Micky tried to rebind Peperoni, but it was coming loose. Her will was too strong and her stats were too high. She was beyond his ability to bind with the lesser [Tame] he had come up with, even though she was willing. He could feel it through the connection. She found out he was trying to connect with her and was more than happy too. He was her friend, her companion, and her kin. But that is where the connection met a fuzzy end, it was weak. Not the emotions, they were too strong.

Micky was in tears now, it wouldn’t matter if he tried again, the [Tame] was a success, but the magic was to weak to hold. It was too weak to bind. There was just not enough, it was just positive. Micky only had one more spell that was negative. He decided to add it to the mix. With two spells running he could add more juice to the mix, maybe. Micky made the spell the same as he did with the [Charm]. And cast it together. He could feel his [Dual Channeling] proficiency ticking up as he did so.

The two spells cast together. Then worked together. Then fused together. Then the spells shifted, like a limb that was in an awkward position straightening out. With a sudden popping feeling Micky felt several things happen together.

First he felt a much more intimate connection to Pepperoni than he did with the slime. This time he could feel all her emotions both positive and negative. He could feel her love and her worry. He could also feel her hunger and her frustration. He could also feel she wanted to scratch him in the face. She could also feel that he could feel that, it was a bit surreal for Micky. For Pepperoni she just felt sadistic and wanted him to feel that she wanted to scratch him in the face. It was good for him to finally know her wants and needs. This just scared Micky a little bit, and made him reconsider letting her out of the cage.

[Congradulations on making a new [Hybrid] spell! Awarding accolades!]

[Caculating...]

[Hybrid Spell Unlocked: Hybrid Bonding +-]

[New Title Awarded: Spell Researcher]

Micky just stared flabbergasted. Spell and ability awards were relatively common, but only for those that achieved something. Whether through training or as an award for a particularly harrowing experience they were not a humdrum achievement. None of the kids his age had one yet. Don’t get me wrong they were working on them, but the most they could achieve was improvised skillwork. Even Susan possibly wouldn’t have managed a skill award yet! Sure his parents probably had quite a few as well as most of the adults but… It was just so awesome!

First things first though, Micky remembered he had to bind Pepperoni to a tamer’s tag. These had a lot of functions, and the higher ranked and leveled they were the more they had. Pepperoni’s was just a step above the lowest of the low. But it was proof of a [Tamed] monster. This meant Pepperoni was safe!

“I did it! Pepperoni is [Tamed] now!” Micky yelled.

Susan went in for a congratulatory hug “That’s good to hear Micky.” She said. And the rest of his family and friends went in for a hug as well. Pepperoni *Mewled* from inside the cage. He could feel her happiness, her excitement, and her anxiety, and it was making him anxious as well. “Sorry girl.” He said as he unlocked the cage. And then she joined in on the hugging and the dancing as well. Nuzzling everybody and making sure to mark them as hers. That was when Micky realized that the reason she rubbed up on people was to mark her territory. Micky literally belonged to her. Micky just let out a groan, this was going to be a thing in his life, wasn’t it?

“Alright enough is enough, time to do some congratulatory leveling!” Said Micky’s mother. She seemed excited for some reason.

Dad of course was left with the kids, he seemed depressed that he couldn’t go out too. He also seemed oddly relieved to be away from Mom for some reason. It was weird, usually the two love birds couldn’t find enough time to be together and couldn’t wait for the kids to do their own thing or an excuse to do things together.

Micky left that as it was, it was nothing he would figure out. He had some leveling to do, and he knew just the place to do it. “Let’s go to Pep’s place, she knows the way!” Micky said, Nobody disagreed.

Micky looked at the entrance to the dungeon. It was already stylizing itself to look like an open cats maw. That wasn’t exactly good. A dungeon stylized for two reasons; one because a specific boss type lived there. And two, because it was named. Now, this dungeon was named. That was not the problem.

The problem was that a dungeon, especially a [Low Dungeon] didn’t stylize itself that fast. It should take months, or in the case of a [Low Dugneon] years. Micky could see where it had it’s original cave stalactites and mites. These were slowly getting reshaped into the maw. He could tell that it wasn’t going to look anything more than a cave at the end that just looked like a cat head. This was good since that meant that it was still a [Low Dungeon].

