Sorry for the wait guys. I have to work on the weekends. But since it was a bit of a wait here is a pretty long chapter. Also I would love it for comments on the story, or critiques. I really like interactive readers since it will give me a chance to better my writing skill! I’m only at novice level 2 at the moment.

Short summary of the last chapter:

Spoiler : Voice learned a healing spell. After he had fought a few bears, he learned their attack patterns and was able to dodge almost all of their attacks. He returned to training with his master and was thrashed. He learned the attack patterns of the next hallway of animals, which was wolves.

Once he was at the dojo he again fought Steve. He almost managed to dodge one of Steve’s attack, but even with instinct Steve was just too fast. Every time Voice had almost dodged Steve would increase his speed.

After doing this for an hour Voice was told to go out to the obstacle course.

Blackhand pointed at the course and said, “This time I want you to keep going for two hours. I you manage to finish the entire thing before that then you can go home at that time.”

Voice got the same running start as yesterday. This time he made sure to focus all of his attention not on the tire he was in, but on the next one. He did better, but he only made it to the third tire before he started to lose his balance. He tried to quickly jump to the fourth, but all that accomplished was his flailing and falling to the ground.

He decided to intently study the tires before he tried again. He slowly went from one tire to the next. They moved in a seemingly random pattern, but Voice knew deep down that they had to have some sort of linear pattern.

He thought that maybe the tires reflected movement over an origin point. He looked back while jumping one time to see if he was right. The tires behind him were completely still.

After that he tried to figure out the pattern that they moved in. This was really hard as they only moved slightly, and only when he jumped. It took him the better part of an hour to come to the conclusion that the way they moved had something to do with him directly.

He spent the next hour jumping, pointing his body, and looking in all directions to test his theory out. He finally realized that the wheels would move according to where he was aiming to jump. Just before the two hours were up he realized that it was in fact the way he positioned his feet that decided which direction the wheel would move, the opposite of the direction of his feet. He then spent the last ten minutes jumping with different body movements, and power.

So the tires move in the opposite direction of where my feet are pointed. The more they are pointed in one direction the more the tire moves. The harder I jump the closer the tires gets to the place I jumped. So this whole ordeal was to make me think I was overcompensating the entire time.

With this new found information, he tried jumping the tires again. He made it all the way to the last one, but just as he was about to land in it and celebrate something caught his foot. The tire had moved slightly less than Voice thought it would.

Damn! I almost had it that time!

Master Blackhand came back. “So, you couldn’t even do the wheels again. I had hoped you’d at least get to the pole throwers tonight. Well, come back tomorrow to continue your training.”

Voice grudgingly went back to Susan’s and called his pets back.

He ate a small bowl of gruel that Susan had left in his room for him. It wasn’t good quality, but at least it was food.

“How did it go for you guys?” Voice asked in a tone that didn’t show any curiosity or concern.

They had each made it to level ten by constantly killing many wolf demons, the decided on those since they gain so much extra exp from them. They even brought Voice a present of fifteen wolf pelts, several wolf paws, and four stacks of wolf meat.

“Why only four stacks if you killed so many wolfs?”

Troy and Rabs turned towards Heather who responded, “Well you told us to get food…” She was a little embarrassed at eating so much, but they tasted so good!

When Voice woke up he went over to Elizabeth’s and asked for a few ingredients. Elizabeth couldn’t wait to see what he would make with: flour, some water, a pinch of salt, and a little bit of vegetable oil.

She quickly gave him the ingredients while she looked for the oil. She found she had a bit left in one of her cabinets. While she was getting him the oil he had made a mound of the other ingredients. He made the mound into eight smaller mounds. He then flattened them into circles, and cooked them in the oil.

At first she thought he was making pancakes, which she had already seen, but it turned out he made something similar, but vastly different. When he was done he told her they were called tortillas, and that they could be used in other foods. He said he would show her some of them later.

“Although, I do need you to get some peppers if you can. I need them dried as much as possible, if you can I would be able to use them better if they were powdered.”

After the cooking was done, and he ate a couple, Evan asked, “So, tell me Voice, why do you always make three meal? Isn’t that bad for the body?”

Voice had no idea what the blacksmith was talking about.

Probably some medieval guide on nutrition or something.

He waved the question away and said, “Actually it’s better to eat three meals a day for your digestion.”

Evan and his wife looked at Voice quizzically. “I’m sorry I don’t think we understood that. Could you repeat yourself?”

Voice did, but Elizabeth and Evan still could not understand what he said.

Damnit I forgot about the outside information thing. Wait how have I been making new foods then? Does the information only not work if I don’t show it? So me making new meals is ok because I’m actively doing stuff in game.

