The day of hunting, though dangerous and not without pain, had been exhilarating to Uther. He had felt power and growth on another level. He knew that as he leveled the experience demand would grow more and more. From every time he’d leveled so far, he figured out the requirement to level doubled each time. The years of training, pain, blood, sweat, and tears he’d undergone as a Fettore put him leagues ahead of an unbound and even most bond-wielders, but his rate of growth now was almost incomprehensible.

Name: Uther Krillku

Level: 6

Race: Doomed

Pact Status: Pacted – Damemnos The Kraken

Profession: Hunter – Specialization: None

Class: Occultist – Specialization: None

Languages: Common, Old Norse, Infernal, Skjold-Sign

Skills:

Sailing Level 10

Shipwright Level 5

Dodge Level 20

Polearms Level 15

Subskills: Parry Level 10, Sweep Level 7, Trident Level 6, Airborne Polearm Precision Level 3

Deception Level 11

Light Armor Level 13

Leatherworking Level 5

Unarmed Fighting Level 7

Blunt Weapons Level 2

Herbalism Level 4

Stealth Level 13

Beast Handling Level 3

Harvest Level 15

Eldritch Magic Level 8

Abilities & Spells:

Eye of the Kraken

Ebyssian Grasp

Mind Spike

Mark Prey

Beasts’ Bane (Passive)

Summon Trident

Advanced Tracking

Darkvision (Passive)

Feats: Survivor, Bond-Breaker

Pools & Resistances

Health: 230

Mana: 380

Stamina: 430

Armor: 28

Demonic Bloodline: +25% resistance to heat and fire damage.

Shadowmire Armor: +10% chance to detect others in Stealth, +10% chance to remain undetected while in Stealth

Cold Resistance: 5%

Mental Magic Resistance: 10%

Stats

Strength: 34

Agility: 26

Intellect: 38

Perception: 51

Discernment: 31

Fortitude: 43

Vitality: 23

Dexterity: 37

Luck: 32

Insight: 60

Will: 55

Significance: 137, 628

It was because of that growth, and the surprising joy he found in teaching Damemnos about his profession, that Uther continued to go around the Okar Jungle excitedly looking for any possible next challenge. There were still multiple things that didn’t make sense to him in regards to his status. Namely, his newly revealed “Hidden Stats” were perplexing. Luck and Signficance had shown mild growth in comparison to the rate that Insight and Will have shown. He couldn’t determine if they were at what would be considered “good” or not, and he had no one to compare it to. Still, he assumed that if his other stats’ growth was impressive, then there is no reason to think that wouldn’t be the case with the Hidden Stats.

As Uther pondered on his status, he followed the river upstream for a little over a mile. The sun was getting low, and it already went under the trees, making the forest very dark. There were some subtle rays of light, but Uther knew it would become pitch black at some point. Still, he wasn’t concerned. With his darkvision and new kraken eye, he felt pretty confident. After a couple more minutes, the river led to a large waterfall. So, Uther was now climbing up a damp rock wall beside the previously mentioned waterfall.

“Shouldn’t we find a place to make camp, Uther?” Damemnos asked.

“Yeah, that’s why we’re going up here. There’s a rocky outcropping that should keep us safe from any would-be attacker while also allowing us to ambush anything from below,” he answered. Uther had the iron fowl tied to his waist and planned to make a meal out of the jerk of a bird.

Damemnos had some dry wood wrapped up in his tentacles per Uther’s instructions. It was to provide for a cooking fire, a concept that was foreign to the small monster. They made it up with relative ease. After they set the wood and dead bird on the ground, they took in the amazing sight of the riverbank. Lumiscent bugs and glowing firefly lemurs illuminated the darkening jungle and amongst the constant rushing of the nearby falls, the sounds of more jungle creatures began to echo throughout. Though the Okar Jungle was full of life in the day, it was clear that was the case even more so at night.

Right after they got their fire started, Uther looked over to Damemnos, “Come on, let’s go get some water and clean off any grime,” he said then took off his cuirass, cloak, and boots. Damemnos climbed up his back and settled on his left shoulder. Not far from their ledge, there were a couple more rocky outcroppings, one of which was right under the falls and behind it. He jumped over to one then again to the next one, nearly slipping due to the moisture accumulated on the stone. After stabilizing himself, Uther looked around to notice there was a hidden cave back in the area.

Uther looked at the cave. It was dark, but he didn’t detect anything inside it from what he could see. He was excited to find the place too as it would make a much safer place to make camp. Seeing nothing of interest, he was about to turn back to wipe the sweat and dirt off his body when his right eye picked up something. There was a slight shimmer moving about int he darkness and it was getting-

“Uther look out!” Damemnos shouted.

