This was Kevin's first time seeing Becky in action, or rather, his first glimpse of the power of humans in this world.
The flames and wind pressure coating the blade might have been magical effects, and the windstorm Becky unleashed in her spin clearly exceeded Kevin's impression of the human body. This was probably the "combat technique" of the dream plane. He stared at the scene with wide eyes, marveling. Although the three superhumans around him also possessed incredible superpowers, the weakest of them were huskies transformed into spirits, while Becky before him was "human." Kevin's interest in the setting of the dream plane grew ever greater. Becky's initial attack was a thunderous force, exceeding everyone's expectations. Under normal circumstances, the fleeing black wolves might have avoided it, but caught by surprise, they were inevitably strangled by the deadly storm of blades. The whirlwind Becky created raged for over thirty seconds before subsiding, leaving behind a spiral crater with a radius of over ten meters and a large pile of dismembered black wolf corpses. Kevin and the Wolf King rushed over to investigate and found Becky vomiting at the bottom of the crater, even her leftover food coming out. Kevin: "...Are you okay?"
"It's okay, just the normal aftereffects," Becky tried to hold back, waving at Kevin. "Just puke afterward. This trick can only be used once. Wait a minute, I need to puke again, ugh."
"Is this your traveling companion?" The Black Wolf King looked a little apprehensive. "They're magic swordsmen... a very powerful group of humans, I usually avoid them."
"Uh, just a temporary traveling companion, I guess." Kevin nodded awkwardly, wondering if Becky was truly impressive or not. She'd been out for thirty seconds and was completely useless. Even if Superman came along in three minutes, he could have beaten her six times over. But when she was spinning, she was truly indestructible, like a human meat grinder. Kevin was tempted to try turning on the shield to see how powerful this girl-like electric fan was, but on second thought, he decided against it.
Becky vomited for two minutes before finally recovering. She wiped her mouth and hopped out of the pit in a few steps, looking as alert as if nothing had happened. She looked in surprise at the wary Black Wolf King beside Kevin. "Didn't you say you were a magician from the Horner Empire? And you were suddenly thrown here by a teleportation accident. How come you even know these alien wolves?"
"They're quite famous?" Kevin asked casually.
"Quite famous," Becky shrugged. "There are some very intelligent wolves on this grassland that can speak human language. They're said to be descendants of experimental creatures left behind by an ancient magical civilization before the catastrophe. Travelers on the grasslands occasionally encounter them, and they occasionally communicate with humans, so they're quite famous. But the only wolves I've seen before are lone wolves. I didn't expect you to know an entire pack!"
The Wolf King was annoyed that someone was so brazenly discussing his own people. It bared its teeth and growled menacingly, "Don't speak to me like you're talking about a beast, human. I'm not some lowly creature who doesn't understand human language!"
Kevin quickly squeezed in between Becky and the Wolf King to prevent a quarrel (the Wolf King would undoubtedly be outmatched in such a situation). He explained how he and the Wolf King met: "Actually, I went to the grasslands a few days ago and met the wolves. I've been trying to teleport back these past few days, but I've always failed. That's what happened when you saw me falling from the sky."
The Wolf King opened his mouth, wanting to point out that you weren't wearing this outfit when you appeared a few days ago, but seeing Kevin seemed to have a hidden agenda, he said nothing further. Becky glanced at Kevin questioningly for a few moments, then waved her hand dismissively. "Whatever you want to say, it's none of my business. I'm not responsible if the sky falls. You two continue reminiscing while I gather my spoils."
As Becky spoke, she carried her sword to the corpses of the black wolves strewn across the grassland, gathering bone plates for potion ingredients. The wolf king bit Kevin's trouser leg and tugged, whispering, "Is she in danger?"
"Don't worry, she won't attack you," Kevin said with a smile. "She was planning to burst out and start a massive slaughter, but I stopped her..." Kevin then told the wolf king what had happened. He couldn't quite understand: Becky, whose skill cooldown lasted only thirty seconds and lasted two minutes, had the confidence to leap out and fight two packs of wolves simultaneously?