Voice had an epiphany. He could still bring knowledge from the outside world into the game as long as he did the preparations and actual used the information inside the game.

Well, I’m just a cheat character aren’t I?

For the next week Voice started a routine. In the mornings he would make a light breakfast, run to check out a book from the library, then go to train with Steve. After training he would cook some food for him and his friends, then go to clear the dungeon with EDI and the rabbits. After that his rabbits would go hunt for food while he tried to finish the obstacle course. Once done there he would speed read through all of the book he checked out, although he always kept one to auto-read.

Over the course of the next week he had speed read dozens of books. He also auto-read fourteen books. They averaged about two a day. By the last speed reading he had grown tow exactly level nine in the skill. He also made it to level twenty in auto reading. In total he gained nine int.

During the week he slept twice. Once on the second day, and once on the sixth day. During both times he got some irl food, and took a shower. He would respond to his mom’s messages and texts, and then log back into the game.

Voice made a nice variety of food for Elizabeth. He easily finished Elizabeth’s quest on the fourth day. He made dishes from Asian food, to chocolate covered ants. The tenth meal he cooked was at dinner on the fourth day. He had promised to use the tortillas in a recipe so they had taco night! When he asked for the ingredients to be prepared Evan fidgeted and said,

“Well, you see. Those are sort of hard for a simple blacksmith to get his hands on. I mean I don’t really make a lot of gold you know.” After that he hurriedly added, “But with all of the supplies you have given us I am sure I can get some!”

Voice made both tacos and fajitas. It wasn’t really hard since you only need to watch the meat so it doesn’t burn. He didn’t really know how the cooking skill leveled up, but by the sixth day of cooking foods for Elizabeth he was already level 22. The cooking skill stopped leveling after that. He had made many dishes, but it would not increase more than level 22 with zero exp towards the next level.

I guess I’m going to have to read up on the cooking skill.

It was nice that his food tasted so amazingly now though. His food was now twice as good as an amateurs. With the bonus from his culinary tools his food was about three times better. That meant that the fifty percent bonus got stacked on before his skill.

That’s actually some really good information to keep in mind for the future.

During the first six days of training he was beaten every time. Every. Single. Time. No matter what he tried, no matter how fast he became, Steve would always land successful hits on him. It got so bad that Master Blackhand took pity on Voice and began to let him choose Steve’s weapon after the fourth day. Voice chose all sorts of weapons, from bladed to blunted, to hands only. Steve would always land his hits. Voice even chose to make Steve use the largest heaviest weapon in the hall, hoping that the weight would slow him down enough to where Voice could dodge. It ended up this both of his hands completely broken from the impact. Voice screamed in agony for a few seconds, but quickly gained enough control to heal himself. They had a healer on standby since then. He did manage to get two endurance and eight agility from the constant barrage of attacks, so at least it wasn’t pointless to do this. Once Voice started to manage to almost dodge some of the easier attacks his agility started to increase at an acceptable pace. He thought that he would have gained a lot less if he were not in the armor.

The obstacle course was much easier than battling Steve. With the information Voice had garnered about the tires, the night after he made the tortillas he tried doing the wheels backwards. At first he couldn’t aim the jump properly at all. After much trial and error he managed to calculate the power and trajectory he would need each time. First he looked at the tires from all angles, then he did a few trial runs. He was pretty confident in his memory when it came to things that took his interest.

After only a few horribly failed attempts which prompted laughter from the audience of the dojo, Voice managed to make it all the way across. He was very pleased with the sudden silence that the crowd had after seeing him successfully jump the course backwards. After the completion he gained two agility. He also decided to try to go through it forward before coming up to the wall. So he went back to the start and ran. He had calculated the exact position of the next tire based on how he landed on the current one. Depending on which angle he landed at he would slightly adjust his angle and power. It went off flawlessly.

The next part was the wall with the rope. It seemed easier than the tire at first. The main problem came, not only from the added weight of the armor, but also the fact that Master Blackheart Blackhand decided for the rope to be greased. Voice couldn’t even hold on to the grip. The metal gauntlets made it basically impossible to hold himself up. He tried over three dozen times, all of which failed. No matter how tight he gripped he would always fall. He eventually gripped as tight as possible to try to climb, it was enough to where he thought he heard one of his bones pop out of place, and got a notice. He fell then decided to read the notice.

Your constant use of tight gripping has granted you the Tight Grip ability.

Tight Grip

You adjust your grip on whatever you are holding to an outstanding strength. Your grip is tripled. It costs 50 stamina, and 20 health to use. This ability costs and additional 25 stamina and ten health per second for upkeep.