Just as the kraken said that, a hideous reptilian beast materialized from the shimmer surging forward with its toothy maw open.

Damemnos threw a tentacle out to the side, grabbing a nearby rock and managed to fling both of them to the side, moving them out of the way. Still, they were not without injury. As they were flung to the side, the beast’s jaws clamped down with a sickening crunch, and Uther felt a sharp pain in his left arm. He looked down to it, he gasped as most of his left hand was missing, leaving only his thumb remaining. Blood began spurting from the large wound. With his mind being fueled by adrenaline, the shock factor prevented Uther from fully processing how grievous and painful his wound truly was.

The large reptile chewed loudly and snapped its head to the hunter a small kraken. It was truly a spine-chilling sight. The best thing Uther could describe it was a terrifying-looking mix between a chameleon, a bear, and a crocodile. Its body was a mix of green scales and brown fur with six legs, four independently moving eyes, and a large crocodilian maw fully of crooked sharp teeth. Those teeth in particular were stained with blood, Uther’s blood. The monstrous reptile gave a loud swallow as it finished off Uther’s hand and seemed to give a demeaning smirk to the hunter.

Uther’s vision went hazy for a moment, then his years of training kicked in. Normally, he would’ve used his analyze skill, but with such limited space between them and the beast before the pair, Uther didn’t have time to formulate a careful plan. It was kill or be killed. “Ebyssian Grasp!” He shouted and summoned a large tentacle in between them and the four-eyed reptile.

The creature took a couple steps back and growled at the new opponent.

Getting a moment’s reprieve, Uther raised his bloody hand up, “Damemnos wrap a tentacle around my forearm tight.”

“But why, Uth-“

“Just do it. No time to explain.” He interrupted the small kraken.

Damemnos was flustered, but did as bid.

Uther winced slightly as Damemnos squeezed tightly on his arm. He couldn’t use his left hand, but at least now he didn’t have to worry about passing out to blood loss with Damemnos being a makeshift tourniquet. He felt bad about interrupting his patron, but he didn’t have time to explain. Uther used Mark Prey then mentally ordered the tentacle to snap at the hairy reptile. It jumped to the left and avoided the strike, then its entire body disappeared.

That was the case for Uther’s left eye. For his right eye and for Damemnos however, the beast’s silhouette was visible as a glowing purple form. It was clear that this thing was an ambush predator that used some sort of illusionary ability to sneak up on unsuspecting opponents like Uther was right then.

The beast’s six claws gripped onto the side wall and began climbing over to catch Uther by surprise. This time, the doomed was ready. “Don’t let it know that we notice it,” he whispered to Damemnos. As it neared, Uther kept his eyes peeled forward to keep up the charade. As it crawled beside the tentacle, Uther had it snap out at the beast once again. The tentacle lashed out and wrapped around the creature’s long crocodilian muzzle. It gave a choked noise of surprise as its illusionary ability was dispelled by the contact. The doomed then promptly slammed its large body against the ground, making sure to do it with full-force.

“Here’s another lesson for you, Damemnos,” he said before spitting out a mouthful of blood. “Crocs are things with long mouths like this. They have some of the strongest bite forces in all of Eldryndr. Their strength in opening their mouths however, is a different story,” he said and pointed to the creature.

Damemnos looked to see the four-eyed reptile fighting desperately against the tentacle’s grip.

It seemed to realize its predicament too because it began clawing at the spellform. The magical body was semi-incorporeal, so it couldn’t fully resist against the damage and began to break down against the barrage.

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Recognizing the situation and that the spell was close to expiring, Uther used his other spell, “Mind Spike.”

The beast staggered from the surprise attack from the spell and staggered back slightly just as the Ebyssian Grasp’s duration ended.

Seeing an opportunity, Uther summoned his Hemogorger to his right hand, ran forward, and thrusted his spear into the creature’s neck. While the doomed’s strength was admittedly far greater than it had been before his pact, the thrust was not as powerful as a full two-handed one would’ve been. The three prongs of the weapon bit deep into the croc’s hide, causing blood to coat it liberally, but the strike wasn’t a lethal one.

The reptile’s eyes focused on Uther with a look of utter fury before swiping at him with its claws.

Uther managed to block the strike with the handle of his weapon, but his one arm couldn’t compete with the full force of the beast. He shouted in pain as four claws raked across his chest. Uther fell to his knees and reactively clutched his right arm to his new wounds. The doomed looked up and his eyes widened in fear as the beast stood over him, its four eyes all locked on him.

