《High-expectations and haughty thoughts》 And another morning to wake up He woke up and there was a florest. Simple as that. No real panic crossed Aki''s mind. He just checked if there was any crawly buck on him since he''d been lying on the grass over his confortable pijamas. That would have been fear inducing. Luckly, there was no such thing. Aki looked up. He guessed it was around midday. He put his finger in his mouth and tried to feel a breeze with the moistured appendage, but he felt nothing. Sitting against a tree, he started to listen for water and animals, but there were a few birds and maybe some small animals, both of which he''d have a hard time catching withouth a trap. He could at max make rope or pit traps with his knowledge, but he had neither the tools for those nor the energy to get it done without said tools. The only other suitable solution were to find a body of water and fish or kill an animal drinking there. Getting to civilisation? Hell na. To begin with, he would not be that lucky as to stumble on a city or vilage. Even if he did though, he''d be mugged, raped depending on the assailant, and possibly captured as a slave. And so, the youth chose a random direction and started walking while looking for a jagged rock or big stick he could use to make a stake. ***** Some time later. [Congratulations! You have acquired the stealth, hunting and survailance skills at level 1.] "Status" Aki imediatly said while crouching with a tree to his back. Name:----- Race: Human Class: none HP: 80/80 (regen 7/h) MP: 100/100 (regen 15/h) STR: 8 VIT: 7 DEX: 5 AGI: 6 INT: 10 WIS: 15 Skills: Heat resistance Lv 2 Sun resistance Lv 2 Pain resistance Lv 2 Abnormal status effect resistance Lv 1 Meditation Lv 1 Student Lv 3 Caligraphy Lv 2 Singing Lv 2 Stealth Lv 1 Hunting Lv 1 Survailance Lv 1 Unique skills: Mental alacrity Lv 4 Otherworlder "Well, at least I''m not on earth anymore." Aki murmured. ''Name change, Aki.'' That didn''t work. ''System, I wish to give myself a name.'' He tried again and this time a see through box appeared in front of him again, asking what name he would like. A mental prompt was also enough to write the name down. ''System, I wish to select a class.'' This time several boxes appeared. There were five options. [Classes: Wizard Rogue Ranger Mind adept Monster:*] ''Select monster.'' {Attention! Selecting any option in this section will make it so you lose your otherworlder advantages! Do you wish to continue?} Aki tried to mentally nudge his skill to get more info on them, including the unique ones, but nothing came. Though he could guess the first one was just altism when magic was game. Just to be sure, he tried to nudge his race. It worked. Apparently the system considered humans like cockroaches, because besides saying humans have a 25% grownth correction and no bonus stats, it only mentioned it was a race that would hardly ever be extinguixed withouth throughly destroying a planet and it''s current ecosystem. It also mentioned this planet was called Aria. Aki nudged his stats too, and they actually gave a base description on what each did, though it was quite obvius and RPG like if one thought about it. ''I would need some sort of skill to apraise the skills problably, but hell if i know how to get it. I will either get Mind adept after not finding any good mutations or i will become an actual monster. No biggie. Let me just climb this tree before i actually select anything. I will problably get knocked out or be in an immense amount of pain anyway.'' An embarassing attempt at replicating what he knows about climbing trees later. ''Just as hard as i thought. Show me the monster tab.'' {Monster: Goblin Slime Lizarman Incubus Vampire Lycantrope Lesser hive drone Sprite Flesh golem} ''Gross. No matter how i look at it, even my special options in the monster catalogue are shit that will have me against the whole world. Than the whole universe. Though Incubus would be nice because sex and mind magic, that would still leave me stranded and with tons of weaknesses. The first three are butter and bread, i''d even go with them if i found a goblin village, a deep and desolate cave or just a normal swamp, but a deep forest isn''t a place for any of those to live, nevermind i''d have to adjust to a new body tipe. Vampire would get me crazy and thristy till i turned into a holy vampire or a true ancestor, which are both ridiculous to expect to reach quickly. Lycantrope... Nope. I don''t mind turning into a furry fluff ball of murder, but... Wait, no, the instincts would be perfect to a situation like this, it would fix my physical stats and even give me further resistances and regen. I don''t plan on interacting with humans in the short run, and i don''t really have a problem with kidnapping my victims in case i get sighted, my willpower can help me with hunger, nevermind the sleep and sex problems i might develope. I will... Do i have to... System select Lycantrope and Mind adept at the same time.''If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. {Congratulations! You are now a mind adept! Check your class for further information. Error! The user is becoming a monster! Race changed! Otherworlder skill has been consumed! Please check your race for further information.} First, there was the warmth. Then came the sickness, the cold, the bloodlust and finally the pain. *Crack* Aki shoved his hand backwards and hugged the tree. *Grwwww* He started snarling. "Harrrhaaharharhaa..." Then he laughed a beastly and ragged laugh. "Two thousand surrounding us. Who travel two thousand kilometers. To hang out with us. What''s up danger!" Then he sang. Trying to sing while his throat changed was weird, nevermind that it was a music like that. He certainly wouldn''t sound half as good if someone heard him, but at the moment, he was having the time of his life. It didn''t even take the music''s three minutes and a half, but Aki was still in pain and he still sang. When he finally finished, his breath was ragged and so were his clothes. He''d grown at least three centimeters, he got abs, his eyes were now light brown instead of dark brown, his hair was longer and he had an actual, bonafide beard that would make his family proud they had someone else joining the hair care club. "I feel like i could punch the wolverine and knock him out, holy damn!" He muttered under his breath. ''Status, Race, class.'' {Lycantrope: A infectious disease caused some people to become part beast, more animalistic and hairy. You are one of those people now. +5 STR +5 VIT +2 DEX +2 AGI -2 WIS. You will suffer with constant animalistic blood lust. Your skin, bones and muscles will become denser. 50% easier to obtain beast and monster skills (does not turn the impossible possible). Your senses are sharpened, primarily your sense of smell. Your resistance to poisons and diseases is greatly raised. You will be tested monthly and if you succumb to your inner predator, you will become a full blown Werewolf, a monster. Your original race bonus are cut in half and added.} [Mind adept: Someone with a strange and strong mind that has taken to the ways of magic. +5 WIS +5 INT +2 DEX You gain 25% more XP with magic and 50% more with mind magic. You get 25% advantage in any kind of mental check. Your memory is 50% sharper.] ''I knew it! These two can compliment each other, even if they will problably make me doubly suspicious in society. Now, i should problably...'' Aki gave a predatory grin with his now sharper teeth. Luckily his ears were still human ones if a bit sharper. Inhaling deeply, Aki felt the poop, the grass, tress and other foliage, but more importantly, he could tell there was something with the strong smell of meat and blood some two trees to the right, burrowed a bit under the ground. Problably a rabbit. Now, Aki could problably kill it even if it had a horn or something, but he wanted to do it the fun way. Going deeply inside himself, Aki breathed and felt his surroundings. He felt his back against the tree, felt the air in his lungs and the blood pumping in his blood. Then he noticed it and grinned even more. The mana inside of him was a colorless, agitated thing, as slow as a snail or worse though. It didn''t take much to actually move it, but when he got what he considered enough to his head, the problem was quickly solved. His intent and will somehow fused and made it easier to actually cast the spell he intended. Or his class bonus was showing itself. With the mana forming a somewhat thick rope, Aki had a surprisingly anti-climatic time getting it out of his head, but it actually made him sweat to try and get to the rabbit that was a good ten to twenty meters away. Try being the imperative word. Some time before that, the mana started to dissipate outside and he barely got anything back inside before anything happened. He still got the Mind magic skill though. Sighing and getting closer to the rabbit hole, Aki didn''t take long to actually connect to the creature. It also didn''t take long for Aki to frown and turn the rope he intended to use as a point for comands to a spike filled with spikes. Then he shoved his hand in the burrow and quickly broke the other animal''s neck. Since Aki didn''t know how to do anything with the pelt, he simply took the two rabbits out of the burrow and used his now practically useless sleeves to tie the feet to a branch before cutting the neck for the blood. He was tempted to drink it since he was now a fucking werewolf and also didn''t have anything that would pass as a water source, but then he noticed he''d have to patiently wait and the blood got dirty through the pelt and fell to his mouth since he didn''t have a bowl, so that was rulled out almost imediatly. Trying to listen for flowing water again didn''t result in anything, so Aki tried to look for traces of constant animal traffic. That was actually effective as he noticed that plenty of bunnies went on to one direction. They left plenty of traces and there were more burows around that place, so it could either be a source of food or a source of water, since for all he knew there could be an underground water reservoir that these fuckers were ussing. He was going to get himself a rock knife first though. It was tedious and repetitive, but he also understood how much that was going to be useful even if his hands one day became harder than steel. Besides, even if he knew how to skin and clean a rabbit, thank Mooderito, he wasn''t so sure he wasn''t going to fail misserably, so he didn''t want to have to test his new imune system by eating with hands even dirtier than nescessary. Some time later, Aki got one more rabbit and another level in mind magic since he''d influenced it to leave it''s burrow by imitating the fealling of hunger first. Than he started taking the rabbits apart. It was much less gross than he''d expected it to be, but also far more mentaly demanding. The smell wasn''t that bad, which yes, he also thought strange. The first try being a dud also made the second try working much more satisfacting though. First, Aki ate the eyes, since his grandma always liked to eat fish eyes and he didn''t have much option here. Gross, but not the worst. Then the extemities. Rather bland and with a strange to describe texture. Also gross. Taking the meat from the bones was kind of messy, but not too hard. When Aki finished eating the first rabbit he went to the last one. At least he wasn''t a complete noob or a young master, but he was also not complaining about the buffed imune system. It was not getting any sooner, so Aki decided to leave towards the possible water body. Half an hour of cursing later, he wished he''d drank at least a bit of the blood spiled. An hour in track and he actually found it. It was a big lake, and there was even a a rocky formation by it''s side. Yup, he''d make recidence here, no matter how fucking big the thing inside that cave was. More bunnies Waking up, Aki decided it was time. First he was going to pee though. Another change from becoming a lycantrope was that his feet and hands became bigger and more rugged, which was actually very helpful, but were also related to another problem that wasn''t really a problem. A week after coming to this world, thus is Aki''s status: Name: Aki Race: Human/Lycantrope Lv 4 Class: Mind adept Lv 4 HP: 130/130 (regen 12/h) MP: 160/160 (regen 18/h) STR: 13 VIT: 12 DEX: 10 