"Hey, you guys! What are you doing in the open?" Alfredo asked. Usually, people would stay hidden inside their homes or shelters, not wondering the streets.
"We're hunting!" Hunter shouted.
Everyone thought about it and decided it made sense. Although there was a lot of dangers involved with hunting there was also a massive danger to not hunt and get stronger. After all, if everything around you gets stronger and more dangerous while you stay the same you're almost destined to become dinner.
Everyone on the Rocs nodded before descending, they all landed in front of the six people and sized them up. Of course, they did the same, sizing up Lachlan's group. The man named Luke was absolutely huge compared to everyone, he was towering over them. Lachlan was one of the shortest people there, only being 5'0 he had to look up to make eye contact with him.
"So are you guys the only ones left?" Alfredo asked. He had looked around and noticed most the places were abandoned, the doors were slightly opened and the stores seemed ransacked. But that made sense, no one wanted to wait in the desert only to die.
"Indeed, there were a few others, but they've either already got in their cars and drove off, hoping to get to a city or got themselves killed by beasts," Luke explained while clenching his fist, he begun berating the people that left in a harsh voice, "They left us to die, only taking themselves and whatever items they could. There was enough room for us, even if we had to be separated in different cars it would have worked out eventually, but no, they only cared for themselves".
They all felt some sympathy for this group, after all, they were the same in that they only took themselves. However, they didn't feel guilty, this new world doesn't wait for anyone and it certainly isn't a place for soft-hearted people.
"It's alright, we could probably you all with us. However, it's on the condition that you help us should a fight start, okay?" Chloe said. Although she was happy to help she didn't want people who'll ditch them the moment things get risky.
"That's perfectly fine for us, we just want to get out of here," Luke said, desperation could be seen in his eyes and heard through the tone of his voice.
"What's so bad about this place?" Alfredo asked. Although a few of the answers were obvious, due to it being in the desert there wasn't a large number of beasts here. Lack of watering holes or rivers being the main reason.
"Well there probably isn't enough food and water to survive for a long period of time, the people that drove away took whatever they could from the stores. There's also this heat. Although we can survive in it, constantly fighting whatever beast decides to show up is exhausting us," Luke explained.
"Okay, well, we'll rest here for a bit as the birds need to rest. We'll also salvage whatever we can from the stores, probably find some bags to put food in," Alfredo said.
"Sure, we'll lead you to the stores that should still have things," Luke said, he turned around and began to walk towards the central area.
Lachlan was beginning to feel a bit exhausted. His head was hurting a lot, which meant this was what happened if you had a tamed beast out for too long.
He looked towards the Rocs, 'Can you three recover when unsummoned?' The easiest way to find out the answer was the just ask directly.
'Why? Are we a burden to father?' They began to get restless as they thought of the possibility that they were a burden.
'No, it's just that it's taxing on the mind to keep you three out for too long. Don't worry, I will summon you three again' Lachlan attempted to reassure them. He did realise that although they were adolescence they still had a rather childish mind.
'Alright, and yes we can recover,' The Rocs answer pleased Lachlan as it would make things much easier.
"Come back," Lachlan muttered. The Rocs began to sink into their shadows before those shadows emerged with Lachlan's.
Lachlan turned around and began to walk down the road towards the central area with the rest of the group. There wasn't much happening, although there were corpses everyone's adapted to the putrid smell and gruesome sight already.
It didn't take long, only 5 minutes to reach their destination, an IGA. At the entrance of the place everyone else unsummoned their tames as it beginning to take a toll.
Walking inside everyone looked around and inspected what was salvageable. There was a lot of water, bags of chips and some sweets. Although there was a lot of different seasoning, the meat in the fridges has already gone off.
Jack went behind one of the counters and grabbed a bunch of shopping bags, giving one or two out to everyone.
The first thing everyone grabbed was some water and a lot of it, enough to last them plenty of days even in this unbearable heat.
"We'll need some hats and sunscreen, the sun is beginning to reach its peak," Chloe said, "Although the air around the birds is calm and cool the same can't be said about the sun, we don't want anyone burning".
Everyone walked over to the selection of hats available, some grabbed bucket hats while others grabbed caps. Everyone then walked to the sunglasses section, grabbing whatever fit and looked alright.
