Chapter 5

Is that the wolf's voice!? It's deep, deeper than I thought. I didn't even think they could talk…! But how can I trust this wolf? He's awfully suspicious, sending his allies to kill me but suddenly he's not going to harm me because I killed them. At least, that's what I think anyway.

"How can I trust you?" I respond.

"I'll eat the corpse of my dead ally," he simply says. I widen my eyes at that. My body relaxes though. No normal being would eat the corpse of their dead ally. What a way to say that you're on my side…

"Okay," I say. "Do it right now."

The wolf nods his head. He walks over to one of the corpses, then chews off the head first. Even though I'm used to blood and dead animals, I cover my ears and close my eyes as he feasts on the corpse. I'm not… good with this specific thing.

After a few minutes, I feel a wet nose on the back of my head. I whip around and bring my stone out of instinct, but it was just the wolf. I see him bowing his head, quite solemnly.

"What's your name?" I ask with a shaky voice. I place all of my stones back into my inventory. I have a feeling he won't harm me.

"My name… I am not given one," he answers. I raise my eyebrow. "But, I am willing to become a servant of you. Someone powerful enough to eradicate my pack…"

"I… I don't know how to respond to that. How do you know that I won't kill you?"

"You've already shown me enough mercy. I think it wise to ally with you and become your servant. You've shown great perseverance and intelligence, things that I look for in allies. I also want you to be the one to solve the problem that's been plaguing the Dire Cave Wolves ever since a few years ago."

So, he's a Dire Cave Wolf? How interesting… But, what is a servant? And what problem are they facing? I'll have to ask the wolf.

Fully trusting him, I squeeze through the narrow entrance and fully show myself to the wolf. I stare at him as we both scan each other, seeing if we'll attack.

"I won't hurt you too," I say. "But, please answer my question."

"Go ahead."

"What do you mean when you want to become my servant? Is it a literal meaning, or is it something else?"

"For a human, I'd expect you to know…" I physically jerk back as a way to show my slight annoyance. Did he just call me… stupid!? "But, if I become your servant, then that means our souls will bond together and I'll have to serve under you forever until your will dies."

"My will…?"

"A will is the driving force of why people stay alive and continue to work. Your will is still weak at this point, most likely, but I'm sure it will grow very powerful later in your life."

What the wolf is saying is true, I think. But he's at least making me rethink why I'm here in the first place, and why I'm still here now. I have to temporarily set this aside though. The matter here is more important.

"So, if I agree that you'll be my servant, you won't betray me?" I respond. The wolf nods his head. "Alright. I'll do it. So how do we do this?"

A piece of paper appears before me, glowing with a bright light, almost blinding me because of my night vision. It temporarily turns off by itself, but it turns back on when the paper simply floats in the air, the glow outlining the paper. A red quill appears beside it in the air.

"Sign this," the wolf explains. "Once you have signed it, our souls will become much closer and bond. If it bonds with perfect success, we'll gain more power and I'll become your servant. But if it fails, then we'll get weaker and I won't become your servant."

"What if it's just okay?" I ask, carefully taking hold of the quill.

"Then nothing positive nor negative will happen. I'll still become your servant, of course."

I gulp. I'm starting to rethink my decision, but I already agreed to everything. At least I'll gain a reliable ally from now on. With a surge of confidence, I sign the bottom of the contract, spelling my entire name in incredibly messy cursive.

"Man, it would've been great if we gained that perfect success," I sigh. Me and Ace (I named the wolf) sit near the fire as I cook up the bats. "Can you eat these by the way?"

"Us Dire Cave Wolves are not immune or resistant to the toxin," he explains. "But our bodies break down the meat and remove the toxin. The toxin gets out through…"

"Yeah, please don't tell me," I already knew what he was going to say. But that answers my question just fine, so I'm okay with it.

I start cooking the meat as I usually do, with my hands holding the slab of stone with the meat on top. I activate Adapt as my hands touch the fire. It's still very painful, I even winced when my hands go on fire, but it's all to level up my fire resistance. Ace gasps with shock, running up to me but I bring my arms away from the fire.

"Ace!" I exclaim. "It's dangerous! Don't go near the fire when I'm cooking!"

"Master, it's much more dangerous letting your fingers go on fire," he deadpanned. "I would rather not let you have burnt hands."

"Oh, it's okay!" I assure him. "I have a special skill called 'Adapt,' where I can adapt to any situation. Turns out that when I activate Adapt in certain situations like this, I gain a resistance slash, a new skill. I'm leveling up my fire resistance, so I would like it if you were to not bother my training."

"Amazing!" His eyes lit up a bit. "Is that how you survived the bites of my allies? We are known for biting through steel, but I was surprised that you were able to survive."

"Jesus…" I say. "No wonder why my biting resistance became so high immediately."

Once I was done with the meat, I gave most of the meat to Ace and little for me. I need Ace to stay strong, so I'll give him the majority until I find another way to gain food.

"Master," he refers to me. Ace said that servants will always call the person they serve a nickname that's among the lines of "My Lord," "Liege," and "Master." I told him that he doesn't have to do that, but he insisted on using Master for me. I just let him because I knew it was a futile effort. "You need nutrition as well. I would like to-"

"Please don't do that," I sigh. "I'm fine with the food I have. I just want you to become strong, so feeding you a lot of food will do that, yes?"

"... You are correct," Ace nods. Good, it seems he understands. "But I would like to deny this meat."

"JUST TAKE THE MEAT!" I yell at him.

"How'd you even gain the ability to talk anyway?" I ask Ace. It was the next day, and I just got done killing a ton of bats. "Those other wolves didn't talk at all."

"Being the leader of the pack immediately makes you have the ability to talk in the language of the humans," he explains. "I always thought it was a useless skill, but it seems I was incorrect. I still have much to learn."

We take the bats to the base. I talk to Ace about my current plans since I've gained the few bodies of the wolves.

"With your permission, am I allowed to make items with the bodies of the Dire Cave Wolves?" I ask him. I expect both answers, so nothing will surprise me.

"I may have to look away, but you may certainly do," he says.

"Don't worry, if you're uncomfortable, I'll let you hunt more bats. I promise I'll be done by the time your back," I reassure him. He simply nods and walks off. I take a deep breath and open my inventory. The corpses appear in front of me. Four dead wolves. It's certainly enough to make suitable items for survival.