Live again

[Direwolf lvl 12 (elite) slain]

[180% EXP gained]

[Level up!]

*gasp* *cough* *cough* "I'm alive? I really thought i was dead there for a second, probably was and got saved by the level up" *groan*

'Thought this leveling up was supposed to bring me back to peak condition, so why does my head hurt so bad and my ears are ringing' Looking around i can see that i'm currently covered in dirt, leaves and watever that brown thing is, i don't even want to know. Slowly i push myself off the ground but i notice that i'm having problems with standing, suddenly i feel someone supporting me by holding my left arm. Then i see that it's Gobi with a wide grin on his face.

"Judging by the grin on your face something good happened am i right?" All i got back was him nodding his head like a bobblehead, he is trying to lead me somewhere so i might as well look at what he wants to show me.

Gobi leads me to a massive crater, i would've suspected a meteorite if i couldn't see the massive body of the direwolf in the center of it. Guess our little kamikaze tactic worked, glancing to the other side of the crater i spot Fenris running over with his afterimage tail again. I really can't do anything when he acts that cute, but he stops next to the direwolf and Gobi leads me over to the carcass stopping right next to it. Gobi lets my arm go and backs away leaving me with Fenris and the corpse, wondering what they wanted i thought maybe they wished for me to bring it back as a shadow soldier which i knew was impossible.

[Evolution material located]

[Suitable shadow soldier located]

[Evolve Fenris to direwolf?]

[yes/no]

'How come they knew of this and not me? Probably should have asked that guide guy but oh well what can you do?' I look towards Fenris who is staring at me expectantly, guess it would be a good thing to evolve him since he did do a good job. Additionally he would probably become big enough for me to use him as a mount no problem afterwards.

"You want to evolve into a direwolf Fenris?" Judging by his frantic nodding i probably should have expected this. Fine why not, he has to grow anyway if he is to devour gods in the future. I slightly chuckle at the thought of having Fenris appear out of nowhere when i'm in trouble and scaring whoever threatens me.

'Yes, merge' After issuing the command i see the direwolf's shadow start rising up as if i was to raise him, only for it to flow over to Fenris covering his body. The shadow covered Fenris and started increasing i size, when the shadows finally merged with his body what emerged was a carbon copy of Grey Wind the direwolf. The only exception being his absolutely massive size, as he was now i could barely reach up to the top of his head. The goblins are barely the height of his legs.

[Shadow Soldier: Fenris has evolved to a direwolf]

[Fenris has reached lvl 4]

[Through evolving your first soldier you unlock the title: Unlocker of potential]

[Title: Unlocker of potential]

[Through evolving one race you gain the ability to forcefully evolve you other soldier through either merging, providing the relevant material or perform the required ritual. Higher forms of evolution grants higher stats than their lesser developed kin, thus making it possible for a lvl 3 higher being to defeat a lvl 4 being with relative ease.]

'Oh damn i'm gonna abuse this you already know it, but not right now. There is safety in numbers and right now i only have 9 soldiers.' After reading the messages i look up only to unconciously freeze, right in front of me Fenris is staring at me and lightly growling. 'Is he going to attack me? Do i have to prove myself to be the master of a direwolf? No why would he do that? Without me he ceases to exist' As i finish that thought Fenris launches himself at me and tackles me to the ground, it hurts to say but he handled me like a toddler after that evolution even with my new levels.

Maybe it was the shock of getting knocked down but i couldn't do anything, i expected to have to fight him for the right to be his master. But i can't do that now. Fenris suddenly started licking my face like a puppy that hadn't seen his owner for an entire week, how can i even think about hurting this cute guy, i can't even get mad at him.

*chuckles* "Ok Fenris that's enough we need to check our surroundings in case there are more enemies nearby" Reluctantly Fenris let's me go and lowers his head. Is he sulking? "Oh my poor boy you know i want to play with you but this isn't the time or place." Hearing my words his mood turns 180 and the afterimage tail is back.

I start stroking his fur while saying "We need to get to someplace populated so that we aren't in danger at all times, then we can play all you want when we have the time." Looking around us i can see that the goblins and wolves have formed a perimeter around the crater, so it seems we weren't completely in danger after all. We still have to get out of the forest though, i don't want to encounter another monster like that direwolf. Especially when we don't have any cliffs to throw them off, speaking of direwolf i think i need to take the meat and pelt with me. I assume whatever civilization exist here requires me to have som money, and i'm really hungry now, just hope skinning and butchering isn't as hard as i think it is.

Yes it was, it took me an hour to skin the entire carcass. I was so bad at it that the goblins had to help me since they seemed to know how to do it. I can however say that the entire thing resulted in some pretty nice rewards, after having gotten the direwolf pelt i actually got multiple system prompts.

