The Wolves

Earth

Spectre Base, Canadian Rockies

August 13, 2019

10:34 PDT (13:34 EDT)

My mom didn't say anything, she just moved a short distance away from the wall and crooked her finger. Alright, if she wants to keep going, I'm game. I got back to my feet. I made it seem like I was cracking my back, twisting clockwise and then counter-clockwise. As soon as I started the counter-clockwise rotation, I close one of my hands into a fist, and Blinked behind her.

She must have anticipated something, because she wasn't there when I arrived. Instead, all I saw was the furry back of something as my fist connected with it. I felt pain in my back and was thrown forward.

I got up and looked around. My mom was standing to the side with a big grin, and there were two portals close together.

[What the hell was that?] I asked.

"Just a trick with portals. Never seen anything like that before?"

I shook my head. Apparently she moved to the right and created two portals side by side. I appeared between them, and when I threw my punch, it went through the first portal and out the other portal, hitting me in the back. The force of the punch sent me through the portal in front of me, and I exited the one behind me.

[Why wasn't that one in the bag of Skill Gems you gave me?]

She shrugged. "It's very difficult to use. If you really want one, I'll ask your dad if we have any in storage.

[I definitely want one. By the way, how would I go about keeping the extra arms while in my human form?]

"It would definitely require some modification to your human form. Did you notice what is different between your organs, and that of the Seotross?"

[The set of hearts?]

She nodded. "It needs the extra heart to be able to pump blood through its large body, and additional set of arms. The human body isn't built to do that, and it would put your heart under unnecessary stress. It's a difficult process. I could do it for you, but you'll need to undergo some training before you're ready for that."

[You can do it for me? How?]

"How do you think you were in human form for the past fifteen years? You were a Scyftan toddler when taken out of stasis. I had to go into your mind and set your form as a human, and then modify it over the years to simulate you growing."

[Oh. You to do it for me, then. I think it would be incredibly useful to have four arms in dungeons, and this form is way too big for anything but a boss room.]

"Shift back into human form and I'll take care of it," she said, then began her transformation back to her human form.

I started shifting back to my human form, but it took significantly longer than her transformation did.

"Sit down on the mat," she said when I was done shifting. When I sat down, she walked behind me and placed her hands on either side of my head.

"Ask Abi to lower her shield, please. You can leave yours up."

[Abi, can you lower your shield, please. My mom is adding a form for me, and can't do it while your shield is up.]

[Done.]

[Thanks. I'll let you know when to put it back up in a few minutes.]

"It's down."

"Alright. I felt her mind connect with mine briefly, and then felt an odd sensation while she worked. A few minutes later she finished up and left my mind."

"All done. You can have Abi put her shield back up, and then you can test out the form."

[You can put it back up now, Abi.]

[It's back up.]

[Thanks again, you're awesome.]

I navigated to the part of my mind that held all my forms and selected the form she made for me. I began the transformation and waited until it was finished. When it was done, I walked over the mirror to look at my transformation in a bit more detail.

I immediately noticed that I was at least a foot taller now, and all of that height went into elongating my torso. My extra arms looked identical to my regular arms, and were placed just under my regular arms. I took my phone out of my storage and checked to see if I got any bonus for having two extra arms. I navigated to my profile and saw that my strength only rose by an additional thirty percent. My agility ended up dropping five percent, and my endurance went up by fifty percent.

"I get the additional strength, and the loss of a bit of agility, but why did my endurance go up by so much?" I asked.

"In addition to the extra heart, I managed to increase the size and efficiency of your lungs. More oxygen will reach areas of the body that need it, allowing you to go longer without needing to rest."

"Well that's a nice bonus. I have another question; Why does it take so much longer for me to shift between forms? It takes you a fraction of the time."

"It all comes down to age and repetition, but mostly the latter. As you change forms, it will get quicker and quicker. So now that you're done scanning the animals below, do you have any idea on what you would like to scan next?"

"A few things, actually. Something with high tolerance to cold would be nice, so something like a polar bear or arctic fox. After that, probably something with really good eyesight, and a good swimmer. Other than that, I'll take any suggestions.

