The wolf’s corpse levitated and a jet black cloth started wrapping around it. The cloth was a shiny silk like texture and it appeared seemingly out of nowhere. Once the wolf was fully engulfed by the cloth it began to spin rapidly. It was only a few seconds before it came to a complete halt. A ding Sound rang in my ears and a robotic voice said “Revival, Successful.” Suddenly the cloth began to unravel and reveal the wolf.

His fur was a bright silver under his belly and a matte black everywhere else. Other than his fur he seemed… like a normal wolf. “First off, I’d like to say that I am sorry for killing you. to be fair you were attacking me first. In hopes of a good relationship I would like to give you a name… ama… Amaruq! That's it, Amaruq” I said, bowing my head politely to the wolf.

He stared blankly for only a second before pouncing towards me. I put up my arms to guard myself but it was too late… he licked my face. He just kept licking and licking me like I was his owner that had been gone for weeks. I guess this was his way of saying “it’s all good.”

I felt bad for the wolf so I thought that maybe giving him a second chance at life would be a nice thing to do. Also it was a good chance to use my new skill. I sat with him for at least ten minutes and told him about what has happened so far. I’m not sure if he could understand me but I felt like he could. After that I went back to the cave.

Ryfux was waiting for me inside with a cup of tea. Weirdly enough he didn’t seem surprised by the wolf. when I asked him about it, he just said “I’ve seen weirder things” which to be honest is a fair point considering he is a talking skeleton. I told him everything that happened including me being a necromancer and the weird knight in black armour.

He asked me to show him my Menu but when I did he had a very concerned look on his face. “What’s wrong?” I asked. “It’s nothin. I just used to know someone with that same job” he said. I immediately responded “Elizabeth Ryder?” and he looked shocked. “Yeah…? How did you know that?” he responded apprehensively. “Oh, some magical computer lady named Caroline told me about it,” I responded. He just nodded his head and said “makes sense to me” and then chuckled.

“So what's the name of your pet dog over there?” he continued. “Oh, did I not tell you? His name is Amaruq. He tried to eat me when I came into the forest the first time” I responded scratching the scar on my leg. “Oh, I see. I remember you telling me about something like that” he responded. “Ok, it's been a nice chat kid but you gotta go to bed and I gotta get some work done” he continued. “Work? What work?” I asked. “ I’m sure I’ll tell ya someday just not today” he responded with a sly smirk stretching across his face.

I klicked my tongue and sat down on the shitty mattress. I didn’t realise how shitty the mattress was before but compared to the ones at the inn in town it was worse than laying on the ground. “Isn’t there a better mattress somewhere around here” I asked while flipping the mattress to see if the other side was any better. It wasn’t. “No, you’re welcome to sleep on the floor though” He responded not even looking away from his book. I rolled my eyes in response.

There was honestly some part of me that just wanted to leave and live out my days working in the tavern back in town but I couldn’t do that. Yeah sure Ryfux was a cocky asshole but after living with him for a week I already knew way more about this world. Not only that but I thought it would make me stronger if I stayed with him. I really wanted that. Not for the stupid reasons like “Protecting my freinds” or “Being a hero.” I just wanted to be strong for once, for myself.

While I was thinking so deeply about that I ended up drifting off to sleep. I woke up the next morning to something heavy pressed against my chest. Is Ryfux seriously doing this again… I thought. But then something wet dripped onto my face. I opened one of my eyes only to see the giant wolf I brought home sitting on my chest as if it were a puppy. As soon as I opened my eyes it started crazily licking my face. “Ok… Ok, calm down” I said, covering my face with my arms.

He jumped down from the bed and ran over toward Ryfux. Ryfux stood up to walk over to me but before he did Amaruq bit down onto one of his leg bones. Ryfux started freaking out and I laughed hysterically. “This isn’t funny!” he yelled while trying to pull the bone out of Amaruq's mouth. I had a good laugh but I figured he was gonna give me my next trial so I stopped them.

While Ryfux put his bone back in place he started talking “Ok, we are gonna act like that didn’t happen and I’ll tell you about your next task.” I chuckled and nodded my head in agreement. “Ok, you know about skills so I won’t bother explaining those. But there is another type of power in this world called ‘aura.’ It’s pretty much the complete opposite of skills. Most people unlock it by going through a near death experience, there are other ways but they’re just boring. Every person’s aura is dependent on their personality, strengths, weaknesses, and experiences. Because of that once you unlock your aura I won’t really be able to train you on how to use it. You’ll just have to figure it out I guess.”

“So unlocking my ‘aura’ is my next task?”

“Well… kinda. It’ll be a part of your next task. But don’t worry, you won’t die… Probably...”

“Probably?”

“Don’t worry… Actually follow me, I have something to show you”

He walked up to one of the bookshelves and grabbed a small green book off the shelf. He flipped through the pages and stopped near the middle of the book. “Ah here it is…. Umm… open sesame!” As soon as he said that, the bookcase started to slide revealing a stone staircase. The torches along the wall of the staircase began lighting one by one.

A secret door! How awesome is that! My impression of Ryfux improved greatly in the two seconds that this door opened. That was until I saw the stupidly smug look on his face and ultimately decided to hate him for the rest of my life.

