Chapter 15

The Perfect Companion.

It has been about a year give since I started playing this game. A year in the real world. That is about four years in the world of the game.

At this point, I have come to the conclusion that I am lonely. I want someone or something to stay at my side during my travels through this world and keep me company. At first I intended for my travel companion to be the spirit in my spell armlet, but even though it was an advanced AI, since being transferred into my armlet it seems to have been downgraded to a normal AI.

Within Royal Road, not all artificial intelligences are the same. A common monster has a simpler AI than a boss monster. A level 200 monster had a more sophisticated AI than a level 150 monster. The A.I. a non player character was allocated was usually determined by how many interactions are needed of the character.

Transferring the Dark Spirit into my armlet reduced the possible interactions required to almost none. Other than myself, the spirit didn’t have to talk to anyone. And it was saying less and less all the time.

I wanted another companion, preferably with the highest level of AI. But in acquiring one, there was a possibility that the AI would be reduced again. Such was at the discretion of the game’s programmers, I had no way to predict it.

Perhaps a unique creature with a high Intellect stat. Though the Intellect stat did not always affect the quality of the allocated AI, if it was a unique creature, it was far more likely. As long as I kept the creature active, it would fight on its own, interacting with others thus making the best use of its AI, so there would be no reason to downgrade it.

Which creature to choose was the problem.

Did I want a dragon? No, too much hassle. I would have to raise it from an egg, and there are few if any safe ways to acquire a dragon egg. Besides, raising a dragon meant I would be drawn into quests where I would eventually have to fight dragons, and I did not want that.

How about a pegasus? No. Pegasi are light attribute monsters and would kill me on sight due to the stench of darkness I emit.

Phoenix? No, that would be a waste since I don’t use fire magic and phoenixs

can use fire to instantly come back to life.

A fairy perhaps? No, fairies dislike talking to others and are more interested in playing pranks.

Thinking about it was frustrating. With a few exceptions, most useful creatures that could be tamed had the same potential so it was not like there was one that was clearly a superior choice. It all depended on what I needed in a permanent companion.

That of course was another problem. In trying to become strong enough to accomplish the impossible I don’t have many weakness left for someone else to cover. My class’s weaknesses were overcome with the Dark Spell armlet. Even the weaknesses of a caster was mostly overcome though skill training and the card spell.

Of course even my strengths have weaknesses. For example, priests, paladins, shamans, and a few other classes can easily learn a spell called Banish that automatically destroys summoned creatures. No class build is flawless after all.

Maybe I could take an apprentice hero as a partner. Heroes don’t have to be Users in this game. If an NPC had a sophisticated enough AI, I could train and develop him or her into a hero. But no. Heroes I make are not meant to stay by my side, and I wanted someone to stay by my side for the rest of my duration in this game.

The strength of the partner would not be an issue. To compensate for the fact that they can only die once, npc characters and creatures gain strength and skill faster than Users. So I could train any chosen partner to a level of strength where they would not die easily without much hassle.

I could just log out and enter the game’s database and look through each creature. If I truly desire the best possible companion, perhaps this is the best call. In fact, it may be overdue. The bestiary is often updated with new monsters, dungeons and bosses from the game’s creators. Maybe something new would have been made.

I decided to do just that.

Overall, it took seventy-two hours to look over every creature in the game. I did this not just to look for a companion, but to review updated information and changes made to others.

However, I could not find any existing creature or NPC that I desired as a companion. There were many that would make excellent companions but none of them drew my interest. I have mentioned this before, but I am a fickle being. However, the search had bore fruit. I found a combination of special conditions that would create the perfect companion for me. They had been added recently, and if they occurred, they would produce a new being that does not yet walk on the surface of Versailles. A few NPCs were adjusted along with the update to include a backstory to make it seem like it was always possible for this to occur.

As there is not one currently in existence, I chose to make one myself. After deciding what I wanted to have, I had to decide who to change.

The first thing I did was acquired a certain spell scroll. Spell scrolls are consumable items that allow anyone to cast the magic within. The spell was a powerful curse I was unable to cast myself. The creature I intended to create was a variant of an existing creature that would come into being if during the conditions for its creation it was under the effect of this curse.

I know I am being cryptic, but if I simply told you what I intended to create, you would lose interest in reading.

By the way, the spell scroll was not common or easy to acquire. Another group had acquired it some time ago in a dungeon and it was sold to a magic shop a fair distance away. I didn’t go there myself, as that was not the fastest way to acquire it. I mailed a bank note (A check basically) with an amount on it that could be taken from my account in bank in the same city and the Shop Owner’s name to the shop and requested it to be mailed back to me.

