhead, her staff humming faintly as mana cycled through its crystal.

"Been ready for a while."

They left the goblin tunnels behind and headed north, toward the darker passages where the dire wolves hunted.

The air turned colder, carrying the familiar musk Damon remembered from his earlier fights. Somewhere in the distance, a wolf howled.

"Scout or pack?" Sera murmured.

"Scout. Packs don’t announce themselves."

Damon didn’t even need a second to answer; he already had the information stored in his head from years of rereading the academy’s bestiary cover to cover. It was the only thing he could think of that passed the time while still being productive.

"Great, I’d rather not get swarmed."

The first dire wolf found them before they found it. It came from a side passage, a lean gray shape launching itself at Sera’s back with jaws wide.

Damon’s hand came up before he could think. Lightning burst from his palm, the bolt crashing into the wolf mid-lunge and hurling it against the tunnel wall. It hit the stone with a sickening crack and didn’t rise.

[DIRE WOLF SCOUT DEFEATED]

[EXPERIENCE SHARED: 25]

[SOVEREIGN’S TRIBUTE: +5]

Sera turned, her staff already crackling, then lowered it when she saw the dissolving corpse.

"Quick reflexes..."

"Thank my agility stat for that."

They pushed deeper. The tunnel opened into a wider chamber where three dire wolves circled a cluster of stalagmites, their yellow eyes tracking back and forth as if searching for prey that had already escaped.

Damon signaled with two fingers, then pointed at himself and Sera in sequence.

She nodded. "On three?"

"On three."

Two bolts of lightning struck in near-perfect unison. Damon’s Lance caught the leftmost wolf in the ribs, Sera’s took the rightmost through the skull. The center wolf spun, snarling, and found itself alone.

It immediately turned to flee.

Damon’s second bolt dropped it before it reached the tunnel.

[DIRE WOLVES DEFEATED] 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

[EXPERIENCE SHARED: 75]

[SOVEREIGN’S TRIBUTE: +15]

[TRIBUTE: 97]

"A few more," Damon said, checking the number. "A few more and I hit a hundred."

"Then let’s find more."

They didn’t have to search long. The next chamber held five wolves, a proper pack, all of them alert and facing the tunnel entrance as if they’d heard the fighting and prepared an ambush.

The pack alpha, smaller than the one Damon had killed but still large enough to reach his chest, stood at the rear, lips peeled back from yellowed fangs.

"We keep our distance," Damon said. "No reason to fight them up close."

"No more swinging your sword around like you did with those goblins?"

"I’d rather not get surrounded by animals that were literally born to hunt in packs."

They positioned themselves at the chamber entrance, a natural chokepoint. The wolves charged as one, but the tunnel forced them into a narrow column.

Sera’s Lightning Lance struck the lead wolf square in the chest, killing it instantly. Damon’s bolt caught the second. The third stumbled over its fallen packmates, and Sera finished it before it could recover.

The fourth and fifth wolves, including the pack alpha, broke off their charge and tried to circle along the chamber walls. Damon tracked the alpha’s movement and loosed another bolt. It struck the creature’s body, staggering it but not killing.

"Sera, the smaller one!"

"On it!"

Her bolt caught the fourth wolf mid-stride. Damon focused on the alpha, channeling more mana into his next cast.

The lightning that erupted from his palm was thicker than before, the bolt slamming into the alpha’s chest and throwing it against the far wall.

It crumpled and didn’t move.

[DIRE WOLVES DEFEATED]

[PACK ALPHA DEFEATED]

[EXPERIENCE SHARED: 175]

[SOVEREIGN’S TRIBUTE: +35]

[TRIBUTE: 132]

[LEVEL UP]

[LEVEL: 3] → [LEVEL: 4]

[+1 ALL STATS]

[STAT POINTS AVAILABLE: 3]

Damon barely registered the level-up notification. He was already opening the Skill Tree.

"Hundred and thirty-two," he said.

"Enough for your upgrade?"

"More than."

He selected [SOVEREIGN’S LEADERSHIP] without hesitation.

[PURCHASE SUCCESSFUL]

[TRIBUTE: 132 → 32]

[SOVEREIGN’S LEADERSHIP UPGRADED]

[EFFECT: ALLOWS TWO SKILLS FROM EACH SUBORDINATE INSTEAD OF ONE.]

The golden text pulsed, and the screen shifted.

[CHOOSE SECOND SKILL FROM SERA AZURE]

[AVAILABLE SKILLS:]

[STATIC FIELD (ACTIVE) — C-RANK]: Creates a zone of charged air that slows and damages enemies within. Duration: 30 seconds. Cost: 50 Mana.

[STORM’S EYE (PASSIVE) — D-RANK]: Reduces mana cost of lightning-based skills by 10%.

[CHOOSE SECOND SKILL FROM LENA HARTWELL]

[AVAILABLE SKILLS:]

[INGREDIENT SENSE (PASSIVE) — E-RANK]: Detects nearby alchemical ingredients within a 20-meter radius.

[STEADY HAND (PASSIVE) — D-RANK]: Improves precision during delicate manual tasks. Reduces error rate in crafting.

Static Field was the obvious pick for Sera. Crowd control would give him options if anything ever closed the gap.

As for Lena’s, neither was immediately useful in a fight. But Steady Hand had broader applications. Precision during delicate manual tasks. That could mean a lot of things.

He took both.

[SKILL ACQUIRED: STATIC FIELD — C-RANK]

[SKILL ACQUIRED: STEADY HAND — D-RANK]

Damon closed the screens and turned to Sera. "Done. I’ve got Static Field now."

Sera blinked. "You took my crowd control?"

"And Steady Hand from Lena. Doesn’t sound combat-useful, but I’ll test it later."

"You know, most people would be running out of mana by now. How many Lightning Lances was that?"

"Six? Seven?" Damon checked his status. His mana pool had dipped but wasn’t empty. "Having twenty-six MAG helps a lot."

"I’m having a hard time figuring out whether your class is martial or caster-focused..."

They cleared three more wolf packs over the next hour. The rhythm was almost lazy now. Both of them hanging back at the tunnel entrance, twin bolts of lightning arcing through the darkness, the wolves collapsing before they could close half the distance.

When the packs were large enough to push through, Damon layered Static Field across the chokepoint. The wolves slowed to a crawl, their snarls stretching into something almost pitiful as the charged air sapped their momentum.

After that, Sera picked them off one by one.

The first time he used it, she let out a low whistle.

"Strong, but I think mine is stronger."

"It’s native to your class, of course it is."

By the time they stopped to rest again, Damon’s tribute had climbed back to [68]. The wolves were thinning out, the respawns unable to keep pace with their clearing speed.

"One more pack," Damon said. "Then we head back. I need to allocate my new points, and even with the bond, you’ve been casting for two hours straight."

"My mana’s fine, I have enough mana potions to last me a lifetime."

"Where do you even get the money from?"

"Selling monster parts, the selling price alone triumphs the costs of mana potions. Want one?"

"Yeah, give me one."

They found the last pack near the alpha’s empty chamber. Four wolves, no alpha. Two Lightning Lances from Damon, one from Sera, and the last wolf died trying to retreat.

[DIRE WOLVES DEFEATED]

[EXPERIENCE SHARED: 100]

[SOVEREIGN’S TRIBUTE: +20]

[TRIBUTE: 88]

"Think we’re done for today, boss? I’m running low on mana potions too."

"Yeah, let’s call it here. I already burned through everything Lena gave me. Today went well."

"That would be an understatement."