WolfWrites

The Calling of Wrath - Chapter 11 - Thingy

Added 2022-07-24 06:59:22 +0000 UTC

                                                                      Cassandra
                                                      Year 819 | Month 1 | Day 4
                                                              Several hours later

That… is not a direwolf.

This is the first thought that goes through my mind as I stare from within some very nicely hidden bushes at the large… bird? Thing?

Not sure what to call it, but it has two long, stick-like legs connected to some very webbed feet, along with a mostly bird-like body attached to two featherless wings, and a short neck that makes the legs look almost comical. It’s also standing right outside of some sort of cave, surrounded by an open clearing.

When I look into the… thing’s… yellow eyes, its name-plate – as the old man called them – appears in my vision.

Hocka-what?

I’ve never heard of that thing before… and it’s a higher level than any of the direwolves I’ve seen so far.

Suddenly, I begin to hear snarling coming from the other side of the clearing from me before a direwolf jumps into the clearing, followed by two others.

Oh, guess it looks like I won’t be fighting the hocka-something after all.

Although I might as well watch. It could help whenever I run into-

My thoughts grind to a halt as the hocka-thingy turns its head to look at the direwolves before its eyes flash with a bright yellow light and one of the direwolves begins to turn into… marble? Is that marble?

Did the thingy really just…

The other two direwolves jump backwards with a yelp, but just five seconds later, the strange creature’s eyes flash again, causing another one of the direwolves to turn into marble. However, this time I notice that the creature noticeably grows tired after activating its power.

So it takes a lot of effort to use that power?

I sit still for several seconds while watching the creature finally turn the last one to marble with a heavy breath before deciding not to test it.

If it has enough juice for one last go, I’m gonna end up becoming a marble statue forever decorating the Dark Forest. And that isn’t something I want on my to do list. Like, ever.

I slowly begin to back up, but suddenly, the hocka-thingy’s head jerks in my direction.

Shit. Shit shit shit.

Please don’t notice me through the bushes.

The creature lets out a strange sounding honk and its eyes flash yellow, prompting me to duck down with a faint yelp.

Right as I’m expecting to be turned into marble, a small note flashes on the corner of my vision.

I blink once. Then twice. And finally, a third time, before raising my head again to see a very confused looking hocka-creature staring at me while doing its own blinking.

After a few seconds pass in an awkward silence, a grin slips onto my face and I climb up to my feet.

Well that certainly makes things easier for me.

I’m not sure what requirements that power works under – considering that it would be way too freaking powerful if it worked on everything, regardless of their level – but if I’m immune to it, I don’t have to care.

With that thought in mind, I step out of the bushes towards the creature as it begins to back away into the cave.

Oh? Is it afraid?

Out of curiosity, I activate my siphon skill as I’m walking, causing a very thin trail of red and black energy to leave the creature’s head towards mine.

So a frightened monster still has some wrath in it after all.

Once the stream of black and red energy finishes leaving it, the fear from before seems to escalate, likely having replaced the now-missing anger as the creature frantically begins to run back into its cave at my approach.

Interesting. Very interesting.

I guess a lot of things would feel a mixture of anger with their fear. Anger at whatever led to them being in their current situation, or possibly just anger at themselves for being weak.

These thoughts flow through my mind as I continue walking towards the terrified creature.

“Sorry pal, but I need to get out of this forest,” I state to the creature despite it likely not being able to understand me, “plus you just tried to turn me into a marble statue, so I think this is fair.”

At this point, the strange creature is making very quiet little quacks – which is still making me question just what sort of creature it is – as its backside hits a wall of the cave, leaving it nowhere to turn to.

I sprint forwards before spinning under a frantic wing flap to tear my claws straight through the underside of its wing.

The creature lets out a very troubled sounding quack, but that too cuts off as I begin to climb up the wall to leap onto its back. It tries to throw me off, but I simply hold on with my claws before tearing my way through its front towards its throat and ripping it out.

The hocka-thing falls dying to the ground while I hop off of its back so as to not get my legs stuck under it in the fall.

I then turn back to look at the creature again while tilting my head slightly.

It doesn’t look like it would taste very good, and I’m not sure if it has any poison… so probably a no for eating it.

Best to stick with the monsters I know aren’t poisonous.

It sure was an interesting creature though.

With that thought in mind, I turn around and begin making my way out of the cave, barely holding myself back from whistling so as to not attract direwolves or other monsters with good hearing.

Once I step out, I look up at the sky to find the sun beginning to set.

I guess I woke up from whatever that elixir did to me later than I’d thought.

And I’d rather not be out at night right now. Not while I don’t have anything that’ll allow me to fight against the ethereal type monsters.

Better to head back to the cave now. Which’ll probably be my home for the time being.

I turn back towards the way I came before starting to backtrack.

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It takes me less than an hour to walk back to the cave after retracing my steps, and once I step inside, I immediately begin to stretch before walking over to the bed.

Thank goodness the old man left me this bed. Because that cavern floor is by no means comfortable to sleep on.

After I reach the bed, I lay down and look up at the ceiling, all while opening my status.

I managed to find a couple dozen direwolves, but due to my previous level increase, they didn’t give as much EXP per kill. Even with me waiting till I started walking back here to level up.

There were only a few that were higher leveled than me, plus that one hocka-something. And the higher leveled direwolves were always the alphas of their respective packs.

Anyways, I should have enough EXP to level up siphon once, so I might as well try it. Even if it means I’ll have to wait a bit longer to get to Tier 2.

But really, all it means is about four or five more direwolves to hunt. Which, at this point, isn’t too much. Just an hour or two’s work of picking them off one by one.

Although it’s a very good thing that direwolf packs tend to work on an individual level before each member returns to a designated meeting point by nightfall. Otherwise I’d be direwolf chow.

It mostly just meant that I had to pick one off near the river before crossing it to make any other direwolves that might have heard the fight or their packmate’s howl and came to investigate lose my scent.

It’s a pain, but it works.

At least, until they start to catch on and stop going out alone, at which point I just move on to find a different pack near the river.

I select the skills word on my status before closing my eyes in a silent thank you towards Rodrick who taught me how to hunt all those years ago.

After opening my eyes again, I immediately focus on the plus before assigning 50 EXP towards leveling the skill, bringing it to level 2 and causing a note to appear in my vision.

I wait for a few seconds to see if there’s anything else before swiping my arm out at the note and resting it on my forehead.

From what the old man’s said, leveling up in Tier 1 is incredibly easy compared to the other Tiers. And when I think back to the formula both the System and the old man mentioned for how it calculates the required EXP to level-up, it really is a large difference. Even just between Tiers 1 and 2.

After all, level 10 just needs 100 EXP to level, while level 11 needs 1120 EXP.

Quite a jump.

I glance at the barrier for a few seconds before closing my eyes.

It’ll probably take me till tomorrow afternoon to unlock my Tier Breach Mission.

With that thought in mind, I let my fatigue drag me to sleep, with only a passing thought about the food that I forgot to take out of my spatial pouch.

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Table of Contents

For those of you who can't read the images:

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Name: N/A

Species: Hockathrix

Level: 9

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True damage blocked by talent ‘True Body’.

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Name: Cassandra de Luna

Species: Embodiment of Wrath +