Chapter 3: New Powers

When I woke up the following day my body was super sore, must have been from sitting all day yesterday. I got out of bed and did some of my daily tasks, which mostly consisted of my morning bath, breakfast and getting ready for work on some days.

My work schedule is a bit strange you could say. I don’t work on every day of the week, because Markus doesn't open the shop on some of the days and just works on new designs for various items like: swords, shields, tridents, scythes, you name it. So, on some days I don’t have work, like yesterday for example. However, today Markus would open his shop again and sell his merchandise.

Arriving at my destination, Crafter’s Forge. I entered the shop, as the warm air enveloped my body. Weapons were hanging on one of the walls, while shields and some other items were placed neatly in one of the corners of the shop.

I walked towards the back and opened the door that led to the forge. The hot and steamy air hit me as soon as i opened the door. I could never get used to this heat, how does Markus spend most of his day cooped up in here?

Looking around I found Markus at one of the tables, looking at what seemed to be blueprints of a scythe. ”Is that a new design?” I asked, curious about what Marcus had thought of this time.

“Yes, I spent all day working on this yesterday. I believe that it will be my greatest work yet. However there is still something missing, it’s just that I can’t place my finger on what that is.” answered with a thoughtful voice. I looked more closely at the blueprint, but couldn’t find any flaws in it at all.

Deciding that it was time to open the shop I went back to the front of the shop and put up a sign, indicating that we were now open. I sat down at the counter, watching the people outside the shop walk by, carrying on with their day.

Sitting there felt like eternity, and the clock on the wall didn’t help at all with its ticking. Before I managed to go completely insane the doorbell rang. I looked up to see a boy in a blue cloak around my age. He had long brown hair that was tied into a ponytail and laid over his shoulder, and dark brown eyes. Looking at him I could easily tell he was one of those pretty boys that girls chased around. Behind him stood a middle aged men in full body armor and a sword at his waist. Must be a knight, and some sort of noble’s kid.

“Welcome to Crafter’s Forge, how may I help you?” I asked in a friendly voice, flashing them a cheerful smile. “We would like to see your best sword, I’m willing to pay a fair price if the sword is to my liking,” spoke the boy with a bit of boldness in his voice.

“One second please, I will notify the owner of the shop of your request.” I replied with a bow, before turning around to go notify Markus. Entering the back room I found Markus heating up some metal, must have started working on the scythe.

“We have customers that wish to buy your best sword,” I told Markus as I approached the furnace to observe the process, but not to close because of the intense heat. “Tell them that they can’t afford it and that I’m busy,” replied Markus in annoyance. “The thing is, they can probably afford it with their pocket change.” Markus stopped working and looked at me, “so you’re saying they’re rich?” I nodded in response. Markus let out a sigh and put the piece of metal into a bucket of water to cool it off. “I guess I’ll go and introduce myself.”

I followed Markus out of the back room and into the shop. “Sorry about the wait, I heard something about you wanting to buy one of my best works. You think you can afford it?” Markus asked them with a playful grin on his face.

The guard behind the young noble noticed the slight insult that Markus made and reached for his sword, but was stopped by the pretty boy. “No need for violence, we didn’t come here to fight,” spoke the boy with a calm voice. The guard removed his hand from the sword, but you could tell that he wasn’t in a good mood from the glares he sent Markus’ way.

“If you’re wondering about the price, that won’t be a problem, I came here well prepared.” With those words he took out a bag filled with coins and threw it on the counter, spilling gold coins everywhere. I thought my eyes would pop out from the amount of money that I was seeing. In my whole life I had never seen so much gold coins at once, and this pretty boy just threw out what seemed like at least 100 gold coins out like pocket change.

Markus’ laugh broke me out of my shock, “I guess you aren’t all talk. Wait here a second, I’ll be right back.” With that he left me with the pretty boy and the knight with daggers for his eyes. I stood there in awkward silence not knowing what to do with myself. Luckily, I was saved by Markus returning with a few swords that were wrapped in cloth.

