《Wolf's Tail Reboot》


 Chapter 1-Awakening

    Crimson liquid spilled from my lips. A cough wracked my body which in turn made more blood spill out. Anyone could tell why I was in such a wretched situation from a glance. My guts were hanging half out of a long slash across my stomach. The blood pouring from my stomach had already dyed my shirt red and slowly seeped into my pitch-black wings. Why? Why would she do this to me? We were friends. Sisters even! Why?


    A woman stood just a few feet from me, smiling like she had won the lottery. Her smile reflected pure rapture as she watched me slowly bleed out. She licked the blade of her sword, still fresh with my blood, and laughed. "This is perfect! Now that you''re gone, he''ll only be with me! I won''t have to worry about master leaving me for your hag-like body ever again!"


    A low buzz drowned out the rest of the woman''s voice. The buzz grew louder and louder, but I didn''t care. If anything, I was appreciative of it. The sound was loud enough to drown out the woman and whatever bat-shit insane thing she said, yet quiet enough not to cause me discomfort.


    I was caused discomfort by the reason she had slashed me open like a pinata more than the actual pain. She had killed me purely through fanatical jealousy. I don''t even know why she would be jealous of me in the first place. Because I spent so much time with our master? But that time spent was anything other than good. Most of the time he was around me, he would only hit and call me names.


    The buzzing sound faded along with my vision. A black void of complete silence surrounded me. As I sank deeper into the void, I realized that it wasn''t scary as I had been told. Instead, the void wrapped around me like a blanket on a cold day. The ¡®blanket¡¯ wrapped around me, allowing me to rest peacefully.


    A voice entered my head.


    [Activation of Item:[Creator¡¯s Phoenix Feather]]


    [Initializing Effects¡­ ERROR¡­]


    [ERROR... requesting administrator help¡­]


    [Administrator detected]


    A man showed up in the void. My vision was blurred so that I couldn¡¯t see anything except a glowing radiance around him. The man''s appearance woke me up just enough to remain conscious of what was happening.


    [Error Cause: Item sends user five years into past]


    {Why is that a problem?} A high-pitched voice came from the radiant man.


    [Answer: Two of the same souls cannot coexist at one point]


    {But why is that a problem? Don¡¯t you usually just insta-kill time travelers? Do it this time too.}


    [Attempting suggestion¡­ ERROR]


    [Error Cause: The item: [Creator¡¯s Phoenix Feather] is above the Record¡¯s permission to affect¡­ suggested solution deemed impossible¡­ The item effect involves a complete resurrection...]


    {What the heck? Since when is something above your permissions? Wait¡­ it can¡¯t be.}


    [The item resonates with the creator''s power.]


    {Wait¡­ this is one of his items? I thought we had reclaimed all of them... I''ve got a new solution; give me the feather and let this one die.} Just before the glowing radiance could continue to speak, he was sent away, returning just me to the void.


    [Administrator dismissed¡­ Effects of [Creator''s Phoenix Feather] initializing¡­ ERROR¡­ Overruled¡­]


    I still floated gently in the void, mostly ignoring the voice trying to ruin my sleep. I felt like I could just sleep forever. Thankfully that wish seemed to come true as my consciousness faded away...


    My consciousness, unfortunately, returned along with messages from the Records.


    [Retrieving soul... SUCCESS!]


    [Reconstructing body¡­ ERROR¡­ can not reconstruct body since records were removed...]


    [Processing problem¡­]


    [Solution: Creating a new body¡­]


    Where am I? Didn¡¯t I die? Then why is it so bright in death? I distinctly remembered falling into a comfy void. Wait... Faint memories began to return to me. They were mostly nonsense dreams that I had while floating in the void, but one stood out. It was of a man arguing with the records about the effects of an item.


    I propped my eyes open, revealing that I was lying down in the middle of a forest. The surrounding trees reached far into the sky like giants trying to play with the clouds. The grass around me was soft and gently caressed my skin due to the wind. The grass was an untainted dark green. A creek rolled over its bed far away.


    A yap sounded off from nearby. The single bark was repeated until a cacophony of noise surrounded me. The noise finally got to me. I moved into a sitting position to take in a spine-chilling sight.


    There were dozens of adult wolves surrounding me. The yapping I heard came from a group of pups playing around between the wolves and me. The pups stumbled around blindly searching for their playmates while the adults watched on with predatory glints in their eyes.


    The pups slowly eased towards me as the play fought with each other, causing my spine to be as tense as a loaded bow. All things considered, my anxiety was well warranted. Getting eaten alive hurts hella bad. These wolves would bring that pain to me in a heartbeat if they thought the pups were in danger.


    I was so terrified of being eaten alive that even watching one of the pups knock itself out by running into a tree didn¡¯t release the tension. This overwhelming fear kept me from enjoying the moment that one of the pups separated from the others and came closer to me. It sniffed the ground before slowly sniffing my legs. As if that wasn¡¯t bad enough, the pup then climbed onto my leg and fell asleep like I was some kind of dog bed.


    No matter how soft and fluffy the cut creature was, my attention was almost entirely on the surrounding group. Surprisingly, none of the pack looked at me with even a trace of hostility. Most of the wolves appeared utterly calm as they watched the pups fighting around. I didn¡¯t know why I could read their posture well, but it helped me settle down for a moment as I started to think about why they weren''t attacking.


    I don¡¯t remember ever having an item on me that made me peaceful with wolves, so that wasn¡¯t it. I also never had any skills or anything that would make that kind of effect. Wait¡­ none of that mattered. Any items I had would''ve disappeared when I died. Maybe a skill?


    With a simple thought, a box showed up in my vision. It was a black semi-transparent board with words written across it. The box was a visual representation of the Records, which was the system that governed all of existence. Nobody knew what exactly the Records were, but they recorded everything that happened, no matter how small. An effect of these recordings was the Status, aka the box that appeared in my vision, which displayed all of my records.


    [Kali Vexia - Wolfkin - Level: 1


    Titles: None


    Strength-12


    Intelligence- 11


    Dexterity- 14


    Endurance 10


    Charisma- 15


    Unique Abilities: Gambler


    Racial Abilities: Luna, Shift


    Divinity:


    C???t?????????? ???????????????p???????????????o?????????????????? ?????????????????????n????????????????????????t???????????????????????????Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    Time- 2 years]


    The first thing I noticed was my name change to Kali Vexia. This marked the second time that my name had been forcibly changed. The first time was when my master changed my name from Experiment-013 to Wyx Olfen¡­ Anyway, the new name wasn''t bad. It was easy to pronounce and had an excellent ring to it.


    Why did I change races, though? I''ve never heard of anything like this happening before¡­ granted, I was a slave, so it''s not like I was super knowledgeable to begin with. There aren''t many times for an enslaved person to get an education, so m


    So what is a wolfkin? Does that mean I am half-wolf? Is this why the wolves surrounding me are so passive?


    Also, what was this time thing? The Records said something about being sent into the past, right? So am I in the pre-cataclysm galaxy now? Assuming that the two years refer to the cataclysm, I got sent back... five years? I wish I was paying better attention to the Records while in the void...


    The rest of my Status was really good for a level one. Level ones were typically super weak since only newborns were level one; newborns usually only had one point in every stat with geniuses having three. Since my lowest stat was a ten, then did that make me a super genius?


    I also had three abilities, which was rare. Level ones usually only had two abilities. They had a race ability and a personal ability. Race ability was an ability that was shared across all members of a given race.


    In my previous life, I was an artificial fallen angel, so my race ability was to be able to hide and show my wings. While my wings were out, I had a boost to my dark magic. A more straightforward example of racial abilities was the human racial ability. Theirs was called [Indomitable Will], and it allowed them to keep high morale as long as there was even the smallest fragment of hope for victory.


    Personal abilities were completely different than racial abilities. They were randomized by the person and could be anything. In my past life, my personal ability was to turn curses into blessings, which was why my master kept me. I could turn a -50% stats curse into a blessing of +50% stats. Not everyone had a personal ability; I just seemed to have gotten lucky to have one both times.


    My abilities were different than what I previously had. With just a single focus of my mind, information on my three abilities showed up in my vision.


    {Ability: Luna(Racial): All members of the Canidae family and those related will feel comforted in your presence. They will not attack you unless provoked. You can also easily read the intentions, feelings, and body language of the previously stated creatures like it is another language.}


    So was this what made the wolves not attack? Or is it because they sense I am also part wolf like I initially thought? Either way, [Luna] was quite nice to have. Sure it was useless around the non-Canidae, but it could be beneficial among the right group. I wonder if it would work on the dog-like species in space? Would gnolls be kind to me now?


    {Ability: Shift(Racial): Can shift between your two forms at will.}


    So it is kind of like my old racial ability? Quite shocking, actually. Abilities that could allow someone to change shape were rare in the galaxy. I wonder what my other form is like?


    {Ability: Gambler(Unique): Gives a completely random item to the user. Also increases luck slightly. Cool Down: 24 hours.}


    The ability to get a random item was a double-edged sword. On one paw, I could get a spear that pierces the heavens; on the other, I could get a teacup without any tea. Gambling wasn''t my cup of tea since it heavily relies on luck. If there is anything my life has taught me, it is that luck was a fickle lady. Fortunately, this ability also increased my luck.


    Not that I''m thinking about it, my master did a couple of research projects on luck while I was with him. Maybe I could try to use some of my knowledge to increase my luck even further? I can''t think of any ways off the top of my head, but I know there are a couple of items and abilities that can raise luck.


    The bottom of my Status caught my attention. Mainly because of how corrupted the data looked. It was covered in ever-changing text that completely blocked what the Status said. The only thing I could make out through the corruption was the word ''divinity.''


    I had heard of divinity before. I think my master had looked into it during my previous lifetime. If I was right, then it was the power of the gods. Gods were mighty beings that had breached past the firmament of mortality. They tended to be extremely strong and could crush mortal like bugs.


    The reason I know a bit about gods was because my master wanted to become one. He had reached the peak of tier ten, the capacity for a mortal, and sought to break through to tier eleven by becoming a god. My master- No... I''m free now. I can''t keep thinking of him like that... Terry seemed to believe that the path of godhood was through divinity.


    No matter what it was, I couldn''t gain any more details on it since its very presence seemed to glitch out. Is the glitching normal for divinity? I don¡¯t know since Terry never reached a point where he had divinity.


    After looking through my status, I had a few questions. Namely, if my race was a monster or sapient type. It wouldn¡¯t be the first time that a humanoid was a monster, so I wasn¡¯t a hundred percent sure. It might help if I knew what I looked like so I could see if I had anything that starkly stood out as monstrous.


    The difference between a monster race and a sapient race was that sapient creatures had classes. They were like jobs, in a way. By leveling up the class, the creature would gain more potent abilities to help out in their ¡®job.¡¯ On the other paw, monsters had evolutions, but not classes. Once the beast gained enough experience and hit its threshold, it gained the ability to evolve, becoming bigger and stronger.


    Sitting there for a moment as a pup slept peacefully in my lap, I finally had enough time for it to hit me that I had really died. I¡¯m never going to see my¡­ my what?


    My family? I was an artificial creature made from alchemy, soul magic, and the accumulation of hundreds of experiments.


    My friends? It was pretty much just my mas- Terry and Rebecca, my best friend that killed me out of jealousy. I had no other friends or even acquaintances to miss.


    Pets? Why would a slave own a pet? The closest thing to a pet I had was when Terry would let me play with his familiar, though I¡¯m not sure that that counts since the familiar was bound to him.


    Would I miss my power? I didn¡¯t have much power. Terry forcibly capped my level at three hundred so I wouldn¡¯t grow stronger and escape my enslavement.


    Now that I think about it, Terry was a terrible person. I don¡¯t know why I never realized it before... Was it because of the slavery magic he had cast on me? I guess he did free me from the lab, but that was about the only kindness he showed me. He capped my level at three hundred and kept me around just so I could support him. Well, maybe not just for my ability. He seemed to find great joy in hurting me, whether physically or mentally.


    As the sad thoughts of me being forever alone entered my head, a large gray wolf licked my arm, drawing me from my thoughts. The wolf laid down next to me, wrapping his bulky body around my legs. My hand casually reached out and stroked his head. He leaned into the head scratches as his tail rose and fell next to me.


    Wait¡­ if the wolf was gray, and his tail was wagging over there, whose tail is laying across my lap? The tail was completely black and fluffy, standing out against my smooth skin. I don¡¯t know how I didn¡¯t notice it earlier, considering how easy it was to see. I pulled the tail slightly, about to shift it off my lap when I froze. A slight pain raced through my back when I pulled on it. What the hell?


    I instinctively flexed up my non-existent wings, but only the tail started to wag gently over my lap. Focusing in, I realized that I wasn''t actually flexing my wings but the muscles in the tail. I had just thought that it was my wings through force of habit.


    It didn''t take long after to grow accustomed to my tail. Controlling it was highly similar to how I used to control my wings. Like how I would move my arm or leg, the tail simply followed my will. Once I was confident in handling the odd limb, I laid it down on the large wolf next to me.


    I needed to find a mirror or something to look at myself. I wonder if I have any other new attributes? Quickly running my hands over my body, I found out a couple of things. I was completely naked, just sitting in the middle of the woods. I was also a lot more sensitive than I used to be. Especially my tail and head. The increase in sensitivity made sense. I was hatched and grown purely to be a weapon in my previous life, so the scientists had dampened my nerves and sensitivity to touch.


    My skin was completely white, different from the grayish hue it was before I died. I had fairly long black hair that reached just above the middle of my back. I also had two floppy wolf ears on my head. Getting used to the ears was weird, especially when I learned that I no longer had ears on the side of my head.


    The wolf pup in my lap snorted loudly at my self-inspection before standing up and walking towards where its siblings were sleeping, leaving my lap empty and bare. Almost as if sensing my slight discomfort at having nothing cover me yet again, the giant wolf next to me wrapped his tail around me and set it on my lap. It was so fluffy that I couldn¡¯t help but rub it gently. A glance at his expression revealed an ecstatic face that seemed to say, ¡°Yes! Praise me more!¡±


    I looked around at the rest of the wolves around me as I gave the wolf attention. Most of them were laying down on the grass in small groups, but there were a few who were sitting around, watching our surroundings like haw- errr, wolves. About half of the non-guard wolves were watching the pups sleeping peacefully. The second half watched the large gray wolf and me by my side.


    Looking around, I realized that the gray wolf was the largest of the wolves. Something instinctually told me that it meant he was the pack''s alpha. I was pretty honored to have the alpha of the pack personally come and lay down next to me. To put it into perspective, the alpha was like a war chief or royalty.


    I took the opportunity that presented itself to use my [Inspect] ability on the wolves around me¡­ only to fail terribly as nothing happened. I''m not going to lie; it took me way longer than I would want to admit to realize why the inspection ability wasn¡¯t working.


    The problem was that I no longer had the ability. After my death - and subsequent revival - all of my abilities, skills, titles, and classes had been reset. To get [Inspect] again, I would have to relearn it, which would be a massive pain in the rear. The only way to learn [Inspect] was to use inspection stones repeatedly. The problem was that it took around fifty inspections to learn the lowest level of the ability, while most stones could only be used five times. The problem expanded depending on what planet I was in. If I were on a low-tech world, the stones would probably be costly compared to a high-tech planet.


    Even without [Inspect] though, I could hazard a guess on what the wolves were. Judging by their size, most of them bigger than me, I could safely assume they were Dire Wolves. Dire Wolves were a species found throughout the galaxy, so I couldn¡¯t narrow down what planet I was on based on the wolves alone.


    Alright then! Surrounded by wolves is the perfect time to test out [Shift]. It seemed very intriguing, but I had never heard of it or my current race, so I wasn¡¯t sure how it all worked. Would it be a small change or a significant change? Would I even notice the change at all?


    With a single thought, I activated my ability. I immediately felt a deep sense of regret upon my hasty decision to test an ability I had never heard of¡­

 Chapter 2-First Shift

    Pain was nothing new to me. As an experiment, torture was a common occurrence while I was in the laboratories. I always thought that pain was completely useless. It only told you when you were hurt, which could already be observed by seeing blood or bones twisted in the wrong angles. The ¡®doctors¡¯ thought along a different track than me. They thought that pain was a perfect motivator. After feeling pain, a living organism instinctively tried to do something so that the pain would stop. That response was part of the reason why torture worked so well on people.


    Immediately after activating my ability, the worst pain I had ever felt raced through my body. And that was saying something, considering that I had already died. The sound of my bones cracking was just a prelude to the pain that hit every nerve like a sledgehammer. It hurt so bad that I couldn¡¯t even open my jaw to scream, not that it mattered. With my jaw currently in the process of reshaping itself, no words could come out even if I want them to.


    That was just my bones though. The rest of my body was also in agony. My skin was torn to shreds as fur grew out of my body, replacing the once pristine white skin. As it grew, I noticed that the coat was extremely thick and silky, like I had just taken a shower. I had to admit, even though my brain was being fried by agony, the new fur looked beautiful. If it wasn¡¯t for the pain as it came out, I would almost say it was worth it.


    After what felt like an eternity of my bones being pulverized and reshaped, my skin being torn and replaced, and my limbs changing and reforming, the pain finally stopped. As my vision returned I was finally able to look around. It did not escape my notice that the wolves looked completely unbothered by my sudden shift in species.


    The only one even slightly concerned about me was the alpha wolf, and even then he just sniffed at me. Although I don¡¯t want to admit it, he was probably scenting me to see if I could be a good mate. A simple growl scared him off of scenting me. Once he backed off, I started to take stock of my situation.


    I was now a wolf. To be honest, I don¡¯t know how I should feel about it. It was a little weird being in a different body, but there were some pros. Being in this form was probably easier to sneak around because my fur was completely black. Also, my senses seemed to have changed.


    My sight had gotten a lot better than when I was in my humanoid form. I remember from the little research I could do that wolves only see in black and white. Or were those dogs? Anyways, I could see it in full color. My vision had improved enough to let me pick out smaller details, like the insects that were camouflaged as plants.


    My sense of smell had also improved substantially. I somewhat remembered that lupines had 10,000 times better noses than humans when it comes to smelling different scents. Since I was previously based around a human and an angel, I had the same sense of smell and mostly the same attributes as a normal human. Now though, I could separate scents from each of the wolves around me. Each one smelled different, but there was one constant scent throughout each wolf. If I had to guess, I would say that it had something to do with each of the wolves being from the same pack.


    My hearing had also improved substantially. What I had thought was a creek a while back I now realized was a river far off to my eastish. From the sounds of it, the river had a large drop off into a lake or pond way further downstream than me.


    I wasn¡¯t sure if my other two senses had changed at all since I had nothing to test them on, but I was sure that if I did test them, they would have changed. Maybe not changed for the better like my other two senses, but they would be different. I could already somewhat tell that my sense of taste had changed considering I was starting to feel hungry for some raw meat.


    I attempted to stand up¡­ and fell flat on my face. My snout filled up with dirt and grass almost instantly. Note to self: don''t have your mouth open when trying to walk for the first time. From my side, the alpha started huffing at me, almost like he was laughing at my embarrassing moment. As if he sensed my growing irritation, the large wolf backed up and gave me some space to try again.


    After cleaning out my muzzle, I tried again and stood up successfully¡­ for a few seconds before plummeting into the ground once again. Don¡¯t judge me, it was a lot harder than it looked to stand on four legs. For someone who had never walked on anything other than two legs, this was extremely difficult.


    This time, while I was attempting to stand up, I cleared my mind and trusted my instincts¡­ and succeeded for the first time. I played around with this and tested my new instincts before coming to a conclusion. It seemed like I had at least a few of a wolf¡¯s instincts in me. After a few minutes of testing, the result was that I could instinctually stand, but as soon as I tried to think about it, I fell over. I assumed that this would get better with time and I would be able to walk soon, but I wasn¡¯t a hundred percent sure.


    After standing, I attempted to take a small step forward. How hard could it be, right? As I slammed into the ground, the answer came out: extremely hard. I didn¡¯t even know how I did it, but my legs were all tangled up around each other and my tail. After a minute of flailing, I finally managed to flip myself back over and stand up again, though my tail ached horribly.


    For attempt number two, I did the same thing I did when I was trying to stand up. Trusting my instincts, I managed to trot around a few feet. My lesson was well learned from trying to stand up, so I didn''t second guess my instincts, even when they felt awkward or wrong.


    Now semi-accustomed to standing up, I took the opportunity to look at my new wolf body. My tail was the same bushy appendage that was shown when I was in humanoid form. The only difference was that it seemed a little longer than previously. The coat of fur that covered the entirety of my body was a shade of black that could easily blend in with a shadow. I was way lither than the alpha, but to be fair I was also way shorter. If I had to guess, I barely went up to the knee of an average human. My paws had a frighteningly sharp set of claws on them, the kind that was meant to rip and tear anything to shreds in just a few moments. I kind of wish I had these claws when I was escaping the lab where I was experimented on. It would¡¯ve been nice to tear some of those ¡®doctors¡¯ a new one.


    After looking at my body, I peered around at the wolves surrounding me. Most of them, except the blind pups, were watching me in amusement as I slowly acclimated myself to my new body. A few of them were even laughing at me, not even caring that I just transformed from one shape to another. I tried to tell them to stop it, but instead of my normal speech, a deep growl curled out of my snout. The wolves laughing kept their amused expressions, but they looked away from me and went back to what they were doing before I shifted. Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.


    A snout nudged my side, causing me to quickly turn around and glare at the offender. The alpha looked at me with a guilty expression before pretending as if nothing happened.


    ¡®Really? We¡¯re just going to pretend like that didn¡¯t happen are we? I saw you sniffing at me. The rest of the pack can back me up!¡¯ I growled out towards the alpha. When I glanced back at the pack in question, they suddenly found the grass extremely interesting. Every single one of them, aside from the pups, focused intently on the ground, not even giving me or the alpha a second glance.


    Fine¡­ I would just leave then. I didn¡¯t need pushy males right after I came back to life. I had too many of them when I was forced into slavery, though this type of pushy was different. After all, who would want to touch a creepy grey-skinned person covered in scars?


    I stayed true to my thoughts and quickly walked out of the pack¡¯s circle and into the forest. I only gave a small glimpse back as my final farewell before I lost sight of the pack due to the forest covering up the clearing they were in.


    As I walked through the forest, I inspected the trees, though not like I wanted to. The forest¡¯s trees were tall enough that a human atop a horse could easily fit underneath them. The spaces in between the trees were filled with different types of plants, mostly shrubs. It was kind of hard to tell directions in the forest, but I thought I was heading eastish. I say I thought because I was heading towards where I heard the river was flowing and had no actual idea where I was.


    After a short walk, an amazing scent wafted into my nose. Following the scent trail, it led me to a small clearing fairly far away from where the pack of wolves was. The clearing had about a dozen or so flowers blooming in it, with over half being red and the others being purple colored. The purple flowers started to fade into a white color the closer that they got to the base of the petals while the red ones remained a solid color.


    Standing in the middle of the clearing was a deer, peacefully chowing down on some grass. It was a small buck, probably just about a year or two old. It had horns just barely peeking out over the top of its ears. It looked fairly big, but most of that was its fur poofing out and not actual meat. The buck was bigger than me, being tall enough to reach a man¡¯s shoulders while standing normally.


    A growling came out from behind me, almost making me jump out of my skin before I realized what it was. It took me a moment to realize that it wasn¡¯t another creature growling at me, but my stomach. I didn¡¯t realize it before, but I was starving. And the deer in front of me smelled like the most delicious piece of venison I¡¯ve ever had.


    How do I attack it though? I¡¯ve never fought something with teeth and claws... Do I just bite at it? I wish this wolf thing had a manual¡­ I wonder if I can just let my instincts take over, like how I was learning to walk.


    My instincts took over, making me slowly creep up on it while close to the ground, which was unlike how I wanted to kill it. Originally, I had wanted to sprint at it full force, but this method was better. When I was just a few feet away, the deer went rigid and froze, completely alert, but it was already too late. Right before the deer could dodge away and book it, I lunged towards it, snapping my teeth onto its throat. It tried to shake me off, but it couldn¡¯t do that so well since I already had my teeth locked on. After just a few minutes of biting and tearing, the deer dropped dead at my feet almost crushing me in the process. That would¡¯ve been awkward. What would they put on my tombstone? ''Wolf turned into meat paste by falling deer''?


    [Ding! XP Gained!]


    Ah, shoot¡­ I forgot that I would have to relevel myself back up all the way. Right now I was just a weakling, so just a few deers could level me up. This was just a reminder of what I needed to do. I needed to make a plan later tonight on what needed to be accomplished before the Cataclysm of the Gods arrived.


    At the very least though, I needed to attempt to get to tier ten. In my last life, I barely even did anything, mainly because I was a slave¡­ I couldn''t let that happen to me this time too. If I had more time, I could level up through other means, but since I only had two-ish years, I would have to level up through the fastest way I knew how: killing. Maybe I should look for a dungeon or an entrance into the Myzn?


    In the galaxy, there were gates spread out across the planets. By entering these gates, a person could enter a dungeon. These dungeons usually had monsters inside of them or were fragments of broken realms. Scientists had concluded that the dungeons were either summoned by or made by the ambient mana in an area.


    The monsters inside the dungeons were typically formed through condensation of the ambient mana, though some were born naturally by breeding. In some of the higher leveled dungeons, you could cut open a monster to get something called a mana core, which was the condensed mana of a monster. They were exceptionally valuable and were used for many different things, like being used as an ingredient in creating weapons and armor.


    Depending on the difficulty of the dungeon, a group of people could get higher or lower rewards and XP. I had been through quite a few of these before with mast- Terry, though I never got anything from them since he would always take the rewards.


    The Myzn was different. In my past life, there wasn¡¯t much known about it, but I did know the bare minimum. The place connected different realms and realities through an infinite labyrinth. The biggest problem was that there was no level cap in the Myzn. I could just as soon run into a level one monster as a level 1000. It was a high risk, but the rewards were also high. I had only been in the Myzn one time, and I almost died instantly to a Myzn guardian, which was a sentient creature that spawned upon hitting a certain milestone while in the Myzn, such as staying inside for a month or killing a thousand monsters. That expedition was also where I got the item called the [Creator¡¯s Phoenix Feather]. Luckily, the item was bound upon pickup, so Terry couldn¡¯t steal it from me. That item was probably the only thing that I owned, though he did take out his aggravation on me for ¡®stealing¡¯ it. Repeatedly. I thought the item was what the system used to resurrect me, but I wasn¡¯t sure since I was only half lucid back then.


    The scent of the deer¡¯s blood drew me out of my musings. If I had been a disassembly expert, I could get a nice cut of venison and know exactly what to eat and what not to eat. Unfortunately, the anatomy of a lot of creatures was quite expansive, so I didn¡¯t actually know what to eat for this particular one.


    While I didn¡¯t have skill in disassembly or even a butcher since deer were a common creature, I did have my lupine instincts. Doing something that I had been doing quite common, I let them take over. They drove me to start eating at the flanks and internal organs, which I would¡¯ve never done as a humanoid. If I was a humanoid, I definitely would¡¯ve aimed for the muscles and flesh of the deer. It was slightly disgusting to think about eating the liver, heart, and kidneys, but it tasted a lot better than I would¡¯ve thought. At the very least, it was nothing compared to some of the puke-worthy things I had to eat while I was in the lab.


    Once I had eaten my fill, I backed up from the corpse. I didn¡¯t have to worry about leaving the carcass around since unfinished wolf kills were usually preyed upon by birds and small rodents. I could even see a few flying scavengers in the trees already, waiting for me to leave. I turned around and walked away from the corpse.


    To my great shock, a little elf girl was standing directly behind me. She was shaking with fright and had tears tracing paths down her cheeks. Her eyes were a dark gray color, framed by dark blonde hair. Her ears, as one of the distinctions of elves, were like sharp daggers sticking out of her head. She was probably around five or six, but I had a hard time telling since I was basing my estimation entirely on her height. Whereas I was as tall as a person''s knees, she was just short of their hips.


    As soon as I saw her, I had just one question: why was she crying?

 Chapter 3-Little Lost Elf

    It took me way too long to realize that I was an idiot. She most likely just watched a ¡®wild wolf¡¯ greedily scarf down a deer. A glance at my snout revealed I had blood all over it, though it was hardly noticeable against my black fur. Just to be safe, I licked the scrumptious scarlet off my snout. Unsurprisingly, the elf started to cry harder.


    I briefly debated on changing forms into my humanoid one, but rejected that thought promptly. I didn¡¯t know where I was or what planet I was on. If I didn¡¯t take care to hide myself, slavers might even come after me since, as far as I knew, I was a unique species. The unfortunate fact was that slavery was legal on most planets, so if I got spotted, I would probably have been hunted down. The only way to stay out of the horribleness that was slavery was to hide my features and act like a regular human.


    Slowly approaching her, I crept closer and closer. She didn¡¯t run away, probably because of her absolute terror. As I got closer to her, she started shaking, but still didn''t run away. Right in front of her, my tongue flicked out and gently licked her cheek. She froze completely, not even shaking even more though a strong scent of urine filled the air around me. I licked her again, this time seemingly restarting her brain. She softly and timidly reached out and rubbed my head, right between my ears. I couldn¡¯t help but lean into her touch because it felt so good. Being petted is such a pleasurable feeling. I could now somewhat understand why pets let their owners pet them since head pats were justice.


    She giggled a little and used her other hand to rub me too, ¡°Good doggy!¡±


    Relief raced through me as she spoke in galactic common, the language used by most sapient creatures of the galaxy. It was a middle ground language that was recognized as the galactic requirement when it came to talking to others. Since she spoke common, hopefully this meant the planet had already reached the space age. If it hadn¡¯t, it would be harder to get up into space and prepare for the Cataclysm of the Gods.


    Wait... did she call me doggy? I¡¯ll have you know that I am a dire wolf, a ferocious predator. I could tear this puny elf to pieces if I saw desired. In fact, why don- hmmm, head scratches. What was I saying?


    I glanced around her to look for other elves, but all I saw were trees. The only living creatures around here were the birds that were watching me intently, probably waiting so they could eat the rest of the deer. It was a little odd that there were no other elves around. Who was irresponsible enough to let a little girl roam around?


    As if the girl noticed my silent question, she started to speak, ¡°Can you help me big doggy? I¡¯m lost and can¡¯t find my way back home.¡±


    You really shouldn¡¯t just be asking a random creature for help, ya know? I could eat you and nobody would know. Now that I think about, I kinda wonder what elf tastes like...


    Instead of gobbling her up, I nodded my big head at her. Normally I wouldn¡¯t help some random stranger, but I had a soft spot for kids, so how could I refuse? I turned to the side and prepared myself. She didn¡¯t get what I wanted until I motioned for her to get on my back.


    ¡°You¡¯re a smart doggy. Are you letting me ride you? Awww, thank you big doggy.¡± The elf attempted to get on my back. I say attempted to because she couldn¡¯t quite get on. I gently pushed her up with my snout before standing back up. She didn¡¯t weigh too much, so I could easily walk around with her still on me. The nice thing was that she fit on perfectly with me being just small enough for her to not have too much trouble straddling me. The bad thing was that my back fur was probably slicked with urine now, though the little elf seemed to have forgotten that part as she was too busy petting my head.


    I followed her scent trail back the way it came. While I was following it, I ran across a few more animals and even a couple of small monsters, mostly some kind of weird horned bunny thing. While I was walking, It also hit me that I didn¡¯t even notice her behind me like I usually would¡¯ve. I had a theory that it was due to me not being acclimated to my new wolfkin form quite yet. This time wasn¡¯t too bad because it was just a little girl that snuck up on me, but next time it could be a hunter that gets me by surprise.


    After about thirty minutes of tracing her scent back, I walked into a small empty clearing in the middle of the forest. Oddly, her trail just ended right as the clearing began. I would¡¯ve continued to be confused if I didn¡¯t get an immediate sense of danger when I approached the barrier.


    A snarl curled my lips as I realized what was happening. In front of me was an invisibility barrier. From the outside, it looked and smelt like just an empty clearing, but if I went through it, I would see whatever laid on the other side.


    I tried to move forward, but before I could a figure popped out of the barrier with a bow fully drawn. I couldn¡¯t see any features of the person because they had a black cloak wrapped around themselves. I can, however, tell that the person was some kind of female, or at least a very lithe male. I was leaning towards the latter since the figure seemed to be a washboard.


    ¡°Stop it! Don¡¯t hurt doggy Raylan.¡± Surprisingly, the cloaked figure stopped approaching me with the bow. At that point it was obvious that the person was from the village. Him appearing out of nowhere and the little girl knowing them just reinforced my belief that there was a barrier there to hide the village from discovery. This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.


