Novels2Search
Olympus
Chapter Ten: On the Road Again

Chapter Ten: On the Road Again

Heya folks, time to get a move on with this chapter me thinks. I read the comments on what everyone thinks, and wants that egg to be. I liked the anaconda baby that eats him one, made me laugh. At this time I am unsure what I will make it. So I would love suggestions; but please remember that this Game does not currently have actual mythological creatures such as gorgons. Unicorns, or pegasi. 

I may make that happen in a planned patch later on, however the only "Mythical" creatures are ones that once existed with a few tweaks made to fit a game setting. However, no actual monsters of yore such as Minotaurs and centaurs, or Gorgons.

But that may change later as I said. I do intend to implement Gods (A.I's) at a later time as well. So perhaps then the critters will begin, for now however stick to creatures, yes there once was a snake that size with massive teeth, to things that once existed and can be plausible for now. ^.^

----------------------------------------

It's official, I hate wagons. I sat there with my arms crossed over my chest, and two puff balls looking at me oddly because I was pouting. 

The reason i was pouting? I was forced to sit in the goddamn wagon the rest of the way to Sparta. It had been two days since the Hydra thing we fought was killed. 

Broken ankle (severe) Due to the strain of continuing to fight with broken bones, and the severity of resulting injuries during that time you have been given a severe debuff. For three days in game you will be unable to walk on that leg, and it will act as if broken in real life without the downside of extended weeks of recovery.

I looked once more at the reason behind this, and silently debated on throttling Clint for such a dick system regarding people who throw themselves into combat willy nilly, like me, and survive.

I grumbled, and finally Winter seemed to have enough and pounced up at my face; batting at my nose with a paw, the claws sheathed.

I'd gotten them both a new trait; thankfully no possible scars would be given now. It took a bit of praising and punishment practice though. It was a nice trait.

/tr]

Restraint (Trait) A pet trait acquired through proper guidance and careful use of praise, and punishment methods that allows your pet to understand the difference between playing, and being mean (Mean to you maybe) This trait will also allow them to hold back their power in a fight, or training sessions when learning new traits, or skills.

I looked at the generic meaning of the trait rather than through Winter individually, it was an interesting contrast of notions, and word use. Made me laugh. But it was a good trait that would help them later in life with training, and I could use this restraint knowledge to have them subdue a wild beast that was tameable and allow me to work on taming it without injuring it so badly it can't trust me.

I gave in, and smiled a bit and poked Winters nose lightly and she rolled back down my body into Fang. He had been napping. 

The fight was on, they started mewing at each other, and wrestling. It was fucking adorable and I never wanted them to grow up!

But they have been growing somewhat quickly, though considering it takes about 5 weeks for a real lion cub to reach this stage after birth, I was not shocked due to the 2 year wait time. I imagined they would be up to my knees in height before things slowed down at the end of the month. 

I could begin training them properly then. That thought made me smile, I always did want a lion pet. But sadly my state didn't allow them as exotic pets. 

Here, I had two; a white and black and they were fluffy demons of cuteness!

One of the house slaves, I believe her name was Triscia, was giggling at me. She was a quiet girl, and one of the few that did not get raped by our former Master. 

She was shorter, less fierce than Scillica and gave off the vibe of being the perfect wife material. Redhaired, fucking sexy right there, with small freckles lining her cheeks, and bare shoulders. I wondered if there was a scattering of them on her moderate bust, or her thighs. 

I found myself staring at her, intently, and she ducked her head and blushed. It was adorable! Sadly, she was also around 16 years of age. True, in this age that was well past legal, but I was not about to make advances onto what I considered a child, even it a very mature looking one.

Instead I started to feel a bit brotherly toward her in the last two days I'd been stuck here. 

For some reason she went toward the front of the wagon during the times Scillica was here, I didn't know why. I suspected it had to do with when she was near me, legs curled under her, and she played with the cubs with me. 

Scillica looked like she was about to have an aneurysm, and I found it funny.  But I must of missed more than that, that first day. Obviously Triscia didn't want to be around Scillica, and I think she was afraid of the fierce woman. 

I could only shrug at that, and motion for her to join me in wrangling the two monsters that were on my broken, and now hurting, ankle. 

"Help me out here?" she laughed, and went to pick Winter up, who promptly turned around and started nuzzling her. I got the ferocious little fang with big boy issues.

Winter was a cuddler, and a lover; Fang seemed to think himself the largest, and most dangerous thing, therefore he should be treated like a big boy. Yes, I am referring to them that way, get over it. They are my babies.

I scratched his chin, and he melted before realizing what I was doing and trying to puff up. I laughed, and plopped him on my chest. The bastards had also stripped me of my armor, did I mention that? Mean fuckers. 

"Do you like my puff balls Triscia?" I asked after a moment of picking on fang more.

