Sixteen days until the duel with Edbert

As we left the assembled elder shepherds as they talked, headed towards a nearby tree. Each of us had brought lunch out into the field, so as soon as we found a spot I pulled out the reliquaries of my three monster partners and immediately released them.

Baloo appeared in a roll and gave me a lopsided, dog-like grin that looked adorable on a bear cub monster. The fact that such a goofy monster partner could be considered a part of the cream of the crop of guard monsters made me think that Baloo was very much different than other Cerbearus.

Bagheera preened and stretched as she came out and after walking past me for a rub charged to the nearest tree to scale it.

Bedevere meanwhile simply sauntered up to me and let out a greeting “Bzz, bzz, Bzzaao.” before chasing the newly released Craytipult. The Beelebian greatly enjoyed playing with all of my monster partners, but it enjoyed playing with Alek’s sling-shot crab monster all the more.

As they went about playing and enjoying their time, I pulled out a lunch for each of them – fish from the market in Strongbridge for Baloo. A haunch of roasted meat that was now, unfortunately, cooled for Bagheera, and a wooden teacup of honey for Beelebian.

Then I broke into the jerky, cheese, and fruit I had brought for myself – adding a few of the only non-dried fruit to my monster’s bowls. They were berries, that Alek, and some of the other shepherds, had gained yesterday after I had stumbled upon a bramble of bushes during one of my breaks in training.

My monster partners each were given a fourth of the berries and I popped one of the remainder in my mouth. It tasted as if it were a mix of a blueberry and a currant, and I felt a sugar rush that only root beer had matched since arriving here.

With an undignified flop, I took a seat on the ground and began to eat the jerky, cheese, and fruit I had brought with sips of my canteen of water in between. The trio of monsters I called my own never actually ate at the same time, but as I watched them eat and play I was struck by how much personality that they each had.

Baloo was well-named, a big galoot of a cerbearus that wanted nothing more than to cuddle his friends and cause mischief when there was not a battle going on. He became all serious when that happened. Normally he was all about fun and had no less than three times stopped his meal just to beg a chunk of sausage from Alek or to shoot a bubble at Craytipult.

Bagheera? She mostly just curled up in between eating upon the haunch of meat that I had given her. Occasionally, she would let out a meow at Craytipult, Baloo, or Bedevere but she did not so much as move an inch from her position curled up at the root of the trees. She was in some ways a preening monarch of a cat monster, as much as the smilodon and jaguar influences were readily apparent to me in her looks; the way she carried herself and the possessive manner she had over myself, Baloo, and increasingly Bedevere was far more like that of a house cat than a great murderous panther. Unless she was in the fight; where there was no way to ignore the similarity she had to Jaguars and Smilodons both.

Bedevere meanwhile was clearly showing his signs as the youngest and newest of my monster partners. The bee monster would occasionally hop on Bagheera and get batted at, or run and let out buzzes and chirps at Craytipult and Baloo before sending wind bursts at them. In between that, he would take a sip from the honey I had set out for him or chew on one of the berries. Other than that, he swung around on strings of webbing and bursts of wind, having the time of his life.

So it went with a moment of peace as I ate this meal with my monsters and we waited for the decision of the elder shepherds.

“So Wade you never did explain exactly where you found this stuff."

So I began my story, truthfully my tall tale, including the vision of a hunter I had seen. I added my own herbs and spices though, because if this panther lord was an outworlder from the ice age then the trope demanded he obviously had been hit so hard by a mammoth he got reborn here.

***

We were just about done with the story when Alek’s grandfather, David, arrived. Even without looking up Alek could tell- but I did not think anyone else wore bright red leather cowboy boots either. The man had approached entirely silently, and it was only Alek's calm response that stopped me from jumping when I saw the out-of-place boots.

“Hello again, boys. Thanks for waiting." He said, before taking a glance at my monsters. “Already have three partners, do you?"

“Yep. Got Bedevere my Beelebian as an egg on my first day here in Hekatondrona but he didn't hatch until recently and would have been lost if not for Alek’s help. Baloo my Cerbearus and Bagheera my Ossicarn are the two I started with, though I know it's abnormal."

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"Interesting to find out. You have three partners in less than eight months here. I knew my trust was well placed. So Wade, are you ready to find the real benefit of the Guard class, and its advanced classes?”

“Of course he is, grandfather. Whatever the gods based Wade with I think patience may have been in short supply that day." Alek answered almost instantly and rather than getting sidetracked by letting anger or embarrassment wash over me I just shrugged my shoulders and gave a nod.

