Benedictus immediately ordered her as he passed her by, "Wait by the cabin! I'll handle these things!"
She didn't even question it as she simply tried to make her way over to the cabin like he had said. At the same time, he closed the distance with the pack of bug wolf monsters. Raising his gun, he fired a shot into the closest one that seemed to be moving dead straight towards him.
The infused bullet like before blew a hole straight through it. This time, going through every major organ in its body. This triggered the rest of the pack to stop chasing the girl and focus on him as a loud noise from his gun along with the death of one of their own seemed to register to them as a danger they needed to prioritize dealing with.
Benedictus noted that he only had 6 bullets left now in his pistol, and he immediately fired off one of the bullets into the head of the nearby creature leaping at him. It was trying to go for his neck, but he blew its head off. Another one came close trying to leap at him, but he dodged backwards out of the way while holding out his pocket knife. He carved from its open mouth all the way down to its back leg a massive burning cut that caused it to fall over and begin bleeding out heavily.
He knew that one would die on its own and decided to prioritize the ones that were still up and moving. Two creatures tried to rush him down at the same time while the third was trying to reposition behind him. What they did not expect, however, was that Ben was not a dumb animal. He easily understood their tactics and dealt with them accordingly.
Exploding the head of one of them with his bullet, and turning to slice open the second one that was charging him with his pocket knife. The third one tried to continue its original idea to attack him from behind, but by that point he already held out his pistol and fired straight at its skull.
4 of the remaining 6 beasts started to encircle him while a 5th one actually tried to rush him down. He only had 3 bullets left in his gun, so he needed to use them intelligently. As the creature rushed at him, he chose not to shoot it. Instead, he dipped down under it, so that as it leaped towards where he was originally standing, he would carve its underbelly open with his pocket knife.
As the creature fell a few feet behind where he was, it was quickly dying from the deadly wound. He turned his attention to the four that were encircling him and, with swift movements and rotations, he aimed and shot 3 of them dead, leaving only two creatures left. Although now he was out of ammunition for his pistol and trying to reload in the middle of this would not be ideal.
He quickly put his pistol back in its holster, freeing up one hand as the last two creatures charged at him together. He coated his free hand in red lightning using the Static Fist spell, and he punched one of the creatures dead in the snout. It got launched backwards just a bit and tried to move, but it was paralyzed temporarily. The other one was trying to go for his legs to try and take him down. He dodged out of the way of it and stabbed repeatedly with his pocket knife in the neck.
As that one fell to the ground, he stabbed it some more into the chest to make sure that it would start to bleed out as he was going for most of its vitals. He didn't get to inflict much more damage with his pocket knife as he noticed the other one getting up. Instead, he turned his attention to it, rushing it down and going for a punch to the side of its face.
The red lightning covering his fist definitely did hefty damage. He used the opening from the punch to stab it in the eye with his pocket knife. As it cried out in pain, it tried to move away but as it tried to put distance between him and it, he kicked it in the bottom of its jaw while pulling his pocket knife out of its eye.
He saw that the magic on his pocket knife faded away. It had done more than enough and, still holding it, he knew that it could serve more. The creature began to try and run, but he didn't let it get far. He used his geo manipulation to immediately spawn a hole under it that it fell into.
The hole was just deep enough that it could not simply climb out in its injured state. He walked up to the pit and cast minor pyro manipulation to unleash a torrent of flame and burned it alive. Once he was sure that it was dead, he walked away and waited for his notification to pop up telling him that he had leveled up.
However, the notification did not show up, which confused him. After every fight, the notification always popped up indicating that he gained XP. As he tried to figure out what that meant, he suddenly was launched forward at a decent speed from a very heavy impact behind him.
As he tumbled forward, it occurred to him too late that there was more potentially waiting and preparing. Quickly trying to get his bearings and get back to his feet, he looked in the direction of where he heard the sound of running. He saw the same insectoid creature but this time twice the size and with a horn on its snout the length of a baseball bat but in the shape of a rhinoceros beetle's horn. It was going to try and charge him and impale him. He was able to roll out of the way in the nick of time as it missed him.
