Blue walked towards the cow-sized sheep. The monster was looking to the side, munching on some grass without a care in the world. Hera pulled her chakram and activated her [Hide]. It's not like it wouldn't help her just because there was nothing to hide behind. As long as her target didn't see her, the bonus effects would still work. She gathered a poison needle in her hand but let it fade before tossing it. She wasn't sure if using poison against the monsters could affect the meat they dropped.

"Why are you so worried? We just have to kill that thing," Blue chuckled as she approached.

"BAAAAAAA!!" the sheep yelled and darted off running.

"What? No! Get back here!" Blue tried to catch up, but the monster was too fast.

Naka started laughing, "Well done. You scared the easiest monster you'll find."

"Blue! Don't run too far," Sevaris warned.

Blue gave up the chase and went back to the group.

"Sorry. I didn't know how it would run like that," Blue replied.

"What did you expect? They are sheep. They won't stay still while someone strange gets closer," Naka shook her head.

"They are monsters. I expected them to fight me," Blue crossed her arms.

"That's why you follow my orders. These creatures are intelligent. Unless they have their flock, don't expect them to stay and fight," Naka headed to the direction the sheep run to. The monster had just gone over a hill, "Come. It will lead us to others."

"I forgot to ask. Can I use poison on those creatures? Does it affect the drop?" Hera walked towards the group.

"Do you have a way to remove the poison if it hits one of your allies?" Naka didn't even look at Hera while talking.

"Yes, I do. I just need to keep an eye on my mana."

"Very well. Poisoning the monsters won't affect the drops."

Hera nodded, but an idea popped into her mind, "The sky ruler's spawn. They come here to just fight everything, or do they hunt the sheep as well?"

"I'm not sure, but I believe they come to hunt the sheep. As I have said before, we cannot harm those creatures, and I believe what you are thinking about has been tried with no results. I can confirm it at a later date. Now stay quiet. We don't want to spook the other sheep," Naka replied.

Hera nodded and walked with the rest. As they reached the top of the hill, they were greeted by what looked like a completely white fog.

"Did a cloud fell down here?" Blue asked.

Sevaris laughed, "Look again, Blue."

Paying more attention, she could see the countless sheep spread around the area, all of them munching on the grass just like the one they had chased.

"So… If we hit one, the rest comes after us?" Hera asked.

"Not really, but if they start to stumble into each other, they might," Silah gestured to the area that would come after them.

"We must either pull some of them towards us or kill them quickly. If we start fighting them in the group, we will have to kill them all at once," Naka explained.

"Ok then, captain. What is the plan?" Blue turned to Naka.

"Are you waiting for my orders this time?" Naka side-eyed Blue.

"You were the one who told us to fight the first one."

"Fair enough. Start with that one," Naka pointed to a sheep in front of them, "Try not to push it away while fighting. Only after it dies, you move on to the next one. If another sheep tries to attack, move back to lure it away from the flock. You four will fight while I stay behind. Remember to follow any orders I give."

Everyone nodded, but Hera raised her hand, "Can I try something first?"

"What?"

"I have a spell that doesn't deal any impact damage. Maybe it can affect them without making them charge us. I want to try it on our target before we start."

"By all means, if you anger one of the sheep, we at least will have one fight without worrying about the rest," Naka gestured for Hera to go.

"And don't you have spells that can pull something away?" Blue asked.

"We do, but only one at a time. If we are going to do that here, it will take way too long. The captain has some other things, but if she uses it, all the sheep will be wiped out," Silah explained.

"And by doing so, it will take longer for you to level up," Naka added.

Blue nodded and looked at the sheep. Hera started moving down the hill and prepared a poison needle. She wanted to know how far a single needle would go. Still, she activated her [Hide] before sending the projectile towards a sheep in front of the group. She saw the projectile vanishing within the fluffy wool of the monster. Hera waited a couple of seconds to let the spell take hold and felt an odd sensation. It was almost like something was going through her hair. It wasn't a pull, or a push, just wind hitting a single strand. Hera She activated her [Observe] to confirm her suspicion.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Wooly Sheep – Level 5 – Poisoned (Wool Affinity)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It seemed that now with her new poison control spell, she could tell when a creature was under the effects of her poison.

"Why I had to get a spell specific for that? It would be much easier if I could just feel it from the get-go," Hera mumbled.

"Hera? Did you get it?" Blue's voice came through their coms. They agreed that it was better to have them always on during dungeons.

"It worked, but I'm not sure how long it will take to kill them," Hera moved back up, "So, here is my idea. While you three fight the first sheep, I send a few poison needles towards the middle of the group. If we are lucky, some of the sheep might die before we even reach them."

"Would that work? I mean, it's amazing. But can your poison kill those sheep?" Silah asked.

