Beasthood - 0%

  All I had to do was refrain from shapeshifting for a day, and my Beasthood started to decrease, he thought. From now on, I have to treat it carefully. There’s plenty to gain from increasing it, but also plenty to lose…

  [Wolf] Form Activated

  Finesse (+50%) / Beasthood (+15%)

  A coat of fur stopped the windchill from becoming an issue. There were few reasons not to remain constantly shapeshifted, and now that he was alone, Prospero didn’t have to concern himself with keeping up appearances to avoid troubling the Sunflowers.

  It’s time to hunt, he mused. I need to put these three long days and nights to good use.

  It was time to begin using the Beastblood in earnest. His first priority was locating new beasts to expand his repertoire of forms, followed closely by tracking Elites to reinforce his existing powers, and finally, consuming the essence of every living creature he stumbled across to maximise his proficiency gains.

  Unbothered by man, the wild realm he stood upon was surely rife with all manner of terrible monsters. It didn’t take a minute of putting his nose to good use before the scent of something matted and mangy caught his attention, and then he was off - stealing through the boreal pines on all fours towards the first quarry of many.

  Northstar Wolf

  Grade 1 Beast (Canine)

  Physical Resistance - 0% Magical Resistance - 0%

  An old hound prowled the silent forest, much too slow to be of any use. Prospero could have spotted its staggered movements from a mile away. It was most likely a wolf abandoned by its own pack and left to die. When a twig snapped beneath Prospero’s paw, the hound raised its head, and though its crossing sweep across the treeline caught him clearly, there was no reaction from the beast - its eyes had long clouded over. It was blind.

  [Canine Proficiency] + 1

  A swift pounce, and its neck was latched. In another second, the most pitiable of howls escaped its throat, and the elderly wolf was dead soon after. Prospero resisted the urge to drink its freshly-tapped blood and moved on from the corpse, ducking between the shadows of the pines to protect himself from the bare sunlight.

  He could not stop to mourn every beast whose life he so selfishly took. Many more would follow, he knew - countless more - until his strength would rival Orlok’s. His Beasthood did well to suppress the dregs of shame lingering on the kill, though whether that was something to be proud of, he couldn’t help but wonder.

  One wolf meant others were nearby. A sprint across the forest earned Prospero new scent trails, cleaner and stronger than the last. He pushed through the scalding scrapes of light between shadows, wary of the attention his kill might have attracted. When he came face-to-face with the rest of the pack after minutes of scouting, his presence was met with snarls.

  Grade 1 Beast (Wolf)

  Grade 1 Beast (Wolf)

  Grade 1 Beast (Wolf)

  Every last one of them told him much the same. To those beasts, Prospero thought, he was merely an outsider. An intruder. If he turned tail and escaped, the pack would not pursue him. But he was no scavenger, as the deepening growls of his quarries seemed to comprehend. The wolves moved to surround him, and for a moment, the situation seemed deeply familiar. Among the pack were two younger pups trailing in the silhouette of their mother. Prospero’s twinge of hesitation presented an opportunity to the beasts, and one leapt, jaws primed to gouge his throat, from a melting snowdrift atop the landscape.

  Prospero ducked the lunge and sank his gums into the wolf’s throat from beneath, yanking it headfirst from the air to the floor. His stomach curdled when fur, skin, and muscle tore away like fabric in his mouth, just in time to feel a weight ramming into his flank, powerful enough to send him rolling across the ground. The first spark of conflict had lit a fire under every member of the pack, and they were now upon him like a whirlwind.

  Prospero was outnumbered, but he was faster than any one of those beasts. He was only [Grade 2] himself, but that single [1] made a tremendous difference in physical ability. He regained his footing and kept himself on the move to affect the pack’s hunting cohesion, using the pines as cover to break line of sight where possible. When one wolf inevitably grew frustrated with his sporadic movements, it would attack recklessly - and it was only in that moment, when Prospero had the upper hand for a fraction of a second, that he went for the kill.

  [Canine Proficiency] + 1

  …

  [Canine Proficiency] + 1

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  …

  [Canine Proficiency] + 1

  The pack thinned, and quickly, Prospero’s odds began to improve. Suddenly, he was the one on the offensive, picking out stragglers attempting to escape from the scrap and chasing them down before the others could catch up. Soon, stragglers were all that remained, and his prospects of victory had gone from contentious to assured.

  [Canine Proficiency] + 7

  Of course, he was by no means the ideal predator. By the time his hunt was over, patches of fresh blood were staining his fur - marks of glory left by the defeated to mark their passing. The last thing he wanted was to catch an infection in the middle of nowhere.

  No… I shouldn’t have to worry about that, he thought. Alto mentioned that Vampires have an innate ability to regenerate. He said that all I have to do is avoid further injuries for a minute or two…

  A pair of frenzied barks yanked his attention away from the stinging wounds. The two pups, paws painted with the pooling blood of their mother, had approached to make their defiance known. They were too frightened to attack, and so relied on aggression - their one and only defence - to seek another day of life.

