As the early morning sun peaked it’s burning gaze over the horizon it was revealed as both animal and human awake to claim the day. Apparently some folks had already begun moving about! Good for them they must be feeling quite pleased with themselves.

“Pweeee!”

A flute played alerting the people down below that some were a foot. No one in their right mind would dare begin playing such horrible music this early in the morning. The noise generated by such a fiend would at least try to cobble a tune to make it flow smoothly.

Marlow calmly played on, directing his horde of rodents. They pushed and pulled the final pieces of the traps into their final resting place. Leaving a few rats behind to ensure that no bystanders would get too curious and poke their nose where it should below. He happily moved onto the next street.

Arranging the crates of potions Jazz had diligently worked on throughout the week. Into the nearby alleyways. After all the three of them were going to take on an entire guild of thieves it would only make sense that they would have rest stops to refill their health and stamina. That is if they played things smart.

Otherwise some lucky joe might stumble on a treasure trove of gold. Then Jazz would be in a load of trouble, which meant Marlow would be in a truck load of trouble. Shivering at that thought he sent a few extra rats to go protect the crates he had already set up.

If he remembered the brief meeting from last night. Le0n would be around the guards barracks and would give a ‘signal’ when the Hardcores struck but since they didn’t know exactly what they were after it would be hard to tell when they had struck. Or if they even struck at all.

There were a lot of ‘Ifs’ and ‘Whens’ In this plan. Then again they were getting this information from a lot of third hand accounts, most of which were from some very unpleasant folk.

Moving on to the next street he checked over Opal’s stat sheet finding that wherever she was she was at least full health and wasn’t suffering from any negative debuffs. Mentally kicking himself yet again for not being more prepared. He vowed again to get stronger so that he could protect those under his care. I mean they're just code, right? So why was he getting all worked up over some piece of a program that could easily be recreated at a later date.

Maybe it’s because it was his first companion in this strange world and he didn’t want to let go yet, maybe because he wanted to right the wrong the the Hardcores had inflicted on others, or even the small fact it was because Opal was in a sort of way his new family in this world?

“Oi what are you doin up there you noisemaker! Why I ought to climb up there and give you a good licken for disturbing the peace!” Peering over the shingles. Marlow locked eyes with a familiar face.

“BENSON!”

“Marlow what are you doin up so early!” Benson called back watching and his latest farm hand fell down from the rooftop. Landing in a rather conspicuous box of hay, which had a very familiar trademarked logo of his stamped on the side.

“Oh you know, going to wage war on that gang of thieves that stole Opal, set fire to your chicken coop, and burned down your house. Well we may have a plan for disrupting their heist and hopefully get Opal back. As for what I’m doing, I'm just setting up a few final fall back points before we begin our ‘epic’ stake out.”

“Marlow, I appreciate what you're doing, but what us little folk. You know your lot respawn when you get into the crossfire, but can you tell me honestly that you have a plan for protecting us common folk?” Benson asked Marlow, peering straight into his soul.

“I do have a plan, It requires a lot of my rat army but It should keep most civilians out of the way, I can only hope that people have the common decency to be afraid of rats.” He answered, getting a confused face from his mentor inturn.

The next few hours passed in a blur as Benson, Marlow, and the horde of rats went about making small adjustments to the market street, pushing and pulling gigantic crates to block off alleyways or to cover sewer grates. Properly tightening semi fabric roofing above each stale. Neatly stacking oranges and apples in pyramids formations.

Giving Benson one last hug, they bid each other farewells and wished each other the best of luck. Finally getting a moment of peace he pulled up his blinking notifications.

Quest alert: For a noble cause II (Chain Quest). After having built a fighting force for the war on a guild of thieves and murderers you have already begun to make preparations for the battle to come. Just one more to go woo hoo! Fallback points set up 15/16

Rewards: 100 experience for each fall back point set up.

Skill increased: Haul (Beginner IV): Remember to light with your legs and not your back, if you intend on doing a lot of lifting, remember to be smart about it. Gain 1n% weight loss when hauling objects, where n = skill level.

Strength +1

Constitution +1

Smiling, he pulled out his trusty flute and began calling his remaining rats to him. Smiling when Gwaner came around the corner. He continued to play his cheerful tune and began guiding them about leaving pockets of them in every alleyway he passed. Thankfully not many people were out and about yet. So not many people would flip out at seeing a wave of fur. The only real concern was when he had turned a corner too fast and locked eyes with a city guard.

“Ex-excuse me sir, b-but I’m going to have to ask you to come with me.” the guard informed the man, with a half a street full of rats behind him. Little did they both know this event would send the entire city into chaos for the next twelve hours.

Turning around he stared wide eyed at his rat horde, with Gwaner looking back at him confused. His horde stared at him, then at the lone guard, hungeredly.

Panicking, he did play the first note that came to mind, hide. The low fuuu that reverated from the wooden instrument, sending the rats scurrying away and into the nearby buildings, where people were lazyly waking. ‘Were’ being the key phrase here.

Many screams could be heard up and down the narrow street as obedient rats attempted to obey their Master. The rats returned the screams with ones of their own. It was quite rude to enter a home without the owner’s permission and this was their way of greeting.

