[To answer your previous question. No, this creature is not of danger, but it is suffering dehydration and aches associated with starvation] System matter of factually noted of the beast, which was trying to look scary before them.
“Prey. I eat.” The arctic snow wolf grunted as he licked his lips. But, no sooner had he spoken, his furry body collapsed to the ground with exhaustion.
Veronika stared at the small body and wondered what to do with him. Her body had no experience with animals other than watching lab-rats in glass booths: practical knowledge had been fed into her with little personal experience to make them mean anything. Until Wu Chen's soul slipped into the body.
“Wait. I thought I was a soldier.” She voiced confusion on the matter aloud.
[Negative. You are a product of a construct, which aimed to produce an ideal super soldier. However, despite the many manuals your brain could contain, you failed to demonstrate exceptional soldier traits. Your close squad mate was ordered to terminate your existence should you fail to produce results. They were your only friend, who had no conscience of ending your life for the Concordat’s favor]
She understood the betrayal and the weak soul’s slight indifference toward it now. Indeed, it was a betrayal, but having to move out of the body, the sentiments wouldn’t have been enough to carry it as unfurnished business into the next life.
“But enough to link mine to this one.”
[Affirmative. It is likely, the previous soul only held onto the feelings with another purpose in mind, that of survival]
“True. Lucky for me, my feelings of being betrayed are stronger.”
[And likely more justified]
She returned her attention to the pup before her. He was growling, but more like a whiny beast than a creature to be afraid of. Knowledge rushed into her brain that allowed her to communicate with the animal. It was possible, this was the Law of Wisdom’s ability.
“I don’t have food.” She grunted in tones he would understand.
“You prey: you food.” The wolf continued to growl and bare his fangs.
System unlocked a bioscanner application, which allowed her to analyze the state of his body. She felt a tinge of familiarity at the way the scanning was being performed: similar to her spirit-eye skill when she was an immortal cultivator.
“Wait. System. How is it that I can recall what spirit-eye vision is?” She mused on a fact of her old life skill that should’ve been left behind when she had assumed her new body and entered the future world.
[Unknown. It is safe to assume that skills cultivated into the soul will not be lost no matter what life you assume. But traveling through the void would have placed locks on knowledge stored within the sub conscious until it can be reached with certain triggers and unlocked]
“Right.” She used the bioscanner to gather information about the creature.
Arctic Snow Wolves were native to the Anaconda southern regions, wandering in packs for food and places to stay. They were nomadic creatures and kept to units of ten and twenty with one alpha wolf leading them. The average wolf was around 105–160 cm long and 80–85 cm tall at shoulder height. ·But this wolf measured half at this size for his age. It was likely left to die for being a runt and burden to the pack.
[You have rations in your back pocket that would help the wolf] System added to her analysis.
Veronika felt around sections of her armor. She just noticed the thin water tubes running along some of the seams and hems. They were perspiration tubes to recycle her sweat and other body fluids for drinking in a tiny hose fitted near the corner of her mouth. It made sense to her to have some kind of long term survival mechanisms installed. But, she gathered the feeling that she could live without food for a very long time. So, giving the rations to the snow wolf wouldn’t be a problem for her own survival.
“Here.” She carefully held out a strip of dried beef before the creature.
The wolf sniffed the offering with a thought.
“It’s not poison... I think.” She scratched her head when thinking her doubts on the matter.
The wolf grunted with his complaint and lack of confidence toward her reassurance.
“Look, pup, if you’re unsure, go starving. Like I care.” Veronika huffed, feeling her impatience for the beast’s caution.
But the wolf wasn’t going to let his guard down anytime soon. This further annoyed her.
“Fine!” She tossed the beef to the ground and turned her back on him.
“Could use salt.” The wolf grunted as he shuffled close to the beef strip and sniffed it.
[Your core skill can give the snow wolf what he desires to some degree] System chimed into her head with the suggestion.
Stolen novel; please report.
“What do you mean?”
[There is a brush-tip pen in your right-breast pocket. Wield it with the desire to give the beast the salt he wants]
“I... what?” Veronika grunted just as loudly as the snow wolf’s complaints.
At this point, she was feeling too fired up with feelings of annoyance to question the suggestion further.
“This better be on the up and up.”
Veronika fumbled around her breast pocket of her suit and pulled out a thin rod of smooth black metal, where tiny synthetic hairs at one end were styled into a brush tip.
“System. I thought you said I was designed to be a super soldier.” She eyed the brush pen doubtfully.
