“I see you two met up,” Percy told the two as they arrived, “I heard what happened from Jurgen, sorry about that.”

“It's fine,” Andaros responded, “It didn't turn out to be a problem.”

“If anything it was more a problem for her,” Reiya said, grinning at the man. “He got a mixed social and crafting class anyway. I decided not to go with a social class because of her actions as well.”

“Oh? I hope that doesn't harm you to spite her,” the man told her.

“Nah, I like the crafting class I chose.”

“I see, what classes did you choose?”

“Outfitter for me, and Psi-tech Smith for him,” Reiya told him, as Andaros had shared his class name earlier.

“Oh, those are pretty good classes for the two of you,” Percy responded, “Were there no crafting classes that had to do with staves? Your class tends to rely on them.”

“I'm no good with the woodworking,” she responded, shaking her head. “I talked with Andaros about maybe coming up with one of his spirit-guns that can work for my class.”

“That is an option, assuming he can learn to create shield-guns, or recovery-guns,” Percy told her. “Ah, those are special forms of spirit-guns that can produce shielding, or healing effects on allies, by the way. They're uncommon, but I heard a craftsman in the capital of the queendom was capable of making them.”

“That'd be a long while before we can get there,” Andaros said.

“Mm, about a week if you can afford the stage coach,” Percy said. “It'd be leaving in a few days, and takes four days to arrive at the queendom's capital from here.”

“When's the next one after that,” Andaros asked.

“A month,” Percy responded, “but it's the safest way to get there, even if you have to wait.”

“How much does it cost,” Reiya asked.

“Twenty gold,” hearing that number from Percy caused Reiya to take a sharp intake of breath. “Well, you can worry about that later, I have your final tutorial quest for you, and since you're both here your timing couldn't be better.”

“Why's that?”

“Your next quest will be to form a fellowship, and hunt monsters together.” Percy explained, “As you are both here for this, it will mean no having to wait around for other sojourners to show up.”

“What's a fellowship,” Andaros asked.

“It's what groups are called here,” Reiya told him him, “My sister told me you just think that you want to form a fellowship, and whom you want to form it with in order to form one. The one decided to be the leader, usually the one with better bonuses, should form it, otherwise the guardians make it a bit difficult to transfer the leadership. Why don't you try, I don't really like leading.”

“That's actually a good idea, a Paladin Psiber-knight would have better fellowship bonuses as a leader than a Guardian of Light. For your quest, I will have you form a fellowship, and hunt down 25 of each of the three creatures that are currently commonly be found outside the hamlet, cabbits, enri, and drolf. These creatures have been explosively growing, and their growth needs to be put in check.”

You have received a quest, [Tutorial Quest: Fellowships & Troublesome Creatures]

Andaros saw the tutorial quest popup, and opened the quest window.

[Tutorial Quest: Fellowships & Troublesome Creatures]

Some creatures are too troublesome to handle as a solo sojourner, or would simply take too long to deal with alone, but must be kept in check. Form or join a fellowship, and defeat the indicated creatures.

Objectives:

Form or join a Fellowship

Defeat cabbits: 0/25

Defeat enri: 0/25

Defeat drolf: 0/25

Rewards:

+ 200 experience

15 copper

This final tutorial quest seemed rather underwhelming in the rewards at first, but Andaros soon realized that normally people would not have come into contact with mythril, and his understanding of the world was a bit warped by the fact that he had what amounted to a vast fortune for his level already. It was all the more reason why the weapons he got were so valuable, but it also left him wondering just how important that item that looked like a shield was. It didn't have any stats, but it was still so costly, there must be a reason behind that.

Andaros looked over to Reiya, who nodded to him, and he thought of forming a fellowship with her. A new transparent window appeared in his Heads Up Display, with Fellowship as the title, and soon showed her name below it. There wasn't any other information, just a box which showed green. Most games would give a health bar, but Trinity did not. It did still give a health indicator, but no percentages, maximums, only a colored box indicating the overall amount of health left. He would have to figure such things out himself, rather than being able to figure out through the HUD.

Andaros didn't know that this had been put into place because of the actions of some other sojourners, and removing the health indicators, aside from a box with a color indicating the overall status of their health, had been found to be an acceptable fix for the exploit used at that time. Those outside of your group didn't have such an indicator, as it was decided they would be used to prey upon weakened individuals. This was not a very popular system at first, but in time it had become accepted, and even considered a feature of the game which made it more realistic, but not too realistic. Andaros didn't know about it, because his previous classmates were too used to it, and never talked about it.

“No health point indicators?”

“That's not available anymore,” Reiya told him, “Bad sojourners were taking advantage of it, so they changed to this system, that's what my sister told me. The indicators will only show green, yellow, or red, depending on your current overall health.”

“Isn't that a pain for healers?”

“It might be, but there are visual queues for healers. So long as the healer pays attention, they can get a bit better idea of how the one they're healing is faring, and what healing skill they should use,” She explained. “It was determined to be less prone to abuse than the old system was.”

“I'm not that knowledgeable about every aspect of your sojourner “systems”,” Percy told them, “but that sounds very much like what our people must do. We don't have these indicators you speak of, but by simply paying attention to others, we can gauge how well they are doing and, if our healers need to use a healing skill, which skill to use.”

“So observation is a must as a healer,” Andaros responded.