“Here they are, some of my best works” said Markus as he put down the swords neatly on the counter. The pretty boy walked up and picked one up. “May I?” asked the pretty boy for permission to look a the sword, which kind of surprised. I thought he was just all looks and money, but I guess even he has some respect for others. Markus just nodded in response and the pretty boy unraveled the cloth, revealing the sword.

The sword was stored in a red sheath that had a beautiful silver outline. When the pretty boy took out the sword I thought it was one of the most beautiful things that I have ever seen. The swords that were on display seemed like scrap metal compared to this one. “Your work is marvelous,” the pretty boy praised Markus.

“It wouldn’t be one of my best works if it was anything like the rest of the swords here” gestured Markus towards the swords on the wall. The pretty boy nodded, agreeing with Markus before taking out the sword from its sheath. A few rays of light hit the blade, making it shine in all its beauty and glory. The sword handle was wrapped in black leather, making the grip look comfy and slip resistant. At the bottom of the handle was embedded a small ruby that looked like it was absorbing the rays of sunlight.

“What’s the name of the sword?” asked the boy breaking the captivating feeling that the sword gave off. “The name of the sword is Dusk, since it reminds you of the setting sun.” told Markus to the pretty boy. The pretty boy nodded, “it’s a fine name for a sword. I’ll take it, how much do you want for it?” asked the pretty boy as he put the sword back into the sheath and wrapped in cloth.

“Are you sure you want this sword? You haven’t even looked at the other swords yet,” asked Markus a bit surprised. I guess that he was surprised that the pretty boy only looked at one sword before deciding on it. “Yes, I’m sure this is the sword I want, I took quite a liking to it,” replied the pretty boy.

“I see…, the price for that blade is 100 gold coins, and nothing less” stated Markus, clearly he didn’t want to sell the sword for any less. “How dare you ask for such an insane price!?” exclaimed the guard in anger, which gave me a small scare.

“It’s fine George, I believe that the price is fair, this sword is definitely worth the amount that he asked for,” the pretty boy stopped George yet again from causing mayhem. Seriously, what was up with that guard, he over reacted to everything, but I had to admit the price for the sword was definitely a bit high.

“The money on the counter should be enough, feel free to check, if there are any left you can keep it. I’m quite pleased with this sword so, you can keep the change if there is any as a thank you from me” said the pretty boy without a care in the world, its as if gold coins were pebbles to him. The pretty boy thanked Markus for the sword before turning around and leaving along with his guard.

I stood there for a bit, staring at the door lost in thought, I wonder who the pretty boy was? He was definitely from a rich family, but none of the rich families in this cities had enough money to buy such expensive items with such ease.

“Here,” I heard Markus speak behind me. I turned around to find him handing me a gold coin. “W-why are you giving me a gold coin sir?” I asked in a shuttered voice from disbelief. Markus just laughed, “I’m in a quite good mod today. I managed to make a good sale and my new design is coming along quite nicely.”

“Thank you sir, I really appreciate it,” this felt like a dream come true. With this gold coin my current savings where now 3 gold coins, plus a few copper ones. This meant that I could leave for the academy for the gifted soon. Markus just laughed at my reaction, “you can go for the day after you polish the weapons on display.”

I nodded happily before getting a cloth and some oil for polishing the blade. It took me almost until dusk to finish polishing all the weapons in the shop. Wiping away some sweat from my forehead I got up and put away the sword that I was polishing. Putting away the cloth and the oil, I said my goodbyes to Markus and left the shop.

“You should try using the powers that you got from the wolf.” Ennius’ voice sounded in my head, reminding me that there was some old man in my head. I swear I forgot he is even there until he starts talking. Unless he needs to say something he never talks. Well, I guess that's actually a good thing, he gives me my own space and doesn't annoy me with endless blather.

“How do I use his powers?” I asked hoping to get an answer. “Just go ask the wolf, he should know” sighting I started walking to the old house instead of the orphanage. Ennius never bothers to explain anything properly if he knows that I can find the answer some other way.

