by D Wolfin
The man in the hooded cloak wasn’t too bothered. He put down a few items on the ground next to a tree and…
‘What has he just done?!?’ He placed down his money pouch and his weapons on the ground. Why would he approach that monster without any weapons?!
I watch and start to believe even less, the two of them start having a brawl. The wolf is extremely fast, a few of its strikes are simply a blur, but the cloaked man dodges each and every one of them. I see his fist connect with the wolf a couple of times but unlike the wolf, it looks like speed and probably dexterity is the only thing he has.
A few ice bolts come from the wolf but still the man manages to dodge them, retreating back into the forest with the wolf hot on his tail. This guy cannot possibly win such a fight, especially without his weapons. He is doomed to die.
Regaining my senses I realize his money and weapons are still on the ground near me, and he is nowhere to be seen, I can hear them in the distance but I can’t see anything. I sneak over to the stash he left and quickly inspect it.
‘Trash,’ that’s my first impression of the weapons. they are extremely low level and worthless even brand now. The pouch also only had thirteen gold, he was poor too!
Well he won’t be needing them in the afterlife so I may as well help myself, stuffing the weapons in my inventory and attaching the pouch onto my belt I don’t even feel a shred of remorse, people should be more aware of their belongings after all.
With the deed done I slip out of the cavern and start walking back to Iceridge.
I spend my nights in a tavern usually. I have a thing for sleeping in the game for some reason or another. Tonight is no different, and deciding to break in my new wallet I use a little of the money I had just acquired. The top floor of this particular inn was a massive two gold per night, compared to a standard room being thirty silver a night.
I wasn’t my money anyway so there is no need to hold back, paying the innkeeper got me a gaudy looking key which I take with me upstairs on the way to my room.
The inside of the room is just as flashy as the key, on the fourth floor all the furniture here was created from rare or exotic woods and even inlaid with intricate patterns. Looking through a window with two swinging doors to open outwards gave an excellent view of Iceridge’s central courtyard, overlooking all the shops and has a perfect view if the fountain of ice completely frozen in its movement.
With the sun setting I decide I may as well have an early night, I will have to lay low just in case that man knows who was following him and figures out I was the one to steal his stuff.
Closing my eyes I peacefully enter into a quiet slumber.
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My eyes shot wide open! In the middle of the night something happened that should not be possible! Someone has just broken in, smashing the window and a small part of the wall to pieces in doing so!
This is a private room so nobody should be capable of entering, let alone this! My heart was beating like a frightened rabbit in my chest swimming in mixed feelings of confusion and fear. I feel like my entire body is petrified, I had managed to sit up against the back of the bed but I cannot bring myself to move an inch from there.
The oil lights along the street let enough light in throw the gap in the wall. In the room stood a girl with her face turned towards me. She is only a year or two younger than me in appearance and the same height as well. The most shocking part is she is completely naked, not even a pair of socks. Apart from the curvature of her hips she has an elegantly slender body, especially her limbs. Her chest is moderate, not exactly non existent, but not exactly large neither.
Her skin seems to have never seen the sun. It is a perfect pale white, lacking even the slightest mark on it like a perfect painting. Her whole body emits an aura of animalistic beauty, unparalleled by anything outside of nature itself, the feeling of a ruthless predator.
Her Hair is as white as snow and has some a large volume to it, the back reaching the bottom of her neck and the front it just covering her collarbone, cut at a perfect angle to blend the back into the front. The fringe is dead straight sitting just above her eyes, and underneath those eyes are thin lips with the slightest rosy touch, positioned perfectly on her face. But the most shocking part of her appearance are her eyes themselves.
Staring at me is a pair electric blue eyes giving off the faintest glow in the semi darkness. They look absolutely furious.
She looks down at the table where I left the weapons I stole from the cloaked man and picks them up with one hand. Walking over to me she whispers in a voice that while being quiet, rings throughout the room like a crystal glass.
“… Don’t ever touch my man again..”
“W-w-who are you??” I ask in desperation as her spare hand undertakes a sudden change. With the sound of the air cracking, ice forms on her fingers, turning them into long sharp claws about seven inches long each. Every cell in my body screamed to get away from this person as dread overtakes me.
“… You... Don’t deserve to know...” I managed to raise an arm up to stop her but she had already driven the icy claws deep into my chest, pinning me against the head of the bed.
Everything else was drowned out in my scream. The cold was penetrating my lungs, freezing me from the inside out. The worst of it was the pain, it didn’t quite feel real, but it was a pain that wasn’t supposed to appear in the game. The agony crept along most of my body, my blood freezing sending chills directly along my bones.
I could have cried in happiness when I couldn’t take any more and passed out, fading into oblivion.
