Tim felt himself being healed and opened his eyes looking at the sky. In the corner of his eye he caught his health bar tick up from one nineteen to one twenty. Lifting his head he saw Simon healing him up with minor heal.
“What was my health when I passed out? Seventy? lower?” Tim questioned himself. “That means he had used minor heal at least five times, and there is no telling how long he had to wait for his mana to regenerate.”
Sitting up “Hey bud. How are you holding up?” Tim asked
Simon paused, “shouldn’t I be the one asking you that?” He chuckled before sighing “Better when I realized you were not going to die on me.”
“Yeah. You got me topped off. You didn't get hurt?” Tim asked, wanting to make sure.
Simon shook his head. “Nope, never got near me. With you and the defender being perfect tanks.” then cringed a bit. “I am just glad the defender took most of that monster's wrath. If it would have gone completely after you, I don't think you would have made it.”
“Yeah, the damn thing took me down to fifty hp with that one attack it did to me. I think we just fought hard out of our weight class.” Tim simply said then noticed two things, one the man next to his stats was now an emblem of a man hunched over on his hands on his knees. He focused on it.
You are exhausted!!!
Your stamina will drain twice as fast and you will move much slower till this condition is removed.
“Well that explained why he collapsed. It must have been exhaustion level two or worse. Either way he was just lucky it happened after the monster was defeated. If that fight continued they both would have been completely screwed. Letting that fade away mainly cause it didn't matter they are here and alive and they won their first encounter in this new world.” Which brought a huge smile to his face as opened up another notification.
CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!
You have defeated the level five bearded vulture bear and in return you and your party have earned five hundred experience points bringing you to level two!
Growing to level two
You now have ten points you can use to improve stats.
In later levels you can use them to improve skills, abilities, and even buy new paths.
You now have improved your abilities with a scimitar. Before you had no experience with this weapon causing your aim to be off, and your attacks to be shallow as you knew nothing on how to use it. Now your aim is more on the mark and your attacks may land for the damage with no penalty.
You have discovered hidden racial power.
Boiling blood: Thanks to your Orc ancestors you have a hidden bestial rage within you, which improves your stamina slowing down how much you consume, and strength for a small duration. You gain a plus one to all strength based skill, abilities and attack.
“Well we definitely fought out of our weight class.” Simon said.
“Ya think?” Tim replied.
“Well on a Great note! We are level two and we got the answer we needed about our stats.” Simon smiled.
“And I am excited to see what we can get later on. I mean buying paths? I wish I had a better idea about it but I am excited about the possibilities. What if we could both take similar classes, both become front liners who can summon clockwork fighters, creatures.. an army to fight with us?” Simon finished his eyes wide with excitement.
Tim hated to be that guy but. “Though that is super exciting, maybe we should worry about improving what we got right now.”
“Yeah I guess I am getting ahead of myself.” He clapped his hands together. “Welp, let's do it.”
Opening his character page Tim looked it over before deciding what stats he would improve but the biggest thing that ate at him was that low charisma, in a world where they probably will have to make alliances, friends, or whatever to survive. He thought he would start there and bring it up two, maybe three points. He watched it increase and then as he pushed for more he got a warning.
Due to your negative in this stat you are penalized to improve it too far. Unlike other stats that would cost one to improve ten through nineteen, and two to improve twenty through twenty nine. It costs you one additional point through those numbers.
“Uh Simon, have you tried to improve your con yet?” Tim asked
“Yeah. I take it you tried to improve your charisma and got a warning.” Simon replied
“I did. I guess you won't be going to the front line with me any time soon, and I won't be doing a lot of public speaking for us.” Tim said.
“Well things definitely won't be as easy and overpowered as I pictured.” Simon said.
“Things just have to have a balance. But I am not going to lie, I am a little happy with this knowledge because if we could just constantly improve our stats others like us would be terrifying monsters.”
“You are right. Though with that knowledge if we don't gain more points as we level we will have to start making some hard choices. So maybe at these early levels we improve only our good stats and our worst stat. Then next level we improve the ones we didn't this time?” He suggested.
