Hello, your author here. Sorry for the long delay on the chapter. I was busy quite busy this week since most of my friends came back from vacation and so we decided to hang out as much as possible before uni starts (that and I played some league, it had been a while so I was kinda itching to play). Anyways Ive noticed that I got 1 rating (3.5, not bad eh?), and truth be told I dont really understand it too well. "Your series is off to a good start, but I think one of the big things you can do to improve the quality of your writing is to use quotation marks and he said/she said to make it a smoother read.Also, you should probably not just call everybody by their initials. Using full names increases reading immersion, and its only really an extra couple minutes of writing." I currently do use quotation marks so I dont understand what you mean, and the issue of saying she/he said before a conversation makes the text sound awkward if its overused (no professional piece of writing will have she said "hi" and etc), and for calling everybody by their initials, do you mean when I use (MC)? If so, its not actually supposed to be part of the story, its just there to make it more clear to the reader who is actually speaking, but even so Ive changed it to (Shar) since you are right. Anyways, it would be great if you could elaborate because I think there is a lot of things that Iam not understanding. Anyways thank you FairSky for rating, it means a lot to me since it shows that people are willing to try and help improve the story. Anyways onto the story, YAY first pet. There will definitly be more action next chapter (Hopefully), and I havent decided if he will get his second pet soon or much later, dunno yet, I guess ill figure it out as I write. Also if you see any mistakes, please tell me, its like 4am here and I have class at 8am tommorow so I didnt look over this as carefully as I normally do, plus Iam tired as a mf right now. Hopefully next chapter will be out in a couple days, I will try harder since this one was quite delayed (It is a pretty decently long chapter tho 2600 words baby). Anyways comment, rate, etc. Enjoy!

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Shar watched the little creature, around the size of a tennis ball, clamber over the remnants of its egg. Walking around curiously with slightly unstable steps, it looked around, examining the surrounding. Noticing him, the small creature came to a sudden halt and began to stare at him inquiringly. Shar simply stared back, too shocked to say or do anything, he had been expecting some sort of furred mammal or scaled reptile to hatch from the egg; however, this creature was neither of those things. Possessing short brown fur, eight legs and eight jet black eyes, the little creature highly resembled an overly large jumping spider. Although it had not been what he was expecting, looking at it a bit closer, the little creature was actually quite cute with its large beady eyes. Moving his hand towards it, the little spider moved back slightly, being cautious of the unknown being in front of it. Not moving his hand any further to show that he means no harm, Shar waited patiently for the spider to grow curious and approach him. Minutes passed and the deadlock continued, just when he was about to give up, the spider started moving towards him slowly, still being somewhat cautious. Upon reaching his hand, the spider began to probe his fingers and hand with its frontal legs. Watching the little spider, he began to pet it with his other hand, although surprised at first, the spider, realizing that there were no harmful intentions, stood still somewhat enjoying the petting.

(???) “Screeeeeeeech Sscreeeeeeechh”

However, soon after, the spider began emitting a high pitched screeching noise. Assuming that the little creature was hungry, Shar pulled out a piece of dried beef jerky from his inventory and placed it in front of the creature. The little spider looked at it carefully before proceeding to probe it with its legs. Probably coming to the conclusion that the unknown object before it was edible, the little creature slowly began to eat the beef jerky; however, soon after, it began to voraciously devour the piece of meat. Finishing its meal, it looked at Shar with expectant eyes, unable to say no to the pitiful creature, he pulled out another piece of beef jerky before giving it to the spider and once again the beef jerky was devoured almost instantly. Curious to see how much more the spider could eat, he pulled out a couple more pieces of beef jerky and one by one they were eaten by the gluttonous spider. Thankfully, after the sixth piece, the spider seemed to be satisfied and began to slowly trudge up Shar’s arm, although the feeling was foreign, it didn’t feel bad. Continuing its climb, the spider managed to get on top of his head where it circled around a bit before settling down and going to sleep.

(Shar) “Yes.”

(Shar) “Yes.”

[Brown Forest Spider (F)]

A somewhat common species of spiders found in the northern west forests of the continent. Due to its small size, the Forest Brown Spider usually only preys upon small animals like rabbits and squirrels. Creating webs using it its elastic and durable silk, the Forest Brown Spider uses these webs to entrap their prey, before wrapping them up tightly and suffocating them. After the victim has passed, the body is often carried away to another location before it is consumed.

