After managing to catch up to it, Maya realised that she had acted on a whim, although it was indeed a wolf beast, it wasn't the same wolf. The wolf beast turned around and growled at them with hostility.
"It's a common beast, a good start, hurry before it runs off" Smith urged.
Maya looked hesitant "i-i don't want to kill it"
Smith looked at her weirdly, he couldn't help but wander about her origins "How are you going to feed yourself in future if you can't even bear to kill your prey?"
"I...I will eat fruits" she said in a small voice.
"Not eating meat is equivalent to depriving the body of beast energy and beast energy is something that us beast shifters can't live without. Unless you are a herbivore type of beast shifter, you won't be able to survive on fruits alone." Smith explained.
The wolf beast wasn't going to just watch the two talk, it lost it's patience and decided to attack the weak one.
Maya swiped her hands on reflex, they transformed into dragon claws and cleaved the wolf in half.
[A common wolf has been defeated]
[+5Exp]
Smith nodded in satisfaction "although it was just a common beast, it's still impressive that you managed to defeat it in one move."
Maya looked at the wolf on the ground with a disturbed expression, she knew she would have to face alot of scenes like this in future so she beared with the gorey sight "can you teach me about the power heirachy of beasts? What to avoid and stuff like that."
Smith picked up the dead wolf and started walking away with Maya following behind "sure, the lowest ranking beasts are called common beasts, they are just normal beasts who have yet to harness beast energy or are incapable of harnessing it. Then we have basic beasts, they are like our novice shifters, with enhanced senses and a slight boost in speed and strength. Then there is mid-tier beasts, just like the mantis we came across, there is also greater beasts, legendary and mystical beasts. I have only heard of them and have never seen them before. Remember to always avoid beasts with bright colours, eight times over ten, they tend to be beasts who have awakened their innate ability and..."
Once Smith voice faded and they were out of sight, two beast men suddenly appeared out of thin air, they were both standing around a pool of wolf blood and staring in the direction where Maya and Smith had disappeared to.
The oldest who looked like a middle aged man couldn't stop staring at Maya, even though she was so far away and hidden by trees, he could still somehow see her.
After a long time of silence he finally frowned and muttered "a wielder? Why is it a female? I wonder what kind of game the beast god is playing now"
The beast man by his side had extremely sharp senses so he heard everything the middle aged man said but he couldn't make any sense of it. The middle aged beast man's frown suddenly disappeared and was replaced by a bright smile.
"You have proven your worth to me, with this gift, not only can l breakthrough but I will be able to gain something very extraordinary. With its help, l can finally have enough power to go against the beast emperor!" He announced fiercely.
He patted the beast man beside him and said "well done Claus, once l get what l want, you can consume her to help with your bottleneck. Once l leave, I will appoint you as the new chief of the ferals!"
"Can l really?" Claus was in disbelief, he immediately dropped on his knees with a thud before kowtowing until his forehead turned bloody "thank you for your benevolence father!"
The middle aged man silently chuckled and thought 'you fool, if you knew what you were giving up you would probably bang ur head on sharp rock and eat your own sh*t!'
'i can finally get my hands on the system again' he thought in glee before shifting into a massive grey wolf with blue fur around his neck and vanished along with the young beast man.
Back at the clan, Smith and Maya had returned, under the insistence of Maya, they made a fire and she roasted the wolf meat after Smith skinned it for her. Maya finally was finally able to eat after so long, she was already very surprised that it took her more than a day to feel hunger.
After spending the night in the stone hut, Maya woke up early the next day and adjusted her dress to allow some breathing room for her chest. She didn't have anything to pack up so she just went to the village chief's cave straight away to say her goodbyes.
Smith took out the two beast cores he had extracted the previous day and gave them to Maya "the road ahead will be tough, take this to replenish your energy if you get stuck in a critical situation"
Maya wanted to refuse but Smith shifted into his beast form and ran off, seeing this, the old man sighed and shook his head "i only hope that you can return safely"
He took out a few rolled up leaves "I know your self healing is great but with where you are going, you will need to save up your energy as much as possible. These are the medicinal herbs l prepared last night for you, apply them on open wounds, they will help stop the bleeding and accelerate the healing process"
Maya suddenly realised something "you are the healer than tended to my wound?"
