Crazy? I was crazy once

After a few moments of silence, Kai decided to speak up by saying... thinking "I can't just keep calling you wolf, I think its time I pick you a name"

Crouching down beside the wolf, he tried to fully take in the wolf's appearance. Pitch black fur, darker than anything he'd ever seen before. Reaching out to the wolfs mouth, he lifted up its top lip slightly, revealing fangs the size of his dagger, maybe a bit smaller.

But the most important feature of his familiar was by far, the third eye. The eye was placed above the other two and in the center of the gap between them on the wolf's forehead. The pupils in the wolfs two normal eyes are both normal yellow ones, but the third eye has a white pupil in the shape of a crescent moon.

When I contracted it, it did say Wolf of the crescent moon... Maybe it's unimportant...

The second most important feature... isn't there, meaning Kai finally confirmed that his new familiar is a female.

After the revelation, Kai was finally able to name the wolf. After much thought, some language changing and much more thought, he settled on a name he thought would suit her.

"Umbra, how about Umbra as your name? Where I come from there are many different languages, and Umbra means shadow in one of them"

The wolf looked up at him, then wagged her tail happily "Name is nice, shadow is good, we come from the shadows."

"Great, so Umbra it is" Kai smiled as he softly pet her head, making sure not to poke her extra eye in the process.

That will take some getting used to... Kai inwardly complained as he reminisced back to how he used to pet dogs... even if he doesn't know if Umbra counts as a dog or not...

After patting her head, Kai shut off the telepathic connection. It had been active for just over five minutes so it used up fifteen mana.

After a few more minutes of walking, Kai, followed by Umbra, arrives back at their base of operations. The high tech facility consisted of two rocks to sit on, leaves as pillows, even bigger leaves as blankets and an angry Arabian woman tending to her blade.

Now adding a three eyed wolf into the mix, this place was really starting to feel like home...

If home was a Disney movie... Maybe Noelle was right about me being a wannabe Snow White.

After taking a few sips of water from the nearby stream, Kai walked over to where Umbra was lying down and laid down beside her, resting his head on her soft coat.

It was comfier than he thought. At least now he didn't have to worry about neck pains whenever he woke up. He wouldn't gloat at Noelle just yet though, just incase she got angry.

Getting curious after being unable to fall asleep, Kai opened up his status menu... and realised he probably should have done this sooner.

Time remaining - 709: 45: 21

Pairs remaining 244/250

Points earned: 5

Frowning as he looked at the information in front of him, Kai done the easiest maths he's done since The Flashing and realises that twelve people are out.

What does it mean though, 6 pairs gone? Are they dead?

Kai glanced down at Umbra's slumbering form, his eyes lingering on her sharp claws.

Is that how they died?

Kai shivered at the thought of the level twelve wolf lunging at him, trying to rip his throat out. God only knows what would have happened if not for Nonchalance. In fact, if not for the skill Kai would probably be having a cup of tea with God right now...

After doing a quick scroll through his status, Kai noticed that there was a faint glow around Contract of Artemis. Concentrating, he opened it to see what changed...

And he liked what he saw.

Contract established:

Familiar: Wolf of the crescent moon

Level: 9 (4 XP needed)

HP: 60

Mana: 80

Name: Umbra

Stats:

Strength: 13

Dexterity: 9

Constitution: 6

Mana: 7 ( +1)

Stamina: 12 (+1)

Will: 8 (+1)

Luck: 7 (+1)

Oh, so it's shows the stats she gets from the 10% of my stats... Should I spend some of my stat points?

Since it said that Umbra had twelve stamina, the plus one that was beside it meant that she actually had thirteen stamina. Meaning if Kai had one hundred stamina, she would get a bonus ten.

Scrolling back up his menu again, Kai saw that he had forty-nine unnasigned stat points. After some internal debating, he decided to save them... just in case. It's not like he had a reason to spend them yet anyway.

After finishing up with the top half of Umbra's status, Kai looked down to the skills section.