“I see what you mean, but for me, we are in the woods, possibly days away from any civilization, so I will hold off on my charisma and increase my health, after almost getting one shot by that thing, I want to make sure Ill be able to be in the mix of things and keeping attention on me without you having to worry about me going down any time soon.” Tim said but also thinking if this was how it was going to be maybe he should have gone barbarian.
“Ok but last words from me on the subject. Don't just put all of your points in con, your other stats will suffer and if you get incapacitated then health doesn't mean shit.” He said glaring at Tim, knowing that was what he was thinking.
“Gotcha, I won't do that, I am aiming for more physical than mental right now though. So how about we get this done, possibly scout around some more before night hits us.” Tim brought up noticing the sun had passed its highest point in the sky.
Simon nodded and they both focused on their stats thinking about it. Tim was able to take back the two points He originally added to charisma and he had ten points ready to go again. After adding them where he wanted the voice popped in his head again.
You are about to accept where and what you spent your points on. Once accepted you cannot take back your choices, Are you sure you are happy with what you have chosen? Yes, or No?
Thinking yes Tim confirmed his choices and a new character sheet flooded his mind and vision, as well as he felt his body “improve” His skin tightened a bit as new muscles grew seeming a bit heavier, then after that adjusted he felt a bit lighter as something else kicked in, his body became healthier? As his hit points grew, aches, pains, and some other minor things he didn't really pay attention too from before started to feel as they left his body.
“Hey! This is actually pretty awesome!” Tim said.
Name: Cromus
Age:22
Level: 2
Exp: 500/900
Health: 160/160
Mana: 100/100
Stamina: 140/140
Stats
Strength: 14
Dexterity: 14
Constitution: 16
Intelligence: 10
Wisdom: 12
Charisma: 8
Race: Half-Orc: A race of an orc and human mix. Being a descendant of a violent race, and possibly the spawn of another being taken against their will, other races shy away from you, and it is harder for you to break the stigma you will receive a negative two to any charisma checks with other races. Though there is not only bad news with this race, you gain a plus two in strength and constitution, thanks to your orc heritage you are more sturdy than most other races, able to face terrors others wouldn't dare, and able to stomach things that would sicken most. You also have night vision, in areas of low light you are able to see normally.
Path: Gaia's Warrior: A warrior for the planet, friend to the forest and beasts alike, this path allows you to cast spells of nature and use equipment modified from the earth, as well allows you to improve your own capabilities from stats of animals, and have animals assist you later in levels. Gain bonuses when interacting with animals.
Boiling blood: Thanks to your Orc ancestors you have a hidden bestial rage within you, which improves your stamina slowing down how much you consume, and strength for a small duration. You gain a plus one to all strength based skill, abilities and attack.
Abilities
Animal Empathy: From a easy glance you are able to determine an animal's demeanor to you, as well as having a better understanding of how to improve the demeanor.
Animal Link: Once a day you are able to choose an animal who is neutral with you and create a telepathic link with the chosen animal for twenty four hours or until you sever the link.
Universal Translate: No worrying about language barrier, anything spoken, or read will be translated to a language you understand.
Spells
Heal (inferior): You are able to spend Ten mana to heal you or a willing target for ten hit points.
Nature's Assistant: You can spend four mana to help a plant grow a stage in its growth or remove any harmful effect it may have. The bigger the growth or larger effect consumes more mana.
Animal Affinity: You are able to spend fifty mana to manifest one animal body part on your body for ten minutes.
Skills
Identify (inferior): The basic ability that most intelligent being, can be used to identify items, creatures, and other humanoids.
CONGRATULATIONS! You have improved yourself. In this world your mental and physical ability will continuously be tested. Consider this your warning noble adventurer - focusing on a single "stat" may leave you struggling in certain situations and potentially causing fatality that is irreversible. While some adventurers center their attention on power and might - ultimately this will create a tether on themselves. The same is to be said for Wizards and scholars, books and knowledge are their focal point. However, this knowledge can also become their cage. Forever entrapping them in a single mentality. This is why we recommend you team up with others to cover your faults, learn, improve and become stronger in areas that are more than stats. Your journey will be enhanced with companionship - STAND TALL, KEEP MOVING FORWARD, BREAK THROUGH THOSE WALLS AND GROW!
