Here you are folks, and sorry to say family shit and work are...hectic. But I will still maintain a steady release as best as I can.

Everything was honestly rather lack luster upon our leaving the dead noble's' mansion, though I was interested in discovering it encompassed almost ten leagues (A.N Roughly 10 miles in game measurements. Yes, I know that is not a real measurement, I did it because I wanted to.) along with a small, border village it seemed.

That's where the five house slaves came from originally, apparently the village has been used to lure, and capture others to become the nobles slaves, and sold to Rome through back alley channels.

That angered me greatly, struck a nerve mostly. Again, the damn part of me that still wanted, and believed, he was a cop.

I stuffed it down, and rubbed Winter's head gently; she had meowed and shivered with all the new sounds, and smells of the woods outside the mansion complex. Scared lion syndrome I dubbed it, but it was cute, I would break it later when I was able.

Fang was looking at everything and randomly suckling on my ear lobe, we will ignore the natural body reaction that wanted to occur there. It disturbed me far too greatly.

Shaking my head that, I had a moment to be glad that at least the village would be somewhat safe for the time being in regards to that.

I merely hoped the civilians received a new Lord that gave a rat's ass about protecting them, and the border properly now. It may not happen of course, ancient world nobles, much like present day people of power were prone to corruption with a few that were truly good. Far too few.

I shrugged it off. The only good point in my mind was the fact I got to continue along with the game. I did look forward to bombarding Clint with all the things wrong, I had to live up to being a BETA tester after all. Hehehe...he.

Straying from my thoughts, I regarded the surroundings. A rather sparse amount of trees covered either side of the road, seeming to grow thicker the further in you looked, I desperately wanted to go in there; however Gallica had said that the woods are full of beasts that are very powerful. Wolfs, Bears, and what he called Hydra. I snorted a bit at that, the game was not designed to hold such fanciful creatures at this time. Maybe a giant snake of some kind; perhaps komodo dragons? Doubtful, they were not that native to this region as far as I knew.

God I wanted to explore. I shrugged off the urge, and looked at the small wildlife surrounding the roadside. Almost all of them were level ones, and comprised of small birds, rabbits, and insects. A fox here and there.

The birds made me think, I wanted a bird of prey badly for a pet. As a Beast Master I could gain stat boosts depending on the pets I tamed, and bonded with fully. The problem was that I needed an adult to get those boosts. The bonus would go a long way to evening out my overall stats, and hopefully make it easier later on in battle.

I still needed to explore this class, there were likely hidden aspects that would be revealed as I leveled up personally, and the unique skills that went with the class when I got it.

I'd have to see about recommended a class up system where after a certain point you could gain an increased version of your main class, assuming there was not one in place yet.

Luckily I had plenty of time to see for myself before the BETA ended.

"Thadius, ready to return home at last?" Spartan 1 asked spartan 2, aka Thadius.

"Who knows Raxus. Our duty to our king needs us too however. I still can't believe that fat pig tricked us so easily."

This was a normal conversation between the two. They had both been captured at the village we would pass by in a day depending on our rate of travel. From there it would be three days to Sparta, cutting it dangerously close to the week time limit on my quest.

I heard a soft, feminine, cough beside me. I looked toward it, and saw Scillica. "Yes?" Master of conversation was I.

I saw her sigh, and snag Fang off my shoulder, to his immense displeasure; He voice said displeasure with a hissing meow that ended in claws racing over the top portion of her breasts that had been left bare to the world.

She winced, but held on to him and rubbed his ears until he calmed down.

Your pet, Fang, has been calmed after reaching a high peak of anxiety and fear due to being grabbed suddenly. He has gained the calm trait through repeatedly being calmed and shown it was alright. Calm (trait) Your pet will now show a calming like display to all around him. As he grows into adulthood this calm appearance may disturb many as nothing will perturb him, or anger him through normal means.

I re-read that message and blinked slowly. Well then, that wasn't OP as hell. So, pets could gain passive traits. Hmmm, I had no idea if this would continue into adulthood, or was an infant stage ability only. I'd have to read into that, or better yet, ask Clint when I logged out again.

To be on the safe side however, I think I will be doing certain actions and creating scenarios that will, with luck, trigger such traits to develop. Time to play the SIMS!

Scillica was looking at me odd, as I had just fist pumped and I coughed before grinning at her to hide my embarrassment. "You are...ugh, pretty good with my little cub there, Scillica." God damn her name was a pain to say properly.

I saw her smile, and my mind went blank a moment. "Well, I did care for them for a few days. They are rather cute compared to the monsters they will grow into." I saw a small shadow race through her eyes, similar to fear, and frowned.

I didn't want anyone to be afraid of my little puff balls unless needed. Least of all her, when they are fully grown.

I shrugged a bit at her, and reached over scratching Fangs head, followed by rubbing Winter's after she batted at my nose for attention.

"They will always be cute fur balls, Scillica." She giggled a little at the play by play before handing Fang back to me and moving back down our small little column toward the cart.

I so did not watch her walk away; mesmerized by her tight pert little bum. I was also NOT scared shitless when I heard Gallica laugh right by my ear in a feminine echo of his own. Suffice it to say the imagery it created of Gallica in a frilly dress with screw driver like pigtails and retaining his manly physique was one that would haunt me until the day I died.

Fang stayed calm, but Winter dug her claws into my hand and was shaking. Wincing, I reached up and pried her from my skull and did my best to calm her down.

Your pet, Winter, has been calmed after reaching a high peak of anxiety and fear due to being grabbed suddenly. She has gained the calm trait through repeatedly being calmed and shown it was alright. Calm (trait) Your pet will now show a calming like display to all around her. As she grows into adulthood this calm appearance may disturb many as nothing will perturb her, or anger her through normal means.