[And I said you were recorded as a failure. But are you? Give the pen a go. As the old adage goes, the pen could be mightier than the sword. In your case, mightier than the plasma gun you tried to use and blew up in your face at the time of your death]
Meanwhile, the snow wolf sat pensively before her, wondering what the hell was going on with the human and whether he should turn tail and run for his life.
“Sheeze.” She held the pen before her and began to meditate on its uses, mentally unlocking a skill manual for it in the process.
[Brush Actualization manual unlocked. Processing skill transfer...] System confirmed in her mind.
Veronika gulped when she felt her internal energies flow throughout her body and began to attract external energies like a magnet.
She let go of all her doubts and similar ones that would be blocks to her power, and allowed the flow of the skill to move through her and unlock key meridians in her hands.
When she felt the power ready to use and be channeled by her skill, she rose and focused her thoughts on the creature’s want.
Her body swelled with immense power that had the snow wolf whimpering and backing away, to be closer to the exit. Even if the outside were blizzards and death-defying electrical storms, he would brave it than stick it out with the crazy human. But he was also curious to see what they were up to, and soon found himself mesmerized. If what he was seeing was a touch of the human’s power, they were definitely powerful.
“Brush, bring forth salt!” Veronika waved the pen before her in a dance of graceful strokes.
A swell of light was reflected on the wolf’s dark, round, eyes as he watched with awe of the human’s spell casting.
Beads of sweat trickled down Veronika’s face as she continued to focus on the image in her mind.
In the process, the cavern glowed: streams of light began trailing off the rock walls to form one big luminescent ball before them.
In a single blast the cavern was transformed into the inside of a salt shaker and the floor was salt piles that were rising due to lots of it raining from the roof.
“What the hell is this?!” Veronika yelped when she felt her boots were being submerged in white salt. The salt rain showed no stopping.
The cavern floors and walls began to crack and shake as the whole environment seemed to move... upside down to tip more salt into the space!
“System!” Veronika screamed and found herself tumbling into the wolf, who was shivering with fear at this point and no longer hungry.
System showed itself as being offline in her head.
“Damn it!” She pocketed her pen, grabbed the wolf and pushed her way through the salt pool that was now at her hip level.
Her curses and complaints were drowned out when her head was submerged in salt. But with one last push and struggle, she broke free to step outside and be hit with cold air and the sting of whipping rain.
A ding sounded off in her mind, triggering an instinct to turn around. When she did, they saw that the salt was gone.
[Hmm. Will need to work on the severity of the skill] System mused in her mind as it came back online.
The wolf struggled free out of her hold and re-entered the cavern, wondering where all the salt went as he sniffed the ground.
Veronika followed, with the same question pestering her brain.
“Um, System, what just happened?”
[Brush Actualization. This is the core skill grafted into your being. More out of mistake from attempts to add elemental magic manipulation] System nonchalantly answered.
Veronika’s left brow twitched with annoyance on System’s indifference to a fact she had almost killed herself with her own power.
[With your skill level, it would not be possible to die from this incident. But, well, the output levels need to be analyzed further] System added.
“So what did I actually do?” Veronika frowned and crossed her arms as she examined the cavern’s insides that were completely unaffected.
The wolf hadn’t hesitated in eating the beef strip: gorging on the food portion like it was his last meal.
“Got anymore, human? If my death is near, I want my belly full.” He relaxed on the ground to lick his paws clean.
“What happened to your earlier caution?” She eyed the wolf, sarcastically.
“Bah. You already tried to kill me and failed. What more harm can you do?” He laughed with the thought.
She sat next to the wolf, feeling tired and recapping everything she knew of herself and the moment to date. As far as Veronika could tell, she had been constructed to be a super soldier and ended up a failure with only one skill that seemed to be useless and uncontrollable. But the body was still young and only fresh out of the tank, so maybe there was hope.
[Possible. A quick analysis of your power indicates that its failure is due to the fact you were originally designed to be a soldier, not an artist. Brush Actualization is a skill that requires an artist’s deft touch in order to properly manifest an outcome] System concluded.
“Great. So not only am I stuck with a weird power, I don’t even have the correct skill base to use it.” Veronika groaned, thinking she had been duped by that weak soul. But, when she was Wu Chen, she had found potential in the smallest things: this power just needed to be cultivated in the right way.
“Well, looks like I have my job cut out for me.” She rose with a renewed purpose and thoughts to the present.