...

...

...

Tobias opened his eyes and found himself in a deserted campsite. It was getting dark and he couldn't see much, but he could make out a few things. He was in a sleeping bag next to an unlit fire. Across the campfire was a log with some cooking supplies perched next to it; pots, those big spoons he never knew the name of, and what looked like spices.

He groaned and crawled out of the sleeping bag, only to hurry back in when a gust of wind touched his bare skin.

Where are my clothes? he thought, shivering. And where am I?

He was rubbing his chest when he felt bandages on his lower abdomen. "What the...when was I injured?"

All he remembered was seeing the monster tortoise rush him and then some mysterious being coming to save his life. He couldn't recall anything after that, so he must have passed out again.

Good going, Tobias. Passing out multiple times in an unknown world where there are freaking monsters everywhere.

Speaking of monsters...He hunched down in the sleeping bag, glancing around to see if anything was coming. But the clearing he was in was still. For the moment.

Hmm. Maybe whoever rescued me brought me here? That doesn't explain why I don't have my clothes on...At least I've still got my boxers and I'm relatively unharmed. My head does hurt, though, but I've been knocked out so many times it's probably from a concussion...

He wished he knew what was happening. Things kept coming at him without giving him a break. First, the transportation, then the slime and now this...

It was all too much. All Tobias wanted to do was go home and curl up in his bed. He didn't want to deal with the rest of the world. Not right now. He just wanted to sleep-

Footsteps made him jerk back awake and he fumbled around in his sleeping back, looking for the source of the sound.

It was his savior! He vaguely recognized their get up from the brief moment he'd laid his eyes on them. They were wearing fitted leather armor, shoes that looked like combat boots and a mask. He saw something trailing out from behind them and thought, That kind looks like a tail...

But he dismissed that thought because humans don't have tails.

And slimes don't talk, monsters don't exist, and the sky isn't green. Maybe they're not human.

A pang of fear crept into Tobias's heart as the possibly non-human got closer. He tried to force it down and think about what he should and decided he should just pretend like he was sleeping.

He closed his eyes and forced his body to relax, breathing slowly. He didn't know how good of an actor he was, but he hoped it was working.

Just as the footsteps were about to pass him, they paused. He heard a growling sound coming from above him and something sharp poked him in the back, but he stayed still and quiet.

Another growl, another poke. Still 'sleeping'. Finally, they gave up and moved away. He heard them moving about the camp, rustling with the pans. He heard them say something in that growling language and heat flared up. "Raksha" was the word and it had started a fire.

He cracked one eye open, just enough that he could see what was happening. Sure he enough, a fire as going strong. He spotted the possible non-human standing by the fire, basking in its warmth.

Yup. That's a tail. Wow, this is freaky...

The now-definitely-a-non-human started taking off their armor, starting with the chest plate. The shirt underneath was tight, giving a clear picture of their upper body.

Female, with, ah, rather impressive assets...Nell would be jealous.

Tobias felt his mind wandering and turned back to studying the woman. She was wearing a short-sleeved shirt, letting him see what made her non-human. Her arms were like regular humans, but instead of skin, she had scales and fur. The outside of her arms and the majority of her upper arms were covered in reddish-brown fur, while the insides, most of her forearms and hands had scales the color of bronze. Her hands, which were surprisingly large for a woman, ended in long, sharp claws. Oddly enough, burn marks and thick, jagged scars littered her arms.

He watched as she tossed aside the armor and unclasped her masks, revealing a striking face. Not strikingly beautiful just...striking. The fur ended where her neck and head connected while the scales covered most of her face. What part wasn't covered in scales was burned.

I couldn't tell if she had hair or not since a scarf covered the top of her head. She had a vaguely human face, but there were key differences. For one, her ears resembled a wolf's in shape and size. Her nose was sharper than normal and pretty big, too. The main thing that stood out was her eyes; they were like a crocodile; thin black slits and a golden yellow sclera's. They looked glassy at the moment as if she was looking at something far away.

And then she looked at Tobias, catching him staring in wonder at her facial features. He froze when their eyes met and mentally kicked himself for being so careless.

She bared her teeth, revealing canines way too sharp for Tobias' comfort. He saw her tail move and grab something in behind her. He tensed, waiting for something sharp to be thrown at him. But it was only a book.

She tossed it to him and said, "Use that." She had a gruff, raspy voice as if she didn't talk all that often. It didn't sound all that feminine, but Tobias thought it kind of suited her, what with her scarred appearance.

He blinked and caught the book, staring down at it and then her. "You speak English?"

"I speak many languages, human," she said, her eyes narrowing. "Though I prefer to use my native one. So, you will use that book and spare me the discomfort of dirtying my tongue in yours."

He frowned. "Why should I?"

"Because I said so."

"That doesn't-"

The tip of her tail was pressed against his throat before he finished talking. It was very, very pointy and very, very close to cutting his throat.

