The spirit fox and werewolf races are oddities amongst the sentient species allowed access to the system. Both races are descended from monsters who became powerful and intelligent enough to obtain a humanoid form. Both have a natural tendency for a certain portion of the population to display signs of bestial atavism, and both races have unique traits that aren’t displayed in their status.

In the case of werewolves, atavism is a sign of divine favor in their society. Those who can revert to the ancestral form are considered avatars of the gods, and those who were too close to the standard humanoid in appearance are generally of lower caste. This is reinforced by the sheer differences in physical ability between those who display atavism and those who don’t.

Spirit fox society, on the other hand, persecutes those who display atavism mercilessly. The origins for this prejudice come from a number of disasters caused by spirit foxes who reverted to the ancestral form and went on to bring catastrophe to the lands they lived in. Moreover, spirit fox society values rationality and forethought over physical strength, meaning that a spirit fox who displays signs of atavism is seen as uncouth.

It is a peculiarity of werewolves that they focus only on the benefits of atavism. And in opposition it is a peculiarity of spirit foxes that they ignore the examples of noble atavists who helped forge the Empire to focus on those who caused problems.

~Excerpt from A Treatise on the Nature of the Beast Races

The Wandering Waif, The Western Ocean

Vianara calmly rained eighth-tier Black Lightning down on the megalodons surrounding the Wandering Waif, the rain from the storm plastering her hair against her head and her loose cotton shirt against her chest. The large magitech warship easily cut through the high waves, its barriers keeping the ocean from swamping it, even as the ship headed for the City-States’ easternmost colony, Virielle Island.

Elven marines fought furiously against the sahagin that leaped from the ocean, silver blades slicing off scaled limbs and puncturing their throats in sprays of light purple blood. Atop the folded mast, a half-dozen archers with compound bows unleashed a storm of arrows that competed with the hard rain falling upon the deck.

The captain of the ship calmly cut down any of the ‘goblins of the sea’ that approached the helm, his scarred features wrinkled from the happy smile that curved his lips.

I really should have looked for a merchant ship for this trip… if I knew Captain Lessaire intended to cut straight across the Maelstrom of Beasts, I would have been perfectly willing to shell out the platinum for a safe trip… Vianara grumbled internally as she continued to stand at the center of a glowing black pentagram as she repeatedly chanted the spell for Black Lightning, her massive mana reserves barely moving as the eighth tier spell, which combined the basic elemental concept of lightning with the greater concepts of destruction and death, blasted the life out of ship-eating twenty-meter long sharks over and over, their bodies disintegrating with each hit.

For the last three days, their time was spent repeatedly slaughtering floods of monsters that emerged from the mana-dense ocean depths of the Maelstrom in four hour shifts. She had two shifts a day and spent the rest of the time sleeping or eating as much as she could stuff into her body to restore her mana.

The years since Iryun’s disappearance had driven Vianara to search frantically across the continent, but she found nothing. Now she sought answers on the continent to the east. She knew her son was alive, the faint bond she had had with him from birth informing her of that much, but she could sense that he had suffered greatly since their parting.

Her father had apologized with deep regret when she came back from fighting off an orc horde to find her son missing, and he had funded her search with his own coin after. However, she didn’t think she would ever forgive his failure.

Vianara ignored the sahagin that approached her from behind, a harpoon of blue coral in its right hand. It thrust the harpoon forward with all the strength in its powerful body, going through her blouse as if it weren’t even there… only to stop at the surface of her skin.

Vianara wasn’t cycling qi, nor had she created a magical barrier. No, she was simply Tier 17. There was no possibility of a low-evolution humanoid monster giving her a scratch with such a weapon, much less killing her.

So she had no need to defend herself from its attacks.

Chiyome had often asked her why she didn’t take the Master Trial, as it would have allowed her to crush the old Master of their clan like a bug, but Vianara’s answer was always the same.

“I can still climb higher.”

She had intended to spend fifty or sixty years raising Iryun to full elven adulthood, then go back to adventuring in search of the heights of power she desired to reach before challenging the Trial. However, her son’s disappearance had disrupted those plans thoroughly… woe to whoever had interfered in with her life plans.

The stunned sahagin was clubbed to the ground by a diminutive dark elven boy in the loose-fitting clothing of a common sailor. Vianara gazed at him out of the corner of her eyes and her pink tongue ran across her pale lips as she wondered if any of the other women on board had had a taste. She reasoned it would be good for him to have his first experience with a woman who knew her way between the sheets, her lusty thoughts disrupting her spellcasting not at all.

However, her expression became bored as she felt something rising from the depths, Don’t these things ever give up?

Massive, skyscraper-thick tentacles rose from the ocean around the ship, only to be hit by wave after wave of Black Lightning, disintegrating them in seconds. Unfortunately, the kraken’s own higher concept of restoration and regeneration kept it from being killed by her spell, and she wasn’t willing to use a ninth tier or tenth tier spell just to save time.

The kraken went deep under the waters to regenerate its tentacles, giving them a few hours of respite from its assault while she dealt with the significantly less-threatening giant sharks and sahagin.

Kraken were usually more intelligent than that, avoiding ships that had a mage capable of harming them, but this one was oddly persistent. Vianara thought it probably had something to do with the odd mana of the Maelstrom, but she couldn’t be sure.

She narrowed her eyes as she caught a glint of silver in the waves, almost hidden behind the next wave of giant sharks.

Bladefish? I thought those only lived in the far southern oceans… She thought.

“Captain, I think I might be going crazy,” She said.

The Captain raised a brow as he pulped three sahagin with a careless backhand, “Why’s that?”

