At the bank of the stream, there were two wolves frantically sniffing around, they had left the hideless there hours before. They looked agitated and walked in circles, searching for any signs of where he may have gone until they bumped into each other.

“Maikoh, I can’t find a trail of scent! It seems to have vanished in this vicinity.” Waya spoke to her brother worried that they had lost their chance to follow the strange hideless.

“I’m not sure Waya, it’s unusual for us to not be able to track a hideless, but this one obviously isn’t normal. Who knows what tricks he has or even what he is capable of.”

Maikoh paced in circles trying to come up with a plan. ‘He can’t have gone far, perhaps we can cover more distance if we split up. I worry that Waya’s reckless behaviour will cause her to approach him on her own though, she’s always doing things that get her into trouble.’ He growled in frustration at his predicament, he had a responsibility to protect his sister but this hideless was valuable in their eyes.

The person opened up potential opportunities they had never even dreamt of. ‘I’ll have to take the risk’ He thought to himself, he didn’t want to separate from his sister but the rewards outweigh the risks.

“Waya, I’ll head up the stream, you go down it. Please don’t go near him, don’t be seen, do you hear me?!” He asked authoritatively, hoping she would listen but deep down he knew she would do whatever she wanted.

Waya bristled at his demanding tone, the way he didn’t trust her. “I’m not an idiot brother, I'll keep my distance if I see him. I saw the same things you did, or don’t you remember!” Waya replied, annoyed that her brother would think so little of her. Thoughts of magic tumbled in her head making her excited.

Maikoh stared at his sister, she was only a little smaller than him, she had an obsidian black coat of fur that spoke of stealth and danger, she was betrayed by her forelegs though. They were a pair of fluffy white socks that reached from her forepaws to her elbows that were juxtaposed with the rest of her appearance. Her amber eyes that spoke of intelligence and a spark of defiance stared back at him, challenging her brother's opinions on her recklessness. Even though he was probably right.

Waya stared fixedly towards Maikoh, her eyes kept flicking back and forth between the two sides of his face. Like her he had a full black coat of fur, his face was split in two, one side of his face maintained impenetrable darkness, while the other was starkly contrasted with a pure white fur. It seemed to reflect the two sides of his personality very well, to everyone else he was vicious and Waya’s protector. He kept her safe from all the other wolves in the Grey pack that had set their eyes on her. He remained vigilant and fought any interested parties away. Then there was the kind, gentle and thoughtful side, always considerate of her feelings. He normally wasn’t controlling of her, just protective and wanted what was best for her.

They had been outcast’s of the Dire wolf pack, their white fur was deemed ominous and unlucky, none of the other wolves wanted anything to do with them. Only their father took care of them, he had taught them how to survive in the harshness of the wild. Until one day they had made the mistake of getting separated from him, by the time their father had found them, they had already made their way into the grey wolf’s territory.

When the Grey wolf pack found the pair, they were taken before the Alpha. The leader of the pack took great interest in them, he ignored their fearful requests to be let go. He told the Grey wolf pack that he would be claiming ownership of them, they would be serving his bidding.

Their father, who had arrived too late to save them, watched in despair as his children were being taken away from him. In a desperate last-ditch attempt to rescue them, he rushed to save them. He had made the difficult decision to challenge the Alpha.

Unfortunately, the Alpha had deemed their father to be beneath him. In Waya’s mind, the Alpha cowardly set his subordinates against their father, intending to weaken and wear him down. Despite their father's heroic strength and resilience, he eventually succumbed to the overwhelming numbers within the wolfpack.

The spectacle played out before the young siblings, they watched as their father was hounded incessantly. The grey wolf pack assaulting him from all sides, he received several sneaky attacks to his hindquarters that would be his undoing. They cried as they couldn't help but stare from a distance, their father stumbled around hamstrung and bleeding all over, his movements were pitiful and a shadow of his former strength.

