The Rise of the Winter Wolf - Book 6 - Chapter 4 - A New Species (Patreon)

The Planet Wolf had bitten the Crab on
       Several hours after the event

Dravil Ironfist swears his feet are gonna freeze off if he stays on this damned icicle of a planet for any longer. But he’s already missed most of the previous planets where The Winter Wolf fought, and he won’t be missing this one.

He has to get that lunar ice, even if it’s the last thing he does.

Even if the only lunar ice to be found here is the lunar ice the man himself naturally emitted, considering how the man didn’t actually fight this time around. A fact that is making a lot of his dwarven brethren ignore this darned planet.

The man continues trudging through the snow while wearing full blue metal armor for a while, just moving near blindly through the pale blue light shining around the planet. With his only source of direction being the powerful energy signature he senses from near where The Winter Wolf appeared.

Dravil has been behind his own brethren for far too long now, unable to catch up even the slightest bit with his own year of dwarven royal academy graduates. So he needs something extravagant to push him past them. Something unique.

And while he is the last of his brethren to get his hands on the lunar ice made by the progenitor of the element himself, assuming he does, the others haven’t managed to make any progress on the ice in the slightest. Not even being able to melt it, much less leave a scratch on its surface.

But Dravil feels he may be able to. Or at least, he hopes he will be able to.

Otherwise there really will be no way for him to move beyond his brethren.

So the dwarf continues pushing, and pushing, and pushing, moving until he feels his legs are going to freeze off entirely. And when he makes it within a kilometer of the energy source, he pauses with a frown.

Because the dwarf can clearly see two glowing blue eyes shining through the blizzard and pale blue light around him.

Then a strange sound somewhere between a clicking sound, a screech, and a howl echoes through the blizzard and the eyes rush at him.

Making for the last thing he sees before a flash of pain comes from his side and everything grows dark.

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A few hours later

Dravil’s eyes snap open and he shoots forwards with a gasp and a cry of pain, feeling like he had just spent the last ten days being torn apart, frozen alive, and then put back together. In that order.

After he scrambles to look at the time on his System Interface though, he realizes he was only out for three hours.

But then things begin to grow even stranger.

The first thing he notices beyond the strange nightmare he apparently had was that his senses are far sharper than they were before. Then he realizes that he can actually see in the pale blue light and blizzard around him as if it were as clear as day outside.

After that, he realizes that there’s a strange energy inside of his body that shouldn’t be there.

Before now all he’s been able to do in regards to magic is enhancement magic. Magic that is necessary for every smith to use.

But now? Now he feels a new element filling his body.

What’s goin’ on…

Then a thought comes to him and the dwarf rushes to check his status.

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

Name: Dravil Ironfist

Species: Lunar Winter Beast

Subspecies: Dwarf

Class: Royal Dwarven Crafter

Privileges: Player

Level: 4190

EXP: 10203/419000

System Points: 44765.2

Inventory

System Communications

Beta Administrator Dungeon

Administrator Dungeon

System Terminal

System Map

System GUI

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

Lunar Winter Beast?! Subspecies?! What in tha bloody dwarven hells is goin’ on?!

The former dwarf quickly jumps to his feet and looks down at his body, only to find that while he is still as short as a dwarf, and is still generally dwarven in form, he now has a glowing pale blue symbol shining from beneath his armor at the center of his chest. One of a white furred werewolf’s head that looks very similar to The Winter Wolf’s head in his hunter form place on top of a pale blue moon seemingly made of ice. Meanwhile Dravil has pale blue claws on his hands and feet, and when he feels around his mouth with his tongue, he finds fangs as well.

Lastly, the new element he was feeling in his body… he’s pretty sure it’s the lunar ice all around him.

Somehow he’s able to form the lunar ice elemental energy into a mirror in front of him despite never having used the magic before, and what he sees in the mirror really does just look like a dwarf with the glowing symbol on his chest, the claws and fangs, and glowing blue eyes. Eyes that have the pupils turned into glowing pale blue lights instead of the usual black.

I… wait, tha’ thing I heard before passin’ out…

He turns around to look for it, only to end up realizing that he’s not alone in the blizzard.

All around him are dozens of other creatures, each who identify via the System as lunar winter beasts as well. And all of different subspecies, some of which are sapient just like he is.

Then Dravil finally realizes what happened.

I was bitten either by the thing The Winter Wolf himself bit, or somethin’ that creature bit.

Dravil looks back down at the mirror again, only to surprisingly find the glowing symbol missing from his chest. As if it had never been there in the first place.

So he takes off part of his upper armor to look at his bare chest, only to find not a hint of the symbol remaining.

Might be for tha best. Wouldn’t want ta be walkin’ around with someone’s symbol on me chest after all.

Then, after taking a deep breath, the former dwarf continues his hunt for The Winter Wolf’s personal lunar ice.

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If you're curious about the symbol.

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