The transformation under the full moon was excruciating. Raphael felt as if his entire body was being stretched to its breaking point.
But what delighted him was that after consuming the Unwinged Angel potion, he could actually maintain his rationality during the night of the full moon!
He looked at his wolf claws, feeling the strange sensation of passive transformation.
There was a sense of inexplicable familiarity, as if he had been born a Werewolf, as if he'd had wolf claws and fangs since birth.
'A normal active transformation never felt this way...' he thought.
He sat on a rock, savoring this subtle sensation for a while, then began practicing the Wolf Shadow Nine Steps and the Wolf Fang Technique.
Beneath the crimson full moon, Raphael felt as if he had an inexhaustible supply of energy, and he had the entire night to practice...
...
In the same forest on the western outskirts of Backlund, several men and women wearing matching cloaks sat chatting beneath a towering tree.
Among them were Ikanser Bernard, with his chiseled, strong facial features, and the small-eyed Deacon Zade.
The wheel tracks Raphael had seen earlier had been left by the carriages carrying these Machinery Hivemind members...
Ikanser glanced at the crimson full moon through the gaps in the leaves, then said to Zade and the others, "It's almost time."
The group immediately rose and headed to the ambush spot they had prepared in advance.
One of the Machinery Hivemind agents took out a medal engraved with a wolf's head and pinned it to his chest.
This was Sealed Artifact 3-156 of the Church of the God of Steam and Machinery. Its primary ability was to allow the user to understand the meaning of animal calls, but its negative effect was that the user would involuntarily emit sounds identical to a wolf's howl.
As soon as the agent put on the Sealed Artifact, he began coughing, as if his throat was uncomfortable. But soon, the howls came involuntarily: "Awooo, awooo, awooo~"
He was letting out wolf howls...
"Awooo~"
After he howled a few times, the same howls echoed back from a distance:
"Awooo~" "Awooo~" "Awooo~"
There was more than one howl, and they all seemed to be approaching this direction.
Ikanser and the others exchanged glances. Just from the howls alone, they couldn't tell whether they were actual wolves or Werewolves.
But both Ikanser and Zade were Sequence 5s. Even if several Werewolves came at once, they could handle them.
Moreover, wolf howls tended to attract each other. By the time they arrived here, the Werewolves might have already encountered each other, fought, and sustained injuries...
...
"Awooo~"
In a valley deep in the forest, Raphael, who had been diligently practicing the Wolf Shadow Nine Steps, heard the howls.
His eyes grew dark, as if feeling an irresistible call. But then his gaze cleared, and he calmed down.
However, he could no longer practice. The howls echoing from a distance kept him in a state of excitement, struggling to restrain himself from responding.
Gradually, Raphael sensed that something was off about these howls.
The sounds were moving too fast, and they kept calling back and forth to each other. It didn't seem like wolves.
Raphael smiled helplessly: 'Could it be that all the Werewolves in Backlund have come here to transform?'
But then his smile faded as he realized that it was actually possible. Transforming inside Backlund was too risky, unless one had access to a deep, spacious basement or dungeon.
But neither the Indulgence Faction nor the Temperance Faction seemed particularly wealthy. Finding such a large underground space to rent would be difficult.
Wild Beyonders were even less worth mentioning. Unless they were wealthy or aristocrats themselves, they had no conditions for transforming inside the city.
Leaving the city to transform was the best option. The other three directions around Backlund were mostly flat plains with vast farmlands, dotted with villages and estates. Transforming there would easily expose one's tracks and likely attract official Beyonder pursuit.
Only to the west of Backlund were there large forests, with only scattered hunters living in the mountains.
Backlund, known as the Land of Hope, had a huge number of Beyonders. It was unlikely that Raphael was the only Werewolf.
Thinking this, a fierce glint flashed in his eyes. For him, this was actually an opportunity, because at this very moment, among all the Werewolves, he was likely the only one with a measure of rationality.
He could try to hunt other Werewolves.
Although Werewolf Beyonder characteristics weren't particularly marketable, a thousand pounds was still a thousand pounds, right? After all, the Sequence level alone commanded that price.
With that thought, Raphael bared his wolf fangs in a sinister grin. He was a man of action, so he immediately ran toward the direction of the howls.
However, after running for a while, he stopped. A sudden thought occurred to him: 'What if someone is using realistic wolf howls to lure Werewolves, gathering them all in one place to be caught in a single net?'
With this in mind, Raphael listened carefully. Sure enough, he noticed one howl that remained stationary, while all the others were moving toward each other, drawn by the calls.
And that stationary howl was very likely a trap.
'How important it is to use one's brain at a critical moment!' A smug, savage grin appeared on Raphael's wolfish face, then he cleared his throat and howled: "Awooo~"
After that, he continued running, swiftly approaching the nearest moving howl. The direction of the stationary howl was off-limits, but the other moving howls were worth investigating for an opportunity.
Having cultivated the Mystic Source True Scripture and the Wolf Fang Technique, Raphael was confident he could take down a fellow Werewolf in a short amount of time.
He planned to hunt one or two, then quickly withdraw before becoming prey himself.
"Awooo~" Each howl felt exhilarating. The more he howled, the more addictive it became.
A nearby howl also noticed Raphael's call and began approaching, howling in response.
Raphael ran swiftly toward the other. Just then, he suddenly noticed a pale-faced lady sitting on a tree branch ahead. She appeared to be in her mid-twenties, looking frail, with a rare kind of sickly beauty.
The lady also noticed Raphael and asked weakly, "Jonathan, is that you?"
Raphael slowed his pace and casually replied, "You've got the wrong wolf."
"Oh, goodness!" The lady exclaimed in shock, "I must be so weak that I'm hallucinating. That Werewolf actually spoke!"
Raphael couldn't gauge her true strength. He was about to leave quickly when he realized another Werewolf had already tracked him down and was baring its fangs at him.
A manic expression appeared on his wolfish face. The thrill of battle and slaughter was calling to him!