“Yes, although it seems you have a bit of a bonus way of telling, but observation is the key,” the man responded. “Now, you have your quest, get going. I may stand around here all day for my job, but it's best for you two to get what you need to do done. After all, time is a wastin' and not all of us have all day to stand around.”

Andaros was reminded of his mysterious sister's situation, and realized he had to hurry in order to ensure her safety, if she was even still alive. He had a tight schedule if he wanted to make certain she was still alive when he got to her. Well, that was assuming she hadn't been killed already, but faith is a mysterious thing, and he had faith she would still be alive when he found her, but a feeling of urgency was also there.

“Yeah, we really should get going,” he told Reiya, “but first, let's go get our crafting tools from Adolpho's. Crafts Master Jurgen said we could pick up the items there.”

“You go ahead, I'm too low on money,” Reiya said.

“I'll cover the costs,” Andaros told her. “In exchange, just lower the costs for the leather armor you make for me later.”

“Eh? You were paying for that? I don't think I can afford one of those guns,” she told him.

“I'm not worried about it, I'll help out my new friend as much as I can,” he told her, smiling gently.

“I'm not taking advantage of you like that,” Reiya responded in a resolute manner.

“Fine, fine,” Andaros sighed, responding, “You can pay me back later. For now, let's just get our tools. I can't get any decent leather armor from you if you don't have any tools to work with, and it will speed up the process of gaining crafting levels, and getting the required materials if I buy the tools for you now. Let's just go buy them, and then go do our quest. It'd be a waste to not be ready to get the hides if we have to kill the creatures anyway.”

Reiya gave in, and the two headed back to Adolpho's, where they found a couple of different things. For Reiya, Andaros bought a tool set that was suitable for both Leatherworking and Cloth-work, it had a great many needles, from small sewing needles, to very large needles suitable to punching holes in leather, or even weaving leather like string. The kit also included a number of punches with various standard shapes, and a few strange ones like roses. Other tools were things like knives, and it also included a book on how to produce, and work with leather. In addition to this it also had a book detailing needlework, and preparation of patterns, and various other things. This would come in handy to remind her of how to work with these things.

As for Andaros, he bought a set of [Beginner Smith's Tools] that included the basics for all three types of smithing he had learned. He really wished there was some kind of portable workshop, but that just wasn't available in a place like this, or maybe not at all. His set cost less than Reiya's tool set, but he wasn't as happy with it as he was with Reiya's set. Five silver had been enough for the smithing set, and while it had tools, it remained to be seen how useful they would be. The last thing he bought for himself was a set of prospector's tools, namely a pickaxe, maddox, and shovel.

Andaros also bought a small trough, a drying rack, and curing chemicals for Reiya's leatherworking. This would allow her to make leather from hides. Finally, the very last thing he bought was a skinning knife. If Reiya could handle skinning, and wasn't squeamish about it, she could use it to skin their kills, and make leather from them. If she was squeamish, Andaros figured he could be the one to skin the creatures. They didn't need a skinning knife to skin the creatures, but the design was such that it would certainly make it easier than it would be while using a standard knife. Actually, it wasn't the only one they had, the camping sets they had received with the tutorial included one, but this was a somewhat bigger one with a bit more features to it than the standard skinning knife that came with the kit. He had no doubt both knives would have their uses, and wished Adolpho's had a set of knives, as they would, no doubt, come in handy, but if he advanced in smithing, he could at least make a set of common grade knives with his smithing skills; when he finally got some basic materials.

All told, the purchases came to just under twenty-five silver, quite a bit for a newbie, but considering the amount of mythril coins Andaros still had it was far from being a problem.

“You shouldn't have spent so much,” Reiya told him as they walked away.

“I felt the tool set was better for your crafting class,” he responded, shrugging, “You don't have to worry about the costs, it was my willfulness that we bought the more expensive set rather than two beginner crafts sets for the two armor types. I feel that you don't have to pay me back, but if you insist on doing so you can just pay for the cost of the two basic kits.”

Reiya let out a sigh, “You don't have to do so much for me,” she told him.

“You're probably the first friend I've had that I can remember,” Andaros told her, realizing his mistake, “I guess I got carried away.”

“Your first friend?”

“Yep, and a beautiful one at that,” he responded, “So...maybe I just want to show off?”

Reiya was stunned for a moment before she began giggling.

“What?”

“You're funny,” she said, smiling brilliantly at him, “I'd imagine a handsome guy like you would be popular with the ladies.”

“I'm not,” Andaros said as they walked along, “I was the guy who got picked on in school, until I got pulled out and enrolled in homeschool. None of the girls had anything to do with me. My mother's friend bought the pod, and homeschooling curriculum, and even bought me a lifetime account to Trinity, so I owe her a great debt. You really are my first friend who is a girl, practically the first friend at all.”

Silence descended upon the two as they walked through the hamlet.

“Sorry,” Reiya said after a bit, “I didn't mean to bring up bad memories.”

“Don't be, I didn't say it to guilt trip you,” Andaros told her. “Nor is the money to pay for favors, I just wanted to help my first new friend.”

“I don't want to take advantage of you, and I don't know that you can consider someone you just met to be your friend,” she replied while blushing.

“You're right, but I can't shake this strange feeling that we're going to be good friends,” Andaros told her. “If it makes you feel any better, the kit will help us both out later on, and I don't mind if you count this as the payment for the armor I'll be receiving later.”

