The Divine Wolf...or?

Since Ark was currently running at full speed, he arrived at the tree in less than an hour. When he arrived at the tree, he laid Thufrat down on top of the wool he had on the floor. After doing that, he just sat down next to him and concentrated wholly on helping his friend. A film of sweat had formed on Thufrat's brows, and Ark used some water Mana to keep him refreshed. No matter how much he helped Thufrat though, Thufrat still suffered, and he was currently very red, similar to iron ready to be forged into a sword.

Ark was very worried for his friend, but he didn't believe that he was done for, he was sure that he would be able to find help. Of course, getting help would probably cost many, since nothing was truly free in this world, but Thufrat had found a plethora of different treasures when they cleared the first floor. Even though Ark didn't want to use Thufrat's things as payment, there was no other way.

The reason Ark didn't dare to treat Thufrat, was because this was an injury to his mind, and if he rashly sent in Mana to help him, he might turn his friend into an invalid instead. At the very least, that was Ark's speculation. If he couldn't find help, he would try and heal his friend himself, but he didn't have confidence that he could, that would be a last resort. Thinking like this, the day turned to night and then back into day again.

...

After an entire night of nonstop concentration, Ark was mentally exhausted, and his fur seemed to contain less ŀuster compared to the day before. This was pretty normal though since he didn't have that much Mana left. The only reason that he hadn't run out of Mana yet was that he couldn't send in that much Mana into his friend, which let him passively regenerate part of what he spent. Of course, it would still run dry with time, but that time wasn't now.

As it was a new day, Ark's "Shapeshift" had recovered, and he could use it once more. He quickly turned into a human and put on some of the clothes from Thufrat's spatial bag. After an entire night of suffering, Thufrat looked even worse than before, and dark Mana was constantly swirling around him, if not for the fact that an equally mighty light Mana was contesting this dark mana, Thufrat would have been long lost.

When Ark had conversed with Thufrat the day before, Thufrat naturally told him where he was, and he also told him about the nearest big city, since he was planning to go there after today, to sell some materials and items, and upgrade his gear. This city was called Fairmond, and it was quite bustling with business, the biggest reason was that it was next to this forest. Even though Ark had the luck to not run into any adventurers, there was still plenty of people who decided to venture into these woods.

The biggest reason as to why Ark didn't run into many people was because they were currently in a pretty obscure corner of this forest. As Ark remembered this, he turned back into a wolf again and put the clothes back into the spatial bag. He got a little hot-headed before, and kind of forgot about this little fact. He had limited time in his human form, and it would take around 2 hours to get to Fairmond according to Thufrat, Ark was gonna travel at full speed, but it would still take around half an hour.

As he put Thufrat on his back, Ark could feel how scorching hot Thufrat was at the moment, he could also feel the poor mans shivers, which seemed to encourage Ark to get him help even more. No one would want to see their friend in trouble unless they were an ȧsshole, and Ark started to grow a little anxious, what if he didn't manage to find help? And what if he screwed up when he tried to help him thereafter?

He quickly cast these thoughts aside though, since they would only do more harm than good, and he didn't want to distract himself with negativity right now. As he stepped outside, he almost instantly disappeared from where he was and darted off into the distance. Running with someone on your back was quite the hassle, especially if you have to be careful with them, whilst simultaneously keeping away from monsters and people.

There were multiple instances were Ark was really close to running into someone, but he managed to stay on course and stay off other's radars at the same time. Which meant that, 25 minutes later, Ark was at the very edge of the forest. He turned himself into a human and put on the pair of clothes he had gotten from Thufrat. Fortunately for Ark, no humans were in the close vicinity, and he could transform in peace.

After putting Thufrat on his back, he hurried to the city. The city of Fairmond was surrounded by a majestic wall made out of stone. This wall was about 10 meters high, and on top of it were patrolling guards, looking out to the forest. All of the guards were armed with some simple spears made out of wood, with spearheads made out of iron. This was pretty normal since it would be too expensive to give them much better.

Fairmond had 4 entrances, one west, one east, one north, and one south. At these entrances stood at the very least 4 guards, who checked on everyone who entered the city, as well as accepting an entrance fee. Ark didn't know of this beforehand, but since he noticed everyone else paying a large bronze coin to enter, he took one out from Thufrat's spatial bag as well. The money of this world was divided into bronze, silver, gold, rose-gold, and platinum. One hundred bronze coins equaled one silver, one hundred silver equaled one gold coin, and so forth. A large coin equaled 25 normal coins of the same value, meaning 4 large bronze coins would equal 1 silver.

Ark was currently at the north entrance, and there were not many people who entered through this one, meaning that the traffic was low. This was to Ark's advantage since he was in a hurry, but as he queued up, almost all people started to look at him incredulously, especially the women. Ark didn't really know why, but he couldn't care less right now, he just ȧssumed that it was because of Thufrat. The real reason, was just that he was too handsome! Of course, he would attract attention, jealousy, and envy from men, and adoration and appreciation from most women.

Even if the attention was originally from his looks, most people eventually noticed the bizarreness that was surrounding the dwarf on his back. Swirling masses of Mana was not something common people would want to get involved with, and most people chose to keep their distance. As Ark got up to the guards, he paid the two large bronze coin and was about to be on his way. Unfortunately, someone called out to him just as he was about to enter the city.

"Hey, you over there!"