As the bright light faded, they were both surprised at the creature that remained on the table.

A deep emerald green snake was coiled together, looking around the room with large curious eyes. The snake’s eyes were deep green and had a strange human nature to them, rather than the slit-eyes common with snakes this one had more rounded pupils and looked more adorable than anything. It became apparent that the snake was female, her eyes and rounded facial features ending in a snout with what looked like nostrils, coupled with some more pronounced scales along her head and back of her upper neck gave an illusion of hair. Her forked tongue flicked out to taste the air as she looked around, locking her eyes with Sam.

“Master?” She spoke in her surprisingly human voice.

This caught both Sam and Janik off guard. Though they were already surprised at the otherworldly features of the snake, the fact that she spoke added another level to it.

“Y... Yes... I think so?” Sam replied confused. He didn’t know what to reply in this case, what would happen if he denied it? What happened now that he confirmed it? He had no idea and through his amazed expression, there was a strong mix of confusion.

Right as he was about to vocalize his confusion, requesting information from Janik, or even the snake, a System window opened up.

[ Companion successfully hatched.

Do you wish to bond with the companion? ]

There was a yes/no response, which kind of made sense. Janik did explain earlier that companions were sold, the bond could probably be broken or something later, but this bond was probably what made them subservient.

His mind selected Yes before he took the proper time to decide anything. He could feel a dull pulse of warm energy within him leave his body, flowing into hers.

[ Binding successful. Please name your companion. ]

“Eeehh...” Sam’s face was the definition of surprised and confused, now he had to name her? Though she was born some five seconds ago, perhaps it was too much to expect her to already have a name. Or was it? The System didn’t follow the concept of logic in many other regards, so why would this be different?

She looked at him with expecting eyes, actually smiling in anticipation as his mind raced trying to figure out what to do with this. Continuing the E-sound from his surprised notion it turned into a word. “Eee...lara?”

The System window updated in his view.

[ Name Companion: Elara? ]

It sounded like a name, he felt ok with that. It also didn’t sound horrible. He approved the name.

Another pulse of energy within him expanded outwards as the System window closed down. Another one opened up above the snake’s head with a hair-thin line connecting it to her.

[ Elara

STR 0

DEX 3

VIT 3

SPT 0

Level: 1

HP: 17

Attacks

[ Bite 1 ]

[ Constrict 1 ]

Skills

[ Companion’s Bond ]

[ Venom 1 - RES 14 ] ]

Detaching from her it moved over to the side of his view, much of the detail faded into a more condensed and simple overview that didn’t clutter his line of sight, it somewhat integrating with his Health and XP bars.

[ Elara - HP: 17 / 17 ]

Sam stood there looking at her with a thousand-yard stare, not properly focusing on her as he processed everything. She didn’t do anything besides smiling happily, the movement of her lips pressing her eyes slightly together forming a surprisingly happy expression. He could see the tip of her tail flap back and forth, almost like a happy puppy, she was wagging her tail.

“Good fucking gods she’s adorable!” Janik broke the silence and ripped Sam out of his brain-void, startling him at the same time. “Can I pet her? Will she bite me?” He looked back and forth between Sam and the snake.

Sam stuttered, wanting to answer him but... didn’t know... would she? Looking at his registered companion with no answer in his eyes, almost like she was asking her.

“I... I do...n’t... I don’t know... Wi... Will you?”

Elara tilted her head like a dog looking at her owner as he asked her questions.

“Do you want me to bite him?”

“No!” Sam burst out before he could consider the situation. “Janik is a friend, don’t bite him.”

“Then I won’t bite him.” She smiled even wider, seeming to appreciate her first command.

Janik stepped in and started petting her. She seemed to like it, pressing her head into his hand as he moved it over to her. Using his other hand to keep filming he had a similar reaction to a cat lover petting someone's exotic breed.

Sam finally snapped out of his daze. Everything properly registered with him, all of it was somewhat according to expectations but, he didn’t expect a snake and as soon as he was processing that everything else happened at once. He was still somewhat new to this Player business but at the same time... he shouldn’t be surprised if you thought about it. He decided to blame it on being tired.

Stepping in he showed no fear, after all, she was bound to him as his Companion, and the system informed him that she was his lesser in any regard. He reached out towards her wanting to pet her as well. But she seemed to have other ideas. As soon as his hand was in reach she coiled around it and climbed up his arm. She didn’t press harder than she needed to be able to climb him, it was a surreal feeling. Sam recoiled in surprise but it was too late, she had latched on and was slithering up his arm like he was a tree.

Getting to his face she stopped and pressed the top of her head against his chin like the pet she kind of was. Her tongue flicked out against his skin as he stood there halfway paralyzed as his brain caught up with everything. A few seconds later he calmed down, he was just surprised at a snake crawling up him like that, the primitive part in the back of his mind reacted before the logical part could properly consider what was going on. Now that he had a moment to think it all changed, using his left arm, which didn’t have the snake around it, he moved it over and finally gave her some scritches. She lifted her chin, giving him proper access to her whole throat, and extending his scritches to cover more of her throat seemed to work wonders.