“Okay, we'll do that,” Reiya told him, seeming a bit relieved.

“Alright, but I gotta say, kinda feels weird that my first gift to a female friend will be a gun,” Andaros stated.

“Eh, gift, why would you need to gift me anything? I'll pay for it with the armor.”

“No can do, the armor's already paid for,” Andaros responded. “You'll just have to accept the guns as a friend.”

“Eh? But... we aren't friends yet?”

“Nope, it's decided, you're my friend, even if you won't consider me yours,” Andaros responded, “Although, I don't expect either of us to be friend-zoned, unless you have a boyfriend.”

“What? No, I don't have a boyfriend, but aren't you getting ahead of yourself?”

“I don't know, am I,” Andaros asked, and then began laughing.

Reiya blushed, and puffed her cheeks up. “Moh! don't make fun of me,” She complained, “Are you always like this? Maybe that's why you were picked on?”

“No,” Andaros replied, shaking his head softly, “I never spoke up so much in our world, but then I never met a girl so easy to talk to either.”

Reiya blushed at his words, “Flatterer, why do you insist on being my friend, it's not like I'm anybody great, and I don't have money.”

Andaros just shrugged, “Did that ever stop anyone from becoming friends? I'm only here because I received some gifts from a friend of my mother, my mom and I aren't rich.”

“That's all the more reason I shouldn't take advantage of you, you won't be able to replace the money so easily once you run out,” she told him.

“Money doesn't grow on trees, it's true, but then, good friendship is more valuable that gold, or even mythril. Besides, travelling with a pretty girl has it's perks too,” Andaros responded. “For one thing, you have a beautiful smile, and for another you're easy on the eyes.”

“Flatterer,” Reiya responded, while blushing, “What if I'm not actually so pretty in our world?”

“Well, it couldn't be that bad,” Andaros replied with a shrug, “You'd still be a pretty young woman, the amount of change you can make at character creation isn't that much. You'd also have to actually be female, which is a big plus as well.”

“So you just want me around because I'm pretty,” she asked in a teasing manner.

Andaros though about it for a moment, then started listing the perks off on his fingers. “Let's see, pretty, a rare healer class, great personality, did I miss anything?”

“Flatterer,” the girl responded.

“Plus you're stacked,” he added jokingly.

“Don't push it,” Reiya responded, still smiling slightly.

“See what I mean? Great personality, I'd never have the guts to joke like that to any other girl I just recently met, in our world, or this one,” Andaros told her seriously,

“Or I'm just a pushover,” she responded.

“I don't think so,” Andaros replied as they neared the gate, “If you were a pushover, you'd have never gone through with that quest when the social class master did what she did to me. A pushover wouldn't have been willing to go through with it, even if the crafts master was there.”

“Okay, fine, I'm no pushover, but that still doesn't explain why you want to be my friend so much.”

“Pretty girl, 'nough said,” Andaros responded, looking out on the fields surrounding the hamlet. “We'd better get to work, this quest won't finish itself. Do you want the bigger skinning knife?”

“No, I have the one that came with my camping set,” she told him.

“Alright, if you can't handle it, I can do it,” Andaros told her.

“I need to get used to it,” she told him, “I won't always have you with me, even if we're friends.”

“Okay, but if you need any help, let me know,” he replied, “there's no reason to push yourself too hard.”

“So you're not saying I shouldn't push myself?”

“Well, it's like you said. It is conceivable you won't be with me and need to get the hides somehow,” he told her, “and it's much easier if you can stomach the skinning. So, you have to at least push yourself some.”

Reiya giggled, “Pretty girl, remember?”

“True enough, but I don't know how reliable the safety systems of Trinity are, and I'd rather my new friend not have to test them if possible. This is so realistic it's likely some people will act out their fantasies here, where they might not in our world. Some guys are far too stubborn, and won't just give up if the first attempt doesn't work out. I wonder if this crafting class of mine can do anything about that... something like a taser.”

“We can worry about that later, but,” she suddenly leaned in and kissed him on the cheek, “thank you for worrying about me.” The girl then walked ahead, her hips swaying naturally as she walked.

Andaros shook his head, the kiss had been a bit shocking. He hurried to catch up to the girl, realizing she had never actually rejected him, despite his earlier words. It wasn't like she was purposely shaking her hips at him just now, but she definitely hadn't reacted in a negative way toward him either.

Once he got up beside Reiya, he asked, “Do we know what we're looking for? I don't see any names above creatures.”

Reiya stopped in her tracks, “We should have asked,” she said while blushing.

“Yeah, wanna go back and ask, or should we try our luck?”

“I'd rather rely on our blessings,” she responded, smiling sweetly at him.

“Well, I don't seem to be that blessed, but okay,” Andaros couldn't help responding.

“You met me,” she said, giggling a bit.

“True, that's a blessing and a half,” he responded while shrugging.

Reiya giggled once more, “I'm glad you see it that way. Let's see, I think I remember a character in a cartoon that was a cabbit, it was like a rabbit with cat-like face,” she said.

“Hmmm, I think I remember that cats and rabbits can actually produce offspring together, but the result has a few screws loose, as in very aggressive, and is unable to breed any further. Something like incompatible genetics or something, like horses and donkeys producing mules. Anyway, I'm guessing this cabbit is half cat and half rabbit, or something like it. Maybe in this world they're not infertile though,” Andaros suggested.