As it tried to slow down its momentum in order to turn around and go for another charge, he was able to get to his feet though very battered. He felt like it probably broke maybe two ribs and definitely bruised most of his back. He tried to fire lightning at it, but it almost seemed to recognize it, dodging out of the way and closing the distance. It could not complete its charge so it settled for smacking him with its hind leg.
The force of the kick sent him flying backwards about 20 feet. If he didn't have broken ribs before, he definitely did now. He tried to stand, but he couldn't due to the heavy amount of pain he was in. Instead, he decided to simply sit up as best as he could. Using one of his arms for support, he held out his hand, looking at the creature as it was charging at him once more.
He noticed its positioning was actually near one of his pitfall traps. It was definitely deep enough that it could be trapped in it temporarily. He decided in the heat of the moment to cast two spells at the same time.
He created another pit that was less deep off to the side, closer to where it was trying to go while firing lightning from his hand again. It was either going to dodge to one side or the other like it had done before and either way it would fall into one of the pits. Due to what he could only hope to call luck, it dodged off to the right where the deeper trap was and it fell in.
Using the last of his effort, he cast minor geo manipulation again, this time turning the walls of the deeper pit trap into a spiky tomb that impaled the bigger creature from all sides. He heard it let out a guttural scream as the spikes began to pierce its body before it went dead silent abruptly. As he felt it was dead, he laid down on the ground.
He felt happy to see the notification finally popped up. It congratulated him on earning 160 XP and reaching level 4. It explained that he needed 50 more XP to reach level 5.
He saw that it told him he had a total of 4 additional stat points and 6 skill points to spend. Paired with the previous points that he had yet to spend, he now had a total of 6 stat points and 9 skill points he needed to allocate. But he was surprised by another notification that said upon reaching level 3 he had unlocked the magical spell trees and could select a new spell to add to his repertoire. A follow-up notification appeared that said upon reaching level 4 he gained a passive class ability called, Arcane Ancestry.
As he lay there, he weekly moved his arms to look at the spell tab hoping to find healing magic even if it was of a weak variety. It kind of upset him finding out the hard way that, upon leveling up, you don't instantly heal and regain all of your lost health or energy. He saw that in the School of Vivomancy there was a branch of magic devoted to healing and purification called life magic.
He still only had access to the level one spells, but upon reaching level 5, he would gain access to level 5 spells listed in the tab for all types. He selected the spell, Heart of Health, and looked over what it said.
Heart of Health: You select one target that you can see within 50 feet or yourself. The selected target is healed for 12 to 42 HP. This can be cast 10 times per day, and costs 15 EP per use.
He saw that there was another one just like it called Loving Hand, but specifically for more melee focused hands-on healing. He took heart of health simply because of the range that it provided. Immediately, he channeled his mana trying and envisioning using the spell to repair his injuries. He rapidly felt as the wounds he sustained almost seemed to be undone in a matter of 3 seconds. He still felt pain, and it hurt to sit up, but he was definitely a lot less hurt now.
He healed himself with the spell again, going for another round of healing. This time it seemed to finish the rest of the healing, and he felt like he was in perfect health once more. He easily got back to his feet and went to look for the woman.
He saw that she was huddled in front of the cabin by the front door, almost afraid to go in. As he came around the corner she screamed quickly but calmed down immediately upon seeing him.
"I'm sorry. You startled me. I thought you were one of the vinuu coming to kill me," she quickly apologized.
"Vinuu?" he remarked, confused and questioning.
She clarified and explained, "My class is beast tamer. I have the ability to study animals by observing them for about an hour and I get more information the longer I observe. I saw a few of those creatures when I first arrived and learned that they are called vinuu. I was trying to find a creature to tame at the time."
He looked at her and questioned about the creature she was holding, "I see.... I am assuming the one you're holding is the one you have tamed?"
She gave a quick nod, "Yes. This is Charles. I named him after a rabbit I had when I was a kid. His kind of called duulox."
"Interesting, I guess," he remarked.
She gave a nod and then stated more in a questioning tone, "I'm assuming you're also a beast tamer? I saw your oshaluu inside."
"That's what that type of creature is called? I would never have even come close to guessing that. I just thought it was a snake sheep creature," he said in response, clearly showing that he had no idea.