"You're forgetting flight, but we can kill two birds with one stone, so to speak. Eagles have some of the best vision on Earth, able to see over three kilometers away in excellent detail. That's for vision during the day, though. You've already got the best night vision you're going to get on Earth, or many other worlds, with your Seotross form."

"Scanning a Polar Bear or Arctic fox is rather easy. I believe the Toronto Zoo has both, along with many other animals you haven't scanned yet. As for good swimmers, do you want speed, or depth? For speed, nothing beats a sailfish. They're easily capable of swimming faster than one hundred kilometers per hour. For depth, I believe Cuvier's beaked whales reign supreme. Nothing even comes close to how far they can dive. Either of those will take a while to find, though, so it's something to devote a few days to. I'll get someone to check, but I don't think there are any sailfish or Cuvier's beaked whales in captivity."

"I'm not picky. We could go to MarineLand and easily scan dolphins or whales, right? That might make it easier to find what I'm looking for later on."

"It would. What we can do is go to MarineLand first, since that won't take long at all, and then go to the Toronto Zoo afterwards. After we're done there, we can evaluate where to go next."

"Sounds good to me. How will we get to MarineLand though? When we went there when I was younger, I remember it taking six hours or so."

"We'll get there the same way you punched yourself in the back; portals. Since I've been there before, I can open a portal that will transport us there instantly."

"That's handy, and makes me want the skill even more. There is one other creature I would like to scan. Know anywhere we can find a dragon for me to scan?"

She shook her head. "Dragons are supremely hard to track down, for three reasons. Their ability to teleport short distances, their ability to blend in with their surroundings, and their ability to transform into humans."

"They can transform into humans? I've never heard about that."

"It's a well kept secret, just like the vast majority of humans don't know that Scyftans are among them."

"Oh."

"Even if we found a dragon, it would easily be able to keep you out of its mind, however. As far as I know, there are only two ways to scan a dragon. The first is to be a lot older than you currently are. Mindspeak gets stronger and stronger as you get older, and eventually you'll be able to go through a dragon's shield like it isn't even there. The other option is to bargain with one to let you into its mind."

"I didn't realize they're that intelligent. What would a dragon want in return, gold?" I joked.

"That's exactly what they would want. Gold, platinum, jewels. Over a thousand years ago, dragons were less reclusive than they are now. A Spectre was able to bargain with a dragon to allow him to scan it. The price the dragon wanted was the Spectre's own body weight in gold. It took her about five months to gather that much gold, but eventually she went back and was able to scan the dragon. I'll see if I can track the woman down and see if she still knows the location of the dragon, or how to get ahold of it."

"That's a lot of gold. Does the Adventurer's Guild have two hundred sixty pounds of gold?"

She chuckled. "The Adventurer's Guild has tens of thousands of gold bars stored around the world, and we're always acquiring more. Your body weight in gold in comparison to what we have stored, is a drop in the bucket."

"So you'll try to track one down and let me know?"

"I will, though don't get your hopes up. I'll get Siobhan, the woman who puts out our press releases, to put out another one looking for a dragon looking to earn a large amount of gold. Maybe we'll get lucky and one will see it. I wouldn't mind scanning a dragon as well."

"You've been here for so long and haven't scanned one either?"

"Nope. I was too busy initially getting the Adventurer's Guild going. Once it was well established, I spent a few months on vacation trying to find one without any luck, so I gave up. I didn't think about using the internet to try to track one down. Then again, the internet has only been around for the past thirty years."

"I see. Anyways, I wanna get a quick bite to eat and then take a shower and change before we head out. Is there a dining room or something I haven't seen yet?"

"There is. A lot of people come through this base, so there is always a wide selection of food available at the buffet. You should shift back to your human form before we go."

"Oh, right," I said, completely forgetting I was still in my Seotross-human hybrid form. I shifted back to human form and then we were ready to go.

"C'mon, let's see if your sisters have eaten yet, and then we'll make our way there."

