The Calling of Wrath - Chapter 4 - Mission Cleared

                                                        Cassandra
                                      Year ???? | Month ?? | Day ??

I stare at the System note for a several seconds before it disappears and another one appears in its place with the same colored text as the [Random Item Draw] thingy in the last note. Except this System note is different in that it only looks like half of a System note, with three circles on the bottom, each alternately growing bigger and smaller.

My thoughts pause as the circles stop alternating and the other half of the System note appears after them.

Direwolf’s… pelt?

I glance from the note to the direwolf’s body and back to the note again.

All of that work for a pelt and some EXP?

Actually…

Once the note vanishes, I mentally call out ‘status’, causing my status to appear before me.

124 EXP? Not 100?

Is the 24 extra EXP from simply killing the direwolf in the first place?

I narrow my eyes at the status before shaking my head and focusing on the plus, causing the status ‘note’ to change.

And that might be a little too difficult for a lot of the common folk to calculate.

Especially in the other two nations.

The math aside though, what am I supposed to do?

Should I answer the question in my head or out loud?

I frown at the note before deciding to just go ahead and try doing it in my head first.

Assign 10 EXP to leveling up.

Several seconds pass with nothing happening.

Guess doing it in my head doesn’t work, so…

“Assign 10 EXP to leveling up,” I speak out loud, and as soon as I do, a strange warmth spreads throughout my body.

I almost let out a moan at how comfortable the feeling is, but I manage to stop myself before it begins to fade away. And once it does fade, another System note replaces the level-up one.

Oh? That’s not bad for just 10 EXP.

Did that mission give me such a high reward because of the danger in completing it? Or are all missions like that?

Although the 24 EXP from defeating the level 6 I can understand, seeing as it’s five levels above me. Or at least, it was five levels above me.

Suddenly, another howl echoes through the Dark Forest, followed by another one, causing a chill to run down my spine.

I look around for a few seconds before slowly trying to get up, only to fail and fall back down on my back.

Shit. This isn’t good.

How to not become direwolf chow…

The System note suddenly changes back to the status screen again, and the plus symbol attracts my attention.

Hmm, that’s not a bad idea.

After leveling myself up to level 5, I finally manage to climb to my feet, albeit with several wounds still open and bleeding.

Too bad leveling up doesn’t heal me.

Also, too bad that the Random Item Draw thing didn’t give me something to heal myself with.

I glare at the direwolf for a second while contemplating on whether or not to kick it before turning and slowly lumbering my way towards the river instead.

It would be troublesome if I fell down and couldn’t get back up after kicking it. Best to leave it there and come back later to kick it.

Assuming it hasn’t become direwolf chow by then since I’m pretty sure they’re cannibals towards their dead.

With my thoughts of revenge against the already-dead doggo swirling around in my head, I continue lumbering my way towards the river.

That direwolf probably had a den somewhere around this area. Probably.

And the best place for it is near water. Especially in a place like the Dark Forest, where having the wrong creature catching your scent can easily lead to your death.

It takes me – according to the countdown on the class thing – about seven minutes just to stumble my way down to the river, and another five to find the nice and not-so-comfy cave that the direwolf had likely been calling its home.

At least, if the shed fur lying about on a particular corner of the cave is anything to go by.

Then again, it could be the fur of a different direwolf, and I could be dead by the time I wake up.

Either way, I manage to lumber my way to a corner of the cave before finally losing my strength and falling to the ground.

Then everything goes dark.

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                                        Back at the direwolf’s corpse

The sound of sniffing can be heard as several direwolves begin to slowly enter the clearing while closing in on the dead direwolf’s corpse. However, right as they make it about halfway through the clearing, a young-looking man in a black and gray outfit walks into the clearing.

His outfit has a similar appearance towards the armor of the ‘old man’ who had saved Cassandra, except with a different symbol on his shoulder, and a different color scheme entirely.

The direwolves all turn to look at the man in surprise before snarling and preparing to attack.

