>Ignatius POV

When Iggy found himself standing next to a slow-moving river, he knew he messed up. Big time. To make matters worse, he'd brought Cassie with him.

He turned to find her staring at the river, breathing heavily and trembling, a tell-tale sign she was about to have a panic attack.

Before she could, though, they integrated with the system and passed out. They woke up, experienced the HUD and their status, and then a monster that resembled a baby cow with brown-spotted wings, sharp teeth, and two tails attacked them.

It charged at Cassie and she froze, staring in horror at the abomination in front of her. Iggy recovered first and managed to halt its charge. He grabbed its head, desperately trying to keep its gaping jaw away from his body. He had yelled at Cassie to get so safety, but she kept staring.

Only when the calf took a bite out of Iggy's side and then knocked him aside with a swift bump of its head did she move.

With a strangeness, she stepped forward, her eyes burning with fire, unlike her passive, anxious nature. Holding out a hand, she said one word.

"Stop."

The monster paused and then took a hesitant step toward her.

"Stop." She said it with a bit more force in her words, eyes narrowing. This time, it held still, looking utterly terrified by the odd power behind her words.

"Sit," she said, pointing down. The calf immediately sat, bending its knees as it lowered itself to the ground. Cassie smiled, ready to give another order when she looked at Iggy, barely conscious and bleeding out a rapid pace.

The last thing he heard was her scream and then the darkness came for him.

Iggy woke up in a cave. He didn't quite remember what had happened or why he was in the said cave, but he accepted that he was here without a doubt.

Taking a glimpse around the cavern, he found it wasn't all that large, around the size of a large master bedroom. Smooth, hard material with a whitish-blue coloring made up the cave's interior. The only light came from the mouth of the cave, which was quite small despite the size of the interior. Iggy was roughly 5'4, give or take, but even he would have to crouch down low to get into the cave.

And then he saw a calf's head poke into the entrance and everything came rushing back. He scrambled to his feet, ready for a fight.

But a familiar voice shouted, "Don't hurt him!"

Iggy faltered as a pair of hands gripped his arm and pulled him back. "Uh, Cassie?"

She was staring at him, both fear and determination displayed clearly on her face. "That's Nāga. You can't hurt him."

"...Did you name that monster?

She hesitated and then nodded, going over to calm to the growling abomination. "Yes, I did. He...he's my pet now, I guess."

"Yeah, but...he bit me!"

"You're healed now."

"I'm-what?"

He looked down at his right side and saw his torn shirt. The skin, however, was perfectly fine except for a small scar. Gingerly, he touched the area where the calf had bit him and it felt completely fine.

Cassie was watching him carefully and he noticed she looked tense, with one hand clutching the hair on the calf's head tightly. He could tell she was afraid he would make her send that beast away.

Sighing, he said, "Alright, fine. It's forgiven."

"He. And thank you." She smiled at him and began fussing over the calf, which eagerly soaked up all the attention.

Iggy ignored her and focused on his HUD. The bars indicating his health(red), stamina (yellow), and mana (blue) were full. He opened his status, wondering if something had changed from the last time he saw it.

System Interface: Status Menu X

Character Profile:

Name: Ignatius Boyde Species: Human Essence: Level 1 Experience: 0/100

Character Stats:

(*.*) Total Regen Points Health 100/100 2/minute 0 Attribute points Mana 30/30 4/minute 0 Path points Stamina 40/40 2/minute 0 Tree points General Resistance - 2; Mental Resistance - 4 Attributes: Attributes: Attribute Points (0) Strength- (Increases Attack Power, Lifting Weight) 3 (+) Agility- (Increases Speed, Dexterity, Reflexes) 2 (+) Constitution-(Increases Weight, Density, Hardness, Health Gained Per Level) 1 (+) Endurance-(Increases Regeneration of Health and Stamina and General Resistance) 2 (+) Wisdom-(Increases Mental Resistance, Willpower, Mana Regeneration, Common Sense, and Intuition) 4 (+) Intelligence-(Increases Memory, Mana Pool) 3 (+) Charisma-(Increases Charm, Persuasion) 3 (+) Luck-(Increases Odds in Your Favor) 7 (+) Perception-(Increases Understanding, Senses, Awareness) 5 (+)

Skills: N/A

Paths: N/A

Trees: N/A

Everything was normal. Ignatius was slightly disappointed after hoping that his short battle with Naga had earned him something. Then again, he had no idea how this system worked.

"Iggy," Cassie called, "I need to tell you something."

"Hmm?"

"I got this skill..."

"Huh? How? What is it?"

Her face flushed and she gave him an irritated glare. "Can you let me finish?"

"Yeah, sorry."

"It came after you had passed out. I ordered Naga to go and find something that could help you and he brought back this healing potion. I got you healed and then told him to find someplace where we could rest. He brought us here, which I'm thinking is his nest."

She pointed toward a space in the back, where a hoard of shiny things glittered in the darkness. "Winged Cowtaurs like shiny things. They're like magpies; they steal anything that is remotely shiny."

"Uh-huh...so the skill?"

"Oh, yeah. As I was ordering Naga around I got this skill called 'Way With Beasts' which lets me tame beasts, give them commands, and even name them!"

"Mmm...So you just...did something and you got a skill for it?"

Cass nodded and then blushed. "I...got another one, too."

Pulling up her status menu, she showed him the skill.

