Sam hadn't identified the large wolf yet but figured this was the pack's leader. The fact it was the size of a compact car, along with its general lack of fear or hesitation when it confronted her, she figured it was a safe assumption. She yanked her daggers out of the deep, bloody gashes she had just made in its stomach dodging between the wolf's hind legs as it sailed over her. She took advantage of her position, using her glowing daggers to hamstring the beast as they passed each other. The sharp blades of her creations sliced through the wolf's tendons like a sharp knife through a tender steak. Once clear of the creature, she slammed one of her heels into the ground, using momentum to propel herself to her feet as she spun around to face the wolf, slinging blood from the blades. The wolf landed hard from its lunge, its back half collapsing from its crippled hind legs and blood spurting from its belly. She grinned at herself, “damn, I bet that looked cool!”

Sam checked her daggers; they were the second and third permanent mana constructs she had made on her journey so far. Her first successful construct wasn’t a weapon. She thought about her first permanent successful mana construct, and her lips tightened in a coy smile. It was much more 'functional' than any weapon would ever be; a girl has needs. Shaking off the thought, pleasant as it was, she refocused on her daggers. They had lost a third of their mana in the attack, so she quickly topped the blades with a couple hundred mana each.

***

Sam had been beside herself with excitement when she finally made the first dagger a little over a day ago and was surprised when she found it had an energy reservoir. When she examined it, she was genuinely confused at first by the small violet bar that showed up above the dagger. But after some experimentation, she found with every successful hit the dagger made against an unlucky tree, the bar above the dagger depleted, the amount depending on the strength of the blow. She managed to infuse her mana into the dagger with more experimentation and was happy to see the energy bar increase with the infusion. She was also relieved when it didn't break or dissipate after fully depleting its energy bar; instead, it turned inert and transparent like it was made of glass. The dagger was still sharp, even without its energy. It had, however, lost its penetrating power. It was almost the same as the daggers the System provided as far as quality and sharpness were concerned.

***

Sam took a second to examine the sizeable red wolf in front of her when she finished topping the daggers up with energy.

Elite Red Wolf Alpha; [Level ??]; Hostile; Affinity: Blood, Earth

“Hmm, blood affinity. That is a nasty affinity in the books and games back home. I wonder what it’s like here?” Sam flicked her right hand to the side as she thought. The level 26 wolf running toward her suddenly split in half from nose to rump. The two halves of the unfortunate beast slapped against an invisible barrier that sprang up in their path, making a meaty splat against the translucent shield. The thin-bladed disk she had conjured to slice the wolf in half dissipated into nothing a moment after it exited the animal's body. At the same time, she launched six spikes from her mana threads, killing and maiming several wolves who turned their attention back to the unconscious warrior girl and were slowly stalking toward her. A whiff of something hit Sam, and she wrinkled her nose at the revolting smell of blood and ruptured intestines floating on the breeze from the closest kill.

Looking over, Sam noticed something was weird about the blood from her kills. She watched as the blood from the bisected wolf floated around in globules as if in zero gravity for a second before zipping over toward the alpha wolf, where the blood splattered and wrapped itself around the wolf's hind legs, painting the red fur an even darker crimson. The blood hardened into a solid mass on the leg, looking like armor. Inspecting the leg, Sam realized the wolf's wounds had already healed, likely a perk of its blood magic. But it wasn't just the blood of the latest wolf she had killed; all the slain wolves' blood was repurposed into armor plating for the alpha, with hundreds of small globules zipping in from all directions toward the boss monster.

Once the wolf had sucked up the blood from all the slain wolves in the area, Sam was a little disappointed in the thin layer of blood armor coating the wolf; she had expected more from an elite monster of an unknown level. Shrugging away her thoughts, she was about to attack when the beast turned to her and let out a strange growling sound. it sounded like words, but there was no way it had just said, "I offer you this sacrifice; grant me your power." As soon as the wolf made the sound, a portion of the blood armor coating turned liquid. The blood formed a thin circle and floated to the ground in front of the wolf, making a sizzling sound as it touched the grass of the clearing. Then, the wolf bit its own paw, drawing a significant amount of blood from the wound. Manipulating the blood flowing from the bite, the wolf began to form complex symbols inside the circle. The boss seemed to be directing the blood with its thoughts as it focused intently on creating the symbols with its nose moving in rhythm as the symbols formed in the circle, each locking in a place like a puzzle once completed.

