Day 8

Angry howls and bitter, painful shrieks carried on the wind as I listened to the pounding of padded feet. The alpha wolf that pranked me left deer carcasses and loomed over me leaped over the fence using the dead bodies of its subordinates. I saw it midair, teeth open and shiny like the blade of a guillotine. Shovel in hand, there weren't a lot of options.

I swung.

The weight of the blow jarred my arms, but in midair, the wolf couldn't change its direction. I threw myself out of the way as its body tumbled before it rose and lunged. It shot from side to side as I held my shovel before it yipped. My eyes widened before a set of teeth tore into my shoulder. Blood sprayed down my shirt as 120lbs of wolf monster dragged me down. I shoved my shovel in the dirt and managed to stay up, but the wolf didn't let go. The alpha-charged teeth flashed to finish me off.

My throat was exposed, and nothing should be able to save me. Then, the wolf flinched.

I struck out with my fist, leaving the shovel behind and striking the wolf on the nose. The superficial blow stunned the animal, and I found the rock I dug up while digging furrows. I threw myself on it, aiming where the dog bit my shoulder. My body felt the impact as teeth snapped in my shoulder and dog brain spilled on the ground. Constitution was considered a dump attribute for most humans who wanted course rough skin.

The rank one wolf didn't have the constitution stat needed for its teeth to bite too deeply. It wasn't a rank 2 monster with attributes in a little bit of everything. Blood poured down my shirt, but it felt like that wouldn't be a problem for long, thanks to my regeneration. I froze when a harsh wind hit me just right, and shook as one of the alpha wolf's eyes popped out of its socket.

Gwen did say the psychic winds would get worse when the fight started.

The wolves were more affected because they had lower willpower. I was better off with Black Rage than I thought. I swung my shovel at the alpha wolf and missed.

The creature ducked under my blow and lunged, clamping down on my arm. Green liquid flowed off its fangs into my wound. I felt the flesh sizzling where it bit me. The green liquid wasn't poison like I expected; it was acid. It savaged my arm and ripped it to bloody ribbons before it let go and leaped back. Blood spurted out of my arm, spilling on the ground with every beat of my heart. What little light I could see fully filled the edges of my vision. I tried to move and tripped on the shovel.

The wolf approached far less cautious.

I hadn't miscalculated there were no calculations or plans involved. This whole situation was unprecedented and couldn't be planned for. How was I supposed to know the monsters would go crazy when some crazy strong monster on Mt. Red had a territory dispute. I was going to die like many farmers, a statistic to be read out at class schools. None of my family ever apologized.

That filled me with more rage than I thought. I struggled to slow the bleeding, and the anger helped. Resentment was keeping me alive better than holding pressure on my arm.

The wolf showed its fangs and lunged to finish me off. The monster froze mid-leap as Gwen stepped out of the tent.

"Do you remember me, wolf? You ate my mother, chased me into the arms of a human, and invaded my home." The wolf struggled until Gwen turned her head. The wolf was pressed against the barbed wire and racked back and forth. At first, the wolf's fur protected it as the monster struggled, but that didn't last long. It was moved ever faster, ripping meat off the bone. In a matter of minutes, it was a quarter through the fence like cheese through a grater.

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I held a hand to my wound and let regeneration take care of it. My attention was completely taken over by the wound as I watched blood clot and flesh knit. The more attention I put on the injury, the faster it seemed to heal. It seemed concentrating on aspects of a skill was useful. Regeneration didn't have to only passively boost my healing rate; it could be focused on a singular wound.

Ping!

Regeneration lvl12

Berserk lvl21

Adapt lvl10

Training lvl10

+9 Skill Points

All the points went into Black Rage.

Black Rage I 25/50

+2 Willpower

Willpower 15

I watched my arm slowly pull the savaged ripped muscle back inside itself as my regeneration worked overtime. My shoulder itched, and I reached up and plucked a broken tooth out. A white-tailed deer rammed into my fence, flipped, and landed inside with a broken neck.

Other monsters were leaving the woods; not all were headed in my direction, but some were. Something about the monster on Mt. Red was driving them all into a frenzy. A deer viciously kicked a wolf to death before stomping holes in the corpse until it spilled open the creature's guts. I watched the deer savage the entrails hungrily. The winds continued to blow, and madness spread in their wake.

This was the kind of nonsense that created random lines among monsters. Deer that eat the meat of wolves might gain odd transformations. Hunted to hunter could transform into cannibalism. Birds caught in the winds attacked each other in the sky overhead. A bird hit the ground beside me dead as more flew up to either escape or join the fight.

When my arm was well enough to move, I stood up and moved to sit beside Gwen. "You saved my life."

"When you leave for your adventures, take me with you; I want to see more than this," Gwen said.

I needed to find one of the hidden dungeons of Rasputin and, ironically, farm it for skill shards. Once my Adapt reached a certain level, gaining levels in even active skills was possible. Some passive elemental mastery skills would be best; they had plenty of skill trees that could turn even me into a mage-like fighter. My training skills were key. I could potentially gain attribute points in areas my class normally limits. Good equipment wouldn't be a bad thing, either. A weapon that could grow with me would be sweet, but dungeons that had loot like that were heavily guarded and extremely dangerous.

The feeling in my arm came back, giving me an excuse to move. I liked moving more than sitting around thinking. It kept me from thinking about how hard my life became, thanks to my class.

This event won't bother my crops much. I took some wood and transported some plastic ties. From there, I made some supports and tied the crowing stalks to them. After that I began the long process of burying the monster bodies. This would have the bonus of empowering the soil. I should expect a qualitative increase in my crop yield. I stared down at the tree of life seed sprout.

With little fanfare, I buried a few bird corpses around it. Gwen watched me slowly remove the bodies from my fence and bury them one by one. Monster corpses, once buried, could greatly improve a farmer's chances of paying back their debts.

It would be wise to expand quickly and far after this battle. The wolves were dead, and more of my territory was open to reclaim. I could open a grove after I cut down the forests. Fencing it in would be a challenge but not an unwelcome one. I liked the feeling of safety a fence brings.

Clearly, 9 feet wasn't enough. I needed a much taller fence if I was to survive out here. This would come at a steep price, but my crops would start coming in soon. My optimism ended when I saw Gwen's drooping sad form.

Gwen made her way back to me, sullen and defeated. "Am I evil? The wolf killed, and I killed; doesn't this make us the same."

"You certainly didn't find the word evil in my mind; where did you hear that word?" I asked.

"On your computer, there is talk about this thing called evil. All I can figure out is that it means you're bad." Gwen said.

"That's not what evil is. It's an immoral act or person who commits immoral acts. The wolf was moral before the winds since it ate only when hungry and had to eat to live. So to be like the wolf isn't evil."

"So I am evil because I killed the wolf for revenge."

"Revenge isn't a bad thing. Do you feel better that your mother's killer is dead?" I said.

This felt like a heavy mess that would eventually blow back in my face. I could only hope I somehow managed to get Gwen through it.

"No, I feel empty. Other wolves will kill deer so long as either exists. You would kill and eat deer and never feel bad about it. Besides me, you don't care about any of my kind." Gwen said.

"Yes, because we're friends. That's why I plan to eat chickens instead of deer."

"Don't bother since deer don't matter; just eat them right in front of me," Gwen said.

I rolled my eyes and rubbed my face. This was what being a monster friend without the Tamer skill was all about.

"No, because you deserve respect even if you don't believe it," I said.

She fled to my tent for the rest of the day while I buried bodies.