The way back was easy. The temperature rose above freezing quickly and Sleepy's nose stopped glowing altogether. Though everything was wet and damp, it was better than the snow. In just four days, we were back at the Old Mc Donovan's farm. No encounters of note through our hike. We found and dispatched a Goblin band, then some Quill Throwers, monsters covered in fast-growing spines that fought at range.

We camped for the last time at the abandoned farm, then followed the muddy road back to town. We arrived by noon.

Inside the gates, we stopped to say our goodbyes.

"Well, George. That was quite the adventure!" Kris said while holding his round belly. "I hope we can go on another, maybe next year!"

Let's not. If a monster capable of controlling weather over such a huge area appeared again, who knew what could happen? A flood?

"I will surely be eager to join you again, Kris."

The old Elementalist rubbed William's head and looked inside the carrier. Sleepy was resting as usual.

"We'll meet again. Farewell, Scout George."

With that formal goodbye, Kris went on his way, toward the Castle and the Noble district. William bleated a suggestion.

"That's right, William. We should check if Haru got my stuff. Let's go."

Instead of going to the Guild district, I took the middle road and went to the Artisan district.

*

*

The kitsune Enchanter was busy when I got to her shop. Haru's assistant offered me some tea while I waited and I accepted. I was in a really good mood. Despite the oddity of earning an achievement for killing the Green-inch, one should never look the System's gift horse in the teeth.

Its ramblings were strange too and the fact the achievement was somehow linked to that church of crazy doomsayers was mind-boggling. I wished to dig deeper but also wanted nothing to have with those weirdos. Perhaps it was wise to leave the old-world stuff buried in the past.

To pass the time, I took Sleepy out of the crate. It sucked I had to do that for his protection but it would soon become just an option. Sleepy was growing nicely and would soon stabilize and we would level together. Since he was a Legendary and needed six thousand Experience per level to my four, that was a fifty percent difference. With each enemy level giving around twenty percent more Experience, which would translate to me staying two levels above him at all times. Meanwhile, William was only Uncommon and required two thousand Experience. William would stabilize two levels above me.

These kinds of party dynamics were particularly important but people didn't disclose their levels even to their comrades at arms. What happened was that people took account of when their comrades earned a level and then compared it to their own leveling. If you gained levels faster than your comrades, you were behind, if you gained it slower, then you could gauge whether they were at the same power level than you, roughly. It was considered polite to let one's long-term companions know when you gained a level but not what level it was.

In the end, long-term Adventuring parties relied on this assessment and contribution to fights and other elements like logistics to determine if they should stay together or not. Those who gained levels fast grew a little faster but peaked sooner. Those who took longer to level had potential to reach great heights but needed time. It was a balancing act. If I counted my pets and I as a party, William would lag behind while Sleepy would become stronger than us in the future.

Of course, that didn't apply in full force to me or my pets. We strengthened each other and even had a small feedback loop. Each level I gained granted all my pets five Attribute points, a small portion of that came back through our bond bonuses. What I needed to worry about was keeping people from meddling with them. It was bad that people knew Sleepy's rarity but it couldn't be helped. I couldn't control the information on the Wolfertinger species. At least there was no achievement for the first Legendary kill or I would have earned it when I killed Sleepy's mother.

Yet, I doubted the crisis of a week ago would be the only attempt to take Sleepy away from me. But this time, we were bonded and I could find Sleepy much easier than before. With Kara as the Guard Captain...

Kara.

I had to talk to her, hadn't I? I owed her at least a display of gratitude. Genuine, mind you. I didn't think we had anything in the cards regarding a future together, though.

Sleepy yawned and showed the sharp teeth he bit the Green-inch's nose off. How the hell did he manage to do that? Yes, the monster was out of HP but... That was a mystery for another day. The Green-inch was high in the rarity scale and I doubted we would see another.

The little guy was not even so little anymore. Sleepy became heavy. Fifteen or sixteen kilograms now. He was almost the size of a medium dog. Yes, he put on a lot of weight during the trip back, devouring the Goblins and everything we killed on the way. He seemed quite ravenous after gaining a lot of levels. Did monsters require more sustenance as they leveled up? I had to ask Melgart about that.

Then there were stubs atop Sleepy's head. Antlers. Was it too early? Sleepy was a month or two old. Damn. Will he start shooting lightning around soon?

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

I was startled out of my reverie by a mischievous kitsune who deliberately snuck past me. Using invisibility and silence magic, nonetheless. I let out an effeminate shriek which I never saw the end of. It became teasing material for decades to come.

When I recomposed myself, I stared in silence at the Enchanter. Sleepy barked and growled at her.

"Dear Dragon Goddess, who sleeps in the world's frozen Core, please revive my customer!" She prayed.

"Twenty… percent… off," I droned.

She made a face like I had kicked her puppies.

"Okay, okay. Say, is Alice still out of town?"

"I hope your shop has insurance," I said with no emotion in my voice.

Haru went pale. Her tails flopped against the floor. "She will never…"

Sleepy's fur was raised. He was poofed. When I tried to touch the fur, a spark jolted my hand. It did a minor amount of HP damage. "Ouch. Easy boy!"

Feeling my pain through our sympathetic soul link, he whined.

"It's okay. Go to your crate!"

I rubbed his head, feeling the stubs. Sleepy obeyed and went into the crate resting on a chair. I didn't close the door.

"Already growing his horns!" Haru gasped.

"Antlers. Wolfertingers have deer antlers."

