Three slipped back into his now clean clothing, he ran his hand through his hair, reminiscing about earlier events. He sighed, first he had to head back to the house, sunrise was coming and he did enjoy the food Emmi's mother made for him.

Making his way through the village, the few early risers gave him a wave or a nod. He responded as politely as he was wont to do. His mind, unlike what he wished focused, on the woman in the bath, he realized he never asked for her name. She had a farm? She didn't look like any of the farm hands or owners he had seen before, she was skinny, her hands were soft. He shook his head trying to rid himself of such thoughts.

He was looking forward to hunting with Crimson tonight, he bet the two of them together could get a lot done together. Maybe he should take Crimson to take a look at that farm, lost in his own thoughts , with little control as to where they slipped off to, he reached home. The others were slowly waking up and Selicia, Emmi's mother, was already up and about making breakfast.

She smiled as he walked in, then she eyed his clothes with a critical glare. "Drop the clothes on the desk in the tailory I'll get them fixed, There is a spare set in the wardrobe in your room. Wake up Sumi while you're at it would you dear?"

Three nodded, "Yes Ma'am"

He walked into the room, woke up the sleepy Sumi, her hair a mess and her eyes dreary and sunken as they were every morning. They headed to breakfast, people having small discussions about what they would do that day. Three wanted to tell them about his nightly escapade but decided to wait, he would go check on the woman's farm then hunt for a night with Crimson before he introduced him to the rest.

He wanted to ask Emmi about the events in the bath-house and what they meant but for some mysterious reason he could not bring himself to ask, he felt slightly jittery, he had spent all day rolling questions in his head. Before he knew it night was falling and the rest had already headed to bed, he could sparsely remember the day, everything a blur.

He looked at the clothes he was wearing and decided to leave the shirt, wearing only the pants. The shirt served no real purpose, the cold never bothered him anyway. He kept the pants on only because of Emmi's continued insistence that he wear pants at all times. He made his way back to the north gate after he told the others he was stepping out. He walked up to Lem.

"I was told to visit a farm on the northern outskirts, a woman asked me to visit." Three told him.

Lem grinned this weird grin like he knew some secret. "A nightly visit eh?Just head straight from here, then you'll see a hill over yonder on the eastern side, that should be the farm ye be lookin for."

"Thank you." Three bowed politely as he exited the gate.

"You have fun now!" Lem shouted after him.

Three nodded, he did enjoy hunting. First, however, he needed to find Crimson. It turned out he didn't have to look hard, he could feel the presence of the Jurgor nearby, waiting just beyond the treeline. He could feel that it had waited for night to fall, for him to exit the city.

"Before we go hunting," He told the approaching Jurgor, "I have someone I need to visit."

For some strange reason he felt like the Jurgor understood the intent behind his words.

The two of them headed towards the farm, after a few minutes of walking he saw the hill Lem had mentioned and made his way towards it. The closer he got to the 'farm' the wider his eyes got, the so called farm had tall stone walls surrounding it, at least ten feet tall each and by the looks of it a few feet thick.

He walked around the wall tracing his fingers over the thick stone, it was harder than he had expected, he rolled his shoulder and threw a proper punch at it. His fist smashed into the wall, to his surprise it had little to no effect on the wall, he even felt a dull ache in his fist. Crimson was testing the wall with its own claws, scratching at it with no results.

He walked further along the wall until he came to a gate, not knowing what else to do he knocked. He heard a familiar voice from beyond the wall. "I will be there in a minute!"

Three stood there waiting, almost an exact minute after she had called out the gates opened. In the entrance stood the woman he had come to see, she was wearing a beautiful tight fitting dress, its deep black accentuated by silver-white embroidery. He felt his gaze gravitating towards certain curvaceous areas but quickly pulled himself together looking her in the eye. His eyes flickered to her ears, only now noticing they were slightly pointed. He wondered how he had missed that before.

"So you came to visit." She said a small smile on her lips.

"I did."

Her eyes floated over his companion. "And you brought such a beautiful creature with you."

Crimson slightly bowed her head towards the woman. Much to the surprise of Three, he glanced from Crimson to the woman and back.

