It took me way too long to realize that I was an idiot. She most likely just watched a ‘wild wolf’ greedily scarf down a deer. A glance at my snout revealed I had blood all over it, though it was hardly noticeable against my black fur. Just to be safe, I licked the scrumptious scarlet off my snout. Unsurprisingly, the elf started to cry harder.

I briefly debated on changing forms into my humanoid one, but rejected that thought promptly. I didn’t know where I was or what planet I was on. If I didn’t take care to hide myself, slavers might even come after me since, as far as I knew, I was a unique species. The unfortunate fact was that slavery was legal on most planets, so if I got spotted, I would probably have been hunted down. The only way to stay out of the horribleness that was slavery was to hide my features and act like a regular human.

Slowly approaching her, I crept closer and closer. She didn’t run away, probably because of her absolute terror. As I got closer to her, she started shaking, but still didn't run away. Right in front of her, my tongue flicked out and gently licked her cheek. She froze completely, not even shaking even more though a strong scent of urine filled the air around me. I licked her again, this time seemingly restarting her brain. She softly and timidly reached out and rubbed my head, right between my ears. I couldn’t help but lean into her touch because it felt so good. Being petted is such a pleasurable feeling. I could now somewhat understand why pets let their owners pet them since head pats were justice.

She giggled a little and used her other hand to rub me too, “Good doggy!”

Relief raced through me as she spoke in galactic common, the language used by most sapient creatures of the galaxy. It was a middle ground language that was recognized as the galactic requirement when it came to talking to others. Since she spoke common, hopefully this meant the planet had already reached the space age. If it hadn’t, it would be harder to get up into space and prepare for the Cataclysm of the Gods.

Wait... did she call me doggy? I’ll have you know that I am a dire wolf, a ferocious predator. I could tear this puny elf to pieces if I saw desired. In fact, why don- hmmm, head scratches. What was I saying?

I glanced around her to look for other elves, but all I saw were trees. The only living creatures around here were the birds that were watching me intently, probably waiting so they could eat the rest of the deer. It was a little odd that there were no other elves around. Who was irresponsible enough to let a little girl roam around?

As if the girl noticed my silent question, she started to speak, “Can you help me big doggy? I’m lost and can’t find my way back home.”

You really shouldn’t just be asking a random creature for help, ya know? I could eat you and nobody would know. Now that I think about, I kinda wonder what elf tastes like...

Instead of gobbling her up, I nodded my big head at her. Normally I wouldn’t help some random stranger, but I had a soft spot for kids, so how could I refuse? I turned to the side and prepared myself. She didn’t get what I wanted until I motioned for her to get on my back.

“You’re a smart doggy. Are you letting me ride you? Awww, thank you big doggy.” The elf attempted to get on my back. I say attempted to because she couldn’t quite get on. I gently pushed her up with my snout before standing back up. She didn’t weigh too much, so I could easily walk around with her still on me. The nice thing was that she fit on perfectly with me being just small enough for her to not have too much trouble straddling me. The bad thing was that my back fur was probably slicked with urine now, though the little elf seemed to have forgotten that part as she was too busy petting my head.

I followed her scent trail back the way it came. While I was following it, I ran across a few more animals and even a couple of small monsters, mostly some kind of weird horned bunny thing. While I was walking, It also hit me that I didn’t even notice her behind me like I usually would’ve. I had a theory that it was due to me not being acclimated to my new wolfkin form quite yet. This time wasn’t too bad because it was just a little girl that snuck up on me, but next time it could be a hunter that gets me by surprise.

After about thirty minutes of tracing her scent back, I walked into a small empty clearing in the middle of the forest. Oddly, her trail just ended right as the clearing began. I would’ve continued to be confused if I didn’t get an immediate sense of danger when I approached the barrier.

A snarl curled my lips as I realized what was happening. In front of me was an invisibility barrier. From the outside, it looked and smelt like just an empty clearing, but if I went through it, I would see whatever laid on the other side.

I tried to move forward, but before I could a figure popped out of the barrier with a bow fully drawn. I couldn’t see any features of the person because they had a black cloak wrapped around themselves. I can, however, tell that the person was some kind of female, or at least a very lithe male. I was leaning towards the latter since the figure seemed to be a washboard.

“Stop it! Don’t hurt doggy Raylan.” Surprisingly, the cloaked figure stopped approaching me with the bow. At that point it was obvious that the person was from the village. Him appearing out of nowhere and the little girl knowing them just reinforced my belief that there was a barrier there to hide the village from discovery.

The person, who I assumed was Raylan, cautiously approached me, an arrow on the bow’s string, though it wasn’t pulled back anymore. A growl subconsciously built up in my chest as he got closer to me. If I had some of my skills or even a class, I could probably have attacked him. The problem was that since I was just level one, he could probably kill me easily. That and he was from the same village as the little elf. I wouldn't want to traumatize her after I just helped her.

When the man was just a few feet away, he let out a sigh of relief. I watched confusedly as he put the bow on his back and put the arrow up. Why would he just put away his weapons when faced with a wild animal?

I received my answer when a male’s voice came from the person. “Thank the gods! How did you manage to find a Dire Wolf in the middle of the woods, Cassia? You are so lucky that she wasn’t a normal wolf. If she was, you would be eaten by now!”

