With a flash of light, not too different from the last one, Will found himself in a ruined courtyard. Thankfully, somehow, it didn't blind him this time. He looked around at the rubble surrounding him. Behind where he had appeared, there was a worn stone staircase leading underground. Will guessed that was probably the entrance to the dungeon he just left.
Wondering where to go next, he decided to try to use one of the skills he had gained. Will concentrated on a map appearing in front of himself. Instead of a new window popping up like he had expected, the mini map in the corner of his vision expanded.
Most of the map he could see was grayed out. Will turned around to see the gray parts but as he did the map filled itself in.
"I guess it relies on my line of sight, or maybe just the direction I'm looking? I wonder if I have to keep it open to map it all out."
Deciding to test it, Will shrank his map back down, and turned in a slow circle. Once he had finished, he reopened his map. Thankfully it was filled in.
"Good, if I had to keep it open that would have been a huge pain."
Will examined the map to see if I gave any hints on where to go next. The map looked like something that had been painted, instead of a satellite image, but it still had enough detail that he felt confident enough to navigate by it.
To the north, or at least what he decided to call north, of the ruins was a large forest. The forest continued on the west side, and to the east and south were open plains. Close to the southern border of his map, it looked like a road cut through the land. Feeling that it was his best chance of finding people, Will headed off in that direction, though he wasn't exactly sure how far it was.
Leaving the ruins, he found the walk through the grassland refreshing, the air was much cleaner than the city's pollution he had become used to. It also seemed to be early in the morning, with the sky growing brighter instead of darker, and the cool air slowly warming. It had been evening when he had left work, so it was quite an odd sensation, like he had hopped on a plane and gone halfway across the world. Strangely though, Will discovered that he didn't feel tired. In fact, he realized that his exhaustion had disappeared the moment he appeared in the dungeon. He could have attributed it to adrenaline at first, but it had been long enough that it should have worn off by now. Instead though he felt like he had gotten a full night's rest. It all just added to the mystery of how he got here.
Will had been walking for about twenty minutes when something new happened. A yellow dot appeared on his mini map. It seemed to be moving around slowly, so he guessed that it was showing him what was happening in real time. He wondered what the color meant though. The mini map was supposed to show nearby allies and enemies. But it didn't tell him what colors they were. But since it was between himself and the road he was heading towards, he decided to find out.
Will crouched low and moved as quietly forward as possible. It didn't take long, but he found out what it was that appeared on his map. In front of him was a large white rabbit. It looked relatively normal, aside from being the size of a medium dog, that and the giant horn coming out of its head. It was like somebody had taken the last thirty centimeters of a narwhal horn and glued it to the rabbit's forehead.
"What would you call that? A uni-rabbit, a bunny-corn?" He muttered to himself.
Apparently the giant ears on the thing weren't for show. It turned right in his direction. When his eyes locked with the rabbit’s the yellow dot on his mini map turned red.
[Horned Rabbit- Level 5]
A red bar appeared floating above the rabbit as he got his system prompt.
"Well I guess the name's pretty straight forward then."
The rabbit charged at him, and Will rolled to the side to avoid the business end of the horn. He would have liked to think it was a graceful and acrobatic tumble, but in reality he more or less flopped to the ground and scrambled back up.
He turned to make sure he was facing the rabbit, and drew his shirt sword. Thankfully he could do this without much trouble, because by the time he had, the bunny charged him again. On instinct he swung the sword like a baseball bat, and it luckily hit. Even better, the force of the blow knocked the rabbit to the side, saving Will from a very unwanted piercing.
Looking at the rabbit health bar, it had barely gone down.
"Right," he lamented, "half damage."
Will did some quick math, if he had over a hundred health points at Level 1, then a level 5 monster should have even more. He would have to land at least twenty solid blows to even start to do some real damage. As the rabbit got back to its feet and spun on him, he prepared for a long fight.
*
Will had collapsed on the ground and was breathing raggedly. He pulled up his status.
[Name: William Warren
Level: 2
Age: 22
Class: Tamer
Race: Human
HP: 64/120
MP: 70/70
SP: 12/70
Strength: 7
Dexterity: 10
Constitution: 12
Intelligence: 7
Wisdom: 5
Charisma: 15
Free Points: 3
(Active Skills)
Tame- Level 1
Command- Level 1
Share Senses- Level 1
Item box- Level 1
(Passive Skills)
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Empathy Link- Level 1
Danger Sense- Level 1
(Titles)
Explorer, Keen Eyed, Pacifist, Lone Wolf]
The fight hadn't been easy. It had taken nearly half an hour to win, but the rabbit lay defeated beside him. In the end it has taken somewhere north of thirty blows to get the job done. The rabbit had gotten its fair share blows in as well, Will's torn and bloodied clothes were a testament to that.
Will watched his status as he lay there. It was going up slowly but surely. Which meant that the rabbit was most likely recovering too. Will doubted that he could win a fight with the rabbit again, it had started getting better at dodging his attacks in the end. He couldn't fight alone with the pacifist title, so he did the only thing that he could think of.
Will reached over and touched the rabbit, and activated his tame ability.
[Would you like to tame “Horned Rabbit” (success chance 85%) Yes/No]
He was worried, he wasn’t sure what the recovery rate was for his MP but thought that the rabbit's health might be faster. If this didn't succeed on the first try, he may be in trouble. Will steeled himself and decided, selecting “Yes”. He felt the power leave his body as the spell activated. It rushed down his arm and entered the rabbit. The rabbit's body began to glow with a red light. The light pulsed once, twice, three times, and with a soft “pong” sound, flashed white and disappeared.
“Huh, that seemed strangely familiar.” Will thought.