AGI: 9 INT: 16 WIS: 18 SP: 6 Skills: Ancillary: Meditation Lv 4 Student Lv 3 Stealth Lv 2 Hunting Lv 4 Survailance Lv 3 Tracking Lv 1 Crafting: Caligraphy Lv 2 Singing Lv 4 Handcrafts Lv 1 Magic: Mana manipulation Lv 5 Mind magic Lv 4 Elemental magic Lv 2 Metal magic Lv 1 Combat: Claw technique Lv 1 Deadly bite Lv 1 Unarmed combat technique Lv 1 Augmentation: Heat resistance Lv 2 Sun resistance Lv 2 Pain resistance Lv 4 Abnormal status effect resistance Lv 3 Unique skills: Mental alacrity Lv 5 The levels came not from hunting rabbits, but from the bear that previously lived in the cave next to the lake. Aki didn''t really try to eat it, but he did skin it and put the somewhat good pelt as a door flap by using it with some branches in a new deal of modern art. The rest of the body was left some distance away from the cave, which yes, attracted pretadors, but that was on purpose. Aki only got two wolves before having to use a wave of mind magic to make himself look scarier and making the rest of the relatively large pack run away. More importantly, he found a village. It wasn''t a human village luckily, but a beast-kin village! He was going to approach one of their hunters today. Something Aki found out was that mind magic actually didn''t take much mana to maintain as long as it had two pins, the caster and target, though it increased in cost per target as well, nevermind releasing a wave of meaning. That was actually expected though. Telepathy is the way of comunication of the future after all. So he rolled around in the mud and grass before squating down in a possition he''d not move for along time. ***** Alara was having her first solo hunt, or so she told herself, but she was only supposed to check the traps around the village. The rabbit-kin was certainly not supposed to speak with a strange white figure that appeared out of nowhere. At first she thought it was a human or a summon and tried to shoot it, but the arrow passed right through it. She panicked a bit and was about to run, but then a feeling of warmth and plead reached her. Confused, she froze for a bit. ''Friend. Stay. Please.'' The words didn''t just form in her mind as much as their meaning did. ''Me. No. Talk.'' "Who are you?" She was getting nervous, but not as much as before. The creature didn''t seem to have hostile intentions and she needed to be calm to access the situation. ''Me. No. Tongue.'' The image of a moving mouth and the idea of conversation reached her. Did it not know how to speak normally? ''Me. Mage. Aprentice. Teacher. Strange. And. Dead. Teacher. No. Tongue.'' From what she could gather this was a mage apprentice whose teacher had raised him, but the man didn''t speak either, so he never learned any language. The man was now dead too. "You can''t speak nor understand me?" She asked, getting a strange feeling of being helpless in this situation as well. Right after she got a image of herself speaking a strange language that sounded like pure giberish. "Yeah, that sounds hard." The white figure nodded, understanding at least her body language and tone. She''d already understood this was just a projections though. Hell, her first instinct was to shoot an arrow between his browns, she couldn''t blame him. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.''You. Mind. Tongue. Think. Me'' "I can''t... oh. Ok, let me try this." She tried to focus hard and send a greeting. ''Hello.'' ''Hello. Happy. We. Talk.'' She could feel his happines, which was a bit infecting. She was practically using real magic! ''Me. Face. You. No. Fear.'' ''Ok.'' She understood he wanted to show himself, but she couldn''t imagine herself fearing a small mage ap... "By the gods, you''re big." She looked at the six feet (183 cm) tall man with broad sholders, a volumous beard and shoulder length dark brown hair. His arms were up in the air and she could see herself having her neck broken by even one of those big hands. ''Me. Rabbit. Friend.'' He said with a stoic and serious face, his light brown eyes seemed to pierce and analize every part of her all at once. "Werewolf..." She meakly said. ''Me. Human. Still. Human. Hate. Wolf. Human. Hate. Rabbit.'' She looked at him again and noticed the sadness in those eyes. He was just lonely. She unconciously stepped closer and touched his face, her arrow falling to the ground. His face didn''t chance, but she could feel embarasment and gratefulness, together with a single tear that broke that stoic facede. ***** With precise manipulation and another level in mind magic, Aki was capable of crying a single tear. He hadn''t cried in a whole year, for any reason at all. It just didn''t come easily to him. Not like he didn''t feel sad, but he would never pass as a good actor. So he used the wolf school''s acting method, minimun expression, maximun meaning. Plus magic. ''Operation puppy eyes success. Comence operation goodest boy.'' That was going to be harder though. The white haired bunny girl in front of him had a very thicc rear and thighs, despite being at best a B cup, he hadn''t practiced the art of the hand this whole week since he was getting other kinds of exercise and his new, stronger, mating instincts weren''t doing him any favors. Later, he was going to take a bath in that lake. A loooong ass bath. When they reached a somewhat close procimity to the vilage, the girl told him, he immediatly raised both his hands in the air again. The girl thought it strange, but he just shook his head and they kept walking. When his arms felt like falling off, a guard finally stopped then. He sent a mental nudge to the girl and asked her to explain. He''d already asked to be bought to the vilage chief and told her he didn''t have too much mana to keep talking like this, so he''d explain his intent all at once. ***** The village chief received Alara and two more guards that looked at the wolf-man with apprehension, their arrows drawn in their bow''s strings. They''d bound his hands in thight ropes and he didn''t resist for a second, even asking her not to interfere. "Alara, who is this you have bought to me?" The chief asked in a tired tone, the wrinkles in around her eyes a bit less acentuated after recovering. "Chief, this is Aki. We met in the forest and he wished to talk to you. He can''t speak or understand Common or Narit, but he can comunitate through magic and signals." As she explained, he sent her a message. ''Wish. Trade. Peace. Friends.'' "He says he wishes to to trade and make friends with us." She translated while looking at the chief again. "He is a human and a lycantrope. Even if he isn''t high level, mind magic is dangerous. Why shouldn''t we just kill him?" Alara was shocked the chief would so readily suggest killing a men who only showed himself as docile, but before she could ask anything, Aki sent her another message. ''Me. Claws. Magic. Hunt. Collect. Humans. Hate. Secret. Protect. Me. Lonely. Me. Wolf. Me. Not. Want. Wolf.'' This had been the longest message he''d yet to send her, but she couldn''t really piece everything together fast enough. The chief, noticing her distress, asked her what he''d said. Repeating it, the chief nodded in understanding. "Though still confusing, he most likely means that withouth being in society he will more easily fall to his inner wolf and wishes to offer his services to us since humans would not take him. I don''t particularly mind. Where does he come from?" She asked while holding her chin with a hand. "He says he was adopted by a strange wizard that could only comunicate like this when little, but the man died in the attack of a werewolf tribe recently. He was infected and his teacher sent him away with a random teleport, so he does not even know where he is." She''d asked the same question before, and he''d actually shown her a series of simple images. "How old is he?" The chief nodded and asked. Asking him, she was surprised to hear he was 17 cycles old. Seeing her surprise, he simply said wolf. The chief asked how he looked before and he said he''d look weaker and with less hair. "Then I suppose we could make him swear over to the guardian spirit and allow trade and visit, but he can''t stay during the full moon." The chief said. ***** Aki imediatly accepted the terms when they were presented to him. Then he asked wheter they''d prefer to send someone to jail him in his cave or that he stayed till. The chief was alerted by that apparently, and asked why he''d been so calm. Immediately, he scoffed. ''Face. Problem.'' He waited for the chief to direct her gaze at him again and made his normal expressions. They were all accentuated by his wolfish look, but none looked less creepy than normal, just showed more teeth. Except anger. It was the only emotion he never needed to fake or practice. ''Training.'' He then gave her a more mild but calmer smile without showing his teeth, expressed disappointment, disgust, confusion, so on. When she finally stopped him, the forty or so years old woman informed him the spirit would visit in too days and they''d make a festival. He was invited to attend and free to go. He broke the mind link with the girl and connected to the matron. ''Me. Guide. Rope. Man.'' To which she nodded. ''Need. Rope?'' He asked while showing his bound wrists, to which she said something and one of the guards that bought him unbound the rope. He nodded towards the village chief and, after getting up, bowed towards the girl Who''d bought him in. She apparently didn''t see that coming and got embarrassed, making plenty of hand gestures at him while her ears twitched. He''d softly smiled at her and left. The next day, he came back with several small animals in hand. He''d tried to learn nature magic and make some natural rope, but metal was still extremely easier for him, which wasn''t that useful, so he just made a basin of silica, then noticed that would be extra strange and made one of normal rock. The villagers were somewhat reluctant with his gift, but they weren''t going to throw away food given to them. The day after that, at the time of the festival, he even offered to help with the cooking though he had no experience outside of helping mildly. A bit of eating and acting like he didn''t exist later, the spirit appeared. Some bowed, some kneeled, but he couldn''t move. Imediatly after it appeared, the spirit peared deeply into his beeing. He wanted to attack it, kill it after it suffered for it''s transgressions and then it eat. Aki proceded to punch his bloodlust. The only part new to him on this was the wolfish features in his demons and the magical nature of the intrusion. He thought of the family he wanted to build, the power he''d need to acquire to provide them with all the happines they wanted and all he''d need to do to even find someone who''d accept him whole. His sadness and despair were much bigger than his anger. His hope for a chance at all he could ever want was even bigger than that. The spirit did not linger for much, but after it left, Aki was sweating a bit. "The child of wolf and man is no threat to the forest. The tributes are worthy and the rules have been maintained. May life be fruitfull to all of you." Aki barely glimpsed at the gorgeus black figure with chocolate skin and a dress of orange leaves that complimented her golden eyes. She was perfect from the tip of her toes to the crown of her antlers. She was also surprisingly fast, because she dissapear ed even faster than she appeared. He wasn''t from Florida, but fucking a tree suddenly didn''t seem to be a bad idea. Do not think that the words you love most cant be turned against you. After the spirit left, Aki was treated much better. He didn''t really care either way, but at least he didn''t have to watch his back for no reason now. He did need new clothes though. When commenting that with the village chief, she looked directly at his groin, than nodded, signaling him to follow her. For a moment he asked himself if he was going to get his first time taken, the woman was old, but certainly still had everything up there, nevermind being a beauty. He''d also not seen anyone by her side in any occasion. He shoved the thought away and followed her. Not long after he was shown to her late husband''s clothing. The man was massive for a rabbit kin, and Aki commented so, but apparently the chief had been married to a dog-kin who wandered the land and decide to settle down after meeting