Chapter 547 Combat Technique Test, Gradual Adaptation

In a primeval forest fraught with danger, surviving was no easy feat—especially for an ordinary beast lacking sufficient intelligence.

Woodland Coyotes.

Although their name classified them as wolves, these small-to-medium creatures, which grew to a maximum of one meter long in adulthood, were merely close relatives.

To some extent, calling them "dogs" would not have been much of a mistake.

Woodland Coyotes were undoubtedly carnivores, but limited by their size and habits, they could never be considered apex predators—not even in the forests of Xia Nan's past life.

Let alone in this fantasy world, a place brimming with transcendent power and teeming with formidable monsters.

On the other hand, the dense magic particles in the air endowed this undiscovered primeval forest with natural resources far more abundant than anything in the modern world.

Gray rabbits, wild pheasants, fawns—prey could be found almost everywhere. This might have made the environment itself more dangerous, but it also meant the coyotes rarely went hungry.

Thanks to the rich nutrition provided by the pack, the coyote mother guarding the den produced plentiful milk. This allowed her to successfully nurse her five cubs past the newborn stage, the perilous period with the highest mortality rate.

Of course, for a newborn Woodland Coyote, this was only the first hurdle it had to overcome in life.

Cold and hypothermia, cave-ins, torrential floods, diseases, parasites, predators—

Growing to adulthood was never easy for a wild animal without any form of protection.

Right now, even with her past experience in raising cubs, the mother coyote only dared to bring her young out of the burrow for a brief sunbath during the warmest, brightest part of the afternoon, when visibility was at its best.

"Awoo—"

Soft, comfortable sunlight drifted through the canopy and warmed her thick fur, making her squint and yawn uncontrollably.

Lying atop a small dirt mound, the height advantage allowed the mother to clearly watch her playing cubs below.

One, two, three, four.

There was one more who hadn't joined its siblings' frolicking, and who should have been resting near the den's entrance—

The mother coyote swept her gaze over.

Her eyes suddenly paused.

That particular cub, distinct from the others and unusually quiet, should have been sitting alone by the entrance.

Yet now, it had vanished without a trace.

Her half-closed eyes widened instantly. The mother coyote leaped to her paws, opening her narrow jaws to call out.

But a sudden, high-frequency blast erupted from the nearby woods.

"Boom!"

It nearly made the mother coyote jump in fright.

She scrambled down the mound, frantically grabbing the cubs in the clearing and carrying them back into the den.

As the sole adult guarding the nest, she had to protect her young. She couldn't just run away or cower in the burrow pretending she hadn't heard anything.

Instead, muscles tense and teeth bared, she crept cautiously toward the source of the noise.

Fortunately, the explosion had happened near the den. Pushing past two dense patches of shrubbery, she spotted the source.

A small tree lay toppled on the ground. Its trunk had snapped into an irregular hemispherical shape, as if blown apart by something;

the grass on either side looked like it had been sliced by a sharp blade, sheared off at an angle and scattered across the earth.

And sitting beside the stump was her missing cub.

As a native Woodland Coyote of this world, the mother's cognitive limits meant she could not comprehend what had just happened.

To her, this scene was fundamentally no different from a natural wildfire or a flash flood.

Driven purely by the instinct to avoid danger and protect her young, she lunged out of the bushes, grabbed the cub by the scruff of its neck, and sprinted back toward the den.

Xia Nan did not resist, letting her carry him.

He simply hung there, his four limbs dangling naturally and his tail tucked securely between his hind legs.

In his mind, he unconsciously reviewed the experiment he had just conducted.

He had found that the Attribute Panel could still be summoned, and the Feats and combat techniques he had learned in his human body had carried over to this one.

To be safe, and to better adapt to this wolf form, he naturally had to test them.

The results were exactly as he had expected.

Just like when he used [Gravity Control]: due to his severe lack of mental strength, he became dizzy and nearly passed out after only a single second.

He had gone from a physically strong human body to a wolf cub not even a month old.

