Now that I had the taming skill, I had figured out how to intentionally imbue magic into food. I had tried this after learning about it from Forn, to no success, and wondered if I had misinterpreted what “channel your will” meant, but now it was easy. I wondered if novice tamers who hadn’t acquired the skill yet got infused food from their teachers in order to first tame a beast and acquire the skill. If that’s the case, though, someone had to have been the first tamer, which meant there was a way to do it without the skill.

Unless people were born with skills, either in the past or still now, and I just hadn’t seen it. Or unless there used to be a spoken spell for taming in history that was lost to time. Maybe an enchanted item which allowed the user to imbue treats, before taming was a skill on its own? I hated how little information I had about the world. I needed a magical Wikipedia.

In any case, since I had already gained the taming skill, I regularly imbued cooked morsels of meat for Treepo. He seemed to prefer the meat cooked, and so he would bring me the things he killed to dismantle and cook for him, rather than eating the dead beasts whole. I didn’t know if this world had internal parasites like tapeworm, so I was more than happy to cook his food instead of letting him eat it raw. The food should be more digestible when cooked, and I was also gaining some experience from imbuing food with MP, so it was a win-win arrangement. Mostly, I would just channel 1 MP into each treat. The food didn’t glow like it did when Forn showed me until I pushed 10 MP into it, but that was hard to do and seemed like a waste of MP.

At least, it seemed like a waste, until Treepo hit level 4 sometime after eating the heavily infused treat in the time he was grinding for experience, and upon leveling up now had 2/2 MP.

“Interesting,” I said out loud while looking at his stats and thinking about this development. I had no idea if this had happened because of the MP-infused treats or just because he had hit a sufficient milestone in his development, since I didn’t have a control in this experiment. Whether or not I was pouring my own magic into my familiar and causing his potential to grow, I still didn’t know if that would ever matter, without skills or magic. Was there an MP threshold necessary to start gaining skills? My stats menu had displayed a list of skills even before I had any, despite being an empty list, but Treepo’s did not.

I decided to keep spending the MP on infusing treats, at least once a day, just to see what would happen.

* * *

It had warmed up quite a bit as spring turned to summer and I was at the beach watching the sand shift and squirm. A small head poked up through the sand. The baby rocky shieldbacks were hatching from their eggs and working their way back into the sea.

“No, Treepo, leave it,” I said before he leapt off my shoulder to slam into the baby turtle beast. He chitter-grunted in my ear. He rubbed at his head where his thin horns were just starting to grow in.

After several had emerged fully from the sand and were crawling towards the sea, I realized something. These baby shieldbacks looked a lot like regular turtles. The legs were little flippers with small points, so I guess the hooves would form from those points as they grew. However, the babies didn’t have the telltale rock shell. I poked the back of one, and it was actually pretty soft. Its mouth moved in complaint to my poke.

“Actually, Treepo, go ahead on this one.”

After Treepo had killed the baby turtle, I dropped it in my inventory and appraised it.

Shieldback (deceased)

The corpse of a shieldback. Inedible.

Contents: Shieldback bones, shieldback meat, shieldback offal.

Shieldback, not rocky shieldback. Did another type of turtle nest on this beach? I had been here all spring and only ever saw the rocky shieldbacks. If these were the babies of rocky shieldbacks, and the metasystem called them different things, that suggests that beasts do evolve or change forms. There must be some kind of condition in the sea under which shieldbacks change, grow the hooves and rock shells, and therefore come back to land to nest.

The main difference, of course, was that these baby shieldbacks didn’t seem to have magic crystals inside them, and the rocky shieldbacks did. I glanced at Treepo. The treehoppers didn’t have magic crystals either. If I could get Treepo to evolve, would that change?

So much to learn.

* * *

Despite the danger, I finally went back to the jungle. I had waited for spring to fully pass before heading back out, hoping to avoid the breeding season and accidentally upsetting more beasts like I had Treepo’s former tribe, but I wasn’t going to earn 600 EXP by earning a mere point or two at a time in town. I needed to find bigger and better prey and kill them in larger numbers.

As I exited the tunnel, I received the zone notification again, and it finally dawned on me what it might mean. I quickly brought up my metasystem, and thought about my mental keyboard. Nervously, I tapped the M key.

A map appeared.

Skill acquired: Map

“Yesss,” I said under my breath. It had been a while since I had gained a new skill from my metasystem.

