The Strategy to Become Good at Magic - Chapter 15

The wolf boy thought that it was an unexpected surprise to discover the Tree of Life, but he soon found out that there was actually nothing to celebrate over when he stepped closer to the grass around the tree.

He did not know why, but once he stepped into the borders of the grassy area, he found his heart to be filled with restlessness and anxiety. Some would say that it’s an animal’s instinct, others might say that it was destiny ordering him away…… Well, regardless of what they say, the meaning was:

He was scared……

The wolf boy took his leg back away like lightning, and swiftly retreated back to a bush nearby with a swoosh. He went on all fours and his hands were firmly on the ground. He put stress into his fingers, and his ordinary fingernails suddenly extended, with the tips as sharp as blades.

Besides the actions that he took, his looks in his eyes had changed to one of wariness, baring his small canines and growled from his throat, glaring at the huge tree. He was prepared to attack anytime like he was facing immense danger.

The pack of wolves were also worked up, one reason being they were also affected by the tree, the other was their leader displaying a tense attitude…….

The wolf boy and the wolves were alert for a long time, but the decayed Tree of Life still stood there quietly. No super-saiyan or any world-class beauty appeared. Even though the wolf boy glared at it till his veins were ready to rupture any time, and found his vision starting to blur because he was on all fours for too long, he really did not find anything unusual.

“Am I too suspicious?” The wolf boy’s face was blushing, feeling embarrassed from being too careful.

He retracted his fingernails, tucked in his canines and stood up again, then soothed his restless wolves…… After doing all that, the wolf boy started walking up to the tree again, and was prepared to step into the border………..

One minute, two minutes………. Ten minutes, twenty minutes……….

Under the enthusiastic eyes from the pack of wolves, the wolf boy maintained a rigid face and posture without taking another step…… After a really long time, the warrior who had persisted for as long as he could, finally stepped back, and rushed back to the bush with a blurry afterimage, his face full of fear and gulping large amount of air while patting his chest……

The wolves quietly mourned for their hero…….. Actually they were also scared of going in…….

“What’s going on?” The wolf boy scratched his ears.

If it was only one time, he might say that he overreacted, but it was the second time, then it would not be a simple psychological reaction…… The wolf boy became serious.

When he was prepared to step into the grassy area, his heart was instantly filled with a intense feeling of danger. It felt like if he had dared to take one step into the area, something bad would immediately happen, and it felt far more frightening than death.

That dwarven girl (?!) that he met on the other side of the river also said there was a region where the huge tree was at, and the beasts with higher intelligence dared not enter it. What exactly was in there, to make the magical beasts to be so afraid of it?!

And yet there was a huge cooking station nearby the huge tree, indicating that there was someone in this area. This also meant to say that girl was somehow unique…… What exactly was different with her that she was able to live freely in this region, while he and the magical beasts were afraid to step into the region?!

The wolf boy realized for the first time that the mission from his clan was not so simple.

It was apparent from the conclusion. This was the strangest place within the entire forest. But if he was even unable to go near the Tree of Life, how was he going to investigate the Mana Cataclysm?!

“This lost shounen here, do you need me to point you to the right destination?!”

Just when the wolf boy was in a dilemma, Sue the loli appeared just at the right time, instantly pulling out of his wolflife crisis. (TL: Original text is a wolfish pun on a chinese idiom where one has reached the bottom, wolflife crisis is a pun of midlife crisis.)

“That’s right! You are able to go inside!” The wolf boy hugged Sue Lin off from the ground, and he was so excited that he wrapped her tightly with his arms of steel.

“I can understand your zealous feelings….. But if you continue to hug me I’ll have to charge you.” The young girl smiled, and gave him a friendly and sly blink from her large, round eyes.

She had also thought about it on the way back. This was the location where she appeared when she traveled to this parallel world, and there was the strange action where the magical beasts did not approach this huge tree. To be frank, Sue had already guessed that this huge tree was the most likely location of the Mana Cataclysm.

The only difference was, she did not know the history about this tree and would not have known this was a tree that was abandoned by the elves one millennia ago…..

The wolf boy looked blankly at her and quickly let her down. He patted his whole body and barely scrapped a few golden coins together, then stuttered with shame: “I-I only have this much…….. I’m really sorry, can you charge me a little cheaper?!” (TL: ……)

“……” Sue received the coins with a stiff expression from the youth. She looked at the gold coins and the wolf boy, then finally scarcely managing to pull the corner of her lips with her head full of black lines: “Sure…….”

She had never seen such a simple type before in her entire life……

So the native specialty of the half-beast race was natural-airheads?!

“Then……” The wolf boy urgently tried to make his request when he saw her accept the payment, but there was a familiar commotion from within the forest from the magical beasts.

The wolf boy nearly cried right there: “Didn’t I swim over here to this place, why are they still able to find me?!”

He had swam for a long time in the waters, and it was luck that he did not bleed out right there and then, to think that these beasts still refused to let go of him…….

“Don’t misunderstand, this time they are not after you.” Sue quickly comforted the very hurt wolf boy: “I think they are also hungry from fighting, and are here to have a meal with me.”

“Pffff……” The wolf boy raised his head and expelled two large mouthfuls of blood into the air in a fine mist, and asked feebly: “Have a meal with you?!”

“What’s wrong?!” Sue blinked and understood after thinking: “Oh, did I forget to tell you? Even though they can’t go into the huge tree, but the place with the rocks are the fixed location where the magical beasts have their meal….. Hmm, you look really terrible, I have a pretty good health potion here, do you want to try it?!”

“………..” No wonder the elders warned him about the continent was an evil place where things changed easily at any given time. To think that even the dwarven race had fallen so far to become so treacherous…

Right at this moment, the wolf boy’s head was filled with lamentation on how evil plots and schemes had befallen on him. (TL: Read below for further details)

Why did he listen to the chibi over here and walk right into a trap where Magical beasts had their meals?!
TL: Now about this word,

坑爹 – This particular internet word used by the Chinese can mean a variety of things.

– To mock an action
– To display one’s dissatisfaction
– To mean that one feel that one has been deceived while feeling slightly helpless.

I used lamentation as the translated word, but it’s missing the part where wolf boy felt deceived by Sue.

It’s somewhat funny to see how wolf boy thinks he going to get eaten by the magical beasts. It’s more likely he will get ‘eaten’ by Sue, cough.