Having woken up late, Kal quickly ate and then did some stretches. Lying down in the sunlight he then proceeded to relax for a while, almost dozing off before he remembered that he wanted to try and explore the pond that was present in the meadow.
Walking over to the pond, he got changed into a very thin set of clothes that was normally worn under armour but, due to the quality, could be used as an improvised wet suit. Once he was properly dressed (including his spatial belt), he started to swim. After a few minutes of this, he received a notification telling him that he had the swimming skill.
‘This will be useful in the future as it will increase my mobility in the water. Now to gain the diving skill.’
Kal went on to start diving to around 3 metres in depth, holding himself there, then surfacing. After he had repeated this motion around 5 times, he had received the diving skill. This skill would increase the time he could hold his breath and the pressure he could take safely as the proficiency increased. The best thing for him, was the fact that he could get both skills to about 20% proficiency in around 2 hours.
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2 hours later
‘Wooo, that was pretty fun. Messing round in the water was always one of my favourite things. It’s a bit of a shame that I still couldn’t see any signs of the floor of the pond, if it can still be called a pond when it is deeper than 50 metres. It’s a good thing that the diving skill negates the effect of bends as it saves so much time when diving.’
Taking a look at the skills, the following could be seen:
Skills
Swimming
22.5%
Diving
21%
From this, the ridiculous speed of Kals progress could be seen. What he achieved in 2 hours would take the recognised genii of Aloda at least 2 days. He had always been fast at progressing in his skills but since his second death, his speed had increased. Some of it could be attributed to his higher intelligence and wisdom stats but that didn’t explain why he was so much faster.
‘All that swimming has got me pretty tired, I’ll take a short nap.’
Setting up his precautions, Kal entered his tent and quickly fell asleep.
Waking up an hour later, he walked outside his tent. Suddenly, he felt as if something was wrong. There was no valid reason for him to feel this way, he would have been warned of any living beings entering the meadow by the rune magic he had placed down before having his nap. Also, while looking around, nothing obvious stuck out to him.
But for Kal, this sense had saved him countless times on the battlefield and was a finely-honed instinct. Even though he had eventually been killed, it was due to it being a betrayal by his allies plus a battle of attrition, never had any assassin had a chance to strike. Due to his position in his previous life, many had been sent after him, and none had returned alive. Trusting himself, Kal started to analyse everything around him. Finally, he realised there was a slight discrepancy in the grass close to the pond.
Having spent hours in the pond earlier the same day, Kal was 100% certain that whatever the discrepancy was, it had not been there earlier. Approaching carefully, he drew his sword and dagger, making sure he could instantly dodge or block, depending on the situation he found himself in.
As he got within 15 metres, he could smell the faint scent of blood. But what made him pause was the fact that he had never scented that specific type of blood before. With his abilities in his previous life, he had a vast experience in the slightly differing smells of blood, and with the improvement in senses his current body had gone through, he was even better at it. He could almost effortlessly recognise the type of blood as long as he had scented it before. With the fact that he couldn’t see anything obvious, the smell of an unknown blood and his instincts firing like crazy, Kal was certain that whatever was there could prove deadly to him if he lost concentration.
Knowing this he moved even slower. As he finally got within 5 metres, there was movement. Freezing Kal finally managed to see what had been concealed before. Whatever illusion or skill that was hiding it was negated with the movement. And in front of Kal was a… DOG???
‘No, wait, that looks more like a wolf cub. And one that has been seriously injured at that. Ah, why do I want to help it, surely it’s a monster, lets identify it anyway.’
??? ??? Warg
Health: ???
Level: 1
Your identify skill is too weak to be able to penetrate the information that is hidden by this Warg. It is a monster that specialises in concealment. Feel fortunate that you were even able to notice it.
Your Identify skill proficiency is too low for more information.