Sam watched the wolf with interest, her mana sight turned on. The soft red magical glow from the blood armor was like a candle flame against the sun compared to the density of the magic forming in the circle of blood. With every new symbol the wolf formed, the density and brightness of the magical power inside the circle increased exponentially. It was then that Sam was starting to worry she had bitten off more than she could chew when the final symbol was laid and locked in place with an audible click. The circle was now full of complex patterns. The instant the last symbol fit in place, all the magic pulsing inside it disappeared like someone had turned out a light. Sam turned off mana sight and stared at what just happened; the entire surface area of the circle was now a rippling pool of dark red blood barely a meter across. The wolf was transfixed on the pool of blood and loomed over it as if expecting something to come out. As Sam and the wolf watched, four black claws began emerging from the center of the pool of blood, followed by four clawed fingers and a thumb. A hand and a long, thin black arm were exposed as the appendage continued rising from the pool until a thin two-meter-long arm black as midnight was extruding from the pool. One of the long-clawed fingers beckoned to the wolf, slowly making no sound. The wolf took a hesitant step back, clearly not expecting this, but after a moment, it came forward, sniffing the air as it approached the black hand.

Looking at the black appendage with mana sight Sam could see all the mana surrounding it sucked into the blackness of the arm, but the arm itself gave off no mana at all. It was like the arm was the absence of mana like it was a hole the ambient mana in the area needed to fill. She didn't have any more time to gawk because just then, one clawed finger tapped the wolf's nose, sending a mild shockwave across the clearing that caused the air itself to distort for an instant, blinding Sam's mana sight and causing her to reflexively shield her eyes with one arm. When Sam could see clearly again, the black hand and arm were gone, and the pool of blood was a charred mass of congealed blood on the ground.

Looking at the alpha, Sam was taken aback. It had grown a meter taller and maybe two meters longer. The covering blood armor had changed with black streaks running across every segment and small spines covering them. The eyes of the wolf were pure red as it gazed at her with hate. It pulled its lips back in a snarl and spoke one word in a growling voice, "Harvest."

“Shit,” Sam thought, “I’m pretty sure this was a mistake.” She watched nervously as the six remaining healthy wolves gathered behind the boss, and a few injured, barely living wolves scattered around the clearing were forcefully exsanguinated. Whatever skill or spell the alpha used was powerful; their blood was being sucked violently from every orifice in their bodies. Some of the poor creatures were even dragged a few meters toward the alpha by whatever force was draining their blood, their piercing cries of pain and fear going silent moments later as they all succumbed to the spell, their corpses left exhausted and shriveled.

"Yep, a blood affinity is definitely a nasty affinity in this world, too," Sam concluded and began to mentally prepare herself; the boss wolf was fully encased in a thick blood armor, now looking like a dark red war dog with dozens of whip-like blood tentacles extending from its sides each with a sharp black tip at the end like a spearhead. Black spikes had grown from the armor around its neck and shoulders, and blade-like tusks of hardened blood protruded from each side of its mouth; the tips and edges of the tusks were also dark black. The beast looked like it could easily hold its own against a platoon of combatants.

Taking it all in, Sam smiled wide and told the wolf, "You are one ugly unlucky fucker, you know that? You're about to be my personal test monkey, er, puppy!" She paused, holding up her hand to the wolf as if telling it to wait, "No, not a puppy; I love puppies. You're definitely a test monkey," then she shrugged and was almost apologetic when she said, "either way you're going to die." Over her initial nervousness at the change in the wolf's appearance, Sam was giddy with excitement as she looked at the boss, who growled menacingly toward her as she spoke.

“You don’t know it yet,” She thought wickedly, “but you’re not the only one with tentacles.” She got into a crouch, her daggers ready, the wicked smile never leaving her face.

