***
Sounds of heavy breathing woke up Frost from her slumber, surprised she was still alive she found herself being held in the creature's soft embrace, its face contorted with pain as mumbles poured out from its mouth, his skin was cold and pale in deep contrast with its black fur that somehow was covering both of them.
Maybe it was the situation, maybe it was the strange affection she felt towards the creature, either way it didn't take long for her to conclude that the skill had worked.
Wiggling around, careful to not hit one of their bruises she started to free herself from it before a whisper escaped its lips.
“Don’t move… please…” Its voice was strained and rough, the sound it made weak and quiet, but somehow Frost knew it was pleading, for her presence, for her warmth.
Suddenly the smell of blood soon filled her snout, bringing her attention to the creature’s side.
From the arm she had shattered earlier, blood dribbled in a thin inconsistent stream, forming a puddle of red snow on the ground.
This scene wasn’t strange for Frost, she had killed many animals throughout her life, but this time it felt different, it felt like she had hurt herself.
At that thought her ears flattened and her tail lowered as she headed the creature's plea and snuggled back into its embrace, she didn't think they would survive the night either way, so at least she could do that for it.
***
Amidst thunder and snow the night passed by like hell, as Jake drifted between awake and sleeping constantly as wave after wave of pain assaulted his body, his muscles spasmed and sweat covered his skin.
At times he felt death come close as held strong the wolf, his only heat source in the furious snowstorm that started a few hours after sundown.
At some point deep into the night the wounds in his body suddenly healed and closed, and clear skin grew where his left arm once connected, liberated from the pain he fell into deep sleep, only disturbed by the extremely low temperature that kept slowly dropping even now.
*
Opening my eyelids a series of system pop ups filled my vision.
----------------------------
Vitality below survivable threshold SOULMATES MARK activates.
----------------------------
----------------------------
Vitality below survivable threshold SOULMATES MARK activates.
----------------------------
----------------------------
Vitality below survivable threshold SOULMATES MARK activates.
----------------------------
----------------------------
Vitality below survivable threshold SOULMATES MARK activates.
----------------------------
…
----------------------------
Health rank up threshold reached!
Health rank 0 —-> 1
----------------------------
----------------------------
First threshold reached! Class - Wanderer —-> Wanderer I
Class skill related to Health ready for claim!
----------------------------
‘Holy fuck.’ I thought, cold sweat dripping down my back as he one by one tapped away the dozen or so close to death notifications.
Taking a deep breath and calming my heart I tapped on the first claim window.
----------------------------
Choose one.
>WANDERER’S RESPITE (rank 0):
Enter a meditative state recovering stamina and vitality faster. (strength based on skill Health rank).
>MANA NOURISHMENT (rank 0):
Spend your mana to nourish yourself, sating both thirst and hunger. (efficiency based on Health rank).
>EMERGENCY HEAL (rank 0):
When vitality goes down below critical levels, gain a significant amount of vitality and stamina instantly, however enter a weakened state after some time. (amount gained based on Health rank), (duration before weakened state based on Resistance rank).
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
----------------------------
‘Huh?’
The fact I finally had even a modicum of control threw me for a loop and at the same time it brought back memories of many nights spent in front of a screen, reading and theory crafting in order to find a broken skill or some crazy synergy.
‘What kind of build should I go for?’
With one look at my lost arm and one thing was for sure, fuck going mele, trading damage and getting close to random shit was ok in games, in real life though I’d rather not.
‘This doesn’t matter right now, I need to survive first’
So shaking my head I looked back at my options.
First I discarded the emergency heal, though it was clearly the most useful in combat… I gave a quick glance at my left stump.
In my heart I already decided that I would try my best to gear my build towards a far away from risk combat approach, making this skill a lot less valuable to me.
Between the other two…
‘Right now I have no food or clear water.’
As soon as I tapped on mana’s nourishment the knowledge of how to do it flowed to my mind and like a veil was lifted from my eyes I suddenly could feel the blurry presence of a new energy immense and ever present, flowing like water both inside and outside me, changing the environment in small and imperceptible ways.
“Mana” I mumbled involuntarily, lost in that magical feeling.
Before the veil lowered once more, cutting my connection to the mana that flooded the world, leaving only the small undulating waves that were present within me.
Following my new knowledge I focused on my mana, willing it to change and dissipating it throughout my body.
Sadly in seconds it dried out, bringing only a small relief to my growing hunger.
‘Shit, that was worse than I thought.’
The effect was decent but I simply had too little mana to make a true difference.
Even then I can feel my mana regenerating slowly, though when I will have enough to cast the spell again is beyond me.
Looking for more info I open my stats.