It opened its mouth to no doubt bite Uther’s head off when a small yellow tentacle whipped out over the doomed’s right shoulder and struck the beast right in one of its eyes. It didn’t seem to hurt the beast much, but it flinched in surprise letting out a small moan of surprise. The large beast was promptly struck in its second left eye by another tentacle, causing it to take a reactionary step back.

“Mind Spike,” Damemnos said, and a bolt of eldritch magic surged out from his head and struck the hairy reptile.

Its body went rigid and mouth opened wide in a clear display of shock.

Uther could tell that the stun chance of Mind Spike had kicked in and he thrusted his trident forward with his right arm once more. This time, he stabbed the Hysteric Hemogorger into the beast’s mouth, directly into its exposed soft palate. The trident pierced through with ease and punctured its brain.

Blood readily sprayed out from the wound, and the four-eyed reptile let out a pained cough before its rigid body immediately went limp, lifeless.

Tier 0.5 Viridian Crocodile defeated!

You gain 1425 Experience (1500-75 experience sent to your patron)

Experience to next level 1750/3200

Sanguine Progenitor Activated

-Viridian Crocodile (+1 Strength, +1 Vitality)

Critical Hit!

You defeated an opponent above 50% of their total health with a single blow! Not only that, you did so while being under 25% of your total health.

You gain: +1 Luck

Uther didn’t give the notifications much attention and dismissed them from his vision. He yanked his trident out from the crodile’s mouth then used it to help him balance on his wobbly legs.

Part of the four-eyed croc’s body was slumped over the wet ledge of the stoney outcropping Uther stood on. After the hunter removed his weapon, gravity started to take full effected, and the beast slowly began to lean over and fall into the water below. Its large form had leaned far enough to actually make contact with the descending falls, and it began to pull it down quickly.

“Oh, no you don’t!” Uther shouted and reached out to cast Ebyssian Grasp again. Maybe it was the bloodloss. Maybe it was a primal recognition, or it could have been due to his much larger Insight statistic. Whatever the reason, he decided to use his spell in a new way. He’d always summoned the spell from a from the top of something whether that be the ground or a tree branch an annoying bird was standing on. Uther had never summoned the tentacle from a different perspective.

So, instead of summoning the tentacle from the ground where he stood, he conjured one from the cliff wall. It was initially bent down by the pressure of the falls, but it quickly overcame that when Uther exerted his will. The tentacle was successful in blocking the Viridian Crocodile from falling off. Uther then mentally directed the tentacle to push it back up, and it flung the beast’s corpse onto the ground before him with a wet slap.

With the threat dealt with, Uther fell to his knees, the adrenaline leaving his system in a rush. He braced himself with his hands, wincing and pulling back reflexively when his wound left palm struck the rocks. The doomed took in a sharp inhale and looked at his severely mangled hand. It was gruesomely disfigured, and he’d be lucky to ever use it again. That was a passing thought for him though as both arms began to shake from the shock.

His vision grew fuzzy as he went lightheaded. “Da..memnos, get my herbs, and squeeze..my arm tighter,” he said shakily. There was a notification flashing in the corner of his vision, but he blocked it out.

The kraken wordlessly complied, and reached into one of Uther’s pockets, pulled out his herbs, and slapped them into his right hand.

Uther took the handful and shoved them into his mouth. The doomed’s sinuses were instantly overwhelmed with cool mint, but he fought off any brain-freeze and chewed with voracity. Each of the herbs only provided a couple health at most to be regenerated, but it was still better than nothing. He took a deep breath of relief as some of the pain subsided. His left arm was still shaking though as some was not all or even most of the pain though.

“Grr! I’m sorry, Damemnos. I let these new powers make me overconfident. Now I can’t use the trident effectively because of what happened to my hand. We’re gonna have to get a fire going,” he said.

“Why, Uther?” Damemnos asked.

“To cauterize this wound. As soon as you let go of my arm, I’ll probably die of blood loss within a minute or so. If I burn the wound, it should stop the bleeding,” he explained. Wounds like this had killed many fellow apprentices back when he was in-training in Skjoldheim. The injuries were not always fatal, but those that survived almost always out of contention to become a Fettore. It was just that unless you had access to high-quality potions, had connections to someone was a pact-wielder to a deity with healing powers, were a pact or bond-wielder yourself, or became a soldier to the Nilelands Empire, you risked becoming permanently disfigured. So, the best those seriously injured apprentices could hope for was to become a guard or soldier of Skjoldheim. That still wasn’t anything to belittle, but it didn’t compare to actually becoming a Fettore.

