Author’s corner: HELLO HELLO! It’s PET time!

ANYWAY, in the end, I couldn’t simply go and wipe away our dear blue-furred friend, but I couldn’t bring myself to delay Cygna’s joining the team much longer, so I decided on something that will probably please both camps for now.

ALSO, TODAY MARKS A FULL MONTH SINCE THE FOUNDATION OF THE CYGNAS CULT! CYGNAS BE PRAISED!

ALSO(2), I think this pretty much marks the final chapter of the arc, so, if as stated previously, I decide to laze around tomorrow, I promise to at least post chapter 2 of the runic path sidestory.

ALSO(3), Blame the lateness on Xenoblade saga, ok?

Have a good read!

----

As soon as I recovered from all that dust in my eyes, the first thing I did was to immediately use the item, then another window popped up in front of me.

The freezing tail has given you free reign over its destiny, thus you are allowed to choose the kind of pet it will become. Choose.Battle pet

Able to learn combat skills.

Unable to learn commodities skills.

Assists you in battle, but can be defeated if it’s HP reaches 0Passive pet

Unable to learn combat skills.

Able to learn commodities skills.

Don’t assists you in battles, but are invulnerable to any kind of damage and do not draw aggro.

I took some time to read the window and see what kind of choices I had, but in the end I went for the passive pet option.

But before I could choose it, an arm got hold of my hand and stopped me. When I looked to the side, I saw that Cygnas had materialized besides me.

“Gon… You aren’t choosing this because of me, are you?” She asked me with a worried voice that surprised me. “I mean, if you choose the passive pet only because of our promise, the two of us will never forgive you.”

I blinked in surprise at her words.

“Wait, the two of you? You and…” I looked to the floating ball in my hand, to which she nodded.

“Yes. It actually keeps the personality intact when it leaves the soul like that and I can still hear its voice.” She looked at the soul for some time, and I think I saw it shine slightly stronger for a brief moment. “She said that she’d rather stay in the frontlines with you.”

“I see… Wait, she?”

“Yep, she’s a girl!” Then Cyg looked mischievously at me and grinned. “With this, it makes the second ice fox girl you tamed…”

“Huh? Second...?” I tilted my head confused while thinking for a moment. But, this is the first monster I tamed! How could I have tamed two ice foxes… I face palmed. “You mean Yuu…”

She giggled happily for a few moments before calming herself down and going back to her serious face.

“Still, as we said, I won’t be happy that you are opening hand of a powerful aide like this just to keep our promise, you know?” Then she let out a long sigh before looking back up. “Besides, I’m not sure I would want to take over a body with such a clear personality like this one.”

I looked at the little ball in my hand for some moments. I think I saw it turning to me, but its kind of hard to tell when it’s a perfect sphere.

“To tell the truth, that wasn’t the reason.” I said after some time. “I actually even forgot about the promise for some time now…”

I said while scratching my head awkwardly, to which Cyg answered while looking at me slightly sad. She quickly shook her head to recover herself then asked.

“Then, why were you about to choose her to be a passive pet? She is very strong, you saw it back in your duel. She may not have all her strength right out of the bat, but if you train her well…” She stopped and looked at me with confusion.

“Well… To tell the truth, a battle pet kind of goes against how I plan on playing, you know?”

After all, in monster hunter, there aren’t battle pets per se. There are some companions that helps you during the hunt, but I personally use them more as support than to boost my damage. And I kind of doubt that she would work as support instead of a direct damage pet.

“Then… You won’t consider making her a combat pet? She isn’t really asking me, but I’m sure that that’s what she wishes for…”

I stopped to think for a moment. To tell the truth, I’d rather not having a battle pet since it goes against the way I want to play, but I would really hate myself if I were to ignore her wishes too. Thus, I was left into a difficult situation. After much thought I finally gave up and made the question.

“Say, if I choose one of the options, can I change it later?”

Cyg blinked for a moment, then her face brightened as she understood my idea.

