The moon was halfway through its cycle when Rakna woke up. He first looked at Flavia who was leaning against his shoulder then saw his tail unhidden by the illusion. Without making a single noise, he slowly got up from his position and guided the sleeping Flavia to lie down. He took out his scarf and put it under her head so that she wouldn't have to sleep on the hard ground. Next to her was Pronos who also hadn't woken up.
Rakna's high dexterity had made him incredibly good at handling small movements. He could probably carry her and run a few kilometers without disturbing her sleep in the slightest. When he was done with that, he glanced at Allan, who was borderline snoring and exited the cave.
When he came out, his attention was pulled by the moon. He squinted and started thinking. If he was a werewolf now, what would the full moon do to him? He was tempted to ask Alexa but that wasn't his current objective.
Just like earlier, he once again reached for the feeling in his chest and triggered his shapeshift. His canines grew, his eyes didn't glow this time but instead slowly became those of a wolf. Midnight fur grew on his skin and his spatial ring flickered to store his clothes. He gradually got on all fours and eight new appendages suddenly grew near his already grown tail.
Rakna immediately felt a weird and instinctive urge to howl but held it in. It wouldn't do any good to wake up everyone around. When he was done with his shapeshift, he tried to take a step forward only to fall on his side.
"…nice," he muttered, confirming at the same time that he could still speak, although it was unrecognizable. He looked at himself and raised an eyebrow. To start off, he wasn't as big as the wolf he fought but he certainly wasn't small. One could say that he was simply human-sized; just a bit bigger than normal wolves.
Then, the second thing that bemused him was his tails. For some reason, he had now nine of them but a quick check of his status showed him that the only difference was his speed going from nine to fifteen.
'Alexa, why are my tails all unlocked?'
[They are not unlocked, Rakna. To be exact, they are just manifestations. I cannot affirm with confidence, but I would presume that the form you're currently in has the full structure of the Nine-Tailed Wolf genome without a human half. So, the tails are there because it is as your current race should be but they in fact don't carry any power.]
'You're starting to be useful. Thanks.'
[…You are welcome.]
Rakna stood up again and tried to regain balance with his new physiology. Since his dexterity was still as high as ever, it only took him a few tries to be perfectly in tune with his limbs.
"All right," a growl-like voice came out of his mouth. He hunched forward and kicked the ground at full strength. His paws left an imprint on the soil and within the next few seconds, he had already traveled at least a hundred meters.
His vision almost seemed to slow down as he jumped over the bushes and even over the branches of the trees that were at least three meters high. He continued to run for at least ten minutes before he finally put a brake on his sprint.
"Hm," he voiced and sat down just like any other lupine would. "This speed is very nice. The werewolf form gives me a 50% boost to everything except luck but I can't overlook this one. The additional 20% to speed are not to be underestimated."
As he was ruminating, Rakna unconsciously lifted his paw to lick it only to freeze halfway and stare at his leg. "…I guess this comes with animal instincts as well," he commented before opening his status and finally taking a look at the title he gained from killing the nine-tailed wolf.
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Legendary Slayer
There are very few beasts that deserve the nomination of Legendary. They are powerful, domineering, and rulers of their brethren. This title is a medal for those who have managed to subjugate such leaders of nature.
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Title Effect: Attack, Magic Attack, and Defense +10% against Legendary Creatures and above.
Note: Certain titles can have effects on the relationship with dwellers of the System.
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"I see… this probably won't be useful in the near future," Rakna remarked to himself. He was about to go back to the cave and sleep when his ear twitched and his nose picked up something.
He stopped in his tracks then looked at his left with sharp eyes. As soon as he did so, a wolf with gray fur and a scar over one of its eyes came out from a bush. Compared to Rakna, the animal was actually quite small but it didn't seem to be fearful. Afterward, following it, many others came out one after the other. An entire pack of wolves had abruptly appeared and the only thing they did was stare in complete silence.
Rakna wouldn't have been as puzzled as he was if it wasn't for one thing. He could guess that they had looked for him after his little stunt in his werewolf form but what he couldn't understand was their motive. He always had full trust in his instincts and this System had only served to strengthen that trust. And, right now, he knew for sure that these wolves weren't hostile.
He frowned at them and his new bestial automatisms made him growl, flashing his fangs. "What do you want?"