[Skill created through continuous effort: Skinning]

[Skill: Skinning lvl 1]

[Higher levels in this skill makes skinning dead animals easier, granting the user a sixth sense of where to cut to preserve the pelts in the best condition. Some creatures require a certain level of skill to activate the sense]

[Skill created through continuous effort: Butchering]

[Grants the user the ability to determine the best parts of an animals meat, as well as identify inedible parts easier]

[Direwolf pelt aquire]

[Direwolf coat is available for crafting]

[Direwolf backpack is available for crafting]

So basically i got a backpack and a really cool coat, it even has a hood which i appreciate very much. So right now i'm cooking some of the direwolf meat, which isn't too bad if i'm being honest but since i don't have any spices this will have to do for now. After having cooked my meal i decided to take a well earned rest, you might think i slept on the ground, well let me tell you right now. Fenris has got to be one of the best beds i have ever slept on, his fur is soft and since it's his body he's also warm. 'Ahhh bliss'

I woke up the next morning feeling weird, i would have believed everything that happened yesterday was merely a dream if i didn't wake up on a direwolf bigger than a horse. It didn't take me long to wake up, as a wise man once said: Laziness is the enemy of success. Well all i really did was put on my backpack and stay on Fenris's back, today i was gonna travel in style.

We started heading in the direction of the smoke pillars, since they are still there after an entire night i assume it's atleast a house or something. It is harder to see now though so i guess we have to hurry before we can't see it anymore. "Let's go Fenris, head towards the smoke." At that he ran across the forest, i had to make him slow down in the beginning since he got too excited and nearly threw me off. Now all i have to do is enjoy the ride and wait, the other two wolves are running alongside us and keeping watch so there really isn't much i have to do.

What the absolute sh*t happened here? Here i thought i was finally going to find some civilization, only to discover it's been burned down. I mean come on, is there someone out there that just wants me to keep on living as a savage? Judging by the amount of bloodstains on the ground i would dare say the perpetrators are more savages than i am.

I disembark from my trusty direwolf vehicle and start to look around what looked to previously be a small settlement. From what i can see now there used to be 8 houses here, but that's a rough guess seeing the smoldering embers that remain. I can see where the smoke originated from and if i am to guess it's probably the village chief's house, it's almost twice as big as the other houses and seems to have taken significantly longer to finish burning.

Searching this entire place is gonna take too long when it's only me so i'll get some help from my soldiers. 'Gobi i want you and the goblins to search through the smaller houses, Fenris you take the wolves and see if you can smell any traces. Someone might have escaped the raid and might be hurt, also see if you can find traces of the direction the perpetrators went if it's possible to differentiate them' With that everyone splits up and i begin searching the chief's house.

If i know my novels and comics correctly there has to be atleast one survivor, and they're probably hidden somewhere. Might be a child hidden somewhere scared and alone, i wouldn't want that to happen to me so i'll do my best to check every corner and every floorboard. Speaking of survivors, where are the corpses? All this blood around and no corpses makes this entire situation more suspicious.

Searching through the first floor i find nothing of significance, there isn't a second floor to search anymore so i only got one choice. Only thing i have found is what looks like a hatch in the floor, but it's blocked by a large wooden beam. 'Hope i'm strong enough to lift this.' Taking a wide stance i attempt to lift it to no avail. 'I really need to start training once i reach someplace safe, this is getting annoying. So instead of lifting the beam i opt to push it just enough so that i can open the hatch.

After what i would consider a good workout i finally managed to move the beam. "I really have to get to a town or something, need to exercise this body properly." I then decide to open the hatch but what greets me is a loud scream.

"AAAAAAAAAAHHH GET AWAY DON'T COME ANY CLOSER!" The loud scream comes from what i judge to be a young woman covered by a brown cloak. She's holding a pitchfork and pointing it towards the ladder up from the basement.

I sigh, this is a typical novel story after all. "Ok i won't come any closer i promise, just answer me this. Are you hurt?" She momentarily freezes at my question, obviously not expecting it. I still can't see her face clearly as she has it covered by the hood of the cloak and the natural darkness. It doesn't take long before she return to he senses and starts verbally assaulting me.

"Don't pretend to care you disgusting piece of filth! I know your kind, you make people trust you only to betray their trust and enslave them to fuel your endless greed!" I am convince she would have spit on my face if i was closer, but i don't really understand why she is so mad at me? what did i do?

"Ehm miss? i think you got the wro-"

"Don't you dare try to pull that act here! All you people are the same!" Ok now it's starting to get annoying, guess i got to be aggressive here even if it might be counter-productive.

"Miss first of all i don't particularily enjoy having shit thrown in my face for no reason! Secondly i don't think this is the way you're supposed to act towards someone showing concern for you! But suit yourself, the hatch is open now, you're welcome by the way." I start leaving the house before she gets even more snappy.

Walking out of the ruins i spot the goblins moving stuff out of the houses and gathering it in the middle of what i assume was a street, or a path i don't know. I walk over and start inspecting what they brought out seeing a bunch of books that somehow survived the fire, looking over i see Gobi bringing out more of them. "Gobi did you find this in a basement or something?" All i got was a nod but that was enough to awaken my curiosity, books are exactly what i need to learn about this world.