Chloe gave everyone a large bottle of sunscreen to use, although they would probably only need one there wasn't anything wrong with taking more. It wasn't like they were going to get in trouble for doing it.
Lachlan quickly told Chloe that he was going to the toilet before jogging over. Opening up the door and quickly looking around Lachlan noticed the toilet was still in good condition, there were no corpses.
When Lachlan finished he went over to the sink to wash his hands and noticed his reflection in the mirror. Taking a closer look he realised he looked a bit manlier, masculine.
'Analyse'
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Name: Lachlan Wilson (Half-Human, Half-???)
Age: 16 (Teenager)
Soul Contracts: 1/5
Compatibility: Winged Beasts (Perfect)
STR: 15, AGI: 14, VIT: 56
INT: 16, PER: 9, WIL: 20
Weakness: Inexperienced, Easily Distracted
Strengths: Lightning Speeds, Absolute Crushing Grip
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'Huh, well at least this confirms that the three birds only take up 1 Soul Contract,' Lachlan thought. However, what made Lachlan most proud was his stats. After all, three very strong beasts certainly did increase his natural stats.
The only thing that annoyed him was the perception being so long. Although it was probably a select few beasts that really had high perception such as dogs, it was still annoying to not have double digits.
Walking out he saw everyone gathered together talking in a cirlce.
"Sorry, we forgot to introduce our selves, I'm Alfredo this is Franklin".
"I'm Chloe, don't have a tamed beast".
"I'm Jack, this is Rocky".
"I'm Adam, this is Shadow".
"I'm Dylan, this is Fast and Slow".
Lachlan quickly ran up to the group to introduce himself.
"Hey! I'm Lachlan, the three birds you saw are Calamity, Disaster, and Catastrophe".
"Huh, well those are some terrifying names, anyway, I'm Luke, this is my twin brother Adam and my tamed beast is called Mike," Luke.
"I'm Adam as mentioned by Luke and my beautiful beast is called Yeet! And yes, I entirely based its name off a meme," Adam said.
"I'm Hunter Stephen, the scorpion you saw before was my tamed beasts. Its name is Trick," Hunter said.
The girl called Mia came forward to introduce herself, "Hey! I'm Mia Stephen, Hunter's older sister and my beautiful companion is named Mamba".
This time it was Emily to come forward and introduce herself, "Hi there, I'm Emily Hans, just like Chloe I don't have a tamed beast of my own".
The last person was the youngest guy in their group, but instead of introducing himself he ran up to Jack and held both his hands up high, "So you've tamed lizards too, nice to meet a fellow lizard tamer, the names Ryley and I have four lizards one of which you've already met before which was surprising. Summon Surprise, Ambush, Ninja, and Scan!"
Three of the tattoos Ryley had lit up, two were on his leg while one was on his face. In front of them appeared three more lizards, two of which looked exactly like the previous one. However, one of them looked entirely different. It was only 8cm long and 3 – 5cm wide.
'Analyse'.
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Name: Ambush (Trickster Lizard)
Age: Adult
Attribute: Rock
Grade: Normal
Innate Talent: 6th Grade
Level: 3
STR: 34(+2), AGI: 37(+5), VIT: 35(+3)
INT: 26, PER: 33(+2), WIL: 28
Weakness: Slow Maneuverability
Strengths: Strong Skin, Teeth, Claws, Camouflage Abilities
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Name: Ninja (Trickster Lizard)
Age: Adult
Attribute: Rock
Grade: Normal
Innate Talent: 8th Grade
Level: 4
STR: 33(+3), AGI: 37(+4), VIT: 35(+1)
INT: 23, PER: 33, WIL: 28
Weakness: Slow Maneuverability
Strengths: Strong Skin, Teeth, Claws, Camouflage Abilities
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Name: Scan (Detection Lizard)
Age: Adult
Attribute: Rock/Wind/Water
Grade: Normal
Innate Talent: 9th Grade
Level: 0
STR: 23, AGI: 23, VIT: 34
INT: 30, PER: 92, WIL: 29
Weakness: Weak Defence
Strengths: Strong Camouflag Abilities, Extremely Heightened Senses
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Lachlan noticed something immediately and that was that not everything was the same level. Although that didn't pose too much of a problem it just meant if he wanted to get stronger overall he needed to train everything at the same time.