“Yeah, it's something like that, but I didn't know they were aggressive. The cartoon never showed that,” she replied, nodding.

“We'll see if they are. If it's trying to kill us, it might be easier to kill it ourselves though,” Andaros told her, and walked forward, looking around them. “It's certainly going to be harder to kill something cute and cuddly.”

“Yeah...”

The two continued along the road, into the wilderness, carefully looking about. It wasn't long until they found one of the cabbits, and it was certainly aggressive. It came at Andaros quickly, so he didn't have a chance to pull out his spirit-guns. Instead, he pulled out a psiber-sword and activated it as he was swinging, hitting the little creature.

Critical Hit! Damage Doubled!

You have hit a cabbit for 30 health damage!

You have killed a cabbit, 5 experience gained!

Andaros had managed to catch the cabbit in the mid-section, but this destroyed the pelt. This wasn't going to work out unless he learned to cut them properly. He was a much better shot than he was at fighting a creature flying at him with a shortsword in his hands.

“I'd better keep my guns out, we can't afford to have every creature cut in half, and their hide wasted,” he said, shaking his head.

“I didn't think it'd die in one hit,” Reiya said.

“I think it was the psiber-swords,” he told her, “These weapons add six to twelve additional damage to my psion weapons. It was also a critical hit, so it did twice the damage. These cabbits are made for something like level one or lower sojourners to fight, so I think these weapons must be overkill.”

“Oh, critical hits do double damage?”

“Yeah, seems that way,” Andaros answered, and deactivated his psiber-sword, and put it back in it's scabbard before drawing his spirit-guns. “Let's keep going, I should do better with these, but if I don't want to leave holes in the hide I'll probably have to learn to snipe them, or hit them in the head under circumstances like the last one.”

“I can patch small holes, but...”

“Yeah, I hear you, but I didn't exactly have enough time to aim,” he responded when Reiya left off the rest of her sentence. “I reacted too slowly, so I only had time to swing at someplace easy to aim.”

“I'm surprised you even had time to swing, I wouldn't have been able to react that fast,” Reiya told him.

“Yeah, I think that has to do with the caelestial-born transformation,” Andaros said while looking out over the fields around them alertly. “Oh, by the way, what's your race? I'm an Angaellis.”

“Um, just a half-elf,” she responded, “I didn't get very good choices of race.”

“Could have fooled me, I think the race suits you. Do you get any special abilities?”

Reiya blushed, and replied, “Well, I get both of the racial traits of my parent races, but my night vision isn't much better than a human has.”

“So, that means adaptability, and whatever the elven trait was, but your night vision is weakened. Well, it's not bad. As an Angaellis, I can summon psion-weapons to fight. I'm supposed to be able to summon armor and wings as well, but I don't know how yet,” Andaros told her. “I don't have the night vision, so you're better off than me in that regard.”

“A consolation prize,” she teased him.

“Well, something like that, I suppose,” he answered, “I think if I had the choice, and didn't have the angaellis to pick, that would be my choice. Is there a rarity?”

“It's uncommon,” she responded.

“So, not a rare, but still better than the basic ones. Well, I'm pretty certain common races aren't bad by any means.”

“The other races seemed slightly worse off than the half-elves, but it wasn't an unreachable difference,” Reiya told him, “The biggest bonus is having close to human's base stats, with night vision.”

“There's our next target,” Andaros said, took aim, and fired. He missed, but the shot drew the cabbit's attention, and it soon leaped at him. Andaros got off a second shot, and it hit this time.

You have hit an cabbit for 10 damage!

You have been hit for 1 damage!

Andaros barely felt the hit, but had to reposition in order to get a second shot off, and this took a moment to achieve.

You have hit a cabbit for 7 damage!

You have killed a cabbit, 5 experience gained!

“That was annoying, I think I put a couple holes in the pelt.”

“It's fine, they're not in terrible places,” Reiya told him, “Keep me safe while try to skin this.”

Reiya worked carefully to try to skin the cabbit. She was doing quite well until she got half-way, and then she had a big mistake. In the end, she got a [Half-Destroyed Cabbit Pelt] from the ordeal.

“That could have gone better,” Reiya said, looking depressed.

“It's fine,” Andaros told her, “You did better than I did the first time I ever skinned something.”

“You know how to skin?”

“My uncle taught me one summer. The first time I skinned something it had holes all over the place, from the beginning to the end, and tons of chunks of the meat on it. I learned how to do it over the next three months, and my uncle almost gave up on me before I figured out the trick,” Andaros explained. “By comparison, you have no meat on the skin, and while you have a lot of nicks through the skin in the latter half, you don't have any huge cuts, or gashes. You could probably make hide strips out of that pelt, but my first one you couldn't have even done that. I'd say you'll catch on quickly enough. Anyway, we don't seem to need to worry.”

“About what?”

“Whether you'll be too squeamish to do this.”

“Oh,” she responded, and stood there for a minute thinking. “Can you show me how to do it?”

“I guess so. I mean, I don't know if I'll be able to do as well as I usually do in our world, but I can try it,” Andaros told her. “Let's find another cabbit, and deal with it.”