Voice smiled as he got up and dusted himself off.

Well this will make things easier.

Voice gripped onto the rope, and positioned himself perpendicularly against the wall. He activated his ability. His grip was holding, but he could feel his stamina and health quickly drop. Not to mention the extreme amount of force exerted on his arms. Doing some quick math he calculated he could only hold up for fifteen seconds thanks to his stamina regen. Then his stamina would hit zero.

I’m glad that the regens still work even if you are currently using the stat. Most games don’t have that. Then again most games don’t have a complete DIVE system.

He tried to climb that way, since he had seen it in movies. He made it about a four feet, a quarter of the way, before he collapsed from exhaustion. As he fell he noticed he got one strength. After resting for a bit he tried again. This time he didn’t even make it the entire four feet. On his third try he simply held the greased up rope and stood against the wall. His arms were burning within seconds.

He held his grip until his stamina ran out, after that he held on more. With his stamina gone his ability had stopped. He was still holding on for dear life though. His health was dropping fast. Just as he was about to drop below ten percent health he let go. He had been slowly slipping despite his extreme grip.

He healed himself up, and started doing some pushups. Everyone in the dojo, students and teachers alike were watching him. At first they were wanting to see the man that had cooked him a good to cheer for him. His failed attempts quickly became hilarious. People had completely stopped training to watch. They were very surprised to see his first successful attempt at the tire jumping. After he jumped the thing backwards he did it normally. Everyone was stunned.

Eventually it became accepted to not train while Voice was in the dojo. Everyone would watch him get battered by Steve, when he came back at night they would watch him on his obstacle course. Some people even used their free time to try the course out. Only three students could make it through the whole thing. All three were the senior students of the dojo, and even they took a few tries. By the time they had finished it they were sweating and panting from exhaustion.

People were confused as to why he was doing push-ups. He continued to do them for about ten minutes. He fell to the ground gasping for breath after that. Master Blackhand came by and offered him some lily pad tea.

Voice gratefully accepted the drink. He then asked the master, “Is there any training method you know of to strengthen my arms?”

The master was impressed with the question. Usually when newbies asked something after failing one of the trails the masters set it was for an easier task. Voice just asked for a way to pass the trial.

The master replied while pointing to the corner of the yard where several different sized boulders could be seen. “Sure, try lifting those up.” For the entire next night session he just lifted boulders. He quickly went from the smaller boulders to the larger boulders. He decided to do some endurance training. He asked one of the audience to help. He lifted the largest boulder he could as many times as possible. As soon as he was done he dropped it and took the slightly smaller one from the helper. The helper got a slightly smaller one while Voice continued to lift and lower the current boulder.

He continued this all the way to the smallest boulder they had, about the size of two fists. By the end he had gained two strength and one endurance. He did this until he was two days away from the end of the week of when he accepted Elizabeth’s quest. He gained an addition total of three strength from this. This training method had some extremely diminishing returns.

He had made the taco party yesterday, so he was in high spirits. He ran through the tires, and grabbed the rope. He basically threw himself up the wall on the first try! Voice did a triumphant pose, which was met with a few snickers.

At this point he had a total of 29 str. He wasn’t exactly ripped, but if he didn’t wear his armor you could tell he was clearly muscular. His body was very well toned.

He climbed down the other side, which had a rope that wasn’t greased. His next obstacle was then two lines of men throwing javelins. They had been constantly throwing them every time Voice was doing this course. Occasionally one would get tired out and be replaced. There were four people on each side. He heard his master yell.

“If you get hit you have to start all over!”

Voice grumbled, but got started. He ran to where the men were, but even before he took his third step he stumbled and fell. He caught his master grinning. He looked down and noticed his armor was now covered in mud. He sighed and went back to his earlier method. He examined these men from every angle. The poles flew in perfectly straight lines. The left side would throw a pole, the right side would catch it and return it. The worst part was that they didn’t seem synchronized. The throws seemed to be as soon as the person caught it. But sometimes the poles would be in the air longer, sometimes it would be shorter.

He tried to time how long each person made the pole stay in the air, but since the people sometimes changed that was quickly left by the wayside.

He then closed his eyes, and used Instinct to walk through. The mud made things very complicated, thus he was instantly hit by a pole. He got quite a bruise from that one. He did realize something though. He closed his eyes and tried again. This time he tried to close off all of his senses. He used instinct and felt the pole coming. He ducked down and his concentration broke as he hear the pole whistle above him.

He got up to get past this obstacle. Voice was instantly hit by the pole returning to the other side. He scowled as he crawled back to the other side.

He didn’t realize this, but after being in his armor for so long it no longer impeded him. He had naturally gotten used to the lessening repercussions of the armor.