Many shattering of dishes and an unsesaraly amount of shrieking later nearly all the rats had found a safe hiding place. That was until however the resident pest problem dealer was, more than likely, the husbands and sons of the family. This caused even more crashing and clambering over objects. The pest problem dealer attempted to grab the little fur balls.

One very brave and very old lady attempted to stab a rat hanging from the chandelier, with a spear. She continued this until her ceiling decided it would rather collapse than to be impaled again. As the chandelier fell all the pent up dust from over the years fell with it. When the old lady finally whipped away her dust covered glass she met the hundred eyes staring back at her and screamed. The rats in return fled from the old lady who could make ceilings fall on command.

Meanwhile Marlow was having a doging contest. With him evading the guard’s spear and the guard having to duck and weave from Marlow’s spear and the oversized rat lunging at him.

Everytime Gwaner jumped at the guard, the guard swung his spear at the abnormal critter. The next time this happened Marlow stepped closer in an attempt to grab a hold of the guard, to stop him from running off to go alerting his comrades.

Yet again the guard slipped out of his grasp, letting Marlow grab another hand full of air. This time the guard leaned back and back until his hand laid flat on the ground behind him. The shock of the situation genuinely caught everyone off, including Gwaner.

“He-hel-help, please” The human spider guard moad. Not wanting anyone else to be in as much pain as that looked, Marlow rushed to his aid circling around, then bending down and grabbing the guard's wrist he lifted the armored man slowly back up to a standing position.

Patting the overstretched man on the back he checked to see if he was okay, he was. Letting the man catch his breath he waited. Then the guard lifted his head and asked him a question.

“I’m sorry, what did you say?”

“I said, why didn’t you run away?”

“Oh, I… don’t know?” Marlow locked eyes with the panting guard, then evaded them embarous that he didn’t take the obvious out.

“What are you exactly? Some sort of pied piper?”

“I’m a tamer, I can train and tame animals to follow my commands. I thought it would be nice if someone started cleaning up these streets, you know?” Marlow meekly replied, still refusing to look at the guard.

“Ah that would explain a few things, I am going to have to ask to come with me still since you were technically disturbing the peace.” The guard held an outstretched hand gesturing for the young man in front of him to hand over his spear. It was at this point when the guard remembered what drew him here in the first place: the flute.

A high note echoed alerting all rodents in the nearby area to come. Their beloved Master was in danger. Fur poured out of every available nook and cranny, including the special units in the sewers. Large puma sized rats crawled out of sewers. Frightening the lone guardsmen, who held his spear at the ready.

“Alright officer I think that's nearly all of us, if we can head back to the Rugged Saddleback inn we can pick up my last few pets.”

Charisma +1

Skill gained: Intimidation-

“No, thank you! Sorry, not you officer.”

Are you sure you want to refuse learning the skill [Intimidation]? If you refuse this skill, the only way to learn the first rank of skill [Intimidation] will be to devote [5] skill points to learning it. [Yes / No]

“Yes, please.”

You have refused the skill [Intimidation]! 5 free skill points have been added to your sheet!

“I am, sorry officer, the world tried to offer me a skill I didn’t want.”

“Um... right this way then!”

One hour and fifteen minutes later Marlow was sitting comfortably in jail, with all of his pets. You’d think having a horde of rats, a size changing snake, three rats sized pumas, and a pony would make things cramps and you’t be mostly right. That was until you realized that the rats could climb walls. No surface was left bare as the thousands of rats moved about creating an uneasy atmosphere. As for him he was on the blindfolded pony.

Marlow petted Gwaner with one hand reassuring him to remain calm and to tell others the same thing. The other attempted to play the flute to settle down that move fur balls, while directing them around the pony’s feet.

“No, thank you” He paused to answer the repetitive notification.

Are you sure you want to refuse learning the skill [Intimidation]? If you refuse this skill, the only way to learn the first rank of skill [Intimidation] will be to devote [15] skill points to learning it. [Yes / No]

Apparently devoting skill points to relearning a forgotten skill was really simple. What it actually meant was to devote skill points, actually meant more time and effort to relearning said skill. Each and every time it added an additional five more points. The time in between each notification had also increased in time, thankfully.

So in conclusion everytime a guard or three came by to check and see he was still there, he’d make more progress on a skill he didn’t want. Which then rebuked and then transferred over to skill points for him to spend. Intotal he now had thirty skill points.

He could boost one skill nearly to double its original rank, but then he probably become a one trick pony. Or could focus on three skills. Pulling up his skills he reviewed them.

“Both polearm and spear mastery were two of his most useful skills allowing him to collectively do double damage with each hit. Meanwhile if I’d focused on my taming skills I’d be able to reduce the amount of time to train new creatures, while bringing them up to speed to where the rest of his squad is.” Marlow softly spoke, finally taking a break from the consent flute playing.

“I could hold on to them, but then that would just be a waste. What about his three unconventional skills? Environmental awareness, tracker, and basic first aid. Haul was on that list until he realized how often he used it.” Marlow spoke softly not wanting to wake the sleeping horde of rats.

