5.0

August carefully sat up, rubbing at his eyes; a look through the gaps in the roof revealed that it was still early with just enough light to see. The long spools of twine he’d spent most of the night making sat in a tangle on his lap, strategically placed to cover his junk.

Ladybug nudged up against his leg when she noticed he was awake, and he scratched her fur in greeting. A quick check showed both Rittan and Kalter asleep—sprawled out and curled into a ball, respectively. He made sure not to linger on either of them for long because he had a feeling that he was one unwanted erection away from being thrown into the lake.

August made it to his knees and then peeled the shade back from the door, crawling outside with his length of twine in hand. There were no signs of any [Mitikos] on the shoreline, but he did spot a couple of small lumps sitting in the shallows. He stretched, a satisfying series of pops shooting up his spine, before moving away from the camp.

He’d spent quite a bit of time in the night considering how to go about catching one of these things. He didn’t want to injure them first, because that might render them useless after catching one. They were slow on land, that much he knew. They also seemed to spend most of their time retracted inside of themselves.

August took hold of the twine and made a noose at one end before tying it off with a slip knot. He pulled the loop open until he had more than enough to work with before approaching the water. He stopped near the closest shell he could see.

“Ladybug, stay here, okay?” August said, brushing his hair back. “I can’t let you risk yourself for me—I must face this challenge alone and regain my honour.”

Ladybug warbled out a noise that sounded mostly confused. The [Mitikos] was about twice the size of the ones Rittan had caught last night, and August was certain he could run away from it if he needed to. Its body was mostly visible, perhaps two inches of it underwater.

[Analysis].

Mitikos

Male

Level 3

Tame Progress – 0/30

Tame Resistance – 112

Trait – Pyrrhic

He took a single step into the water and then stopped to see if it had noticed him. Once he was certain it had no idea about his presence, he stepped forward again. He made it within a meter of the monster before he held the noose out above it.

August took a slow, careful breath and then dropped the noose. It landed on the water, around the bulk of its shell. The twine moved about with the motions of the water, rubbing against its shell, but the creature didn’t seem to notice. He stepped back away from it to give himself some room and then pulled hard on the twine. The knot pulled tight, and the twine clamped down around its body.

“Got you, motherfucker,” August muttered, dragging it out of the water and onto the beach.

He could see it trying to emerge, a spiky limb pressing forward out of its main body, but the twine caught between the limb and its body, keeping it stuck inside. August waited to see if it was going to target the twine itself, but it seemed to be mostly unaware of what was causing the problem.

“Phase two,” August declared, removing several branches from his inventory.

He speared one into the ground, directly in front of it, and then another behind it. The angry limb whacked at the stick, unable to generate any kind of force from its position. August sat down behind the monster and then carefully placed his hand on its back.

“[Tame].” August voiced.

He felt the skill take hold and turned his mind back to the earlier [Analysis]. The [Mitikos] had a much higher taming resistance than an Efkini did. [112] as opposed to [17]. However, the [Tame Progress] was identical, [0/30]. August dumped all of his Mana into the spell and frowned. The resistance didn’t seem to do anything to slow it down—it went up just as fast as it had before. [Taming Resistance] must have done something, but whatever it did, it wasn’t immediately obvious to him.

August took his hand off the monster, checking to make sure the branches weren’t about to be dislodged while he waited for his Mana to regenerate. He found himself feeling a little bit bad for the creature, seeing it struggle to free itself.

Ladybug seemed to find the whole thing amusing, circling the trapped monster and making noises at it. Efkini were supposed to hunt for sport, so it may have been normal behaviour. August was just glad he had yet to find himself in a similar position.

“Don’t be a bully, Ladybug,” August chastised. “You’re going to be working with this dude soon.”

Ladybug trilled curiously at the words, while the [Mitikos] just continued its fruitless attempts at destroying the branch lodged in front of it. August wondered how this was going to play out—it would be the first time he actually saw the results of [Tame] with an actively hostile creature.

Unlike the first time, this monster clearly wasn’t friendly. It also didn’t seem to be able to feel the Mana he was using like with Ladybug. August had attacked this one unprovoked—would it suddenly just forget all of its anger and become friendly?

He could hear the sound of voices coming from the [A-Frame Hut], they were far away for him to distinguish what was being said, but they were clearly both awake. August didn’t think either of them would have too much of a problem with another monster joining the group. Kalter hadn’t been bothered by Ladybug, at least after they’d stopped trying to kill each other. Rittan had simply been fascinated with the red and black ball of murderchains.