“Hey buddy, its ok. You’re safe now,” Barry whispered as he took slow and careful steps towards the monkey.

The little ape shied away anxiously as he inched forward. Not wanting to scare the little creature Barry stopped and sat down cross legged with his hands resting on his knees, trying to look as approachable as possible. The ape appeared to relax from Barry’s actions and the look on its face changed from scared, to inquisitive. Barry could almost see the cogs turning in the little creature’s head as it recalled the recent events. The ape rubbed at its healing stomach with a frown, as it chewed some of the remaining mushroom bits that were still sitting in its mouth whilst keeping an ever-watchful eye on Barry. In response, Barry carefully reached into his spatial sack and plucked another mushroom out, seeing the monkeys’ big eyes widen with desire.

“Would you like another mushroom?” Barry smiled whilst holding the mushroom in his outstretched arm.

The monkey shuffled forward carefully before snatching the mushroom and eagerly gobbling it up.

Over the next half an hour the two slowly built up some trust, mostly by Barry feeding the monkey mushrooms, grass and moss. A few times the monkey had let Barry pat its head and scratch behind its floppy ears which occasionally lead to the back legs of the monkey thumping in pleasure. Eventually Barry decided that it was time to move on, but the question he still faced was how did he get down from this platform safely? He spent some time walking around the edge of the protruding platform, looking for any sort of stony ladder hidden in the rock wall, or some other safe escape option. Unfortunately, Barry couldn’t find any way of climbing down off the platform, the only thing he could see was a second, smaller platform around five metres down on to the left of his current spot. He kicked himself for not having better dexterity as he felt it would be simple to jump down if he had the right stats. With no other ideas coming to mind Barry decided to utilise the one advantage he did have, his stupidly high vitality. He coaxed the monkey into his arms and without a second thought, jumped off his current platform to the one below. He landed with a thump on both feet before falling to the side and smacking his head and shoulder into the rock whilst protecting the monkey from injury. Unsurprisingly, Barry was basically unharmed from the fall, he was more just embarrassed that he couldn’t come up with a more graceful way of getting down. Shaking off the dust Barry clambered to his feet, looking around again for his next option.

Barry found there was a series of rocky protrusions sticking out from the stone wall at five metre vertical intervals. One by one Barry jumped off and landed heavily on the unforgiving, hard rock platforms below. Before long he was covered in bruises and his head was ringing. His health had dipped a little, but the overall impact was minimal. However, he was quickly tiring of acting like a human pinball. The monkey on the other hand had come to enjoy the activity, a few times even jumping down itself ahead of Barry, landing with much more grace. It took Barry fourteen jump and tumbles before he finally reached the base of the waterfall, where a large rippling lake stretched out in front of him. Barry wasn’t given any time to appreciate the scenery though, as the monkey took off, weaving its way along a narrow edge of stone, back towards the forest. For a moment Barry thought the creature was leaving him behind and returning to its own kind, but once it got around thirty metres ahead of him it stopped and turned around, jumping up and down erratically until Barry began to make his way forward. This scene repeated itself multiple times as Barry reluctantly chased the excitable ape along the edge of the forest, tracing up the steep terrain parallel to the waterfall and river above. Barry puffed and panted as he ran, jumped, and climbed after the monkey, struggling to keep up with the speed of its effortless bounding.

Finally, the pair reached a plateau of shrubbery back at the level of the river. Barry was exhausted and his stamina had taken a decent hit. Whilst he was bent over trying to catch his breath Barry heard the monkey chattering and howling with increased intensity. He raised an eye and, in the distance, saw a figure approaching. The monkey sprinted towards the person and Barry yelled out in panted breaths.

“Wait, be careful!”

But he was tired, his voice clearly too quiet for the critter to respond as it ran towards the mysterious figure. Barry’s recent experiences with the maniac Devon had changed him, he was anxious and suspicious of the newcomer, and he feared the monkey would be attacked or killed. But he could only watch on as the excitable ape ran and jumped up at the figure. For a moment Barry thought the monkey had just attempted some type of flying, full body attack as it hooked its arms and legs around the person’s trunk. However, it soon became apparent that the monkey was embracing the mysterious figure, and Barry breathed out a sigh of relief as he started to walk towards the pair. The person hugging and patting the monkey did not look very large, in fact they were quite short. Initially, Barry thought it might have been a child, or something like a dwarf, if they existed. But the shape of the newcomer was too proportioned to be like the image of a dwarf he had in his mind, and their figure too mature to be a child. Barry paused and mentally slapped himself as he realised he had once again been neglecting his inspection skill. He’d sat with an unknown, albeit injured, monkey beast for a few hours without even bothering to inspect its stats.

Inspection:

Beast: Earth ape (bound)

Level: ?

Stat: ?

