Starting With an SSS-Rank Goddess Summon!

The younger male wolf instantly bared its fangs, letting out a deep vibrating warning growl that stopped Brida dead in her tracks.

The wolf didn’t snap at her, but it aggressively stepped backward, its golden fur bristling along its spine as it flatly refused to let the commander touch it.

”Hey!” Brida complained, crossing her thick arms and pouting. ”What’s the big deal? You just let the Boss sit on your sister!”

Vala and Elara eagerly approached two of the other females, hoping to score a ride, but they were met with the exact same reaction.

The female wolves growled softly, dodging the girls’ hands and jogging over to stand protectively behind Silas’s mount, completely rejecting any other riders.

Even Reina, the dedicated Beast Tamer, received a firm warning huff from the Alpha male when she stepped too close.

”I don’t understand,” Elara frowned, lowering her hands. ”Why won’t they let us ride?”

Reina analyzed the wolves’ defensive posture with the answer clicking into place.

”It’s basic pack hierarchy,” Reina explained, looking up at Silas. ”They submitted to the Lord. He healed their family, he killed the bear, and his aura dominated them. In their eyes, he is the Alpha of this territory. They are honored to carry him. But the rest of us?”

She sighed, gesturing to herself and the junior squad. ”To them, we are just regular pack members. We haven’t earned their respect yet so until we spend time feeding them and working with them in the Pavilion, they aren’t going to let us treat them like pack-horses.”

”Tough break, ladies,” Silas smirked from his comfortable perch on the golden wolf’s back. ”Looks like you’re walking. Keep the pace up. I want to be back before Kaelia finishes that stew...”

The girls groaned collectively, but they fell into formation, making their way back up the muddy ridge with the golden pack of wolves trotting safely in the center of their lines.

The ride back to the Blessed Land was a completely surreal experience for Silas.

He was used to walking through the Umbral Basin with his boots constantly sinking into hidden mud pits, tripping over dark roots, and burning his stamina to stay upright.

But sitting on the back of the massive Blessed Wolf, he felt like he was floating.

The wolf’s gait was incredibly smooth.

Despite her massive size, she didn’t lumber or bounce. Her wide, padded paws hit the slick mud with total silence, absorbing the shock of the uneven terrain with flawless biological engineering.

Silas barely had to grip her fur to keep his balance; he just swayed naturally with her movements and the fur itself was astonishing.

’It’s like sitting on a mattress made of warm silk,’ Silas thought, running his bare fingers through the thick, golden coat.

It didn’t feel coarse or greasy like normal animal hair.

The evolution from the Gold Core had purified the coat, making it incredibly soft, radiating a deeply soothing warmth that seeped right through his dark canvas trousers and eased the soreness in his lower back.

As they walked, Silas absentmindedly stroked the thick fur near her shoulder blades.

Suddenly, his fingers brushed against something hard and uneven buried deep near the root of the hair.

Silas frowned. He parted the golden fur with two fingers, leaning down to inspect the anomaly.

Buried deep against the wolf’s skin was a disgusting dark gray parasite.

It looked like a cross between a bloated swamp tick and a fat, segmented leech, easily the size of a golf ball.

It had its jagged pincers dug deep into her flesh, pulsing rhythmically as it drank her blood.

’Nasty...’ Silas sneered in disgust.

He didn’t ignore it. He pinched the bloated, rubbery body of the parasite between his thumb and forefinger, gripped it tight, and gave it a sharp violent yank.

SQUELCH!

The parasite popped free from the wolf’s skin with a sickening wet tearing sound, taking a tiny drop of fresh blood with it.

The female wolf flinched, letting out a sharp high-pitched whimper of pain.

She briefly broke her stride, turning her massive golden head around to look at Silas with wide confused amber eyes, wondering why her new Alpha had just hurt her.

Silas didn’t say a word.

He just held up the writhing, disgusting gray swamp worm so she could see exactly what he had pulled off her back.

He closed his fist, crushing the parasite into a burst of foul dark fluid. He wiped the mess off his leather glove onto a passing tree trunk.

The wolf’s confusion vanished instantly. She understood exactly what he had done.

She let out a soft grateful chuff with her tail wagging wildly behind her, and she affectionately nudged her wet nose against his knee before turning forward and picking her smooth pace back up.

’Good girl,’ Silas smiled, giving her neck another firm scratch.

Down in the mud, the squad was keeping up a steady, fast-paced jog, but the banter was in full swing.

The absurdity of watching their armored Warlord riding a giant, glowing dog through a dark swamp was too much for the junior girls to ignore.

”He looks so smug up there...” Vala grumbled good-naturedly, wiping mud off her cheek as she jogged behind the wolf. ”He’s not even sweating anymore. I bet he’s going to make this his permanent throne and just ride around the base inspecting us.”

”I would,” Elara laughed, keeping her bow steady. ”If I had a golden mount that soft, my feet would never touch the dirt again.”

Brida was marching on Silas’s left flank, glaring jealously at the wolf.

”I still think it’s unfair,” Brida complained loudly, swinging her battleaxe like a walking stick. ”I’m a commander. I should have mount privileges! Hey, Boss, tell your dog to let me sit behind you! She’s got enough room on her spine for two!”

The female wolf let out a sharp immediate growl without even looking at the woman, picking up her pace to put more distance between them.

”The lady said no, Brida,” Silas chuckled, patting the wolf’s neck. ”You’re too heavy anyway. You’d break her back.”

”I am not heavy!” Brida yelled with her face flushing bright red. ”I’m dense! It’s pure muscle mass, Captain!”

Aeliana was drifting silently on Silas’s right flank, her pristine white robes practically gliding over the mud.