“There is. Since this is a Soul pet, you do have full control over her, so you can change it at the cathedral, but she will lose all her skills and levels and will have to start from scratch, even if you decide against changing on the last second.”

Skills? Oh, it did say that she can learn skills… Wonder what kind of skills a passive pet can get… Anyway, I turned back to the small floating sphere and said.

“Then, let’s make a deal here. For now, I’ll leave you as a passive, but should ever come the day when I know that I will need your help, I promise that I’ll change you and train you until you get strong enough. Deal?” The small sphere bobbed up and down slightly. I took that as an agreement and quickly chose the passive pet option.

The small sphere started shining as it grew in size until it had almost one and a half meter of diameter. A few cracks appeared on the surface of the sphere before it finally broke, revealing a blue fox in its middle.

She had three tails and a gem in her forehead just like when she was a Freezing Tail, but she was much smaller, being even a bit smaller than when I first found her in the tree trunk. She uncurled herself as she was slowly being floated down to the ground and also noticed her difference in size, since she looked around in surprise then back up at me, leaving her mouths slightly open for a moment.

Just when I was about to crouch and pet her to my hearts content, a pair of snowy white arms quickly snatched her before hugging tightly.

“SO CUUUTE!” Cyg was pretty much gone into her own world as she hugged and swung around the poor fox.

As I watched the scene with a wry smile, I noticed another window popping into my vision.

Congratulations. You have gotten yourself a brand new pet, a female freezing tail, please choose a name for it name it:(_________)

I blinked in surprise, then started to think. I have been calling her Blue in my mind, but I think she deserves a better name than that, but which one? I mean, I suck at creating names, but I don’t want to simply choose a random name…

And nothing too overused like Inari or Kuzuha…

Hmm… Is there a character from my books that I could use? Or maybe from a game?

Oh! I know!

Aura!

Yup, I think this fits her.

I quickly wrote down her name and saw as her name popped up beneath my health bar with a small symbol of a generic animal head, a simple circle with two triangle for ears.

“Aura… Hmm… I think I like it.” Cyg said in a happy mood before suddenly becoming sullen. “But… Now I’ll have to wait for you to find another pet before going with you…” She said in a low voice.

I ended up only being able to smile awkwardly while thinking on how to resolve this.

Surprisingly, the one who actually resolved the situation was the little blue fox who suddenly looked up towards Cygnas. They locked their gazes for some time, almost a full two minutes and were followed by a few nods, shaken heads and smiles before Cyg raised her head with a wide smile towards me.

“Ok… What did you just talk about?” I asked a bit wary.

“She said that she will lend me her body while we don’t find another pet for you!” She said happily.

“Huh?” I made a silly sound as I tried to process what she meant.

She lowered Aura to the ground while smiling happily before closing her eyes to focus on something. After a couple of seconds her body flickered out of existence while Aura’s body shivered lightly.

Aura blinked a few times before looking around and turning to me while smiling widely. Just with that I immediately understood that it was Cygnas who was controlling her.

“So… You two are now sharing the body?” I asked as I crouched down towards her and playfully poked the gem in her forehead.

“Yup! And we can change who’s in control at any time. But we are always conscious at the same time, so we won’t lose anything!” Came Cygnas voice from the fox, although sounding a bit more childish than the usual. “But it gets kind of hard to know who’s in control…” She suddenly said while tilting her head before lifting her paw and trying to snap her inexistent fingers.

She quickly closed her eyes for a brief moment once again, then her fur started to flatten against her body in a wave before sprouting back up, but instead of the light blue color, it now was silver. The only places left alone were the dark blue spots on the tip of the tails, feet and ears.

She looked at herself before nodding satisfied with her work. Truly, if she changed her fur whenever she was in control, it would make things a lot easier to know who’s in the head. Literally?

So, my first pet is a fox that has double personality…

Anyway, as soon as she stopped admiring herself, she suddenly darted forward before jumping on my back. This was so sudden that I did not even have time to react before she reached my head, where she held herself with one of her paws while pointing forward with the other.

“Now, no more dilly-dallying! Forward my fateful steed! We have an adventure to find!”