He got back up once he was out of the mud. He quickly healed himself, and then went back in. He used Instinct as much as possible to avoid the poles. He could use it three times before he had to rest. Unfortunately he didn’t have enough room in between each pole to rest without getting hit. He made it to the fourth pair after quickly dodging, and ducking under, the first three. Voice could feel the bloodlust from the fourth pair. They were throwing the pole so fast that he wondered if they had a firm grip on it at all.

He tried to duck under the pole, but he was hit in the shin. He noticed the person on the right had aimed the pole low on purpose. The other person still caught it and threw it back, hitting Voice in his helmet.

Damn them. They did that on purpose! I’ll KILL them!

He didn’t let his temper show. He went back to the beginning and tried again after his mana healed. He decided to dodge, duck and try to jump over the other poles. The others seemed pumped to hit Voice after what the last pair did. Voice’s anger only increased.

His instinct told him that the first pair was throwing it low as well. He did a heavy, ungraceful, jump over it. The second person threw his at an angle. It went from above the man’s head to the other’s feet. Voice deftly dodged out of the way by angling his body to match the pole. He stretched his arms out as if to balance himself, angled one towards the man’s head, and the other towards the woman’s, who was catching it, feet.

The pole flew harmlessly over him. He quickly jumped up to the third group. This person deliberately threw it at Voice’s face, so it was an easy dodge. Voice leaned back a few inches and the pole passed harmlessly in front of him. The last group threw the pole with a spinning arc, right at Voice’s stomach. The only way he could see to dodge was to hit the floor, but that would give them another opportunity to surely hit him.

Since he couldn’t jump over it he fell to the ground. The next second the pole was flying straight at him, not to the other side, to him. It was angled to hit his head. He moved his head to the side. Somehow the man on the right side had gotten another pole. He threw it at Voice as well. Within seconds Voice had several poles flying at him from all directions. The pole throwers were going all out.

How many poles do they have in their inventory? Voice thought Master Blackhand would come put a stop to this all, but all he did was calmly watch. Voice spent the next ten seconds dodging the poles while trying to get up.

As soon as he was hit he saw a fog dissipate.

Where did the fog come from?

Master Blackhand smiled at him, a knowing menacing smile. He noticed everyone was staring at him in awe. Voice was upset that he had been tricked, but quickly noticed a situation could take advantage of. Illusions weren’t real. He didn’t really get hit.

He scrambled the last few feet and made it past the throwers while the stood shocked. His master was frowning now, but didn’t stop him so he continued on to the cliff looking thing.

He rested until his magic and stamina were back. He used instinct every step of the way. Resting after each usage. He would grab the handhold, rest, then continue on. The cliff seemed to go on forever. Every time he pulled himself up he would look up and seem no closer to the top. His distance from the ground was steadily increasing though.

I might not get this chance again! I am not going to waste it damnit!

He struggled with every move he made. The first quarter of the climb had been relatively difficult, but after that he had to stretch, and twice jump, to reach the next handhold. He was forced to take longer and longer breaks, for some reason his stamina regen was slowing as he got closer to the top.

He failed to make it past the halfway mark. After he fell a cushion of air caught him. He went to bed after that. He still had tomorrow and the next day to finish it, and he really needed a break. The next day he came back. He had borrowed books on how to climb cliffs and other things so that if he failed tonight he could succeed tomorrow. He managed the tires with ease. The first wall still presented a bit of a problem, but after a few attempts he made it up. The pole throwers were throwing the poles in intricate ways, most likely to slip Voice up. Voice used his instinct to dodge them. The fourth pair managed to hit him squarely in the chest.

He started over, going through the tires and wall again. The second time he tried to get past the pole bearers he did it. He also got a notice.

You have become surefooted. You are hampered 5% less in poor ground conditions.

He didn’t pay attention to it at the time. The mud wasn’t really the problem. He got to the cliff and started climbing it. He decided to test his instinct ability. It told him slightly different handholds depending on where he was on the foot of the cliff. He stood as close as possible to his original place and used it again. After being satisfied that he was in the exact position he let his magic regen and started up the cliff. This time he memorized every handhold and foot hold he used. By the time he made it slightly less than halfway he could no longer hold himself up.

After regaining his magic and stamina he restarted the entire course. This time he did the entire thing up to the cliff perfectly. This obviously angered the pole throwers. He climbed up to where he fell from earlier while only using his instinct once, he had forgotten which handhold to use. He noticed that he felt a lot livelier than last time.

Holding on to the cliff must really tire me out.