Walking through the streets I watched shop owners starting to close their shops for the day and the people that were still out hunting to their homes before it got dark. After a few more minutes of walking I finally reached the old house. I circled around the back, entering the yard and sitting down in the spot that I was in yesterday.

I concentrated on my emotions and desires, trying to enter my soul again. Within seconds, the spec of of light appeared and the familiar warm sensation in my chest. The light got brighter and soon I was yet again floating in the middle of an ocean.

“Welcome back,” I heard a voice behind me. I turned around to find At floating there with a smile on his face.

“Hey,” I greeted him casually. “I'm assuming you're here to see the wolf, am I right?” At asked with a tone that was basically saying that he already knew the answer. “Yeah, I came to ask about my powers that I received from him.” At just nodded in response. “I see, I will leave you to it then.” With those words he vanished.

Left all alone, in the middle of the ocean I flew forward slowly wondering how I can find the wolf. Last time At summoned some door that teleported us to the wolf but this time I don't have At here with me. I wonder if I can summon the door too? I closed my eyes and thought of the wolf. Opening them back my eyes landed on a black door. I guess all I have to do is think about it just like I did when I was confronting the wolf.

Flying up to the door I stopped before reaching out and opening it. I walked through and found myself surrounded in pitch black darkness. Millions of thoughts raced through my head. Did I do something wrong? Where was I? Am I lost with my soul now?

“Control your fear boy, you reek of it,” I heard a disgusted voice within the dark. I sighed in relief and calmed down. So, I was in the right place, but why was it so dark in here?

“Why is it so dark in?” I asked, not understanding why the wolf was sitting here in total darkness.

“The darkness makes me stronger and makes me feel at ease. You could say it is a part of me. We Phantom Wolves are creatures of the night. The night is our domain, no other creature dares to wander through the night unless it's seeking death.” Leidolf explained to me as I listened carefully, interested to learn more about his species.

“Well, can I light up the cave? You might like the dark and can see clearly without light. However, I can't and I don't really feel at peace being in the dark and not being aware of my surroundings. I was met by silence, as if Leidolf was thinking over my request. “Fine, just don't make it too bright, it makes me feel sick.”

“I'll try, but I'm not making any promises. This whole soul business is still new to me so you will have to bare with me.” I thought of the cave being slightly brighter, to find it slowly getting brighter. When it got bright enough for me to see my surroundings I stopped and faced Leidolf. “Is this fine?” I asked.

“Yeah” he snorted in reply. “So what did you come here for? I highly doubt it was just a friendly visit.”

“I came to ask you on how to access the powers that I received from you.” I flat out asked him. Leidolf just laughed, “you don't even try making an excuse and go straight for what you want. I like it, you might be more fun then I thought.”

“Thanks I guess, but It's not that I don't want to talk with you, it's just that it's getting late outside and I don't want to stay out too late. Last time I did that I was almost killed by you.” Leidolf just laughed again, seriously what's with all the laughing? I don't believe I even said anything close to a joke.

“Alright kid, listen closely, To property receive my powers you still have to activate them. Try concentrating on the bond that you have with me through the contract. Go ahead and try it, I'll guide you along the way the best I can.” I nodded and closed my eyes. I tried remembering the sensation that the bond gave off and concentrated on that feeling. Soon enough I felt a tiny tingle in my chest that grew stronger the more I concentrated on the bond.

“That's it keep, doing what you're doing. You're almost there.” I concentrated harder on the bond, feeling the sensation getting stronger. All of a sudden a bright light flashed in my mind, blinding me with its brightness. “You should take a look at what happened,” I heard Leidolf’s voice. Opening my eyes and looking around I found myself looking at two massive doors that were pitch black in color and looked super thick. “What is this?” I asked, not understanding where the doors came from, or what they could represent.

“Behind these doors are your powers that you received from me. As to what they are that will depend on you.” I looked at Leidolf confused. “What do you mean it depends on me what powers I get from you?”

“You see, when you enter through those doors there will be a trial that you must pass, and the choices that you make there will depend on the powers you receive” replied Leidolf. “Do you know what kind of trial it might be?” I asked, wanting to know as much as possible about what I could face.

