"Do you think he's alive?" Said the girl who was definitely too young for dressing in such a skanky way.

She was bent forward; her baggy shirt revealed her unwrapped, small yet firm bosom to everyone who would be at her eye-level or standing in front of her. At that moment, though, only Gabriel would be at her eye-level. Since he was snoring on the grass, he was unable to take in the spectacle laying less than a foot in front of his face.

"He should be. I mean, that lizard must be his bond, right? Judging by how desperately it is trying to wake him up, he should."

The tall man who answered had a big shield wrapped behind his back, while laced around his forearms, were two kite shields that might have weighed 30 to 50 pounds each.

"Look at that little thing, how energetic! Have you ever seen a smaller lizard bond?" Asked an archer, a stocky fellow entirely covered in plumage, he had the eyes of an owl, dark yellow with traces of emerald green here and there, and at his back hung a massive bow, tall as the owl-man himself was. His voice, entirely opposite to his build, was heavy and especially likable.

"Uh? Ah, no," answered a tall woman, she must have been in her thirties, or maybe it was her disheveled locks giving her a few years more than she might have.

She was definitely playing on her phone. Given the lack of satellites, it was the only possible explanation she bit her lips when she raised her head to answer the owl-man. At her back was affixed a tall staff, made of Castwood. The wood had a pearly and intense white color, something clearly not found in nature, or nature that Gabriel knew of.

The young, or maybe just small girl, started poking the snoring man's face, and then she switched to poking him with the handle of her kunai.

***

Gabriel woke up with a loud snort.

His eyes focused right away; the first thing they took in was a cleavage clearly showing to the wide world two small yet nicely shaped titties.

"Cute," was the first thing that came to him, as the girl stood up he recognized she might have been Indian, but he couldn't be sure. Gabriel followed her movements with his stare, he soon took in the other members of the party standing behind her.

Gabriel shot up, or at least he tried to before launching a painful shriek, so he just managed to sit on his ass.

The large man sporting armor and shields everywhere he laid his eyes upon clearly jump-started him to go on the defensive, but what freaked him out was, really, the owl-man.

"He-hello?" He tried saying, eyes glued to the owl.

"Hi!" Answered the owl-man, "You must be Gabriel Warren, right?"

"What? How do you kno- it's Walker, by the way; are we at Comicon?" He answered with a gut feeling that he was dealing with a bunch of cosplayers.

"Uh? No, it's too soon. It should be in September," said the woman with blonde locks.

"Isn't it in October?" Asked the big man, turning his head to her.

"No, no, trust me, it's September, I'm preparing for that; if I don't get an autograph from Miyazaki this year... I'm gonna wreck it, I swear to N'arr! Wait, maybe I went a little too far there. Can I take it back?" Yet a silver light gathered around her and quickly illuminated her before disappearing.

"Greta… it's the fourth time in a year; you gotta manage that. How many Bindings have you swore 'till now?" asked the little girl.

"Seventeen… eighteen now," she said downcasted.

"What!? You were at twelve last month. What have you been doing?" She continued, raising her voice, clearly concerned.

"I know! I know! It's this fucking Tier, it just won't-"

"HEY!" Shouted Gabriel. "Where the hell am I? Who are you, people? Why am I lying on the grass and fucking naked!?" Thing, which he had just realized.

"He's right; we came to pick him up. Shouldn't we explain at least something to him?" Said the owl-man.

"Why? Can't Gaia-" Started saying the big man, before a voice from behind interrupted him.

"Ms. Gaia, Fred, show some respect. I don't want any more problems with that bitch."

"Lol," said the little girl with a snort.

As Fred moved aside, a beautiful woman, with the face of an angel, with ice colored eyes, dark lovelocks which curvature was as perfectly shaped as her body, tightly bound by a violet leather dress and subsequently wrapped in a maroon and black cuirass, took his place in front of Gabriel.

She got in the center of the weird-looking bunch, and putting her hands on her sides she hunched toward Gabriel; the man was still naked and now clearly much more conscious.

"I've never seen such a small lizard," she said, almost to herself, her eyes squinting.