***

Sam didn't wait for the alpha wolf to make its move, instead choosing to attack first. Moving in a blur, she shot to the side, strafing the wolf while firing invisible mana spikes from all six of her mana threads, aiming for center mass. Pieces of the wolf's armor started chipping off where the spikes impacted, and several of its blood tentacles were cut down only to reform a moment later. She noticed that when one of her spikes hit the tip of one of the blood tentacles, the black point shattered the mana spike instead of deflecting it.

The wolf reacted quickly to Sam's attack, dashing toward her to close the gap between them, trying to intercept her to get its tentacles in range. As the wolf closed the distance, Sam wove three of her threads together to form a rope, then formed a stake at the end of the rope she created. As soon as the boss was in range, it shot its blood whips at her, trying to pin her to the ground with the spiked tips. She was prepared for this and slammed the stake at the end of her rope into the ground behind her. She was yanked to a stop instantly when her rope went taut, and the wolf angling to intercept her sailed by, unable to adjust its course in time due to her sudden stop. That didn't stop the wolf from swiping out with a paw as it passed.

Sam grunted in pain as the wolf's claws, coated with hardened blood with the same black edges, raked across her chest, tearing off what was left of her leather shirt and most of her right breast. The dark edges of the creature's claws met no resistance when they contacted her and passed through her skin like a hot knife through butter. The deep claw gashes were nothing compared to the half-dozen blood spears that stabbed into her torso a moment later, passing entirely through her body and puncturing several organs before they were yanked out as the wolf continued past. Trails of her blood flowed out of the wounds from the blood spears chasing after the wolf. When the wolf stopped a dozen meters away, the blood stolen from Sam splashed into the cracks she had made in the wolf's armor, and within seconds, the armor was healed.

“Shit, it can use the blood it draws from me to heal its armor. If that’s the case, I’m going to need to hit it with something it can’t easily recover from,” she then focused on healing her own wounds, which closed almost as fast as the wolf's cracked armor but, for some reason, took twice the usual amount of mana.

“What in the hell is that black shit on its weapons?” Sam thought. It was as though her strengthened body had offered no resistance against the wolf’s attack. “I’m going to have to end this quicker than I wanted to,” she thought as she went through a mental list of attacks she could use that would do a lot of damage fast. It didn't take long for her to come up with an idea; it was a short list, after all. The only problem with her plan was she required time to prepare for the attack she had decided to use. Time was currently lacking because the wolf was sprinting toward her again.

Holding her hands, Sam conjured a barrier between her and the wolf. Unable to see the barrier, the wolf continued its charge and slammed into the invisible shield at full speed. A sharp pain exploded in her mind when the wolf hit her barrier at a full gallop. The impact sounded like a thunderclap echoing across the quiet clearing. The barrier shattered, sending a massive amount of feedback into her brain. But then it had done its job. The wolf hit the magical wall at full speed. The impact had even broken one of its tusks off, along with several plates of the armor around its body; its head had been bent at an unnatural angle so sharply that some of its neck spikes had penetrated its shoulder armor. By the way, the wolf went limp; Sam thought it had killed itself, but there had been no notification, so she dismissed the thought as quickly as it arrived.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

While the wolf was down, Sam fought through the pain of mana backlash and entered meditation as she slowly walked toward the beast. She was a little weak from blood loss, and her legs were shaky from the mental stress of expending so much mana so fast. As she drew closer, the wolf began to stir a little, letting out a slight whimper when it yanked its neck spikes out of its shoulder to raise its head and look around with a dazed expression clouding its gaze. When its eyes fell on Sam, they came into focus, and it jumped up to its feet, letting out a growl that turned into a cough, its throat obviously still damaged from the impact. The blood tentacles on the wolf's body flared out in every direction, all four meters long and as big around as a pool cue, turning to her as one, preparing to attack.

