The Wanderer's Rebirth: Other Paths

The rest of his day passed uneventfully. He studied, then ate with the Manelle family, then went back to his room to study more. All with the vixen following him about.

Kalduin had expressed his shock and awe at having a venerated six-tailed fox not only in the house, but also following Joram about. Even Nalun seemed impressed, seemingly warming to Joram a bit more because of it. Celys played it cool, casually mentioning at supper that he’d been followed by the spirit foxes all day. Which then got him even more looks of respect from the two men of the family.

More than a little uncomfortable with the extra attention, he once again excused himself so that he could “rest” some more.

Back in his room, he once again laid down on his bed, but found that the vixen hadn’t followed him this time. With a mental shrug, he went back to meditating on Psychometabolism, this time using his [Meditation] Skill in conjunction with [Concentration] and [Autohypnosis]. Why that combination?

Well, he wanted to try to further ingrain the knowledge into his mind. As it was, it was like being able to read a book in his head. It was nice to be able to read it whenever he wanted, or to reference something when needed, but there was a fundamental difference between accessing information and knowing that same information.

By the time he came out of his learning session, he found that it was quite dark outside, likely the middle of the night, and that the vixen had returned and had once more decided that he was a comfortable pillow.

She’d once again sprawled on his chest, her paws up at his shoulders while her head rested on his chest, the rest of her once more resting on the bed between his legs. He was surprised at how light she felt, but supposed that all of her fur made her seem larger than she actually was. It was certainly fluffy enough.

His hands twitched again as he resisted burying them into her lush fur. So, instead of moving her, he quickly sorted out the extra silver and gold out of his little money pouch, depositing the extra silver and gold into his inventory, leaving the bronze behind.

With that done, he started going over plans for his future home. For as much as he needed to study, even he needed to veg from time to time, his new body’s capabilities notwithstanding.

He went over many different designs, from a large castle-like building that could house everything that he needed it to all the way to a many building’d compound. He enjoyed the thought of having everything in one building, but also liked the separation of work and living spaces that more buildings would provide.

Joram then wondered if they had winter here, as well as how severe it might be. Back on Earth, he’d lived in one of the planet’s most severe cities when it came to temperature variation between winter and summer. Would it be like that here? Or would he get a more moderate winter as the presence of the sequoia-like trees suggested? Back on Earth, those trees grew on the west coast of the continent, a place that rarely saw below-zero temperatures… Celsius.

No stupid Fahrenheit for him!

Anyways.

If the winters were mild, then he could get away with not having to worry about digging tunnels between the buildings for ease of access in winter. That said, it probably wasn’t a bad idea to do that anyways….

His thoughts were interrupted by the vixen waking. She noticed that he was “awake”, so decided that she needed more pet’ns. So, he obliged, thoroughly enjoying the feeling of soft fur between his fingers.

‘I dare say, I think she’s bonded to you,’ Avi suddenly piped up from beside him on the bed, startling him, and the vixen. He grunted as she jumped off his chest, giving a low bark at Avi as her hackles rose slightly.

“What?” he asked, suddenly very confused at the vixen’s reaction.

‘I think that she can both see and hear me,’ Avi said, looking fascinated as she regarded the spooked fox.

“You don’t say?” he drawled sarcastically, his mind whirling about trying to figure things out. “Didn’t you say that your image was a literal figment of my mind?” he asked, now looking back at the bombshell that way laying beside him.

‘I’m as confused as you are,’ she replied, turning to him with both brows raised.

Joram turned back to look at the vixen, finding it easier to look at her than the other vixen beside him. “Hey, it’s OK, she’s a friend,” he said, not quite sure why, but finding that it also helped ease him to speak out loud.

Astonishingly, the vixen responded to not just his voice, but his words. She slowly relaxed before creeping back to him, though on his other side so that she could keep him between her and the “new person”.

“Do you think it has anything to do with her being called a ‘spirit fox’?” he asked Avi, not really sure if she’d know any better than him.

‘That might be possible, yes,’ she replied, eyeing the other vixen. ‘Stop calling me a vixen,’ she suddenly said, turning to given him a glare.

“Stop reading my mind,” he grumped back, frowning at her.

‘That’s as likely as me ceasing to exist,’ she sassed back, then turned back to the actual vixen who was giving her a weird look. ‘How intelligent do you think she is?’

“How would I know?” he asked, genuinely at a loss.

They stopped talking for a while as the three of them observed on another. Eventually, the vixen relaxed more, seemingly determining that Avi wasn’t a threat, then laid her head on his shoulder and went back to sleep. Or seemed to. He wasn’t sure.

Not knowing what else to do, he decided to change the loadout for his mindbolt. Instead of having it at a total of +4 enhancement, he decided to drop it to only +2 in favour of adding “Holy”. Now, he couldn’t be sure, but considering that the dungeon monsters were murderous amalgamations of mana whose sole purpose seemed to be killing anything that they came across, he was comfortable in assuming they’d qualify as “evil”.

