Once I had everything sorted out and bought, I decided to try out my new ability. "Summon Creature." Just like I expected, a blue screen appeared in front of me.

You may summon 1 creature with a combined level of 1. Choose the species of your creature. Hawk: Flight, Claw Wolf: Pounce, Claw, Bite Horned Rabbit: Flee, Charge Snake: Poison Bite, Squeeze

A hawk sounded amazing, but I wasn't sure if it would really be that good. If it was intelligent and could warn me about monsters, that would be great. The hawk could, probably, distract enemies for me. Still, I wasn't sure if I wanted to risk picking the hawk. I shrugged. Whatever creature I summoned wasn't going to last long anyways. After all, it was only level 1. I chose the wolf, since it had the most combat abilities and it was also the one I was most familiar with.

Your wolf has 3 status points to assign. Agility: 1 Strength: 1 Shield: 1

I put one point in strength and placed two in shield. As soon as I assigned the last status point, grey goo emerged from the ground before forming a wolf. It had grey fur with a darker patch on its chest. When it looked at me, the wolf let out a whine and nuzzled my hand.

That was cute. I scratched behind his ear while marveling at how closely the wolf resembled the ones that I had attempted to kill not even an hour before. "You know what boy? I'm going to call you Sampson." It was the name of a golden retriever that I'd had as a kid. It had died of old age when I was seventeen, but I still remembered him.

The words Sampson flashed above the wolf's head briefly before fading out. I decided to test out if the words meant that he was named now. I patted my leg. "Come here Sampson, come here boy." The wolf promptly jumped on me, knocking me to the ground. He growled before gently grabbing my neck in his mouth. I freaked out and almost shot him until I realized he was only playing.

After I got out from under him, I rubbed my neck while looking at him. I had to remember, no matter how much he acted like a dog, he was still a wolf at heart. He wasn't some tamed animal. Well, let's see how obedient he is. "Sampson, see if there are any creatures in the area. If there are, come back and get me. Don't attack them."

He let out a growl before running off. I could see him pause every once in a while to sniff the air, but he quickly disappeared into the waist-high grass. I really didn't want to go into the grass where I couldn't see. Most animals were small enough to blend right in with the grass, I wouldn't be able to see them coming.

I decided to take back that statement as I kept track of Sampson. You could quite clearly see where he was as the grass shook where he walked. Yeah, it would be pretty easy to see anything dangerous coming. I suddenly heard a yelp, causing me to focus on Sampson.

He was fairly far away, around a hundred yards or so. The grass rustled and I caught glimpses of color amidst the green grass. I pulled out the sniper rifle and aimed towards the noise. The sniper rifle already had a scope, which was really helpful. My view magnified, letting me see Sampson as he ran towards me, gray fur flashing through the greenery.

Behind him was a brown ball of fur. I lined up my sights and pulled the trigger. BANG. The rifle slammed into my shoulder, knocking me to the ground. Almost simultaneously, I heard a loud wail, almost like a child screaming in pain.

Scrambling to my feet, I quickly found the spot where I had just fired. Whatever it was that I had shot, it was still coming. I braced myself against the tree and lined myself up with the creature. Pulling the trigger, the sound of the gunshot once again causing my ears to ring, I watched as the brownish object was thrown backwards from the impact of the bullet, blue light flaring to life upon impact. That hideous wail sounded out again, sending chills down my spine.

My back ached from where it was slammed against the tree, but I ignored it. Aiming once more, I fired the sniper rifle. The brownish creature was just recovering from the first strike. This one went straight through the creature, causing it to dissolve.

Combat has ended! You have defeated 1 Bobcat, level 5. Loot gained: 1 Chunk

Well, that was a lot more than I expected. The wolves I'd fought before only gave some shards, they never gave any chunks. It was significantly better loot. I wasn't sure what caused the increased amount of nanite shards. Still, I wasn't one to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Sampson came up to me and nuzzled my hand. Smiling, I reached down and petted his head. "Good job boy! Good job!" He wagged his tail before laying down. I sighed as I sat down beside him. I wasn't sure what all I was going to do. I didn't see anyone else around and, judging by that bobcat, there were definitely hostile monsters. I was honestly quite surprised that I was able to take it out so easily. It wasn't completely out of expectation though.

I mean, the bobcat didn't have a gun. It had to get close in order to hit me, while I could hit it from hundreds of yards away with my sniper rifle. It was an advantage that I'd have to use whenever I could. I sighed and sat down on the ground.

What, exactly, was going to be my future? I decided to go ahead and make up a list of what I wanted to accomplish.

1) I needed to stay alive. I already saw the beast wave counter active. So far I had 5 days and 2 hours until the next one.

2) Find more people. Presumably, there were people out there. There was safety in numbers and I desperately needed safety.

3) To better perform steps one and two, I needed to hunt. By killing monsters and harvesting nanite fragments, I would be able to buy better gear and ability points.

That was honestly as far as I got. Everything else was either unimportant, or I didn't know enough to make it something I wanted to do. Sampson laid a paw on my chest and whimpered. I smiled. That was exactly what my dog loved to do. I chuckled as I caught sight of Sampson's fangs. I don't quite recall my old dog having such a fearsome smile.

I got to my feet with a sigh before heading out into the forest, Sampson trailing behind me. It looked like I was going to be wandering for a while.