It is rather strange that one would look at Lycans and think they came from wolves besides their outward appearance. Many think they might be something akin to the troglodyte of the wolfman species instead of actually from wolves.

However, nothing could be farther from the truth. In fact, the Lycan and wolfman are two distinct evolutions of the wolf species that can occur after a wolf becomes and alpha. The third being the more powerful Worg species but the requirements for that particular evolution seem much, much harder to achieve. While the other two seem to only require having consumed the flesh of one of the civilized races such as humans.

Then it seems to be only the wolfs own preference on which to pick when it evolves.

Of course, it is rather rare for an alpha wolf to evolve at all which is why these evolutions are so dangerous to the untrained.

One must be very careful of Lycans as unlike their faster and arguably smarter wolfman variants, their sheer muscle strength is nothing to sneeze at. Their powerful arms and legs allow them to shoot forwards with dizzying speeds but they can’t turn very well, once that speed is achieved. Their powerful legs also allow for jumping high into the air and their arms are capable of ripping a grown man and even level twenty warrior in half.

These are savage brutes that more often than not evolve after a pack has been lead by a very intelligent wolfman for many months.

Of course, the moon has just the same effect on them as any other variant of the wolf species. Once full they seem to swell with added strength and power. Lycans seem to grow even more savage and rabid during this time. It requires a very intelligent and strong wolf to keep them under its heel during this time. So seeing many in a single pack, or even one for that matter is a very rare occurrence.

Of course, I think the god's graced us when there isn't a dire variant of the species.

Studies of the wolf off-shoot species by scholar Moridan Deckart

Bertie stared slack-jawed as the newcomer, Vlad was his name, crawling by digging his fingers into the ground as he desperately tried to get his utterly exhausted body away from Grandon. Bertie knew that the guard captain’s training was harsh but this was something else. With a little chuckle, the captain gripped his leg and dragged him back, leaving furrows in the ground.

“He’s still conscious?” Olive asked Bertie as he walked to his side. They had a good view of the plot Grandon had designated his training field from the parapet on the wall.

“Yeah… The captain’s forced that horrid mixture of his down his throat maybe six times now.” He responded as he watched the desperate man try and get away from the sadistically chuckling Grandon. It was like some horror story told at the campfire. Of some relentless revenant seeking revenge.

“Six times?” Olive said after whistling. “So that’s what eight hours?” She then asked as she looked at the setting sun in the distance over Bertie’s shoulder.

He only shook his head. “Nope.” He said as he looked upon the frantic man trying and get away from Grandon. “I think it’s been almost ten or eleven now.” He said and then looked at Olive, who just stared at him in disbelief.

“And he’s still alive?” She asked shocked as she looked down. Just in time to see Grandon force the contents of another bottle of his horrid stamina healing mixture.

“You call that living?” Bertie asked as he looked at Olive and then down at the pair of men in the empty plot of land.

Vlad had been forced to his feet, a shield and wooden sword put into his hands. For the next half an hour they watched Grandon beat the hell out of Vlad. Even to the point of smashing the shield in his hands. Then Nicholas arrived and the trio watched in fascination as Vlad frantically ran as if his life depended on it with a manically laughing Grandon running after him swinging his own wooden sword.

“Twenty Iron coins that Grandon kills him.” Olive then suddenly pipped up as she looked at the two men with a grin.

The two men looked at one another then at Vlad’s frantically pleading form running for his life bellow. They had never seen Grandon so invested in teaching anyone before. The man had even told them that ingesting more than one or two of his concoctions would only mess with their constitution.

“I bet thirty and a flagon of Biron's strongest ale!” Nicholas then pipped up.

Bertie just looked at the two with a grumbling acceptance as he placed a bet of his own. “I bet a copper that Vlad survives the night.” He then said, wishing to at least support Vlad if only in his thoughts.

Two hours and another concoction forced down Vlad’s throat later and something seemed to have possessed the man. Bertie thought it was just his survival instincts given the brutal training the man was going through. Even Grandon had taken his own concoction to keep the training up.

A crowd had formed around the plot and with just a few exceptions and of course the guards on duty, Bertie thought he saw the entire town gathered. Bertie who had been watching for almost six hours now had noted the slow but steady improvement in Vlad’s technique. Then again when your option was to improve or get your bones broken and a health potion shoved down your throat, improving was simply a way to stay sane.

