Chapter 5

Mikey was fast asleep against the stone wall of a veterinary, all the while holding a colander and a plate held tightly together with rope, talismans, zip ties, super glue, and duct tape for good luck.

Part of his cloak was torn and his skin was littered with bite marks and scratches. There was an ugly bruise on his face to match his opposing side's black eye. Every once in a while, the makeshift cage would rattle and Mikey would lightly stir before falling asleep again.

This was the scene that Ana Wolffriend and her three dogs saw as they went to open their animal hospital early in the morning.

"Hey kid, wake up," Ana said as she nudged the rotund young man with her foot.

"Humm, what?" Mikey said as he yawned, then looked at the person that had awoken him. She had long brown hair pulled back into a ponytail, red markings on her chin, and a kind smile that matched her smooth flowing gray mana veins.

"You were sleeping in front of the door. You know you’ll be disqualified if you leave the testing area, right?" she said as she touched a scratch on his head, getting a wince from him.

"Huh what are you talking about? You're a vet, right? Could you look at this thing here for me?" he said, shaking the cage violently, getting angry noises in response from the inside. "I was hoping you could tell me if it had rabies or something?"

The young Wolffriend looked curiously at the makeshift cage, taking note of all the bindings, "So you’re not a part of the entrance trials? Just a normal rabid animal attack?"

Standing up, Mikey noticed just how much taller the young woman was, not to mention the three dogs behind her that were his size. "Yeah, it somehow got into my room and attacked me late last night."

She smiled at him as she opened the door of the veterinary, "Sorry kid you came just as our entrance trials ended but I shouldn’t have assumed. lets get a good look at those scratches, wouldn't want to get them infected."

"Thank you miss. What do you mean by entrance trials?" he said while following her inside the veterinary.

"None of that miss stuff, just call me Ana," she said as she stepped into an examining room, motioning for him to follow. “The entrance trials are the new government program to bolster the 28 Nibillian families since our numbers have been so low and the Bylilly family died out. Every year we hold trials that if an independent mage can get through in one piece then they can join that Family. The Wolffriend trial is this week.

"The more you know," he said as only an awkward teen could.

She opened the cupboards and took out some swabs and disinfectant and indicated for him to sit on the table and take off his shirt.

Mikey took off the coat top, and then the three chainmail shirts that were underneath. His body was riddled with bloody lines and bitemarks, the thing had gotten smart and somehow found a way underneath his clothes.

"Dang kid, you got messed up. What did you say attacked you?" Ana said as she took out a clean cloth to wipe away the blood.

"It was a rabbit." Mikey said with a distant look in his eyes.

His answer got a raised eyebrow from the woman, but Mikey was stuck in the memory of last night where the rabbit had faced him down in a way that could only be compared to a fighting tournament battle with a full backstory to every punch. Rag**rok ain’t shit compared to that fight.

Quickly using the memory of the reference to snap out of his thoughts and return to reality, he saw Ana pull out a stethoscope to provide the concept of inspection for her spell and her hands glowed green.

Mikey, seeing this had to ask, "What are you doing?"

Without looking up from her spell she answered, "This is a basic health diagnosis spell. It will let me see if you contracted rabies or any other general issues."

“That’s pretty nifty." he said as he felt the foreign mana enter his body scanning him.

"Yup, nothing from the cuts themselves. Your mana pool is moving a little weird but I wouldn’t put much thought into it. Here let me fix those scratches real quick." she said as she started closing some of his wounds using a bottle of placebo pills as the concept catalyst this time.

Mikey on the other hand was transfixed at the way that the mana moved throughout his body, speeding up the natural regenerative process of the cells to recover. It was strange the spell would make the cells believe they were healthy enough to heal.

"Alrighty, make sure to take it easy for the next few days so your cuts don’t reopen," the female mage said with enough practice it seemed reflexive.

The plump boy let out a sigh of relief, even the cut that almost opened his jugular was closed.

"Now then let's see this ferocious beast you have trapped under here," Ana suggested as she tapped the cullender.

Mikey saw what she was about to do and rapidly put on his chainmail shirts and took out a knife. "Be careful Ana, that thing is dangerous."