I heard her giggle, and suddenly felt another small weight crash onto my chest, and into Fang again. I rolled my eyes, and let the tiny shits have their fun.

"Oh yes Sir, they are so adorable. I use to work on a farm as well so I know how to han.." She cut herself off, and blushed fiercely, yep, adorable. 

It always happened when she realized she had lost herself in her description, it seemed she had not been allowed to talk before and now that she had the chance, she couldn't turn it off easily. 

I wanted to pick on her for it. "Oh? What kind of animals? Did you have to help birth them and such? Anything you can teach me?" 

She shook her head, and started to scooch away. Oh my god I wanted to just eat her up, but refrained from that train of thought, hating she was so young, for that way there be dragons and cuffs. 

I just grinned at her, and went back to playing with my puffballs. 

Gallica had told me already that we should be reaching one of the towns near Sparta later today, or early tomorrow. From there it should be another day's travel. Which would be within the time limit for the quest, barely. 

I was just happy I'd be able to walk tomorrow! God, I fucking hated not walking. Aside from the cubs, a few cute moments outa Triscia, I was a very cranky bastard. 

One upside, the big ass bird that had ended up finishing off the Hydra was actually following us. It had white plumage all along its elongated neck, with black and white primaries and tail feathers. It looked like it was the size of the giant eagle I'd read about before; but it was clearly a Vulture of some kind, as opposed to a bird of prey.

I believe the technical term for this bird was actually the Egyptian Vulture. Another name I remember from my college days, only because it made me laugh my ass off, was Pharaoh's Chicken. 

It was actually rather pretty, to me at least.

I checked its status once more. 

Carrion Feeder (adult) Level: 13 Tamable: Yes (30% success chanceA large carrion feeder that is most common in Egypt, likely brought to Greece through traders.

So basically, my class and skill set actually allowed me to see a bit of history on animals in the game, some background. It also appeared that the Hydra was an Elite, and I could not tame those. 

Though I could turn my pets into Elites; or so I hoped, based on the information I was given when choosing my reward during creation. 

The Vulture had a low as hell success rate, but when added with my luck stat, and my passives that aided in taming it was closer to 60%. I liked the odds, and really wanted that avian monster. 

True, it was not an elite, but it was rare for this area of the world, and was strong enough to actually finish off the snake. Beyond that, it had gone beyond it's instinct to scavenge and assaulted the snake. Not eating me helped with that as well.

It had also been following us for a time, and it made me wonder if I would get my chance before long to attempt and tame it. 

I checked my status after a moment, I was excited to see some things. I was a bit pissed that nothing actually leveled after killing the snake. But I had that huge penalty from my previous class, along with the leveled field created after leaving the starting area.

 Status Window  Name: Crispin Leonholdt Level: 11

 Class: Beast Master Gender: MaleTitlesThe Loner

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

Freedom Fighter

Animal Lover-Health:550 / 550Health Regen:32.50 / SecStamina:725/725Stamina Regen:50.50 / Sec-Strength:78Agility58Vitality:38Intelligence:30Leadership:5Luck:43 Endurance: 133-Attack Damage:190Defence215Skill ListAnalyze: 

Level: 9  Experience: 43% 

 Unarmed Proficiency

Level 8   Experience: 20% 

 Sword proficiency

Level 7   Experience: 50% 

Animal Husbandry

Level: 1

Animal Language (passive)

Level: 1

Perseverance (Passive)

Level: 1

Shield Mastery (Passive)

Level: 9

Shield Bash (Active Skill)

Level: 6

Thrown Weapon Proficiency 

Level 1 Traits Unnatural Vigor (passive)

I eyes my stats, ok...that was a bit sad. I had put all five of my stat points from the level up into vitality, and it gave me 25 health for those 5 points, along with a 25 base health increase through the level up. The same to Stamina. It seemed each stat also only went up by 3 points, minus the leadership stat; I had to actively earn those points. 

My proficiencies had barely crept up. I was somewhat regretting the Slave class because of this severe penalty after changing my class, and to make up for the increased gains early on. 

As one of the few bonuses, it seemed Unnatural Vigor was in fact a Trait for people. I liked that small tidbit, and wanted to force myself to learn more. It also implied I could teach my pets that one day, though the implications of how to do it scared me.

Once more I wished I could go back and train better. But I don't truly regret it, I have these puff balls after all; and the skills I have make up for the drastic decrease in stat gains through the passives. 

I just sighed as I regarded it a moment before making it go away.

My cubs had at least fallen asleep in a bundled ball of white and black fur. Just like babies, eat, play, sleep; rinse and repeat. But I truly did love them, didn't care that it was a game. This was more real to me thanks to finally walking than a lot of the real world. Minus Clint, and Tarah at least. My own animals would have been involved, but the last of them had past a few months ago. 