However, Micky couldn’t figure out why it would be changing so fast. But his family was urging him to go in, so he went. There was only five in his party, Micky’s mom, Susan, and her parents. Of course Pepperoni was in his party now, but pets were counted as equipment by the system, especially for classes like [Tamer]. Micky was not a [Tamer] but he did [Tame] Pepperoni, so she was [Equiped] to him while he had her tag. He could still give her tag to others as long as he willed it, but there was no point.

When Micky found the first [Mobs] it was five slimes. This was a lot more than what he had originally found in a group. It was a bit worrying. But Micky pressed on. There was nothing in this dungeon that could harm this party. That would kill Micky’s XP but this was mostly just a celebratory party. Micky would probably spend the night in here with Pepperoni. There was nothing in here that could take her but a [Boss] and he could escape those easy enough.

Then Micky saw his mom. Or rather his mother passed him by and appeared in his vision. There she was a angry battle angel. She was smashing those poor defensless creatures with her fists. Smashing away, the five slimes were gone in seconds. The only conciliation was that they probably didn’t know what happened.

Micky was scared, he understood his dad’s relief.

“Oh, sorry Micky, it’s just been so long since I let loose. You and Pepperoni can get the next one.” She said, Micky just nodded.

The next one was also a group of slimes, 7 this time. Micky took up his staff and cast [Mass Charm] on the relatively tightly grouped slimes. Then he mentally nudged the lazy Pepperoni. She felt herself challenged for the Queen of the Roost. Micky’s mother the matriarch of the domain was always a threat to her dominance but… If Pepperoni was honest she was scared of that display. She also knew that she could never win, however it was the principal of the thing.

So Pepperoni charged in with as much ferocity as she could. She slashed and clawed and bit. Micky buffed her with [Enraged] and felt the vigor running back to him. So he buffed himself with [Enraged] even though he didn’t plan on fighting.

This ended up with a feedback loop that ended up with more that one plus one equals two. It ended up as three or possibly more if he pushed. So Micky would buff them at a one to one ratio. The bonus didn’t just end there. Since Micky was taking on some of the burden Pepperoni was also saved some of the negatives from having such a high rage. Namely the negatives to [INT] and the [Blind Rage] debuff built up much more slowly.

By the end of it the rest of the party winced. Micky’s mom gave an approving nod, Pepperoni had earned herself the title of Crown Princess of the domain.

“Well I guess it’s my turn to go all out then hu?” Said Susan’s dad.

He was also a [Seamstress] since [Class]es usually ran through the family. Although classes were random there were a few exceptions. Family’s that had a history could have a [Lineage] that would bring out tendencies in their family. Susan’s family happened to be a family of [Seamstress]es. Noble family’s were the only ones that could get the [Noble] classes like royalty could get the [Pince] line of classes. This was a plus and a minus since it also meant that you could have low ranked or terrible [Class] [lineage]s. Susan’s family wasn’t a bad [Lineage] for anything below a merchant. If it mutated into a [Magic Seamstress] than it wouldn’t be bad even for a [Burgess].

Susan’s dad didn’t have the explosive power of Susan herself, but he did just fine. He wielded a needle the size of a sword and destroyed the slimes in a second. Susan’s Mom was next. She too was a [Seamstress] but with a spear like needle. Micky thought that all the woman he new were scary strong and should not be messed with. Susan followed shortly after and finished up the demonstrations.

The next group of monsters was the ROUS, who were already in battle with the slimes. It seemed there were some territorial disputes. It was decided that it would be Micky, Susan, and Pepperoni this time. Susan looked over at Micky guilty but decided that it was best he buff her. Together they finished up the monsters quickly enough.

The group had decided that they would be on rotation with Micky and Pepperoni who were the stars or this show. Micky’s mom quickly found that she liked being [Enraged] and had decided that Micky should buff her as often as possible. Unlike Susan he was still very inexperienced Micky’s mother had no problem with the effects. However Micky finding out that he would now have to give his mother a light buff for house chores, when she went to work in the morning, and when she was disciplining him, was not so ecstatic.

The group quickly finished up, and Micky stayed behind to level up a bit more. Now that it was just him and Pepperoni alone they could actually get some leveling done.