"It should be able to. I haven't seen anything immune to poison, although some monsters can brush it off after a while. If we had time, I would ask for us to wait awhile for that one to die," Hera explained.

"We don't have time for that, but the idea is decent. If you can do that and join the rest in the melee, you can try it. Now go, we already wasted enough time," Naka replied.

Blue, Silah, and Sevaris walked towards the poisoned sheep. At the same time. Hera started throwing poison in the air towards the middle of the flock. After 10 needles, her poison crystal was already at half capacity. Even if she had a good idea, using that spell took way too much mana to deal with a large number of enemies. Another unexpected problem was the weird feeling created by the poison. Having that strand of connection was oddly unsettling, especially since she could feel more or less how far away it was. For better or for worse, only 8 of the sheep she hit got poisoned.

Hera rushed down to help the rest of the team, but before she arrived, the first sheep was already dissolving on the ground. It left behind something wrapped around in grey paper. She wanted to take a look at it, but two other sheep were already going after them. Hera jumped to the side, slamming her handaxe on the monster Silah was facing. Her weapon cut through half the wool, but it didn't seem to hit its actual body.

"Aim for the exposed parts," Silah said as her mace came crashing down on the sheep's head, breaking its skull with the strike.

Blue and Sevaris were punching another monster, but their attacks made the sheep recoil. Seeing that, Naka intervened "Split the groups. Silah you and Sevaris take one. The humans another."

Sevaris left his target and rushed towards Silah, leaving Hera and Blue to fight together. Having someone who could deal the killing blow more efficiently in each team made all the difference. Sevaris and Blue could distract the monsters while Hera and Silah finished them off. With each creature that fell, another bundle wrapped in a grey paper appeared. Naka yelled more orders, telling them to move back or change targets.

"If she's yelling, why did we have to be quiet?" Blue pushed a sheep towards Hera while evading a tackle from a second one.

"We didn't. They only got scared by proximity," Sevaris punched a sheep's head, making it stumble to the side and get in Silah's range.

The sheep weren't that strong. Their attacks were enough to push Hera or Blue away, but not enough to make them seriously injured. However, they had to be very careful not to leave their feet in the way of the monster's hooves. They could have weak headbutts, but each stomp left deep marks on the ground. The duos were engaging in hit-and-run tactics, focusing on luring the sheep into a position where they could easily deal a killing blow without getting other members of the flock involved. It worked to a point, but even so, the constant moving around alerted a few more enemies than expected.

The situation could escalate quickly, but Naka kept giving commands, letting each team member know how to move and what to do next. Thanks to her guidance, there were little to no issues. The most dangerous thing was when a sheep pushed Blue against Silah in the middle of her swing. The blacksmith almost crushed Blue's arm with her mace, but was able to stop it midway.

After about 10 minutes of fighting, Hera noticed one of the strands of poison vanishing. She tried to remember if she felt it close or not, but couldn't be sure. She kept killing the sheep while trying to pay attention to the distance of the other strands. One minute later, another one vanished, but it was too close, and the timing matched the one that Silah had just finished off. Before Hera could even complain about that, she felt the fourth strand of mana vanishing. This one, she was sure it was far away.

"Captain. Can you see any new holes in the flock? Where we still haven't gotten to," Hera shouted.

After a quick glance, Naka nodded, "There is one. Five meters in front of your position."

Hera smiled as they continued their slaughter. A few minutes later, the flock of 50 sheep turned into 32 bundles of wool and 18 objects wrapped around that grey paper. They gathered everything and placed it inside one of the baskets Naka was carrying. Opening the paper, you could see several cuts of meat. There were pieces that were sirloin, tenderloin, ribs, briskets, and the paper was actually butcher's paper, much like the one humans used a while back. The 18 pieces of meat amounted to 40kg. Each piece was at least 2kg, with some getting close to 3kg. If every team got at least that same amount, it made sense that they could feed the entire city with meat.

"Baaaaa," Just as the group finished gathering their loot, a ram appeared from behind them.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Wooly Ram – Level 8 (Stone and Wool Affinity)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Aim for its legs. Don't let the horn get you. Try to kill it if you have a chance. Go!" Naka commanded as her team quickly moved towards the creature.

Naka's order carried some magic with it, making her subordinates understand what she meant right away. That made the combat much easier with her around. The ram dashed towards the group who scattered in different directions, but Naka held her ground.

"I guess this works too," she mumbled as the creature ran at her with her head down. Naka simply slapped the monster's head, making it fly off into the distance. The rest of the body dissolved before even reaching her, "Not even enough for a warm-up."

Hera and Blue exchanged a glance. It was one thing to see someone's level, but seeing them in action was very different. They both understood how hard was the sheep's skin and to be able to decapitate it with a slap was something terrifying. Before anything else could happen, what looked like a firework exploded in the sky.

"That's the boss. Let's head there," Naka turned towards the firework and headed off with the group.