“Hmmm, it’s hard to say what it might be. My best guess is that it will be something related to the nature of wolves, and our ways of life.” I nodded in understanding. It would make sense if something like that was part of the trial. Maybe, the trial is actually made to see how well you understand the ways of the creature, and depending on your knowledge you get the powers. So, the more I know the higher the chance that I will benefit more.

“Tell me your way of life. I believe that it will be beneficial to me knowing how you wolves live and survive.” Leidolf just looked at me for a few seconds, thinking over what I just thought. Probably wondering what he could tell, if he was planning to. I hope he tells me something useful.

“Alright, I’ll give you a quick lesson on the ways of the wolves, more specifically Phantom Wolves. In general, wolves are quite intelligent species that live in packs. They rely on their co-operation to take down prey successfully. However, Phantom wolves are few in numbers. Since we are descendants of an ancient beast we are strong by nature, but because of that we have low reproduction rate. Otherwise, there would be an unbalance within the ecosystem. Due to all this, we live most of our lives in solitude until we find a suitable mate. When we mate we usually only have one pup, almost never a pair has two. After the pup is old enough to hunt on his own, we head off our own separate ways. If we were to stay together the ecosystem would at one point get destroyed and the future generations will have nowhere to live.” Hearing Leidolf speak about how his kind live made me pity him a bit. It must be sad to live all alone most of your life. Then, when you finally find a mate, you only have so much time to spend together before you have to separate.

“Just remember kid, the night is your friend. Where you find darkness, there you will find strength.” I let his words sinking in, before thanking him and facing the door. Walking up to the door I felt my heartbeat increase and my palms get sweaty. Wiping away the sweat against my pants, I lifted up my arms and pushed the doors open, to find just a black vortex.

I gulped, “that won’t kill me right?” a hint of fear lingered in my voice as I looked at Leidolf. He just laughed, “stop being such a scaredy cat and go in already.” I looked back at the swirling vortex, took in a deep breath, closed my eyes, and ran into the vortex.

“Good luck kid, I have high hopes for you” said Leidolf before turning around, walking back to his resting spot and laying down to take a nap.

Opening my eyes I was confused, because everything looked bigger than it was supposed to. It’s as if I had shrank a couple of inches. I looked down at myself, and almost yelped in fright. I was a wolf! My arms were now my from two paws, while my legs where the back two. Black smooth fur now covered my entire body. I spun around in a circle to try and get a good look at myself, when I spotted my tail. It looked really soft and fluffy, making me want to touch it. I tried to touch it with my paw, but failed miserably. Repeating the following action a few times, I realised just how silly and stupid I must have looked. Ok, lets calm down and suppress these thoughts, I do not want to act like one of those dogs on the streets, happily chasing my own tail and making a fool out of myself.

After calming, down a bit I took a good look at my surroundings. It seemed to be nightfall, but I could clearly see in the dark. Must be a perk being a creature of the night. All around me stood insanely tall trees that seemed to reach beyond the skies. The thickness of their trunks was probably big enough to have 5 or 6 men wrap around them.

I started walking through the forest, rays of moonlight broke through the trees in some areas, lighting up the forest in a beautiful mellow glow. After a few minutes of walking and enjoying the peaceful nighttime forest I smelled something strange. I followed my nose in the direction of the smell, stumbling upon a clearing. The view was breathtaking. In the middle of the clearing was a medium sized lake, sparkling from the moonlight that touched its waters. Some bushes grew along the sides of the lake. What I saw next left me breathless. On the other side of the lake stood the most beautiful elk I had ever seen in my entire life. I think that it even surpasses the beauty of the sword that the pretty boy bought, makinging it easily one of the top things that I found beautiful.

The elk’s antlers were made from silver, illuminating all their glory in the moonlight. Its fur coat was made out of golden hair, adding on to the beauty of the beast. The whole creature seemed to be radiating an aura of holiness. Looking at the elk on the opposite shore, I got an urge to imbed my teeth into it’s neck.

