Schmoozing was not as easy as Myles thought.

Myles didn’t get home that night until long past midnight and remembered less than half of what he’d done. He couldn’t argue that it was well worth it when he looked back at the notes he’d scribbled into his journal before he’d crashed.

—

Drinking with [Cleric]s is a bad idea. They cheat.

There are nine regions: Forest, Plains (Cleared), Ruined City, Desert, Swamp, Jungle, Tundra, Lake, Ocean

Chests respawn after two days with reduced loot. Camp your chests.

Kendra and Will are happy drunks.

No one knows anything about Sindra or her people but her people.

Mitchel went to five other people.

Monsters in the lake region are mostly kept to the water and the high grass.

Dungeon?

Loot is skewed to the last hit.

On anything higher than a ‘normal’ monster, there’s a loot bonus.

—

His head ached from deciphering the scribbles of Drunk Myles as he sipped some water to fight the hangover. So much was fuzzy, but he’d learned enough to make it all worthwhile.

At least, he’d hoped he had, and he didn’t just write it to appease future him.

What really worried him were the strokes below the notes. There were a few other things there, written in an even more illegible, smudged script. It annoyed him to no that the marks smudged so badly despite the quick dry scripts on his pen.

Something about Ashra and the pens… wake… sim… red?

He read it a few more times before realizing what it said: Meet Ashra at the pens when you wake up.

Slime ready.

What had he done?

Myles pulled on his clothes in a mad dash as fear cleared his mind of its fog, and he stumbled mid-dress out the back door. The morning breeze was still cool and crisp, so if he were lucky, it could be too early for whatever he planned as he opened the door into the pen.

As usual, he was about as lucky as burnt toast.

“Duck, Myles!”

Myles didn’t even argue as he ducked, and a rock flew past his head.

In the barn, Ashra was punching the slime into oblivion only for it to slowly reform and wiggle towards her, picking up stones it had found somewhere. With a smirking grin on its wiggly, jiggly face, it seemed to be enjoying itself as it was making a sport of shooting them for her ears, her stomach, her legs.

Three shots fired in tandem, and Ashra dodged with all the grace afforded her by bending and moving with all the grace of a dancer on those lapin feet. All the while, she moved closer, attempting to get in another hit. With Myles feeding her new information across their link, it didn’t take long.

When she shattered the ooze again, the [Monster Tamer] watched it start to reform as if nothing had happened. As the large, black, slime eyes reformed, Myles realized what he’d done.

Somewhere in his drunken haze, he’d gotten the brilliant idea to try and resurrect the slime and bond to it.

Thanks, Drunk Myles.

It was time to squash that though. Today was not the day to be messing around with that.

“Ashra, strike the core!”

Myles felt her hesitate, more than likely against an order from last night, but it was only for a moment as her eyes scanned the floor. Its core was obvious. It was the only real solid piece of the creature, and even coated in a thin layer of smile, it was easy to see. Away from the main body, it was still wiggling around here and there as it tried to bring in other clumps of itself faster.

Ashra was there in a moment. With her prey waiting, she moved as fast as her namesake and struck the slime core with a resounding crack. Then, the excess slime vanished, leaving an obviously cracked slime core as loot.

Just to be sure it was dead, Myles walked over and checked the core.

—

Lesser Kinetic Slime Core (Damaged)

Value: 2

Alchemical Reagent

Description: The unstable, damaged magical core of a slime.

Detail: A slime core is used to create alchemical potions that mimic the properties of the slime it came from. Left alone, a core will eventually reconstitute into a full slime. In a sapient’s hands, the individual’s individual magical aura (IMA) will halt this process.

As it is unstable, this slime core will have an equal chance to dissolve into aether rather than reconstitute. If a slime does reconstitute, it will be weaker than it would normally be until the core properly heals.

Do not eat a slime core.

—

Satisfied, Myles picked it up, scanned the information proper one last time, put it in his bag, and sighed as he checked for any injuries on his partner. “Are you okay?”

Ashra did the same before giving him a quick examination. “As well as I can be. We have been fighting for the last hour, and I did not want to disobey your order.”

He didn’t even want to know as his hand wiped from his brow to his chin, feeling each stubble along the way. “I don’t know what I was thinking.”

“What was best.”

Myles noted a few bruises on her hip and arm, the skin under fur turning a nasty looking purple. The thing wasn’t slow to be able to hit her or catch her off guard, but still, he didn’t need to be nearly murdered in his own home.

With a sigh, he opened his inventory, took out the journal and pen, and began taking a few notes. Hopefully, Drunk Myles had told her to keep track of things.

“How long did it take to revive?”

“A handful of hours. Four, if I counted correctly.”