The Arcanist hadn’t said a word since they left the clearing. Her glowing eyes were locked onto the female wolf Silas was currently straddling.

If looks could kill, the golden beast would have been reduced to ash an hour ago. Aeliana’s thoughts were anything but calm.

’That filthy unrefined swamp animal is carrying him,’ Aeliana thought, her delicate fingers twitching as she gripped her clipboard. ’She gets to feel the warmth of his body pressed against her back... She gets to hear his praise... She gets his hands running through her hair. Why is a beast allowed such intimate physical contact with Lord Sy, while I am forced to walk in the mud? I should be the one carrying him.’

Aeliana briefly entertained the fantasy of offering her own back for Silas to ride, but she quickly dismissed it.

Her physical strength wasn’t high enough to carry a fully armored Lord. She would just collapse and embarrass herself.

’I will simply have to endure this indignity...’ Aeliana concluded bitterly, shooting another toxic glare at the oblivious wolf. ’But if that animal drops him in the mud, I am turning it into a rug for his office.’

The banter carried them all the way to the edge of the ironwood forest.

The trees broke, revealing the massive towering black steel-weave walls of the Blessed Land looming in the damp twilight.

As they stepped out of the treeline and approached the closed iron gates, the wolf pack suddenly slowed down.

The Alpha male stopped completely, his ears pinning back against his skull. The females huddled together, letting out low nervous whines, while the pups darted behind their mother’s legs.

They were wild animals.

The scale of the towering steel walls terrified them.

Worse, their hyper-sensitive noses were suddenly assaulted by the overwhelming concentrated scent of dozens of human women, burning coal from the forge, and the sharp tang of metal weapons.

Silas’s mount shifted nervously beneath him with her paws digging into the mud as she hesitated to step any closer to the fortress.

”Easy,” Silas murmured, leaning forward and resting his chest against her neck.

He stroked her fur, projecting his calm aura to counter her rising panic. ”You’re safe. Nobody in there is going to hurt you.”

Reina stepped forward, walking right up to the Alpha male. She didn’t use words this time.

She just placed her hand gently on the Alpha’s broad snout, letting her Beast Tamer resonance flow into his mind, reinforcing the protective promise Silas had made.

The Alpha let out a long shaky breath.

He looked at Silas, who was waiting patiently and then took a brave definitive step forward out of the mud and onto the clean black tiles of the outer perimeter.

”Open the gates!” Silas yelled up to the watchtowers.

The heavy gears ground loudly. The massive steel-weave portcullis slowly dragged upward, opening the path into the courtyard.

Silas nudged his mount’s sides with his knees.

The female wolf took a breath and trotted forward, leading the pack straight through the gates and into the Blessed Land.

The timing couldn’t have been more dramatic.

The afternoon training drills had just concluded.

Dozens of armored infantry girls, archers, and shieldmaidens were milling about the massive central courtyard, carrying their practice weapons back to the armory racks or heading toward the mess hall for dinner.

When the gates opened, the entire base stopped what they were doing.

The loud chaotic noise of the courtyard died instantly.

Dozens of women stared in utter shock at the sight rolling through the main entrance.

They expected their Lord to return from the swamp covered in mud, carrying monster pelts or dragging a bag of raw ore.

Instead, Silas Graves rode into the courtyard sitting tall and proud on the back of a massive shimmering golden direwolf.

The beast was gorgeous, its fur glowing like captured sunlight against the dark slate tiles of the base.

Behind him, an entire pack of identically golden, majestic apex predators trotted obediently in formation, flanked by Commander Brida and the junior squad.

He looked like a mythic conqueror stepping out of an ancient legend.

”By the Goddess,” a spear-fighter whispered, dropping her wooden weapon onto the tiles with a clatter.

”He actually brought back cavalry mounts,” another girl gasped, her eyes wide. ”They look like actual light magic!”

Silas didn’t ignore the awe of his troops.

He knew how important morale was.

He sat up straight, a confident, easy smirk on his face, and casually raised his right hand, offering the stunned recruits a relaxed, two-finger wave as he rode past them.

The courtyard erupted.

The girls cheered wildly, banging their wooden spears against their shields and whistling loudly.

The prospect of no longer having to march through the swamp on foot sent a wave of electric excitement through the ranks.

”Look at the babies!” one of the archers squealed as the three tiny golden pups trotted bravely behind the Alpha, their little tails wagging as they took in the sights of their new home.

Silas guided his mount through the crowd, heading straight across the eastern tiles toward the newly constructed Tier 3 Mythic Pack-Lord’s Sanctuary.

As they approached the massive, obsidian-walled Beast Pavilion, the wolves’ nervousness vanished completely.

The building’s integrated magical runes were working flawlessly.

The [Nature’s Calm] passive effect projected a soothing deep-forest resonance across the paddock that instantly washed away the anxiety of the new environment.

Silas pulled back gently on the wolf’s fur, bringing her to a halt just outside the Deep-Earth alloy gates of the enclosure.

He swung his leg over her back and dropped lightly onto the stone tiles and he gave her neck one last affectionate scratch before turning to Reina.

”Alright, Reina... they’re yours,” Silas told her, stepping aside. ”Get them settled in.”

Reina didn’t hesitate.

She stepped up to the heavy gates and threw the iron latch, pulling the doors wide open.

”Come on,” Reina clicked her tongue, gesturing for the Alpha to follow her.

The golden pack trotted into the spacious open-air training paddock and the transformation in their demeanor was instant.

The moment their wide paws touched the thermal-heated stone tiles of the floor, the tension bled entirely out of their muscles.

The younger brother wolf, who had been shivering slightly from the cold, immediately dropped onto his belly on the warm stone, letting out a long dramatic groan of pure comfort.