Seems Gobi found a treasure trove, it seems one of the houses i sent him to had a library in the basement. It's almost as if they made it so that it could survive a fire and that wasen't all he found, once i got there he pointed me towards a bookself that seemed different from the rest. I understood why when i took out a book from that shelf and suddenly got a system message.

[Magic book detected, analyzing element....]

[Book of space magic detected]

'Space magic? what does that entitle exactly?' Curiously i opened the book and found that it had a list of contents, and i decided i am definitely keeping this book. I mean who doesn't want to have a personal storage space, and it seems i can learn teleportation through too. Flipping to the page with the storage space spell i read it and suddenly get a prompt.

[Shadow storage]

[Allows the user to store items in their shadow, storage space increases along with skill level]

[Learning requirement: Intelligence 10]

'F*ck they have requirements to learn this stuff, man i really wanted to teleport but if it's 10 intelligence for just the storage one i don't even wanna check the teleportation one.' Sighing i closed the book and checked my stats, it's been a while since i checked

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Stats:]

Strength: 5 (+3)

Perception: 6 (+3)

Agility: 7 (+3)

Endurance: 6 (+3)

Vitality: 7 (+3)

Intelligence: 9 (+3)

Charisma: 7 (+3)

Luck: 16 (+7)

Free stat points: 2 (+2)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

'Oh sweet i can learn the storage space, that will make travelling so much easier' I spent one of the Stat points on Intelligence and learned the storage space spell, or should i call it skill? It did come up as a skill afterall with minimal mana cost as well.

[Skill learned: Shadow storage lvl 1]

[Shadow storage lvl 1]

[Allows the user to store items in his own shadow dimension and retrieve them for 1 MP per item. Total space in the storage is 1x1 and increases with level, this skill does not allow the storage of living beings, only exception to this rule is shadows as they are both alive and dead]

'That last part was kinda creepy but let's just ignore that for now' Without further ado i started storing all the books from the magic bookshelf, if i don't like it i can teach it or just sell it to somebody in the future. With that i returned to the outside and looked upon the pile in front of me. For some odd reason there were a bunch of valuables like gems, jewelry, metals, tools and clothes.

"Should i just take everything? I mean there is nobody but that angry woman here and i don't think anyone is coming back here, what do you think Gobi should i just take it?" I look to Gobi for his wisdom only to see him hold his chin, seemingly in deep thought. He suddenly looks up to me and nods before he goes to the pile and comes back with...female underwear? "Gobi do you take me for a creep? Why would i take that when i have a limited amount of storage space?"

My one-sided discussion with Gobi was interrupted by someone yelling, and the sound seems to get closer. Gobi and the goblins quickly hide in my shadow as it wouldn't look good for them to be seen with me. "Let me down you brute! I already told you that i don't want to meet your master. I heard you the first time and i don't care how cool you think he is." What came towards us was the massive figure of Fenris carrying what seemed to be a little boy covered by a cloak too big for him in his mouth, they stopped just in front of us and suddenly Fenris dropped the boy.

*thud* "Ouch, you couldn't just put me down gently after literally kidnapping me?" The boy looked towards Fenris as if he was expecting a verbal answer, only to receive a confused lokk and a tilted head. "What kidnapping is? You grabbing me and dragging me along out of the forest is what kidnapping is." I felt i had to interrupt the scolding of Fenris, poor boy just wanted to save someone.

*cough* The small boy suddenly got startled, and turned to face me and widening his eyes before running towards Fenris and hiding behind his leg. "I'm sorry about that i sent Fenris out to search for survivors since we just stumbled upon your village in this state" I gesture with my arm towards the smoldering ruins of the village. "If he was a little rough i apologise i told him that people might be injured so he might have rushed a bit."

"You really expect me to believe one of you people again?! We thought the others before were different, but you're all the same!" He said with equally aggressive tone as the woman in the basement, i still don't understand why they hate me so much.

"Ok if you don't trust me you can ask Fenris, considering you're hiding behind him i'm guessing you trust him more than me and you seem to be able to communicate with him." Inwardly i'm just hoping Fenris doesn't say anything bad.

Silence ensues as the boy just looks up to Fenris who i'm guessing is communicating with him somehow, how am i supposed to know. I mean i have Language comprehension at max and i still can't communicate freely with him. But now that i have the time to look at the kid properly he seems kinda strange, there's a bulge on his back and two bulges on his head. He might be one of those demi-humans that often show up in novels, most likely a dog og wolf type since he can speak with Fenris. Before i can speculate further the boy turns to me speaks.

"Alright i'll listen to you, considering how Fenris said you're a good guy i'll trust you a little bit" For some unknown reason he said that in an arrogant tone, does he think Fenris is protecting him from me? You know what i don't care it's time to get som information.

"Thank you i guess, well first of all i just wanted to ask what happe-" Rudely interrupted again i already know who this b*tch is.

"Liam stay away from that human, don't trust him for even a second" Lo and behold here she comes. I'm already regretting opening the hatch.

"But big sis, Fenris says he's a good guy and asked me to listen to him"

"Big sis?""Fenris?"