Yes, Versailles has mail. Though it is not as safe as real world mail due to thieves and bandits on the road. Time wise I could have gotten a horse and rode to the city and that would have been faster, but instead I mailed off the check, logged out, traveled through time a bit, logged back in, and acquired the scroll in the mail. That is what I meant by fastest way to acquire it. Relatively speaking.

After acquiring a curse scroll I traveled to Barsamagle, a large town at the edge of the Warrior’s Teeth, the mountain range in the northwest of the Brittan Alliance.

Here I would find my target. Strictly speaking my current plan basically involves turning an NPC into a monster and having it travel with me. This completely disregards the NPC’s will in the matter as the plan will manipulate the target into giving it its loyalty to me after becoming a monster. From the perspective of a moral person, I am a despicable existence. But morals hold little meaning to me. They change with each person in each world so I have no reason to be affected by them.

All that being said, my target’s life after this will be a vast improvement compared to the life before.

I walked up to the porch of my target’s residence and knocked on the door.

A woman in her late forties appeared and asked, “Yes? Can I help you?”

I answered, “Yes. I am a graduate student of the Colsworth Magic college. I believe I can help your daughter.”

At first she looked suspicious. I was a stranger after all, and her personal backstory was filled with false hope.

I was however, wearing the uniform robe of the college bearing the college’s symbol. All of which was custom made through a tailor.

She said, “Please, come in.”

The woman herself was once a mage and student of said college.

In case you are wondering, Versailles has several institutions where one can master certain skills. There are seven accredited magic colleges, three non-accredited which taught some very interesting things as well. There are two cooking schools whose masters give the quests for those who wish to learn the final secret cooking skills. There are seventy-two institutions that train physical skills, not including the most basic training halls. And hundreds of others ranging from Dance and Bard colleges to Archery schools, Monk temples, and secret assassin schools.

The woman said, “Please sit,” after pulling out a chair for me at a table. She sat across from me and asked, “What do you know about my daughter’s condition?”

I answered, “She was born with her mana channels blocked at several points throughout her body and thus is unable to perform magic. However it goes beyond this. The life energy that should also be flowing through these channels is blocked as well, leaving your daughter in a state of constant weakness and fatigue. Several specialists from Colsworth and others institutions have looked at your daughter and agree nothing can be done as they do not understand the cause. However they do agree that she will not last much longer.”

The woman nodded at these points and progressively become more depressed with each comment. She said, “You are right. The only thing I can do is provide energy potions to supplement her, but it only delays the end. Please. Please tell me you have good news.”

I took her hands and held them as I smiled and said, “The best.” I continued, “I was studying a journal I discovered some time ago in a library describing unique conditions discovered in the past in Heaven Kingdom. One of which was a condition that was the same as your daughter’s.”

The mother’s eyes widened. As far as she was told, no other case like her daughter’s was ever seen.

I continued, “I believe I can save your daughter’s life.”

“How? Please, how?”

I shook my head, “I’m sorry, but that would be between me and your daughter. There are risks of course but I know it will work. It will be up to her as to whether or not to accept it.”

“I understand.” She showed me to her daughter’s room.

On the bed was a woman of nineteen years. She had pale skin, chestnut hair, and a doll’s face. She was a beauty, even considering that she looked feeble.

Before I continue this story I shall point out a few things. There were several actions, events, or pieces of information that could lead a person to this house if they played normally. It was possible to receive a B rank quest here to cure the daughter. The actual cure was medicine made from the fruit of a sacred tree. Finding the this information, locating the tree, defeating the guardian of the tree, obtaining the fruit, finding a pharmacist skilled enough to make it into a medicine, would all take about three months. The reward was either a full scholarship to the Colsworth college, (learning magic there is expensive so this is a valuable reward,) or the possibility of having the daughter become your companion. Being thankful for your deeds and wanting to explore the outside world, she would ask to travel with you. This is a good deal, as although she starts out weak, she quickly becomes a powerful mage.

The condition she possesses is actually a side effect of a power she was born with to cast magic without a casting time. If the side effect is nullified, she can use the power to its fullest extent.

I do not have the medicine to cure her, nor do I intend to use it. It just so happens, that making her into the creature I chose as a companion, would cancel out her disease. This loophole was one of the main reasons I chose her as the companion. The other reason I chose her, was that is was actually unlikely someone would discover her quest and cure her before she was to die.

The woman was looking out a window into the world she had never stepped foot in with a calm expression. When we entered she turned and looked at her mother then to me. Her eyes opened in surprise and she looked down afterwards. She meekly looked back up to me and said, “Hello. My name is Talia.”

I nodded and said, “Hello, my name is Curi.” I motioned to the mother to indicate this would have to be a private conversation. She hesitated a bit but relented before leaving.

