“Give the dog your food. Give the dog your food. Give the dog your food. Give the dog your food,” Ace said, repeating the sentence as they ate. He was currently in puppy form and looked up at Ford with big black and blue puppy eyes.

“No,” Ford said, “this is my food.”

“It’s not like you’re going to finish it. Give the dog your food.”

Ford scarfed down the food in her bowl and showed it to Ace, “See, all gone.”

Ace deflated and looked down, “But I’m hungry,” he complained.

“What? You don’t have a stomach. Morgan, did you build him a stomach?”

“Of course not. That would be absurd. Giving a mech a stomach. Bahhh, chances are since he’s a magical being, Ace wants monster cores or monster meat or something like that,” Morgan said defensively.

That gave Ford pause, and she pulled out a chunk of Tortoise meat from her void and gave it to Ace. He scarfed it down in seconds, the fire in his mouth dissolving the flesh quickly. Ford pulled out another chunk and gave it to him, then another, and another. After the eighth chunk, Ace said, “I’m full,” then laid down for a nap.

Ford felt like taking a nap too. She had been going all day with barely a break, and they still had a long road ahead. She shook her head to wake herself up and said, “Alright, breaks over. We need to get going and get to somewhere safe.”

“We also need to level,” Lilly added.

“Agreed, we can’t run forever. No matter how hard we try,” Farah said.

“Yeah, but how are we going to find monsters to slay?” Benet asked.

Ford thought for a moment, then said, “Well, we have a hellhound that could smell them out.”

Everyone looked at Ace, who lay on his back, belly up and tongue hanging out. He looked at them sidelong and said, “Can I have belly rubs?”

“Okay, new plan,” Ford said, standing, “Let’s get Ace hooked up and moving; we all take some time to sleep, and when we wake up, make a plan to level up.” Wearily they agreed and got to work getting Ace hooked up to the wagon after some belly rubs.

***

Ford awoke the next morning unbelievably sore from sleeping in the wagon. She looked around to see everyone else sleeping. Checking her radar to see that nothing was near, Ford opened her Grimoire and thought, ‘Do you have any information on my companion, HK-9 Ace, that I don’t know?’ the Grimoire flipped to a random page, and words began to write themselves upon it.

HK-9 ‘Ace’; Mech Hellhound; sentient; eats monsters and monster cores; monster cores give HK-9 skills; cores change them according to the core combination. HK-9 contains three crystal cores; can have up to thirty skills. Classless; acquiring a class will increase the number of skills to infinite so long as there are enough skills; can have three randomly assigned classes. Likes; belly rubs, balls, squeaky toys, praises, and cuddling. Dislikes; vacuums, baths, and being ignored.

Ford chuckled at the last part she read and opened up her inventory screen to see what cores she had with her. “Hey, Ace,” she whispered, “stop here.”

Ace did as he was told and asked, “Did I do good, master?”

Ford hopped down from where she sat and approached his flaming maw, dripping with molten blue flames, “You did great, buddy, and I got a treat for you.”

“Treat!?” Ace said excitedly, his tail wagging energetically.

“Not so loud!” Ford whispered.

“Treat?” Ace whispered excitedly. Ford chuckled and pulled out a Warg core, placing it in Ace’s mouth. The core melted in the flame just like the Tortoise flesh, and she placed four more into his open maw. Then she began giving him Wolpertinger cores as the second part of the combination. When she finished, a ripple ran through Ace, and his harsh metal fur became more natural, and a pair of steel horns, fifteen centimeters long, grew from atop his head. His paws began to glow with the ethereal blue and purple flames leaving massive scorched paw prints.

Ace shook his body in surprise, and Ford began to run her fingers along his body. The new fur felt soft to the touch and felt real, but it was still made of metal. Whenever Ace tensed in a spot, she touched the fur became its usual sharp nature, nearly cutting her a few times.

“Are you alright?” Ford asked.

“Yes. I am fine. That felt weird. I don’t like those treats.”

“Well, those treats help you get stronger. So, you’ll have more later, but for right now, I got to see what else changed in you,” Ford said excitedly and used companion skills. Natural skills acquired. Natural skill: great strength: times two strength. Only works with classes.

