The Divine Wolf... Or? Chapter 13 Ice Cold!

After leaving the dust, Ark was finally revealed. He no longer looked like he was nice at all, if they hadn't heard the crying then they would have never been able to guess. What was truly different about him though was the fact that his eyes had changed colour, and so did his aura. His eyes had turned into a dazzling cyan colour, staring into them would be like staring into the endless abyss, yet at the same time they weren't dead at all, they were actually really vibrant.

Walking past the people Ark didn't even glance at them, he had a cold look as he just walked past them, bringing freezing temperatures to his surroundings. The people were really scared, the change in the wolf's temperament was immense, too immense, it didn't even seem to be the same anymore. They didn't know why had suddenly had such an outburst, or why he had started crying in the first place, what they didn't know though was the fact that the reason Ark was crying was for a different reason then they thought.

He didn't cry out of happiness or just because he had saved some kids, the reason was mostly because of his old world. His life in his own world had been extremely depressing, it had been a huge mess, and very tragic, but never once during his entire lifetime did he cry. Since he was on a roller coaster of emotions at the moment, and since he was a bit messed up from the charm magic he had been under he couldn't control himself and decided that he would cry one time for his own world. And then he would never cry again. Having walked away from the group of people Ark started to get disappointed of himself, just because he had been offered to live with humans he had acted like a total idiot.

It was obvious that the lady had used some sort of magic on him, and he had barely had a reaction, and then he got embarrassed by himself? Just this fact alone was what should be embarrassing! Having his mind messed with didn't sit well with him, and he would start to be more cautious, as well as more serious than he had been up until now. He still decided to go with them, but he would be careful, and if the woman ever tried something like that again he would kill her!

A thing that Ark hadn't managed to notice was the fact that he would never think like this before. His mind had gone through a major change during his mental breakdown, this, of course, wasn't without its benefits. Since he had been caught up in the moment he didn't realize it until now, didn't he use ice to break the door? Thinking about it Ark sensed the Mana in the air and turned on his "Mana Perception".

When he did this time, there was one thing that was entirely different from before, now when he used it he could see that there was a lot of cyan coloured Mana that was hovering around him, it seemed to follow him wherever he went. Seeing this made Ark really excited, he had gained some information from Annette that regarded the different elements. She had told him that the four elements of water, fire, earth, and wind were the basic elements, that most people were aligned to. Then there were the more rare and powerful elements like darkness, light, lightning, and ice.

This had made Ark a little baffled since ice was counted as one of the stronger elements since it was just one of the forms of water, so how could it be more powerful. Since he had looked extremely baffled when she had said this Annette had told him that the reason why ice was more powerful was that it was both more abstract, which often made an element more powerful but also harder to learn and understand. Another reason was because of it's ruthless and cold nature that it tended to give its users, as these were traits that were really good and suited to combat which was why they were revered as such.

This case was the same for some other elements as well. The reason they had gotten into this subject in the first place had been because of Ark's tattoos of water and fire intertwining which had been a subject of discussion at the time. He had also been told that it was extremely rare to be able to fuse them because of their contrasting natures, but Ark thought differently, he thought that the reason he was even able to fuse them together in the first place was because of their relationship with one another.

Since he had realized it Ark decided that it would be a good idea to check his status, he hadn't done so in a while, and he wanted to see if some of the changes were added to it.

Name: Ark

Species: Blue Wolf

Level: 14

Mp: 61/69

Strength: 15

Agility: 30

Dexterity: 20

Endurance: 15

Vitality: 15

Intelligence: 23

Wisdom: 15

Night Vision [Lv.2]

Water magic [Beginner Lv.2]

Growth [Lv.Max]

Inspect [Lv.4]

Mana manipulation [Lv.5]

Mana perception

Swift [Lv.1]

Nimble [Lv.1]

Stealth [Lv.2]

Small Fire Affinity

Small Water Affinity

Major Ice Affinity

Mental Fortitude

Yin Yang body constitution

Status points [10]

Seeing this made Ark very excited, he had apparently gained 2 levels when he had killed the Earth Bear from before which made it seem like it was really worth the effort he had put in since it wasn't that much. He also noticed that some of his skills had apparently leveled up both in the middle of the battle as well as outside of it. His stealth had become level 2 which made the effect 20% instead of 10%, which was quite the improvement. His inspect had also gained another level, which didn't surprise him at all since he used it quite often.

What did surprise him a little bit was that his skill [Mana Manipulation] had apparently reached level 5 all of a sudden, but what surprised him, even more, was the fact that he had gained a new skill called [Mental Fortitude] which was a pleasant surprise. He also noticed the ice affinity but that didn't give him a shock, he knew he could suddenly control the ice element very well which meant that he had obviously somehow attained an affinity with it. What did surprise him a little bit however was the fact that the affinity was a Major one. The affinities were categorized into minor, small, medium, major, big and perfect. With each one giving 20% more power than the one before, and also more ease in controlling the element itself. But that's just what Ark knew.

What Ark didn't know however was the fact that it would be a lot easier to understand the profoundness behind some of the elements if you had a high affinity toward them since the spirits of said element would want to help you gain enlightenment. This was one of the major reasons why people wanted to have higher affinities, of course, the other aspects were really nice and almost anyone would want them, but at the same time they could be made up for by other factors, control could be trained and power also depended on magic power so if you had high affinity without a lot of magic power then it wouldn't really be better than having low affinity and high magic power, if you didn't count the enlightenment part.

Since he had a major affinity he knew he had 80% more power when he used ice magic but he still decided to use inspect just in case there was something else.

[Major Ice Affinity]

Grants the host more affinity towards ice magic, making it easier to use and more powerful.

Power of ice magic increases by 80%

Makes controlling the ice element a lot easier.

(Was obtained when the host awakened a part of his bloodline during his sudden enlightenment.)

Now Ark also realized why his [Mana Manipulation] had leveled up so much, even though some of the levels probably came from actual use during fights.

This however shocked Ark a lot, he didn't know he had a hidden bloodline. He had just assumed that he was a normal blue wolf without any particular bloodline, but this changed things a lot since bloodlines were considered quite rare in this world, and for good reason! They were often incredibly powerful and very sought after, humans and other races actually hunted these monsters as long as they were in their growing stage since you could pretty easily steal their blood essence.

Why would they steal their blood essence? Simple really, if you absorbed some blood essence with a bloodline connected to it then you would absorb part of that bloodline, gaining some of their powers. The more powerful the bloodline and the more blood essence one absorbed, the more abilities and power one could obtain. If some warrior from some rich or big family has a lot of talent for swords or other types of weapons but not the magical aptitude, then a bloodline would be of great help for them.

Another thing that Ark had noticed was the skill [Mental Fortitude].

He had no idea how he had gotten it until he had used inspect on it, it turned out to have also been attained when he had apparently gotten enlightenment, it was actually a pretty basic skill. It made it harder for the person who had it to be shocked, surprised or otherwise affected by most things, at least if it was hurtful to their mind. It also made the user more resistant to magical attacks that aimed for the mind. It was basically just a protection for his mind. Even though the skill is pretty simple it is actually extremely useful, Ark was pretty happy about this one since that princess earlier had used some sort of magic that had affected his way of thinking which he clearly didn't appreciate.

He also noticed that he hadn't spent his 10 status points that he had acquired yet, this time around he already knew clearly what he was going to spend his points on, especially since he now had a [Major Ice Affinity]. He decided to use 7 points on his intelligence while he spent the remaining 3 on wisdom since he had realized that recovering his Mana faster would be very useful. Then he checked his status one last time before laying down in the shade of a majestic looking white pine that stood tall in the middle of the garden.