her. Aki was starting to think his previous thought process had some credit, but then he shoved it asside again. That would make no sense, they''d met three days ago and could barely communicate. After thanking her, he told her he knew where a family of bears lived, a cave relatively near his, which he found after stalking the mother and cub who had gone to drink water. After that they''d scheduled a hunt for said bears, he excused himself, talked to Alara for a bit, and went away. He needed to hunt. ***** Another week later, Aki, wearing a long leather skirt and jacket, was tracking a deer. It was the first he''d seen in the less dense areas of the forest, and if he was right, it was magical. He''d recently started to learn the beast-kin universal language, which they apparently share because they were all from one empire a couple of centuries ago, and deer were apparently either more dangerous than bears, or of religious significance around here. He''d only been told he should not hunt them, so he tried to look for a lonely one. Maybe eating it would grant stats or it could just be worth lots of XP. It was quite the let down when the one he''d been hunting was able to reunited with it''s herd. He imediatly formed a mind magic spike and striked right behind his head though. "Impressive. You are turning out to be quite the natural hunter. You would still be prey to even one of those though." Said the spirit. "Oh, it''s you. I assumed you had a way to understand me since you would be ancient from my point of view, but it''s good to know you think highly of me. Also, everything is prey to something, but sapients do not need to stick to such denominations as long as they have enough preparation." Aki refuted while turning back to look at the spirit before studying the deer again. The spirit shook it''s head. "Before you say anything, everyone is conceited, so what if I''m a bit more?" Aki practically read her thoughts, which made her close and open her mouth for a bit. She sighed and decided to warn him already. "Tonight, if you cannot defeat your inner beast, I will kill you." She said. "Thank you. Be sure to break my cranium completely and wait five minutes besides the corpse just to make sure. If possible, ask someone to torch it though." Aki instructed. The spirit shook her head again and vanished as silently as she appeared. In the end, Aki couldn''t find the opportunity to kill a lonely deer before sundown. So he had to go back to his cave. Sitting down against the deep cave wall, Aki cleaned the air with magic, tried to induce calm on himself and started to meditate. Since he was at it, he decided to try and practice Qiqong breathing. In his mindscape, a growling sound started to reverberate. As Aki ignored it, it started to get weaker. As a wolf started to flank his core, each step made by it revealed more of its characteristics were revealed. "Weak, you are too weak." Growled the wolf with a deep and difficult to understand voice. "Yet you need me to form a pack. Aren''t you weak too?" Rebuked Aki with calm, which made the wolf roar and bite. "You are no wolf! You are not worthy of deciding that!" The black and red eyed beast growled as it''s figure grew. "Yet, I am whole. Can you say the same for yourself? Do you not even want to be more? Are you even a wolf?" His eyes showed nothing but pity. "YOU KNOW NOTHING!" The two meters tall wolf lunged at him, maw wide open. Aki didn''t even move, but somehow he was now standing at a height similar to the wolf. With impecable timing, and partial control over space and perception, Aki punched the big creature on the base of the chin, a force similar to a legendary boxer, which actually had it break some teeth and hurt it''s gums. Not like it would matter for long though. "And yet that allows me to learn so much. Just like it teached me how to fight myself. The moment you wanted to attack me, you had to become part of me. I cheked, i''m a master of mental battles already." Aki didn''t actually speak that, the sound just registered to the wolf, Aki was too busy eating it alive. ***** The spirit stood there at the entrance of the cave. Inpatience was an unknow consept to a being like it. "That was even easier than expected. Even got a skill out of it. Do I look any diferent?" Aki''s voice registered even before the spirit opened it''s eyes. "Your eyes are red. You became an alpha." It said with a tone of surprise. "Well, there goes my originality. Hope that actually gets me more benefits than problems, because the next full moon is definetly going to be very much harder, no questions asked. Do tell me if any other werewolf or lycan comes around then, the skill should problably help. Anyway, i will be hunting that deer from before and seeing if i can get some rabbit to cook it for me. See ya sirup." "What?" "You didn''t give me your name even now, where i come from that means you don''t care how people call you." He said and sprinted. ***** Turns out, they were right, Aki was not strong enough to kill one of those dear. Good think it was a magical beast barely smarter than a normal beast, so Aki just trapped it while it tried to charge at him and soon enough the thing was getting mind rapped. Ten seconds of roughing it up from a safe distance, Aki imediatly drained it''s blood with magic and took it to the beast-kin village on a stone pole. Stolen novel; please report.The guards looked at him strange while approached, but they rapidly understood what the lycan with glowing eyes wanted. He was even drolling after all. One of the guards had a similar reaction though. The deer that Aki wanted to hunt was a breeze runner. A magical beast with mild wind magic and great speed. Though the description was simple, they were most certainly deadly for this simple tribe of hunter gatherers. As proof, please note that Aki leveled up four times in both his class and race. ***** "Free, stats?!" Asked Aki in the an almost irreconizable accent of the tribe''s language while holding Alara and looking at her with an expression of ultmost urgency. She tried to say something, but while was actually good at linguistics, no way he''d decode something fully in the time he had. Again though, he got the word status out of the sentence. It was similar as to when someone on the other side of the room spoke your name and sudenly you are already there asking what they are talking about. ''Stats?'' He asked again, but through a mind connection. ''Magical beasts. Eat. Stats. With. Limit.'' Hearing that, Aki could only think of one thing. ''Thank goodness i didn''t spawn near a human city! Any jackass with enough money would have enslaved me and i would have no power to stop it even if the otherworlder skill had some bullshit life saving function! If someone appraised me and knew about mental allacrity, nevermind the sadistic fucks that would want my body, I''d be turned into something worse than a mana battery! I need to hunt down every stat point, probably learn how to cook as well. Worse yet, if people can get stats out of eating magic beasts, then it would be very hard for beasts not to have something like that as well. Unless...'' ''What limit?'' Aki was getting better at telephaty, more complex meanings were finally able to come across. ''Beast. Stats. Number. Many.'' That didn''t mean other people had the same talent and proficiency as him though. Even if he had spent his whole life with problems in comunications, which he did, and gained some intrinsic ability to translate broken language for meaning, that didn''t mean he could understand everything either. Instead, he frowned, made a stick out of rock and started to make drawings in the dirt. Luckly, the common language had numbers similar to the latin ones, so the beast kin who knew it could somewhat understand his drawings. Alara and the village chief were in said group. After a lot of pointing, grunting, confusion and mimicry, Aki understood that apparently the strength of said creature defined how many points you would get from it, the race determined which stat would be boosted, and if the creature''s strength didn''t surpass a certain botleneck, than you would only receive stats as long as you had that stat that could be granted bellow said bottleneck, like 25, 50, 100, so on so forth. ''Nope, even with these limitations this still means that humans would be very fucked in the evolutionary process, so the chance that the whole world is civilized is quite close to zero from my point of view. Even if the races here didn''t pass through the same as the humans in earth and the gods just spawned people and beasts together, which is quite unlikely, anything with minimun talent or more would be able to start to hoard power very fast. This certainly explains why the deer had teeth. Human society will problably be shit, nevermind others, who would potentialy straigth out kill me because i''m not one of them or some other bullshit. By rule of thumb i should not try to plan like i''m already dead and screwed, but my best way for survival would definetly be to create a new power with me in it''s centre, so i need to think of everything that might even try and stop me. ''Skill, better eating?'' He asked, as the sinapses ended in his brain, sweat driping from his back, his resolution and fear were redoubled. ''I need to grind ingredients. Maybe find out how to cook sapient''s meat would be good too.'' He decided, imediatly throwing away his fickle morality and the speck of humanity he''d kept on the side so his mother would not cry herself to death. Alara looked confused, but the chief nodded, pointing at the drawings still in the ground, informing him he''d need to eat much of one creature to even start and eating even more of diferent species if he wanted to actually level the skill. ''There problably is a similar skill for training your stats, otherwise everyone would get stuck and would need to spend money or hunt. Crafting and researching would never spread if this kind of skill doesn''t exist. Maybe "student" already does that, but i''m better thinking it doesn''t and trying to surpass more hardships. I''ve leveled up as a werewolf after passing the monthly test, so combat isn''t the only thing that makes you level up, but the free status points would still be too little, unless you''re some protagonist in a novel and find a way to focus all your points in one stat while compensating for the rest with skills that give bonuses of... No, skills like enhanced agility should actually be doable if someone got enough points through training or something like that.'' Aki hurried the bunny kin to cook the thing so he could eat it and go hunt more. The two women he constantly interacted with in the village immediatly noticed what his intentions were, but after tasting the first food that actually had a good taste after weeks and seeing the point in agility being added to his status, Aki couldn''t care the less as to what they said. Strategy is the path to victory In a clearing bathed by moon light, several light green deer rested while a few stood watch. Sudenly one of them went off it''s route and entered the greenary. After a while of it not comming back, some other dear started directing themselves to the area and even cast some wind blades before stepping in, hearing the sound of their magic hitting flesh and wimpers of pain, the beasts felt pride and intended to imediatly eat their newly wounded prey. These didn''t come back either though. The leader of the pack, identifiable by it''s bigger body and white mane, was awoken and decided to use wind magic to detect their attacker, getting a ping of three small creatures, two in the way of the fallen patrols and one on the oposite side. Snorting, the leader ordered that some deer dealt with the one creature on the back while it and some more beated the creatures taking down their breathen. It felt quite sleepy, but that didn''t matter, it was a predator, it had been insulted in it''s home and intended to make the offenders pay with their flesh. As it approached the creatures'' location thought, it felt cold. Very, very cold. Imediatly jumping to the right, it avoided an ice spike to the neck. Two of it''s subordinates weren''t so lucky and we''re hit on the side and leg. Turning around, it saw all the females and babies sleeping profoundly with the team that was meant to deal with the lone creature massacred