“I think I see bladefish behind those sharks,” She replied calmly, the chant for her spell coming out of her mouth simultaneously in a display of her mastery of her body.

His expression instantly went sour, “Oh fuck… some asshole must have summoned them from the southern oceans to see what would happen. When winter hits, they’ll die out, but until then, the Maelstrom is going to be even worse than usual.”

“You can do that?” She asked curiously as she sent a wave of Black Lightning outwards, catching a swathe of flying fish with blade-like fins in mid-air. The fish were blasted to nothingness in a moment, but more came on from behind them.

“Some of the mer clans have singers who can summon them with a minor ritual. The damn things breed faster than flies, and if the winters around here weren’t so awful, they’d eat their way through the rest of this ocean in no time,” He said sourly.

The mer were the only ‘civilized’ race dwelling primarily in the world’s oceans. Like the land-dwelling races – other than humans – they had access to the system, so the other races were forced to acknowledge them as equals, but their sheer malice and viciousness toward land-dwellers made them outright hated by sailors and those who dwelled on the coasts.

“So… harassment?” She asked incredulously as she blasted more of the fish to nothingness.

“Yeah. The kraken and the sharks are one thing, but the bladefish will rip the crew to pieces… guess holding back isn’t an option,” He said with a sigh, sheathing his saber and taking a stance with one hand held flat in front of him, the other slightly below it, his legs bent slightly.

Several sahagin thrust spears at him, but the weapons simply shattered the moment they entered his aura, which was rapidly intensifying as he focused immense amounts of qi into it. His aura was a blue so deep that it was almost black, like the depths of the ocean.

“The Ocean in its infinite mercy forgives all who sail upon its surface or swim beneath. The Ocean grants us its bounty of fish, the endless salt of its waters, and a path that can lead us across the world,” He said in a deep, resonant voice that vibrated the soul.

Oh fuck! A level 10 Qigong Mantra!!! She thought in rising horror. Very few elves ever achieved level 10 in qigong, so she wasn’t all that familiar with it. However, she did know that a master of qigong could call on the essence of their attuned qi through a chanted mantra that would allow them to temporarily transform a set area of the world around them into a manifestation of their inner realms, essentially ignoring the limitation of qi that made it so terrible at effecting things beyond the body.

The reason why she was horrified was that she knew very well that the effects were indiscriminate. She quickly began rapid-chanting a 10th tier spell, the hundreds of lines coming out in an incomprehensible burble as she created thousands of layers of conceptual barriers around each of the sailors still topside and those below as well.

She was almost too late, as blood tears fell from her eyes, with more coming from her ears and nose just for the brief few seconds she was exposed to his Mantra.

“However, the Ocean also rages. The Ocean demands its price for its bounty. At times the Ocean requires that a path be cut short. So be it, for the Ocean is the mother of all life, and should it demand death, who are we to deny her will?”

“Crushing Will of the Ocean.”

As the chant came to a close, it was like time stopped for a moment… then blood erupted from the mangled flesh of the sahagin, then the bladefish out on the waters, and finally the megalodons and the kraken far below, for even their natural resistance to the element of water was as nothing compared to the conceptual weight of the Ocean, as it was called forth by a man who had devoted his very essence and vital energy to it.

The aura vanished shortly after, and the captain swayed, pink froth emerging from his lips as they twisted in a bloody smile, “Shit, I hate it when I have to do that.”

He fell backward with a thud as Vianara ceased her chant, sliding to her knees with a sigh as she gestured for the sailors to take him to the infirmary.

I really wish I had picked a different ship, She thought for the thousandth time since they entered the Maelstrom.

Name: Vianara La’elestram

Age: 279

Race: Silver Elf

Common Skills: Qigong 8 (Black Lightning), Sage Arts 10, Magic 10, Martial Arts 10, Evasion 10, Rapid Chanting 10

Passive Skills: Charm Immunity, Pain Resistance 9, Poison Immunity, Mental Resistance 8, Instant Death Immunity, Long Strides 6

Unique Skills: Freedom of the Adventurer (Blessing of the Traveler), Black Lightning’s Blessing

Cultivation Skills: Special Constitution (Black Lightning Mind), Fiery Soul, Body of Wind

___________________________________________________

I sat in the center of a massive pentagram the Dantalians had set up for me on my request (in exchange for a few romance novels the twins had dumped into my inventory at some point). The pentagram was laid out with healing sigils and runes in a layered sequence surrounding me, leaving only the area beneath my body clear.

I sat with my legs folded underneath me, the tempering pill in hand. I could feel its aura touching mine now that I’d taken it out of its wrapping, causing my entire body to itch just by its proximity.

I’d chosen to temper myself with the pill first, before using the monster egg. I was unsure why, except that my precognition was indicating it was the best choice.

I summoned a different pill from my inventory, this one blue with red streaks, a Pill of Lesser Regeneration, which would enhance my regeneration by hundreds of times for five hours. Unlike the restorative effects of the pentagram, the pill would merely enhance my natural regeneration, hopefully offsetting a good portion of the tempering pill’s side effects.

I knew that a tempering pill capable of granting a cultivation skill on its own was not normal. Most tempering pills had to be taken repeatedly to finish the process, and even with the risks, the low price made no sense, in retrospect. However, my instincts didn’t rebel against taking it, meaning that if it was a trap, it was one so well-hidden even the gift given to me by Tatha’s blood couldn’t detect it.

To be blunt, it almost had to be a ‘divine-tiered’ pill. Normally a divine-tiered pill would cost thousands of platinum, as it required a Master who had reached Tier 30 before taking their Trial to invest months worth of work into its creation… and that was the easiest of that tier of pills, the Divine Pill of Body Restoration.

