Hlaza shook his head violently. He was not exactly keen on the idea of putting his life on the line again so soon.

“Look, I know that we shouldn’t be taking risks.”

Then why are you taking a risk dumbass?

Hlaza leaned against a tree, cross his arms and huffed.

“Really dude, I do. Believe me. We’re weak and we just went through hell. You and I are bleeding all over the place and you hurt your hand stabbing that wolf. Don’t think I didn’t notice. I see the way you rub your wrist. We’re not in good shape; I’d be dumb not to see that.”

Hlaza hung his head off to the side and gave him a look that screamed ‘No shit’.

They both held no illusions to their spectacular lack of ability-the surprise attack by the Ogre a few days ago made sure they didn’t- but the fight with the Crimson Wolf absolutely sucked. Their wounds were healing thanks to Hlaza but they needed more than just a day or two to rest. Many of the cuts Jonathan and Hlaza received from the fight with the Crimson Wolf were too deep to heal on their own.

“Let’s take care of our injuries first then I’ll tell you why I think we should go.”

Oh, this’ll be good.

Their cuts were too bad to leave unattended. They bled at the smallest of movements. Jonathan needed to stitch them up which he had neither the tools nor the ability to do, so he and Hlaza started a fire and cauterized the deepest ones.

Hlaza wasn’t so happy with the idea of burning his wounds closed. He made this apparent by running away before tripping on a rock, making the cuts on his chest deeper. In the end, he agreed, it either intense pain now or death later. After they were done, Hlaza redressed their wounds.

Jonathan hoped that the plants Hlaza used had anti-microbial properties because while cauterization was excellent for stopping his bleeding, it was shit for his overall physical and mental health. He really didn’t want to die from infection. [Pain Tolerance Lv.2] also did nothing to lessen the pain he felt, it only seemed to allow him to do things in spite of it, which was cool (in-a-better-than-being-crippled-by-pain-kinda-way) but not as cool as not feeling any pain at all. At least, Jonathan thought so. After Hlaza was done, Jonathan motioned for Hlaza to sit on a rock with all the energy of a boss asking for overtime.

“Thank you. I really owe you, you know that? All right, let’s talk. Take a seat my green skinned compadre.”

Hlaza sat on the rock with all the energy of a worker who knew where the conversation was going.

“So...um, this may be a little hard to believe but here I go. After we beat the wolf, I kinda became the owner of its territory, making everything in the territory mine. On this territory, there’s this place with supplies we need…maybe. See, I’m not exactly sure that it has anything we need at all to be honest. I can’t look at everything in the territory in too fine a view so I can’t tell if there’s anything at all there.”

Hlaza nodded, he was absolutely sure that his boss was crazy.

“And it’s probably a trap that will get both of us killed. Buuut I still want to go there.”

Hlaza nearly collapsed from the rock he was sitting on. His boss was also apparently suicidal too.

“Look, I know what I’m saying. We just went through some shit. We won only by luck and I’m not sure that we could win again if something as strong as that damn wolf comes along. We’re too weak and we need to get stronger. Fast. I tried to speed up our training by using your abilities to make it easier to kill and get stronger. I can’t do that anymore even if it made our lives easier because the powers that be are assholes.”

Jonathan paused to see if Hlaza was listening, he looked slightly confused, but was listening. Jonathan felt a little embarrassed, he never thought of himself as the speech type, but here he was making speeches left and right. He moved closer to where Hlaza was and grabbed his shoulder.

“Listen, Hlaza. We have nothing, and in the grand scheme of things we are nothing. The world doesn’t care. Only you and I do. Only you and I ever will. It is what it is and it won’t change, unless we make it change. Going to the Valley of the Wolves is a dumb decision, I admit it. In fact I’m sure it’s one of the dumbest decisions we could make at this moment in time.”

Then don’t make it dumbass.

Jonathan ran his free hand through his hair. He tried to anyway; he kept forgetting that he couldn’t do that when he hadn’t washed his hair in days.

“There’s no guarantee that we’ll get anything at all if we go but if we don’t it’s pretty much guaranteed that we won’t be able to access supplies that we desperately need. Both of us need medical supplies, weapons, clothes and armour. These are things that are usually found in military bases. Our weapons are fucked up bro. My sword will fall apart any minute and you have no weapons at all. Maybe I’m too desperate but I think we need to go Hlaza.”

No you don’t. Don’t lie to him.

“So what do you think?”

Hlaza hung his head below his shoulders. He didn’t like what Jonathan was saying but he knew they needed the weapons and armour. Badly. This was especially true due to the rate at which they were getting into fights. Seeing Hlaza’s hesitation, Jonathan continued.

“Besides all that, there may be a map. Any military worth anything is usually very big on maps. I can’t exactly read Octavian but the map would still be very useful. With a map we can find clean sources of water and avoid any Empire soldier routes or dangerous territories. It’s exactly what we need. So you in?”

Hlaza nodded, with all the enthusiasm of a minimum wage worker getting overtime at the same rate because his boss was a miser and an ass.

“Alright, we gotta take care of all these corpses and get outta here. Then we allocate our stat points and work on our plan of action.”

