Blood splashed everywhere as the wolf's teeth bit into the flesh of the rabbit, it tried to struggle with its leg, but all its struggle was for nothing. As the wolf's teeth dug deeper and deeper into its flesh.
At first, I thought that the taste of blood and fresh meat would be disgusting but I didn’t expect it to be delicious instead, it filled the wolf’s mouth and remind me of the taste of a deep flavored soup, “This feeling it's similar to when I use the *Life Steal* skill, did I drink blood all this time?” I asked myself, some thoughts of disgust crossed my mind but in the end, it didn’t matter.
“I am not a human anymore why should I feel disgusted at something like this… *Life Steal*!” I used the *Life Steal* skill through the wolf's body, and all the blood that was in the wolf’s mouth rushed to its throat.
I used the *Life Steal* a few more times as I did I felt the mana flowing out of my body even though I was using the skill through the wolf, I stopped as I started to feel that the wolf’s body was getting full of energy and getting better every moment.
“This feels amazing!” I excitedly shouted as I savored every moment of what was happening and didn’t even notice that the wolf's mobility returned. I looked at the wolf’s status and inspected the rabbit to see how much health I took and gave to the wolf.
***
-Ignes Rabbit Lv9-
Health: 11/53
Mana: 2/2
Stamina: 19/34
Status: Weakened(Medium), Burn(Mild), Bleeding(Strong)
***
-Young Wild Wolf Lv10-
Experience: 41/100
Health: 7/40
Mana: 1/4
Stamina: 5/18
Status: Weakened(Extreme), Sick(Strong), Symbiosis
***
“What is this? This is weird. I took so much of the rabbits' health but barely got anything back, the ratio of life taken to given is horrible.” The health I took from the rabbit with the skill was around twenty-four and what the wolf got back was barely six points of health back.
“The exchange of currency was not even close, I want a refund!” I shouted jokingly as of course this was a lot better than nothing as now I can take a breather and think of other plans for how to heal the wolf.
I moved some of my roots to the leg too and inserted them into the rabbit's flesh. It jerked a few times but still couldn’t do anything at all to resist me. “I guess it's my turn now.” I said as I started to use the *Life Steal* skill after only one time I started to feel light-headed.
“Alright, I guess I'm almost out of mana.” I stopped and checked my status, but to my surprise, the result was different from the wolf’s.
“I used the *Life Steal* skill once I returned more life than the wolf did in two times, what was going on?” I looked confused, thinking to myself why the weird difference between me and the wolf?
“Symbiosis talks about skill sharing and if I used a skill through the wolf it means that it at least works, does the skill get weaker when used? No, but the *Dig* skill became stronger when I used it through the wolf's body.” I talked to myself, dropping ideas as to why it could be so.
“Maybe my health points are worth less? So it is easier to fill them up… Or maybe there are skill affinities, the title of *Pyromaniac* gave me a weak affinity with fire, right? Maybe there is an affinity for blood?” I asked myself even more confused than before, what kind of stupid thing it was, an affinity for blood, what that could even mean?
“*Sigh* Let's forget it, it's just going to give me a headache.” I looked at the rabbit's leg which continued to bleed.
“It's going to die soon, shame if this continues. I want to take some more of its health but don’t have the mana… Wait a minute.” A creepy smile appeared on my face once more. “It's time for me to practice my *First Aid* skill!” I shouted as the smaller of my root ends turned into thorns and flew toward the rabbit's leg.
*”Thorns” leveled up to Lv2*
I could see the feet shudder from pain but I didn’t care. “Lucky you, there is a chance for you to get a pain resistance skill!” I laughed evilly at my doing, after a few minutes I finished the emergency surgery and looked at his status again.
The bleeding effect disappeared although the rabbit did lose two health points from this operation it still was worth it.
***
-Ignes Rabbit Lv9-
Health: 5/53
Mana: 2/2
Stamina: 19/34
Status: Weakened(Strong), Burn(Mild), Bleeding(mild)
***
“I will leave you here for now while I go and rest, under the sunlight so don’t go anywhere.” I winked at it as I cut off the root that I used for the surgery. It wasn’t a root that I summoned through the *Grow* skill so it didn’t wither away and it was too small to damage me but it still wasn’t pleasant to feel part of my main body break off.
