Waking up, Aki decided it was time. First he was going to pee though. Another change from becoming a lycantrope was that his feet and hands became bigger and more rugged, which was actually very helpful, but were also related to another problem that wasn't really a problem.
A week after coming to this world, thus is Aki's status:
Name: Aki
Race: Human/Lycantrope Lv 4
Class: Mind adept Lv 4
HP: 130/130 (regen 12/h)
MP: 160/160 (regen 18/h)
STR: 13
VIT: 12
DEX: 10
AGI: 9
INT: 16
WIS: 18
SP: 6
Skills:
Ancillary:
Meditation Lv 4
Student Lv 3
Stealth Lv 2
Hunting Lv 4
Survailance Lv 3
Tracking Lv 1
Crafting:
Caligraphy Lv 2
Singing Lv 4
Handcrafts Lv 1
Magic:
Mana manipulation Lv 5
Mind magic Lv 4
Elemental magic Lv 2
Metal magic Lv 1
Combat:
Claw technique Lv 1
Deadly bite Lv 1
Unarmed combat technique Lv 1
Augmentation:
Heat resistance Lv 2
Sun resistance Lv 2
Pain resistance Lv 4
Abnormal status effect resistance Lv 3
Unique skills:
Mental alacrity Lv 5
The levels came not from hunting rabbits, but from the bear that previously lived in the cave next to the lake. Aki didn't really try to eat it, but he did skin it and put the somewhat good pelt as a door flap by using it with some branches in a new deal of modern art. The rest of the body was left some distance away from the cave, which yes, attracted pretadors, but that was on purpose.
Aki only got two wolves before having to use a wave of mind magic to make himself look scarier and making the rest of the relatively large pack run away.
More importantly, he found a village. It wasn't a human village luckily, but a beast-kin village! He was going to approach one of their hunters today. Something Aki found out was that mind magic actually didn't take much mana to maintain as long as it had two pins, the caster and target, though it increased in cost per target as well, nevermind releasing a wave of meaning.
That was actually expected though. Telepathy is the way of comunication of the future after all. So he rolled around in the mud and grass before squating down in a possition he'd not move for along time.
*****
Alara was having her first solo hunt, or so she told herself, but she was only supposed to check the traps around the village. The rabbit-kin was certainly not supposed to speak with a strange white figure that appeared out of nowhere.
At first she thought it was a human or a summon and tried to shoot it, but the arrow passed right through it. She panicked a bit and was about to run, but then a feeling of warmth and plead reached her. Confused, she froze for a bit.
'Friend. Stay. Please.' The words didn't just form in her mind as much as their meaning did. 'Me. No. Talk.'
"Who are you?" She was getting nervous, but not as much as before. The creature didn't seem to have hostile intentions and she needed to be calm to access the situation.
'Me. No. Tongue.' The image of a moving mouth and the idea of conversation reached her. Did it not know how to speak normally? 'Me. Mage. Aprentice. Teacher. Strange. And. Dead. Teacher. No. Tongue.'
From what she could gather this was a mage apprentice whose teacher had raised him, but the man didn't speak either, so he never learned any language. The man was now dead too.
"You can't speak nor understand me?" She asked, getting a strange feeling of being helpless in this situation as well. Right after she got a image of herself speaking a strange language that sounded like pure giberish. "Yeah, that sounds hard." The white figure nodded, understanding at least her body language and tone. She'd already understood this was just a projections though. Hell, her first instinct was to shoot an arrow between his browns, she couldn't blame him.
'You. Mind. Tongue. Think. Me'
"I can't... oh. Ok, let me try this." She tried to focus hard and send a greeting. 'Hello.'
'Hello. Happy. We. Talk.' She could feel his happines, which was a bit infecting. She was practically using real magic! 'Me. Face. You. No. Fear.'
'Ok.' She understood he wanted to show himself, but she couldn't imagine herself fearing a small mage ap...
"By the gods, you're big." She looked at the six feet (183 cm) tall man with broad sholders, a volumous beard and shoulder length dark brown hair. His arms were up in the air and she could see herself having her neck broken by even one of those big hands.
'Me. Rabbit. Friend.' He said with a stoic and serious face, his light brown eyes seemed to pierce and analize every part of her all at once.
"Werewolf..." She meakly said.
'Me. Human. Still. Human. Hate. Wolf. Human. Hate. Rabbit.' She looked at him again and noticed the sadness in those eyes. He was just lonely. She unconciously stepped closer and touched his face, her arrow falling to the ground.
His face didn't chance, but she could feel embarasment and gratefulness, together with a single tear that broke that stoic facede.
*****
With precise manipulation and another level in mind magic, Aki was capable of crying a single tear. He hadn't cried in a whole year, for any reason at all. It just didn't come easily to him. Not like he didn't feel sad, but he would never pass as a good actor.
So he used the wolf school's acting method, minimun expression, maximun meaning. Plus magic.
'Operation puppy eyes success. Comence operation goodest boy.'
That was going to be harder though. The white haired bunny girl in front of him had a very thicc rear and thighs, despite being at best a B cup, he hadn't practiced the art of the hand this whole week since he was getting other kinds of exercise and his new, stronger, mating instincts weren't doing him any favors. Later, he was going to take a bath in that lake. A loooong ass bath.