Jonathan skinned the wolves and removed their horns before barbecuing the Crimson Wolf’s meat over a fire. They ate greedily and in silence. Hlaza thought about any of the meals he would eat over the next few days could be his last and Jonathan thought about how he would make sure that they wouldn’t be. Jonathan took another hearty bite of the Crimson Wolf’s meat when a notification popped into his field of vision.

[You inner monster thanks you for the meal.]

[[Monster in Man’s Clothing] has activated.]

[You have gained 1 stat point in Strength and Agility]

Jonathan shuddered.

That shit again…I’m not a monster. You are, assholes.

Jonathan felt his cheeks warm up in anger. While the increase in stats was nice, the small increase along with the message he received with the increase felt more like a middle finger than anything else. Jonathan decided to focus on something else. He decided to focus on his guilt, and his stupidity.

They weren’t so in need of weapons and armour so bad that they needed to go to the Valley of the Wolves. There was no logical reason they would take this gamble and Jonathan suspected that Hlaza had figured that out. They could use the pelt of the wolves to make a makeshift leather armour and they could sharpen sticks for spears or use the horns of 3 wolves to make daggers or attach them to the end of a stick. Although Jonathan wasn’t too sure about how effective this set up would be, he was sure it would be ok for now.

The real reason Jonathan wanted to go there because had a feeling he needed to. He felt attracted to the place, an unnatural attraction. An instinctual attraction like a bee to a flower or a politician to money. It was strong and he couldn’t deny it. No matter how much he wanted to. He felt a sudden change in his brain chemistry before, when he met the old woman. Admittedly, a part of him also had hope that he could get a clue that could help him get home but he had no reason to believe that any clues would be written in any language he could understand.

They’re switching tactics.

Jonathan was immune to instructions from quests because he had the [Usurper] quest, which meant that quest givers took notice of him.

They know emotional manipulation works because of the old woman so they’ve changed their tactics to something similar.

[[Temperance] has activated. The effect of the compulsion has lessened to help you deal with temptation.]

This explained a lot.

After Jonathan and Hlaza killed the first horned wolf and two green belly imps, [Mantra of Madness] activated and he was visited by the god and Solod. There was no reason for them to meet him unless he did something that would really screw up their narrative. The reason had just presented itself.

The Crimson Wolf was supposed to meet [The Chosen]. This meant that they were supposed to go to The Valley of the Wolves to meet it. Instead he had killed a horned wolf, earning its ire, which earned him a visit from them. As he now felt a compulsion to go there, it meant that something or someone was going to meet him there and end his life or make it harder at the very least.

Paradoxically, this meant that he still had to go to the abandoned military base because he didn’t want another forced activation of [Mantra of Madness]. He didn’t want to justify a trigger happy attitude with his actions.

Since he now had to grab the idiot ball, he had to make sure that he and Hlaza didn’t feel too much of an impact as a result. The only way to do so was to get stronger. First, he had to take a look at his status after the fight.

Appraise

[You have killed: One horned wolf and The Crimson Wolf.]

[Hlaza’s loyalty has increased.]

[You have survived encounter with a blessed creature.]

[You have defeated a blessed creature.]

[You have gained 109,000 experience points.]

[You have reached Level 30.]

What.

Name:

Race:

Gender:

Title(s):

Class:

Level:

Traits:

Jonathan Sipho Mthembu

Otherworld Human

Male

-

Formerly Enslaved Human

30

[Racial] Tenacity [Character] Monster in Mans’ Clothing

Attributes:

Strength:

Attack:

Defense:

Agility:

Magical Power:

Magical Mending:

Magical Defense:

Luck:

63

64(+1)

40

76

0

0

5

31

Skill Points:

42

Skills and Magic:

Skills:

Magic:

[Quick Learner][Calm Mind][Attention to Detail][Pain Tolerance Lv.2][Will to Live][Paranoia][Temperance][Appraisal][Desperation][Starved][Mantra of Madness][Lead]

-none-

Abnormal Status Condition(s)

Former Slave

Gods’ Displeasure

Crippling Madness

Your physical scars mark you forever. Your likeability towards the Octavian Empire and its allies decrease. All allies of the Empire will attack on sight.

Due to your status as an otherworldly human, you have earned the being in charge of Arda’s displeasure. You have no ability to use magic as a result and your luck decreases.

Continued use of [Mantra of Madness] will take control of your body from your mind, until you are left unable to control your body.

“Jesus. How strong was that wolf.?”

Jonathan felt sweat drip down his neck. There was no way they should have won if it gave him this much experience after it was divided between the two of them.

Jonathan now knew how strong of a stat luck was. He decided to dump all his stats there, but when he did a notification popped into his field of vision.

[You are not a main character. Luck is identified as a balance changing attribute. Your luck has been capped at 50.]

Jonathan had expected something like this. His luck was a major game changer so it made sense that the powers that be would want it limited.

Just as he was resolving himself to increasing his other stats, a notification entered his vision.

[Your Luck is now 50. You are not from Arda. For increasing your luck to this point even with the disadvantages it brings you have earned a reward.]

[Congratulations. You have earned the skill; [Luck of The Draw].

[Luck of The Draw]

You’re a lucky man. Whenever you are in a situation would get you killed. The chance of your death will decrease by 37% This number is affected by other skills and traits.

Cooldown: 24 hours