Tim heard a noise next to him, looking over to find Simon eyeing Tim. “what?!”
“It is definitely something kind of weird to see, your body literally just morphed a little in front of me, it wasn't much and if you are not looking for it I think anyone could have missed it. but still interesting to watch.” Simon replied, still not taking his eyes off Tim.
Tim looked down at his arms, he could definitely see an increase in the muscle tone from what he did, not a lot different but it was noticeable. “Well you got to see mine, lets see yours.” Tim said, looking at Simon.
He nodded and started to focus. It did not take too long and Tim started to see what he mentioned. Very little but it was there. His muscles were small compared to Tim’s but they became more defined. He had more of a lean build compared to Tim’s bulk, He could guess he upped his Dexterity. His skin kind of changed, like most people have small flaws to it, some of the ones his face had just vanished, his hair got a more living vibe to it kind of like a small shine from the sun but the sun wasn't hitting it. So in a sense Simon's moon elf form was becoming more attractive.
“Well, were you able to notice anything?” Simon asked.
Tim took another look at him, he even looked a little more filled out, like he didn't realize it but he guessed he looked a little sickly compared to now. “Yeah, you toned up a little not like you added muscle but trained them enough to get a little more definition, you filled out a little more in the cheeks, some of your skin issues vanished and your hair has a bit of a shine to it.”
“Makes sense, I am guessing the definition came from the dexterity boost, the fill out from me bringing my constitution up to ten, I brought up my intelligence but I don't know what would show that off besides my head expanding thank gods that did not happen, as for the looks probably from me raising charisma.”
“Ok so what are your stats now?” Tim asked
“Ten, fourteen, ten, sixteen, ten and fourteen, in that order, I believe yours is laid out Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma as well. My path seems to be mainly spell biased so I think increasing my intelligence and mana pool is my best bet. What about you?” Simon asked
Looking back at his page real quick thinking, how all this is very crazy, to think we can change so much with some simple point changing. “Yeah mine is in the same order, fourteen, fourteen, sixteen, ten, twelve, and eight.” Tim Replied
“Well if the vulture bear is one of the worst things in this area at least we have an idea of it now, and as long as we don't get caught off guard we should be good for a bit.” Simon said
“On another note, I think we should share our character names for when we meet new people, cause he made us choose them for a reason, and first thing comes to mind most magic if you have a name, blood or both you can do serious harm.” Tim suggested.
Simon had a sly smile “My name from now on will be Sais.” He said, choking back a laugh.
Tim looked at him confused. “Says?! As in S. A. Y. S?” Tim asked.
“I spelled it differently it sounds like says, but I spelled it as S.A.I.S.” again he was trying to keep a straight face.
“You named yourself Sais, and that is funny? Ok feel me in cause I don’t get the joke.” Tim said, quirking an eyebrow.
“You're missing the bigger picture. My name was Simon and now it is Sais put them together you get Simon Sais.” Not able to contain his laughter anymore letting it out.
Tim chuckled a bit in return. “You made your name a meme.”
“Well think about it, if I get like a hold person spell or something similar, I can yell. I SAY FREEZE!” Sais replied, still grinning ear to ear.
Although Tim found it humorous, just not as much as Sais, shaking his head with a smile.
“Alright Mr. Original, what did you name yourself?” Sais, asked.
“I went with an oldie but a goody. Cromus.” Tim said with some pride.
Sais gave Cromus a flat look. “You are judging me for my name and you went with that?!”
“What? I always used this name, it seems like a powerful one to me.” Cromus replied defensively
A devilish smile creeped onto Sias's face. “After all these years and naming characters, have you ever googled that name? Even once?”
That made Cromus uneasy; he felt something bad coming. “No.. I never thought about checking it.” He said a bit sheepishly.
“That name. Is a brand name for a toothpaste in a foreign country back home. You are basically named after Minty fresh!” Sais stated
Cromus felt his jaw open and closed it. “Fine, Fine, I won't make fun of your name as long as you don't remind me of that ever again.” Cromus said needing to bury this right away.
“Alright. Cromus, let's get up and start looking around. Though I doubt anything will be living near that thing willingly.” Sais said standing up.