When they reached a somewhat close procimity to the vilage, the girl told him, he immediatly raised both his hands in the air again. The girl thought it strange, but he just shook his head and they kept walking.
When his arms felt like falling off, a guard finally stopped then. He sent a mental nudge to the girl and asked her to explain. He'd already asked to be bought to the vilage chief and told her he didn't have too much mana to keep talking like this, so he'd explain his intent all at once.
*****
The village chief received Alara and two more guards that looked at the wolf-man with apprehension, their arrows drawn in their bow's strings. They'd bound his hands in thight ropes and he didn't resist for a second, even asking her not to interfere.
"Alara, who is this you have bought to me?" The chief asked in a tired tone, the wrinkles in around her eyes a bit less acentuated after recovering.
"Chief, this is Aki. We met in the forest and he wished to talk to you. He can't speak or understand Common or Narit, but he can comunitate through magic and signals." As she explained, he sent her a message.
'Wish. Trade. Peace. Friends.'
"He says he wishes to to trade and make friends with us." She translated while looking at the chief again.
"He is a human and a lycantrope. Even if he isn't high level, mind magic is dangerous. Why shouldn't we just kill him?" Alara was shocked the chief would so readily suggest killing a men who only showed himself as docile, but before she could ask anything, Aki sent her another message.
'Me. Claws. Magic. Hunt. Collect. Humans. Hate. Secret. Protect. Me. Lonely. Me. Wolf. Me. Not. Want. Wolf.' This had been the longest message he'd yet to send her, but she couldn't really piece everything together fast enough. The chief, noticing her distress, asked her what he'd said. Repeating it, the chief nodded in understanding.
"Though still confusing, he most likely means that withouth being in society he will more easily fall to his inner wolf and wishes to offer his services to us since humans would not take him. I don't particularly mind. Where does he come from?" She asked while holding her chin with a hand.
"He says he was adopted by a strange wizard that could only comunicate like this when little, but the man died in the attack of a werewolf tribe recently. He was infected and his teacher sent him away with a random teleport, so he does not even know where he is." She'd asked the same question before, and he'd actually shown her a series of simple images.
"How old is he?" The chief nodded and asked.
Asking him, she was surprised to hear he was 17 cycles old. Seeing her surprise, he simply said wolf. The chief asked how he looked before and he said he'd look weaker and with less hair.
"Then I suppose we could make him swear over to the guardian spirit and allow trade and visit, but he can't stay during the full moon." The chief said.
*****
Aki imediatly accepted the terms when they were presented to him. Then he asked wheter they'd prefer to send someone to jail him in his cave or that he stayed till.
The chief was alerted by that apparently, and asked why he'd been so calm. Immediately, he scoffed.
'Face. Problem.' He waited for the chief to direct her gaze at him again and made his normal expressions. They were all accentuated by his wolfish look, but none looked less creepy than normal, just showed more teeth. Except anger. It was the only emotion he never needed to fake or practice.
'Training.' He then gave her a more mild but calmer smile without showing his teeth, expressed disappointment, disgust, confusion, so on. When she finally stopped him, the forty or so years old woman informed him the spirit would visit in too days and they'd make a festival. He was invited to attend and free to go.
He broke the mind link with the girl and connected to the matron.
'Me. Guide. Rope. Man.' To which she nodded. 'Need. Rope?' He asked while showing his bound wrists, to which she said something and one of the guards that bought him unbound the rope.
He nodded towards the village chief and, after getting up, bowed towards the girl Who'd bought him in. She apparently didn't see that coming and got embarrassed, making plenty of hand gestures at him while her ears twitched.
He'd softly smiled at her and left.
The next day, he came back with several small animals in hand. He'd tried to learn nature magic and make some natural rope, but metal was still extremely easier for him, which wasn't that useful, so he just made a basin of silica, then noticed that would be extra strange and made one of normal rock.
The villagers were somewhat reluctant with his gift, but they weren't going to throw away food given to them.
The day after that, at the time of the festival, he even offered to help with the cooking though he had no experience outside of helping mildly.
A bit of eating and acting like he didn't exist later, the spirit appeared.
Some bowed, some kneeled, but he couldn't move. Imediatly after it appeared, the spirit peared deeply into his beeing. He wanted to attack it, kill it after it suffered for it's transgressions and then it eat. Aki proceded to punch his bloodlust. The only part new to him on this was the wolfish features in his demons and the magical nature of the intrusion. He thought of the family he wanted to build, the power he'd need to acquire to provide them with all the happines they wanted and all he'd need to do to even find someone who'd accept him whole. His sadness and despair were much bigger than his anger. His hope for a chance at all he could ever want was even bigger than that.
The spirit did not linger for much, but after it left, Aki was sweating a bit.
"The child of wolf and man is no threat to the forest. The tributes are worthy and the rules have been maintained. May life be fruitfull to all of you." Aki barely glimpsed at the gorgeus black figure with chocolate skin and a dress of orange leaves that complimented her golden eyes. She was perfect from the tip of her toes to the crown of her antlers. She was also surprisingly fast, because she dissapear ed even faster than she appeared.
He wasn't from Florida, but fucking a tree suddenly didn't seem to be a bad idea.