behind them. A wolfish creature stood in two legs and charged at them with great speed, the ice in it''s hands looked ready to pierce their hearts. The herd leader imediatly shot it with wind blades, but Aki dodged the first wave easily, while tanking the second and third with his arms protecting his face and neck. By the time he was close enough to the big deer, he''d already stuck it''s feet on the ground and made it lose balance before proceeding to shove an ice spike in it''s neck and eye, killing it imediatly. With the leader dead, there was nothing stopping Aki from cutting off the horns from the rest of the herd before sinking then in the ground and pilling all bodies together so he could eat them. Raw meat has more nutrients after all, so he would not give it to any other would be predator. Aki had always been a smart guy, so instead of spending lots of mana in keeping the smell of blood from spreading, he cut their necks and ussed magic to suck the blood out. The interesting part is that after no more blood would come out of the corpses, the huge ball of blood simply dissapeared. Yes, he made sure to learn how to create the smallest item box at the very least before going hunting. Though it won''t fit even one of the fully grown deer. Instead, Aki was going the resistance way. Burning himself was as much an option as burning the deer though, so he went with a completely different magic school. "Yeah, this feeling of wrongness should be it." He said as he flooded his body with arcane magic while paying attention to his hp and mana bar. He''d already cast a restoration spell on himself so he would regenerate much faster than normal, and there were plenty of mana bateries just waiting to be harvested right behind him. It was gruesome, but stats were stats. ***** Name: Aki Race: Human/Lycantrope Lv 21 Class: Mind adept Lv 21 HP: 260/260 (regen 23/h) MP: 330/330 (regen 24/h) STR: 26 VIT: 23 DEX: 15 AGI: 38 INT: 33 WIS: 24 SP: 40 Skills: Ancillary: Meditation Lv 5 Student Lv 4 Stealth Lv 2 Hunting Lv 4 Survailance Lv 3 Tracking Lv 3 Crafting: Caligraphy Lv 2 Singing Lv 4 Handcrafts Lv 2 Acting Lv 3 Magic: Mana manipulation Lv 6 Mind magic Lv 5 Elemental magic Lv 4 Metal magic Lv 1 Blood magic Lv 3 Space magic Lv 1 Arcane magic Lv 3 Nature magic Lv 2 Combat: Claw technique Lv 3 Deadly bite Lv 3 Unarmed combat technique Lv 2If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. Bow technique Lv 1 Augmentation: Heat resistance Lv 2 Sun resistance Lv 2 Pain resistance Lv 7 Abnormal status effect resistance Lv 4 Blood magic resistance Lv 3 Arcane resistance Lv 2 Unique skills: Mental alacrity Lv 5 Alpha Lv 1 Biomass processing Lv 1 "The way of the spider really is the mightiest one..." Aki murmured to himself, very much hoping to be able to get a pain immunity skill after evolving pain resistance even though he knew the chances were very slim. "You, what in the abyss was that?" Asked the spirit with a confused expression. "Training." Aki kept looking at his status as he ignored the driad behind him. "Attacking yourself... was training?" Asked said driad, very much about to reach levels of confusion that could only be represented with a meme. "Yup. Know of any other species of beasts living here?" Responded the completely immersed Aki while not really expecting an answer. "There are several more species living in this forest, but i see no reason to tell you of their wereabouts." "Just wated to confirm if there isn''t anything i should not kill on the off chance i find it. If there''s none, then i shall not worry about it. I''ll be going back to my cave for some sleep if you need me. ***** "Look, when people say ''if you need me'' after they explain what they are doing, specially when they say they will sleep, it is supposed to mean ''if the house catches fire'', not ''if you stub your toe''." Said Aki with a very charming smile, bloodshot eyes and bed hair. "Just to clarify. So, what happened?" "A human has entered my domain. From what I can observe, he seems to be scouting for an area where they can firm a temporary or permanent settlement." Aki imediatly lost all wish to go back to bed. "Fuck me sideways. What was he wearing? What tools did he have? Did he have map or was he making one?" "The woman wears hard leather, there are some decorations I can''t tell the utility though. Could be a badge or a magic inscription of which I don''t know about. She carries a spyglass, monster repellent, several potions in a bandolier, some knifes, something inside her left breast pocket, but I can''t tell what, a scroll case and two pouches with contents I can''t identify without notifying her of my presence. She is currently making a map while laid in a tall tree branch." The spirit professionally said. "How feared are driads and how far away is the scout?" "Very much, I imagine. Some distance away towards the west. She will reach your lake before the beast kin tribe." "So you don''t know either, ok, guide me to a safe distance to observe and I will get her sleepy before searching her mind. She might come out in a brain dead state though, so I suggest starting to prepare contingencies." Said Aki with a heavy tone. ***** "What have you found out?" "That she sleeps with her adoptive brother so she can shove it in the face of her in-law, she likes recreational drugs, has been robbing her adventurer party, the bitch is almost as confusing as me and it''s my first time doing this. If you want a quicker job you might as well breed a... You fucking... Ok, everything is fine, they are just exporting a noble through the woods because they have an assassination order in their heads. You can just kill them with the help of some wild beasts and leave the carriage behind so the chasers take then and leave. Better yet, I take this bitch with me for practice, have a midnight snack and go back to sleep while you get rid of these people when they don''t receive any new from her. Great, good job and good night." Aki said and carried the woman by the scruff of her clothes. ***** Ela woke up startled. She couldn''t breath. She couldn''t move her limbs and her whole body was sore. She was already starting to panic, but when the vision of a short haired young man with very intimidating features registered, she suddenly calmed down and he released her nose. ''What is happening? Why am I not panicking anymore?'' She thought with a calm mind. Suddenly her pants and underwear dissappeared. A bowl formed beneath her. ''Pee.'' The command appeared in her mind and she obeyed. It was then that she noticed that she was fixated against a wall of a cave. The shame of exposing herself like this was there, and though she''d long learned to deal with it, there was just something more about being completely at this man''s mercy that made the situation that bit worse. A part of her was somehow enjoying itself though. A small one. He held the bowl in one hand after she finished and... Smelled it. Before grumbling about something in a language she didn''t understand and putting the bowl on another part of the wall and making another bowl. The next order was a bit harder, but she still didn''t take long. He looked at it, nodded, got the other bowl, and went out of the cave. ''Wait, where am i!? Who is that guy and how did he capture me? I was in the middle of an escort mission, so is he with the assasins? I need to get out of...'' That line of thought imediatly stopped when he came back. His hands were moist with water, but they imediatly dried and released a bit of steam as he shook them. She couldn''t help but be completly entranced by him. ''How can i please him?'' She thought as he approached her again, making her notice that he was at eye level with her even though she was held up in the air. ''Language.'' She imediatly thought about all she knew of common as one of his meaty hands touched her face and the command registered, which wasn''t really much and problably had many errors. For some reason she actually felt embaresed about that. He nodded again. ''Status'' She summoned her status page. It wasn''t anything impressive, she barelly reached level 80 and didn''t have many resources while growing, but she was almost a B rank adventurer, maybe he had a use for her? At least her sexual skill were... "Well done Ela." He said with a soft smile that became her whole world. She barely even register the fact her lower parts were cleaned and covered again. "I found you in the forest and bought you here last night, I''m sorry for the rough handling and taking your weapons, but i couldn''t just leave you when you were so close to my cave." He gave her a helpless smile as she looked into his crimson and embarased eyes. She nodded, she would have done the same or much worse if in his situation. "It''s ok, i understand." She curtly said, finally noticing how parched her throat was. "I will release you now, so please don''t do anything too much." He said as the stone slowly unhanded her, until she fell in his musculous arms and firm chest. "Oh, sorry, that wasn''t my intention." He embarassedly said while scratching the back of his head, which made her chuckle. "Look, some rabbits live near the lake, and i also just woke up, i will get some and prepare them with chore magic. You can stay and have breakfast with me if you want, but otherwise you are free to go." "No, i have to go back to my party, they problably are worried about me since i didn''t come back during the night. Man, was i sleepy!" She said as she streched and her moderate bosom, not fully hidden by her brasiere, was emphatized. He took a peek, but didn''t stare. "I''m Ela, an adventurer, by the way, almost B rank. You must have some high level stealth, uh? You didn''t do anything weird to me though, right?" She asked and his face fell. "Did you actually do something?" She said it in a more serious tone, but it should be obvious she didn''t actually think so. He actually shook his head very fast and blushed a bit. "No no, it''s fine, I didn''t think you had done anything." After flirting a bit more with the cute hunk, Ela decided it was time to go, using the chance to show her behind. ***** "Why are you letting her go?" Asked the driad. "I''m not." Cryptically said Aki. "But you even checked out her feces." She mentioned with confusion. "I wanted to know if she has any problem. I didn''t find any other blemishes or visible signs on the outside either. Now i will at max have to check for inactive diseases in her body. I can''t have my employee going down with a fever out of nowhere while out of my supervision. I''d really apreciate it if you asked the stronger beasts to avoid her while she comes and goes." He said and went hunting before getting an answer. A lie is much better when it comes laced with truth Ela stood stock still in front of the devastated sight of the carriage she excorted just the other day. The decoration and some packages stood there, burned black. She could make out a charred arm bellow the carriage, some ash all around, and dried blood. She couldn''t tell if her party had been wiped by humans or beasts, but she could certainly tell she was screwed. The client this time was a minor noble who was rumored to have heard something he should not have, but even if she came back to the nearest city, she couldn''t imagine herself being received with open arms. Nevermind the fact she didn''t actually know what happened here, she could very well be charged with incompetence, targeted by anny of the involved parties for vengeance or info, or in the best case scenario, become an adventurer with a repution of being unreliable and having her party wiped. Like many other adventurers, she didn''t actually have a place to call home or someone to come back to. She had no clue as what to do right now though. ''If i go to a city there''s a high chance i''m going to be targeted by some dickhead, even if i actualy escape or defeat them though, i''m still a lonely woman with a bad reputation. This day couldn''t get any worse. At least there was that... I didn''t ask his name, did I? Now that i think about it, why was that guy in a cave in a forest in the middle of nowhere? Well, he''s my best shot at company and supplies, so i might as well ask.'' ***** Coming back to the lake she''d been before was easy and the nature was wonderful in a way that almost made her forgot how many things in here could kill her. She much