Bloody Crucible- Lone Wolf

by E C Chii

  Congratulations! You have initiated the hidden quest ‘The Alunvian Restoration I”

  Type: UniqueDifficulty: Easy

  Conditions: Free Siris Yhelena

  Rewards: Unknown

  Using ‘Analyze’ again on the woman the screen displayed.

  Name: Siris Yhelena

  Age: ????

  Sex: Female

  Race High Huldra

  Level: 2

  Alignment: ????

  Moral: ????

  Class: ????

  HP: 70/70

  Mana: ???

  Unconscious, Weakened

  Congratulations! You have completed the Hidden Quest ‘The Alunvian Restoration I’, +4000exp

  Congratulations! You have started the Hidden Quest ‘The Alunvian Restoration II’

  Type: UniqueDifficulty: Moderate

  Conditions: Escort Siris Yhelena to the Kokuri Village Elder

  Rewards: Unknown

  Congratulations! You have attained level 6. You have 4 stat points and 1 skill points.

  Well, that was interesting. He walked up to the discarded armor placing it in his pack, then lifting the woman’s body in a ‘fireman’s’ carry, heading to out of the cave. Once he reached the whimpering Direwolf he set the woman down and squatted in front of it looked the Direwolf in the eyes.

  “So, not sure if you understand me but let’s make a deal. I don’t really want to kill you; despite what you want to believe or feel. How about we make a truce, you don’t try and kill me or any other humans except for Imperials, and I don’t try and kill you. However, if either of us sees the other being attacked, we provide help? Does that work for you? We can even swear it in blood if you want.”

  The Direwolf replied with a snort but seemed to relent.

  Chapter 10 – Oaths and asshats

  The Direwolf’s eyes narrowed for a moment. Lifting its head, it gave a strained bark. Wolf drew his dagger and sliced his palm letting the blood dribble down. Cautiously picking up the Direwolf’s paw made a cut across the top. Grasping his bloody hand to the Direwolf’s he resaid the pledge, golden light cascaded between the two of them with two prompts appearing before his eyes.

  Attention! You have received the blood oath mark from the Direwolf, Long Fang. The mark requires either party to come to the aid of the others when attacked by Imperial Forces. Failure to abide by this oath will result in a degradation of reputation with all known factions and a 30% reduction in stats permanently.

  You have failed the quest ‘King of the Forest’, -10 Reputation with Kokuri Village

  Pouring the contents of the Healing Draught into a leaf for the Direwolf to drink out of, its wounds began to heal, leaving light lines of pale scar tissue that slowly vanished. Once fully healed, the Direwolf stood and turned around before loping away, kicking dirt into Wolf’s face. Wolf sputtered and coughed, wiping the dirt from his face scowling at the Direwolf which was in the distance looking as though it were laughing at him. Walking back to the woman, he picked her up and began carrying her to his cave.

  When he arrived, he laid her on the cot and covered her with a few furs to keep her warm. Distributing 2 stat points into STR and CON, 1 skill point into ‘Stealth’ making it level 4, and 1 racial point into ‘Hardened Scales’ bringing it up to level 2. Taking the time remaining in the day he went to burn the bodies of the dead soldiers, so they would not cause the spread of disease. Chopping enough wood, he stacked all the bodies on top and lite the fire, ensuring that the entire thing would not spread the fire to the forest he left back to the cave to prepare something to eat. Preparing a stew of herbs, various wild vegetables, and dried meats in a clay pot, the woman stirred to the aroma. Moaning the woman began to wake up.

  “Food will be ready in about five minutes.” Wolf said impassively

  Instantly the woman jumped off the cot in a defensive stance staring at him with all the hostility a naked woman could muster. This caused him to laugh.

  “What’s so funny half-breed?” the woman asked sneering

  “Sort of hard to be threatening when you’re standing around in only your birthday suit” he said chuckling.

  “What the is a birthday suit?” She said with confusion on her face, until she saw the state of her undress. She let out an ‘EEP’ while dropping down covering her body, her face went crimson red. He couldn’t tell if it was from anger or embarrassment, he figured probably both.

  “What did you do to me?” She hissed.

  “Nothing, thought there was one hell of a fight. The Direwolf that made its den in the cave I found you in put up a bitch of a fight. While searching the cave I found some a vial of Valkyrie’s Salvation and figured I would pour it on the stasis crystal I found you in. That pretty much sums up the chain of events” he said scooping some of the stew into a crude wooden bowl. “You can use the furs on the cot to cover up while you eat.” he continued while placing the bowl an arm’s length away with a wooden spoon. Going back to the stew he got his own helping of the stew and started eating, paying her no more attention.

  Grabbing the fur blanket, she covered herself up. She continued to watch him with hostility. Edging forward she grabbed the bowl and began to devour the food as though this was the first time she had eaten in a very long time. They ate in uncomfortable silence until he became fed up with the tension and decided to break the silence.

