Book 4, Chapter 7

The Dart

Note: "Dart" should be the name of the new pet. But this is not mentioned in this chapter.

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            "AHHH!"

            Elfy and I were knocked

flying by a strong force. Night Shade hopped to me in time and caught me on his

back, while Hawk saved Elfy with a skillful volleyball save.

　　    "What

was that?" I look around. "Saw anything?"

　　    "Not

me." Hawk is searching around the area too, nervously. "There was

just something blurry in front my eyes, and you two were in the air before I

know it."

　　    "I

think it was some kind of small animal." Elfy steadied herself and took

out a strange-shaped arrow from her quiver. "I touched it. At least it was

something with fur."

　　    Nope.

The woods around us is totally silent.

            "Rosy, look out the area for us."

            The dirt around us began to s.h.i.+ft, then tentacles with crystal eyes crawled

onto each of the trees within the perimeter. They began to look around like

cameras.

　　    "Noticed

something?" Hawk asked.

　　    A

bigger tentacle raised in front of us, an image appeared in the crystal ball. We

saw a shadow flying among the trees. It's too fast for us to make it out. The

moving image is apparently made up from continuous pictures shot by different

tentacles. Now that's surprising, I got myself a living camera.

　　    Elfy let out a warning. "Watch it! It's coming!"

            From

the "Camera", I saw the black shadow approaching from our backs.

　　    I

drew my swords. "Let's back up each other and leave no blind spots. Lucky,

take down all the trees around. Oh and, throw them away so they don't get in

our way. Phantom, come out and look for the target. See if you can control it. Phiona,

watch us from above. Loong'er cast your gravity field around us. Knights, spread

out!"

　　    Lucky

is the fastest one to move as always--the trees are already falling down in bundles like wheat. Rosy

helped cut off all the roots so Lucky only needs to carry the trunks and throw

them off the mountain, creating an open area for us.

　　    "Over

there!" One of the knights caught sight of the shadow and threw his spear

at the same time, without hitting it. Not surprising, as the spear is almost as thick

as the monster itself.

　　    "There!"

That was Elfy.

           A series of spears went over. Still nothing.

　　    "Above!" I saw it this time. I wanted to check on Phiona, but a black stuff

blocked my sight when I raised my head. 

　　    Phiona

created a strong gust using her wings and disrupted the shadow's movement. Something

showed up from the shadow. It's a...white, furry...ball?

　　    "[Shadow

Barrage]!"

           Elfy released her arrow which she has been holding for some time.

I only hear one shot, but a wave of dense arrows went past me. This is a

powerful Archer skill used to restrict the movement of any fast target. Only

half of the arrows are real, though whoever got caught inside the wave probably

doesn't have the time to judge it.

           However, the speed and size of the figure

still allowed it to slip past the attack.

　　    I'm

helpless now. I never knew how to deal with fast targets. I've fight with

monsters with high HP or high attack but I'm yet to figure out how to catch

something I can't even see.

            The shadow made a turn and went at Elfy. Looks

like it wants some revenge.

            Rosy's vine blocked its way just before it

reaches Elfy. This forced the shadow to change it's course--it used the

tentacle as a platform and jumped towards elsewhere.

　　    The

Phantom Knight leader pointed at somewhere. "[Iron Cage] ready up! Seven, two-three,

launch!"

            Schhhh! 10 spears shot themselves out in unite. From the looks of

it, their landing point is the estimated location where the black shadow is

about to reach. The shadow realized it too. But apparently it can't fly--it can

only adjust it's postures but not change

its direction in mid-air.

　　    They

reached the ground at almost the exact same moment--the spears cl.u.s.tered

into a round cage-like structure, trapping the shadow inside. Phiona dropped from

the sky and landed on top of the cage, which is the only open exit.

　　    "Aha!

No where to run now." I walked to the "cage" and peeked inside.

　　    It's

a white little animal that looks like a squirrel. But no squirrel has such long and

silky fur. It looks more like a s...o...b..ll, actually. It's tail is even bigger

than it's own body. That should be why it was so agile. There are two miniature

b.a.l.l.s on it head, probably ears. Those eyes...are big, round, with the color of

sapphires. The brightness of the eyes made it appear like the critter is about

to cry.

　　    "This--oof!"

　　    "Awwww it's so cute!" Elfy pushed me and Hawk aside with abnormal strength. Her

eyes are literally s.h.i.+ning. "Aren't you adorable, little friend. Will you come with

big sis?"

            It jumped around the cage, obviously saying "no". That's not

gonna work though.

           "Hey dear, call your friend NOW! I want it as my

companion!"

　　    "Um?

Oh!"

　　    I stopped Hawk

as he tries to make a call. "No need. My side cla.s.s is Breeder, remember?"

　　    "Oh

yeah, You said you are Soul Manipulator which is transferred from Tamer. As far

as I remember, all Tamers would choose Breeder as a side cla.s.s."

　　    "Yup.

Tamers will need companions to fight. Surely no one would want to buy companion

from others every time they need one."

　　    "Makes

sense."

　　    "What

are you two doing?? Help me capture it!" Elfy pushed Hawk aside (again) and

dragged me over. "Quick! Do it!"