prefered the visage of the naked hunk shoving his hair back while water droplets fell out of his muscled back and over his big an juicy ass, plus a visage that couldn''t so easily be hidden by his legs and the falling water. ''Atha boy!'' (Remenber, lycantrope.) She didn''t make much sound, but he turned back with a predatory gaze that made her imediatly put her arms above her head in fright as several icy bolts showed their pointy ends to her face. ***** Seeing the brunete discretly trying to peek at him through the ice wall he made certainly pushed some of Aki''s buttons, but he was neither that easy nor that dumb. Sex right now would only equal problems. And that''s because he was thinking anal. Again, Aki found himself close to punching or stabbing himself with something so the desires would go back to his control. He internally asked himself whether that was the reason he so readily thought of seducing the sluty rogue or wheter he had always been an exibcionist. Either or both could very well be the reason. Right now, the important was to be able to talk fully in common and get info in the current state of the world. Then he would get her to be his training partner. He had looked into her life for a bit last night, but didn''t go into much depth in fear of damaging her mind. Maybe he could change... No, you don''t start a relationship over a lie, nevermind expecting your partner to change. During those considerations and debrief on his plan, Aki had already dressed himself manually. Taking the icy wall down to see the lean woman expecting him, Aki again felt a pang in his heart and the blood flowing to his face again. No magic needed, he was constantly reminded he wasn''t entirely human anymore already. "So, you said something about your party being wiped and wanting supplies?" Aki had definetly not said the full sentence in common, but he was able to cause an effect similar to when you are reading a sentence in two languages you are fluent in, the diference was simply not noticed by the brain if you were not paying attention. The memories in the rogue''s head had certainly helped him attain some mastery of the language, but he probably commited more mistakes then when he was learning english while growing up since he didn''t have books, written questions, teachers and so. ''Gods, how do protagonists in novels actually learn other languages withouth using their cheats?'' "Yeah, i know it sounds like a lot to ask, but..." Aki put a hand up, interupting her. "It''s fine, but i actually don''t really keep much with me besides my clothes and some kniting material. I hunt everyday and haven''t needed anything else since i have magic. I even have a small item box with some conserved food, but that''s it. I wouldn''t mind helping finding some things, but you are problably more well equiped than me if we exclude the knowlegde about the forest and maybe my handycraft skill." The admission on his conditions quite shocked the rogue, and she decided to find a good oportunity to ask why he was in this forest. ***** Looking back, Ela asked herself why would the young man have more suplies, or why he would give them to her at all, but then she remenbered the genuine autruism in his eyes and actions. ''Makes you want to take care of him so people like me don''t take advantage.'' If Aki had heard her say that, he''d problably say something about how his mother had aparently done a good job in raising a psyco into a proper citizen. Right now though, he was focused on the lonely deer in front of him. "You think you''d still get points out of it? Mine are still climbing as i eat them, and aparently they give agility, plus inteligence to a minor degree." Aki wispered to her withouth losing eyes on the prey. "It can give inteligence?!" She was truly surprised. Beasts that could grant mind stats, even if minorly, were ussualy farmed by nobles and mages, so she couldn''t help but look at the boy with surprise and greed. "We could get rich selling the info about this place." She quietly screamed at him. If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation."But wasn''t your party wiped?" His words and the look of doubt in his eyes downed on her. He problably didn''t realize the entirety of what his statement implied, but she could only slump down in regret and nod. Sighing, she decided to at least cap her inteligence by eating the deer. More mana was more mana after all. Even just charging her items would become easier with more inteligence. ***** Going back to the cave, she and Aki both carried a deer each, plus the one in his item box. As an adventurer, Ela wasn''t against the idea of eating slightly raw meat for the extra chance at a stat point, but even she worried it would cause a bad reaction in her body. With Aki quick to reasure her about his healing capabilities though, she happily ate the not so well cooked meat while thanking her lucky stars for this silver lining in the middle of the hell that was going to be from there on. Thinking about it a little more though, she frowned. "Aki, I know this is sudden, but what are you going to do when you get out of this forest?" She asked with some caution, not wanting to pry too deeply into someone else''s life. Though truth be told she wanted to nab the boy for herself. "Probably look for the closest big city, find a job, meet someone, probably be rejected, try again till I find the one, and settle down while I wait for the white hair to come and write a book or something." He shrugged and said, giving her a confused a disappointed feeling inside. Why would anyone with power directly choose such mediocre life? Aki wasn''t lying either, that was and still is his dream. While he''d always enjoyed violence, pain and the misery of those thought lesser, he was actually raised by a goody two shoes samaritan and learned to love peace and mundane. He wanted to be like his mother. But with a less strict hold on swearing and without back problems. "Though, that probably won''t happen for another year or three. Maybe five." That got him a look of surprise he took as a queue to keep talking. "Reason number one: I look very suspicious wearing clothes that can easily be described as barbaric." He said while pointing at himself. The woman in front of him just looked at his crotch and abs though. "I could buy some for you, no problem." He nodded and smiled at her. "Reason two: I don''t have anything out there anymore." He could practically see the woman contorting herself internally so she wouldn''t ask, so he chuckled. "Since I was little, I was raised by a mute wizard who treated me as his apprentice slash assistant. Recently he died and had to randomly teleport me for safety sake. I''d had some experience with surviving in nature, so unless I teleported into an area with a ridiculous amount of mana, which isn''t how teleportation works, I would be fine. Right now, I don''t even know, or care much, as to where I am in the map." He explained while making proper motions and looks. "Thank you for telling me your story. I can see how that would be hard to..." "Third, I''m a lycantrope." He finished while interrupting her. The information took a moment to settle in, but Ela almost immediately took for her weapons. "I''m not stupid Ela. Something like that is hard to maintain hidden even without appraisal. I did not attack you before, and I won''t attack you now either. I know you won''t tell others about this forest, not more than necessary anyways. Please, don''t." He said with a sad tone while eyeing her reaction. A moment of awkward silence ensued and they just stood there, looking at each other, until she gave in and slumped on the ground again. "I could''ve killed you, you know?"She held her head in a hand and murmured so without looking at him. "You would have tried. Thank you for showing my first impression of you to be right though. The situation would have been even more awkward otherwise. I''ve already passed my first tribulation with ease, so I hope you trust me when I say I''m no different than a buff and hairy human at the moment. Ask any questions you feel necessary." He solemnly said with a trace of happiness in his gaze. "How did you get infected?" She imediatly asked. "A werewolf pack destroyed my master''s tower. In the panic, I was hit before my master could save me and teleported away. He was in critical condition when I left, so I don''t think he is alive." Aki paused for a bit, but resolutely answered. "I''m sorry." She imediatly seemed even more downcast. "Don''t be. The old man was like family, but I just wasn''t made to cry for long. It hurts, but it also helps keep me alive and safe from myself." Aki explained with a grin smile. He then proceeded to explain to her about how it felt to have animal like urges and how he''d been resisting, including a brief description of his first meeting with the wolf inside of him. "Since I''ve seen you I''ve also had some mating urges, but those are quiet easy to resist when I remember it would be almost certain that you would be infected were I to let my focus down." He said, trying to be low-key about the reason why wolf meat was off the menu. I''m fact, Aki had already found out how to sterilize simple liquids, but he had no clue as to whether the lupine agent was able to survive in his bodily fluids or not, so he''d much prefer keeping other things off the table too. The frustration of having a new and magically improved body/ass and not being able to use it was immense, I tell you, immense. Wholesome wins! "So you line it with your eye, spread your legs a bit more, and then you shoot. Now go and practice. Shout if something happens." Aki explained to the boy, who nooded and drew the arrow in his bow. Anna was waiting for him besides the makeshift arrow range. "Need something?" He asked. "Yes. Do you know what this is? Ela said it was somewhat magical but had no idea how to activate it." She showed him a small wax sealed box that didn''t seem to have anything special in it. "You got this from the hunters, didn''t you?" He got a nod as response. "We''re not oppening it. It''s problably something to lauch a wide scale call to arms, an explosive, or something equally letal. SIRUP!" Aki took the box in his hands and screamed the nickname he''d given the driad. "I can hear you." She said from behind him. "Great, now please shove this box somewhere deep inside the earth, preferably where nothing tries to grow. It problably has something innocious, that may explode or that may magically call more humans." The driad noded after the explanation and took the box to a nearby tree, which swung a bit and passed it to another tree. "Done. Now, you sure you don''t want to try and learn magic?" Aki imediatly turned to the prety werewolf withouth waiting for the driad to dissapear. "Shouldn''t we show more respect to the spirit of the forest?" Asked the woman who''d only been around for a day or so. "Nonsense. We will sound disrepectfull no matter what we try to say, she''s ancient, so you might as well be yourself and try and be her friend if the situation doesn''t ask for formalities." He explained in a nonchalant way. "I will be doing some patrolling in earshot of the lake if you need me. Unless you want to come as well?" He asked, almost as if it was actually an after thought. Even then, the woman agreed. Nevermind information gathering, Aki truthfully wanted to know more about her life. By the time they''d walked the whole lake, Aki knew of her favorite flower, the story of her first kill, of her day to day, of raising her first child and of their death. To each, he told her a story. Narcisuss, Kratos and his son''s first kill, his day to day, the first time he saw his little sister, and the recent separation from all he knows in his life. "Aki, you said before you would not need many women for your plans. What did you mean them?" Getting back, Anna decided to finally ask. He''d already more than showed trust and interest in her, so being a bit proactive and geting involved was the least she could do. This was also for her children''s well being, so even if it wasn''t what she was used to, there would hardly be a reason to refuse. "World domination. Paltry numbers will not make a diference in the scale i wish to obtain." I light shined in his eyes as he started talking. "In this world, if you have enough power, you can do anything. There are