"It's not only the lizard being small," added Fred, arching his brow with a smirk.

"HEY! It's cold… and I'm a grower, not a shower," replied Gabriel, flustered.

"It's kinda hot if you ask me," said the small girl without a bra to the blondie.

There was a moment of silence after that, then the beautiful woman opened her mouth to speak.

"Gabriel Walker?"

"What?" Answered Gabriel, poison in his mouth; he was still aching yet suspiciously less, but more than that, he was starting to get pissed.

"Touchy, are we? Anyway..." she added before he could answer her. "We're the retrieving party, so get up. We're bringing you to the Cradle."

"Retrie- the Cradle? What are you talking about?" Gabriel retorted, sincerely lost.

"He has no clue whatsoever, does he?" She asked, turning left and right at her party.

"Nope."

"No."

"No idea."

They answered in a chore.

She shook her head, releasing a long and slow sigh.

Gabriel, in turn, changed tactics.

"Listen, you, with the stave, you seem reasonably normal, have you by any chance, some pants for me, maybe a shirt?" He almost pleaded.

"Okay, first things first, this is a "staff," not a stave. How in hell would I even use a stave? The thought itself is ridiculous… I mean, where would I even begin? Casting? It wouldn't hold th-"

Gabriel detached from reality, hiding himself in his thoughts, These people are crazy... they've entirely lost their minds... he thought. He marveled at the chattering girl of the one which looked the most normal around them. She clearly wasn't.

There was the little girl too, but she had some sort of savage face; it unnerved him. Then the giant, but for some reason, he looked a bit too much… well, on the defensive.

The hot one, bound in leather, looked like an S&M specialist, and he wanted nothing to do with that antler looking staff behind her back, especially since she played the part of the dominatrix a bit too heavily for his likings.

I mean, she definitely let it go to her head. I can understand that work shapes your personality, still… come on.

And lastly, there was the owl-man. The thing looked so real that it freaked the shit out of him.

If they were cosplayer of sorts, then the owl was, without doubt, a grand champion at it.

He couldn't help but shake his head in denial, even as the lizard, standing on its two legs, started looking at him straight in the eyes, clearly expecting something from him.

The lizard?

Gabriel had perceived it from the tail of his eyes; now, though, he turned toward it to really take a look at it. It was definitely a lizard, though she was scale-less, smooth skin covered her body, where instead, scales should have been aplenty. She had no real color about her, the word colorless popped in the young man's mind as he looked at her; and she was small, really small, one inch or so, while finally if there could be a redeeming quality for it, it was those eyes… they were smart, abnormally so.

Why are you looking at me like that? Man, this thing's creepy… He thought.

The lizard was not amused at that.

It launched itself at the man's face and started biting at his nose.

“AAAARGH!”

"Get it away from me!"

"What does it want!" He kept on shouting, then he finally managed to get a good hold on it and threw it away.

The lizard flew in the air, the others watched her arching in the sky; Gabriel could hear someone whistling, mimicking a missile drop and its impact when the lizard hit the ground.

"What's its problem!?" He asked them.

"No idea, it's your lizard, dude; what did you say to her?" The big guy, Fred, answered.

"I did not say anything. I just thought it was a little creepy."

"Oh well, potato tomato," he answered.

"How would that even work? It's not like it reads my mind?"

"Well," answered the beautiful woman, moving her tunic away and her backpack in front to rummage through it, "they actually do. It's your Bond; it is bound to your Spirit. It is your Spirit."

Gabriel looked at her for a couple of seconds of silence before answering.

"Lady… I have no idea what you're talking about…"

"Figures," interjected the owl-man. "Come on, let's just go; we're almost at the border here. It's a miracle we weren't attacked."

"Hell, it's a miracle he wasn't eaten!" Added Fred.

Attacked? By who? Are we in a war zone? How the fuck did I get here!? They have cannibals in here!?

"Here, Gabriel Walker, put these on." The curly-haired beauty threw him a pair of pants and a shirt; they seemed so simple yet so sturdy but had a sort of feeling of old as if they were not following any trend at all.

Gabriel turned around to dress himself up and noticed that all his injuries were gone.