    The person, who I assumed was Raylan, cautiously approached me, an arrow on the bow¡¯s string, though it wasn¡¯t pulled back anymore. A growl subconsciously built up in my chest as he got closer to me. If I had some of my skills or even a class, I could probably have attacked him. The problem was that since I was just level one, he could probably kill me easily. That and he was from the same village as the little elf. I wouldn''t want to traumatize her after I just helped her.


    When the man was just a few feet away, he let out a sigh of relief. I watched confusedly as he put the bow on his back and put the arrow up. Why would he just put away his weapons when faced with a wild animal?


    I received my answer when a male¡¯s voice came from the person. ¡°Thank the gods! How did you manage to find a Dire Wolf in the middle of the woods, Cassia? You are so lucky that she wasn¡¯t a normal wolf. If she was, you would be eaten by now!¡±


    The little girl, Cassia, quickly rose to my defense as she pet my head, ¡°That isn¡¯t true! Doggy didn¡¯t hurt me!¡±


    ¡°Yeah, she didn¡¯t because she is a Dire Wolf. I swear we taught you about the elven pact with their kind, didn¡¯t we? Well, I guess it doesn¡¯t matter. I¡¯m just glad you are safe. You had the entire village worried!¡± The male said.


    What was this about a pact? Please, tell me more. Maybe I could find out what planet I was on if they kept talking.


    The little girl stopped petting me, and jumped off my back. I turned my head to see her stumble a bit before she righted herself. With what seemed like practiced ease, she lunged at the man and hugged him sweetly. Her sweet hug instantly put me on guard as I recognized the tactic she was using: butter before the hatchet. I had used it myself quite a few times on Terry. The basic idea was to do something super sweet or suck up to a person right before asking for something.


    Cassia proved my suspicions correct almost instantly, ¡°Can we keep her? Please brother?¡±


    Aw! So Raylan was her brother. That made sense.


    ¡°You know ma and pa would never allow that Cas. Why would you even ask that? And she is a wild Dire Wolf with emphasis on the wild. We shouldn¡¯t try to tame her. Also, why do you smell like urine?¡±


    A blush raised all the way up to the little girl¡¯s ears as she released her brother from her hug, ¡°I-I may have peed just a little when I first saw doggy. She was pretty intimidating.¡±


    ¡°Why didn¡¯t you just say something? [Clean].¡± That last part was a spell, judging how the wet spot on the little elf¡¯s clothes disappeared. In an effort to get the same treatment since my back also had urine on it, I barked towards the male elf, trying to get his attention. The elf noticed and cast the spell on me too.


    ¡°See! We should keep her! She is such a smart doggy!¡± Cassia exclaimed when she saw my brilliance in asking for help.


    Raylan, however, quickly shut her hopes down, ¡°All Dire Wolves have intelligence on par with at least a human Cas. It was part of the reason our race made a pact with them in the first place. You really need to start paying better attention to your lessons or I¡¯ll tell ma and pa.¡± He then turned to me, ¡°Thank you, my friend. I would like to invite you in, but the barrier was set to keep everything not in it¡¯s index out, so I can¡¯t. Here, take this as a reward. It isn¡¯t much, but it is the best I can do.¡±


    [Ding! XP Gained!]


    [Ding! Leveled up! Received 4 attribute points, 1 Charisma]


    Thankfully, the elf did give me something that helped: XP. A person could transfer experience to another as long as it didn¡¯t go below their level. For instance, if I was level seven and I had fifty extra XP, I couldn¡¯t give away sixty. I would have to give away fifty at most.


    After a certain amount of experience gained, a person, no matter if they were a monster or a sapient, leveled up. Usually, they got a number of free attributes depending on their race. Unfortunately for me, I seemed to be one of the few races that had one of my attribute points already distributed. Even more unfortunately, it was into charisma and not into something more beneficial like intelligence or dexterity. Sighing, I put three of my points into dexterity and one into strength. Earlier, I noticed that I was far too slow. It took me way longer than I would have liked to.


    [Kali Vexia - Wolfkin - Level: 2 (8 till evolution and class pick)


    Titles:


    None


    Strength-13


    Intelligence- 11


    Dexterity- 17


    Endurance- 10


    Charisma- 16


    Unique Abilities:


    Gambler


    Racial Abilities:


    Luna, Shift


    Divinity:


    C???r???e??????a?????????t???????????? ???????????????p???????????????o?????????????????? ?????????????????????n????????????????????????t???????????????????????????


    Time- 2 years]


    Looking at my status, and especially at my level, I realized something. I needed to get stronger. If I didn¡¯t, I probably wouldn''t survive the Cataclysm. When the gods started moving in my past-I guess future now-life, the only reason I survived was because of my master. I didn¡¯t want to have to rely on someone stronger ever again.


    The best way to get stronger would be to find a city and then find a dungeon. The dungeon would allow me to kill groups of creatures without worry. My first goal was to get to level ten so that I could get my first milestone. The difference between somebody that hadn¡¯t reached a milestone and somebody that had was astounding. For example, once I got my first class, I would finally be able to use the mana that was just sitting uselessly in me. Right now I couldn''t use it unless I had a medium to push it through, like a wand.


    Oddly enough, my milestone seemed to give me access to an evolution and class right away. Usually a person only got both when they reached a certain milestone with the first being at level one hundred. It was the same with monsters though they got the option to gain a class instead of an evolution since their typical milestone reward was an evolution instead of class.


    I barked at the two elves and gave Cassia a lick on the cheek before walking back into the woods. Without a second¡¯s hesitation, I started to walk to the river. Afterall, civilization usually sat around bodies of water and large civilization was something I desperately needed to get stronger¡­

 Chapter 4-Clothes!

    I had been wandering around the forest for a long chunk of time now. I had been walking around for quite a long time, though I wasn¡¯t sure how long. I had instead been focused on hunting. When night would come around, I would then typically climb a tree and go to sleep. If I had to be honest, sleeping in trees wasn¡¯t the most comfortable spot to sleep while nude, but it was better than some of the places I had slept in. Especially in the lab. After sleeping, I would instantly use [Shift] to go back to my lupine form so I would have weapons at the very least.


    A while ago, I had also finally used [Gambler]. I was extremely aggravated when I first saw what the random item was. The item I got was a light switch, the kind that would be found inside of a building. The problem is that it was just the switch. There were no wires, no electricity, and not even a light bulb connected to it! What the hell was I supposed to do with just a lightswitch? It made it even worse that I was in a low tech world, as was shown by the male elf using a bow instead of a gun. I might even be in a low magic world, which would make my situation hundreds of times worse.


    Over the past day or so, I had a few realizations. All of the trees looked the same which led to me being completely and truly lost. I had tried to use the sun to find my direction, but it didn¡¯t really work out that well since the canopy blocked my vision of the sun. My best bet was to head towards the river and hope for the best.I also should really find what planet I was on.


    I should also hurry up to the river for a number of reasons. The main one was that I would be able to see what I looked like, which I hadn¡¯t been able to do since I had been stranded in the middle of a forest. Thankfully, after a few days of travel, the river sounded like it was extremely close now. Of those realizations, the easiest to do something about would definitely be to go to the river.


    After just about thirty minutes of running through the forest, the river entered my vision. The river was fairly big, being about a tree length wide. On top of being wide, it was extremely fast. The current looked like it could drag me away if I carelessly stepped into it.


    I quickly glanced around -making sure that nobody was near- before activating [Shift] again. Once more, pain raced through my body. Luckily it only hurt half as bad as the first time I had used it. Maybe after a few more uses, my body wouldn¡¯t hurt at all? I hoped so, a form shift ability could be extremely useful if I could use it whenever I wanted.


    [Shift] ended and I found myself laying down on the ground, completely nude. This time, I wasn¡¯t in the middle of a pack of wolves, so I should be more careful and should try to be as observant as possible, especially when walking around in the open. This was especially true with my tail and ears waving around like a wavy arm inflatable man.


    I walked the rest of the way up to the river, constantly scanning my environment to see if there was anything around me. In my wolf form, I noticed that most creatures would leave me alone. I couldn¡¯t figure out exactly why, but it might have had something to do with being a Dire Wolf. Wolves were pack creatures, so anything who thought about attacking me might have assumed that they were more around me.


    I finally reached the river edge and looked at my reflection in the clear water. I had vibrant emerald green eyes that seemed to brighten the closer the color got to the pupil. My hair, like what I saw when I was with the wolves, dropped down to about the middle of my back. It was the same color as my fur when I was in my wolf form, void black. My hair was in great contrast to my skin. Unlike in my last life, my skin was whiter than snow, without any scars or marks maring it.


    My face looked extremely young, appearing like I was around seven or eight years old. I had a small button nose and my face was perfectly symmetrical without any pores. I opened up my mouth and smiled at the reflection. I had more sharp teeth than in my previous life and my two canines were noticeably longer, but other than that, my teeth looked like a normal human¡¯s. My ears were indeed two wolf-like ears perked up on top of my head both being the same color as my hair. A waving behind my reflection caught my attention, making me focus on it. The waving was my tail, waving back and forth in happiness for some reason. I tried to stop it and it did stop, but as soon as I turned my attention elsewhere it went back to wagging almost like it had a mind of its own.


    I looked like a beautiful young girl, there I had one huge problem. I was flat again. I swear I must have been cursed. In my previous life, I was designed to be flat since ¡®bust would get in the way while fighting¡¯, but having at least a small chest was something almost every humanoid female desired. It was a continuous source of hardship for me especially since Terry and Rebecca made fun of me and tried to degrade me all the time.


    Looking at my reflection also made me realize something: I needed clothes. While I had lost my holdups on nudity, mainly since I didn¡¯t wear clothes while in my wolf form, I needed to cover up. Not only because of my tail and ears waving around, but also because I was extremely adorable. Adorableness was exactly what slavers looked for in children since there was a higher chance for the adorable kid to become a beautiful adult when they grew up.


    With a new goal in mind, I followed the river flow downriver. Now that I could see above me, I could also see the sun. Using it, I concluded I was most probably heading south assuming that whatever planet I was on rotated like normal. After about an hour of walking, something finally changed. Well, two things. The first thing was that I could hear horse hooves clopping against the ground and the rickety noises of a wagon being pulled far to my south. The second thing was the dead corpse pulled up and leaning on a tree a little ways away from the bank of the river. It startled me when I first saw it, but I got over it quickly since I had long lost my revulsion to seeing a dead person.


    The corpse was of a young elven woman, probably right around fifteen or sixteen years old. Judging by the state of the corpse, which was still fairly fresh, my estimate was that the person died not too long ago. The person had the scent of electrical discharge, which was surprising until I realized where it came from. A black metal collar was wrapped around the elf¡¯s neck and was covered in runes.


    It wasn¡¯t too long until I put two and two together to get her cause of death. My best guess was that she ran away from her owner, but when she got too far the collar electrocuted her. This was a fairly common tactic to keep slaves in line, though it was replaced with embedded explosive devices in space.


    The elf had on a black cloak pulled up over leather armor. Underneath the armor was a simple brown tunic and black pants. She didn¡¯t have on any shoes or socks. Around the dead elf¡¯s waist laid a small belt. Two daggers sheathed in their sheaths and a small coin pouch dangled from the belt. Next to the young woman, a pack lay on the ground.


    While this sight may have freaked other people out, it was nothing to me. Like I said, I had lost my revulsion mainly since I was literally trained to kill people. The experimenters manipulated me into not feeling guilt or pain for killing people, though I still felt those emotions when it came to children. Naturally, this also made it so that I wouldn¡¯t feel too much pity or guilt in moving or lotting a dead person.This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.


    Sorry missy, but this wolf needs these clothes more than you do. While I did feel a little bad for robbing your corpse since I didn¡¯t know you nor killed you, I wouldn¡¯t let that stop me from getting something to wear. It had been a little bit drafty walking around, so I appreciated the help.


    After stripping the elf bare and ¡®borrowing¡¯ her clothes, I started to walk towards where I heard the horse. The clothes were a bit too big for me, being made for someone older, but it was better than nothing. Unfortunately, I had to leave the armor behind since there was no way that it would fit me.


    The pouch that the elf had on her belt had seventeen copper and five silver coins. I didn¡¯t know exactly how much all of that was worth since I didn¡¯t know what planet I was on, but I assumed that it was worth something. The two sheathed daggers were both of good quality. In my past life, I was trained in most cold weapons, so I could use the daggers fairly well if a bit clumsy since I was in a smaller body. Unfortunately, I had never actually fought much since I went from training under tyrannical researchers to being level capped and not able to hurt the people Terry fought. A several hundred gap in levels stopped me from doing the slightest bit of damage. This several hundred gap was also what let Rebecca easily slice my chest open.


    Of course, I was also trained in guns and laser weapons, though not as much. The main problem with those types of weapons in space was that most of them weren¡¯t compatible with mana. Most people, as long as they reached at least fourth tier, were better off using cold weapons or bows. This way they could use their mana, skills, and abilities through their weaponry. Guns were especially useless against high level enemies since the bullets couldn¡¯t penetrate anybody¡¯s skin unless it had mana. Fortunately, people higher than fourth tier weren¡¯t common to see around. If I had to say, out of twenty five fourth tier people, only about one would be higher than fourth tier. Unfortunately, a single fifth tier was worth fifty fourth tier people.


    The backpack I found on her wasn¡¯t anything special. It was basically just a bag attached to leather straps. Inside was a small assortment of things. Most of them were camping essentials, like a rope, cooking pot, canteen, and a few other smaller things. Underneath all of that, I also found a small journal and a charcoal stick. The journal had never been touched, almost like the elf forgot it existed. Or wasn¡¯t alive long enough to use it.


    After walking towards where I thought I heard the carriage, I finally found it as the sun was starting to dip down. It took a lot longer to reach where it went since my hearing had improved substantially and I wasn¡¯t quite used to how the sounds hit my ears differently.


    What I found was a small cleared pathway that ran through the forest. It wasn¡¯t paved or anything like that. It was literally just a trail where the grass had been trampled away through countless journeys across it. After inspecting the trail more, I noticed that the path was covered in various tracks. Just judging by the freshest tracks, I could hazard a guess that there were three carriages with a few guards guarding them. Over the tracks of the carriage were lines swiped across, almost like something was dragged by the carriages. It could mean a multitude of things, but the most likely reason to me was that they were slaves..


    A sigh escaped my lips as I trudged down the same path that they went. Although I didn¡¯t like following slavers, beggars couldn¡¯t be choosers.


    After about five hours of following the path, night had started to fall. With practiced ease, I quickly and quietly found a suitable tree a ways away from the path and raced up the side of it in record time. Once I reached the perfect branch, I laid down on it and secured myself by tying the rope from the elf¡¯s pack around my torso, legs, and the branch. I had a little trouble at first with my tail since I didn¡¯t want to lay on it, but I fixed the problem by moving my tail onto my lap like some kind of pillow. Fully set up for the night, I pulled out the journal and charcoal stick from the bag and started to record everything I could remember about the next five years.


    ¡®The Cataclysm of the Gods is supposed to start in two years. There were dozens of ¡®hints¡¯ coming up to what was called ¡®the prologue¡¯ of the cataclysm. The most major ¡®hint¡¯ was a group showing up all around the galaxy a year before the cataclysm happened(that should be a year from now). They just appeared out of thin air, without anyone knowing where they came from or why they appeared. The group had no rhyme or reason, but each of them usually made parties with others of their race that had similar goals. That''s another thing, their ¡®race¡¯ included dozens of actual races such as elves, humans, agarians, demons, and plenty more, but if they were part of the group, they were considered a separate race no matter the race they appeared as.


    The group was called Revenants after their mysterious ability that everyone of their race had. The [Revenant] ability allowed them to resurrect themselves after they died for only a small amount of experience. That wasn¡¯t to say they were unkillable though. If a Revenant died multiple deaths within a span of time then they would enter a vulnerable state. If they died again while in this state, they would have a true death that they couldn¡¯t come back from.


    I never personally interacted with them, but Terry said that they were a lot like other races. There were some with good, evil, and neutral outlooks, though the Revenants took their standings to the extremes. Part of the reason I never got to see any was because their ¡®race¡¯ as a whole was very against certain ideals, no matter what their outlooks were. For example: slavery. They would risk life and limb to save random people from slavery, even though it didn¡¯t benefit them at all. Granted, they could take the risks involved with fighting slavery since they could come back to life a near infinite amount of times.


    The Cataclysm of the Gods was basically a competition between the various ¡®living¡¯ gods. The gods would use anything and any means to get their way, and their way was usually total domination of the galaxy. Some of them were kind and friendly, leading through other ways than violence, but those kinds were very rare. Most of the time they were the domineering type. The only reason that most of the galaxy survived was because they couldn¡¯t manifest themselves without the right situation. Instead, they ruled through proxy. Most of the proxy rulers were Revenants, but there were a few who had normal denizens of the galaxy as their proxies.


    For a year after the Cataclysm started, the gods were fairly weakened, giving time for the galaxy to prepare itself. This year was the aforementioned ¡®prologue¡¯. During this time, several major events happened. I¡¯m a little fuzzy on most of the details, but I know two of them for sure. Firstly, the Records started giving out things called ¡®quests¡¯. By accomplishing these quests, people could get grand rewards from the system like XP or items. These quests could come from gods or people of a higher level. Oddly enough, the Revenants seemed to be able to get these quests from anyone they talked to. This led to a strong jump in their levels over a very small amount of time. Of course, the fact that they didn¡¯t fear death also helped.


    The second thing was the opening of ¡®arenas¡¯. These places would allow, for a small price, people to fight each other with full force without worrying about death. After the round ended, the winner and victor would be fully healed or resurrected without any drawbacks except for their bet. Killing in these arenas was very acceptable since the deceased would be resurrected as soon as the match ended. I faintly remember something about leaderboards in the arena, though I never got to see them since the Revenants hovered around the arenas frequently. Terry, in his over protectiveness of his assets, would never allow me to be within a light year of the arenas if it was up to him.


    After that prologue, the gods started to become more active in their desires. I can¡¯t remember too well what all happened, but for the two years after the prologue -the two before I died- the gods would fight against each other, usually by using the Revenants as their proxies. It wasn¡¯t all bad for the galaxy though since people could receive wondrous benefits by being the follower of a god.¡¯


    I wrote a little bit more in the journal before a yawn stretched my mouth wide open, which made me realize how tired I was. Without a second thought, I stored the journal into my new bag and closed my eyes. Sleep evaded me for a time as my mind went a mile a minute in its attempts to make plans for the future, but I eventually managed to make myself fall into the embrace of sleep...

 Chapter 5-Tyler the Guard

    A yawn stretched my mouth near the point of breaking as I stretched away the sleepiness that sought to overtake me. Once fully awake, I quickly untied myself and hopped down, landing on the grass below. After going about my brief daily routine, mainly just some exercises and hunting a small critter in my wolf form for breakfast, I started back along the beaten path. From the few sightings of the sun, I safely assumed the road ran north to south like the river, with me route headed toward the north.


    It was just an hour of walking before I realized something was happening. As I continued on towards the north, the forest started to thin out more and more. It wasn¡¯t more than five minutes before the forest thinned out completely and I saw the cause for such a phenomena.


    In front of me was a massive city wall. The stone walls rose high into the sky, possibly even taller than the nearby forest. On top of the wall, dozens of guards were patrolling, keeping a sharp lookout for anything suspicious. The stonework of the wall itself looked impressive and sturdy, like it might be able to take more than a few hits from a giant monster. Evenly spaced on the wall, a lion¡¯s head was engraved onto the wall. Directly below each of the lion¡¯s heads was a brazier type protrusion sticking out.


    I couldn¡¯t help but feel a little bad about my Record reset as I inspected the wall. If I still had my stealth and climbing capabilities, I might have been able to scale the wall and sneak into the city because of the stonework. While it was impressive to look at, each of the engravings were vulnerabilities since they would have made perfect handholds.


    I shook my head to clear the unnecessary thoughts of infiltration out. After further inspection, sadly without the actual ability, I noticed something else. The path I had been following just stopped at the edge of the forest. It didn¡¯t continue all of the way to the wall and into a gate like I had hoped. My guess was that the route was some kind of smuggler¡¯s trail and not an actually official one.


    Without a proper entrance, I decided to make my way around the wall to find an entrance while staying inside of the edge of the forest. It took most of the day to get all the way around the walls, but I finally reached it. As my eyes locked onto the entrance, I couldn¡¯t help but be extremely aggravated. I had spent most of the day walking around the awe inspiring walls, but if I went left instead of right, I would have reached the entrance at least a few hours earlier.


    The entrance was a grand affair, at least, that''s what it tried to act as. In reality, it was just a large gate with a dozen guards standing in front of it. The reason it looked like it was trying to be grand was because the gate was gilded with silver and in the middle of the gate was a huge lion¡¯s head. While it did look cool, I guess, the whole thing was ruined for me. Where was the moat? I thought that was castling 101. Obviously whoever built the castle didn¡¯t read Castling 101 since there was no moat. The wall hit the ground and that was it.


    I was standing a little ways away from the road leading up to the gate, blocked out of site by the trees which was good since the road itself was full of people walking around. The majority of them were on foot though about a third of the travelers had carriages pulled by various different animals. Near the gate, three lines were set up. One was for people leaving, one looked like it was for normal people, and one was seemingly for VIPs.


    I assumed all what they lanes were off of a few facts. The first lane obviously had people leaving, so that was a no brainer. The second one had about half of the people carrying large bundles and wearing beaten clothes, which just screamed ¡®poor farmer¡¯ to me. I would say that it was just a peon entrance, but the other half of the people in line made me change my mind. The other half was made up of various well geared adventurers and merchants. Since there was no one of apparent noble standing in the line, I dubbed it as the normal line. The third line, however, did have a single carriage in it. The carriage had a large coat of arms painted onto the side of it, showing off that the owner was some form of noble. Unfortunately, the back of the carriage told me all I would need to know about that particular noble.


    Chained to the back of the carriage, a long line of people stood. Chains wove their way through the collars that everyone in line wore, restraining them to the carriage. The slaves were of various assorted races though the majority were elves.


    Seeing the pitiful sight ruined my desire to sight see, so I turned away from the view and started to prepare. I put down my new bag and started on my plan to sneak into the city. The first thing I needed was rope, so I pulled out the rope I had been using and cut off two parts with my newly acquired daggers. Tying one of the ropes into a quick knot and making it look like an 8, I tied the looped holes of the 8 around my ears, pulling them together. If I could see myself from an outside perspective, my ears should hopefully appear as a hair bow and nothing else. The disguise wouldn¡¯t hold up to magic and extreme scrutiny, but I had a plan to get around most of the security easily. Next, I looped my tail around the top of my hips, making it look almost like a belt. It was extremely uncomfortable, but my tail was hidden. I then tied the second part of the rope around my tail and waist but above my shirt so that my tail would be locked in. Once the rop was secured, I slid both of the sheathed daggers into position on either side of my hips.


    Though it pained me to do it, I pulled off my cloak and started to slice at it with the daggers carelessly. With the cloak slashed up a bit, I put it back on and slashed even more at myself. The cuts weren¡¯t too deep, but a few of them definitely drew blood.


    My plan was to look like an innocent young girl that was running away from someone. The cuts were to imitate running through foliage. Afterall, who would believe a runaway girl ran a long way without getting injured even once? The cuts were all part of the plan to make this wolf¡¯s tale more believable. If they took the bait, I would be able to, for lack of a better phrase, sneak into the sheep pen.


    Right before I started my plan, I took out the majority of the camping supplies and ease of life items. It would be suspicious if I showed up looking like I had come fully prepared. With my plan fully set up, I started to sprint out of the forest.


    As I was sprinting towards the line, I repeatedly glanced over my shoulder, almost as if something was chasing me. I continued like this while slowly angling myself towards one of the armored guards standing near the back of the line. Once close enough, I ran full force into him. I, of course, bounced right off without moving him a single inch. Not even resisting gravity, I fell flat on my rear.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    <<>><<>><<>>


    Tyler was a guard employed to the great city of Serias, the capital city of the Roshan Empire. Although most of his days were boring as a guard, he was very happy to have the job. Ever since he was younger, he dreamed of being an adventurer. Sadly, he took an arrow to the knee on his first day adventuring, so he had to put up his traveler¡¯s boots in favor of a more stationary occupation.


    After buckling all of the straps to his armor, a mixture of monster hide and metal plate armor, Tyler stood up and walked out of the barracks. The barracks were the closest building to the main gate, built that way so the guard could be prepared any time. Much like the wall, the barracks was completely made out of stone with lions embedded all over.


    Tyler nodded cheerfully a few times to a couple of the guards and civilians he was familiar with as he headed to take his post. Today, he was assigned to be the outermost line patrol, a new position in the city guard occupation. The line patrol didn¡¯t exist until a few days ago. The reason for the new position was because of a fight between two farmers over who¡¯s produce was better. Normally this wouldn¡¯t be too big of a problem and both farmers would shrug each other off before meeting up for a pint at one of the local bars.


    It became a problem, however, when one of the farmers missed a punch and smacked a horse that was pulling a noble¡¯s carriage as it walked by. To make matters worse, the coachman in charge was piss drunk and couldn¡¯t control the horse. The horse ran far, far away, causing all sorts of troubles for the noble. Luckily, ¡®nobody¡¯ remembered what the offending farmer looked like, or there might have also been an upcoming execution with the new position.


    With a deep sigh, Tyler readjusted the spear strapped to his back and walked out of the main -and only- gate of the city. The three lines were as full as usual, filled to the brim with assorted peoples ranging from poor farmers to rich adventurers.


    After a short walk to the end of the line, Tyler did some small stretches before getting ready for the long shift. He didn¡¯t mind the long hours though since they gave him something to do.


    An hour or so later, Tyler felt a small impact on the back of his armor. Following his training, he quickly turned and prepared his spear, ready to strike down whatever enemy came his way. To his surprise, he turned just in time to see a wounded girl fall to the ground. Some of the people of the line saw the moment, but they couldn¡¯t care less since the situation didn¡¯t involve them.


    Quickly bending over, he checked on the little girl¡¯s condition, worry settling deep in his mind. Upon closer examination, he realized that the girl was probably one of the more adorable that he had seen. What made him say that about the little girl was because she had pure white skin that really brought out the vibrant green of her eyes and the desolate black of her hair. What was even more surprising to Tyler was that the girl seemed to only be about eight or nine years old.


    Shoving the thoughts about her apparel out of his mind, he continued to check her actual condition and not her aesthetic one. The girl was covered in small wounds and cuts, leaking out crimson blood that stained her clothes around the lacerations. Aside from the wounds she looked fine, but tears were constantly streaming down her face like a waterfall.


    Tyler reached down and picked her up. To his shock, as soon as he touched her, she started violently moving around, trying to shake him off. Listening closely, he heard her say, ¡°No¡­ not again¡­ don''t hurt me again¡­¡± though it was in a quiet voice and every couple words was wracked with sobs.


    ¡°Calm down little one, I won¡¯t hurt you,¡± Tyler tried to calm her down. After a few minutes of calmly talking, he finally succeeded as she stopped struggling in his grasp as much. By the time she stopped, some of the other guards had noticed the commotion and had arrived to see what was going on. Tyler, noticing their approach, motioned them back since he didn¡¯t want to overwhelm the girl.


    Trying to figure out what happened, Tyler simply decided to ask her, ¡°What happened to you? Were you attacked? It looks like you were running away from someone or something.¡±


    ¡°Th-they killed my family. My p-parents¡­ they''re all dead¡­¡± the little girl replied with a stutter over her tears and sobs. The words caused the surrounding guards and some even the people in the line to tense up. The people didn¡¯t know who they were, but one thing was for sure, they were bad news since they could kill off an entire family..


    Tyler tactfully paused for a moment as the girl¡¯s tears and sobs grew stronger. He wanted to give her more time, but as was his duty to root out potential problems for the city, he asked, ¡°Who attacked you?¡±


    The girl tried to speak, but her sobs were too strong and frequent. After nearly a minute of just hearing the girl¡¯s sobs, she finally managed to calm down enough to try speaking again, ¡°T-they were... people in armor¡­ they k-killed my family for no reason. Why w-would they...¡± she couldn¡¯t even finish her question as tears streamed down once more, though thankfully without as many sobs.


    Although Tyler wanted to stop interrogating the poor girl and find her a medic or a counselor, his duty compelled him to continue questioning the poor girl, ¡°Did the armored people have anything on them like an insignia or symbol?¡±


    ¡°Y-yes¡­ there was one guy. He had on m-metal armor. I d-didn''t see that well, but it looked like s-some scaled creature¡­¡±


    The rage in the air was thick enough to be cut with a knife as the surrounding observers put two and two together. Shouts like ¡°Those Eratros bastards!¡± and ¡°Death to the stormclad!¡± filled the air as guards, farmers, and adventurers alike were ready to throw hands at the perceived slight.


    The sobs from the girl started to come back as the shouts filled the air, once again evoked by the loud noises. Tyler wanted to try to comfort her, but within the time that they had been talking, a squad of guards had formed up and were about to set off on an investigation. Seeing their intentions, Tyler attempted to extract more information instead of comfort the girl, ¡°Which way did you come from? And do you have family here?¡±


    The little girl nodded her head, making her bowtie flop around slightly, ¡°I c-came from the south I think¡­ I c-could¡¯ve gotten lost. M-my aunt and uncle live h-here.¡±


    Tyler nodded his head and quickly gave orders out to the surrounding guards. While he may not have been the highest ranked guard, he was respected enough that the other guards listened to his input, ¡°You,¡± he pointed at a random guard nearby, ¡°Take this girl and pass her through the gate. Once she is through, go and report to Guard Captain Toran about what happened here. The rest of us will head out and attempt to do some scouting around the area. Serias will not fall!¡± The guard he pointed out quickly hopped to his orders while him and the squad started to move towards the south of the city..


    Glancing back, as Tyler watched the little girl follow meekly behind the guard, tripping over nothing occasionally, he felt a little uncomfortable. For the briefest of moments, Tyler could¡¯ve sworn he saw a sharp toothed grin across the girl¡¯s face, but in the next second her face was back to the sobbing mess that first ran into him. Without giving it too much more thought, he dutifully led the group of guards out into the surrounding forest¡­

 Chapter 6-Randal

    As I turned onto a nearby alleyway, I tried super hard to hold back a deep smirk that was attempting to rise. My plan had gone off nearly perfectly with only one troublesome part. The troublesome part was when the guard she ran into asked about any distinguishing features of my ¡®attackers¡¯. Thinking quickly, I briefly remembered the most common coat of arms designs on high-magic planets, most of which were scaled in one form or another. From there, my tactic changed into simple manipulation via lack of information. I had successfully enticed the crowd to be after Eratos, whatever that was.


    I was a little worried going in since it had been a long time since I last infiltrated anywhere, but that was fun. It had been too long since I had done something I enjoyed¡­ maybe I should do this type of thing more often? I never really got to have ¡®fun¡¯ in my last life, sadly.


    Deep in my thoughts, I continued to walk through random alleyways in the city. I didn¡¯t know where I was going exactly, but I did know what I was doing. It would be pure foolishness to let some random stranger into a city, especially when they brought potentially important information. Assuming that the guards thought the same as me, I also assumed that I would have a tail-not the fluffy kind but the stalkery kind- following me from afar. After walking around enough, I noticed that I did indeed have a tail when they slipped on a pile of refuse lying in the alley that I had previously walked through. From that point on, it was simplicity itself to lose the tail by crisscrossing and circling through the alleys and streets of the city.


    With the tail gone, I finally took some time to look around the city. The main road was paved with bricks, finely cut, and placed about for the maximum comfort of the various passersby. Aside from the main street, which I had very briefly walked on when I first came into the city, most of the city roads seemed to be paved with a cobbled grey stone. The footing was slightly uneven, but it was better than the dirt path that the smaller alleys had.


    From what I had seen, the buildings were mostly wood with stone foundations, giving a very rustic feel. I hadn¡¯t been further to the center of the city, but I did notice that the buildings seemed to change to complete stone further in. Must be a poor thing. I imagine that stone was a lot harder to obtain in vast quantities than wood, especially since the city bordered a large forest. Speaking of poor, I needed to ¡®find¡¯ myself some money since I was completely broke aside from the few silvers that the deceased elf had.


    Overall, the city seemed fairly nice. The buildings were in good repair, the roads were nice, and the people seemed to be fairly clean. I just had two problems with the city: The people and the noise. The people seemed to be happy and nice, but over half of the people I saw happened to be slaves, mostly of the elvish kind. That was extremely unsettling due to me being a non-human. On that same topic, my being a wolfkin made the noise nearly unbearable. My ears were extremely sensitive as is and all the chatter and background noise of the city was verging on painful to hear.