As he ascended he again memorized each place he put his hands and feet. He fell when he had made it a third of the rest of the way. He continued this all day. By the time he had to leave he had made it to a maximum of 7/8 of the way to the top. He had gotten to that point several times, but his stamina never lasted beyond that.

That night he read the books on cliff climbing. He also read a book on mountain climbing, just cause.

He got a new skill:

Climbing

Current Level: Novice Level 1 Exp 0.00%

The climbing skill allows the user to climb with more success. Each level increases the climbing speed by 5%. Each rank in this skill reduces the energy required for climbing.

You can climb without this skill, but will not be granted the speed bonus or energy reduction.

To level this skill you must climb things. The higher and more treacherous the thing climbed, the more exp you get.

I guess it’s a pretty good skill. I’m not really going to use it a lot though… Voice was happy he got a new skill, but at the same time he wished it was a better one.

The next night he decided to forgo the rest of the obstacle course and just try climbing the cliff. The whole time he was watching his climbing skill exp. The more he climbed without stopping the quicker the exp grew. It seemed to be on a curve. If he only climbed for a minute he got almost nothing, by the second minute he could see the exp bar move slightly. By the fifth minute, the one he fell on, he had almost leveled up to level 2.

He continued to climb the wall for the rest of the night. The entire night he climbed as high as he could, which was considerably further than before. By the end of the night he managed to climb all of the way up, before intentionally climbing back down. His climbing skill had jumped to level three during that day.

He didn’t know what he would have to do at the top of the cliff, but he figured it was impossible. He continued to train through the night.

In the dungeon they would go through as much as possible each day. On the first day of the week they made it through four hallways. At each ‘boss’ door Voice would knock politely before coming in and killing the boss. After the fighting the bear for a while Voice realized the bear was just too slow to get any agility from it.

I guess Steve just blows basic monsters out of the water.

Even the wolf ‘boss’ wasn’t fast enough to keep up with Voice any more. The first room in the next hallway had a squirrel.

A squirrel? I kind of thought the animals would get harder to fight as we went.

Just as that thought passed through his head the squirrel jumped at his face. If he didn’t have his heavy armor his face would have been mauled.

He tried to watch the squirrel’s movements, but could only see a blur as it attacked. The other group took a while to kill the other squirrel, since EDI stayed out of it to let the rabbits get experience fighting smaller animals. Troy got the squirrel’s attention, but Heather couldn’t keep up with its speed. The only one that could actually land a hit was Rabs, even he wouldn’t have been able to land any blows without Troy taking agro. The rabbits’ took a few minutes to successfully subdue. Heather finally landed a hit after the squirrel bit Troy and Rabs jumped on it to hold it down. There was sickening ripping sound as Heather torn the poor beast’s head off. She promptly ate the body. They were all watching Voice struggle after that.

Voice was very upset. He wasn’t getting damaged, but he couldn’t manage to hit the damn thing. He decided that it was good training to try and hit the squirrel. The squirrel defied all attempts to hit it. He couldn’t even hit it once the entire first day. He had the others defeat the other rooms. When they reported that they made it to the boss door he had them kill the squirrel he was working on, then he went to fight with it.

His staff could not keep up with the squirrel. He managed to hit it once, but that was complete luck. He couldn’t go to the next hallway until he killed that squirrel, but he wanted to train on it. Eventually he had his entourage kill it, but only after several minutes of attempting to hit it.

The next hallway had boars. Voice found the boars to be exceptionally easy to deal with. After two attacks from the first room’s boar, both were charge, he noticed that the boar would start running with whichever side it would turn to gore with.

Voice capitalized on that. When the boar would start running with its left foot Voice would dash to the right. The only attack it seemed to have was to gore. Voice made short work of the thing. After the third attack Voice took a small gamble. Voice dodged the boar’s attack, then he bent his knees until his but almost touched the floor. With a sweeping motion he hit the back of both of the boar’s hind legs. The boar’s knees buckled, and Voice hit the beast in the back of the head. The boar started frothing at the mouth. Voice continued to mercilessly pound the boar into the ground.

After several minutes of this Voice noticed there was nothing left of the boar except a bloody mound of meat. The next boars met the same fate. Voice didn’t even wait for them to finish the level five boars before he knocked on the door to the boss boar and killed him.

EDI was perplexed at why he kept knocking on the boss doors. She asked and was told,

“Well, if they keep their memories after coming back to life, then the knocking will scare them.” When he saw EDI didn’t understand he sighed and continued. “If we kill them every time they hear a knock they will start to associate the knock with death.”

EDI exclaimed, “OH! Like Pavlov!”

“Yes, I got the basic idea from him.”

After that Voice went to do the obstacle course.