"My leg… It was broken, my arm too… what the hell?"

"Oh, Greta healed you up good," answered the owl-man.

"Speeded my- Reco- Recovery? Bond of the Goat?" he answered, uncertainly, as a memory was drawn forward.

"Oh, come on, I'm Tier 2; it's the Bond of the Ram! How could it even be the Bond of the Goat, you weird look-" she uttered, annoyed at his mistake.

Gabriel once again detached from her continuously deprecating accusations, answering as one does to a crazy man. "Alright…" he said, confused. Then he turned his head to the side.

The crazy lizard was running at him, tongue flicking out; it had even stood on its two hind legs and looked furious.

It's so small… Gabe thought, and for some reason, the lizard started running even faster, and at some point, it threw itself at him, launching from the ground and landing on his face.

"How can it jump like tha- AAAAHHH! Get it away from me!" He started struggling as the lizard bit his nose again. Gabriel fell on his back, his sight pointing finally toward the sky, as he threw the lizard in the distance again.

The sky was beautiful, a few clouds here and there, but as his gaze went beyond that, he knew that he was not home…

Four planets showed their transparent forms in the sky. Huge, yet far, and similar to Earth, yet their colors and their continents' shapes differed.

To each planet belonged a moon. They, too, were transparent like their planets. While another moon, this one much more real, tangible one might say, belonged clearly to the planet on which soil he lay upon in that very moment.

That one… Gabriel thought, focusing on one of the planets whose shape he could recognize no matter what.

That's the Earth, isn't it?

"Where the hell am I?" He whispered to himself in a stupor.

***

"So, you are saying that we are in something called a Den, right?" Gabriel asked, unsure if he was following correctly. "And we are not on Earth…"

The six of them were walking nonchalantly through the open field, only the owl-man, for some reason, had his big bow at the ready; he judged they were on a gigantic hill, and they were heading up, probably reaching a village of the sort, built on top of its highest point.

"Yes, though it is "The" Den. The Den of N'arr. N'arr was the original Druid, and we are thus, druids of N'arr, well at least you are, I'm not. And it's twice now I've answered the same questions," she answered, annoyed.

The beauty was apparently called Anastasia, or Nastia for short, she seemed Russian, but she seemed to have lost her accent entirely if that was so.

"And I can do magic now?" Once again, Gabriel tried confirming.

"Once again, yes," she answered, exasperated; Fred chuckled at her tone.

"Then why don't I feel anything different?"

"Because you are still not attuned, you could theoretically do it, but you've only got one Skill for now, which is for attacking. Do you intend to attack us? No, it would be an extremely crappy idea, so you wait, you shut up, you keep remaining silent and wait until we're there!" She lost her cool near the end.

Gabriel stopped in his tracks; a vein popped on his forehead.

"Oh, I'm sorry! Am I annoying you!? Then please, oh please, forgive me for wanting to know where the fuck I am! How the fuck I've got here! And why the fuck CAN'T I LEAVE!" He exploded.

They had been walking for roughly fifteen minutes, and after five or so, it was he the one who had to start asking for answers; they had told him they were the "retrieving party," and yet nobody had cared to explain to him what had really happened to him.

"I think I'm starting to like this guy. I mean, he has the guts of pitching with an almost Tier 4. The cowards back at the Cradle would never even dare to try that, on Nastia of all people," said the little girl. She was talking to Greta but had clearly raised her voice so that everybody could hear.

Nastia… she acted unexpectedly.

In a moment, she had him on the ground, swiping his feet from below him.

She placed her knee on his chest, pinning him to the ground with a strength unbeknown to a girl of her size.

Gabriel tried jerking her away, but he couldn't even shake her.

"Now listen here, you little shit, I won't be hearing shit from you; I've been hearing shit from everybody for most of my life an-"

"Guys-" Interjected the owl-man, a sort of serious tone in his words.

"What is it!?" She almost shouted, even more annoyed, her eyes cold as winter.

"...get ready; we've got a big one."

"Yeah, the high pitched screams must have woken it up," said Fred.

