The Wolf needed more than what she'd gained from finishing the trial. The feat effects would help, surely, but it wasn't enough, not to let a lone wolf survive in a place where a pack struggled to feed itself. Lone wolves rarely survived even in areas with abundant prey, and her instincts told her as much in no uncertain terms.
And now that she was capable of understanding this more acutely, she knew that she couldn't take advantage of her new-found intelligence completely. She needed tools, methods to leverage her access to her Records, but despite her expanded mind, she didn't know how, and howling her questions at the whispers telling her what she was did nothing.
Frustrated, she climbed to her feet and paced in the hollow that served as her den, tail and ears twitching in agitation and annoyance as she tried to work out a plan.
She could go to the man-things... She'd seen some of them accompanied by not-wolves that looked like huge, short-haired pups. If she found the right ones, they might take her in, but if she found the wrong man-things, she'd be in no condition to fight or flee.
That was too risky, but it could be worth a try, if she got truly desperate.
She'd keep it in mind, but she'd prefer a plan less risky.
Minor Quest!
Seek knowledge
Task: Use your Insight to gain power
Reward: Quirk-level Trait
Power must be earned. I have given you but opportunity to do so. Intent is what matters, little wolf.
It was the first voice again, made of all the sounds of the forest at once, and something else besides, but its whispers made little sense, this time.
She'd already intended to use her access to the Records, she just didn't know how. Even now, having been told that the 'Insight' could be used to gain power, she only had more questions.
Could she choose the power, or would the Records choose for her? Would it be random, or would it be influenced by what she'd done to earn the 'Insight'?
Grumbling, she decided that pacing and howling wouldn't do anything to give her answers, and flopped to the ground with a huff. That damned voice and its unhelpful whispers, why couldn't it just tell her how to work the Records?
Intent... Maybe she needed to be more direct? Before, her intent was couched behind questions and doubts, not immediate compared to the things she tried to ask the wolf-voices.
She asked again, this time focusing on what she really wanted. What could she use her 'Insight' on?
This time, the voices replied immediately, a deluge of information she could barely keep up with. She could use half of what she had to increase her skills. Discipline, in particular, could be increased twice, and she would still have enough left to increase one of her 'Proficient' skills. Alternatively, she could increase a 'Competent' skill, and choose a 'Proficient' one to bolster, but she wouldn't have any Insight left if she did, a little, if she increased Discipline instead of a 'Proficient' skill.
But the wolf-voices weren't done yet, and her mind whirled as she took in the second half of the information.
Traits. She could turn Insight into 'Traits', or strengthen ones she already had, and some of them would be extremely useful in her current situation.
Name Effect Tier Whisperstride Increases Stealth by a small amount for the purposes of remaining silent 1 Shadowhide Increases Stealth by a small amount for the purposes of remaining hidden 1 Fast Healing Doubles natural healing rate for every Rank 1 Pain Tolerance Decreases shock penalties and shock penalty cap with every Rank 1 Diehard Increases resistance to dying 1 Longstride Increases Agility for the purposes of movement 1 Keen Eyes Increases Intellect for the purposes of perceiving fine details per Rank 1 Light Drinker Reduces water requires substantially 1 Light Eater Reduces food requirements moderately 1 Pass Without Trace Prevents footprints from being left behind in the chosen environment 1
The list went on and on, but the others weren't useful to her right now. These, however, each one had the capacity to improve her chances of survival drastically. In the long term, Light Drinker and Light Eater would be the best, but they didn't erase her needs completely, and it might take her a moon or more to be healthy enough to hunt properly again.
She needed Fast Healing more immediately than anything else on the list, and it could be improved further, like her Tough Hide or Night Vision.
Really, it wasn't even a choice at all. It would let her get back to hunting much faster, and, if she was lucky, her adversarys corpse would still be there in a few days when she could move quickly again.
Minor Quest Complete!
One Quirk-level Trait earned!
Insight earned!
Knowledge is power, little wolf. Guard it well, spend it wisely.
She couldn't immediately tell a difference in herself after converting the Insight into the Trait, but the wolf-voices confirmed that she possessed the Trait, and had used all of her Insight to gain it, and the first voice gave her a small list of 'Quirks' to choose from as her reward, so it must have worked.
The Quirks were... less helpful, and highly situational, for the most part, like keeping her fur clean, so she chose Temperature Tolerance at Rank 1. It was the best option among them all, but still very weak, giving her only a 'minor' resistance to heat and cold, and, like with the Trait, she couldn't detect a difference, for now, but it didn't matter. The other Quirks would have been impossible to test right now, anyway.
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The Quests and Trials, however... They granted Insight when she completed them, alongside all their other rewards. This 'minor' Quest only gave her a little bit of Insight, though, so the amount earned from each must be different somehow. The difficulty in completing them, maybe?