I blinked surprised before finally sighing loudly. Then after much delay, I finally started making my way back while my goddess-possessed pet was humming happily in my head. Since I had no hurry, I didn’t bother with running and simply strolled back after changing the boots to the traveler one.

“So, what exactly do a passive pet do?” I asked absentmindedly after a few seconds. “Besides being cute and all, I mean…”

“Passive pets can be set to be gatherers, can learn pretty much any non-offensive skill as long as it is physically possible and even some pet exclusive skills, like courier!” Cygnas said happily from atop of my head.

“Courier?”

“Yes, it’s a skill that allows you to use your pet to trade items with people far away in your stead. The only downside is that your pet has to travel all the way and back, but since we don’t pull agro, we don’t really need to worry about being attacked!” She explained while putting the airs of a teacher. “But there is a limit to the size of the item being exchanged, and the item can only be set before activating the skill. Battle pets, on the other hand, can carry larger items, but they have to battle their way to the destination.”

“I see… That’s surely convenient…”

She nodded happily and we once again went back to a silent travel, but it seemed that this didn’t bother her too much, as I could clearly feel her happy mood even without looking at her. After some time, I finally couldn’t hold myself back anymore and asked.

“So… Don’t I get a title or something like that?” I asked with a small grin.

“Why would you get one?”

“Well… I did just tame THE goddess of the world as a pet... Isn’t that a pretty big feat? Shouldn’t I get something like: The god tamer?” I said jokingly. I felt her tails stop wagging for a moment before she finally snorted.

“Well… I guess you do deserve a title…”

For taming the cutest pet ever, you have earned the title:

Owner of the cutest pet ever

Since you have a title equipped, you will need to go to a cathedral to change your titleOwner of the cutest pet ever: Do you really need anything more than this? It’s the cutest pet ever!

I blinked in surprise while I read the window before feeling mildly annoyed, but after a few seconds I couldn’t hold it anymore and finally burst into laughter, surprising her and making her fall from my head.

“Hey! It’s supposed to make you angry!” She complained to me. I simply shrugged as I kept walking while she followed me. It’s surprisingly hard to really leave me angry for too long.

We chatted a bit on the way as she now followed me from the ground. After some time she finally changed back to Aura who started to follow me around quietly. I took this time to fiddle around with the new pet options until I found the status window.

NAME:

AuraTITLE:

(none)Owner:WargonRelationship:Soul petSpecies:Freezing TailGender:femaleElement affinity:IceDiet:Omnivore

STATUS:Equipped inventory0Satiety:87/100Trust:MAXAssigned role:(none)PASSIVE PETS DO NOT POSSESS BATTLE STATS

SKILLS:Gatherer [lvl1]

Racials [MAX]

-Cool body

-Mana-Vulpine senses

-Ice manipulation

Interesting. So, even if she is immortal, I still have to feed her, it seems… And what is that? I can equip inventory on her? As in, to give her slots to store things? And trust is already at the maximum? Geez, this way you leave me embarrassed! And she also starts with a couple of skills…

After a quick look, I understood that the Gatherer skill is what allows her to gather a few ingredients from the wild. At low levels this is limited to herbs, fruits, nuts and such, but it seems that as the level increases, she can broaden her options. The cool body makes her immune to cold climates, but vulnerable to the heat, as well as making food non-perishable while in her inventory. Mana-vulpine senses means that she has the enhanced ears and nose, as well as making her able to sense changes in the mana, whatever does this means. Lastly, ice manipulation lets her create and control small amount of ice. This one is exclusive to her because she was a rare species.

It was only around the middle of the morning when her satiety started to become low and she nudged me slightly to warn me.

Coincidentally, we were right at the clearing where I had my Disney princess sce… Err… My Eco-friendly YouTube-worth scene. Yeah… Something like that.

I thought about of giving her the remaining jerky I still had, but she immediately looked away. It seems that she didn’t like the idea of eating it, so I made myself hunt a few squirrels and rabbits with the bow before bringing it back to the clearing. Back there, Cygnas had taken control of the body and made a small place for a bonfire.