Cromus stood with him and yeah what he felt earlier was only confirmed, his body was a bit bigger but even so felt lighter, thinking about it he bounced a bit on his heels before jumping. From a standing position he could jump four feet, maybe a bit more if he really tried.
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
“Whoa?! What's the deal?” Sais asked, confused.
Cromus landed and it was not hard on his joints at all, slight bend as he landed and it was fine. “Sorry, I wanted to see what I could do from a standing position, my body just feels super light.”
“Alright I can understand that, it is impressive. I mean back home we could barely dream about jumping a foot off the ground.” He said.
“Yeah, I have a feeling running is going to be an experience as well.” Cromus said, picking up his bag. “Are you ready to start walking around and seeing what we can find?”
Sais gave a nod as he threw his bag over his shoulders, then grabbed his crossbow.
“Alright maybe we can head the way the vulture bear came from, find a cave or something for shelter tonight?” Cromus suggested.
“That could be promising but what if we find a mate waiting there for us?”
Cromus thought about it looking at the dead vulture bear. “I don't know but I want to believe if it's anything like its bear side, they only mate then leave. It's rare to find more than one adult living in the same space unless they are in captivity.”
“Well I feel like you are guessing right there. So I'll follow you, let's just try not to get surprised again.” Sais said.
Cromus nodded at him and started the way the creature came. Cromus stayed as close to the path it made that he could, it was hard to find the tracks at times but it started to get easier. Being as big as it was it made a mess of any limbs, bushes, or things that got in its path.
Congratulations!!! You have improved the Survivor skill, with this skill you can track living things, know your directions, and will rarely get lost in later levels, opening this up you stand as a novice. You will be able to notice smaller prints, broken paths and understand how long they have been left for, in the span of eight hours.
“That could definitely make things easier later on.” Cromus thought to himself. He then noticed a rabbit laying dead not far from the path, he bent down and picked it up.
Sais gave him a look. “What are you doing?”
“All we had in our bags were small rations, and even if we don't want to eat it, we can practice cleaning and cooking it. Worst comes to worse; it is used for some experience and skill training.” As he spoke a message appeared in his vision.
Skill unlocked: Looting
Would you like to loot a young rabbit? Yes/no
Pausing as he reread the new skill. “Sais, Did you touch the Vulture bear after we killed it?” Cromus asked.
“No. I was too focused on making sure my friend wasn’t going to die. Wh?” He started to ask then stopped himself. “You just got a prompt to loot the Rabbit.”
“Yep.” Cromus mentally clicked Yes and the rabbit started to quickly dissolve in thin air. Cromus let go of it and before the body hit the ground it had completely evaporated except for two palm sized pieces of meat and a neatly folded pelt.
Grabbing the meat and the pelt, he turned with Sais and they started backtracking to the Vulture bear corpse. looking at the creature Tim’s mind raced a bit with what could be gathered from it before he looked at Sais. “Well, go on.” He gestured to the creature’s corpse.
Sais hesitated but then walked up to it grabbing its fur as a few seconds passed. “Uh Cromus, did you do anything special to prompt the Looting ability?”
“No, I simply touched the rabbit and it gave me the prompt ''As he was speaking a Prompt appeared in Sias face.
Skill unlocked: Looting
Would you like to loot Bearded Vulture Bear? Yes/No
Sais mentally clicked yes and the body started to dissolve. As the loot started to appear the list showed in Sais' vision.
You have looted twelve pieces of Bearded Vulture Bear meat, Corrupted Bearded Vulture Bear Monster Core, Bearded Vulture Bear Talons, and Bearded Vulture Bear Hide.
All the items were laid out neatly, the hide was folded nicely, the talon’s laying on top of it, the core next to them, followed by the twelve pieces of meat, which were not small pieces each was around the size of half a rotisserie chicken.
Sais picked up the core which reminded him of a bowling ball, but was much lighter. The outer shell was clear but felt sturdy, tapping the shell a couple times, inside was a mist swirling with the colors brown, red, black, and purple looking at it, info appeared.
Corrupted Bearded Vulture Bear Core: This core has been tainted, once the foreign energy has been removed the core can be used for crafting, rituals, and even to improve oneself. Using it before the removal of the foreign energy could have severe consequences.
