It doesn’t really take that long to catch up. It’s not like she’s making a break for freedom or anything, she’s just moving at slightly above a… jaunt, yeah that’s about right. Which is relatively quick given her stats… So, a minute or two of unspectated movement got her quite the ways away, but certainly not half way across the world.

Though by the time I’ve managed to catch up most of the way, she’s already breached the town once again. Somehow, she managed to avoid any detection…? Not quite sure how she did that, not like they have any stealth skills. I mean, what, she wouldn’t just so happen to have a part of her skill tree that I just can’t see at all would she? Right? Ahem… I mean… they’re probably experienced with this whole sneaking around thing. But, however they got in it doesn’t really matter. I can still sort of get an idea of where they are, and while I’m in town I can stop by and sell a few of the drops I got from putting trash mobs to the grindstone.

The real issue here is whether this is going to be a consistent occurrence or not… because if it is then we’re really not getting anything done. Level seven is nice and all, but somehow I don’t think neutering my experience gain permanently is worth that. Even if they’re higher quality when compared to other monsters their level. Which, mind you, I’m not even sure if they are. There’s no reason to waste too much time on them when I could find other similar things.

No need to think of the worst case scenario yet though. I’m not planning on doing any heavy grinding for at least a day or two, so… there’s time to work out any kinks in my foundations here! I’ll give Jasper some time to do whatever she’s programmed to do, and then check on her later. For now I’ve got some stuff to do in town.

First off, there’s a few quests that I picked up before heading out. Some of them completed automatically upon filling their requirements, like kill twenty nature sprites, but some of them didn’t. Like a gathering quest I had on me. Obviously it didn’t complete, it wasn’t like I gave the stuff to the requestor yet. I’d been picking up a few herbs for that quest, which had a subtle yellow glow highlighting them. I’m fairly sure that’s just a UI feature and not a natural occurrence though. Anyways, it was a minor detour that didn’t really bear mentioning, but the rewards for the quest involved a very solid (or at least what I think is solid) full silver.

Pushing the door open to the apothecary that I’d picked the quest up from to begin with, I wave gently in the direction of the old man who ran the place. The place has a homey feel to it, and it’s an active struggle for me to not smile at least a little… but… I do my best…!

“Hello sir, I’m back with what you asked me for.” I keep my tone as flat as possible, suppressing a grin as best I could.

“Ah, is that you young lad? I wasn’t expecting you back tonight! I thought you’d wait until tomorrow with a Bushling likely to be born soon!”

I shrugged impassively and made my way to the desk. He had warned me about some sort of… boss mob, I think? But I figured I’d be able to avoid it even if it did spawn. That was if I didn’t just kill it, seemed like a plausible, good enough challenge, but alas, it didn’t show up, woe is me.

After coming to a stop, I reached into my pockets (Amusingly enough, that counted for the inventory system. I didn’t need to do this, it was just funnier this way.) and pulled out a few visually leaf-adjacent plants, known as Alvei Herbs.

“So, what did you need these for?” I ask out of courtesy. I assume it’s for health potions, given that the rewards for this quest also happened to involve a “Low grade health potion”, but it’s polite to ask, no?

Smiling brightly, the old man gently stroked at his goatee. “Ah, interested, are we? I’m happy to share with anybody curious. At least as long as they don’t try to drive me out of business, hoho!”

I nod politely, waiting quietly for the man to continue. I can certainly spare the time. Well, probably. It’s not like Jasper is gonna kill anybody, yeah?

“As you wish! I don’t really have the time to properly teach you anything, business as usual I’m sure you understand, but I can certainly explain what it’s used for!”

He seems a little… overexcited for this, to be honest. I mean I appreciate the enthusiasm, but… actually, a thought occurs, if I was talking to Matthew at the Tamer’s Guild, and he was the gateway into my current class, would this be the gateway into an alchemist class or something similar? It makes sense from a development standpoint that this guy would be so enthusiastic about teaching then. So, on that note…

“Ah, I apologize, but I don’t have too much time.” I try my best to smile apologetically, which is, ironically, far less off-putting than what a natural smile would look like in my case. “I’d love to hear all about it, but I do have other things to do. A surface level explanation is fine, thank you.”

It technically wasn’t even a lie, I had to go find my loose monster after all.

…Actually, now that I’m thinking about it, she really wouldn’t kill anybody, right…? I mean there’s been no penalty for it meta-game wise so far, so it doesn’t negatively affect me in a direct way, but I can’t imagine the officials in town or whatever would be too happy about that. It honestly wouldn’t even be a problem if I could claim non-association and just recall Jasper without anybody knowing they’re my monster, unless there was some way to check that… but disregarding that little thought, that idea wouldn’t even work because Jasper wouldn’t listen.

