The Wolf of Calamity - Book 1 - Chapter 2 - Survival

|>-------------------------------------<|

Asher

Direwolf Chimera

PHYS: 32.3 | MAGIC: 35.4

DEX: 10.6 |  CTR: 11.4

STR: 9.8 |  PWR: 12.6

CON: 11.9 | CAP: 11.4

|>-------------------------------------<|

PHYS: 32.3 is colored purple. Or will be when it is eventually moved to Royal Road. And MAGIC: 35.4 will be colored blue. And all of the notes and stuff will be centered on Royal Road as well.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Year 1396 After Chaos
Month 7

Chaotic Plane

Asher

I end up accidentally damaging the doorknob in my attempt to lock my jaws around it before I eventually manage to open it, only to face a wave of snow and wind as it rushes in through the now-open door from the blizzard going on outside. Oddly enough though, most of the snow seems to melt before it reaches me, and the wind that should be ice cold considering the climate outside doesn’t even feel the slightest bit chilly.

Is this because of the magma lord heart that the man spoke about?

I begin to step outside of the cabin only to pause as I notice a feint purple dome going all the way around the cabin. The dome itself doesn’t seem to be stopping any of the weather, nor is it blocking my sight.

What is that for?

If I remember correctly, the man said that he was wanted by the Monarch and all of the other Ranked from the Mortal Plane for his experiments, so shouldn’t he have been trying to hide better? A large purple dome isn’t exactly the most covert of hiding-

My thoughts are interrupted as large cracks begin running through the dome before it shatters and vanishes into thin air.

I yelp in surprise while taking a step backwards and looking around for several seconds.

What just happened…

A loud roar suddenly echoes from behind me, so I run as fast as my filled stomach will allow me up to the cabin’s wall then slowly make my way around to the corner of the cabin. Just to almost trip at the sound of another roar before I can get there – one loud and strong enough this time to shake the entire cabin and even the snow beneath my feet.

My legs barely manage to keep pushing forwards after that to the edge of the cabin wall. Once I make it, I immediately drop down to the ground, with my belly touching the snow.

What the hell is that!?

I take a deep breath that is riddled with snow that instantly melts the moment it enters my nose before peeking my head around the edge, just to feel my jaw drop open at the sight of a large monster with blue scales and wings flying in my direction, literally pushing the storm out of the way as it flies.

It takes me a few seconds, but I eventually remember the thing in the man’s paper talking about the System allowing me to see other being’s statistics if I think ‘ID’ while looking at the being.

ID?

Almost instantly, another flow of text – similar to the statistics notes – appears in my vision. Except, unlike the previous notes, it isn’t in the center of my vision and is instead clearly visible despite the storm above the monster’s head.

<-| Nameless | Frost Dragon | PHYS - 1006 | MAGIC - 728 |->

Before I can put much thought into the text, I spot a bright blue energy begin to build up from the area around its head while it’s facing the cabin.

Nonono!! Please don’t!

I quickly jump to my feet before taking off at as fast a sprint as possible right now in the opposite direction of the cabin from the dragon into the trees surrounding the clearing.

A loud noise rings out from behind me before a shockwave knocks me further into the bushes, out of the clearing. I quickly get back up to my feet and turn back to look at the cabin, only to find it completely destroyed with an enormous shard of ice sticking out of its remains as the blizzard in the immediate area around the cabin begins to reconverge over the area after having been blown away by the frost dragon’s attack.

I look back up from my place in the bushes to see the monster beginning to fly off back to its mountain while letting out another loud roar.

Why did it come just to destroy the cabin…? Wait, could it have had something to do with that purple dome shattering?

The part in the paper about my eyes comes to mind as I realize that I might have been looking at a magical spell that was concealing the cabin from the surrounding monsters. And if that’s the case, then it would make sense. Because if it was a spell, then it probably fell apart thanks to the man’s death.

Although…

I tilt my head in confusion as I look through the raging snowstorm at the remains of the cabin.

If that was the case, then why did the spell only collapse now, and not right after he died?

My thoughts are interrupted as a loud screech echoes through the blizzard, bouncing around with the wind in a way that makes it difficult for me to tell where it’s coming from.

Another monster?

I try to search through the blizzard for whatever’s making the screech, but before I can find anything, a stabbing pain suddenly radiates from my side as I find myself being sent flying into a nearby tree with a whimper of pain.

