Time passed as I swung my sword, and while swinging it I also looked at my surroundings to check if any wolf or a new monster came to attack me and my subordinate. Time passed as I swung my sword and soon 5 hours were up.

  "Master"

  Now the grim voice had a lower pitch, like the voice of a yakuza.

  "So you are finally awake. What happened there? I thought you were out of magic power" I asked.

  "Even I don't understand, but suddenly a magic power flowed in from the surroundings, which seemed to be familiar and alien at the same time"

  So it was not his magic power? "Then what about that magic you used, it seemed different from before" As I asked this I looked at his status which now included Judgement of swords(S) under light magic.

  "Oh. That is a new skill I learnt, the judgement of swords"

  But didn't he learn it way too fast? The system told repetitions gives skills. Did he get that in 1 try? Maybe there are other ways to learn skills. As I was trying to figure out how that happened, my subordinate calls me back from my thoughts by calling me out loud "Master".

  No use thinking about it now. In future, if any new case appears we can investigate further.

  "Anyway, there are 2 things we need to do now. First names. From now on I will call you by name. You decide on this name. You can call me by my name Prot which I prefer or continue with the master, but it is your wish" I need to think of a name to give. Calling him a wolf, or first subordinate is kinda bland.

  "And second collect all the bodies of wolfs into a pile nearby, I will fuse them with you"

  "It seems master has changed" replied the wolf

  "I guess so"

  "About the name, how about you give me one," asked the wolf.

  I think about it and say "Ok. I will name you after your fusion is complete"

  "Also what is this fusion master talks about?"

  "It is one of my skills. It fuses dead bodies into compatible bodies, increasing stats and transferring skills of dead bodies" I replied.

  "That... I understand. So the reason for my new skills is this fusion of yours" asked the wolf.

  "Yes, I fused 16 wolves with you last time so you got the new skills them"

  And after saying that I continue to swing my sword.

  "What is master doing?" asked the wolf.

  "Trying to get stronger," I replied.

  "But that won't make you stronger. The footing you took and the swings are not in coordination. I can easily think of ways to attack you." said the wolf

  "You.. Do you know how to use a weapon? If yes teach me" I asked the wolf

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  "No, I do not, I just feel that the combat prowess of that technique is bad. You should change it, but I can't tell how you can"

  "As I thought, without a teacher learning swordsmanship, or any is hard" I sighed.

  "Then just learn one where you do not need a teacher" the wolf replied.

  I roll my eyes at the wolf who just single-mindedly without thinking gave some answer, but then it stuck with me, something I can learn myself, something that I can learn without pointers, Archery. Yes, there is a form for it, how to keep your foot, how to hold the bow, but that can be tried with trial and error. If the final arrow hits the target, it is just as good. And more importantly, since the archer is far away from the battle, and needs not keep the form to avoid giving the opponent openings. The only thing that matters is hitting the target. The form can be set afterwards.

  "Yes, you are right. I will choose archery!" I exclaimed. But making a bow and arrow now is a problem. Now neither of us has a skill for it. The string part is the hardest one to make.

  "Archery?" questioned the wolf.

  "You do not know what archery is?" I questioned the wolf.

  "No, I do not. I do not have any memories and it doesn't ring a bell"

  It is weird how he knows some things but not others."Sigh, leave it, First, let us fuse the bodies before they rot and then do something about it"

  "As you wish master". Then the wolf went thousands of times and came back with 5,6 bodies all while I still was swinging my sword. After some time, when the wolf was halfway done, I felt something. Like my swinging is a natural movement. And as I expected I had a new Swing(F) skill

  Swing(F): As you swing your weapon, from top to bottom, you make use of the full force of falling to generate a great blow.

  Even though it was weak, it still is my first and only combat skill. Now that I got a skill I try stabbing, repeating the act with the stick in my hand. After an hour or so the wolf alerted me of me finishing its job. I turn around and look around to see a large pile of wolfs, some red, some green, some blue-furred but a lot of them dark-furred.

  Well, that was fast. I couldn't even gather 10 of them. I ask the system in my mind to fuse the bodies with the wolf.

  [Fuse 13,487 bodies with subordinate lesser Fenrir. The time for fusing is 2 months. Do you wish to proceed?]

  2 months? That is a lot of time. As I think about how to take care of myself and the wolf for that much time, Fenrir asks

  "Is there any problem master?"

  "Yes. It will take 2 months to fuse all these bodies into you. Although you can become stronger, I hate to admit it, but I am too weak to protect you during those two months. We gotta find some solution to this"

  "It is admirable that you acknowledge your limits. It is one of the qualities that few have." nodded their head while saying that. And then it continued "But I do have a solution. One of the new skills that I got after the last fusion, is called the water barrier. It creates a dome around oneself to protect from outside attacks"

  "Oh. A nice skill you got. How does it work?" I ask.

  "It is simple. As long as I supply magic power, it can form a closed dome, protecting from all sides" After saying that the wolf goes on to demonstrate.

  "But is that good enough? Because you will go unconscious while fusion. Even if the barrier is strong enough how can you keep it up?" I asked.

  "My deepest apologies for the stupid suggestion master. I hadn't thought of that" the wolf replied lowering its head.

  "No worries. It is through mistakes we make progress"

  "It would have been nice if we could make barriers that can last without magic power, but we don't know how to make any, "I say out my thought-out loud.

  "Please punish this disgraceful subordinate for being useless" pleads the wolf after hearing me.

  "I am not saying that it is bad we don't have it, I was just saying it would have been good if we had it. Anyway, that magic we displayed earlier should attract someone. And this smell of blood, if this is in the middle of the forest, then there should be be beasts coming here soon."

  "I only caused you problems master. Kill me if you see fit" said the resolved wolf.

  "Only problems? I would have been long dead without you. You say funny things. Don't be so uptight."

  What I failed to notice is a change in the atmosphere around the wolf when I said that. It changed from serving someone on a pure contract basis to caring about his master. Although this change was small, it amounts to something big in the future.

  I could create a new subordinate using some of the bodies, but that takes a spot in the Max limit. So I ask the system if I could fuse two subordinates. And the system replied with

  [Yes. If one of them is dead. Also, a spot once used cannot be retrieved]

  What? Once used cannot be retrieved? So if a subordinate dies I cannot fill the spot with a new one?

  [That is correct.]

  Shit! Now I also need to make sure none of them dies. Although that is a given, how I would not have them die anyway because they are 100 % loyal to me, this new information makes me take more careful measures.