Taking in a deep breath he divided the thirty points into; polearm mastery, spear mastery, and tame. Mentaly pressing the confirm option new ideas formed in his head. Better techniques on how to hold a polearm came into being, allowing the spear to slide in between thrusts would allow greater range with his spear, and various other ideas bloomed in his mind as each skill ranked up.

Skill increased: Spear Mastery (Apprentice II): You now gain a flat 5% chance to land a critical hit when thrown at an opponent greater than 5 yards away. You gain 1n% when using a spear. where n = to skill level.

Skill increased: PoleArm Mastery (Apprentice II): You now gain a flat 1% chance to disarm an opponent that is using a one handed weapon. You gain 1n% when using a staff, spear, or halberd. where n = to skill level.

Skill increased: Tame (Apprentice IV): Easy boy, easy does it, now drop that knife. gain 1n% of taming them and when trying to increase tame rank or to teaching tricks, where n = skill level. And a permanent 5% with taming a large group of animals with a similar species.

These three skills were now his strongest tools in his arsenal. Smiling, he stroked Gwaner’s prone state, elisting a sleepy queek from the bigger than normal rat. He continued to page through his settings and found little details he tucked away for later. It wasn’t like he could use any of them, right now.

“So you're the one causing all this racket, yeh, I well I’ve just about had enough of your stuipd flute. You can barely even call that music, you low life noise maker!” A guard shouted immediately, waking all of his hard work.

“I ain’t got time to be wasting I- oh.” Another guardsman, this one in glowing armor, rounded the corner, stopping as he saw the writhing fur covered cell.

Skill gained: Intim-

“No thankyou, yes please.”

You have refused the skill [Intimidation]! 20 free skill points have been added to your sheet!

“Sorry you were saying?”

“I was-” Sadly Marlow would never know what the captain of the guard would say, because he was yet again interrupted. This time by an explosion. The building shook again as another giant fire exploded a few blocks away. The captain of the guard stared down the caged tamer, before uttering two words.

“Stay put.”

Of course he would not stay ‘put’ there were fricken bombs about! But to ease the captain nevers he nodded. That would be that least he ever saw that man clearly, as he took off sprinting in a blur of motion.

As soon as the captain slammed the door behind him Marlow began to play a tune. The rats listened and obeyed. Rats scrambled about finding places to hide in the surprisingly large barracks. Some hide behind furniture, in cabinets, behind books, and even under the floorboards.

This wasn’t exactly the plan, but accidentally getting arrested as a part of it either so Marlow called it even. It would be quite terrible if the would thief poked their head in then just dipped out of there before he could pop a tune. This way He’d be able to at least hide a trump card.

Quest complete: For a noble cause II. Reward: 1,500 xp.

Golden light bathed Marlow scrubbing him clean, flooding his head with a larger dose of dopamine than he had ever received before.

Character has now reached level six, you gained two characteristic points to spend, you have gained a new skill!

Settling back down on the ground he put his two character points into dexterity before reading over his other notifications.

Skill Gained: Grip (novice I). When holding an object you may channel extra stamina into holding it, increasing the amount of force needed to take the object out of your grasp. Cost: 1n, where n = skill level. Cool down; 0, must be touching an object for skill to work.

Name: Marlow, Risky II.

Class: Beast Tamer

Character Level: 6

Experience: 327

Experience points until next level: 20,673

Profestion: Animal Handler, Level: 1

Experience: 996

Experience points until next level: 4

Hit Points: 150

Mana: Locked

Mana reg: Locked

Stamina: 100

Strength: 19

Dexterity: 11

Constitution: 20

Intelligence: 12

Wisdom: 14

Charisma: 22

Perception: 14

Luck: 26

Karmic luck: -1

Quest alert: For a noble cause III (Chainquest). The Battle begins! Explosions rock the city, the guild ‘Hardcores’ have begun carrying out their dangerous deds, but who cares for that. Objectives 1) Stop the guild ‘Hardcores’ from completing their elaborate heist. 2) Find and retrieve Opal. 3) Slay members of the guild ‘Hardcores’ 0/??? 4) Find the guild quarters of ‘Hardcores’

Rewards: Depending upon the number of objectives completed. 1) Reputation with the city ‘Ardania’ increased. 2) Reputation of the town ‘Warwood’ increased. 3) Spell ‘Soul Sight’ becomes available for use. 4) Gain one Rare ranked specialized class, suited to your current style of play.

“I wonder what they could be after, it would sure make protecting, whatever it is a whole lot easier.” Marlow spoke aloud, not expecting a response. For the benefit of letting his pets know his current mental state. He always got nervous when he said nothing for hours on end.

“Hello?” A familiar feminen voice response.

“Hello, is there someone here?”

“Ah hello there, I'm in the holding cell.” He responded carefully, maybe he’d finally get a word out of the guards other than ‘EEP’ ‘AAH’ or some other variant. However the face that loomed around the corner, drained his happy attitude.

“Green cloak lady”

“Farm boy, I didn’t expect you’d be here. What happened get caught for arson or was it for animal cruelty?” Lilith grined.