Chapitre 40: Just Another Day!

Ark quickly made his way back, and it only took him a handful of minutes at full speed to get back to the tree. As he stepped into the tree, he noticed that Thufrat had seemingly just come back as well, with some fresh prey to feast on. Ark's eyes lit up at the sight of some fresh food since he was quite hungry right now. It had been a long day after all. As Thufrat noticed Ark entering, he only asked him a simple question before turning his attention back to the food that was currently cooking over the open fire.

"Did it go well?"

Ark only nodded as a response, and then they both just sat there quietly for a while. After the conversation that they had earlier, there wasn't much simple small talk Thufrat could try, since the questions needed to be able to be answered by a simple yes or no. They both looked forward to the next day since they could hold a conversation once more, and Ark could test out his human from a little more. Ark also forgot to check what his status looked like when he was in human form, he only felt that he was weaker, but not by how much really. And he couldn't know for sure if he didn't see the status.

After a while, the food was finished, both Thufrat's and Ark's eyes shone at the sight of the freshly cooked meat, that had a bronze-looking tinge to it. The animal Thufrat had hunted was a sheep, but not just any sheep, it was actually a rare Shadowling Sheep. This kind of sheep was especially rare, since sheep rarely evolved into higher forms, and its meat was a delicacy. Ark didn't know this, but he could tell from both the smell and the appearance of the meat that it was gonna be delicious.

As the smell grew thicker and more intense, they started to hear the sounds of animals approaching the tree. Of course, this wasn't much of a problem since Ark just released his aura, and they all ran away in the blink of an eye. Even though Ark normally seemed gentle, he could easily manipulate his aura to scare animals and people off. Especially since he held an affinity with the ice element, it was known for its ruthlessness and strength in normal cases.

As he did this though, Ark realized that he had started to neglect his ice element a little bit since he got his light affinity. But that was to be expected though since almost all enemies in the dungeon were affiliated with the darkness element. And he had no use of it right now, at least not in comparison. Of course, against normal enemies, his ice element would be stronger unless he used his Envoy Of Holiness skill. Since that would give him a perfect light affinity.

After the animals were scared off, they both started to eat ravenously, and the food was completely gone in a matter of seconds. They both let out a burp each as they finished, and the looked quite satisfied. Since both of them were tired, they just decided to go to sleep after they had eaten, and they quickly drifted off into their own dreams.

...

The next day, when they had both woken up, Ark decided to use his skill again, and turn into a human once more. This time he had an entire hour to do whatever he wanted though, and not just half an hour. His plan right now was to enjoy talking to Thufrat, train up his spear skills a little, at least if Thufrat wanted to spar some with him, and he needed to learn a little more about this world. The only way for him to find things out was to talk to Thufrat, so that would come naturally.

As the white light once again enveloped him, he once again returned to his human form. As Thufrat saw this, he took out a set of clothes from a small bag he had raided from the castle. This small bag was a spatial bag, and it contained a small separated space sealed inside of it. Time didn't move in this space, and it was the optimal place to store all kinds of things such as food, clothes, refreshments, and weapons.

The clothes were actually of pretty good quality, and it wasn't something a normal commoner would wear, not because they couldn't afford it, but just because they would spend the money on more essential things. Ark quickly put these clothes on and noticed that they were a pretty tight fit, but he didn't really care that much, and it wasn't the time to be picky anyway. As he was fully clothed this time, Thufrat looked a little envious, not because of the clothes, but more because of Ark's looks. It wasn't that Thufrat was a shallow person or anything, but who wouldn't want to look good? The look disappeared as fast as it came through, and Thufrat clucked his tongue as he inspected his newfound friend.

"Now that I'm dressed, wanna spar a little with me?"

As Ark said this, he looked at Thufrat with some expectation in his eyes, he really wanted to test out this spear of his, since it could very well become his trump card in the future. Thufrat was a bit surprised by this request, and to be honest, he was a bit hesitant. Ark had sown his prowess in battle at multiple occasions and it wasn't something to be taken lightly. But he wasn't going to back down just because of something like that.

"Sure mate, but are you sure you can fight in that body?"

"Not really, that's why I want to train!"

"Fair enough"

As they both said what they wanted to say, they stepped out of the tree, since fighting in there would completely ruin Ark's home. When they were a safe distance away, they both took their respective weapons out. Thufrat just took out his hammer from the spatial bag, while Ark manifested his spear from the light magic in his surroundings.

When they both got into their stances, it was obvious who had practice and experience with their weapon. But just before they started to fight, Ark suddenly realized something crucial.

"Wait for a second!"

"Is something wrong?"

"I just need to check my status for a second!"¨

Ark had completely forgotten that he needed to check out what his status was like in this body. It would be pretty stupid to fight without even knowing what his body's attributes even were.

Name: Ark

Condition: Physical attributes halved

Species: Radiant Ice Wolf (human form)

Level: 27 (42)

Mp: 255/255

Strength: 30 (15)

Agility: 45 (22,5)

Dexterity: 30 (15)

Endurance: 30 (15)

Vitality: 30 (15)

Intelligence: 85

Wisdom: 35

Night Vision [Lv.2]

Water magic [Beginner Lv.4]

Growth [Lv.Max]

Inspect [Lv.5]

Mana manipulation [Lv.6]

Mana perception

Mana recovery [Lv.2]

Herculean strength [Lv.1]

Swift [Lv.2]

Nimble [Lv.2]

Stealth [Lv.4]

Regenerate

Enhanced Stamina

Small Fire Affinity

Small Water Affinity

Big Ice Affinity

Big Light Affinity

Mental Fortitude

Yin Yang body constitution

Envoy of Holiness

Holy Spear: Dawn

Spear Mastery [Beginner Lv.2]

Shapeshift [Lv.2]

Status points [0]

As Ark saw this, he was reassured. It seemed like only his physical attributes were affected, and not his magic. Which was quite logical if you thought about it. The only thing that changed when Ark transformed was his physical body after all.

"It's cool, we can start now!"

As Ark said this, he got ready for battle and entered his stance once more. The fight started almost instantly, with Ark being on the offensive. He decided that he wouldn't use any magic in these spars since he wanted to train his skill with the spear after all, which was also in consideration of Thufrat since the spars would be very one-sided and useless if he used magic, it would kind of pointless.

In the beginning, Ark couldn't really do much, and he was knocked down time and time again, but every time he was, he stood back up and attacked again. He was a fast learner, and after just half an hour, his spear mastery had risen beginner level 7. He was quite dirty though since Thufrat didn't go easy on him, of course, Ark was thankful for this. Since the whole thing would be pointless otherwise. Thufrat was a bit overwhelmed by Ark's comprehension speed, and his battle sense, but he was accustomed to this wolf's antics already, and just ignored it.

They stopped after these 30 minutes though, since they still wanted to talk with each other, and half the time was gone already.