Chapter 8: Girl Gamer

Reuniting with brother, I showed him the fruits of my hard-work.

“Taadaa!” I said happily.

“Well that was sooner than expected. Good job.” I became even happier as he said that. “Now, try taming around five more. Or until your [Taming] skill levels up.”

…

I have fallen into the depths of the abyss...

Seeing me depressed, he quickly added. “I-I'll help you this time! Chances increase when you bring down their HP.”

“Ohhh! Really?! Yay!” I beamed as I jumped up in joy.

Haha, I know... I'm a spoiled young woman...

But that doesn't matter right now! It took me around 20 minutes just to tame that one slime!.

“Well, there are other methods as well but I think this would be the easiest right now.”

“Other methods?” I asked.

“Yeah. But I'll tell you later. Ah! I know. I'll tell you as a reward once you level your [Taming] skill.”

I renewed my determination.

If it means increasing my chances of taming monsters, I'd gladly take it.

“Alright let's begin.” Brother said as he led us to the closest slime. “I'll poke it, and you tame it. Simple, right?”

I nod as he proceeded to poke the slime with his dagger.

…

He killed it.

“Wha-! Wait, what happened?!” I shouted as I watched the slime turn into light particles. “It died just by touching the tip of your dagger?! Brother!!”

“Ahaha~ I power-leveled too much...” He said as he scratched his head and laughed wryly.

“What in the world is your level for you to be able to do that?” I glared.

“Seven.”

“With only slimes?! Aren't these supposed to be practice dummies?! And you did that in only 20 minutes?! Wait. Do these slimes give enough experience for you to do that?!”

I want to plunge the world into oblivion for some reason now...

“C-calm down for a minute... Well, since it's come to this, let's go to a higher leveled area. Is that okay? You'll get better pets?” He said as he tried to appease me.

“Muuuu....” I pouted. “...........Fine.”

Sighing, I gave up.

Well, it is brother... right?

Still pouting, I followed brother into the woods.

While walking, brother picked up some things here and there saying it would be useful in the future.

There were a variety of things, like mushrooms, plants, pebbles...? Twigs?

Okay, now he's just picking up random stuff.

…...I will never understand.

After a while, we finally encountered our first monster.

It was a big dog named... “Rabid Dog”. And surprisingly, it's level 5.

Hey, where did all the level twos and threes go? I asked to no one in particular.

“Okay. Just like before, I'll lower it's health and you try to tame it.” He said as we sneaked towards it.

This time, instead of just walking nonchalantly towards his target, he leaped and ambushed the unsuspecting dog.

Quickly bringing the dagger down, brother twisted the blade once it lodged inside.

…

Poor dog.

Growling, it barked as it tried to bite brother back.

But when the dog thought it was close enough, brother quickly jumped away and jumped back in to stab it once more.

“Now!” Brother shouted at me.

Snapping back into reality(or virtual reality), I quickly used [Tame].

Light appeared around my hands, as well as around the dog.

Visibly, the dog slowed down.

But that was it. The dog resumed to attack brother as if nothing happened.

“Keep going!” Brother shouted again.

“O-okay!”

For the duration of the fight, I continued casting [Tame] while brother led the dog around in circles.

This is completely inefficient...

And no matter how hard I tried I couldn't tame it.

It felt like forever.

And finally, brother killed it because he was getting tired.

“Haaa! This was harder than I thought.” Brother said as we sat down somewhere to rest.

“...” And of course, I was a bit depressed.

D-don't blame me okay? I'm... I'm a sensitive woman.

“Tori?”

I looked up towards him.

“Why don't we keep going?” He asked.

“...Yeah.”

“............-sigh-, I guess, it's okay to tell you the other methods? What do you say?”

“Hm? Is that alright?” I asked.

“Well I don't think it would help our situation anyway so why not?”

“...”

“Okay, um, another method is to befriend them.”

“Befriend?”

“Yeah. You try to become friends with the other party by doing various actions to help make them have a better opinion of you.”

“Like, feeding them and stuff?”

“Yeah.” He nodded. “But the animals in here... are kind of aggressive.”

“I see...”

“Another method is to... challenge them? I think?” Brother said as he ate some bread.

“Challenge them? Like a competition?”

“Almost. But that's essentially the idea, anyway.”

“But how do you do that?” I asked.

“Ahh well, that method is kind of for more sentient monsters.” He tossed me some bread.

Catching the bread, I thought about what to do.

Sighing, I played with the bread in my hands.

“Do you want to go back to the slimes?”

Okay. Anything but that.

Didn't you just say that you would try a bajillion times right? Or was it gazillion...

Anyway! You're not one to give up so easily right?! Just like last time, if you persevere, you will be able to do it, right?!

I know. It's a weird way of motivating myself.

Well anyways! I feel better now.

“Okay. Seems you've cheered up now. So, do you still want to continue?”

Why did it feel like that question in t*kken when you lose...

But I nod anyway!

Seeing my renewed-renewed determination, we went to look for some more dogs.

So far, it's been just like the first. Brother would injure it and run in circles while I try to tame it.

And when it's been too long, brother kills it and we rest.

Ding!

I've already reached level four from the several dogs we encountered as well as having my [Taming] reach level two, which made me extremely happy!