Wow, what is this feeling? Why do I have a sudden urge to kill the elk? Is it the wolf’s nature kicking in or something…, or could it be that this is a part of my trial? I looked away from the elk, hoping that the sensation of wanting to kill will go away. To my disappointment it only kept growing stronger. The urge to kill began to take over my other senses slowly, making me lose my sense of reason and act irrationally. No! I won’t give in. I’m not going to become like some wild animal, with only the urge to kill driving it. The elk just seems so innocent and pure, but all of that was quickly subsided as the urge finally overcame me.

I looked back at the elk to see it bend down and drink some water. Seeing as I had a chance to get close to it while it was distracted, I sprinted off along the side of the lake, keeping my eyes on the elk, making sure it was still there. Reaching near the elk’s location I slowed down, and hid in the shadows of some trees. Slowly I made my way from shadow to shadow, barely taking my eyes off the elk.

Soon enough, I was a few steps away from a spot that I could leap at the elk. I took slow and steady steps, trying to be as quiet as possible, but one twig sabotaged all my hard work. The elk’s head shot up and it just stood there like a statue, listening for any noise. “Shit” I cursed in a hushed tone at my carelessness. Well I guess this was expected, after all, I’m not a wolf by birth, heck, this is my first time going on a hunt since my father died.

I held my breath, hoping that it didn’t hear anything, but I guess my luck ran out for the day. The elk turned around and darted back into the woods, seeing it run away I leaped out of my hiding spot and gave chase. I ran after the elk, dodging trees, and any other obstacles that were in my way.

After, what felt like hours, I sensed the elk slowing down, it was getting a bit tired from all the running. This made me slightly happy because I don’t think I could keep running for much longer. Deciding to finish this up, I forced myself to run faster, before leaping onto the back of the elk, and digging my claws into its back. The elk let out a cry of pain and came crashing down. The impact threw me off and sent me flying into a nearby tree.

Bang! I crashed into the tree with enough force to spit out some blood. I layed on the ground whimpering in pain and coughing up blood. At last, the pain numbed a bit and I stopped coughing up blood. Somehow, I managed to stand up and look up at the elk. The beautiful elk was laying on the ground, a small pool of blood was surrounding it and its leg twisted in a different direction.

I limped up to the wolf, pain shooting through my back with every step I took. Looking down at the elk I felt a bit guilty at my actions, but it didn’t hold me back. I dug my teeth into its neck, causing the elk to go wild, trying to go free. I increased the strength of my bite and put my paws on its body to help hold it down. Soon enough, the once beautiful elk was laying in a pool of blood. I released my hold of it and sat down next to it, observing its lifeless body.

All of a sudden, the elk’s body started transforming into silver dust, before the wind picked it up and carried it away. I watched the the dust fly away, before I froze in my tracks. It wasn’t just the elk, trees, started disappearing one after the other, vanishing into thin air. What in the world was going on here? I tried to get up and ran away from whatever was approaching and erasing everything from existence, but the pain in my back prevented me from doing so.

I watched the disappearing trees get closer and closer. Not knowing what was happening, I closed my eyes, preparing for the worst. I waited, for who know what, listening to my surroundings, to find that there was absolute silence. Opening my eyes, I found myself in a white room, with no doors or windows. In the center of the room stood a white pillar made out of marble. On the pillar lay some sort of purple colored orb. I walked up to the pillar to get a better look at the orb.

The orb was made out of crystal, and inside was some sort of swirling purple energy that seemed to be radiating with power. “Are these my wolf powers?” I spoke outloud. So, killing the elk must have been the trial that I had to pass.

I reached out towards the crystal orb, but before I could pick it up the energy within the orb ushed out towards me and shot straight into my head. I screamed in pain, it felt like my head was going to split open. The pain didn’t stop there, it continued to spread throughout my body. I felt my bones cracking and moving around. The pain was so great that I was on the verge of passing out. Just what kind of torture was this? After what felt like an eternity of continuous torture the pain grew less and less, before completely fading.

Feeling my body relax from the tension, I continued to lay on the ground. The cool ground sending relief throughout my body. After laying for a bit I got up, feeling refreshed. What happend to me? Did I get the powers or not? As soon as I thought about my powers information flooded into my head telling me all about each ability i received and how to use it.

