Surprisingly, the hardest part about sneaking out of the duke's estate was not the sneaking.
The guards, while attentive, were looking out, not in.
Combined with how used to Jax's presence they were from his many attempts to sneak around for alcohol, they rarely noticed him, even when he walked right behind them.
What was hard was carrying a bunch of loose things while doing said sneaking.
For most people, that would have been annoying but doable.
But try doing that without hands.
Had anyone ever caught a bag with just their arms while both not crushing the fragile contents and not making a sound?
It was not easy, to say the least.
Funnily enough, Jax even caught Aiden attempting to sneak down to the duke's laboratory and sent him back to his room.
Yet after all of that, Jax had finally made it outside the duke's home and onto the streets.
He stopped for a moment and pulled the book from his bag to double-check that he had everything.
"Carved rock things, check. Knife for the blood part, check. Marked-out cave, check."
He started putting his things back into the bag as he made his way toward the edge of the city.
Of all the places Jax had been so far, this was by far the largest city.
There were almost thirty miles between each wall, with buildings and trees stretching as far as the eye could see.
The city itself was oddly blended with nature.
On some roads, one could drive under buildings supported by trees.
On others, vehicles crossed tree-root bridges that passed over buildings and burrows below.
It took around an hour, but Jax found the gate, exited the city, and began walking around the massive wall of ancient oak trees.
Whether it was because of the Blood Trent or not, Jax never got over the feeling that the huge trees were all watching him.
No matter how ridiculous that actually was.
It took another two hours of walking to reach the cave.
By then, Jax found that his legs were oddly sore from the distance.
"Well, I mean, to be fair, I have been riding around for the past few weeks," he said, more to fill the quiet of the night than anything else. "So I guess my distance muscles are a bit out of practice."
The cave itself was one Jax recognized as an old, abandoned den of some feral wolves.
Considering he had never seen one before, he was rather curious about what regular wolves had in their homes.
Honestly, there was not much inside.
It was a simple cave, with small areas of disturbed 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," Jax mumbled to himself. "I'll be out of your hair in a second. I just need to do this little ritual here."
He grabbed his bag and began pulling out the ingredients for the ritual as he flipped open the book.
Jax had spent quite a bit of time thinking about what his vows should be.
So, as he laid out the stones, he pressed his paw down onto the knife.
Blood trickled from the cut.
A moment later, he realized he would have to walk back on that paw and groaned at how annoying that would be.
Luckily, he had swiped one of Aiden's healing potions with him for just such an occasion.
Following the ritual, Jax held out his paw and let the blood drip as he 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 carved stones floated up.
It slowly drifted toward his chest, where it pressed against his fur.
To Jax's surprise, a sizzling pain rose from the contact.
He gritted his teeth.
A small brand of the rune appeared on his chest, then slowly faded beneath his fur as if it had never marked him at all.
Part of Jax worried that he had done it wrong.
Luckily, a system notification let him 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 near you find they perform slightly better in everything from combat to crafting.
Vow Bane:
Breaking this vow will cause the boon to reverse for a time, instead reducing your allies' performance around you.
Jax nodded with satisfaction.
Then he 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.
This time, it pressed into his chest.
Like spiders running all over him, the burning sensation spread.
Jax hissed through his teeth.
Then it quickly faded.
"I am so not looking forward to the last one."
He groaned and 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 your allies fall unconscious around you, immense fatigue will sink into you, paralyzing you with weakness for a time.
Repeated offenses can even result in death.
Jax took a moment to center himself before beginning the last one.
Though he would admit, the entire time he spoke, he was wincing, already bracing for 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 upward.
This time, instead of pressing into his skin, it seemed to seep into his body like a ghost.
A strange shiver ran through him.
Then came an internal pressure, like something inside him was being wrapped in chains.
A strange, surging vitality rushed through his 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 nearly 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 twenty-five 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," Jax said. "I got a super good regeneraaaAAAAAAHHHHH!"
He cried out, holding his paw up.
He could feel the regeneration.
The wound was closing.
And yet the small cut on his paw, made to offer blood for the ritual, had gone from a tiny prick of pain every now and then to feeling like someone had stabbed a knife through his paw and twisted it.
Jax took a few gasping, shaky breaths as he stared at his paw.
Then he finished reading the vow description.
"Okay," he said, panting. "This is gonna take some getting used to."
He took his paw and slammed it into the rocks, purposely letting it hit wrong to cause pain while using Lifeforce Control (D).
The rock cracked.
Jax waited for the pain.
But Lifeforce Control protected him from true damage.
However, he saw that his Ki was not replenishing any faster than normal.
"So I'm fine if I'm using my Ki," Jax muttered. "After that, it's just gonna hurt a lot, but I can't really die."
He paused.
"I'm starting to wonder if this was really such a good id—"
Jax stopped halfway through his sentence.
He heard something.
Turning his head, the smell reached his nose.
Blood.
And the sound of labored panting.
Leaving his bag behind for now, Jax quickly made his way to the entrance of the cave.
The darkness of the night left the woods vague and shadowed, but his ears and nose pointed him toward what seemed to be a large dispute of some kind.
He glanced behind him, then jumped twenty feet up to get a better vantage point.
Jax scanned the trees until he saw them.
In a clearing, there was a group of dire wolves with what seemed to be a heavily injured fox backed into a small tree hollow.
"Huh," Jax mumbled as he sat down and yawned. "Guess the fox got outfoxed. Sucks to be them."
He continued watching, partially out of morbid curiosity.
Another part of him thought back to hunting foxes with his brother, and how Orion had taught him to anticipate their movements.
As Jax watched, he noticed something odd.
The wolves did not seem to have any blood on them.
And yet the fox was injured.
Curious, Jax kept watching, making sure to keep his ears up in case he heard something.
The little fox continued struggling for a bit.
Then the wolves began moving in.
Jax prepared to go back for his bag.
He had started to turn when a system announcement appeared.
???'s skill Blood Sacrifice (E) has ended.
Their pact magics return to normal potency.
Jax stared for a moment.
Then he whipped around and threw himself down the hill at full speed.
That was not a fox.
That was a fullblood who had been caught in the path of wild dire wolves.
He could see the wolves moving in.
Jax slammed down between them, the ground sinking beneath him as the dire wolves jumped back.
The wolves began sizing him up.
Jax channeled his Ki and activated Iron Fist and Powerful Strike.
Then he slammed his paw into the ground.
The stones exploded from the pressure and force.
The dire wolves jumped back, alarmed.
At first, they had been enraged by someone trying to steal their hunt.
After seeing his strike, they began to retreat while snarling at him.
Classic You haven't seen the end of us kind of thing.
Jax turned back to the hollowed-out tree.
"Come on out," he said. "The bad wolves are gone."
There was no movement from inside the tree.
Jax leaned down.
"I scared them off. I'm here to help. Are you okay?"
Instead of a response, there was the faint sound of something dropping.
Then the small fullblood, no larger than half Jax's size, flopped to the ground.
Their body was covered in wounds.
Their breathing was slowly growing fainter.
"Oh, crap!"