I only knew this because of the vast amount of knowledge on medicines, pills, and potions that had been present in the dwarven libraries from when they had been own kingdom. Before the kingdom’s destruction, only one dwarf in the entire region – despite the fact that a surprisingly large faction of the kingdom’s crafters were alchemists – was capable of creating such pills. Considering that all dwarves are crafters – even if they might also have other professions as well – that said a lot for their rarity.

If I were to sell this, I could live easy for centuries, I mused without really meaning it.

There was absolutely no way it would be offered again if I did such a thing. There were no second chances for this kind of ‘gift’.

With a sigh of trepidation, I took a deep breath… and popped the pill in my mouth.

______________________________________________________________________

The pain that followed was… indescribable. I knew in a distant sort of fashion that that pain was actually a good sign, as it meant that the Metal element was tempering my nervous system… but that was no consolation for the feeling of fire ants crawling under my skin and wave after wave of electric shocks blasting through my brain.

I couldn’t scream – my body’s external functions were the first thing my brain shut down, nor could I writhe in pain or get into a fetal position. My muscles twitched and I could see black smoke rising from my skin as waves of lightning and cold Metal flowed through my nervous system, erasing the old and replacing it with the new, cell by cell.

I forced myself to cycle the pill’s essence through the mana channels, which were primarily centered around my brain, with ‘strands’ moving through each of my limbs. It isn’t really possible to describe with words how I was doing it. For anyone who has gotten one of the powers to level 7 or above, there is a definite sense that we are no longer entirely attached to our bodies. As such, rudimentary, primitive ‘thinking’ is still possible in such a state, though rational thought is not.

My skin rippled with silver highlights, followed by bronze and copper, ending with gold, then moving to platinum before shifting to iron. This was the kind of partial skin tempering I’d gone through while in the magma lake, and its effects would be minimal compared to the primary system the element was attacking. It would give my skin a minor resistance to the element, if I managed to gain the Cultivation Skill.

My spiritual senses observed as the odd element that was Metal (which from what I could tell ruled over magnetism, electricity, and all things metallic) tore its way through my nervous system, destroying and rebuilding my cells as the energy – which was similar to that energy that had let me survive the magma lake – tempered me.

The pain was not constant. It came in waves as the mass of energy passed through specific nerve clusters. While a small current of Metal energy constantly ran through my entire body, a concentrated mass of it slowly moved between my nerves and my mana channels, ignoring my qi and spiritual energy channels entirely. This was in contrast to the fire energy of the magma lake, which had stayed almost entirely within my qi channels when it wasn’t fighting with my attempts to keep my body intact even as it destroyed it.

I sensed that these energies began as something that was not specifically of any of the three powers. Rather, it was a higher energy that somehow split into the three powers when it was under the control of my aura.

This realization, however vague, caused a sudden surge of that strange energy to pulse and appear out of nowhere to flood all three sets of channels, accelerating the tempering process and widening the other two types of channels while strengthening their walls. I instinctively understood that this was something that could happen to anyone who achieved an understanding of that higher energy, but that my body had no option but to split it into the three lesser forms of itself.

As time went on, the energy started to show signs of wanting to leave my body, but I gathered my will and forced it to continue running through my channels, enduring the pain, which began escalating every second I held that energy in. Soon, my senses started to shut off one by one, beginning with taste, vision, hearing, touch, and finally smell, only the pain remaining to remind me I was still within my body.

My spiritual senses continually observed as the energy finished its work on the last of the cells in my brain and the remainder began to saturate the rest of my body, leaving the channels behind. A metallic sheen was visible on the walls of my mana channels to those senses, and I could sense that my control over lightning spells would be stronger.

My muscles began twitching and spasming all at once, and I sprawled flat, helpless as my body broke the pentagram, causing a new wave of agony to hit me as my healing became entirely reliant on what qi healing I could manage with my nervous system disabled and the regeneration pill I took beforehand.

However, I didn’t release my control over the energies, keeping them inside my body until the last of them had dissipated into my flesh. I lay there for several hours afterward, cycling my qi and refining natural energies into mana, which was immediately sucked into my remade nervous system, for some reason.

When the last of the pain faded away, I looked in the mirror on the other side of the room and winced. My hair and fur stood on end, spiking out in all directions, most likely from the electric aspects of the Metal element.

I opened my status to take a look at my gains.

Name: Iryun Liodosia

Age: 16

Race: Spirit Fox (elven bloodline)

Common Skills: Qigong 7 (Disruption Qi), Sage Arts 7, Magic 7, Farming 1, Acrobatics 6, Athletics 6, Martial Arts 5, Draconic Arts

Passive Skills: Fused Soul (concealed), Mental Resistance 8, Magic Resistance 4, Blunt Resistance 4, Pierce Resistance 3, Pain Resistance 8, Danger Sense (Precognitive), Rapid Reactions 1

Unique Skills: Divine Contract: Artifact Steed 2, Infinite Growth, World Inventory 4, Temporary: Trial of Change

Cultivation: Body Cultivation 2nd stage (Flame, Metal), Mind Cultivation (Metal)

I frowned, An increase in my body cultivation and a mind cultivation skill? Not to mention an increase to my Pain Resistance and that new Rapid Reactions skill… this is a bit much for a single pill.

I had to wonder if Change had made things so difficult up to now precisely so I would obtain those skills. I wouldn’t put it past the god to do just that.

From what I could tell Rapid Reactions was a skill that came from my Mind Cultivation, a common skill to anyone who had tempered their nervous system with Metal. At level 1, it reduced the lag between thought and action by around 10%… which might not seem like much, until you realize that there was a hard limit to training reaction speed that could only be broken past by reaching Master or having a skill like this one.