As they walked around, a large lizard suddenly jumped out at them, but as it wasn't particularly fast moving, Andaros got off a couple of shots.

You have hit an enri for 7 damage!

Critical hit! Damage Doubled!

You have hit an enri for 24 damage!

You have killed an enri, 7 experience gained!

It seemed the enri was worth a bit more experience than the cabbits had been worth. Andaros looked, and found that the enri's hide hadn't been damaged thanks to the scales, but it seemed like the weapon damage had still gotten through somehow and damaged it through those tough scales. He thought about it, then put his spirit-guns in their holsters, and drew one of his psiber-swords, activated it, and chopped off the head of the creature. He put the sword away once more, pulled out the larger skinning knife he had purchased, and began to work.

“Pay careful attention to what I'm about to do,” he told her, and began cutting the belly, where the scales were weakest. “Since the scales on this part are shaped differently, and a bit weaker, I'll separate them from the rest, and we can find a use for them for something different from the other scales.” Andaros separated the underbelly from the rest of the hide, and removed it by carefully cutting under the subcutaneous layer of the skin, and bit by bit pulling the skin back. He was careful not to cut into the meat, or cut too far the other way. It was a delicate process, made a bit more difficult by the scales, since he wasn't used to scaled skin, but the lessons his uncle forced him to learn came in handy for getting it off safely. Following this, he began to slowly take off the rest of the skin and scales with slow, steady, deliberate movements. Taking off the hide from the legs was a bit tricky, but somehow he managed to do it without damaging the scales.

Congratulations, you have received [Pristine Enri Underbelly Scales]!

Congratulations, you have received [Pristine Enri Scaled Hide]!

Congratulations, you have earned 50 crafting experience.

Andaros was surprised that he had received so much crafting experience, especially when what he had been doing had nothing to do with smithing of any kind. If his crafting class was a smith class, why had he gotten experience for doing as he had, something that should have been a leatherworking discipline. He had also gotten quite a lot of experience in his crafting class when compared to the combat experience he had gotten, and wished he knew why. A second later, he found out.

Congratulations! Through your unusual achievement, you have unlocked a hidden skill of the Psi-Tech Smith class, [Psi-Tech Leatherworking]!

Most never notice, but smithing includes the used of leather. As such, the leatherworking skill comes in handy. As a Psi-tech Smith, you have achieved an inconceivable feat in leatherworking, and unlocked this special version of the leatherworking skill.

[Leatherwork] skill has been merged into the [Psi-Tech Leatherworking] skill, bonuses of [Psi-Tech Leatherworking] will be updated to reflect this merger.

“Uh, I didn't think smiths used the leatherworking skill,” he said in shock.

“So, you got a class related skill for it?”

“Yeah,” Andaros responded. “I'll work on it when I'm not with you, but we'll work on your leatherworking for now. Here, you can use these two skins.”

“I think it's better if you use those, I don't know if I'd be able to without destroying them.”

Andaros considered what she said, and nodded, it really wouldn't do to use them only to have them destroyed. Just because they were in pristine condition didn't mean the materials were incapable of being destroyed while working with them. He had some small experience working with hides to make leather, so he knew it was very possible, even easy, to destroy these hides if you had no idea what you were doing. How much more would this be possible inside a game, which were known for their nonsensical rules about how failures in crafting would work. He had a lot of practice with skinning, he thought that had helped him to succeed in skinning the Enri to the degree he had, and thus unlock a leatherworking skill that would gain bonuses from his class. When it came to curing, and working with leather, he had much less practice than with skinning, so he didn't think he'd be doing nearly as well with the leather curing as he had with the skinning.

“Well then, let's get back to hunting,” Andaros said.

The two began to hunt in earnest. It was a slow process, but they soon had around a third of the creatures they needed for their fellowship quest. Reiya's first attempts at skinning the kills were still bad, but she improved at a shocking rate, and soon was reliably producing skins which were undamaged. Although the most basic grade, these skins and hides were no longer half-destroyed like the first ones had been.

In time, the two finally defeated the last Enri required for their quest, but were having trouble finding the last cabbit, and had yet to see the drolf at all. Andaros and Reiya kept looking for the cabbit, but it didn't seem like they would find it anytime soon. After searching while near the town, they decided to move away from the hamlet a bit more, and search around the hamlet at a specific radius.

Andaros noticed a hill just a short distance ahead, and suggested they look up there, to get a better view. It was just a bit beyond the distance they actually wanted to look at, but it was close enough and would provide an extra view range of the surroundings. The hill wasn't particularly high, but it took them a bit to trek up it, and as they were climbing the two began to notice the sounds of angry squeaks and roars being issued in a strangely rhythmic manner. The two looked at each other, and then rushed to the top of the hill together.

When he topped the hill, Andaros saw something surprising, a small white creature with a horn that reflected the sun's light fought with a large wolf-like dragonoid creature in the midst of a large group of other dragonoid creatures. It wasn't a fair fight, the other creatures may have mostly been watching, but every once in a while they would snap at the little creature, and distract it from it's fight with the big one it was fighting. As time progressed, it's fur was becoming bloody from the attacks the big one was inflicting on the little white creature.

“We have to help it.”

Andaros nodded, and began to make his way down the hill while pulling his spirit-guns once more, and starting to fire off shots.