The next day they flew through the first two hallways. At the squirrel one Voice told them to do whatever they wanted until he figured out the trick to their attack patterns. He tired up until he only had thirty minutes left. At the end he decided he would try to find some other way to read the squirrel. He could only block it if he used instinct.

They went through the boars, and came to the next hallway. They had to kill foxes. Voice found it extremely hard to figure the foxes out. The foxes were identical to the wolves except they did not tend to jump to attack. Voice easily managed to parry and doge all of the attacks. He quickly grew bored and defeated the fox he was fighting.

The boss fox put up a little bit more of a fight, but when the fox tried to bite Voice’s throat he threw it against the wall with a swift smack of his staff. The fox’s neck snapped instantly. He had leveled up to ten over the course of that day and the day before. At the end of the hallway was a door that said ‘Welcome to level two.’

For the next few days he just tried to continue to kill the squirrel. He equated dodging the squirrel to dodging Steve.

Voice’s seventh day went like this.

One day Voice commissioned a tool from Evan. It was a simple crank attached to a metal slab about six inches long. It was over a bowl. It took Evan a few days, and about a dozen tries to make a good one.

On the seventh day Voice asked if they had any peanuts. Evan and Elizabeth burst out laughing. They looked at Voice and realized he was serious. Evan said,

“Well Voice, peanuts are the main export of our kingdom.”

He asked what they used them for.

“Most of the other kingdoms we have peace treaties with use elephants as modes of war transportation.”

“Is that all?”

They looked confused but said yes. Voice smiled a smile you might see on a CEO that just bought out his biggest competition.

He used the crank to crush some peanuts, and added a touch of honey to it. He showed them with the peanut butter he made.

They like it. He then cut some bread and put the peanut butter on it.

You have invented peanut butter.

You have gained 15 fame.

You have invented the peanut butter sandwich.

You have gained 15 fame.

Elizabeth told him why she wanted his recipes.

“You see I sent all of your recipes to the Scholar’s Guild. They patented them all. Evan sent in your pot and pan idea. Now no one can use those without your implicit permission.”

“What happens if they try?”

“They will inherently fail. They can’t complete the process without your permission.”

Voice was happy with that. In fact he was so happy he offered an idea to Lizzy.

“Why don’t you use my recipes and yours, and open up a restaurant?”

“Can I… Can I really use your recipes?”

Voice nodded his consent, and saw a brief flash on Elizabeth’s forehead.

“Thank you!” She said as she rushed up to him and hugged him.

After that Voice went to train with Steve again. He once again got pummeled, but this time he almost dodged twice.

When he got to the cave the group went through the bears’ rooms. When they made it to the boss bear’s room Voice didn’t hear the familiar growl. Worried he opened the door thinking the bear was killed by someone else.

The group saw the bear laying down intentionally trying to ignore them. As Voice approached he tried talking to the bear, thinking his idea might have gone wrong.

“Hey buddy, I came back to say hi today.”

When the bear heard this it looked obviously uncomfortable. Although it might not have understood his exact words, it definitely knew who was talking. Voice went up to the bear and started to pet it. When the bear didn’t throw him off he got a notice.

For being an animal tamer, and becoming close to a monster type you can become a monster tamer.

If you become a monster tamer you will lose all animals you have tamed. You will instead be able to tame monsters.

Would you like to become a monster tamer?

Uh… Well shit, I never expected THIS! Of course I’d want to tame monsters! But I put so much work into these damn rabbits!

Voice thought it over while petting the giant bear. The bear would definitely be a better tank than Troy, but Voice would lose Rabs. Rabs didn’t help much in the dungeon, but he was extremely helpful when attracting enemies.

He made his decision.

You have become a monster tamer. You have lost all tamed animals.

“Show class: Monster Tamer.” Voice said expectantly.

Monster Tamer Level 1

This class levels up by one for every ten player levels. To increase the level you must have Leadership stat of (five x (current Monster Tamer level + 1)

For being an animal tamer, and becoming close to a monster type you can become a monster tamer.

You may tame any monster type you have formed a bond with.

There are two types of bonds: compassionate bonds, and fearful bonds.

You do not need to form bonds to tame monsters. Any monster you tame will keep its original stats, skills, and abilities.

You have currently unlocked 1 type of monster to tame.

Monster types:

Bear type

You may tame one monster for every Monster Tamer level.

This class increases in levels as you increase in levels. You may evolve this class if you tame special monsters.

There are currently 1 Bear Monster in you vicinity. You may tame up to one monsters at this time.

Please indicate which monster(s) you wish to tame.