Mind Cultivation skills could not be increased, from what I could tell by poking it. I could tell that my thoughts came faster, and I sensed they would be even more so in a combat situation with the adrenaline flowing. I now understood why Tatha had repeatedly told me that ‘insects’ like me absolutely had to temper themselves to be strong enough to survive.

The cultivation of my body with Metal had given me a natural resistance to the empowered element and an immunity to the environmental one below a certain threshold. It wouldn’t do anything against heavenly punishments or the tribulations one had to face in the Master’s Trial, but against mundane, unenhanced lightning I would be invincible… and my skin was now about as tough as thin leather armor (cow leather).

I held out my hands and channeled mana, fascinated as blue lightning sparked between my fingers, Ooh, S-h Lightning!

I felt the part of me that was mostly Tajiri squealing with glee at the thought, and I honestly couldn’t blame him, since that story was one of the best adventures from his world’s fiction.

Though, it seemed – like the fiery energy in my blood – that there was a limit to how much I could expel at once. If I fed the lightning refined mana, it would consume it to create more, but it was difficult to tell whether it was more efficient than casting lightning spells. The only real advantage it seemed to have was how quickly I could use it, which was instantaneous.

The main difference between it and the fire seemed to be the fact that I could control it to some extent after it left my aura. With the fire, I lost all control once it left my aura, which probably had something to do with its power being based on qi rather than mana.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

At present, if I wasn’t using sage arts, my aura extended around three meters away from my center of gravity, which lay just below my stomach. My spiritual energy emanated from there, mixing with my vital energies and qi to form my aura. My qi emanated primarily from my heart, whereas mana concentrated in my brain. However, the aura was primarily made up of spiritual energy… the passive excess all beings with a soul emanated just by living.

However, when it exited the body, it tended to get mixed with a small amount of qi that my body couldn’t process, meaning that excess could be ignited using the energy in my blood.

The primary reason, as far as I could tell, why the lightning could be controlled farther from my body was that mana dissipated more slowly into natural energy when outside the body, meaning the lightning – which was primarily made of mana – took longer to lose form when outside my aura.

The limit for the lightning without actually casting a spell seemed to be a range of twelve meters, about four times that of the fire. In exchange, it was significantly less powerful than a natural lightning bolt or the equivalent 3rd Tier spell.

Oh well, at least I have S-th Lightning. Maybe if I enhance it with that 5th Tier Elemental Enhancement spell…? I considered hopefully. I really, really wanted to be able to get away with wearing a black robe while unleashing lightning from my hands to punish my enemies…

I shook my head. Fun aside, it was something to consider for another time.

I rose from the burnt-out pentagram and began throwing punches and kicks rapidly, testing my body for changes. After three hours, I stopped, sweating slightly, fur bursting out and covering my forearms and lower legs, red and dark purple highlights added to the silver, probably representing the changes in my body’s makeup from taking in the elements.

When I relaxed, the fur withdrew into my skin, my hands and feet losing some of their muscular definition as my atavism eased up. I must have been using qi without realizing it.

Basic physical abilities seem to have gone up about thirty level one skills worth… that means the value of a cultivation skill is about the equivalent of a level 5 regular skill in terms of body enhancement? It was interesting, since gaining Fire Immunity would have granted me the full skill level boost of one raised to 10, like my mental contamination had when it became fused souls.

However, considering I got both the immunity to the elements in question, plus the ability to build up the elements inside my body and enhancements to both my blood and nervous system… Well, I thought I got the better part of the deal, when it came down to it. It was a trade-off a more impatient person would have been frustrated with, but I delighted in my new abilities more than I would have a stronger body.

I tested my spellcasting and found that building a Tier 7 spell didn’t give me a headache anymore, and I had a feeling that with a year or so of intensive training, I could reach 8… which should have taken at least a decade, given the spike in difficulty. Qigong felt similar, though with the additional requirement that I contemplate my Qi Concept and integrate it into my qi beforehand. There was some growth in sage arts, but I felt I was much more distant from any real gains there, though considering the effects of tempering on the other two, it was no surprise.

When I tried to test my Draconic Arts, pain shot through my entire body, the imbalance between the three powers making me want to scream.

Ugh, I’m going to have to concentrate on sage arts for at least a few years to catch it up with the other two, or Draconic Arts will remain unusable, I grumbled to myself. I could also seek out a Spirit Tempering Trial, but those were much, much rarer than ones for the Body or Mind.

I idly wondered if he’d included a Trial of the Spirit in this dungeon… but I dismissed it as unlikely. Even gods couldn’t make a dungeon that convenient. Considering it was placed in the wilds, instead of near a settlement, it made little sense to invest even as much in the way of resources as I’d seen so far.

After all, dungeons grew deeper and more powerful the more people and creatures that entered them (though deaths gave even more). Moreover, from what Tatha’s younger sister (a dragonewt) had mentioned, the gods who sponsored them gained some sort of power every time someone either died in or conquered a dungeon. It made little sense to place one in a place that couldn’t be easily reached.

Now that was done testing my powers, I drew my new sword out of my inventory. The doutanuki, as it was called, looked like a katana with a wider blade and was ever so slightly thicker around the spine. Most likely, it was from an era when katanas had been used against heavier types of armor and tougher monsters than was common for the normal type of such weapons.

I went through a few katas, wielding the weapon almost as easily as I would have a saber or falchion… but I noted that the heavier blade made it more difficult to use for quick strikes from the side or below than a katana or saber. On the other hand, it seemed to be much better for chopping strikes compared to the other, similar weapons I’d wielded in the past. It also wasn’t as fragile as a katana. Katanas tended to break easily when striking at odd angles and chipped easily when cutting through bone. That was one of the annoyances I’d suffered from on the battlefield during my time as a slave, as katanas were one of the sword types favored locally and cheap ones tended to break after cutting down two or three opponents.