He wrote that down and made a few other notes next to it. “Do you think you could work with it if I trained it after that?”

“If you trained it, it would not be trying to kill me.”

He had to give her that and made a few more marks. It was too good to waste. “We’ll try again tonight,” Myles said before motioning her out of the barn towards the house. “After you’ve eaten, we have a contest to get ready for.”

Worry seemed to cross her face and the link for just a moment before Ashra collected herself. “You are not planning to eat?”

Myles shrugged. “I work better when I’m hungry.”

“That is not how things are done.”

Myles shrugged again. “Dad always said it was better to have a sharp mind than a sluggish stomach.”

Ashra looked at him, confusion evident on her face. “That does not make sense.”

Walking to the door and opening it, Myles gave her the shadow of a smile. “Humans don’t always make sense.”

“If you get hungry, I will not share with you,” Ashra chided, collecting a few vegetables from her garden, eating some and transferring others to her unseen inventory.

“Fair enough.” He felt hesitation through the link, something like the tugging at the back of his mind and sighed. “If you need something, Ashra, ask.”

“It is not my place.”

“If we’re going to work together well, you have to be able to talk to me, Ashra.”

He felt the hesitation tighten like a knot before releasing as she spoke. “When we prove ourselves tonight… if I prove myself tonight, I would like to discuss the terms of my taming and our… connection.”

Myles hesitated, unsure of what to really say, but when he felt the tension rise again, when he pressed his attention against it, he understood why and nodded. “I’m not a monster.”

“I know,” she answered quickly.

“If it makes us work better together, we can discuss changing parts of our connection, if that’s possible.”

He didn’t need words to know what that meant to her.

—

Ashra Snowpelt, Ambush Rabbit Princess has grown to accept you.

Soul Bond complexity has increased from Tempered to Tempered (+).

New information has been unlocked in your Monster Interface for Ashra Snowpelt.

—

At the rate he improved his abilities, Myles was seriously starting to think that it was easier to be a [Monster Tamer] than a [Baker].

Then again, it might have been because of the fact he was working with such an intelligent monster. She had to have been as smart as him, if not more so…

A thought that made him pause for just a moment.

“Come on. We’ll talk about that later.”

***

Walking from one side of the city to the other took a good hour of their time, and walking from the edge of the city to the edge of the lake region took even more than Myles had intended, but they’d made it.

However looking at the lineup of others waiting near the edge of the lake biome, they were the last ones to make it, but Myles didn’t let that get to him. At least they had been asked to come at all.

As he approached, Myles took in his competition. The four others were dressed in an array of different styles of armor and carried all sorts of weapons. In total, there were two swords, one with a shield and traditional looking blade and one with a two-handed version of the weapon, another with a mace, and one with… everything under the sun.

He had to double check as he got closer, but his eyes didn’t deceive him.

The smallest among the group was a literal wall of steel plate that may only have been up to his chest, but they had no less than two swords, a mace, an axe, a pair of daggers hanging from their side below the swords, and…

What is that?

A… rock with a pair of blue gemstone set into clear crystal globes for eyes and a goofy inked on smile on the front of their helmet.

Of all the things the person carried, that was the one that made him stare a little bit longer.

“I don’t know. An elemental maybe? A good luck charm?”

“Hey,” a feminine voice echoed as it called through the metal helmet. The harshness of the call was more than he expected and balked back a step. Of course, Ashra was amused he’d been caught starring despite his annoyance. “Keep your eyes off Rocky, [Monster Tamer]. He’s with me.”

“Rocky?”

He?

She scoffed, waving him off with her hand. “What else would you name a pet rock?” A gauntleted hand reached up to caress the stones head. It continued to stare out with it’s voided, sapphire eyes. Stoic as… well, stone. “Myles Chase, right?”

“At your service,” he said, remembering his manners.

She laughed. “Service class before you got here?”

He’d never been called service before, but it wasn’t wrong. “That obvious?”

“Just some things never leave you even after a class change,” she explained. “My da named me Lyna. I’m a [Master of Arms].” When he didn’t immediately respond, she motioned to her weapons, but was interrupted before she could say more.

“Hello everyone!” Mitchel said as he approached from the direction of the city. “Everyone’s here on time, that’s great. Well, it’d be great either way since we’d have weeded you out if you were late, but still, it’s good to see everyone we marked arrived. So, get in line, and I’ll explain the rest of the challenge.”

Myles fell in line with the rest, not wanting to annoy Mitchel, but he got the feeling the man didn’t really know the meaning of the word at this point.

“Does anyone want to back out?” Despite the pointlessness of the question, the look Myles read on the man’s face told him that Mitchel felt he had to ask.

The largest among them laughed.

