Findings on the Investigation
The Frozen North where an empire takes control using a dictatorship, from the Scorching South lands were Exotic spices and rare materials are mined, the Western lands were numerous kingdoms have taken roots which have constant battles on their borders, the Mysterious East islands where resides beast that tower all structure making it near impossible to sustain human life.
Kingdoms hold their rule by having cultivators who have the royal blood of their ancestor, Empires control powerful experts by the masses by giving them numerous benefits.
The six clans however are only at the edge of the borders between the south and west, so they are considered outsiders.
The Naga clan was considered one of medium sized clans, those sizes determine their status, the medium sized ones are all trying to prove their worth in independence trying to develop further, they are considered stronger than small fry that try to carry favors so kingdoms would bend over backwards for them, compared to larger clans who have stronger experts are trying to make long lasting alliances via marriage.
The logic is that clans hold some form of independence due to ancient law, so they are not affected or influenced by the ruling leader's, but they must make a form of trade or allow their armies to pass or visit upon message, if they deny such terms then they will be considered as a threat.
The Naga Clan, is one of the great clans in the province that holds the most lands with abundant resources forming ties to merchants of other regions to therefore expanding their influence in trade and development.
As such, the Naga's make use of mining or farming resources in their areas focusing solely in profit, but due to lack of proper personnel, they can't keep tabs on every area they have on name, so they can only exhaust the resources in one area at a time.
***
In a forest on tone of the territories of the Naga Clan, Heavenly Beast, rare plants and herds are gathered have still yet to be discovered, this is one of the mistake that has yet to take notice.
*SWOOSH!!* Yahoo!!! *SWOOSH!!!* *AWOOH!!!*
"MASTER, PLEASE SLOW DOWN!!!"
A shout of concern echoed through the forest, waking any small animals in the vicinity trying to reach their heads out to the source, only to pull their head back after hearing the howl of a wolf.
A figure was jumping swiftly from tree to tree like a ninja, following behind him was a shadow like entity swinging from each branch using its claws like a monkey.
The figure was a male boy no older than ten years old, on him was an eastern broad sword larger than him, with a small puppy buried in his clothes howling at the same time, following behind him was one shady figure following behind him, the boy was Stigma.
He was jumping from tree to tree which were five meters away, along with doing acrobatic routines that would make even veterans fell like their time in training would look easy. He was even doing free run techniques that you would see in movies.
To give an understanding on what happened, it goes like this, before this all started Stigma choose one of the orbs to absorb, the 'Wolf Soul' was something he wanted to absorb for a while but didn't have the right time since he won't have practice afterwards, in the end after absorbing it he suddenly felt the urge to howl as he did, there voices of over ten or so wolves when he did frightening even himself. But made the baby wolf was barking with delight from each howl.
His five sense increased which include his eyesight, hearing, sense of smell, his ability to feel presence near him, and his sense of taste which had become more useful than he thought, after tasting a random plant, he found out that it was bitter and caused him minor paralysis, seeing that there were more random plants by the road side he choose to be more careful and grateful.
He then checked his skill list and he did learn them from via wolf soul except they were all in level one, he however cannot see the ones from the 'Thunder Horned' nor the 'Great Wolf' so he will have to get stronger to find out.
Finally he felt more rejuvenated and his physical body became stronger when he tried to lift Hilda he did so without the support of Dusk, which means a lot, after swinging Hilda a few more times, he felt more like his body more athletic.
To test out the skills he learned he tried doing somersaults and back-flips, but due to not being experience he had covered himself in dirt, afterwards he tried dashing to one side to another and did muscle training.
All in all, he tested his limits he previously had and broke through his previous records. Hilda was present in each time he tried to physically test himself and was shocked from the results, before Stigma had difficulty in just raising her without Dusk help and now Stigma was suddenly able to carry, lift and swing her with ease.
