Surprisingly the hardest part about sneaking out of the Duke's estate wasn't the sneaking part. The guards, while attentive, were looking out, not in. Combined with how used to my presence they were from me sneaking around for alcohol, they rarely noticed even when I walked right behind them.
What was hard was the part where I had to carry a bunch of loose things with me while doing said sneaking. For most, annoying but doable, but try that without any hands. Have you ever caught a bag while both not crushing the fragile contents, and not making sound with just your arms? It's not easy to say the least.
Funnily enough, I even caught Aiden attempting to sneak down to the Dukes laboratory and sent him back to his room. Yet after all this I had finally made my way outside the Dukes home, and onto the streets. I took a moment to stop and pull out the book from my bag to double check that I had everything.
"Carved rock things, check. Knife for the blood part, check. Marked out cave, check."
I started to put my stuff in my bag as I began to make my way towards the edge of the city.
Of all the places I had been so far, this by far was the largest city, with almost 30 miles between each wall, and buildings and trees as far as the eye could see. The city itself was oddly blended with nature, so on some roads you can drive under buildings supported in trees, while on others you drive on tree root bridges over other buildings and burrows.
It took around an hour, but I found the gate and exited the city and began to walk around the massive wall of ancient oak trees. Be it due to the Blood trent or not, I never got over the feeling that the super big trees were all watching me, no matter how ridiculous it was in actuality. It took another two hours of walking to get there, as I found that my legs were oddly sore from the distance.
"Well I mean, to be fair, I have been ridding around for the past few weeks, so I guess my distance muscles are a bit out of practice."
I said more so filling the quiet of the night with something. The cave itself had been something I had recognized as an old, abandoned den of some feral wolves. So considering how I had never seen any before, I was rather curious as to what regular wolves have in their homes. Honestly, there wasn't much inside. A simple cave, with small areas with bits of dirt that must have been where they slept, the cave seemed mostly abandoned, and yet the smell still lingered, almost fresh even.
"Don't worry, I'll be out of your hair in a second, I just need to do this little ritual here."
I mumbled to myself as I grabbed my bag and began to grab the ingredients for the ritual as I flipped open the book. I had been thinking for quite a bit of time as to what my vows should be, so as I laid out the stones I pressed my paw down onto the knife as blood trickled. I realized a moment later I would have to walk back on said paw, and groaned for how annoying that would be. Luckly, I did bring one of Aiden's healing potions with me just for such an occasion.
Following the ritual I held out my paw and let the blood drip as I spoke aloud.
"Let my words bind not just my voice, but my spirit's longing. I offer this vow knowing that the heart is fragile, that truth is heavy, and that emotion is both blade and balm. May love guide me. May failure scar me. I vow to always aid my friends and allies and in doing so, I make space for flaw. May what I feel never become what I forget."
One of the three carves stones floated up and slowly drifted over to my chest where the stone pressed against my fur, and a bit to my surprise, a sizzling pain rose as I gritted my teeth, a small brand of the rune appeared and slowly faded to be below the fur as if it had never branded me. A part of me was worried I had done it wrong, but Luckly a system notification let me know otherwise.
You have taken a Vow of Heart
Vow: I will always aid my friends and allies
Vow boon: your very presence is reassuring, allies nearby you find that they perform slightly better in everything from combat to crafting.
Vow bane: to break this vow will cause the vows boon to reverse for a time, instead reducing your allies performance around you
Nodding with satisfaction at this. I turned to the next rune, and spoke again.
"Let my flesh carry the weight of my will. I offer this vow knowing that motion without meaning is hollow, that strength without honor is corruption. May my limbs be swift, my stance be firm, and my weakness be earned should I stray. I vow to carry their burdens when they cannot and in doing so, I become both weapon and wound. May what I endure shape who I become."
Once again, the rune floated up and this time, it seemed to press onto my chest, and like a spider running all over me, I hissed at the burning sensation as it quickly faded.
"I am so not looking forward to the last one."
I groaned as I turned to the system announcement
You have taken a Vow of Body
Vow: I will carry their burdens when they cannot
Vow boon: When in combat, the more allies who fall unconscious around you, the stronger you become.