(Shar) “Esla”

(Shar) “Yes”

Looking at the small spider resting on top of his head, he felt quite glad that he had chosen the egg. Although the Yeti’s Fury was still very impressive, just watching the tiny creature sleep made him feel at ease. Even though he had not realized it, Shar had begun to miss the feeling of companionship; in fact, he had been quite lonely the months following his accident. His mother had become more distant, as if seeing him in his current condition hurt her too much, and even though he could somewhat understand her feelings, he still felt somewhat abandoned, especially considering that his father had yet to even visit him, and even then he knew that it wasn’t his father’s fault. After all, it was his father’s money that allowed him to stay at the hospital and be taken care of. And besides Curtis, Damien did not particularly have any close friends. Yes, he had a group of individuals that he would occasionally hang out with, but to say that they were friends was kind of farfetched. It wouldn’t have been an exaggeration to say that they were merely acquaintances, since he had never bothered to actually attempt to befriend them. They didn’t have much in common, and he often found himself not talking to them at all, Curtis being the only reason the group stayed together. In addition, Curtis had also not come to see him again after his first visit, probably due to a mix of guilt and Damien’s cold behavior. Thinking back about it now, he knew that he had royally fucked up. His friend had come to see him with good intentions, but he had pushed him away due to his anger, and although he had managed to relieve a lot of his frustrations by playing All World Online, he could not help but think how much more fun he would be having if Curtis was here, playing the game with him. Now that Damien was thought about it, Curtis was also most likely playing All World Online. Curtis had always an avid gamer, and there was no way that he would miss out on a opportunity to play a game such as All World Online. On that note, Damien promised to himself that if he ever met Curtis in game, he would do all that he could to be forgiven. Yawning, Shar finally realized how tired he was, sitting down on a rugged chair beside the bed, he sat down in a comfortable position before sleep took him.

Waking up as the sun shone into his eyes, Shar realized that Esla had left the comfort of his head, looking around in panic; he let out a sigh of relief to see her still sleeping soundly on top of his pillow. Almost as if she knew that he was awake, Esla awoke from her slumber and began to run towards him, already bursting with energy despite recently waking up. Watching the little spider run towards him, Shar saw that her movements had already improved greatly, and looking at her a bit closer, the spider had also gained a little bit of mass. Jumping on top of his arm and then climbing up to his head, Esla reclaimed her previous spot, thankfully for him; he had managed to examine her before she left his vision.

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Slightly amazed that she had already leveled up despite just hatching, Shar felt a little bit envious, even with his dedication and efforts he had only just recently reached level 4. Putting his somewhat bitter feelings aside, he left the inn along with his trusty spider. However, it wasn’t long before Esla began screeching, drawing a lot of attention from the villagers walking by. Not surprisingly, a lot of the villagers tried to avoid him, probably somewhat disturbed by the larger then average spider resting on top of his head, the loud high pitched screeching only making things worse. Ears aching from the loud screeching, Shar made his way towards the butcher store to find something to feed to Esla, since she had already eaten pretty much all of his beef jerky, forcing him to find something else to feed her.

Upon arriving at the local butcher store, Shar couldn’t help but notice the distinct smell of freshly slaughtered meat permeating from the store. Although a little put off from the stench, he somewhat reluctantly walked in, mostly due to Esla’s screeching, which grew louder as he approached the small butchery. Entering the store, Shar spotted a short man behind the large counter, chopping up some meat into small squares. Upon noticing him, the man looked in his direction, not even somewhat fazed by the loud screeching spider placed on top of his head. Somewhat impressed, he asked:

(Shar) “I am looking for some meat, preferably on the cheaper side.”

(Butcher) “Is the meat for you or your little buddy?”

(Shar) “It’s for the spider.”

(Butcher) “Then I would recommend some rabbit, it’s pretty cheap and I am sure your pet would enjoy it as well.

(Shar) “What makes you say that?”

(Butcher) “Do you know nothing about the spider on top of your head? It’s a Brown Forest Spider; their main diet consists of rabbits. Looking at the size, I am guessing yours just recently hatched?

(Shar) “You seem quite knowledgeable about creatures despite being a butcher in a small village.”

(Butcher) “Oh you know nothing about me boy; back when I was younger I was quite the adventurer. I’ve traveled to places you couldn’t even imagine about, slain thousands of wild monsters and explored some of the most dangerous places existing on the continent.”

(Shar) “What made you stop?”

(Butcher) “Eh, I got married. Wife was too worried that I would die in some ditch in the middle of nowhere, convinced me to stop.”

(Shar) “Don’t you miss it though?”

(Butcher) “I sure do, but I’ve got kids now and watching them grow up is something I wouldn’t trade away for anything. Sure adventuring is exciting and all, but its time consuming and exhausting. Plus, being a butcher isn’t all that bad, it pays well and it’s a lot easier cutting up an already dead animal versus a live one. Anyways, do you want the rabbit meat or something else?”