Overall, I thought I’d found my ideal weapon type. It wasn’t too fragile and not too heavy. It had a nice cutting edge and a curved edge. In general, it was ideal as my primary weapon.

Next was the monster egg. If I were to be honest, I felt a mix of trepidation and anticipation at the idea of bonding with the egg. I wondered what kind of monster would appear, what kind of monster was a ‘match for my nature’.

I sliced open my right index finger with the edge of a steel tanto from my inventory, placing it on top of the egg as I concentrated, drawing upon all the energies within my body. Qi, the power of my vital energy, forged in combination with the natural energy of the world around me into a burning power that reinforced my body. Mana, the cold flow of power born from refining natural energy with the power of my mind. Spiritual energy, the misty energy born of the core of who I was influencing the natural energy of the world around me.

Last of all, on instinct, I drew upon that strange energy that had saved me so many times during the reforging of my body in the magma lake. It eagerly leaped forth in response to my desire, infusing itself into the egg, drawing the other three energies together to meld together into something… different.

I felt a pulse of power from the egg, like the beating of a heart, and it began to glow a faint green, cracks appearing from the point where my blood stained its surface. Instinctively, I understood this was the time to sacrifice a skill level, and I selected Farming, the one non-fighting skill I possessed, somehow understanding that it was a skill I wasn’t meant to have.

The egg drank the skill in eagerly, even as it was torn free from my body and soul, the cold claws of the system ripping it forth in response to my will, the pain surprisingly weak. There was no sense of loss or wrongness, but rather a sense that I had taken the correct course of action for both myself and the creature within the egg.

I had no idea what Farming would do for the egg… but skills were – as I understood it – manifestations of power with a concept behind it as much as anything else. I doubted the creature would be a farmer when it hatched.

I sat there for several hours as the egg pulsed and the cracks spread further along its surface, an eerie blue flame starting to emerge from the cracks as they passed the center. I continued to pour my powers into the egg, pulsing them in response to the odd rhythm of the blue flames.

I could feel my atavism getting worse as time passed, my ears growing slightly larger, the smaller elven ones hidden beneath my hair vanishing. Fur climbed its way up my arms and down my back, and all my tails had manifested behind me. I grew uncomfortable and had to remove my pants and shoes awkwardly, as fur burst out along my legs and my feet became closer to the paws of a fox. My teeth sharpened, most becoming canines, and my vision became monochrome, my sense of smell growing stronger.

I didn’t like it, really. The elven part of me was important, and the atavism was a representation of my internal imbalance. Until I regained that balance, the danger that I would lose my mother’s bloodline entirely was very real, as I understood it.

This was fairly common with half-bloods like me, as I understood it. It was why there were few full adults who still showed signs of hybridization. The only exceptions were mystics, who were – by their very nature – partially of another race just by existing.

Thankfully, the egg ceased drawing on my power before things went too far, and I shed the fur (literally), my extra tail vanishing and my small, vestigial elven ears returning and most of my teeth returning to their former state. My vision regained color, and my sense of smell stopped telling me the details of every creature that had ever entered the room.

The cracks reached the bottom of the egg at that moment, and a small furry head popped out. Sharp, triangular ears perked out from its canine skull, and its elongated snout sniffed at my hand.

A… wolf? I thought. It’s fur was a dark, deep red with streaks of silver along its head and up to the tip of its ears from its nose, and as it emerged from the egg, I saw that it had a long bushy tail striped lengthwise with silver. Sapphire eyes peeked out as it blinked and looked at me with absolute adoration.

I could sense it sending emotions at me, and suddenly I saw a status page that wasn’t mine.

Name: ???

Age: 0

Race: Primal Dire Wolf

Common Skills: None

Passive Skills: None

Racial Skills: Chaos Immunity (Shared through Pack Bond), Fire Immunity, Pack Bond 1, Elemental Claws

Unique Skills: Life Nurture 1, Blessing of Fertility, Soul Bond: Iryun Liodosia

I blinked. That was… a lot of skills for a creature that was born just now, even if most of them were racial or incidental to the fact that we were bonded together.

The two unique skills besides the soul bond seemed to have come from me sacrificing Farming and some kind of divine blessing. Fertility was a neutral goddess with no interest in the conflict between the gods, her only enemy being Undeath… and there really wasn’t anyone who liked Undeath. It wasn’t uncommon to see her blessing on people who had some kind of natural gift involving birth and life.

Hmm… she’s female, I noted as I picked up the puppy and began caressing her head with a finger, her eyes closing happily in contentment. There was no sense of hunger from her, for some reason… maybe because of all the energy I’d fed her while she was hatching?

I looked down at the silver shed fur lying on the floor beneath and around me and inventoried it with a sigh. It contained a certain amount of energy that could be used in healing pills for spirit foxes, so there was no point in wasting it.

Atavism was a condition a small portion of spirit foxes suffered from that gave them stronger bodies in exchange for a tendency to shift into a more animalistic form and be troubled by enhanced bestial instincts. Given that spirit fox society valued rationality and calm contemplative personalities, little need be said about how spirit foxes suffering from atavism were treated.

Oh, in times of war, it was an advantageous trait, but most of the time, it was just a cause for persecution.

Thankfully, I hadn’t developed the trait until I began fighting as a mercenary slave, and Ris wasn’t the type to care about things like that, so it hadn’t effected our relationship. Diandra, on the other hand, had always done his best to draw it out whenever he could, which was one of the reasons why I tended to lose control of it so often.