Keeping his eyes pinned on the tip, he said cautiously, "How do I use it?"

She let out a slight growl of satisfaction as her tail rubbed the bottom of his chin affectionately as if he'd something good to deserve petting. "Intent. Think about using the book and a screen will appear in front of you."

System Interface: Skill Book: Language

Would you like to learn the way of Ignis Lupus communication?

Yes or No?

He selected yes and felt a flood of information fill his head. He knew that by 'way of communication' didn't mean only 'words', but body language, growls, and facial expressions telling how one another felt. He looked at the woman and could tell she felt anxious from the way her tail twisted around itself and her body was tense, ready for anything.

But something was...off about her. He didn't know what it was until she growled at him; it wasn't a real growl, more like an imitation of someone trying their hardest to sound like it was real.

'Did you use-'

'Not a real wolf,' he blurted, the growl coming out before he could stop it.

He saw her eyes widen and the tail swinging toward him. Years of playing soccer had hard-wired moves into his body and he was ducking just seconds before it slammed into him. He looked back up to see her form blur and all of a sudden he felt claws digging into his chest.

He was yanked out of the sleeping back and tossed a few feet away. Before he could even try to process what just happened, the tail came back down. This time, the pain slowed his reaction time and everything went dark.

~~~

Tobias wasn't dead. He knew that for a fact, mainly because he was in pain. Serious pain. His chest and head hurt like hell and he felt sore all over. He idly wondered what had happened when the memories came rushing back to him.

He rolled over onto his back and gingerly touched his chest. He winced as he pulled his hand away. Did she have to hurt him so badly? Those claws hurt!

But then he remembered why she attacked him and any feeling of anger vanished. You're not a real wolf.

Who was he to decide what she was and what she wasn't? He didn't even know her name; he had no right to say that to her. Yes, he was pissed off because she'd forced him to use the skill book and that comment about dirtying her tongue by speaking English was unnecessary, but he hadn't needed to retaliate.

And now he was naked, injured, and alone in a world he knew nothing about.

Yup. That's 1 Luck for ya, he thought bitterly. Way to go, T-man.

Just as he was about to drown in self-pity, he heard a familiar squelching sound. Sitting up, he saw Lord Weiler hopping towards him.

"There you are, human. The halfling did quite the number on you."

"...Halfling?"

"Yes, the one who's half Wolfbeast and Phoenix Crocodilus. The one you were with while I was away. I will have you know that I did give proper retribution for her actions."

"What?"

It wriggled and hopped closer. "You don't sound very pleased. Don't humans like it when those who harm them face consequences?"

"Um, well, I guess but...did you kill her?"

"Would that would be the proper consequence?"

"No! That's not..." Tobias sighed. "I think...we got off on the wrong foot. I don't want her to die."

"How peculiar."

Tobias shivered as the wind brushed passed him. "Um, can you take me to her? She has my clothes..."

"Hmph! Follow me!"

Keiko's POV

Pain. That was all Keiko could register.

Every fiber of her being, every bone in her body was in pain.

After disposing of the human boy's body, she'd made her way back to camp, only to be attacked by a high-grade slime. Luckily, she'd managed to escape, but had not come out unscathed.

She was missing a piece of her left arm, from the elbow and down. The nerves in her right leg were also severely damaged, leaving it nearly useless. If it was anything other than an acid slime, she might've fared better. But alas, fate was not kind to her.

But then again, it never had been.

Currently, Keiko was sprawled out on her sleeping bag, panting from the long, arduous journey from the tree she'd hidden in. The shock from the blood loss was slowly wearing off and sleep came to claim her.

She struggled against it; if she ever closed her eyes, she'd never opened them again. But she was losing the fight, she could feel it. Her heart grew tired and the pain was just too much.

In a last-ditch effort, she emptied everything from her inventory: loot from the Imperial Tortoises, the human's clothes, some food, and, ah! Bandages!

She reached for them, but her arm could barely lift off the ground. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't reach it. Eventually, she gave up. There was no use in fighting. No one was coming to save her. Not her 'tribe', not some random adventurer wandering through the forest.

She was completely and utterly a-

"Oh, God! Weiler, what did you do to her?"

A familiar voice shouted somewhere off to her left. Or was it her right? She was too tired to care. Then she heard the tell-tale squelching sound of an incoming slime and hissed, wasting what precious energy was left her body.

She struggled to turn, to give that wretched slime one last glare before she entered the Void. And then she saw him. The human she'd 'killed'.

A rush of emotions flashed through her as he ran towards her. Anger, guilt, relief. Anger, because of their last encounter. Guilt, because she'd nearly killed him. Relief...because she hadn't. Keiko was many things, but she was not a murderer.

No matter how many times she might wish death on someone, she'd never commit the crime herself. No, she hadn't fallen that deeply. Yet.

The human was at her side a moment later, looking shocked and anxious. He'd probably never seen an injury so severe as hers.

Weak, she thought. I've seen worse when I was barely a cub.

She would've continued to mentally berate the boy but he shook himself and dropped to his knees by her side.

"Okay, okay. Uh, okay, I need to fix this...somehow. And wow, that's a lot of blood. Yuck."

She growled softly as he processed her injuries, snapping him out of his daze. "You're conscious? That's good, I think. Nothing blocking your airflow, you're still breathing. Duh. Um...I've got to clear the wound. I need...water. Yes, water. Where's..."

He looked around wildly, searching for something.

Keiko tried to open her mouth, tried to tell him that there was a stream just a few miles west, but nothing came out. She wanted to lash her tail in frustration, but all she could manage was a small twitch.

"Huh. Alright, no water. I'll have to clean it with some type of cloth. Um...my clothes! Ah...that should work. Let me just..." He grabbed his shirt and began tearing it in strips. Gently, he picked up her stump of an arm and pressed a strip against it.

The pain from the simple touch was excruciating. She wanted to scream at him for doing something so stupid, but she could only manage a few choked gasps and moans, wasting even more energy.

"I know, I know. It hurts, I'm sorry. It'll be over soon, just let me wrap it up...There." It still hurt, but the pain was somewhat tolerable. "Alright, let's see your leg. Wow."

He blinked rapidly at the mess that was her leg. He held strips of cloth in his hands but had seemingly no idea what to do with them.

Keiko growled again, hoping to get him moving before she lost too much blood. Just wrap it, she mentally yelled at him. And hurry up about it, fool!

The human took a deep breath, trying to steady his nerves. "Calm down, Tobias. It's just a screwed up leg. You can fix this. It's not rocket science..."

As he started wrapping up her leg, he muttered about how he wished he paid more attention in Health class. It was, after all, more than just sex jokes and awkward questions about the human body.

"She's not human, so does it matter? Maybe not, but it would be nice to have something to base it off of. What am I talking about? I just need to wrap it up carefully; I can't do surgery or anything...And this is a world based on a game! She should be fine in a few hours...Probably. Hopefully. Yeah, better to be optimistic. She'll be fine as long as she doesn't get an infection. Do infections exist in this world? Well, there are giant tortoises, so there are probably a bunch of deadly diseases, too. I've got to find some water to..."

She drifted off to sleep, listening to him ramble on absentmindedly.