I had tried pressing the M key before–I had tried all the keys by now, trying to gain more abilities–but nothing had happened. Clearly, it took certain conditions, things I needed to achieve in order to unlock the abilities. Last time I tried the M key, I had never left town. I looked at my map, which was a very simple world map, showing Mirut and part of Mirut Jungle, with a substantial fog of war surrounding it.

Presumably, if I advanced my map skill, I would gain new insights. Maybe I would be able to drill down into a town map, or I would be able to see beyond the fog of war. Perhaps I would see resources or enemies on the map.

Maybe I would see dungeons.

I let my excitement run its course before remembering where I was. I dismissed everything until later when I could think about things from a safe space. I wasn’t as nervous as I probably should have been about being back in the jungle. I had developed a few new tools in my inventory and stratagems in case I found myself in danger again, which gave me a bit of false confidence.

The heat and humidity of the jungle had become oppressive deeper into the summer. Sweat poured off me. I didn’t want to waste MP on drawing water out of the atmosphere to stay hydrated, but I suspected it would be pretty easy to do, at least, with the amount of moisture in the air here.

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I took out a couple vicaws which dive-bombed me as we walked under the canopy. The birds startled Treepo quite a lot, so I guessed that it wasn’t unusual for them to prey on baby treehoppers. I had also sold the vicaw meat to Bosh for five coppers, since it was better than braygull meat, and he already knew that I was somehow hunting the jungle beasts.

We did eventually stumble on an area that was home to wild treehoppers. I heard the distinct chittering and grunting I was now familiar with. I heard some rustling in the branches above and braced myself, but Treepo let out a little baby scream and then a fast series of chitters and grunts. The canopy chittered and grunted back and forth with Treepo for a bit before it settled down, quiet.

“Thanks bud,” I said, rubbing the bridge of Treepo’s nose like he liked. I was glad he could talk down the treehoppers, as I didn’t particularly want to kill them anymore. Also, they could be very sharp for such soft, fluffy creatures.

If I wasn’t going to be killing treehoppers, I would need to find another beast in this jungle to kill. That was why we were here. Treepo sometimes bounced off my shoulders to scamper through some branches, and sometimes brought me back some interesting fruits or nuts. I got him to lead me to where they were growing and collected some more in case they were tasty or useful in the future.

We were picking a kind of berry when I heard a large branch snap on the ground behind me. I turned and barely had time to let out an “oh, shi–” before hurling myself off to the side.

A large hog-like beast charged past, obliterating the bush I had just been picking berries from. I guessed they were its berries, and I was on its turf. The beast continued into the jungle, but I could hear it circling back. I did not think I could outrun it. Treepo chittered madly and leapt from my shoulder to climb the nearest tree. “Yeah, stay there,” I called, my head tracking the noise of the beast blasting through the brush.

I moved closer to a tree, hoping I could use it as a shield when the thing came back. Maybe if I could stun it…

I got a better look at the beast as it exploded out of the jungle underbrush and charged directly at me.

I had initially thought it a hog from the screeching grunt sound it made when it flew by me, and it certainly did seem to share some traits with a warthog, but only if that warthog had been crossbred with a large horned sheep. Instead of tusks, this hog-like monster had massive, spiral ramshorns growing out of its head, protecting the sides of its face. I knew then that it would have a ridiculously hard head to support those horns. Its face was squished instead of long, so that the snout barely extended beyond the protection of the horn spirals. With its head down, this thing was a living battering ram.

I moved to put the tree between the beast and myself and backed away to make room, then leapt again as the beast blew the trunk of the tree into pieces, splinters flying. A large chunk of wood slammed into my side, and I felt a crack. The beast flicked its head and the rest of the tree fell off to the side, thankfully in the opposite direction I had dodged. I hoped Treepo was alright.

I summoned and blasted my stone bolts at the creature’s side while it was still within range. A few stuck into the thick hide as it blew past, but they were largely ineffectual. I would have to switch to nails and bullets, which would take more MP to throw.

The beast circled around again. The trees barely slowed it down, and running wasn’t an option, especially after taking that glancing blow from the wood. I would have to use my defensive plan. I moved into the thicker understory and prepared myself as I tracked the hog through the foliage. When it was almost upon me, I summoned a rocky shieldback shell I kept in my inventory in front of me. I had discovered I had some measure of control over these with my earth magic. I held it in place with my magic and rolled away, biting down hard as my ribs screamed from the movement.

I used a ton of MP pushing forward on the shell as the beast smashed into it, and a shockwave burst off blowing back the leaves around it. I was amazed at the resilience of the rocky shell. I let it drop, and saw the hog shaking its head, trying to disperse the temporary stun. Now that it wasn’t moving, I summoned the bullets, and fired them at the side of the beast. The stones exploded, mostly not penetrating the hog’s thick hide. I backed away, making room between us.

