The fire burned brightly, illuminating his surroundings. Nico took a deep breath and bit into a frog he'd caught a few minutes ago after failing to catch fish from the river. Harpooning was harder than he thought. In his frustration, he threw the makeshift harpoon made of a long sturdy twig he'd sharpened into the bushes. He heard a croak and hurriedly checked. To his surprise, he skewered a large frog. It died immediately. Hunger overcame Nico so he washed the frog and disemboweled it - cleaning thoroughly. He'd scored an edible frog.
The frog tasted fishy. It was disgusting. He'd been taught to eat frogs during camping sessions, but even then he was allowed to dab a bit of seasoning. "We aren't savages." said the instructor one time.
Nico also made a makeshift bed from some hay and soft grass. It wasn't comfortable, but he'd slept in worse places.
As he was falling asleep, he stargazed for a few minutes. Remarking how otherworldly the sky looked. None of the constellations he knew painted the night but the view was leagues better than the most beautiful night he saw prior to coming here. He also noticed that there were three moons in Rosen Grande. One was red, another was blue and the last one was dull white. Very curious.
Late into the night, Nico was awoken by bright flashing lights at the corner of his vision. He realized that the map was blinking fast. Shaking off his sleepiness, he toggled the map. 6 dots, one yellow, 5 red were approaching his location, fast. He could hear loud growling from their direction.
"Wolves?, Shit!" Nico stumbled and looked for a place to hide. "There!" he whispered. He hid behind a large rock adjacent to the river.
I only have to hide until they pass or kill whatever it is those beasts are hunting. The growling got louder. He peeked and saw 5 large wolves accosting and toying a small white furred wolf cub. It had wounds all over and was clearly exhausted. Nico felt sorry for the cub. But such is the law of the jungle.
An unfamiliar ding sounded from within his consciousness. "Notice: D level difficulty task. Save the wolf cub. Reward: 50 XP, Bonus: Pet. (Conditions apply)."
"There doesn't seem to be any penalties. And acquiring a pet this early in the game would prove to be more of a burden." Reassuring himself that doing nothing was the best course of action, he sat still trying to ignore the raucous growls and pitiful crying of the cub. But his heart couldn't take it.
Nico, from a very young age, had always had a soft spot for animals - especially the helpless ones.
"Sh*t, F**k, I'm out of my mind." Gritting his teeth, he took his spear and sprinted towards the wolves. He made a swiping motion which caught the larger of the wolves off - guard, wounding its snout in the process.
The wolves took a step back, unsure. They glared at Nico but remained cautious. They were intelligent to a degree. Nico glanced at the wounded cub.
"Hey little one, please don't die on me. That would make this risking my life business a bit useless." As if understanding his words, the cub once again rose to its knees and stood behind him.
Nico realized that the wolves were still being cautious and are hesitating to attack. Nico didn't know how to fight or use the wooden spear in an effective way, so he thought of ways to escape. The river was around 5 meters away. Could he outrun the wolves? He had nowhere else to go and prayed that wolves won't swim the river just to hunt them down.
"Right" He decided. In a swift motion, he dropped his spear and picked up the cub by its belly - turned around and ran for his life. But the wolves didn't make it easy. Realizing that Nico was harmless after dropping the spear, they immediately chased him. The largest wolves whom Nico wounded made use of it's massive hind legs to pounce on Nico mutilating his back in the process. Luckily, when the strike hit, Nico was already mid - jump towards the river. The pain and force instantly knocked Nico out of breath as they plunged into the river. Adrenaline kicked in immediately as Nico resurfaced, keeping in mind the cub in his arms. The poor thing clutched its claws strongly onto Nico's shoulder, lacerating it in the process - but Nico was too scared and pumped to feel it.
The wolves watched Nico and the cub swim away across the river. One tried to cross but decided against it due to its depth. Once again, Nico was surprised at their intelligence.
The adrenaline wore out quickly and the pain surged once more. They'd been swimming for 20 minutes and Nico's stamina was falling quickly. He also contracted a cold and other status ailment which hindered his movements even further. He'd spotted the bank and estimated that he'd reach it in a few more strokes, but his body failed him. The two began to sink as Nico lost consciousness.
Nico woke up to the smell of herbs. He tried to sit upright but a something or someone pushed him back down.
"I suggest you lie down for a moment, child. I haven't finished disinfecting your wound yet." a sweet voice of an old woman sounded from the side of the hide mat Nico was laid face down on.
"Where am I?" asked Nico, clearly exhausted.
"You're in our little settlement, a few hundred meters from the river. We found you and your pet almost dying by the bank. The both of you have serious wounds - did you steal the cub from its mother?" The old woman sounded incredulous and spoke as if scolding a child.
"The cub? Yes, where is it? Is it OK?" Nico once again tried to rise up in a panic. The woman pushed him down once more. "Stop doing that, you'll hurt yourself. The cub is fine. I've tended to her wounds."
"She's sleeping next to the fire over there" she motions towards a small fireplace that was currently cooking something that smelled like broth. Seeing the cub alive and safe, Nico's fatigue once again took over him and he fell asleep.
The next day, Nico woke up at around noon. He found himself wearing different clothes than what he wore before. The material was faded and rough which made him uncomfortable. He felt his back. The wound was still there but it didn't hurt as much as it did before.
He looked around the house. It was a thatched hut made of hay and sticks bundled together for a wall and a roof.
"You're awake!" said the old woman in glee. "Your little cub is quite a handful!"
The old woman beckoned Nico to come out and what greeted him was a group of children playing with the small animal. The little thing was pure white and had bright red eyes. He was not longer than Nico's forearm. My gosh what an adorable creature! thought Nico.
The cub must've smelled Nico's scent as it immediately abandoned the kids and playfully pounced on him. The cub purred as Nico stroked it's back.
A notification appeared in his field of view.
"D Level Quest Successful, 50 XP awarded. Conditions for bonus reward met."
"Wolf Cub Requests Tamer – Beast agreement. Y/N"
Nico and the cub stared at each other. There was willingness and even a hint of sad pleading in the cub's eyes.
Nico agreed.
"Please select a name for your Beast."
Nico thought for a moment, but the name came to him almost immediately. Maybe it was because he'd been reading mythologies lately - he chose the name, Fenrir. The wolf pup glowed for a moment and a collar appeared on its neck. For a moment he was worried that Fenrir might choke, but that didn't happen.
Fenrir appeared to like its name. It jumped around after they finished the agreement. A window appeared in front of Nico showing Fenrir's details and stats. Nico saw that Fenrir's gender was omitted. He lifted the pup and sure enough, nothing. He frowned at the peculiarity of it but paid no mind further.
Nico opened his own stats to see how much more experience he needed to reach second level. The counter indicated that he needed 150 more XP. He shuddered at the thought of risking his life three more times for D level quests that could reward him with enough.
His eye was then drawn to the MP bar under his HP. It was still empty but had a division of ¼ empty and ¾ grayed out. He eyed Fenrir suspiciously, but the pup responded with a feeling of innocence.
"The only explanation would be that entering into an agreement with a beast eats a portion of MP – and since I had none from the start, rather than take MP elsewhere, the system slashed my allocation." Nico could think of no other logical explanation other than what he posited from the information at hand.
Breaking his focus was a man holding a bow. "Seems like you've recovered." He looked at Nico from top to bottom. "I'm lacking manpower – could use your help!"
A prompt appeared once more.
"C Level Difficulty Quest: Hunt the beast."
"F*ck."