“I have to say, this feels surprisingly strange.” Sam commented, not just because he was coiled up by a surprisingly long snake who seemed infatuated with him, but also feeling the strange bond through a kind of... connection towards her. It wasn’t just a feeling but like an invisible energy leash connecting them.

“Ah fuck you.” Janik commented. “Enjoy the moment, that shit’s adorable!” He smiled as he filmed the two of them. “You look like you just got your first kiss in kindergarten. I don’t think you could look more awkward, and I got it all!” He looked almost happier at that fact than anything else going on.

This made Sam feel a bit embarrassed. He understood what he meant, and given his surprised reaction to being ambushed by cuddles... He had no comeback. “I was surprised, ok?!” His blurted-out response sounded more defensive than anything, and based on Janik’s expression behind the still-rolling smartphone, he could only admit defeat.

“But, jokes aside, she’s adorable. If you don’t want her I’ll take her off your hands... and arm.” Janik’s joke turned into a double, something he looked surprisingly happy about.

“No! No. I don’t want that. I just need to... process this a bit.” Sam reacted that he barked out the first No like he was defending the statement as if it was real. But calmed himself down after. He had no idea what he was going to do with her but for now, he was enjoying the moment.

His mind needed something to focus on for a few seconds, just to calm more down, and it turned to the previous skills he saw in her info. As he focused on them the little list opened and displayed their explanations.

[ Companion’s Bond

The companion is fiercely loyal to their owner, listening to any command and order regardless of the danger it might present. ]

[ Venom 1 - RES 14 - 3/3

Type: Injury

Effect: Damage

As the venom enters a wound, injected, smeared or otherwise, the victim must succeed in resisting it or take the Venom’s effect every few seconds. This lasts until the target dies, is cured or manages to resist.

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

-Can be harvested and used on weapons. ]

The 3/3 seemed to be doses per day, which scaled 1:1 with her VIT score. Checking out the math behind resisting it. It seemed that the RES number, which was based on a flat number adding the Venom level and her VIT score, needed to be resisted. The resistance change was a simple percentage calculated with the victim’s VIT, if successful they were fine, if not the Venom would take effect.

Based on his own VIT of 3, he had a 50/50 chance to resist it. Though it only did one damage, if he failed that check enough times it could prove fatal. The final sentence about the Venom being harvestable was also very interesting, this could allow him to use it on blades or needles at range.

Janik needed a moment to keep petting her and get it out of his system before he stopped filming and calmed down. “Well... Now that... I’m... Fine... Can she do something neat?” Sporting a genuinely interested face, it was hard to resist answering him.

Sam took a second to consider the question before he realised that he could probably not see her stats and info, since Elara was bonded to him he had full insight, but others didn’t.

“She can inject venom when she bites, or I can apparently harvest it and use it on other weapons.” He answered. It was the only proper skill she had outside of her being his servant after all.

“Well, that’s practical for you. It’ll probably become more powerful as she levels.” He smiled, looking surprisingly happy about just that one thing.

“That’s also a good point. How does she level? Does she get a cut of the group XP?” That’s the first thing that popped into his mind, after all, it somewhat made sense if she was counted as a party member.

“Yes and no. Not in the way you think.” Janik cupped his hands together and reached them both towards Elara, nudging her to slither in. He seemed to do his utmost best to hold back a squee as she did, sliding most of her long body into his hands.

“I don’t know the exact math, but what I read is that they don’t take a cut, but rather kind of ‘gets’-” he tried to make air quotes around the word ‘gets’ as he said it, which was kind of hard as both his hands were full of snake. “-some XP based on how much you get. Like, if you go alone and kill something, get 10 XP. If I was with you we’d get 5 each. If you and her go you still get 10 but she kind of gets her own XP on the side of that.”

Sam pondered this, the main thing he wondered about was where this bonus XP came from. But it kind of made sense, if you could just give them all the XP, a few runs in the starter dungeon could power-level her much like he did. But if they get a percentage of what you get, they will never be more powerful than you and actually be lagging behind quite a bit.

“The accepted theory is to make sure that the Companion don’t outlevel their owner. Though, this might not matter much, if you have an S-rank dragon, it’s level 1 is probably going to be more powerful than your level 10, soo... when it levels up it’s just gonna make shit worse.” He smiled like he was holding a puppy in his hands, focusing more on Elara than on Sam, even though he was talking with Sam.

Sam focused on the System, wondering about the way she levelled, and as expected information popped up.

[ Companion XP Sharing

The Companion will get an increase to their XP, without taking a cut from the Player, equal to a certain percent based on their rank.

-Elara - D: 50% ]

“Ah, it seems she’ll get a free 50%... clone, I guess, of my XP.” Sam’s face showed clear signs of confusion. “But... if they get free XP... What’s the drawback of having a Companion? Why doesn’t everyone get one?”

