“I feel stronger.”

Zed nodded. “I’m sure you do.”

He was trying to think. He’d always been of the opinion that he would do anything to help Shanine learn magic. He just hadn’t expected her magic to be in this category.

He tried to remember what he’d heard about blood mages.

They can’t use any other type of magic.

Which meant, if she spent enough time with the Olympians, someone was bound to discover that she was a blood mage.

Unless…

If he could sell her as an attribute mage whose attribute was…Strength?

“You said you feel stronger?” he asked.

Shanine nodded. “Like I could pick you up right now.”

Zed had a strong feeling she couldn’t pick him up right now. But he didn’t touch on that subject. Thank God for attribute mages.

He could sell her ability as having heightened physical attributes.

“For the love of God, I’m killing the damned dog,” Chris complained, striding towards the thing.

“No,” Ash protested.

“Don’t tell anybody,” Zed told Shanine then turned to the others when she nodded.

When they started paying attention to him was still beyond him.

“Let’s be a bit gentle before we start killing things off,” he said, walking towards them.

Oliver gave him a look as he passed him.

“You good?” Oliver asked.

Zed nodded. “Although, I really think we need that couple’s counselling. I went down and you didn’t even check on me.”

Oliver looked chastised. “I just thought that—”

Zed smiled. “I’m just joking, Ollie. I’ve got the ability to regenerate. Of course paying attention to the Rukh rank snog was the right choice.”

Oliver blanked. “What’s a snog.”

“The thing your girlfriend is itching to kill is a snog,” Zed answered.

Oliver didn’t meet his eyes. “She’s not my girlfriend.”

“So you guys haven’t decided on it. I see.” He stroked his chin sagely. “Just as we did with Imam, we’ll talk about this one, too. You know how much I like a little gossip. But not now, obviously.”

With that, Zed clapped his hands, getting everybody’s attention.

“First thing we need to know,” he said when he had it. “Is that, that thing’s called a snog.”

“And how do you know?” Chris asked.

“I’ve got a seventh sense,” he answered, patting the side of his stomach. “The second thing we need to know is that for some reason it really hates Shanine.”

“And how do you know that?”

“Because each time you get a little closer to it, it backs away. And while it’s been snarling and growling, it’s only been looking at Shanine. It either really hates her or is terrified of her. Which, on both counts, shows poor people skills.”

Shanine stepped back as if trying to prove Zed’s point. Each step she took, led to a decrease in the creature’s aggressiveness.

Zed turned to her. “Thank you very much.”

“I can go back to the others if you’d like,” she offered.

Zed already knew the answer to that request. “No.”

Shanine was standing by the entrance now, and the snog was practically quiet. Now its silent attention was on everyone else.

“Now, I say we put it to a vote,” Zed said. “Do we see if there’s a chance of taming it or let Chris kill it?”

“Why me?” Chris protested. “You’re the one that gets actual benefits from killing things yourself.”

Zed opened his mouth, then closed it. She was right. And the snog was a Rukh rank, which meant he would get good Exp for killing it. Did he want to kill it?

He looked at the things tail, risen high and ready behind it. It was clearly a snake, with scaled skin and red eyes.

Zed wondered if the creature had just been living here or if someone put it here. Was there a tamer in the town?

“I say we leave it behind,” Ash offered.

“Definitely can’t take it with us,” Chris agreed. “Can’t trust a snake not to bite me.”

“I think it’s cute,” Shanine said from the door. “We should take it.”

“I say kill it,” Oliver said.

Everyone looked at him.

“Why?” Chris asked, surprised.

“Yea, Ollie,” Zed said. “Why? I was expecting you to say we should keep it.”

“It’s a Rukh rank monster,” Oliver answered. “And we know killing monsters gives you actual benefits.”

“That’s true,” Ash said. “We might be able to get a ranked weapon if we’re lucky.”

Zed stared at them.

Where they actually contemplating killing a monster that had done them no harm for the possibility of getting a ranked weapon?

It felt like taking a stroll in the forest and finding a lion minding its business and just deciding to kill it.

On the one hand it would help him grow, bring Rukh rank closer to him. On the other hand, it just felt like careless killing.

“So that’s two in favor of leaving it, one in favor of taking it and one in favor of killing it,” he said.

“I voted for killing it,” Ash pointed out.

“That’s two in favor of killing it and two in favor of leaving it,” he corrected.

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

“I voted for taking it with us,” Shanine said.

“You did,” he agreed. “But we’re definitely not taking it with us. Mean girl’s got a point. We can’t trust a snake not to bite us. And trust me, that thing’s venom has got some nasty effects. I don’t want to have to kill someone just because it bit them.”