Next, he swapped out “Collision” in favour of “Linked Striking”. A few extra damage in exchange for much more damage after his first shot connected was a fair trade for him, especially considering he’d needed multiple shots to fell this last batch’s goblins.

So, the next thing that crossed his mind was regret for having chosen [Emulate Technological Ranged Weapon]. He hadn’t really used it up to this point. He’d imagined creating an automatic weapon with it, but found that that was too difficult for him to manage at this point in time. Which then reignited his desire to get [Psychic Reformation] properly learned.

Which then began a mental war between his desire to be the mostly deadly he could be, and getting his leg back. Yes, getting his leg back would indeed make him more deadly, and overall increase his chances of survival. But at the same time, if he could start “removing” class features he’d chosen, then insert them into something he could then assimilate, then he would well and truly become incredibly dangerous.

Grumbling, he decided to set a schedule where he’d study one then the other on a one hour rotation until he understood one or the other.

Back to “sleep”.

- - -

The following day passed uneventfully, even though he worried that another attack would come from the dungeon goblins. But seeing as how no one had told him that another attack had come, he felt safe to assume that it had been a quiet day.

Which allowed him almost uninterrupted study time, which then led to great leaps and bounds in his understanding of those two powers. Then, that night, he truly felt that he was going to make the final breakthrough for [Restore Extremity] until the vixen began nudging him incessantly.

“What’s up with you?” he asked, trying to keep the great annoyance that he felt out of his tone.

Instead of answering as he unreasonably wanted her to, she instead lightly took his wrist in her mouth and gave him a light tug.

Frowning, he absently created another pair of crutches for himself before getting up and following the six-tailed fox.

Instead of heading to the kitchen like he expected, she led him outside and into the back yard where he saw… yet more foxes.

“What’s up, little one?” he asked quietly, recognizing that it was still in the middle of the night and was loath to wake anyone.

Once again, the vixen didn’t reply with words, but action. She walked behind him, then nudged him from behind to get him going, nearly knocking him over.

That’s one strong fox, he thought as he started to hobble along again.

The backyard reminded him of those stereotypical rich person’s back yards you’d see in a manga or something. The lawn was well manicured with decorative trees placed artistically so that a person could find shade easily on a hot summer’s day. There was even a little pond that seemed to be fed by an artesian spring, a narrow stream lazily making its way from it through the yard.

Just past the pond, spring, or whatever you’d call it, sat the skulk of foxes. There were more than he’d seen up to that point. They ranged in colour from the traditional orange-brown to white to black and even a couple more dark purple ones. Not a single one that he could see had fewer than three tails.

Upon further inspection, they all seemed to be sitting around a larger white fox, with red-tipped ears and tails. Heck, even its eyebrows were red, which kind of impressed him. Until he tried counting the number of tails it had.

From where he was approaching, he couldn’t quite see, but it had at least seven tails. But it was hard to count and walk while avoiding tripping, so he contented himself to wait until he got closer before trying again. That, and he did his best to keep calm, because each and every one of those foxes were higher level than anyone else he’d seen yet.

He ignored the System notification in favour of keeping his eyes on the path. It wasn’t a bad path, but the combination of having only one leg and using crutches on a gravel path in the middle of the night- even if he could see just fine- wasn’t something to take lightly. Nor, did he think, would the foxes be impressed if he suddenly faceplanted on his way over to them.

Joram eventually arrived at the skulk, then frowned slightly as they scooted aside as though they expected him to keep on going. He paused, pretty sure that he didn’t want to get into the middle of the pack, by himself, or with the at least eight-tailed fox in front of him. But then he was nudged again from behind, so he could either faceplant or hobble forward.

So, he hobbled forward until the vixen stopped nudging him, which so happened to be when he was within touching distance of the great white fox. This close to it, he could see that it looked every bit as fluffy and soft as his escort. But what was more, even seated, it came up to nearly his chin.

“Uh, hi,” he said, having absolutely no idea what to say to such a creature, or even what it might remotely expect of him.

‘We wish to experience what our sister experienced,’ a voice suddenly sounded in his head, a combination of words and images that very clearly showed the purple vixen getting scritches, scratches, and good old pet’ns.

His mouth suddenly dry, Joram regarded the new vixen in front of him with more than a little trepidation. Just what the hell was going on?

Then the white vixen scooted forward until she was very nearly nose-to-nose with him and looked at him expectantly with her very large, red, eyes.

As slowly as if he was trying to touch a lion, he reached up with his right hand and tentatively rubbed her ridiculously soft head a bit before stopping to see if he was going to die for his temerity.

If anything, she was annoyed that he’d stopped, giving him a reproving look that he somehow interpreted as “weak sauce”.