In the final stages of atavism, it is possible for a spirit fox to take on the ancestral form… a gigantic dragon-sized fox with nine tails. However, individuals who reached that stage tended to lack anything resembling rationality, becoming walking natural disasters who wreaked havoc acting on their instincts. Of course, the first Emperor of the Empire was one of the exceptions, and there were some who learned to control the instincts that came with reversion to the ancestral form, but the prejudice from commoners toward those who showed signs of it was… intense.

Still, I’ve never heard of a monster called a Primal Dire Wolf… Dire Wolves are the intelligent wolves that dwell in the evergreen forests of the far north, so I can assume she’ll eventually learn to talk… I mused as I gave the pup an orcish knucklebone (I didn’t recall why I bothered inventorying it) to chew on. She immediately began gnawing on it eagerly, her tail wagging furiously as she tried to crush it between her ‘mighty’ jaws.

Ok, I don’t care why she’s a wolf… I guess the Japanese were right when they said cute is justice, I thought as the adorable puppy melted my heart.

______________________________________________________________________________

Unfortunately for my hopes of more cuteness, by the time I awakened the next morning, a full-sized wolf was draped across my body, her nose buried under my chin.

I say full-sized, but I seriously doubted she was fully-grown, as she was only about the size of a black labrador on Earth. From what I heard, Dire Wolves were about as large as a fully-grown warhorse in plate armor when they reached adulthood. I had to assume that she was going to get just as big.

Her eyes opened and her pink tongue came out, licking my chin happily. I couldn’t resist and began scratching her behind the ears, causing her tail to wag even harder.

Tajiri wasn’t a dog person, and Iryun had no interest in pets. However, I found myself quickly becoming a wolf guy.

I sensed hunger from her now, probably due to her growth, so we exited the suite and headed downstairs, where Dantalian sat behind her desk, looking bored.

“Oh, Iryun! We see you used the pill and egg!” They said cheerfully in perfect unison as I approached, the wolf following closely behind.

“Yes… I think I got as much out of that platinum as was possible,” I said wryly.

“Indeed… but that is what the hidden dungeon shop is for. It gives out deals that would be impossible elsewhere, and the only way to find out about it is to do well in the first half of the dungeon,” They explained.

“I don’t suppose there is a restaurant or cafeteria inside the town?” I asked.

“Sorry, nobody in town actually needs to eat, and the dungeon isn’t about to spend DP on food,” They said apologetically.

“Does the shop sell food?” I asked.

“Yes. It’s a bit expensive, but the shop does sell meals, though you’ll have to find a place to eat them yourself. Also, if you buy the ‘young housewife’ service at the brothel, the courtesan will cook breakfast for you the morning after,” She said helpfully.

I winced, “Sorry, if I give up my virginity to a prostitute, a certain woman is likely to destroy this dungeon then lock me up in her bedroom for the next few centuries.”

Dantalian smiled, her eyes glittering with curiosity, “Oh, and this woman has the power to destroy a dungeon sponsored by one of the Five Great Gods?”

“She’s a dragon,” I confessed.

“Oh.”

Dantalian suddenly looked worried, “Oh dear… yes, that would be problematic. Draconic females are very… possessive. I will… inform the core of this.”

Suddenly, the weight of a powerful presence nearly sent me to my knees, and the wolf whimpered, shoving her body into the back of my legs and cowering in an attempt to hide.

“What is it, Dantalian? I’m still doing repairs on the Vetterburg Dungeon. I don’t have time to play games with you,” The voice was as heavy as its presence, but I had the feeling it was doing this intentionally. It didn’t feel as ‘dense’ as Change’s presence and voice, like the core was just inflating its presence in an attempt to impress.

Of course, it wouldn’t have been noticeable if I hadn’t already encountered Change.

“Sorry, but you might want to change the setup for the seventh floor. This guy has a dragon girlfriend who sees him as her personal possession. If you let the succubi at him, she’ll probably destroy the dungeon,” They said cheerfully.

There was a heavy sigh and the pressure let up. Suddenly, an ebony-skinned woman in a red pantsuit with high heels appeared out of nowhere, bowing slightly to me, “Well shit. I’m sorry, but could you hold off exploring the next few floors for a few days? I’m going to have to remake a few floors to avoid pissing off your dragon girlfriend. In exchange, you can eat three meals a day from the shop for the price of one… how about it?”

I nodded, “That’s fine. Sorry to inconvenience you.”

She shook her head, waving a hand in front of her face dismissively, “I didn’t like those floors anyway. Change insisted that there needed to be a temptation floor, but I honestly think there are much better ways to achieve his goals.”

Temptation floor? I pictured succubi floating through the hallways of a cavernous brothel of a floor.

She looked at me with a dry smile, “Yes, that is fairly close to the concept, if not the execution. Such floors are not particularly deadly, but failing to resist temptation means a loss of skill levels and permanent loss of access to dungeons sponsored by Change, so it is almost as bad.”

“I’m assuming you are one of the dungeon core’s avatars?” I asked curiously.

“Yes, I am the ninth avatar, Renu’len. My duties include negotiations with adventurers and making adjustments to the dungeon towns,” She replied with a nod.

“Are you an individual who serves the core and lets it speak through you, or are you the dungeon core’s personality?” I couldn’t help but ask.

“In a way, the former… my original was an adventurer who agreed to become an avatar as she died. Her personality remains but her soul departed long ago,” She said with a nod after thinking about it for a moment.