"Oh I'm sure it isn't that bad," Ana said as she took a scalpel from her sleeve and started cutting through the various bindings. She tried to do the same with the talismans, but blade would slide right over them like they were covered in grease. Looking at the kid that had not left his guarded position she pointed at the talismans and asked, "Would you?"

Reluctantly Mikey peeled them off one by one and then leaped back as far away as he could.

Ana let out an amused snort at the way he was acting. As soon as the lid was open, the furry menace jumped straight at her face, aiming for her eyes with its mana coated teeth. Ana however was a trained War Mage, a Second-level mage to be exact, and while she was taken off guard by the sudden attack, she had plenty of time to casually stretch her hand and grab it by the back of its neck. The now incapacitated bunny snarled at her while thrashing in her grip.

"See! I told you!" the pudgy lad shouted, gaining the attention of the rabbit and making it start clawing in his direction.

Holding the small bunny in a vice grip, Ana had to admit it, "Yeah, this is pretty weird. Let’s see what’s going on here."

Temporarily paralyzing it with a spell, she set it down on the table and took out a clipboard to write down the information she got from a scanning spell. It took a few minutes before she looked up again because she got lost in her work.

Mikey on the other hand had started to play with the three dogs, scratching them behind the ear and giving them belly rubs. He was a natural dog person.

Ana turned back to him just in time to see him try to give a belly rub to all three at once.

"Huh, they don't usually let people they just met do that. Anyways Mikey, I'm finished with the scan." she said as she placed the rabbit into a steel reinforced cage.

"Okay.” Mikey said as he reluctantly left the dogs alone to pay attention to the young Wolffriend.

"She's a girl, about a month old. She's on the smaller side of her species and seems to be suffering from malnutrition."

"Normal so far." Mikey said like any awkward teen.

"Yeah, but the strange thing is that it seems to have an advanced mana network, and rather large reserves at that." Ana continued on, experienced in the lingo of the awkward teen.

"How large?" Mikey reflexively asked.

"I'd say mid First-level mage reserves. Usually that doesn't happen to animals other than my Nibilian Family's companions," Ana said with an impressed tone.

Mikey meanwhile choked on his spit thinking to himself, Of course it has more mana then I do. Why can’t my eyes be wrong just one time? Did I seriously lose to a month-old rabbit!

“I noticed that she seems to have ingested some type of weird powdery substance, most of it has already been absorbed into her bloodstream. Do you know what it could be?" she said as she walked him out of the office.

"Huh?" Mikey so eloquently responds.

"I ask because I noticed that you and your clothes are also covered in this powder." she said subtly implying he was a drug dealer.

Mikey looked confused for a second before he decided to put his brain to use for once and somehow dug himself into a bigger hole, "Ah that! It's this special dust I use when I make pills. I own a shop, you see?"

"Really, for a second I thought you were a Mage School student?" Ana responded with suspicion.

"Oh, I'm that too, but becoming a shop owner is my true passion," he said before taking out a piece of paper and writing the directions to his shop. "Here you go Ana, if you stop by I'll make sure to show you something good. Now what do I owe you?"

Taking the piece of paper, she tucked it into her coat to turn over to the authorities later, "Nothing, have nice day kiddo."

Mikey smiled at that and left, "Thanks Ana! Bye."

The sun was just coming up, with many of the shopkeepers opening up their stores. Glancing at a pet supply store, Mikey had a barely flickering light bulb appear above his head, "Maybe I should broaden my clientele. I mean there are plenty of people that have magic companions, like the Wolffriend, Hatathli, and Vance. Plus I'm going to need to buy some new furniture after that crazy rabbit destroyed most of them. Time to let those earnings make me even more money," he said to himself, already making plans on what to buy.

It took him twenty minutes to go to his tent and come back to the City-State, but once he returned he was armed with his yellow backpack and a pocket full of money.

The sun was shining so many outdoor salesmans had set up makeshift stands to sell their wares. The market place was buzzing with activity, and Mikey was once again pushed to the side of the road. Not one to be discouraged Mikey still went on buying his supplies.

With the money he earned yesterday he was finally able to buy some pieces of furniture from a professional carpenter. Now he didn’t have to use the shelves he got from dumpster diving, not that he’d throw them away now that he’s got new ones. He bought some used weapons and armor, he hoped to repair them or at least cannibalize them into newer ones. Restocking on jewelry he could now afford ones from actual jewelers rather than the second-hand stores.

