Not Your Dog

Silence II

In the world he opened his eyes to, it was green. Lush, dense green. A world of vitality and growth.

[Loading original bodies memories. Memories acquired.]

The migraine rampaging through his head caused him to scream out in agony. It was a gurgled scream without form due to his damaged vocal cords.

In this world, he was unnamed. He was a wolf spirit- what mortals thought of as a beast deity. Simply put he was a demonic beast that gained sentience.

When he first gained his intelligence, he had been picked up by a traveling merchant. The Old Man had taught him the art of medicine and named him Okami- the wolf named Wolf. There seemed to be nothing that could disrupt the lives of the wanderer and the wolf spirit, however as typical of a story there was a plot twist.

The Old Man was a renowned doctor. His skills were considered godly and it was as though he could bring the near dead to full health in barely any time. As such, many powerful, influential people wanted to monopolize his skills.

Upon discovering that the Godly Doctor was a free soul that wouldn't settle down, one particular emperor decided that if his country wasn't the one the Doctor served then the Doctor was a liability. He decided to send his strongest men to escort the Godly Doctor back to his empire, even if only as a corpse.

While searching, the Emperor's men followed the trail of clues and discovered Okami. Okami had a gentle and timid personality despite being the spirit of a wolf. He agreed to help the men but not lead them to the Old Man. The men agreed and Okami joined their party. He didn't expect that the strong men would be so desperate as to poison his food and threaten him.

Despite Okami being extremely talented in medicine, he had no opportunity to escape and make a cure. Okami was what was considered the scholarly type with no skills in fighting. It took most of his effort and determination to escape the strong men. The original Okami was destined to die in the forest, unable to access the life saving herb prepared by the Old Man.

The original Okami had died with many regrets. He had deeply wished to continue following the Old Man who had become his father figure.

He understood just how precarious his situation was. Realization hit him- he still needed to eat the life saving herb prepared by the Old Man or his life could still be forfeited.

He knew the damage was already set and he had lost his voice but if he died and left the world to soon he believed he would regret it.

He weakly struggled to reach the pouch at his hip. His fingers slowly explored through the items until he found a dried, leafy herb. He coughed blood as he exerted strength to pull the herb out and to his lips. As he chewed on the plant all he could taste was the bitterness and blood.

After swallowing the herb, he fell into a deep coma. Fortunately he was well sheltered under an overhang and cleverly concealed in the dense shrubbery.

During the coma he was plagued by strange dreams. In some he was strapped down to a table and injected with strange substances. No matter how he screamed or pleaded it seemed as though no one could hear him and the torture would continue. In others there was a tall silhouette whom he was chasing. He reached out his hands to grasp at the figure's fluttering robes, but they would always slip from his grasp. He was always a step behind, unable to catch up or see the other's appearance.

The most memorable dream was of a pair of golden, reptile eyes that seemed to stare into his soul. Even as he woke up gasping and in pain, in his mind still lingered the mystical eyes.

He struggled to pull himself up. He was weakened and fatigued- it showed by his partial reversion into a wolf. He uncomfortable maneuvered into a sitting position. It was an extra struggle to free his large wolf's tail from under him.

His breathing came out raspy and labored, but he was out of any danger. As he sat contemplating what choices he had, he heard the system:
[Host's task is to grant the body's last regrets.
Part one of three complete.
Randomly generating reward.
10% soul force acquired.

Okami's last regrets involved dying too soon, being unable to protect the Old Man and not attaining true happiness.]

Forgetting that his voice was broken, he tried to verbally reply to the system. This resulted in him coughing up more blood and excruciating pain.

The mechanical voice gave him a prompt; [Host can connect mentally to the system.]

He scrunched his brow before mentally attacking the system with questions.

What were the dreams I had? Who am I? Why am I bound to a system? Why must I complete these tasks? What is soul force? Who did that pair of haunting eyes belong to?

[Error.
Too many search topics.
The system is temporarily offline.]

The lack of answers left him- who could only identify as Okami now- overwhelmed and stressed. The more his thoughts wondered, the more distrust arose in his heart about whether the system was any good.

The less answers he got and the more memories he tried to recall but couldn't the more unstable his thoughts grew. This state lasted three days as he was trapped in a weakened state under the overhang.

By the third day he was forced to search the nearby surroundings for edible plants. Fortunately for Okami, he managed to dig up some sweet potatoes. With memories of living with the Old Man and traveling from place to place, he had enough general knowledge to start a fire and roast the sweet potato.

After a week of recuperation, he believed himself both mentally and physically prepared to go in search of the Old Man.

A.N.
So what do you all think so far of the second arc?
Any opinions about the system?
About HIS identity as the protagonist of the story?

I'm super curious to hear reader opinions (of course I already have a rough plan of how it's all gonna play out 😎 but I wanna see if anyone can get close to what I'm thinking.)

PS nothing makes a person feel more motivated than seeing all the comments 😂 Thank you for the votes and comments and for just reading this story in general.

@isskos here is the rest 😂