After the completion of the long-winded incantation, the sturdy chunk of the dragon's heart began to melt away in the cauldron.

Erwin and Onean had found a lush honestrand poison tree and were sitting under the shade of the tree to watch the female wereleopard as she cast her spell. Erwin was on the brink of falling asleep, and he felt as if time had slowed down.

Out of the corners of her eyes, Onean could see Erwin's head occasionally drooping down, only to snap back up as he immediately jerked himself wide awake, pretending to be listening to the incantation along with her. However, after a while, his head would involuntarily begin to droop again, and the process repeated itself. It was like a sleepy kitten that was woken up by its owner as soon as it fell asleep, and it was very adorable in Onean's eyes.

In reality, this was an exact rendition of what Erwin was like during the lectures that he attended back in Teedus Academy.

Right as Erwin's head was about to drop down once again, Onean caught him by the chin, then said with an amused expression, "If you're not interested in watching, then go and take a nap."

"I'm not disinterested, I just can't help but feel sleepy in the afternoon," Erwin protested.

"Looks like the ritual is almost over," Onean said as she cast her gaze toward the altar.

Right after she said this, the group of sickly wereleopards was carried onto the altar.

"Come to think of it, why is it that this condition is only contagious among men? Isn't that really strange?" Erwin asked as he cast his gaze toward the cauldron.

"You'll have to ask the dragon that cast the curse about that."

"The more I see of the Terarody Mountain Ranges, the more unfathomable I feel like it is," Erwin said. "There are ice dragons capable of wielding time and space magic, and now, there's a dragon able to cast curses. What other monsters are there hiding in these mountain ranges?"

"Are these wereleopards not astonishing enough to you?" Onean asked as she turned to look at him.

Erwin heaved a faint sigh in response. "These things are indeed quite remarkable as well. They have their own tenets that they live by and a clear hierarchy system. If you think about it that way, how are they even different from us humans at all? The only real difference is that we live outside the mountain ranges, while they reside in it."

As the two of them were speaking with one another, the female leader of the wereleopards was already scooping up the magic potion within the cauldron with a huge wooden spoon before distributing it among the sickly wereleopards.

The dragon's blood had an extremely rank odor to begin with, and the magic potion brewed from it had an even stronger aroma. It was as if an explosion had taken place in a potion master's laboratory, resulting in a smell that was extremely complex, overpowering, and nauseating.

With that in mind, Erwin couldn't help but wonder how those cursed wereleopards were able to drink the magic potion without throwing up. However, considering all of them were completely unconscious, perhaps they couldn't even taste the magic potion that they were being fed.

"Ah, I can't do this. I feel like I'm about to throw up." With a wave of his staff, Erwin hurriedly conjured up a magic shield to keep out the odor that was wafting out of the cauldron.

"Let's go take a look." Onean wanted to see if the magic potion could actually save those wereleopards or not.

Once all of the sickly wereleopards had devoured the yellow magic potion, which was essentially ice dragon heart soup, the female wereleopard and all of the wereleopards behind her looked on with bated breath, waiting to see the outcome.

What Erwin was quite curious about was why these wereleopards didn't seem to find the smell disgusting at all.

Shortly thereafter, a miraculous scene unfolded. Following a string of moans from the sickly wereleopards, the countless tiny meat rods that riddled their bodies began to detach themselves from their skin in clumps, following which the "coral and anemones" disintegrated into dust in the air before being blown away by the wind.

"Wow, honestly, I didn't think it would actually work," Erwin said as he looked on with a surprised expression.

"I didn't think it would work, either," Onean said.

With the curse lifted from the sickly wereleopards, all of the wereleopards behind their female leader let loose a burst of thunderous cheers. The elderly female wereleopard herself also wore a relieved smile. She had also been extremely tense and on edge just now, fearful that the magic potion brewed from the dragon's heart would fail to work.

Upon seeing Erwin and Onean approaching the scene, the leader of the wereleopards extended another bow to express her gratitude toward the pair of young humans, then made a series of gestures toward them.

"It looks like she's inviting us to visit their settlement. She says that their settlement is located in the southeast," Onean explained.

Erwin had roughly understood what the female wereleopard had said as well, and he hesitated momentarily before giving Onean a meaningful look, subtly expressing his caution toward these magic beasts. Most of his wariness stemmed from the reaction of these wereleopards to their fallen brethren, and on top of that, they were fundamentally another race, after all.

Onean could see what he was trying to convey, so she tactfully turned down the female wereleopard's offer with a faint smile. She was also harboring the same doubts as Erwin.

Erwin smiled as he pointed at the north, then pointed at himself and Onean, indicating that they were in a hurry to travel northward, so they had to be on their way as soon as possible.

The female wereleopard was a little disappointed to see this, but she still brought her palms together to pray for Erwin and Onean.

The little wereleopard could also sense that it was time for them to part ways, and it stood beside its mother with a conflicted expression, hanging its head in silence.

The female wereleopard could tell that something was on its mind, so she squatted down and asked it what it was thinking.

Initially, it refused to say anything, but upon its mother's insistence, it was finally willing to reveal what it was thinking by whispering into its mother's ear.

After hearing what it had to say, a stern look immediately appeared on the female wereleopard's face, and she glared at her child with a serious expression.

The little wereleopard didn't dare to meet its mother's stern gaze, and it averted its eyes with a disappointed look on its face.

Meanwhile, Erwin and Onean were looking on with curiosity at the exchange.

The female wereleopard turned to the two of them with a polite smile, and she didn't reveal what her child had just told her.