    As my thoughts distracted me, I heard a very faint whooshing sound from behind me. Relying fully on my instinct, I dropped to the ground of the alleyway and rolled to the side. While I was rolling over, I saw a hooded figure recovering from a slash with a very shiny dagger that they had in their hand. Now with a solid target, I jumped up and slashed towards them with the dagger that I had pulled out from my waist. Right before the dagger could connect, the person flickered away before reappearing a body length away from where I had stabbed.


    ¡°Interesting¡­¡± the person said as they sheathed their dagger. Based on the sound of their voice and body shape, the person was a male of some kind, though I couldn¡¯t tell race or anything else since they had their features hidden behind a cloak.


    The man was at a higher level and stronger than me, so I couldn¡¯t help but let out a sigh of relief. If we had to fight in an outright battle where he wasn¡¯t holding back I would lose ninety-nine times out of a hundred.


    The cloaked man came closer to me with his hands held out in a calming motion, ¡°Be at ease, I hath no desire to harm thee,¡± he said in galactic common, which was probably also the common language for whatever planet I was on.


    Yeah, because I would believe whatever he said. Instead of calming down as he had probably hoped, I tightened my grip on the dagger as I started to reach for the other in case the elf decided to attack.


    Why did I think he was an elf? Simple, no one else other than an elf would use phrases like ¡°be at ease¡± or ¡°thee¡± and ¡°hath¡±. Only a person as old as a forest would use such old-timey words. I didn¡¯t know what all long-lived creatures lived on this planet, but I for sure knew that there were elves, so it was only natural that I jumped to the conclusion that he was probably an elf.


    ¡°If you didn¡¯t wish to harm me, then why did you stab at me from behind?¡± I asked the elf.


    Surprisingly, I got a truthful sounding answer or a really good excuse back, ¡°I was just testing thee to see if thee were as capable as thy seemed. Now I don¡¯t wish thee harm. I even have a job offer that thine might wish to partake in.¡±


    Something about this whole thing seemed off to me. Why would this guy -who was at a higher level than me- need my help? I asked him the same thing, ¡°Why would you need my help? I¡¯m just a level two no class.¡±


    ¡°That is what inspection says, though it wouldn¡¯t be the first time it had been fooled. As for why I need thine help? It is because thy seem to be skilled in certain acts. I require some assistance and thy met all my requirements if a little underdeveloped.¡±


    Basically, [Inspection] had a few tiers. Most everyone, at least in higher-tech worlds, had the skill to level one. At level one, information would be displayed very loosely and it could cause some problems. For instance, a warrior of level 89 would be displayed as [Warrior - 89]. The problem was that special classes such as the Warrior of the Sacred Flame at level 89 would also show up as [Warrior - 89]. The second problem was that certain skills and items could hide or falsify information. These problems were resolved when the skill had more levels, but it was a very slow and tedious process to level it.


    ¡°Why would you even ask a stranger for help? Ever heard of stranger danger, Mr. Stalker?¡± Yes, I was feeling a little ornery. You know what they say, ¡®when life gives you lemons, make lemonade¡¯. On second thought, that maxim never really made sense to me. After all, the first lemon wasn¡¯t natural but was a hybrid between a citrus tree and a sweet orange tree. I¡¯m getting off-topic...


    The man ignored my pitiful attempt at humor and answered my question, ¡°Easy. Thy fits the bill of being both skilled, as evidenced by thine infiltration of the city and thine dodge of my blade, and thy art not human.¡±


    Hearing that last part, my body tensed up as I prepared to fight the elf. My preparations were premature, but I would rather die fighting than be a slave again¡­ it just sucked that my death would happen so soon after my resurrection.


    The man didn¡¯t move an inch as he tried to pacify me once again, ¡°Relax thyself. I won¡¯t do anything. If thy decideth to help me, thee will be assisting in fighting for a good cause.¡±


    Again, his requests for me to relax only caused the inverse as I become even more on edge than I already was. ¡°What good cause are you talking about?¡±


    ¡°Slavery.¡±


    ¡°And why would I help you? Slavery is perfectly fine around here, so I¡¯m okay with it too. And would it kill you to use modern language and not that old stuff?¡± I questioned the elf. I did lie about being okay with slavery. I was not on board with it, but I wanted to see his reaction.


    ¡°I will try to follow thi-your request. Th- you don¡¯t believe that, though you are good at lying. I almost believed you for a second. There are three reasons you should help me.¡± The man paused seemingly for dramatic effect before he continued, ¡°The first reason is fairly simple, I will pay you handsomely for your help. The organization I represent can give you any reasonable sun that you name. The second is that you will have a ride off of this continent of human supremacists, which is priceless for a nonhuman such as yourself. The only other way you would get a ride off would be with a collar around your neck. And last but not least, you will have the privilege of helping one as great as I.¡±


    I kind of wanted to help him even if he seemed insufferable, especially with that last reason of his. What to do? I guess I might as well hear him out, though it seemed a little fishy that he would want my help over someone with experience.


    One explanation would be that he couldn¡¯t find a ¡®qualified¡¯ nonhuman on the continent that wasn¡¯t a slave, but if he had the backing to offer a free ride, then he would have the backing to have a couple of partners. No matter how much I thought of the various things he said, it came back to one question: What should I do? Well, first off, I should figure out how my disguise failed just in case I needed it in the future again. If he said magic then I would just be out of luck, but if it was something physical, I could attempt to fix what gave me away so it doesn¡¯t happen again.


    ¡°I¡¯ll help if you answer some questions. How did you know I¡¯m not a human? And why are you asking me, a stranger, to help you instead of someone you know?¡± I asked.


    The elf pulled back his hood, revealing two sharp ears, the telltale sign of his race. I couldn¡¯t see more due to the poor lighting in the alley, unfortunately. ¡°Good, I''m glad you have decided to assist me in my endeavors. As for your questions, I noticed that your ¡®bowtie¡¯,¡± he put special emphasis on the word, ¡°was twitching while you were standing in front of the guard. I have never seen anything like it, but I imagine that your bow tie is your ears disguised as a bow tie. As for why I would ask you? I won¡¯t tell you more unless you agree to help.¡±


    Instead of answering instantly, I waited and thought more about his offer. The elf was a wrench in my plans, but if I played my cards right, this might turn out to be just what I needed to get a step ahead. For one, I was just wondering how I would get money and start leveling up, so this might be a golden opportunity for me.


    The elf pulled his cloak back over his head and told her as he walked away, ¡°I see that you are indecisive over this, that''s good. If you do agree to help me, meet me at The Howl of the Wolf, a tavern near the temple district. My room is on the third floor, second room on the right.¡± Before I could say anything, he vanished. The vanishing wasn¡¯t him just turning a corner, but actual magic invisibility type vanish. Based on his weaponry, apparel, and skill, it was safe for me to assume that his class was some kind of roguelike class.


    With the elf no longer near me, I needed to decide quickly on what I wanted to do. I could ignore him and just carry on with my plans, or I could help him in whatever his goal was. Sure, what he had planned was probably more dangerous, but with danger came reward. Unable to come to a decision, I decided that I would walk around for a bit to clear my head. I didn¡¯t want to rush into anything that will get me killed after all.


    After a few hours of walking around, most of which was extremely annoying as humans kept yelling at me for being a ¡®beggar¡¯ due to my tattered clothes, I had concluded the problem that had been plaguing me. In the end, my curiosity and my newfound thirst for excitement, something that was extremely lacking in my last life, won out over my cautiousness.


    Also during that time, I learned how the coin system worked by watching people in open market trade. The copper piece was the most common currency used by the majority of the populace. One hundred of them made up a silver coin, which was the second most common currency for the middle class. One hundred silver coins made a gold doubloon, which was what the nobles usually used.


    Most commoners usually made around five to ten silver coins a fortnight, which was enough for them to take care of themselves since most cheap meals only cost around five copper pieces. Silver was more often the bit broken down into coopers since they were easier to use. Gold wasn¡¯t used all that much unless the merchandise was weapons or armor, and then the price wouldn¡¯t drop below a couple of gold for items of quality.This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.


    After asking around, and getting threatened a few times for being a ¡®vagrant¡¯, I finally found out that the temple district was in the center of town, near where all of the stone buildings were. The Howl of the Wolf tavern was supposedly a little ways off the main road that led into the temple district. Making my way through the trodden streets of Serias, at least that was the city name that the guard gave me, I noticed something odd about the city. Everyone in the city seemed down like there was an ax hanging over their head. I could investigate and find out why, but I didn¡¯t care, so I continued on my way to the tavern.


    Once I knew where to look, it didn¡¯t take me long to find it. It was a smaller place that seemed like it had a small but loyal group of customers that came to it every night. The building, much like the rest of the buildings in the district, was made out of gray stone. Right above the entrance, a red wolf was painted in a howling position, notifying me that it was indeed the correct building.


    Just before I left the comfort of the alleys to head towards the tavern, I noticed that [Gambler] was finally off of cool down. With hope for an item better than a light switch, I activated the ability.


    Most abilities could be accessed through the Records, but they could also be activated without having to rely on the Records. This was a higher level technique, but using an ability without assistance allowed for the ability to be way freer in its usage. For instance, depending on the amount and type of mana channeled into a fireball, the fireball would grow or shrink whereas if the Records were used, the fireball would always remain uniform and cost the same amount of mana every time.


    I said most abilities because some couldn¡¯t be used without the Record¡¯s help. [Gambler] was one of such abilities. If I had to put a word to how using the ability felt as I used it, it would be chaos. Pure chaos, like how the Myzn felt the one time I was allowed into it.


    In my hands, a small flash of light shined out briefly before an item appeared, signifying an end to the ability. The item was a wolf mask. It looked like an old plague doctor mask, but instead of using a crow, a wolf was used for inspiration. It was almost purely black like my fur and would cover the entire face of whoever wore it. There were no eye holes, but two dark reddish pieces of what seemed like glass covered where they should¡¯ve been. The mouth stretched out in a long snout tipped with a realistic-looking nose. The only thing missing was the wolf ears, but otherwise, the mask would be a perfect wolf copy.


    Although I didn¡¯t have [Inspect], I could still see the stats of the equipment in my hands. This wasn¡¯t something just anyone could do, but it was almost like a passive to [Gambler]. From what I could tell, I could read the statistics of whatever item I got. I had tried with other items that I had gotten outside of the ability, but I couldn¡¯t read their stats.


    [Mask of the Wolf Pup(Purple)


    Ability: Pup¡¯s Growth: This mask will grow with the owner and their actions.


    Ability: Pup¡¯s Blindness: Gives the skill [Falsification] to the owner. Additionally, the mask will be unable to be inspected unless the owner gives express permission.


    Ability: Pup¡¯s Agility: Increase the owner¡¯s dexterity by five per level.


    Bound Owner: None]


    It was a shock to see what I had received. Without a second thought about the item, I sliced my hand slightly on one of my daggers and dripped some blood onto the mask. The blood seeped into it before I felt a draining sensation inside of me. A second later, the mask and the sensation disappeared, leaving a burning feeling just above my heart. Quickly peeking inside my shirt, I saw a symbol of a wolf head on my chest right above my breast.


    Items that could be bound, such as the mask, sometimes required the bounder to drop blood onto it. Once someone¡¯s blood was dropped onto the item, it would be bound to them until either they died or willingly gave it up. That was why the first thing I did was cut myself and drip blood on the mask.


    That wasn¡¯t to say every item was bound in the same way though. For example, the [Creator¡¯s Phoenix Feather] was bound to me as soon as I touched it. There were even some items that needed a person to do specific actions or earn achievements before they could bind the item. After the item was bound, no matter what way it was bound, the bounder would be ¡®branded¡¯ with a tattoo and the item would disappear but could be resummoned whenever the bounder wanted.


    My new mask was a purple-grade item, which was awesome considering I was still just a level two. Items, some skills, and even classes/evolutions had a ranking system. The system started with white or common, then green/uncommon, blue/rare, purple/epic, orange/legendary, red/relic, and finally pink/divine. People theorized about further ranks, but if anybody found one, I had never heard about it.


    As the rank of an item, skill, or class increased, its power would also increase. That was part of the reason why the mask was so good. Since it was a growth-type item, as long as I kept getting stronger the mask would also get stronger and rank up. On top of that, the mask increased one of my attribute points by five every level, which gave me the ability to have ten attribute points per level. It was easy to see how helpful this would be.


    The mask would surely make things easier for me. Mainly because the mask added the skill [Falsification]. It was one of the skills I had in my last life and it was a lifesaver in more than one situation. The skill gave me the ability to hide from low leveled [Inspection] and various other detection methods. That was not to say it would give me full freedom to act without worrying about someone knowing my actual stats since there were also quite a few items and skills that could see past it.


    After being as prepared as I could with the little money I had, I made my way into the tavern. Upon entry, I almost fell face-first into the ground due to the overpowering stench of stale alcohol and body odor. The stench would have already been bad, but my new lupine nose picked up the scents ten thousand times better. The place was filled to the brim with people drinking and eating; unsurprisingly, every one of the customers was human. I got a few curious gazes, but they stopped fairly quickly after since most of the gazes seemed to just be drawn due to the noise of the door opening.


    Remembering what the elf said, I walked through the somber crowd and up a set of stairs in one of the corners. Continuing to go up to the third floor, I walked to the fifth door on the right. Just as I was about to knock on the door, the door swung wide open, revealing the same person as before. Just before I could speak, he retreated further into the room and sat at a table.


    I closed the door and followed the elf into the room. Before talking, the elf activated some kind of runed stone on the table. Whatever it was started to trip me out as the background noises from the bar completely stopped, giving me a nice reprieve from the constant annoying noise that I had started to grow used to.


    ¡°There, now we can talk without worry about observers. I assume that you agreed to help?¡± The elf asked, fully pulling off his cloak. He had on a set of black leather armor over top black clothes. With the proper lighting and lack cloak, I also finally got a good view of his face. Aside from the ears, he also had the sharp features and green eyes that most of the elves I had seen so far had. His hair was blonde, but it wasn¡¯t long like the other elves kept theirs.


    ¡°Yes, although I will leave if I think your plan is suicidal.¡±


    ¡°That''s fair.¡± The elf reached into a bag that hung off of his chair and pulled out a map of a mansion. ¡°Before we get to the plan, let¡¯s discuss pay. I am authorized to give you ten gold coins for your help. You will also get a free ride to the elven continent just like I had promised.¡±


    I was surprised by the amount of gold that he casually offered to pay me. A gold coin would take an adventurer several life and death missions just to get. I was getting paid enough for months of work. That either meant that this job was extremely hard or important. Based on the fact that he used the word authorized, I assumed it was the latter of two. This also probably meant that he was working under a big organization on the elven continent?


    ¡°I am good with the pay, but what are we doing exactly? No amount of money is worth my life.¡± I asked him.


    The elf answered my query, ¡°We are breaking into a lower class judge¡¯s house to free an elf that was captured. The judge¡¯s manor is located outside of the city proper, in the woods near a river. The manor¡¯s defenses are simple enough, but it has a large wall around it to keep out the animals and monsters. The guards are estimated to be right around level fifty but not yet into their class evolutions.¡±


    At level ten, a person would first get to choose their class. This was an extremely important decision since almost everyone would be locked into their class for the rest of their lives. At level twenty, a few more options would open up, but nothing too major. After ten, nothing major happened, but level fifty was when things started to pick up. At level fifty a person¡¯s class could change into something that would give them a massive boost in power. The options were extremely varied, but they changed depending on the person, what they have done, and what they can do. For instance, a [Warrior] that used [Fire Magic] could become a [Spellblade], or if they used axes and got hit a lot, the person could become an [Axe Berserker] of some kind. The gap between someone who had upgraded their class and someone who hadn¡¯t was astounding. While it wasn¡¯t necessarily impossible to fight someone who had upgraded their class, it was extremely hard and nine times out of ten the unupgraded person would lose.


    ¡°I¡¯m level two without a class and you want me to fight level fifties? No way.¡± I instantly started to move to leave.


    The elf quickly stopped me by putting his hand on my shoulder, ¡°No, wait! I¡¯m going to be the one fighting. I just need someone to sneak into the mansion and free the captive. With what I¡¯ve seen of your skill, you should be able to do that easily.¡±


    I paused, stopped, and turned back to face the elf. ¡°Why are you so desperate for my help?¡±


    ¡°Well¡­ me and my two compatriots came here on a ship, but we were ambushed by pirates. I was the only one that made it out... I could call for backup, but it would take too long for reinforcements to come, and by then it might be too late¡­ You are the only one that I¡¯ve found around here that fits the requirements of being both a non-human and good at stealth. I would do it myself, but I would take too much time and draw too much attention which might make the full strength of the Serian Empire might crackdown onto me.¡±


    ¡°What is the escape plan then?¡± I sighed deeply and asked. I was already not wanting to do this -if not for the rewards I wouldn¡¯t even think about it- thing, but I would damn sure get the full plan before I jumped into the already dangerous mission. The elf pulled out another map and laid it on the table. Once I realized it was the map of this planet, I quickly engraved it into my memory.


    There were three continents laid out on the map, one to the north, the east, and the west. The northern one was shaded over and had multiple skulls all over it. The east continent was one great land with a huge tree painted onto parts of said land. The last one was a continent divided up into four segments. Each of the four segments had names written on them, Eratros, Roshan, Tiyle, and Licil. The Roshan Empire was the closest to the east on the continent and had a capital named Serias on it near the ocean. A river snaked its way up the continent right next to Serias. Putting two and two together, I quickly realized why he said that I would get a free ride to the elven continent.


    ¡°Are we taking the river east to the elven continent as our escape plan?¡± I asked to see if my conclusion about the escape plan was correct.


    The elf nodded and pointed towards a spot on the map, ¡°I have a boat stashed right here, ready for us to board and escape as soon as we get the captive. Aside from that, I already have everything set up for the escape. The worst-case scenario is that we move to plan B. Plan B is that we escape into the Tyroid forest to the west of the judge¡¯s estate.¡±


    I saw the forest he was talking about on the map. Unfortunately for me, the forest had a large skull painted onto it, giving me a less than comfortable feeling about plan B. ¡°Why is there a skull on plan B?¡±


    ¡°Oh, that is just there because a Slayern Spider Queen resides in the forest. It¡¯s nothing to worry about as long as we aren¡¯t caught.¡± The elf proceeded to laugh it off, but I could see the anxiety in his eyes as he stared at the forest on the map.


    His anxiety quickly spread to me, who didn¡¯t even know what a Slayern Spider was, and caused me to chatter out nervously, ¡°Let''s make sure that we follow plan A, yeah?¡±


    ¡°Agreed. Any more questions?¡±


    ¡°When this whole thing goes down, how confident are you in drawing all the guards your way? I don¡¯t think the entire guard force will chase you.¡±


    ¡°Yes, they wouldn¡¯t normally,¡± the elf conceded, ¡°but the judge is throwing a huge party on the day of the heist. The guards will be too focused on protecting the attendees, who are all minor nobles of some kind, to worry about the dungeons.¡±


    ¡°You do have a point¡­ so how are we getting in?¡±


    The elf pointed over to a stack of black and white clothes in the corner of the room, ¡°We will be sneaking in as attendants of a noble. The attendants have a second less-guarded entrance that they are supposed to go through.¡±


    ¡°Nice. How are we going to get out of the manor then?¡± The most important part of any heist/assassination was the escape. That was where you made it or broke it. Everything else was easygoing, but that was the hardest part of any operation.


    The elf replied with an impish grin, ¡°Well, I heard that they had a large number of Firestar''s for an end performance¡­ I thought we would go out with a bang.¡±


    I stuck out my hand to the elf with a matching smile. I had no idea what a Firestar was, but my best bet was that they were like fireworks. I¡¯ve always wanted to blow something up with fireworks. ¡°Well then partner, it''s nice to meet you. My name is Wy- Kali.¡±


    I almost said my name from before I died. I needed to remember that it had changed, though it was difficult to just up and change something I had used for half of my life. Luckily, I liked the new name better than my previous one since my old name had a ton of bad memories associated with it. Mainly of the torturous kind.


    The elf shook my hand and supplied me with his own. ¡°Randal.¡±

 Chapter 7-The Heist

    The two days passed me by quite quickly. I was definitely not idle as I started to prepare in various ways. I didn¡¯t quite know for sure what Randal was doing, but I also didn¡¯t ask him. I, on the other paw, did quite a bit. First of all, I attempted to train my instincts and fighting techniques again, trying to rub off the rust that I had accumulated through my years of passivity. My attempts were semi-successful, though I couldn¡¯t do anything more until I actually entered combat and had a trial by fire.


    I had also gotten a change of clothes and cloak, something a little less cut up. I ended up getting black clothes that hid my tail and ears very well. Speaking of my wolf attributes, Randal still didn¡¯t know what exactly I was. He didn¡¯t ask and so I never told. We did, however, discuss my height. Since I did look fairly young, I thought it would be a problem but it wasn¡¯t for two reasons.


    The main one was that my height would make it easier for me to act like a servant to one of the richer nobles. They tended to have young and pretty people as their servants, so I would fit right in. My height also didn¡¯t affect Randal since he had worked with dwarves before and I was just a little taller than them. Oh, that''s right! I had also grown by quite a bit. I was now a little taller than an average man¡¯s waist. It seemed that by leveling up I got older, which reinforced my theory that my race was some kind of monster race.


    On another note, my wounds from where I cut myself healed fairly quickly. After just a day, the small lacerations had already healed up completely, leaving the faintest of scratch marks. I didn¡¯t know exactly how good my natural healing was, but it was definitely better than it used to be.


    Gambler proved to be as weird as ever. During the past two days, I had gotten a toothpick and salt. A single grain of salt. It was laughably useless. What was I supposed to do with a single grain of salt? Put it into someone¡¯s eye? Actually, that wasn¡¯t such a bad idea...


    Also during that time, I had managed to level up to level three. Originally, I struggled for a moment on what to put my stats in. Early life stats played a huge role in someone¡¯s life. According to the stats, among other things such as achievements and actions, a person would be offered different classes when they reach level ten. For example, someone who got hit a lot and had a high endurance would get the tankier classes as their option. There were a few exceptions to this rule, but otherwise this fact stayed true.


    In the end, I decided to put three points plus the one forced into Charisma to get it to twenty. The reason for this being that at certain milestone¡¯s there was a chance that a person could gain a skill from the Records. I put the last point into Strength. My stats looked like this now:


    [Kali Vexia- Wolfkin - Level: 3


    Titles:


    None


    Strength-14


    Intelligence- 11


    Dexterity- 17 (+15)


    Endurance-10


    Charisma- 20


    ( () = gear boosts)


    Unique:


    [Gambler]


    Racial:


    [Luna], [Shift]


    Charisma:


    [Animal Handling 1]


    Other:


    [Falsification 1]


    Time- 2 years]


    I had long decided to hide the Divinity on my stats. Every person¡¯s status was fully customizable, which was handy for a number of reasons. The Divinity part was an obvious nice tweak, but there were plenty of other handy options like making the status really dark. This helped so a person wouldn¡¯t be blinded by the Records if they were in a dark location.


    I did manage to get a Charisma skill, but it sadly wasn¡¯t one that would help me like I had hoped it would. At the very least, I did get a trainable skill.


    [Ability: Animal Handling, 1(CHA): You can handle and work with animals better. Your ability to do so rises with your Charisma.]


    Skills were divided into two main categories: trainable and untrainable. Trainable skills were skills that could be trained from level one to ten. At level ten, the skills would have a chance to evolve into something else. [Animal Handling] was one such trainable skill. Untrainable skills were the ones that couldn¡¯t be trained with a level. Examples of this would be [Luna], [Shift], and [Gambler]. That doesn¡¯t mean an untrainable skill couldn¡¯t get better. For instance, using [Shift] no longer hurt me as much as it originally did. The majority of skills were of the trainable variety while untrainable skills were usually more rare, but they were also typically stronger.


    Us two partners in crime met back at the tavern a few hours before the actual party. During this time, we went over the plan over a dozen more times and even made a plan C just so we could avoid the Tyroid forest. Speaking of the Tyriod forest, I also learned what a Slayern Spider Queen was.


    There were only three Slayern Spider Queens that were known about, one on each continent. The spider was just a little smaller than the city that we were in, which was absolutely massive. As if that wasn¡¯t bad enough, the queens gave birth to Slayern Spiders, which were just about as large as a human male. To make matters worse, their favorite food was creatures of the sapient variety. Thankfully, the Slayern Spiders couldn¡¯t travel about ten gladiatorial arenas, which would be about ten soccer fields if I was in space, away from their queen or they would die. Doubly thankfully, the Slayern Spider Queens were extremely deep sleepers and had been in hibernation for years.


    It wasn¡¯t long after we rediscussed our plans that it was finally time to set out.


    <<>><<>><<>>


    ¡®A couple of hours later, the sun had set and the party was in full swing. Dozens of nobles danced and talked out on the well lit front lawn of the Judge¡¯s manor. In the corner, a group of bards played slow songs, but occasionally would swap to a faster paced on. The fast paced ones would draw out the younger nobles as they danced away without a care.


    Unbeknownst to them, a small maid was sitting against one of the walls around the manor, out of sight. She had on a black dress, like most of the other maids. Odly, she had on a black backpack and was missing the white apron that most of the maids would wear. Her black hair blended in perfectly with her dress as she sat against the wall. Sitting atop her hair was a large bow, tied together in the middle with a white ribbon. If one was to see her eyes, they would feel a sense of danger as a spark of feral excitement raced through the vibrant green orbs while the moon rose higher and higher.¡¯


    I stifled a yawn as I wrote in my journal. Somewhere along the way, I had decided to start recording my adventurers for some reason. I don¡¯t really know why, but I figured it would give me something to do while I waited for various things like I was right now. It was better to have something to do than nothing since idle hands are the devil¡¯s work.


    Me and Randal had made entrance into the manor grounds an hour before. We used the servant¡¯s entrance and got in fairly easily, just like what Randal said. I thought it would¡¯ve been more difficult with my obvious tail and ears, but it was actually easy. Most maids wore bows in their hair and had on foofy dresses. I easily hid my tail under the dress and disguised my ears as a bow like I did when I first made entry into Serias. The only drawback was that doing so was extremely uncomfortable. It was like when your arm went to sleep and was prickling all over, but then you slammed it into a wall repeatedly and it felt like you were dying.


    Randal had gone off somewhere to prepare while I casually waited by the side of the main building opposite of the party. The main building was a three story tall mansion. It was made out of a white stone and had lion¡¯s heads all over it, a trend that I noticed most Roshan architecture had. Each of the lions were surrounded by large arches and pillars, giving off the illusion that the building was bigger than it actually was. It was a fairly cool building, but I wasn¡¯t too impressed by the architecture because of what I kne was inside.


    Standing up, I did some small stretches before rifling through my pack. There wasn¡¯t very much inside, just a cloak, a set of tools, a noble and maid outfit, some rope, my two daggers, my journal, and a small container of what Randal called dwarven fire. I quickly put on the cloak and secured the two daggers around myself. Next, I materialized her new mask and put it on.


    I had tested it a few days ago and found that the red material was actually some sort of one way glass, so vision wasn¡¯t a problem for me. With all of that ready, I used Falsification to change what others would see if they used [Inspection] on me. Trying to think of something cool sounding, I changed my handle to [The Wolven Executioner - ??]. The name was pretty badass, but the double question mark actually had a meaning. If [Inspection] was used and question marks showed, it meant that the inspected creature was at least a hundred levels higher than the inspector.


    Glancing around to make sure that nobody was looking at me, I started to climb up the sides of the manor. The walls seemed like they were almost made to climb as the arches, pillars, and lion¡¯s heads made perfect hand holds. Glancing up the wall, I saw my goal, which was a window on the second story that had been left open.


    If I had to be honest, this entire country had been a real let down¡­ first there wasn¡¯t a moat and then I had to climb something that wasn¡¯t even remotely difficult. Even a child could do this! Wait, I guess I was technically a child, at least in body. On better news, the elven continent should be better.


    Over the two days that I was with Randal, he had told me a little of the place we were going to. The elven continent was covered by a vast forest, older than the oldest of elves. He told me that the capital, our final destination, was a haven for adventurers as there were usually plenty of bountiful quests - not the system reinforced kind but more like bounties for mercenaries - to complete. Not only that, but every race - including humans - was allowed to the continent without too many prejudices. It was only called the elven continent because the elves ruled there. The thing that got me excited the most was that he said there were dozens of dungeons in fairly close proximity to the elven capital, which would give me a huge opportunity to advance quickly.


    I froze on the side of the building. While I had been distracted by my thoughts, my sixth sense-which had improved slightly from my prior life-had drawn me out of my musings. I felt a gaze from behind me. I was tempted to move away, but I sat still against the wall, not moving an inch. I did this because the person that saw me might not have actually seen me, but moving would definitely draw their attention. It was something I learned in my ¡®training¡¯ if you could call it that. If you were in the dark with dark clothing and not moving, it became nearly impossible to be spotted. If I felt a gaze, it wasn¡¯t necessarily true that I had been spotted.


    Sure enough, after a moment passed, I couldn¡¯t feel anything anymore. Once sure that I was safe, I continued my way up the side of the wall. It took longer than expected for me to reach the window for a couple of reasons. The main one was that I was shorter than I used to be so I couldn¡¯t reach as far for the next handhold. That mixed with the fact I had to climb slower so I would be harder to spot made it extremely slow. Luckily, Randal had given me fifteen minutes after the party started before he would start the distraction. I assumed that barely five minutes had passed since I first heard the party music, so I had about tenish minutes left before I had to kick it in gear.A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    Grabbing one last handhold, I pulled myself up to my final destination: the open window. Peaking over the windowsill, I observed what was in the room carefully. The entire place was filled with rows of laundry hanging off of wires. It seemed that the window was opened by the maids to allow wind into the room to dry the clothes quicker.


    I pulled myself up and over the windowsill, pausing when I was standing on it. Quickly reaching up, I untied the ribbon pulling my ears together since I forgot to when I was getting ready. I still wasn¡¯t used to having my extra body parts, so I only realized that my ears were still tied halfway up the climb when they started to hurt. It was unfortunate because I needed two hands to undo the ribbon, but I had to have at least one hand on the wall to hold myself.


    After scanning the room for a second time and listening outside for any noises, which I could do better with my ears untied, I quickly stripped out of the maid outfit and changed into the noble set of clothes that was in my bag. I made sure to keep my tail wrapped around my leg, although it was extremely uncomfortable. After changing, I made my way around the lines of laundry and approached the door. With a deep breath, I purged my mind of all second thoughts and made my way out of the room.


    The hallways were made out of the normal white stone, though they were painted to be a dark gray so they wouldn¡¯t hurt people¡¯s eyes as much if light reflected off of them. The hallway was not very well lit, since almost nobody was inside, not even the maids. Almost every single one of the staff and guards were attending to the guests on the manor¡¯s front lawn. Because of this, I didn¡¯t need to be as slow as I was trained to be while infiltrating and could almost sprint through the manor.


    After looking at the schematics for a few days, I knew where almost everything was. The basement was like a mini dungeon. The first floor was mainly for the servants and the more practical rooms like kitchens. The second floor was more of social rooms like the dining rooms, gamerooms, and things of that nature. The third floor was mainly the judges'' rooms like his study and bedroom.


    Knowing this, I skipped past all of the grandiose rooms and made my way to the bland servant¡¯s stairs. Once there, I quickly took them up a floor and made my way to the Judge¡¯s bedroom. By the time I reached the room, barely two minutes had passed, leaving me with just eight minutes before Randal made his move.


    Glancing around quickly to make sure there were no guards, I quickly entered the room. What laid before me was both a fabulous and terrible image. The rich imagery was because the entire room had various objects plated in gold. A large crystal chandelier hung from the ceiling and a dead fire sizzled in a large fireplace attached to one of the walls. Paintings of the Judge hung on the walls like prized possessions all around the room, each one encased in a gold frame. Laying in the middle of the room laid a large bed, big enough for five people. The entire thing was draped in satin red silk


    The terrible part was the bed. Wafting off of the bed was their terrible scent of blood, sweat, and tears. Laying on the bed, chained to the bedpolls was a battered and beaten elf. Even in the terrible lighting, I could see the bright blood stains from the dozens of cuts and bruises all over her body. Blood and other bodily fluids dripped off of her, blending in with the red of the silk sheets. The majority of her limbs were twisted in weird angles that should¡¯ve been impossible for someone still alive.


    Quickly making my way to the elf, my furry grew more and more. Almost as in response to the rage, my ears stood straight up as my tail became ramrod straight.