Uther scowled to himself, both from the pain of his hand and the reminder of the home and status he’d lost. As a pact-wielder, he would regenerate his hand, but it was a long and arduous process. The rough estimation by the Fettore was that a centimeter of one’s body would regrow per day per ten points in Vitality. Given that Uther had twenty-four points now in the stat, he reckoned it would take at least a couple weeks to recover.

“It’s going to take some time, but after we ensure that I won’t bleed out, I should be able to fight at full-capacity in a couple weeks,” he said to his patron. “I’ll just have to focus more on my spells and fighting from a distance.”

“A couple weeks won’t be necessary,” Damemnos replied before the tentacle around Uther’s left arm began to pulse and wiggle.

The doomed’s left arm began to vibrate. “What are you doing?” He asked, but the answer came up before his very eyes. His hand was regrowing right in front of him. In merely fifteen seconds, his horrific wound that had amputated most of his right hand was gone, replaced by unblemished red flesh indistinguishable from the rest. There was no indication that any damage occurred, well…besides the dried blood.

Uther’s eyes were wide in shock as he looked at his hand, then to Damenonos, then back to his hand again.

The small kraken unclinched the doomed’s elbow allowing blood to flow back into the limb.

Uther opened and closed his newly repaired hand, testing out the feeling of his fingers. He then looked down on his body, noticing the other wounds had healed too. “That was amazing. How did you do that” He asked.

The one-eyed kraken wriggled his tentacles side-to-side in excitement. “I am glad I was able to help, Uther. As for your question, I have a skill called Mind Over Matter. I can convert mana directly into health and give it to your body to regenerate faster.”

Uther was stunned. He had no clue Damemnos had such a skill. Then his mind was struck with more realization. “You have Mind Spike too,” he said. He had heard Damemnos say the spell’s name, but in the heat of the fighting, he didn’t give it too much focus.

“Indeed,” his patron answered.

Damemnos’s answer did make sense to Uther. He had gotten his Eldritch Magic powers from Damemnos after all. Why wouldn’t the young kraken have the same spell? Why haven’t I asked him what he could do before? Uther thought to himself in recrimination. He had just assumed because Damemnos was so small and averse to fighting, that the kraken was helpless in a way. It was totally inaccurate and honestly illogical given that the creature was a being powerful enough to be recognized as a patron by the System, but he had thought that nonetheless.

“Are you okay, Uther?” Damemnos asked, breaking Uther out of his train of thought.

“Oh, sorry. Just thinking,” he said in reply. “I’ve got some more questions, but first, let’s make sure this cave is clear. Then we’ll move our stuff to make camp in there for the night. It should be a lot safer with the falls as cover.

So, that’s what they did. To Uther’s relief, there were no more Viridian Crocodiles in the cave. It was also deep enough that the mist from the water didn’t reach. That made it just right to find a dry place to make a fire and get some rest. Uther then got to the task of dressing his two kills. The waterfall was a major help as Uther let it wash away all the organs and such down the river, masking any scent that would’ve accumulated naturally when dressing a kill. One could’ve argued that he didn’t to focus on slicing up the dead fowl for food, but the fowl had done a very good job at pissing Uther off. So the hunter was going to get his due from the bird.

He decided to hold onto a large handful of the bird’s metallic-like feathers because he reasoned the unique property of the annoying things would likely hold some kind of worth. As one with the Hunter profession plus having a history of hunting things and bringing back valuables from their bodies, Uther was extremely qualified when it came to discerning what was worth removing from dead creatures. From the Viridian Croc, he was able to discern from his Profession that its hide was the thing to get, but it was just too much for the doomed to salvage and store.

So far, he’d collected some raptor claws, leopard horns, fireclaw toucan claws, a firefly lemur pelt, and the ironfowl feathers. Uther would’ve collected the pelt from the mossback slothing, but he had no alchemy skill. He had a strong suspicion that the moss would’ve spoiled for lack of a better term. Plus, it smelled bad. If the moss on the pelt went rancid, Uther didn’t want to imagine how bad the odor would be. Aside from the pet that he had tied to a belt, the rest of the items fit well in some empty pockets and pouches he had on him. Once he had everything stored away properly, he focused on cooking the meat.

In the end, the iron fowl somehow seemed to get the last laugh from the grave because when he bit down on the charred meat of the dead bird, the only taste he got was metal. It was like he was eating some sort of metallic clay. Needless to say, the fowl was not an enjoyable meal, but Uther ate it out of sheer stubbornness. He made sure not to give any to Damemnos as he was afraid it would discourage the young kraken from ever trying cooked food again. If all Damemnos had ever eaten was raw food or even things that were alive, I need to show him what he’s been missing out, he thought to himself.

