Mate Collecting System: The Beast Kings Are Obsessed With Me

Chapter 56: The Witch’s Blood Test

Blood started dripping steadily from Nuan’s palm. Realizing she was making a mess, she quickly held her arm up, trying to elevate the cut so she wouldn’t lose blood too quickly.

The sharp, metallic scent immediately sliced through the damp air of the cave. Both Selka and Kael’s heads snapped up instantly, their nostrils flaring as they sniffed the air, staring dead at her bleeding hand. Kael panicked, his ears flattening as he scrambled to pull his battered body off the rock.

"Stay down!" Selka barked, throwing a sharp stop-gesture toward her son. She turned to Nuan, shoving a flat stone slab, a heavy grinding stone, and a handful of genuine Whiteclaw leaves into her lap.

"Hurry up and make a paste out of it yourself!!" Selka ordered urgently.

Nuan looked at her dripping hand, then at the pile of whole leaves she was supposed to grind down.

Oh, great job, genius. I should have made the damn paste first before slicing my own skin open, Nuan sobbed internally. Gritting her teeth, she began clumsily bruising and grinding the leaves against the stone slab using only her one good, uninjured hand.

Outside the cave, the rest of the pack had caught the scent. The sound of multiple wolves sniffing the wind, accompanied by low, confused growling, echoed into the den.

"You absolute idiot! And here I thought Kael was the only brainless fool I had to deal with!" Selka hissed, watching the red drops pool on the dirt. "Look at the amount of blood you are losing! If you do not finish grinding that paste in time, I am stepping in and applying it myself!"

"Haha... sorry," Nuan let out an awkward, sheepish laugh, a sweat drop rolling down her neck as she kept furiously hammering the leaves with the grinding stone.

Calm your breathing. Don’t panic. Slow down your momentum and lower your heart rate, Nuan commanded herself, forcing her survival instincts to kick in. Calm down, calm down.

Finally, she managed to crush enough of the leaves to form a rough, green paste. She quickly scraped it onto a large wrapping leaf, slapped it directly over her bleeding palm, and neatly bound it tight.

"Seriously, what kind of idiotic stunt was this?" Selka hissed, already aggressively grinding a fresh batch of leaves on her own slab. "Look, it is not working. Let me remove that mess and apply a proper one."

"No, wait..." Nuan panted, holding her wrapped hand close. "I’ve watched you apply this to the younger pups after they get scratched up. Even with the herb, the blood takes at least two minutes to fully stop clotting. Let’s just wait."

Nuan waited calmly for the herb to do its regular, logical, scientific thing. In her mind, she pulled up her system interface, staring intently at the countdown timer she had set.

[ 01:59]

Any second now. The active chemical compounds should trigger vasoconstriction, Nuan hummed to herself, ignoring the warm fluid still seeping through the bottom of the leaf wrapping.

[ 00:00 ]

Nuan’s eyes suddenly widened. The two minutes had fully passed, but the leaf wrap was completely soaked, and her blood was still spilling out from the bottom like a small waterfall. The herb wasn’t doing a single thing.

"Enough with this bullshit," Selka snapped. She yanked Nuan’s wrist forward, ruthlessly tearing away the useless, blood-soaked leaf wrap, and instantly slapped her own freshly ground, perfectly prepared Whiteclaw paste over the cut, binding it with an expert twist.

"Are you serious right now? Weren’t you traveling with the Snake Clan King, Eryx?" Selka scolded, her voice thick with irritation as she tied the knot. "Did he never bother to tell you that curiosity is a highly dangerous thing in this jungle?"

"Hmm... sorry about that," Nuan muttered, looking down at the ground with a thoroughly humbled expression. The dark soil had soaked up a rather alarming amount of her blood. Wow. So the fairytale wasn’t a fairytale at all. The chemical composition literally won’t react unless a Silver Grey wolf processes it. Talk about a strict biological lock.

Two minutes after, the heavy throbbing in her palm faded, and the bleeding ground to a complete halt.

Nuan let out a massive, relieved sigh. But the moment her blood stopped flowing, a chorus of loud, eerie howls suddenly erupted from the wolves outside the den.

"It seems like the scent of this completely new kind of blood excites everyone out there," Selka murmured, her ears twitching toward the entrance.

Crap. What kind of vampire-wolf logic is this? Nuan thought, shuddering slightly.

Kael, completely done sitting in the corner, pushed himself up on his good leg and marched right out to the mouth of the den, letting out a massive, thunderous Alpha bark to instantly silence the rowdy pack and tell them to back off.

With the distraction gone, Selka turned back to Nuan. For the rest of the day, the old wolf thoroughly drilled her, teaching her exactly how, when, and in what quantities to prepare the Whiteclaw plants for every possible injury she might face on her journey.

(Evening)

Selka and Nuan finally stepped out of the dark cave, their muscles stiff after the long hours of intense lessons on the Whiteclaw plant’s properties.

In the center of the clearing, the fire pits were roaring. Dozens of wolves were gathered around, laughing and aggressively tearing into several freshly hunted deer. "It seems like today’s hunt went smoothly," Selka observed, the tension from earlier completely vanishing from her posture as she smelled the fresh food.

Koda came sprinting over from the main fire, panting happily as he handed both Selka and Nuan a large, thick leaf cradling a generous prime cut of roasted venison.

"Thanks, kiddo," Nuan murmured, ruffling his thick, silver-grey hair affectionately.

Holding her dinner, she walked over to her usual working stone with Selka. She checked on her clay pottery, noting it was perfectly dried from the afternoon sun, and willed the pieces back into her system inventory.

The two women sat down slightly away from the rowdy main pack, enjoying the quiet privacy of the tree line as they began to eat. Nuan took a savory bite of the deer meat, chewing thoughtfully. After a moment, she lowered her voice, her eyes locking onto the old wolf.

"So..." Nuan asked quietly, her expression dead serious. "What exactly did you mean earlier when you whispered that I’m what I appear to be?"