    I asked the elf gently, in complete opposition to how I was feeling, ¡°Can you move? Are you Ilway?¡± Randal had never told me who exactly we were saving, but I did manage to get a name out of the secretive elf, Illway.


    The elf on the bed shook her head and responded weakly to my query, ¡°N-no, I can¡¯t. H-he shattered my legs and arms¡­ As for-'''' She stopped as coughs racked her body, ¡°I haven''t seen her, but if she is a new slave-as in a month or so since I''ve been chained up here for that long-she should still be in the dungeon until the he found a use for her...¡±


    A small part of me was relieved that the near death elf wasn¡¯t Ilway, but that side was covered up by my growing rage upon hearing how long she had been here. I wanted to kill the bastard who did this. Of course, as a former slave, this wasn¡¯t anything new to me. In fact, I could have been described as a slave from birth, just that I had a change of master halfway through my life, so I knew full well what had happened to the elf. None of this ever actually happened to me since I was horribly disfigured with scars when Terry ¡®liberated¡¯ me and he had other beautiful slaves. As for the scientists? They were more interested in torturing and expirementing on me than anything else.


    The elf spoke again, her voice no more than a whisper, ¡°C-can you do me a favor? Can you kill me? I want to rest. I¡¯m so t-tired.¡±


    I thought deeply for a second about her request. I understood exactly what she was feeling. Sometimes I had just wanted it all to end, especially since I had no family, friends, or happiness. A deep tired hopelessness had overcome me in my past life without me being able to do anything about it. That hoplesness was common amongst slaves, but then there was the other side, the temporary hopeless desire for rest that sometimes rose up that was also common amongst slaves. There was one simple question that usually snapped the temporary kind to pieces. ¡°Don¡¯t you want to escape from here?¡±


    The elf shook her head sadly, ¡°I¡¯m the last survivor of my village¡­ I was only spared since I could use healing magic, but that didn¡¯t amount to much since he permenately disabled my ability to use mana. My f-family and friends-¡± I could see the agony and desire to weep in her eyes, but no tears came out, ¡°I just want to sleep.¡±


    Like I said, I understood where she was coming from. The lack of a will to live could completely destroy somebody, turning even the most prided warriors into useless lumps. I had even experienced the lack of a will to live. Unfortunately, the emotion didn¡¯t last too long. Terry saw me as extremely ¡®valuable¡¯ so he used the strongest slave magic possible on me which allowed him to have complete control of my body and partial control of my emotions.


    ¡°Okay. I''ll help you sleep.¡± I had come to the conclusion to follow her wishes. This wasn¡¯t purely just because she wanted it since I also had a few reasons. The main one was that I wouldn¡¯t be able to take her out of here. With her crippled so bad I would need to carry her, which was something I couldn¡¯t do at the moment with my childish body. If I didn¡¯t kill her, I would have to leave her here to suffer even longer under the judge.


    The weak elf gave me a small smile of gratitude and pointed towards one of the paintings on the wall. ¡°After he was done with me, he went over there and pulled the painting off the wall. Behind the wall was a safe. From my position, I could see that the code was 23,56,79,23,13 starting on the left.¡±


    I nodded my head and pulled one of the daggers from my sheathe. I hesitated for just a second before driving the blade directly into the elf¡¯s heart. As the crimzon liquid coated my hand, I could feel a warm path being traced down the side of my cheek. I didn¡¯t know her for long, but we had a sort of camaraderie that only two slaves could have. Along with the tear, my ears and tail also drooped from the feelings of helplessness that seemed to bleed into me from the elf.


    ¡°May your soul find the warmth it seeks.¡± I blessed her out of habit. Afterall, I was once an angel even if I had been a fallen one. The elf had a peaceful look on her face, one that almost shocked me considering she had just died. As I stared at the elf, who I never got the chance to ask for a name, dead on the bed and my hands covered in her innocent blodd, I came to a resolution: I would become stronger so that I could stop things like this without being able to do anything. I would become strong so I never had to feel helpless again.


    Putting the emotional struggle aside, I made my way to the distasteful painting of the so-called judge and pulled it off the wall. True to the elf¡¯s words, a safe engraved with various runes sat in a hidden alcove. Only a few seconds passed as I entered the code before a soft click rang out into the somber room. The safe slowly opened, revealing what was inside. A look of shock briefly passed underneath my mask before I quickly pushed all of the safe¡¯s contents into my bag. The sounds of metal hitting glass sang like a cruel angel from my bag, revealing an item I had forgotten about. I couldn¡¯t help but let out a sadistic laugh before I took out the glass jar and leaned it against the door of the safe. After tinkering with the jar, I then closed the safe, resetting the lock mechanism.


    My brief stint of sadistic madness was replaced with sadness as I walked past the bloodied bed. I would¡¯ve liked to bury the elf, but it would take too much time. Speaking of time, I had just under five minutes left before Randal started his distraction. I needed to get a move on.


    I quickly retraced my steps to the staircase and powered my way down, blowing past the other two floors like a breeze. It wasn¡¯t long before I was in the bottom floor: the basement. The basement was a very small hallway. Lined up on either side of the hall were cells sitting like oppressive claws as they kept their prisoners in. There were no lights anywhere inside of the cells, giving very little visibility to anyone who would try to observe them. Each of the jail cells were terribly kept. Three of them were empty while the fourth had a shaking elf sitting in the corner. I couldn¡¯t see her face or anything as she was tucked in between her legs in the corner, but she was the only other elf here, so I assumed she was who I was sent after.


    I whispered out to the shaking elf, ¡°Are you Ilway?¡±


    The elf, finally having noticed my presence, started to shake harder, but replied, ¡°Y-yes ma''am. Do you have n-need for me?¡±


    A sigh of relief eased out of my mouth as I walked up to the jail cell. Without a second thought, I reached into my bag and pulled out some tools that Randal had given me. It was way too easy to pick the lock. Before I even had the chance to think ¡®opensaysame¡¯, the door was popped open. The elf looked up sharply when heard the lock being fiddled with and tried to back away, not that she could since she was already in the corner.


    I, having noticed Ilway¡¯s move, didn¡¯t stop what retrieving my tools as I talked softly and placatingly to Illway, ¡°I¡¯m here to get you out, ok? Don¡¯t be scared. If you want to escape, you have to do exactly as I say.¡±


    ¡°R-really? Can I go home?¡± Ilway finally stopped trying to get away, although she continued to shake in her corner.


    With my tools packed up, I walked inside of the cell. Now with the elf staring at me with hope, I could finally see her. Illway was a very beautiful young elf. She had a large set of innocent green eyes that seemed to sparkle in the dim light. Her cheeks were red and streaked in trails from tears. The elf had an hourglass figure which combined with her innocent look to give off a very striking view. Her hair snaked behind her and was a blonde color.


    I quickly pulled out the maid outfit and handed it to Ilway, ¡°Here, put this on. I¡¯ll go ahead and tell you the plan so you know whats going on. Listen closely because I only have enough time to tell you once, ok?¡±


    The elf quickly grabbed the maid outfit, seemingly ecstatic to do anything as long as it meant escape, and stripped out of her previous spartan clothes, ¡°Understood.¡±


    ¡°Great. Right now there is a party happening, hence why I was able to get in here so easily. In just about two minutes, my partner is going to cause a distraction. To avoid suspicion, we are going to pose as a noble and her maid, with you being the maid since it will be easier to beleive. I might have to do some things to get the act across, so I apologize in advance and hope I''m not put into a position where I have to.¡±


    What I said was true, most ¡®noble¡¯ brats were usually extremely spoiled and grew to be abusive little parasites. At least, that was the way the majority of the brats I had seen across the universe had been. Sure every now and then there would be a good one, but I would say the odds were nine to one that a brat from a noble house would be abusive either physically or mentally.


    ¡°Y-yes.¡± Ilway said after finishing changing into the maid outfit. It looked a little roughly put on, but it would get us by most security if I do my part in acting.


    ¡°Here, hold this. I apologize, but it would be weird for the noble to do the heavy lifting.¡± I passed my bag over to the elf. She took it without any qualms and waited for my next step of the plan. I led her up the stairs of the basement as I made my own appearance changed. The first thing to do was to make the cloak disappear, which happened after I promptly shoved it down into the bag. After that was simple, I tied my ears up back into the bow tie form, made my mask disappear back into my tattoo, and reactivated [Falsification]. As I led us towards the back doors, I could feel Illway¡¯s eyes on me as she watched me transform from the intimidating masked and hooded [The Wolven Executioner - ??] into the cutesy and snotty [Noble - 11].


    Now ready, we waited at the back door. In just a minute, right on time, screams filled the air outside. Taking the opportunity, we snuck out of the house and into the scared crowd...


    <<>><<>><<>>


    Chaos was so¡­ fun. I never really got to experience it all that much since I was kept inside by myself by both of my ex-masters, but now? I was right in the midst of a scrambling crowd of nobles, enjoying the view as me and Illway, my ¡®maid¡¯, hid in the crowd.


    Screams such as ¡°He¡¯s over there!¡± and ¡°Help me!¡± or even ¡°I¡¯m too rich to die!¡± filled the air as the assorted lower class nobles and merchants tried to get away from the manor. Every once in a while, I would see Randal appear from nowhere with spurts of blood following him as he killed a noble or guard before disappearing again. This was his ¡®master¡¯ plan. He was killing the crowd so that all attention would be on him, allowing us to get out of the noble entrance easier.


    The manor had tall walls all the way around with only two entrances/exits: the noble and servant entrance. The servant entrance was me and Randal¡¯s way in and was also the most obvious way to get out, but it would probably be guarded better since the judge wouldn¡¯t want the ¡®assassin¡¯ to get away. The noble entrance was also heavily guarded, but the guards were guarding the nobles more than the gate.


    As Illway and I approached the gate, with her timidely tucked in close to me, I felt a metal clad hand on my shoulder. Turning around, a large man filled my vision. He was¡­ something special. I couldn¡¯t see his face or anything like that since he was covered in armor, but I could see the symbol painted directly in the middle of his helmet. It was a star with each point ending in a circle. To an accustomed eye, the circles would just look like colored circles, but I knew better. The circles were in fact planets. It was the symbol of the [Revenant].

 Chapter 8-The Escape

    A slight splash of fear spilt into my mind as I looked at the armored man. At least, I assumed he was a man since I couldn¡¯t really see any of his features under the armor. Why was he here? They weren¡¯t supposed to show up for another two years, right? Then why was there a [Revenant] here? Was it just a coincidence that he had the same symbol? Putting aside the questions, I motioned for Illway to wait behind me. No matter who he was, I still needed to follow my mission and get the elf out of here.


    The man, seeing me turn around, took his hand off of my shoulder and bowed deeply before me, surprising me slightly, before speaking excitedly. ¡°I didn''t mean to alarm you my lady, but I couldn¡¯t help but notice that you were without a guard in this trying time.¡± Almost as if to accentuate his point, a splash of blood from one of Randal¡¯s appearances hit his armor, dying the previously gray red.


    To keep up appearances and not draw suspicions, I replied how a noble would towards a knight, ¡°Yes sir knight, my guard is up ahead pulling around the carriage so we can escape this horrid place.¡±


    ¡°Then allow me to accompany you until that time! I wouldn¡¯t want sucha a beauty to get harmed!¡± The [Revenant] said excitedly as he pounded his fist to his chest.


    ¡°Thank you for your gracious words, but I don¡¯t think you should help me sir knight. I wouldn¡¯t want to keep you away from your duties.¡± I saw Illway out of the corner of my eye start to fidget nervously. I felt exactly how she did for more or less the same reason, but my training kept me from acting nervous too and helped me keep a cool head. Hopefully, the [Revenant] wouldn¡¯t find her fidgeting suspicious.


    Illway took up the acting and nervously said to me, ¡°My l-lady, we need to get going. Your father would be terribly angry if you died since you didn¡¯t leave a party when it went south.¡±


    Unfortunately, the knight found her nervousness anything but suspicious as proved by his next words, ¡°I have no duties since I don¡¯t serve anyone in this country. I can see from your beautiful maid¡¯s nervousness that she isn¡¯t sure of your chances without a guard! Fear not! I will protect you my lady! I see from the unharmed appearance of your maid that you aren¡¯t like the rest of the nobles here! You are more nobler! It would be a shame to let you come to harm!¡±


    What the hell was this guy, some kind of simp?! Who would keep insisting to protect us even after we both rejected him repeatedly WHILE people around us were getting killed left and right?! ¡°Really, it isn¡¯t needed! We were just about to leave!¡± Damn! Now he had gotten me punctuating my words with his infectious excitement. What was this sorcery I had never heard of before?!


    The knightly [Revenant] froze for a second in apparent confusion before nodding his head like he understood perfectly, ¡°I see! My armored appearance has frightened the little miss! I shall remedy that so you won¡¯t be frightened by me and allow me to protect you fair maidens!¡± He reached up and took off his helmet, revealing his face.


    Looking at him verified a rumour that I had heard from Terry: most [Revenants] were beautiful/handsome. Without his helmet, I could see that he was a human male, like I had thought. He had rugged dirty-blonde hair that seemed to be freshly brushed by the wind itself. His blue eyes shined brightly in the party''s torchlight, reflecting my appearance back at me. Almost as if to further his rugged handsomeness, firestars started to explode behind him, dazzling me. For a second, I had forgotten about the end of Randal¡¯s master plan: explosions.


    ¡°I really must-¡± before I could finish asking him to leave me alone again, Randal appeared directly behind him for the save of the day. Right as I was about to utter a word of warning, though to whom I was still indecisive on since one would die while the other would have a vengeful immortal after him, Randal sank his blades into the now helmetless head of the knightly [Revenant], executing him instantly. His head blew open like the red firestars behind him. Then, just as quickly as he appeared, Randal vanished back into the crowd of nobles leaving only a corpse behind as evidence.


    Taking the hint from the elvish assassin, I quickly led the startled Illway out of the party grounds and into the forest surrounding the manor which was easy without anyone stopping us.


    Illway and I waited at the first rendezvous point further into the forest from the manor. The original plan was for Randal to meet us here and then we would head towards the waiting rowboat. From there, we would float down the river tributary and towards the major river that connected Serias to the ocean. At the entrance of where the tributary connected to the river would be a small naval squadron to extract us.


    As we waited in the micro-clearing, I stared up at the moon. I don¡¯t exactly know why, but ever since my resurrection I had been entranced by the moon the few times that I had seen it. It was just so¡­ perfect. The moon on this planet was just a little smaller than the sun in the sky and gave off a blood-red glow. As I stared at it more and more, I felt the sudden urge to howl start to build up in me. The feeling was peculiar since I felt like I had to howl, but at the same time knew that nothing would happen if I didn¡¯t.


    Thankfully, my indecision on howling didn¡¯t last for long as Randal walked out of the forest. He was looking a little rugged, but otherwise appeared to be unharmed. Most of the blood coating him looked like it belonged to other people. As soon as Illway saw him, she jumped towards and deeply embraced him, ignoring the bloody squelch as his clothes compressed. The sounds of tears and blood splashing against the ground ricocheted around the micro clearing.


    As Illway started to cry, she sniffled out, ¡°Uncle R-randal! Y-you came to save me¡­¡±


    Randal-who was her uncle?-hugged her back and slowly stroked her hair. It was a brave sacrifice since I knew that almost nobody wanted to be cried on. ¡°Of course Princess, I wouldn¡¯t leave you to the savage Serians.¡±


    As I watched, Randal continued to comfort her, and likely would¡¯ve for the entire night if I hadn¡¯t I spoke up, ¡°Randal, we don¡¯t have much time left. Let¡¯s escape first, then you can comfort her all you want. We aren¡¯t out of the woods yet.¡±


    Randal froze, though I didn¡¯t know if it was at my awful pun or my warning, for the briefest of seconds before letting go of Illway and nodding, ¡°You are right. Alright Illway, follow us towards our extraction point. We need to finish the plan to get out of here.¡±


    The female elf, now seemingly to me more comfortable since she knew who her saviours were, dried her tears and steadied herself, ¡°Which way are we going?¡±


    Before Randal could say anything, a bright flash of green flames spewed through the lights of the trees. The bright flash brought a jolly smile to my face and a confused frown to Randals. It wasn¡¯t long before his confusion turned to shock and he questioned me, ¡°You used the dwarven fire on the manor?!


    That¡¯s right, the bright flash was the jar of dwarven fire going off. It was the item that I had rigged to fall out once the safe¡¯s door in the judge¡¯s room opened. It was a sure fire way to slowly kill someone. Basically, dwarven fire was the dwarves'' attempt at making dragon fire, which could burn infinitely unless put out by a dragon. Their attempt both succeeded and failed.


    On one paw, the fire would burn through anything except for a special kind of glass, dragons, and magic embedded materials. On the other, the fire could only be put out by dragons or after a couple of hours had passed. Anything that it touched would burn, though it was an extremely slow burn. A drop of it could incinerate a human, but it would take at least forty-five minutes before it burned enough to actually kill. Because of its cons, the fire was used for mining, especially in their adamantium mines, by the dwarves and to break into vaults, but not anything else.A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.


    ¡°Yeah,¡± I answered him in an icy voice that offered no room for argument, ¡°but if you saw what I saw in that bastards bedroom, you would¡¯ve used it too.¡± From off in the distance, horrified screams entered the clearing. They were screams of pure agony and they brought joy to my heart.


    For his part, Randal just accepted what I said without too much more question, though I think it was more for Ilway than anything. I could definitely see the horrified curiosity in his eyes as he occasionally glanced back towards the manor. Luckily, it seemed like her hearing wasn¡¯t as good as ours so she couldn¡¯t hear the screams faintly echoing around the forest.


    ¡°What are you talking about?¡± Asked Illway with a frown. Her question reinforced my belief that she couldn¡¯t hear the sweet screams coming from far away.


    ¡°Nothing Princess, don¡¯t worry about it. The escape route is this way,¡± Randal distracted her with a more pressing matter: escape.


    Without further adieu, Randal led us towards the waiting rowboat. It was barely a twenty minute run before we arrived at our location. The boat was in a small clearing near the river. When we first arrived, I thought it was just another clearing until Randle walked to a bush and pulled it off. That¡¯s right, he pulled the entire bush up. Hidden underneath was the rowboat that seemed like it could barely hold five people.


    ¡°Come over here and help me Kali.¡± The elf ordered me. I quickly followed his orders and lifted up on the rowboat. It should be pointed out that I was basically a child, so we were pretty slow in moving. Sure I had fourteen strength but stats were more of a multiplicative thing.


    For instance, say that in a world without stats, I could lift one hundred pounds. Now say I had fifteen strength, which was one more than I actually had. That would allow me to lift one hundred and fifty pounds. Think about it like this, fifteen strength was equal to a multiplicative score of 1.5. For example, a super buff guy with only 15 strength would defeat a super lithe person with 40 strength. Sure the lithe guy had a 4 time multiplier, but 3 * 4 is only twelve while 15 * 1.5 is 22.5.


    My carry strength wasn¡¯t all that much when you thought of it that way. Since I was still basically a child, I didn¡¯t have much muscle mass and could maybe lift 30 pounds using my full body if I really tried. That multiplied by my strength equaled a bad time to lift heavy things. It took way longer than we thought it would before we had the boat near the water.


    Thankfully, nobody rushed into the clearing at the final second like what would be seen in the movies. Instead, me and Randal slowly lowered the boat into the water nice and smoothly without any hiccups. It was boarding the boat that we had a problem.


    Randal jumped on nice and smoothly to the floating apparatus, but as soon as Illway got on, I heard noises from the brush around the clearing. Randal, also having heard them, slowly moved his hands to the hilts of his blades, ready at a moment¡¯s notice. He whispered to me ¡°Hurry up Kali.¡±


    Illway was glancing in fear all around her, which gave me the idea that she didn¡¯t know what was going on, but was picking up on the mood. This was most likely because she wasn¡¯t as developed in her senses as me or Randal, but I wasn¡¯t a hundred percent sure.


    I decided to follow his orders and quickly jumped onto the boat. Picking up one of the two paddles, I started to push off from the river bank and put us into the river. It was at that point that a hulking figure clade in armor How burst into the clearing.


    ¡°What the fuck?!¡± I heard Randal exclaim from beside me as soon as his eyes dropped onto the person.


    I would¡¯ve probably said something along the same lines if it was my first time seeing someone come back to life, but it wasn¡¯t. Standing in the middle of the clearing was the knightly [Revenant] that stopped me at the party. He was standing in all his glory without a single hint of a wound. In fact, he was completely clean without even a speck of blood anywhere on his armor. That should¡¯ve been impossible considering his head got split open like a melon and blood spewed out like a fountain.


    ¡°Fear not beautiful maidens, I shall save you!¡± He cried out as soon as he spotted us on the boat. It seemed like he was under the impression that we were captured by Randal which was odd considering I was definitely the one paddlin. In fact, neither one of us looked even close to having been captured by Randal, but the idiot [Revenant] seemed to have looked past reality to see his own ¡®righteous¡¯ mision to protect me and Illway.


    Speaking of, we were now in the middle of the river, slowly being pulled downstream. I was paddling by myself as Randal sat there ready to defend us if need be.


    ¡°Oi! Get back here coward! I swear by my name, Taxon Nassaroff, I will save you! Even if I have to cross the oceans!¡± The [Revenant] collapsed to his knees by the river side like he had just faced the greatest injustice in the galaxy. His blue eyes, peaking out from the slit on his helmet, stared in righteous indignation at us as we slowly drifted down the river.


    Now that we were far enough away, Randal helped me paddle towards our next location. The ride down the river was nice and peaceful. Nobody spoke a word allowing nature to fill in the silence. Listening around us to the crickets chirping and the owls whooing, I cast my gaze to the sky. Up far above us, thousands of stars twinkled against the black backdrop. Framed perfectly by the dazzling stars, the moon hovered in its reddish glow.


    With the two of us paddling it was only a couple hours of rowing downstream before we arrived at our desired location right where the tributary we were on led into the major river that connected Series to the ocean. In front of us was what Randal called a ¡°small naval squadron¡±. Yeah¡­ he lied. What laid before my eyes was more of a fleet than anything.


    At least thirty ¡®merchant¡¯ ships sat in front of where the tributary led into the major river connecting to the ocean. They were all big enough to fit at least thirty people, easily in fact. Every single one of the ships looked impressive and had to have cost thousands to make. They were all fairly uniform in their positioning, showing off the captains¡¯ skills as they arranged their ships to form a micro blockade in front of the tributary.


    While the fleet was awe inspiring to see, there were two things that caught my eye above everything else. The first thing was the flagship of the fleet. It was easily two times as big as the other ships, possibly even being three times. It stood out of the water like a leviathan staring down its prey. The entire ship was made out of a gorgeous gray wood that looked brand new, but I knew it wasn¡¯t since the fleet had come from the elven continent which was at least a two month journey. Sitting at the bow, the front of the ship, was a massive black painted figurehead of a stretched bow.


    Second was the slight shimmer over each of the boats. An untrained eye would¡¯ve missed it, but I was trained to see what was difficult to see. It was illusion magic and it looked extremely strong considering the shimmers were almost non-existent.


    Why was I trained to look for magic even though I was in space? That was a fairly good and valid question. Sure magic users were rarer in space, but that didn¡¯t mean they weren¡¯t around at all. In fact, since they were more rare, I had to train even more to see through their complicated spells and weaves so I was never caught off guard.


    I couldn¡¯t tell exactly what kind of magic was being used from this distance, but I knew it was definitely some kind of illusion magic. Across the many different magics and ways to use them there were two main illusion magic types: mind-altering and vision-impairing. They were both fairly self explanatory. The first was more difficult and powerful since it directly altered the viewer''s perception while the second was easier and weaker since basically all it did was put up a smokescreen over an area or item and change how it looked from the outside.


    [Ding! XP Gained!]


    The system of the Records announced into my head. It took me a minute to realize why I had gotten the notification. I guess the judgemental bastard had finally died. Opening up the more notification for more details, I was extremely dissapointed when I found out that the judge was only level eleven. Instead of getting a couple levels like I was hoping, I only got half of a bar due to his level and the fact that I used dwarven fire which was manufactured by a level sixty smith.


    Next to me, saying the first thing since we boarded the rowboat, Illway spoke up, ¡°Mom really sent a lot of ships. Is Captain Raven here?¡±


    ¡°Yes, he should be on the flagship. Big sis wouldn¡¯t send anyone less to get you out..¡° Randal informed her as we kept rowing towards the fleet in front of us.


    His statement set up dozens of red flags in my head. I knew he was backed by someone powerful because of the rewards and resources he had, but now I knew that his backer was his sister and she had to be at least on the scale of a monarch or dictator. Also, he called Illway a princess. At that time I thought it was just a nickname, but now I was thinking it was more literal than that. She might actually be a princess, which would be¡­ something else. I couldn¡¯t quite tell if me stumbling upon this rescue was a lucky thing or not. It all came down to how they treated me after all was said and done which, by my calculations of the distance between us and the flagship, would be in the next five minutes...

 Chapter 9-Safety

    Nothing, aside from the flagship itself, was more intimidating than slowly drifting between over a dozen massive ships while the crew watched diligently without making a sound. Each of the ships was dead quiet, which was odd considering their massive size. Interestingly enough, I figured out that there were no lights on any of the ships at all. It seemed like I had some sort of improved night vision since the red moon didn¡¯t give off enough light to see. On Top of my night vision, my normal vision was also way better which allowed me to clearly see the other bank of the river, which was at least as far away as Serias was wide.


    As soon as we closed into the fleet we were inside the active range of whatever illusion magic was being used. From inside, I could see that not a single ship was actually a merchant ship. Each and every one of them were huge warships that were armed to the teeth in cannons and other naval weaponry that I didn¡¯t know the name of.


    The tech being used was pretty old compared to the stuff I had seen in the larger galaxy, but the technology here was also infused with magic which made it way stronger. Still, one well armed space cruiser could destroy the entire fleet in seconds without a hassle. Low-level magic could only go so far.


    I say low level because I had found out over the two days of preparation before the heist that the average level of a peaceful class-such as [Cook] or [Seamstress]-civilian on this planet was twenty. Fifty with their class evolution was the maximum that most combat classes got to with the peak being closer to seventy. The highest for a normal sapient person was eighty, but that level was kept by the royals and their bloodlines. It supposedly had something to do with family techniques though I wasn¡¯t sure if anything I heard about them was true. Level one hundred was held by the peak predators of the planet such as krakens and dragons.


    Yes, there were dragons on this planet. Though, to be honest, being called dragons was a disgrace to actual dragons. The so-called dragons on this planet were wyverns, which were what ¡®True Dragons¡¯ called low level terrestrial creatures that imitated an actual dragon. A real dragon was off the charts in power strength being at least level one thousand. Just a single one of them would easily be able to destroy a planet in a day or two. Every ¡®True Dragon¡¯ was on par with a god, though they, aside from the celestial dragons, didn¡¯t have divinity.


    We rowed silent as a winter wind towards the imposing flagship of the fleet. The closer we got to it, the taller it appeared until the galleon was looming over us like an impenetrable fortress on the sea. From afar it already looked large, but from up close it appeared to be at least five stories tall with easily enough room for two hundred people. As I stared at the ship, one though repeated in my head: taking care of such a huge ship must be a huge problem. The amount of food for the ship alone would be likely to drive someone insane, let alone the rest of the logistics.


    A shout arose from the top of the ship, shattering the eerie silence that had settled upon us. In no time at all, the boats around us burst into motion. Every single one of them except for the flagship started to turn back towards the ocean, most likely preparing to leave the gargantuan river. The flagship, unlike its naval brethren, didn¡¯t turn around but instead lowered two ropes with hooks attached from the side down to us.


    ¡°Over there. Those have wenches connected to pull us up.¡± Randal directed me with his finger pointed towards the ropes.


    ¡°Ok.¡±


    Seeing our destination in sight, I helped row towards the ropes. Not going to lie, by this point my arms were dying. I was more than happy to go the final stretch towards safety. It was a huge relief when we finally arrived under the ropes. Randal attached one of the hooks to a loop on his side of the ship, abd I quickly copiedhis actions, accidentally disturbing the sleeping Illway on my back in doing so, and attached the other hook to my side. In less than a minute, we were unsteadily rising into the air to the sound of wood swirling and rope creaking with tension.


    The rope wasn¡¯t the only thing filled with tension. The next two minutes would decide whether I lived or died since I wasn¡¯t a hundred percent sure how these strangers would treat me so far from a city. Of course, I hoped for the best since me and Randal had worked together and I had helped in the rescue mission, but you could never tell with rich people. One might be the kindest and friendliest person ever whille also having a cellar full with skeletons.


    Upon reaching the top, I was greeted with the vision of at least twenty heavily armed and armored elven guards watching us intently. As soon as they saw the little elf, whom was still taller than my short stature, sitting behind me they let out wild cheers. Almost as if that was the catalyst, the quiet peace that had settled upon the area was immediately shattered as hundreds of cheers spread out like a wave from the flagship to the others.


    Amidst the screaming, an elf with black hair-the first I had ever seen- and wearing what I imagined I would see on a pirate captain walked up to the three of us and offered Illway a hand, ¡°Welcome aboard Crown Princess. I¡¯m glad to see that you are back in safe hands.¡±


    Illway accepted his hand, being pulled off of the dangling rowboat and on to the flagship proper. With a slightly sad smile, she said, ¡°Thank you Uncle Raven. Thank all of you for coming to save me.¡± That last part was announced to the rest of the ship and not just the captain.


    While they were happily chatting on board the ship, I was sweating bullets. Not only was this an actual princess, but she was also a Crown princess. That meant she was next in line to rule for heaven¡¯s sake!


    ¡°Nothing I wouldn¡¯t do for you or your mother.¡± The Captain replied to her with a fond smile. He finally looked at me-which was kinda intimidating since he was at least twoand a half times my height- and Randal sitting in the boat. ¡°Randal.¡± He nodded to the elf beside me. ¡°And who is this little lass here? She a stow away?¡± That last part was supposed to be a joke¡­ I think... I hope.


    ¡°Uncle, she was the one that saved me, so don¡¯t be rude,¡± Illway explained to him, which brought no end of relief to me. From beside me, Randal huffed loudly. If I had to guess, he was aggravated about not getting any credit for the saving of his niece.


    Captain Raven paused for a moment before bowing deeply to me, ¡°Then I must thank you for saving my niece. Welcome aboard the Queen¡¯s Arrow miss¡­?


    Catching his prompt for my name, I told him, ¡°Kali Vexia.¡± As soon as I said my last name, I knew I screwed up by the reactions of the people around me.


    ¡°Ohh, you have a last name. Are you a noble of some kind, Lady Vexia? And why didn¡¯t you tell me?¡± Randal suspiciously asked from beside me.


    ¡°Where is your family from?¡± Crown Princess Illway asked a nanosecond after him, though she didn¡¯t have the same suspicious tone that Randal did.


    ¡°Ah! Another noble aboard my fine vessel!¡± Captain Raven happily proclaimed over the two of them, announcing that I was a ¡®noble¡¯ to the rest of the crew. It wasn¡¯t like I didn¡¯t see their confusion. On most low tech planets only the rich or nobles had last names. The situation just sucked because I couldn¡¯t exactly explain that I wasn''t a noble and had a last name since I was from space.


    As if she understood my discomfort, Illway came to my rescue, ¡°How about we move to somewhere more private, Uncle Raven? I have nothing against your crew, but I haven¡¯t sat down somewhere comfortable in a long time.¡±


    Her mention towards her enslavement jolted the Captain into motion. He turned back to his crew and ordered loud enough to wake a giant, ¡°All crew! Prepare for the return voyage! I expect smooth sailing with no problems! We are to return fast and swift like the wind! Someone send a message and have our escort ships join into the triangle form! If you need me, I will be in my cabin with Princess Illway.¡±


    With his announcement came a flurry of motion as the surrounding crew jumped to tasks I couldn¡¯t understand, mainly since I was from galactic planets with spaceships and not terrestrial boats. Half of them went to do something with the ropes while the other half ran around the place doing confusing tasks. The only action that I even slightly understood was the five guys pushing a round device in a circle. From the top of the device, a chain shot out and off to the side of the boat. Even for someone who wasn''t terrestrial savy like me, I could tell they were obviously pulling up the anchor.


    We followed the Captain through the crowd of crew members to the aft, or back, of the ship. The Captain would stop every few steps, rapid firing orders to various crewmembers before continuing on. It wasn¡¯t long before we reached the other side of the ship. Instead of going up towards the helm to steer like a captain would, Raven led us underneath the helm and through a large ornate door emblazoned with a bird wreathed in fire. It looked like a pheonix due to the fire sourounding the main figure, but I wasn''t sure..