It had caused a lot of my depression at the time. These two puff balls currently asleep, and rolling into my lap since I am attempting to sit up, helped me greatly.

I regarded the confines of my 'prison' once more. It was a relatively small wagon, it held most of our basic supplies on the inside, with enough room to cram five house slave, and myself into a single confined area.

Cheap oak wood, roughly hewn, and crafted. It was a crying shame to me. It could have been marvelous in caring hands. No treatment was used, at all, and I know damn well they had treatment materials in the era. This was just straight sloppy. 

But it at least would get us where we were going. My critical eye for sloppy work aside; at least it wasn't falling apart. *thump*....ignoring the ground I now see beneath me, slightly to the left by my ass, yep...ignoring it. 

I scooched a bit over, and put a protective arm around the sleeping cubs while we hit bumps left and right.  I was seriously considering saying fuck this, and kidnapping Spartan 1 to give me a piggyback ride. This damn thing was a death trap!

This is what most of the rest of the trip consisted of, grumbling, teasing Triscia, and looking out at the big ass buzzard following us. 

The main event of course, is when we stopped for the night. The bastards unloaded me, and sat me by the central area where the fire would be made. 

Scillica was currently in charge of my munchkins who seemed to want to run around the campsite like little hoodlums; adorable, and I was secretly cheering them on because every time she tried to pick one up by bending over, and they eluded her I got a glimpse of shapely heaven.

Oh yes, this was the fun time of the night for me. I firmly avoided the less covering the Triscia had on her body while carrying the sticks needed for a fire however. I even more firmly ignored the flesh that kept slipping out, around her chest area,  of her ragged cloth dress.

I watched the former slaves make the camp, and begin cooking food. I felt useless, so i distracted myself by drawing random sketches into the dirt with a stick I found underneath me.

[/tr]

Skill Gained Sketching (minor) You have learned the skill, Sketching (minor) through drawing random stick figures in the dirt. These are low quality, and worth nothing. But if you practice, it could become more. (That's right, you suck! ^.^)

Ok, first of, I am killing that mother fucker who writes those parenthesis...and the goddamn face, really? I received odd looks when I gave the sky the middle finger. I shrugged, and re-read the message.

So, I could draw here, huh? Sketching minor implied there were levels to sketching as well. The message hinted it could grow into something more as well.

It didn't give me any bonuses, and seemed a passive ability with no combat worth; however I enjoyed it. Artistic mind and all that. It would be fun to fiddle with at a later date.

As such, I continued drawing doodles that I improved with different methods and strokes and leveled sketching up a whopping two levels!  Yeah, this was going to be fun.

At this point, Gallica had taken a seat beside me. My puff balls had run to me a few minutes earlier with a very flushed, and sexy looking, Scillica behind them eyeing them like naughty children. I just grinned at her, and she humphed at me.

I got a nice view of the back of her thighs as she turned and walked away at the time.

"So, how's the foot?" Gallica asked before prodding it with a stick.

I winced, and punched his arm, lightly. "It's still tender you jack ass." He grinned at me, before growing serious.

"You need to get better, Crispin. You were the main factor behind our escape, and release. I want you to get the credit." I eyed him a moment, confused, for obvious reasons. Foiling Roman expansion and control within Spartan borders, as well as freeing slaves that were not meant to be slaves would likely give a huge reward.

"I have my reasons, so get rid of the look. I don't want to be in the spot light. Give it time, I'll share that knowledge. But I want your aid in the future, should I require it. Can you promise that?" He seemed...desperate, and beseeching when he asked.

Aid Gallica Gallica has requested your aid in the future, should he need it.

Success

Accept his call for aid when given

Failure

You die before it is done, or you refuse when it is requested. 

Rewards:

Unknown

I contemplated that quest a moment, but nodded and hit accept. "Of course Gallica, even without you bribing me with what should be a huge reward, I would have helped. You're my friend."

Gallica laughed boisterously and slapped my shoulder, hard, I winced and ignored the message saying I was maxed out on reputation with the scary Elite. Not truly scary, but his stats were. 

I wondered what he would become in the game in time. It made me excited for the future.

After some more talking, he rose and left. We all ate the soup, Hydra was tasty by the way, and began preparing for sleep. 

I pulled my puff balls in against my chest, and curled around them for comfort. I could hear the cry of the Pharaoh's Chicken in the distance before it went silent, and the sound of the night took over; the crackling of the dying flames all that remained. Then sleep took me. It had been fun today.

----------------------------------------

Here you are my lovely readers. As always, much love and cookies. I know it's slow right now n the story, but I am trying to add in sub plots for later. I think it'll be fun to see how you all react to what I plan.

But I digress, enjoy! As always, please rate, follow, and comment. ^.^