“Thank god that my senses are weaker through *Grow* roots and branches, or otherwise I would have gone insane from pain long ago, or leveled up the *Pain Resistance* skill more without any danger hmm…” I wasn’t sure if it was a lost opportunity or a blessing, but I didn’t really care.
I looked at the rabbit once more before thinking to myself, “Removing even a small chunk of my main body isn’t the best idea but if I could get a few more health points from that it would be worth it.”
I turned around and went through the tunnel to the hideout and there I found a nice spot in the sunlight where I borrowed myself with a big smile on my imaginary face as I checked the wolf status once more thinking to myself, “Even though we came back to the starting point where the wolf’s health was at seven at least now I had enough time to rearm my traps and get easier prey that doesn’t fight back.” And then I went to sleep.
***
I opened my eyes once more, it was already nighttime, my leaves were gently glowing and with bluish color while the tree behind me glowed with yellow light.
“Pretty as usual.” I said to myself as I stood up, with ease. I looked with surprise at the wolf as I opened our statuses.
***
-Visavil Bush Lv3-
Experience: 56/60
Rarity: Uncommon
Health: 5/13
Mana: 9/44
Stamina: 6/11
***
-Young Wild Wolf Lv10-
Experience: 41/100
Health: 7/40
Mana: 2/4
Stamina: 9/18
Health regen: 1/day(-3)
Mana regen: 0.2/hour (-1)
Stamina regen: 1/hour (-2)
Status: Weakened(Extreme), Sick(Mild), Symbiosis
***
“The sick status became mild, did drinking some of the rabbit's blood helped?” I was a little bit baffled and happy at the same time. Even though the exhaustion status still presented and the wolf's health wasn't completely restored it still was a big progress, as his health regen became positive.
“This means that if I eat and sleep slowly the wolf will return to its normal state.” I said with a big smile on my face, now that one of us was out of the death zone it left only me.
“But being able to catch a few weak monsters to feed on shouldn't be a problem even if I slowly continue to lose my health, I just return it till all of my branches and roots will grow back out again.” I thought to myself with glee.
I ran with a big smile to where I left the rabbit only to stop in horror as I saw only rocks and stones at the location. I immediately used the *Dig* skill and with the wolf’s body easily dug through all the stones only to find out that the rabbit escaped.
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“Fuck!!!” I shouted to the void.
I looked around sniffing the air looking if the rabbit maybe got stuck in one of the tunnels here but of course, that wasn’t the case. I stopped just at the exit of the tunnel looking outside into the shining forest, thinking to myself if it was worth it to follow that rabbit for a snack, but immediately discarded that idea as stupid.
“Yeah I am not a cat, I don't have nine lives. I prefer to wait till sunlight and not fight those monsters that wake up at night.” I slowly turned around and walked back to the tree.
“That reminded me I never really discovered why the stronger monsters leave only at night, meh not my problem.” I said to myself as I scooped into a ball in front of the tree, closing my eyes, and choosing to continue to sleep.
***
Another dream. I was still a wolf this time, running with my family through the forest hunting and playing around. Enjoying every moment as it was, but this time we encountered something unexpected. It was a new pack of wolves, encountering a pack wasn’t unusual but this pack of wolves was different, they had a weird feeling to them.
Their fur was completely black as the color of night and their eyes were strangely purple, for some reason I feared them. We all did, except our father who stood up high and mighty with our mother to support him from behind.
The wolves came closer to us and started to growl as they circled around us, there were five of them and five of us. But me and my sibling were still too young, if a fight broke out we would only be a burden.
Our father didn’t wait for them to attack us first, he gave out a small growl to our mother that she should protect us and immediately jumped at the three wolves in front of him. Pushing two of them away and injuring one in the process.
Meanwhile, our mother used her eye skill to lock onto one of the wolves in front of her and made him shudder in pain. The second wolf tried to attack her but we knew we had to act and protect her so we jumped at him together.
Even though we were three against one we still couldn’t defeat that one wolf, I was the last one standing while my siblings were lying injured on the sides, not because I was the strongest but because I was the weakest and the wolf just saw me as the weak point of the team and attacked me first.
My siblings did their best to protect me and this is the result, my brother was strong like my father and my sister was smart as my mother but I was the odd one out, I was neither.
I fought to the best of my abilities but in the end, I still wasn’t enough, not even close. I was sure that the black wolf was just playing with me otherwise he would have won long ago. I just fell to the floor while breathing heavily for air. I saw the wolf’s jaws closing in on me but before they connected my father's big back came into view, after fighting and chasing the other three wolves away he came back for us.