To confirm something else he tried doing his cultivation training, though it was called training he was just molding his hand with the solidified energy, before it started out like clay which eventually turned similar to a gum like feeling.
After an hour he tried covering his hands with the energy and tried to punk a tree, the result was that the impact was strong enough cave a hole but when he pulled it out, pieces of it started to stick to his hand.
Realizing the result, he released the energy on his hand and tried to increase the energy on the other, it started forming in the image he wanted like a whip attached to his hand, to test it strength he lashed it at ta tree seeing that the branches broke, he confirmed that it was strong, and again the same problem showed broken branches started sticking to the whip.
After a few more attempts he was able to form the whip in a thinner form about the size of a thread, it was as sharp a knife and strong enough to support his body. Various forms were made with the energy and his final training was to use the energy to support his body.
Looking at his status his Zen energy was up to 35%. Dusk skills percentage also increased slightly.
With that in mind he started to use his trip as his training, which lead to the current development.
"MASTER! PLEASE SLOW DOWN! HOW DID YOU GET THIS FAST! PLEASE BE CAREFUL!!!"
"AWOOOHH!!!!!!!"
Although Hilda's was voicing her concern they were ignored from the baby wolf, her tone was that of a mother finding out her five year old child was in danger.
"Alright, alright I hear you!"
If one enjoys a moment who would stop to listen, Stigma on the other hand appreciated, it was a long time that anyone showed concern for him so he stopped on a branch he landed on ad listened to his sermon.
"Mou! Master you idiot, how do you plan to take responsibility if you get hurt, I can't move and Dusk won't move unless you order him, and the baby wolf can't even understand us!"
Before, Hilda the calm and composed type, but after witnessing her master sudden change it gave her quite a shock.
'I'm being told of by sword, that's a new experience.' Stigma was listening to Hilda went on and on about being careful, it goes to show that after being silent numerous times had made her felt responsible for the deaths of her previous wielders so she was doing this for his safety in mind so he listened to her.
Hilda was the reason why Stigma was able to avoid danger from time to time, on his way there was a 4 Tier beast lying in wait, so he choose to take a different route, though it took a while he trusted Hilda's abilities.
After she was finished, he smiled and cried which made her panic. People normally take for granted the things that gave them a small amount of happiness, after losing his parents he missed the times where he was always scolded by his mother, his father giving him life lessons on how to cook or drive, he missed them dearly.
"M-M-Master! Please calm down, I'm sorry for getting angry! Please don't cry."
Wiping away his tears he began explaining to her his reason, telling her his worries and sorrows and the pain of losing what he felt were small matters.
"Thank you." Before he could say his appreciation, it was Hilda who said her thanks.
"Master, it's difficult to move on after losing someone, even after years, it was common to feel some lingering regrets. It is nothing to be ashamed of. I will support you"
Giving her such tender words made him feel glad, giving his confirmation, he slowly nodded. Only to feel a sense of danger.
"Master, a flying beasts are heading our way, be weary!" After hearing those words, he grabbed Hilda and made a stance, ordering Dusk to support him in the shadows.
Essence Reader!
*
Species: Large Bat (I)
Ranks: Common
Skills: Night Vision (II)
*
Night Vision (II) 46%
*A skill that allows one to see through the night. After each level the range of the vision will increase.
*
Species: Large Bat (I)
Ranks: Common
Skills: Night Vision (II)
*
*
Species: Large Bat (II)
Ranks: Uncommon
Skills: Night Vision (II) Supersonic (II)
*
Supersonic (II) 35%
*A skill effects one's status to confusion by two minutes. Each level increase the time by two minutes.
*
Species: Large Bat (II)
Ranks: Uncommon
Skills: Night Vision (II) Supersonic (II)
*
*
Species: Large Bat (III)
Ranks: Uncommon
Skills: Night Vision (II) Supersonic (II)
*
Seeing their abilities, he had to be wary to from the ones in front, so he had one choice, separate them then take them out one of the time.
