Chapter 7

Chapter 7

I slept quite soundly that night. After returning to the den and feasting on our kills, I think we were all feeling wiped out. I fell asleep almost instantly and had pleasant dreams of hunting more prey with my siblings.

I woke up first the following morning, lifting my head to look around. Lily was cuddled up to my back, while the rest were sprawled around the cave, Ben and Jerry messily overlapping each other in such a way I wasn’t sure who was on top of who.

Mom was snoring softly, lying near the mouth of the cave, and I decided now was a good time to check my status screen. With all the excitement of our first successful hunt last night, I completely forgot to take a moment to analyze the rewards for all my hard work.

Name: ???

Race: Hell Hound

Path: Veinseer Pup

Stage: 2

Level: 2

Body Development: 35%

Vitals

Health: 30 / 30

Mana: 50/ 50

Stamina: 50 / 50

Attributes

Strength: 6 (+2)

Dexterity: 9 (+2)

Vigor: 6 (+2)

Sense: 16 (+7)

Attunement: 10 (+4)

Active Skills

Pulse Sense LV 2

Passive Skills

Enhanced Smell LV1

Basic Fighting LV1

Traits

Predator’s Focus lvl 1

Bonus damage when attacking from stealth or targeting unaware enemies.

Camouflage lvl 1

Bonus to stealth when not moving.

Pack Bond lvl 1

You now gain experience from anything killed by a member of your pack during a hunt in which you are involved.

So first of all, my Sense went up a LOT. As I sniffed the air, I felt there was a bit more clarity of my surroundings than there was before. For example, I was quite aware of the discarded pile of bones from last night's dinner and, furthermore, knew there were probably some scrappy bits of meat left behind.

Attunement likewise had a nice jump, but I still wasn’t sure exactly what effects it had. I tried a quick experiment with {Pulse Sense}.

I did not sense anything at first, until I wondered again why I couldn’t sense my pack’s heartbeats. But as soon as I put my focus on them, the steady ba-dump of their hearts emerged. They all slept soundly with no disturbance or anxiety.

So, that was interesting. It seemed I did have some control over what Pulse Sense was directed at, whether that meant a member of my pack or prey. Or, maybe advancing the skill to level 2 is what allowed this new level of control?

In any case, the true purpose of my experiment was to check the effect on my mana. I was now at 40 out of 50. Since my maximum mana increased by twenty points after my stat gains, with attunement going up by 4, perhaps that meant each point of attunement resulted in a 5-point increase to maximum mana. Though, it would be disappointing if that is all attunement did, as that would be quite redundant.

Why have an attunement stat at all if it only influenced total mana? Perhaps it also made certain spells stronger? I hoped that was the case. I didn’t have any proper spells like Ben and Jerry yet, though.

I tried using {Pulse Sense} again. This time, I searched for prey but found nothing.

It made sense I had no increase to basic fighting, as I wouldn’t call what we did yesterday necessarily “fighting” any of our prey. Likewise, my play fighting with Luke has not seemed to increase it either, so I wonder if it would only increase if I fight something stronger than myself or a true danger.

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It was likewise no surprise that enhanced smell didn’t increase, as I had not thought to use my good ol’ natural sniffer in the way my siblings had when they were hunting. I thought again that I should be careful about not just relying on Pulse Sense and instead use other means to hunt prey from time to time.

Then I heard a yawn and looked over to see Iris getting up and stretching. Unlike the rest of us, she had been curled up slightly away from the pack. If any of us could be considered a loner, it would be her, but she was also one of the most caring of the pack. Whenever she saw I was in a bad mood or thought I should be eating more, she’d bring me food or comfort me. However, when there was nothing to tend to, she seemed perfectly content to find somewhere to sit alone and perhaps contemplate the universe.

Her white eyes shifted over to me as I stood up and stretched as well, then I walked over and gave a lick to the side of her face. Lily, no longer having my back to snuggle against, woke up next and followed me. I noticed she was getting more and more clingy with me lately, not that I minded!

***

Later that day, Mom took us out again. I spotted Dad high up on the cliffs, where he seemed to always perch himself so he could watch over things from a distance. I had to wonder what exactly he was watching out for. One of his heads was always looking up towards the sky, and the idea that something might be able to come after us from up there disturbed me.

Mom eventually led us down to the open area where we hunted rabbits yesterday, but she didn’t stop there this time. We continued past the bigrock andd the area where me and Lily did our digging until we sloped down another corner and went lower on the cliffside until we were actually under the trees and getting some of their shade, but not quite at ground level yet.

Soon we arrived at a wide-open grassy area. On one side was the mountain sloping upwards, on the other was a cliff, but tree branches hung over it, and I could imagine if you were a good climber you could disappear into those trees just by jumping from one branch to the next. Well, I certainly would never try that with my puppy legs, but maybe Iris could pull it off with her wings.

But the trees were clearly not our goal, or rather, our new hunting ground.

This grassy area was quite nice, with plenty of places our prey could be hiding out. Feeling excited, I went ahead and used {Pulse Sense}.