Quickly igniting it with a fire crystal, I stuck the squirrels into sticks and put them over the fire. Cygnas and Aura stared at the squirrels while drooling for some time before she suddenly said:

“I have an idea!”

And darted off into the woods. I only looked at her surprised for a moment, but while checking the map I could see that she wasn’t going anywhere too far and simply roaming through the woods. When she came back she had a few different herbs in her mouth.

After dropping them besides me, she used her ice manipulation to make a sharp floating icicle, smaller than even a kitchen knife, and started cutting the herbs. Although I did have an idea on what she was doing, my curiosity still took the best of me, and I ended up asking.

“What are you doing?”

“Spices! This will make it even tastier!” She said happily.

Afterwards she had me take the herbs and sprinkle them on top of the squirrels. A few minutes later and she told me to take them out of the fire that they were ready to eat. We made four, two for now and two for later, so I immediately stored the other two on my inventory before we started eating.

And damn, these herbs do make a difference… Is it because its been too long since I had a decent meal that don’t involve ores?

As I was happily eating the surprisingly taste squirrel, I noticed Cygnas suddenly staring in the distance before a window suddenly appeared in front of me too.

For having applied cooking techniques to the meal preparation, your pet has unlocked the Crafting Skill: CookingSkill: Cooking [lvl1]

13%Allows your pet to use ingredients to cook for you and your friends

Your pet can use the system help to create your items from now on.

Your pet have received a few beginners recipe.

I ended up choking in surprise with the window and had to use a water crystal to create water and drink something.

“I… Also wasn’t expecting that…” Cygnas said after some time.

“What do you mean you weren’t expecting that? Aren’t you the know it all in here?” I asked after recovering myself.

“Well… It would be no fun to know everything… so I kind of limited the access to information this part of me has… This way everything can be fun and new…” She explained a bit shyly, but after a moment she suddenly added. “Actually, never mind, my main core is also surprised…”

If there was a desk in front of me, I would have face-desked right then and now.

Oh well… That was still kind of expected from her…

As I came to terms with the fact that the AI controlling the whole game was a klutz for the Nth time until now, this time it was me who got distracted by something as I saw a bush shaking to our side. After a few moments, a small figure appeared from there, probably attracted by the amazing smell the squirrel had.

It had a light brown fur with some black markings here and there. The body was skinnier than Aura’s but it didn’t look unhealthy. Its head also was a lot rounder and not as sharp as hers, with three large whiskers on each side of the muzzle. As well as two rectangular, antenna-like fur appendages that sprouted from its head.

I immediately recognized him as he came closer to the camp and looked greedily at the roasted squirrels. When he saw me, he quickly greeted me with a salute, which I immediately returned before taking a squirrel from my inventory and offering to him. He happily took it, different from a certain fox that knew.

“Wow! It’s a Trick-cat!” Cygnas said surprised while getting up on her feet.

“Trick-cat?”

“Yeah. Although they aren’t considered a rare monster, they are really difficult to find! They usually only voluntarily approach individuals whose behavioral patterns frequently escape the acceptable threshold of acceptance determined by the society!”

So many hard words… I think I got a headache after that…

“Which translates to…?”

Cyg looked at me while clearly holding back her laughter.

“They only get close to the strange ones…” She said while giggling.

Whew. Then that’s fine… Geez, and here I thought that it meant something serious.

“I knew it… You really have to get your head checked Cyg. Even he is saying that you are strange, see?” Cyg blinked in surprise while looking at me.

Huh? Approaching me? What are you talking about? I’m perfectly normal and sane, so there’s absolutely no chance of that happening. Not at all. The internet can confirm my normalness.

“Anyway…” Cyg said after some time. “Trick cats are famous for always following along the jokes of the people they find, making them surprisingly social!”

Oh! So that’s why he always returns my salutes!

“Say… Is it possible to tame him?” I asked after some time of watching him eating his meat.

“Hmm… I don’t know… Why don’t you try it?”

