“I do feel the branches and roots getting healthy, but I am still missing many chunks of branches and leaves. Do I need to grow them up slowly so that my sustainability will normalize?” I thought to myself completely oblivious to the awoken wolf that was slowly standing up.
“Eh!?” I looked at the woken wolf in shock and immediately moved my spear at him, but to my surprise, the wolf didn’t attack me.
He looked at me for a few seconds and then he just took a few steps forward to the pond and layed down in the shallow waters.
“You alright buddy? *Inspect* wolf.” I asked him as I inspected him once more.
***
-Young Wild Wolf Lv10-
Health: 9/40
Mana: 2/4
Stamina: 2/18
Status: Bleeding(Strong), Weakened(Extreme)
***
Of course, the wolf didn’t answer my question but still, it bothered me for some reason. So I slowly started to come closer to him, still holding my spear in his direction, I could see his eye barely open as he continued to breathe heavily.
“Hello?” I asked and did the unthinkable. I moved my spear to the side and came just a few centimeters away from the wolf's head. Thinking that he would attack me any moment but he didn’t, I even touched his head with one of my branches but he just looked at me for a second and returned back to look at the pond as if remembering something while releasing a few whimpers once in a while.
“This is concerning…” I said as I completely stopped wanting to steal its life, I thought for a moment and choose to use the *Overtake* skill on him. As I inserted the bigger roots into him he didn’t even whimper, as if he was obvious to the pain and was crying for other reasons.
As I started to share his senses the feeling of pain came with it too, but what surprised me was that a stronger feeling assaulted me as well. It was a feeling of grief and loneliness, but then it vanished as if it never existed at all, I wasn’t even sure if it was an illusion or if I really have felt it.
“It's the same with the feeling of the impending doom that I felt when I was taking the lives of the smaller animals, but this time the feeling was different as if the wolf wasn’t afraid of death but was in deep grief…” I thought to myself.
I closed my perspective and entered the world of darkness where a small flame appeared in front of me. It was silver in color and inside it, there was a small wolf, he looked at me for a moment and chose to close its eyes as if accepting its fate.
“I am not going to kill you, little buddy…” I said as I came closer to him, it would have been really easy if I just used one use of the *Wave Mind* skill in this world.
“*Whine* *woof*?” The wolf slowly opened his eyes and whined something in my direction.
“Why not…? Well, I… Changed my mind.” I said a little bit confused myself, not sure what the hell I was doing as in front of me there was prey that could be easily consumed and even if I wouldn’t steal all its life it still would have succumbed to its wounds.
“*Whineee…*” The wolf gave a long whine and closed his eyes once more.
“Like I said I won’t be killing you… Wait, you can understand me?” Suddenly it hit me that I was having a conversation with the wolf and it wasn’t just me one-sidedly talking to him.
“*Woooof?*” He opened his eyes and looked at me confused.
“Of course, I can understand you too.” I immediately opened my status and checked the *Overtake* skill description but it hasn't changed from the last time, then I looked at my status and there I saw it.
***
*Self Awareness Status*
-Visavil Bush Lv3-
Experience: 56/60
Rarity: Uncommon
Health: 3/13
Mana: 2/44
Stamina: 2/11
Race: Berry Bush
Status: Intelligent(Unique), Withering(Strong), Symbiosis
***
“Symbiosis I never inspected that status, haven’t I? Well, it's because it's only the third time I overtook someone's body… *Inspect* *Symbiosis*.”
*Symbiosis* - The status of creatures that are in symbiosis with each other, creatures that share a symbiosis status can share skills and other properties depending on the type of symbiosis.
“Skill sharing? Are you using my soul link skill?” I asked in surprise.
“*Whoof?* The wolf made a weird face not knowing what I was talking about.
“What do you mean you don’t know?!” I asked, most likely the wolf doing it on instinct. I took a moment to collect my thoughts but heard another whine.
“*Whinee?” The wolf asked with puppy eyes.
