In the morning Ryan woke up, at first he wondered where he was but then he remembered that he barely made it to the den after he consumed the cores.
He yawned and looked at the rest of the pups who were still asleep "Hey god how can I use the store?"
Ping*: "Before that heads or tails?"
"Wait what?"
Ping*: "Choose one idiot."
Ryan sighed "Fine then tails."
A coin appeared out of thin air and landed on the ground. He took a look at it and saw that it landed on heads and then it was gone.
Ping*: "Well sucks for you it was heads
Ryan looked up on the ceiling of the cave and imagined that he could see through it and look at the god "What are you planning to do to ruin my life old man?"
Ping*: "Hey don't get angry at me you saw the result."
"You really think I'm going to believe that you were going to actually follow the rules whatever you just did was rigged so that you could have more 'fun'. What was the flip for anyways"
Ping*: "It was about your skills, if you won then I would give you the full list of skills. If I would have won, which I did, then I would give you a list of 5 skills that you could refresh every 24 hours. The skills that get refreshed might show up again someday."
Ryan started to get angry "This shit sucks, man come on don't be like this."
Ping*: "Sorry it's been decided, also don't worry I'm going to be rolling the skills as if it was bingo so they will be random so that I don't mess around with the list."
Ryan began to shake his head to see if it would help him focus "Let me see the first list."
Ping*: "Alright just open your stats and think about the word store."
[status]
Name: Viper Pup
Health: 55/55
Stamina: 31
Strength: 18
Agility: 28
Mana : 0
Magic: N/A
[store]
Core Points: 415 CP
SKILLS :
-----------
Dowsing - 100 CP
Evil Projection - 300 CP
Beauty Manipulation - 300 CP
Burrowing - 100 CP
Enhanced Taste - 100 CP
Ryan looked at the list dissatisfied "Hey what about the definitions for them?"
Ping*: "You can get one when you purchase the skill."
"God, you sure you're not secretly the devil?"
Ping*: "Keep it up and it might get worse"
Ryan just gave up and laid down "Fine but after all these things that put me at a disadvantage and since you are such a considerate god can I choose one skill from the list for free?"
Ping*: "Hmmmm, fine but just this once."
Ryan thanked him and began thinking he had no idea what the hell Dowsing was. Evil Projection sounded cool, Beauty Manipulation didn't seem like it would be as helpful at the moment and it didn't sound like something he was into. Burrowing could be useful but he doubted that the rest of the pack would like him acting like a rabbit.
He didn't want to even think about enhancing taste, not with the horrible things he had to eat at the moment. He was begging for the god to give him some sort of fire-related skill so that he could at least cook his meat.
Ryan sighed "Oh why not, Evil Projection sounds lit. By the sound of it, I might be able to project some evil things. I guess that some skills really don't need a definition the name says it all."
Ping*: "Then if that's the one you want think about its name and say [Buy]."
He nodded and did as the god said
[BUY]
Ding - skill purchased
Evil Projection
Summon projections of demons called Darklings that have intelligence. The summoning of a darkling will take mana from the user once and the demons can stay with the user permanently or until the host dismisses them. The amount of Darkling the user can summon is dependent on the users level, 5 can be summoned for each rank up.
Darklings will not have a physical body until the user Ranks up the skill. The more the user increases the level of this skill the more variety can be used. User can decide to make Darkling visible to others or only to the user.
Ryan was about to pass out from how OP this skill could become. "Hey god, finally you have taken some pity on me hehe."
Ping*: "Don't get so happy the darklings true power won't be useful until the skill has a rank up and you can't use it till you evolve once and become an official horned wolf with mana."
"Oh yeah about that how can I upgrade and rank up my abilities?"
Ping*: "Your skill upgrades based on how many times you use your skill. As for ranking up for every 500 cores you consume you can get a rank up core."
Ryan spaced out for a bit "Are you freakin crazy?"
Ping*: "Don't give me that, trust me with the skills you're going to be able to get it's totally possible."
He shook his head while he imagined having to hunt 500 animals "if those are your requirements wouldn't that mean that I would be like hunting all the animals in this forest?"
Ping*: "Don't worry about that, you could just go to the dungeon and hunt there. The creatures there also wander off into the forest, that's my way of keeping a balance."
Ping*: "For every creature that is hunted down a new one will be spawned in the dungeon so that it can go back in the forest. Also, I'm not telling you to go and hunt 50 animals at once, you have to keep all the animals you hunt controlled. The pack only hunts for what they need to eat and if you don't follow that tradition they might even get pissed."
Ryan couldn't help but sigh, he knew that the god was right if he hunted too much at once then what would follow was going to be rotten meat everywhere. He also didn't know how long it would take for new animals to spawn.
"Hey god can you tell me more about that dungeon that you were talking about?"
Ping*: "Don't worry about it you won't be going there for a good amount of time either way. Oh and just in case you were thinking even inside the dungeon you're going to have a limit of how many monsters you can hunt."
Ping*: "The only reason that I'm even thinking about this is because I kinda did give you a high quota. The last bit of info I'm going to tell you is that even if you eat the cores of monsters in there then you would only be getting 1 CP.
Ryan cursed "What do you mean 1 CP I ate 37 cores yesterday and got 415 CP?"
Ping*: "Once again the deal with the dungeon is that it was made to meet the quota, not for anything else like farming CP. Oh and don't even think of underestimating the creatures you're going to face once you enter that dungeon. Well, that's it bye."
Ryan just ignored him and thought " That bastard, I forgot that he could read my thoughts."
"Viper Pup can you come out?"
Ryan looked out towards the entrance and found Star Light, "Yes mother, I'll be out in a second."
When she saw him and noticed that he had his head and ears down she brought him to her using her paw and took him in, hugging him. "What's wrong Viper Pup?"
Ryan shook his head "Nothing I just had a nightmare."
Star Light began nuzzling him "It's okay you're still a pup so that's only natural."
He looked at her and felt like her pelt was illuminating the dark. Ryan couldn't think but feel lucky to have a mother like her. Even if she wasn't his actual mother she would still make things easier for him if he knew that he had her support.
She looked at him and asked, "are the pups still asleep?"
Ryan nodded "Yeah I have a feeling that after yesterday they will sleep for a lot longer than usual hehe. Are you here for them?"
Star Light shook her head "No your father wants to speak to you so he asked me to come get you."
He unconsciously repeated what she had just said so that he could get confirmation "Father is asking to see me?"