When it was clear he couldn’t move properly the Alpha had finally stepped in. Waya shuddered in remembrance of that moment, the Alpha mockingly spoke “I accept your challenge.” Before rushing towards their father. Their father, despite his debilitated state, fought valiantly. He managed to claw the Alpha’s face, permanently disfiguring one of his eyes.

Ultimately, their father succumbed to his wounds, he seemed to know his death was upon him. Waya recalled how moments before his death he looked in their direction and gave them his parting words. He gave them a cheerful bloody smile before simply telling the siblings to look after each other and that he would always watch over them. The Alpha arrogantly barked a laugh before biting into their father's neck, he wanted to make an example of this wolf who had challenged him. He ripped out their father's throat and desecrated his body.

They had never forgiven the Alpha for his actions, they suspected his pride and greed would be his downfall. Well, it would be if they didn't get to him first.

Their guilt ate at their consciousness, they felt responsible for having made the mistake of getting lost and stumbling into the Grey wolves territory. They owed a debt to their father that they could never repay. They respected his last wishes and made sure to have each other's back ever since.

Seeing the Hideless with his magical abilities tear apart half of the hunting wolfpack, they didn’t feel any remorse for not helping them. Spurred by the tales of old magic and being unified with the hideless, working together to create incredible feats in epic battles. They saw him as their way out, a chance at freedom, a chance to become stronger and get revenge for their father. So they decided to sneak away once it was clear that the Grey wolfpack had given up hunting hideless man that had defeated them.

They later came back to where the hideless was left, laying amongst the corpses of the Grey wolves he had defeated, his hands still reaching to the sky. They were surprised to see that he no longer had his vicious claws. Maikoh and Waya had approached him with caution, worried he might be playing a trick on them and would suddenly spring up and attack.

However, as they got closer they soon realised he wasn’t conscious. Upon seeing his pitiful state, he looked starved and dehydrated. Based on his appearance, they weren’t even sure if he was alive. They couldn’t believe this was the same person who they had fought earlier in the night. He didn't even have any injuries on him! They decided to help him, it wasn’t out of benevolence, he was their ticket to becoming stronger after all.

They dragged his body towards the stream, hoping he would be able to recover sooner. They also didn’t want to risk the Grey pack coming back to look for him, or them for that matter.

Back to the present, their fear of antagonising him had caused them to lose sight of him. They had to find him soon before he was gone forever and they would lose their chance to learn from him.

“Be safe brother, we will reunite soon.” Waya parted with those words, then turned around and dashed away. She was spurred by the fear and excitement of what the future held, chasing the flow of water down the stream towards the river.

Maikoh worried for his sister, the only wolf who meant anything to him in this world. He wouldn’t let his father down, he would look after her. He watched her disappear into the woods before turning and making his way up the stream.

****

Dante had been walking down the stream for half a day until he heard the rushing sound of the river. He picked up the pace, moving towards the river, glad to see some open space and hoping he might catch some signs of civilization. Upon reaching the river bank, he saw a sandy silt covered stretch alongside the river. He made his way towards it. The river itself was roaring as water smashed up against rocks and broken pieces of wood were rapidly pushed down the raging waters.

Stretching out his arms, he let out a loud groan and tried to rub out the soreness of travelling through the woods for most of the day. His claws had long disappeared, it was fascinating watching them erode away like an iceberg shedding from a glacier. He observed the whole process with fascination. Small flakes of crystal broke off the crystallized claws, they briefly bobbed in the air before floating away from him, then disappearing into the ether.

Something else that Dante figured out after playing around with the system, trying to understand the barehanded title bonus, the 100% bonus damage modifier when fighting barehanded. His tests had confirmed that whenever he was not holding a weapon he received it, he was somewhat surprised to find that it categorised crude things such as sticks or stones as weapons. ‘Ridiculous, the system is so unforgiving.’

The system was helpful in the way it represented the bonus, there was a notification that would be displayed in his status window whenever he was under its effect. If he had anything that remotely resembled a weapon in his hands, it would disappear.