kingdoms and empires out there, but the none has made a take over or truly accended over the others. The is no one to truly rule over and create a golden age. I wish to make that. A place where people can say they are happy from the botom of their hearts. Somewhere with all that is needed. The term for that is utopy, roughly translated to innexistent place. With a wise enough ruler and enough power, it is possible. The amount of power nescessary would be ridiculous though. What i truly wish for is power for myself, to live as i want, and happines to all, that even those who make wrong choices can repent and become good and happy people." Aki looked into her pondering eyes and smiled softly, not having to force it at all. "I''m most definitly crazy. I don''t even want need people to believe in me when it comes to my desires. That doesn''t mean i don''t want them to though." As he talked, he offered her a hand. "Would you come with me so i can make you believe?" Anna thought for a bit, but in the end, she was already tempted to believe him. He''d be a good alpha. He''d be a good father too though. Maybe she''d find out how it was to love someone outside of family on the way. Aki somehow maintained the same expression, but his happines skyrocketed as she held his hand. He wasn''t going to be able to maintain that though. Imediatly, he hugged her, hard, and rested his chin on her shoulder. The she-wolf wasn''t that much smaller than him, so such position wasn''t a bother. The problem was mostly hidding his massive grin that would suggest he was about to mug, kill and/or rape someone in an unidentifiable order. "I know it''s kind of clingy of me, but can we just stay like this for a bit? I really like your smell." The cringe worthy words were quite the compliment for those with sharp noses, and Anna didn''t dislike the contact, so she just hummed and answer. ***** Coming back, Aki actually held Anna''s hand and didn''t let go for a while. The sensation was quite pleasent, but he actually only noticed his unwillingness when she needed to go to the bathroom, making him blush quite a bit. It''s his first relationship, so Aki was practically walking on the clouds. "Think it''s a pretty good time to tell you guys, but actually, we live quite near a rabbit-kin village with a hundred or so individuals." That actually surprised Ela and caused Anna to think deeply. They still had the human meat from before, even if only a small part, it was still enough good enough that they didn''t actually need to hunt for a couple days, so... "We''re not eating or enslaving them. Directly. Anyways, I haven''t gone there for almost a week, so I was thinking of showing you guys around. Elladan could make some friends his age, Ela will not rob them even if they keep throwing you mean looks or words, I can chat with the elderly and gossip around a bit, and Anna can learn some scrimshaw and cooking." Aki said with a nod. "Wait, than what am I actually supposed to do?" Asked Ela. "I was going to suggest chaperoning the kids, but you can certainly find a good looking guy and seduce him for classes in survival. No offense to your skills, but I kind of doubt they are better than the ones from the people who live in a forest above what most of their people can naturally take after all." Said Aki, referring to the innate fragility of rabbit kin, plus their likebility to be turned into slaves by other races, which makes them known for being either good sex slaves or being good at hiding. If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it."Fair point." She said and licked her lips. ***** A bit of introductions later. "Laradadatata, i''m gonna burry you in the ground~. Laradadatata, i''m gonna burry you with my sound~..." As Aki softly sang, he noticed he actually had a lover now, so singing a frustated vampire''s song about a love story that didn''t work too well was kind of very ominous. They also weren''t on that part of the relationship were he could sing those overly sweet musics he heard all the time. Frowning a bit, Aki thought of a more suitable music. "Sing to me baby, in your native tongue. Sing the words of the wise and the young. Show me the place where your words come from. Love''s a language, love''s a language, love''s your native tongue!" He sang and gathered the attention of the other parents. He was kind of embarrassed, but actually liked the attention. He was also trying to focus on the baby he held, his foster daughter. It was quite intriguing to him that he now, technically, had a daughter. Both because she was a child of his pack, and dating her mom, but he was probably overthinking it. He actually liked the little ball of barf and teeth. She loved his singing voice and would always stare at him with sparkling eyes or just nap with a smile depending on the the ritim of the music. Though singing ''Bridge over troubled water'' to a baby is rather questionable, he wasn''t going to question her good taste in music. While pondering if he should take some classes in sculpturing so he could make some toys and instruments, Anna suddenly appeared and tapped his shoulder. "Uh?" "You''ve been here for hours. Did you forget anything." Anna seemed a bit pissed, which made Aki''s mind go on over drive, imediatly casting body reinforcement of all kinds so as to hasten his thinking and to soften whatever blow he might receive. "But I only sang five or six..." Looking up, Aki saw the shining moon and decided his sense of time had been highly warped. "Status." He said, noticing his singing had reached level 6 and meditation level 7. Mind you, level 6 at singing would put you around the level of competence of an international singer. Mostly because of the magical effects of your voice mind you, not your actual singing ability. Not noticing any hunger or tiredness being one of said effects. Deducting that and looking at the smiling baby reaching for its mother, Aki noticed he did something quite bad. Anna immediately tried to feed her daughter, who was more interested in playing with her mother''s new wooden collar. That made her look at Aki for an answer, who rapidly explained the baby would probably be back to normal in a bit. "I''ve not had an audience that actually enjoyed hearing me since I''ve become better at talking." He tried to explain, but only got a confused look his way. "As you might have noticed, I''m a bit strange. Growing up, I was never timid, but I always had problems with words. As that started to show itself as a possible problem, I started doing some breathing and repetition exercises to better regulate my talking. There''s also the fact that I normally swear a lot, but that is more of an incurable problem with available treatment." She looked at him weirdly and he pointed at the baby. "She won''t remember a thing." She said, understanding what he meant. "Well, I better get fucking better at singing than, cuss I don''t want to only leave shit behind for the children. Apparently, it is fucking hard for other people to practice magic, and that''s one of the only other things I don''t suck balls at. As reference, do I sound more or less likable?" It easily came out, and he was a lot more expressive with his body language. "Meh, that depends of the situation. It''s fine to swear every now and then though, not like we''re at a human church." She said while rolling her eyes. "Just don''t teach that to Elladan." "Deal. Well, allow me to say than, you look fucking gorgeous." He said with a very serious air, which made the woman blush a bit. The women of the village had quickly become friendly with her for some reason, taking to dolling her up. Her hair was brushed, her claws were polished and she had some light pink ''Lipstick'' the herbalist wanted to experiment with. She still wore the same leather coverings, but she now looked like a proper and dignified elf. "Can I kiss you?" Aki held the side of her face and asked, determination burning in his eyes. His enthusiasm was kind of contagious, and Anna could only nod with expectation. She was still a lady after all. "I don''t have experience though, so you will have to kiss me more." He said with a grin, not waiting a bit more. Softly biting and sucking on her lower lip, opening her mouth with his tongue while appreciating her warmth and the taste of strawberry, hugging her tongue and enjoying as she explored his mouth for a while, before sucking on it like he wanted to eat her whole and using his own to try and glean something from hers. He too wanted to try and take the lead, even if less succesfully. It took a couple of minutes for them to finally stop. Aki had a mad grin and a red face, Anna had a less creepy face, but was overall the same. "Am I a good kisser?" He asked while locking their foreheads and gazes. "I couldn''t tell, try doing it again." She told him while looking deeply into his eyes. As if she had been waiting for it, Alma suddenly started to cry, getting both to remember her existence. Anna immediately turned to her daughter and started to feed her, getting as response only a greedy little glutton trying to get the milk out and some giggles by the man on her side, who got a little closer and caressed the little girl''s face. "I think I might be in love, because I somehow am not bothered by this." He said while softly laughing. Good news are... "So, how was the night?" Asked Ela imediatly after the werewolves came back to the cave. Oh, she''d come back from the village with them, but they went out again and didn''t come back. Aki''s bright expression rapidly soured at that question, making Ela confused, but he just sighed and explained. "The sex was great. The aftermath, not so much. For example, according to the system I am worthy of the skills ''degenerate'' and ''sadist''." He growled. Both skills had been absorbed by mind alacrity, which leveled it up twice. "It was magical." Said the smiling Anna, which made Aki produce arcs of lighting in his fingers. Followed by oil dripping from his palms. "And I can augment someone''s sensitivity with mind magic." Aki explained, getting elbowed in the ribs. "You know even just one of those would make you a luxurious man-whore anywhere, right?" Asked Ela, seriously considering trying to seduce Aki for a moment. All Aki did was elbow Anna a bit, who growled at her. Ela rapidly gave up and held her hands up. "You didn''t just rough housed her all the time though, right?" Ela said while looking sternly at the boy. The sweet boy who sang to a baby for hours on end and showed great care for everyone he interacted with had gotten two skills that only those that were utterly crazy could obtain, that could mean many things, but Ela felt she should at least try to help. Her worries were for nothing though. Hearing her question, Aki grinned and Anna blushed lightly. "Well yes, but actually no. Ignore that. Everything is alright, right?" Aki was practically beaming as he ignored the elbow to his rib, getting only a nod and a mildly deeper shade of red on his lover''s face as an answer. He wasn''t the only one who got a strange skill. Nope, not just masochist either. ***** Another week later. "Fucking finally!" Aki muttered as he fell to the ground in a puddle of sweat, blood and whatever magical plant monsters had flowing inside of them. Aki looked again at the notification that had finally appeared in front of him. [Congratulations! You have unlocked the unique skill Enhanced attribute values Lv 1] That! was what he''d spent all his weak doing. Save for grinding skills and spending time with his lover, Aki had mostly tried to sustain himself on magic. He was very tempted to simply check the options right there and than, but he''d worked too much to suddenly die because he found out the hard way that people get unconscious when they evolve their race. His class was in no way going to be normal either, so yeah, there was that. Getting off his chiseled arse, Aki starting walking back to his cave, which actually didn''t take too long since he was ripping some mana from the vegetation, just not enough for it cause any problems. Getting there, he fond both his lover and children eating while Ela was trying really hard to... Poop? Well, no, she was clothed, but she looked like she was going to drop one much similarly to the baby. Aki tried very hard to ignore it. "I''m back" Aki said and kissed the heads of the mother and kids. "Very tired, gonna evolve now, might get graphic." He said and started stripping and laying on his pile of leathers. It didn''t take long for his eyes to glaze over and suddenly he was unconscious. ***** Suddenly waking up from the soul trip that he somehow had been jolted into for seemingly no apparent reason, Aki started checking his notifications before thinking back on to the memory he had of the strange... Nope, those were definitely going to dissapear, so now was the time. ''So this world is big, also formed by similar components when compared to earth, has four separated land masses and an arquipelago, probably some kind of japanese or chinese land, maybe even korean, there were some uncountable amount of gazes over me, that thing that caused mild headache when I looked directly at it, the elemental planes were in order, demons trying to get in, the world tree connecting this plane to everything else... Can''t really think of anything out of the ordinary, but maybe that eldrich being was not supposed to gaze back when I looked or something? I mean, those guys do so automatically, so it''s not like the fault is mine I''d there''s an invasion. Is this the system telling me not to get involved with the current state of affairs?'' Aki tried to pounder, but it all just seemed rather pointless to him. Then again, some people liked to try and pretend like everyone would understand their criptic bullshit and some didn''t even know how to stop that, so Aki decided to file such worries away and check his notifications. {Tyrannus Lupum: One of order and body, you are a ruler that fights with his people, pushing his body''s potential. +10 STR +10 VIT +5 DEX +5 AGI. You will suffer with constant animalistic blood lust. Your skin, bones and muscles will become much denser. 