His six core attributes had naturally plummeted.

This resulted in a drastic reduction in the power of his combat techniques.

This was easy to understand. After all, the power of a combat technique was rarely fixed.

Take [Spinning Slash], which had been upgraded to the maximum Level 5.

If used by a malnourished, scrawny human child versus a burly, towering giant larger than a house—

the resulting destructive power would be worlds apart.

As for the combat techniques Xia Nan currently possessed, the tests revealed the following:

[Spinning Slash]: Its power had heavily decreased, and the force generation method was unfriendly to a canine body. Using claws instead of a sword felt incredibly awkward. It required further intensive training to build muscle memory, or he needed to find an alternative way to utilize it.

[Gravity Control]: He had already tested this. Its absurd mental strength consumption meant it was entirely unusable, at least until this body grew stronger.

[Ember Echoes]: Restricted by its activation requirement of being heavily injured or near death, he could not test it. However, it likely remained unaffected, continuing to serve as his hidden trump card.

[Heavy Tide]: It was relatively unaffected and could be used naturally. However, its percentage-based damage bonus offered minimal improvement to his current body's meager Strength, making it better than nothing. That said, its "chance to stagger the enemy on hit" property was not affected by his six core attributes, which might yield miraculous results in combat.

Beyond those, two other combat techniques warranted special attention.

The first was [Fang Hunt].

He remembered when the Barbarian Forgan had taught him this combat technique's training methods; Forgan had mentioned that [Fang Hunt] was created many years ago by a Barbarian ancestor who modeled it after a Winter Wolf's hunting movements.

Later, when Xia Nan first used the [Dream Weaving Corridor], he had followed that ancestor and fully experienced the origin of [Fang Hunt], witnessing the vengeance of the Legendary black wolf known as "Kalosh".

The "wolf" and [Fang Hunt] shared an inseparable connection.

This connection was actually quite evident from the pitch-black wolf phantom that manifested around him whenever he used it.

And just now, when Xia Nan used this combat technique for the first time in an actual wolf's body, he made a surprising discovery:

[Fang Hunt] was exceptionally compatible with this form.

This was true even though his physical body was frail and he carried no weapons.

Executing it felt inexplicably smooth, and the movements required to channel its force flowed far more naturally.

It was as if it had been tailor-made for this body, requiring absolutely no adaptation.

Xia Nan pondered over this. Perhaps his future combat style in this wolf form could still be designed around [Fang Hunt].

Next was [Gravity Etching].

As an innate combat technique of the [Meteor Blade Hunter] class, its power had naturally weakened upon his transition from a strong human to a newborn cub.

Even so, its core property remained entirely unchanged: its "force field damage" ignored the vast majority of defenses, acting much like true damage.

That blown-apart sapling in the clearing was the result of Xia Nan's test.

With an attack like that, let alone ordinary beasts, even dangerous monsters with a Challenge Rating might instantly drop dead if the force field damage struck their vitals.

Without a doubt, [Gravity Etching] would serve as this body's ace in the hole, ensuring he could grow up safely in this world for a very long time.

Due to the commotion Xia Nan had just caused, the mother coyote revoked his siblings' rare and precious sunbathing time.

Forbidden from going outside, they huddled together inside the den like a pile of squirming furballs.

It was not until the sunlight filtering through the entrance grew dim and yellow, accompanied by rapid footsteps and the howls of their kind, that the mother finally carried the cubs out of the burrow one by one.

The hunting coyotes had returned.

When the mother set Xia Nan down on the ground, he saw several adult and sub-adult coyotes dragging a fawn's carcass into the clearing.

Including the mother guarding the den, there were six of them in total.

The one noticeably larger than the rest, boasting a darker coat, was undoubtedly the pack's alpha.

Just like in Xia Nan's past life, this pack consisted primarily of the parents and their underage offspring.

Centered around the alpha pair, the remaining coyotes participating in the hunt were the surviving cubs the mother had birthed in previous years.