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-Lost-
Finding my weapons and money gone wrenched my guy sideways, it seriously set me back. Losing just one of the two would have been astronomically better, with the money I could have bought two more cheap short swords, with the weapons I could have killed monsters to collect more money.
Sitting down against the tree where they were, in a daze I just stared into nothingness. Fen came over and used a paw to push me into tree, seeing me not resisting and in no mood to play Fen got comfortable with her head across my legs.
“They’re gone Fen, someone took my weapons and money. If only I had one or the other things would be much better.”
Fen rose her head and sniffed around for a bit, seeming to pick up something but putting her head back down over my legs as if to say it was nothing.
“Ohh what should I do.. This is horrible..” I sat in that one position as the sun sank and the light in the cavern faded, finally holding onto Fen’s head as I dozed off to sleep.
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When I opened my eyes the morning light was shining into the cavern, a freshest of air circulated with the new light and a few deep breathes filled my chest with life.
Fen still has her large wolf head over my legs, looks like she slept in that position. But next to me for some odd reason is my two short swords.
“That’s odd. I wonder if the thief returned them? No, I seriously doubt that would be the case.” My mumbling woke Fen up and she raised her head slightly, only to use it to once again to squish me into the tree before placing it back down over my legs and refusing to move it.
The great white wolf 'Fen' has decided to join you!
Congratulations on gaining a loyal companion who will never betray you. This is not like a tamed monster, the companion will not share experience points, cannot be controlled and if the companion perishes they will not respawn.
Treat them valuably, mistreatment may cause them to leave.
“So, you want to come with me do you Fen?”
Fen nuzzles her head against me and I completely forget to think about who could have taken my stuff and why it was returned.
Chapter 6 – Welcome to Goblin Central
-Lost-
I cannot believe that Fen actually wants to be a companion to me! Having a powerful creature like her join me is surreal at best.
“Well, I’m not sure to on what to say to you fen, but please look after me,” I will remain humble at least, there is no need to get too full of myself.
It’s a shame Fen can’t talk, but she understands what I say and I manage to understand her thoughts to some extent through her behaviour. On that note the artificial intelligence in this game is so far advanced beyond everything else I have ever imagined that it’s scary.
“No point sticking around here Fen, let’s go. I will introduce you to Iceridge.” I walk through the exit to the cavern with Fen right behind me, at least, she was following until I went through the exit.
Turning my head to check behind me Fen was still inside the cavern sitting in front of the tunnel out. All I can see is her legs and most of her body.
“Of course.. She’s too big for the tunnel!” I should have foreseen this situation, but I was a little caught up in the thrill of getting a companion, they are extremely rare after all.
Walking back to the entrance I compared Fen’s size to the tunnel. It shouldn’t be impossible for her to fit, but it will be close.
“Fen, there is only one way for you to leave this place, you’re going to have to trust me on what I tell you to do.” She is not going to like this, not one bit, but I need to not make her too mad in getting her out.
“As you know you are my first companion, so I will do whatever it takes to get you out of this place.” Fen eyes are telling me that she trusts me. Time to put my plan in motion.
“Okay, Fen. I need you to lie on your stomach with your legs stretched out.”
Not even an ounce of hesitation came from the wolf as she did exactly what I said. I then grab both of her front paws, barely managing to wrap an arm around each considering the size of them.
“Please don’t hate me for this,” Before she could have time to think I throw my weight forward and drag her through the mouth of the tunnel. Fen make some painful noises and struggles a lot, but there is no room for her to move as every side of her large body was already scraping against that walls and ceiling.
My strength isn’t particularly high compared to a mid level player and I would never be able to do something like picking Fen up. But it is sufficient enough to drag her along the ground, albeit rather slowly. I also gained a point in strength for my efforts.
Perhaps I should be feeling more remorse but I am more focused on how with a strong companion I can easily hunt more than I could by myself. Distracting myself from Fen’s howling behind me, I compared the new knowledge I have about the ‘Companion’ System with the ‘Pet’ and ‘Summoned’ System.
Both pet’s and summoned beings are extremely similar in that their owner’s words were absolute, any commands given must be followed, even if it meant sacrificing the minion. They could also both be dismissed, summoned beings returning to the ‘Void’ where they were summoned from.
It is a little different when you use the ‘Taming’ skill to acquire a pet. They gain a special ability that allows them to turn into a piece of jewellery, which they could return to upon being dismissed.
Death was the same as dismissal, and you could bring them back with either a magical summon or waiting for the cool down to expire for a pet to be returned from its jewellery form.
The only major difference between the two which caused the most arguments was the experience system of the two. A summoned being received no experience share and to have a stronger summon you needed to simply summon a stronger being, a pet however grew with you and you could manually set the pet to gain anywhere between fifteen and eighty five percent of the experience share.