She asked, kind of confused, "Oh so you're not a beast tamer, I take it.... Wait, if you're not a beast tamer, how did you tame that animal?"
"I have a lot of experience raising pets. And it is young. I wouldn't say that I tamed it, but I definitely have started earning its trust after I saved it this morning," he casually remarked while moving to the door to open it and check on the creature.
When he opened the door, it seemed to look at him worried before realizing it with him. It immediately rushed over to him and wrapped its froggy paws around his leg almost to latch on for protection. He reached down and grabbed it, picking it up and holding it in his arms like earlier. He began to pet the creature and calm it down.
The woman watched as it seemed to relax into his touch and gradually become more comfortable. The way he held it was reminiscent of how someone holds a cat, but the way he was petting it was more reminiscent of someone holding a puppy. She was surprised to see that it worked so well.
Suddenly he spoke to her while still petting the creature, "You have a camp somewhere around here? If so, you might want to start heading back now that the coast is clear."
"Oh..... No. No I don't... All I had was a little hammock that I had set up in some tree branches. I wouldn't call it a camp. Outside of what was in my purse I don't really have much," she replied, realizing that she had been here probably for the same amount of time as him and, in comparison, she was massively behind in terms of survival.
He let out a long, deep sigh. He realized that he was about to do something stupid again.
Slowly placing what he now knew was an oshaluu on to his makeshift bed, he looked back at the woman and told her plainly, "I don't trust anyone as a precaution when I first meet them. Safer to assume that everyone might try stabbing you in the back. Despite that..... I'll set you up a temporary structure to sleep in for the night. Don't make me regret doing this."
She realized that he was talking about making her a shelter and as a process through her brain she started nodding her head rapidly, "You won't. I promise I won't do anything like that. Thank you sir."
"The name is Benedictus," he said introducing himself finally.
"Thank you, Mr. Benedictus. My name is Marcelina. It's a pleasure to meet you," she replied back, offering out her hand to shake.
He clearly looked cautious about it, but he shook her hand out of respect. He then walked outside and put a little bit of space between his cabin and the temporary place he was going to build for her.
Using a few castings of Minor Geo Manipulation, he built her a domed hut made of stone with a wooden door. It did not look nice, and it was definitely a much lower quality than his cabin. However, he gave her a similar bed set up and a fire pit as well. It took him only maybe 20 minutes to make it, just to make sure it would not collapse, and that everything was sturdy and sound in design.
"This is a temporary spot. I don't expect you to stay long. If you end up staying longer, and I start to trust you, I'll consider making you a more permanent setup. If I end up staying in this forest, of course," he said to her once he was done, making it very clear that if she wanted a better place to sleep in she would have to earn it.
She did not turn down what he had done simply because that would have been rude, and he didn't have to do it to begin with. She thanked him for what he had given her, choosing to be grateful, "Honestly, this is much better than sleeping in the hammock. Thank you."
She was about to head inside when he stopped her and asked her a question that seemed different from his overall tone so far, "I could actually use your help with something. You seem to recognize what type of creature I had rescued, and I was wondering if you also knew...." For some reason he felt nervous asking, "Can you tell me if it's a boy or a girl? I've been trying to think of a name for it, but if I don't know its gender I won't be able to give it a proper name."
Seeing how he looked thinking about it, she giggled a little. Luckily, she did have the information for him since she was familiar with its species due to her skills and told him, "She's lucky to have you. I think you'll find a lovely name for her."
Hearing Marcelina say that made him feel a little bit better. He gave her a nod before walking back towards his cabin, "Goodnight ma'am."
"Goodnight Mr. Ben," she said, waving him farewell as both of them entered into their places of rest.
Closing the door behind him, he locked it for safety just in case she might have tried to come and slit his throat in the middle of the night. He was going to be extra cautious until she proved otherwise. He hoped, however, that she was actually a good person and that they could try surviving together. That way, at least he wouldn't be so lonely.
He turned his attention to the creature still lying on his bed. It happily seemed to look at him as he came over and sat next to it. Petting its head, it leaned into his touch.
Now knowing that the creature was female, he started formulating potential names for it. He did quite a bit of thinking while he was slowly lying down and cuddling with her. Eventually, he decided on a name and grabbed it by its face and petting it behind its ears.