"A Crimson Jurgor, quite a rare species. The Jurgor's themselves are rare, they only live in this local area, but a Crimson Jurgor is a variant. It is special from birth, they are stronger than the average Jurgor. Their evolution potential and pathways are unknown. Truly an interesting specimen."

She mumbled eyeing the creature with obvious interest. She started when she realised she lost herself in study of the Jurgor. A slight blush spread over her cheeks.

"I realize I am being rude to my guest. I am Vyria, Monsterbreeder and evolutionary scientist. I moved to this area only recently so I could experiment in relative peace."

Three bowed slightly, "I am Three."

"Simply Three? You were named after a number?"

Three scratched his neck. "I have no memories prior to a few years ago, I do not recall my own name or my past. Those I feel privileged to call family have given me my name and so I wear it proudly." He stated, straightening.

She smiled reassuringly. "A name given by those who care about you should indeed be treasured, please enter, let me show you around."

With a wave of her hand, she assured him inside, leading him into a place he would be spending more time than he would ever have thought.

He followed Vyria into her home, Crimson following close on his heels.

"If you don't mind me asking, when did you and the Jurgor bond?" A gentle smile appearing on her face.

"Yesterday."

She blinked at the answer, "Did you save it from predators? Or approach it by slowly feeding it untill you could get close?"

Three looked at her, an eyebrow raised. "Nothing like that."

She frowned, "Then how did you get a proud Jurgor to bind with you?"

"We fought, I won." Thee shrugged.

She stared at him incredulously, "You fought? A Jurgor would never acknowledge an adventurers party as an alpha, it is unheard of."

"I wasn't with my party, it was just me."

Her jaw started dropping before she caught herself, "You fought a Crimson Jurgor alone and won? It still should not acknowledge you as an alpha for something similar as that, humans have the advantage of equipment, magic, potions etc. It is odd that a Jurgor would submit, I have tried delving into the monstrous mind before and I suspect they have some inborn loathing against potions, equipment or any magical means. It is impressive none the less but I wonder why it decided to bond with you."

"I wasn't using any equipment. I wore the same outfit as I am wearing now, except..." He scratched his head, suddenly extremely aware of his lack of shirt, "I did have a shirt, not that it survived the encounter intact."

"You fought a Jurgor barehanded?!" She stopped in her tracks and was truly staring at him now.

Three shrugged, "I'm hard to injure and even harder to kill. My skills make me tough."

She gazed at him, curious. "May I ask what skills those are?"

"Here, i'll just show you." He handed her his status plate.

Name : Three

Age : ???

Lvl : 11

Occupation: N/a

Class : N/a

{Skill: Heat Vision : Skill level 4}

{Skill : Lesser-regeneration, : Skill level 87}

{Skill : Pain-tolerance, : Skill level 63}

{Skill : Tough-body, : Skill level 74}

{Skill : White-Adamantium Skin : Skill level 42}

{Skill : Aura of Dread Skill level 2}

{Perk : Mana-sustenance}

{Perk : Battered Body }

{Inheritant-Core - ?????}

{Stats} {Available : 15}

{Strength : 48}

{Agility : 18}

{Dexterity : 18}

{Vitality : 52}

{Endurance : 34}

{Wisdom : 12}

{Intelligence : 13}

{Charisma : 9 }

Her eyes widened as she gazed at his status plate. She started muttering to herself, she would look at a skill, then back to him. Her eyes trailing over his body. "But no scars... Because of regeneration?… and this core, what does it mean?"

She kept staring at the status plate, muttering under her breath. Her gaze suddenly snapped back to him.

"You don't have the monster tamer class or profession! How did you bond a pet?"

"I didn't bind a pet, Crimson is a companion." He said tilting his head.

"A Companion, yes that makes sense, interesting. Do you mind if I run some tests on her?"

Three blinked, "Crimson is female?"

"Yes, these markings." She said pointing to the patterns on her flank, "Are only apparent on the females of the species."

"I didn't know that." Three answered, "You will have to ask her about the tests though,"

"Ask... The Jurgor?" She mumbled, looking at the large monster. "I don't think she can understand human speech."

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

Three shrugged, "She understands what I say."

