Chapter 14

Crimson jogged back and forth across the training field for his warm up. He’d been up for an hour now; he started his training with some stretching and then started jogging. He was still getting used to running, but at least he no longer fell over.

The timer on his skill [System and World Guide] let out a ding right as he finished running. He quickly opened his menu to see what was happening.

____________________

[World and System Guide] Initializing…

Calculating best match…

Match found…

Adapting skill…

Please name guide (female):_

____________________

A keyboard appeared under the status screen. Based off the ‘info’ the screen gave him it appeared that the guide was an actual, living, creature and ‘it’ is a ‘she’. He looked up at the sky. A name should never be taken lightly…Athena, because she’ll be giving him knowledge? No. That didn’t sound right. He could name her Scarlet to match his name, but he didn’t know what she’d look like so it might not work. Luna? No. Bertha? Definitely not.

He began to pace back and forth across the field throwing out names. He didn’t want any ‘common’ human names from earth. So, not Tiffany or Taylor. He could do Luna but it reminded him too much of a cat from an Anime he didn’t like very much.

Luna was good, but not quite what he wanted…Lena? Lena. That sounded good. It was a name that didn’t require that she be a specific color and it wasn’t too common. He typed into the keyboard on the Status: ‘Lena.’

____________________

Name accepted…

[World and System Guide] renamed to [Lena]…

[Lena] is now [Lena I]…

[Lena I] Manifesting…

[Lena I] Manifested

_____________________

A bright orb appeared in front of Crimson as those messages flashed by. It glowed brighter, and brighter until he was forced to cover his eyes. When the light faded away there way a bubble floating in the air. It was about the size of his cupped palms and inside it was a tiny White Tiger Cub.

He carefully reached his hands out to the bubble and caught it as it drifted to the ground; when the bubble made contact with his hands it popped and the tiny cub rested in his hands.

She slowly began to uncurl from the ball she was in and sat up with a tiny yawn.

Nope, not gonna do it.

She looked up at him with her glimmering blue eyes.

I will not be moved.

“Are you my master?”

My will is crumbling.

“Yes, I am. Are you Lena?”

“Yes master.”

Screw it.

Crimson brought her close to his face and began nuzzling her cheek with his.

“You are so adorable Lena.”

Lena began to purr and nuzzled him in return. Liking cute animals is still manly! Leave him alone!

“Thank you master! I am your guide to this world and the system here. I was specifically created for you. It’s probably why you find my appearance so endearing.”

“So you’re my guide huh?”

Crimson pulled his face away from Lena’s to listen to what she was saying.

“Yes master. I’m here to answer any questions you may have.”

EVEN HER VOICE IS CUTE!!! THIS ISN’T FAIR!!!!!

Crimson was careful to hide his thoughts from Lena. No reason to freak her out.

“My first question may seem a bit cruel,” it hurts to ask, “but why where you even created?”

“You see master, the first two skills you had [World Knowledge X] and [System Knowledge X] overloaded your brain. They tried to shove all that information in your brain at once which almost killed you which shows how poorly designed those skills were. To replace them and to keep your gift you received the skills [World Insight X] and [System Insight X] which give you information when you desperately need it.”

“I don’t think I desperately need some of the information I’ve gotten from those skills though.”

“Admittedly, those two are also poorly designed master. Even meeting the conditions to gain the information you want or need doesn’t always activate the skills, and that’s where I come in master! I’m here to be your guide. I can answer any questions you have and give you advice! I can also get stronger!”

“You can get stronger?”

“Yup! Did you notice that my skill is called [Lena I]? It means that I’m just level I out of X.”

“How can I raise your level, and what happens when I max it?”

“You can raise my level by interacting with me and by letting me help you in dangerous situations! As for what happens when you max my level? I could evolve. How I evolve is dependent on you master, but I could get a real physical body as one of the possibilities.”

“Physical body?”

“Yes master, you’re the only one who can see, and touch me. When I get to a higher level people who you give permission will be able to see me!”

Crimson muttered to himself, “I’m not sure I want anybody else to see you.”

“What was that master?”

“Nothing Lena, I was just talking to myself.”

“Is there anything else I can help you with master?”

Crimson had to think for a moment.

“Why is there a synchronizing period for my skills?”

“It is normal for everyone who gets a Status master. There is an adjustment period as your body adapts to it’s new MP and HP and adapts to everything about you. Skills are what suffer the most. Your Status has to comb your memories and muscle memory to synchronize to every skill you should have.”

“So when it finishes synchronizing I’ll get a bunch of new skills?”

“Sorry master, that’s not how it works. It just makes learning those skills easier than it would be normally. Let me give you an example: let’s say you practiced singing your entire life. You learned how to make the most of your voice and how to read music, you understood all that musical people speak, and you worked at it every day of your life. Under these circumstances it would be easy for you to max the singing skill.”

“So the more familiar I am with a skill the easier it is to learn, and max it?”

“Yes master! But there is an exception. If you learned how to do something completely new after synchronization started it would instantly give you the skill.”

“I think I understand. Thank you Lena!”

The whole conversation left Crimson in a good mood. He’d learn some interesting new stuff and, above all, he now had an ADORABLE White Tiger Cub following him around. Even if his synchronization was delayed by a day it wouldn’t be enough to kill his mood. Wait, was that a flag?