We've also encountered some cats(that were so cute that I put in a little more effort), some snakes(that if possible I don't want to tame, but brother still told me to), and a bear(that looked like it would be really nice to hug).

Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

So far, no luck.

But this time, I won't let it affect me! Unlike before, I'm an even more determined young woman, with my renewed-renewed-renewed determination!

And it's been kind of fun exploring the forest and seeing many different animals in person and not through a TV screen.

With everything we've encountered, I rose up to level seven while brother at level eleven.

…

Now I really am beginning to wonder how brother managed to get level seven with only slimes...

Walking around again, we encountered another dog.

I walked in front of it without being fazed by it.

Why, you ask? 'Cause my [MovementSpeedBoost] reached level three!

All because I tried so hard to catch up to brother...

Somehow I feel a bit irritated.

Oh! And also! My [Taming] reached level four because of my many(failed) attempts!

As I stood in front of the dog, it growled as it lowered itself in a stance looked like it could pounce at me anytime. Even in the face of a scary dog, I stood confidently in front of it.

The reason why, is not because I was stronger or anything... well, honestly I think the dog can still mangle me to death even though I'm higher leveled than it.

No, the reason is because I know brother will help me fight it!

…

Haha, I'm a spoilt young woman.

Smiling, I looked around for brother.

“..................................brother?”

Seeing no sign of him, I quickly tried to search for brother.

Turning my head in every direction, I couldn't see even the faintest bit of anything about brother.

Hey,hey, hey! Where is he?!

He dare leave his cute little sister behind?!

Grrrroowwlll~

I stiffened up.

Haha, don't worry... you can outrun it right? You can definitely outrun it.

Grroowll~

Right?

“Good.. doggie?”

It leaped towards me with frightening speed.

Following my instincts, I ran away at top speed... while screaming.

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh!!”

Looking back, I see the dog catching up to me.

“Why?!”

I'm supposed to outrun it right?!

Quickly, I took out some stuff in my inventory.

Finding a piece of bread, the one that brother gave me, I threw it at the dog hoping it would slow it down.

Seeing the piece of bread fly towards it, it jumped and magnificently caught it with it's mouth.

Ooooohhh! Amazing!

Wait! This isn't the time to be praising it!

Bringing out the rest of the bread brother gave me, I kept throwing them at the dog, quickly depleting my food supply.

After a while, I finally ran out.

“May the Lord be with me...”

But it doesn't end there. After running like that for a while, I became visibly tired.

Meaning, I also visibly slowed down as well.

With the dog in tow, I couldn't afford that, so I ran and ran and ran and...

Good Lord, I can't keep this up anymore...

Finally stopping for a rest, the dog stopped somewhere behind me as well.

How come we can get tired here?! There's no stamina bar!!

I complained.

Turning to face the dog, I smiled wryly and meekly waved my hand.

“Hi?”

Bark!!

“Eep!” I flinch.

With the dog slowly walking towards me I panicked and tried to do the only thing I can do.

“[Tame]!!”

As light began to appear, I noticed as the dog wagged it's tail.

*Ding

You have successfully tamed a Rabid Dog.

Seeing this, I could literally just cry.

And I did.

I jumped towards the dog surprising it, and hugged it as if to say I was never letting it go...

And also to comfort me from the scary experience I just had.

Ignoring the whimpering from the dog I continued hugging it until I wondered whether or not I was dealing damage to it.

Letting it go, the dog was instantly relieved as it was visibly tired.

Tired from chasing me? Or tired from being hugged?

Well whatever. I hugged it again, this time gentler.

“Well that took a while.” A familiar voice reached my ears.

I looked and saw brother walking towards us happily.

Instantly, I flared.

“YOU!! WHERE WERE YOU?! HOW COULD YOU LEAVE ME BEHIND LIKE THAT?!”

I want to cry... oh wait, I am.

“H-hold on! I didn't leave you behind! If it really did attack you, I would've jumped in.”

“But it DID attack me!!”

“And you ran away before I could do anything.”

“...”

I glared really REALLY hard at him.

“L-look, I'm sorry. But at least you tamed it... right?”

“Well I guess I did... but you better treat me to something expensive later okay?!”

“Yeah, yeah, I will.”

“I'll burn your wallet 'til I'm satisfied!!”

“...”

Sighing he gave up.

“...Fine.”

At his answer, I beamed and gave him a hug.

“Thanks.”

Seeing me like this, he sighed yet again.

“What am I going to do with you?” He said to his oh, so hopeless little sister.

Releasing him from my hug, I smiled.

Haha. I really am spoilt.

But even so... I enjoy it. :D

-------------------------------------------

Sooo! I hope that didn't seem too weird for you!

I also hope you enjoyed that 'cause, I sure did.

and if you're wondering... no, no incest.

And about my illustrations, well... I really am having trouble with my scanner 'cause I don't have the WIA driver thing.

I tried many things, like downloading it, installing it, looked up some suggestions and stuff...

It didn't work.

Sooo until I could find a way to upload my drawings, i hope you'll be patient?

And one more thing!

two days from now is finally judgement day... my first day of college.

sooo updating this will become slower yet again.

i'll try to find some time to write so rest assured you'll be seeing more of Amaron. definitely.

And once again thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed.