Sniff! Sniff!

"Come on, you can do it! Wake up!"

Crouching beside a seemingly dead old man was Gerald, holding a small pouch beside the guy's nose. There was some movement at long last as the smell penetrated his lungs.

"G-gold?" the old man said weakly, struggling to open his eyes fully to see the small yellow circles in front of his face.

"That's right, gold! It can all be yours, I just need you to get up and do a few little things for me," Gerald whispered sweet nothings into his ear while jiggling the money pouch in his face akin to a devil tempting a poor soul with money.

"R-really?" the shopkeeper asked hopefully and color returned to his deathly pale cheeks. "For me?" It suddenly seemed like the afterlife was getting further and further away from the poor guy.

Gerald secretly breathed out a sigh of relief. He almost wanted to give up. Despite his best attempts to bring the man back to life, it all seemed futile. And now he was suddenly reborn after smelling gold?! Wait, does gold even have a smell? Probably not, but who cares? It worked!

Now he just had to make sure the same thing didn't happen again. Who knows if the old heart could survive another jump scare from a Warg?

As the shopkeep stabilized on his feet, Gerald went to him and slowly and carefully explained the situation. At the mention of a Warg, the old man's body started trembling like a certain toy women liked to use on lonely nights, however, having a money pouch full of gold staring at him at arm's length, helped him from going into full panic mode.

"So, can you do it? I need something bright and noticeable for my mount. It needs to be clear to everyone that Toby is not just any wild beast. It's MY wild beast."

"Y-yes, c-certainly!" said the old man with a trembling voice. "I- I got just the thing!"

He then went somewhere in the back, probably the workshop, and soon came back with a magnificent-looking saddle.

You could tell it was expensive at a first glance. It had a soft leather seat and intricate silver rings holding the straps together. Also, the hard structural parts were pure white ivory with parts painted red and gold.

"I- It's supposed to be for another gentleman, b-but I'm sure he won't mind waiting a bit longer," the man timidly said.

Gerald didn't really care and the money given was more than enough to cover any problems the man might get from this action. Now the only thing left was to equip his mount with new gear.

The saddle didn't quite fit, but after they stuffed a thick bear fur underneath the front part, it was perfect. The straps also had to be modified somewhat, but after an hour everything was ready.

"Oh, it looks perfect!" Gerald exclaimed and patted the old man on the back. "You did great, it's even better than I had in mind! What do you think, Toby?"

The Warg didn't answer. It was simply moving around, trying to get accustomed to the feeling of having another piece of trash stuck on its back.

"I- I'm glad you like it," the shopkeeper said and waved them goodbye, still shaking and pale. As soon as the monster and master duo disappeared from his sight, he fell to the ground and threw up.

All the fear and stress he was holding in erupted all at once. At the same time, he started sweating and got cold shivers, barely making it back inside.

"By Innos, what happened to you, dear?" his wife exclaimed as soon as he entered their living quarters. He looked like he had just seen death.

The old man just waved it off and collapsed on his sofa, his heart still beating at full speed. "You wouldn't believe even if I told you, woman." He slowly started to calm down in the safety of his own home as he sighed, "Maybe it's time to retire… No gold is worth it playing with death."

During the next few days, rumors of a Warg roaming the streets started spreading like a wildfire. At first, people thought it was an escaped wild beast, but then there was talk of a tamed mount of a certain high-profile individual whose fame was also increasing rapidly in recent days.

GTA – Or Gerald-Toby Alliance, was wreaking chaos around the metropolis. The pair spent most of the day running around, attacking and brutalizing any monster that strayed too far from his group. They were bullying the solo attackers while cackling like madmen.

Well, Gerald was cackling while the Warg was just happily panting and releasing some funny cough-like sounds. It was trying its best.

During a short break, GTA went back into the city where they visited the same guy that made the Black Onyx cloaks, and requested clothes for the Warg.

It was a massive piece of clothing, like the one you would put on a knight's horse that covered the back, with a giant logo of the Black Onyx, recognizable from hundreds of meters away.

"Hehe, you are looking more and more like a proper mount, Toby! Hopefully, it's going to be enough to stop those lunatics from attacking us now," Gerald said.

Toby understood and nodded. Getting pelted with arrows wherever he went really wasn't good for his health. If Gerald wasn't always there to protect him, he would have been turned into a pin cushion dozens of times over.

Now, while it might seem like the duo were only having fun, they were actually both training to get stronger. Gerald kept absorbing the spirits of the dead, while the constantly hungry Warg was busy eating the corpses of the fallen.

It never in its life had such an all-you-can-eat buffet, and unsurprisingly, it became picky! It ignored the Goblins and even ate only the heart and liver of the Hobgoblins. The real treats were the occasional Orc Warrior or even a fellow Warg that fell before its mighty master.

"Say," Gerald started as Toby was busy munching on a juicy Orc leg. "I read somewhere that you can evolve into a Bloodhound. How does that even work? Do you just need to eat a lot or…?"

Sadly Toby had no clue what he was talking about and simply kept munching. It cracked the tough bones with its powerful jaws and devoured the delicious bone marrow inside.