Almost Immediately after he thought that, the worst headache he had ever had in his life hit him. It felt like someone had implanted an angry goat into his head. The goat was also singing death metal while on fire. At the same time he was hit with bone deep tiredness. Will slumped on the ground fully, he felt like he was going to throw up, but was also unable to move. Succumbing to both pain and exhaustion, he fell unconscious.
*
Will woke to the feel of something warm and wet moving across his cheek. He sat up like a rocket, looking for danger, but the only thing he saw was the horned rabbit. It was currently frozen in place, like it had been caught doing something wrong, and was staring at him with its ruby red eyes. Then Will noticed that the rabbit tongue was sticking partly out of its mouth. In horror he swiped at his cheek. When he brought his hand away he almost gagged. It was covered in a thick layer of sticky saliva.
Will’s family had a couple of pets when he was younger, between a cat and a dog, he knew exactly the kind of thing that animals did with their tongues. Plus, he had read somewhere that rabbits eat their own poop. Trying to keep what little he had in his stomach down, he wiped his hand off in the grass and tried to clean his face off as well as possible.
That task done, Will more thoroughly checked his surroundings, but they seemed to be clear. There were no more red dots on his mini map, but he did notice another smaller blue dot where the rabbit was. Checking the sun, it hadn't moved much from earlier, so he had only been unconscious for a short time. Will wondered what had happened to him. Thinking for a moment, he tried to call up some kind of event log, to see if that would help. Once again the system did not disappoint, and a new window popped up. Will scrolled up the page until he found what he was looking for.
[Spell “Tame” cast.
Spell “Tame” successful.
More than 70% of MP used in a single spell. “Mana Drain” debuff applied.
“Mana Drain” debuff will remain until MP has risen above 30%.
“Mana Drain” debuff has caused SP to fall below 10%. “Exhausted” debuff applied.
User is in “Unconscious” state.
“Unconscious” state will remain until SP has risen above 15%.
“Mana Drain” debuff has been removed.
“Unconscious” state has been removed.]
Will focused on the unfamiliar terms to see if he could glean more information.
[Mana Drain
Type- Debuff
Effects-
* Mana recovers 15% slower.
* (-10% SP).]
[Exhausted
Type- Debuff
Effects-
* Stamina recovers more slowly for ten minutes.
* Unable to move until Stamina has risen above threshold.]
“Okay. Looks like I have to be more careful in the future.”
If he had just waited a couple of more minutes then he wouldn’t have passed out. But then again he might have cut it close with the rabbit's health regeneration.
“How do other tamers do this kind of stuff safely?” he wondered, "There was a mention of parties in one of my titles."
If there had been another monster nearby, he could have been a goner. Will took a deep breath as that realization washed over him. Letting it go, Will decided to move onto the next task.
The Horned rabbit had been sitting there, waiting patiently as Will sorted himself out. No longer frozen mid-lick, it was watching him patiently, as if waiting for him to do something. On a whim, Will tried to bring up its stats.
[Name: None(Please assign name.)
Level: 5
Age: Mature
Class : Tamed Creature
Race: Horned Rabbit(Female)
HP: 52/150
MP: 10/10
SP: 39/100
Strength: 10
Dexterity: 15
Constitution: 15
Intelligence: 1
Wisdom: 2
Charisma: 5
Free Points: 0
(Active Skills)
Charge- Level 3
Jump- Level 2
(Passive Skills)
Enhanced Hearing- Level 2
(Titles)
None ]
Will was surprised that the Rabbit was that much stronger than him. He wasn’t quite sure yet how the numbers translated exactly, but the rabbit seemed to have a decent edge over him. He figured that the only way he beat it, was that its skills weren’t that great. So he decided to check them out.
[Charge- Level 3
Skill Type- Melee
Cost- 5 SP
Effects- Rush forward in a straight line with speed and power, Deal 2.5X damage.]
[Jump- Level 2
Skill Type- Physical Enhancement
Cost- 2 MP
Effects- Jump 2X your normal jump height. More SP can be used to jump higher, cost doubles for each increase.]
[Enhanced Hearing- Level 2
Skill Type- Sensory
Effects- Hearing is increased beyond the normal limit, +5 meters per level.]
Will understood now. With the only attack available to it being a forward charge, it had been pretty easy to defend against. Will just hadn’t noticed at the time due to the adrenaline of his first fight. He would have to think on how to fight together with the rabbit in the future.
Will noticed then that the Rabbit in question had moved closer to him while he was going over its stats. It was now right next to him staring into his eyes, looking like a puppy begging for a treat. He felt that it wanted something but what? Then Will had an idea, he looked back at the rabbits stat sheet.
“Please assign name. Is that what you want, a name?” he asked.
The rabbit seemed to grow excited at his question.
“Alright, what’s a good name?” He thought to himself.
Will went over all the options he could think of in his head. Hoppy, Floppsy, Snowball? No that wouldn’t do. Maybe more well known bunny names, like Bugs or Francois? But no wait, it was a female rabbit right? So maybe Lola or Judy, no those didn’t feel right either. What to name the white rabbit, white rabbit… Then an idea struck him and it felt right.
“Alright I’ve decided, and since I’m still not sure whether or not this is still a dream, I’ll name you Alice.”
[You have selected the name “Alice” for your tamed creature, once confirmed this name cannot be changed. Would you like to confirm name (Yes/No)]
Will selected “Yes” and something interesting happened. A new light seemed to come into Alice’s eyes. When it had fully settled, she began hopping around him in apparent joy. It took a few minutes for her to calm down, but eventually she did.
“So I’m guessing you like the new name huh?” He chuckled.
Will felt a strong sense of appreciation coming from Alice.
“Alright, well how do you feel about fighting other monsters and getting stronger while we look for civilization?”
He felt an excited agreement this time.
Alright then, let’s head out.”