I sat at the foot of Talia’s bed and said, “Would you like to leave this room and see the world?”

Her eyes widened in surprise, she looked at me before turning her head down again.

I remained silent. After a moment, she realized I was waiting for her to answer.

“I... Cannot leave.. I am too weak.”

“What if you could? What if I had a way to permanently undo the blocks on your mana channels so that you could perform magic and gain a strong body?”

“Such a way... Does not exist..” She looked even more downcast than before. She was not a stupid girl. Her mother had a vast library, most of which was acquired for her daughter, and the girl knew what she was talking about.

I said, “Perhaps. Maybe there is no cure for your disease. But I’m not talking about a cure. Fight fire with fire. There is a disease that if you were to catch, you would be cured. That being said, if the disease were cured, you would return to this. So if you were to agree, I would need to make sure the disease would not be curable.”

Her look changed. She of course knew of many diseases, her mother’s library had medical texts and even a few journals of medicine. She went through many of them in her head, seeing if such a thing were possible.

“Which disease do you speak of?”

“Lycanthropy.”

Her eyes shot up in shock and she let out a small gasp. She went over the details in her head.

Lycanthropy, the disease that can turn mortals into werewolves is well documented. When first infected, the body will become a werewolf in about one month if not treated. The negative effects of this are that in the presence of the light of the full moon, one will automatically turn into a werewolf beast form regardless of will. While a werewolf, all physical attributes are heightened to the level of a powerful warrior. A werewolf cannot cast magic and cannot equip weapons unless they are specifically made for a werewolf. Inexperienced werewolves become mindless beasts that attack friend and foe alike unless they have a high wisdom stat. If you are known to be a werewolf most people will treat you with hostility. A werewolf can change between beast form and mortal form at will, unless under a full moon. After becoming a werewolf, one develops a weakness to silver. Silver has antibacterial properties and kills the disease at its source. Werewolves have a natural instinct to travel in packs and will seek each other out. As it is stronger and usually more powerful, most werewolves choose to stay in their beast form and live away from society. And of course, when one becomes a werewolf, they become more violent and often crave meat. They are not picky about where said meat comes from.

There are however many benefits if you can look past the becoming a savage, hated, beast part. After developing into a werewolf, the constitution of the mortal changes and strengthens. The person becomes completely immune to all other disease and gains a high resistance to poison and weather effects. This constitution change would not only cure her condition, it would also strengthen her body.

I continued and said, “If you choose this path, you will not only be able to cast magic, you will gain the strength needed to immediately leave this bed and journey across the world.

She was of course scared at the idea. If left at this, she would likely refuse.

I continued, “I know it is hard but this will absolutely work.” I gave her one more push, “And if you agree, can journey the world with me.”

She looked back into my eyes and asked sheepishly, “With you?”

I gave her a gentle smile and nodded, “Yes. I am actually an adventurer. I travel all over the place and fight many monsters. If you become strong, you can fight with me.”

She of course already possessed a disposition to want to travel together with whoever saved her. She had a wild adventurer side and the thought of getting strong and fighting monsters appealed to her.

“But... What if I hurt you?”

“You won’t. I understand that you would be frightened if you were turning into a normal werewolf, but that is not the case. You will turn into a Curse Werewolf”

The name itself sounded imposing, she asked quietly, “Cursed werewolf?”

I explained, “It is a variant that retains its mind and can cast magic.”

This simple explanation made her gasp.

I continued, “One becomes a cursed werewolf if bitten while under the effect of a powerful curse. The transformation takes in the power of the curse and the result is different. It has to be the right kind of curse, and I have one such curse here.” I took out the scroll and showed her.

The scroll was called The Will of Death. It cast a curse that severely weakened the afflicted by reducing all stats and halting all mana and health regeneration. The curse was permanent and could only be cured by holy water or the curse removal spell of a powerful priest.

The chance of becoming a Cursed Werewolf, increased with the power of the curse on the afflicted. The Will of Death was the strongest curse scroll I could get my hands on at this time. If the afflicted had a curse that was too weak, the transformation would automatically dispel the curse and nothing else would happen. If it was strong enough, it would absorb the power of the curse and the curse itself would be negated after becoming a werewolf anyways.

I said, “This will absolutely work, but the choice of whether or not to go through with it is still yours. Do you need some time to think?”

After a moment she said, “No, I will do it.”

I nodded and discussed the plan with her.

Not long afterwards I summoned her mother back into the room.

Talia said, “Mother, I wish to go with Curi. If I do, I can be cured.”

“You can?! But how?”

Talia shook her head, “I’m sorry, but I can’t tell you. The treatment will take a month, but after that, I will come see you.”