  She flinched when he spoke, “So, what should I call you? It would be insulting and probably inappropriate to call you Huldra or woman, and it would assist us in having our little discussion. Call me Wolf or if you want to continue being hostile, asshat would also work.”

  “Wolf, why am I naked and what do you mean by fighting a Direwolf? Those have been extinct for a very long time. Answer me now.” she demanded.

  “Name first, please.” He said impassively

  “You don’t need to know my name half-breed.”

  Sighing, “Okay, Siris I am trying to be courteous with you and let you introduce yourself properly to be civil. If you want to be a jackass, then we can go that route. I don’t need this shit. If you want to be Miss Billy Badass, then you can take your naked ass on out of here. When you exit the cave, turn left and walk for thirty minutes. Once you reach the small spring follow it for two days and you will reach a small village. After you finish, piss off.”

  “Such a rude half-breed. You should have respect for your betters, you will provide me with food and clothing, then take me to Tall Spire. Otherwise, I will have you whipped and locked in the prison for the rest of your life.” Siris said smugly.

  He stood, anger reddening his face feeling and hearing the feral growling reverberating from his throat, “Okay, Bitch. This is how things are about to play out. I don’t give a flying fuck, who, or what you are. If you don’t start playing nice I will gut you and burn your body with the rest of those Imperial Slaver asshats I killed yesterday, and I most certainly will not be taking no shit just because I’m different.” he said with arctic ice in his voice.

  Siris stood and started backing up. Fear evident across her face as he continued exaggerating each word, “DO…. YOU…. UNDERSTAND?”

  “Wh-who are you?” she squeaked out

  Taking a few deep breaths regaining his composure. “As I said, I’m Wolf Mikall, I came out of this egg thing after choosing my avatar.”

  “Choosing your avatar? Egg? What are you talking about?”

  “How about this, you ask a question and I’ll answer it to the best of my ability, after I do the same. Agreed?”

  “Agreed, where are you from?” Siris replied

  “You may have not have noticed from my lack of fucks to give. I’m not from around here, anywhere on this world really. I am from a place called Earth, something happened that I can’t really explain as I just don’t understand how it worked. Though you could say I am essentially dead there. When I died there I came too in a white room and told to choose an avatar. I chose this because form as it has the longest lifespan. Why were
you in this stasis crystal where a Direwolf made its den?”

  “I…don’t remember. It feels like it was to escape something, but I don’t remember what or why. Do you know anything about what is going on?”

  “I don’t know anything, I just arrived here a few weeks ago and found you in that crystal. Why did you call me a half-breed?”

  Siris responded incredulously, “Because you’re a half-breed, you are likely the result of a horrible union, likely rape. When you said you killed Imperial Slavers, Which Empire?”

  “A few days ago, I went in search of civilization since I was going stir crazy. When I got to a nearby village I found it was under attack by some soldiers from the, ‘Empire of Kuing’. I killed their slave leader then attacked the soldiers while they were assaulting the village. Then they chased me. Once in the forest I led them into a series of ambushes, and traps to whittle them down. It’s not the first time I’ve done this, and their officer was rather incompetent. What do you know about the Imperials?”

  “Empire of Kuing? Who are they? Wait, I think I…” Siris trailed as she began waving her hands looking at what he presumed was screens. “EEEEEH!” she screamed when she saw the screen. Her face was painted with utter shock and dismay, “How has it been over 50,000? Last thing I remember was yesterday sitting down with my father for dinner. What is going on?!” It was at this moment when she had her mental breakdown and began hyperventilating.

  Unnerved and slightly panicked at her outburst he asked, “Mind explaining what’s going on?” She didn’t move or answer but just sat there shocked taking short quick breaths. He didn’t know what to do as two things went against him, one being he was male and didn’t understand the female psyche, and two being he was more emotionally stunted than most. Figuring she needed time to come to terms he stood up gathering a bundle of leather and fur to create something for her to wear, he slapped her hard on the back to break her little panic attack. After that she just sat there staring off into space with tears falling from her eyes. It was a few hours of crying before she began to stop, by this time he had already finished sewing a crude leather shirt.

  Asking, “Do you prefer a dress or pants?” When she didn’t respond and simply stared out into space, he just made a simple skirt, placing the clothes in front of her. “I will be gone a few hours, I need to reset all the traps and bring back the loot from the Imperial Conscripts. Change into those so you can more comfortable while I am gone, at least you will be able to move around after. When I get back I’ll make you some boots.”

  He left the cave as it was starting to get dark he only had a few hours to accomplish the task. Making the choice to reset only the most critical traps meant to stop the any additional predators that may still be in the area. Once finished he returned to the cave to find her fully dressed, with a sour look on her face, her eyes were red and puffy, a fire was in her eyes that indicated she knew what she wanted to do.

  “So, you finished with your pity party?”

