Jason’s POV

After making initial plans with the party about how they’d approach situations Jason decided it was time to start heading west. If we believe that the map is aligned with the cardinal directions then it’s the west. Fat chance of that though. Before they left Selene had tried to stuff him into some normal clothes. All Jason had responded with was to beat his fist against his wolf pelted chest and tell her that there was nothing more glorious than a wolf's pelt. Jason had gotten irrationally attached to his wolf outfit even though there were drastically better options.

The entire party had sacks on their backs as they were walking. Jason was right in that Selene wanted to bring most of her poisons, her cauldron, and the soulbound Suit of the Debonair. We need to find a use for that thing. Maybe Caleb wants to wear it? I’ll ask him later. So Jason was carrying Selene’s cauldron on his back, Selene was carrying the Suit of the Debonair, and Caleb was carrying the tents and bedrolls on his back. Everything else Jason had managed to fit into his spatial pendant.

They were just walking through the woods letting Jason guide them to wolves so that they could practice their tactics against easier opponents. The hardest part of the entire fight was just finding a place to put down their loads to start the battle. Right now Jason was leading them to a group of wolves that he heard ahead of him.

“How’re you hearing them? You don’t have a skill in the Hearing skill tree and I do, but I can’t hear them. I can only hear the wind and the faint creaking of branches.” Selene was walking behind him to his right just as they planned with Caleb a bit further behind her to his left. Jason just kept walking as he responded to her.

“It’s the music. The wolves’ songs have violins mostly with the occasional dramatic and deep beat of the drum. So I just listen for that sound and follow it. There's a bit less violin and the addition of some soft rebab in this one, but I’m pretty sure it’s still a wolf. What a weird choice of instrument though took me a minute to figure out what it was.” Jason paused and tilted his head. “I was an avid fan of musical instruments and how they worked. The music itself was ehh I just really liked to figure out the different instruments for different cultures. Only nerdy thing I ever did. I also may have had to do a thesis on the subject” Jason responded as if he thought they asked that or that they were at least wondering. Jason was walking in front of everyone else so he didn’t see Selene turn to Caleb who responded with simply shrugging his shoulders.

“Even after a week or two I still can’t make sense of that answer…” Selene whispered to herself so quietly that no one else could hear.

After a few more seconds of walking, Jason stopped and climbed up one of the nearest trees setting his pack down on one of the thickest branches. With practiced efficiency, Jason climbed halfway down the tree and caught the bags thrown to him by the other two in the group. He put them right by his own sack. Then he climbed back down.

Nodding to Caleb he brought his hands together and squatted with his back against the tree trunk. Caleb took a few running steps and put his foot in Jason’s hands. Jason then threw as Caleb jumped and got him to the lower branches of the tree. From there Jason crouched and moved forward slowly allowing Caleb to follow from the trees. Selene let herself lag behind at ten or so meters as she followed Jason on the ground.

Jason slowly crept forward until he eventually saw the wolves with his eyes. They looked different than the normal wolves they fought. Jason saw why when his annoying inspection skill kicked in.

Level 24 Desert Coyote

Level 20 Desert Coyote (x2)

Level 19 Desert Coyote (x3)

Level 3 Desert Coyote

There’s a baby. It was a small thing, barely a foot tall on all fours. Instead of the sandy brown coats the rest of the coyotes seemed to have, the baby had a pure white coat. Well, I guess that means we’re getting close to the blank spot and apparently it’ll be a desert. Jason stopped and prepared to rush into the middle of them all. He fully trusted his luck to do its work and as long as his teammates stayed ten meters away he could activate his Aura with no issue. Let’s try to not kill the baby though.

Right before Jason could even move the lead Coyote growled deeply and loudly. All the other coyotes including the baby stood up and got on the defensive. Yet the highest leveled coyote immediately barked softly and nudged the baby with his snout multiple times which knocked it off balance. After the baby whined the adult coyote did it again and the baby dashed straight through the underbrush and left the fight. At least in Jason’s mind.

Apparently, Selene and Caleb agreed with him as the baby wasn’t shot by poison nor arrow. With the baby out of the equation and the coyotes on obvious alert Jason unsealed his Aura. Out of a bush, a few meters to the right of Jason a coyote leaped right at him trying to tear his throat out with their teeth. Jason was already crouched so all he did was lean to the side and send a fist into the throat of the offending animal.

Letting out a yelp, that particular level nineteen coyote was knocked to the side, but before Jason or anyone could capitalize on it being down all the other coyotes sprung into action. How the hell did they sense us so quickly. We’re still fifty meters away and how the hell did I not sense that one? Shit. The seven coyotes, including the one that was hidden, had surrounded Jason and were trying to whittle him down. Jason had been avoiding and taking hits for about five seconds before he decided to check his health and stamina.

Health

84/ 100

5 hp / hour

Stamina

75 / 100

80 sp / hour

It’s been five fucking seconds! Why the hell am I already a fourth stamina down. I need more stamina dammit. Am I going to even survive this? Once I’m out of stamina I’m dead. Jason’s worries were completely unfounded as an arrow came from the trees and took down the coyote that snuck attack Jason at the beginning. Then directly after that two dark green balls hit the two level twenty coyotes one after the other.

