He took a closer look at the weapon, it felt special, even though he wasn't sure of what it could do.
[Wolf's Guard, Soul weapon carrying the soul of a wolf that longs to defend.]
[Abilities, Claw strike, hundred percent increase in defense and attack. Evolvable through deeper connection with the soul]
The system came through for him and proceeded to explain what exactly the weapon could do, and it had Aren hyped, he wanted to test that out now as fast as he could, but now wasn't the time for that, he had to check the next thing, the very one that had been pulling his attention for a while now.
His skill Shadow Consume was what saved him, completely consuming the entire wolf in one go, he was stunned when it did that, he didn't even need to fight or to do anything. So it made him wonder how the skill worked.
If it could just consume whatever, wouldn't that make him an unstoppable force in the trial? So before checking on whatever was left, he decided to read on the skill of shadow consume and see what it was.
[Shadow Consume: This skill allows you to devour enemies and convert them into your shadow summons. Defeated enemies can be consumed.
Subskill: True Shadow Consume, this skill can consume anything living or non-living. Cooldown time, seven days]
As he read down to the bottom of the skill, he finally understood what had happened, in desperation for survival, he had used the subskill.
"I guess I got lucky, if not my head would have been gone already," Aren said before getting up to his feet. He still didn't know what his tier was, and if he was actually lower than F, but one thing was there, and that was the fact that he was the first awakened to level up, and that gave him an advantage above the others.
With the things he had gotten down, he was sure he would be capable of doing a whole lot more, and leveling even faster.
He opened the system screen to check the time first, and when he looked, he realized that he had just about four hours until he had to return to the town before the start of the trials.
"If that's the case, I should level up more, but before that… Shadow Summon." He called out, trying to use the skill he just gained. His shadow spread out under him and from it came a fully pitch-black shadow wolf, with glowing red eyes and a black shadowy aura around it.
It looked menacing, Aren even took a step back subconsciously. He stared at it, feeling the connection between them, yet for some reason it didn't feel all that alive to him, like a robot of some sort.
He stretched out his hand and the wolf stepped forward, he placed his hand on it, it felt physical, but in a weird way.
"You are my first summon, my first weapon, the first thing that tried to kill me, and so I'll name you Fang, after all, you nearly dug yours into my body."
[Name Registered, Fang.]
"Oh, it registered." He looked at the screen and then to Fang, "you and I are going to have a lot to do."
Aren turned the wolf guard back into a ring, and also unsummoned Fang after he noticed that he was actually burning through his soul energy, he couldn't be wasting that.
"I guess that's all, should I hunt a bit or head to town?" He wondered, but that was when he recalled something very important, Consume allowed him to read the fragments of some memories of his summon.
He became curious as to what was inside a wolf like Fang's brain. So like every other skill he had used, he just thought about using it and suddenly, his consciousness was sucked in.
He saw the life of the wolf, running from larger predators, hunting, sleeping, what a normal beast would do. But then he saw a fragment of the most recent one, his eyes widened when he saw it.
He saw Elton, the angel from when they had come here, she was inside the Gods Trial as she spoke to Fang, no, speak was wrong, she gave Fang a command.
"Kill him." She said, and the image she fed to Fang was that of Aren. After that, the memories shattered, that was the last one.
Aren's eyes snapped open, his expression grim instantly, "kill me?" He muttered, "why would an angel want to kill me?" He took a deep breath, realizing that a whole angel wanted him dead, and he had done nothing.
"Wait, could it be that she knows I'm not from this world? But how would she know?" Aren began thinking out loud, scared and confused at the situation, the angel wanted him dead for some reason.
"Why didn't she just kill me? This doesn't make any sense." He thought about it for a bit more, and then came to the conclusion that the best action now would be to act naive about it all, and consume as many memories as he could. If someone wanted to kill him, he wanted to know why, he wasn't going to allow himself die just like that.
"I'll find out whatever it is that is the reason she wants me dead, and I'll find a way to stop it."
[Thirty minutes until Trial]
Suddenly he saw a message come up, he was instantly shocked, he thought there were at least four hours, he didn't know that he spent hours going through the memories of the wolf.
"Shit," he cursed, leaping to his feet, he dashed, running at top speed toward the town. The time slowly ticked away, and as it did, the once bright sky began taking a dark purple shade, an eerie air took over.
He made it out of the forest with fifteen minutes to spare, and he noticed he wasn't the only one that had lost track of time as well, others were bolting toward the town.
With only three minutes left, Aren got through the gates of the town and was safe. He turned around to see those that were yet to reach, and when the timer struck zero, right before all their eyes, they were exploded into bloody mist, dead, all of them.
[The First Trial had begun.]