Black Tortoise Lake
"Wheereezz the child?!"
"Where'zzz the mother?!"
"Zzzhe must've recovered zzzomehow. Touch down, hornetzz."
Three motorcycle sized Scarlet Hornets landed on the lake shore one after the other. As they landed, their bodies began to emit a black smoke as their forms took on a more humanoid form.
"Szzzearch ze areaaa", one of the Hornets commanded in a strange buzzing voice, "leeeaveee no zzztone unturned."
"Yezzz zir!"
With their transformation complete, the three hornets dispersed in search of a wounded minotaur mother and her child, unaware of what had transpired here and that those involved were now long gone.
_________________________________________________
Jordie and Minos walked through the woods for what Jordie felt was a solid hour or so.
He wasn't sure where he was heading, but he did know that the sooner he hit civilization and open spaces the better. But before that, he had to take care of a few things.
"Alright System. Pull up my status window please."
[Activating Status window.]
_________________________________________________
Name: Jordie
Race: Human(Blessed)
Age: 20
Level: 1*
Strength: Average*
Agility: Above Average*
Constitution: Average*
Charisma: Below Average*
Intelligence: Good*
Magical Power: Average*
"Luck": Exceptional
Skills: Analyze, Spark, Map, 79 other locked skills
Evaluation: You are a lucky S.O.B.
_________________________________________________
"Wait, what's with the quotes? Is Luck not an actual stat you can keep track of?", Jordie asked.
[Technically no, but after the one in a million chance encounter you just had, I'm now keeping track of it.]
"...I feel like you're sassing me, also when did I get magical power? And 79 locked skills?"
[You quite literally just inherited them.]
"...oh. Well then...this feels a bit like cheating to be honest."
[Why do you think the Luck stats is in quotes?]
"You are sassing me!"
*GROOOWWWLLL*
"Eh?"
"Mooowaaah!", Minos began to cry, which immediately set off Jordie's newly acquired paternal instincts.
"Oh no baby what's wrong", he said in that baby voice everyone seems to get. You know the one.
As Jordie began to fuss and go over the growing list of reasons why Minos was crying, the System interjected
[Host does remember that he's contracted with baby Minos, right?]
"Yeah, and?", Jordie said as he began bouncing the baby lightly as a means to calm him down.
[You are quite literally connected with him on a spiritual and mental level.], the System pointed out.
"Oh yeah...oh right!"
[How are you this dense?]
"Hey give me a break, I only just got to this world", Jordie retorted while focusing on his newly established bond with Minos.
Jordie closed his eyes and began to use his mind to find the nascent connection that he had with baby Minos. It took awhile but eventually he managed to find it and tap into it.
The moment he did, a single word and emotion became very clear to him: hunger.
"Ohhh, baby's hungry", Jordie declared, "And I don't think I can give anything I have harvested so far..."
Jordie paused for a bit as he examined Minos' crying mouth.
"Yup, no teeth", Jordie confirmed, "Gonna need to find some milk to formula or something...Hey System, I know in some stories y'all tend to come with a shop function or something. You happen to sell minotaur milk?"
[...]
"What?"
[Quest activated: Feeding Partners
Objective: Find suitable food for your contracted beast.
Description: Part of being a monster tamer is making sure your monsters are eating right. Go out and find something that your partner can safely digest and derive nutrients from.
Rewards: Unlock Shop function in System, 50 units of Omnifeed, one random skill ticket]
"Seriously?", Jordie asked in an annoyed tone, "Fine, can I at least get some suitable locations in the area?"
Moments later, Jordie's [Map] skill activated and three locations were highlighted. Two of the places on the map were in areas the map hadn't marked down yet, i.e., dark spots.
"Hmmm, all on route huh? That's useful", Jordie noted, "Thank you System."
[You're welcome.]
Jordie readjusted Minos so that he was now being carried backpack style. While he preferred a proper baby carrier, it was the best he could do for now.
"Off to the first location!"
{The following is a basically montage because describing travel time and locations can get boring. It is recommend that you pull up your favorite montage song while reading the following}.
_________________________________________________
Location #1: Dairy Bee Hive
Seeing the cat-sized, cow printed bees buzz around a massive hive, Jordie felt compelled to use the [Analyze] skill on them.
_________________________________________________
Classification: Insect
Species: Bee
Subspecies: Dairy Bee
Level: 3
Grade: F
Status: Healthy
Gender: Female
Attribute:Wood
Description: Dairy Bees are low-leveled insect monsters known to create a delicious milk-like honey that can be used to create delicious dairy products. It is a delicious and nutritious substance.
_________________________________________________
"Ok, what the hell System?"
[What? You needed milk.]
"Yeah, except this skill failed to mention that the aforementioned honey is made of both plant pollen and living creatures!"
[No idea what you mean.]
"I see the pile of corpses around that hive, I am not risking baby Minos in that hell hive."
As if the universe was agreeing with him, Jordie saw a Rock Tusk Boar accidentally stumble into the Dairy Bee's territory.
What happened next would haunt him for years to come.
"Next location!", Jordie declared as he tried to suppress the mental image of a tough boar monster being turned into a twitchy skin.
"Thank the gods that Minos didn't see that."
_________________________________________________
Location #2: Saber-Tooth Ape Tree-top
Sitting atop a platform made of five oversized palm trees, a gorilla-like monster with a rainbow colored face and long fangs was nursing a smaller version of itself.
_________________________________________________
Classification: Beast
Species: Ape
Sub-species: Saber-Tooth Ape
Level: 10
Grade: D
Status: Healthy
Gender: Female
Attribute: Earth
Description: A gorilla-like monster with long fangs and colorful face like a mandrill. Known for their great size, brute strength and surprising intelligence, Saber-Tooth Apes are popular monsters for newbie tamers. The only drawback is their ill-tempers.
_________________________________________________
"Pass!", Jordie declared, "I am way too weak to deal with something that can reliably King Kong grab me. The pile of dead animals with snapped necks is not helping either."
[Coward], the System chided.
"I prefer pragmatic."
_________________________________________________
Location #3: Great Rainbow Plains
"Oh this place is gorgeous!", Jordie exclaimed.
Jordie and Minos had come across a great open grassland that was filled with rainbow-colored grass. Whole place looked like something out of a painting. Just a little away from their current position was a herd of animals that Jordie recognized as being cows. In other words, something that he could safely milk.
"Now this is more like it! Open air, beautiful landscape and animals that I can probably milk in a relatively safe manner", Jordie said happily, "Now let's see what these things are."
Seeing a lone bovine that seemed separate from the herd, Jordie proceeded to use the [Analyze] skill.
_________________________________________________
Classification: Beast
Species: Bovine
Sub-species: Khalkotauroi
Level: 8
Grade: C
Gender: Male
Status: Healthy
Attribute: Fire
Description: Monstrous cattle said to have been blessed by the gods of forge and fire. Armed with horns and hooves of bronze, the Khalkotauroi make for formidable foes. Combined with the ability to breath fire, only the very brave or very foolish try to hunt or tame these monsters.
_________________________________________________
"...well crap."