“Hey Cromus heads up.” Sais said, grabbing Cromus’s attention before throwing the core to him.
Cromus caught it and looked at it, getting the same info Sais did. “So someone or something affected the Bearded Vulture Bear?”
“That is what I am thinking.” Sais replied.
A message appeared in both their visions.
!!!Quest: Discover what corrupted the Bearded Vulture Bear. Reward 150 xp and Bearded Vulture Bear Quiver or Bearded Vulture Bear pendant. Do you accept this quest? Yes/No
At this point there was no need to say anything, both made eye contact and both mentally clicked Yes.
The two of them turned to the loot, “How do you want to divide this up?” Sais asked, looking everything over.
“No real point in rushing that choice. we don’t even know what the materials could be fully used for or if maybe selling them would be the better option.” Cromus replied.
“More than likely the hide would make some decent armor of some kind and it looks like there could be a headpiece as well with the top half of the beast there, talons maybe into short swords or daggers? But you are right best to just hold onto them who knows where we will end up after this quest, only can hope it will lead us to some form of town or city.” he said
“Well no need standing around here, let’s gather this stuff up and start back where we left off, following the Vulture Bears path.” Comus said as he began putting what we could in his bag.
In the end Cromus held onto the hide, two of the four talons, and half the meat. while Sais took the core, the other two talons and the core.
They made it back to where they left off and it became clear that the vulture bear wasn't just hunting for a meal, the damn thing was on a rampage through the forest, they found a couple dead squirrels and two large trees clawed till they caved and fell over. Cromus felt a little sick, this destruction to living things for no other reason but to feel powerful? It reminded him of how he felt about most humans. That female voice spoke in his mind again.
“You are a good person Warrior. My past choices would take far longer to understand this easy lesson, yes trees and animals cannot speak to everyone, but they did not choose to be born what they are and most just do what they can to survive. I am pleased with Glean's choice. You are quickly becoming one of my favorites. I respect the cycle predator vs prey, or even predator vs predator for territory or even treasure, but senseless murder, and waste of resources is not right. Know I am always watching you, and always with you.”
Cromus quickly tried to think back “Always watching, and always with me? Does that mean I can talk to you?” There was no reply but he did feel a warm feeling in his chest. So he could guess not always communicated with words but feelings, maybe later he can have more of an open communication with Gaia, some druids reached that level near the peak of their leveling in those games he played. He reached down, poking the squirrels as they dissolved and left small pieces of meat behind before picking them up and putting them in his bag.
They walked for what felt like hours, before coming to a new scene besides destruction. Cromus had three more pieces of meat from rabbits, Sais had five. There was a buck but it was decided it was best to leave it. They were starting to run out of ways to carry things and no telling how long they could make the meat last after cooking it. Comus spotted tracks of wolves too old for him to know but there were multiple going back and forth, sure that the wolves would find the dead buck and make use of a free meal.
In front of them was a river, the tracks of the vulture bear came up to it and walked from up river. Fish kept jumping, or swimming by.
“Hey we could possibly learn some fishing too if we find shelter nearby.” Cromus said
“For sure. Also it will be something not necessarily gamey like small rodents.” Sais replied
“I didn't think about that. I knew some people that would eat squirrels and rabbits back home, act like they were some great hunter.”
“Yeah, there was always someone but I have had it before, it's not the best but I will say. It's better than nothing.”
At that response Cromus’s stomach openly agreed with a growl. He felt a bit hungry after the fight, but after leveling up it was growing, now after walking for so long it was starting to sound good to just sit down and chow down.
With the time that passed the forest started to come to life, birds chirped, saw some squirrels alive and well on the other side of the river. It warmed his heart a bit and without realizing it he had been tense this entire time, and he visibly relaxed as he listened to the forest.
Not too long after the river started to curve away from them, it started going right and the vulture bears tracks coming from the left. Cromus was about to ask Sais which way he would like to go when he felt a pull to his left. So he continued to follow the tracks.