100% easier to obtain beast and monster skills (does not turn the impossible possible). Your senses are sharpened, primarily your sense of smell and hearing. Your resistance to poisons and diseases is immensely raised. Your inner beast will test you weekly, in case of failure you will be enveloped by it and lose body control until the next test. Others are naturally compelled to obey you. Body reinforcement is 50% more effective. Your original race bonus are cut in half and added.} [Scion of chaotic mind: One of chaos and magic, you are one of the embodiments of the mind''s potential. +20 WIS +5 INT +5 DEX You gain 62.5% more XP with magic and 187.5% more with mind magic. You get 50% advantage in any kind of mental check. Your memory is 100% sharper. Naturally produces a domain of perception. WIS is 50% more effective.] ''Yes!'' As Aki could only see the criptic description and almost unintelligible requirements, he was very happy to get percent based bonuses to his status and magical effects. He was also happy to have passed out though, because no matter how much magic he imagined into the calculation, these changes gotta have hurt like a bitch in a normal situation. Several of his skills had leveled up together with his class and race, so Aki was very happy when looking at his status. Though he wished the class effects stacked, getting even more stats over the ones he''d gotten for the initial classes was also great for someone that expected neither. Name: Aki Race: Human/Tyrannus Lupum Lv 1 Class: Scion of chaotic mind Lv 1 HP: 440/440 (regen 42/h) x1.2 MP: 550/550 (regen 85,5/h) x1.2 STR: 44 VIT: 42 DEX: 43 AGI: 55 INT: 55If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. WIS: 57 SP: 100 Skills: Ancillary: Meditation Lv 8 Student Lv 6 Stealth Lv 6 Hunting Lv 7 Survailance Lv 4 Tracking Lv 5 Massage Lv 2 Rope handling Lv 4 Crafting: Caligraphy Lv 2 Singing Lv 6 Handcrafts Lv 4 Acting Lv 5 Poetry Lv 3 Magic: Mana manipulation Lv 10 Reduced mana cost Lv 8 Multi-casting Lv 8 Quick casting Lv 8 Mind magic Lv 7 Elemental magic Lv 6 Metal magic Lv 3 Blood magic Lv 5 Space magic Lv 4 Arcane magic Lv 5 Nature magic Lv 4 Combat: Claw technique Lv 5 Deadly bite Lv 5 Unarmed combat technique Lv 7 Bow technique Lv 1 Dagger technique Lv 2 Taunt Lv 6 Augmentation: Heat resistance Lv 3 Sun resistance Lv 3 Pain resistance Lv 9 Abnormal status effect resistance Lv 5 Blood magic resistance Lv 5 Arcane resistance Lv 5 Void resistance Lv 3 Sex: Sexual technique Lv 5 Oral technique Lv 4 Hand technique Lv 4 Unique skills: Mental alacrity Lv 8 Alpha Lv 5 Biomass processing Lv 2 Enhanced attribute values Lv 2 "Twenty percent extra in everything is certainly great. Hey, how long did I pass out for?" Aki asked as he got up without much difficulty. He didn''t get any answer though, so when he saw both women just staring at him, Aki checked if he''d grown horns. He hadn''t. He had the same height, but his muscles were smaller and more compact, besides his hair that grew again, this time a bit past his shoulders, but he''d quickly cut it off later. Moving up at once, Aki checked for vital signs on Anna. No strange apocalyptic scenario or time stop either. "Anna, you''re scaring the baby." That jolted her up. Of course, Alma was just there, looking at him with those same dreamy eyes her mother had a moment ago. "Aki, what happened? You started evolving, the sounds made Alma cry and I was trying to calm her down, but then this strange feeling came and there was nothing else!" She seemed a bit woozy from getting out of the trance, but otherwise fine, so Aki proceded to reasure her. "It''s fine, i know how to deal with this." Coughing a bit, Aki started to sing. "ARE, YOU SATISFIED!? JUST, OPEN YOUR EYES! YOU, CAN SEE THE LIGHT, ACROSS THE NEW BORDERLINE!" And that was enough. With his magic infused voice, Aki deeply infused the command of ''Rebel'', then he howled. Yes, the music he sang before had to nescessarily been ''Howling''. His efforts were rewarded by the deperate cries of a baby and the surprise of the other two. Aki imediatly caught Ela and Elladan before hugging everyone and softly wispering. "It''s ok, I will protect you. No matter what." As he did so, he laced wis words with magic, making they sound like the most sincere truth. They just stayed like that for a bit, in silence if not for the baby trying to get her tears and snot out of her face. ***** As Aki looked at the lake reflecting his figure, he waited for Anna to finish the adjustments on his leathers buck naked. "You know that thing about being raised by a mute wizard is a lie, right?" He asked, getting a nod and hum as answer. "Yeah, sorry for not telling you where i really come from, but it doesn''t make much sense, neither is it very believable. Please, wait a bit before asking about it, ok? Things will be even more awkward since i will seen to be lying very badly, so i think it''s best if i can slowly show it with time. I will still tell if you ask though." Aki asked in an awkward manner, getting the same answer. That made him twitch a bit, but he simply poked her cheek because of the nonchalant answer. "How are you still this cute? Aren''t you mother of six? Can i hug you? Can i kiss you a lot?" He said, poking fun at the blushing woman while not waiting for the answer to any question and shamelessly flirting with her. ***** Throwing the purple bear over his sholder, Aki roared and caved it''s head in. "And that''s the last one." He muttered before he started eating the big foots. They all even had the X scar on an arm, how could he not call the bipedal bears like that? "You evolved." Aki looked up from his food, seeing the driad. "And you do not seem to have changed. Need anything?" He asked before putting a whole heart in his mouth. He wasn''t an equidna, but his mouth and jaw could dislodge quise easily. It was supposedly a mutation for bitting better, but he hadn''t gotten the chance to use it like that. "While i was... away, i came upon some interesting pieces of information. There seem to be more like you." She slowly said, probing for a reaction. "Please tell me none of your nectar filled, twig snapping and breast feeding peverted sisters triyed to snare one of those." Aki rapidly gulped the heart when he heart the last part and started approaching the bronze skinned goddess, stopping mere centimeters away from her face. "One of them did. That''s how i..." "You''re screwed. I''m leaving." He said while interupting her and rapidly butchering his prey of their brains, hearts and livers, the most mana filled organs in their bodies, and stuffing them in his item box. "What do you mean?" The driad imediatly assumed an icier tone and blocked the cave entrance with roots. Aki didn''t get up from his work though, he''d even got better at it because of the rush. "I mean what i said. Your conclave, sisterhood, net, whatever it is, will be hunted down to the last one and turned into meat toilets at best, and i''m not staying to get involved in it. Now, you have two options, you unblock that passage and grant me and my family free passage away from this shit hole and listen to the rest of my explanaition while on the way, or you try and capture me, suffering from my suicidal arcane bombing, which will raze and poison everything in an area of at least ten kilometers. We both know why you came to speak to me while i''m inside a cave, and it wasn''t to have some good time in the dark, because diferent from you who just survives, i actually have a life and conviction i wish to maintain. Which will it be?" Aki started explaining rapidly, in the middle of his sentence he''d already finished reaping the valuable organs and started glowing with a black flame around him, which seemed to consume all light, looking for even more to satiate their hunger, while his eyes became bloodshot and with pink veins which started spreading to the rest of his body. Catching the root spear trying to attack him, Aki started draining it of life. "It seems i''m not the only one infatuated with my own back side. Now, i''m not the only one who reached for this power, and i certainly won''t be the last. This here is a way for me to get to your heart tree. Let me be, or your pitiful existence will end much sooner than your sister''s." He said, with scorn and pity in his voice. "I have your pa, gah..." The driad tried to threathen him, but unfortunatly, he''d known this day would come, and he knew she''d never would let him leave. Like he said, she didn''t get him in a cave for no reason. "What a complete waste." Spat out Aki while reaching for the avatar''s right breast with his claws. "This mess will take a lot to sort out later." As he said so, the void flame extinguished itself and the useless arcane highlights stopped. His eyes were still irritated and red, but that was it. "How..." The trembling avatar looked completely flabbergasted as her true heart formed under the hand of the human in front of her. He didn''t answer or hesitate though, tearing the beating heart out of her chest and starting to draw on it with his claw. As the torny heart bled it''s golden, sticky blood, the driad''s skin became white, her lips became thinner and of lighter tone, her hair came to her waist, her height got smaller and her features a bit sharper. Most of it was not noticeable through her curling into fetal position and holding her gaping chest while soundlessly screaming. ... Are usually followed by tragedy "French enough. We''re going to have to introduce the rest when I power up a bit." He muttered while studying the trashing woman in front of him. "You just had to have a damn reunion so damn soon. Tsk, with three months on my belt I''d have this whole forest under my direct control." Not wanting to wait more, Aki caught her by the armpit and lifted her up. [Congratulations! You have forced a low grade slave contract into the Greater driad Agash Tor''...] "Arcenis. Select slave''s new name as Arcenis." He did not read the whole system prompt and directly tried to change her name, getting a horrified look by the woman he held. [Checking authority... Permission granted. The slave''s name is now Arcenis.] ***** In a very far away clearing, there stood a black woman of ''african'' descent, seemingly sleeping peacefully. Her living green hair stood splattered over the ground in all directions, hardly discernible from any greenary around her. Suddenly, she slowly opened her green eyes with brown sclera, golden tears flowing down her eyes. "I am sorry I couldn''t protect you little one. It was, however, inevitable." Her voice was the sweetest and most calming. Through