You have inflicted 6 damage

You have inflicted 10 damage

You have inflicted 17 damage

You have killed a drolf, and gained 10 experience

Andaros had to fire off three shots just to kill one drolf, and his attacks drew the ire of a large group of the creatures. They began to rush toward the two, and Andaros placed himself in between Reiya and the drolf, while rapidly firing off shots from his spirit guns. He managed to down three drolf before they drew too close to continue with the guns against such a group. When the first drolf drew too close, he dropped his spirit-guns, realizing he didn't have enough time to holster them, and drew his psiber-swords, activating them. The first drolf that lunged at him faced a pitiful end of having it's head sliced off in a single swing. The second was not let off so easy, and yelped as two slices appeared on it's front legs before he was finally able to get a strike on the back of it's neck, killing it. The third melee combat Andaros experienced with this group was drawn out quite a bit due to the three creatures coming together, and it took him a bit to kill the first of them, and then finish off the other two.

You have earned a new skill, [Short Swordsmanship(Common)].

You have earned a new skill, [Psiber-Swordsmanship(Rare)].

You have earned a new skill, [Dual Wield].

The battle wasn't over, the little creature was still in the middle of that crowd of drolf, and slowly losing to what looked to be their leader. Andaros charged forward this time, forgetting to pick up his spirit-guns in the rush to save the little creature. As he ran forward he suddenly was surrounded by light effects of turquoise color, and his speed picked up, then a white light effect appeared and he was surrounded by a transparent shield effect of some kind. The creatures didn't notice that their buddies had been killed, so when he flashed into their midst, and started slicing off heads, they were completely caught off guard, and he successfully killed another six creatures before the others began reacting. He was surprised to see that the first four hits were critical hits, but as he fought he realized it must have been due to where he had hit. That gave him a hint he could work with, and pretty soon he was critically hitting every strike against the creatures, and killed all but the boss very quickly.

You have leveled [Short Swordsmanship] to level 2.

You have leveled [Psiber-Swordsmanship] to level 2.

Defeat drolf 24/25

Andaros was rather surprised to see his sword related skills already hitting level 2, but realized that a lot of the reason he had done so well in that combat had been the stacking bonuses of the two skills. The buffs Reiya had given him had been helpful too, and likely a large reason he did so well. Really, he was surprised he had killed so many drolf, and half-expected the little white creature to be dead, which it looked like it very well may be if he didn't intervene. He didn't have time to dwell on it, as this little creature was losing it's fight. He ran forward once again, and activated the only melee skill he had gotten from the trainer, [Taunting Strikes]. A flurry of strikes rained down on the leader of the creatures' neck, but even with that, it was still alive.

[Drolf Alpha(Boss) - Level 5]

Andaros couldn't tell how much health this creature had left, but it was a daunting thing to see it still standing after six hits from his swords, which seemed to critical an awful lot. Still, he couldn't stop as the big drolf rounded on him, the little creature would die if he didn't take care of this thing fast, and now he had a vested interest in saving the furry little creature. It collapsed on the ground as he continued to fight the drolf alpha, but Andaros really didn't have the time to check on how it was doing.

You have taken 15 damage!

You have taken 26 damage!

You have taken 5 damage!

This drolf hit much harder than the others had, and Andaros found himself relieved when he saw a new message pop up.

You have been healed for 50 health.

Seeing that Reiya was helping him fight, Andaros did his best to endure the attacks of the enemy, and strike back when an opening presented itself. With the way this thing hit, Andaros had to do his best to dodge what few attacks he could, in order to not tax Reiya's healing ability. If Andaros was to tank hits without any dodging, one of two things would happen, he'd die a swift death, and Reiya would follow soon after, or Reiya would spam healing on him as fast as she could, and draw too much aggro, the drolf would switch aggro, and she would die, then he would follow soon after. Either way, the little cabbit would soon join them, so it was better if he dodged as much as he possibly could. They might be able to respawn and come back, but the little cabbit would be dead and gone before they ever respawned. Andaros wasn't an avid gamer, but he had played the ocassional game, and understood the basics, so he was able to extrapolate this much.

Andaros continued to endure hits, dodge, weave, and slash at the large creature, slowly whittling down it's health. Not knowing it's actual health was a pain, but it certainly was more realistic than having the health bar with a number of current and maximum health points displayed was. Continuing to struggle, he chipped away at the drolf's health, still taking a great bit of health damage, but controlling it enough that Reiya could successfully keep him alive. In the last moments, the boss creature got in a vicious attack that critically hit, and took him down to 1 health, but his last hit beat the boss's final intended strike, and he chopped off the drolf's head, and it's body crashed to the ground taking Andaros with it.

Reiya healed him just before the boss's body fell on him, so Andaros managed to survive the small amount of crushing damage that got through his psiber-armor.

You have been healed for 50 health!

You have taken 5 crushing damage from the collapse of your opponent's corpse.

Defeat drolf 25/25

Andaros was rather relieved when he saw these messages, he had barely survived that battle. The boss had been far more dangerous than his pack had been. He squirmed his way out from under the creature's corpse, and moved to check the little white creature as Reiya continued to heal him. What he found was disheartening, but also explained why they couldn't find the last cabbit. Still, after having gone this far to save the little creature, he'd rather lose the quest and save it's life, than to kill it.