~~~

When Keiko woke up again, she was tucked in her sleeping bag and something smelled...like food. It wasn't bad, but it didn't smell good.

She heard footsteps and turned her head to see the human―no, Tobias, walking towards her. He was wearing only a pair of dark blue pants and odd shoes that were bright red on top and white on the bottom.

Seeing him shirtless sent another rush of emotions through her, this time mostly guilt. She saw the scars that decorated his chest; he must not have fully healed.

Tobias knelt by her, holding a bowl in his hands. He spoke in a soft growl. 'Food. Not good, but can eat.'

Keiko noted that although he didn't have a proper grip on the language of her kind, he seemed to have the basics of growling down.

She managed a weak nod and reached to take it with her left hand...

...Which wasn't there anymore.

Grimacing, she pulled it back and tried to reach it with her other arm, but he pushed it down and growled. "I feed you. Still.'

'I am not helpless,' she growled back, slapping her tail threateningly against the ground. Unfortunately, in the sleeping bag, it didn't have the same effect she wanted it to. The human smirked slightly.

'Too weak. Need to be helped,' he pointed out as he reached to put his hand under her head. She tried to bite him, out of spite, but only managed a pitiful nibble that would've taken his entire hand off if she'd been at full strength.

But it still hurt him. He let out a slight hiss and jerked his arm away from her mouth. The small wound slowly closed as he regenerated health. He glared at her and reached for her head again. She bared her fangs but he ignored that, quickly sliding his hand under her head and angling it away from her mouth.

She growled and tried to pull away from him, but he easily overpowered her and pulled her gently into his lap. Fuming, she looked around for a place to bite him that would cause the most pain. Between his legs. Unfortunately, he put the bowl there and said, "I'm not going to feed you if you keep trying to bite me."

"I don't need you to feed me, human. I am not helpless."

He snorted and plucked a wooden spoon out of his inventory. "Could've fooled me with all that blood and passing out you were doing."

"You-"

He shoved a spoonful of stew into her mouth. It tasted disgusting. She turned her head and spat it out before glaring at him. "What was that?"

"My attempts at making turtle stew," he muttered, staring at the garbage she'd just spat out.

"You are a bad cook."

"This world just has crappy ingredients," he snapped back. "I'm a great cook. Now, eat this and go back to sleep. I don't wanna talk to you anymore."

