It only took me a couple of minutes to make my way to Ardenveil, at which point I asked a guard for directions to the skill shop. I wasn’t familiar with monster taming in the slightest, so I didn’t know what to expect. However, there should have been some skill that could be learned to do so.
At the spell shop, I found a halfling girl working the counter, swinging her legs behind the desk as she read through a large book. There was not currently a line at the shop, and she looked as if she was used to having quite a bit of free time. Granted, now that I thought about it, I hadn’t seen many players along the road to the shop. At least, not many that I could immediately identify as such.
Her brow twitched slightly at the sounds of my approach, and she looked up over her book. She had red hair and green eyes, as well as a warm smile on her face. “Hello, adventurer! What can I do for you today?”
I gave a small nod, happy that she was at least paying attention. “Do you have anything like a skill book? My friend obtained a Rook Roc egg that is about to hatch, and we need to make sure that we have the skill to tame it.”
“A taming skill?” She tilted her head, slowly closing her book. “That’s certainly not a specialty of the area, but… let me take a look. I think we’ve got a couple of basic copies. You said it was a Rook Roc, right?”
After saying that, she hopped up from her chair, walking towards the rows of shelves in the back. “They don’t have any special requirements… and if it’s a hatchling, a basic skill should work. Really, as long as you feed a hatchling and take care of it for a couple days, you can get the skill manually. Well, as long as you don’t mistreat it.”
“Are there any advantages of having the skill, then?” I asked curiously, to which the halfling nodded her head.
“There are. The biggest one is growth rate. Tamed monsters passively burn their tamer’s mana to accelerate their growth. Using the Rook Roc as an example, it normally takes eight months for it to reach full maturity if it grows naturally. However, if it is tamed, it might take as little as a week, depending on the tamer.”
“Also, you can communicate mentally with your tamed monster, though doing so burns mana. Tell your friend to be sure to talk to it whenever they can, so they can build a stronger connection and help it become more intelligent. Ah! Here it is.” The halfling suddenly exclaimed, grabbing onto the top shelf to pull herself up.
“Looks like we had three copies in stock, so you’re in luck. As for price, monster taming is a pretty rare skill, so it is valued at one gold.”
As soon as she said that, I took a gold coin out of my inventory to place on the counter. “Do you know where I can get suitable feed for the hatchling?”
Again, she had to think about the answer there. “Let’s see. A newly born Rook Roc is actually not a picky eater. Moreover, Rook Rocs themselves are known for eating anything, though they have a preference for unrefined ores. Check the blacksmith, and see if they have any spare ore that you could purchase?”
After saying that, she gave me directions to a nearby blacksmith, as well as the skill book. Part of me was tempted to learn the skill myself out of habit, but I did not particularly want to be a monster tamer. Furthermore, passively burning my mana meant that there was the possibility of burnout, given my low level.
I quickly left the skill shop, making my way to the blacksmith. Once again, I spent a gold coin, buying one hundred pieces of iron ore, and two hundred and fifty pieces of copper ore. This should be plenty to keep the hatchling fed until it could mature.
With my shopping done, I sprinted back to where I had left Diane, seeing her crouched down next to the egg, watching it twitch from side to side with an anxious expression. When she saw me approach, her eyes lit up. “Did you get it?” She asked, to which I nodded and repeated what the shopkeeper had told me.
“They eat ores, huh?” She had a strange expression on her face as she said that, while I gave her both the skill book and the materials that I had purchased. “I finished breakfast, by the way. It should still be warm. You can go ahead and eat while I write all of this down to tell my player.”
I chuckled slightly, nodding my head. When I walked over to the campfire, I saw a large platter of scrambled eggs, and thinly cut slices of meat. Whether the meat was the snake or the birds, I had no idea. I had already handed all of that over to Diane.
While I was eating, I heard a crack in the distance, as well as a sharp animal cry. Looking over, I saw a brown beak poking through the eggshell, starting to break it apart from the inside. Diane quickly finished writing in her book, putting the book back in her inventory and watching.
Once the hatchling had completely broken out of its shell, she stretched her hand out, a thin line of energy reaching out to touch the bird. Immediately, its cry ceased, and it looked at Diane as if seeing its mother, crawling over to nuzzle against her knee. Diane giggled lightly, pulling out one of the copper ores and holding it down for the bird.
To my surprise, the Rook Roc had no problem with the ore, the material shattering under the force of its beak. After its small meal, it let out a happy cry, pulling itself up and into Diane’s lap to rest.
For her part, Diane seemed incredibly happy, carefully holding the bird to prevent it from falling and hurting itself. She glanced over towards me, and gave a small chuckle. “Don’t worry about my player, by the way. I know she comes across as cold, maybe even arrogant, but that’s not the case. She’s actually very kind.”
“Really now?” I asked with an amused smile, glad to hear that. I always felt like something wasn’t quite right about how Diane acted, but I couldn’t be sure what it was.
“Yeah. She told me that she’s what players call a ‘roleplayer’. It means that she establishes a persona for herself, and does her best to stick to it whenever she can, even if nobody else is around. After all, there could always be people watching. She’s only ‘broken character’ a few times with me, like when she told me about her past. I just don’t want you to think that she hates you or anything because of how she set her character.”
I paused briefly, before nodding my head. “I… suppose that explains her obsession with rogue skills. She wants to complete her character.” In fact, now that I thought about it, she mentioned something similar before, in regards to the player that had abandoned me. He wanted my trait in order to ‘complete’ his own character concept.