I was instantly overwhelmed with the many different heartbeats. I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to distinguish a specific one at first. But just like when I tried to focus on my family the night before, when I decided to only listen for the closest ones, the further away heartbeats faded.

I attempted to further distinguish a single heartbeat but did not seem able to do that. Though one thing I knew for sure is there would be plenty of prey for everyone here, assuming Ben and Jerry didn’t allow themselves to become too rambunctious.

Mom walked over to the cliff, where she found a nice spot of shade, and then just lay down. She returned our curious gazes with a nod of her head towards the grassy arena as if to say, “Go ahead. Have fun, kids.”

Luke was the first to bound out into the field. He was almost as bad as Ben and Jerry with his sense of tact, but him leading the way got them worked up as well as they chased after him. Ben snapped at his tail, seemingly forgetting that we were supposed to be hunting, not playing right now.

Iris let out an exhale, then began a running start before jumping and sprouting her wings; a single flap brought her a bit higher as she aimed for a tree branch that hung over the field.

Lily, of course, was right at my side, tongue hanging out the side of her mouth and looking at me expectantly.

I nodded forward. “Alright, I guess you’re with me.”

Luckily, this area was much, much bigger, and the three boys already got some distance on us, going far to the other end, where they were attacking every breeze that moved a patch of grass or fallen leaf.

I saw one rabbit get scared out of hiding, which Ben and Jerry shot fireballs at and missed. However, one of the fireballs splashing the ground in front of it caused it to slow in order to decide what direction to take, the hesitation being all Luke needed to pounce and give it a good shake.

I did not receive one of those kill messages from the system, so I suppose the Pack Bond skill only activates if I’m actively involved in the kill.

I looked up at Iris, who was now lying comfortably on the large tree branch, paws under her chin, perhaps understanding there was no rush and deciding to take her time on finding her kill.

But I had other plans.

I gave Lily a light ruff and nodded, activating my {Pulse Sense}, and began moving towards my first target.

I wanted to become powerful as fast as possible. That is one thing I think the boys were doing right, though they could use some strategy. More kills means more experience, more food and development, and more skills and level-ups.

Perhaps I had a slightly competitive side to me, as I did not want Luke to advance faster than myself. Though, this could also be considered self-preservation, because he was not one to hold back, and I would not be looking forward to our regular play sessions if he became too much stronger than me.

I crouched in the shadows of the trees, near the cliff, as I slowly approached the first thick patch of grass I saw. There were many fluttering heartbeats hidden there; they must have become alarmed from my brother’s initial excitement, but they must have felt safe in their thick grass coverage, as none became alarmed enough to run out. They were probably used to that being a safe place, and normally I’d agree with their reasoning. Of course, they probably were not used to a predator that could sense their heartbeat.

I continued into the grass, honing in on one particular heartbeat that got louder as I crawled in deeper.

Lily was right behind me, taking advantage of me breaking a trail through the grass for her. I wasn’t sure exactly what her Path benefitted her with yet. It seemed some kind of illusionary or trickster class, which I would try to think of how to utilize for our hunts. Since she did not use it yesterday, I suspected she wasn’t sure how to benefit from it yet, either.

Though I knew my siblings were intelligent, even the more rambunctious ones who did not think things through ahead of time. Perhaps they did not have sentient human thought patterns as I had, but that didn’t mean they were not smart.

In fact, you could consider animals even smarter than humans in some ways, as even in my world they had a way of communicating without proper language and just knew how to work as a team.

There was another heartbeat nearby, which was much slower. Likely a different creature than a rabbit, as it was slower than even a calm rabbit, but I decided not to worry about that for now.

My target’s heartbeat was becoming loud enough; I knew I was right upon it and stopped in my tracks.

Comflague level up! 1 > 2

+1 Attunement

+1 Dexterity

Ah, that’s a nice bonus before even getting my kill. But still gotta stay focused, I—

Lily suddenly let out a nervous whine. It was low in her throat but enough to make my target make a run for it and dash through the grass.

Darn it Lilly!

I ran after the heartbeat, parting the grass in front of me overtop of my prey’s trail as it tried to escape. Soon, I could see the fluffy white ball of a tail, and that motivated me to charge through the grass even harder.

The rabbit suddenly stopped, slipping to a stop like the one who avoided Ben’s fireball, and I wasted no time in nailing him.

I grabbed the back of its neck and shook it hard.

Prey Eliminated - Lvl 1 Rabbit

Experience gained.

Ha! This is easy! Too bad I didn’t level up, but I wondered why it suddenly…

I froze as a low hissing sound brought my eyes up, and I then became more aware of that second, slower heartbeat that was now so loud it was drowning out my hearing.

Two red eyes on a green scaly face stared at me from a mere foot away. The snake rising and tensing, with a cold murderous look as its tongue flicked out in little bursts.

It’s heartbeat is what truly disturbed me, though. It had no fear, and just as I realized we’d have to make a run for it, it lashed at my face.