Her mother looked worried. Usually the term, ‘I can’t tell you,’ would provoke outrage. But she was once a student. Some students keep the details of their work a secret and for good reasons. She could not press further as it may drive me, and my ‘cure’ away.

She turned to me and asked, “Is it safe?”

I nodded, “Yes.”

The mother relented and allowed it.

I arranged for a carriage to pick up Talia a while later. The driver was a strong middle aged man who carried her off her bed and into the carriage. She was still too weak to walk.

I took her to an Inn and rented a room to stay in for the next month. I could have done this next part at Talia’s house in her room, but we both agreed that her mother should remain unaware.

After being set down into a bed, she said, “I’m ready.”

I nodded and pulled out the scroll. I called out, “Will of Death.” The scroll dissolved into pitch black dust that evaporated before it hit the ground. A black mist flowed into the room and formed into the menacing shape of a cloaked skeleton. The room suddenly turned cold. Talia closed her eyes as she knew what would happen next. The otherworldly phantasm flew towards Talia with piercing red eyes and disappeared inside her. She shivered and collapsed into the bed. Now however she had a thin dark aura that surrounded her. It would not be noticeable in daylight but it definitely existed.

I got out a powerful health tonic and fed it to her. She was already weak so the reduced stats were hardly noticeable, but the shock of the curse still affected her.

I fed her another potion and after finishing it she immediately went to sleep.

The carriage driver who carried her in looked over to me and said, “You sure about this?”

I nodded and said, “Yes, her options are this or death.”

He answered, “She may come to regret choosing this.”

I replied, “No, she won’t.”

He gave a small smirk at me before approaching her. He suddenly became larger, and his equipment disappeared beneath a layer of dark fur that suddenly grew all over his body.

Another reason I chose Talia to become a Cursed werewolf was that she lived at the base of the Warrior’s Teeth mountain range that was known werewolf territory. Finding one in human form around the town and paying him to infect her was not difficult.

While in the form of a two and a half meter tall werewolf, the man softly picked her up and bit her shoulder. He easily could have killed her, but perfectly restrained himself. To ensure he didn’t bite hard enough to inflict fatal damage, I treated him to an all you could eat meat lunch to fill his belly to the point his animal instincts would not accidently cause him to bite too hard out of a desire to eat her.

And although she had no natural health regeneration, the tonic I fed her caused her to gain 50 health points a second for three minutes after drinking it. It cost about 1750 gold, the same price as a full set of equipment for a level 110 knight including three types of armor and a spare sword in case one breaks.

After a few moments the wound on her shoulder healed without a scar. The werewolf just looked at her for a few moments. Then he said in a deep grizzled voice, “It is done.”

There are a few ways an outsider can tell if one is infected with Lycanthropy. One of which is that another infected with it can sense it. There are of course ways to hide it from detection, but that is something for later.

The man returned to his human form, his equipment appearing around him as his hair receded and he shrunk back.

I paid the man the second half of the promised amount and he left the Inn.

I could see from Talia’s object data what was happening. As she slept the disease multiplied in her body. Once the body was saturated the disease would change the body. At this point taking a remedy would cure her of the disease, but obviously that wasn’t going to happen.

By the way, I have not explained yet how to cure a werewolf, and what makes cursed werewolves different. After the point a remedy can no longer cure Lycanthropy, there are other ways of curing it. The most well known is a potion, that, although expensive, is not hard to acquire. It does not always work, but you can keep trying it until it does, so it will eventually work. There are also several high level purification spells capable of curing Lycanthropy.

Cursed werewolves however cannot be cured. The power of the curse amplifies the disease, and the disease can draw power from the power of the curse.

That being said, Cursed Werewolves are not initially as physically strong as common werewolves. With training however they can surpass others, and I know every training in the book.

The saturation of the body by the disease took about three weeks. During this time, I gently cared for her like a loving nurse. After that the changes started. The changes cause great pain, but she had lived in pain for most of her life, so this was nothing new. However, after each round of pain, she claimed that the original pain in her body lessened, and her strength increased. Her body changed from skin and bone to fill out into a woman’s form. Her pale skin did not change much, but it was obvious at a glance she was different from before. After three days, she no longer looked unhealthy and could move around freely. Her diet changed as well, her tastes moving towards meat.

By the end of the month, the sickly, skinny girl was gone and a beautiful woman had taken her place.

I called out to her, “Talia, it is time to show your mother how well you are doing.”

“Thankyou mistress, I cannot wait.”

Ahh, I guess I should mention the fact that during our first meeting she developed a crush on me. That is why she was so shy and avoided looking at me. During her treatment she fell completely in love with me and swore to do whatever I asked of her. A part of this was the fact that Werewolves are very loyal.

As I said before, I made the perfect companion.

Chapter 16

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