He looked into her eyes, saying, "From now on I think I'm going to call you, Emma. Do you like that name?"
It made a happy sound and then started licking the bottom of his chin with its extra long dog-like tongue. He took it as a sign that she did enjoy the name and her affection was a sign of acceptance. It made him happy, and he felt at ease once again.
He then turned his attention to the final thing he wanted to deal with for the night. He pulled up his character sheet again and went to his abilities and clicked on Arcane Ancestry. Instead of immediately telling him what the ability does, it gave a brief idea and asked him to make a choice.
It stated the following:
Arcanists are well known for using their magic that they have been naturally gifted with to try and tap into more of the power that it originates from. Based on the origin of their arcane power, they gain several benefits from strengthening their connection to their original bloodline. Choose one of the following types of magical bloodlines as the origin of your powers and gain its benefits. The choices are as follows: draconic, demonic, angelic, eldritch, or fey?
Without hesitation, he decided to select draconic. In almost all RPGs that have magic and dragons, the dragons are often some of the most powerful magical creatures in those settings. Selecting them would definitely provide him with a lot more power, he hoped.
It would seem that his choice in his mind was correct, as he immediately became notified that the benefits of choosing the draconic bloodline as his Arcane Ancestry were quite strong. All the base damage for his spells was increased by triple their original amount, he could also cast all spells from level 1 to level 10 an additional 5 more times per day, and lastly, he gained the ability to passively regenerate lost mana by 50 points every hour.
He suddenly felt the magic inside him pulse. He felt a surge of power that he almost became overwhelmed by for a moment. As he acclimated to this increase in overall potency of power, a smile creeped along his face. He would definitely test the strength of his spells in the morning.
Sleep came a lot easier this time around. Soon he began dreaming of one of the few good memories that he had of his childhood. In it, the family dog that he treasured dearly played with him and comforted him on his 9th birthday. The rest of his family seemed to not only forget it was his birthday, and went off on their own to go do other stuff, leaving him alone with only the dog. Despite the sadness of his family having forgotten it was his birthday, he remembers that he had a good birthday because of the dog. The animals seemed to sense that he was feeling sad about it and did everything it could that day to try and uplift his spirit.
The last thing he remembers is the dog licking his face repeatedly in a show of affection. And it was the first thing he woke up to in the morning as Emma began licking his face as well. Slowly opening his eyes and petting the creature, he noticed that there was something different about Emma.
Once he fully snapped awake, he saw that she now had two tiny gold horns growing out of her head and had sprouted a pair of golden feathered wings. This definitely was not something she had yesterday, and he was kind of concerned about how she managed to grow wings and horns overnight. But Emma herself didn't seem to mind or care as she continued to lick his face, occasionally going, "bbbaaa".
He started to get up, and he picked up Emma in order to take her over to Marcelina to see if she could explain what the hell happened. When he opened the door to the cabin, the first thing he saw was Marcelina on the edge of the river naked using the water to bathe herself. Hearing him open the cabin door, she quickly covered herself and gave a small squeaking scream. He, out of respect, slammed the door back closed.
He stood there kind of shocked at first, not expecting to see that this morning. After a moment of composing himself, he cracked the door open, and he shouted out to her, "Sorry about that! I didn't know you were washing yourself! When you get done and dressed, could you come here?! Something happened to Emma and I need your help! It's not immediately urgent, but I would like you to give her a look!"
He heard her shout back, "OK! Just give me a few minutes!"
Closing the door to the cabin back shut, he sat Emma down and tried to understand how she changed. Grabbing two chocolate bars and a bottle of water from his shelf, he put some food in his belly and handled his thirst. The entire time, not taking an eye off of her as she playfully nudged against him like a cat before rolling over and letting him pet her underbelly.
By the time he had finished, he heard a knock on the door which caused Emma to jump in shock, but she just moved behind him as he walked to open the door. Opening it, he saw Marcelina in a new pair of clothes, clearly what looked to be a workout outfit she probably had in her purse. He knew women that went to the local gym that he had a membership in back on Earth who would sometimes store work out clothes in their bags to carry with them so they could change into them in the locker rooms or in the bathrooms. Despite how odd it was from a male's perspective, he wrote it off as just her being prepared in other respects.