We walked over to where my sisters were sitting near one of the walls while conversing. They hadn't eaten lunch yet, so we all headed to the dining room. I had actually walked past it a few times since I've been here, but didn't notice it. When we arrived, the place was pretty packed and there were only a few tables available. My mom reserved our table while my sisters and I got some plates and got in line for the buffet.

The variety of food available was ridiculous. I didn't even get a quarter of the way through the line before my plate was full. Some of the first things I saw were pork ribs and chicken wings. I loved both, and hadn't had any in a while, so I loaded my plate up with both. I couldn't find anything I wanted to go with them until I came across roasted potatoes, so I crammed as many on my plate as I could until it was full. My sisters on the other hand, barely had anything on their plates. I left them in line and headed to our table, allowing my mom to go and get her own lunch.

I was about halfway done with my first plate when my sisters arrived carrying their own equally stacked plates. It seemed later down the line the selection changed to Asian cuisine. Alexis and Lucille opted for Chinese food, while Aleena's plate was loaded with sushi. We were all quite hungry, so chatter was kept to a minimum.

I had just finished my first plate when my mom arrived with more food loaded on her plate than I had ever eaten before. I got up and deposited my dirty plate before picking up a new one and going back through the line. This time, when I went through, I saw another favorite of mine, fajitas. There was a section dedicated purely to making your own fajitas, making me wish I had brought another plate. I could only make two before I realized that I was backing up the line, and continued forward. My plate still had some room, so when I came up to a variety of different pizzas, I stacked a few slices on top of each other and made my way back to the table.

My sisters were shocked with how much food was on my second plate while my mom just laughed. I opted for beef fajitas, and couldn't help but moan in appreciation with my first bite. They are the best fajitas I've ever had. The pizza was quite good as well, and I quickly polished off my plate. I stayed for a minute to see if my sisters were coming with us while I went to scan some animals. When they said they would, I said I'd meet them in the main room when they were finished eating.

I walked over and deposited my dirty plate before trying to teleport to my room. When I found I couldn't, I tried teleporting to the hallway outside of my room. With a pop, I was there. "Must be a security measure," I thought. I sent a pulse of mana at the scanner and the door slid open, allowing me to make my way to the bathroom. After making sure there were towels, I undressed and took a quick shower. When I was done, I toweled myself dry and picked up my dirty clothes before heading over to my closet. I deposited the towel and dirty clothes in the hamper and picked out another set of clothes. I got dressed and then tried teleporting to the main room. I arrived without difficulty, which meant the security measure was only to keep people from teleporting in.

Neither my sisters or my mom were there waiting for me, so I took a seat on one of the couches and took out my phone. I was curious to see what skills and perks my friends got. Navigating to our team profile, I checked out Mason's skills first. Looking it over, he got a few of the same skills that I did, but many were different. He got Siphoning Strike as well, which made me wonder if everyone else got it.

I went through Ben's, Anja's and Sonja's skills and found they too, had Siphoning Strike, though Sonja's is called Siphoning Shot. I did get a nice bit of information that I didn't get earlier, though. Apparently Siphoning Strike and Siphoning Shot share damage increases. That means if I killed a dungeon boss with Siphoning Strike, the twenty-five damage bonus damage would also translate over to Siphoning Shot.

Finding that out made the ability even better in my eyes. We wouldn't always use melee weapons, but with that damage translating over to Siphoning Shot, then we should be able to do a lot of damage with it using firearms.

I went back to Mason's stat page so I could look at his skills in more detail. We only had three of the same abilities, which were Teleport, Siphoning Strike, and Mana Shield.

Beyond that, the rest of the skills and perks he had received were tailored around healing, and avoiding and dealing damage. A few of those being earth damage, at that. He couldn't even use the most interesting skill he got, though he could rectify that easily if he wanted to in a few levels. The ability was Summon Earth Elemental, which costs eighty percent of his mana, but requires him to have at least one hundred intellect.

I have seen earth elementals before, and they can do a lot of damage, while being able to take damage very well, especially at higher ranks of the skill. Every time Summon Earth Elemental ranks up twenty levels, it will be made out of a stronger material and be bigger when summoned. I was pretty sure at rank one, the elemental would be made out of marble, but didn't know what the other ones will be made of at different ranks. I have seen elementals summoned from Summon Earth Elemental be made out of metals as well, so they can vastly vary in strength.