About the five large bat creatures started flying towards him, he grabbed Hilda and made his stance ordering Dusk to silently constrain them, so he can handle his first fight.
Dusk charged at the group and transformed into a cloud, capturing the three in front missing one since he was able to capture three then its fine. The two then collided with Stigma causing him to lose his footing, he cushioned the fall for the baby wolf so it won' get injured.
After landing he finally saw how they looked, each had a disgusting deformed face with red eyes, they were large enough to be the size of doberman, they growled at him with hunger. Three were struggling from the distance, he had to take focus with the two before him.
Before he could do anything, the baby wolf charged towards the one in the left, so he had to take out the one in the right.
He had no time to look after the baby wolf, so he had to finish his fight then help him.
He charged towards the bat, using the skill 'Intimidation' and 'Howling' he was able to lower its stats and increase his stats. Having used a wolf skill the bat was surprised, but only for a second.
The bat swiped at him using its sharp claws at him, screeching at him at the same time, about three more attacks came, but Stigma using Hilda to was blocking.
Each of the attacks were weak, but the range was what concerned him, it had long arms so using Hilda who was wide was not the perfect weapons, so sheathed her back and switched using his knives.
Swinging the knives for a while to have a proper feel, tightening his grip he charged towards it as it swiped, as he did so he dodged to the left and using his buff of 'Intimidation' and 'Howling' to and slashed at him.
With the wound, it screeched in pain as it grabbed on to its back glaring at him, but he didn't stop, if he stopped due to fear, then a moments of hesitation will end him.
After his fight with the wolf leader he had reviewed his fight while asking Hilda's opinion, her observation concluded that he was able to survive due to the delay of each attack.
She explained that not all fights will have the same situations, veterans will take the chance to attack him if he waited for their reactions, they would mix their attacks with feints so he had to practice in telling actual attacks and lie about their advantages.
Going back to his fight he continued to stab and slash at the unguarded back of the bat ignoring it's cry of pain, out of its last attempted to use it's body as a battering ram only to miss and gain another combination of 'Intimidation' and 'Howling' to be finished of by having its neck severed, and losing its life afterwards.
Now that his fight was over, he started looking for the baby wolf only to find it covered in blood and waging its tail towards him, waiting for it to be praised.
Looking at the corpse closely the were multiple tear marks on his body and it's throat, the finding in his investigation.
The little guy was strong after all.
---
"To think this happened to them, what the hell did they offend."
Wade was standing in front of the cave where Stigma was residing, it took him a while to find the place since it was the last place, Red Rock Valley.
He was told that this place was dangerous due to it's unstable footing, but seeing the marks on the ground and wall and confirmed that there were traces of blood in the forest. Before he found a hole with a crude spikes made by a nearby tree, looking around he found a piece of flesh and a puddle of blood.
He followed the trail and found a buried cave, after excavating he found out that there was something buried inside and smelled some alcohol in the air, and looking around he found scorch marks on the floor, but he also found claw marks to the tree towards the direction.
Going through the clues, he guessed that Gus and Frank were resting here but somehow they had offended someone with a powerful beast.
The reason he assumed it was a person was due to finding holes in the cave normally a beast would kill the people eat the corpses and leave, but the corpses were mauled by a beast by he found their meat buried instead of eaten, their belongings were also taken.
The food the had was gone along with the sac, their gold were also taken which also included the medallion he was told to look for.
"Fuck, I cant find anything here. Guess I no choice."
Flipping his hand, he grabbed a orb made of a green gem, it was the large enough to for him to grasp completely, but instead of being fascinated he had a look of indifference.
Using the orb would mean he had accepted his defeat, with him adding a deadline he was out of options so he had to make up for lost time.
Pouring his Zen energy he activated the orb and what showed was a light flicking from a direction, facing towards the light it changed position to were he stood.
"That way huh, guess I wasted my time in the investigation. Shit."
He cursed then ran at full speed, towards Stigma's location.