So about them not killing anybody… they totally would actually. Why would they not? If they’re provoked, they’ll obviously fight back, that’s a fact. And I can’t imagine everybody new to the game has knowledge of monster tamers. They might see tamed monsters in general, but anybody who happens to spot a lone feline just wandering around without any visible owner… Suddenly I feel I might not have as much time as I thought I did…

…

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

Really, hate to rush somebody so passionate about their work, even if they’re not an actual person, but I just don’t have the time to spare on hearing a half hour long lecture about the foundation of potion brewing when my practically feral monster is roaming the town… Well, either way I got my quest rewards, so I’ll be just fine.

While my sense of where Jasper was didn’t exactly point me STRAIGHT to them, it did give me a pretty good idea of where they were. And with the part of town that they’ve led me to, I get the feeling that I’ve already got a pretty good idea of where they are. But just to make sure…

Popping open my menu, I flick around the options for a bit, and finally settle on the map. I haven’t actually opened this up yet, but seeing a solid chunk of the forest surrounding Resin Peak filled in is also pretty nifty. I’ll have to max that out and see if I don’t get any kind of… NO! Back, yee olde completionist syndrome! I mean, I’ll still do it, just… doesn’t take priority right now.

Anyways, this seems to be a touchscreen operated map. So, after snapping it into place, that being a zoomed in view of my location, my suspicions are confirmed within short order. The cemetery is within close proximity to me, and, oh hey, I can actually see another green dot other than myself on the map. I… assume that’s Jasper!

She’s not moving any more, she hasn’t been for a few minutes now, but I still don’t feel particularly good about leaving her to her own devices without ANY supervision at all? Even if those devices are mildly offensive at worst.

The streets are somewhat familiar at this point, easy enough to traverse and no obstacle really slows me down. The edges of the town are a little bit more unkempt, less clean, more cluttered, the whole two and two thirds yards. But with almost all my points dumped into agility, my body glides over minor obstacles with minimal difficulty. Even if my movement is still far below what I’m used to, the minimal physical ability I have right now is enough to maneuver around easily enough, and it’s good practice for getting adjusted to the differential.

In and out, side to side, and before long, the site is within sight. I get the feeling that I already know what’s going to be awaiting me, but even knowing that, seeing it is a little bit saddening.

Lying on the same grave that they had visited mere hours ago, there Jasper was, chest slowly rising and falling. I get they’re just an npc, but gosh darnit fiction was always meant to tug at a human’s strings wasn’t it? I’m not gonna break out into tears over it or anything, I barely have any investment in the story after all… but I still feel bad for them. Like, man, Bambi’s mom died, you know? Old example, really old, but still.

Sighing haphazardly, I strode over to Jasper’s side, before squatting down next to her as she slowly blinked open an eye, gazing at me with an unintelligible expression.

“Scuse me.”

“Hmm.”

“Are you doing alright?”

“...Mmm.”

She may not exactly have a wide vocabulary, but what she does have is a wide range of inflection. It’s an interesting enough quirk. And certainly an interesting tidbit of information to know that the npcs of this world have an ingrained variety.

“I get the feeling I already know what happened here.” I start off gently enough, because apparently dealing with emotionally damaged big cats is something you’re doing at level two in this game. “So, I’m not gonna try and force you to come with me or anything. If you wanna stay with your owner, or whoever this was, alright. I’ll have to find a different monster to work with if you won’t listen to anything I ask of you, but that’s fine, I guess.”

“Mmm.”

“No, I’m not angry about it. Like I said, if you want to stay here at their grave or at least nearby it in the future, alright, that’s fine. I’ll give you a day or two to decide on what you want to do, but after that, I’m going to move on from this town. Whether you come with me or not is your choice.”

Standing up, I look away from their almost inquisitive gaze and glance back to the cemetery's gate. At this point, I’ve done just about all I can. Compromised with her demands on pretty much every turn. If this cat still won’t work with me after all that, it’s not worth the time investment that would come with trying to properly entice them into working with me. I’d rather just go out and get different monsters.

For now though, I can suffer a few days of experience loss. Because despite everything, I do see some potential in this monster. It might be worth the extra time sink to hold onto her, because well… I already emphasized this, but for level seven, her starts are frankly absurd. I dunno if that’s just a monster trait in general, that a monster’s abilities are just better when compared to a player level wise? But the other monsters offered for me to take were weaker than I was in general, so I don’t know how well that holds.

On top of that, they’re also, you know, the only monster that fulfilled my criteria? Good enough stats to keep up with me in combat, ergo, good enough to negate the halved experience gain? Double the speed, nix the problem. So, even if they take SOME time to set straight, it’ll still probably be faster than raising a monster from scratch as long as it doesn’t take days on end.

Eh, no use thinking about it too much though. If they decide to work with me, hurray, strong summon to use! If they don’t? Oh well, they can stay here where they already have a comfortable life, I guess. Well, I don’t know if I’d call it comfortable sneaking out of your home at every turn like you’re playing some archaic stealth game as old as Bambi…

But hey, what do I know? Seems like a great life.