Companions on the other hand were altogether different, they follow you of their own volition and didn’t necessarily follow orders, not to mention they may decide leave if they were unhappy with you. There was no experience share with them, and in this game it was the killing blow that gave all the experience. Lastly once they die there is no way to bring them back.
Most companions are known as soldiers or people who join you as a part of a quest, so a companion permanently joining someone is unheard of, let alone the companion not being human
I break through the exit of the cave to the morning sun blurred behind a moderate snow storm covering this entire area, preventing my sight from extending past ten meters even with ‘Hunter’s Eyes’.
The wind and snow which may have done damage to normal player and inevitably made them sick, did nothing to me due to the special effect of my cloak maintaining the air around me. Walking through the storm, snow swirled around me on its way past. Yet inside my cloak, all I feel is a slight breeze.
Granted the wind was a little cold, hence proving my cloak isn’t all powerful. And it still does absolutely nothing against a paw the size of my chest altering my orientation from standing upright to face first in the ground.
Fen had absolutely no issue with the weather, being a boss class wolf with the ice attribute she was standing there completely oblivious to the weather. When I looked up to her from the ground I can see in her eyes that she isn’t particularly angry, she just seemed to be in pain and a bad mood.
“I’m sor-fmgh,” I have my face pressed back into the ground, cutting off my speech. This repeated itself several times in fact, every time I attempted to stand without fail I was forced back into the ground.
When the pressure finally let up I simply stood up as if nothing had happened, her attacks weren’t meant to do any damage and they didn’t really.
“Okay, now that we’ve had a little stress relief, let’s go.” I may not be able to see very far through the snow but I have been here enough times I can get back to town even if I can’t see it.
Leading the way, we stroll through the snowstorm like it was a light afternoon breeze, not moving too quick else we lose each other.
I didn’t encounter any wolves on the way back which was odd, they could have gone into hiding considering the weather but being winter wolves with their thick furs I wouldn’t imagine it would have caused enough grief to warrant hiding.
For two hours we walked through the storm, much longer than I could have imagined it would take to get back to Iceridge. I finally came up to a wall and feel assured that we are finally here, but I take notice that the wall is poorly made out of stones, not to mention it only reaches my chest height.
The snowstorm that has been plummeting down starts to ease and finally subsides enough that the sun breaks the fog and reveals our surroundings.
I kind of gathered from the wall that this wasn’t Iceridge, but the sight around me is absolutely shocking, I could not be in a worse position. The low rock wall encircles an area the size of a small town, and what was surrounded by the wall was an encampment. Looking at a little dark green creature half my size and covered in wrinkle and warts, it was wearing incredibly shabby clothing, torn in most places. That confirms it, this is a goblin
Put me against a goblin one on one any day, with my stats it wouldn’t even last a minute. but right now there was about a hundred goblins in this camp and they were all staring at me, surprised to see a human.
This is a very short encampment with the tallest huts being about one and a half times my height, there are also small camp fires and strange tribal spears litter the area with no particular organization. It is a perfectly hidden spot due to the small surrounding hills around it, the only way to really spot it would be from the sky, and there isn’t a single player who can fly.
I don’t feel like I’m in trouble just because there is an encampment of about a hundred goblins in front of me though, what I’m concerned about is the two hundred plus goblins fully equipped and patrolling the hills outside god damned goblin central.
‘Of course there were no wolves!’ During the snowstorm not only did I get my directions completely mixed up but I ended up passing goblin patrols with neither of us noticing and ende
d up sandwiched directly between the goblins front and rear lines. The absolute worst position to be in.
“Fen, I understand that it was storming and there was a lot of wind... But did you honestly not smell a single goblin when there are so many?” The wolf turned its head away from me, ‘Guilty!’
You’re really not going to let go of a grudge are you... Well, I will go along with it but I expect you to help me make money Fen! All I can do is sigh.
“Okay, Fen. Let’s go take care of the goblins on the hills, we need to get out of here before we are completely surrounded. Look, they are already moving!”
Sure enough the goblins from the surrounding hills were approaching together to trap and overwhelm us with large numbers. From my knowledge they are considerably weak monsters in most games but there are a large number of these weak monsters and I have low levelled health and equipment.
Me and Fen both sprint uphill, dashing away from the encampment to break through a solid line of goblin charging down the hill at us. Raising rusty iron shotel’s, szabla’s and various other weapons that look like they could break at any moment, it was a scene out of a movie.
At least that’s how it started, Fen in all her gloriousness took the lead to protect me from the charging onslaught, she had ranged ice magic that is no joke after all. She did a fantastic job of protecting me, first she charged right up to their front line, then using her powerful legs leaped completely over them, weaving around a few stragglers that were lagging behind the main charge and… Escaped.
‘God damn it wolf! Damn! Damn! Damn!’ I couldn’t stop cursing. I was left to fend for myself in the middle of this dilemma.