“So what happens now?” Oliver asked.

Zed looked at the snog. It stood calmly in the midst of all the guns. It didn’t seem very bothered by what was going on. Once in a while it’s attention darted towards Shanine, but that was all that there was to it.

“I vote we leave it,” Zed said, finally. “I don’t see it harming anyone.”

“You sure?” Oliver asked. “Because I feel like we’re not taking everything into account.”

Zed gave it a moment to think about it. What Oliver was talking about dawned on him a moment later.

“The people.”

Oliver nodded. The look on Ash’s face said she hadn’t even thought about it. And Chris looked like she couldn’t even be bothered to care.

There were still people in the town, small as it was. And they’d effectively wiped out their main source of command.

“Did anyone sense anybody stronger than an awakened rank?” he asked them, hoping for a positive answer.

Ash shook her head. “Just awakened everywhere.”

Chris shook her head along with Oliver.

That made this tricky. If the only real threat to the creature in the city was Babajide, and he was currently dead, give or take, that meant leaving the creature here practically placed it at the top of the food chain.

How had they even been keeping it in check?

“We can’t leave it here,” he concluded. “Too dangerous for everyone involved.”

Chris shrugged, then put her rifle down. “I guess we kill it, then.”

It was odd to see someone make the decision of killing yet put down their weapon. But that was what a mage was. The gun was the deterrent, the warning shot. A mage was the real weapon.

Chris raised her hand and aimed at it.

Zed still wasn’t sure he was in favor of killing it.

“How about we take it with us?” he suggested quickly. “Just hear me out. We take it out of town, and if we can’t get it under control, we can either let it out into the wild or kill it.”

“No.” Chris’ voice was firm. “I’ll only agree to this if killing it is the choice if we can’t get it under control.”

Ash looked at her. “Why?”

“Because we just put a decision to a vote and tossed the vote out the window. If we don’t come to agreeable terms right now, we’ll just find ourselves having another vote when the time comes. A vote we might as well throw out the window again.”

Zed sighed. That was the Chris he knew, disagreeable. But he couldn’t blame her entirely. There was a good reason they’d thrown out the entire vote, but he could understand her not trusting that another vote wouldn’t be thrown out again.

“Alright,” Oliver said. “If we can’t get it under control, we’ll kill it.”

Everyone looked at Zed.

“Agreed?” Chris asked.

Zed shrugged. “Sure. Far be it from me to get between you and your need to shoot a dog.”

“I don’t have a need to shoot a dog!”

In the end, the decision was made. No snog was to be killed. As for how they were going to get it out of the house and out of the town, that was a different question. It looked calm enough to be picked up, but no one was willing to take any chances with its tail.

After all, it had bitten Zed so fast he hadn’t even caught it. After a short amount of deliberation, Zed opted to carry it.

“You sure?” Ash asked. “What if it bites you again?”

“I’ll be fine. I’ve gotten up before. I’ll get up again. Two more times and I’ll beat the cross’ record.”

Oliver was against the idea, however. He worried at the fact that Zed’s body wasn’t clearing out all the venom even though Zed assured him that it was.

“But what if it has a stacking effect?” he asked.

“Then we’ll know by bite three, don’t you think?” Zed answered. “Besides, I think it helps with my immunity.”

That last part was a lie. Or at least it wasn’t the truth. Zed had no idea if withstanding things like poisons and venoms actually helped his attributes grow.

But he was sure his body was cleansing all the negative effects, though. Unless my quest notification isn’t the only thing with a problem, and my attributes have started acting out, too.

Just to be sure, he pulled up his quest notification and looked at it. Yup, still stuck on one second.

Finally, Oliver succumbed to his argument and Zed approached the mana beast carefully.

When he picked it up, it just stared at him in confusion, as if wondering what exactly he was trying to do.

He stared at it’s big blue eyes and found it adorable, then the snake head of its tail bobbed to the side to look at him, too.

Yeah, not as adorable.

When they left the building, Shanine led the way, paces ahead of them for peace to reign. The stroll back to the main house wasn’t a very quick one. Zed walked slowly, holding the creature under its front limbs and a bit away from his body.

He could regenerate and counteract the venom, but that didn’t mean he wanted to be bitten.

When they got back to the house they found the others waiting patiently at the entrance. Shanine stood off to the side while they stood opposite each other. Each group had a question on their faces. To be more accurate, the Olympians and Eitri had a question while Zed had his.

“In the spirit of gentlemanliness,” Zed said haughtily, “I’ll allow you peasants go first.”