In a bit more time, once Xia Nan's older siblings reached full maturity, they would be driven out of the territory by the parents to start their own families.

By then, when new cubs were born, a slightly older but still immature Xia Nan would take their place and follow the alpha on hunts.

Xia Nan had yet to figure out the mechanics of this ritual.

Now that he had confirmed he could normally use most of his combat techniques and Feats, he lacked a clear short-term goal.

His only thought was to grow up as quickly as possible, gaining the power to protect himself before any potential crisis arrived.

He had not eaten anything in the half-day since he arrived in this world, and he had not really felt it earlier.

But now, looking at the fawn's carcass dragged back by the pack, the shrunken stomach beneath his fluffy fur twitched, sending waves of hollow hunger.

Having been born over half a month ago, he could gradually transition from milk to meat. Seeing the other cubs whining and scrambling toward the carcass, Xia Nan quickly followed suit.

But before they could get close, the pack alpha—the coyote visibly larger than the rest—stepped forward and blocked the cubs' path.

Then, right in front of Xia Nan's eyes.

It lowered its head and opened its jaws.

"Blegh—"

It regurgitated a large, steaming pile of chewed, partially digested meat paste onto the ground.

The cubs showed no disgust. They scrambled forward, eagerly devouring the regurgitated meal.

Xia Nan sat frozen in place, a very human-like hesitation showing on his fuzzy face.

Going from human to wolf, he might have been able to accept eating raw meat directly or drinking milk.

But this regurgitated meat paste, which looked virtually indistinguishable from vomit, was simply a bridge too far.

A gentle push from behind suddenly sent his fuzzy body tumbling forward a couple of times.

He saw the mother coyote standing behind him, staring in confusion, as if baffled by the cub's indifference to such "delicious food."

Xia Nan stumbled back to his feet.

He looked up at the two adult coyotes, then down at the exquisite feast his siblings were enjoying.

His small, wet, black nose twitched. The tantalizing scent of bloody meat flooded his nostrils with every breath.

His stomach churned; his hunger gnawed.

"Whimper—"

He unconsciously bared his teeth.

In the end, Xia Nan just could not bring himself to cross that psychological hurdle.

Of course, he did not go hungry either.

He did not know if it was due to his transmigration or a feature of the ritual itself.

But the cub he possessed had developed significantly faster than the rest of the litter.

His teeth were still slender and fragile, but if he targeted the softer sections around the fawn's abdomen, he could still tear off a few shreds of meat.

Swallowing it caused no discomfort, indicating that his digestive system had matured as well.

It was worth noting that Xia Nan's body had an enormous appetite. He ate almost more than all the other cubs combined.

Moreover, he could distinctly feel waves of heat spreading throughout his body alongside the ingested bloody meat.

Coupled with his earlier observations while eating, Xia Nan guessed that the ritual itself did not require the adventurers to grow up slowly like normal beasts. Instead, it accelerated their development to some degree.

If this was true, it was obviously a good thing for him.

Reaching adulthood faster meant his physical attributes would soar, allowing him to wield his transferred combat techniques more effectively instead of fainting the moment he drew on his mental strength.

Night fell shortly after their meal.

The venison caught during the day meant the pack did not need to hunt tonight, so they all rested together in the den.

Testing his combat techniques had consumed a massive amount of stamina. With a belly full of meat, Xia Nan felt a tidal wave of drowsiness wash over him.

Inside the burrow, he picked a relatively safe spot, far enough from the entrance yet close to the mother without risking being accidentally crushed.

He then forcibly gathered his focus, switching back to his human perspective suspended in midair above Stodd Island. Seeing no anomalies, and noting that the other adventurers were still floating just like him, he finally withdrew his attention.

Curling into a ball, he drifted into a quiet sleep.

He had thought his first day after being pulled into the Ritual Secret Realm would end just like this.

But mid-slumber, Xia Nan was suddenly jolted awake by an urgent, resounding barrage of low wolf growls.