Nick, sitting down blissfully with a foolish smile on his face as he was taking a quiet breather from gathering the stones, was startled by Arthur’s yell. Taking only a second to process the information from the yell, his pupils dilated and felt his heart jump up to his throat as he heard the loud rustling of the grass coming from behind him.
Quickly standing up, he turned to look in the direction of the sound and only saw a row of teeth that were around 10 cm in length and girth of a thumb.
He felt the threat to his life that was coming ever closer. Strangely, he felt that it was not as big a deal as Arthur’s tone of voice made it out to be. Hurriedly he dropped to the ground on his back and sprang his feet to kick the unidentified predator.
With a quick movement, Nick got back on his feet, and grabbed a nearby larger rock.
“F***ing beast, trying to pull a fast on me yah?” He growled. “Why don’t you show me those pretty teeth of yours again so I can greet you properly yah?”
The beast bared its teeth and stomped its hind legs forcefully on the ground. Stepping aggressively forward, the beast took only a quick glance at the sprinting Arthur, hesitated slightly, but still pressed on.
With a great vertical leap, it closed in the distance between its prey.
“Alright yah bastard, smile for me one more time.” Nick revealed an excited, but brutal grin as he followed the beast's trajectory.
Without fear or hesitation, he shoved the rugged piece of stone in the beast's throat, which after he flung himself on the back of the beast.
Time seemed to be frozen for Arthur. He slowed his steps as he saw the large beast struggling to get Nick off from its back, and the latter trying to strangulate and hit it. Feeling the great disconnect from Nick's previous quiet and obedient personality left Arthur rubbing his eyes for a moment. Arriving next to the man vs beast spectacle, Arthur could see the others gathering around in a hurry.
“Uhh…It would seem that Nick has this under control.” Arthur scratched his head as he watched the man beating the greenish, large size beast under him.
“Nick my man! You found a fine dinner for us!” Sinde cheered from the side.
Without interfering, the crowd continued to watch on with their hands crossed. At first it was Worry, the worry turned to excitement and finally, pity.
“Nick, just put it out of its misery. I start to feel bad for it…” Jonathan offered his opinion as they heard the increasingly pitiful whimpers coming from the beast.
Mei looked at the beast with sympathy and thought for a moment. “Nick, can you give me a moment with the…What do we call it?”
Arthur interjected from there and since it looked a bit similar to a massive coyote, he might as well name it. “I think we can call it Groyote, green for its color and it resembles a coyote.”
Mei raised her eyebrow and felt like puking a little for Arthurs naming sense and continued. “I think this…Groyote can be useful to us alive, trust me. Give me a chance with it.”
Flicking her obsidian hair with confidence, she walked towards the beast with confident steps with something hidden in her hands.
The groyote felt something approaching and painfully turned its head while getting beat by Nick. Releasing pitiful whimpers mixed with low growls, it was wary of the newcomer.
Mei stood beside the beast and patted its ruffled fur. “Nick, please stop. I think we can be good friends with it.”
Nick turned deaf ear to Mei’s pleas and continued with the pummeling with an excited facial expression. “NICK, STOP. NOW.” Mei yelled and saw the frequency of the hits getting slower and slower until Nick stopped with a foolish grin. “Yah! Mei, it’s dangerous so I better play with it more. Even if you’re right, it’s still our dinner tonight.”
Mei stood in front of the groyote, looking deeply into its eyes. She felt that it was begging for mercy.
She stretched her arm and opened her palm, revealing strange, purplish looking berries and held it out for the beast. “I think you are looking for these, be a good groyote, okay?”
The groyotes eyes gained light and a trace of gentleness as it looked at the berries. Stretching out its tongue, it stopped struggling and displayed an obedient image in front of Mei.
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
Nick, while still seated on the beast's back felt it was a bit of a disappointment as soon as the groyote calmed down. ‘Tsk. I can tell there goes our dinner…Next time I can’t play around, it seems.’
With the groyote calmed down and laying flat on the grasslands staring fixated on the berries, Arthur walked next to Mei and asked. “So, what's your next move? Do you really just plan to let it go back with the berries?”
Mei ignored Arthurs inquiries and continued to smile gently at the beast.
Nick had already climbed down from the beast's back, and was waiting for the opportunity for the beast to act up again, cracking his knuckles in anticipation. The groyote saw this and shuddered. As if making up its mind, it opened its mouth and the longest, most pristine tooth from the middle dislocated from its mouth and floated towards Mei.
Bit confused about the situation, Mei gently grabbed the tooth and shook.
“Mei? Are you alright? Did it hurt you?” Arthur asked with ever increasing hostility towards the greenish beast.
Nick already saw this as an opportunity and was about to pounce the beast once again but quickly stopped when Mei ran and blocked him by hugging the beast.
“Sorry for spacing out, but I just got a notification that this groyote has been contracted with me. I can sense its emotions, it's only nervous and I can promise it won't try to hurt us anymore.”
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The group had gathered around the pile of materials. With an eerie and awkward silence, only Mei was smiling brightly.
She leaned into the over two meters tall groyote while patting it and the group looked at the duo warily. Arthur cleared his throat and tried to ease up the mood. “Well, that’s done for now. That groyote is Mei’s pet now, you don’t have to look at it with such hostility. Especially you, Nick…”
“That's right, Banban won’t hurt you.” Mei covered the injury ridden snout of her newly named groyote protectively.
“Banban? And you have the cheek to show disdain for my naming sense…” Arthur and the group laughed, leaving only Mei pouting.
“Aight, continuing on. We still have to solve our food issue. We have enough materials for fishing rods so how about we make 3 rods and try our luck on the sea now?”
Everyone agreed with this. With Arthur making the fishing rods on the workbench, everything went smoothly.
It had to be said, the workbench crafting was convenient. With almost zero experience, he could make somewhat crude, but functional tools with minimal time.
While the others went fishing, Arthur continued his resource gathering while marveling at the scenery. Vast green flatlands that were connecting to the great mountain range seemed both majestic and terrifying. While he had no idea what lies beyond the horizon, Arthur felt an aspiration of overseeing these vast lands taking hold of his heart.
Quest - Upgrade settlement into a village Requirements - reach 100 population (6/100) X
- 40 small huts (1/40) X
- Workbench ✔
- Well X
Jolted out of his daydreaming by the sudden notification, Arthur could feel his corners of the mouth rising uncontrollably. ‘What kind of system would it be without quests.’
After checking the quest contents, he forgot his hunger and started chopping trees with a newfound energy. While chopping the trees, he started to make a crude plan for preparation for the village.
The small stream of water was not too far away, so he decided to start the core of the village around the summoning portal.
With it as the center, he could start the construction for the village towards the sea.
The small huts could be placed properly in a semi circular manner to form an organized main road with plenty of room to grow and expand.
In the future it could connect the summoning portal with the glimmering sea where Arthur already imagined a magnificent port that could provide both logistics and a source of food to the growing settlement.