Jake
‘At least I didn’t have to use mana like my plan intended to.’ I comforted myself while digging a shallow grave in the snow just a few meters away from Frost.
After thinking for a bit I concluded that having bodies lying around in the ground close by would make it just a matter of time for scavengers to come when the smell of death started to rise.
For once I was thankful it was so cold here, which should slow down the decompositions, giving me enough time to deal with them, though how much time I truly had was a mystery to me.
To my dismay the snow that had fallen during the blizzard was tightly packed above the ground, making me take almost half an hour to open an area on the snow just big enough to bury the white deer, the oldest corpse of the bunch.
And that’s not mentioning the dirt below, frozen so thoroughly a single try was all it took to know it was impossible to digg it barehanded.
“I really need gloves… well a glove.” I sneered, pulling the deer’s body in the grave before covering it back with snow.
And though I still could see one of its legs poking out of the snow mound, personally I consider it a job well done.
‘Only three more to go.’
Casting my gaze at Frost I see that although slower than earlier the pool of blood was still growing at an alarming pace.
The fact her skill didn’t activate yet was both surprising and worrying.
“Don’t die on me Fro…” I started to murmur.
When suddenly my strength left my body, making me miss a step and plant my face on the snowy ground.
Struggling to move I sat up, spitting out a lump of snow as I looked at the message that popped in my view.
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Frost’s Vitality below survivable threshold SOULMATES MARK activates.
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Different from the mana poisoning, which was almost over by this time, I didn’t tremble like a wet chick nor felt like my head was a smith’s anvil, instead my body felt slow and encumbered, like the air had suddenly became a dense jello, making each of my movements take twice the effort for half of the effect.
Thankfully I could feel my energy picking back up slowly, bringing my body to normal in no more than a couple of minutes.
So with my forced coffe-break over I looked at the dead goblins laying nearby, imagining for a moment digging another three shallow graves in that sluggish state.
“That would’ve been such a nightmare” I said to myself just as another popup hit me up, taking my strength away and leaving me laying back on the snowy ground.
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Frost’s Vitality below survivable threshold SOULMATES MARK activates.
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‘Should I leave them there? Put them all in a single hole? Just throw them into the tree line?’
Trying to come up with a decent idea I stared at the sky silently, taking my sweet time with it, since I was pretty sure this would keep going on for a while.
And though it took a couple minutes eventually I found a feasible option.
So with my full focus and willpower I used lethargic body to grab the goblins one by one and chuck them into the river.
With that out of the way, I sat back in the snow taking some time to look at my stats and skills.
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Stats:
Body rank 0 - 1/3
-Strength: rank 0 - 62/100
-Health: rank 0 - 14/100 —-> 15/100 —--> 16/100
-Resistance: rank 0 - 86/100
Mind rank 0 - 2/3
-Power: rank 0 - 33/100
-Mana: rank 1 - 10/100
-Clarity: rank 1 - 10/100
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Instantly two things caught my attention for one, both strength and resistance had risen slightly since I’ve last seen my stats, and especially resistance was really close to ranking up.
But most interesting of all was that right in front of my eyes I saw my health stat growing in real time at quite the significant rate.
If I had to guess, it must be related to how the mark was keeping Frost alive, since that was the only significant difference I could think of between me right now and me after the fox hunt.
Satisfied with that I turned my eyes to the skills tab.
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Skills:
[Inborn]
-DARK SACRIFICE . (rank 0 [10%])
[Class skills 3/10]
-MANA NOURISHMENT (rank 0) lvl 1 [85%].
-MANA ACCLIMATION (rank 0) lvl 0 [01%].
-DARK MINE (rank 0) lvl 0 [00%].
[Acquired skills 1/10]
-DARK STARE (rank 0) lvl 0 [06%].
>Merge Skills.
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With a glance it became obvious the only skill I really used was mana nourishment, with it being almost level 2 before any other skill even hit level 1.
Curiously dark sacrifice didn’t show a level, a weird difference I chucked as being an inborn skill trait.
“Things are getting better for sure.” I whispered to myself in a dead tone, as I sat weak on the snow while staring at Frost bleeding in front of me.
Sigh.
‘I should try exercising a bit, it’s not like I would be able to fight anything that came for us while weakened anyway.’