Perhaps this girl had another trick up her sleeve. "Can I ask you something?" Kevin saw that Becky still had to be busy for a while, so he remembered that he still had a mission to "explore the truth of the dream plane". Since he had come here and didn't know when he would suddenly go back, he decided to take this opportunity to ask the Wolf King about some terms he had just heard. "Just now, Becky said you wolves who can speak human language are the product of an ancient magical civilization. Is that true?"
"That's what humans say," the wolf king said. He was straightforward and wouldn't easily doubt anything Kevin said, like Becky did. Therefore, he was a good candidate for inquiries. Sure enough, he answered Kevin's common-sense questions without any suspicion. "It's said that seven or eight thousand years ago, maybe ten thousand years ago, that's how you humans tell time. I don't know how many days and nights that translates to, but that long ago, this world had a powerful magical empire. They had omnipotence, and their cities stretched to the moon. The world back then was countless times more prosperous than it is today. I've read about it in books: humans, elves, orcs, vampires, demons—each race had a population several times, even dozens of times, larger than their current populations... Anyway, I think that's nonsense. Where would all those people live?"
Kevin thought for a moment, thinking he'd take a couple of photos of the Spring Festival travel rush next time he had the chance to show the wolf king.
"This ancient magical civilization created you? Then why did they eventually collapse?" Kevin gestured for the wolf king to continue. He'd often seen the plot of an ancient civilization being cut short by a catastrophe, only to have a new one rise anew from the ruins, in movies. Even scientists on Earth had speculated about the existence of super civilizations in prehistoric times, so he didn't dismiss the ancient civilizations the Wolf King spoke of as mere legend. And honestly... a pack of talking wolves didn't really conform to the theory of evolution. "We don't have a history," the wolf king shook his head. "We don't dwell on so many useless things like humans do, so we don't know where we came from. However, many human scholars firmly believe that ancient civilizations were capable of creating new races. Some even say werewolves are a combination of humans and wolves. Later, that scholar was nearly beaten to death by a werewolf. As for how ancient civilization ended... I really don't know. Look, I'm just a wolf. I learned to read and write from a strange old man for a few years. It's hard for me to even read a book. If you have so many questions, why don't you ask that swordsman... er, that female?"
The wolf king looked at Kevin sincerely, his huge face full of an expression that said, "I'm just a small animal, don't expect so much from me, okay?" Kevin quickly gave in to the look. As he stood up, Becky's voice came from behind him: "Ancient Magic Empire? It's said that their research on artificial life caused divine punishment, and the goddess destroyed the world with a single blow." "Are you done?" Kevin turned and saw Becky holding a bulging bag. The bulges on the outside of the bag were likely bone fragments collected from wolf carcasses.
"Easy big bucks! Today's my day!" Becky happily swung the bag in her hand. "These wolves come and go like the wind. Don't underestimate my skills, but it's not easy to get these without an ambush. By the way, you're interested in the ancient magical empire? But aren't you a magician yourself? Why are you asking such basic questions?"
"Legends vary from place to place. I'm interested in the different versions of the legends." Kevin finally came up with a reasonable excuse before Becky became even more suspicious. "Ha, what's there to research? You guys are so bored," Becky said with a pout. "Anyway, I heard from my grandfather that the ancient magic empire's research into artificial life violated the divine realm. Those magic emperors and elven queens worked together to create some kind of perfect life form and gave themselves many titles, like the God of Arcane, the God of Life, the God of Creation, and so on. They went too far and angered the true God. In a rage, the goddess hurled her wine cup upon the world, and the divine wine within it transformed into a sea of crimson fire that burned across all realms for three days and three nights, wiping out eighty percent of life. That's how the ancient magic civilization ended. My grandfather said that the Blood Lake Beinz in the west and the red spot on the full moon are the traces left by the goddess throwing her wine cup."
Kevin listened in amazement to this magical, absurd, yet fascinating myth, while Becky sighed at the end, "What a generous goddess..."