He was ecstatic to see that the barehanded modifier still counted when using mana claws, he wasn’t entirely sure why that would be the case as mentally he thought of them as weapons. He hadn’t quite delved into the nature of mana and how to utilise it, but he had his suspicions that it had something to do with the fact that the claws were physically manifested mana. According to the system, mana had to be attuned to his body before use, therefore the claws counted as an extension of himself. It seemed like some mental gymnastics to justify the way the system behaved, but there was some logic to it he supposed.

What Dante was most happy about, was that despite less than half the day going by, he had somehow managed to recover all of his mana. After reading the notification that it would take 24 hours for the average person to recover, he regularly checked to see the rate at which his mana ticked up. He was amazed to see that it seemed to recover much faster than the system information had suggested.

He mentally calculated the amount of time that had elapsed, he felt he had a good grasp on time and was observing the sun moving through the sky. His keen observation was rewarded when he was able to confirm that he was recovering at least 1 mana point per hour, mentally calculating that his mana recovery rate was around 5 times faster than he expected it to be.

He thought his mana recovery rate must be unusual, it meant that he could use his strengthened mana claws more regularly than he thought. More importantly, he could maintain a weakened version of the claws almost indefinitely.

He had tried out the weakened claws, they were a deep red and when he slashed at trees he felt some resistance, they also seemed to get damaged more easily. However, he reasoned they were still more than suitable as self-defence against most wildlife, as per his experience when fighting off the wolves. He hoped he didn’t encounter anything that would require him to use strengthened claws anytime soon.

While experimenting with his mana claws, he had also managed to gain some mana mastery points. He received pleasant positive feedback from the system when he checked his notifications that had accumulated since the start of the day.

[Gained 0.06 Mana mastery attribute points]

He decided that in future, he would leave the notifications regarding mana mastery increments until the attributes point increased, then see if he could notice any substantial change in the way he interacted with mana.

Dante felt a sudden distracting pang of hunger, his stomach was tied up in knots and he found it harder and harder to ignore the regular reminder that he hadn’t found any sustenance in the past two days. Taking a drink from the river, he hoped that it would somewhat appease the hunger until he found a way to find some food.

Looking up and down the river, he couldn’t find any signs of human civilization, he was hoping he might spot some structures like a jetty, a dock, some pathway, or a bridge. Anything would do. He knew he was being too hopeful, he had just arrived at the riverside, so he would have to continue searching.

Deciding to follow the flow of the river, he set off searching for any indication that there were human settlements.

****

Waya was starting to lose hope that she was heading in the right direction as the day went on, still finding no trace of scent. There were also no signs of disturbed patches of ground, broken twigs or branches that might have given some indication of where the Hideless had gone. She continued searching despite losing some of her previous eagerness.

As she continued down the stream she thought she had spotted something, ‘Is this a sign?!’ she hurried towards a tree. Upon reaching it, she saw 5 large claw marks that were cleanly cut into the tree, she was sure no normal animal could leave such unblemished marks on a tree. No bears, wolves, jackals, puma’s or any other wildlife that lived in these woods could have made such clean lines as the ones etched into the tree before her.

The fire of enthusiasm returned to her and she sped up, chasing the water that flowed down the stream. She saw several more similar claw marks on different trees. It was like this hideless wanted to be found!

Eventually, she reached the river and started to panic all over again, she had to decide which way to go again as the Hideless could have travelled either direction along the river. Sniffing around, concerned that she still found no scent which frustrated her to no end.

She settled on basic logic and determined that if he had travelled down the stream, he would also travel down the river. It made a kind of sense in her head, not sure of his motivations, she had to take a risk. She wasn’t worried about Maikoh not knowing which way to go, he could easily trace her passage and follow her trail once he realised he was going the wrong way.

Facing the downflow of the river, she was reinvigorated with the thought of catching up with the Hideless, she took off in a hurry once again.