***
Frost
As dusk fell once more our pack went out to hunt.
A lone reindeer was soon found, on its head a pair of small budding antlers grew.
We circled the alert beast, but sadly not fast enough.
Our prey ran for its life and we chased it.
Watching from the rear of my pack as we chased it through the winter forest, a shadow of worry formed inside my heart.
Something was wrong, I barked for the pack to stop.
Still the chase continued.
I barked and barked nonstop.
In moments they all went away.
At dawn I howled in sorrow.
Hurt, alone and enraged.
***
Jake
While Frost improved and the hours passed I tried exercising only to conclude it was not an optimal way to gain stats.
With a measly five strength points gained even after six or so hours of training, a chunk of that while weakened by the mark, I felt that calling it a complete waste of time would be an understatement.
But at least the debuff had slowly stopped in a matter of a couple hours as Frost got better, with her bleeding having stopped a bit earlier and at this moment even new fur sprouted where the wound had closed.
Suddenly Frost jumps into a fighting stance, her ears straight, her teeth bared and a deep threatening growl towards the treeline.
Worried she saw something I didn’t look frantically at the forest, searching for what set her off as soon as she woke up.
But no matter how much I looked there was nothing there.
“Frost?” I ask carefully, squatting a meter behind her.
In a moment she turned towards me, at first with the same alertness as before, then with a confused look she tilted her head, till finally a few seconds later she calmed herself down, plopping back once more into the red snow.
“You good buddy?” I asked in concern.
“Bad dream.” Her voice answered while staring with a sullen look at the cold ground.
Seeing her like this makes my own emotions waver, but right now is not the time for me to worry about how the last few days went.
“I imagine you’re hungry. I buried the deer right there.” I say to her while pointing at the snow mound, hoping that will cheer her up.
‘No way we have a talk with her in such a sad mood.’
To my luck she is just as hungry as I would expect, dragging the deer out from the shabby grave just by pulling on its poking out leg.
‘Damn, she seems to be growing stronger even faster than I am.’
Which was not that surprising when I thought about the way she fought.
Sitting back down I watch her wolf down the deer at an impressive pace, a gory scene that is slowly becoming worryingly familiar to me.
To my horror even my stomach seems unaffected by the blood, instead rumbling with hunger, one which I answer by running mana nourishment for a bit.
Not enough to satisfy it since even with the acclimation skill my mana pool was still too small, but for now I decided to not use the river unless necessary, caution is the enemy of an early death after all.
As Frost kept eating intense winds started to form around her, normally I couldn’t even feel mana farther than a few centimeters away, but now, almost like I had jumped inside the mana rich river I felt its presence coming all around us, more than that, I could see it freeing itself from the packed snow and rushing towards Frost with its dark blue glow.
With sudden movements she bit hard on the deer’s crystal like horn, breaking it away gulping it down in a single motion.
The cold mana intensified once more as if reacting to her sudden actions, gathering faster and faster towards my furry companion, before coalescing into a dark blue sphere that hid her from the world.
After a few moments the winds calmed once more and the cold mana around us fell back to the ground, the sphere still kept present though its color disappeared slightly, taking a semi-transparent tone.
Inside it I could see Frost change, her fur once completely white gained a single dark blue stripe, that went from the middle of her eyes till the tip of her tail, her claws became bigger, sharper and lost its characteristic black color, becoming a white so bright even her fur seemed darker in comparison.
But the most impressive part was her growth, going from her initial german shepherd like stature to a size comparable with a great dane, she looked fierce, making me thank my luck we crossed paths a couple days earlier instead of right now.
Even with me expecting her surprise attack that day I almost lost, if she was this size, there would be actually nothing I could have done.
Soon the bubble of mana dispersed and Frost strutted confidently in front of me clearly showing off her gains.
“I’ve grown stronger.” She declared proudly before walking back to finish the deer’s remains.
With a baffled giggle I laid down on the ground, deciding to take a nap now that she was back up.
“Hey Frost, wake me up just before dusk alright.” Today I intended to start operating at night with Frost.
After receiving an affirmative growl I turned to my side, holding my cloak tighter and slept in the cold ground, having seemingly in my dazed state forgotten to even talk with her about everything.