  “There wasn’t a party here.” she said crinkling her face

  “Never mind, you come to a decision about something?”

  “Yes, this village you mentioned. I need to go there. They should have more information about what is happening. Apparently, I have been gone for a very long time and things have changed since.”

  “Ok, no problem. I need to go there anyways. By the way, what does the “weakened” status debuff mean?”

  “It’s a reduction of 90% stamina and stamina regen for 2 days. When do we leave?”

  He thought considering the pros and cons of her debuff. “I say we leave once that debuff expires. It will cause too many problems if your stamina keeps running out it will only slow us down. Besides, we still haven’t finished our little discussion. What do you know about the Empire of Kuing?

  “I vaguely remember that were a small southern kingdom that had a large quantity of natural resources, they were a rather backwater country if I remember correctly. How are they here? This forest is so deep in the country of Alune…oh” her face scrunched up in sorrow and her eyes began to tear up.

  “Yeah, I have a theory. When I got to the village the Imperials were attacking. I got a quest to defend a ‘Kokuri Village’. If my theory is correct, the Empire of Kuing’s rapid expansions brought it into conflict with this Kingdom of Alune. They were unable to fight them back thus collapsing and being enslaving by the victors. It’s a story as old as history itself and happens often enough. If anything, I am certain in my future will likely be killing as many of them as I can. I hate slavers more than I hate rapists and will go out of my way to ensure each one of them finds a death worthy of nightmares.” Wolf said smiling evilly.

  Looking at him warily she asked, “Slavers! That is very disturbing, slavery is abhorrent to the gods.” Siris spit on the ground

  “How long have you been gone?” Wolf asked

  “Around 50,000 years. How that happened I don’t know. I think it might have had something to do with that stasis crystal you mentioned.”

  “Well the how and why is immaterial. Until that debuff has ended you have enough time to think about what you will do. I will also.”

  Chapter 11 – Angle o dat dangle

  That night he retreated into his own mind. He had no idea what he wanted to do in the future, there was an inkling that he wanted to do something about the whole slavery thing. Every time he thought about it his rage would start to rise. Though until he had enough information on the worldwide situation he wouldn’t be able to make an informed decision.

  That night he was woken by the Siris, through instinct and muscle memory he grabbed her by the throat, pulling her in while rolling away causing her body to flip over him. Landing hard on her back he had his knee on her chest ready to waylay into her, but stopped short. Her eyes were wide, fear evident on her face.

  “You were shouting in you sleep. I wanted to s-see if you were okay.”

  Releasing her, he stood up. “Sorry, just a bad dream. I’ll go to the back of the cave so as not to disturb you.”

  Grabbing a few torches, he went to go light them for the trip to the back of the cave. Siris looked at him as though he were a fool.

  “Why are you grabbing those?”

  “What do you mean? I need light to see. These are torches.”

  “Why would you need those? Just summon light sphere.”

  “Well Miss Priss. I don’t know what that is. I only know how to use ‘Analyze’ and fight.”

  “H-How? Everyone knows how to summon their elemental magic.”

  “Need I remind you that I am not from here again?”

  Sighing, she said, “I forgot, I can show you if you want.” Holding her hand out in front of her a sphere of white light appeared brightening the cave’s gloomy appearance. “The first thing you need to do is imagine the element you are desiring. In this case it would be ‘light’ and push it from your core onto your hand. It should be difficult at first but as your affinity rises it will become much easier.” After her brief lecture she motioned for him to mimic her.

  “Close your eyes, and slow your breathing.” she instructed. “Now focus on the core of your body there should be an energy flowing. Notice that there are multiple colors present. Some should be brighter than others, as that reflects your current affinities.”

  He entered his own mind and looked for what she was talking about. Within himself he saw nine infinitesimally small dots of different colors. One had a very slight glow of purplish grey he instinctually recognized as the psychic element. As he looked at each, he began to see them with more detail. Focusing on the pure white dot that represented his light affinity, he attempted to draw it out. He tried repeatedly but no matter what he did nothing happened.

  “Can you show me how it goes again?” Wolf asked

  A hint of annoyance was in her voice as she relented, “First you need to focus on the element that you want then draw it out. You can do this by feeding your mana into the orb representing the el
ement that you want. When it begins to glow brightly, you then move the sphere it creates out to where you desire it to be.”

  As she continued to summon the elements and explain things about how this form of magic worked the world to Wolf seemed to fade into the background, her voice became muffled and dull. The more he saw her magic effect the world around her the more entranced he was by it, the more he looked the more he almost seemed to understand it but like trying to hold sand it irritatingly slipped through his fingers. Wolf continued watching intently as she went through the entire process of summoning each element in turn and using to shape the surroundings. He continued to stare at her summoning different elements he felt something click in his head.

  Congratulations! Your ability ‘Naturally Gifted’ has enabled you to learn ‘Elemental Manipulation’, a Progressive Spell tree at Beginner level 1