----------------------------
Stats:
Body rank 0 - 1/3
-Strength: rank 0 - 40/100
-Health: rank 1 - 10/100
-Resistance: rank 0 - 66/100
Mind rank 0 - 0/3
-Power: rank 0 - 5/100
-Mana: rank 0 - 1/100
-Clarity: rank 0 - 3/100
----------------------------
No change in the magical stats?
I guess they grow with either actions or events related to the status.
Too early to be sure anyway.
I shake my head once more dispersing stray thoughts, at least for now my priority is finding food and water.
“Hey, can you understand me?” I ask the small wolf still in my lap, hoping to god it does.
Though I say small the wolf is almost the size of a german shepherd.
After a moment it tilts its head at me before a confused growl escapes its throat.
‘The wolf knows I asked something and it is asking me something back.’
I knew it instantly, though what it had asked me or how the fuck I had even understood what the wolf meaning was a mystery to me.
‘Maybe simpler words.’
“Water, food, where?” I asked it back, going straight to what I needed.
Another growl was said, this time a confused affirmation.
In moments it got up from my arms, leaving me once more exposed to the intense cold and with a few steps it walked to a pile of snow, before pointing at it with its snout and letting out another confused growl.
“Not snow, Food.” I said to it, biting my hand to try and convey my message.
Another confused affirmative growl came, then it took a bite of the heap of snow and gulped it down before staring back and forth between me and the snow pile.
‘Wait, this fucker eats snow?’ I questioned myself, just as confused as the wolf.
‘Ok, let’s try another way.’
“River, where?” I asked once more.
“woof” it barked at me with a mix of frustration and confusion, it stared at me for a bit before seemingly having an idea.
Closing its blue eyes for a moment a frown formed on its brows.
Then a vision came to my mind, there I saw myself with a ragged cloak, tired eyes and disheveled hair sitting in the snow, then my mouth opened and questioning familiar words came out.
“River, where?”
Wide eyed I looked baffled at the wolf, does she have telepathy? or is this the mark thing? If it's the mark…
I closed my eyes, concentrating hard on imagining a river flowing through a snowy forest, like something clicked and I felt our connection that had been silently present since yesterday resonate.
Opening my eyes I asked her again.
“River, where?” I said confident, not a shred of doubt she would get me.
Now she looked at me with wide eyes.
“Woof.” She barked energetically, walking to the forest while motioning me to follow her.
Soon we were walking through the snowstorm.
***
A deep and wide blue river stretched to both ends of the horizon with a soft blue mist glowing on its surface.
Though the snowstorm seemed to freeze everything in the environment, the river kept flowing, as if immune to the harsh cold.
Its waters were so clear Jake could see the fish swimming meters away, but even then he couldn’t see the bottom.
Carefully he got to his knees before extending his hand towards the shining water, readying himself for the cold he imagined would come, he would prefer not to suffer, but right now it had been more than half a day since he last had any water, so unless he wanted to eat the snow of the ground he had to do it.
To his surprise the freezing cold never came, the water’s were surprisingly warm to the touch, to his complete shock, he could feel mana flow through his hand into his body at an impressive rate, it took no more than half a minute for him to be back to full.
A thing he estimated would take hours outside of it.
In the end following Frost through the blizzard for the last hour and a half had been truly worth it.
Feeling the comfort and warmth of the currents a thought floated through his mind.
‘I could use a bath.’
Just then something caught his eye, deep down where the light almost didn’t reach a pair of golden reptilian eyes stared at him.
Straining his vision a bit he discovered his watcher, a snake with the head the size of his torso floated silently dozens of meters below the surface.
And just as fast as it came the idea was thrown out, as he took his hand out of the river holding a bit of the warm waters.
‘You should be more careful Jake, or you’ll end up losing your last hand.’ he joked to himself, as cold sweat formed on his back.
Looking at his hand he watched as the mana in the water rapidly dispersed, becoming empty in seconds.
‘Should I even drink this or just use my skill?’ He questioned, still shocked by how fast his mana filled here.
Suddenly a howl pulled Jake out of his thoughts, turning his attention to Frost he saw her get low and point at the forest with her snout.
Worried something was coming he also got low and turned his gaze to the forest, staring intently, searching for anything that might attack them.
Frost howled once more, sending a vision his way this time.
There on the shores of the magical river a pack of light gray foxes walked through the snow, they made their way and drank a bit of the water, pissed on both the river and the snow, before disappearing once more in the forest.
Then the scene changed, he saw himself and Frost made their way to the same shores and as he messed with the waters Frost smelled the ground, soon finding a trace of the fox.
Next she howled at him before getting low and looking in the direction the fox had gone.
And at last the image of he and Frost stalking the fox finalized the vision.
‘She wants to hunt it’ Jake concluded, throwing the now chill water into the ground.
“Soon, just give me some time.” sending her a vision of them waiting a bit before entering the forest.
Then he used mana nourishment while carefully sinking his hand into the river, readying himself to jump away at the first sign of danger.