"Huh... you really did kill one."

Kai smiled proudly, a smug expression sitting on his face as he watched Failure's confusion.

Worth it.

Aldred lifted his furry head off the floor, opening his weary eyes and asking in his signature gruff tone;

"Catalyst, how could it be that you could kill one? You areo only only level, what?"

A shiver runs up Kai's spine, indicating the full moon wolf used Identify on him.

I'm never going to get used to that cold feeling...

"Thirteen, how could you have possibly have killed an abomination, and a gibbous moon one at that?"

"I haven't a clue." Kai answers proudly, lifting his chin up in a gloating manner. "I used my innate ability, lost my mind, then when I came to, I was lying on the ground covered in abomination guts with the Poisoned status effect. I vomited, look to my side and see a massive hole in the abominations chest. I don't really want to imagine how I did it but... I probably know."

Aldred let's out a satisfied chuckle but Failure continues to frown, looking at Kai as if he's a monster.

"Still... you shouldn't be able to do that, no one should. If Noelle was in your situation she would one hundred per cent be dead, no doubt about it."

Kai's proud smile falters, is this praise or an is it an investigation?

"It's not... that special I'd say, I'm sure Noelle would at least be able to get away..."

Now that he thinks back, he truly realises how precarious the situation he was in was. The humanoid abomination was constantly catching up to him all the while it was probably still full of energy, Kai on the other hand only had a last resort, that resort being his innate ability.

The even bigger fact being that this abomination had actual weapons, he could've lost his head if the abomination landed one good hit on him. Kai had no idea how he had managed to kill it, all he knew is that he must've eaten some of it due to being Poisoned.

At this point I'm starting to think people were underestimating Goblins in the games.

And what if he got a otherwordly creature other than hobgoblin, he still doesn't know what the other possible options are. For all he knows he could've gotten a succubus or something, and he doesn't even want to imagine how that interaction would've gone down...

"I can't say for sure about Noelle, but you got extremely lucky. Kai, you have to make sure if you ever face an enemy too strong for you, you run, run and don't look back. Then, you bide your time, gather strength and get revenge when they are at their weakest. That is how you get stronger."

Frowning slightly, Kai confused by Failure's words, it's almost as if failure is speaking from experience...

"Isn't that too slow though?" Kai asks as he looks away from the fire and towards Failure, leaving Aldred to bath by the heat, his gray coat brimming with power as it shines with the fireplaces reflection.

"It's better to be slow than dead." Failure responds quickly, shaking his head. "It's always better that way."

Silence fill the dimly lit room, Kai not knowing what to say and since Failure is finished talking, Aldred speaks up.

"Now then, Co- Failure, we have a problem in the Dome."

Kai catches the wolf's error as soon as it exits his snout.

Aldred most called Failure his real name, so the wolf knows a lot about Mr Charming. Why won't they tell me though?

Failure shoots a disapproving glance at the apologetic looking wolf, but waves his hand and asks.

"What's the problem, Aldred? I'm sure whatever it is you can handle it fine."

"That's the problem." Aldred let's out a low growl. "I can't."

This catches Failure's attention like cheese in a mouse trap, he looks towards the relaxing wolf and asks in a low tone:

"If you can't handle it, then what exactly is a problem?"

The wolf lifts his head and opens his eyes, his yellow eyes show a hint of concern.

"As I said earlier, Calestrom knew we were coming, meaning there's a spy. The problem being is that I can't smell even a hint of what happened. No tracks, traces, clues, evidence, I cant smell anything useful. It's either the work of It or a powerful innate ability, hell, it could be both.

This time, it's Kai's turn to get caught in the mouse trap. Keeping his cool, he asks curiously:

"How do you tell how powerful an innate ability is?"

The wolf glances at him, looking at Kai like he's an idiot, then, he let's out a grunt, seeming to remember that he is.

"By the amount of aspects it has in it. For example, ones innate ability could be enhanced physical Strength, or it could be enhanced physical Strength, Dexterity and  when they put their life on the line it gets an even bigger boost. The one aspect ability would be seen as weaker when compared to the three aspect one.

There's also two types of innate abilities, internal and external. Internal would be aspects such as increased stats or above average regeneration. External would be things like being able to make your skin hard as rock, or being able able to sense seismic movements in the ground.

There are outliers though, someone with a two aspect innate ability could beat someone with a three aspect one if they know how to use it right. An example would be Wa'rak, he only has one aspect in his innate ability but he knows how to utilise it like he has an pair of claws, near perfect control."

"Wa'rak has an innate ability?"

With Aldred grunting again at the idiot, Failure answers this time.

"Monsters and beasts can also have innate abilities, though its less common and if there is two beasts of the same species they are more likely to have the same innate ability. An example would be the boars you see around the Dome, that armour around their body is an innate ability, that's why some of the boars have it and the rest don't, majority not having it."

With a slight blush of red on his face, Kai glances at Aldred who is still looking at him like a parent who's child just spilled their dinner on the floor. He taps his cheek in embarrassment as he replies.

