Chapter 18

  Danny quickly retrieved his staff from the tent. Adrenaline washed away the general pain and dizziness he had felt. However, Danny could tell that he wasn’t at 100 percent. He moved toward the two wolves. They seemed to be locked into a battle for dominance. It reminded Danny of two aggressive dogs who happened upon each other on a walk or at the dog park. First, they began posturing, and if one didn’t back down, it could get violent. Danny could tell that neither would be backing down. Luckily for him, he remembered what he had done to “cure” the first wolf and was intent on doing it again. Using his Qi to “reach out,” Danny tried to find a way to grab hold of the Dreadwolf as he had before. The monster was a wild will of destruction left unchecked. It lashed out at him in manic bloodlust. Danny tried to set his Qi aboil and Purify it, but this one was not on the verge of death like the other.

  The Dreadwolf charged past Danny’s ally and sought to snuff out the source of the energy that was antithetical to itself. Danny had to abort his attempt to defend himself. He swatted the monster on the snout when it tried to bite him. Danny dodged another. The Direwolf, Danny’s companion, sunk its teeth into the monster’s flank and pulled it away slightly. The two engaged each other. Out of nowhere, a little orange fox flew through the air and clamped down on the monster’s ear, tearing half of it off its head. With the monster preoccupied, Danny again began to channel purifying energy toward it.

  The monstrous wolf howled. Its hulking black body spasmed. A hateful stare bore daggers at Danny, but he continued to assault the monster with his Qi. Howling intensified as the monster began to desperately try to get to Danny. It was a maelstrom of teeth, claws, and bloody fur. Danny’s two animal allies were able to harry the monster enough that it could not get to him. The melee lasted for what seemed like an eternity. All three of the beasts began to pile on the injuries. Then, the monster faltered. The Dreadwolf began to move sluggishly and that marked the beginning of the end. Soon, the monster was a twitching heap on the ground, white foam leaking from its mouth, its eyes an unresponsive white. It was dead.

  Danny frowned as the fox hobbled over. Why didn’t that work? Poor Indy was punching way above his weight class in that fight and had paid the price for it. “Good job Indy.” The fox perked his ears up at the praise. Having a larger friend around seemed to make him braver, or maybe he just didn’t want to be upstaged. Then there was the wolf. It had scored a nasty cut below the eye, but stared stoically at Danny as if it was waiting to be addressed. “I guess you need a name too, huh?” It would get pretty confusing just calling it wolf all the time, especially when they moved to take on the nest. “Are you a boy or a girl?” Danny moved to check.

  I am female. The husky feminine voice in Danny’s head caused him to whip around. There was no one around him. Indy was sniffing the dead monster and Aspen was watching from afar.

  “Who said that?” The wolf continued to make eye contact with Danny.

  I did.

  “No way. A talking wolf?” Danny looked over toward the fox. “Indy, can you talk?” The fox raised its head from where it had been digging into the Dreadwolf, its white muzzle now stained red. Indy cocked his head in his curious way before resuming his meal. “Guess not.”

  The pup is too young. Until Level 50 it won’t be able to communicate.

  “But you are Level 9, what do you know about being Level 50?’

  I— The wolf made an expression that looked like squinting, struggling to grasp something out of reach. I don’t know. I do know, but I don’t know how… Danny took a careful look at the wolf. The way it acted was uncanny somehow, he didn’t like it, but for better or for worse, they were Bonded now, a package deal.

  “Okay. Let’s go with Ash.” Ash’s coat reminded Danny of a campfire that had long since gone out. As surprising as having a talking wolf as his newest Bond was, Danny was even more concerned by what had happened with the Dreadwolf. He hadn’t done a whole lot differently. In fact, Danny had been much more prepared and on top of the whole process, but this time the monster died instead of reverting to a tamed beast form. There was too much that he didn’t know. If Danny wanted to go against the grain and actually find a better way, then he would have to get serious.

  “Aspen, tell me everything about monsters. I have to know.” Danny called out to the guide behind him. His voice was firm, serious. There was a steely confidence to it that Danny had lacked for… most of his life, really.

  “We’ve been over this, there are some things that you aren’t ready for.”

  “If I wait until I am magically ready then it will be too late. I have to learn what I can, either from you, or the hard way.”

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  The guide half-smirked. “Very well.”

  From there, Danny’s monster studies began. Aspen told of the fundamental forces of the Multiverse. Qi, which was present in all living things, powered the System and the various skills and superhuman abilities of the Multiverse’s cultivators and Levelers alike. And Corruption. Corruption was the yang to Qi’s yin. It usurped Qi and perverted it into something it had not been before. Qi can survive on its own, but Corruption needed a host, needed something to feed on. Corruption was what monsters were made of. Corruption was the thing that Danny was Purifying when he used the skill on the Dreadwolves. Corruption was an integral part of a monster, as necessary as blood, and when Danny took that away with nothing to replace it, the monster died. That was mostly conjecture, though. Topics like this were strictly regulated by most Factions. Even the cultivator Sects didn’t disseminate this kind of information.