    The room on the other side of the fancy door was fairly spartan. While it was massive, only a few items took up space. In one corner was a small but cozy looking cot surrounded by a nightstand and a small dresser. Near the back wall- which was almost entirely made of glass viewing out onto the river and the fleet on top of it- sat a small desk filled with various documents and quills. The largest object taking up space was massive wood round table right in the middle of the quarters. Around the table were ten chairs, each made out of some kind of red wood. Directly in the middle of the table laid a map of the world a little like Randal¡¯s, but way more filled in with information that I couldn''t quite see from my angle.


    While I was inspecting the room, the three elves had walked over to the table and were already sitting down. Putting my thirty-two dexterity to good use, I quickly walked up and also took a seat between Randal and Raven. I didn''t have anything against the Princess, but she had been litteraly breathing down my neck for the past couple of hours.


    As we all sat there, nobody said a word. The Captain was looking around at the three of use. From the slight glow of his eye, he was probably using [Inspection] or some other kind of optical skill on us. Speaking of, I had reverted my [Falsification] back to how it actually was while we were rowing towards the fleet. It now read [3]


    Princess Illway was quietly staring at the map, though her eyes looking completely unfocused like she was thinking about something. I couldn''t blaim her for being distracted after what she had been through. I didn''t exactly know everything that happened, but I did know that it couldn''t hav been easy.


    Randal happily leaned back and had his eyes closed, which made it look like he had fallen asleep, though I knew that he was actually paying hyper attention because his ears kept twitching. It was a habbit of his I had picked up on over our two days together pre-rescue.


    The silence continued for a bit before Captain Raven ruined it, ¡°''Aight, I guess we should start with Princess Illway. Lass, what happened to the diplomatic mission that you were sent on? What went wrong?¡±


    Oh? This was knews to me. I had never heard of any diplomatic mission or anything like that. All I knew was that Princess Illway had been captured. Granted, I had never asked since I was trained to work under "don''t ask, don''t tell" rules when I was completing a job in preperation for when the scientists were finally ready to release me upon the galaxy.


    ¡°Well, for starters, the entire race of dryads had already been exterminated by the time we arrived.¡± The Princess said with tears brimming in her big green eyes.


    Dryads? I had never heard of them on this planet, but they were quite famous in space. Not only were they extremely beautiful, they were typically amazing singers which led to more than one of them becoming stars.The galactic ones were probably different then the terrestrial ones here, but they most like shared a few similarities.


    Both Randal and Raven jostled at that with shocked expressions. Randal was the first to react with words, ¡°What?! How could the entire race be extinct? Dryads are immortal as long as their tree stays alive!¡±


    ¡°Were immortal Uncle, were immortal. The humans of Eratos had found a way to track where the dryads returned to after they died. They seemed to have used this to find and k-kill every last one of the dryads. By the time we arrived, our possible allies were already long dead and what awaited us was a trap.¡±


    ¡°How did they know you were coming though?¡± Captain Raven gravely questioned her.


    A tear fell down Illway¡¯s face as she responded, ¡°At first I thought that one of the dryads had broken down and told, but then I found startling evidence. One of the things that was used to track the dryads down was the upper elvish [Elven Detect Life] magic. It seems that we have a t-traitor in the upper echolons of our race.¡±


    At first it would seem like a jump to assume that the upper echolons of the race would have a traitor just based off of the magic used, but it all boiled down to the type of magic. Over my two days of freedom, I had very, very breifly investigated magic on this planet. Quality of life conduit magic, such as [Clean], [Cure Lesser Wounds], and [Purrify] was extremely abundant and one out of every ten adults knew how to use at least one of them. This was all well and good, but actualy semi-strong magic, such as [Elven Detect Life] and even [Fireball], were extremely rare since only a few were born with access to use them. Only the top of the top had access to speccific spells like those. Therefore, to use an elven race speciffic spell like [Elven Detect Life], it wasn''t such a huge jump, or even step, to assume that their was a traitor in the upper echolons.


    Both Randal and Raven looked shocked once again at this revelation. This time, it was Raven that reacted quickly. He pulled a whistle from his pocket and blew it hard. An extremely high pitched screeching came from the whistle, hurting my ears. I quickly reached up and covered them, only semi-succesfully blocking out the squeal.


    It wasn¡¯t long until he stopped and I finally relaxed. I opened my eyes to see everyone staring at me, including a raven that had appeared out of nowhere on Raven¡¯s shoulder. ¡°What?¡± I asked.


    The Captain answered with a question of his own, ¡°How did you hear that? The magic was made so that only animals were supposed to be able to. And why were you covering the top of your head?¡±


    Randal and Illway also looked curious, but Randal cut down any further questioning, at least momentarily, ¡°We can ask about that later. Right now, we have more important things to do.¡±If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.


    ¡°Right, right.¡± Raven got up and walked over to his desk. After jotting down a few things, he tied the small letter to the bird on his shoulder¡¯s foot and threw it outside the window. He then quickly returned,¡±Alright, my familiar should get that letter to the queen in a few days. It will let her know to watch out for traitors and also that we have rescued you Princess. Now, please continue with the rest of your story.¡±


    ¡°Yes, thank your Uncle Raven. Right after we discovered the remnants of the elvish magic, we were ambushed by a strong force or humans from Eratros. M-my entourage managed to make enough time for my escape.¡± She tried to continue, but she broke down into tears every time. It took a few minutes until she was ready, then she continued, though she was still crying, ¡°M-my entourage w-were all killed. Even T-terry.¡±


    As that last name came out, I felt my hackles rise subconsiously. Thankfully, nobody noticed as they were deeply engrossed in hearing the rest of Illway¡¯s story.


    ¡°I r-ran far away from where we were ambushed-¡± she stopped and choked back a sob, ¡°But then I tripped and rolled down a hill into a river. I thought I was going to die, but I was spat out on a riverbank with no idea where I was. A group of slaver¡¯s happened to pass by and they saw me, which led to my capture and eventual selling towards the judge in Serias a month after. Nobody but him wanted to buy me since I was extremely banged up from my tumble down the hill. He kept me locked up in the basement for another month until I was all healed up and ¡®ready¡¯. If the rescue had been even just a few days later, I shudder to think about what would¡¯ve happened to me¡­¡± She stopped talking and just stared depressedly at the table.


    A relieved sigh came out of Randal, ¡°Then I¡¯m glad I decided to trust my gut and recruit someone to help me instead of waiting for reinforcements.¡±


    ¡°Lass, speaking of reinfotcements, where is your noble family from Lady Vexia?¡± Raven asked me as he leaned forward unto the table.


    Crap! Now I was under the spotlight! What do I say? That my family was wiped out and I¡¯m the last of my name? That I was born of a rich family, but they were murderd, leaving me to spend their vast fortune to fight crime in a bat suit? Well, first off I should get them to just use Kali instead of Lady Vexia. It was extremely weird to hear someone refer to me as a ¡®lady¡¯.


    If I recalled correctly, ''honesty was the best policy except for when it wasn''t''. ¡°Please, just call me Kali. I don¡¯t know anything about my noble family since I woke up in the middle of the woods with no recollection of them.¡± There, not a complete lie but still not the exact truth.


    Illway seemed to recover enough since she also pitched into question Kali time, ¡°What are you then, Kali? I saw from when you rescued me that you had a wolf mask on and wolf ears, but you tied them into a bow. I¡¯ve never seen another race with ears on top.¡±


    I forgot that she had seen that. I was hoping it would be too dark. ¡°I don¡¯t know what you are talking about, I¡¯m just a normal¡­ dwarf. Yeah, a dwarf.¡± That was a terrible lie. Why did I have to say a dwarf?


    ¡°That was an obvious lie. Just tell us, we won¡¯t hurt you or anything like that. In fact, the Queen would be immensely pleased to hear about another race on our planet.¡± Randal, the Queen¡¯s brother, called me out.


    What was the point in trying to hide anyways? All I was causing was extreme discomfort to myself. My tail had fallen asleep an hour ago, but it was still hurting terribly and my ears were aching from their tied up position.


    If I couldn¡¯t trust the elves, who apparently owned an entire continent based upon not having any holdups over race, then who could I trust? Definetely not the humans with their slavery. I didn¡¯t even know where to find the other races, so they were out. The [Revenant] if he ever found me? Definitely not. For all I know, he would become obsessed and never leave me alone. His race was extremely weird after all.


    That being said, I wouldn¡¯t show everybody what I was. That would just be asking for problems to arise as soon as they saw someone that looked like nothing they had ever seen before. At the very least, I wouldn''t mind being exposed to former comrades such as Randal. This ideal would change once I got to space since it wouldn''t be a huge problem for a new race to pop out of knowhere. Once I reached space again, which I was still trying to figure out how to do, I could be free without too much worry.


    ¡°Fine, my race is a wolfkin.¡± I reached up and undid the bow holding my ears together, allowing them to flop around a bit before standing back up at attention. I then stood up and reached into my pants, surprising the three onlookers, and pulled out my tail from its captivity. Almost instantly, my tail felt extremely relieved to be free once more. With all of my extra appendages free, I sat back onto the chair, almost sitting on my tail as I did. I still wasn¡¯t quite used to having it.


    I looked up to see the three¡¯s reactions. Illway looked extremely excited for some reason. She looked like she had just recieved a new toy and couldn''t wait to play with it. Wait, did that make me the new toy? I wasn''t sure if I liked that role.


    Randal had a contemplative look in his eyes, but he didn''t give much away. I realized a day ago that he was exceptionally good at hiding his expressions when he was actually trying.


    Captain Raven looked completely indifferent, but I could see the twitching curiosity as he stared at my ears.


    ¡°Interesting, why have I never heard of a race like yours before?¡± Randal asked.


    This time, I answered completely truthfully, ¡°I think that I am the only one of my kind.¡± I guess you could say I was the Queen of the wolfkin then just like I was the Queen of the artificial fallen angels.


    ¡°What do you mean you think, lass? Shouldn¡¯t you know this?¡± Raven inquired with exasperation.


    ¡°I mean that I have no idea if I really am the only one of my kind. I woke up in the middle of a clearing surrounded by wolves about a month ago. That was my earliest memory, so I have no idea if I really am the last of my kind or not.¡±


    Randal was back up to bat, ¡°What is your racial ability?¡±


    Before I could answer, a knock sounded off of the cabin¡¯s door and a voice called out through it, ¡°Captain! We have left the river and are now on the open ocean. Estimated time of arrival is two months from now if the weather holds up.¡±


    Captain Raven sighed and stood up from where he was, ¡°As much as I would like to continue this conversation with miss one of a kind here-¡± Was he referring to me? ¡°I need to actually go do my duties as a captain. I¡¯m sure you three are tired, so why don¡¯t you all go to sleep and we can continue this discussion in the morning. If you all want to wait here for a few minutes, I¡¯ll send one of my crew members to take you to your quarters.¡± He looked at me and Illway, though his gaze was more directed towards my uncomfortable noble clothes and her maid disguise, ¡°You should also take this opportunity to change into proper atire.¡±


    Speaking of sleep, I felt the urge to yawn and proclaim my tiredness to the world. I had been pushing it off through will and adrenaline, but I was actually super tired. Me and Randal had been up the whole day checking our plans before the rescue. I would already be tired ready for sleep by night, but then adding up the fact that I was up all night, had an adrenaline filled mission, and had to row for a couple hours equaled me being wiped.


    The Captain walked out of the cabin and back out onto the deck. Before the door closed fully, we could hear him shouting at the crew various commands. He was quieted down with the closing thump from the door. Unfortunately, with my hyper sensitive ears I could still hear his screaming voice along with the rest of the crew scrambling from place to place aboard the deck.


    All that were left sitting in the room was me, Illway, and Randal. At first, there was blissful silence, but then the Princess went and ruined it, ¡°Hey, so¡­ would you mind if I slept with you Kali?¡±


    I nearly choked on my own tongue in surprise from her upfront question. Literally nothing was holding her back. I mean, usually you would take a girl to dinner first before asking such things. If she did that though, she would also take my first date. What do I do?


    Probably because she saw my ¡°fish gasping for air¡± imitation, Illway quickly corrected what she said as her cheeks turned crimson, ¡°Not in that way since you are a little girl! It''s just... I don¡¯t really want to be by myself and you are the only female I at least semi-know here. Please! You would be doing me a huge favor.¡±


    I guess when she put it that way sleeping with her wasn¡¯t so bad, as long as we slept and that was it. The gods knew that I wanted to have someone-other than Terry or any of his slaves-to hold during my long, sleepless nights of slavery. It helped to have someone around, or at least that was what I had been told. I never really had anyone other than me that I could trust. That''s it! I found another goal for my new life: Find a trustworthy ally.


    Seeing the Princess¡¯s hopeful expression pulled me out of my musings. I glanced over at Randal, but he was pretending to not be paying attention. I gave her a cold response, ¡°I guess, but how do you know you can trust me? I could kill you while you slept.¡± I just wanted to remind her I was a stranger. It wasn¡¯t like I would kill her since I felt no ill will to her. In fact, if anything I felt a strange sense of loyalty, which was weird considering I literally just met her.


    ¡°You could, but why would you go through all the effort of saving me just to kill me? It would make no sense.¡± Princess Illway instantly shot down my excuse.


    I looked over at Randal for backup, but he was still pretending to absent mindedly staring out of the window without a clue of our conversation. As he stared, he was also flicking a dagger into circles and catching it, which was impressive since he wasn¡¯t even looking in the right direction to see the dagger.


    ¡°I guess I could, but I don¡¯t know if I would be a good person to rest next to. I¡¯m an extremely sensitive sleeper.¡± Sadly, it was true. In the labs, I was trained to wake up at a moment¡¯s notice or as soon as I heard or felt something change in my environment. This training was also the one of the main reasons why I felt fine with sleeping in the trees outside of Serias.


    I don¡¯t think she even heard me as she was busy nodding her head and skipping towards the door. As she was walking towards the door, I could hear heavy footsteps walking towards the cabin¡¯s door. Reacting quickly, I shoved my tail back down my pants and used the muscles in my ears to hold them together. It wasn¡¯t quite as effective as the string, but it worked fairly well. While I had shown the Captain and the other two what I was, I wasn¡¯t quite sure if I wanted every elf in the fleet to know yet.


    Right as she reached it, a man-surprisingly the first human I had seen on the Queen¡¯s Bow- entered the room with a knock. He had black hair and warm brown eyes that gave off a feeling of subtle warmth. ¡°I am Alfon, the cook and partial quarter-master of the Queen¡¯s Bow. I was asked to lead you to rooms, so if you could please follow me.¡±


    Randal and I both stood up at the same time and walked over towards where Alfon and Illway were waiting. As we neared them, Illway told Alfon, ¡°Me and Kali will share a room if that¡¯s alright?¡± Near the end, Illway¡¯s statement turned into more of a question to Alfon.


    ¡°That¡¯s fine as long as Captain Raven is okay with it. I¡¯ll ask him on our way down. I see no reason why it would be a problem, but it is better to be safe than sorry.¡±


    Alfon led us out of the cabin and back out onto the main deck of the ship. The deck was as busy as when we first went in. Various crew members were moving about doing their tasks, but I could see quite a few of them going below deck while other, fresher looking crew members came up to fill in the leavers positions. Looking past them, I saw the sun rising up above the ocean slowly but surely erasing the blissful darkness of the night.


    After a short shout to the captain and hearing a shouted reply back, we headed down a set of stairs on the other side of the massive galleon. It was a tight squeeze with all of the traffic, but we weren¡¯t on it long as we got off on the first flight floor.


    We walked down the hallway until we stopped at the very end before a large door engraved with a crown. Alfron opened the door and motioned Illway and me inside, ¡°This is where the queen would stay if she ever left the continent. Seeing as she isn¡¯t here, Captain Raven had decided that you would stay here. The Queen had also sent some of your clothes in preparation for your successful rescue. They are in the armoire over there.¡± Without further adieu, he left with Randal back down the hall to another room.


    Illway walked into the room, not waiting a second longer, and I quickly followed her. The room was, in a single word, spacious. Everything about it was big. Off to the side of the door, a massive bed sat. It was easily big enough to fit three or four people with room to spare. To the other side of the door was a large armoire filled with clothes. The opposite side from the door was a huge glass wall allowing a perfect view of the ocean. It was slightly tinted, possibly denoting that it was some kind of one way. Right next to the window was a wooden table a lot like the one in the Captain¡¯s cabin but rectangular.


    As I watched, Illway walked over to the door and grabbed out a gray set of green pajamas. She was just about to strip and change, but seemed to realize I was still there at the last second and stopped. With scarlet cheeks, she asked me, ¡°Kali, can you turn around?¡±


    A smirk rose to my lips as I looked at her, ¡°Why? It isn¡¯t anything I haven¡¯t seen before. You didn¡¯t have any second thoughts in that cell.¡±


    I was a little worried that I had made a joke too soon when I saw her crestfallen face, but thankfully the sad look disappeared as her cheeks darkened to an even deeper shade of red though it appeared slightly forced. ¡°Y-you could see that? It was nearly pitch black down there. I thought you couldn¡¯t see anything¡­¡±


    ¡°I have a little bit of night vision. I could see down there almost as clear as in shade during the day.¡±


    ¡°Still, no reason to give you a second glance. Turn around, please.¡± She commanded instead of asking like she did previously.


    ¡°Fine, fine.¡± I over exaggeratedly turned around and put my back to her. I heard the rustling of clothes from behind me, notifying she had started changing. I honestly didn¡¯t really care what she looked like, but being told not to look made me really want to look.


    Before I could come to a definite decision, I felt a hand on my shoulder. ¡°Are you going to change? Or do you plan to sleep in these clothes?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t have any extra clothes, this pair, the maid pair, and a set of simple clothes are all that I own.¡± I replied, which went to remind me that I would also need proper equipment when I went to the elven continent. Rolling by with just my two out of shape daggers that I had scavenged wouldn¡¯t do once I actually got into combat.


    Illway took a speculative look to her face as she raised her hand to her chin, ¡°Hmm¡­ you could use one of mine, but you are a little small.¡± She wasn¡¯t kidding, I was only a little taller than her hips.


    ¡°It¡¯s fine. How about you turn around this time, and I¡¯ll take care of it,¡± I had already long decided that I would sleep in my wolf form. While I was staying in the city, I had found that it was way more comfortable to sleep after I used [Shift].


    Once the elf was turned around, I quickly stripped and used [Shift]. I had found out that my clothes and anything I had on at the time of using [Shift] would be shredded. Taking everything I had, I squeezed them into my bag, almost tearing it in the process. As my daggers sunk into the bag, a metallic clicking resonated extremely quietly forth, reminding me of the treasures I had found in the judge¡¯s safe. I really wanted to test what I had found, but I figured sleeping first was a good idea.


    In just a few thankfully painless seconds of using the ability, I was standing on all fours behind Princess Illway. Putting my black fur covered paws out in front of me, I bent backwards and stretched. Upon standing back up on all fours, I realized I was the exact same height as my human form. Standing on all fours I was just above the Princess¡¯s hips.


    My claws clinking against the wooden floor alerted Illway that something had changed. She whipped around, her nightgown flailing in a swoosh, and stared at me with a slight fear in her eyes, ¡°K-kali?¡±


    I nodded my fur covered head at her in an over exaggerated manner and walked up closer to her. She froze for a second before, much like the lost elf-Cassia, reaching her hand out slowly and petting my head. It felt so¡­ good to have my head rubbed. Although I had only felt the blissful sensation once before, I could feel myself slowly becoming addicted.


    Illway, seemingly forgetting that I was just a humanoid a minute ago, started to talk to me in the voice people make towards animals and babies, ¡°Who¡¯s a good gurl? That¡¯s right, you¡¯re a good gurl.¡±


    She continued to pet me all over my body for a few minutes and likely would¡¯ve for longer, but I wiggled out of her grasp when I saw her eyes starting to droop with sleepiness. Now that I thought of it, she was probably even more tired than me. It was extremely hard to have restful sleep when sleeping in a cage without enough food, though it seemed like she didn¡¯t have that last problem since the judge wanted for her to keep her shape.


    She frowned slightly and shot me a hurt look before jumping up onto the bed and worked her way underneath the covers. It took way longer that I thought it would, but that probably had more to do with her tired brain trying to process how covers worked. Once she was settled in, I jumped up on the bed beside her on top of the bed covers, and after a few times circling my spot, I laid down. I had found out that, unsurprisingly, it got really hot to be under covers while covered in fur.


    As I laid there, I was about to mentally go over my plans, but I was distracted by Illway idly stroking my ears. Almost as if she was singing a lullaby, I fell asleep to the sweet sensation of head pats.

 Chapter 10-Trilesil

    Last night was¡­ restless and long, to say the least. It was long since the Princess slept from early in the morning through the entire day and until the next morning. I thought that it would be fine to sleep that long, but sleep was just a dream for the entirety of the day.


    Nearly ten minutes after I first fell asleep, I awoke to the constricting feeling of a python around my body. I was startled at first, but I quickly realized that the ¡®python¡¯ was Princess Illway. In her sleep, she had wrapped herself around me and was squeezing extremely tight. I thought I was going to die at that point! I could barely even breathe, let alone get away from her. For such a scrawny looking girl, she squeezed really tightly. It was almost like her strength was at 1000.


    While she was squeezing me, she kept mumbling phrases such as ¡°Don¡¯t go!¡± and ¡°Please stop!¡±. At first they were quite murmuring, but they picked up in intensity after the first hour to the point that I was sure the entire crew could hear her! Yes, I was up the entire hour¡­ In my defense, try sleeping while being strangled and tell me how well it went!


    After that first hour, thankfully she let me go. I thought that would be the end of the ¡®strangle Kali session¡¯, but it wasn¡¯t. I slept for a couple of hours after that, but I was once again woken up to being strangled.


    That time, when I woke up, I was soaked from head to toe. The entirety of my fur was matted down to my body in what I sincerely hoped was tears. Illway still had me wrapped in a hug, but she wasn¡¯t squeezing like she had before. A constant flow of tears were coming from her closed eyes, slowly dying the entire area around us.


    I adapted quickly to my wet environment and fell asleep again, but it didn¡¯t last long before I awoke once more. From there on out, the rest of the night was like clockwork. Every time a different hour struck, I would be awoken to either my organs being smashed or my fur being soaked. It was horrible.


    By the time Princess Illway woke up and released me, I couldn¡¯t be happier. With my increased dexterity, I ran away from the bed like a shot bullet. As I made a beeline directly towards the door, tears dripped off of my soaked fur. I reached up for the door, but a problem arose. I was too short. I couldn¡¯t reach my paw high enough to hit the handle and open up my prison.


    I glanced back and saw that, thankfully, the Princess had rolled onto her stomach and was crying into her pillows. Taking the opportunity to escape presented, I raced to my bag and activated [Shift] once more, returning to my humanoid form. I reached into my bag and put on my original clothes, the ones that I had found on the dead elf a while back. Once dressed, I pulled my soaked hair back out of my face. It seemed like all of the liquid that covered my wolf form had transitioned directly to my hair.


    A quick peek over my shoulder showed that the Princess was still weeping in her pillow. I once again booked it to the door. Just as my hand closed around the door handle, Illway spoke up from behind me in a depressed voice, ¡°Are you going to leave me too?¡±


    I turned back and saw her sitting cross legged on the bed while weeping towards me. The tips of her dagger-like ears were quivering and she had a face full of sorrow. It was at that moment that I came to one of the only moral dilemmas I had ever faced. Did I take the soaking and try to comfort the princess? Or should I escape the slow waterboarding while I still could? Talk about being stuck in between a meat grinder and a hydra.


    Unfortunately for me, my lupine instincts wanted me to go over and help her. I couldn¡¯t say why exactly, but it seemed to have to do something with loyalty and possessiveness? It was an odd feeling to have for sure.


    Coming to a decision, I turned and walked back to the bed of doom, ¡°No Princess Illway, I was just getting some fresh air. I won¡¯t leave you.¡± I jumped up next to her and tried to comfort her. It was a little difficult with the size difference between us. Princess Illway made due by grabbing my tail and snuggling it. It hurt slightly being yanked on by the tail, but an intensely pleasurable feeling overcame that as she rubbed it against herself. Oddly, it seemed like my tail carried over the pleasurable sensation of being pet that my wolf form had. I couldn¡¯t help but wonder if my ears were the same way¡­


    She stopped rubbing my tail, causing disappointment to rise up in me. I looked back over at her and saw that she had fallen asleep once more. A sigh of relief left me as my torment ended. I got up from my spot on the bed and started to walk back to the door of the room unsteadily. As I did, I wringed out my hair, tail, and ears, leaving behind a massive pool of pure tears on the floorboards.


    When I reached the door, a new hell was released upon me: seasickness. The ship must have hit a wave which caused the whole boat to shake. The shaking in turn caused me to fall flat on my tail which hurt extremely badly. As my tail compressed underneath me, the sensation of bile rising started to fill my throat. With barely hidden tears from the pain in my tail, I raced down the hallway of the boat, unsteadily since I was feeling extremely nauseous, and up the set of the stairs. I passed by a couple of startled sailors on my way, but I paid them no mind as I went.


    My feet carried out of the stairwell and to one of the ship''s railings, just barely making it before I puked all over the edge of the ship. Once I finally felt relieved, my other senses seemed to catch up with me. The salty tang of the ocean brine filled my nose, making my eyes water from something other than the pain in my tail.


    As I glanced out over the brightly sparkling ocean, I could see the excessively weaponized escort ships brimming with people as the sun started to rise in the east. Each one was awashed with the sounds of creaking wood and shouted orders. Underlying all of that was the sound of the crew members singing sea shanties as they worked, keeping themselves organized with one another. Oddly enough, the ship I was on was way quieter than the others.


    I turned around to see half the crew staring at me in shock. More accurately, they were staring at my tail. I could hear whispers such as ¡°She has a tail! A freaking tail!¡±, ¡°I¡¯ve never seen a humanoid with a tail¡±, and other whispers such as those. The staring seemed to be infectious as the other crew seemed to appear from nowhere and stare at me like I was some kind of zoo animal. Or a specimen. As that thought entered my head, an angry snarl started to fill up my throat.


    Sadly, before it got too audible, my nausea struck again and bile rose up past the snarl. I turned back towards the big blue ocean and puked over the side once more, feeling the burning sensation as it left me.


    As I was puking my guts out, I heard the captain shouting from behind me, ¡°What is all of this? Get back to work lads! So what if she had a tail, she is our guest and one of Princess Illway¡¯s saviours! Our very seasick guest at that! Someone fetch me a pail of water and a stool!¡± There was a slight pause, but I couldn¡¯t turn to see what was going on in my condition ¡°What are you doing lads?! I said someone, not everyone! Has the Kraken stolen your brains you fools! Quartermaster Israle, you go grab the pail and stool. Everyone else, back to work!¡±


    I would¡¯ve liked to turn around and see what was going on, but a resurgence of my awful nausea mixed with a newly growing sense of vertigo to lead me back towards the railing of the ship. I continued for a solid minute and a half, surprising myself at how much acid my stomach held.


    As I was leaning over the railing, I felt a large hand pat me on the back. The sudden touch startled me and I felt both my tail and ears go straight up. I heard the familiar sound of Captain Raven¡¯s voice from behind me, ¡°Sorry lass, seasickness is common amongst people new to boats. I don¡¯t know if this has any effect, but seasickness is especially common amongst wolves and dogs. You should¡¯ve seen it when the Queen tried to get a pack of dire wolves aboard¡­ Anyways, I should¡¯ve warned ya that you might get sick last night, but I was a little in shock over your eh¡­ appearance.¡±


    Finally down hurling my everything over the edge of the boat, I turned around to face the Captain and the rest of the ship. He was standing with a stool and a bucket of water set down next to him. Behind him, most of the crew were no longer grouped up around me, but I could definitely see more than a few peeks towards me from them.


    The Captain noticed my gaze towards his crew and rubbed his neck sheepishly as he spoke, ¡°Sorry lass, nothing I can do about all of them. Rest assured, they will keep working hard, but you are the first bipedal sapient being that they have ever seen with a tail.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s fine Captain Raven. I expected something like this and would¡¯ve liked to keep my appearance more secretive, but I forgot all about that when seasickness hit me like a jackhammer.¡± I really had expected this. When I got to the galaxy, my tail and ears wouldn¡¯t be such a huge deal since there were a near infinite amount of different creatures up there, but here on a terrestrial planet? I was like a panda in a zoo. Since pandas only came from one planet, they were extremely rare to see and would always draw attention.


    The Captain grinned broadly towards me, ¡°Thanks for your understanding lass. Oh!¡± He motioned to the bucket and stool. ¡°Since seasickness is typically fairly hard on landlubbers such as yourself, you should stay on the deck for at least a couple of hours. You can hang out on the stool up here, and the bucket is so you can wash your mouth out. I know from one too many bottles how bad it is to get stuck with the taste of stomach acid for too long.¡±


    A smile stretched my lips slightly as I bent over and grabbed the bucket. After I had washed my mouth out, I said, ¡°Thanks Captain. I appreciate it.¡±


    ¡°Anytime for someone who saved part of my family,¡± Oh yeah, he was the Princess¡¯s uncle, right? Didn¡¯t that make him a prince? ¡°Also, in better news, we should be hitting intercontinental waters any minute now, which marks safety from any navy sent after us.¡± He started to turn back towards the helm of the ship, ¡°Well, I¡¯ll be back at the helm. If you need anything, ask around for Alfon the cook or Israle the Quartermaster.¡±You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.


    ¡°Thank you.¡±


    As the Captain left, I briefly thought about the pros of being on a boat surrounded by allies versus being on land surrounded by potential enemies. On one paw, I was safe but had to deal with seasickness. On the other, I would be unsafe, but wouldn¡¯t get sick by just existing. That line of thought was cut short as I bent back over the railing.


    Once I had settled down, I cleaned my mouth out again and sat down heavily on the stool, which was actually super comfortable since I didn¡¯t have to worry about my tail getting caught on the seatback. I pulled my pack onto my lap and rested my head on it. A clinking sound rang out from the pack, reminding me of my plundered booty from the judge¡¯s safe.


    Right before I could pull it out, a notification from the Records rang inside of my head.


    [XP Gained]


    [Leveled up!(3>8) Received 20 attribute points, 5 Charisma]


    [Title Obtained: Rescuer]


    I was extremely confused for a minute at my jump in levels before I pulled up the advanced breakdown of the XP notification.


    [Awarded for:


    -Played an important part in the rescue of an important figure.


    -Successful escape with said figure.]


    Okay, that made sense. From what Raven said, we just hit true safety from retaliation, so it made sense that I just received experience points now. Basically, experience was rewarded by the Records for any action that resulted in the growth of a person¡¯s soul, whether through slaying foes, actions of intense labor, or through the finishing of actions that required creativity.


    The foe slaying was fairly obvious in how it worked. The intense labor could be anything from playing winning in a sport, getting away with a rescue, or even from something such as crossing an entire planet on foot with no help. The last could be anywhere from making a painting, to cooking, or even singing a song.


    Basically, any large action that a person made could reward XP to a person. For the creativity and labor, the amount of XP received was directly related to the effort or skill required. The killing of foes, however, was different. When someone killed a creature or person, they received a portion of experience that was being held by the being. That was why most power levelers resorted to killing foes to level quickly, which was also the way I planned to level quickly.


    The title was obviously from rescuing the Princess, hence the name. Titles were awarded through three ways: by the system for accomplishing big things that would have an effect on a large group of people, by multiple people calling you one name, or by someone powerful calling you a specific name repeatedly.


    Most titles didn¡¯t really have any power of ability attached to them and were just treated as accomplishments or as proof of doing something, but very rarely there would be one that had a bonus with it. Those titles were usually extraordinarily rare and hard to achieve. The most common way to gain a title with a bonus was to do something that affected an entire planet.


    [Kali Vexia- Wolfkin - Level: 8(2 till class pick and evolution)


    Titles:


    [Rescuer]


    Strength- 20


    Intelligence- 12


    Dexterity- 20 (+45)


    Endurance- 20


    Charisma- 25


    ( () = gear boosts)


    Unique:


    [Gambler]


    Racial:


    [Luna], [Shift]


    Charisma:


    [Animal Handling 1], [Overload 1], [Fleet Foot], [Toughen Up 1]


    Other:


    [Falsification 1]


    Time- 2 years]


    I ended up putting ten of my points into endurance, six into strength, one into intelligence, and three into dexterity. My main goal when it came to my stats was to get everything to at least twenty before I fully specialized into one of them.


    Along with three of my stats hitting twenty, I received three skills from passing a threshold. None of them were new since I had them all in my past life too.