The first ability I received was allowed me to travel to certain locations using shadows. However, the shadow that I wanted to travel to had to be within the range of my eyesight. From the information that i obtained on this ability I could tell that this ability allowed short distance teleportation. I wonder if there is some way I can upgrade the abilities I get? It would be really useful in the future if I could improve this ability, traveling would be much more simpler and I would save tons of money on horses and other travelling necessities. Maybe I’ll ask Ennius when I get back, he should know this better than anyone.

My second ability was some type of possession ability. The ability allowed me to possess someone's shadow for a certain amount of time, but I had to touch someone's shadow to enter it. Personally, I found this ability very useless at the moment. It’s not like I was some sort of Assassin or a spy. This ability was more useful for killing someone swiftly, gathering intel, and sneaking into places by using someone else. Which, yet again, I had no use for at the moment.

When I saw the last ability I was surprised, the ability was by far the best one I got. The ability let me transform into my wolf form, the one I had used back during the trial. In addition, what I liked about the ability was that it allowed me to transform halfway, becoming half beast and half man.

Looking over my abilities, I smiled in satisfaction. This trial was very beneficial to me, giving me quite useful abilities. Thinking that it was about time I headed back, I summoned a door and went through. I arrived in the cave, or at least what supposed to be the cave. Now, before me stood a small island, floating in the middle of the ocean. What in the world happened? Why is there and island instead of a cave?

“It’s because you unlocked the wolf’s powers. The ending result strengthened your bond and made a connection between your souls.” At’s voice sounded behind me. “I see, so every time I gain new powers something will be added to this ocean?” I asked. “Thats correct,” At gave me a simple reply.

I flew towards the island to see what was on it. Arriving at the island, I noticed that most of it was really similar to the forest that I had my trial in. Flying past trees, I looked around for the lake, wondering if it was going to be there. Luckily, the forest was almost an exact replica of the previous one, so I was extremely happy when I found the lake.

I flew down to the shore and sat down by the water, enjoying the view. “I see you had succeeded in your trial.” I heard a voice behind me. Turning around, I met face to face with Leidolf’s sharp teeth right in front of my face. I jumped back in fear, completely not expecting that. Leidolf chuckled lightly before walking up tom and sitting down besides me.

Thinking back on what he said I paused, “what do you mean succeeded? There was a chance of failure?” my eyes darted at him, filled with a hint of fear. “Yup, there was a high chance of you dying if you failed the trial since your soul is pretty weak, and the backslash would most likely would have killed you.” I gulped, realizing just how close I was to death. “Don’t worry about it. You succeeded, and that's all that matters. It’s time you head back, you’ve been here for quite a while. Comeback some time soon I’ll help you master your powers.” I nodded in appreciation before saying my goodbyes and leaving my soul.

I opened my eyes to find it was past midnight by now, the elders are probably going to freak out and scold me again for staying out so long. Letting out a sigh, I got up, stretched my muscles for a bit, before walking home. On the way home, I noticed that even though it was dark outside I felt calm and relaxed. My senses felt sharper than before, and I could see more easily in the dark. Must be because of the powers I got, some of the abilities changed my body structure permanently.

Finally, I arrived at the orphanage, I tried to sneak quietly, hoping that none of the elders were still awake. I thought I had gotten away with, but right in front of my door stood one of the elders, waiting for me, scowling. “Care to tell me where you have been out so late?” asked me the elder. “U-umm, I decided to take a nap, but ended up sleeping more than I was planning to.” I tried to bullshit my way out of it. The elder didn’t seem to buy it, but after a few seconds of awkward silence he just shook his head and left. “Don’t let this happen again,” I heard him say before he was gone.

He was definitely going to give me some sort of punishment for this tomorrow. I sighed again, entered my room and fell on my bed. This week has been the most bizarre week of my life. I really had to get out of here before things got any crazier. Thinking about all these recent events made me sleepy, before I completely fell asleep, awaiting the next day.