On a whim he took some potted plants and a few seeds, since he wanted to experiment more on what his mana dust was capable of. If it could make a seemingly harmless bunny into such a threat, he was curious on what effects it could have on plants.

"Ah, I wish I could also sell food in my shop, but then I would need to hire people to do that. Speaking of which, I really need to find someone to help with the store, or at least find a clone spell," he said out loud, lamenting the potential loss of income.

It was a shame that salesmen were banned from selling spell technique books and other mage related abilities. Cahokia like all the other mage City-States kept a tight leash on such valuable information from getting out. Of course, Hand-to-Hand Combat technique books were completely different since they didn't require mana and therefore were much easier to get a hold of. Mikey made sure to stock up on a couple of different ones, as well as some on how to use the more obscure weapons in his collection.

Finally, his last stop for the day was a blacksmithing shop. They had just bought a new forge a few weeks ago and were looking to sell their old one. Mikey had earmarked on his list if he ever made enough and with Madam Chaska’s visit. No longer would he use his tried and true devils chair forge he had made from a few scrap materials, a hairdryer, and a folding chair, now he could finally start crafting his own weapons and armors from broken pieces so he could get some crazy abilities when he filled the veins.

He paid for the forge as well as some of the spare equipment that they no longer had any use for. He had made a small crate that reduced the weight inside it just to carry the forge and put it into his pack. His wallet is now 50,000 dollars lighter but he has a professional forge.

At the end of the day, he had spent most of his savings again, which left him with only 1,900 Dollars not including the 1,000 he set aside to pay for his graduation exam.

He walked the rest of the way to his shop, only stopping once for a brown rabbit that crossed his path. That however was enough for him to remember the little trouble maker he had left back at the vet.

I have a feeling that this isn't the end of it, He Thought.

Meanwhile back at the Vet.

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Ana finished tending to her latest patient, an overenthusiastic pup that had gotten its head stuck inside of a jar of peanut butter.

She just finished filing the last form when she heard a knock at the door.

"Are you busy?" spoke a rough voice from the doorway. Anaquickly recognised it was her mother, Kris Wolffriend.

"Hey ma, I just finished the last report," she said as she brought her inside, "Did you need anything?"

"Nah, just wondered if you want to grab a bite to eat," the feral looking woman offered.

"Sure, let me just lock up here. Hey, you will never guess what someone brought in today," she finished as she remembered the rabbit.

"Oh yeah? What’s that?" Kris asked, still tired from the entrance trials.

"A kid waiting at my door this morning says he got attacked in the middle of the night by some wild animal right. He was asking me to test it for rabies since he was covered entirely in scratches and bitemarks." Getting up she motioned her mom to follow her out of her office and into the pens outside where she had placed the little menace, seeing as it kept aggravating all the other animals it saw.

"Sounds like someone tried chasing the squirrels again," her mother huffed.

"Not this time. A month old female rabbit. But get this, it was already able to use pure mana manipulation to enhance her attacks and she even had First-level mage mana reserves," Ana said as she motioned to one of the cages.

"Now I gotta see this one for myself. So where is it?” Kris said mildly impressed

"Where is it? Where did it go!" Ana shouted in alarm as the pen she had placed the rabbit in was empty. Taking out a key, she opened it and inspected the inside.

Kris who had stepped in looked around as well, "At least we know how she got out." The nibble marks and hay cleverly hid the hole she had made.

"Shoot! That brat is smarter than I thought," Ana cursed as she bit her nail.

Kris motioned for her partner Kurofuwa to track her scent. "Do you have any idea where it might have gone?"

Ana didn't have to think too hard as she remembered how the small rabbit would try to attack Mikey. Taking the piece of paper the boy had given her she answered, "I have an idea. I just hope we get there in time."

Mikey had prepared himself knowing this eventuality might happen.

Mikey took deep breaths as he meditated on the lake’s surface. He opened his eyes, well as much as he could which wasn't that much, and spoke. "It's no use hiding, I know you're there. I knew you'd come for me sooner or later."

Mikey then stood up and turned around to face the rabbit that was standing on the grass a few feet away.