Barry frowned at the information as he tried to comprehend what it meant. The only thing that Barry understood was that the monkey was something called an earth ape. However, Barry had no idea what the bound comment meant. But most confusing was the fact that he couldn’t see the level or skill of the creature. This was not something he had come across before, and it made him extremely uncomfortable. He moved his attention to the small humanoid figure.

Inspection:

Race: Vixant

Level: 7

Stat: Strength

At that moment, Barry saw the person, or vixant, start to walk towards him, still carrying the little ape. Eventually, Barry was able to make out some of the vixants key features. She was a female creature with many human-like characteristics. She had four limbs, five fingers covered by dark studded gloves, curly amber hair, two strikingly blue eyes and soft pink lips. But mixed in with the human traits were just as many animalistic features, like soft brown fur, pointed ears and a fluffy tail. Barry was mesmerised by her unique, but beautiful design. Compared to all the intimidating figures he’d seen within the dungeon, this vixant looked genial, and kind of cute. By the time she had gotten within twenty metres of Barry, the ape had managed to wriggle its way out of her arms and had sprinted back towards him. The little creature started running around his feet, frolicking in excitement, and making odd squeaking sounds. The vixant stopped a mere eight metres away from Barry, her face displayed a strange mix of emotions, her mouth was smiling but her eyes were frowning, and Barry couldn’t work out if she was happy or grumpy.

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“Hi, it seems you know this little guy too?” Barry awkwardly asked as he patted the head of the bounding creature, who made a purring noise in response.

The vixant just tilted her head and narrowed her eyes.

“Why does Swirly like you so much? He seems particularly comfortable around you which is unusual,” she asked with a gentle but direct tone.

“Hello Swirly, it’s nice to meet you properly!” Barry said, scratching the happy little ape under the chin.

The vixant stomped her foot angrily and shook her fist in Barry’s direction.

“Hey you, don’t ignore me! Why does Swirly like you so much?”

Barry’s cheeks reddened slightly as he awkwardly shuffled and raised his palms up in front of him, waving them sheepishly.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to offend you, it’s just I got a little distracted,” he muttered.

The vixant smiled in response to his comment, doing a half twist and poking her bottom and fluffy tail in Barry’s direction.

“Hmm, that’s understandable. I bet it was my fine booty that caught your eye wasn’t it. No wonder you can’t think straight,” she smacked her bottom with her palm as she grinned cheekily at Barry who was staring back, wide jawed and face now bright red.

He shook his head in disbelief and shut his mouth before stumbling through his reply, “That’s not what I meant. It was the monkey that distracted me.”

“So, you don’t think I have a nice arse then?” the vixant quizzed.

“No, I mean yes. I mean. It’s a great arse,” he stuttered.

“You’re damn right, but you said Swirly distracted you? Are you one of those weird beast lover people?” she asked, glowering suspiciously.

“What? No, not at all. It was the first time I’d heard his name, and he was jumping all around me. God, I don’t know what I’m saying. What was the question again?” Barry asked as he nearly tripped over his own feet from his excessive, awkward shuffling.

“I’m fucking with you human. Apart from the stuff about my booty, it is of course spectacular,” she smirked.

Barry’s eyes were just about popping out of his tomato-coloured head. He’d not had very much experience with the opposite sex, and this quirky and confident girl had completely thrown him. This conversation had not gone how he was expecting, and his mind was at a blank as to how he should respond. All he knew was that he desperately wanted to change the topic.

After a long pause Barry finally asked, “Uhh, so what’s your name?”

“I’m Tuti, and Swirly is my partner in crime,” she replied, “Now who are you, and how do you know Swirly?”

“I met Swirly a few hours ago, he literally fell and landed right in front of me. He was wounded, so I gave him some healing plants and did what I could. He recovers quickly for such a little guy. Oh and my name is Barry,“ he answered.

Tuti eyed the ape with a meaningful look, and Swirly waved his arms around in response. This seemed to satisfy the vixant as a big smile spread across her face as she thanked Barry before running forward to hug him. Almost every interaction Barry had shared in the past few days was one of battle and death, so this display of affection was particularly unexpected and unfamiliar. His body reacted before his brain could catch up as he instinctively raised his arms up as if he were blocking an attack. Tuti was not attacking though, and before Barry could take control of his body, his hands had already reached forward and they now rested firmly on the vixants breasts. He looked down in horror before immediately releasing his grip. Barry now just stood there uncomfortably, praying that the earth would fracture and swallow him up to save him from the immense embarrassment. Tuti, for her part, was not dissuaded by Barry’s actions, and had proceeded with the hug. After a couple of seconds that to Barry felt like an eternity, Tuti released her grip and backed away, whispering softly in his ear as she did so.