As for his other earth skills, he got Seismic Shove, which allows him to deal damage and push enemies away from him. Tremor is another, which is a channeled skill that deals damage by upturning the ground in a radius around him, and the final skill is Earthen Spike. Earthen Spike causes a spike of rock to shoot out from under his target, impaling them and dealing a large amount of damage.

Seeing his skills in action will be interesting, since I hadn't seen many adventurers use earth skills beyond fire, water, and air. It seems like two of the three, not counting Summon Earth Elemental were meant to control the battlefield. Seismic Shove would allow him to push enemies in any direction he wanted depending on his positioning, and it would be dumb for something to stand in Tremor. The mana costs meant that he was going to have to start putting a lot of points into intellect if he wanted to get full use out of them.

I was about to take a look at a perk he got when my sisters sat beside me on the couch. I looked up and didn't see my mom anywhere.

"Hey, girls. Is my mom still eating?"

Alexis, who was sitting to my right, shook her head. "She had something to take care of first. She'll be here in about five minutes or so. We decided to come keep you company while we wait."

"Thanks, I appreciate it. I was just going through looking at the rest of my team's new skills and perks while I wait."

"Why do you still call her mom?" Aleena asked.

"That's essentially what she has been, just as Gabriel has been a dad for the past fifteen years. I know they're not our real parents, but they're the closest thing. You three don't call Yuki and Omar mom and dad?"

She shook her head. "We used to, until we were fifteen. We stopped when they said they weren't our parents and explained our heritage."

"They've been taking care of you three longer than Alexandra and Gabriel have been taking care of me. I'm betting that the three of you caused them many sleepless nights as well since you were so young when taken out of stasis. They may not be your parents by blood, but they're the only parents you have, just like Alexandra and Gabriel are the only parents I have."

"You might be right," Lucille said. "We'll think about it."

We spent a few more minutes chatting while waiting for my mom. When she did arrive, she asked if we were ready to go. When we all said yes, she opened a portal in front of her. Through it was a bright sunny day, and a large parking lot with a lot of people walking, presumably, to the entrance.

"Head on through. I need to go last to hold the portal open."

I walked through and my sisters followed me. After we were through, she followed us and the portal closed behind her.

"I went to go see Siobhan before we left," she explained, as we all walked towards the entrance of the park. "There will be a press release up shortly in regards to finding a dragon. She'll let us know if there are any bites."

"How long do you think it'll take?"

"There is no way to know. It could take a few minutes or a few months. We're being quite generous, so it will probably be closer to the former than the latter. It's first come, first serve. The first dragon to contact us will get two hundred fifty pounds of gold, with the possibility of making a lot more."

"Why are you looking for a dragon?" Lucille asked.

"Jonathan wants to scan one. So do I, along with many other Scyftans, for that matter. The problem is that they're extremely hard to find. Even then, you need to be very powerful in Mindspeak to be able to get past their shields, unless they lower them and let you in. That's what we're trying to do by tempting them with gold."

"I remember Yuki coming home one day in a bad mood. Apparently she was tracking a dragon but lost the trail and couldn't find it again. She was searching for months up to that point," Alexis said.

"That just goes to prove how good dragons are at hiding. Yuki is arguably the best tracker amongst Spectres, and even she couldn't find one."

"Shouldn't someone in their Scyftan fox form, or a Scyftan fox easily be able to track down a dragon?" I asked.

"If you could find one, then theoretically, yes, a Scyftan fox could keep track of a dragon, even if it teleported. The problem is that there is a good chance the fox would be seen when we don't want them to."

It was at that point that we needed to change the subject. It was starting to get crowded since we were almost at the entrance. It took a few minutes to go through the line and pay the entrance fee. None of us were interested in spending a lot of time here, so we decided to just go through each attraction and scan the animals that I wanted to scan. Thankfully I could scan animals from within over six hundred feet, so it would be easy.