(Author note* Yes I know it says are currently 1 and one monsters. I thought it sounded slightly more game like)

He chose the only bear near him. As he did he realized something was happening. Troy, Rabs, and Heather started to glow. Above them showed a chain symbol being broken. Rabs and Troy looked at each other.

He also got a notification at the same time.

You have gained knowledge of the Bear Language. You may now communicate to all bear type life forms.

Troy spoke to Voice.

“Master, your contract with us is broken. I have decided to go back to my family. You may come and visit if you wish.”

Voice realized he would lose the rabbits but at least Troy still held some affection towards him. Troy left after he finished.

Rabs spoke to Voice.

“Master, your contract with us is broken. I have decided to go back to my family. You may not come and visit even if you wish.”

Voice was bemused by Rabs’ response. He didn’t really have any strong feeling towards the thing, but he did feel Rabs owed him for the food at least. Rabs left after he finished.

Heather spoke to Voice.

“Master, your contract with us is broken. I have decided to forgo going back to my family. You may accept me as a pet if you wish.”

Voice was confused by Heather’s response.

“What do you mean? I’m no longer an animal tamer.”

EDI interrupted by tapping his shoulder.

“It seems like she wants to stay with you. Animals can choose to follow someone as their pet. Technically she wasn’t your pet but your tamed beast before.”

Voice didn’t understand the difference.

“What’s the difference?”

EDI continued, “Well, pets don’t get an equal share of exp, only twenty percent. And any items they pick up are automatically put into the owner’s inventory.”

Voice was more than just a little bit upset. “WHAT!? You mean they have been leeching exp from me?” It was a good thing that the other rabbits had left. Voice wanted to kill them.

He looked at Heather and tilted his head quizzically. “So why do want to stay?”

Heater had a slight blush come to her rabbit cheeks.

“Well, the food is better with you…”

Voice let out a hearty laugh.

“Well” he tried to talk between laughs, “At least I know where your loyalties lie.” His laughing fit had subsided. “If you want to come with me then I accept.”

You have added Heather the rabbit as your pet. You may have ((charisma -+ user level) / 25) pets. Number is rounded up. You currently have 1 out of 1 pets.

Voice asked the bear its name.

“Master. My name Boris.”

I guess bears aren’t that smart.

They went through the rest of the hallways judging the bear’s strengths and weaknesses. No one attacked the other monsters until it was clear that the bear would lose. It might not have been smart, but it was an amazing fighter. They went through to the squirrels. While the bear killed all of the others Voice focused on one level one squirrel.

He had decided yesterday to find a new way to block the squirrel. The squirrel jumped at Voice several times. He watched the squirrel’s trajectory instead of trying to see its body movements.

After only a few more jumps Voice had figured it out.

“EUREKA!”

The group ran to his room. They saw a disturbing scene. The squirrel would jump to attack Voice, only to be smacked to the side by a laughing Voice. Voice was mercilessly force healing the squirrel before letting it attack him and knocking it aside. When he finally tired of it he killed the thing with a quick flick of his wrist. Snapping the squirrel’s neck.

You have gained two wisdom for figuring out a method of defense for all of the monster on level one of the beginners dungeon.

You have gained four agility for utilizing a dexterous method of defense for all of the monster on level one of the beginners dungeon.

They went through the rest of floor one before calling it a day. Voice wanted to go to level two, but he didn’t want to be tired before his bout with the obstacle course. He told EDI they should meet up again tomorrow if she had time, and instructed his rabbit and bear to slaughter as many monsters as possible in the woods.

The tires didn’t pose any problem. He climbed the rope wall with ease. The people with poles desperately aimed for him, only to be outmaneuvered by his giddy anticipation of conflict with Steve.

He easily climbed the cliff face from memory. Steve was waiting with his two short swords. The area on top of the cliff was a perfect circle of 12 feet in diameter.

“Alright boy. You made it to me… finally. Let’s see if all that perk in your step has any way of helping you dodge me.”

Voice was very confident at first. He looked not at what part of Steve’s body was moving, but where he was aiming.

That didn’t help Voice dodge. Steve immediately saw through his idea and changed his thrust angle part way through. The smack almost knocked Voice off the cliff.

Damn! I’ll never beat the guy.

Voice got back up and prepared for the next strike.

Steve sent one sword towards Voice’s shins, while the other attacked his neck. Voice thought to put his staff vertically to stop the swords, but they somehow flowed around his staff.

Watching where the attacks were going wasn’t helping any more than watching Steve’s feet. That’s when Voice had an idea. He watched where the next strike was going to go, then went to block it even as he looked at Steve’s feet.

I knew it! He moves his feet slightly when he changes where he will attack!