She didn't know, and the voice wasn't telling her, and she was tired, besides, from the long trek through the woods.
The Wolf laid down in her much-too-empty den, and drifted off to sleep, thoughts of dragging the man-things bundle back hazily surfacing in her mind.
The sun had nearly reached its peak in the sky by the time she woke, and she took a little while to stretch and work the sleep from her muscles before heading down to the stream for a morning drink and bath.
She'd tried to clean her injuries the way she normally did, but found her tongue couldn't reach the worst of them, as they were too close to her shoulder, and she wasn't able to contort quite enough. Under normal circumstances, a wolfs pack would clean what the individual could not.
Some small part of her, the part that could understand dreams now, hoped that it had been a nightmare, but that was quickly disappointed when she found herself alone in her den.
Still, the injuries had to be taken care of. She'd seen what unkept wounds would do to animals seasons ago when her pack happened on a deer that was missing a leg, the limb rotting off at the knee from a bite or other puncture wound. The deer didn't seem to care all that much, of course, but it was slower, and so her pack had caught it easily.
Her wounds were in a much more important place on her body, as well, though she wouldn't survive losing a limb, either, not without a pack to support her, so it didn't really matter where they were, only that they didn't begin to rot.
She grumbled in relief as her paws hit the cool water of the stream and she lowered herself into it, taking the weight off her aching leg and throbbing bones. They hurt much less today than she expected, but she still wasn't in good shape. A quarter moon, maybe, at this rate, and she might be at full strength again.
That was doable. Even in good times, her pack only ate once every four or five days, and before the man-thing the previous night, she hadn't eaten much more than scraps of fruit or small insects in most of a moon. As long as she could recover enough of her strength in the next few days, she could stay in her den for all but light exercise and water until she healed.
That, however, was a very tall order without a pack. She'd have to hunt small birds, rabbits, and insects, eat fallen nuts and whatever fruit or flowers she could find to make it happen. By now, the man-things corpse, as well as those of her pack, were almost certainly scavenged nearly to the bone.
She might be able to gather a few scraps, perhaps one of the larger bones for the marrow, but that would be all, and she'd need to find a safe place to sleep on the way so she could rest on the way back, as she definitely wasn't able to move at full speed yet.
The Wolf periodically dipped her snout below the waters surface to wash the gash along her face while she thought and planned. Her tongue could reach parts of it, but not the whole thing, and the itching sensation that drove her to wash her injuries was only growing stronger for the half-hearted effort, an itching which, thankfully, the water abated, somewhat.
Lesser Quest!
Hunger will end you, if you let it
Task: Sate your hunger
Time Limit: Seven days
Reward: Insight
You can't entertain me if you starve. Eat, little wolf, and grow strong.
She growled at the unwelcome intrusion into her thoughts and bath. She was trying! She needed time to consider her options, decide on a course of action!
But... it wasn't like staying in the stream any longer was going to help, and she'd already run through most, if not all, of the potential avenues for eating and healing, so she climbed out of the shallow stream, and shook off the water on the bank, much to her shoulders protests.
This amount of planning would just have to do, especially if the voice wasn't going to offer an alternative.
General Skills Name None Agility Race Wolf (Awakened) Athletics Competent (Growing) Gender Female Stealth Proficient (Growing) Age Adolescent Evasion Proficient (Growing) Insight Little Melee Competent (Apex) Health At Death's Door, Malnourished Intellect Stamina Energetic, Lightly Fatigued Survival Proficient (Nascent) Attributes Willpower Strength Above Average (Nascent) Discipline Untrained (Growing) Agility Above Average (Growing) Fortitude Average (Apex) Intellect Average (Nascent) Willpower Average (Growing) Charisma Low (Nascent)
Traits Racial Wolf Base Health is set to Average, Base Stamina is set to Average, and Base ■■■■ is set to Low Pack Tactics Increases flanking bonuses against opponents, increases morale for each ally Quadruped Increases Agility for the purposes of movement Tough Hide Increases Damage Reduction by a moderate amount per Rank Wolf Claws Increases unarmed damage and changes type to cutting Crushing Jaw Bites deal increased damage, allows bites to count as a grapple Carnivore Does not require vegetables to avoid malnourishment, may eat raw meat Night Vision Rank 3, reduces low-light penalties by a small amount per Rank Partial Colorblindness Substantially lowers ability to distinguish color Awakened Increases Intellect and Intellect cap Feats Heroes Fall Increases combat skills against Hero or Champion-tagged foes, increases resistance to hostile reputation effects Strength of the Weak Grants a small bonus to learning speed for combat skills, and increases Destroyer Affinity by one step General Terrain Adaptation Forest, removes penalties for poor footing in chosen environment Fast Healing Rank 1, doubles natural healing rate for every Rank Quirks Temperature Tolerance Rank 1, increases comfortable temperature range by a small amount per Rank