Immediately thereafter, her brethren filled two large bottles with the magic potion that they had just brewed, and the female wereleopard handed the bottles over to Erwin.

Erwin cast his gaze toward her with a puzzled expression, in response to which she gestured toward the two large bottles, indicating that it was best for them to take some of the magic potions with them in case they also encountered the same dragon that had cast that curse onto the wereleopards. Even if they were to be afflicted with the same curse, they'd be able to cure themselves so long as they had access to this magic potion. 

Of course, that was only Erwin's interpretation of what the female wereleopard had said. Half of her communication was done through body language, so there was a lot of extrapolation involved.

He took a glance at the two bottles, upon which he discovered something rather curious. Aren't these wine bottles? It looks like this wereleopard settlement doesn't have the technology to make glass bottles yet. In that case, where did these wine bottles come from? Could it be that there are people living in this forest?

Thus, he asked the female wereleopard where she had gotten the bottles from, and she told him that she had found them lying around in the forest. Furthermore, according to her, these things were quite common in the forest.

It looks like this forest isn't completely devoid of human habitation, after all, he thought to himself.

Even though there were wooden corks stuck into the mouths of the two large bottles of magic potion, its nauseating odor was still constantly wafting into his nostrils, and he couldn't help but dry heave a few times. The odor coming from the cauldron had already had some time to dissipate, so the smell wasn't as strong anymore, and thus, he had decided to withdraw his magic shield. However, he failed to anticipate that the wereleopards would be so hospitable and insist on giving him this parting gift.

Onean was looking from the side, doing her best to suppress her amusement, and she didn't display any intention of helping Erwin, nor did she cast any spells to dispel the odor wafting out of the two bottles. In order to justify her own actions, she thought to herself, It would be rude of us to show disgust in the face of such a generous offering.

Erwin was unable to bear the smell any longer, and he hurriedly lowered the bottles so that he was carrying them by his sides. As a result, they were a lot further away from his face, and he was able to breathe much easier.

He had no interest in seeing how the wereleopards were going to dissect the rest of the dragon's heart, so he turned to Onean, indicating that it was time for them to leave.

Onean smiled as she waved at the female wereleopard and her dejected child, bidding them farewell before she prepared to depart with Erwin.

The little wereleopard suddenly rushed over to them, paying no heed to its mother's efforts to stop it. However, what was rather surprising was that it didn't cling onto Onean. Instead, it rushed over to Erwin before looking up at him with a serious expression.

It was like a passage of communication between men, where the little wereleopard was demanding that Erwin keep Onean safe.

Erwin looked down at the little wereleopard, and he didn't know how to react. It seemed that the little guy really had fallen in love with Onean.

He naturally wasn't going to make any promises to a little magic beast. Instead, he put on a fierce expression and gave it a menacing glare.

Even Onean was given quite a fright by the look on his face. In that instant, she was struck by the feeling that Erwin was about to unleash a scorching fireball to incinerate the little guy into ashes in an instant.

However, Erwin wasn't an advocate for senseless slaughter, and in the blink of an eye, a faint smile returned to his face, and the menacing look of killing intent in his eyes abruptly faded. It was as if he had merely been joking around with the little wereleopard and never had any intentions to actually harm it.

The little wereleopard's face had turned deathly pale from fear, and it was staring up at Erwin with a horrified expression.

Thankfully, the female wereleopard hurriedly stepped forward to defuse the situation, dragging her child behind her before giving Erwin an apologetic smile. However, Erwin could tell that she was holding her staff very tightly, so she clearly wasn't as relaxed as she seemed.

Onean also stepped forward, positioning herself in front of Erwin to further de-escalate the situation.

As for Erwin himself, he didn't linger at the scene any longer, turning around and heading toward the north while carrying the two bottles of magic potion in his hands.

Onean could only give a resigned smile before waving farewell at the female wereleopard once again, then set off after Erwin.

The little wereleopard was hiding behind its mother, and after Erwin left, it silently poked its head out to look at Onean's departing figure with a hint of innocent longing in its blue eyes. It then imitated its mother and brought its paws together to pray in silence.

...

At this point, the sun was already beginning to set, and its dying rays were spilling down onto the peaceful forest.

Dusk quickly transitioned into night, and the forest became even quieter.

"Are we going to leave just like that? We're just going to give them that dragon's heart for nothing in return?" Onean walked along beside Erwin, tilting her head to the side to examine his expression.

"What do you think we should've asked for in return? Should we have taken that thing with us?" Erwin failed to realize that Onean was only trying to tease him with a lighthearted topic of conversation, and he gave a very stern reply.

"Why are you so angry? That was just a little kid who doesn't know any better," Onean said with a smile. She looked at the bottles of magic potion that Erwin was carrying, and she was about to offer to share the load, but she decided against it after thinking of the nauseating odor from the magic potion.

Erwin offered no response.

"Could it be that you're worried about something?" Onean asked with an amused expression.

"I just feel like that little bastard needs to mind its own business. If it keeps sticking its nose into things that it has no business getting involved in, then it's going to get itself killed sooner or later," Erwin said in an indifferent voice.

"Say whatever you want, but ultimately, you're just too insecure," Onean said, identifying the crux of the matter.

Erwin suddenly stopped in his tracks, then turned to Onean before raising an eyebrow. "Why do I feel like you've taken a liking to that thing?"

Onean faltered slightly as she stared at him with an incredulous expression, then burst into peals of uncontrollable laughter.

A displeased look appeared on Erwin's face as he grumbled, "I'm hungry. Let's go find something to eat."