Zalia sat against the wall in her little cave, watching as Boreal dashed around the space. She was much larger than when Zalia had first found her. Back then, she had been only just below her knee in height but she now stood at around mid thigh. It wouldn't be long now until Boreal outgrew Zalia in weight, though hopefully never in height. Boreal would be a truly terrifying sight then. Going by the size of Boreal’s mother, that wouldn't happen though. She would probably reach about mid chest in height one day and not much more.

She looked back down at the purple vial she had found in the pouch she had taken from Juniper. It wasn't labelled and none of her various abilities let her identify what it was. Glemp would probably have been able to find out without having to drink the whole thing.

She had brought the pouch down here and buried it lightly once more in this new cave, thinking it much more safe than the last. She would need to decorate the place with something more comfortable to sit on then the stone and ice floor though. She thought it would probably be a good idea to find a few safe places around that she could retreat to if she ever needed to. One place was all good and well but if she was too far from it or it was discovered or destroyed, she’d be in trouble once more.

“Want to try and hunt those odd grey creatures?” Zalia asked Boreal.

Boreal cocked her head and gave Zalia an icy, predatory look

“I’ll take that as a yes. Any ideas on how to do that?” Zalia asked.

Boreal, despite sometimes seeming otherwise, was actually quite intelligent.

“I wonder, can I see her profile?” Zalia thought.

Thinking about it, she was awarded with a message popping up,

Profile - Boreal Taori

Health - Excellent

Mana - Full

Stamina - Full

Creature Type - Mountain Frostfang

Linked Attributes - Dexterity, Wisdom, Resilience, Intellect (Beast Bond)

Active skills

Cryokinetic Pounce - Iron

Blending Shadows - Iron

Cute Convincement - Iron

Passive Skills

Frost Adaption - Iron

Feline Eyes - Iron

Survivalist (Beast Bond) - Iron

“What?” Zalia thought.

“ Cute Convincement?” Zalia asked Boreal.

Boreal looked towards her with wide, sparkling eyes and gave a little mew.

“Oh my god,” Zalia groaned, rolling her eyes.

Whatever was the cause of Zalia’s messages apparently considered Boreal as her child, giving it her own last name Taori. Boreal also apparently had an ability that was literally just being extra cute to convince people. It was a defence mechanism employed by the young of many different species to help them survive until an older age. After all, who wants to kill a cute kitten?

“Right. It looks like you actually got an extra linked attribute because of our bond as well hey?” Zalia asked.

Boreal looked happy at that,

“Zalia strong,” Boreal said.

Zalia stared at Boreal.

“Two words!” she exclaimed, excited.

Boreal hadn’t ever managed to send two words in a row before. She was getting better at the language it seemed. The icy blue translucent shards on Boreal’s back started to glow and she jumped into Zalia’s arms, coating her in a layer of frost.

“Oh, thanks for that,” Zalia said, pretending to be upset.

The impact had actually had a bit of force behind it for such a small creature. It definitely had something to do with the ability she often used to freeze things she jumped at. Having a thought, Zalia decided to try and see if she could get a description of Boreal’s abilities like she did her own.

Active 1 - Cryokinetic Pounce - spell - body enhancement

Tin - when charged, pouncing on something will cause it to be coated with a layer of ice and snow.

Iron - when charged, your pounce will have greatly increased strength and weight behind it.

“Makes sense,” Zalia said, having a look at the rest of Boreal’s abilities.

Active 2 - Blending Shadows - spell - channelled - body enhancement

Tin - you are able to blend into shadows, using their darkness to hide yourself.

Iron - when blended in a shadow you can move directly into a nearby shadow as you move.

Active 3 - Cute Convincement - spell - targeted

Tin - you can use your cuteness to make others less aggressive towards you.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

Iron - you’re able to slightly affect the actions others take in regards to you.

Passive 1 - Frost Adaption - passive - body enhancement

Tin - you have incredible resilience towards snowy and icy terrain and environments. This includes ignoring the majority of cold and cold based magic damage and walking easily on ice and snow. You leave behind a faint trail of icy footprints.

Iron - you have a passive healing effect based on how cold the temperature is.

Passive 2 - Feline Eyes - passive - body enhancement

Tin - the sharpness of your vision is dramatically increased.

Iron - when activated, you may see heat in addition to your normal vision.

“You little-,” Zalia started saying, after reading the Cute Convincement description.

It seemed like Boreal may have been manipulating her just a little bit since the very start. She looked down at the furry creature purring in her arms,

“Didn't really need a spell to do that, did you?” Zalia thought.

Reading through the rest, Zalia understood why Boreal seemed much better down in these caves then she did up above ground. With the significantly colder temperature, she was able to gain a little passive healing. They also explained why even Zalia was almost never able to see Boreal when she activated her camouflage.

“You’re pretty strong for someone with only one class,” Zalia told Boreal.

“Mreow,” Boreal said.

The sound meant something along the lines of, “I know and you need three to keep up.” Or so Zalia thought.

She huffed indignantly,

“I’m pretty new to this world you know, you’ve got an advantage on me there,” Zalia protested.