A huge betting pool had formed around Vlad’s either eventual collapse, death or breaking of his mind. To Bertie’s chagrin, only a handful of people had faith in Vlad’s survival of the torture. Nothing in what was going on could even be considered training any more.

Vlad had begun cursing and screaming what Bertie could only consider profanities in some language he couldn’t make heads or tales of. Perhaps it was several languages as they didn’t sound remotely close to one another.

“Think he’s casting a spell?” Nicholas asked him before letting out a grunt of pain as Olive slapped the back of his head.

“Idiot! Stuff would have happened already if that was the case.” She scolded Nicholas before taking the beer mug out of his hand and taking a long swig. “I think the magic here is that Vlad’s still sane.” She then muttered as she looked with dissatisfaction at the mug. Seems it was cheep stuff.

A few cheers from the crowd cheered Vlad on to continue, though Bertie just thought they hoped he’d overextend himself and collapse. If anything Vlad had earned the respect of the guards at least. If only for the fact he was still on his feet after this hellish training.

A loud groan came from the gathered crowd as both men collapsed against one another. Build a sort of pyramid as both unconscious men supported one another as they leaned against one another. Bertie thought it was just a testament to Grandon’s sheer and utter resilience that the man had only taken one of his concoctions by Bertie's reckoning.

“All right! The show’s over! As the judge for the betting pool, I declare no winners!” Bertie shouted out, earning more than his share of boo’s and grumbling as the townsfolk dispersed. A few with thankful faces for not loosing what they had bet though.

Bertie, Nicholas and Olive along with two other guards came up to the two exhausted men. “Aww aren’t they just adorable?” Olive said smirking widely as she and the other two guards carried Vlad back to the doctor.

“She is such a pain.” Nicholas grumbled a little. Bertie looked at him and then both shared wry grins before moving to pick up Grandon. Both groaned from the effort of hauling the heavy man back to his house.

Right as they pushed Grandon against the wall of his house, the man woke up a little. “Wha? Hey, where’s the lad?” He muttered in a groggy manner.

Bertie could hardly believe it. Had Vlad wronged Grandon in some way? “You both collapsed sir.” He answered a little tersely, he at least wanted Vlad to rest for the remainder of the night.

Grandon shook his head groggily.”No, he’s gotta keep training! He’s just a level eight.” He said though a sharp punch from Nicholas knocked Grandon out. Bertie just stared at his guard captain lying on the ground now and then up at Nicholas who just shrugged.

“What? I feel bad for the lad. A level eight going through all that? Fuck man, we were at level ten when we were at the two bottle limit training.” He said as he grimaced a little. Bertie only smiled, seemed Nicholas had a soft side to him that Bertie hadn’t known about.

“Yeah, how about we tie the captain down in his bed for the night?” He asked to which Nicholas only grinned widely.

“Nah, we might need him.” Nicholas said though once they had put the captain into his bed, he did look mischievously at the captain's firepit.

Following Nicholas’s gaze, Bertie noticed the old charcoal and burned logs there. “No, you're not going to?” He asked disbelieving at Nicholas who’s grin only grew wider and wider.

Bertie had a bad feeling about the next morning and decided to promptly leave the house to not witness anything. Looking up at the waxing moon’s hanging in the sky.

EVERYTHING HURTS!!!!! That was the only thought I had when I woke up the next morning. That damned mad man of a guard captain! Campbell walked into the room and chuckled a little at seeing my agonized face.

“What seems to hurt lad?” He asked in a kindly old man tone. Bless the man’s soul for being the one consistent thing in this town. Not like the schizo captain anyway.

Slowly I raised my head to look Campbell in the eyes and groaned out. “My… Everything.” I groaned out before my head fell back onto that sweet, sweet pillow. I thanked my regeneration for I knew this morning would have been much worse without it.

The fact I was such a mess right now just told the tale of the damage that freak Grandon had given my by that so-called training.

Campbell only chuckled a little as he moved to the desk on the far wall and seemed to pull out apothecary tools and went to work. A comfortable silence fell over the room, the only thing being heard was the scraping and grinding of Campbell working his craft.