In reality Mikey hadn't even sensed the small menace. He had just been saying that same line and turning around every ten minutes to see if anyone would reveal themselves.

Finally proof I’m not crazy, I was getting tired of doing that, thought the chubby young man who had just spent the last two hours turning around and talking to himself.

Walking back towards land, Mikey announced to his opponent like a shonen anime "You might have caught me off guard the first time, rabbit but now I know your tricks."

Mikey, unlike last time, was fully decked out in armor.

He had a metal breast plate over his usual attire, armored gauntlets and bracers on each hand, and strapped to his side was his trusty wooden sword. They were on an open field giving Mikey an advantage with his reach and ability to walk on water.

"I have what you want right here," the heavy set adolescent said as he brought out a pouch of his mana dust from the depths of his armor. The rabbit's angry eyes and thumping of her leg was all the confirmation that he needed. "I don't know why you want it, but I will not relinquish my goods so easily," he continued his prepared speech for his first real opponent in this world, a rabbit.

"It seems we are at a crossroad my friend. You want my powder, and I am unwilling to give it up. There is only one way to settle this!" shouting the last part, Mikey pulled his wooden sword from his waist and pointed the tip downwards. With two veins filled it could shoot lances of mana from the tip and had enough strength to dent a steel plate.

The rabbit moved first zig-zagging toward him.

Mikey didn't panic this time. He saw the movement of mana through her veins to her legs enhancing them before she jumped at him with blinding speed, and yet despite her impressive speed Mikey sidestepped its attack flawlessly.

The rabbit landed and turned to him, shocked that she had been unable to land her strike, when just yesterday that same attack left Mikey fumbling to get away. She tried again only for the same result to happen, only this time Mikey slapped her away with the back of his empty hand in midair.

The reason for the sudden increase in speed had to do with the two rings that were on his fingers.

While he couldn’t quite get a full vein filled, his ability to make additional ones brought out an increase in agility similar to his old video games.

Agility didn't just boost leg speed, but also reaction time and eye speed. To him, the bunny might as well have been moving through honey with how slow it was going. The increase in agility was incredible, even if he had needed to get used to the sudden increase in speed.

As he watched the rabbit skid on the ground, Mikey adjusted his grip on the sword and dashed forward. Once he was just five feet away, he thrust his sword forward. Lighting up his sword with a blue glow, a spear of mana shot out piercing the ground and kicking up a cloud of dust.

Mikey waited cautiously for the dust to settle, and once it did he noticed a hole the width of his blade pierced the ground, a small burrow only an inch away. "Tch, it must have burrowed into the ground at the last minute."

Carefully he scanned the ground, waiting for it to pop-up. He expected it to come out of a new hole, so he was caught off guard when it flew at him using the same hole it had just dug. Mikey was about to slash it with his sword when it opened its small mouth and a ball of mud struck his eyes, blinding him. The rabbit took advantage of the opening and tried to slash at his head with its mana covered claws.

Mikey quickly raised an arm to protect his face.

"Argh!" screamed Mikey as the attack had slashed his eyelid in half, but thankfully the eye was left uninjured. Cursing himself for not having a helmet or mask, he tried to strike back but was still blinded.

Wiping away the mud from his remaining eye he saw it leap away.

He held back tears as the pain, he could feel a line of blood reach his chin.

"I-I have to admit. You surprised me. But no longer!" the pudgy young teen declared as he got serious and used magic. Nothing visible happened as he charged at the rabbit but as he slashed at it from the right, another sword appeared from the left.

The rabbit was confused, and so it jumped up only for a third sword to materialize above it. The hit drove it into the ground. His mirror duplicates overlapping with himself do their job of distracting to allow a second clean hit on the rabbit.

Taking his sword back, the fox eyed boy walked to his downed opponent and pointed his blade at its struggling form, "Although, you might have more mana than me, you are unskilled. You carelessly launched attack after attack without control. You have no technique nor magic, only brute strength. You will never be able to beat a mage with just that alone."

The rabbit continued to glare at him, but was too weak to do anything else, it was far too injured to stand up despite using some of its mana to soften the blows.