She clamped her mouth shut as he tried to shove another spoonful in. He narrowed his eyes and put one hand on her side.

"Open your mouth."

She kept one eye on his hand as she sternly shook her head no.

"Do you want to starve? You don't have a way to feed yourself!"

Thinking for a moment she raised her tail and deftly scooped the bowl away from him. He frowned before pushing her back onto the sleeping bag and stomping back over to the log.

It was a small victory, but it made her proud nonetheless. She ate his disgusting stew as fast as she could before heading back into dreamland.

~~~

Keiko woke up late the next day, around noon.

She tried to sit up, but she was too weak so she lay back down. Taking a glance at her health bar showed just a little less than a third was remaining. Her stamina wasn't much better.

She should be healing, but high-grade acid slimes were notorious for secreting a type of acid that slowed down regeneration to almost nothing. She wondered how long it would take her to get better.

Idly, she also wondered where the human was. Turning her head, she saw him sitting on the log, skinning a Horned Rabbit. She noted that there were another three he hadn't touched and that his calf and stomach were bandaged.

She stared at the boy, reassessing her image of him. She'd assumed him to be weak, but he carried five Horned Rabbits in his hands, something a wolf cub could only do after months of extensive training.

She had no way of knowing how old the human was; she didn't spend much time around humans to know when they grew out of their youth stage. He was tall and muscular so he must've been older than 18. But he had a somewhat boyish face, with reddish hair that curled around his ears and soft eyes.

'Human,' she growled. He looked up, saw her, and his face morphed between a scowl and a smile.

"You're awake. Great. I've got some more stew for you." He came over, bowl in hands. It smelled only marginally better than the last time.

After setting the bowl down, he turned to leave but she grabbed his ankle and tugged gently. 'Did you kill the rabbits?'

"Hmm? Oh, yeah. Nasty little buggers. Nearly took my leg before I could kill them. Big, sharp stones work wonders against them. Might make rabbit stew next..."

She ignored him as he muttered to himself and ate the stew. It was still disgusting. She wondered if he'd gained the cooking skill and if he had, what good it was doing him.

Tobias's POV

"I don't understand why you insist on keeping the halfling around," Weiler complained.

Tobias glanced up at the sleeping woman a few feet away from him. He didn't know why either but he refused to let Weiler kill her. It wouldn't sit right with him, knowing that her life was in his hands and yet tossing it away like it was nothing.

Maybe he was being too nice. She had tried to kill him before. But he still couldn't bring himself to give the bloodthirsty slime the go-ahead to finish her off.

"We talked about this, Weiler," he chided the little monster. "You can't just kill people for no reason."

"She had tried to kill you."

"We... disagreed on something and it got out of hand."

"She offers you nothing in return for keeping her alive! What use would you have for her?"

Tobias didn't answer and returned to his stew.

"Hmm...I see. You're being secretive. From what I know of human males, they have incredible sex drives. Do you intend to use her for pleasure?"

Tobias choked and sputtered. "What? Where did you get that from?"

"Why else would you keep her around?"

"I-I'm not gonna do that. I have morals!"

The slime wriggled indignantly. "So what of morals? We all have needs, human, and one of them is to procreate. I would not suggest a halfling as your first choice, but as there's nothing better around..."

"I'm only seventeen!"

"So?"

Tobias scoffed and ignored the slime. He would've never considered using her for such nefarious purposes. And besides, the few interactions he'd had with her were tense and always ended with her growling at him and waving her tail threateningly; there was no way she'd let it happen.

You could probably overpower her, the dark side of him offered. She's weakened; she won't be able to fight back.

He forced that part of him deep in the back of his mind. He wasn't going to become a monster just because he was horny. That wasn't going to happen.

Shooting the unconscious woman one last glance, he got up to head to the stream he'd found a few days ago and almost tripped on something. It was a bag he hadn't opened yet. Curious, he set the bowl down and picked it up. Then he nearly dropped it shocked when he saw what was inside.

Skill books! Was this for real?

The world is based on a game. Of course, there'd be skill books.

He wanted to use them immediately but he stopped. The bag didn't belong to him; it was the halflings. He considered asking her for them until he realized he didn't even know her name.

Tobias sighed as he considered his options. Did he use them in secret or try to kiss up to her until she agreed to let him use them? Weiler hopped over to him.

"What have you there, human?"

"A bag full of skill books?"

"Really? Why aren't you using them? They could help with the inn!"

"They're not mine, they're hers."

"So she is a liability keeping you from growing..."

"No," he said quickly, following the slime's train of thought. "She's not."

"So why don't you use them?"

"...I'm going to."

"Really?"

Tobias gritted his teeth. Stealing was wrong; his mother had instilled that into him over the years with fierce determination. He didn't want to use the skill books without her permission but if Weiler threatened to kill her because he wouldn't...

He pulled the first book out.