  As for why his first attempt had worked and the second hadn’t, Aspen wasn’t sure. Their leading theories were that it had something to do with either the Necklace of Rejuvenation, that had been destroyed in the process, or the Bond that Danny had formed with Ash. Bonds weren’t something that could be forced, so if that was the difference, there might be only a small subsection of monsters that were actually able to be saved. That had been disheartening to hear, but Danny focused on testing if the healing magic of the necklace had been the root cause of success. The only problem was, Danny didn’t have any backup healing artifacts. None of the manuals from the temple had any information on healing either, apparently that was something reserved for recruiting done later in the Integration. Danny was beginning to see how the powers-that-be would dangle the carrot to get the most talented of the Integration to join up.

  Danny also questioned Aspen on how Ash seemed to have memories that she shouldn’t. That led into a whole conversation on reincarnation. Apparently, when a monster died it would be reincarnated as another monster. Same with sentient species. Corrupted souls stayed corrupted and, if they died a violent death, previously pure souls could become corrupted as well. The guide indicated that there was an ever growing population of monsters across the Multiverse, hence the Integrations being needed to keep them in check. Danny wondered if this was fact or some sort of System-based religion, but Aspen seemed convinced of its veracity.

  The conversations were a massive information dump. Danny almost wished he had listened when Aspen had said to wait until he was ready, but he needed to sort through this sooner rather than later. He wanted to have an action plan for dealing with the Dreadwolf pack. Living in fear of an ambush in the night was beginning to drain on him. They already sent one to investigate, who knows how many they will send next time? Danny reasoned. All that to say, this was important to Danny. He dove into his studies like a madman, his waking moments consumed with thoughts and theories on how or why his interaction with Ash had been so successful. Then, there was his cultivation.

  It was like Danny was a new man. When he cultivated, it felt like the world was practically forcing Qi upon him. Breaking through within the week was a foregone conclusion, that was the extent of the windfall he had found. A fraction of the time was needed to complete cultivating sessions as well, meaning that Danny was able to spend more time considering his pet project. He also began to revisit the Body Pillar, although not as frequently as before. Danny was also careful to limit the time he spent inside the Dream World to prevent unnecessary damage and drain on the Pillar itself. He also found himself looking forward to recovering the other two Pillars. With how much he had grown from the one he had access to, Danny was certain that his progress would skyrocket with the full set.

  The only part of Danny’s arsenal that went untrained were his companions. Danny had no idea where to even start with them. Ash seemed wise and would play-fight with Indy, but Danny didn’t know the first thing about animal training, especially when it came to battle. Aspen was at a loss as well. That was yet another thing added to the increasingly long list of “I don’t knows.” At some point, the Factions and Sects would begin sending representatives and recruiters to Earth in an event called “The First Wave.” Danny should be able to fill the gaps in his knowledge then, according to Aspen. Danny got the feeling that he was even more frustrated than Danny at not having answers. Although, for him it was a pride thing.

  Another attack came. This time three Dreadwolves. They had come after a day had passed since the earlier scout came sniffing around. Instead of trying to use Purify on the monsters while his Bonds held them off, Danny took an active role in the fight. Once they were beaten down, Danny began his work. It was not pretty. There was a moment when Danny wondered if it would be kinder to kill them quickly instead of making them endure this seemingly agonizing process. However, if the reincarnation thing was right, wouldn’t a chance at a non-monstrous life be better than an eternity stuck in a prison of uncontrollable rage and destructive impulses? Danny wasn’t sure, but this way felt like he was pursuing something good and not mindlessly enforcing the status quo.

  After the attack, Danny broke through. Even Aspen was visibly astonished by the pace. Now that the Gate of Sight was open, Danny could see the Qi around him. He saw the ephemeral aura of Indy. The blood-red, dense, hard aura of his guide. Ash had an aura of twilight. One part was steadfast, unwavering, but it held a darkness under the surface. Danny couldn’t really see his own Qi. It was like scent-blindness. He had grown so used to it that the only thing he could determine was that it was his own. He could see how the Qi in the air changed as it rose into the sky, the way that the copse of dead trees the Pillars resided was different than the lush pine forest further out. Now, there was only one gate left. The Divine Gate.

  With only three weeks left of the Tutorial, Danny was certain that he would have it open by the end. Due to the nature of the impurities joining with blockages of the other gates once they had been broken up, the Divine Gate was the hardest to open. It also provided the most sizable leap in power. Bordering on the external world and Danny’s internal one, the Divine Gate’s opening would allow him to even more easily manipulate the Qi around him. He would draw in more, move it around easier, and even be able to push his own Qi outside his body in a more elegant manner. Danny already had a talent for Qi manipulation along with a skill to show for it, but Aspen assured him that he would see massive changes in his ability. But there was still one major obstacle he would have to face before then: the Dreadwolf nest.