"Deer?" She asked with a tilt of her head and a flicker of her fox ears. "Wait. Didn't Alice say the female Wolfertinger also had antlers?"

"Yes."

She wove her hands and two sets of holographic antlers appeared in the air, a minor illusion. "Which one of these looks more like the Wolfertinger antlers?"

One set was broad and faced forward, looking somewhat like grasping hands from an angle. The other set had more forks and didn't go as far to the sides. Instead, it faced up and to the front. I pointed at the former. "This one."

"So. Hate to tell it to you but everyone got it wrong. Wolfertingers don't have deer horn– antlers. They have caribou antlers. Female deer don't have antlers, only the males. While caribou have antlers regardless of gender. They are an animal species that lives exclusively in the far North of the continent. Over fifteen thousand kilometers away. But they are related to deer.

This word's floating continents were freaking huge. Our city was in the North hemisphere of the world. I had never heard of caribou before.

"Do they shoot lightning… of course not. They are animals, right?"

The divide between monster and animal was a thin one and mostly related to the amount of magic a creature had. But Tityrons were called a monster species and they didn't even have the MP resource unlocked.

I saw Haru nod and grin. She was so giddy that she clapped her hands. "Yes. Wow, those eggheads will go crazy when I debunk one of their assumptions!"

"Great. I will make sure to keep my mouth shut to keep from ruining your surprise."

She flicked her ears and then grinned at me. "You sly tod! I see what you did! Okay, you got your discount. Let me show you what I got for you."

She waved her hand and a trio of items appeared. A silver medallion on a chain, a black leather quiver with round deep pockets around the main chamber, and a beaten leather hat.

"I enchanted the medallion. It has a rainbow prism diamond in the center and both body and chain are made of silver coated with Thunder platinum. It halves all incoming elemental damage but lightning. In that case, it absorbs nineteen parts out of twenty for lightning. And if an attack fails to break through your HP threshold, it recharges MP based on the attack's intensity."

"Great! It was exactly what I needed."

She giggled. "You don't have to lie. I know you wanted immunity to lightning. You may think the MP recharge is useless now, but I know you will find an use for MP other than powering your enchanted items. Speaking of which, don't neglect Clarity. A lot of martial Classes who have a minor MP pool do."

I grunted. "You were not the first authoritative person to tell me that."

She studied my face. "It wasn't Alice, right?"

I winced. "No but I won't say who."

Haru growled. "What is a man if not a miserable pile of secrets? Humph. Keep your mysteries to yourself!" She tossed the medallion at me. I caught it.

"Next!" Haru shouted. "This hat came from a retired friend of mine. A Ruin Explorer. It’s made of compressed Al-Mi’raj fur and has a lot of useful functions. Rain will never wet your head, neck, and shoulders if the hat is on. It can increase your awareness of traps. The hat will only fall off of your head if you try sliding under a closing portcullis or door. It grants a speed bonus if you are running away from rolling boulders. And it projects a Force barrier around your head without hindering your senses. The barrier can take ten times your level as HP of damage before it breaks, then the remainder of the attack goes against your HP. Regenerating the barrier requires you to channel three times your level in MP. Do you have at least that much?"

I stared at her with a raised eyebrow. "Do I have to feed the MP all at once?"

"... Fair enough. No. So long as you recharge the barrier in full, take as long as you need. You might even ask Sleepy to zap you with the medallion.

No way I'm giving that information away. The size of my MP pool was a close secret. It was already bad if people learned that I had it unlocked.

"Oh, that's why the amulet recharges MP!"

"Yes? Yes, of course!" She lied through her teeth.

"What else does the hat do?"

"It has the usual enchantments, resizing, self-repairs, durability, glare protection."

"What is that?"

"If some strong flash of light threatens to blind you, the hat dims that light."

"How good is the trap awareness effect?"

"Very good. Coupled with a perceptive Class like yours? It will do everything but make the traps glow."

"Nice. And the quiver?" The damn fox woman left the best for last; I swear.

"It was the only one I found for sale. It is called an arsenal quiver. It holds only four hundred and eighty arrows but it has an automatic sorting feature. The arrow you want will always be the one you get. It shows only twenty arrows. For every bundle you use, it shows one less arrow, so you can tell how much ammunition is left. The side pockets each can hold a melee weapon of any size. This is why it is called an arsenal quiver."

I frowned. These many functions must make it expensive.

"What? Great sword, pikes, halberds, a freaking glaive, a maul, an ogre's club! Any twelve melee weapons fit in there, and they won't encumber or hinder movement! You can go upside down and not a single arrow will fall."

"I don't use these weapons and I am pretty sure this quiver costs double because of it."

"Yes, it does. But if you want a duller version, you will have to wait for months or even more than a year."

Haru could go from mischievous misdirection to uncaring honesty at the drop of a hat.

But… "Any melee weapon?"

"Yes. I tested with Everything I could think of."

"Mind if I do some tests? And doesn't spatial items require a blood bond?"

"They surely do," she lilted. "I can break the bond I made with it and bind you."

Man, that thing was surely expensive. I offered my hand. Haru cut it and then did her thing. I could feel the item, what was inside of it.

"Sleepy, come!" I called.

The wolf-rabbit-eagle-caribou chimera woke up and leaped straight into my chest. I grabbed him in one hand and the crate in another.

I bet I could bash someone's skull open with that metal crate. With that thought at the front of my mind, I pushed the crate into one of the side pockets. It vanished inside. I had a lot of money. Most of it hush money but hey, if the Lord wanted to buy my silence and Alice's complacency, who was I to say no?

"I'll take all three."