After Aaliyah finished communicating with the pack of wolves.
Gauss finally asked, "How is it? Is it related to our target?"
He was somewhat concerned about Aaliyah’s expression, which likely meant she had gathered some valuable intelligence.
"Possibly," Aaliyah paused, then relayed the information she had gathered from the wolves to her teammates.
"...."
"That’s it."
Wolves are considered to be highly intelligent creatures.
Thus, the intelligence Aaliyah collected through "Animal Communication" with them was reasonably detailed.
Overall,
these five forest wolves originally lived with their pack in the forest, hunting and resting every day, continuing a peaceful yet fulfilling life.
But one morning, a group of goblins silently completed the encirclement of the wolf pack’s habitat.
The most powerful leader among them didn’t last long against that big green-skin.
Quickly knocked down with a few punches.
Afterwards, the other forest wolves were captured one by one.
The goblins didn’t kill them; instead, they used a pungent-smelling black ointment on their noses and fur, causing them to fall completely unconscious before locking them away somewhere.
That place had many wild animals like them.
Not just wolves, but also wildcats, bears, and other animals were imprisoned there, forlorn and dejected.
Male creatures were tamed as mounts, while female beasts became breeding machines for the goblins.
These five male wolves managed to escape by luck due to a problem with the cage door, relying on their remaining wild instincts and stamina, they ran wildly and finally fled near a human village.
Through attacking livestock, they managed to procure food and barely survived.
But their condition was poor; the effects of the black ointment continued to linger, causing their sense of smell to fail and making them unusually frantic.
Gauss looked at the thin wild wolf lying on the ground and felt a twinge of sympathy.
From the perspective of the wild wolves, they had been through sheer tragedy.
Home wrecked, kin enslaved, mother wolves reduced to goblin breeding machines.
Had it not been for sheer luck, they might have been completely tamed and brainwashed by the goblins, probably already becoming part of the goblin mounts.
"Seems like the Black Tooth Tribe style." Gauss mused.
Although from the wild wolves’ perspective, it’s impossible to discern if those goblins are the target of Gauss’s mission. However, a goblin tribe capable of capturing large numbers of wild animals and possessing domestication and control skills shouldn’t be numerous.
"Do they know the place where they were held and tamed?"
"Probably not," Aaliyah stroked the heads of a few wild wolves, "They escaped hurriedly, and their sense of smell and other senses were impaired, further blurring their perception of the location."
Because her first animal companion, Ulfen, was also a wolf, she had a natural affection for this type of creature.
"But we can roughly infer the direction based on the traces they left," she added.
"Hmm."
Serdur briefly treated the wild wolves, then let them go after Aaliyah informed them to leave the village area.
Although the specific location of the mission target remained unclear, at least they obtained intelligence indicating that wild animals around the area were being captured.
The team happened to have the ability to communicate with animals through Druid Aliya, providing a breakthrough with this clue.
No longer blindly fumbling aimlessly.
Upon returning to the village, after informing the village chief that the wolves had been thoroughly driven away, the team searched around the village again.
Soon enough, they found signs like tufts of wolf hair and claw marks, and used these traces to deduce the direction from which the wolf pack came, then embarked on the road to find the goblin tribe.
Two days passed in the blink of an eye.
"Squeak—"
In the forest, the incessant chirping of insects mixed with the rustling sound of wind blowing through the leaves.
In this season of gradually rising temperatures, it’s enticing to find a shady corner to nap.
"The weather is getting hotter." Aaliyah wiped the imaginary sweat from her forehead.
The temperature was actually fine; it was just too humid.
"Let’s take a break."
Gauss looked at a nearby ancient green tree and said.
Though they had a direction, the search over the past two days was much harder than they anticipated.
Only by being in the vast wilderness can one realize the difficulty of finding a target.
Even when Aaliyah constantly used animal communication to converse with the forest’s wild creatures, trying to gather intelligence, they came up empty-handed.
Fortunately, both Gauss, Aaliyah, Serdur, and Ying were prepared for a prolonged battle.
Laid out the camping tarp.
Gauss took food and water out of the Storage Pouch.
While drawing out the map in his mind onto paper for his teammates to see.
"Here’s Forest Crown Town, here’s Charlie Village, this is where we found the wild wolves, and we’re approximately here now."
On the slightly yellowed parchment, Gauss quickly and precisely completed the hand-drawn map.
Thanks to the Adventurer’s Handbook’s map function, he was like a human map surveyor.
In this regard, he truly might be an excellent candidate for completing similar missions, at least he has a clear understanding of past traversed areas, preventing disorienting loops in the forest.
Aaliyah and Serdur were already accustomed to this.
At the moment, Ying constantly looked up in surprise at Gauss from the detailed information on the hand-drawn map.
"How do you do it?"
The information hand-drawn on the map was unexpectedly rich.