She immediately looked behind him at Emma. She noticed the horns and wings as well that were definitely not there yesterday. She clearly seemed to have an idea of what might be going on but began examining Emma cautiously because Emma was still an alien animal to her that she was not currently bonded with.
After about 10 minutes of examining her and being able to inspect her new body parts, Marcelina stood up and let out a sigh. This worried Ben as he thought something might have been wrong with Emma.
Before he could ask any concerning questions, Marcelina put up her hand and explained, "As a beast tamer I have an ability that allows me to bond with animals and if I give them a name it can cause them to gain power and transform. This morning when I woke up, I saw this in effect with Charles. He was no longer a round bunny, but he was much longer and could even walk on his hind legs. He resembled more like a rabbit ferret creature with four eyes and horns than he originally did. He also seemed to gain a level of intelligence as he responded to what I was saying with some degree of understanding, but could not talk. My ability expressly states that it's not a unique thing and that this is a potential natural occurrence when an animal and a person have a strong enough bond or an animal has imprinted onto a person. Giving the creature a name is what is the catalyst for the transformation, and it will occur while they're sleeping. It looks like Emma must have been imprinted on to you after you saved her yesterday."
"So you're saying that this is supposed to be normal. That's kind of odd, but I played some games where it was a mechanic. It's a little weird seeing it in practice, but I guess I can get used to it," Benedictus responded while rubbing the back of his head.
"From what my ability's description told me, natural occurrences for people who are not some form of beast tamer or have a similar ability like mine, usually tend to be much weaker. So, even though she has transformed and gotten stronger, don't expect her to probably start acting or doing things on a similar level to Charles. But I do suggest you open your character sheet, and you should see a new tab for animal companions with all of her information," Marcelina continued to inform him.
Sure enough, when he pulled up his character sheet he saw that there was a new tab for animal companions. Clicking on it, he saw that it was in a list format and currently the only one listed was Emma. Clicking on the character sheet only gave him the basics of Emma's information. It gave him a basic overview of her stats, her current HP, AC, and EP, along with any natural resistances or weaknesses that she had.
Through it, he found out that she had resistance to both magical fire and magical water-based attacks. He also saw that her HP was kind of low, but her EP was very high along with her AC. Her AC was 35 and her EP was 650. Despite her only having 100 HP, she clearly could take hits and had enough energy to spare. Her stats, though, were kind of low in comparison to his own, with only a few being over 12. Her highest stat was Brilliance, which seemed to be 20.
Thinking about it, he realized that even if she wasn't the most intelligent creature ever, she was definitely smart enough that she probably could understand the intent behind what he was saying. He decided to test her to check and see just how intelligent she was.
He looked to her and asked, "Emma, where is the bed?"
To his surprise, she walked over to the bed and climbed onto it, jumping to signify that she was on bed. He smiled a little, and then he asked her, "Emma, where is the food?"
Emma walked over to the fire pit and right next to it were the bones of the fish that she had eaten the day before. He had to toss them onto the edge of the fire pit so that the bones could burn away or at least down enough where they would eventually continue to fuel the fire. She pulled out one of the fishbones and held it in her teeth.
"Looks like you're pretty smart, Emma. Aren't I a lucky guy? My Emma is so intelligent," he said, petting her on the head, and she nuzzled into his touch.
Marcelina, watching it all, remarked with a surprise smile, questioning some things mentally, "Well... I guess I stand corrected.... I didn't expect her to be that intelligent."
"That's understandable. It just so happens that her Brilliance is 20. Considering mine is in the 30s, and I'm, not to toot my own horn, a lot smarter than most people, I figured this meant she probably had at least human intelligence. She's still technically a child and her character sheet confirms that she's only about 3 months old. So she might be smart but she is still learning," he clarified.
Hearing that, Marcelina got confused, and then she reacted very surprised and astonished, blurting out loudly, "Wait, you're telling me she has a Brilliance of 20! How is she smarter than me?! My Brilliance is only 14!"
"Wait what," Benedictus questioned when hearing that.