The tracks being older were getting harder to follow but the broken limbs, and some scratch marks on trees made it easier. Coming to some thick bushes he was about to pass by he felt the pull again, so he pulled them apart to get a look behind them and sure enough behind them and the tree branches blocking his view was next to a tall piece of earth, and behind the bushes was an entrance into a decent sized cave. It was a perfect place to make camp well hidden, and would give them decent shelter.
“Welp I believe we found our camp site.” He said, smiling back at him.
Sais walked up, “I wonder if it only has one entrance? Or is there another deeper inside?”
Cromus looked back into it with the light from the setting sun, Cromus could make out a great portion of it but he couldn't see the back wall, or if it continued down into the earth. He could easily see an area that has been used by the vulture bear as its nest. Even had some grass. He started to walk in when he felt his shirt grabbed, looking back he made eye contact with Sais.
“Slowly, and quietly.” he said with a whisper, setting down his bag he was carrying and loading his crossbow.
Cromus didn't see anything and still bet that the vulture bear was a solitary creature, but after fighting one of these bastards he agreed and wanted to be cautious as well, Cromus set down his bag, pulled out his scimitar with his left hand and entered.
It was dark once they let the bushes fall back into place behind them, and it was an eerie kind of dark. It was ten feet to the nest that laid a bit to the side of the cave on the right side. twelve feet from one side of the cave to the other. Another five feet from the nest and Cromus stepped on a bone with a crunch, taking a look around it was some animal bones, maybe a deer, but near it was a skull of a humanoid. Pausing, taking note that it was smaller than an adult and all the teeth were sharp, except the teeth in the back were probably used for harder material to eat.
Another twenty feet, they reached the back of the cave, checking the walls all around. There was no exit or entrance besides the way they came in.
“Well a nice little hide away, and shelter from the outside.” Sais said.
“Or a nice little place to be trapped if something else comes here and blocks our exit.” Cromus replied.
“Well that is true but it's what we have, and with your guess earlier, about the thing being a solitary creature, I bet nothing else will want to come into its territory any time soon. Not until they know for sure it's gone or dead.”
“yeah, I mean even those wolf tracks we found, seem to stay clear of the main area we were traveling.”
“Yeah so we have a river not too far off for water, we saw plenty of fish there, and even more squirrels so there are probably several animals around we could gain some exp and food from.”
“Ok yeah it's our best option I am not arguing that but since we don’t have a venting system in here we will have to make a campfire outside the cave unless we want to smoke ourselves out of it. The roof is only about nine feet give or take.”
Sais looked up “yeah I guess you are right, well maybe we should start looking for wood to get that started.”
Cromus nodded and that's exactly what we went to do. Did not take too long to find enough branches for the fire, and grabbed some stones from the river to set up around the fire so it would have its own nice little spot. Sais kind of took over from there putting some dried grass, and dead bark down, taking a knife to a stone from his bag then when he got a small flame going he helped it grow and added the wood Cromus gathered.
While Sais monitored the fire, Cromus prepared some of the meat on some sticks. “It's not the prettiest but it can only get better.” Cromus said, holding up his work before Sais and himself started to place the meat around the fire.
The sun was almost set when they decided the food was good enough to eat. Cromus picked up one of the Vulture Bear meat’s and took a bite. He could not say it was one of the worst things he had ever eaten, but it was up there. “Bleh” Cromus said, sticking out his tongue and scraping it on his teeth before smacking my lips a bit.
Sais of course laughed.
“Hey you just wait bud we are not professional campfire cooks.”
“Oh I already figured that out. Not to mention you can not sit here and think this was not coming our way, I figured half way through our meal Glean was feeding us those awesome stakes cause it would be a long time before we had anything of its like.”
“Yeah, I guess I got too used to all the sugar, and fatty foods we had readily available back on earth.”
“Mmmhmmm this society might even not know anything about salt. Could be a rare thing here.
that's something else we can work on changing to make a fortune in this world's money.”
Cromus finished another bite. “Or at least just give ourselves better food, need to just suck it up and deal with it, it's what we have and it's what will work.”
Sais smirked and took his first bite. Almost mimicking Cromus’s first reaction. “Ok. You are right, we are not good cooks.” he said, chuckling a bit.