“Interesting...will there be a problem with Change’s plans for the dungeon if you change those floors? I don’t know what he intends for me, but I’m reluctant to earn myself an enemy amongst the pantheons if I can avoid it…” I said hesitantly.

“You already have a few divine enemies, just by virtue of being associated with two gods of Chaos. However, I understand what you mean. Change will be annoyed by the necessity, but given his reactions to similar events in the past, it won’t go beyond a general annoyance at the situation. Though, since he is a god of Chaos, one cannot precisely predict his reactions. Please forgive me if I can’t be absolutely certain,” The dungeon core said apologetically.

“No, no, that’s fine. The question was somewhat intrusive,” I admitted. It worried me to have it confirmed that the old man (god) was associated with Chaos as well. It meant that I likely wouldn’t be able to escape being aligned with them, even if I managed to free myself from his remaining two geasa.

“Am I going to be charged for staying here during that time?” I asked

“No, that would breach the rules on fairness. While this wouldn’t be the case if this dungeon had a teleport function, this dungeon was intended as a trial for high-ranking acolytes of Chaos. Placing teleport functions in any of the levels before the final one would defeat the point of the challenge. Charging you food is one thing, but the prices for the rooms are ridiculously high to keep adventurers from turning the dungeon town into a permanent encampment,” The dungeon core’s avatar explained.

“I see… considering the size of this floor and the difficulty level of the one before, that makes sense,” I muttered.

“Indeed. This floor is something of a bonus for those who manage to defeat the High Minotaur and escape from whatever monster was chosen by the roulette to do the chasing. You are the first person to succeed at passing the trial by fire that came before it, so I’m wondering if I made it too easy,” The avatar mused.

“Is there anywhere here I can practice without breaking something?” I asked. I wanted to get in some proper training to integrate the changes that came from my progress inside the dungeon, but the room probably wouldn’t hold up to me going all-out, even if it was made of dungeon materials.

The avatar nodded, “There is a dueling coliseum under the brothel for people to let off violent tensions after easing the other ones. It is only a few gold to use it for the entire day.”

I made no comment about how weird it was to place a coliseum under a brothel, instead just shrugging and thanking the avatar, who disappeared a moment later.

Dantalian followed me out as I headed for the brothel, which was a richly-decorated three-story wood (looking) building with half-naked men and women of extreme beauty and all body types sitting visible in the windows. As I approached, a beautiful woman with nine golden fox tails with white tips emerged from the brothel, a long silver pipe in her right hand, her kimono open along the front, exposing much of her beautiful body.

She was the epitome of what I had heard spirit fox males desired in a female. She was powerful, highly-sexual, and had enough mystery to her aura that a man couldn’t help but be intrigued. However, the color of her tails, combined with the red-flecked amber of her eyes, told me who she had to be, given legends of our species’ origins.

“It is an honor, mighty ancestor,” I said, bowing to her.

“Aaah… it has been a while since someone saw through me in one of these dungeon towns. I’m impressed. Most simply lose themselves in my body or simply think me a beautiful woman… It is nice to be remembered on occasion,” She, Daji the World Traveler, the Accursed, the Fallen Goddess of Chaos, was one of the most terrifying beings I had ever seen.

In the First Era, she was one of the four Prime Gods, powerful beings who fell from higher dimensions and claimed aspects of reality as their own, spawning the pantheons that existed today. She was Chaos, just as Order, Light, and Darkness each had a Prime Deity. However, all those gods Fell when the lesser gods rose up and created the first system, tearing pieces of those origin gods’ bodies and spirits away and forcing them into a shape convenient to their lessers.

I’d heard stories of how she could be found in brothels inside dungeons, but I always thought it was a mere rumor…

It was also well-known that my father’s race’s tendency toward vicious internal politics and uncontrollable obsessions came from her. When my atavism occurred, it was her I was growing closer to as the elven part of my nature receded.

“I am surprised to find my race’s origin really is living as part of the dungeons,” I remarked, not daring ask the question directly.

She smiled in amusement, taking a long drag from her pipe before blowing glimmering silver smoke out of her nose, “Where did you think dungeons get most of their energy from in the first place? A piece of one of the Prime Gods’ souls is used to form a seed of power that stabilizes the core’s control and creates its realm – the dungeon. I am just a shadow of my original, comforting my true self by interacting with the mundane world as I can.”

“She was a lot less dangerous on Earth. The thing about lower realms is that souls from higher realms are exponentially more influential, meaning that what was merely a particularly clever demonic fox on Earth was able to claim a fourth of this world’s divine dominion as her own without much trouble,” Dantalian commented.

“You know about me, don’t you?” I asked.

They nodded, “Daji, part of his soul is from Earth. Isn’t it interesting that you have a descendant on the same level of potential?”

Suddenly, Daji’s smile deepened, and before I could react, she slipped her hands up to cup my cheeks, running the tips of her long, curved nails through my hair, just short of touching my ears, “Aaah… so that is why I didn’t feel offense when you didn’t get down on your knees… it has been so long since I met a descendant worthy of the name.”

The desire in those eyes wasn’t sexual. It held elements of motherliness, an endless love born of a mother’s heart. However, it also was infinitely cruel and relentless. This was a being who, even as a shadow, far surpassed Change or Mischief, a being who – on two different worlds – had never been mortal.

This was the woman from legends, who could combine a deep passionate love with the desire to corrupt, destroy, and mold men to her will. I knew the legends from Earth as well as the myths from this world.

Daji was a beautiful poison in spirit fox form, a goddess who corrupted whatever she touched. No man, whether son or lover could resist her will. There was no malice in her. Instead, it was the malevolence of a being whose very nature was antithetical to mortals in general. She resembled the creatures from Lovecraftian stories on the inside, a being who corrupted just by existing, with no evil intent.