Then, completely out of his expectations, every single one of these predators of nature lowered their head to him and even somewhat kneeled by bending their front legs.
It was at that moment that the System made itself known.
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Through meeting several conditions, you have learned a new skill; Intimidation!
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Intimidation (Lv.1): By flaring your magic energy, you can ethereally release the weight of your full power on your targets. Those who are weaker than you and are not higher leveled than you will be dealt a psychological blow.
The higher the skill level, the more people will get affected and the more damage will be done to their mental.
Cost: 1 MP per minute.
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Rakna was already surprised enough but another prompt appeared afterward.
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The wolves are in awe of your appearance. They revere the Nine-Tailed Wolf and have acknowledged you as their leader.
Congratulations! You have acquired a new title; Wolf King!
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Wolf King
Only the mightiest of wolves can be given the designation of King. The King of Wolves can command hundreds of his brethren to die for him with but a mere grunt.
Title Effect: Intimidation Skills will ignore levels when used on wolf-type beings and there is a chance for the Host to even suppress stronger foes.
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Title Skill: Call of Fangs
Note: All titles can be equipped at the same time and do not need to be swapped. However, the possibility of unequipping one still exists.
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Rakna wasn't even sure how to react. 'Is this title a privilege of Nine-Tailed Creatures? It would seem likely,' he thought then looked at the wolves gathered in front of him. "Return to your turfs for now. I'll call you if needed."
The pack immediately complied and disappeared into the woods. They didn't seem to have problems understanding human speech.
Rakna sat down again as his nine tails wagged around him freely and focused on the skill given to him by the title. The System responded to him and showed him its description.
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Designation: Skill/Spontaneous Skill
Name: Call of Fangs
Tier: Special
Learning Requirements: Wolf King <✓>
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Description:
When the user activates this skill, their howl will call every suitable wolf in the vicinity to come to battle.
When there isn't any suitable target, the user can also summon Shadow Wolves with a level matching the quantity of mana spent on each. The Shadow Wolves' level cannot be higher than the summoner and they cannot remain longer than five minutes if not killed.
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"…is this what they call overpowered?" Rakna muttered dully. "Basically, if I were to summon a level 7 shadow wolf right now, it would cost me seven mana points?"
[Affirmative,] Alexa answered.
"I see. Then I guess I can only summon five of them for now. Or I could also summon forty level ones. I guess the threat of this skill depends on how strong each shadow wolf actually is…" He mumbled and then couldn't help but yawn as his body requested him to rest. He stood up and stretched his body.
He readied himself and then started sprinting back toward the cave. Since he had already gotten used to the feeling of this body, he was even faster than before. When he arrived, he didn't enter the cave but chose a relatively close tree and jumped on a branch before lying down.
He lied his head on his crossed paws as his tails waved with the wind. He was taking the occasion to sleep in wolf form and get used to it. He also didn't want to get back inside since he would have to use an illusion to hide his features again and it would waste mana.
Although he didn't mind revealing his abilities to his two companions, he always had been taught to keep as many secrets as possible. Not out of vanity but out of vigilance.
Life was like a card game. Every time you learn something new, you draw a new card to your hand. But what would the point of the game be if you carelessly revealed it? When you have many hidden cards, you'll notice that there will always be at least one that you can rely on to win at the very end.
"Or so he said…" Rakna huffed and his ear twitched. He opened one of his purple eyes and spotted Pronos coming out of the cave half-asleep. The little snake then proceeded to go up the tree his owner was on before getting comfortable on his back.
"Little guy, did you just sleepwalk so that you could use me as your bed?" Rakna didn't get any response, proving to him that Pronos truly was asleep. He didn't know if he should find it cute or annoying.
Then, before he could get some shut-eye himself, he saw two goblins slowly creeping their way toward the cave. 'This night is starting to tick me off…' He muttered inwardly and he activated one of his newest skills.
At that exact moment, the two goblins suddenly froze. They began to sweat and their sight gradually turned toward a certain tree; a branch to be exact. There, they saw nothing but the silhouette of nine tails forming a half-circle and a pair of daunting purple eyes as well as eerily white fangs within the darkness.
They instantly threw away their weapons and ran away while crying in fear.
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Intimidation has successfully affected two targets. Fear Debuff induced.
Intimidation increased to level 2.
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Rakna snorted and finally went back to sleep.