    [Overload] would allow me to use ten percent more of my strength for a few seconds, but I would have muscle fatigue and tire quicker afterwards. If I leveled it up enough, the boost in strength and the duration would jump up. Unfortunately, the drawbacks would also jump up, which made the skill a sort of last resort.


    [Fleet Foot] was nothing like it sounded. Instead, it passively allowed a person¡¯s eyes and brain to comprehend the speeds they could travel at. It was an extraordinarily strong skill, but it couldn¡¯t be level up like the others.


    [Toughen Up] passively made my skin way more resilient without affecting the feeling or look of it. The skill was nice to have and made a big impact at higher levels, but at level one it just made me a bit more slash, impact, and piercing resistant.


    Getting over my sudden distraction by the XP gains, I returned my thoughts to the loot I received¡­ and was distracted again upon receiving yet another notification.


    [[Gambler] is ready to be used.]


    I impatiently activated the ability. With a small flash, a tiny green thing appeared in my hand. It was a piece of grass. A singular piece of grass. What was I supposed to do with that?!


    I found a solution and tossed it over the side of the ship, never to be seen again. With nothing left to distract me, I reached into my bag and pulled out a small crystal. Careful not to let anybody see, I observed it solemnly. The crystal was a perfect ball. Inside it seemed to be a tiny star, but it was entrapped by a black hole that seemed like it was trying to swallow the star. It looked fairly beautiful, which made sense because the ball l was one of the rarest and most expensive items in the galaxy.


    The crystal ball was called a Trilesil. Part of the reason it was so rare was because only one existed per planet every millenium. It grew in a unique rainbow flower that was near impossible to find since there was only one of them. On top of that, the flower was extremely prone to dying, which made it all the more impossible to find.


    The main reason for its price wasn¡¯t just due to its rarity. The main reason was that the trilesil would give three powerful skills to a person. If it was found, the Trilesil was typically consumed instantly, usually after a war broke out over it.


    I had no idea how or why the judge had it, but he was a damned idiot for not using it as soon as he could. The only reason I could think of why he didn¡¯t was because he didn¡¯t know what it was.


    The reason I didn¡¯t use it instantly was because of the after effects of the crystal. After its usage, the crystal would paralyze the user for at least an hour, but could be anywhere up to a week. On top of that, the crystal had an outright 10% chance to straight up kill someone instantly no matter who they were, which was intimidating to say the least. I had fought with myself over whether I wanted to take the chance last night, but I had decided that I would wait until I wasn¡¯t so tired.


    Without a second thought about the precious item in my hands, I walked over to the railing with the Trilesil. I just about tripped and sent it flying off into the water due to my nausea, which would¡¯ve been terrible, but I managed just barely to catch myself. To make sure that nobody saw what I was doing, I pretended to puke again as I greedily swallowed the Trilesil.


    I could feel its effects instantly. Basically, the Trilesil would give a person three skills; one would be what they needed, another would be random, and yet another would be something that they desired. The skills could be any non evolution skill, but the user had to be careful. There were a few limitations found through trial and error. One such limitation was that if they thought about a specific skill too hard, there was a chance that they straight up wouldn¡¯t receive anything.


    While not thinking about any skill in particular, I let my desire for an information gathering skill fill me. After a few moments and a burning sensation in my stomach unrelated to my seasickness, I received three notifications from the Records.


    [Trilesil-Needed: Abnormal Status Resistance]


    [Trilesil-Random: Shadow Realm]


    [Trilesil-Wanted: Dead Eye¡¯s Sight]


    With giddy excitement, I expanded the skills to show me what they did since I had never heard of any of them before..


    [Skill: Abnormal Status Resistance: Resist any abnormal statuses]


    Well that was informative¡­ not. How did that help me and why did I need it? What counted as an abnormal status? Actually, now that I had thought about it, my seasickness was gone¡­


    [Skill: Abnormal Status Resistance: Seasickness has been nullified]


    An enraged and depressed emotion overcame me at the realization that I just received a useless skill just because of seasickness. If that wasn¡¯t a cruel joke, then I didn¡¯t know what was. Pushing past my depressed rage from the Records screwing me over, I looked at my other two skills.


    [Skill: Shadow Realm: Shift user in/out of the Shadow Realm]


    That description would have helped me, but I had no idea what the Shadow Realm even was. Was it dangerous to go there? How did it work? I would have to figure it out after we had hit land. The last thing I wanted to do was use some kind of teleportation ability aboard a moving vehicle. From stories about teleportation abilities I had heard, it could put me inside of the ship or hovering over the ocean when I returned.


    [Skill: Dead Eye¡¯s Sight: Allows users to see the top four abilities used by a person and a title. Additionally, the user can see the class of a person, their level, and their name. Immune to skills that hide information such as [Falsification]]


    That actually wasn¡¯t bad at all. In fact, it would be extremely helpful since I could see what someone specialized in. Sure it wasn¡¯t exactly what I wanted, but it would do what I wanted. On top of all of that, the skill had immunity to skills designed to hide information, which was extremely powerful. This skill would be extraordinarily helpful.


    After I checked out my skills, I started to walk to the stool the captain had brought out. As I did, I felt my body slowing down, almost as if it was entering into hibernation or slowly being frozen. Just as I sat down, my body froze entirely. No matter what I did, none of my limbs would respond. I could still feel everything, but I couldn¡¯t move anything. It was an odd sensation. As I prepared for the long haul, I received a notification.


    [Skill: Abnormal Status Resistance: [Trilesil¡¯s Poison] has had its effectiveness cut by 90%(three days - 90% = 7.2 hours)]


    Well that was a relief. Not only was I not hit as hard as I could¡¯ve been by the Trilesil, but I also found that [Abnormal Status Resistance] wasn¡¯t as useless as it first seemed to be. I wonder what else it could apply to? Once again, I couldn¡¯t help but ask myself what counted as an abnormal status.


    Since I had nothing but time as I waited for my bodily control to come back, I decided now was the best time to take a trip down memory lane. As the metaphorical timer started to tick down slowly, my mind wandered into my memories as I tried to recall whatever I could about past events...

 Chapter 11-Elral

    ¡®Aside from the paralysis, in which I just sat on the stool for the entire duration without anyone bothering me, the rest of the trip went surprisingly well. Nine times out of ten, I was with the Princess like some kind of emotional support dog. Most of the time I was in my wolf form, but I occasionally shifted back over to my humanoid one. For some reason, Illway found it really entertaining to play with my tail while I was bipedal. I wasn¡¯t complaining since having my tail stroked was on par with back scratches.


    For the entirety of the two months, I was mostly just relaxing. That didn¡¯t mean I was entirely unproductive though. Over the two months, I learned exactly how magic was treated on this planet. I found that the magic of this planet was consistent with the magic of the rest of the galaxy. Of course there were tons of ways to use magic, but most, especially on terrestrial magic planets, used specific phrases or motions to cast it. This wasn¡¯t a hard requirement, but the words and motions helped a person to conceptualize the magic they were trying to cast.


    Two days out from the port, we saw a huge unmarred kraken that was at least two times the flagship¡¯s size. It looked like a gargantuan squid with tentacles pointed every which way. A couple of the tentacles were tipped with some kind of spike that had a weird orb on the end of it. As it floated on the top of the ocean, the stench of rotten fish hit me like a comet.


    Most of the crew cheered at seeing the dead foe, but a few of them, including me, were anything but happy at the discovery. Afterall, what kind of creature killed the kraken without even taking a bite? Whatever it was must have been extremely powerful to just shrug off the kraken like it didn¡¯t exist. Especially since I learned from Illway that krakens had a minimum level of 80. As someone in a far away galaxy once said, ¡°There is always a bigger fish.¡±


    I used [Gambler] everyday, but I got nothing good from it. The only items of note were an iron hook and a head of lettuce. I traded the lettuce for an extra cut of meat, which was nice since the ship¡¯s rationing was killing me. The cooks were saying something along the lines of ¡®we can¡¯t give you more food you glutinous wolf, so go away¡¯. I mean, I only asked for more meat three times every meal and suddenly I¡¯m the bad guy. Where was the fairness in that? The hook went to a special crewmember who had lost his hand. He was special because he was one of the cooks. After he received the hook, he was more open to my suggestions of more meat in my meals. Best trade I had ever made.


    The end of the sea voyage neared and I couldn¡¯t be any happier. I couldn¡¯t wait to touch that sweet sweet ground once again. Even though my seasickness left, being on the ocean was extremely unsettling to me. I couldn¡¯t run around and hint stuff like I wanted too. In my last life, I had never had those urges, but in this one they were extremely prominent. I wanted nothing more than to close my jaws around a deer''s neck¡­


    Estimated Time - one year and a little over nine months¡¯


    I closed the page of my journal after casually swiping a wet spot that mysteriously appeared after I thought of fresh deer. Dang, another one appeared. With a mournful sigh, I looked up at the port city just a few steps away. We were in the port of the city, but we weren¡¯t allowed to get off quite yet due to some banal bureaucratic bullshit. It was a slow torture to be so close to freedom, but so, so far away.


    The city itself was beautiful. Even from here on the boat, I could tell that it was a bustling place to be. The calm chatter of civilians and the machiavellian murmurs of markets resounded off the buildings directly to the triangles atop my head. Along with the sounds of the city, I could also see the motions of city life. The slow pedestrians and racing business people alike were visible walking up and down the white city streets from my vantage point aboard the Queen¡¯s Arrow. Even though we were near a city, the massive galleon towered above the nearby buildings, allowing me a great view.


    Speaking of buildings, the buildings in this city were a sight to behold. Every single one of them was made out of a glossy black and white speckled marble like material. Under the sun high above, the city looked like it was a sparkling nebula. Hanging off the commercial buildings were banners and flags proclaiming their establishments to the world in beautiful written calligraphy. I couldn¡¯t see many residential areas since they were located further into the city, but the ones I did see had dozens of plants and other greenery out front, which was a nice break from staring at the reflective black stone.


    In fact, the port city Elral would be an ideal place to stay, if it wasn¡¯t for the man in charge, who so happened to also be the jackas- ahem, I mean man responsible for not allowing us off of the ship under the pretense of the Princess¡¯s safety. He said that the surrounding woods were filled to the brim with monsters, and that we would have to wait aboard the ship until they were taken care of. If I had to guess, this was really Lord Elral VII trying to find an opportunity to further his own position by conversing with the Princess and ¡°Protecting¡± her. In reality, all he was doing was making her-and me for different reasons that may or may not involve food-furious by delaying her journey home.


    I straightened up from my position leaning against the railing closest to the port and stretched out lightly. If it wasn¡¯t bound up behind me, my tail would¡¯ve also stretched out, but it was bound because I thought we would have been in the city by now and it would be a hassle to be ogled by a bunch of strangers.


    Stretched out and ready to go, I tried to decide what I wanted to do. I really only had three options: try to sneak off of the ship and into Elral, stay put, or use [Shadow Realm] since we weren¡¯t moving anymore. Of the three options, staying put was the worst. I wanted to do something and I had too much energy like some kind of over excited kid. With the quick elimination, only two choices really remained: sneaking away and teleporting.


    Of the two, I was leaning towards the latter. While it could be fun to sneak off of the ship, traveling to a different realm sounded more¡­ exciting, I guess. Who knows what I might find? Sure, it would be extremely dangerous to just teleport into a random realm as a level eight, but I couldn¡¯t really care all that much. I already died once after all.


    With a plan starting to be put into motion, I walked down towards my room. I had received a room aboard the ship a little after I had been Illway¡¯s tear rag for a couple of nights. It was, in a word, awful being with her every night. Thankfully, Captain Raven noticed and gave me a room next to hers that I could sleep in. Illway was sad to see me go, but I made up for it by hanging out with her nine times out of ten, mainly since I didn¡¯t know anyones else aboard except for the hook chef.


    I walked down the stairs and down the familiar hallway until I reached my door. I was about to walk in, but I decided that I would let Illway know that I would be indisposed if she came looking for me, which she often did. It should be mentioned that the boat was extremely boring. There was no technology on this planet, so all us seafarers could really do-aside from work- was hang out and occasionally practice fighting. Unfortunately, I was just a wee bit underleveled to fight, so I couldn¡¯t do the latter. While I was highly trained, training couldn¡¯t overcome the advantage of having an actual class.


    I moved one door over and knocked on it lightly. ¡°Come in,¡± I heard a muffled voice call from within.


    I walked in to find Illway laying down on her bed while reading a book, ¡°Hey Princess.¡±


    Upon noticing who I was, she smiled brightly and closed her book, ¡°Hey Kali! What brings you here?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m going to be practicing some of my skills in a bit, so I came to hang out  before I returned to my room.¡± I told her the prearranged lie I had prepared.


    A look of confusion briefly passed between her head before she said, ¡°Okay Kali. Hey, while you are here, do you want to see this book I¡¯ve been reading?¡±


    I spent the next hour or so talking about books with Illway. It was a¡­ boring conversation if I had to be honest. I was never much of a reader unless it was some kind of manual or a how to guide. Books just never hit me right. To be fair, no recreational activities like reading hit me right either, but that mainly had to do with how I was raised.If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    After the conversation, I closed Illway¡¯s door behind me and strolled towards mine. There was no lock on any of the residential rooms in the ship, aside from the cozy Captain¡¯s cabin and the Queen¡¯s room , so I opened the door up without any hassle and walked in. My room was fairly simple. It had a bed in one corner, covered in sheets. They were all trampled down to the mattress from where I had circled in my wolf form before going to sleep. The only other things in my room were a small armour stood opposite from my bed and a small oak table next to it.


    As the door closed behind me, I trudged over to my equipment and tried to decide what I wanted to take. For starters, I knew absolutely nothing about the Shadow Realm nor had I ever heard someone mention it. Since I knew nothing, I grabbed all of my weapons, which consisted of the two daggers and a bow that I had ¡°liberated¡± from one of the sailors in a game of cards. I then grabbed my pack, my journal, and some rations that I had grabbed from Israle, the quartermaster. I didn¡¯t plan to be gone for long, but instant teleportation was finicky at best. For all I knew, I could be stuck in the shadow realm for a few days, so I thought it would be best to bring food just in case.


    Fully prepared- well, as prepared as I could be, I activated [Shadow Realm] without a second thought. A powerful sucking sensation, like when I had my foot stuck in mud and tried to pull it out, burst inside of me before growing to encompass my entire body. Along with the sucking feeling, one fourth of my mana was drained out of me to power the skill. My vision turned completely black and a loud pop! sent my ears ringing. After the sound, a huge sense of vertigo washed over me as I lost all sense of where I was.


    Before I knew it, my vision returned to me, allowing me to see that I was in a completely new place. What surrounded me was, well, darkness. Everything was stained shades of the darker sides of the greyscale. Literally everything, there was absolutely no color in my surroundings. As for my surroundings, they were interesting.


    I was standing on top of a lake of some kind, but the surface was entirely frozen over in some kind of icey substance. All around me in every direction but down was an inky darkness that seemed to be reaching out for me. Somewhere far away from me, the ice seemed to curve into a horizon, showing that wherever I was also seemed to have planets or something of the like. This was good since, according to Terry, flat realms tended to be extremely finite. Of course he could be very wrong, because in my last life research into other realms was extremely limited and most tended to research the Myzn if anything.


    Standing here, it was like I was standing on a huge flat piece of ice with nothing around. Speaking of ice, I was feeling cold, though not enough for water to freeze, so why was the water frozen? I looked down at the ice and saw right through it. My vision extended for a ways down before being completely cut off by darkness, so I had no idea what was below me, which was worrying.


    The first thing I did before I continued to explore was use [Shadow Realm] again to see if I could go back anytime I wanted. Nothing happened. I looked at the skill in my status and saw that it had a cooldown timer on it before I could use the skill again. The timer wasn¡¯t long at fifteen minutes, but it was an annoyance nonetheless.


    With an internal timer ticking down, I took a tentative step forward on the ice, afraid that it would break. For the second time, nothing happened. The ice-like substance didn¡¯t crack or really react at all. I took a few more slow steps, just to make sure the substance was safe to walk on, and found that it seemed to act like normal ground that could be found anywhere. As I was watching the ground for cracks or negative reactions to my weight, I saw the water underneath me shift around, almost as if a wave was pressing up against the ice. Or something was moving down there. I shook off that terrifying thought before it could take root.


    I checked the rest of my senses, to see if I could find anything out about this place. The air smelled odd, like a combination of iron and saltwater. It kind of reminded me of the times that I was in the Queen¡¯s Arrow kitchen when the cooks gutted a fish. The air around me was cold, but not too cold that I would need to cover up. It was a slight chill that hung in the air above the ice, like a cool fall day.


    Around me, I couldn¡¯t hear anything. It was dead silent everywhere around me, which was unsettling. There wasn¡¯t a single speck of sound, giving me the feeling that the realm I was in was dead. No sound suggested that there was no life either.


    With nothing more to do than wait, I started to creep slowly on the ice in a direction. I looked up to see what direction I was in based off of the sun. Above me was near complete darkness all around without any stars. Hanging just past the noon position, a dull purple orb floated.


    The sun was a little weird. The way it looked from down here was like an eye, but extremely blurry. It also didn¡¯t seem to put off too much light, but it wasn¡¯t too much of a problem since I had a little night vision. Pushing the thoughts about how weird this place was out of my head, I gauged that I was either walking towards the south or the north, depending on how the planet¡¯s rotation was orientated to the sun.


    After nearly ten minutes of nothing happening during my slow movements, finally something changed. The change was very welcomed, especially since I thought that perhaps [Shadow Realm] was a dud ability that just threw me out into the middle of nothingness.


    The change was fairly subtle, but it was nonetheless extremely important. The area I was walking towards was starting to light up. The light was like a faint halo glowing in the darkness. The creepy halo effect also confirmed something else that I was beginning to suspect: the entire area above the ice was covered in a black fog.


    I continued on towards the halo of light. My tail was starting to slightly ache as I walked from how straight it was due to my concentration. A faint scent trickled into my nose like a gentle breeze. I couldn¡¯t exactly tell what was giving off the scent, but it smelled like a sour pine tree, which was an odd combination.


    Right after the scent came through, I faintly heard a rasping sound, like something big was breathing in and out slowly. Along with the sound came a new view piercing through the thick fog. I approached closer to get a better view.


    In front of me was a building of some sort. It looked a little like a grey mausoleum, but it was massive. There was nothing around it on the ice, almost as if the building had been teleported into the middle of nowhere. The grey stones that made up the building had the same marble texture that Elral, the port city I had teleported from, had, though instead of looking like stars, the marble looked like some kind of petrified wood.


    The building itself looked to be a little like a massive box, but smaller boxes were coming off of it and towards me kinda like stairs. Each ¡°box¡± had patio-like protrusions hanging off of them, which were held onto the box by pillars that looked a little like tree trunks. Engraved onto the sides of all of the boxes were symbols, but I didn¡¯t know the meaning of them nor did I really care all that much. I wasn¡¯t an archeologist or anything of the like.


    The smallest ¡°box¡±, which was about as tall as a three story building and thrice as long, had a large doorway on it. The doorway¡¯s edges were caved in and sharp, almost like something had forced its way into the building and damaged the edges of the door in the process.


    Sitting on either side of the doorway were large statues of some kind of dark gray serpent. They were as large as the doorway, being at least two stories. Both snakes had their tails curved up and around the doorway, almost like a frame of some kind. The snake''s bodies were standing upright, like how I had seene a cobra sit when it was inspecting a potential enemy or prey. They looked fairly similar to actual snakes up to that point, but their heads were where they diverged from the norm.


    Each of the tops of the snakes had three heads, almost like a snakey version of a cerberus. The head on the left and the right on both were opened wide as if they were hissing. Deadly fangs hung from the top of their heads and they seemed to be dripping with something, though I wasn¡¯t sure what. Their eyes were like gems that glowed with a green light, which was the first hint of color I had seen in this unsettling realm.


    The middle head was entirely different. While the other two heads of each snake were normal snake heads like one would find on a snake, the middle snake head had a more draconic look to it. Instead of being flat spade shaped, it was more like a scaly snout connecting back into the head. The middle head on both snakes was closed and their eyes, the same look and color as the hissing heads, seemed to be glaring out at the ice as if offended by something.


    I couldn¡¯t see into the building very well since I was too far away, but it looked like it had some kind of purple green fire glowing inside, which was the second speck of color I had seen in my time here. I listened carefully towards the huge building to see if I could find anything else about the odd place, hearing the breathing sound from before coming out of it. The breathing was loud and sounded labored, almost as if a giant creature was inside sleeping.


    Standing in front of me a little ways back from the building was a statue, but it was of a person and it looked like it was the same kind of material that made up the ice below me. I couldn¡¯t exactly see what the statue looked like, but it had a massive sword next to it and was covered in some kind of armor, also made of the ice. I quickly checked the cooldown on [Shadow Realm] just in case I needed to escape quickly, and crept closer to the ominous temple and frozen statue...

 Chapter 12-Ysakrix

    As I approached the odd ice sculpture, I made sure I didn¡¯t go too close to the temple-like building. As I reached it, being about 150 paces away from the building, I realized that it was of an oliair, a type of bi-pedal creature that inhabited the galaxy. Oliair were known for their purple skin gills on the sides of their neck. They were also known as being really good at fishing, for obvious reasons. If it was a fish, an oliair could get it. They were most prolific on water planets.


    I didn¡¯t quite know how or why there was a sculpture of an oliair here, but I approached closer to investigate. I crept right up to the statue, careful to be monitoring for any signs of danger around me. At the first hint of something coming at me, I was going to use [Dead Eye¡¯s Sight] and [Shadow Realm] in quick succession. The first so I could get an estimation of the power level in this place and the second was so I could escape, obviously.


    The oliair statue was of a female, and she had the tell tale gills and catfish like whiskers that oliair females had. As I looked at her, I had the sneaking suspicion that she was a frozen person and not actually a sculpture like I first assumed due to the amount of detail. The oliair was frozen in a position reaching towards the sky with a look of stark terror on her face. Her arms were reached up and her right arm almost looked like it was trying to pull off her left hand. She was on her knees, so her hands reached just above my head, but close enough for me to reach.


    She was kneeling there, frozen in the same material as the ice. Only, it was just her skin, clothes, and armor that were frozen, allowing me a view directly into her rotted organs and everything else contained in her previous flesh suit.


    Most of the organs were mush and decomposed, but I did see all of her bones and, surprisingly, her heart in perfect condition. The heart was a weird bulbous cube shape, which I wasn¡¯t sure if was natural for oliair to have. Her outer organs, such as eyeballs, nose, and lips were all perfectly preserved in the ice. In fact, if she wasn¡¯t iced over, she would have been an extremely beautiful woman, if you didn¡¯t mind the whiskers and gills.


    Her armor and clothes appeared to be some kind of steel before they were transformed. Her sword, which was as big as her and two times as big as my small frame, was stabbed into the ice, but the ice had no cracks around it anywhere. The large blade was also turned into an ice substance, like the rest of her gear.


    What exactly did this to her? I had never run across anything quite like it. Of course, there were plenty of ice users in the galaxy, but I had never seen someone so perfectly frozen that only their outer layer and about an inch in was frozen. Most ice users just did a solid freeze. On top of that, the ice was completely see through whereas the norm left a white or blue shading to it. Instead of being frozen over, it almost looked like just her outer skin and clothes were replaced with the shadow ice-which was what I had decided to call the weird ice here- entirely and she wasn¡¯t just frozen over with magic like I had previously thought. If her outer layers were indeed just straight up replaced with shadow-ice, that meant that she was probably still alive for a long time after until either her organs froze or she dehydrated. Thankfully, she would¡¯ve been put out of her misery since an oliair could only survive a day without water..


    {Trin¡¯trise Ysile- Oliair - Level: 572 - Deceased}


    I used [Dead Man¡¯s Sight] on the corpse. With about 1/16 of my mana being drained away, I could see information on the person. The skill didn¡¯t work so well on the deceased and non-animate things. It still gave me the base name, but that was about it.


    She was higher than 400, which was the average combat class level. Her level was terrifying since, whatever killed her could probably squash me like a bug. I almost activated [Shadow Realm] instantly upon seeing her level, but I barely restrained myself since I wasn¡¯t in direct danger yet.


    I looked at Ysile-oliair used a last name first name system-over one more time to see if I missed anything about her. Looking up at her hands, I saw a small ring on her left index finger that I missed the first time. The only reason that I noticed it was because it was not ice, like the rest of her body. In fact, the ring was a black metal-like substance with a small purple gem slotted on it. Around the perimeter of the ring were words in the same symbol language that was on the walls of the building behind me.


    I grabbed a dagger out from my sheath and lightly poked at the corpse of the oliair to see if it would have a reaction to being touched. The dagger clinked off of the ice without leaving so much as a scratch, notifying me of the ice¡¯s durability, but nothing else happened. Taking that as a green light, since she wouldn¡¯t need it anymore, I reached towards her hand and slowly slipped the ring off while making sure not to touch the corpse directly.


    My hand slipped right as it approached the finger nail, and I accidentally touched the shadow-ice skin of Ysile. Thankfully, nothing happened to me, but I was shocked to find out that the ice was as warm as a normal person, which was weird since the ice should¡¯ve melted at that temperature.


    I pulled the ring off completely and used [Dead Eye¡¯s Sight] once again. About 1/16 of my mana was drained away again. I couldn¡¯t exactly tell the exact number since I didn¡¯t have a class yet and wasn¡¯t technically supposed to have any skills that required mana yet, but going off of how my mana pool felt, I had about 10/16 of my mana left.


    {Ring of Shadow Thievery(orange) (1/100 charges left)}


    I was shocked to see the rating of the ring was legendary. Something so rare was just laying around here¡­ and now it was mine. A content feeling worked its way through me at that thought. It was kinda nice to actually own something valuable. The only problem was that I didn¡¯t know what the ring did or if there were any negatives to wearing it. It wouldn¡¯t be the first time that powerful gear had a curse laid onto it.


    The problem would be fixed if I had a better vision skill-[Dead Eye¡¯s Sight] seemed to only give detailed descriptions on animate creatures and not items-or an inspection gem since I could read the description of the item by using them, but those would be hard to come by hear in the Shadow Realm.


    I gave the ice corpse a last look before approaching the creepy temple. Now that I was closer, the breathing sound was getting louder and louder. I almost completely lost the nerve to approach, but I told myself to keep going until I could at least see a little more inside of the building, then I would use [Shadow Realm] and flee.


    I got close enough to see a little more into the building, and I was shocked at what I saw. I could see the purple-green fire that I saw from before sitting inside of a brazier, and it gave off enough light that I could see inside of the temple clearly. Around the fire on either side was a massive snake body-easily as tall as a story and about as thick- coiled up inside of the building. The scales of the gargantuan creature were a little like the shadow-ice below me, but they had more of a purple tint to them and weren¡¯t see through.


    Facing me on the opposite side of the fire, three heads, like on the statues outside the door, sat. I shuddered slightly as I looked at them. They were big enough to swallow a whale whole, let alone me.


    Did I mention that I was scared of snakes? And spiders, actually, but thankfully there were none of them around here. The fear stemmed from a ¡°vacation¡± that Terry took me on. That trip didn¡¯t end very well for me. Terry ended up throwing me into a coliseum where I had to fight nothing but snakes and spiders for at least a week as ¡°punishment¡± even though I didn¡¯t do anything. It was during that time that I had a strong realization: spiders and snakes were awful. Both were typically poisonous, which was unfortunate, but they both also like to toy with their opponents. The spiders I fought would wrap them up in webbing and try to raise the amount of terror a person felt to ¡°improve the flavor¡±. The snakes would do the same thing, but they had a highly hallucinogenic venom that they used instead of webs.


    I pulled myself out of my thoughts and back to my situation. The serpent, thankfully, seemed to be asleep as all six of its eyes were closed. As the huge creature shifted slightly, breathing noises came from each of the heads. If it wasn¡¯t a snake, the way it breathed would be kinda cute. Each head would take a turn breathing before the next one would breathe. That cuteness was ruined every so often because, along with the breath out, the snake would flick one of its forked tongues out and scent the air before bringing it back in with the next intake.


    I quietly used [Dead Eye¡¯s Sight] while I tried not to move in case the serpent could feel the vibrations through the ice. I didn¡¯t even notice the drain on my mana from the skill since I was preoccupied with the huge snake.


    {[Dead Eye¡¯s Sight] overcomes [Obscuring Suspension]!}


    {Ysakrix- Greater Perma-Shadow-Ice Serpent - Level: 771


    Skill: [Frozen Domain 9]


    Skill: [Obscuring Suspension]


    Skill: [Perm-Freeze 7]


    Skill: [Triple Threat 3]


    Title: [Scourge of Somalspire¡¯s Shadow Sea]}


    What the hell?! No wonder Ysile seemed to died so easily. The huge serpent was nearly three fourths of the way to dietyship in levels! And it seemed like the serpent had some strong skills too! This snake could probably wipe out the planet I came from-I still didn¡¯t know what its name was- in a month if not less.


    While I was having an internal dialogue on the strength of the snake, one of the snake¡¯s eyes snapped open silently and locked onto me with an icy glare. The rest of its eyes followed the first¡¯s example and locked onto me quickly after. Quicker than I ever had before, I noped the hell out of there and instantly used [Shadow Realm].


    I didn¡¯t notice it before, but [Shadow Realm] actually had a cast time. While I was waiting on the skill to finish activating, Ysakrix shot all three of its heads towards me with a loud hiss. Just before the snake heads could snap onto me and tear me to shreds, I felt a sucking sensation and vertigo again right as my vision turned black.


    With my heart pumping my blood a mile a minute, my vision returned to show me that I was back in my room. I collapsed onto my bed as I tried to calm my heart beat down. My thoughts were racing around about the Shadow Realm, but there were two main ones that were more prominent than the rest: the realm was extremely dangerous and there were good rewards to be found there, as evidenced by the ring I had stolen.


    Almost as if to reinforce my thoughts of there being high rewards from the realm, a notification popped up as soon as my heart calmed down.


    [XP Gained]


    [Leveled up!(8>10(level capped)) Received 8 attribute points, 2 Charisma]


    Yes! I finally hit the requirements to get a class! I opened up the first notification to get a more detailed description since I wasn¡¯t sure why I had received it. I was still excited for the levels, especially since they put me over the requirement for my class archetype selection, but I wanted to know why I had received the levels, not just that I got them.


    [Awarded for:


    +Stealing loot from a high leveled enemy with at least a 750 level gap


    +Successful escape with loot


    -Enemy was far away from the loot and asleep upon theft


    -Escape by teleportation


    -No blows were exchanged]


    That makes sense. I did escape from something that was at a way higher level than me, which would have been normally extremely difficult. On top of escaping, I also apparently stole the [Ring of Shadow Thievery] from the creature. The system took into consideration the circumstances and reduced the amount of XP I received, which was fair. The reason that the system took the circumstances into consideration was to prevent powerleveling, or the forceful leveling of a lower leveled person by a higher leveled person.Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.


    [Kali Vexia- Wolfkin - Level: 10(Pick!)


    Titles:


    [Rescuer]


    Strength- 20


    Intelligence- 12


    Dexterity- 20 (+45)


    Endurance- 20


    Charisma- 27


    ( () = gear boosts)


    Unique:


    [Gambler]


    Racial:


    [Luna], [Shift]


    Charisma:


    [Animal Handling 1], [Overload 1], [Fleet Foot], [Toughen Up 1], [Abnormal Status Resistance], [Shadow Realm], [Dead Eye¡¯s Sight]


    Other:


    [Falsification 1]


    Time- 2 years]


    I took a look at my status, and decided I wouldn¡¯t spend the eight free attribute points that I had received quite yet. I would first select my class before I spent them so that I could maximize my power strength. I mentally selected (Pick!) next to my level.


    To my immediate confusion. I was prompted by the Records again instead of giving my class options. It took a minute to remember that I could also evolve.


    [Pick Evolution(Current:Dire Wolf Pup(Alpha))]


    [Pick Class(Current: None)]


    Seeing the prompt cleared up some things for me. The main thing cleared was why I was able to evolve and pick a class. It seemed like the Records were confusing my wolf form and my humanoid form as two separate entities when they were actually one and the same. Since the wolf form was an animal, it was given the option to evolve while my humanoid form was given the option for a class, but since both forms were still me, I was given both options.


    I tapped on the Evolution selection first since I was curious to see what it would be like.


    [Pick One:


    Alpha Dire Wolf


    Hunter Dire Wolf


    Alpha Wolf


    Guardian Spirit


    Shadow Dire Wolf


    Shadow Wolf]


    I expanded the prompts to give me a more detailed explanation on what each evolution was. I also instantly eliminated Alpha Wolf and Shadow Wolf as options since they were downgrades from other races in my list.