“That’s right. She has played a few different concepts that she told me about, but when she started this game, she said that she wanted to be a stoic rogue, a master assassin hiding in the shadows, one with darkness itself. Which… really annoyed her when she saw our negative trait.”
I let out a brief chuckle at that, nodding my head. Once I was done eating, I pulled out my wand to cast Clean on the dishes, that way Diane could gather them up. I’d offer to do so myself, but… I had far less inventory space than she did, even if my bags were taken into account.
As I stood up, Diane glanced up at the sky, seeming to measure the time. “She should be logging on in just a few minutes. Can you hold onto the hatchling for me? I don’t want it to startle her into doing something bad.”
I blinked, nodding and walking over to take the hatchling from Diane, though it let out a soft cry of complaint. Diane leaned in, whispering soothing words to get it to calm down. Then, she stood up, quickly fixing her clothes and lifting her facemask, adopting the same style of dress that her player always preferred. From there, she quickly set about cleaning up the campsite.
Just as she was almost finished picking up the alarm spikes, her body stiffened, her eyes growing sharper. She looked down at the spike she was holding, and simply yanked it out of the ground. After putting it in her inventory, she brought out the book that she had showed me the day before, flipping through to the last few pages. For a moment, she looked confused, glancing over at the bird in my arms, before flipping back a couple more pages.
At that point, her visible eye widened, and her entire body stiffened. I could see a faint reddening of her cheeks from above her mask, but she did her best to return her expression to normal. The book in her hands slammed shut, returning to her inventory before she walked over. “I didn’t think that she would tell you that much.” She said in a calm tone, holding her hands out for the bird, which I gladly returned to her.
The bird, for its part, seemed confused, but soon began to rub against Diane’s neck. “Did she name it?” Diane asked, and I shook my head.
“She probably wanted to let you name it. It only hatched a few minutes ago.”
Diane paused at that, looking down at the bird once again. “Wyr… I’ll call him Wyr.”
Wyr let out a coo of approval at that, nodding its head. Diane carefully brought the bird up to her shoulder, where it began to perch, and finished picking up the last of the campsite. “So, you still want to come with me? After learning all of that?”
“I didn’t learn anything that wouldn’t make me want to.” I told her honestly. “Though… would you mind telling me a bit more about it? We’ve got a long road ahead of us, unless you want me to carry you.”
Diane’s eye narrowed slightly at the idea of being carried, and she shook her head. “We can walk. As for telling you more… not much to tell. In my world, my bones are too weak to do more than slowly walk, and my immune system… I can’t leave my room without special gear, or else I will get sick. And nobody can come into my room without going through a special shower right outside my door.”
I couldn’t help but wince as she said that, even as she kept that same, stoic voice, talking as if it was about someone else entirely. No wonder she wants to escape into different characters, if that is what is waiting for her in her real life.
“It won’t hurt your health to play ‘games’ like this, will it?” I asked in concern, and Diane looked up at me. For a moment, it looked like her gaze softened, before going back to the same hard look I was used to from her.
“This isn’t my body, so it’s fine. I have to stay in bed most of the day anyway, hooked up to machines, so why not add one more that lets me enjoy myself?”
“That… makes sense, in a kind of upsetting way.” I said with a sigh, to which Diane nodded her agreement. The two of us began to set out down the road, maintaining a rather casual pace. If we maintained this rate, it would probably take us more than a week just to hit the next city. Though, I’m sure that Diane herself was aware of this, and more than capable of moving faster. Most likely, she was taking it slow to allow time for Wyr to grow, not wanting to upset him with the sudden rush of movement.
“How do you want to handle combat?” Diane asked, keeping her eyes on the road ahead. “We both have stealth power sets. We could go for a twin assassin style, a trap master style, or something else.”
“Actually, I have a lot more than just stealth. Though, admittedly my stealth is my strongest support ability.” I rubbed the back of my head, chuckling slightly. “I have gotten pretty good with a bow, too. Kelly, my teacher, taught me a skill that could let me become a pseudo-mage once I evolve it one last time.”
“I think… you can be our assassin. I’ll be the one to draw the monster’s attention and act as your shield. When you see an opening, you move in for the kill.”
When I said that, Diane’s body stiffened slightly. “The tank is a very painful role. You’ll be targeted by everything we fight, and could take serious injuries.”
“I can handle it.” I grinned. “Or have you forgotten what I went through to learn fire magic?”
“I have not forgotten, and that’s why I’m worried.” Diane spoke up, raising her voice slightly. “You are way too willing to let your body take gruesome damage for any little thing. You almost died in that first enchantment, you know?”
I blinked, looking over at her. Ah… this must be what her Chosen meant by breaking character. Come to think of it, she ran over immediately to try to help me in the cave, too.
“I will admit… that hurt far more than I was expecting it to. However… it’s always been my dream to be able to learn magic. And… I knew that I would respawn, even if I died. I thought that going through one death would be worth it to be able to do that. Though, thankfully, that’s not a problem anymore. The healing skill that Kelly taught me is really good. I could probably recover from those burns in just a few seconds now.”
I was tempted to offer a demonstration, but that would somewhat defeat the purpose of showing her that I didn’t enjoy hurting myself. Diane let out a deep breath, her voice going stoic once again. “Fine. However, make sure not to get yourself killed. If something manages to kill you, that means I’ll have to finish the fight alone.”