"I am ready, every day I have to prepare is a day on which my plan can become better with. But I won't lie, I think the Baron might get mad about the entire affair and look to take it out on your tribe. “

To which he let out a hard single-note laugh, not a "Ha” but given his posture and smile it felt close enough to one.

"He wouldn't dare, because without us he would both lose the tenders of his primary meat food sources and also his militia. We were here long before Charles Darville was awarded the title of baron of Tidewarren and its corresponding lands."

David slapped me on the shoulder. “Even if you are an adult inside of that mortal shell, you have to trust me. I have been at this for a long time and I won't lead you or my flock astray."

I gave a nod and then accessed some of the metabolized experience points I had pooled. I used it to buy the second level of guard, and then the third, continuing with the step pyramid of experience cost payments until I hit level 8 in the Guard Class.

As I finished, I looked over the traits that were granted from the class teaching that level.

***

[[ Guardian’s Arms- You have begun to study the doctrine of the shield, and your studies have paid off. Your shield skill rating is considered real to the highest weapon skill rating you have currently unlocked. As of reaching level 4 you have unlocked the permanent form of this trait and may utilize it in any skill and with any active defensive device which the system considers a shield. ]]

[[ Eyes of the Watcher- Your analysis skill has become more than the sum of its parts, and now on a single glance at your monsters, you can see their statistics, information, specific weak points, and any elemental weaknesses. You may see a bar of health on all other monsters present with focus. As of reaching level 8 in the guard class, this is a permanent trait.]]

In addition to the traits, I also gained thirty-five points total in my strength, constitution, and dexterity stats. Fourteen points in my wisdom and charisma stats and ten points in my luck, and intelligence stats. In the the case of the physical stats, constitution got fifteen points and ten went to dexterity and strength. My other four stats each were split evenly, with seven going to each of wisdom and charisma and five going to intelligence and luck.

***

When it was done I spoke up. “Okay, I advanced to level 8 in the guard class.” I didn’t say more, but the idea of seeing an actual health bar and notes of the statistics on my monsters seemed extremely useful – too useful for me to have passed up if I simply knew about this secondary trait of the guard class. What secondary traits did Apprentice and Rogue provide, then?

I didn’t have time to muse about it, though, as soon as I said the words, David spoke up.

“So you see that statistic bar and information that guard provides you, right? Every advanced class has further skills and traits it adds, but Shepherd’s primary benefit is not our staff fighting. First, why don’t you take a glance at your Beelebian?”

I did, glancing at Bedevere and finding that as soon as I did a prompt to analyze him came up. I thought the word accept and was given a prompt.

I skipped over the species description and his techniques. Even his current level was something I didn’t pay much attention to until I noticed that he had somehow increased to level two without being given any experience to metabolize. I couldn’t afford to be sidetracked by this information and try to play at being a detective on it though.

I read through the rest of the prompt, noticing more in-depth information about Beelebian. Firstly it did not have a number but rather an alphabetic rating in its statistics. C in constitution, and dexterity. D in charisma. B in wisdom, intelligence, and luck. He had a rating of A in strength.

When hovering over a weak point, it highlighted his antenna. This was surprising because to me he was a soft and not at all solid little guy, I expected him to be awash in LCD green glow showing his whole body as a weak point.

When I floated over elemental weakness, I found out that my little bug buddy was weak to fire – which made sense. Even if some sort of elemental weakness wheel didn’t exist, he was still a little fur and fuzz-covered bug monster and his elemental affinities outside of water meant that the bee would just feed the flames. However, it also made sense when I noticed that the weakness was only an A-grade weakness. If the weaknesses worked the way I presumed the stats to work, then this meant the water elemental affinity might have counteracted any weakness Beelebian had from fire.

Not that I had any confirmation until I asked, because maybe Beelebian was secretly an Olympic-class weight lifter in its tiny bee pet body.

So I asked.

“Of course, it’s ascending,” David answered my question. “If you ever see a monster with a rating in one of its statistics of R or S, that’s a once-in-a-lifetime creature. If you can’t see its level, it might be a monarch. Watch out.”

“You can see other monsters’ stats?” I asked while trying to analyze Craytipult with Eyes of the Watcher. Nothing happened.

“Did you think that people would devote a whole class advancement just to staff fighting and the ability to use the slingshot?” Alek piped in. “I think you’re going to love becoming a Shepherd.”

It was time to spend my first experience points towards the class.