“Well, one thing is that they are expensive. They are also stupidly rare. There were more of them many years ago, but there are fewer and fewer eggs found in rewards nowadays. Now that I think about it, the price I mentioned before is probably outdated, if you can find any at all on the market they are probably way more expensive, and they go right away almost regardless.” Janik had managed to balance Elara in one hand and was petting her head with his other, having full focus on her as he spoke with Sam.

Sam had a few different feelings swell in him. First of all, this meant that he could have sold the egg for much more than he stated. He got the power they could bring, if a high-level player just bought all of them and went into a single high-level Dungeon, he could probably suddenly get an army of powerful minions... One good thing about not selling the egg was that, if they were this rare he might not have gotten that chance again anytime soon, if at all. Though the Fleshy Dungeon was horrid, and not something he wanted to go through again, it might have been worth it? He wasn’t sure, but if it came to that he could sell her later.

Almost seeming like she had enough of Janik, she extended her head over to Sam, pulling the rest of her body with her shortly after getting a solid grasp. As she did this it was easier to see her full body length, it seemed that she was longer than Sam was tall, easily about as long as Janik’s height. Soon finding herself pulled over to Sam’s shoulders she coiled around it for support as she put herself against his neck, leeching of his heat.

“Well... I will admit I got caught up in your... everything, so I don’t really know what to do with this now.” Sam commented. He still liked the idea of having a sentient pet, but parts of him were confused, about what should he do with her, completely forgetting that she was indeed sentient and he could ask her directly.

“It’s simple, do what you would normally do. Once she’s properly registered she can go wherever you go. I recommend getting her a collar for simplicity’s sake... Just for show, really, should have people think twice before attacking her or something. Players can see that she’s bonded to you via a title, explaining that she’s a Companion. Though, it won’t stop anyone from attacking her if they want to... there’s a lot of jealous fucks out there.”

Janik seemed a bit miffed at the end, but he had a lot of good points. Not like Sam intended to have her crawl across the city for something, meaning she should hopefully be safe from that kind of stuff.

“For now, ask her, she seems smart and can probably answer the things on her own. I think it’s a good idea for the two of you to get to know each other today. Just relax and, do whatever. If you’re up for it we can go to another Dungeon tomorrow.” The end of his statement about the Dungeon had him sound a bit excited, which made a lot of sense.

Janik had been very patient with the newbie that was Sam, he had levelled up quite a lot in the two days he had been doing this, though not having a reference he didn’t know where he was on the leaderboard, so to speak, but he felt that he was doing well. His point about getting to know her was also a good idea, she was sentient which made this much easier, no need to teach tricks, just talk about things.

“Oh, and remember take a shower before bed, you smell of... stuff...” He toned it like a father speaking to his kid, trying to teach good habits.

Sam just looked back at him with a deadpan stare, he had planned to shower and clean his armour. Though he didn’t really break a sweat there was plenty of gore spread on him from the fighting.

There was a bit of small talk of the day but mostly focused surrounding Elara. Sam finally shared her name, something Janik stated he kind of guessed based on his blurring of the name earlier, laughing while confirming it. But in the end, Janik had to leave. He had promised to visit someone else before the day was over, so he had to get going.

Saying that he’d contact Sam tomorrow when he woke up for the plans for the day, he disappeared out the door after shoving his mouth full of snacks, chewing and speaking through it in unintelligible sounds.

In the end, it was just Sam and Elara. It felt quite strange considering everything, the thing that made it weird was her sentience. He felt this was the weirdest part of the thing.

“Master, are you unwell?” She asked of him, snapping him out of the train of thought he was working through.

He must have had a weird expression while working through things, but in the end, it all fell on a simple question; why was it weird?

There is no reason for it to be, she was his Companion, in his mind; his friend. He should get to know her more and they should just get along.

“I was overthinking... well... you. There’s a lot I’m not used to and, as weird as it sounds, the fact that you are smart enough to speak caught me off guard. Strange having a sentient being bonded like this. Kind of feels like slavery, you know? A mindless animal would probably be easier to handle, consider it a pet or something.” He just stopped thinking about it and answered properly, he didn’t know where all of this was going to go, but he might as well be honest with her.

She chuckled, something he didn’t see coming. “Does it matter? You can think of me as a pet if it makes it easier.”

“Nah, that’s not possible. Though a lot of people speak with their pets, having you answer properly doesn’t exactly give the same feeling. Just give me some time, I’ll get used to it.” He looked calmer as he smiled at her. He knew he was the awkward one, both socially from before, he had a strange life after all. But there was also the whole Player thing which still sat weird in his mind.

As Janik suggested, he decided to spend the rest of the day and evening getting used to her presence, speaking to her, testing out things and just getting over the weirdness. He was glad to find out that she ate most things, no need for live mice or something, even though she found the notion interesting, hunting on her own was something she felt good about. Though she didn’t have any past... as she hatched only hours ago, she still had thoughts about what she felt she would like. Her understanding of what things were without experience, like hunting, had her understand that she would like it.

It still felt weird feeding a snake cold pizza.