  …I cannot bring myself to kill the young, no matter my circumstances, he thought. But they will die without a pack to care for them. Would I be condemning them to a worse fate by leaving these whelps to fend for themselves? Is it… my responsibility to take their lives?

  No other beast would have hesitated, but the fact remained that Prospero was no beast at heart. And yet, he had decided for himself to kill in spite of the young, and to condemn the pups to their fate. It was his mistake to rectify. But there was no room in his busy fate to care for wild animals, and he knew well enough that the pups would never forgive him for his cruelty.

  …

  [Canine Proficiency] + 2

  He could not tell for certain if a ‘quick death’ was in any way moral. Murder was murder, doubly so for a hunter who had no intention of consuming its prey. It was a strike of guilt against his conscience - and no doubt the first of many he would suffer on his terrible crusade.

  Let the ends justify the means…

  He repeated that mantra as if to assure himself of his own righteousness. But deeply, he knew that there was no such thing. It was a habit he would need to overcome if he wanted to emerge from his trials as the same man who escaped Innsworm.

  [Canine Proficiency - 15 / 15]

  I need to find an [Elite] now… and it needs to be at least [Grade 3]...

  Prospero’s powerful nose acted as a natural compass on his way across the endless taiga. If he encountered a familiar scent, he knew that the forest had turned him around. On his way to locate an [Elite], he took every opportunity to consume the essences of wild creatures who stumbled onto his path.

  [Lupine Proficiency - 5 / 5]

  [Rodent Proficiency - 5 / 5]

  [Highland Elk] Defeated

  [Hoofed Ruminant Proficiency] + 1

  [Hoofed Ruminant] Form Unlocked! (Aptitude - Unarmed)

  [Boilblood Lizard] Defeated

  [Reptile Proficiency] + 1

  [Reptile] Form Unlocked! (Aptitude - Bloodthirst)

  Bloodthirst, he considered the meaning of the term as he spat out the scaly flesh of the flat-faced critter beneath his paw. What does that do?

  Skill - Bloodthirst

  Description - Heightens sensitivity to the scent of blood.

  Low-Grade Abilities - Tracking creatures, identifying creatures from blood sources, etc.

  Mid-Grade Abilities - Healing from blood sources, purifying ingested blood sources, etc.

  High-Grade Abilities - Temporary enhancements to skills from blood sources.

  More useful that it sounds, he looked over the message. But it will be a while yet before I can reap any of the later rewards. All the more reason to find an [Elite] as quickly as possible.

  His train of thought was interrupted by a sound from beyond the pines; a landslide, or something very much like it, spooked a flock of crows resting on a nearby branch. When Prospero heard it a second time, he knew that it was no natural phenomenon, and found himself intrigued to learn the source.

  The air grew thick with the scent of sulphur on his way towards the commotion. He wrinkled his nose and stopped just shy of the treeline’s perimeter, where the land was too barren and bright for him to wander. Up the steady hill not far in the distance, something was rolling, tumbling about, its carapace studded with violet amethysts; chasing a feverish sprite in the air with lunges and gurgling from its bearded throat. It spat a fell globule of acid from its mouth, but the flickering light-thing remained evasive, and was soon hovering towards Prospero’s location.

  The reptile’s serpentine eyelids shuttered, and when its gaze passed by the wolf hiding in the trees, the System appeared to block Prospero’s vision.

  Miner’s Folly Lizard (Elite)

  Grade 3 Beast (Reptile)

  Physical Resistance - 35% Magical Resistance - 0%

  A gruff snarl escaped from his throat as he waved the notification away, only to find the lizard tumbling towards him from on high, gaining speed on its way down the hill. He waited until it was too close to redirect itself, then leaped out of the creature’s way. Great sheets of snow fell from a nearby tree when it bounced straight off the trunk and landed squarely on its stubby feet. Nestled beneath its armour of gemstones was a yellow, vulnerable underbelly.

  The ‘light’ was there too, though Prospero realised it was probably something like a fluorescent insect. It buzzed and fluttered around him as if seeking shelter. He shook himself off to dispel the bug and took a stance to prepare for the lizard’s next move.

  A tongue laced with sizzling spittle lashed out at him. When Prospero dodged, it curled towards him and attached itself to his flank. More powerful than the muscle seemed at first glance, he found himself being yanked forward and off-balance before the tongue retracted, leaving a burnt bruise where it landed. The lizard curled itself up and launched forward, shearing into Prospero’s flank with its crystalline hide. He was sent tumbling towards the edge of the treeline, pouncing back into the darkness once he regained his footing.

  That was a bad hit… I don’t want to imagine what my side looks like right now, he panted. Facing it head-on isn’t going to work. I need to find a way to knock it over…

  He was already formulating a plan in his head. With what little strength he could muster, Prospero sprinted deeper into the woods, making certain to keep himself well out of range of the lizard’s tongue. It was terribly fast in a roll, but quite pudgy and two-toed otherwise, and struggled to keep up with his pace.

  Here will work just fine, he thought to himself. I’ll only get one chance at this…