I noticed that I had furious little blue dot at the upper middle of my vision, I crossed my eyes to look at it. Then I realised what it was, delayed notifications. With an internal sigh and then a light groan from my lips, I activated them, hoping yesterday's torture wasn’t all for that initial gain in the beginning.

Congratulations on surviving what only true masochists could survive!

Yeah ok, that was it. The one who created, controlled or moderated this system deserved a good strangling.

You have gained rewards for getting through an extreme situation disguised as training and have gained the following rewards.

Skill point gained!: 1

Stat points gained!: 2

Ability point gain!: 0.5

...Better. The hell is an ability point?

Ability points can be spent to increase innate abilities by degree’s, thus strengthening or even upgrading their effect.

Oooooh!!!!!

Strength increased: 18 > 19 Vitality increased: 28 > 29 Endurance Increased: 16 > 20

Through constant training and hard work, the following skills have been gained

Basic Sword mastery Lvl. 1

Basic Parrying lvl. 1

Basic Shield use lvl. 1

Huh? That’s actually possible?! Damn Aona and her little cadre! They had me use one of my two starting skill points to buy sword master!!! My flair of anger disappeared with the next box.

Due to heavy use and hard work the following skills have increased!

Basic Sword mastery Lvl. 1 > 5

Basic Parrying lvl. 1 > 3

Basic Shield use lvl. 1 > 7

Basic Unarmed combat lvl. 1 > 4

Basic Evasion lvl. 1 > 6

Basic Stealth lvl. 1 > 2

I felt sheepish that I had gained a stealth level. Then again after the first four hours, I had tried to hide from Grandon. That had given me around five minutes of respite. The rest, on the other hand, came from that monsters almost twelve-hour training session with just a dinner, lunch and that five minute hiding as breaks.

I shivered at the thought of doing it again. I’d most likely run screaming for the hills if he came into my room right now holding a wooden sword.

Given that I had some time now I decided to spend some of my stat points and skill points. Deciding to increase my vitality, perception and strength by one, given I had three points to spend.

Strength increased: 19 > 21 Vitality Increased: 29 > 30 Perception: 11 > 12

Hm? why’d strength increase like that? I wanted everything balanced damn it!… Oh right, my vampiric strength ability… forgot about that. Well, no matter since I have two skill points to spend let’s look at what I can get over!

Currently available skills

Skill: Water movement (Aids in moving within water and read currents when moving.)

Skill: Tracking (Allows the user to track and read tracks around him.)

Skill: Pelt use (Used to aid user when using pelts as armour or shields.)

Skill: Toughened skin (Makes the user's skin harder to pierce (Passive))

Skill: Claw strike (Empower the user's claws to deal a devastating strike.)

Skill: Claw combat (Allows and teaches the user to better utilize their claws (passive))

Skill: Deceiver (Makes it easier for the user to deceive others. (passive))

Skill: Willpower (Allows the user to push through pain and mind effects better.)

Skill: Power Strike (By investing more stamina into a strike magnifies its effective damage.)

Skill: Improved Reflexes (Increases the user's natural reflexes (passive))

Skill: Improved Stamina (Increases the user's stamina significantly (Passive))

Hmmm I see those insulting skills are there. Bah! No matter I’ll look the others over better. Given the army of wolves at the gates. Literally it seems. I think I’ll be better of choosing the physical passive skills of Toughened skin and improved Reflexes. Hmm though improved stamina might also come in handy…

This is much harder than the Aona controlled system choices. There I just got skills every so often that were only related to my classes.

Given how I had been out of breath after just the first run around the wall’s interior… Ah fuck it!

Gained the following skills!: basic Improved reflexes lvl. 1 and Basic Improved Stamina lvl. 1

I just hope I won’t regret this at a later date. I wished I’d have gotten a full ability point though. I’d love to upgrade my regeneration if it meant less time in bed.

“So how long did you train with Grandon yesterday?” Campbell suddenly asked as he began to mix powders in a beaker with some liquid mixed in.

“I don’t know… twelve hours? Felt like day’s though.” I muttered as I tried to move my sore body a little to at least get some other feeling into them, other then stiffness and pain.

Campbell went quite and I could have sworn that the temperature in the room lowered. “Twelve hours huh?” He seemed to mutter to himself. I didn’t dare reply.

