The sun was starting to set as Jordie and George left the "Panda's Feeding Ground" restaurant, and Jordie was just about ready to slip into a food coma. Duros was looking a little glazed over from his lovely feast of fish, while Minos had already checked out for the evening, letting out little snores as he dreamed of Wooly Pandas, Ice Pandas and Khalkotauroi leaping over fences.
"Hey, thanks for covering my meal," Jordie said to George, "I owe ya one."
"Nah, it's cool," George replied while waving his hand, "It ain't everyday someone with a story as crazy as yours come to a quiet village like this. Consider it repayment for such an entertaining tale."
"Ah...okay," Jordie accepted with a shrug, "Well...see ya later then."
"Have a nice evening"
Jordie and George were about to their separate ways, when George noticed that Jordie wasn't heading in the direction of the local inn.
"Huh? Where you going? Inn's that way."
"Ah, well..."
"Worried about money?"
"Unless you know someplace I could trade in medical herbs for some?," Jordie asked while pointing towards his bag.
"Closed for the day."
"Figured."
"It's fine. Just tell them George sent ya. They'll put you up for the evening," the guardsman said in a casual manner.
"Oh! In that case, uh... I'll head to..."
"The Panda's Den, go straight from here and take a left," George directed
"Right on," Jordie said with a nod as he headed in the direction George pointed, "Thank you."
"No problem," George said while waving Jordie good-bye.
Once Jordie had turned the corner and was out of sight, George turned to his partner Duros. Noticing his master's sudden change in demeanor, the Tusked Panda perked up.
"Keep an eye on him. I think he might attract more trouble than what he needs right now."
"Gao."
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"Wow...this is a surprisingly comfortable room," Jordie thought as he surveyed his resting place for the evening, "lot of bamboo furniture...granted this entire place seems to be made of bamboo... d'awww! They even provided a little crib, how cute!"
The Panda's Den was a quaint two-story building that was made entirely out of Golden Bamboo, which gave the building this ostentatiously homie vibe.
Getting a room was just as easy as George said it would be. The moment Jordie mentioned George's name, the proprietress immediately gave him a room key and sent him on his way.
The room he was given was a small room with a bamboo mat futon style bed, a bamboo crib in the corner, a small bamboo wardrobe for his clothes , a little bamboo night desk and a little window facing the street. There was even a little candle providing light sitting on the night desk. All in all, a perfect place for him to rest for the evening.
"Alright Minos, let's set you down first," Jordie said as he opened his pack and gently lifted Minos from his baby carrier slot.
"Thanks for setting up that slot by the way, System."
[You're welcome.]
Minos was still fast asleep as Jordie laid him down into the crib. Once he was settled in, Minos did a little kick in that way babies do when they're sleeping in a new area.
Jordie wished he had a camera to catch this cute little moment in time.
With Minos settled in, Jordie proceeded to stretch a bit before laying on the bamboo bed. It was surprisingly soft. Jordie was all set to go to sleep at this point, but he needed to take care of something first.
Focusing his mind, Jordie pulled up the System's interface, made his way over to the [Partners] tab and pulled up the stat sheet for Bessie, the Khalkotauroi Cow.
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Name: Bessie
Classification: Beast
Species: Bovine
Subspecies: Khalkotauroi
Level: 10
Grade: B
Status: Healthy (Content) (Sleeping)
Gender: Female
Attributes: Fire
Skills: Bronze Bull Flame, Bronze Horns, Bronze Hooves, Rampage
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"So that's what she can do huh? She's probably gonna be my main source of attacking for a while...until I finally get a bit stronger," Jordie mused while staring at her status screen, "I do hope she's enjoying the stables right now...man I need to hurry the hell up and get my hands on a habitat disk."
Jordie learned that the monsters in this world didn't go to a magical space inside of tamers or turn into easy-to-carry crystals or cards, instead, this world worked off of external care and carry logic.
Monsters normally worked and lived side-by-side with their tamers, which meant businesses that revolved around caring, nursing and feeding monsters were rather lucrative depending on the clientele.
Unfortunately this also led to the issue of living arrangements. Echidnara was home to many, many different types of monsters that lived in a massive variety of environments. Some liked to live on land, others in the water, some in the air and some in horribly evil places where the dead walked and the sound of crying babies was considered music. This was less of an issue for tamers who had monsters that were of a similar species or came from similar habitats, but at that point it became a problem with real estate.
This is where the habitat disks came into play.
Circa three hundred years B.J.(before Jordie), a pair of master tamers known as the Script Emperor and the Dimensional King pooled their talents together to create a tool designed to make it easier for tamers everywhere to keep a variety of monsters. It took them awhile, but they eventually created the first habitat disks.
These disks were pocket dimension tools designed to house monsters and make it so tamers were always within arm's reach of their partners.
Since then, many other tamers have gone above and beyond in innovating and upgrading the inner workings of these disks to be able to house more monsters, provide means for them to live in their preferred environments, as well as include training and nurturing effects. The only drawback was that all these features costed a lot of money.
"Perhaps the System got one in that Store tab of theirs," Jordie thought to himself, "Regardless, it's time for me to sleep."
Exhausted by the events of the day, Jordie blew out the candle, laid down on the futon bed and drifted off to sleep.
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Under the cover of night, and outside of the inn, three suspicious individuals were eyeing the place with unsavory intentions.
"And you're sure that baby minotaur is here, Sarah?," a large bald man with a horrendous mustache asked.
"Positive boss," a woman dressed in black robes replied, "saw that bloke enter this place with my own eyes."
"Yeah yeah, I can cor-corrro...I can agree with her, yeah," a weedy man that looked as slick as an eel corrobated.
"Very well then," the mustached man said with a nod, "Jacobs, call out the monkey."
The man that was as slick as an eel unholstered a beaten habitat disk that was hanging on his belt and began to feed mana into it. Moments later, a small three-eyed macaque hopped out of the disk.