her saddened tone, any hearing it would feel her immense sadness. Were Aki her, he would feel the deepest guilt, one way beyond what he''d ever thought possible, over not having given his life and knowledge for this woman. ***** "She thinks you''re dead now. Congratulations, you can now say you''re a bona-fide adult with a shity boss. Stand." Said Aki, receiving the driad''s gaze of uter hatred without flinching. "Gather all the treasure and resources in your grove, put it all inside dimensional storages without causing damage, if not possible leave it together with said storage artifacts, before arranging them inside a treasury close to your heart tree and at trunk level. When you finish that, enter a dormant state and begin managing the forest in a way to keep to standards with its current state of affairs while waiting for further instructions." He told her without waiting anymore and quickly going away after giving out his orders. ***** [Appraisal Lv 1: Able to glean information on things you wish to appraise.] [Titanic constitution Lv 1: Your vitality is strenghtened.] [Intrinsic perfection Lv 1: You become more perfect.] "Truly THE trash tier skill! These descriptions are pure shit. If it didn''t evolve into such a god-like ability, I would never pick it first. *Sigh* I mean, I was forced to begin the contract on it''s lowest level, but now I know I should expect anything that represents the gods and ancient beings to also have the appraisal skill. Good thing I didn''t get some of the more dangerous skills, though it seems it would be kind of hard not to acquire some of them with these evolutions." Aki muttered while trekking back to his cave. Finally reaching the place, he found his pack completely unconscious and entangled in thorny vines, bleeding even. Aki didn''t really have any reaction to this though. He simply touched a vine and controlled it. The driad tried to interfere using his own orders, but he literally had her heart in his hand, so it wasn''t really that hard to make the vines lose their thorns than heal everyone. Their magic conductivity was quite good after all. Once again, Aki woke Anna first. He didn''t know if the bitch had given them a slow acting poison, so he emodialized her. Even if that''s not an actual medical term, it is what it is. Seeing her waking up, Aki decided to keep her unconscious instead and start the process on the others at the same time. His newly upgraded wisdom allowed for that and more. [Congratulations! Your skills Mana manipulation, Reduced mana cost, Multi-casting and Quick casting have fused and become Magical exelency Lv 1] Aki imediatly appraised said skill, even if just for XP on the skill. [Magical excellency Lv 1: All magic is generally better.] [Congratulations! Appraisal has reached level 2. Upgrade your companion bond to obtain the benefits.] "And that again shows the benefits of a good base. A driad should have at least tens of great skills, yet the level one bond only gives me three shared skill slots. That bitch will have to grind skills in my place for years until I make up for this shity start." He grumbled. The only good thing about it was that he now didn''t have to mind someone peeking at his training. And the doubled VIT stat. Titanic constitution was very broken. Even if he could not actually level it up, it was a fucking doubling his stat! Even his class bonus wasn''t that good. Aki was very tempted to get the intelligence version of the skill, but with his WIS and skills upgraded, it would be easier to train it instead. Plus, he didn''t actually have a very good defense, and beasts that gave vitality were the most common, so the multiplyer would have the most effect on it. While Aki was complaining, he also understood that turning a demigod into your contracted slave was a monumental task many would kill him for complaining about his success. To him, it was as easy as just walking on the woods though. The driad was connected to all plants in her domain and vice versa, so he regularly walked around and turned the trees around him into ''undead'' versions of themselves, which weren''t actually that diferent from normal since trees hardly had any personality while growing up. It took one bit of mana in the right place and they all started attacking the driad and herding her towards her avatar from inside their connection, allowing Aki to attack at her weakest. Crazy thing, but also a very effective way to kill druids, necromancers, summoners and mechanics with hacking skills. Depending of the target, it might also affect hivemind tipe beasts. ***** "So you defeated and enslaved a driad and now you have access to her whole hoard? Which you want ME, to identify?" Asked a very bafled Ela, for the forth time. "Yup." Aki suddenly took a sword out of thin air, apraised it, felt like throwing it away because the description simply said ''fancy sword'' for the twentieth time, and stored it again. Checking another pouch, Aki actually raised an eyebrown at the content. Before she could ask yet again, Aki took a bottle of pills out and shoved it in her face. "Hey, do humans ussualy put medicine or special drugs in the format of pills?" He asked. If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation."Some, yes. You''re problably holding an elixir though. Those are like, grossly expensive in case you actually know someone that can do one and not get killed for selling it. On a level that you could problably buy a small city with the bottle in your hand." She said, strangely not tempted by the great fortune in front of her. "Let me guess, this strange simble is the crest of a sect or order?" Aki asked while pointing at a bloodied claw picture next to the bottle''s neck. "Very likely." She imediatly nodded. Aki nodded, took one pill out and gulped it. Burning pain imediatly radiated from his throath and digestive system. His expression didn''t change with it though, since that was pain resistance actual use. Looking at his HP, Aki saw it start to drop quite quickly, but he literally just touched the tree besides him and got topped up. Only taking his hand out of it when he saw the number not trying to change anymore, Aki was greatly dissapointed. [Cleansing elixir has failed.] "I really wish i had more info. Well, at least i can use to train vitality since it problably is something to do with getting rid of licantropy. Would explain where those hunters came from and why they had so little things even on the parts i didn''t damage. Let me check the other bottles first." Aki said out loud as to explain to those present before quickly taking out more pills. All of those on the sack ended up not being able to do more than damage him, but at least he got 12 VIT out of it. There were more strange bottles, but some had obviosly poisonous liquids and there was one with only one pill, which actually had a diferent dessign. This time, the reaction was different. [You have consumed Elixir of clear mind. +15 WIS. Biomass processing is now level 3.] "Well, there goes one more reason to destroy the place, these are amazing. If i can''t find a beast that gives wisdom, than i can use elixirs! Even if i have to hunt down every single sect, this kind of shit would still be worth it. Say Ela, how often do these sects make public appearences?" Aki asked with a lot more vigor behind it. "Not often. They normally just do their own thing and sometimes host tournaments for dick measuring and such, though i hear there is one sect that works around to help the poor in the archipelago." She explained, kind of bothered by the questions since it was obviously important, but she knew almost nothing about it. Aki simply noded and kept looking for actual clothes. Again, the hunters from before weren''t left with much on their bodies. ***** ''Master, I have detected a band of humans coming to the forest.'' The monotone voice of the driad told him on the same night. This got Aki a bit pissed. Maybe the driad was right, he might be cursed. He''d just started snuggling with Anna damnit! "Ela, we''re up. Human band on the way." Aki stopped his noble act and kissed Anna on the cheek before going towards the exit. Right now he was wearing a size adjusting white shirt and blue jacket some noble had died with plus a gray set of rough pants and black boots. With beard and hair trimed, it was more than easy to look like he was a young master on a secret escapade. Which is exactly what the armored company of man thought they''d found when they saw the young man with a pissed off expression, great build and expensive clothes nobles might consider ''inconspicuous''. "Good evening gentleman, it is a pleasent night for a walk in the forest, but i imagine such a company as yourselves have more pressing matters to attend to. Tell me if you need something from my person, this lawfull citizen will help, but otherwise, i will have to ask you to scram." Said Aki in an icy tone with his best noble expression while shielding Ela from the gazes of the men and women in the front. "If you excuse me sir, a passing noble was reported to not have arrived in the next spot of their destination, lastly being seen in our town, so the guard was asked to perform some patroling in case the lord in question needs our help. I will have to ask sir and madan to state your business in this ungodly hour of the night while so far away from our walls." The captain of the detachment thought it strange an unkown man was there, but he was a cautious man and didn''t want to offend some noble. "We are here to find a werewolf tribe with elven ancestry that i heard about, but i aparently was lied to or given wrong information, since all i find are beast and more beasts. About the lord you speak of, he was probably killed together with his escorts, because there is a scene of great battle not far to the north, but even the most bored of beasts would not bother to get rid of a wagon, nevermind a whole noble convoy, and there isn''t a sign of human pressence any further than that except for mine and my servant''s trails. Either that or the lord went in a completely diferent direction than the forest. Don''t mind my words though, waste your time here for the rest of the month for all i care. I will be looking for interesting slaves further away before returning to strangle the man who told me about this place." Aki turned to the side and walked away, followed closely by Ela, who hadn''t spoken a word. The captain decided not to pursue them, whoever he sent would problably be killed, so instead he decided to look for this battle site the misterious man talked about. The man was so carefull he could barely remenber the pieces of his face not always covered in shadows. Problably a magic trick. ***** A bit after dawn, at the city gates. As Aki strode towards the open gate with a face that said ''talk to me to be murdered'', no merchant dared claim they were in front of him in the line for the whole night. Ironically enough, his head was filled with finding somoeone to teach him how to actually cook so he could at least make something tasty for his lover after the first night they spent apart. Or just running back and rubing their faces together for half an hour. The guard also gave him a look and asked the masked Ela for the entrance fee. It certainly wasn''t the strangest thing he''d seen. A bit later, they were both looking through the main market while Aki rolled a gold coin on his fingers and looked around for someone that would not be intimidated by his murder look. Again, it was something he was pretty good at even before he beefed up. Even the man who stood more than ten centimeters taller than him didn''t look him in the eye. Instead, he''d attracted the attention of a redhead about the same size as him and with tits that might as well have been basket balls. Oh, she was definitly his tipe. Even had that kind of look that made you want to kiss her so she would stop embarassing herself. He didn''t think much on it after reconizing the fact though. She too, simply stared at him, waiting to kick his ass like she was a damn cartoon character. Than sudenly he noticed something. Quickly striding over, Aki stoped exuding pressure. That guy looked like he might just pass out if he didn''t. He focused his gase entirely at the scrawny boy besides the nubian princess. "How much for the all the milk, chesse, bread and eggs in the stall?" Aki asked.