Yes! No more claws in me! I damn near jumped for joy; but after a brief moment of Gallica smiling, his face turned serious, and motioned me to follow him toward the head of the group.

I did, and what I saw when I got there was...disturbing to a degree. The group had stopped at this point, and gathered to look. A family seemed to be butchered along the side of the road.

Scavenger animals have been picking at their corpses, and they appeared a few days old by appearance alone. The bodies were so savaged it would be almost impossible to know what caused it without having seen it.

"What do you think, Crispin? Animals, or bandits?" He was pretty calm, most of the ex fighting slaves were. The few house slaves all looked ill, a tinge of green showed on ones face before he went away and the sound of heaving could be heard.

They were rather nasty. "I...don't know, hold Winter and Fang a moment? Maybe I can find out." Gallica took them, a bit hesitantly, and I went to the bodies.

Oh god, the stench. I gulped air down, and calmed myself. Too much fucking realism, and I found it frustrating that seeing this butchered family of five; a male, female, and three children at varying ages, upset me more than the aftermath of the fight for our freedom.

Kneeling down, gulping in a bit more to swallow vile; refused to throw up on the crime sc...the scene before me. The smell actually created a simulation through olfactory means that made it seem I was tasting the putrid meat, though I remained stalwart in my attempt to not throw up on the dead bodies.

I went through the bag that was in the males hand, and found little beyond basic foodstuffs, and water jugs.Oh god, I did NOT want to do this; the bodies were too old, and they had been savaged to badly to go by what shreds they were wearing.

I.pulled the male body out, and patted down his body, carefully. No weapons, no notes, nothing aside from that bag...Why? Why me? I found the largest wound on his body and pressed my finger into the start of the gash; too ragged to be a sword unless it was a serrated blade. Pushing my finger in as far as I could, doing my best to ignore the sheer realism of the dead flesh; the dry wet mess I was stroking my finger down inside while it clung to it. So fucking unsanitary and frightening.

After what felt like an eternity, and hearing several people gasp and more heaving sounds, I pulled my finger out and found nothing in the male. No metal pieces from chipped weaponry, because yes, bones broke basic shit like that and you could sometimes find slivers in the flesh; more so with the weaker copper weapons these people used. Bone was just too annoying for the weaker points of a blade after all. But nothing; it didn't rule out weapons, but showed if it were, it was a strong one.

Gently pushing the male to the side, I repeated the process to the ravaged female, though I had to rush off mid way through. Her wound was on her stomach; she had been pregnant. The half formed body of an infant that had been gnawed upon by scavengers was too much, and I threw up off to the side.

"What could have done this..." I heard whispered while others talked.

Truly it wasn't that uncommon a sight, to see dead along the road. Bandits were always a plague, and seeing predators starved attacking weak people was common as well. But the savagery of this scene was a new one for most of them; only Gallica, and Spartan 1 and Spartan 2 remained stoic.

When I went back to the bodies, I resumed the process on the female, hunting through the wounds only to find nothing, and to know that this would haunt me for years; it was too real. The smell, the sight, it was like the worst o the old murder case files I had been forced to watch come to life.

Then it was the children's turn, I really didn't wanna do this...

But I did, I started with the smallest, it couldn't be more than three, I say it because it was so torn up that you could not judge by what remained of the body.

Fifteen minutes of hunting in that little broken body finally yielded results though. A fang, yellowish and sharp as hell was imbedded at the child's collarbone, rather under it where it had to have snagged and in a frenzy the beast ripped it free. That would also explain why tendons were what held the damn thing together, barely.

I examined it closely.

Lost Fang Quest Item A fang found in the body of a small child; the owner of this fang slaughtered the child's entire family in a gruesome act of insanity and violence seldom hear of outside of the realms of myth and legend.

Find this fangs owner, and end the threat the crazed beast represents for all that travel the roads on the outskirts of Greek occupied lands. Quest objectives Locate the creature that could cause such carnage and savagery and slay it.

Success:

Find and end the threat of the mysterious beast killing people traveling the road.

Failure:

The beast lives, and you die: you do not locate the creature.

Rewards:

unknown

Wait, woah, wait, what? Oh hell no! Shit shit shit. A quest, I have one that's on a time limit here you bastards!

"What did you find Crispin?" I heard Gallica call out, and I sighed, standing and moving far from the bodies toward him; showing him the fang.

"This fang, I don't know what sort of creature has this. Too small for a bear, but too big for a wolf I think." Hell if I knew what critter it went too, I knew almost nothing in that regard.

Gallica examined it a moment, and his face paled considerably. "Hydra..." I heard a soft whisper come out from him.

Not a moment later a loud Scream that reminded me of a woman or child crying out in fear echoed out from the woods, and Gallica was suddenly all action; yelling and sending out orders left and right toward the small group to get to the cart, and form a circle with shields up, and to keep their eyes on the ground!

We all rushed to obey, I stuck the cubs in the cart; both were afraid, which thanks to their trait let me know this was not normal at all. Scillica was on top of the cart, while the house slaves were in it. She brandished her bow; the string drawn and an arrow nocked and ready.

That's when I heard rustling, the brush that was on the left of the road shook, and seemed to lift.

The sight that followed was not natural; a loud hiss echoed out from the creature, and everything froze.

Yep, I know this is a bit short, and a cliffhanger. I am very sorry folks. Things FINALLY calmed down though to a degree; and my head is on straight. The chapters may or may not be daily for now. Sorry for that, but it will be more often than it has been. I promise that.