"Oh no, you don't," Sam said, flicking her daggers into the air, catching them with her mana threads. She started flicking her left hand back and forth like she was throwing frisbees, and the disks she was throwing started slicing off the wolf's blood tentacles as fast as it could regrow them. At the same time, she blocked and sliced any that escaped the disks with her daggers. To any outsider watching, it would have looked like a high-speed battle between a bloody mop, two floating magic daggers with a mind of their own, and a wind mage. Growling, the wolf made as if to lunge at Sam, then thought better of it, remembering the wall it had just run into. Instead, it lowered its head and started slowly creeping toward her, testing the air in front of it with its nose and the blood tentacles that managed to survive her attacks. Seeing this, Sam began slowly backing up, trying to maintain the distance between them as they moved.

Sam was walking a fine line between clever and utterly stupid with the insane plan she had devised. Still, she had decided to do it, so she continued walking slowly backward, using her daggers and bladed disks to keep the tentacles at bay in a frenetic dance of bloody death. That is, until she bumped into something hard. Risking a quick glance back, she was baffled at the wall of solid rock that appeared in the middle of the clearing seemingly from nowhere. She mentally slapped herself on the forehead, "Earth affinity! Of course, the damn blood beast can use earth magic! Well, isn't this just great!" When she turned back to face the wolf, she could swear there was a smile on its face, "Oh, laugh it up, you big bastard. I have a surprise for you too. I hope you like your meat charred." As if reading her thoughts, the wolf, its prey now trapped by its rock wall, stopped its stalking, raising its nose to sniff the air. A thin tendril of smoke drifted past the wolf, and a sizzling sound could be heard in the quiet night.

Sam chose that moment to act; she kicked off the stone wall behind her, leaving a small crater behind, and launched herself at the elite beast with lightning speed. As soon as she was in range, she punched with all her might at the beast's nose. She wasn't fast enough. Seeing her attack, the wolf snapped its head down and, opening its maw, swallowed her arm up to the shoulder. Sam saved it the trouble before its closing jaws could sever her arm; using a disk in her left hand, she severed her own arm at the shoulder right in front of the wolf's nose. Several of the wolf's blood spears shot into her body as she jumped back, blood spraying from the stump of her arm. Using her threads and daggers, she tried stabbing at the wolf's eyes, but it dodged its head to the side, the daggers glancing off its neck spikes instead. Sam severed the tentacle spears holding her in place and jumped back again to get some distance from the wolf but wound up slamming back into the rock wall. She turned and ran to the edge of the wall, only a couple of meters away.

Seeing Sam trying to get around the wall it had erected, the wolf lunged at her, but she erected her own barrier, stopping it short. Although she stopped its lunge, the wolf managed to get a paw around her hasty barrier and slapped her to the side with a powerful paw strike. Sam was flung through the air like a rag doll until she impacted another rock wall the wolf erected in her path. The impact knocked the breath out of her and broke her back in several places as she instantly lost all feeling in her legs and arms.

The wolf looked at Sam's broken body triumphantly and began to pad toward its next meal. Sam, not having time to heal her paralysis, formed grappling hooks on the ends of her mana threads and, using them to hook the top of the rock wall the wolf had erected, she yanked herself over the wall, landing in a heap on the other side, thankful that, for once, she couldn't feel pain from all her wounds as she landed. She finished counting down in her head, “3…2…1,”

Wump! The ground shook and rippled, and the rock wall Sam was lying behind suddenly fell to pieces. The magic holding it together was no longer present. Sam coughed from the dust left behind from the wall collapsing and wheezed, "About fucking time." She then went to work healing her body, focusing first on her broken spine; she was acutely aware she had not received a kill notification yet.

***

Sam stood from the rubble with a grunt. It only took her a minute to heal her spine enough to stand. She almost wished she hadn't healed her spine first because the second she did, the pain from her many broken bones, severed arm, deep gashes, and puncture wounds came back all at once and nearly caused her to pass out. "I really need some armor," she said, holding her hand to her aching head and slowly walking toward the boss wolf, "maybe I'll try to make some with mana crafting once this is over."