“You want me to kill you? Like I said before I won’t.” I looked at the wolf half sad as it asked for me to finish it.
“There is still so much to live for so don’t give up so easily.” I said a blatant lie knowing that the wolf's chances of survival weren’t the best, especially after I took a bite from his health and added more wounds to his current ones with the *Overtake* skill.
“*Whine…*” The wolf looked me straight in the eyes and whined once more.
“I know that your wounds are fatal but maybe...” I looked at the wolf as looking at an insane person, as he was asking to finish his suffering.
“*Whine…*” He released another sad whine and layed down while slowly closing his eyes.
“Don’t worry I am sure it will be fine, maybe you will get some healing skill or something.” I said a few pretty lies to him, but I noticed that he wasn’t reacting at all. As if he gave up completely and entered a comatose state, I even poked him a few times but nothing changed.
I looked at him for a while and for some reason felt bad for him thinking about it there was a small chance to save him but I was afraid that it would bite me in the ass figuratively and literally, “Fuck I am going to regret it so much when this wolf backstabs me…”
I sighed and was about to leave when suddenly I felt an immense feeling of dread coming from behind me, all of my instincts on my body were screaming danger, I immediately turned around but to my surprise, there was nothing but darkness.
“Hello?” I asked into the void but got no answer. I even looked around for a minute before saying, “Weird… Why do I have a feeling of deja vu?” I stood there for a few more moments confused but in the end, I left the world of darkness leaving the wolf there all alone.
***
As I appeared in the real world, I was immediately assaulted by a strong pain that came from the wolf's body.
“Back left leg is broken, a few muscles torn and many flesh wounds, this mission is going to be hard.” I checked his body condition and commented, if I wanted to save this wolf I needed to do it fast and the best way to do it is using the *Life Steal* skill through symbiosis.
“But first I need to fix this body, if that can be called fixing, I won’t be surprised if I get a doctor Frankenstein title soon.” I shrugged a little at what was soon going to happen, it would surely traumatize even me too.
First I checked my stats, I still had a lot of mana left and a few points of stamina which was enough for the job. I took a big breath of air and started to move some of my smaller roots to the wounds on the wolf's body.
At the edge of the roots I made a really long but thin thorn, surprisingly it was quite easy to do so using the *Thorns* skill. I took a big breath of air with the wolf's body and inserted the thin thorn into its flesh near the wound and then pulled it out from the other side.
I clenched the wolf jaw as it wasn’t a pleasant experience at all, but I still persisted with the “surgery” and just like that I started to sew every bleeding wound on his body with my roots while murmuring every few seconds, “I am so going to regret this.”
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When one root finished closing a wound I would cut off the thorn and tie the root in a knot, and just like that the operation continued for over fifteen minutes. When I finished the job it did look kinda sloppy, but at least it did the job and completely stopped the bleeding.
*Skill learned “First Aid”*
“Phew, looks like I did a good job if I got a skill from it…” I inspected it without much thought and took a breather.
*First Aid* - Bandaging wounds, returning a broken bone into position, and much more. The user will find it easier to apply first aid on the target, and the quality of the aid will be higher depending on the skill level.
“Nothing surprising there.” I said as I checked the wolf's status.
***
-Young Wild Wolf Lv10-
Health: 6/40
Mana: 2/4
Stamina: 2/18
Status: Weakened(Extreme), Symbiosis
***
“I stopped the bleeding but his condition is still terrible.” I shook my head a little bit as I limped to the pond with its body.
First I washed the devil cat’s blood off my body and then his. In the bigger picture, I should have removed the blood of the devil cat from my body before the operation but I didn’t have so much time to think about that.
I slowly limped around the cave looking to see if there were any other monsters around using my detection skill a few times, I even inserted my roots into the pond and checked if there was something there, but no to my surprise all of the cave was empty of life except the fauna, it was strange but I had to take it as a fact.
Then I limped to the tree and moved my roots to the ground using the last of my mana to open a small hole and root myself there, while still being on the back of the wolf.
