Anika was relieved to be back in the game. The familiar sound of the water splashing in the brook, birds singing and the smell of the forest greeted her as soon as she logged in.

"There you are, and I see you brought along a fine companion from the forest." He walked around the bear, checked its paws and had a little look at its underside. "Does she have a name yet?"

It hadn't occurred to Anika that her companion should have a name. Then again, she would need some kind of command if she was going to call it and issue commands at some point.

"It's a female? No, I haven't thought of a name yet. I'll give it some thought later." She figured he would teach a few things about how to make it sit and how to make it attack and stuff like that. Then she could finally be off.

"I suggest you think hard about it and decide sooner rather than later. There are a few basic ways of establishing trust between you and your new companion. Have you fed her yet?" Anika shook her head.

"Well, give her some food and give her name. You might also consider practising a few commands with her and then reward her with more food when she has done a good job. To begin with, just start by telling her to sit or stay and to follow you. After that, we'll see if she is ready to fight."

Anika could see that the commands for stay and follow appeared next to her own skill icons, but she didn't need to pay any attention to them. Her new companion knew exactly what she wanted her to do and could stay behind and follow again as soon as Anika thought about making the command. There was already some kind of bond, a mutual understanding between the two, so Anika fed her some of the cold fish stew which Ralph had left out from yesterday. She wasn't sure, but she felt as if the act of rewarding her created a stronger connection between them. She checked the character sheet for her new bear, which was just named 'Grizzly bear ', and saw that the loyalty rating had reached 15%. There was an option for her to rename the grizzly bear, so she thought for a few moments and came up with a name. Her companion was now called Beth.

Beth's loyalty rating had increased to 20% when she was given a name. She also moved in close to Anika when they were taking a break from the training, wanting to be stroked. Anika reached out and rubbed the fur on the bear's back. She could feel how the positive reinforcement was improving their relationship. This was an aspect of the game she would never have dreamed of enjoying as much as she did.

"I've been watching the two of you. Not bad at all. It's rare to see a bear warm to its new master like your friend has done. Beth was it? That's a lovely name. Make sure you look after her, feed her well and she will take care of you when push comes to shove."

"Next up, and the last thing you will learn from me is how to get Beth to fight and hunt for you. Very often she will just stay by your side and will only engage with an enemy if you are in danger. Remember this. If you need to, you can order her to stay put without attacking, but it's difficult to control her if she sees you are being hurt. Now, there will be times when you want to send her into battle before the enemy even knows of you. For this to be successful you will need to focus on your target, very much like you are lining up a shot with your bow. When you have your target in sight; either call to her and tell her to attack, or just picture her charging at the enemy. You will figure out what works the best, but I have found that I rarely need to call out to my dogs. They know what I want them to do and where I want them to be.

To demonstrate, Ralph looked over towards his dogs and one of them swiftly jumped over the fence and came straight to him and lay by his side. Anika nodded to show she had understood what he meant. The commands were available to her, but after a bit of practice, there was no need to focus on the abilities in the corner of her view. She could just concentrate on the actions she wanted Beth to do. It was a computer game after all she thought, nothing strange about having a direct link with her artificially intelligent companion.

"Off you go then. Mind you don't send Beth into a fight the two of you can't win. If she gets critically injured, it will take time to rebuild the trust between the two of you. Saying that, being victorious in battle is one of the best ways to ensure she stays loyal to you. My dogs here love nothing better than to join me when I go hunting. They know I will never put them into great danger or abuse the trust we have built up together."

Anika was excited to get started, but it occurred to her that asking her new companion to fight another grizzly bear might not be the best start for the two of them. She would do her best to avoid the areas where she knew there were bears and instead find some easier targets to practice on.

She didn't need to issue any commands when they set off, Beth followed and walked by her side without a fuss. It felt so good to have a powerful beast on her side. At previous times when she had wandered into this part of the forest, she had felt nervous and anxious about what to expect. But this time, with Beth at her side, she felt good about the prospects of being the Hunter she had chosen to be.

Anika figured that she must have been running around the edge of the forest with Beth for at least two hours before she stopped and realised what she was doing. She was just having so much fun. She felt invincible, and she had worked out a nice little routine for hunting with Beth. She would lock onto her target and fire the first arrow. Beth was quick and would close the gap between herself and the injured creature before finishing it with a swipe of her paw. They had taken down a couple of badgers who had not run away like the rabbits and pheasants had. Fighting the badgers was the most fun because Anika got to stand at a distance in safety whilst firing arrows at the creature. All the while, Beth would suffer one or two bites on her legs or shoulder before finishing the creature off. The small amount of damage Beth took was healed almost in an instant as soon as she ate the animal they had just killed. A few times Anika had told Beth to not eat immediately because she wanted to collect the pelts and furs in good condition before Beth tucked in.

When she realised how much fun she was having, she felt bad about it. She was almost losing herself in this virtual reality game and had forgotten all about the reason she was here. It made her feel guilty.

"That's enough playing around Beth, let's go find Ralph and get out of this forest as soon as possible." Beth followed immediately and Anika could feel there was a good connection between them. Beth had a full belly, and they were having fun together. The loyalty rating confirmed what Ralph had told her about fighting with your companion, it was now at 42%.

"Ah, I wondered where the two of you had gotten to. It doesn't look like you had much trouble out there, so shall I assume that everything went well? The two of you getting on okay?"

"We had a good time didn't we Beth?"

Anika wasn't sure, but there was something in Beth's eyes that told her she had understood everything that had just been said. It was freaky. Maybe it was an artificial intelligence thing, they might have given her companion some way of picking up on language and things like that. She made a mental note not to be too surprised if Beth would eventually have the same cognition skills and level of intelligence as Ralph had. They had done a good job of teaching these characters how to behave like real people.

"I suppose you'll be leaving me then?" he looked at her with a smile containing a mixture of regret but an equal amount of pride. Like a teacher saying goodbye to a good student at the end of the school year. "Before you go, I have a gift for you." He reached inside his shirt and pulled out a rolled up parchment, then got on his knees and unfolded it.

"This here is a map showing my part of the forest. That's the cabin right there, you can see the stream running from east to west. North of here, past the Gnome Hills, you will find the main road leading to Oakridge. That's the place you want to be. Lots of adventurers there, plenty of jobs to do and taverns where you can hang your hat. Don't forget to pay for a room somewhere decent, I can't have you ending up back here again in case you bite off more than you can chew."

She knew what that meant. The previous night she had read that players would rent out rooms and build their own houses and fortifications to create a safe point in case they died. Apparently, most of the starting areas had plenty of choice for finding places like these, but it would get more difficult to find a suitable safe-house once players reached higher levels. For players who wanted to travel throughout the world, it became a strategic consideration to find the right places to rent or build permanent locations. Since the only penalty for dying was an increase in fatigue and being sent back to a safe place, there were areas in the world that were so far away from any safe-houses, that dying in battle could cost one or two days worth of travel.

"I wish you best of luck in locating your son and I hope you find him in good health. In Oakridge you should be able to find people selling maps, they will be essential if you want to navigate your way around the kingdom.

Then he waved goodbye and went about his business.