Mikey stabbed his wooden blade into the ground beside him and sat cross-legged facing it. Taking out two small cups from inside his armor he placed one in front of him and the other in front of the rabbit that looked at him with suspicious eyes. He then took out a bottle of carrot juice from somewhere and filled both of them to the brim.

"I don't see why you want my dust, but I'm not simply handing it over," he said, holding his cup. "However, I'm willing to share some if you agree to work with me for a while. What do you say? If you still want to fight after regaining your strength, I'll be more than ready to take you on."

The rabbit continued to glare at him for five solid minutes before it tilted its head the slightest bit downward in acknowledgment and licked at the juice in the cup.

Mikey smiled at that and took a sip of his own carrot juice. "From now on, I am the boss. If you want to be boss, then you have to defeat me, understand?"

The rabbit nodded reluctantly, before laying its head down in exhaustion.

"Good! Now all I need is to give you a name. How about Akame, it means red eyes," he said as he went to pick up his new partner. She chuffed at the name but didn't protest. "Awesome, my name is Mikey Anderson, now let's go see if Ana can heal you up."

They had just made it towards the entrance of the shop when Ana and Kris appeared in a rush.

They looked at each other for a second, with a bleeding and injured Mikey holding Akame gently in his arms. Kris looked just like an older version of her daughter with rough brown mana instead.

"Wow kid, you got messed up," the ever elegant Kris stated.

"Yeah, Ana said the same thing. Speaking of, hey Ana, do you think you could heal her up, while I get something for my eye?" he asked the kind girl.

"Sure Mikey," she said, taking Akame into her hands, getting an angry noise in return.

"Oh! Please step inside if you want. You're free to browse," offered the Chub-asaurs Rex as he motioned them inside, even their canine companions.

Once they were all inside, he went towards his room to clean his face and placed a medical eye patch over his injured eye, letting it take some of his left over mana and infuse a concept of healing into the mana.

He walked back into the shop to see Kris looking over some of the weapons while Ana was taking care of Akame.

"So, did you find anything you like?" he asked, falling back into Super Salesman Suck up mode.

"What's with these outrageous prices?" The Wolffriend Nibilian Family Matriarch complained as she pointed to a price tag that said 8,000 Dollars.

"I can assure you that everything is priced correctly. Would you like a demonstration?" The rotund lad said with a devilish smile. After all the excitement of fighting for the day, he was ready to go back to something simple like making some money.

Within a few minutes he had taken all the money they had on them. All mages carried around a few hundred in cash, since they never knew when they might need it, and Mikey was able to make 2,800 Dollars in total. He even threw in a set of chastity rings for Ana healing Akame.

They were rather excited over the rings and promised that they would come at a later day to purchase more for their Nibilian Family.

It was as they were leaving that Kurofuwa, Kris’s companion, perked up and walked toward something at the edge of the room.

"Kurofuwa what's wrong?," Kris said to her partner as she walked in his direction.

"Something interesting," he gruffly said, pointing to a mask for a dog made out of metal with a row of sharp teeth that looked like they were made out of knife blades.

Mikey, seeing what they were talking about, picked up the contraption. This was a prototype for his new kind of armor designed for animals. It was a metal muzzle designed to open up and let the dog bite the target with the razor sharp metal teeth, it had a built-in poison filter and most importantly Mikey had succeeded in adding an additional mana vein carrying a violent wind concept.

"This is just a prototype. I haven't fully tested it," he told them as he went to place it behind his counter.

"Why not test it out now?" Kurofuwa spoke up, showing an unusual amount of interest.

"I don't really think-" Mikey started only to be cut off by a hard pat on the back by Kris.

"Ah come on kid, we're just a little curious to see what it can do, isn't that right Kurofuwa?" she said, throwing her friend a wild grin.

I do need to test it, and Kurofuwa volunteered. What could go wrong? He thought.

Murphy’s law raised its head to that sweet siren call.

"Okay, but please be careful with it, it's the first one that made it through initial trials," he pleaded as he finished strapping it to the large dog's face. The intimidating one-eyed dog now looked even more ferocious with the mask on.

"Looking good Kurofuwa," Kris commented as she inspected his new appearance, the mask was purposely made a little bigger than the actual jaw of the dog so that it wouldn't pinch the skin.