It turned in my direction after the stone buckshot failed to drop it and glared me down. I summoned some stone nails and fired them at its face, between the two massive spiral horns. Most clattered away, useless, but one stuck into the beast’s forehead, stopped by the thick skull underneath. The hog snorted and readied another charge.

My MP was bottoming out and I needed that shell, so I reached into my inventory and pulled out one of my stolen MP potions, downing it quickly before the hog got moving. Using the refreshed MP, I pulled the shell back to me. It flew through the air towards me and spun to face the hog, which was already almost upon me. I pushed forward with my magic, hoping the shell would stun it again.

Another smashing shockwave, this time loud in my ears as the shell focused the sound into me. I grabbed the shell with my hand and stored it back in my inventory. The hog was stunned, standing directly before me.

The one stone nail was still embedded in its forehead.

I raised my hands, summoned the stone hammer I had constructed, and with all my strength and powered up with my remaining MP, slammed the hammer down onto the nail, driving it into the creature’s brain.

* * *

“Owwwwww,” I moaned, laying in the dirt. I had finally caught my breath, each inhale reigniting the small fire in my side. I summoned some cooked meat out of my inventory and started chewing. Even chewing hurt.

I hadn’t actually taken that many hit points worth of damage, but a broken rib would affect my movement. I would need a magic heal, but didn’t want to use my last MP potion, so I would have to swallow as much MP restorative food as possible before I cast an appropriate heal.

My stone hammer had broken, the fragile handle shattered. It would have worked better if I could fit a stone hammer head onto a proper wooden handle, but even as it was, this tool saved my life today. The backside of the hammer had a 4-point magic circle carved into it so I could hold it with both hands and still cast earth magic to control it. I still probably would have gained a two-handed skill using it, if I had the SP. I dropped the remaining intact hammer head back into my inventory, leaving the shards of the handle behind. I glanced at the body of the dead beast. I would need some extra space in my inventory, anyway.

Now that it wasn’t running me down, it didn’t seem that scary. The pigs and sheep I was used to picturing, having come from a world with domestic animals, made this thing seem more like something that would be raised for food than a serious jungle threat. After swallowing enough meat, my stomach over-full, I healed myself, grimacing as I felt the bones stitch back together as my HP topped up. I sat up and looked around.

Treepo landed on my shoulder, chittering wildly. I reached up and pet him. “All good,” I said with false bravado. He chittered for a few more seconds, then grunted three times and fell silent. He pushed his snout into the side of my head and held it there. “All good,” I said again, to myself this time, only partially believing it.

I stood, twisting tentatively, the amazement of healing magic taking second seat only to the practical usefulness of it. I would be absolutely screwed if I hadn’t learned 6-point magic, but the Church was hoarding it for themselves and forbidding the masses from using it. Not that there were that many literate magic-users among the regular people of the town, but there could be with the right education, and it would be incredibly useful for everyone. It just wouldn’t be as profitable. Then again, that was why people lived inside walled towns, safe from beast attacks. Was every town walled, though? I shook my head.

I looked down at the beast, sighing. This was going to be exhausting. I touched it and stored it away, feeling an immense mental weight. I tentatively took a step to see if I could even move. I could, but just barely. I sighed, summoning and dropping the rocky shieldback shell. I had plenty more, and I didn’t think I could carry this all back with me. I would have to sacrifice this one to bring back the beast corpse.

Studying the shell closer, I could see that it now had a fracture running through it. It probably wouldn’t have survived a third ramming, anyway. I might have gotten lucky that it even survived a second one. “Too close,” I muttered, wondering why I was risking these jungle outings in the same way I had after the treehopper debacle.

I appraised the beast.

Ramhog (deceased)

The corpse of a ramhog. Inedible.

Contents: Ramhog bones, ramhog hide, ramhog hooves, ramhog horns, ramhog meat, ramhog offal.

No magic crystal, which was probably good. If it casted magic at me in battle I would have been totally screwed. I dismantled the carcass, and the load of my inventory got the tiniest bit lighter as some of the waste items that didn’t display as contents magically disappeared. I further broke down the offal, which contained a heart and liver like the rocky shieldback had, as well as an item called “sausage casing” which, after a moment, I realized was the intestine.

I considered the enormous amount of meat I was carrying now from the ramhog, and sighed. No way I could tell Bosh I hunted this myself.