Vow bane: if all of your allies fall unconscious around you immense fatigue will sink into you as you will be paralyzed by weakness for a time. Repeated offenses can even result in death
I took a moment to center myself before I began the last one, though I will admit, the entire time I was speaking I was wincing, ready for the pain.
"Let my essence be carved by conviction. I offer this vow knowing that the soul is eternal, that to bind it is to dance with consequence. May my truth burn brighter than fear, and may oblivion find me if I forsake it. I vow to always rise even if the world says stay down and in doing so, I give myself to the flame of purpose. May what I become never forget what I was."
The rune floated and this time, instead of pressing into my skin it seemed to seep into my body like it was a ghost as I felt a weird shiver all over my body. There was a pressure internally like something being wrapped in chains as I felt a strange surging vitality rush through my body.
You have taken a Vow of Soul
Vow: I will always rise, even if the world says stay down
Vow boon: You hold a strange vitality about yourself, a vitality that despite all attempts remains nigh impossible to extinguish. Your body will regenerate from any wound at a rapid rate, so long as any part of you remains, you will regenerate as long as you still hold the will to live.
Vow bane: Damage will remain normal, but all pain you feel will be 25 times worse than it actually is. Should you give up your will to hold this vow you will lose access to your system and all of its skills, classes, and other features.
"Nice, I got a super good regeneraaaAAAAAAHHHHH!"
I cried out holding my paw out. I could feel the regeneration, the wound closing, and yet the small cut on my paw made to offer blood for the ritual has gone from a tiny pricking pain every now and then to feeling like someone stabbed a knife through my paw and twisted it. I took a few gasping, shaky breaths as I stared at my paw for a moment and finished reading the Vow description.
"Ok, this is gonna take some getting used to."
I said taking my paw and slamming it into the rocks, purposely letting it hit wrong to cause pain while using Lifeforce Control(D). The rock cracked as I waited for the pain, but the lifeforce control protected me from true damage. However I saw that my Ki was not replenishing any faster then normal.
"So I'm fine if I'm using my Ki, and after that it's just gonna hurt a lot but I can't really die. Im starting to wonder if this was really such a good id-"
I paused half way through my sentence because I heard something. Turning my head the smell reached my nose. It was the smell of blood, and the sound of labored panting. Leaving my bag for now I quickly made my way to the entrance of the cave. The darkness of the night left the woods looking vague, but my ears and nose were pointing me towards what seemed to be a large dispute of some kind. I glanced behind me, and jumped up 20 ft to get a better vantage point as I scanned the trees before I saw them. In the clearing there seemed to be a group of direwolves with what seemed to be a heavily injured fox backed up in a small tree hollow.
"Huh, guess the fox got outfoxed, sucks to be them."
I mumbled as I sat down and yawned, continuing to watch, partially out of a morbid curiosity, while another part of me thought back to my times of hunting Fox's with my brother and how he taught me to anticipate their movements and stuff.
As I watched I noticed something odd. The wolves didn't seem to have any blood on them, and yet the fox was injured. A bit curious, I continued to watch, making sure to keep my ears up in case I heard something.
The little fox seemed to continue struggling for a bit before the wolves began to move in and I prepared to go back for my bag. Starting to turn I was surprised by a system announcement.
???'s skill Blood Sacrifice(E) has ended, their pact magics return to normal potency
I stared for a moment before whipping around and throwing myself down the hill at full speed. That wasn't a fox, that was a fullblood who got caught in the path of some wild direwolves. I could see the Dire wolves moving in as I slammed down, the ground sinking beneath me as the dire wolves jumped back. The Dire wolves began to size me up for a moment as I channeled my Ki and activated my Iron fist skill and Powerful strike skill.
I slammed my paw into the ground causing the stones to explode from the pressure and force as the Dire wolves jumped back alarmed. While at first they had been enraged at someone trying to steal their hunt, after seeing my strike they made a retreat while snarling at me. Classic, you haven't seen the end of us kind of thing.
I turned back to the hollowed out tree as I said.
"Come on out, the bad wolves are gone."
There was no movement from the tree as I leaned down and said.
"I scared them off, I'm here to help, are you ok?"
Instead of a response there was a faint sound of something dropping as I saw the small fullblood, no larger than half my size, flop to the ground. Their body covered in wounds as their breathing was slowly getting fainter.
"Oh crap!"