[Horned Cabbit(Boss) – Level 3(Dying)]

Andaros tried turning off just the gloves of his suit, but wasn't able to. He was too visible to deactivate his suit, so Andaros wasn't sure what to do, but tried using the [Heaven's Touch] ability through the gloves, and was surprised with the results.

You cannot heal a [Horned Cabbit(Variant)(Boss)], it is still hostile, and is therefore not possible to heal, try taming it first.

Andaros was shocked by the message, how had the skill been recognized as working through the suit? Didn't he have to have hand to skin contact? For that matter, he had forgotten about the [Tame Creature] and [Contract Creature] skills he had been excited to know he received when he became a caelestial-born. Was the system supposed to suggest he use a skill he didn't even remember? After a few moments of doubt, he decided to set those questions aside. The only remaining question was what skill he needed to use to tame the cabbit, would the [Contract Creature] skill work without first using the [Tame] skill to tame the creature? Would either skill even work on a boss creature? He didn't know, but he decided to try [Contract Creature] and hope it worked.

You must first tame a creature to form a summoning contracting...

Well, that answered his question, Andaros activated the [Tame Creature] skill, and was pleasantly surprised by the results.

You have successfully tamed a [Horned Cabbit], the grateful creature's loyalty has been set to infinite due to a quirk of the race!

Andaros quickly placed his armor's palms on the creature once more, and received a new message when he activated [Heaven's Touch].

Your [Heaven's Touch] Ability has brought your new [Horned Cabbit] back from the brink of death, don't forget to name it!

Andaros chose the name Shiro, because of it's originally white fur. He then activated the [Contract Creature] skill and made Shiro into a summons. He glanced up to see Reiya looking happy, but also conflicted, the next moment both of their eyes grew wide with shock.

Congratulations! You have completed all objectives for your quest, [Tutorial Quest: Fellowships & Troublesome Creatures], return to Percy for a reward!

“We completed it? But how,” Reiya responded.

“The system must have decided we defeated Shiro by taming her,” Andaros said, gently petting the cabbit that now needed a bath, due to it's own blood. He gently picked her up, and held her in his arms. “I'll stand guard while you try to skin these things. Wait, where are my guns?”

“Aren't they in your gun-belt?”

Andaros looked down, it was true, they were, indeed, in his belt. “How'd they get there? I know I dropped them.”

“You're, you're right,” Reiya said, as she realized the shocking implications of that fact, “How did they get into their holsters?”

“I'll bet it has something to do with the set bonus, maybe why Master Jurgen took so long to apply the affix? I'll have to check the item descriptions later,” Andaros told her. “Well, it works anyway. Do you want to do the skinning, or should I?”

“Can we work together?”

“Sure, I'll put this little girl down, she's fully healed, and given that she was a boss, she should be able to handle herself,” Andaros told her, then followed through with his words. “Don't go too far Shiro.” A window appeared, and Andaros found he could set a maximum distance she could travel from him. He set this at fifteen Mel, the equivalent of 15 feet, and got to work.

The drolf were more difficult to process, and came out with various states of damage due to the chaotic battle of before. Thankfully, most of the hides came out pretty well, the most surprising of these being the drolf alpha's hide. In the battle with the drolf alpha, Andaros hadn't been concentrating on the creature's neck, so it was rather surprising that the strikes had mostly landed there, with only a few shallow strikes hitting the shoulder. Andaros ended up with a [High Quality Drolf Alpha Hide], after trying to give it to Reiya unsuccessfully. Thankfully she didn't fight him on the lesser drolf hides, and just took those. In the end, the way she got him to accept the alpha's hide was by bringing up his new leatherworking skill.

Once the two had cleaned up the corpses of the creatures, Andaros looked to find a now clean Shiro waiting calmly for him. He picked her up, and looked her over, finding she had done a good job of cleaning herself up. Looking over, he noticed Reiya had a longing look as she stared at the fluffy little companion creature.

“Would you like to hold her,” he asked.

“Um, is that okay?”

“Sure,” Andaros answered, “Be good for her, Shiro,” he told the little horned creature.

He handed her to Reiya, who gently took her, and soon had her held in her arms while Shiro looked forward with her hind legs dangling a little below Reiya's arms. Strangely enough, the little creature wasn't bothered by this, and even seemed to be very stable in that position.

“Let's get back and turn in our quest,” Andaros told her, and began walking.

“Okay, we should give her a bath as well,” Reiya told him.

“You're probably right,” he admitted, there would only be so much the the cabbit could do to get itself clean after what had happened. Thankfully the [Heaven's Touch] skill had also caused her to rapidly grow back her fur when it healed Shiro, or she'd be bald in many places. “While we can't see blood anymore, it would probably help keep her skin from being irritated if she had a bath. Does their skin get irritated here?”

“I... don't know. It might?”

“Well, let's go ahead and get some stuff to clean her,” Andaros replied, “Even if it doesn't do anything else, she'll be cleaner that way. After that, we can hang out, see about getting some quests, or maybe process some of the hides into leather.”

“Okay,” Reiya responded.

The two soon neared the hamlet, and Andaros heard his name called. He looked over to see his new father approaching with a couple of other guards.

“You have a creature with you? Wait, isn't that a horned cabbit?”

“Yeah,” Andaros responded, “I tamed her. She seems to be a variant that isn't aggressive.”