The first hit did nothing but not even a second later the coyotes starting whimpering and five seconds after that the coyotes were completely decomposed, starting from where they were hit, as if they were dead for days. I forgot how broken those two are. Squishy yes but also… broken in terms of offense. Caleb a bit less so. Jason didn’t know this but he was technically only slightly less squishy than Selene. Caleb was essentially a piece of paper compared to the two of them with Selene being some sort of poster board and Jason being cardboard. Once Jason started to stack into Endurance though that would change rapidly.

Three down and four to go. This really isn’t fair with little miss Selene sh---FUCKING TEETH! Jason ducked underneath a coyote’s jaw as the alpha coyote attempted to give Jason’s neck a love bite. During that time one of the remaining three level nineteens took an arrow to the front leg which broke said leg. Crippled and crawling the coyote didn’t last long before another arrow in the neck took it out of its misery.

As Jason slugged it out with the alpha coyote one of the two remaining coyotes dashed as fast as it could towards Selene. It made it about two steps before a light green mist appeared in front of it. The coyote dug its paws into the ground to stop before it hit the mist sensing the danger within it. Jason was going to jump and try to land on it while sending a punch to knock it down, but before he could put the plan into action a thin dark dirty green spear shot through the mist and hit the coyote’s chest.

The spear simply splashed apart as it hit the coyote spreading the poison around its body. This coyote unlike its brethren who suffered torture for an entire five seconds died a second into the poison’s effect. The fur and meat melted and fell from the skeleton practically instantaneously. I guess the spear is much stronger although I was expecting a thicker spear. Jason dodged a dive by the alpha coyote and sent a punch through the eye of the last level nineteen killing it.

The alpha coyote didn’t last that long until it was killed by either an arrow coated in darkness, a poison spear, or a fist to its face. That last one was most likely not the cause of death. Either way, though the alpha died swiftly leaving a heavily breathing Jason, a calm and collected Selene, and Caleb who was now trying to get down from the trees.

Health

32 / 100

5 hp / hour

Stamina

46 / 100

80 sp / hour

What the hell… that fight lasted about ten to fifteen seconds if that and I’m already this low on health and stamina. I need to boost those stats and quickly. Maybe I should stack into those when I level up. Jason stood up tall and started to feel his broken and bleeding body. Let’s take stock. Ribcage… one broken rib halfway down the right side. Arms… mostly fine but have multiple cuts across forearms and one nasty one of the left arm that cut an inch or two deep. Legs… I can see my right shinbone but other than that I’m fine. Skin in general… scarred and bloody just how it normally is post fights. Jason took out a wolf heart and gobbled it down letting the boost in health regeneration get him back to full in three or so hours. Until then he’d just have to live with it.

“Well just like we do with the wolves let’s find us a coyote that isn’t completely melted by your poison, Selene. Also after a bit more than two weeks on your bastardized calendars, we have finally reached that blank area on the map. From now on we move into new and exciting territory. God, I’m getting excited!” Jason was ecstatic about the opportunity to discover and roam around this world he found himself in. He would never know if it was his mental strength or something else, but Jason had been able to take this world in stride and adapt to it quickly. Almost completely forgetting about his life on Earth in the process or at least almost completely forgetting about his friends and family on Earth very very few as they may have been.

“Jason you have multiple broken b-bones and multiple parts of your skin that are just clearly ripped off, sit down and r-rest until you’re fully healed,” Caleb ordered as he dangled from the lowest branch he could find. Jason waved him off and started to search the coyotes. One level nineteen and two level twenties died directly to Selene so those three were worth nothing in terms of meat or pelt. Who’d want to eat meat that was in contact with acidic poison even if it wasn’t already melted? The alpha was hit by poison so even if it didn’t die to Selene it was equally worthless. That left the level nineteen that Jason killed and the two that Caleb killed.

“Alright go back and get our stuff and then set up camp. You two should be ok because I’m not hearing anything.” Jason’s ability to listen to music was limited to where that creature had been in the past day or two and where they were currently. Yet even then he found that he could hear the music of creatures from a hundred meters away albeit very faint. When he was tracking the coyotes what he was really doing was tracking the trail the coyotes had made before they had rested to let the little one recover stamina. Once he was within range though he could faintly hear them which is how Jason and his group had tracked them down.

Selene and Caleb went together to go get the sacks. Caleb will have to find a way to climb the tree and get those sacks. They’ll be thirty or so minutes because of the cauldron so I have time. Jason unhurried, starting dragging the three good coyotes away from the rest. Then he did what Baghric had taught him and shoved a knife he got from his pendant into the belly of the animal and gutted it. Pulling guts and organs out of the creature and pooling it all in one spot to later be burned by one of Caleb’s fire arrows.

When Jason got to the heart he found that he had an urge to eat it. Not a strong one but a very faint urge to eat it. Just like at the beginning with the wolves. Odd… they were pretty much the exact same as the wolves just a bit weaker in terms of defenses. Why would my body want their hearts? No… it’s not a strong urge. Maybe it’s that they have a very slight bit of something my body wants. Jason brought it to his mouth and was about to take a bite. Then he thought better of it. Why eat a weak version of whatever my body wants when I can just find a monster with something my body really wants. Much better if I do say so myself.

Pleased with his intellect Jason put the heart down in the “to be burned” pile and continued gutting and skinning the rest of the coyotes.