(Shar) “I’ll take the rabbit meat, how much will it be for 5 pounds?”

(Butcher) “That’ll be 4 silver and 25 bronze coins.”

(Shar) “That seems fair, I’ll take it.”

Handing over the small sum, Shar was given a small bag containing the rabbit meat. Taking out a couple pieces and placing them on his palm, he felt Esla quickly climbing down from his head and onto his arm. Watching her devour the pieces of meat, he put the remainder in his inventory and was about to leave when he was called out.

(Butcher) “Hey boy.”

(Shar) “Yes?”

(Butcher) “Are you the foreigner that everyone is talking about? I haven’t seen you around here before and we don’t get too many visitors here so I am assuming I am right?”

(Shar) “Yeah, you’re right.”

(Butcher) “I heard you are looking for some jobs to do.”

(Shar) “Yeah, why? Do you have something for me?

(Butcher) “You see 7 years ago when I was adventurer, I had been exploring the forests nearby Ferrick when I stumbled upon a den of Black Striped Salamanders. Caught off guard, I suffered heavy injuries but managed to return. However, upon returning I realized that I had lost my pocket watch, probably when I was fleeing the den. Black Striped Salamanders love to collect shiny objects so they are probably still holding onto it. Although it isn’t worth much, the watch has a lot of sentimental value and I would love to get it back.”

(Shar) “If you value it so highly, how come you don’t go get it yourself?”

(Butcher) “Well, after I came back I had to be placed in the hospital for several months, and there I met this beautiful woman-

(Shar) “Let me guess, that woman is now your wife.”

(Butcher) “You’re right, but let me finish my story. Anyways, I met this woman at the hospital; in fact, she was the nurse that was in charge of taking care of me. Basically things happened, and by the time I was healthy enough to leave, she and I had already started dating and although I really wanted to go back for the watch, she was really insistent on me staying. I don’t blame her though. Since she was the one taking care of me, she saw the kind of condition I was in and trust me it wasn’t good, so I didn’t have the courage to leave and make her worry.”

[Description]

Retrieve Gared’s pocket watch from the den of Black Striped Salamanders located north of Ferrick.

[Rewards]

Unknown

(Shar) “Couldn’t you have gotten someone else to do it? I am pretty sure there are some individuals in the village that are more suitable for the job.”

(Butcher) “Hah, all the villagers aside from the guards have no fighting experience whatsoever and the guards have better things to do then go out and grab an old dusty watch.”

(Shar) “It’s not like I am much better, I am sorry to tell you, but I don’t think I can even kill a Green Slime by myself at my current level of strength.”

(Butcher) “I am not telling you to do it now, just whenever you can, hopefully before I pass away. You may not be that strong now, but I am sure you will get stronger, and when that time comes, I hope that you can do this task for me.”

(Shar) “I guess if you put it that way, I’ll try my best Mr…..

(Gared) “Hah hah, where are my manners, I forgot to introduce myself, the name is Gared Andrews, but you can just call me Gared.

(Shar) “My name is Shar.”

(Gared) “Anyways, introductions aside, are you willing to do this for me? You’ll be rewarded well, I guarantee it.”

(Shar) “Hmm, I guess I could do it.”

Waving goodbye to Gared, Shar walked out of the butchery. Pulling out a couple more pieces of rabbit meat and then feeding it to Esla, he went about doing his daily tasks. However, halfway through, Esla had hopped off of him and wandered off somewhere. Not thinking about it too much, Shar finished his daily activities. Getting dark, he proceeded to head back to his inn, and at this point he had grown quite worried, although he was sure that she was still alive, he couldn’t help but worry. Pacing back and forth in his room, wondering where she could possibly be, Shar nearly jumped when he heard the familiar screeching noise.

(Esla) “Screech screech.”

Running towards the door, Shar opened the door and what he saw made him chuckle slightly. In front of him was Esla; however, she didn’t come back empty handed. In fact, she had dragged three sacs of silk back to the inn with her. Grabbing one of the sacs and attempting to rip  open, he found that he couldnt, instead he just chose to unravel it open. Looking inside, he saw what appeared to be a small dead rabbit. Opening the rest of the sacs, two more rabbit corpses were found. Not knowing what to do, he simply just gave them back to Esla, who quickly made a small snack out of them. However, what impressed him the most were not the dead rabbits, but the fact that she had managed to get to level 3, which gave him an idea. Making sure that Esla was asleep, Shar logged out, desperate to get a good night’s rest especially since he would be very busy tomorrow.