Enter: Theo Kraven

As Theodore came to, he found himself bloody and bruised in the woods of a forest he's never seen before. He was bleeding from multiple injuries and his already poor clothes [read: rags] were hanging loosely off his thin frame like cloth to a stick.

Coughing, Theodore rolled over, bearing the pain as memories of his immediate situation came to him like a rushing train.

The body he was in belonged to an orphan who was mysteriously brought to the local village's orphanage door as a child by unknown means —- He just appeared there one day and they took him in.

Sadly, mysteriously appearing in a wolf that was going through its Medieval phase was just asking to be brutally ostracized by the local people —- That and having the hair on his head. And the locals did not fail to deliver their ostracism all this person's life.

His name was Theo Kraven. He was a 12 year old orphan, who was chased into these woods by a gang of the local bullies who always harassed him. This time, though, they wanted to kill him, though why? Theo had no clue. And they had succeeded, too — Or they had before Theodore had taken up residence inside Theo's body, anyway.

"Ugh, my head," getting up, Theo looked around to see the bullies looking at him in horror. "What? Is there something on my face?"

The bullies were numbered in three; they were the three children of the village head and chief. Their names? Ashton Dawson, Tyler Dawson and Emily Dawson.

Ashton Dawson was the youngest, about 12 years old and brown-haired with brown eyes and a slightly chubby frame. He wore a decent tunic top with trousers and boots. He had a knife strapped to his waist and an antagonistic presence.

Tyler Dawson was the oldest and the strongest amongst the trio. He was 16 years old and an awakened cultivator. He looked similar to Ashton, brown hair, brown eyes, only his face card was slightly more mature, older, than his younger brother.

Emily Dawson was the worst of the trio/ easily 15 years old, the middle child, and as vicious as she is malicious. She had similar detailed features as her siblings, only feminine and clever. She was also an awakened cultivator.

In this world, named Valtoria, there were 2 types of cultivation: One that requires one to form a Warrior's Core, which allows one to perform the first type of cultivation called "Warrior Cultivation." the second type is called "Mage Cultivation," and it requires one to form a "Magic Core." both forms of cultivation cover 7 levels, and, while there are Ascended levels of cultivation that reach into godhood, these 7 are the only ones that regular mortals know of and can reach.

While the terms "awakened" and "unawakened" are used to differentiate normal people from cultivators and vice versa, for both types of cultivators there are 2 very distinct levels of power.

For Warrior Cultivators, the first four levels are called the "Primary Stages." the next 4 are called "Squire Rank," and the 4 after that are called "Knight Rank." The next 4 are called "Templar Rank" and the 4 after that are called the "Grand Knight Rank." the next 3 are called "Master Rank" and the final 2 are called "Grand Master Rank."

For Mage Cultivators, the first four ranks are called the "Apprentice Ranks," while the next four stages are called the "Mage Ranks." the third level is called "Semi-Sage Rank" and it, too, are split into 4 levels, while the 5th stage is "Semi-Saint Rank," also with 4 levels of power. "Saint Rank" is the 6th stage of power for mages; it has 3 levels. And, finally, "Grand Saint Rank" is the 7th stage of power for cultivating mages.

Right now, Tyler Dawson was a Primary Stage 2 ranked warrior cultivator, which, for his village and his age, was not bad of a rank at all. His sister, Emily Dawson, was an Apprentice Rank 1 mage cultivator. Not really impressive, but not really disappointing, either.

The 3 siblings had chased Theo here into the woods with the intent to kill him — And they could have sworn they had already done so, after beating him to a pulp. They had watched his battered and beaten body and chest rise and fall, before not rising again. They had assumed they had killed the bastard, finally. They had felt good about themselves, that they had finally beaten the cursed boy to death and wouldn't have had to feel so uneasy by his insignificant presence.

Imagine their surprise when, right as they were about to go and leave the boy's body for the beasts roaming this forest, he wakes up grasping, alive and arguably well. They were horrified and flabbergasted, internally wondering if the gods were messing with them.

"H-h-how are you still alive?" Tyler, sword in-hand, trembling slightly, as he watched Theo Kraven slowly get up from the ground pool of his own blood. "We killed you!"

"I-is he an undead?" Emily asked, horrified by the thought that Theo could be a monster now. Her hands ignited a tennis ball-sized flaming ball in her palms. "Should I burn him? Undead are weaker to fire, right?"