“I thought you said he was a psiber-knight,” one of the people with his father said.

“I am, it's an ability from being a caelestial-born,” Andaros told the man.

“Oh,” the man responded.

The woman of the group had been staring at Shiro the entire time, and soon spoke out, saying, “So cute.”

“Make sure you get her a collar, so people don't think she's a wild creature,” his father told him. “You can get them from Adolpho's.”

“Alright, we'll do that as soon as we finish up this tutorial,” Andaros replied, “I need to get some things to bathe her, she was pretty bloody before I used my healing ability on her.”

“Oh? How'd you get her then? I don't imagine a creature would let someone tame it that bloodied it, especially not a boss tier.”

The woman of the group gained a hard look upon hearing the man's words.

“We weren't the cause of her damage,” Andaros explained.

“Andaros saved her,” Reiya told them.

Hearing their words, the woman's eyes softened once more, and she even looked at Andaros in a more positive manner than she had upon seeing Shiro the first time.

“Can I pet her,” the woman asked after some more silence.

“Sure,” Andaros replied, not bothered by the question, “Shiro, be good and let her pet you. This is my dad, and these are the people he works with, so be good.”

Andaros thought he saw the little cabbit nod it's head. Whatever the case, Shiro let the woman pet her, and let out a “nyah” as she did so. The cute sound made the two women squeal with delight, and the woman continued to pet her as Shiro sat there, and let herself be pampered. After a few moments, his father cleared his throat.

“We'd better get back to our patrol. Make sure you get a pet collar for Shiro,” his father advised once more.

“I will,” Andaros responded, and waited as the three left. Once they had gone, Andaros and Reiya began to walk toward the hamlet and Percy once more. “I guess I should get some extras, in case I tame any more creatures.”

“Yeah,” Reiya agreed.

“Hey, maybe I can tame you a creature too, just keep an eye out, and if one catches your eye I'll see if I can tame, and trade it,” he told Reiya, seeing how she absolutely adored the cute Shiro.

“Okay,” Reiya responded, a bit shyly.

The two continued onward to Percy, who told them, “Congratulations for completing the Tutorial Quests, here is your reward,” while handing them each a bag, “I hope you two go on to great heights. Not everything in Aegis will be great, or good, but I hope you continue to sojourn within our world. From now on, the full quest system will be unlocked, so don't be afraid to ask if there's any way you can help someone in the hamlet. You should be able to get to level twenty-five in this area, if you wish to, without much danger to yourselves. I see you've tamed a creature, make sure to stop by Adolpho's and get a collar for it in order to avoid your tamed creature from being killed by mistake.”

You have completed your request, and received a reward from Percy, open your inventory to see what you have received.

“We will,” Andaros responded, ignoring the pop-up for now.

The two did, indeed, head over to Adolpho's, and entered inside the shop.

“Do you have any pet collars, and pet bathing items?”

“Yes, I carry collars in four colors, red, blue, white, and black, they have the auto-fit affix,” Adolpho informed them, “and I have pet shampoo, and a tub large enough to fit your little cabbit there inside. You'd just have to use the town well to get water, but be careful not to spill any into the well.”

“I'll take shampoo, a tub, and do you sell bottles or cans that can be filled with water and stoppered or closed,” Andaros asked.

“I do, but clay jugs with a heavy plug would be significantly cheaper,” the man responded.

“How much are they?”

“The Metal jugs are twenty silver and come with a twist on lid, while the clay jugs are 20 copper, and come with a cork to close them up,” Adolpho informed him. “Each hold around two gallons.”

“I'll take one of the metal ones, how much are your pet collars?”

“Those are a bit more expensive, at thirty silver a piece, due to the affix,” Adolpho responded.

“I'll take six of those in blue, the shampoo, a tub, and a metal jug then,” Andaros spoke his order.

“Alright, give me just a moment,” Adolpho replied, “I only keep one collar of each color out here.”

Adolpho went through the doorway behind him, and soon came back with the items Andaros wanted.

“Um, actually, can you give me one each of the other colors, and three of the blue,” Andaros asked, realizing getting the one color might not work out if some of the creatures he tamed were of that color. “I just thought of the fact that there might be blue creatures I might tame.”

Adolpho the 8th sighed, but admitted, “That is, indeed, a good point,” before heading back in and switching out three of the collars. This time took longer, since he wasn't simply grabbing from a single drawer or box, but it wasn't too much more time than when he last went into the back to grab the collars. He returned, and placed the three collars beside the three blue ones. “Will that be all?”

“Yes, thank you,” Andaros answered.

“That will be two gold, fifty-five silver,” Adolpho told him.

Andaros nodded, and handed him the proper number of coins. He then thought of something.

“Oh, do you sell dyes?”

“No, they're not stable enough to bother selling here,” Adolpho told him. “You can probably find them in a town or city, but I simply don't have enough people coming through to justify the expense.”

“Ah, I see, I'll have to see if there's any way to make dyes myself then,” Andaros responded, thinking Shiro would look quite nice with a pink collar on her white furred neck. “Thank you for your help,” Andaros told him, and he and Reiya soon left the shop.

Adolpho watched them leave the shop quietly, not bothering to answer. It wasn't that he disliked the kid, but he didn't particularly like him either, especially after having the kid ask him to go back and change his order at the last moment. “Weirdo.”