I didn’t really want to turn off my perspective skill but my roots would hold the wolf in place if he suddenly woke up and tried anything funny and in the end I really needed to gather some stamina and mana.
“I wouldn’t call this place the safest but the only thing that could go wrong is a monster falling here from the cliff so I should be fine, I think.” I said with doubt as my leaves and the tree started gently to glow.
“Just as if on cue.” I smiled and closed my perspective skill.
*****
The night passed quietly, I woke up a few times to check if the wolf was still asleep or if there were any monsters coming after me, but the strong monsters of the night didn’t bother us at all.
On the other hand, the wolf wasn’t getting any better, not only he didn’t wake up, he even got a fever and started shivering, as he felt all of that I felt it too. But luckily for me, it didn’t affect my mind as normal sickness would, it was just a shitty feeling.
***
-Young Wild Wolf Lv10-
Health: 5/40
Mana: 4/4
Stamina: 9/18
Health regen: -1/day(-5)
Mana regen: 0.2/hour (-1)
Stamina regen: 1/hour (-2)
Race: Canine
Status: Weakened(Extreme), Sick(Medium), Symbiosis
Skills:
*Consume Lv2* -*Iron Stomach Lv2*- *Adrenaline Rush Lv3* *Enchanted smell Lv4* -*Metal Bite Lv2*- *Bleeding Resistance Lv1* *Pain Resistance Lv2* *Stealth Lv2* -*Detection Lv3*- *Killing Intent Lv2* *Cold Resistance Lv2* *Falling Damage Resistance Lv1*
***
“His health decreased a little bit and he got a new status, most likely because he was wounded too much or maybe it was an infection in one of his wounds…” I threw out some speculations but it still didn’t change anything as I needed to act, was it from pity or other reasons I didn’t know but that is what I choose to do so that is what I will do.
I looked through his skills and saw that a few skills were grayed out for me they were *Metal Bite Lv2* *Detection Lv3* and *Iron Stomach Lv2*.
“Interesting how the passive skill gets grayed out, does that mean that the wolf body loses that skill?” I asked myself not sure about the answer and didn’t think much about anything else and checked out the skills that I haven’t seen yet as some of them could be useful.
***
*Iron Stomach* - Let the user eat rotten or poisoned foods, very useful for survival in the wild where it is unknown which foods are dangerous and which meat got spoiled.
*Adrenaline Rush* - Let the user ignore its injuries and move as if they don’t exist, but on the other hand consumes a lot of stamina and endangers the user's life. As the injuries would flare up when the skill would stop.
*Metal Bite* - Strengthen the user's bite strength and make the user's teeth harder, as the teeth close the sound of metal hitting metal could be heard on higher levels.
***
“Well *Adrenaline Rush* skill is the only new skill that is useful for me, everything else is locked or I already have them. If I remember correctly, that is the exact skill that the devil cat had too, that is why it was able to run for so long even though it was with a foot in its grave.” I remembered the devil cat status and shuddered with fear as I didn’t want to see it ever again.
After looking through all the wolf's skills I unrooted myself and did my best to stand up with the wolf's body even standing up was a challenge as I huffed and puffed and at the same time a strong burning sensation was coming from my back right broken leg.
"Shit this is going to be harder than I thought, but heh heh I have a plan." I said as I moved most of my roots to the broken leg while moving the other roots and branches to the other three. As they wrapped around the legs I used the growth skill and more roots grew around them, it took a big chunk of my stamina but it was worth it.
"Behold a wooden exoskeleton!!!" I shouted with glee, as I looked at my weird masterpiece, I still was surprised that I didn't get a crazy scientist title, as I was shouting with joy I suddenly got a new skill which I immediately inspected.
*Sub skill of *Wood Element Control* and *Grow* skill learned “Wooden Puppet”*
***
*Wooden Puppet* - Creates a wooden carapace around the target, and while in contact with it is able to move the target around as a puppet.