    [Pick One:


    Alpha Dire Wolf


    -The leaders of their pack, Alpha Dire Wolf are well known as being a tough foe to conquer. As an Alpha Dire Wolf, you will be able to lead your own pack of wolves. The Alpha Dire Wolf is also typically stronger, faster, and smarter than its brethren, allowing it to remain the undisputed ruler of its pack


    -Cause:


    -Race is a Dire Wolf Pup(Alpha)


    Hunter Dire Wolf


    -The head predators of the dire wolves, Hunter Dire Wolves are well known as being the most ferocious hunter in a dire wolf pack. They have the increased ability to track and stalk any prey until they find just the right moment to strike. The Hunter Dire Wolf is a dangerous foe that no one would want chasing them.


    -Cause:


    -Race is a Dire Wolf


    -Has a hunter¡¯s skill([Dead Eye¡¯s Sight])


    -Has solo hunted and killed at least ten deer


    Guardian Spirit


    -The cheerful spiritual being, Guardian Spirits are well known for being helpful to those that enter their favour. While they don¡¯t have a physical body, Guardian Spirits have extremely powerful supportive magic. They are best at helping those that need helping but never actually being in danger themselves since they are spiritual entities. The Guardian Spirit is a friendly ally and friend as long as you are on their good side.


    -Cause:


    -Race is an animal


    -Has a supportive title([Rescuer])


    Shadow Dire Wolf


    -The lonesome predator, Shadow Dire Wolves are not very well known as there are very few that escape from the Shadow Realm Alive. If they were to be known for anything, however, it would be their affinity for shadow magic and their ability to stalk while undetected. Shadow Dire Wolves, unlike the other lupine creatures, are solitary creatures. Like the other creatures of the Shadow Realm, they typically hold a deep loathing towards creatures not of their realm. The Shadow Dire Wolf is one stealthy killer that no one would see coming.


    -Cause:


    -Race is a Dire Wolf


    -Been to the Shadow Realm


    -Has a Shadow Realm skill([Shadow Realm])


    ]


    Hmmm.... There were quite a few good options that I could choose from.... Well, I can only choose one, so I may as well work through a process of elimination.


    Guardian Spirit is out. There would be no way that I would pick that race since they are spiritual beings. As in they don¡¯t have a physical body. If I didn¡¯t have a physical body, how could I eat? Or affect the world around me? I needed a physical body, and I wouldn¡¯t pick an option where I wouldn¡¯t have one.


    That just leaves the three¡­ Alpha Dire Wolf is out. It seems to be more focused towards being apart of a pack and leading, which was something that I didn¡¯t want to do. I wanted to be able to be by myself and not rely on other people. I was sick and tired of not being able to do anything without another person.


    Hunter Dire Wolf was a good option, but I didn¡¯t think I would pick it. The race seemed like it was more geared to, well, hunting. There was nothing wrong with that per say, but I wanted to fight and be in combat, which was different from hunting. If I picked Hunter Dire Wolf, I would most likely be restrained behind having to hunt and not fight.


    So that just left Shadow Dire Wolf. It sounded really good, but I had a few problems with it. Namely that it was a race from the Shadow Realm, the place I just barely escaped from alive less than ten minutes ago, and the description says ¡°Typically hold a deep loathing for creatures not of their realm¡±. This could be nothing, but there was a small chance it would drive me mad. Small chance, but still a chance.


    I thought a lot longer about whether or not I wanted to commit to the race before finally coming to a consensus. I would pick Shadow Dire Wolf. While there was a chance that I could gain mental issues, the Shadow Dire Wolf seemed to be a powerful option, and power was something that I needed if I wanted to fight on the same terms as the gods in five years. I picked Shadow Dire Wolf.


    At first, nothing happened, but then pain started to race through my body like the first time I used shift. Only this time, the pain was much, much worse. Whereas my bones felt like the were being smashed by a sledgehammer previously, they now felt like they were being pulverized by a hundred of the galaxy''s strongest people. A worming sensation started to rise up in my stomach, making me feel like puking. As quickly as I could, I made my way to the window on the opposite side of my room from the door and held my head out. I just barely made it before blood started pouring out of my mouth in waves.


    I continued to hold over the edge of the window as my entire body felt like the definition of agony. My skin, like last time, was being torn to shreds. This time, however, it was due to shattered bone shards forcing their way out all over my body instead of fur. My skin and muscles were ripped to shreds and I was bleeding everywhere, but somehow I was still alive.


    My hair started to fall out into the ocean water below me as I continued to throw up blood and chunks of what I thought were half liquified organs, but I was in too much pain to tell. I continued to bleed profusely as my body went through agonizing changes one after the other, all ending in blood and chunks of my body falling out the window or onto the floor. It was a cruel torture to stay alive and consicious while my entire body was destroyed.


    At least an hour later, I was curled up into a ball by the window as the last wave of excruciating changes wracked my body. I coughed up a little bit more of black blood before I slumped to the floor, utterly exhausted. During the entire evolution process, I was forced to stay awake by the system, so I felt every single unbearably painful change.


    I didn¡¯t know what exactly physically had changed, but I knew there must¡¯ve been huge changes. I knew mainly due to the fact that I was still alive. I swear over the course of the hour, at least two gallons of blood came out of me. On top of the blood loss, all of my bones felt like they were shattered and rejected out of my body. As if that wasn¡¯t worse enough, I must¡¯ve thrown up at least half of my organs at one point! Even my tail and ears weren¡¯t spared and almost felt like they fell off of my body!


    I shakily stood up and looked around me. Pieces of bone, blood, and skin were all around me, but they were slowly shrinking. As I watched, the old pieces of my body faded to nothingness around me. At that point, I noticed a string of notifications from the Records.


    [Evolution Complete! New Race: Wolfkin(Shadow Dire Wolf)]


    [Racial Skill Obtained: [Shadow Manipulation 1]]


    [Racial Skill Obtained: [Rage of the Abyss]]


    I only managed to read the first one before I was overcome by an intense wrath for everyone and everything around me. I couldn¡¯t explain it, but I just felt like everything around me should just die with as much pain as possible. They should feel what I felt during my evolution. Only then would I be satisfied with the waste of space''s deaths! Wait! No, that¡¯s not how I felt-Their death¡¯s would bring me such anguish happiness. I know! I could start with that elf! That idiot would let me get close enough to sink my fangs into her without any hassle¡­


    Saliva started to drop out of my mouth as I stood up and made my way to the door in anticipation of what was what to come. Almost as if she sensed my intentions, my friend the dumb elf knocked onto my door and entered into it.


    She gasped when she saw me for some reason, but I was too busy trying to control myself plotting her demise to really pay much attention to what she was thinking about me. I would hate to hurt her enjoy her screams immensely.


    I took a step forward before my head felt like it started to explode. It was like forty bombs went off all at once. My thoughts of killing Illway were driven out by the pain. Thankfully, the pain didn¡¯t hurt nearly as bad as when I evolved, but it still hurt! As if hearing my complaints, the pain abruptly ended and a notification came through.


    [Skill: Abnormal Status Resistance: [Rage of the Abyss] has had its effectiveness cut by 90%]


    As I saw that notification, all the tiredness and weariness from the evolution hit me all at once like the notification was some kind of catalyst. I collapsed back onto the ground barely a few steps away from where I had felt the worst pain in my life. The last thing I saw before darkness claimed me was Princess Illway running over to me with a worried look on her face as she called out, ¡°Kila! Kila, are you okay? Stay with me¡­¡±

 Chapter 13-Class

    After that point, my memories were extremely fuzzy over what happened. For the most part, I thought I was asleep for a long time. I remembered waking up in different places, confused as to what happened each time.


    At one point I was in a carriage, being jumbled about as the horses pulled it along. The inside was nice, I think, but it had a weird smoky scent in it. After that, I was in a castle of some kind. It had a lot of stone work, but I couldn¡¯t remember any more about it. A while after the castle, I awoke to find myself lying in Princess Illway''s lap as she stroked my hair. She was quietly humming a tune that lulled me back to rest.


    I finally fully awoke sometime later. I woke up to find myself inside a large room that was like the ship''s room, but not. It was alike since the room I was in was made entirely of wood, but the wood wasn''t planks. The walls of the room seemed to be an extremely smooth bark of some kind, though I didn¡¯t know what tree they came from. The floor and ceiling were really odd for a room. They were both wood, like everything else, but the wood had large rings oddly placed around.


    In the room, there was a large bed, a couple of couches, a table and chair, a mirror, an armoire, and even a large grandfather clock ticking quietly in the corner. The furniture of the room, to no surprise, was also made out of fine wood and had artistic markings all over them. However, the furniture was a darker shade of wood than the rest of the room. I had no idea what wood it was, but if I was pressed I would hazard a guess that the wood was some kind of walnut wood.


    I tried to remember what happened and where I was, confused as I looked around the odd room. The last thing I remembered was coming back from the Shadow Realm¡­ My memories came back and hit me like an f178 laser cannon. I wish I didn¡¯t remember, but the memories of the never-ending pain and the seething hatred became fresh in my mind.


    Noticing I had a few notifications from the Records, I opened them up.


    [Skill: [Shift] has reacted to race change! [Shift] has changed to [Shadow Shift]!]


    [Skill: [Rage of the Abyss] had reacted to [Abnormal Effects Resistance]! [Rage of the Abyss] has had its effects permanently reduced by 90%!]


    [Item: [Mask of the Wolf Pup(purple)] has reacted with race change! Item has been changed to [Mask of the Shadow Wolf]!]


    I pulled up my status to see what all has changed.


    [Kali Vexia- Wolfkin(Shadow Dire Wolf) - Level: 10(Pick!)


    Mana- 60/60


    Titles:


    [Rescuer]


    8 free points


    Strength- 20


    Intelligence- 12


    Dexterity- 20 (+45)


    Endurance- 20


    Charisma- 27


    ( () = gear boosts)


    Unique:


    [Gambler]


    Racial:


    [Luna], [Shadow Shift], [Rage of the Abyss(tamed)], [Shadow Manipulation 1]


    Charisma:


    [Animal Handling 1], [Overload 1], [Fleet Foot], [Toughen Up 1], [Abnormal Status Resistance], [Shadow Realm], [Dead Eye¡¯s Sight]


    Other:


    [Falsification 1]


    Time- 2 years]


    Well, a couple of my skills changed, I had some free attribute points left over, and I still had to pick a class, but otherwise? Nothing really changed all that much. Of course, I was curious about my new skill, so I pulled up the descriptions of all of my new abilities.


    {Ability: Shadow Shift(Racial): Changes forms to that of a humanoid wolfkin if in Shadow Wolf form, or changes to Shadow Wolf form if in a humanoid form.}


    It didn¡¯t look like [Shift] had changed all that much, just that I no longer turned into a normal Dire Wolf like I did previously.


    {Ability: Rage of the Abyss(Racial): As a creature from the Shadow Realm, it is in your blood to absolutely despise those not of your realm and relish in their misery. (Reduced effects due to [Abnormal Affect Resistance]) As a creature from the Shadow Realm, you have a lower tolerance for those not of your realm. Also, you may or may not be prone to slight sadistic tendencies from time to time.}


    Wow... this seems more like a curse than an ability. This was probably what was driving me to want to kill Princess Illway. Man am I glad that I have [Abnormal Affect Resistance] now. I can¡¯t believe that I thought the skill was useless. What was I thinking?! The resistance skill just saved my tail from going on an attempted murder spree of everything around me!


    {Ability: Shadow Manipulation 1: The user can slightly control the shadows around them.}


    I didn''t really know what to think of this skill yet. It sounded like it could be powerful. The ability to wield shadows would benefit an assassin immensely. Just imagine an assassin or a thief that could never be seen because the shadows constantly wrapped around them. It definitely seemed impressive.


    Also, I can finally pick a class! I didn¡¯t beforehand since I was busy bleeding everywhere, but now I could. I mentally selected the (Pick!) and a menu showed up.


    [Select Type:


    Combat


    Non-combat]


    I obviously selected Combat. This entire second life would have been a waste otherwise. Sure there were powerful non-combat classed people, but it took longer and wasn¡¯t near as easy for a non-combat classed person to become proficient in combat.


    [Select Archetype:


    Warrior


    Barbarian


    Monk


    Bard


    Paladin


    Druid


    Cleric


    Warlock


    Mage


    Ranger


    Rogue]


    Those were the three same archetypes that everyone on this planet started from. The list of available class options was heavily dependent upon the environment and the Records of a person. For example, magic terrestrial planets such as this one would show almost the same list as mine. Tech galactic planets, however, would show things more along the lines of [Esper], [Gunslinger], [Technomancer], [Pugilist], and many more depending on the circumstances of a person.


    Once a person goes to their first class evolutions at level 20, the class would become more personalized, but for now I would have to pick a normal archetype and work my way up. This choice was extremely important since it would decide the entirety of my future. Depending on what class I picked, I would have different options and skills further down the line.


    [Select Archetype:


    Warrior


    -The masters of arms and armors, Warriors are frontline fighters heavily focused on mastery with their chosen weaponry. The Warrior is a close-combat fighter that can really mess up your day.


    Barbarian


    -The rage filled fighters, Barbarians are frontline fighters like the Warrior, but they rely less on weaponry and armor and more on their rage. By channeling their rage, the barbarian can take a hundred more hits and deal a hundred times more damage before they are taken down. The Barbarian is a rageful contestant that would just as soon axe a question than ask it.


    Monk


    -The masters of martial arts, Monks are melee fighters that can channel their spiritual perfection into each and every fight. Although their spirit is a strong ally, a monk¡¯s true weapon is their very body typically trained near religiously in the pursuit of perfection. The Monk is a perfect example of ¡°killing with kindness¡¯ as they gift punch and knuckle sandwiches to their foes.


    Bard


    -The master of music, Bards are a mixture of skillful combat and powerful support. Bards usually focus on playing music that can boost their allies strengths while confounding their enemies. The Bard is an inspirational mage who uses the music of creation or destruction to manipulate the battlefield.


    Paladin


    -The holy warrior, Paladins are known for their stalwart belief in their faith. They are frontline attackers that can boost their allies with supportive magic. They are devout believers in what they believe in, whether that be a deity or an ideal. The Paladin is a slayer of heretics and a beacon of belief to all those nearby.


    Druid


    -The tree hugger, Druids are worshippers of all things natural. They are typically spellcasters, friends with natures, and are able to adopt the attributes of nature in combat. The Druid is a strong wielder of the powers of nature and are ready to smite those who harm it.


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    Cleric


    -The priestly champion, Clerics take to the battlefield with their strong beliefs of higher powers. They are devout followers of deities and could do anything from raise the dead to calling down the wrath of the gods. The Cleric is a strong champion of a deity ready to enforce their god¡¯s will at any moment.


    Warlock


    -The bargainer, Warlocks are strong magic users. They receive and keep their magic through the will of a higher power. As long as they follow their contract, warlocks are powerful magic casters that can take down the toughest of foes. The Warlocks are the hound dogs to higher magic, eager to please their masters.


    Mage


    -The powerful magic caster, Mages control the battlefield through powerful spells and magic. With their magic derived through either intensive studies or innate talent, mages are a foe to be reckoned with. The Mage is the ruler of all things magic.


    Ranger


    -The trackers and hunters, Rangers are known for combating the threats that lay on the edges of civilization. With their ability to track down their foes, Rangers are dominant stalkers that can take down a threat. The Ranger is a hunter of the highest caliber.


    Rogue


    -The thieves and scouts, Rogues are well known for their opportunistic attacks on unsuspecting foes. By using trickery and stealth, the rogue could sneak up behind their enemy before they even realize what is happening. The Rogue is a ruthless fighter capable of dealing horribly brutal blows.


    ]


    There were quite a few options, but I could already see at least three that I wouldn¡¯t pick no matter what. They were [Cleric], [Paladin], and [Warlock]. I wouldn¡¯t pick them because they all relied heavily on higher powers or deities to follow. If I was just a follower, then how could I expect to be at my peak when the Cataclysm of the Gods started?


    The next two to be dropped off of my list were [Bard] and [Druid]. Being either would force me to take a more supportive role in a situation, which was something that I definitely didn¡¯t want to happen. I wanted to be free with how I acted without having to rely on anyone else.


    That just left the [Warrior], [Barbarian], [Monk], [Mage], [Ranger], and [Rogue] in the running. As I stared at my choices, I decided to eliminate the first three from the running. This was due to the fact that they would require me to be up close and personal. While that wasn¡¯t a problem here, guns existed in the galaxy that could destroy me before I got close. Sure there were probably skills that would help me in the situation that guns were involved, but I would rather not take that chance.


    I had a hard time with the last three, but I eventually decided to eliminate [Ranger]. This was due to me having heard that they were heavily focused on hunting down a specific prey that they had an advantage in attacking. While this wasn''t necessarily bad, it meant that I would be weaker against any enemy not of the specific type.


    Between the last two, I finally decided to pick [Mage]. The problem with all of the classes except for mage was that they would lose a lot of their effectiveness when I reached space, which was unfortunate. The classes would still work, for instance Ranger would become Marksman or something along those lines, but they wouldn¡¯t be near as good. For the most part, they would lose out on their beginning perks and skills since they just weren¡¯t as viable anymore.


    The Mage, however, would hopefully allow me to adapt to nearly any situation since the skills from the class could be used all the way up the ladder. I would never not need the skills as they were fairly important.


    [Class Pick Complete! New class: Mage]


    [Skill Obtained: Mana Manipulation 1: The ability to manipulate mana.]


    [Skill Obtained: Mana Sense 1: The ability to sense mana.]


    These two typically came together and they were a hard requirement for doing anything with magic while not being regulated strictly by a skill. It was nice to have them and they would benefit me immediately.


    [Skill Obtained: Research 1: Topics researched are more likely to be helpful.]


    Well that was informative. As much as I want to call it a useless skill, my run in with [Abnormal Effects Resistance] had changed my mind about labeling anything as useless. Who knows, maybe this could save my life someday!


    [Detecting Race¡­]


    [Race Detected! Additional Skill Obtained: Shadow Magic 1: Controlling shadows through magic]


    This was¡­ useless. I know that I said I changed my mind about labeling, but this seemed like it was just a worse skill than [Shadow Manipulation 1]. I hope it isn¡¯t useless...


    [Kali Vexia- Wolfkin(Shadow Dire Wolf) - Mage - Level: 10


    80/80


    Titles:


    [Rescuer]


    Strength- 20


    Intelligence- 20


    Dexterity- 20 (+45)


    Endurance- 20


    Charisma- 27


    ( () = gear boosts)


    Unique:


    [Gambler]


    Racial:


    [Luna], [Shadow Shift], [Rage of the Abyss(tamed)], [Shadow Manipulation 1]


    Skills:


    [Animal Handling 1], [Overload 1], [Fleet Foot], [Toughen Up 1], [Abnormal Status Resistance], [Shadow Realm], [Dead Eye¡¯s Sight], [Mana Manipulation 1], [Mana Sense 1], [Research], [Shadow Magic 1], [Mana Pool]


    Other:


    [Falsification 1]


    Time- 2 years]


    As I looked at my class, I decided to finally bump up my intelligence to twenty with my eight points since mana was about to become extremely important in my life as a mage.


    [Skill Obtained: Mana Pool: Intelligence has two times the effect on mana(80>160)]


    At long last, I was nearing the end of the notifications. I just had two left.


    [Leveled up!(10>13) Received 12 attribute points, 3 Charisma]


    Dang, I was hoping that my race change would also change my attribute distribution, but it seemed that my attributes were tied to my Wolfkin race and not actually my Shadow Dire Wolf race. Unfortunate, but expected.


    I put five into intelligence to get even more mana, five into strength for increased power in case I needed to defend myself, and two into endurance so I wouldn¡¯t be a glass cannon. I had seen some people who never put anything into endurance, and they never ended up being alive at the end of a fight. Even if they weren¡¯t hit directly, all it took was one area attack anywhere nearby to snuff out those idiots¡¯ lives.


    [Item: [Mask of the Wolf Pup(purple)] has reacted with race change and class change! Item has been changed to [Mask of the Shadow Wolf]!]


    [Mask of the Shadow Wolf(Purple)


    Skill: Wolf¡¯s Growth: This mask will grow with the owner and their actions.


    Skill: Wolf¡¯s Blindness: Gives the skill [Falsification] to the owner. Additionally, the mask will be unable to be inspected unless the owner gives express permission.


    Skill: Wolf¡¯s Agility: Increase the owner¡¯s dexterity by five per level.


    Skill: Wolf''s Howl: All lupine creatures that can hear your howl will submit to your authority. The creatures still have their free will and can decide not to listen, but they will be likely to listen. The command can be anything, but if it is against the creature¡¯s common sense, the command will be ignored.


    Bound Owner: Kali Vexia]


    Not going to lie, I kinda forgot about the mask. It wasn¡¯t because of anything major, but I just hadn¡¯t been in the right situation to wear it. Maybe I would if it gained some skills that could only be used while wearing the mask, but I probably wouldn¡¯t wear it until then unless I was trying to hide my face.


    Now that I had cleared all of the notifications, I sagged down onto the bed as I began to wonder where exactly I was. The last thing I remembered was that carriage ride, but I wasn¡¯t sure where I was currently.


    I stood up from the bed, limping slightly as I did since my legs were sore for some reason, and made my way to the mirror. I was very interested in the effects of my evolution, especially since I remembered nearly if not all of my skin falling off at one point or another.


    The mirror was fairly simple. It was the normal reflective glass in the middle, but the outer frame was molded from silver. The silver was forged in such a way that it looked like a tree trunk. It had silver leaves spurting out of the sides in weird intervals, further showing off the point of the frame being a tree trunk.


    Shock was the dominant emotion in me as I looked at myself. As I looked at the person- me, there were nearly no similarities between the new me and the old me other than my tail and ears.


    Whereas I previously had had vibrant emerald green eyes that seemed to brighten the closer the color got to the pupil, my eyes had entirely changed. They were now a black color, but closer to the pupil they changed into a amethyst violet color. My hair, like what I had before, dropped down to about the middle of my back. It was the same color, void black, but it had streaks of violet, the same color as my eyes, running throughout. There also seemed to be wispy shadows wafting off of it. I couldn¡¯t really tell since every time I tried to watch for them, they would disappear, but I saw the wispy shadows out of the corner of my eye. They were kind of like a ghost, constantly hiding from my direct sight. My skin color stayed mostly the same, but there were barely discernible black dots that looked almost scattered onto me.


    My face still looked young, but I was definitely older looking. If I had to guess, I would say I looked around seventeen or eighteen. My skin was still porcelain like white, but my nose had definitely changed. It was button-like, but it had a slightly more prominent bridge and the nostrils flared out a little more.


    I smiled at the mirror to see my teeth. My two canines were a little bigger, and they would definitely be noticed if I opened my mouth. My molars were completely gone leaving only sharp teeth behind. I guess vegetables are out of my diet now. Each tooth had a small violet shade at the tip, which was a little bit weird.


    As I looked at my teeth, I realized I would have to be more careful with my tongue. It would be a breaze to accidentally cut myself on one of them. Speaking of tongues, mine was¡­ different. It was the same spade shaped pink flesh, but as I moved it out of my mouth, it kept coming. It was long enough that I could lick the bottom of my chin. I would definitely have to be careful with my new tongue.


    My ears were still two wolf-like ears perked up on top of my head, but they were larger than previously and they also had the same shadow wafting effect. This time, however, I could definitely see the wispy shadows floating off of them. I looked at my tail and saw the same shadow wisps floating into oblivion. Both my tail and ears were still void black, but they had violet stripes in them just like my hair.


    Now onto the most important part of my appearance that I noticed. I was taller. Not freakishly tall, but I was definitely at least as tall as an average human. On top of my height changes, I finally had a bust! Not very big, but it was there! That was a huge step up from previously and an even bigger step up from my first life.


    As I looked at the mirror, I felt a sharp pain in my abdomen. It came from right around my kidney, but I wasn¡¯t sure where exactly.


    I faintly heard the padding of footsteps a minute before there was a knock on my door. Before I had time to react, a person entered. The person was a female elf, but she looked old. That was a surprise since every elf I had seen looked like they were still in their twenties. She had grandmotherly wrinkles creasing her forehead and smile marks around her eyes. Her face dropped a bit, but otherwise kept up with the sharp features of the elves. Her ears pointed sharply out of her long grey hair.


    She had a long white skirt with a blue dress shirt. On top of the dress shirt, a white scarf hung down with red crosses embossed onto it. I used [Dead Eye¡¯s Sight] as I looked at her. I felt a drain in my mana and checked to see that only five left me. I still had 195 mana left, which I could use to escape using [Shadow Realm] in the worst case scenario.


    {Lucrain Yorg- Elf - Grand Healer - Level: 57


    Skill: [Healing Hands MAX]


    Skill: [Light''s Shield 5]


    Skill: [Flash Bang 2]


    Skill: [Healer¡¯s Recuperation 9]


    Title: [The Royal Saviour]}


    She was definitely higher than me, but that wouldn¡¯t stop me from trying to take her down in a fight. Just because she was higher didn¡¯t mean she would win, especially since she was a healer. Healers were focused on healing, not attacking. I had a slim chance if I played my cards right.


    She looked at the bed in confusion for a second before noticing me near the mirror. A delighted expression overcame her wrinkles before she pointed at the bed and ordered gently, ¡°I¡¯m glad you¡¯re up deary, but you should really be laying down. Why don¡¯t you go back so I can do a checkup real quick?¡±


    At her words, I was instantly put on guard. What she said sounded a lot like how the scientists would talk to me before subjecting me to long ¡°check-ups¡± that ended with me being left beaten and bloody for ¡°science¡±.


    ¡°Who are you and where am I?¡± I asked as I backed up towards the mirror. In the worst case scenario, I could break it for a glass shard and use the shard as an improvised weapon to slice into her sweat elven flesh.


    The old elf, seemingly having noticed my defensiveness, raised her hands and backed towards the door as she answered me, ¡°I am the Royal Healer Lucrain. The Princess brought you to me in the Royal Capitol of Walpist. You were extremely injured internally and your body wasn¡¯t accepting any healing magic, so she brought you to me in hopes I could help.¡±


    At hearing that I was in the Royal Capital and that Illway brought me here, I relaxed slightly as it confirmed some of my memories. I wasn¡¯t entirely relaxed, however, since this could all just be an elaborate ploy to get me to lower my guard. You could never be too safe in the galaxy or anywhere, really.


    ¡°Where is Princess Illway then?¡± I asked. The only way to be a hundred percent sure of what was happening was to see a familiar face.


    ¡°She is probably speaking with her mother, the Queen. I would take you to them, but I¡¯m worried about internal rupturing. You were only just starting to heal when I got back.¡± Lucrain tried to placate me.


    ¡°I¡¯m fine.¡± I was definitely not fine. I thought my kidney was bleeding. ¡°Just take me to them.¡±


    Lucrain approached once more, ¡°Deary, I don¡¯t think that is such a good idea. Why don¡¯t you just lay back do-¡±


    ¡°Lucrain,¡± I cut her off with a deep guttural growl that seemed to come from my wolf side, ¡°Take. Me. To. Them. I will be fine.¡± She was a higher level than me, but that didn¡¯t stop me from trying to give her an order. She could probably snap me like a twig, but I would put up a good fight to hear her sweat succulent screams.


    She looked like she wanted to argue more, but she dropped her head and just sighed, ¡°Fine. Follow me to the Queen¡¯s office. They should be there, but they might also be in the throne room along with the rest of the nobles.¡± The way she said nobles was like she was sick just thinking about them.


    She walked out the large wooden door without a second glance at me. Occasionally she would mumble her distaste over the nobles, but otherwise left me to my own devices. I, of course, followed her out instead of just sitting around in my room. If worst comes to come, I was confident in my ability to escape using [Shadow Realm].

 Chapter 14-Waking surrounded by weird wood walls

    The hallways I followed her down all looked the same. They were the same wood type of materials that were used in the place I woke up, but they were darker for the most part. Each hallway had at least one painting or suit of armor in it, showing off the history of Walpist, if Lucrain was to be believed.


    We passed by several people as we walked down the halls; most of them were elves although I also saw some dwarves, humans, halfling, and even a minotaur at one point. Most of the people we walked by had fancy or elaborate clothing on, but we also passed by a few that had servants'' clothing on.


    Unfortunately, most of the people we walked by in the beginning witnessed me stumbling about like a drunk fool. My body and tail were larger, which was throwing off my sense of balance and equilibrium. It took me at least ten minutes of walking before I finally was able to walk without nearly tripping.


    It wasn¡¯t long before we reached a large room guarded by two people in red armor on either side of the door. The armor was mostly some kind of red metal, but it was forged in such a way that the metal looked like feathers. On each of their shoulders sat tiny figurines of red eagles. Both had helmets that covered all but a tiny sliver around their eyes and had small wings that started at the brow and curved back before sticking out right around where their ears would be. They both snapped to attention as they saw us approaching.


    ¡°Good morning, is the Queen in?¡± Lucrain kindly asked the two.


    ¡°Yes ma¡¯am,¡± a polite sounding voice came from the guard on the right, ¡°But she said to make sure she wasn¡¯t disturbed at all.¡±


    ¡°Can you tell her it¡¯s me and I am here to talk about the patient,¡± she motioned to me standing beside her. Almost as if they just noticed me, both of them stared intensely at me, which was a little unnerving since all I could see through their helmets were their brown eyes boring into me.


    The young one on the right snapped off his almost-glare and knocked on the door before entering. Through the crack of the door, though it was for just a second, I glimpsed a huge set of bookshelves filled to the brim with books.


    A few moments, which were uncomfortable for me since the remaining red armored person just kept staring as if they didn¡¯t have any social skills, the young guard returned. He held the door open for us and motioned for us to come in, ¡°The Queen will see you now.¡±


    Lucrain walked into the room and I followed behind her. The room on the other side of the door was a large study. Bookshelves lined every wall except the back, which was dominated by a window. The shelves were disorderly at best, with books haphazardly slung about everywhere. In the middle of all the books were two sofas on either side of a coffee table. Back closer to the window sat a rather large desk covered in various papers.


    Illway was sitting on one of the couches, looking very anxious. She was rocking a little bit as if to calm her nerves, but it didn¡¯t look like the rocking was helping. Opposite her sat a young elf that looked like she could¡¯ve been Illway¡¯s sister. She had the same sparkling green eyes, but her hair was curly whereas Illway¡¯s was straighter. The elf seemed to give off an intimidating and regal presence.


    Upon noticing our arrival, Princess Illway immediately jumped up and looked like she wanted to rush and give me a hug, but she stopped herself before she could. I could see desire battling with a careful cautiousness in her eyes as she asked, ¡°Kali? Is that you?¡±


    ¡°Of course Princess Illway, who else would I be?¡± I asked jokingly as I nodded. I could feel my tail waving happily behind me at her not being entirely clueless at who I was since I had changed so much, but I chose to ignore it. That traitorous limb didn¡¯t deserve any attention.


    Illway lept towards me and hugged me tightly as she started to sniffle. ¡°Thank goodness! I-I walked into your room and found you surrounded by a pool of blood and completely different. If it wasn¡¯t for your tail and ears, I would have thought you were someone else. And then you had a feral look in your eyes as you glared at me before screaming and fainting. I d-didn¡¯t know what to do. I didn¡¯t want to lose one of my last friends...¡±


    I patted her back as gently as I could. ¡°I¡¯m okay princess, it was just an¡­ unfortunate thing I had to deal with.¡±


    ¡°Ahem!¡± I heard from in front of me. I looked up to see who I assumed was the Queen sitting there while watching us. If I didn¡¯t see the faint smile on her lips, I would have assumed she was angry at being excluded since the rest of her face resembled a stone statue. ¡°Daughter of mine, who is this?¡±


    Yep, she was definitely the queen. Typically, at least in my last life, I would bow or get on a knee before royalty or other important figures. This time, however, I felt no such urge. In fact, I had a feeling that kneeling was against my nature, which was an odd thing to feel considering my forced occupation before I died.


    Illway dried up her tears and grabbed my hand. She proceeded to tug me over to the couch and pull me onto it with her. She pulled me down so quickly that I didn¡¯t have time to adjust and I sat on my tail¡­ yeah, that hurt. That hurt quite a lot, actually. I tried not to show a hurt expression, but I definitely felt tears in my eyes.