Vyria's eyes widened. "The implications of this, how intelligent are they really." she started muttering again, she walked into a separate room, came back out with an empty book. She started writing things down, Three glanced at her shoulders watched them ripple, losing himself as he gazed at her amazed at the subtle movements and what it did to his emotional state. Her writing was tidy. It was orderly, flowing and pressed together to fully maximize use of space.

He tried reading what she was wrote, only to realize he had no idea how to read. Shrugging, he waited for her to finish. Seconds turned to minutes, he sat down, leaning his back against Crimson who was lying on the floor, uninterested in the scribbling.

With a sudden jerk of movement, she closed the book. She ran back into the room and came back with a tray full of tools he had never seen before. She walked over to Crimson, softly muttering under her breath. She poked and prodded Crimson with a varied amount of tools, Crimson completely ignored whatever it was she was doing.

Every time she used a tool she would soon after start writing in her book again, completely oblivious to the fact that she had promised her guests a tour of the place.

The whole process took upward of an hour, eventually Three followed her into the room she kept entering, Crimson close on his heels. He looked around the room, shelves upon shelves of books. An ordered wall with drawings and notes, a neatly organized clean steel table. Some small cages with creatures to the left, all of them of the same species, yet all of them slightly different. Next to each cage was a leather bound book similar to the one she was currently writing in.

She walked up to Crimson, telling her she needed a small amount of blood, she would feel a slight prick, Crimson lay on the floor, showing her consent. Gently Vyria pushed a needle beneath one of her scales. The small vial attached to the needle filled with blood, the blood a shade darker than the his own. He watched the process with interest, she carefully removed a small drop of blood from the vial, putting it into a runed circle on top of the steel table.

The blood evaporated as the runed circle glowed, briefly he could see Vyria reading something that appeared below the runic circle. She nodded to herself then walked over to him, asked him for some blood, he consented and she repeated the process. She read whatever the runic circle had told her, finger tapping against her chin.

She turned to face him. "You and Crimson are not yet blood-bound are you?"

"Blood-bound?"

"It would require a sharing of each others blood, drinking some of it. It will bind the spirit of both companions. The bond will deepen and you will receive more benefits, you will share half of the skill level inyour two highest skills. Instead of ten percent of one, You can only blood-bind to a single companion in your lifetime however."

Three nodded at the explanation, turning to Crimson. She was the first creature he bonded with, so he felt connected. He wondered if the blood-bond was similar to the connection he shared with the rest of his group. He asked Crimson what she thought about it, she seemed to be fine with bonding, he could feel her urge to become more powerfull, to never be beaten again.

Three bit his wrist, the blood flowing down his arm. He held his arm to Crimsons snout, she licked the blood then bit in her own paw, and pushed it towards him. He licked up some of her blood and the two exchanged looks.

A sudden wave of energy rushed through his body, he could feel copious amounts of information flooding his brain, dominating his senses. He could feel Crimson's emotions, her presence. He could sense the things she saw, heard and smelled. He felt her urge to be out of this building and to hunt, he even felt the loyalty, far deeper than he expected. The sheer amount of trust Crimson put into him was unimaginable, he had no idea why she felt this way, especially after he had beaten her to a near pulp just the day before.

Crimson was going through a similar process, he could tell. When the sudden surge of energy finished she pressed her snout to his chest, he scratched her ear. He could feel how pleasant it was for her, she enjoyed the ear scratch. He smiled at the sensation, some of it flooding his own system, he was technically giving himself an ear scratch as well. He grinned at the thought.

"What do you think of the bond?" Vyria curiously asked.

"It is, indescribable, overwhelming even." Three looked around the room, seeing things in new shades, smelling things he never could before. He was overwhelmed by the sensation, staring around the room with wide eyes.

Vyria suddenly froze as she heard a bleep from the corner of the room, she rushed over. Picked up a scroll and started reading, her face drawn tight from worry. She walked back over to Three, "I'm sorry to ask this so suddenly, but I need your aid."

"What is it?"

"One of the wilderling villages a weeks travel to the north, in the Cambarka mountains has been under undead attack, they are in need of swift aid. Most people would tire from the travel and need a week to reach it, If you rode Crimson you could reach the village in half that time, it might be just in time to save the tribe."