“And what am I supposed to do?” I said while looking at him. He suddenly noticed my gaze and looked up. “Do I turn to him and say, hey, I’m traveling around while hunting monsters, want to come with me?”

The Trick-cat has accepted your offer on following along and have now become your pet.This trick-cat is a battle pet and will have the following characteristics:

Able to learn combat skills.

Unable to learn commodities skills.

Assists you in battle, but can be defeated if it’s HP reaches 0

YOU ARE BLEEPING, RIGHT? JUST LIKE THAT? NO QUEST, RANDOM DROP NOR NOTHING?

Congratulations. You have gotten yourself a brand new pet, a male Trick-cat, please choose a name for it name it:(_________)

…

Oh well… No use in trying to go against it now, right? Besides, his name is already a given. I typed his name in the floating keyboard, and was surprised at how I actually managed to fit everything there.

NAME:

Lieutenant Colonel Whiskers McBallofur Maximilliamus the ThirdTITLE:

The PlayfulOwner:WargonRelationship:Travelling buddySpecies:Trick-catGender:MaleElement affinity:ChaosDiet:OmnivoreLevel:9Experience:87%STATUS:Health Points:230/230HP regen (out of combat):2/secSTR:12TGH:9AGI:20VIT:10INT:18MND:13DEF24M. Res.:30ATTK:11-12Extra:(none)Equipped inventory0Satiety:87/100Trust:GoodAssigned role:(none)

SKILLS:Claw Mastery [lvl 3]

-Rip (Active)

-Pounce (Active)

Thin presence [lvl 6]

Racial [Max]

-Playful

-Natural prankster

I’m no expert on what these numbers mean for a pet, but he does look pretty good for me.

After a quick checkup I already knew all his skills. Rip was kind of like my slash, while pounce is a basic jumping attack that deals extra damage. Thin presence is a pseudo stealth that, although it didn’t make him invisible, it reduces the chances of the enemy noticing him when there are more than one target, making him pretty much be ignored when in a team. The advantage this skill had over stealth is that it’s a passive.

Now, his racial skills where the interesting ones. Playful made it so that, whenever someone was playing or joking with him he would know how to react to make things funnier, while natural prankster meant that he was so good at playing pranks that he gets a bonus to stealth-like skills.

Well, his skills aside, for quite some time now I have been feeling this really cold gaze coming from the blue furred fox in front of me. Not that I really blame her, just today I said that I wasn’t after a battle pet, and now just got one…

I need to resolve this situation quickly.

“Lieutenant!” I called the cat, who immediately looked at me with attention. “From what I see, you are a battle oriented soldier, right?” I asked in my general tone. The cat nodded its head firmly while sitting up and joining the joke. “Good, and I thank you for your desire to support me, however, that goes against my train of thought about hunting, so I will have to delegate you a more passive position in battle. Do you understand?” He nodded with a meow.

“Good. Then you will be the support and supply officer of our three man army, you will be responsible for replenishing my ammunitions supplies or using the demanded items when ordered while staying out of the line of fire otherwise, is that clear for you?” He meowed in accordance. “Good. Dismissed.” I made a salute and he responded while having a serious face.

…

I’m so making him a military uniform when we get back to the city…

Afterwards we both relaxed and I noticed Aura’s gaze softening slightly, since I was pretty much declaring that he wasn’t participating directly in the battles. But it suddenly sharpened again when Whiskers approached me and laid at my side.

She suddenly got up and jumped atop of my lap while shoving her head beneath my hand, making me start petting her. She then glared at the cat for a moment before starting to nap.

I laughed wryly at the clear sight of jealously.

Afterwards, when I checked Whiskers window, the relationship earned a “(Subordinate)”, with parenthesis and all while the assigned role was “Support and supply officer.”

After some rest, our strange group of a jealous ice fox possessed by a goddes, a playful antenna-cat that is attracted to strange people, and a perfectly sane golem once again started our trek towards Eldor.

----

(dead) Author's corner: *found dead on the room. His finger pointing to words written with his own blood: TABLES*