‘What the hell! When has a level 1 monster been able to hide from an identify cast by someone 5 levels higher than it. This is very interesting. I really don’t want to kill it now. Hmm, let me try to feed it a tame pill and see what happens.’
As Kal moved closer, the warg had started to growl and snap at him as it did not have the ability to move freely due to the injuries it had sustained. Before the warg could react, Kal had pulled out a taming pill and thrown it directly in the wargs mouth. Upon contact, the pill melted and was absorbed by the warg but unfortunately for Kal, an error messege appeared.
Error! You have tried to tame a sentient being.
‘Well, crap! That was unexpected. Since when have sentient beasts been found in beginner areas. I didn’t see my first sentient beast for almost 40 years last time. Now I have to decide whether to save this warg or not.’
Unfortunately for Kal, even if he wanted to kill the warg for its experience, it would be almost impossible for him to follow through as his sole companion through his original childhood was a single dog. Due to this, he had always had a soft spot for dogs and those that are similar. To that point, 3 of his tamed beasts from his previous life were wolves and dogs.
Unable to betray this deep-seated feeling, he eventually pulled out a healing pill. He then turned to the warg and started to speak, after all, it was sentient.
‘Hello there, I know that you probably don’t trust me, especially after I threw the taming pill in your mouth, but you can tell that I do not want you to die. So, what I have in my hand is a healing pill and you only have two choices right now. You can stop growling and let me give you this pill, then get better, or you can choose to bleed out right here. Now make your choice.’
Kal could see the intelligence in the beast’s eyes now that he was looking for it and could see it weighing up the decision that it had been given. Finally, with a look of resignation, it reluctantly opened its mouth and Kal threw in a healing pill. As the effects of the pill started to kick in, Kal could see the hope returning to the warg. Walking over to the pond, Kal grabbed some water in a bowl and then left some of the raw meat he had stored in his belt. Having done so, he spoke one last time to the beast.
‘I’ll be over in my tent, come at me with aggression and I’ll kill you so get healthy and then leave.’
Saying such, he walked back to his tent. Once he got there he checked a notification that he had kept hidden.
Skill Gained
6th Sense – 90%
This skill allows you to recognise situations due to instinct and feelings that cannot be quantified. It will rise appropriately due to the concealment or event that you thwarted. Once maximised, it will allow you to learn Danger Sense.
‘Wow. That is really a shocker. I never realised that this skill could be learned without a skill book. If I recall correctly, only a few of the Kings of some of the large Kingdoms knew this skill and I’ve never even heard of the skill danger sense. Plus, with the way that the skill rises in proficiency, the concealment on that beast was insane.’
If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
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A few hours later
Having spent the last few hours cleaning and sorting out his equipment, Kal left his tent to cook dinner. As he did so, he noticed that the warg was still where it was previously. Walking over, he could see that it was asleep. Deciding to ignore it, he set up his fireplace and started to make his dinner. Halfway through cooking, he noticed that the warg had dragged itself over to the fire. Realising it was probably cold, he let it be. Once his food was ready, he ate quickly and due to habit, he threw the bones over to the warg like he would do with his tamed beasts in the past.
Leaving before he got too attached to an intelligent beast, Kal went back to his tent and fell asleep.
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Over the next few days, Kal went back to his training regimen of hunting in the daylight and training during the night. The only difference between before is that now he had a permanent resident in the warg that seemed to have taken residence next to his fire. Due to it still healing, Kal never made a big fuss about it as it never acted aggressively towards him.
Finally, after two weeks had passed from the day he met the warg, he had hunted most of the lower level monsters in the surrounding area and had stopped receiving any meaningful experience. He had also found a new clearing to which he was going to move to. He made sure to mark the clearing he was currently in as he wanted to come back and discover what was at the bottom of the pond.
Kal walked over to the warg lying by the fire. He had decided that seeing as they were co-habitants that he would at least say goodbye.