Cromus laughed as well and they ate in silence. Cromus could say all the bad things he wanted to about the cooking but at least it filled them up. Sitting there looking up at the stars as they started to come out. Listening to the forest, hearing an owl off in the distance probably just waking up. Some wolf howls south of them probably finding that deer and enjoying a good meal.
“To think our first day here, we fought probably one of the scariest things in this forest, leveled up, got to see a beautiful forest and river filled with nature that rarely has been touched and now we get to relax by a campfire before trying to sleep in a dark cave.” Cromus said, looking up at the stars through the leaves.
“Yep, and I still got one more last trick I wanna do before doing that last part.” Sais said, focusing on a space in front of him.
Before Cromus could question him another Portal opened like the one before but much smaller about thirty inches around. A little ball of iron, with blades for wings came flapping out, landing on his shoulder and the portal closed.
Cromus’s eyes went wide as he stared at the... Owl? He thought it certainly looked like one for the most part, its body was clock work like the other things sais summoned, its back and sides having metal covering the gears inside, it had blades for wings three to be precise, the length of its body which was a foot tall, it was shaped like an oval, but its front was exposed, you could see the clockwork in it, its gears turning, its eyes, took up a good portion of it, glass covered the actual eyes and a gear made the shape of them. On the outside of them, little sharp edges and all, had a cute little small beak. It stood on one foot, on Sais' right shoulder, the other pulled back underneath its body, its body tilted a bit to the left and it hooted at Cromus, then turned a bit to Sais and hooted again.
His eyes widened a bit, “Yes I am Sais, and this is Cromus.” it hooted again.
“Henry says hello.” Sais said to Cromus this time.
“Henry? I did not expect that to be its name.” Cromus replied.
he could hear gears speed up and its body Puffed up and expanded. “He is not an it Cromus” Sais scolded.
“I'm sorry Henry I did not realize.” Cromus apologized.
Henry deflated a bit and hooted a couple more times. “Clockworks with high intelligence tend to choose a name, and wish to be acknowledged as beings which they rightfully are.”
“Fair enough, again Henry I apologize. This is all very new to us. Happy to have you here as long as you can stay.”
“Henry is my familiar, and he will be with us till this form is destroyed or I dismiss him.”
“Well I look forward to working with you Henry.” Cromus replied. His excitement started to win over his curiosity. “I still can’t get over all this, everything is all badass! ignoring that I almost died.”
“Yeah I am actually excited just from summoning him. I even got a couple of notifications just from summoning him. I can cast spells through him and also focus to see through his eyes.”
“Well that will definitely come in handy when scouting the area.”
Before Sais could reply Henry hooted and flapped his wings a bit more.
“Henry seems excited.” I said
“He is, He says he is glad he was summoned by a polite summoner and a polite sur..... friend.” Sais said with a forced smile. Cromus not missing the slip up.
“Hold on, wait a second there. You were about to say something else.”
Sais eyed Henry a bit before turning back to Cromus, and Henry hooting. “It was just another misunderstanding like calling Henry an it before. He apologizes, He is just used to creatures with less intelligence serving the ones with higher intellect.”
Cromus moody instantly changed. “ Listen here clocky! If you were made out of meat I would be debating if you would be worth the meal.”
Henry puffed up again and hooted a bit then flew off Sais shoulder hooting more at Cromus coming a bit closer, it was a bit intimidating, Sais started laughing and Henry finished his hoots then landed on Sais left shoulder. Furthest from Cromus.
“What? What did he say?” Cromus asked Sais
Taking a minute to calm his laughter. “ He said, even if he was, if you had an intelligence over a common field rat you would know doing that would just make the form vanish from the damage instead of getting any actual food out of it, so shut your tusk mouth, pay attention and maybe you can learn something from the master.” He chuckled a bit more, Henry gave another Hoot lifting his body back a bit giving a snooty look.
Cromus grunted “I guess it will be one of those relationships.” He said, looking up at the sky.
Closing his eyes and just listened. He could hear the forest, even though it was night, it was still alive. Bats looking for food, wind rushing through the leaves, bugs all around. For someone who was mainly a homebody unless needed on the farm, he surprisingly felt at home right now, the grass felt soft and inviting. Before he knew it he laid back and quickly fell asleep.