His jaws closed at the wolf's neck and didn’t release him until he couldn't move anymore. My father was our hero, he was my hero.
***
I woke up once more and looked around confused, “Those dreams are getting more and more confusing, it gets harder to draw a line between reality and dreams…”
I looked at the wolf that was beneath me and asked, “Are these your memories or I am just going insane?” But I still didn’t get an answer, I even went to the dark world where the wolf's soul was and pocked him a few times while telling him that his body getting healthy through *Soul Link* skill and that he should wake up but he didn’t even move and just continued to sleep.
“Well if he doesn't want to wake up, I just use his body till the bone.” I smiled and jumped up remembering that one of my traps worked and a small monster fell into it, so I went outside to look for it.
But when I came in front of the hole with the broken twigs I was disappointed to find dried blood and slash marks around the hole.
“Well, I guess someone wasn’t so lucky to survive the night outside, but damn look at these slash marks, the length of the claws is huge. Who did this? Fredy Gmuger was that you? Wait, who is Fredy Kmuger?... Meh…” I lost interest in making stupid jocks as it only confirmed my fear of the dangers of walking out into the night in the forest.
I looked at the second trap but of course, it was empty. I could only rearm the traps and make a few more of them in other areas of the forest around my base.
“The chances of monsters getting caught in these traps are small but it's better than nothing, at least I have a better bait than those shitty sour fruits and mushrooms.” I placed a piece of Mungo fruit in the traps.
Then I checked my body once more for berries just in case but found nothing at all, “Interesting can I grow up berries using the *Fruits Production* skill?” I asked and tried to do it, but instead of berries growing I just felt burning pain from my branches.
“Ouch ouch ouch, I guess that's a no…” I brushed off my branches with my hands as if extinguishing an invisible fire.
“Hmm interesting that I haven’t actually found another Ontopary bush in this forest, wasn’t it supposed to be common?” I remembered the explanation for my last evolution.
*... Some people call it a weak monster lure because lots of small-level monsters are attracted to its berries as a food source.*
“Meh, this *Inspect* skill always lies to me anyway so it doesn’t really matter.” I thought to myself, but the reality is that I most likely left the area for the same berry bushes, long ago or it was just my luck for it to grow at the age of that cliff anyways.
I continued to walk around the area and created three more small monster traps around here. It wasn’t that hard but it wasn't that easy either as I needed to find thin branches and big leaves.
And at the same time, I had to dig quite a deep hole as I didn’t want the prey to escape and at the same time I didn’t want to place spikes there like before as I want the prey to be healthy as I catch it, thanks to that I leveled up my dig skill once more.
*”Dig” leveled up to Lv5*
“Yey, nice it leveled up now let's see how big will be the hole as I use it.” I came to an empty area and used the *Dig* skill at full force at the ground. To my surprise, a nice chunk of my mana vanished as a quite nice hole appeared where I touched, twice bigger than usual.
“I knew that there is quite a jump around the fifth level of a skill, interesting what happens when I get to the tenth?” I asked with anticipation, imagining myself deleting a small mountain only with a simple touch of a finger.
I shook my head a little bit and stopped daydreaming as I finished my job for today and I chose to call it a day even though I still had a few hours to go. I went to grab some Mungo fruit mushrooms and some healing grass on my way to the hideout.
After barely pushing through the tunnel with all of my things I looked back at it and thought, “It would be nice if I had the same ability as the father wolf in my dream, if it was real what would it be? High skill of Earth control maybe?”
I thought to myself but in the end, I couldn’t know as I didn’t even know if these dreams were memories of the wolf body I borrowed or just illusions that my mind created from boredom, but for now, it didn’t matter as I had other things to do, like mushrooms to cook and sweet fruits to eat.
After eating to my fullest and smearing the healing grass on the wolf's wounds I laid on the side of the wolf's belly as I looked through our statues once more.
*”Self Awareness” leveled up to Lv4*
“Say what?” I looked in surprise as new information about my body popped out.
***
*Self Awareness Status*
-Visavil Bush Lv3-
Experience: 46/60
Rarity: Uncommon
Health: 5/13
Mana: 16/44
Stamina: 8/11
Health regen: -0.35/week (-2)
Mana regen: 0.9/hour (-3)
Stamina regen: 0.6/hour (-1.4)
Race: Berry bush.