Natural skill: great speed: times two agility. Only works with classes.

Natural skill: shock: shoot lightning from your horns; range: ten meters; cost: ten mana. Only works with classes.

Natural skill: bloodhound: smell perception increase to four-hundred eighty-three kilometers.

Natural skill: tracking: track a scent or similar scent for three hundred hours.

‘Nice,’ Ford thought as she read, ‘Although half of them he won’t be able to use without a class.’

“So, give him a class,” Wrath said plainly.

‘Yes, but then I lose another soul point, and those are difficult to make,’ Ford argued back.

“I would like a class, though,” Ace interrupted.

“I know, but- wait, how did you know I was thinking about classes?” Ford cut herself off to ask.

“Because I can hear you talking to yourself.”

“I wasn’t talking to myself.”

“Yes, you were. You’re standing over there,” Ace said, pointing his snout at Wrath.

Ford looked between Ace and Wrath, who looked just as surprised as Ford that Ace could see her. “You can see me too?!” she asked incredulously.

“Yes. I can see you, too. Can I have a class? SQUIRREL!!” Ace’s ears perked up, and he looked over Ford’s shoulder for ten seconds, then said, “Yes. I can see you, too. Can I have a class?”

Ford sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose as she thought. “It would be useful if you got a good one. But then again, it’s completely random getting a class. So, we don’t even know if you’ll get a good one,” Ford said, then looked up to see the biggest puppy dog eyes she’s ever seen. “No,” she said defensively. Ace continued his cuteness assault, “No, I’m not doing it,” the assault intensified. Ford turned her back to him, “No, I’m not- I’m not doing it,” she could feel his eyes drilling into her back like lasers, “No, I-I can’t I-” the relentless assault was weakening her, “Look I’ll do it later just not now. Later I promise,” her defenses crumbled, “Fine…I’ll get you a class.”

“Yay!! I get to have a class!” Ace said, jumping up and down, shaking everyone awake.

“Wha’ in the bloody hell is goin’ on tha’ woke me?” Lilly said angrily.

Ford rubbed the bridge of her nose again and said, “I’m giving Ace a class, and he got excited.”

“What classes are you giving him?” Max yawned.

“That is yet to be decided and is random. So, I don’t know.”

“Watch, he’s going to get the farmer class,” Benet said jokingly.

“Or the merchant,” Mizu added.

“Or the farmer,” Kii added.

“Ace, if you’re a good boy when I finish getting your class, I have three new chew toys for you,” Ford said lovingly.

“Chew toy!” Ace said excitedly.

“What!?” Kii, Mizu, and Benet exclaimed in unison.

Ford cast companion class upon Ace and received a notification. Class assigned; dark mage. Class assigned; space mage. Class assigned; destruction mage. Parameters have been met. ‘Aw fuck.’ Classes; dark mage, space mage, and destruction mage have merged into void mage. Void mage; void mages can destroy worlds or create universes. Two classes are still required. Spending points. ‘NO!’ Class assigned; Time mage. Class assigned; destruction mage. All classes have been assigned.

“Fuck!” Ford yelled when the process finished.

“What happened?” Gimble asked, concerned.

Ford took a deep breath, “When I assigned classes to Ace, it cost me three soul points and the classes assigned at random had been dark, space, and destruction. That caused my Grimoire to create a new mage class called Void. Then it assigned two new classes, which cost me two more soul points. So, now I’m down five soul points.”

“Oh, that sucks,” Max said.

“Agreed,” Morgan added.

“Yeah, it sucks. But hey, we now have a void, time, destruction mechanized Hellhound mage. Whoa.”

That got a laugh from everyone except Ee, then Lilly asked, “Wha’ do we do now?”

“Now, we level and hunt down some monsters,” Ford looked at Ace, used linchpin on him, and saw he was level one, “Max, Morgan, and Farah, take Ace and go look for monsters to kill. Kii, Mizu, Lilly, Benet, and Gimble go in a different direction and find something to kill. I will sit here and regain my soul.”

“Sure, have all the fun, why don’ ye,” Lilly said sarcastically as she got up and helped Max undo Ace’s harness. Ford sat down on the ground and began to meditate.

***