Wolf

The direwolf is about one and a half meters tall, with gray eyes and a coat of pure-white fur covering its entire body.

I ignore the light growl coming from its throat as I encase it entirely in eternal ice to stop it from moving before slowly making my way towards it, only occasionally stumbling due to imbalance. The growling is quickly replaced by whimpering as the creature tries – and fails – to escape my ice.

I’ve been curious about what an actual wolf will turn into when bitten for a while now, and now is the perfect chance to test it out.

Without any hesitation, I sprint the last bit of distance between myself and the wolf before locking my jaws onto its shoulder, dissipating the ice directly beneath my fangs as I do so. Within seconds, my blueish-black venom begins to visibly spread throughout the wolf’s body, causing it to alternatively let out loud howls and whimpers of pain during the process.

I step back to watch it occur, ignoring the pained cries of the not-so-little wolf.

It doesn’t take long before I notice something odd.

The venom is spreading a lot faster than it did in the other monsters that I have turned!

It doesn’t even take an entire minute before the wolf begins to convulse within my ice as my venom finishes spreading throughout the entirety of the winter direwolf’s body, painting the skin beneath its still-white fur completely bluish-black – not even a third of the time that it would usually take!

Taking that as my cue, I expand the ice to form a large orb, giving the monster plenty of space for its transformation. And yet, despite this, the wolf only ends up convulsing for a few minutes before a single loud pop can be heard from its body, followed by it falling sluggishly against the floor of the ice orb as the bluish-black coloring fades from its skin.

I tilt my head in confusion as Sapphire comes out of my shadow to get a better view of what’s happening.

A few seconds of silence pass with the only noise being that of the raging blizzard around us.

‘What ha-’ I begin thinking before pausing as a white mist begins to leak from the creature, quickly filling the bottom of the ice orb.

I quickly identify the monster again while stepping closer to the ice orb.

_-| Unnamed – Pure Arctic Lycanthrope – Level 437 |-_

My approach pauses in my surprise before I continue walking again.

I guess the compatibility with my venom is more important than being turned by me, since this one seems to be purer than the others. At least, considering its species name, it is.

The lycan wakes up after almost a minute of silence before slowly climbing to its legs with a confused look on its face. It then turns to me and surprisingly bows its head, lowering to the ground in a position of submission.

Well, this is an interesting turn of events. Is it because I am in my wolf form?

To test this theory, I shift back into my neutral form.

The wolf raises its head for a second before lowering it again without leaving its state of submission.

Both of my eyebrows raise in surprise as I mutter, “That’s unexpected.”

Out of nowhere, a light stinging pain comes from my head before fading just as quickly, leaving behind a strange feeling. Kind of like a connection. Like I’m connected to something…

I focus my attention on the wolf as my mouth drops open slightly.

If I’m correct-

My thoughts are suddenly interrupted as a surprising box appears in my vision, completely covering everything in sight.

System Message

This is a message directly from the System.

You have added another new species to the System Records.

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Competitor Wolf Adler, as a result of your repeated contributions to the System, the System has decided to grant you the information for the newly added species, along with the following System Tier Skill: System’s Favor

As an added bonus, the information on the Pure Arctic Lycanthrope will be shortened down to include only the changes from the Arctic Lycanthropes.

I stare at the message for several seconds before it vanishes, quickly being replaced by a menu.

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Updates to Harbinger Lycanthrope’s Venom:

If the infected creature is a type of wolf that is not a Turned Species, then it may turn into a Pure Arctic Lycanthrope if it is strong enough.

Note: Turned Species refers to species that come about through a virus or infection, such as werewolves or vampires.

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Pure Arctic Lycanthrope

New/Altered Benefits:

A Pure Arctic Lycanthrope has the ability to create and manipulate the ice element.

A Pure Arctic Lycanthrope has a fragile link to the original Lycanthrope’s soul, allowing it to update the original’s System Map and Dungeon Map as it walks. However, if anyone or anything attempts to do harm to the original Lycanthrope through this link, then the link will immediately shatter whilst forcing all of the backlash to go to the Pure Arctic Lycanthrope.

A Pure Arctic Lycanthrope has an extreme resistance to the ice element.

New/Altered Drawbacks:

As a Pure Arctic Lycanthrope is already a wolf in its neutral form, it may not shapeshift into one.

A Pure Arctic Lycanthrope takes more damage from fire-based attacks.

When in wolf form, the items that a Pure Arctic Lycanthrope can wear will be limited to Tier 7 or above.

An Arctic Lycanthrope has a compulsion to obey the commands of their sire, and those above their sire. They will also not be able to refuse the commands of the original Lycanthrope.

Note: There may or may not be more benefits or drawbacks that the System missed.

Close

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“Okay then…” I mutter with a large amount of confusion evident in my voice.

What is a System Tier skill…?

I read through the menu a second time before closing out of it and immediately navigating to my Skills List.

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Skills:

System’s Favor – System Tier

Identify – Standard Tier – Competitor

Initiator – Standard Tier – Competitor

Predator – Standard Tier – Level 2

Superior Recovery – Tier 8 – Level 2

Aegis – Tier 8 – Level 1

Fire Immunity – Tier 7 – Level 1

Physical Boost – Tier 7 – Level 1

Life Sense – Tier 6 – Level 3

Razor Claws – Tier 5 – Level 7

Contracting – Tier 5 – Level 2

Ice Flow – Tier 5 – Level 2

Unarmed Combat – Tier 5 – Level 2

…

Return

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The skill is even shown in a different color from the others…

I quickly shake my head before identifying the skill.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

System’s Favor

This skill adds additional information to System Messages, Notifications, and menus for the user’s benefit.

Close

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A few seconds pass by as I continue ignoring the submissive wolf in front of me to stare at the skill’s description.

“Huh?” I eventually mutter with a strange look on my face.

This… isn’t what I was expecting when I thought about turning a wolf…

Wait…

A smile lights up my face as I turn to Sapphire – who had somehow climbed up onto my shoulder at some point without me realizing it – and mutter, “Does that mean that the pure arctic lycanthropes will actually be loyal to me?”

Sapphire just tilts her head in confusion, unable to answer my question.

I turn back to the wolf before dissipating the ice orb around it, kneeling down in front of it, and lightly petting its head, causing wolf to lift its head slightly out of curiosity.

It then leans its head into my hand like a dog before licking me.

Interesting…

I stand back up before ordering, “Go search the floor for EXP Orbs, but don’t turn anything or anyone.”

Without even a moment of hesitation, the former-direwolf gets up with a bark and sprints off into the blizzard, vanishing from my eye’s line of sight almost instantly.

I stare after it for nearly an entire minute before turning to Sapphire – who is still on my shoulder – and saying, “Let’s go find some more direwolves.”

Sapphire just screeches in an adorable manner, causing me to chuckle.

If I can make up for the lost EXP from turning the direwolves through them finding EXP Orbs for me, then I should be able to turn plenty of them without any issues.

Outside of finding them within this barren wasteland, of course.