Boreal just looked at her.

“And you’re basically a child,” Zalia interpreted.

She swore Boreal almost smiled before she jumped off and started running around the cave again with a pitter patter sound. Sighing, Zalia went back to thinking about how they would hunt those stone creatures.

“We just want to draw one or two out. I could use some Flame-root to burn them out but I really don't want many to come out, or to burn them to a crisp. Damn, I just really don't know enough about them. Are they reactive? Will they chase? What do they eat? They seem more like ambush creatures if they are predators, with that camouflage but they could well be a type of stone scourer, travelling along eating anything growing on it. It seems strange they don't come out of that tunnel…” Zalia thought, before something occurred to her.

“Oh!” Zalia realised.

Boreal looked over.

“They might not like the light made by the mushrooms!” Zalia said.

It might be completely wrong but definitely something she could test. She jumped to her feet and left the cave, Boreal obligingly following. She went to the very first cave that had the mushrooms and the exit to the lands beyond. Moving to the exit, Zalia peaked out to see back towards the forest outside. She made a dash out to the first warped tree and ripped off a small branch, sprinting back to the caves. The dash might not have been necessary but she wanted to stay out there for the minimum time possible.

Back in the cave once more, she looked around for the one mushroom she had stabbed earlier. Unfortunately it had stopped glowing since so she chose another one and impaled it on her new branch. Pulling the mushroom off the wall, she went back to the tunnel and began crawling through. She went to the T-section and began crawling through towards the stone creatures but stopped. Thinking better of it she put down the branch and moved back a bit.

“Hey Boreal, wanna take this branch down there and throw it towards the creatures?” she asked.

She felt bad asking Boreal to do it but the feline could move significantly faster than she could. Boreal took up the branch and started moving through the tunnel, much faster and easier than Zalia could. Boreal started sending flashes of images to Zalia so she could see Boreal’s own vision like a slideshow.

Blink, darkness with a purple glow within.

Blink, the tunnel starts widening out and the grey creatures come into vision.

Blink, the stick and mushroom flies through the air and there is a blur of movement.

Blink, darkness. Darkness but still she could see as Boreal sent through the vision of heat. The grey creatures had swarmed the mushroom incredibly fast, smothering it and she saw no more as Boreal ran.

Moments later, Boreal hurtled around the corner and came to a stop next to Zalia.

“Well that didn't work,” Zalia muttered.

She watched down the tunnel for a little bit with her sword in hand but the creatures didn't come.

“Hmm,” Zalia hummed, thinking.

She stared down the tunnel for a few more moments.

“Ah, fuck it,” Zalia said.

She used preparation to turn some of her Flame-root into a fine dust and started making her way down the corridor. Getting to the point where the slime began, she could see that the creatures had returned to the walls, waiting. She threw the dust past the first few creatures and used the heat manipulation from Heat resistance to set it ablaze. The creatures reacted in exactly the same manner, rushing the fire and trying to smother it. Zalia quickly moved forwards, able to stand hunched in the space. Summoning her sword, she impaled one of the closer creatures, dragging it over to the entrance with her blade. Boreal grabbed it and started dragging it down the tunnel and Zalia quickly pushed back into the tunnel, following after.

Zalia and Boreal arrived in their cave, Boreal still clamped onto the creature with her jaws. Zalia came over and quickly dispatched the creature with Kill shot as it struggled, ending the hunt. Boreal sat up, a strange grey ichor dripping from her mouth.

“Taste alright?” Zalia asked.

Boreal looked… unimpressed.

Zalia shrugged and used Preparation to start skinning and deboning the creature. It's anatomy was extremely strange and unlike anything Zalia had ever seen. It didn't have a heart that she could see or any other organs for that matter. As she used Preparation on it, a strange almost clear goop separated from the body and piled itself to the side. Zalia inspected it and found it to be some revolting smelling… discharge.

“This thing is disgusting,” Zalia said.

Boreal seemed to agree but they didn't have anything else to eat so weird stone goop creature it was.

She started a small fire and cooked the few pieces of meat she could get from it, seasoning them with a little bit of Bitterbalm. She knew she would miss the couple other bits of seasoning she used to bring around with her and wished she had her bag and armour.

After she was done cooking, she held up a piece of the meat. It had remained grey despite being cooked to what Zalia could best guess was perfection.

“You want to try it first?” Zalia asked Boreal, looking at it dubiously.

Boreal came up and sniffed at it before politely sitting, waiting for her to go first.

“So polite,” Zalia said sarcastically.

She ate, chewing the stringy meat. It wasn't terrible, the same way that she remembered waking up in the morning to go work a nine to five wasn't terrible. Despite the Bitterbalm it was almost tasteless, the monotony of the extensive chewing required making her almost grow bored after a single mouthful. She swallowed and then waited. She had quite good poison resistance in addition to her healing so she wasn't too afraid of whatever poisoning she could get from an Iron rank creature. She observed how her Healing presence was acting and it didn't seem to be counteracting any poison. It was just protecting her outer body from the constant corrupting aura of this place.

“Well, it seems alright. Your turn,” Zalia said, holding up a piece for Boreal.