“How many of his concoctions did he feed you?” He then asked as he turned around and looked at me with a grandfatherly smile. I was scared now, as despite his kind smile I felt a cold malevolence shining in his eyes.

I gulped. “Uh.. um… around eight or nine… I think?” I answered. Then I began screaming as Campbell lunged at me with four bottles of some concoction in one hand as the other surged to my mouth.

Bertie felt a shiver run down his spine as he walked past the doctor's house and heard a blood-curdling scream come from the house. He looked at it with pity. Seems the after-effects of yesterday were effecting Vlad as he’d suspected.

“Poor man must be in agony. I wouldn’t be surprised if there wasn’t a muscle pulled after yesterday.” At hearing the voice Bertie looked to the source of the voice and saw Nicholas looking at the doctor's house too. A nasty grimace on his face as he heard the screaming continue for a moment before it cut off abruptly.

Both men looked at one another and shuddered. “Think he’s dead?” Nicholas then asked after the two had stood there in silence hoping to at least hear something. Something to indicate Vlad was at least still alive.

“I don’t think Campbell would let that happen.” Bertie said though he noticed that Nicholas had noticed the uncertainty in his voice.

“Geez, By the all-fathers saggy balls.” Olive cursed a little as she walked up to them. “Bertie, can you tell me what Vlad did to piss off the captain so much? I’ve never seen the Captain that manic when training someone.” She said as the three began to make their way towards the captain's house to check up on him before their shift started.

“Nope, not a clue.” Bertie said shrugging.

The three continued their wild speculations until they reached their captain's house. Knocking on the house they heard a loud groan come from the interior. Taking that as their invitation, they entered the house.

Grandon sat leaning forwards on top of a stool. Bertie mused that Grandon looked like he was hungover from a night of strong drinking well into the night. “HOW’S IT GOING BOSS!” Bertie winced as Olive shouted her greeting.

Grandon visibly winced quite hard, startled something fierce as he looked up and Bertie knew the look he gave Olive. She might have outhouse cleaning duty in her future. Though he also held back his laugh as Nicholas seemed to have given him a monocle drawn with coal. I noted the other two also held back their laugher.

“What do you want?” He growled as he stared daggers at Olive. She just snickered a little.

“You deserve that after what you did to Vlad… Sir.” Olive said defiantly before wilting a little under his gaze.

“You mean that monster?” He asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Monster? Sir.” Bertie asked, the trio visibly confused at hearing Grandon refer to Vlad that way.

“Yeah, a monster. That lad survived the harshest training I’ve ever devised. Hell, I had to take three Concoctions just to keep up with him. Which has left me in the state you see me in.” He answered and grimaced a little.

“Um, sir… we watched quite a bit of that… uh, training session.” Nicholas began as he looked to Bertie and Olive, most likely for strength. “You were the monster to be honest. There are still grooves in the earth in the training field.” He started swallowing as he got ready to continue.

“You dragged him back each time he tried to get away from you. You also forced quite a bit of your concoctions down his throat.” He then finished.

Grandon chuckled a little at hearing that and straightened his back a bit. “Yeah, I was pretty strict with him.” He said smirking. Bertie thought that the word didn’t do yesterday any justice.

“Let me put this into perspective. He has the stat points distribution of a level eight. However, he has three classes.” He paused there.

Bertie knew that Grandon had a skill that allowed him to look at peoples stats and how many classes they had and what level they were. On the other hand, he couldn’t see what classes they were nor anything else of another's status page.

“All of his classes are at level minus eight.” He then finished after letting the trio wait for the final part for a little while. The three visibly paled at hearing that.

“W-wait you mean he’s...” Nicholas began but he couldn’t finish his statement.

“No, he isn’t god-touched.” Grandon said. “Judging by his stat distributions, I’d say he was a warrior, rogue and a mage of some sort. He’s got pretty darn high agility, vitality and intelligence. Though his endurance was only at 12. So I think he was a fast attacker of some sort.” He then said finishing as he took out a pipe and began to put in some tobacco.

“H-how is he then at a minus level?” Olive asked, almost bristling with the indignation of having been left hanging like that.