Character Profile:

Name: Cassiopeia Boyde Species: Human Essence: Level 1 Experience: 0/100

Character Stats:

(~.~) Total Regen Points Health 100/100 2/minute 0 Attribute points Mana 50/50 1/minute 2 Path points Stamina 10/10 2/minute 0 Tree Points General Resistance - 2; Mental Resistance - 1 Attributes: Attributes: Attribute Points (0) Strength- (Increases Attack Power, Lifting Weight) 1 (+) Agility- (Increases Speed, Dexterity, Reflexes) 5 (+) Constitution-(Increases Weight, Density, Hardness, Health Gained Per Level) 1 (+) Endurance-(Increases Regeneration of Health and Stamina and General Resistance) 2 (+) Wisdom-(Increases Mental Resistance, Willpower, Mana Regeneration, Common Sense, and Intuition) 1 (+) Intelligence-(Increases Memory, Mana Pool) 5 (+) Charisma-(Increases Charm, Persuasion) 2 (+) Luck-(Increases Odds in Your Favor) 2 (+) Perception-(Increases Understanding, Senses, Awareness) 8 (+)

Skills:

Way With Beasts(Level 1)-Skill allows 10% more ease in charming Beasts into becoming a pet, 10% more ease in commanding multiple pets, assigning a hierarchy among pets, and giving them names. Effectiveness increases by 1% with each skill level.

Fearful Cry(Level 1)-Skill allows for any ally within a ten-mile radius to pinpoint the cry's owner location as well as a 1% chance of instilling the 'Fear' effect into enemies for 1 minute. Effectiveness increases by 1% with each skill level.

Paths: N/A

Trees: N/A

"Fearful Cry...sounds useful."

Cass shrugged. "I guess...I've got two Path Points, too. Does that give me a path or something?"

Iggy sighed. "Yeah. Maybe. I don't know how this world's system works. I just...I wish there was a help menu or something."

Cassie shrugged and suggested that she try and spend a point to find out what they did. Iggy hesitated but then agreed, deciding there was no other way to find out then to do.

>Cassiopeia's POV

After Iggy's approval, Cassie set about finding a way to spend her tree points. After a bit of struggle, Iggy said:

"Why don't you just think 'Paths' and see what happens?"

To her surprise, it worked.

Path Menu:

Current Paths available-2

Tamer Path

Fearful Warrior Path

Cassiopeia scowled when she saw the Fearful Warrior tree option. Her anxiety was bad enough. Why have something that might make it worse?

Iggy seemed to disagree when she told him about it. "Fearful Cry seemed pretty dang useful," he argued. "It lets your friends know where you are and makes your enemies feel fear. That's an awesome skill."

At his urging, she picked the path and flinched when another screen popped up in front of her face. She dreaded the sudden flash of light that appeared whenever she did something with the system interface; it always caught her off guard, even when she was expecting it.

Fearful Warrior Path: Most warriors are known for their bravery, daring to go into the darkness and face monsters to horrible to look upon. You are the opposite; you are fighter known for their paralyzing fear and gut-wrenching anxiety. You capitalize on this, using it to your advantage and force your terror onto your foes. Before you are many paths leading you to victory, and with them come skills of great caliber. Finishing the path will give you access to the Fearful Warrior Skill Tree and bonus attributes.

Current Path Points: 1/20

Oh, so now there was a skill tree? Just great. She regretted choosing this path.

She wished Iggy felt that way, too, but he was ecstatic to hear the news.

"We need to figure out a way to get Path Points so you can get to the skill tree," he said. "Anything to help in battle."

Cassie frowned. "But..."

"But?"

"It just...it makes me feel stupid, having access to this stuff..."

Understanding flashed in his eyes and then a sheepish look passed over his face. "Oh. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to force it on you. I should've known how you felt about it..."

"It's okay."

They sat in silence before Iggy spoke up. "So you got these skills just by doing stuff?"

"Um...I think it might be a little deeper than that, but yeah, I guess."

He stared intently at Naga long enough that it made her little beastie a bit skittish as he ducked behind her. She glared at Iggy "Stop that. You're scaring him."

He shook his head, muttering, "I don't understand why you're so attached to that thing."

"He's cute!"

"Whatever. Going back to how skills are created..."

He started muttering to himself and rubbing his chin. Cassie felt miffed at his blatant dismissal of her affection for her pet. He was the only one who told her that he found her obsession with strange animals weird and stupid and that hurt.

Well, Odysseia said it, too, but Cassie was convinced her sister had very little emotions, if any at all, and found no joy in the world whatsoever. Iggy was different.

Out of all their six siblings, she and Iggy were the closest and were rather distant from the others. Not to say they weren't all close, but the two had a special connection. Tobias was the leader, Penn the smooth talker, and Penelope was the second mother to them all. Odysseia was...Cassie wasn't sure what benefit she added to the Boyde Bunch―yes, Cassie was the only other one besides Penelope to use that term―but she had a feeling her sister did certain things that were best left unmentioned.

But her and Iggy? The rest of the world considered them to be useless and, even though they didn't admit it, the others probably thought so, too, especially Tobias. Even though he constantly got on Penn for not helping out when he needed to, Penn was still important. He could talk his way out of everything that Tobias couldn't with silver-coated words and a honeyed voice. Meanwhile, Iggy got in trouble way too often and Cassie was always one second away from being reduced to a trembling ball of fright.

They stuck together and generally understood each other and their motivations. When Iggy did stupid things, she was the first one to forgive him and help appease the other's anger and annoyance. If Cassie was having one of her attacks, Iggy always knew what had triggered her and was quick to remove it and comfort her.

But people had flaws and Iggy's was he couldn't understand everything about her. So she sulked and petted Naga, wishing she had the skill to make her brother see what she saw in her new pet.

Then she heard the scream from outside the cave.