As soon as I land on the ground next to the tree, I get back to my feet while ignoring the pain to turn towards whatever hit me. Fortunately, my flight melted a brief path through the blizzard, allowing me to see some sort of cloaked figure in the storm. Whatever it is blends in pretty damn well with the storm and has an appearance similar to what the man described as ghosts in some of the stories he read.

I quickly think ID to see what it is I’m dealing with before I let out a light chuff in irritation.

<-| Nameless | Ice Wraith | PHYS - 76 | MAGIC - 128 |->

Of course, it’s stronger than me as well! Everything in this damn place is too powerful for me!

First the man tortures me for an entire year while changing my body, and now I am stuck in this hellhole?!

As my anger intensifies, smoke once again begins to leak from my mouth, heating up and melting the snow in my immediate area.

This seems to put the ice wraith on edge as it halts its approach before continuing again at a slower pace.

Despite my anger, I notice all of this and decide to use it to my advantage.

Let’s see what happens when I really get pissed off!

Slowly, the smoke turns into actual sparks of fire before changing once again as little droplets of magma begin to spill out of my mouth and I growl at the ice wraith whilst still ignoring the burning pain in my side. The ice wraith once again slows down, but I don’t give it any time to think as I simply push at a strange feeling that has been building up in my chest before stumbling backwards a tiny bit as a ball of magma suddenly shoots out of my mouth straight at the ice wraith.

It makes another screech, except this time in a panic instead of as a sign of attack, and the ball of magma explodes mid-air in front of it, covering it in a layer of magma that quickly causes the ice wraith to freak out. But despite it’s obvious fear, I can tell without a shadow of a doubt that it’s not actually doing much damage to it – likely due to the difference in our stats – so I take this opportunity to make my exit while it’s still reacting to the magma.

I quickly limp away through the snowstorm as the magma making up my blood continues running down my side until I eventually find a hole in the ground with nothing but a single direwolf inside.

Without any hesitation, I snap my brethren’s neck with a quick bite and twist after seeing it try to attack me to defend its den. I then ignore my wound and my already-full stomach to devour its corpse just like I did the man before I go to the back of the den and lie down as a similar update note as when I first devoured the man appears in front of me.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

You have devoured the being known as Unnamed Direwolf.
One percent of his physical and magical capabilities will now be adapted into your body.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

I tense up at the expectation of pain before nothing comes – aside from the pain I am already feeling from my wound. And the disgusting feeling that my stomach is about to explode, making me understand with certainty that if I were to devour another one right now it would only damage my body.

As for why the pain from devouring the monster isn’t coming, I’m beginning to wonder if it was just that the pain of my wound is already greater than the pain of the adaptations? Or it could also be that I only feel pain like I did before when it’s a large increase in my stats.

My pondering is interrupted as another update note appears in front of me, followed by another one directly below it.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

You have gained these stats from the being known as Unnamed Direwolf:

+0.012 DEX

+0.011 STR

+0.01 CON

+0.006 CTR

+0.01 PWR

+0.008 CAP

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

You have devoured more than one being now.

Would you like to have the System minimize these notices from now on?

This will mean that they will no longer cover your entire vision unless you focus on a small icon that will appear in the corner of your vision.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Minimize the notices? I’m guessing the notices are what I am calling the update notes.

If that’s the case, then yes! It would be annoying to get them every time I devour something!

I turn my head to look at the wound on my side again after the info note disappears. The wound itself seems to have some sort of black energy radiating off of it. One that looks incredibly similar to the black energy that I can see radiating off of my claws.

Is that the curse that the man spoke about in the paper? The one that stops healing for a day?

That was a type of wraith that wounded me after all, so it would make sense if that was the case.

Fortunately, the wound doesn’t appear to be deep enough to be fatal, especially if I lay on my other side so as to keep it from bleeding as badly. So I should only have to wait a day for them all to heal up.

As for the bruises caused by my unfortunate flight earlier? Those aren’t bad enough to worry about at all.

My thoughts pause for a moment as I realize that I’m actually using the part of the man’s lectures that I hated when compared with his other lectures. The ones about basic herbalist training.

Which was only made even more annoying by the fact that I wasn’t able to try any of the stuff he was teaching me. In fact, the only reason I even know about what is fatal and what isn’t is a faint instinct in the back of my head and the little test subjects – aka other direwolves – that he brought in to show me what was fatal and what wasn’t for them.

I chuff in annoyance before laying my head down on the ground and keeping the wound pointing upwards to limit the bleeding as I slowly drift off to sleep.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For those who can't view the image:

Your   System notices will now be minimized.