High-pitched? I don't sound like a girl! Thought Gabriel, who could not currently talk, given the fact that Nastia had briefly placed her knee on his throat in getting up.

"What's happening?" He asked, lifting himself from the ground and judging the tension which had taken over the group.

Nobody answered him, but he did not need to hear an answer. The vibrations coming from the ground were soon the answer to his question.

They kept becoming stronger and stronger, significantly intensifying when a roar washed over his ears.

Then it appeared, out of the other side of the hill, and if that wasn't a monster, he had no idea what else could be classified as one.

The ground shook, as the thing, big as a house and walking like a gorilla but with clearly the face of a lion and the horns of a bull came at them. Its eyes were fury itself.

It had arms thicker than most trees and its legs even more so. It frothed at the mouth, and its fur overcoat was of an intense purple, while his skin, visible on his underbelly, chest, and clearly exposed pelvis, were of cobalt blue.

Gabriel's gaze ran from it to the guys standing in a formation around him; no, they had moved forward, leaving him behind, as if covering him from the assault.

In front of the formation stood Fred, at his sides, the little girl was twirling her kunais, and Nastia was somehow shining in a peculiar magenta light; right behind them was Greta, her stav- staff, was releasing a white light, weird symbols twirling around it, and finally the owl-guy… he was nowhere to be seen.

However, someone else, an Asian stocky guy, dressed in pretty much the same way, and holding up his bow, stood in his same stance. He was standing quite a few feet to the side, probably to have an open view of the monster.

Are they gonna stand here? Do they want to face that thing?

"Guys! We need to leave, like now! That thing is gonna tear us apart!" He tried pleading.

"Just take a look at what the druids of N'arr can do." said the new Asian fellow.

"Come on, that'll just be warm-up," added the little girl.

This is crazy… I'm out of- But Gabriel's thoughts silenced when the display of light in front of him turned into proper magic.

A white wave released forth from Greta's staff as she held it up in front of her, and a circular, no other way to describe it but, shield, manifested in front of them.

The white shield was as big as the beast. It looked like some sort of force field straight out from movies or animes, at his inside two concentric circles were each inscribed in their whole length with a row of symbols.

Then a low screech came from the above, as a big, way too big owl manifested in the air and dug its talons in the beast's neck, it did not have much of an effect, but it distracted it just enough for them to take action.

The first thing that followed the owl's attack was an arrow if it could still be defined as such.

The arrow shot like a railgun. It reached the monster in an instant, leaving a trail of lightning behind and driving a hole all the way through the monster's thick neck.

It was powerful, powerful enough so that Gabriel imagined being hit by such a thing. He envisioned his chest with a hole the size of a fist, shuddering.

Then something else happened, the formation went from 5 to 3, the two girls in front had disappeared.

Gabriel tried looking left and right, to no avail. At least until the little girl manifested on top of the monster’s back.

She started driving her kunais in and out of the beast, in a continuous flurry of strikes as fast as those of a practiced martial artist. Bruce Lee's speed came to mind when he saw the display. But there was something different about her, she looked… she looked somehow like a frog, maybe the distance was playing tricks on him, but so his eyes said.

Then the monster fell face to the ground, well, horns to the ground, as his thick leg was swiped from below him; appearing amid sparkling magenta light, Nastia was charging a big attack, a massive two-handed sword raised high on her head.

I'm confident that sword was not there… thought Gabriel.

Her intent was probably that of freeing the monster of one of its legs. But she stopped, giving a call.

Fred braced himself, widening his stance, the owl flew into the formation, landing on the ground by the Asian man’s side; with a leap, the little girl, now little-frog-girl, jumped with an incredible leg power right behind Fred, while Nastia had disappeared once again.

It all happened in the span of moments, and just in moments, the monster had started glowing, then a thunderous sound came forth.

Gabriel's vision blanked when the lightning exploded forth from the beast's glowing fur; it traveled to pretty much every direction, toward the sky, to the sides, in front, and from its back.

The attack was met by the invisible shield. However, the shield was not enough.

The lightning arched on itself multiple times, striking the shield again and again, and the symbols on the first ring burned out of existence. The rest of the assault came through, yet with it was met by Fred.