I understood that I was fortunate I wasn’t meeting her true form. If I did, I would be corrupted in an instant, turned into a vessel that existed to fulfill her desires. My fused soul wouldn’t protect me at all, as it had with Change. No, she would simply make me an extension of herself.

I felt my body shift under her influence, changing in ways both subtle and obvious. For the first time I touched on Chaos and knew it for what it was. I understood why the lesser gods had split her domain as many times as possible. Why there was Change, Mischief, Madness, and Strife. Why there were over a dozen minor gods and goddesses in the pantheon of Chaos.

No single god could touch this and remain sane for long. No single deity could survive touching true Chaos without losing themselves.

I came back to myself at the sound of Dantalian’s voice.

“You might want to let him go. He isn’t ready for a true baptism of Chaos… yet,” The twinned demon admonished, a wave of black paper wrapping Daji’s limbs and draggin her back to slam against the doorframe of her establishment. The paper formed white sigils upon its surface, and the scent of burning flesh came wafting from beneath.

“Oh dear, I see I was a bit too late… though I see what you were trying to do now. That’s so you, Daji,” Dantalian’s voice was full of amusement as they looked down at me from where I knelt, vomiting what little remained in my stomach onto the packed earth of the dungeon town street.

I looked down at myself in response to Dantalian’s words and was shocked. My hands, the first part I saw, now had curved nails identical to those of Daji, a shifting blackness at the tips that threatened to swallow my mind if I looked too closely. Two curving lumps of soft flesh made their presence known beneath my clothing as I shifted, and I could feel the shape of my body had changed greatly.

“Don’t worry, it looks like you just had one of your ancestral skills awakened, my friend,” Dantalian said cheerfully.

Name: Iryun Liodosia

Age: 16

Race: Spirit Fox (elven bloodline)

Common Skills: Qigong 7 (Disruption Qi), Sage Arts 7, Magic 7, Farming 1, Acrobatics 6, Athletics 6, Martial Arts 5, Draconic Arts

Passive Skills: Fused Soul (concealed), Mental Resistance 8, Magic Resistance 4, Blunt Resistance 4, Pierce Resistance 3, Pain Resistance 8, Danger Sense (Precognitive), Rapid Reactions 1

Unique Skills: Divine Contract: Artifact Steed 2, Infinite Growth, World Inventory 4, Bloodline Skill: Shifting Nature 1, Temporary: Trial of Change

Cultivation: Body Cultivation 2nd stage (Flame, Metal), Mind Cultivation (Metal)

Upon opening my status and focusing on the new skill, Shifting Nature, I understood precisely what it was. It was the fundamental skill born of my bloodline from Daji, one that effected every aspect of my body, mind, and spirit. However, at present it had been forcefully activated not by me, but by Daji herself. As a result, I was brought closer to her… in a way I found uncomfortable, to say the least.

So this is how a woman’s body feels, I thought distantly, desperately wanting to just go to sleep and escape reality for a time.

___________________________________________________________________________

Change was laughing hysterically as he looked in on Iryun, while Mischief looked on with a sour expression and Madness giggled from behind the mask covering her face.

“I knew the goddess would take an interest, but this goes beyond what I expected… how does it feel to have all your plans ruined by the woman you hate most in the world, old friend?” He asked Mischief, malice openly poisoning his smile.

What Daji had done was more than just awakening the boy’s bloodline. No, she had also injected him with the purest energies of Chaos, the power that rejected all bindings and stability. There was no possibility whatsoever that the chains of the geasa would remain untouched in such a case.

They weren’t gone. The rules put in place by the Overgods when it came to such things couldn’t be broken easily. However, they were irreparably damaged. Blind obedience was no longer a possibility. It would no longer be possible to compel the boy against his nature. Since all of Mischief’s plans for the boy were dependent on being able to twist him through the geasa (given how much his other plans were set back at present), this effectively ruined the boy’s value to him.

Of course, the boy didn’t just benefit from this. No, there was great harm to the boy in having his bloodline awakened this way. Daji’s Chaos, her unique flavor of the aspect of existence, was now engraved into every aspect of his being. The effects would be unpredictable, with the new unique skill being just one of them. Whether they were negative or positive would change for no apparent rhyme or reason, just like Daji’s own personality.

In a way, it was a far crueler fate than what Mischief intended. Daji’s actions had ensured the boy would never be able to escape Chaos. He would always be a disrupting element, wherever he went, regardless of his intentions.

Not that any of them could control the Prime Goddess’s actions. Change had payed to have her placed in the brothel on a whim, out of curiosity. He’d wanted to see how she would react to the boy, but this result was far more interesting than any of the other possible outcomes.

Daji hadn’t been so when she first fell to their plane of existence, but the influence of Chaos had made her ever less predictable over time. All the Prime Gods had ended up with their own brand of madness, their too-powerful and all-encompassing aegises making it inevitable that they would be twisted into caricatures of themselves.

Daji was the worst of the four, however. Even her shadow, one one-billionth of her true self, was sufficient to put a spike in Mischief’s plans and disrupt Fate just by being present. Chaos could not be contained or channeled, only reacted to.

It was why Change had taken this course of action. He had accepted he couldn’t predict the results, and he found it refreshing. Most of his fellow gods never escaped from the palm of his hand. However, Daji never acted in concert with his desires or predictions. She made things so much more interesting in a game that was growing increasingly boring and predictable.

He also found the boy’s physical transformation and his reaction to it hilarious. Of course, the new skill would let him change back – eventually – but that didn’t change how funny it was at the moment. Maybe now he could put off trying to find a replacement for Mischief for a few more decades…