He put the book back on the shelf and started walking down the stairs. Before I followed I looked at the cover of the book, it said “open the door by the secret doors.” I’m pretty sure it didn’t have any function other than opening the secret door but he tried to show off anyway.

The stairs were a lot nicer than the rest of the things I’d seen in the cave. They looked like that hadn’t been walked on in years but someone had been sweeping them everyday. When we got to the bottom there was a set of big iron doors about twice the size of me or Ryfux. He planted his hands firmly on each door and mumbled something under his breath.

Suddenly the two doors shot open and a strong gust of wind flew past. I fell to my back and Ryfux chuckled. “Oh shut up, I bet you didn’t even have to do that to open the door” I said dusting off my pants. He just evilly smiled back.

Beyond the doors was a pretty odd sight. The room was about ten times the size of the other one and had hundreds of thousands of books all around it. Giant bookcases that reached the thirty feet high ceilings and in the middle of the room there was a small desk in front of a chalkboard. Other than that though the room seemed… normal. It was really plain.

I sat down at the desk and took a look around. Just like the stairs it seemed like everything there had just been cleaned. There wasn’t a single speck of dust around. That's when I saw it… well kinda… I saw a blur that looked kinda like a person but it disappeared almost instantly. “What was that?” I asked pointing in the general direction I saw it. Ryfux looked back to where I was pointing and tilted his head. “The hell are you talkin about kid?” he said in a mocking tone.

“There was a person over there”

“No, There wasn’t”

“I swear to god there was”

“It wasn’t a person”

“Then what was it?”

“It was the maid”

“Maid? How can you afford a maid?”

“I can’t, it's just a stone golem that can clean really well. In fact you can meet her. Hilda!”

He called out the name a few more times before the golem tip toed out from behind a big pillar. It’s… wearing a maid outfit I thought. Yes. This 15 foot tall 600 pound rock golem… was wearing a maid outfit. “You’ve got some weird tastes, old man,” I said, shaking my head. “Weirdly enough she decided to wear that on her own” He responded.

As She slowly walked towards us she covered her face with her hands like a school girl embarrassed to ask her crush out. It would be cute if she actually was a school girl but she was a giant rock creature… not a school girl. When she reached us she respectfully bowed her head and then quickly ran back behind the pillar.

“Please excuse her, I haven’t been down here in a couple years and she hasn’t seen a human for… holy crap, like 60 years” said Ryfux somehow surprised by his own comment. “60 years? How long have you lived down here!?” I responded. “You don’t even want to know,” he said as he started writing something on the chalkboard.

“Basic Training” is what it said. Beneath it were some charts listing out my schedule for the next 4 months. The gist of it was: every day I’d alternate between combat training, monster hunting/leveling up, and aura manipulation. I’d have a break day every three weeks where I could do whatever I wanted.

“Ok, for this to work, you’ll need to unlock your aura. We’ll get started on that today”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, you’ll see pretty soon”

Before I could say another thing Hilda came flying towards me outta nowhere. She must’ve knocked me out because when I opened my eyes it was pitch black. I stood up and got in a fighting stance. Not that I knew how to fight, I just saw it on tv. I was definitely in danger but I wasn’t sure what the danger was.

An odd situation to be in really. Just as I was backing up I heard a sound coming from my right “gRrRRRRRRrrrrRRRrRrrr.” Ah shit… not again I couldn’t help but feel deja vu. This exact same situation happened with Amaruq.

It took a second for my eyes to adjust but when they did I could still only barely make out the figure of this wolf… well… wolves. There had to be at least eight or nine of them, all the same size as Amaruq. I could barely take on a single wolf, let alone nine of them. The hell was that idiot thinking.

I kept creeping backwards hoping that they wouldn’t notice but I stepped on a twig and cracked it. It must’ve been their favorite stick or something because all at once they pounced on me. Digging their teeth into my limbs and tearing them apart.

The pain was unfathomable. I fought back at first but my body just gave up and I couldn’t move. I was helpless. Despair had taken over every part of my body and gave in to the wolves. A dark gray mist began to cloud around me and suddenly it vanished.

All the pain I had felt a second before was completely gone in the blink of an eye. In fact, I felt good, I felt bliss. A wooden path formed before me and I walked across it. The further I got, the better I felt.

All around the wooden path was dark blue water and the further I went the deeper it became. When I finally reached the end of the wooden path there was a man sitting alone in a small wooden boat. The man wore a black robe and a hood covered his face. He stretched out his hand and said “hello Child, I have come to take you. Please shake my hand.”

I reached out my hand but before I could do anything a voice rang in my ear “Sir, I would not recommend shaking it’s hand.” It was Caroline. Caroline? I stopped right before I reached his hand. The mist around my mind cleared and I started to think clearly again. As soon as I did a white hot rage began to fill my body. And I felt something start to manifest inside me. “So this is aura huh” I said with a greedy smile stretching across my face.

A black cloth sprouted from nowhere and began wrapping around my knuckles on the opposite hand. I reached out further and grabbed the man’s hand. I pulled him towards me. And with my opposite hand wrapped in the black cloth I punched that stupid motherfucker right in his face.