“Why would Dahom back out from a challenge!?” the large mace wielder, Dahom apparently, challenged. “Dahom will crush them all!”

“Like you did our front door?” the two-handed blade wielder next to him commented dryly.

“Dahom assumed the doors would be sturdier than that.”

“It was until you smashed it.”

“The door challenged Dahom.”

“It was locked!”

“Dahom has no need for locks!”

“Pantheon above, shut up!” the shield wielder complained. “We don’t need to know every detail of your housing situation!”

“Agreed,” Lyna chimed in. “Kindly shove your words back where they came from, Dahom.”

“Dahom will not shove anything anywhere, halfling! Dahom would enjoy seeing you make him try.”

Is this always how people are?

Myles sighed as Lyna made a clear gesture towards the giant man. “When you get enough of them together.”

There was clear amusement in the connection before Mitchel clapped his hands, attempting to draw the five back to attention. “I see you’re still getting to know each other. The half-giant with the mace is Dahom, a [Mauler]…”

“Dahom is pleased with being the easiest to recognize.”

“Shut up, Dahom.” To Myles’s ears, it seemed like everyone spoke at the same time.

Mitchel muttered something under his breath, making Ashra’s enjoyment grow. “Yes, well. The [Blademaster] elf with the two handed sword is Fal Rashan.” He waited a moment to see if he’d be interrupted, but the elf simply nodded, letting him continue. “The armored halfling is Lyna Hugea, a [Master of Arms], and Micha Reese is a [Paladin] of… Talia? Right?”

Micha, the woman with the shield nodded. “I am Talia’s champion.”

Myles sighed. That could only mean trouble for him.

[Paladin]s were holy warriors, even he knew that, but their powers differed based on who they worshiped. Of course, he’d run into someone that would be a worshiper of Talia the Pure, the goddess of legend famous for slaying ten thousand ranks of monsters and demons. The way she glared at Ashra should have given as much away.

“Excellent!” Mitchel declared before turning to Myles. “And I think everyone’s already seen Myles Chase and his tamed monster around.”

“Hard to miss him and his rabbit,” Micha commented, more snidely than needed. “She follows him like a puppy,” She smiled at Myles, giving him an-all-to-obvious once over before adding, “but who could blame her for it? She is his pet afterall.”

Myles wasn’t sure if that was meant as a compliment for him, but it wasn’t hard to feel the anger that boiled across their link as Ashra took the words to heart.

“Ashra.”

I am no dog! I am no pet! I am a warrior!

“I know, but show her that in the competition, not here.”

Ashra wanted to argue. He could feel her seethe like a pot left to boil, but he watched as she took a deep breath and calmed herself slightly. The heat wasn’t as intense as she continued, but the anger was still there, like embers in the hearth ready to ignite with the smallest bit of fuel.

“We’ll have none of that, thanks.” Mitchel interrupted before anything else could happen, taking back the groups attention. “I am the representative of Sindra’s party and will be acting as your game master for the competition. With that out of the way, I’m happy to tell you that your task is pretty simple. The first one to bring me back the named item wins.”

Huh.

“That doesn’t sound to bad.”

“That’s it?” Lyna squawked. “I thought we were fighting monsters!”

“Knowing when to fight, what loot to collect, and what to leave is essential,” Mitchel explained carefully. “Her words, not mine. Personally, I like getting everything and hording like a pack rat. Never know what you could use in the future, but we’re getting a bit off track. You’re looking for five of an uncommon item dropped by the grass knots in the reeds and tall grasses, life weed.”

A few looked skeptical, and they were quickly proved right.

“In addition, no recovery items are to be used. If you’re caught using them on yourself, you’re out. If you purposefully trip up an opponent, you’re out. If you steal…”

“We’re out,” Micha, Fal, and Lyna said in unison.

“Right!” Mitchel cheered the opened his interface to check something. “Alright, that’s it. Are there any questions before I assign the quest?”

No one asked, and Myles smiled wider.

“Alright then, get going! First one back with the items wins! Go, go, go!”

As they ran, his smile only grew more devilish.

The game was his.

—

Contract Updated:

Sindra’s Gatekeeper

Difficulty: Medium

Objective: Prove your worth to be one of Sindra’s Seekers by competition in a hunting competition with other front-line fighters.

Victory Condition: Be the first back to Mitchel with five life weed, an uncommon alchemical plant, dropped by Grass Knots.

Failure Condition: Using a recovery item to heal yourself, stealing, interrupting an opponent’s combat or gathering, fail to complete the victory condition, die.

Reward: 10 - Building Vouchers (Comfort Supply), A party slot in Sindra’s Seekers

Consolation of Failure - As long as a showing of good faith is made, a customized party request provided by Sindra through her proxy Mitchel.