CHAPTER 169: INVESTIGATION

They parked the armoured vehicle in a corner before venturing into the part of the forest which according to the Union officers, was where the creature’s silhouette had been appearing for the past few days.

Selena took the lead and the others followed behind her as they entered the forest.

Tall trees, lush bushes, and dried fallen leaves covering the short grass on the ground, the fresh air of nature drifted by and gave a very natural feel.

The group advanced slowly as they looked out for any clues that might be useful for their investigation. Since the creature only came near the town at night and was never spotted during the day, it was possible that it would move somewhere far away once night passed.

Selena and the other three members carefully looked around as they walked. As for Alex, he just spread out his senses and immediately detected the presence of the creature that they had come to find.

’A mutated rank magic beast, why is its aura weird though? It feels like one of those summons.’ Alex thought to himself after discovering the position of the beast.

He was definitely sure that it was the creature they were looking for because it was the only magic beast within a hundred miles of this town, and if their group continued moving forward like this, they would reach the beast’s position in the next 50 minutes or so.

Alex had noticed that the beast wasn’t changing position, it was most likely sleeping.

It could be a creature that was active during the night and then rested during the day.

After making his discovery, Alex retracted his senses and continued to follow Selena and the others. He didn’t say anything about what he had discovered since they would still meet the beast if they just kept walking, so he didn’t need to give spoilers.

Besides, he would have to explain how he was able to discover the beast from this distance; Alex didn’t have the strength for that, he would rather just keep quiet.

Along the way, Selena and the others began to notice signs around the forest.

Such as claw marks on trees, half-eaten tree roots, where the bite marks were too big to belong to a human, and they even found fur balls with bloodstains.

One thing was now certain, the creature was hairy and was injured.

But what hairy creatures that could make such claw marks eat tree roots and leaves?

"Stay together and be on the lookout." Selena voiced out as her expression changed from lazy and tired to vigilant.

Alex blinked, they still had twenty minutes more of walking before they would reach the position of the beast.

As they walked, they found more claw marks on trees as well as more half-eaten roots and even tree branches. They found more blood stains, but they had almost dried up, which showed that the blood was already days old.

Finally, after minutes of walking, the group came to a stop as they all stared ahead with serious expressions.

They had found the creature!

Even Alex was surprised to see the creature too, he had only detected the presence of the creature and its rank by sensing it, he couldn’t make out its other features such as size and shape.

Over twenty meters in front of them was a huge dog magic beast sleeping at the base of a short tree that was several meters thick.

One could tell at a glance that the dog was a very hairy one, or at least was. Right now, several patches of fur were missing from its body, and the skin underneath was covered in different kinds of wounds.

Fire burns, frost wounds, and cuts covered its body. It was obvious that this dog had been in a fight with a group of mages before fleeing here.

That aside, the strength of this huge dog also made Selena and the group hesitate on what to do next.

It was a mutated rank magic beast.

Luckily, there was only a single one, and it was injured, so they should be able to take care of it by working together.

"What should we do now? This is definitely the creature they had been going near the town at night." Helen whispered.

"It is, no doubt about that. All of the signs along the way are obviously hints, but why would a dog beast eat tree roots?" Joan wondered, and she also spoke in a hushed tone to avoid waking the beast.

"We should be glad it didn’t go and eat the townspeople instead," Phil added.

At this moment, the fluffy ears of the dog flinched before its eyes gradually opened. The members of the group immediately turned tense when they saw the dog waking up.

Its nose twitched and it slowly turned its large head to look in their direction. A weak glint could be seen in its eyes as it stared at them, as if unsure of what it was looking at.

However, the weak glint in its eyes disappeared the next moment and was replaced by a ferocious glint as it stood up abruptly and began to growl at the five humans who had suddenly appeared when it was sleeping.

The remaining fur on its body trembled as it showed its sharp long teeth.

Selena and the others also turned defensive, they summoned their stars and prepared to attack in case the dog suddenly came at them.

The height of the dog was currently the same size as the red-eyed bear that Alex had fought some time ago; it was like a large building compared to the five of them.

But even after several minutes passed, the dog didn’t attack them and just kept growling at them; it was as if it was conflicted about what to do.

At this moment, Alex noticed something behind it. At the base of the tree where the dog was sleeping earlier was a large yellow egg that was the size of a car tyre.

It seemed to be protecting it with its body.

’Do dogs in the world lay eggs?’ Alex was speechless at his own thought.

That wasn’t possible, this egg definitely didn’t belong to this dog.

"Everyone, look behind it," Alex said while pointing at the egg.

Upon hearing his words, the others also noticed the egg as well and new thoughts began to form in their minds.

"Could it be that it stole another beast’s egg and those wounds aren’t from mages?"

"Or was it attacked by mages because of this egg?"

Members of the group voiced out their thoughts, Selena reminded them to stay focused and be ready to act when needed.

It became a stalemate as both sides stared at each other without doing anything. Time gradually passed, and it had been over five minutes already.

"Looks like it isn’t going to attack us and is just wary of us." Phil voiced out.

"Now that you say it, is that mark on its forehead normal?" Joan said.

Everyone immediately looked at the dog’s forehead upon hearing Joan’s words. After carefully observing it, they finally noticed something that they had missed before because its forehead was a bloody mess.

There, behind the missing fur and wound on its forehead was a mark that looked like an imprinted rune.

A mark that showed it was a contracted beast!