The old man nodded with a smile.
"I never got to thank you, thank you very much" Maya said gratefully.
The old man just waved it off "thank me by returning alive"
At that moment, a black panther came over as fastl as it could, it then shifted into a dark skinned 16 years old boy.
"Do you really have to go? Can't you stay and train your body to become strong?" Void said agitatedly.
Maya smiled "I will come back don't worry"
Void couldn't stop fidgeting "There are other ways to strengthen your body other than wearing armour!"
"It's not just about the armour, I have to repay your kindness" Maya said as she bowed towards the old man and walked in the direction Smith had pointed to.
She didn't know how to get there exactly but the map didn't seem so complicated, all she has to do was to walk on the mountain edges until she saw a desert.
As night fell, Màya climbed a huge tree to rest for the night. Thinking that the dangerous animals wouldn't be able to get her in the tree, she used a vine to tie herself to a tree branch so that she wouldn't fall.
Halfway into the night, she felt something wrapping around her whole body, upon opening her eyes she got the biggest shock of her life. A huge serpent was coiling it's body around her body and the tree, looking at it, she could only think of the Anaconda she had seen in movies back on earth except that this one was blue. She wanted to scream but it's body was so big that one coil around her body covered her whole upper body including her mouth.
Sensing that it's prey was awake, the snake tightened it's hold on her body and released a sudden chillness from its already cold body.
[Warning! Warning! You are being attacked by a Cyroserpent!]
'i can see that genius! How do l get away from it?' Maya screamed at the system from pointing out the obvious.
[Ding! New quest received: escape the mid-tier beast]
Rewards
+2 speed
+1 intelligence
+3 charm
The Water Dragon's ability: water shield
[Failure: Death]
Maya ignore the system notifications, her heart was nearly in her throat, all she could think about was surviving! She quickly transformed her hands, hoping that she could do something but nothing happened, she couldn't even scratch the snake's skin even if she wanted to.
She was slowly being frozen and squizeed to death, suddenly the serpent moved closer and looked at her curiously. It stopped it huge head right Infront of her's then it fondly licked her her face, right after that, it's expression turned ferocious and it squeezed Maya so hard that the tree branch broke. The serpent's body cushioned the fall for Maya, the moment they landed on the ground her survival instincts kicked in, she slipped out of the snake's embrace and ran. She used her 10 points on speed and directed all her energy to her legs, she pleasantly realised that she could also transform her legs! But her energy was only enough to support on kind of transformation at a time, it didn't matter, at that moment she was very happy to make that discovery.
+5 speed
+3 strength
+3 defense
She could hear the snake hissing behind her as it slid on the ground chasing her, due to being exposed to the cold earlier, her movements were stiffer than usual. Knowing that the snake would be upon her soon she cursed her bad luck.
'system! GLITCH! GLITCH! GLITCH!'
-Glitch activated-
[Inspection -Rank S: host is able to check the stats of anything or anyone as long as they are not more than 2 levels higher than the host.
"How is this supposed to help me! System, glitch again!" Maya was unable to contain her anxiousness, she ended up screaming out loud.
[Glitch skill has already been used today, try again later. Time remaining 23:59:58]
Maya was on the verge of tears, she should have never agreed to leave the safety of the clan. What was she thinking!
When the snake was about to bite her, a heavy shadow loomed over both of them, then the sound of flapping wings could be heard. In the next moment, a huge bird appeared and grabbed the serpent to lift it away.
Seeing the two huge beasts attacking each other, Maya felt relieved , she used this chance to run away from them. As she was running, she could hear the angry hiss of the serpent and the loud squawk of the bird, then silence reigned.
Thinking that she was safe, she hid behind a boulder to check on the situation. Before she could even look back, a huge shadow loomed over her before large talons swipped her off the ground and flew into the night sky.
[Quest escape the mid-tier beast complete]
+2 speed
+1 intelligence
+3 charm
[You have been rewarded with the Water Dragon's ability: water shield]
[A new quest has been issued: you have been captured by the night Eagle, escape]
Rewards:
+2 defence
+2 strength
Level up enhanced senses
[Failure: death]
Maya was stunned, could the System not see her situation clearly?