The wolf was lying in a small crater of charred ground a few meters away; the blood armor protecting the wolf was gone, and only charred skin and hair remained in its place. Tendrils of smoke floated from its nose and open mouth and, to Sam's disgusted surprise, its rectum. Despite all this, the beast still breathed, the ragged, gurgling gasps causing Sam to feel pity for the poor creature. After a few short shambling steps, Sam stood over the once terrifying animal. With a tinge of sadness, she formed a spear, gripping it with one good hand, and raised it over the monster's head with the tip aimed at one of its exploded eye sockets. She said, "I'm sorry, girl," meaning every word, "I know you were just following your instincts." It had been a good fight; the wolf had challenged her, forcing her to her limits even with her new power and increased control over her abilities. She didn't doubt it would have easily killed her if she had encountered it just a few days ago. "Oh well, you win some, you lose some—"

"No-kill," a surprisingly soft feminine voice sounded in Sam's mind just as she stabbed down with the spear.

"What the fuck?" Sam stopped her strike but held the spear tip just centimeters from the creature's empty eye socket.

“No pack now…exile…outcast…hunted…not same…broken…”

Sam didn't understand most of the creature's words but got the general idea. It had obviously been exiled from its pack, likely because it sucked the life blood out of its fellow brethren. With that thought in mind, Sam asked, "Why should I let you live? You murdered your packmates. What will stop you from attacking me again when you are better, little wolf?" She kept a close eye on the beast, worried it was stalling for time while healing itself, but she could see no signs of healing. She knew that didn't mean it wasn't healing internally, though.

“Not wolf…made…pact…with…for power…now broken. Not attack…master. Make new pact…with…pathfinder…”

Sam's mind had trouble processing what the voice said, "Can beasts use identify? Or is this one more intelligent than I initially thought?" Suddenly suspicious, she identified the wolf again.

‘Bing’ [Elite] Lupine Bloodmorph Exile; [Level 1]; Defeated; Affinity: Blood, Unknown

Before Sam could comment on the species change, the wolf had somehow made it and sent her a request via a notification.

‘Bing’ Unknown Lupine Bloodmorph has requested to soul bond with you.

Warning: once completed, this action cannot be undone!

"What is a Bloodmorph?" Sam asked, "The last time I checked, you were a Red Wolf."

“Made…pact…give power…lost…pact broken,” the voice was getting weaker now.

"I don't think I can trust you girl. Sorry for this, but I don't believe you have changed your ways just because I defeated you." Sam was interested in the soul bond and how it might benefit her. Still, at the same time, she knew far too little about this reality and the System controlling it to take a chance, plus the whole 'cannot be undone' statement frightened her a good bit. She made her mind up; the wolf had to die.

“Wait!” The voice was pleading, “No bond take…summon…gift…not destroy…please.”

Sam had enough, "Okay, this is getting weird. The way I see it, you tried to kill me by making a pact with something, but you still lost, and now you're begging for your life and asking me to do something I cannot undo. I can tell you are obviously aware enough to understand this from my perspective and how ridiculous it would be for me to believe you. I don't have time for this; it's over, you lost, at least die with some dignity." She didn't have time; her arm was still reforming, and she didn't even know if the people she had saved were still around. Every second she spent talking to the defeated monster was one that could lose the only people she had seen in this new world.

Without another word, Sam thrust her spear into the wolf's eye socket with a sharp, decisive motion. The spear encountered no resistance and stabbed into the ground below the wolf's head, sinking deep into the soil.

Sam blinked as she stared at where the head had just been. The instant she had thrust down with her spear construct, the wolf had burst into a puff of red particles resembling sand. The cloud of particles began coalescing in the crater's center about a meter off the ground. Sam watched, prepared to defend herself, as the cloud swirled around in a blood-red ball, growing smaller with each passing second; the occasional streak of black could be seen in the cloud as it condensed ever smaller. Within a few seconds, the cloud had compressed itself into a dark red coin, promptly falling to the ground once complete.