"I guess the first step is seeing the biting potential of the jaws, why don't you try taking a chuck out of that tree," he said as he took out a notepad to record everything.

Kurofuwa looked at the tree in question and slowly opened the jaws lightly pressing down. In an instant the metal jaws slammed close with a fast snap and the tree had a large portion of it missing.

"Nice, the closing of the jaws works perfectly. Next try a boulder, I want to test the toughness of the metal."

The large wolf dog did as it was told and bit into the boulder, the hard stone not even slowing the jaws as it left smooth grooves behind.

"Very nice. I guess the last step is testing the special ability." Mikey said feeling hopeful.

"Oh, you mean like those knives," Ana commented for the first time.

"Yeah, this is a First branch MMM after all. Kurofuwa I need you to open the jaws as wide as you can and channel mana through it. Aim for the lake." Mikey shouted from behind Kris, Ana, and the triplets.

The large canine now getting the feel of the device began channeling a large amount of of pure mana into the metal jaws. A small ball of wind mana formed in front of his open maw surprising Kurofuwa into losing control and being pushed back by the massive explosion of wind he released.

The seemingly small sphere hit the lake with the force of a hurricane and launched a large majority of its contents high into the air.

Mikey looked deadpanned at the large dog as he and the rest of the Wolffriend family were showered with the falling water.

"That's a yes on the ability I guess. Try to do it again but experiment with how you channel the mana?" Mikey asked.

The testing went on for another hour with the first ten minutes of Kurofuwa just testing new attacks, that was until Kris joined him. Together they rampaged through the practicing area, using clan techniques to overlap they’re spells and race around the area at high speed, uncaring of Mikey that was yelling at them to stop, since he didn't want to pay the fine if the practicing area got too damaged.

Finally they listened to the fluffy teen and stopped but the damage was done. The practicing ground was torn apart. While working together they had shot massive wind blades and empowered shouts. The ground was covered in huge trenches, and a whole section of the forest had their trees turned into sawdust.

"That was fun!" the feral woman laughed before turning to her partner, "What about you Kurofuwa?"

"That was good." he said, wagging his tail behind him.

"Thank you for helping me test it out," Mikey said as he undid the last of the straps.

"Hold on kid, I want to buy it, how much?" the woman said, rubbing her fingers together in a way that indicated money.

"Huh? Are you sure? This is a First branch borderline Second branch MMM. It isn't like those knives that you saw earlier?" Mikey said just making the duo even more interested.

"Kid, I'm the head of a Nibilian Family. Name your price," Kris said, determined to leave with the mask.

"Fine. Let's see, including the cost of the material, its ability, the overall production time, … and the total is 40,000 Dollars. Do you still want to buy it?"

Ana and the triplets gasped in shock. Even the woman in question kissed her teeth before a nudge from her partner brought her out of thought. A new car would be less in comparison and she couldn’t draw from the Family treasury for a personal purchase.

Seeing the reactions of the two, Mikey decided on a compromise. "However, I will lower the price to 10,000 Dollars in exchange for a few spell books."

Kris was still unsure, "What type of spell? If you want the family techniques you gotta go through the trials same as anybody else."

He waved her off, "I don't need any of those. I don't even have a companion so those are useless to me. An autonomous clone spell would be best, otherwise I’ll have to see."

"How many?" she said, finding a few spell books is a better alternative.

"Well it depends on the spell?" he said, not giving her a fixed amount.

"Fine, wait a few minutes until I return," she said as she disappeared in a burst of speed in the direction of the City-State.

By the end of the day, Kurofuwa was the proud owner of the Wind Jaws as he had named them. Mikey on the other hand now had four spell books, including the Earth aspected Self Statue spell. He also told them that he would inform them when he had more of the canine armor.

As he finished getting ready for bed, he placed the now healed Akame on a large pillow inside of a basket beside his bed. "Ahh, another day's work. I want to earn enough money to buy a store soon. That way I could have more customers on a daily basis. Oh well, every little bit counts right. Good night Akame," he said to his new partner.

He received a glare in return, but at least she had stopped trying to attack him, so progress. Lifting the covered of his bed he noticed that someone had left him a present. With a glare he looked at the slightly smirking rabbit, "That's real mature, you know."