Jaw clenched, he absent-mindedly dismissed his crutches so they wouldn’t fall and land on one of the foxes that surrounded him, and then reached up and began to go at it. He massaged her cheeks and then her jaw, then slid up and started on her ears. He was sure to be gentle, especially because he was still getting used to his own strength, but she seemed to be enjoying it, so he kept it up.

His hands soon moved on to the back of her head, then her neck, then at her shoulders. That’s when she really started to slump into him, which then caused him to lose his balance. Foxes quickly scattered as he fell backwards, the white vixen lunging forward so that his hands wouldn’t leave her.

Fortunately, he landed on the grass, which was softer than he expected. Still, he quickly manifested [Natural Healing] as the white vixen landed on his chest, turning into a boneless heap on his chest. As his hands paused, she once again gave him a look that told him to continue. So, he did.

He gave her everything that he had. Every technique he’d used growing up, and even ones he’d paid attention to over the years that he hadn’t been able to play with anything with fur. He even used some of the massage techniques that he’d learned, resulting in the fox equivalent of “liquid kitty”.

When he had that thought, the vixen turned her head lazily to him and sent yet another message.

‘Rude,’ she sent, letting him know that it was because of the comparison to a mundane feline.

Great, yet another woman who can literally read my mind, he thought wryly, then got a huff of annoyance from the white vixen, so he continued working on her until he got the impression that she was content.

He then let his arms drop to his sides, his energy almost completely spent. Before he knew it, his eyes had closed, and he fell into a deep meditative state.

The vixen looked at him for a time as the sun began to rise. Then, as the first rays of the sun shone down on them, a bright light enveloped them both.

* * * * *

Myra woke up, content with the first rays of sun shining down on her. She stretched, feeling terrific as her limbs quivered in pleasure. Smiling, she got up and made her way to her vanity where she filled a large bowl with water from a pitcher, then washed her face.

She chose her outfit for the day, yet another set of [Miko] attire, though cut slightly differently so that she’d at least have a bit of variety in her daily life. She briefly debated hiding her tails, but discarded that idea once again. She didn’t know why, but she found that she enjoyed having her tails out lately.

Myra then slowly brushed her hair out, then brushed out her tails, taking extra care to avoid pulling too hard on them. Once done, she looked into her small silver mirror, trying to decide if she should tie her hair back today or not. It was getting fairly long, now almost reaching her tails. Grinning, she decided to tie her hair in a loose tail, binding it at the nape of her neck with a shiny black ribbon.

Now ready for the day, she left her room, unconsciously humming a gentle melody as she made her way to the living room. Once there, she found that she wasn’t the only one up. Both her mother and father were already there, discussing town events.

“The monthly caravan should be arriving next week. Do you think they’ll bring enough ore and raw materials this time around?” her mother asked, getting a doubtful grunt from her father.

“Seems to me that they’re trying to increase the value of what they have by claiming ‘shortages’. I’ve spoken with a few guilders, and they say that the market seems to be just fine in other, human, towns,” he grumbled, using the casual term for members of the Exterminator’s Hall.

“Well, now that we have something that they’ll be drooling over, we’ll have a much better time negotiating prices,” her mother said smugly, likely referring to the moss stone she’d bought from Joram.

If he’d been able to sell his stock directly to the traders, she was sure that he could have gotten almost twice as much as he had. But she couldn’t blame her mother. The in-between person still needed to make money, after all. That, and getting such a rare resource for trade was a must when dealing with greedy traders.

A bit bored with the talk, Myra got up again and made her way to the back of the house, thinking that a bit of fresh air would be good to help stimulate her. As she exited the back door, she couldn’t help but notice that quite a number of foxes had gathered to… sleep in the backyard?

They were all piled together, snuggling with one another. The sight was so adorable that she started sneaking closer for a better look. As she approached, she started noticing that most of them were spirit foxes, foxes with more than one tail.

Intrigued, she kept sneaking closer. Just after crossing the little bridge over their little stream, she noticed a lot of white fur at the centre of the sleeping skulk, and held her breath.

Was the great matriarch there as well? That was rare, as she normally kept to herself and only came out for the semi-annual festivals and rites. Now even more excited, she continued creeping forward, counting herself lucky to be able to see the matriarch a couple of months early.

Then the white fur started to shift, making her stop dead in her tracks. Then perfect white skin was revealed, and her eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. There, sitting in the middle of a sea of fur, was a naked woman. Her ears and tails were red-tipped, but every other bit of hair and fur on her was white as could be.

When she opened her eyes, Myra could see that they, too, were blood red, confirming that that was indeed the great matriarch of the spirit foxes. But then she noticed that for a “great matriarch”, she looked no older than she was. If anything, she looked a bit younger.

Then she heard a very distinctly un-fox-like grunt before Joram’s head lifted above the horizon of fur, looking confused.

“Kyaaa~!” she screamed, then everything went black.