***
“Umm close enough? But why do I feel that its name is a little bit too sinister and what is a sub-skill?” I asked myself while I inspected it.
***
*Sub skill* - Skills that are driven from main skills that are limited by the main skills level and control.
***
"Oh, I see. Well whatever, now I need to move my body." I said as I tried to make a step forward with the wolf's left forward leg but what actually happened is that I moved the right forward leg back which made me immediately fall to the side.
"Well, this will take a while to get used to." I said as I tried to stand up once more.
It took me around an hour before I was confident enough to move around, I was still walking somewhat clumsily but it was good enough for now.
"Alright now I am ready." I took the spear into my branches and walked towards the exit of the secret cave.
I barely squeezed out through the tunnel, I was surprised how the wolf found his way here, but just left it to a desperate animal trying to survive.
After leaving the cave I stood up with shaking legs as even with the exoskeleton the wolf was just too weak, but with its body and my great mind, I was sure to be able to catch something.
I looked around and started to sniff the air for prey, some scents entered the wolf's nose and on instinct, I knew what each scent meant. Some of them were from flora and others from the monsters around. I chose a smell that smelled like a rabbit or at least that's what I thought and started to follow it.
After sneaking around after the scent for over half an hour I noticed something moving in the bushes.
"A rabbit!" I shouted to myself ready to jump at it, but a moment later something big and fluffy walked out of them.
"Eh!? I don't remember seeing a rabbit this big before…" I looked at the giant fat rabbit that looked like a combination of a rabbit hamster and a bear, which was obviously a lot bigger than the wolf I was riding on.
It looked at me for a moment and immediately released a disgusting screech from its throat as four big sharp teeth showed themself.
*Scwhheeeee!*
"Nope!" I immediately ran in the opposite direction, forgetting for a moment of the pain in the wolf's body not even noticing that I used the *Adrenaline Rush* skill, of course, I inspected the rabbit while running away.
***
-Ignes Rabbit Lv9-
Health: 53/53
Mana: 2/2
Stamina: 26/34
***
I stopped running after a few minutes and looked back to see if that thing was following me, but thankfully it didn't.
"Phew, that was one ass scary bunny. What the hell does it eat, steroids?" I remember the fat ass bunny that was a little bit smaller than a bear. I took a few steps forward but found that every step I took was harder than the last.
“Shit did I overdo it.” I immediately opened the wolf status to see what was going on and found out that the stamina drained tremendously.
***
-Young Wild Wolf Lv10-
Health: 5/40
Mana: 4/4
Stamina: 2/18
Health regen: -1/day(-5)
Mana regen: 0.2/hour (-1)
Stamina regen: 1/hour (-2)
Status: Weakened(Extreme), Sick(Medium), Exhaustion(Medium), Symbiosis
***
“It's most likely because of the combination of the *Weakened* and *Sick* statuses. This isn’t good if this continues like this. Not only I wouldn’t be able to catch some prey, there is even a chance that the wolf would die.” After I chose to save the wolf I thought of many ways to get out of our predicament but every way that came to my mind would have taken too long.
From creating traps to trying to ambush someone, it all ended in the same way. I just didn’t have enough time to prepare everything for that, I wasn’t in my usual habitat over here so I didn’t even know what kind of monsters there were around here.
For now, all I could do is rest, so I choose a spot around somewhere around him so I could take a short break for a few minutes, and while the wolf's body was resting I was looking around, inspecting the flora around us and then I saw *Sanale Grass* once more.
“Isn’t that the grass with a weak healing effect!” I looked at the grass and then I remembered that I can heal us not only by stealing health from other monsters and that I can heal us by using plants around us too.
“I am such an idiot I was so focused on the *Life Steal* skill that I completely forgot about everything else, this is a world of magic with many materials growing here that can replenish health.” I said to myself as I shook my head from side to side, after resting for ten minutes I wet to pick all the *Sanale Grass* I could find and on my way back to the hideout I inspected every plant that could help us with healing but sadly by the looks of it, they were rarer than I thought.