The man's shields sucked all the lightning that came at him; he screamed but held on, his body glowing in dim light.

When the attack ended, he started jumping up and down. His body fumed, he looked high, almost crazed. But Gabriel could not ask himself what had happened to him, nor how he had survived it, as the now even madder beast launched itself forth.

Its massive claws hit the mystical shield that surprisingly held on, for the moment.

But the attack did not end there; it once again struck, hard, the sound it produced enough to remind him of the sound his father's car made when they crashed against the bus that fateful day, the day in which his father and his little sister had died.

Boom!

The symbols started fading once again.

The shield would not hold. Gabriel could feel it...

We're dead… he thought to himself, no idea what to do. If there even was something he could do.

Then an intense whistling followed, and subsequently, something shone in the sky. A multitude of flickering lights was seemingly heading toward them.

"A little more," said the Asian guy. No, it was the owl-guy again!

"Come on!" Fred said, super excited.

Greta was doing something again. Her staff pointed toward the short frog-girl, then something seeped out of its tip and as mist, coiled itself around the girl's body.

In her hands manifested two giant swords, the same as the one that Nastia was holding.

Gabriel's eyes went toward her; she had done something, as her arm was lowering, before, it must have been pointed at the little girl.

As the shield finally broke, the pressure from a burst air bubble washed over them, but at the same time the sky's shines reached the ground; no, they heading toward the monster.

They were arrows; each one as powerful as the first one the Asian guy had shot; and they fell on the monster, driving holes in him and continuing straight, digging through the earth, or probably stopping, he had no idea; but the holes were there.

The monster lamented, but it had not enough time to, as Fred was finally able to do his thing.

His arms shot forward, and a torrent of lightning came forth, assailing the monster and detaching him cleanly from the ground, as it was pushed away by it.

"Going!" Said the frog-girl...

Her posture, was like that of a centometrist; then she disappeared, or maybe no; she dashed forward, Gabriel could get that, but following more than that? It was outside of his realm of perception. But he could see the outcome of it.

Gabriel's eyes darted to the beast's location. Its flight had stopped thirty to forty feet away.

With a boom, both the monster's horns exploded.

On its face crouched a little frog-girl, her two gigantic swords dug into the creature's head up to the handle.

The beast fell backward as the girl let go of them, and they flickered out of existence.

It was dead. Silence reigned supreme for a second.

"Well, that went better than expected," said the owl-guy.

"It could have gone better if you shot the volley a little earlier, look at my hair. They're all on edge, last time it lasted for half a day. I've got a reputation to maintain here, dude!" Fred said.

"Not like I can say, or anybody else if you don't remove that helmet from your head," he answered.

"Well, now I certainly can't, can I?"

This is crazy.

That was actual magic… this is insane. Where am I, really?

"Wondering how it is possible, are you?" Said the little girl, he could witness the moment in which her frog-like appearance receded, her skin turning olive from blue again, her ears popping up to the sides of her head once more, her wide face turning back into a regular visage.

"Well, we are pretty much there, and you'll quickly see what your new life is gonna be, as long as you don't get yourselves killed.

Gabriel fell silent. He had no idea what would expect him. The very fact that magic and monsters were real had utterly shattered his priorities.

If he said that having the luck to learn how to use "magic" did not interest him, he would be lying to himself; his heart violently beat against his chest.

The cosplayers kept talking among themselves, but he just did not listen; as they passed over the monster, he saw what they said was his "bond lizard" it had surely been following him, but he was too focused on asking for answers to notice.

The little lizard was sniffing the monster, its minuscule size-

Wait, Gabriel thought, it's actually not that small to be a lizard. I mean, there are geckos less than an inch long. This thing is much bigger than that, maybe a few inches long, and its color, I've never seen anything of the like, it's like… colorless, but I thought it had become orange and red before? But it should have become green if it wanted to blend with the grass… wait, isn't that something that chameleons do?

The lizard, now standing on its hind legs, turned toward him, looking at him in the eyes.

Is that its stern expression? Kinda cute.

The lizard, seemingly embarrassed, turned its head to the side and preceded the group, heading forward, they followed.