“Quite the handsy one, aren’t we? I didn’t expect Swirly to make friends with such a naughty boy.”

Barry went to speak but decided against it, not wanting to dig himself further into a hole. Instead, he just hung his head, bit his lip, and sighed.

“Wow, you look super weak but you’re the same level as us,” Tuti exclaimed.

“A bit of a backhanded compliment,” thought Barry, although he was happy with any change in conversation, so he decided to keep his thoughts to himself. It also made him realise that the sneaky vixant might just have hugged him to be able to inspect his properties given she didn’t have the ability to inspect from a distance like he did. “Thank you, I guess?” he eventually mumbled, before something the vixant said triggered in his mind, “Wait, what do you mean ‘us’?” he asked.

“Swirly and I of course,” she answered.

“So you two are linked or something?” Barry asked, confused as to how that all worked.

Tuti tilted her head to the side again and squinted one eye, staring at Barry with suspicion and uncertainty.

“You know I have a beast affinity, right? I mean it’s pretty damn obvious,” she teased as she placed her hands on her hips and leaned forward in a questioning stance.

“Ahh I guess that makes sense,” mumbled Barry, still not actually sure what that meant, “So how exactly does that work though?”

“Why don’t I just show you?” she said with a smirk.

Barry watched as on as Tuti’s hands began to illuminate before a similar glow appeared around Swirly’s body. In front of his eyes Swirly began to grow, as if he was rapidly aging. The apes’ limbs extended and bulged with muscle, its chest expanded, and its soft jaw became chiselled and hardened. The beast now towered over Barry and oozed with intense power. It was hard for Barry to comprehend that this monster was one and the same as the cute little monkey that had been jumping around his feet mere moments ago. Swirly stood proudly and thumped his chest with his huge fists, letting out an almighty roar. Tuti walked up to the imposing beast and patted him on the leg.

“Now, now Swirly, no need to show off,” she said as her hands glowed once again, and the huge ape returned to its cute, fluffy form.

“That is so awesome!” Barry exclaimed with genuine excitement.

Tuti fluffed her hair again and Swirly did a little twirl in response to the compliment, “We know,” Tuti beamed.

Barry spent the next ten minutes or so asking Tuti question after question to better understand how beast affinities worked. Tuti was extremely open with information and Barry was lapping it up. He learned that Tuti and Swirly had formed a bond on the first day of the training grounds after a chance encounter. A bond involves the formation of a mental contract between two beings that can only be understood and achieved when a beast and a beast affinity user meet. Once connected, the initiate can transfer their stat bonuses to their companion when activating their mana, causing the beast to empower and evolve. This comes at the cost of a loss of much of those stats to themselves for the period whilst their beast partner is empowered. The beast, in turn sacrifices their natural progression and growth for access to these temporary stat boosts and unique abilities only available through their connection with the beast affinity user. It was a true give and take relationship that often benefited both beings.

Despite Barry’s intrigue, he found that Tuti did not share his interest, as she seemed to care very little about Barry’s powers and affinity. This was fine with him though as he preferred to keep his cards close to his chest. Despite Tuti’s previous comment about them both being the same level he got the distinct impression that she felt completely unphased and unintimidated by his presence. It did make him think about the recent message he received about his ranking positions, and he was curious to know whether Tuti had received a similar message.

“Did you by any chance get a message a few hours ago about the training ground ranking ladder?” he asked.

“Oh yeah! I didn’t even think that you might have as well, but I guess it makes sense with your power level. You are looking at the rank seven power level and the rank forty strength team! You should feel blessed to be in the presence of such an elite, not to mention sexy, duo,” Tuti proclaimed with a pout.

“Did you get some loot boxes?” Barry quizzed, ignoring the additional comments.

“Yep, sure did, got me a new ring and some other stuff too,” she exclaimed. “Anyway, I’m bored of all this talk, are you going to come with us or are you doing your own thing?”

Barry paused in thought for a moment. He didn’t know if he could really trust this powerful pairing just yet, he’d only known them for such a small amount of time and he still didn’t have any idea what a vixant was and what they could do. Who was to say they weren’t planning to take him out when the opportunity arose? But on the other hand, he liked having people to talk to, and he sensed no ill intent from the pair. His gut told him that they were kind-hearted, and had good intentions, even if they were a little strange. Not to mention the fact that he had played a hand in saving Swirly’s life, which had to count for something. He did wonder if continuing his solo trek was more beneficial from an experience and progression perspective, and he had some fears that working in a group might slow his growth. After further pondering and some glances at the little apes longing eyes, he decided that a change was as good as a holiday.

“Let’s team up!” he exclaimed.

Tuti just smiled and nodded in response whilst Swirly climbed up onto his shoulder, swinging its arms above his head in excitement. Barry laughed as the odd group set off back into the forest’s depths.