“I don’t think that’s how being gentlemanly works, Zed,” Oliver whispered.

The Olympians looked between themselves and Kid shrugged. He opened his mouth to ask but someone beat him to it.

“What the fuck is that?” Eitri asked.

Zed raised the snog higher. “It’s called a snog.”

Daniel frowned. “Never heard of it.”

“I can’t really say I’m surprised,” Ronda said. “This place has just been throwing new creatures at us. Chemo blob, Spittle spork. Now we’ve got a dog with a snake tail.” She paused then gave Zed a flat look. “A dog and a snake. Snog. You named it, didn’t you?”

Zed shook his head. “I swear that’s it’s name.”

Everyone gave him a flat look.

“I swear, I didn’t,” he protested. “Besides, what happened with the Devil Lance?”

Kid held up his hand to reveal a black bracelet.

“It transforms?” Zed asked, a little impressed. “That’s trippy. But do you think it’s safe to be wearing it?”

“Of course it’s not,” Ronda answered. “Only an idiot would be— he’s wearing it, isn’t he?”

Zed nodded.

Ronda turned and punched Kid in the stomach. He doubled over immediately.

“I remember explicitly telling you not to put it on,” she scolded him while he caught his breath.

Kid whizzed on the ground. “It might fall out of my pocket.”

“So you put it on?” Ronda asked, incredulous. “What if you’d activated it by mistake?”

“Again,” Eitri said. “Why are we carrying that thing?”

Still holding up the snog, Zed shrugged. “We took a vote and decided to keep it.”

“What is this, a slice of life novel?” Eitri shook his head. “No, don’t answer that. I swear nobody is dumb enough to write this kind of thing into a novel. Shoot the mana beast or something. We don’t have a tamer to tame it.”

“Seems pretty tame to me,” Ronda said. “And cute too. Who’s a good—what the hell!”

The snog’s snake tail shot out at her with a feral hiss.

“What the hell is that!?” she exclaimed.

Daniel’s gun was already raised and trained on the creature.

“Whoa!” Zed exclaimed. “I’m right here. Innocent back-stander, standing at the back.”

Daniel didn’t lower his weapon, but he removed his finger from the trigger guard.

“I appreciate that,” Zed said, meaning it. “Anyway, I’m guessing Babajide’s kind of out of the equation.”

Daniel nodded. “We didn’t have the tools required to save him.”

“If only I’d brought my axe, I guess.” Zed lowered the snog but didn’t put it down. “Did we get everything we needed?”

Daniel nodded. “We’ve got the map and batteries. But in the event that we do run into another Devil weapon. Cutting off the person’s limb isn’t the only thing that can help. Our armors aren’t the only reason the VHF employs rune mages.”

“He’s about to tell us something else about rune mages,” Chris groaned. “It’s just going to make Bloodbath feel more important.”

“I don’t know about him,” Eitri said. “But I’m curious as to what other reason there is?”

“Well, there’s a trick rune mages have,” Kid said, he was standing up straight again and the bracelet was still around his wrist. “It’s something they call the broken rune. Only really talented rune mages can manage it without causing any real damage to themselves.”

Zed looked from one Olympian to the other. “Can someone stop with the dramatic suspense and tell us what it is? My arms are killing me.”

“It’s something called the broken rune,” Ronda said. “I believe he just said that.”

Chris frowned. “No one uses broken runes.”

“It’s not that no one uses it,” Daniel refuted. “It’s that not just anyone can use it. And when used wrongly, it can have bad effects on the mage.”

Zed thought about it for a moment. “So, what? There are types of runes that are broken or something?”

Festus had never mentioned anything like that. He wondered just how broken runes were supposed to work. And by broken, did they mean in strength or were the runes just dysfunctional?

“A broken rune isn’t that complicated,” Eitri muttered, slightly annoyed. “All the rune mage needs to do is break a rune while activating it.”

Zed paused. He thought about how annoying it was to learn runes, then how annoying it was to cast them. Judging by the way Eitri addressed the subject, he could only assume it was harder to break a rune.

It seemed he’d seen his next point of interest. All he had to learn now was what exactly breaking a rune did.

“So, hypothetically speaking, what does—fucking hell, it bit me!”

Zed dropped to one knee almost immediately, but didn’t let go of the snog.

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

· [Snog] has inflicted you with [Raby-venom]

· [Raby-venom] has applied effect [Paralysis], [Madness] and [Nausea].

· Your [Will] is too high.

· [Madness] does not take effect.

· [Equilibrium] is in effect.

· [Nausea] does not take effect.

· [Regenerate] is in effect.

· [Paralysis] does not take effect.

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