"Oh... I thought it was just, like, ground magic or something."

Failure's eyes widen, he then looks at Aldred and a hint of a smile cracks through his calm facade, almost as if they're having a telepathic conversation...

That bastard said something about me!

"Really? Well I can sort of see how you would think that, but the level of control you would need to make a set of armour and sustain it out of Earth magic is much more than the common moon boar would have."

Kai sighs in disappointment, shaking his head as his dreams about being able to create his own cool earth armour vanish.

"How many types of magic is there?" He asks, looking at Failure.

"Well, there's the four elemental ones, those being Earth, Fire, Water and Air. But then it gets complicated, there's the specialist types, but there's too many of those to even think about trying to name though. I'll still attempt it anyways. Gravity, Fog, Poison, Illusion-"

"Can we get back on topic?" Aldred growls as he saunters over to Failure, kicking at the man's right leg with his own hind leg.

"There's a spy and we have no idea who it is. I'm going to go around and try to sniff out any lies, but don't make it obvious we know there's a spy, we can't afford to scare the beast off."

"What if its not a moon beast though?" Kai asks, looking at the troubled wolf. "You've let in like, what, around fifty people in the last two days? And more and more are pouring in with the scouting parties every hour, it is possible that its a human."

"I guess... but it's improbable." The wolf growls as his snout closes, as if in thought if it really is that improbable.

"Think about it." Kai presses the point even more. "You said you might not be able to find them because of an innate ability, and you say I'm special because I killed a gibbous moon abomination, well I only killed it because of my innate ability, and Noelle's innate ability is pretty good too. Is it really that improbable that someone else in the tutorial got a powerful innate ability?"

The wolf and Failure's expressions darken respectively.

"No... but that would complicate the situation more than it already is." The wolf growls, but then let's out a grunt and goes back to the warm embrace of the fireplace, lying down and basking in the flames.

"I'll sleep on it, after all, I have to act as I normally would."

Failure frowns, about to speak up, but the lethargic wolf beats him to it.

"Also, we will have to bring any humans you trust to the treasury. Arm them for the upcoming battle, otherwise we have no chance of winning."

With that, the gray wolf falls asleep in front of the fire, creating an almost poetic image. It could even be the cover of a Game Of Thrones novel with how good it looks.

Turning to Kai, Failure sighs and rubs his temple, he then puts on a weak smile and asks:

"Why is everything so complicated around here?"

*******

Some hours ago...

In the darkest parts of the forest, surrounded by the same ginormous trees, only these ones a much more ghastly shade of black, as if they're being corroded by something. A figure emerged from the shadows, the darkness swirling around them like a cloak of protection.

"Blah, hiding in the shadow of a damn wolf ain't fun, It better make it worth my while."

A dark cave lays before them, this one bare of any beautiful murals though. Trudging through the dreary hollow, the figure eventually reaches the location they want.

An absolutely massive cavern, filled to the brim with various types of abominations. Crescent, quater and gibbous moons are all shown in abundance in this hellhole.

Each abomination looks vastly different to each other, some even looking as if they have a hint of sentience and not just an insatiable hunger. Large amounts of groups led by gibbous moon abominations can be seen all over the cavern, each group working on a different project for the upcoming war.

Walking through the gathering of monsters, the figure smiles as they all make way for them to pass, boosting their ego even more than it is. Walking with authority and confidence, the figure reaches the end of the cavern and sees what they're looking for.

Looking at one of the weapons in its four arms, the hideous, fleshy monstrosity turns to look at what just came up behind it.

"Hey boss, a group of quater moon beasts should set out to hunt that bear you're using as bait, just like you wanted."

"Good."

A voice that so grating even the shadowy figure flinches comes from where the four armed demon is standing, even the shadows surrounding the edges of the cavern walls seem to retreat. One especially creepy thing is that it has no mouth so the person basking in the shadows has no idea how it can speak.

The demon then lifts the weapon in its bottom left arm, exposing it to the flickering flame of one of the candles on the desk, studying it with its three eyes.

"As I promised, serve me faithfully and you will get what you want."

That damn voice makes the spy want to rip off their own ears, it pains them to hear and they just want to get their reward and go to bed, the voice is just too horrifying to listen to.

The demon then hands the spy the blade it was holding, an absolutely stunning silver glow emanating from the beautiful sword. The blade looked like it could cut through even the toughest of beast hides without damaging it at all.

"Welcome to the Moon Legion, General."

Taking the sword from the hideous demon, the figure can't hold back a grin as they feel the weapon bind to them. Inspecting it, their grin grows even wider.

Item obtained

Item: Fragment of the moon (epic)

...

That description is some deep shit...

The spy thinks as they read the information about the weapon. They then put the weapon in the scabbard on their hip, they look towards the demon again, waiting for it to speak.

"I have another mission for you, this one will earn you another reward. Train the humans we have gathered here, make them suitable candidates for battle, you have five days."

At the thought of earning another reward for a task that simple...

Rashik couldn't hold back his grin.