Skills:

[Bite of Umbra (Rare)] After an unnamed Wolf of the crescent moon was granted a name by their new master, their desire to protect manifested into their jaws. Upgraded version of the common skill bite. Bite of Umbra grants a 2× damage bonus when in the dark. When fighting beside their master, Umbra can spend 15 mana for a 3× damage bonus

An extremely useful skill. Kai thought to himself as he read the description, feeling slightly happy at how Umbra feels about him. All the damage bonus parts of the skill would be extremely useful in any upcoming fights. Kai then looked down to the following skill.

[Coat of Night (Uncommon)] Matching the colour of darkness, allows the user to stick to the shadows. The user will remain undetected unless spotted by someone with a Will stat 10× their own

Hmm... a stealth skill... that's pretty good. Kai nodded his head happily at the skill, a stealth skill is always a nice addition to... Well, anything.

With the way the skills were going, Kai probably wouldn't even need to fight anymore, Umbra would be more than capable to handle any issues that pop up in the future.

After reading the first two skills, Kai lookrd down and spotted only one more. But after reading the description...

[Protected by Darkness (Rare)]

The Wolves of the crescent moon are blessed by the darkness. The darkness is the all knowing of the Forest of Ethenia. Darkness is everywhere... and so is its protection

Feeling confused... and a little scared, Kai read over the description again, then looks at the wolf he currently had his head resting on... Then to the shadows surrounding them. It almost feels as if they are watching him...

Nope, I'm not crazy, I'm imagining it... Definitely not crazy... yet... Shivering as he stopped those thoughts, Kai realised that maybe he was little crazy by now... After being trapped in an empty room by himself for an unknown amount of time, followed by being paired up with a scary woman who could kill him without breaking a sweat, to then being given skills and innate abilities by the voice of... something, Kai is still working on figuring out that part.

To top this all off, nearly being mauled by a savage wolf... shouldn't he be panicking a little more?

Just the fact he spent an unknown amount of time in a plain, white room by himself should have done something to his mental state. Yet for some reason, he felt fine.

Frowning slightly at the realisation, Kai lifted himself off of Umbras sleeping form, careful not to wake the wolf and deny her peaceful self of any sleep. Once was safely away from his familiar without waking her up, Kai made his way over to a nearby tree. After thinking for a while, he had an idea of what it could be that was affecting him. He opened his status screen and looked at one of his skill descriptions.

[Nonchalance (Uncommon)] Grants an uncanny level of calmness in situations many would find themselves stressing in.

This must be the reason... Kai thought to himself as he read the description again.

An uncanny level of calmness in stressful situations... and this is definitely a stressful situation, but I don't feel stressed? But what about the first white room, I didn't have any skills then... or maybe I always had them and the status just let's me see them...

But then what about innate abilities? I've never had the power of any otherworldly creatures growing up, and people certainly never "obeyed my will". Maybe I just didn't use it right before, and now that I know what I'm doing it works...

But what about Noelle... Lifting his head, Kai glanced towards the the olive skinned woman. He then frowned slightly as he saw that she was still tending to her scimitar. What's her obsession with that thing, sure I like my dagger but... not to that level.

Every moment since they arrived in this forest, Kai had only ever seen Noelle sleep or take care of the blade, its an unholy amount of dedication for a blade that had only been used once, and that was only an hour ago!

Sighing softly, Kai let the matter drop... Not like he was going to say anything, never piss off a woman with a sword, that's his motto.

Along with don't piss off the woman pinning you to the ground.

Kai sighed. It seemed that majority of his mottos all had to do with not pissing off women.

Walking away from the permanent shade of one tree to under the permanent shade of another... not as if everywhere is covered in shade, Kai lied down beside Umbra again. Using her fur as a pillow, Kai fell victim to the sweet embrace of sleep... all while unaware of a squirrel with a third eye watching from a tree... and a crow with the same crescent moon pupil watching him from its nest... and a worm sticking its head up from the ground to peek at them... what?

Just as Noelle started to feel that something was off and looked around cautiously, all the animals that were watching turn into a cloud of black smoke... as if they were never there to begin with.