"I will ride out immediately." Three stated, another emotion he had never felt before swelling, compelling him to action. "I would ask you to let my party know."

Without further adoo, he started running through the hall, Crimson alongside him, with a swift jump he swung on her back, Vyria ran after them, throwing a crystal at him.

"The crystal will guide you to the village, it will periodically shine some light in the direction you need to go!"

Three nodded, Crimson flexed her muscles, sunk through her knees and started running through the snow at full sprint, kicking up snow in her passing. Three hung low, the wind whistling overhead. His eyes focused on something in the far distance, people needed his help, and he would be sure to reach them in time.

---- Crimson POV -----

I run, I run very fast, new friend wants to go somewhere, wants to go fast, So I run fast. Feels strange, friend looks like other two legs, feels different. Strong, no pointy things or shiny things to fight. Still defeat me, new friend strong. Drank some of his blood, now new friend feels strange. I feel his feel. It confusing, I understand new friend. He makes sounds, I don't understand the sounds, but I know what he wants.

I get stronger, I bind with new friend, I get stronger. Give blood to new friend, drink his, even stronger. Now never tired, like new friend, want to fight, want to hunt. Hunt together with new friend, I stronger with new friend. Never had friend, others see me different. Color different, treated different, not one of pack, they think I not strong hunter. Now I stronger than even alpha! Maybe...

With new friend stronger than pack, new friend my pack? New friend alpha? New friend stronger than alpha that make me leave pack.

Prrrrrrrr, new friend do the scratchy thing, I like scratchy thing, feel good. I scratchy friend? Maybe friend not like scratchy, should try scratchy?

Friend wants to stop, I stop. Friend jumps of back, looks around, he take shiny. Shiny shines even shinier! Pretty shiny, not pointy shiny, this shiny no hurt. I like shiny shiny.

Friend look at shiny then look at forest, good time for scratchy? I scratchy friend!

------ Three POV ------

They had been running for almost three days now, they should be getting close. It was time to check the crystal Vyria had given him to make sure he was going in the right direction.

Three jumped of Crimsons back, he took out the crystal he had gotten from Vyria, it had a peculiar shape, it was flat and had eight sides. A glow would arrive from one of eight points that was closest to the direction he needed to go.

He focused on the crystal turning it slightly to pinpoint the right direction. Something sharp prodded him behind his ear, he froze at the sensation. He felt through his newly acquired bond that Crimson was trying something, he turned around and looked at her. Crimson's ears drooped, he felt the disappointment through the bond. He walked towards her, lifted her paw and scratched himself with her claw behind his ear.

Her ears shot back up, tail wagging fiercely, knocking up snow. Three was pretty sure that the force of that wag had put a crack in the tree over there. He watched as Crimson used the claw to scratch him behind the ear. He grinned as he suddenly understood what she had wanted to do, she wanted to give him an ear scratch like he had given her. Most people would feel apprehensive about letting a two and a half meter tall, five meter long, creature put a claw to their head. Especially seeing as the claw was the size of his head in and of itself. He felt safe however, he felt more comfortable around the Jurgor than he had in a long time.

Was he more comfortable around the Jurgor than he was around his own group? He honestly wasn't sure. The Jurgor wanted nothing, needed nothing other than his companionship, he was sure that even if he gave her no ear scratches she would still follow him. Not that he would stop, he rather liked giving her ear scratches. The way she purred and her tail wagged when he did so struck a cord in his heart.

Although he supposed it would strike fear into the hearts of most others, A Jurgor was a fearsome monster after all. Not his Jurgor though, He scratched her behind the ear again, ears perking up and tail wagging. He grinned, she was like an overly large dog, except cuter. He started using both hands, scratching behind both her ears.

Crimson's tail wagged hard enough that it started uprooting the earth, she flopped down on her back and exposed her stomach. He started scratching the scales, jumping on her stomach so he could go at the petting with more force.

Scratch, scratch,scratch! He started scratching every scale he could reach, Crimson purring, the low rumbling sound sending vibrations through her body. Her skin practically rippled from the sound. He started laughing, more of a cackle than an actual laugh if he was being honest.