“A wraith.” Grandon said seriously as he moved to his fireplace to put a twig into it. Then lit his pipe. “He was an adventurer but he seems to have quit after surviving such a vicious wraith attack.” He then said, a serious tone in his voice.

Bertie knew that it stemmed from Grandon’s high dislike of the undead.

“How did he survive?!” Olive asked, flabbergasted.

“He had a healer continually healing him as he was under attack. I suspect that is the only thing that kept him alive once he hit level zero.” Grandon finished and looked sternly at the trio.

Then all of a sudden the doors to the house almost flew off their hinges as Campbell kicked the door in. All four inside flinched and paled visibly at seeing the man’s expression.

“C-Campbell what are you doing here?” Nicholas asked, seemingly the first to gain some sense into his head.

“Nine?” Campbell just said as he stomped into the house and stared swords at Grandon. That was the only way Bertie could describe it, staring daggers wasn't harsh enough of a term.

“N-nine?” Grandon asked, visibly confused and nervous as the old doctor was almost within arms reach of him.

“Nine concoctions…” Campbell growled. Now Grandon’s face turned to one of fear.

A howl of agony emanated from the house as the trio fled the wrathful doctor and his newest… “patient”.

The three didn’t stop running until they had made it to the guardhouse above the gate. Olive was pale as new-fallen snow. While Nicholas and Bertie seemed close to hurling after the brief glimpse of what Campbell had begun to do to Grandon.

“Remind me never to piss off Campbell.” Bertie said as he breathed in and out in a slow and steady pace while leaning over the parapet.

“Remind me not to get hurt for the next few years.” Olive said as she seemed close to fainting.

“I think we should rather make sure we never make any patient like Vlad must be like right now.” Nicholas said as he leaned against one of the rails.

The trio shuddered as they imagined what Vlad must look like right now.

I lay there half drooling.

What did I do? Seriously?! What the FUCK did I do?!!

I must have been Hitler or even the human version of Satan himself in a previous life. I mean what else could explain the situations I find myself in? Or perhaps Karma just hates my guts?

Nah… I think I’m just an extremely unlucky individual with brief little glimmers of hopeful luck… That I then ruin with my own greed. I should really learn my lesson already. Then again I was thickheaded enough to be tricked by Aona and Amelia, so I might not have much hope when that’s concerned.

The flash of Campbell almost cooing at me as he poured those potions down my throat, comes to my mind. “Now, now Just relax this’ll help you get past that idiots concoctions side effects. I told him no more than two at any given day. Does he listen? Of course not.” He had said as if he was simply telling me about a tricky cat he owned.

All the while holding me down, his knees on my biceps while he held my mouth open with one hand. The other forcing one potion down my throat before massaging it to force me to drink it. Then he did that again for the rest.

A shudder ran up my spine. What’s with the elderly men in this town and forcing potions down my throat? First Grandon then Campbell… Well, I can at least say that the old doctor did his forcing out of concern for my well-being.

I did have to admit though the gains from yesterday were significant. So I guess besides the gruelling nature of it, it could be called continuous resistance training. Just the coach is a sadistic mad man….

Grumbling to myself I rose from the bed and stopped, almost stiffening. There was no fatigue in my muscles. No stiffness or the feeling of small aches or strain.

With a slight smile I went through a few stretches just to be safe. I felt so much better than I think I’ve been since getting this new body. As I was finishing I caught sight of myself in the mirror and froze.

“Is that me?” I muttered out loud as I approached the mirror and looked myself over. “Freaky.” I could only say as I stared at my cross-shaped pupils inside a light grey iris. If that was all I don’t think I’d say that but the pupils were jagged almost like that graph a seismic needle draws out sometimes.

Looking down from my eyes I saw an almost trimmed full beard around my face. It wasn’t long but it was short and thick, just enough to cover my face. Reminded me a little of Geralt from the Witcher game. I liked it.

However, as I looked up I saw the messy entanglement that was my hair I frowned a little.

Looking over my messy hair and looking around for sheers or something. In my mind was how my hair had gotten in the way during the training yesterday. While I had always wanted such long hair it just wasn’t practical for me now.

With a groan I began to sheer off my hair. The black locks falling down around me as I cut and snipped away.