    Illway happily proclaimed to her mother, almost as if her previous crying didn¡¯t even happen, ¡°This is the one I told you about! The young girl that helped me escape. Her name is Kali Vexia and she is a Wolfkin or something like that. Kali,¡± Illway turned to me, ¡°This is my mother, Queen Ysifel of Walpist.¡±


    Before anyone else could say something, Lucrain spoke up from her bowing position by the door, ¡°My Queen, may I be dismissed? I have other patients to tend to.¡±


    ¡°By all means. Go see your other patients,¡± She waited for Lucrain to leave before turning to me. As she looked at me, I noticed that most of her attention was on my ears and tail, which I was getting used to, ¡°I must thank you for rescuing my daughter from her imprisonment. I¡¯ve heard from my little brother that you were of great help to him.¡±


    ¡°I was just in the right place at the right moment to help out.¡± I tried to underplay my accomplishments a little bit. While I did help, I really didn¡¯t do all that much. I just broke into a building.


    ¡°Hmmm¡­ so you say. Now then, what is it that you want?¡± The Queen asked me with a deadly serious expression.


    I had no clue what she was talking about, ¡°Pardon?¡±


    A smile was on her face, but it seemed a little too cold for me, ¡°Well you must¡¯ve wanted something in exchange for helping my daughter. Why else would you risk life and limb?¡±


    ¡°Mother! We talked about this-¡± Illway tried to placate her mother, but was instead cut off.


    ¡°Hush now dear. We have talked about this. I heard your side, so now I want to hear hers. So?¡± That last question was directed towards me.


    I tried to figure out what to say, but eventually decided to go with the truth even if it seemed a little unbelievable , ¡°Nothing. Like I said, right place and right time.¡±


    Queen Ysifel looked unconvinced, ¡°If you didn¡¯t want anything, then why did you help?¡±


    ¡°I was once the victim of slavery¡­ All I ever wanted was a hero to come and save me. Then he finally came and saved me, just as I hoped. It wasn¡¯t a day later that he snapped a collar around my neck himself.¡± Wow, that dredged up some memories. All bad. As I thought about the past, a spiteful rage started to take root in me completely free from [Rage of the Abyss]. I would find that scumbag and make sure he wished he was never born. Just as soon as I got off of this planet.


    Queen Ysifel used some kind of magic on me. It must have been a truth spell, since the Queen¡¯s face softened a little bit as she nodded, ¡°I can understand that¡­ my apologies for questioning you, but I needed to make sure of your intentions.¡±


    I felt Princess Illway¡¯s hand on my tail as she pulled it into her lap. It was an odd feeling having my tail stroked, but it wasn¡¯t at all unpleasant, ¡°I¡¯m sorry Kali, she can be a little overprotective sometimes.¡±


    I pushed my emotions, which seemed to be a lot more liberated recently, back down inside as I shrugged off her concern, ¡°It¡¯s okay. I¡¯m sure my mother would have been the same.¡± Except, I didn¡¯t have a mother per say¡­ In this life I kinda just materialized, but in the other I was made in a lab. In fact, I should have just been liberated from there if the timeline held up. Wait¡­ was there another me right now? The artificial fallen angel me? Were there two of me? I really needed to get off this planet and investigate¡­ It would be weird to have two of me in the same place.The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.


    ¡°Well then, Illway tells me that you are some kind of wolf? I can see the tails and ears, but how exactly does that work? My apologies if I am being rude by asking.¡± The Queen tried to change the topic.


    Princess Illway jumped at the chance, ¡°Yes! And how did you change so much? I literally saw you less than seven hours before I walked into your room.¡±


    ¡°Where do I begin? For starters, I am a Wolfkin. I''m like a wolf given human form if that makes sense¡­¡± I continued on to tell them everything I knew about myself. Of course, I kept some things a secret such as the Shadow Realm and how I changed so much due to an evolution. While it wasn¡¯t unusual for a monster to be sapient and friendly, it was unusual for a monster to also have a class or a person to have evolutions before level one hundred.


    I got out of talking about my evolution by telling them that my body and soul had been cursed and it only partially released after I had gained my levels back. It was a bit of a terrible lie, but it worked thankfully for some reason. I got a notification right as I told the lie.


    [Skill Obtained: Deception 1: Your lies are slightly more believable]


    Nice! I had forgotten there for a minute, but now that I had a class again, I could start to learn more skills, such as [Deception], [Thievery], [Swordsmanship], and many more. From my understanding, the Records had it set so that unclassed people couldn¡¯t learn the ¡°common¡± skills. This was mainly so that children wouldn¡¯t be able to become super powerful right after they were born and instead had a ¡®maturing¡¯ period until they hit level ten. Don¡¯t let my jump in levels fool you, getting to level ten naturally was usually very difficult to do for children. I just happened to be blessed with good luck and being in the right place at the right time, just like I told Queen Ysifel.


    As I was finishing up my over dramatized tale, both the elves captivated by my words, a knock came from the door. Through it a male voice called out, ¡°My Queen, your meeting with the high nobles has come. I know you may detest dealing with them, but they are partly your responsibility!¡±


    Queen Ysifel yelled out towards the door in an aggravated voice as she shot me an apologetic smile, ¡°I¡¯m coming Terrance. I''ll be out in a few minutes.¡± She turned to me and Illway on the couch, ¡°I¡¯m sorry to disrupt your story Kali, but I must go with my daughter to see the high nobles, unfortunately. Here,¡± She reached over to her desk and pulled off a red coin. She then flicked it to me, ¡°Show this to any of the Red Eagles, the guards in red armor, and they will help you out.¡±


    I caught the coin and gave it a quick once over. The coin was red and had a hawk head engraved on one side. On the other sat a massive tree looming over a forest. With my new skills from becoming a mage, I could feel the slightest trickle of mana inside of the coin.


    [Skill: [Mana Sense 1]: Level up!(1>2)]


    The Queen stood up and walked over to the door with her daughter. She opened it up and called one of the Red Eagles to her. It was the one on the left that didn¡¯t speak when I first entered. ¡°Delora, take Kali Vexia,¡± She pointed at me on the couch, ¡°and take her anywhere she wants to go. She has full permission to visit anywhere in the city.¡±


    ¡°Yes my lady,¡± the female guard saluted Queen Ysifel and Princess Illway as they headed towards the door.


    Queen Ysifel walked out immediately, but Illway turned back to me before walking out completely. She waved and smiled brightly, ¡°See you later Kali.¡± She then escaped from my vision and trotted behind her mother.


    The Red Eagle turned to me and froze for a second before asking, ¡°Anywhere in particular you want to go?¡±


    Well, there were lots of places I wanted to go. Now that I had finally found a safe enough place, at least for now, I could stop focusing on survival needs and find things that I wanted. For example, I wanted better weaponry and some knowledge about this world. Then I could see about getting comfort items to make my time more bearable.


    I thought briefly about my first priority before nodding towards the elf. As I did, my right ear flopped down and covered one of my eyes in the shadowy aura it was emitting, reminding me that I also needed to experiment with my new shadow powers and body. Knowing my body was really important. For instance, say I was in the middle of a fight and my ear flopped down like it just did, then I would be blind for a few seconds which could be devastating. All I needed to die again was a single blade to the heart while I was distracted.


    ¡°Yes, I would like to go to a library or something of the like if there is one?¡± My words came out as more of a question than I intended. Almost as if sensing the questioning tone, my head tilted slightly sideways without me even noticing it until it was too late.


    ¡°Wow, you really are like a wolf¡­¡± The guard mumbled quietly. If it wasn¡¯t for my improved hearing, I wouldn¡¯t have even heard her. I chose to ignore the content of her statement. I would have to get used to such things until I could use some kind of illusion magic. Illusion magic wouldn¡¯t be hard since I knew a little bit in my last life, but I would need to sit down and practice it.


    ¡°Sorry, what was that?¡±


    The guard tensed up for a second before shaking her head, ¡°It was nothing. If you would follow me, I¡¯ll take you to the Royal Library. It is the biggest Library on the planet aside from maybe the Great Northern Lich Siko.¡±


    Who was the Siko person? I had never heard of them, but I had heard of what they were. A lich was an undead being. They tended to be extremely strong when it came to necromancy, but had weak bodies. In order to gain eternal life, the liches typically sacrificed their very humanity. I would love to meet whoever this Siko person is. Maybe they know something about the planet that could help me since most liches only gained the ability to gain entry into lichdom after level two hundred. I was really curious how this Siko person managed to become a lich a full one hundred levels before.


    I followed along behind the Red Eagle Guard, careful to pay attention to all the turns and hallways we took. After nearly ten minutes of straight walking, we finally hit a set of large doors big enough for a giant to walk through. The doors depicted a large tree with books hanging from the limbs instead of fruits. Standing on either side of the door were two Red Eagles on guard duty.


    When they saw my guide, one of them called out in a manly voice while the other stared at me, ¡°Captain Delora! What brings you to this side? Weren¡¯t you assigned to guard the Queen?¡±


    ¡°Yes Zane, but the Queen gave me a new mission to guide this wonderful young woman here,¡± She motioned to me standing beside her, ¡°Commander Morris should be protecting her now since she is with the high nobles.¡± I had absolutely zero idea how they could tell who each other were. All of their armor looked the absolute exact same without any variation aside from the size.


    ¡°I see Captain. Wh-¡±


    Zane was cut off mid sentence by the other guard questioning me, ¡°Are those things real?¡± He was obviously talking about my tail and ears.


    Both Captain Delora, my guide, and Zane, the other guard, looked sharply at the other Red Eagle. Captain Delora said in a strict voice, ¡°How big of an idiot are you Jackil? We¡¯ve talked about this, you can¡¯t just go questioning people about their appearance no matter how they look unless it could potentially threaten the Queen. I''m sure that Lady Vexia is thoroughly offe-¡±


    ¡°It''s fine Captain,¡± I cut off Delora. I didn¡¯t really mind the question. In fact, it was more aggravating for Delora to assume how I felt than to have my lovely tail and ears questioned. ¡°Yes, they are real.¡± I answered Jackil¡¯s question as I lightly pulled on my right ear as if to show its realness.


    After berating Jackil further even though I insisted it was fine, Captain Delora led me into the library without any hassle. Well, any more hassle. The room on the other side of the wooden door was enormous. The entire room was made of the same wooden materials, but the room was easily as big as a medium sized coliseum. There were hundreds of bookshelves that were at least two stories tall each on the first floor, and even more on the next six floors going up. Each of the bookshelves were filled to the brim with books of various sizes, colors, and even different shapes.


    The air in the library, however, was the most impressive thing. Flying around the bookshelves like they owned the place, hundreds of enchanted books were going every which way. Most of them had a purplish trail following behind them, denoting the presence of magic, although there were a few of them that seemed to just freely float like they had a mind of their own.


    The bookshelves and everything in the library, at least from what I could see of it, seemed to be set up completely symmetrical and radiating out from the middle of the library like some kind of lotus. Even though we were pretty far away from the middle, I could see that it was some kind of large circular desk filled to the brim with books.


    ¡°Welcome to the Royal Library of Walpist Lady Vexia,¡± Captain Delora said from beside me. ¡°I don¡¯t know where Carinus-the head librarian- is, but you can use that desk in the middle to find nearly any book here. I should warn you, this place is ancient and has all sorts of weird stuff in it, so be careful what you touch.¡±


    ¡°Thank you Captain, and I appreciated the warning.¡± I replied as I excitedly looked at all the books around me.


    ¡°Don¡¯t mention it. I¡¯m going to go attend to other duties now, but show that coin to the two guarding the door and they will help you with anything. If you want to leave but are lost, this library was enchanted long ago to create wisps that led people out as long as they wanted to leave.¡±


    ¡°Thank you.¡±


    ¡°Umhmm,¡± She hummed lightly before turning back towards the way we came and leaving me in the library. Without further adieu, I ecstatically pounced towards the center table to find the books I needed.

 Chapter 15-Library

    My stay in the library proved mostly fruitless. Almost all of the information I could find wasn¡¯t related to me in the slightest. The elves'' library was filled with books on plants and plant magic. I did, however, manage to find a book on ancient myths and legends.


    The continents used to be part of a supercontinent that had split sometime a couple of millennia ago. The people of this planet, which was named Somalspire according to the book, believed that the split was due to the creator god abandoning them to their fates in anger.


    I¡¯m not sure how much of that is true, but I can a hundred percent say that a creator god being on this planet is completely preposterous. I have never heard or seen evidence of a single god who created everything. Everything in the galaxy pointed to thousands of gods since people could reach godhood if they were strong enough.


    Well¡­ that isn¡¯t exactly true. From what little I saw of the Revenants, most of them seemed to follow a single god. They had even started several religions to follow this creator god, but I don¡¯t know more than that. Terry never let me near them to ask.


    I also learned briefly about the North continent from a new-looking book. It used to be a very prosperous land filled with people of every kind. Nearly a century ago, the lich Siko took over the entire continent and turned it into a land of the dead. No one knew exactly where he came from or his purpose in conquering a continent, but the book did put forth several theories. The most prominent one was that Siko came from a fallen kingdom and had taken over the entire North as an act of revenge.


    It was getting late when I finally headed out of the massive library. I crept to the door, careful not to step on any creaky floorboards in case someone else was also reading. I also covered up with my cloak before exiting the dim library so as to not draw attention to my tail and ears.


    Startling one of the two guards at the door in the well-lit hallway. The one I startled was extremely young and the other was older. Both were clad in the same red, feather-like armor as Captain Delora, but the older guard had a lot of silver ¡®feathers¡¯ on his armor.


    ¡°Sorry,¡± I said, ¡°I didn¡¯t mean to scare you.¡±


    The older one shrugged at me with a laugh. ¡°Didn¡¯t scare me, ma¡¯am. It was funny how far the greenhorn jumped out of his skin though.¡±


    ¡°Hey!¡± The younger elf glared at his partner. ¡°It isn¡¯t my fault I jumped so far, it''s yours! You told me that we only had to watch our front.¡±


    ¡°You are an imperial guard. You need to watch every angle even if it is a dead-end.¡± The older guard shook his head in apparent disappointment. ¡°Anyway, is there anything I can help you with, ma¡¯am?¡±


    ¡°Could you take me to see Princess Illway? And why is your armor silver? All the other Red Eagles have pure red armor.¡±


    ¡°Silver feathers are granted by the queen for each battle that a Red Eagle has participated in. For the most part, all Red Eagles should have pure red armor since their duty is to guard and not fight in battles.¡± The older guard tossed the coin back to me with a smile.


    ¡°Makes sense.¡±


    ¡°Now, he¡¯ll take you. You know at least where the princess''s room is, right?¡± He asked the other guard.


    ¡°Of course, sir. Right this way, ma¡¯am.¡± The younger guard started walking down the hallway once I started walking toward him.


    I sped up and joined him at his side. ¡°So what is your name?¡± I''m not one for conversations, but there were a few things I wanted to ask. It wouldn¡¯t hurt to know his name.


    ¡°Me, ma¡¯am?¡± The elf¡¯s eyes were wide as he glanced at me.


    ¡°Who else?¡± I stifled a yawn. I guess I had spent more time in the library than I thought.


    ¡°Right¡­ dumb question. My name is Del.¡±


    I jumped in front of him and stuck my hand out. ¡°Nice to meet you Del. I¡¯m Kali.¡±


    The guard froze up before taking my hand gently. ¡°It is nice to meet you, ma¡¯am. The princess''s room isn¡¯t too far ahead.¡± He started to lead me again.This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it


    I ignored Del¡¯s subtle attempts to bring me back to what we were doing. ¡°So, Del, have you heard any interesting rumors recently?¡±


    ¡°I guess¡­ apparently the one who saved the princess is some kind of wolf creature. My pa says that it''s a sign that the dire wolves are starting to make moves. Either way, I¡¯m just happy the princess is back safe and sound.¡±


    ¡°That is quite interesting.¡± Except that I have no relation to the dire wolves at all¡­ maybe I should try to meet them? From the way that the people around here speak about them, the dire wolves on Somalspire sound extremely intelligent. I wonder why that could be?


    ¡°Anything else, Del?¡±


    The guard shook his head. ¡°I¡¯m not one for gossip unless it''s major. Oh! Actually, I just heard today that a large-scale expedition into a recently discovered Sylvian ruin was scheduled. They¡¯re apparently looking for a large number of mercenaries for protection.¡±


    Sylvian¡­ I think I read about them when I was looking for information on the North continent. I think they were some kind of ancient precursor race that had gone extinct? I might have to go back to the library sometime soon.


    ¡°We¡¯re here, ma¡¯am.¡± Del drew me out of my thoughts.


    I smile at Del and knock on the tree embroidered door. ¡°Thanks.¡±


    ¡°No problem.¡± He retreated the way we came.


    ¡°Coming!¡± A muffled voice came through the door. A second later an unfamiliar elf steps out. The elf is wearing a black dress and just screams maid. ¡°Can I help you?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m here to see Princess Illway. Tell her it''s Kali Vexia.¡±


    The maid nods and walks back into the room. She returns after a while and opens the door widely. ¡°She is ready for you, Lady Vexia.¡±


    The first thing I noticed about the room is that it is way larger than I would have expected. The room was essentially just one large circle made of, unsurprisingly, wood. The wood here, however, had ornate depictions of elves and nature carved into it. Large scones, just like what lit up the hallway, jutted out of the wood in an oddly natural way. Most of the room was dominated by a large bed, but there was also a small area set up with couches and a table.


    ¡°Kali!¡± She called happily and jumped up from the bed. She turned to the maid who let me in. ¡°Go stand outside. Tell anyone who comes I¡¯m busy.¡±


    ¡°Your Highness.¡± The maid bowed and walked out of the room.


    With the maid gone, Illway wasted no time in jumping toward me with her arms outstretched. I briefly thought about dodging, but let the thought pass when I saw the pure joy on her face.


    She embraced me hard enough to pop my back. ¡°Oh! Mother wanted me to tell you to see her in the morning. I think she is going to reward you personally.¡±


    I return the hug, though not as hard. ¡°I don¡¯t need a reward. Seeing you happy is reward enough for my actions.¡± And I was already awarded with the Trilesil, which was likely a much greater reward than anything the queen could offer.


    ¡°Still, I think the nobles put pressure onto her to give you something. You may as well accept, even if it is just a couple of gold or something.¡± She released me and walked back to her bed.


    ¡°I guess¡­ What time is it? The hallways were dead quiet and you were already in bed, so it must be near night, right?¡± I asked.


    The princess shrugged. ¡°I dunno. I think it''s around twelve, maybe?¡±


    ¡°Dang, time flies¡­ Where am I going to sleep? Do I have a room prepared or do I need to try to find an inn somewhere?¡± I really should have thought of this earlier.


    The princess patted the bed beside her. ¡°You can sleep here tonight. I don¡¯t mind, but I can ask my mom tomorrow. Do you know how long you¡¯ll stay here? Or have you not made any plans yet?¡±


    I thought about this earlier in the library too, so my answer was fairly quick. ¡°I think I¡¯m going to leave tomorrow. I need to level up my Record.¡±


    Illway¡¯s eyes dropped a little bit and her smile stilled. ¡°Right¡­ you are cursed, aren¡¯t you. You probably want to regain your previous strength, don''t you?¡±


    Since when am I cursed? I don¡¯t remember being cursed- wait¡­ That¡¯s the story I used to cover up my quick growth. ¡°Yeah. I can¡¯t stay like this forever.¡±


    ¡°Well, we can worry about that tomorrow.¡± She smiled sadly at me and laid down.


    I nodded and sat on one of the couches in her room. Although we had shared a bed on the way to the castle, I wasn¡¯t super comfortable with doing so again. The only reason I had back then was to comfort her. Now that we were back in the castle though, I didn¡¯t want to. She might grow dependent on me, which would be bad for both of us.


    ¡°Night, Kali,¡± Illway called from her bed and blew out the candle by her bed. The rest of the lights in the room, likely linked through magic, turned off too, leaving us in the dark.


    I thought and made plans, just like how I was trained, for a long time after the light was turned off. Eventually, however, the light breathing of the sleeping Illway lured me into a deep sleep.

 Chapter 16-Shadow

    I awoke to Illway shifting and talking in her sleep. Although it would be subtle to an average person, the sound of the sheets wrinkling was like bombs to my ears. I tried to go to sleep for a long time after that but could never drift off. It was as if my tiredness was driven away by the soft mumbling of the princess.


    Although, to be fair, my inability to go back to sleep was not entirely the princess¡¯s fault. There was also this irritating sensation that I kept feeling. It was as if something was constantly flowing around me without giving me a break.


    After an hour of concentrating on the feeling, I finally pinned it down. I was sensing mana, but not the concentrated kind like I had felt in the red coin from the queen. This kind of mana was way more fluid. It was also difficult to detect because it would almost drift away anytime I tried to sense the mana.


    Since I could not go back to sleep, I may as well do something else. There were plenty of things I could do, like¡­ train? Or something fun like¡­ training? I don¡¯t really know what to do other than that. It''s not like I¡¯ve had much free time in my life.


    Maybe I could do something normal. What do ordinary people do though? Watch movies? This planet doesn¡¯t have that technology yet¡­ I guess the equivalent would be watching theater, but I doubt any respectable theater would be open at this hour.


    I got off the couch and walked to the door. Although it was dark in the room, my night vision allowed me to get there without stepping or running into anything. I cracked the door lightly and stepped out into the hallway. The door silently opened and closed as I thought about a plan.


    I was so caught up in deciding what to do that I didn¡¯t even notice the other person in the hall until they spoke. ¡°Can I help you?¡±


    I jumped back slightly and looked down out of instinct. ¡°Sorry. I didn¡¯t see you there.¡±


    The elf nodded his head understandingly. ¡°So, is there anything you need, Lady Vexia?¡±


    ¡°Why does everyone keep calling me Lady Vexia?¡± I ask.


    The elf looked confused, ¡°Because you are Lady Vexia? The Queen declared that you would receive the title of baroness since you saved her daughter¡­.¡± He must have seen the look on my face because he asked, ¡°Did you not know that you are a noble?¡±


    ¡°It is new to me.¡± The princess had mentioned the queen rewarding me, but I thought it would be something minor. Why didn¡¯t she tell me I was awarded a title of nobility? Sure, baron was the lowest rank of nobility, but it was still a big deal.


    A slight frown creased the elf¡¯s lips. ¡°I wonder why her majesty never told you¡­ odd. Anyway, is there something else you need help with, ma¡¯am?¡±


    ¡°Yes, please. Is there some kind of training facility or gym I can go to?¡± I put my newfound nobility to the back of my mind.


    ¡°Yes, ma¡¯am, you can use the red eagle¡¯s courtyard.¡± The elf pulled out a flute and blew a tune on it. An owl¡¯s low-pitched ¡®hoooo¡¯ soon overpowered the light sounds of the flute. A massive gray owl appeared on the elf¡¯s shoulder a second later. ¡°My familiar will take you there.¡±


    The owl flapped its wings and hopped onto my shoulder. Surprisingly, the owl weighed next to nothing. Its weight was at extreme odds for such a giant creature.


    Even though the owl was light as a feather, I was still uncomfortable. It was unsettling to have a creature so close to my throat, especially considering that it was a familiar of some random elf. But, being the big girl that I am, I put up with my discomfort and didn¡¯t make a fuss about the owl¡¯s position.


    Now that the owl was closer, I could see that it wasn¡¯t a real owl. The small cracks in its feathers revealed that it was actually a spirit of some kind. It didn¡¯t have skin or organs, so I could see straight through its gray body. I could also sense mana flowing from it like I had in Illway¡¯s room, but I couldn¡¯t tell if the mana was from the owl itself or the palace.


    The owl pointed down the hall as if noticing my attention.


    ¡°Thank you,¡± I said to the elf and walked down the hallway the owl was pointing at.


    The journey to the courtyard was a lot quieter than I thought it would be. The wooden hallways I carried the silent owl through were all empty, as if the entire place had been abandoned. Yet there was no dust, so I knew that someone at least took care of this part of the palace.


    The owl called in my ear. It pointed towards a large door. Unsurprisingly the entry was made of wood. The owl hopped off my shoulder and flew back the way we came.


    Even though the owl had left, I could still feel mana flowing around me. I closed my eyes and focused intently. An image started to form with all of my efforts. It wasn¡¯t a solid image like what I would see on a camera, but a grainy and blurred image of flowing lines. Each of the flowing lines gave off the feeling of mana.


    Just as soon as the image arrived, it disappeared. While it was disappointing that I couldn¡¯t trace the mana better, I wasn¡¯t upset because the Records soon rewarded my efforts.


    [Skill: [Mana Sense 1]: Level up!(2>3)]


    I didn''t waste any more time and opened the massive door with little effort.


    The ¡®courtyard¡¯ was not like I expected. Of the courtyards I had seen, most were made through gaps in a building. This place was not a typical courtyard. I say that because there was no sky access like there is in literally every courtyard I¡¯ve been in. Instead, the wooden walls around the room slowly closed in on themselves. The walls finished closing at least ten stories, which gave the whole place a ton of space.


    The courtyard was filled with training equipment enough to train a small army but still had enough space for a couple of giants to sleep. A couple of people in red armor were training using the equipment. At least one thing is like I expected though. The entire yard stunk of sweat, blood, and tears.


    ¡°Lady Vexia!¡± A familiar voice called out to me from a line of dummies against the wall.


    ¡°Captain Delora?¡± I asked. The person who called out to me donned a complete set of armor, including a helmet, so I could only guess based on voice.


    ¡°In the flesh.¡± She pulled off her helmet, revealing her sweat-soaked face, and walked toward me. ¡°What brings you here so early?¡±


    ¡°To train.¡± There isn¡¯t really another reason to come to a training field than to train. It''s kinda in the name. ¡°What time is it?¡±Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.


    The captain looked above the door behind me. ¡°It is¡­ 6:15, I think?¡±


    ¡°You think?¡±


    ¡°Yeah. Sorry, I¡¯m so bad at reading these things. They¡¯re a newer invention, and I have yet to get used to them.¡± She points above the door behind me.


    I turn around and see an enormous wooden clock on the wall. It was the standard, easy-to-understand type of clock found anywhere in the galaxy. The small hand was pointed at three, and the large was on six. ¡°The little hand is the hour hand, and the bigger is the minute. So it''s 3:30.¡±


    I barely caught Delora¡¯s blush when I turned around. ¡°Thank you. I was wondering why it felt so early¡­ Ahem¡­ Do you need help training?


    ¡°Not really; I think I¡¯ve got it.¡±


    The captain put her helmet back on. ¡°Okay! If you need anything, don¡¯t be scared to ask.¡± She nodded to me in farewell and headed back to where she came from.


    Hmmm¡­ what should I work on first? I really just wanted to test my new powers and body to get used to it. Nothing good would come from fighting without knowing my limits. A single thought pulls up my Record.


    [Kali Vexia- Wolfkin(Shadow Dire Wolf) - Mage - Level: 13


    Titles:


    [Rescuer]


    Strength- 25


    Intelligence- 25


    Dexterity- 20 (+65)


    Endurance- 22


    Charisma- 30


    ( () = gear boosts)


    Unique:


    [Gambler]


    Racial:


    [Luna], [Shadow Shift], [Rage of the Abyss(tamed)], [Shadow Manipulation 1]


    Skills:


    [Animal Handling 1], [Overload 1], [Fleet Foot], [Toughen Up 1], [Abnormal Status Resistance], [Shadow Realm], [Dead Eye¡¯s Sight], [Mana Manipulation 1], [Mana Sense 3], [Research], [Shadow Magic 1], [Mana Pool], [Deception 1]


    Other:


    [Falsification]


    Time- 2 years]


    The main things I want to test are my magic capabilities. Of course, I had some knowledge on the manipulation of magic since my- since Terry was a mage, but I¡¯ve never actually used it. So I had zero confidence in my capabilities.


    I walked to a corner of the large courtyard where no one else was. The corner was made by a wall of mirrors intersecting a dummy-lined wall. The walls were, of course, made of wood.


    Really, what was with all of the wood here? This was supposed to be a palace, and wood definitely doesn¡¯t cut it as a defensive material. From what I¡¯ve seen so far, it would only require fire to take down the elves'' imperial palace.


    That being said, I do have to commend the elvish architects. Whoever designed the palace did not spare a single penny in its creation. The entire place was filled with mana that flowed as if following a god¡¯s veins. I think that the mana was also used in the facilities of the palace. For example, the doors had to have been enchanted since they were easy to move. I also suspected that the scones around the castle had been enchanted to always give off light.


    The first thing I tested was [Shadow Shift]. My race had changed, so I wasn¡¯t sure how it would affect my ability to change shape. This insecurity in my knowledge was why I hadn¡¯t shifted last night, even though I was more comfortable sleeping as a wolf.


    I used [Shadow Shift]. A crack sounded out from my bones, but I didn¡¯t feel any pain. My skin stretched and tore, yet there was no agony nor blood. The shift was a smooth transition, ultimately putting my fears of another painful shit to rest.


    It ended in a second, and I regained control of my body. I walked over to the wall of mirrors and gazed at myself.


    I had changed, obviously. I was no longer the pure black wolf I was before my evolution. My fur was still black, but it had streaks of violet in it, just like my hair did when I was in human form. The stripes constantly emitted a wispy substance reminiscent of what flowed off of my ears. However, this time, the wisps were a lot more concrete, and I could see them as clear as day.


    My senses hadn¡¯t changed much from my original form. I could still smell the scent of elves tempting me to sink my teeth into their appetizing flesh. My vision has about the same, so I could still see the delicious-looking elves practicing with their metal sticks. I shook my head, feeling drowsy for some reason.


    [Skill: Abnormal Status Resistance: [Rage of the Abyss] has had its effectiveness cut by 50%]


    Damn¡­ It seems I¡¯m more susceptible to that dumb ability in this form. This was just great. Now I have to worry about my emotional state as well as my clothes¡­


    Wait¡­ my clothes! I turned around to where I shifted, desperately looking for my clothes. But, there was nothing on the ground. There wasn¡¯t even a scrap of shredded cloth like what had happened every other time I shifted. Even my bag with all of my belongings was gone.


    I could feel my rage starting to rise. I felt jipped. Now I had to worry about all of my belongings disappearing every time I shifted.


    I took a deep calming breath. Being angry wouldn¡¯t solve anything. Nobody had noticed my dilemma yet, so I crept behind one of the dummies and used [Shadow Shift] again.


    Instead of focusing on how I felt, I focused on my reflection in the mirror. This was the first time I had ever watched myself change forms, and it was odd, to say the least. As soon as the ability activated, a small black goo covered the entirety of my body. This goo kept me from seeing the actual snapping of my bones and tearing of my flesh. Instead, all I could see was my shape slowly changing from quadrupedal to bipedal.


    The goo turned to the same wispy strands of shadow that I had been seeing and floated away. With the goo gone, I could see that I was back in my human form, fully clothed. Even my bag had come back, so maybe my new form wasn¡¯t as bad as I thought?


    I used [Shadow Shift] a couple of times to test my gear appearing and disappearing from the black goo. All of my belongings would get gooified before returning to their original state when I became humanoid again. I wanted to test it more, but I, unfortunately, had to stop as my mana ran out from using [Shadow Shift] too many times.


    When my mana returned, I experimented with my other new abilities: [Shadow Magic] and [Shadow Manipulation]. When I first got them, I had thought that both skills would be the exact same, but I was wrong. Instead, they were different, even if just a tiny bit.


    [Shadow Manipulation] was the first one I tested. Terry once told me that creating a ball of magic, such as a fireball, was the easiest and best way to get used to magic. So, using this knowledge, I focused on my hand, trying to create a ball of shadows as I channeled mana into [Shadow Manipulation].


    Focusing my mind, I tried to envision a ball made of shadows forming over my hand. I channeled my mana into [Shadow Manipulation] in an attempt to turn the vision into reality. The mana started to activate [Shadow Manipulation], and I felt a cooling sensation all around my body. My heart started to bump rapidly, and I continued to manipulate my mana.


    And then something magical happened. My mana, which I had pushed into [Shadow Manipulation], completely dispersed into my environment without doing a single thing.


    Sure, this was my first time using an ability like this, but I really hoped I could use it on my first try. I had hoped to be some kind of genius magician and have a bright future ahead of myself. My second attempt, ending in my mana''s complete disappearance, crushed that hope like a kid stomping on an anthill.


    I tried again and again, but every attempt ended the same way no matter what I tried. I spent an hour sweating in my corner, trying desperately to make even the tiniest shadow ball, but the only thing to happen was running out of mana. My irritation only grew when I turned around in time to see an elf that practically begged to be unalived easily make a spike of ice and launch it at a test dummy.


    I pushed all of my mana onto [Shadow Manipulation] in pure irritation. I had no hope for a result but was still desperate for something, anything to happen. Shockingly, something did happen, though not how I thought it would.