In a while, they reached the peak of the hill; a beautiful panorama opened up in front of them.

The sky all around him was blue, of the most intense summer blue he had ever seen. The sun was there, but it was different. It wasn't hard to look at. Just as the wind wasn't hot, it was pleasant. Given the climb, he would have been sweating, it was summer after all, but he barely had a hint of short breath.

The grass under his bare feet did not sting. For a second, flashes of memories about the rough rocks appeared before him; his feet cut in every which way, mangled by the rocks, now the only thing visible of the damage he had received was the lack of most fingernails.

It came to him to ask without further thinking. "We really are not on Earth, are we?"

At which Fred smirked. "Nope."

"Let's just say we're really close," continued the little girl. "It should be that one," she added, pointing to one of the transparent planets in the distance.

"There will be time for explanation, a lot of time, now go, place your hand on the Stele, and don't oppose it. It might not be exactly pleasant at first.

Gabriel nodded.

What the hell, what do I have to lose? It'll just be the third time it burns me from the inside out.

But the Stele did nothing of the sort.

As his fingers touched it, his mind was invaded by something, something extraneous.

Congratulations, Gabriel Walker.

You have reached the Stele and bonded your Spirit.

You are now effectively a Druid of N’arr.

You will now be Tethered to the Anchor.

It came with a tug on something inside of him; it wasn't something physical; it was different, something which was there, but something he had never felt, up until now.

It was very clear now that whatever was happening was stretching it up to the limit.

He felt it get perforated, strung, hanged, bashed, pulled.

It was torture; they were torturing his soul, his Spirit.

Don't fight it! How!? LET ME GO!

If he had had the power to use his vocal cords, he would have, but at that moment, he was sprawled on the grass, having a seizure. The only thing which he had control over was his mind, well, almost.

It was a fight, a struggle… a struggle he was losing, a struggle he would indubitably lose until something snapped.

With a scream much unexpected, something exploded forward from him, from that very tortured Spirit.

If he wasn't facepalming the ground, the others would have seen a Gold light emanating from his eyes, but they couldn't.

And thus, just like it had started, it stopped.

His soul was being left alone, scars, scars of immeasurable depth had been left on it, but the Anchoring had not been completed, he knew that.

Tethering, ???not??? successful.

Congratulations, Gabriel Walker!

You can now access your Anchor Page and use it as you see fit.

Seconds of silence turned into minutes as he recovered from that dreadful experience.

Burning from the inside out? Children's games!

The Anchoring, whatever it was, had been torture outright.

The others’ voices quickly started, once again, being registered in his tired, barely conscious ears.

"Let him rest a little more…" one said.

"I don't think he's gonna move shortly. We could simply carry him to the Cradle."

"Yeah, I doubt he was prepared. He was an outsider, after all. Hell, I doubt he will even make it to Tier 2. Look at him; he's pitiful," someone said.

"Waste of resources if you ask me," said Greta's voice.

"We shall see… not everybody started like us, think about the Red Tom…"

“He has the same name too, so weird…”

"Come on! Red Tom is a monster, how can you even comp-"

The voice started fading, his consciousness disappearing, the last thing he noticed was a weird burning page with tabs and letters on the front of his face, but he had not enough mental power to digest all that it said.

Gabriel Walker

Race

Human

Level

1 (00%)

Class

Striker

Class Level

1 (00%)

Spirit

Spirit of The Lizard

Spirit Level

1 (00%)

Pools

Life

Energy

Mana

Spirit

5/5

5/5

5/5

5/5

Attributes

Body

Spirit

Final

Affinity

3

0

3

Alacrity

4

2

6

Power

3

1

4

Recovery

2.2 (2)

2

4.2

Resilience

2

0

2

Stamina

4

1

5

Tethers

Bond

Enhancement

Boost

Lizard

None

Alacrity +2

Power +1

Recovery +2

Stamina +1

Skills

Skill

Effect

Element

Slot

Type

Tier

Burst Attack

Increase your Power and Alacrity by 50%. Permanently increases Recovery by 10%.

None

Power

Basic Skill - First Spirit Skill

1 (0%)