Damage Resistances:
Slash: 15, Blunt: 34, Piercing: 36, Cold: 20, Heat: 15, Fire: 8
Dark: 88, Light: 45, Mind: 132, Soul: #%($
Status: Intelligent(Unique), Withering(Strong), Symbiosis
Skills:
*Magic Perception Lv4(Active)* *Self Awareness Lv4* *Calm Mind Lv6* *Inspect Lv5* *Rage Lv1* *Killing Intent Lv2* *Pain Resistance Lv2* *Mana Manipulating Lv2* *Wood Element Control Lv4* *Dig Lv4* *Stealth Lv4* *Detection Lv3* *Lifesteal Lv2* *Poison Resistance Lv1* *Item Crafting Lv2* *Stamina Storage Lv2* *Throwing Lv3* *Lesser Hand To Hand Combat Lv2* *Grow Lv3* *Increase Mana Regeneration Lv1* *Lesser Spear Mastery Lv1* *Thorns Lv1* *Falling Damage Resistance Lv1* *Roll Lv1* *Fruits Production Lv1* *Mana Storage Lv2* *Overtake Lv1* *Mind Wave Lv1* *Evil Lv1* *Digging Lv1* *Lingua Language Lv4* *Forced Absorption Lv2* *Lesser Sword Mastery Lv1* *Soul Link Lv1* *First Aid Lv1* *Wooden Puppet Lv1* *Taunt Lv1*
Titles:
*Clutz* *Novice Trapper* *Pyromaniac*
***
-Young Wild Wolf Lv10-
Experience: 45/100
Health: 7/40
Mana: 4/4
Stamina: 13/18
Health regen: 1/day(-3)
Mana regen: 0.2/hour (-1)
Stamina regen: 1/hour (-2)
Race: Canine.
Damage Resistances:
Slash: 45, Blunt: 37, Piercing: 30, Cold: 86, Heat: 36, Fire: 27
Earth: 63, Mind: 36
Status: Weakened(Extreme), Sick(Mild), 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*
***
“What the hell is that, damage resistance?” I looked at the weird resistance that I and the wolf got.
“Why do I and the wolf have some different resistances like I have dark and light while he got earth? And what the hell is Soul Restatince that I got… There are weird signs in it, is this because I reincarnated?” I scratched my head, getting more and more confused every minute thinking.
“I guess my mind resistance is high because of the *Calm Mind* skill but my fire resistance is complete garbage, well I am not really surprised there and my best stats except Dark and Light with I don’t even know what that means is Piercing but it is barely thirty, my stats are garbage…” I thought over how I almost died a few times and agreed that I survived by sheer luck and because I outsmarted a few enemies.
“I shouldn’t think too much about it, let's just inspect those things.”
*Slash Damage Resistance* - Resistance to cutting, slashing, or slicing attacks usually from swords, axes, etc.
*Slash Damage Resistance* - Resistance to blunt attacks such as punches, hammers, etc.
*Piercing Damage Resistance* - Resistance to piercing attacks such as spears, arrows, etc.
“Shocker…” I commented sarcastically.
I checked the cold heat and fire, but it was basically what you expected but dark light and others were different.
*Dark/Light/Mind Damage Resistance* - Resistance to the corresponding variety of spells or skills and effects.
“This is a defense against different types of skills, I guess the wolf is good at defending against earth and mind types because of his parents that I saw in the dreams? But then why am I good against dark, light, mind, and soul types?” I thought for a moment and felt that the answer was somewhere in front of me but I just couldn’t put a finger on it and I read the soul resistance description.
*Soul Damage Resistance* - Resistance to damage to the user's soul, something that is almost never being tested as beings that can damage the soul are too powerful and rare to find.
“What? Wait but I can destroy souls, aren’t those weird flames the souls that I see in my mind?” I was not sure what this thing was talking about as I remembered as I blew up a pig with just one use of a *Mind Wave* skill.
“I guess that is why my soul resistance is so weird? Maybe? I am just so strong in the soul part of me that it can’t calculate it?...” I speculated to myself but in the end, I just couldn’t know, at least I was happy that I now can know what were my weaknesses.
“I am weak to pretty much everything… But especially fire…” I said as I slowly backed off the campfire that was in front of me and closed my eyes as I went to sleep.