‘Direwolves?’ the man thinks with a faint frown without showing any signs of concern. ‘So what they said is true after all. There are monsters in these woods…’

His thoughts trail off as he notices the dead direwolf, along with the faint black and red sparks of energy that are still there on its neck, despite them noticeably fading.

“Oh?” he mutters before activating a skill and teleporting over to the corpse right as the pack of direwolves jumps at him, leaving them all to smack into each other instead. “This is much more interesting than those little pups.”

The direwolves continue to growl in anger, except with a mixture of confusion added in this time as they look at the man.

‘This feels like…’ he begins, only to pause as his eyes widen in surprise. ‘Sin energy!’

Out of nowhere, the man suddenly lets out a loud laugh with a bright smile on his face. He then turns to look at the direwolves, then at the faint trail of blood leading from the corpse.

‘Interesting,’ he thinks, the smile on his face continuing to grow wider, ‘very, very interesting.’

The man then waves his hand, causing a faint blue light to shine from them on both himself and the blood trail, causing both to disappear, leaving the direwolves in utter confusion. It isn’t until several minutes later that they all finally begin to walk over towards the corpse again.

Meanwhile, in the cave, that very same man can be seen looking at Cassandra’s unconscious body with a contemplative look on his face.

‘The Sin is still in a humanoid form?’ he thinks to himself while scratching his chin. ‘That takes Gluttony, Sloth, and Greed out of the picture…’

He then begins to walk towards her with his eyes scanning over her body, lingering for a second on her red and black claws.

‘The black color likely means it’s either Wrath or Pride, but with the red added in…’ the man’s thoughts continue before he stops right in front of her and nods his head. ‘She must be Wrath.’

The man then chuckles quietly to himself while pulling out a bottle from a small bag – one seemingly even smaller than the bottle itself – and pouring it all over the woman’s body. He then reaches down to touch her back before letting his MP slowly trickle into her outfit, causing her clothing to begin to repair itself as whatever liquid that was in the bottle slowly heals all of her injuries.

“Looks like one of the New Earth Alliance’s Sins got away,” the man mutters to himself with a smile. ‘And considering how much effort and money they put into finding that Heart of Sin, they won’t be happy about it.’

“But,” he whispers out loud while crouching down next to her, “what to do about you now?”

‘I don’t really want to drag an innocent local into the planes’ conflicts…’ he thinks without taking his eyes off of her still-unconscious form, ‘but if I leave her here, she’ll likely die.’

After several seconds pass by with the only sound being that of the running river outside the cave, a playful smile suddenly spreads across the man’s face.

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Table of Contents

For those of you who can't read the images:

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[Random Item Draw]

Now selecting a random Tier 1 item. Please wait.

o O o

Congratulations! You have obtained a Direwolf’s Pelt!

This item can be used in crafting armor and will be temporarily stored in your System Item Storage for a period of 72 hours!

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Name: Cassandra de Luna

Species: Embodiment of Wrath +

Level: 1

Class: N/A [To be assigned in 1 hour, 15 minutes, and 32 seconds]

EXP: 124

Talent/s: True Body, Attuned(46%)

PHYS: STR – 2.1, DEX – 2.4, RES – 2.0

MENTAL: INT – 2.5, WIS – 2.4, MP – 20

Skills

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Note: As this is your first time visiting this screen, the EXP needed to level up for each level can be calculated using the following formula: (10*(n^T)) – n = current level of the individual – T = current tier of the individual

Leveling your species up from level 1 to level 2 will require a total of 10 EXP.

How much EXP would you like to assign to your species?

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Congratulations! You have reached level 2!

Because you do not have a class as of yet, you will only receive the basic stats from this level-up as of right now.

STR – 2.1 -> 2.2

DEX – 2.4 -> 2.5

RES – 2.0 -> 2.1

INT – 2.5 -> 2.6

WIS – 2.4 -> 2.5

MP – 20 -> 21

You will receive the class-based stats when you receive your class.

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