Gary’s hands were tense around the sink top. He looked at the packet of dye as he had tried the process a few times already. It didn’t matter if he used the black dye or the golden one. The high schooler only got to enjoy his new look for a few seconds.

Every time, Gary would get the same message from the system. In the end, he gave up. One, because it was consuming Energy in order to restore him to his ‘original self’ and there just seemed to be no hope past it either.

‘YOU DAMN SYSTEM, THIS ISN’T MY ORIGINAL SELF!!! Have you ever encountered anyone who had green as their natural colour? …should I just go bald? Just get it all off, or will the system just regrow my hair back using Energy bringing back to my natural self again’ Gary started to wonder.

When thinking about it, it wasn’t the strangest thing. Even Jayden’s hair had grown when transforming, and when he reverted to his human form, his hair did as well.

‘But this… am I really going to have green hair for the rest of my life?’

The teenager wondered when exactly the system had decided on this being his natural hair colour. Was it back when he had received the system… or did it perhaps temper with his body when his Grade had gone from Pawn to Knight? He had grown taller and his muscle mass had increased, so would it be really unbelievable if it had changed his hair colour?

Aware that dwelling on this matter wouldn’t help him in any way, Gary decided to leave it for now and started to get ready to head over to Burnham. It was getting late, and if he didn’t head over soon, the others might just head back.

In fact, based on the group chat, they all wanted to ask him questions about what happened. News of the red colour gang’s demise hadn’t spread just yet. Today, he wouldn’t be wearing his gang clothes. It would bring too much attention and as Kai had explained today’s job scope was simply scouting.

So while picking a set of normal clothes, and once again a hoodie. Gary was nearly ready to leave. He had been looking forward to seeing the reaction of the Howlers when he would show up with a brand-new look, but unfortunately it was not to be.

Before going, though, Gary had made a decision after seeing Jayden.

‘I don’t know if it’s just him, or Altered in general, but at least Jayden was clearly stronger than me. If Kirk is also that strong… I’ll have no chance against him. So far, I’ve kept my stat points ready for my opponents, just in case I needed them. However, if all fights will be this hectic, I won’t be able to use that point.’

Unlike his stat point, the Pawn point he had received after consuming Billy had many uses.

Would you like to convert your Pawn point into skill point(s)?

Gary wasn’t sure he was doing the right thing. According to the message he had received when gaining the Pawn point, he could use it to upgrade his body into the next Grade, upgrade skills with it, or stats. So far, the high schooler hadn’t seen the benefit in doing that.

Stat points he could always gain from Levelling up or consuming people… well as a Knight Grade Werewolf, he would apparently have to eat beasts as the system claimed.

Beasts might no longer exist in the world, but he could still Level up in other ways, as the system had shown him. The most useful thing therefore seemed to be to convert the Pawn point into a skill point, so he could strengthen his Claw Drain to the next level.

Yes

3 skill points have been obtained

Skill points can be used to upgrade certain existing skills or to purchase new ones

New tab has been added; Skill Shop

Gary was baffled at this sudden development. He would have already been happy to simply upgrade his Claw Drain skill to Level 2, but his system had blessed him with a new tab. What’s more, his one Pawn point had been converted into three skill points, instead of one. The teenager was curious if he could change them back, yet he received no option to do so.

‘If this was a game, then I would usually get a worse deal when converting… Does that mean the Pawn point would have been better used to upgrade that Grade thingie?’ Gary wondered, but the Werewolf System simply kept him guessing. Unfortunately, it wasn’t as if there was another Werewolf around for him to gain another point.

Curious, Gary checked out the new Skill shop… only to be vastly underwhelmed.

Claw Drain – Forced Level Up – 1 point

Berserker – 1 Skill point

Magnetic Howl – 2 Skill Points

Last Stand – Cost – 3 Skill Points

Seeing that the Claw Drain claimed to be a Forced Level Up, Gary felt reassured that just like games, it should be possible to level it up naturally, most likely by using it more.

‘Seriously? What kind of shop doesn’t say anything about their own skills?’ Gary questioned. ‘This seems more like a back alley type of deal with some ruff looking tattooed man with a bad attitude who simply tells me ‘take it, or leave it’.

Alas, not even this accusation of foul play earned him any reaction from the system. There was no information at all, which made the high schooler think that this system seriously sucked. If it was a game developer, Gary would have already been making a complaint.

He might have even understood it for the two new skills, but hadn’t he already been told what Berserker could do? What was the point of playing coy now?

With three skill points, Gary could theoretically purchase Berserker and Magnetic Howl. Two skills should be better than one, allowing him to be more flexible… this might have been the logical choice. Alas, Gary wasn’t the most logical person there was, and something drew him to the third skill.

Perhaps it was the fact that it cost the most amount of skill points. Surely the higher the cost, the better skill he would get. Maybe it would give him something that would let him deal with an Altered or an Altered Hunter he might run into at some point in the future.

Are you sure you would like to select the skill ‘Last Stand?’

Yes

/ No

‘Screw it.’ Gary thought as he selected Yes on the menu

*******

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