Voice was again knocked down, but this time he got up with a smile. Steve was a little unnerved by the smile, but attacked anyway. Voice watched Steve’s entire body. Not just which direction his arms were swinging in their attacks, but also the position of his feet, even the chest since it might indicate a change.

He tried dodging several attacks, sometimes he used instinct sometimes not. He would duck and weave, but always got hit.

Eventually he used instinct and followed the path it told him. It was very precise. It seemed the more information he had on a subject the better his instinct ability was. He put the butt of his staff on Steve’s left knee, and pushed. At the same time he kicked backwards.

Steve’s swords whistled by where Voice had been standing just moments before. The audience suddenly started shouting and clapping.

He got a notice, but before he could read it Master Blackhand was there the same instant.

“Voice, you have dodged one of Steve’s attacks. That is no small feat.”

Yeah, I got that. I witnessed it firsthand

“You see, Steve is the weapons master here. He is trained in all martial weapons. The fact that he missed is a great indication of your skill.”

Voice was shocked, the old man was giving out some high praise.

“Thank you old man. You said you’d train me if I dodged. When do we start?”

Blackhand laughed. “Start? Boy you have already passed the basic training with flying colors! If you want any more you will need to go to a complex set up for armor training.”

You have learned the skill heavy armor.

“Identify skill: Heavy Armor.”

Heavy Armor

Current Level: Apprentice Level 25 Exp 0.00%

By training in heavy armor you have learned the skill.

Heavy armor now is like a second skin. When wearing heavy armor that weighs 50 lbs. or less, you do not feel the effects of wearing armor.

Heavy armor now also adds an additional 10% to defense.

To level this skill you must become more attuned to heavy armor.

Proficiency in arms and armor may be trained by someone of higher skill level. In that case starting level and rank of these types of skills would be higher.

He also read his other notice.

For continued use of the Instinct ability it has evolved. You have gained the Sense ability.

Sense

This ability allows the user to instinctively know the best place for a successful attack or block.

As you use this ability it will: last longer, cost less magic, and raise the amount of information you get.

Current Duration: 5 uses

Current Stamina Cost: 50 magic, 25 stamina

Current Information: Average

“Master, does that mean you won’t teach me?”

“Boy, I will teach you all you want. First though, you have to come to my defensive training center. It is quite a ways from here. I am just here to visit an old friend.” He smiled as he said this. He also bid Voice to call up his map. He then marked the place where his training center was. It was far away. Really far.

Voice decided to clean up his quests here before he left.

“Thank you master, but didn’t you say I had to clear the dungeon? It might take a while.”

“Oh that, that was just to get you used to fighting in your armor. You can quit if you want to.”

Voice heard a slight change in Master Blackhand’s tone, so he said. “Master I will defeat the dungeon.”

Blackhand smiled and disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Voice thanked Steve and jumped down to where the air cushion was. While he was leaving everyone was patting him on the back, and some where punching his armored arm.

When he called Heather and Boris the bear back he looked through his inventory. He had several stacks of animal fur and meat. He gave out the meat, one third to Heather and two thirds to the bear. They both ate ravenously.

He went back to Susan’s and slept. It had been a very good week. Now all he needed to do was figure out how to gain the title of Mar’s Chosen One.

Stats WindowNameVoice0fReasonClassMonster TamerHealth200Mana390Stamina290Level10Current TitleBunny LoverHealth Regen/Sec2.0Mana Regen/Sec2.2Stamina Regen/Sec4.4Strength29Agility24Wisdom22Intelligence39Endurance44Dexterity25Luck10Vitality29Charisma11Compassion35Leadership36Logic12Piety25Unused Stat Points55Fame490

Skills WindowIdentify Novice Level 9 Exp 21.11%Skill Fusion Novice Level 3 Exp 00.00%Identify Skill Novice Level 6 Exp 42.28%First Aid Novice Level 1 Exp 90.00%Deception Novice Level 3 Exp 82.50%Critical Strike Novice Level 6 Exp 75.00%Automated Novice Level 6 Exp 25.00%Auto Aid Novice Level 1 Exp 90.00%Alchemical Aid Novice Level 1 Exp 00.00%Speed Reading Novice Level 9 Exp 00.00%Auto Read Novice Level 20 Exp 40.00%Identify Compatible Skills Novice Level 1 Exp 00.00%Skill Dissembler Novice Level 1 Exp 00.00%Cooking Novice Level 22 Exp 20.00%Climbing Novice Level 3 Exp 60.00%Heavy Armor Apprentice Level 25 Exp 00.00%Group Skill: Key to Self-Sustained Alchemy Novice Level 8 Exp 57.23%

Affinities WindowNature10Light10