Cautiously, Sam walked over and picked up the coin, cursing her stupidity when she did so. “Idiot! What am I thinking? This thing could be cursed or something.” Calming herself when nothing immediately happened, she examined the coin. It was roughly the size of her palm with a good weight. It also felt unnaturally cool to the touch, even through her glove. Turning the coin over in her hand, she noticed one side had a strikingly lifelike image of the wolf or Bloodmorph now while the other had an inscription. She read the inscription in her head, “The Defeated.” She didn't try to understand the words and slipped the coin into her storage. When the coin left her hand, dozens of messages popped into her vision.

‘Bing’ You have defeated Red Wolf Juvenile [Level 22] Experience awarded.

‘Bing’ You have defeated Red Wolf [Level 32] Bonus experience awarded for defeating an enemy ten or more levels above your own.

‘Bing’ You have defeated Red Wolf [Level 26] Bonus experience awarded for defeating an enemy twenty or more levels above your own.

‘Bing’ You have defeated Red Wolf [Level 29] Bonus experience awarded for defeating an enemy twenty or more levels above your own.

‘Bing’ You have defeated Red Wolf Juvenile [Level 12] Less experience awarded for defeating an enemy below your own level.

This went on for a while. Sam counted twenty-three kill notifications in total. The last kill notification was the alpha.

‘Bing’ You have defeated Elite Red Wolf Alpha [Level 50] Bonus experience awarded for defeating an enemy thirty or more levels above your own.

The subsequent notification was written in gold lettering, and Sam read it with interest.

‘Bing’ You have defeated and subdued an unknown entity Elite Lupine Bloodmorph [Level 1]. Experience has been awarded for discovering an unknown entity. Reward: Summoning token.

“Oh, so that’s what that was,” Sam pulled the token out of her inventory and looked at it again, this time identifying it.

'Bing' Summoning token [single use]. This token can be used to cast a spell of summoning, calling forth the entity represented on the token.

“This is interesting,” Placing the token back into her inventory, Sam decided to ask how to use it as soon as she found someone trustworthy. She then dismissed her level-up notifications and looked around for the people she had saved; at least, she hoped she had saved them.

Seeing all three of them still in the clearing, she quickly checked her level-up notifications. She did not want to wait any longer to meet the people she had saved, but she also wanted to be as ready as she could be when she interacted with people from this world for the first time.

‘Bing’ Race Human has leveled up to level 16. +5 Free attribute points awarded.

‘Bing’ Race Human has leveled up to level 17. +5 Free attribute points awarded.

‘Bing’ Race Human has leveled up to level 18. +5 Free attribute points awarded.

‘Bing’ Race Human has leveled up to level 19. +5 Free attribute points awarded.

Next was her class levels.

‘Bing’ Class Arcane Pathfinder has leveled up to level 15. +10 Free attribute points awarded.

‘Bing’ Class Arcane Pathfinder has leveled up to level 16. +10 Free attribute points awarded.

Getting impatient, Sam skipped to the last notification.

‘Bing’ Class Arcane Pathfinder has leveled up to level 20. +10 Free attribute points awarded.

“Holy shit, that’s 80 free points!” Pulling up her stat sheet, Sam distributed her points. She skipped over strength because she hadn't felt lacking in that stat during the boss fight. Then she added twenty points to her vitality stat, bringing it up to sixty; as always, her health had been in the single percentage digits several times during the battle. Her endurance was trailing behind all her other stats, so she put twenty points into the stat, and fifteen points went into agility, putting all her stats over forty. She finished with fifteen and ten points in intelligence and wisdom, respectively. Confirming her selections, Sam felt the now familiar energy orgasm wash over her body and shuddered in ecstasy.

Adding so many points at once was an amazing rush. Sam looked down at her body and watched her muscles grow leaner, longer, and more taunt. She felt the density of her bones increase, making her noticeably heavier when she shifted her feet. All the fuzziness from the several instances of mana backlash she had experienced during the battle was washed away with the increase in her intelligence and wisdom boost.

"What a rush!" She said once the feeling of the stat increase subsided, "Okay, now to go meet some people!" She started toward the ruins. “They better not be assholes,” she thought as she walked toward the three huddled forms at the other end of the clearing, not even noticing her arm still slowly reforming as she strode out of the shallow crater and across the soft grass of the clearing.