I had to be careful around my ears, a little incident where I lost a bit of my earlobe to my mother coming to mind. She hadn’t done it on purpose or anything of the sort, I was just a ten-year-old that had a hard time to stay still was all. Mistakes happen.

Once I had shorn down quite a bit I put the sheers away and was just about to tie my hair back when I noticed a shaving knife and an idea came to mind. Why not use one of the hairstyles of my first human life? I mean I hadn’t seen anyone with anything close to Viking style other than Ragnar. With a little smirk I decided to go that way.

Then I heard a knock on the door and turned, just noticing I was only wearing a spare pair of trousers.

Bertie sighed as he stared over the parapet and towards the forest. Every guard had taken up the habit of having at least one stare at the forest at all times if there was two or more on the same spot. He was leaned on his chair with both hands hanging back over the back of the chair.

“Where’d Olive go?” Nicholas suddenly piped up as he finished setting up one of the large spikes along the upper part of the wall. They all pointed down to make it much harder to scale the wall with speed. They’d hit the large needle-like spikes that doted the top randomly but still thickly enough to not leave a blind spot.

Bertie let out a slight grunt as he quickly looked at Nicholas and then back to the forest. “I think she went to check up on Vlad. That scream we heard near Campbell’s didn’t sound so good after all. I’m with her on that, and also just… given what we know he’d be a boon in the likely fight to come.” He said spitting a small wooden needle-like pin he’d taken to chewing over the wall.

“How’s the base coming along?” He then asked as he stood up and arched his back.

“It’s coming along. The lumberjacks aren’t all that thrilled to go near the forest. Understandably.” Nicholas responded as he came up to the edge of the wall to look over it. The base of the wall had a small moat dug, just around up to one’s waistline or so, spikes adorned it from the beginning and seemed to move like a wave up to the base of the wall.

Turning his eyes a bit farther he saw the volunteers digging small holes in the clearing around the town. Those would be made into pit traps as well as dangerous little gopher holes.

“Yeah, I get their unwillingness all right.” Bertie said as he looked over the wall with Nicholas. A low grumble of his stomach made him glance to Nicholas.

“You mind taking over for a little while? I want to get some bread and water.” He then asked and the gesture Nicholas gave was to bring him some when he got back.

As he walked down the main street he saw something he didn’t really think he was.

Vlad was standing with Olive in the training grounds holding a sword and they were slow sparring. A way to let one really feel the movement one did when striking and the like. The man seemed perfectly fine, though his hairstyle had changed rather drastically.

The sides of his head had been shaved bald and the top had been shortened to what he’d think was around neck length. Though he wasn’t sure as it was now tied in a tightly braided ponytail. Bertie had to admit he did like it but he felt like it was a little savage for his tastes.

Bertie did a double-take in his own mind. Why was he thinking of hairstyles?! Shaking his head to get rid of such uselessness he made his way to get what he wanted to go get.

On his way back he stopped at the training plot. “Hey, I see you're up and running around.” He said with a smile.

Vlad looked over his shoulder and smiled at him. “Yeah, Campbell scared the hell out of me this morning but I feel fine now.” He said before taking a step back as Olive went for an opening.

“Ha! Don’t lose focus now Elfy.” She said with a teasing tone and a mischievous grin.

“Elfy?” Both Bertie and Vlad said in unison which made Olive blush a little as they looked at one another and then grinned wide. “How adorable.” They then both said sneering at her.

Olive stared at them both for a little while, her face turning to a red tomato before she charged them with the wooden sword. Both let out yelps and then sprinted away with her on their heels, swinging and yelling obscenities at them.

Nicholas laughed as he took the water skin from Vlad. “I guess you didn’t get away with that one.” He said smirking as he looked at Vlad and Bertie sitting in the guardhouse on top of the gate.

“Yeah, I think I’ll be bruised for a while.” Vlad muttered, rubbing the side of his leg. “Damn woman… giving a Charlie horse with a freaking stick...” The grumbled which made both men look at him with raised eyebrows.

“Charlie horse?” Bertie asked to which Nicholas nodded showing he also wanted to know what it was.

Vlad grinned evilly at both men, showing his slightly elongated canines.

After that day both Bertie and Nicholas hobbled their way to Campbell, leaving an evilly chuckling Vlad alone in the guardhouse.