The Wolf of Calamity - Book 1 - Chapter 7 - Tests (Patreon)

Year 1396 After Chaos
Month 7

Chaotic Plane

Asher

After I get back to my den and kill the direwolf that had taken it over during my time away – which was quite rude of them to do – I try to focus on the heat in my chest again. The one that the spheres of magma come from. And when I do, I feel it slowly starting to heat up. But it doesn’t manage to get very far and even begins to cool down again after a few seconds.

Yeah, just like I thought. It looks like I can’t shoot out balls of magma over and over again.

Now that I have that confirmed, I lie down on the ground in the den before narrowing my eyes on my paw that I have held in front of me. Then I stare. And stare. And stare some more. But no matter how hard I stare, I don’t see anything that’d indicate magic or whatever it was that seemed to fuel my heart in creating the magma balls.

Well, unless you include the magma veins flowing through my body. Which could very well be it. But I don’t see any decline in their brightness when glowing through my hide, so I doubt it.

I let out a sigh before glancing at my claws.

It’s better to test this now than accidentally find out later…

Without any hesitation, I bring up one of my paws and draw a small scratch across the other with the claws that are letting out an ominous, black glow.

Surprisingly, it doesn’t really hurt. But that’s probably because it’s just a simple scratch, while I’m used to the torture that teacher’s experiments put me through.

Pain or no pain though, I stare at the wound for several seconds, but nothing happens.

Then again, I kind of doubt it would heal this quickly anyways.

With that thought in mind, I slowly lower my head to the ground, melting the remaining snow there with my incredibly high body heat before closing my eyes and falling asleep.

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I wake up to the sound of something stepping on a twig outside, mixed with the scent of a direwolf. So I climb to my feet in the cramped den before stretching a little, only to barely notice that the cut that was on my paw is no longer there.

Okay, looks like the curse on my claws doesn’t affect me. Which makes sense, but I had to make sure.

Although, I can’t help but question how long I’ve been asleep for it to have healed already. Because I don’t think this healing speed is normal. Unless my increased stats are behind this?

Either way, I begin to walk out of my den, briefly noting that the mud that was on me is no longer there.

I’d noticed that it was trying to freeze from the cold, only for my own body heat to stop it from doing that. But thanks to that, the mud never really stuck to my fur.

Looks like I’m gonna have to roll in the mud again. Fun.

Once I leave my den, I find the direwolf that I’m smelling slowly skulking its way over to me, only for it to stop the moment it sees me. It’s body tenses up, as if it’s about to run. But – likely due to the obvious lack of food it’s had judging by its starved figure – it manages to hold its ground and move jump towards me anyways with a loud snarl.

I easily avoid the direwolf as it tries to bite me, its size being nearly two thirds of my own with its actual stats being far below mine at below three stats on both PHYS and MAGIC. Then I swipe at it with my own claws, tearing massive bloody streaks through its side as it lets out a loud yelp before flying away from the impact of the strike.

When I walk up to where it lands, I find it completely unable to get up again with an ominous black energy coating the wounds my claws gave it.

Play. This wolf didn’t last long enough to be a suitable way to test my powers.

I shake my head before dragging its corpse into the den. Because I really don’t have enough room to eat it right now. Not with me having eaten the other direwolf and that frost raider earlier.

Which reminds me. Considering that I’m still feeling a little full from that, I probably didn’t sleep for too long. So my healing must also be faster than I had expected.

After getting the direwolf’s corpse settled so that I can eat it later as a provisional snack in case I can’t leave while hungry or something – because wasting food would be bad. Especially another direwolf – I lie down again and let the update notes from the frost raider and the other direwolf finally appear.

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You have gained these stats from the being known as Unnamed Direwolf and the being known as Guruk Frost Raider:

+0.202 DEX

+0.191 STR

+0.16 CON

+0.117 CTR

+0.13 PWR

+0.127 CAP

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

I can’t help the happiness that surges through me at the much higher increase in stats that the frost raider gave me as opposed to the direwolves.

Those things are absolutely going to become my food source for now. But first I have to figure out more about my own body, because I don’t want anything like what had happened against that frost raider happening again. Especially since they’ll likely be better prepared when I come back.

Next up I open my status to check out the difference.

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Asher

Direwolf Chimera

PHYS: 30.886 | MAGIC: 34.798

DEX: 10.814 |  CTR: 11.523

STR: 10.002 |  PWR: 12.74

CON: 10.07 | CAP: 10.535

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I bob my head up and down after seeing that all of my stats are in the double digits now. Then I close out of my status by swiping at it with a paw before lowering my head down to the ground.

Time to wait for my stomach to finish digesting. Then I can go experiment a bit on any weaker monsters I find while it’s still clear of falling snow outside.