Theo, puzzled by the information of this world travelling to his brain, stiffened as he processed her words, thought of being lit ablaze right after his transmigration making his heart beat faster, lurching in horror. He looked at his bullies, eyes wide, expression blank, which seemed to make them uncomfortably flinch.

"Awhoo!" However, before they could take action, the nearby sound of howls sounded and dread filled the three siblings' beings.

"Listen," Ashton said, tilting his head. "Hear that? They sound like…".

"Greywolves," Tyler said puzzled, turning in the direction of the howls. "And a pack of them."

"This far south?" Emily questioned. "That's not good."

'Greywolves?' Theo asked, internally horrified. 'Based on the information of this body's previous owner, they were a magic beast that dominated the snowy biomes of of Northern continent of this world, which was known to be most a frozen tundra, and they had good numbers on many of the other well, including most especially this one, the Human Continent.

There were seven continents total in the world of Valtoria — the 3 middle continents, which belonged to the humans(Western Middle Continent), the elves(Eastern Middle Continent) and the dragons(Southern Middle Continent). Then there's the Dwarven Continent just east of the elves' continent, and the Dark Continent just west of the human continent. Farthest west point is the continent of the demons, and the farthest north continent is the continent where the unruly, powerful beasts dwell; so much so, no other continent wants to step foot on it.

Theo was about to barter his life, to be allowed to live. He honestly didn't want to die… Again. It sucked. Sadly, before he could speak, the bullies did. "Let's kill him and then hurry back to the village," said Tyler, hefting his sword. "We'll be safe there."

"I agree," said Emily, once again igniting her palms with a fireball. "I wanna eat some pork tonight, so let's hurry before the Dining Hall runs out."

Even Ashton unsheathed his knife, ready to go in for the kill.

'They're really gonna kill me… Fuck me!' Theo realized, screaming internally. 'Fuck this luck. I would end up dying the moment I reincarnated! This is some straight bullshit! Fuck!'

However, before any of the siblings could take a step forward, a bush rustling nearby gathered everyone's attention.

"What was that?" Ashton asked, turning. "Shit."

Turning his attention, Theo saw the largest wolf he'd ever seen. Easily the height of an adult man, teeming with muscles, bearing amber eyes as gold as honey, the wolf was easily 6 feet tall, and 176 pounds of pure, unfiltered muscles. It had shaggy grey fur and claws as long as they were sharp. And the most dreadful thing? There were over 20 of them.

These aren't just greywolves," Tyler gasped, sweating buckets, looking at the shaggy greywolf and the few taller wolves. "DIrewolves….". He was horrified. "It's a mixed pack."

Direwolves were so much stronger, so much bigger, so much faster and much smarter than greywolves, which made them so much more deadly than regular greywolves and magic beasts. In terms of magic beasts, they ranked near the top of their respective food chains in this world. As far as magic beasts were concerned, these were one of the worst for a human to encounter in the wild. They were tenacious, vicious, territorial and so very deadly.

Amongst magic beasts, there are ranks of power. Technically, there are 7, but the final tiers –– "Primordial and Progenitors" — were more like unachievable occupational statuses than actually achievable tiers of power. F, E and D are the weakest tiers of power. Next are the C, B and A ranks and, after them, there's the S, SS, SSS and Z ranks. Next, we have Omega, Delta, Beta and Alpha ranks, and, after them, there's the King, Emperor, Legendary and Demigod tiers. The next 6 are the Elemental, Cosmic, God, Divine Lord, Divine Lord King and Apex God tiers. The final tier is the Primordial/Progenitor Tier, but, as said before, that is mostly a status, not reachable levels of power.

And wolves before them were around the B-rank, while the alpha was definitely A rank.

Shit, we're dead," Tyler muttered.

'Fuck me!' Theo screamed internally.

The wolf in charge — the shaggy furred one from earlier – seemed to lock eyes with Theo, as an understanding seemed to pass between the two of them. A sudden calm washed over Theo, as he realised the wolves weren't going to hurt him. The wolf turned its head towards the direction of the village, its meaning crystal clear even to the dullest of minds: It wanted Theo to run.

Theo looked to the three siblings, who only just realised something was up and realised that they weren't going to make it out of this alive. Snickered to himself, thinking "Good riddance," as he began limping away.

"H-hey, where do you think you're goin —? Ahh!" before Emily could intercept Theo a wolf leaped at her.

Theo ran, even as the sounds of screams and agony sounded behind him. And did not turn back, not once.