The little girl, Cassia, quickly rose to my defense as she pet my head, “That isn’t true! Doggy didn’t hurt me!”

“Yeah, she didn’t because she is a Dire Wolf. I swear we taught you about the elven pact with their kind, didn’t we? Well, I guess it doesn’t matter. I’m just glad you are safe. You had the entire village worried!” The male said.

What was this about a pact? Please, tell me more. Maybe I could find out what planet I was on if they kept talking.

The little girl stopped petting me, and jumped off my back. I turned my head to see her stumble a bit before she righted herself. With what seemed like practiced ease, she lunged at the man and hugged him sweetly. Her sweet hug instantly put me on guard as I recognized the tactic she was using: butter before the hatchet. I had used it myself quite a few times on Terry. The basic idea was to do something super sweet or suck up to a person right before asking for something.

Cassia proved my suspicions correct almost instantly, “Can we keep her? Please brother?”

Aw! So Raylan was her brother. That made sense.

“You know ma and pa would never allow that Cas. Why would you even ask that? And she is a wild Dire Wolf with emphasis on the wild. We shouldn’t try to tame her. Also, why do you smell like urine?”

A blush raised all the way up to the little girl’s ears as she released her brother from her hug, “I-I may have peed just a little when I first saw doggy. She was pretty intimidating.”

“Why didn’t you just say something? [Clean].” That last part was a spell, judging how the wet spot on the little elf’s clothes disappeared. In an effort to get the same treatment since my back also had urine on it, I barked towards the male elf, trying to get his attention. The elf noticed and cast the spell on me too.

“See! We should keep her! She is such a smart doggy!” Cassia exclaimed when she saw my brilliance in asking for help.

Raylan, however, quickly shut her hopes down, “All Dire Wolves have intelligence on par with at least a human Cas. It was part of the reason our race made a pact with them in the first place. You really need to start paying better attention to your lessons or I’ll tell ma and pa.” He then turned to me, “Thank you, my friend. I would like to invite you in, but the barrier was set to keep everything not in it’s index out, so I can’t. Here, take this as a reward. It isn’t much, but it is the best I can do.”

[Ding! XP Gained!]

[Ding! Leveled up! Received 4 attribute points, 1 Charisma]

Thankfully, the elf did give me something that helped: XP. A person could transfer experience to another as long as it didn’t go below their level. For instance, if I was level seven and I had fifty extra XP, I couldn’t give away sixty. I would have to give away fifty at most.

After a certain amount of experience gained, a person, no matter if they were a monster or a sapient, leveled up. Usually, they got a number of free attributes depending on their race. Unfortunately for me, I seemed to be one of the few races that had one of my attribute points already distributed. Even more unfortunately, it was into charisma and not into something more beneficial like intelligence or dexterity. Sighing, I put three of my points into dexterity and one into strength. Earlier, I noticed that I was far too slow. It took me way longer than I would have liked to.

[Kali Vexia - Wolfkin - Level: 2 (8 till evolution and class pick)

Titles:

None

Strength-13

Intelligence- 11

Dexterity- 17

Endurance- 10

Charisma- 16

Unique Abilities:

Gambler

Racial Abilities:

Luna, Shift

Divinity:

C̷̞ͮr̢̞̈ė̹̦̏́̕å̓̌͏̸͇̬̠̕tͫ̾̏ͤ͜͜͏͚͚̟̝͡ ̷̛͈̣͉͖ͫͫ̉̒͒̀̕͞ͅp̔͌̓͑̍͠҉̶̰͈͕̝̭́͘ō̵̷̶͓̠̣̫̞̙ͯ̆̏̈͌͘̕͞ ̸̢̛͂͗̉̾ͦ̀͌͞͠҉͏̟̞̯̬̦̦̭ņ̴̶̦͉͔̹̦̜̫͕͊̊̇̇̉̎͋͋͜͢͞͞͡t̶̡̨̓̈́ͧ͒̑̍ͨ̿̔҉̵̶̷̧̬͓͎̖͔͍̥̦͎͟

Time- 2 years]

Looking at my status, and especially at my level, I realized something. I needed to get stronger. If I didn’t, I probably wouldn't survive the Cataclysm. When the gods started moving in my past-I guess future now-life, the only reason I survived was because of my master. I didn’t want to have to rely on someone stronger ever again.

The best way to get stronger would be to find a city and then find a dungeon. The dungeon would allow me to kill groups of creatures without worry. My first goal was to get to level ten so that I could get my first milestone. The difference between somebody that hadn’t reached a milestone and somebody that had was astounding. For example, once I got my first class, I would finally be able to use the mana that was just sitting uselessly in me. Right now I couldn't use it unless I had a medium to push it through, like a wand.

Oddly enough, my milestone seemed to give me access to an evolution and class right away. Usually a person only got both when they reached a certain milestone with the first being at level one hundred. It was the same with monsters though they got the option to gain a class instead of an evolution since their typical milestone reward was an evolution instead of class.

I barked at the two elves and gave Cassia a lick on the cheek before walking back into the woods. Without a second’s hesitation, I started to walk to the river. Afterall, civilization usually sat around bodies of water and large civilization was something I desperately needed to get stronger…