The Viridian Croc turned out to much a much more enjoyable thing to eat. It was a bit gamey, but even without seasoning, the meat had some spice. Uther laughed as he saw Damemnos’s one eye widen in surprise as the small kraken got to enjoy the sheer joy of cooked meat for the first time. Uther then laughed when Damemnos began to cough as the spice of the crocodile meat hit the patron.

Now with the tension eased and being in relative safety, Uther decided to rebroach the topic of Damemnos’s powers. “So, it occurs that I didn’t take stock of what you can do. I assumed that because you didn’t like to fight, that you couldn’t fight,” he admitted with notable discomfort. “It was dumb, and it almost got us killed. I’m sorry for that.”

“You need not apologize, Uther,” Damemnos said.

“I mean, I do,” Uther countered. “Just, take it as another lesson. Whenever you make a mistake, own it. If you don’t it can cause rifts in your group if you’re with one. And it can lead to more serious consequences, even death if you’re not careful.”

“I see,” the kraken said. “Then, I accept your apology, Uther. Thank you.”

Uther just nodded in return before going onto what else had been on his mind, “So, do you mind sharing your status screen with me? It’ll help for me to know what else you can do.”

Wordlessly, the kraken did so.

Name: Damemnos

Tier: 1

Race: Monster Type: Kraken

Pact Status: Patron – Pact with Uther Krillku

Profession: None – Specialization: None

Class: None – Specialization: None

Languages: Common, Mad Tongue, Telepathy

Skills:

Tentacle Whip Level 3

Chemical Camouflage Level 2

Inky Darkness Level 2

Eldritch Magic Level 8

Abilities & Spells:

Eye of the Kraken

Mind Spike

Mind Over Matter

Advanced Tracking

Darkvision (Passive)

Feats: Survivor, Patron Savant

Pools & Resistances

Health: 30

Mana: 80

Stamina: 60

Free Experience: 615

Unassigned Stat Points: 210

Armor: 0

Eldritch Bloodline - Mental Magic Resistance: 50%

Stats

Strength: 5

Agility: 6

Intellect: 8

Perception: 8

Discernment: 4

Fortitude: 6

Vitality: 3

Dexterity: 8

Luck: 11

Insight: 7

Will: 5

Significance: 1,102,056

Uther spat out the water he’d been drinking.

“Is something wrong, Uther?” Damemnos asked.

“No. It’s fine. I just..didn’t expect to see your status be like that,” the hunter explained. Once again, he’d underestimated the power that Damemnos possessed. Even though the monster was young and small, Damemnos was a damn patron. Of course, he would be at least a tier one. Still, it was shocking to Uther at first. Aside from his lucky blow with the Sabertooth, the highest level beast or monster he’d ever hunted were the 0.75s. Creatures of that tier required a multitude of warriors with a good strategy to best.

Does this mean that the tier system actually measures how close something is to becoming a patron? He thought. He wondered if this was some sort of hidden knowledge as even when he had killed the Sabertooth, he still wasn’t notified that it was at Tier One. “When did you reach Tier One?” He asked the small kraken.

Damemnos lowered his head sadly, “When my mother was killed,” he said. There was a pause for about fifteen seconds before he continued, “When that happened, I was granted a lot of Significance and Stat Points. I have been unsure where to assign them…” He trailed off.

“If you’d like, I can help you,” Uther offered.

Damemnos snapped his head up and shook his body happily, “Truly? I would be very grateful for that, Uther.”

“Sure. We promised to keep each other safe. It looks like we both need to be stronger to ensure that. Also, I want to say thank you.”

“For what, Uther?”

“For being willing to fight today. I know you don’t like it, which makes it an even bigger deal that you did. You’ve saved my life not once, but twice. I am truly in your debt, Damemnos,” he said. In such a short time, this little monster was changing his perspective. Uther still wasn’t convinced that all or even most monsters were considered “good,” but he was starting to believe there may be more than just a rare few like Damemnos.

“It is as you said, Uther,” Damemnos replied. “I was given a choice. I chose to fight to protect what’s important, a good man and my pact-wielder.”

That got Uther full of mixed emotions. To once again be called a “good man” after he and his compatriots had originally come to kill Damemnos and his family was admittedly hard to deal with. On the other hand, it was validating to be reminded that he made the right choice in standing up to his allies and defying the hunt. He quickly fought back the tears and changed the subject, “Okay, well lets go over your stats, shall we?”