"What are you doing?" A voice interrupted his reverie.

He froze at the sound, heat running to his cheeks. He turned to see a young girl, her long gray hair falling in loose strands around her fur clothing. She had her head tilted and seemed confused by the scene before her. Three cleared his throat, "I was taming this fearsome Jurgor."

"You were tickling her." The girl stated.

"It's a rigorous training techni-"

The girl interrupted, "Tickling"

"For taming fearso-"

"Tickling!" She stated again.

He looked at the child, pausing "You saw an illusion, fancy magic."

"No i didn't!"

"Yes you did, I am an extremely powerful mage."

"LIES!" The girl yelled.

"It is obviously impossible to tickle a monster as fearsome as a Jurgor." He told her confidently.

The girl pursed her lips, stomping over towards Crimson. She walked over to a monster more than five times her size. Crimson lowered her snout towards the girl, staring at her in curiosity. The girl curled her fingers and scratched the Jurgor behind the ears. When Crimson purred in response the girl giggled and snuggled up to her, scratching her behind the ears.

"Good monster, nice monster!" The girl exclaimed.

"What in the blazes is going on!" A deep voice roared from further in the forest.

A man stepped out into the clearing where the girl had come from, wearing fur clothing similar to the girls. He had short graying hair and a short cut beard to match it. His eyes were glaring and his face torn in rage as he watched the girl play with the monster.

"Vila! Step away from the monster!" The man ordered, drawing a large axe.

Three stepped between him and Crimson glaring at the man.

"Don't wanna! She's soft! Fluffy!" The girl yelled back.

"It is dangerous!" The man told her.

"Actually she is my companion, she will do no harm to the child." Three told the man.

The man blinked, lowering his axe. "My apologies, I thought it was a wild Jurgor, The girl has a nasty habit of going out and playing with monsters. No amount of caution whatsoever, Vyria has been a terrible influence."

"Well Crimson is harmless to those I consider friends. Vyria sent me over when she heard about your village being under attack, is it not dangerous to leave children wandering around when the village is under siege?"

The man spat, "Yea it would be, if they weren't undead. Those rotten fleshbags only attack at night, most of the villagers are busy shoring up whatever amount of defenses they can. The children we leave to their own devices, they know the area and should be fine." He then glared at Vila, "Most of them have a proper sense of danger."

"Myself and Crimson have come to assist. Tell me more about these undead."

The man nodded and motioned for Three to follow him. "My name is Firius, I'm the village chief for what that's worth, not that people actually listen to me. The undead are more of an annoyance than an actual danger, I wouldn't be worried if their numbers had not been steadily growing. Most are simply zombies and skeletons, all of them so far actually, never any higher than level five."

He walked through the snow leading Three to the village, Vila had climbed ontop of Crimson's back and the pair was following on his heels.

"The average level of a villager is between the twenty and the thirty, we live life out here in the wilderness because we enjoy the sense of danger, the struggle for survival and clawing out a place in the world with our own power. None of those nobles telling us what to do with our lives, freedom and a sense of adventure, that is what we have here. It makes the people tough, hardened. A few level five undead would barely pose a threat. That was until their numbers started becoming a problem.

Firius sighed, "Last night there had to have been around a thousand of the rotters. We have over eight hundred villagers that are combat capable, so it was no real threat. The problem being the numbers had nearly doubled from the night before. It's been doubling almost since they started their attacks a week ago, my advisor noticed the pattern and advised we call for aid as soon as possible. You must be a capable adventurer for Vyria to send you over, knowing her she is probably mobilizing others to come as well."

Three nodded at the explanation, "Do you know where the undead originate from?"

Firius shook his head, "We have sent scouts looking for whatever ruin or dank tomb they sprung up from but we have been unable to locate their position."

The man stopped and smiled as he left the edge of the forest, they had been closer to the village then Three had realized. Before him lay a small village with sturdy wooden walls, a few watchtowers, people were milling around digging trenches and placing spikes and similar obstructive items in the fields surrounding the village. The villagers had a determined look on their face, but they did not seem as grim as Three had been expecting.

Firius swung his hand gesturing at the village. "Welcome to Snowhome, the village in the north!"