‘So warg, it looks like it is time for me to move from here. You should be fully recovered by now so I have ne clue why you are still here. Seeing as you hunt during the night I guess you just find this place convenient. Anyway, I’ll be moving to a new clearing now.’
Having let down his guard, Kal had no time to respond when the warg exploded into action and quickly bit his hand. The bite itself was not hard, just drawing blood, but then Kal felt an agonising pain. Passing out, Kal never had a chance to see the wolf shaped mark appear on his bicep. It looked exactly like the warg which had bitten him and the warg itself seemed to be drawn into it, disappearing. The mark could easily be mistaken for an expensive full colour tattoo, and what it truly signified is something that Kal would not find out for a long time.
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A few hours later
‘For fucks sake you mongrel. Where are you, you fucking son of a bitch, and I mean that goddamn literally. Biting the hand that feeds you (also literally), ungrateful beast. I see you fucking ran away as well. At least you didn’t bite my hand off I guess. Anyway, why is this notification being a bitch and blinking. That only happens when its urgent. Let’s check.’
You have bonded with a new beast
Taming proficiency has risen to 40%
You must name your new beast
‘Wait, did his bite bind us. Oh lord, having a sentient tamed beast is something only the most powerful could do, and even with this last week of non-stop murder I’m still only level 11. Anyway, I need to name it. A bit weird that an intelligent beast does not have a name yet, but seeing how he’s a warg, I’ll call him Fenris. Let’s just hope he doesn’t grow up to be so big. Anyway, I’ve only truly realised this now, but I never thought about what colour his fur was. That’s another thing I need to ask him about. Even though I kind of know what he looks like, I have no clue what his actual appearance is…’
Title Gained
Beast King
You have tamed an intelligent beast. This is a feat that normally only the most powerful can achieve. This along with your bloodline gives you the qualification to be a Beast King. This gives you the ability to enter the cities of the beasts as an equal and not an enemy.
‘Ahahaha, this is a dream come true. I always wanted to visit the beast cities, but they normally kill all non-beasts on sight once they enter the city territories. Finally, I can go take a look around. That will be a fun thing to do in the future.’
Finally taking a look at his arm which was irritating him, Kal had a look of shock on his face.
‘What the fuck! Since when did bonding with a beast give you a tattoo of them instead of them just appearing in your beast space. I really have a bunch of questions to ask Fenris once he wakes up. I just hope he has answers.’
Saying such, Kal proceeded to pack up camp and headed out on his way to his next camp site. It was time to start preparing to his return to civilisation. He had plans to keep, and after all university started in just under 8 months.
Spoiler: Stats, Skills and Titles
Name
Kallok Glaur Thanatos
Level
11 (484/2750)
Race
Human/???/Demon(inactive)
Age
18
Profession
-
Title (Active)
The Progenitor
Health
280/280
Mana
890/890
Strength
51
Agility
58
Vitality
28
Intelligence
89
Wisdom
62
Mana Regen
31 (per min)
Charisma
63
Luck
130
Free Attribute Points
0
Beasts
3
Skills
31
Titles
8
Skills
Taming
40%
Identify
11%
Mana Manipulation
13%
Unarmed Combat
29%
Sword Mastery
21%
Dual Handed Combat
16%
Armed Combat
30%
Dagger Mastery
19%
Evasive Manoeuvres
26%
Tricking
17%
Free Running
23%
Throwing
42%
Jumping
21%
Running
23%
Footwork
24%
Body Control
20%
Stealth
36%
Skinning
24%
Cooking
17%
Fire Magic
24%
Fire Ball
19%
Fire Arrow
28%
Fire Shield
27%
Ice Magic
20%
Ice Ball
12%
Ice Arrow
23%
Ice Shield
29%
Assassinate
13%
Swimming
22.5%
Diving
21%
6th Sense
90.5%
Titles
The Progenitor
The Final Survivor
Devourer of Books
Limits, What Are They?
King of the Hill
King Killer
Reaper
Beast King