　　    "Okay

okay, don't pus.h.!.+"

           I began to cast [Capture] at the little thing. It

got more violent as I try. The cage is shaking from its struggling.

           Looks like

it's not really a strong monster. It only took me a dozen tries, probably

because of my level 17 [Capture]. I saw it somewhere that you won't find many

people who got the skill over level 10 at the current stage. This is not

surprising if you look at my companions though, each one of them would give me

some serious skill exp, especially Night Shade--he just stood there for an

entire afternoon, waiting for me to spam skills on him.

　　    "Here."

I gave the egg to Elfy. The size is similar to either a small watermelon, or a

really big apple.

　　    "Yay!!"

Elfy wiped her hands clean before carefully taking the egg. I was giving out a

relieved sigh, when her words choked it back down my throat.

           "How long do

I have to stay on it to hatch? Do I hold it against my stomach? On my laps? Hug

it all the time? Can I ask someone else for help?"

　　    "Baahahaha!

Haaa-cough cough cough--eww cough--"

           I crouched and held my abdomen to ease the pain caused by that

laughter.

           "Ok, now I see why you said companion eggs are super rare out

there. You--*sn.i.g.g.e.r*-- you never seen anyone hatching an egg in the game did you?"

　　    More

confusion is now written on Hawk's face. "Hatch? We don't even see many

players carrying real companions! Do you know how you scared the heck out of us

when you showed your companion team this morning? Last time I checked, an egg

between level 300 and 400 worth 30k crystals! CRYSTALS! And you won't get one easy even if you can offer that price. No one has high level

capture skill yet, and NPCs only sell eggs below level 200. Good ones are

on really short supply."

　　    Weird.

I know eggs are hard to come by but this is a little TOO scarce, if you ask me. 

            "You can capture any monsters into companions right? Is it so hard to

produce eggs?"

　　    "You...wait I'll explain. You have to cut down the monster HP to 1 or 2 points when trying to

capture, or it will just try to self-destruct or something. Those who don't

explode will just get furious and go into berserk mode, making it impossible to

proceed. You need to be very careful how much damage you do and how much HP the

monster regenerates. One tiny mistake and you will kill it by accident, or

leave too much HP. Now wait a second,

that little thing didn't get angry or explode did it now?"

　　    "I

don't know..." I looked at the egg. "I never seen any monsters

explode on capture. Maybe there are some hidden requirements or attributes you need?"

　　    "Let's

leave those questions later!" Elfy is still obsessed with her egg. "Tell

me how to get it hatched first!"

　　    "Oh,

that's simple." I grinned. "Find some hay and build a chicken coop. Sit on the egg for three hours."

　　    Elfy

rolled her eyes and kicked at me. " The truth! Now!"

　　    "Sorry!

I-I surrender! Make a cut on your finger and drop blood on the egg. It will

hatch once it gets some blood." 

            ...Was that too obvious? 

　　    "Hey

hawk! Come here!" Elfy grasped Hawk's hand and took our her dagger. I

don't think she's going to just "make a cut", with that kind of movement.

　　    I

quickly s.n.a.t.c.hed the egg away. "What the heck are you doing??"

　　    "Get some blood of course?"  

　　    "You...don't

want the egg then? The companion will consider whoever dropped his or her own

blood as master. If you cut Hawk, he will become its master instead."

　　    "Tell

me that earlier!" Elfy patted her chest in relief. But she noticed something on her

dagger.  "Is

this...blood? Hawk, did I cut you?"

　　    Crack!

The egg broke in my hands. A furball jumped around a bit, then crawled onto my

shoulder and began to hug my face. 

           But...! My hands...! 

           "Ahhhh! You cut MY hand!" 

           I took off my gauntlets to raise the success rate for [Capture], and Elfy's

dagger left a 1-inch long laceration wound on the back of my hand when I was taking the egg back!

           "What the--  Why is this happening?? I don't want a pet dog using up my slot!

Noooo!" 

　　    Phantom

interrupted me: "Hey master, this little one is no pet dog. It--I mean, he,

is a level 700 Aurora Fox. That's higher than me at least. I heard about this

species before. They're the champion in this world when it comes to speed."

　　    "No kidding?"

I opened it's status window. 

           [Aurora Fox], level 0. 

           Attack: 15-25, 

           Defense: 10, 

           Speed: 750, 

           HP: 300, 

           MP: 50. 

          The other attributes are ordinary, even worse than

common monsters. That speed though...that's twice as fast than Night Shade! With

the proper attacks, no one would notice what got him.

　　    Elfy

looked at the furry creature and whined. "Nnnnn...but I want it!" 

　　    "No worries. We can find another.

You saw how easy I captured it right?"

　　    "Glad

to hear it but, are we really going to find one?"

　　    "You

said the monsters would sp.a.w.n non-stop on this mountain right? That pretty much

told us there would be more of it."

　　    "Well

that was for normal monsters." Hawk looks worried. "I don't think

this little one is a normal monster. The strongest monster we met before would

be somewhere like level 500 or so, a level 700 is unheard of."

　　    "Now

you mentioned it...What happened to the mob waves you were so afraid of? We

walked so far and this thing is the only monster we encountered. According to

you two, our paths should be filled with all kinds of ghosts 'n' goblins by now."

　　    Elfy

looked about. "I...don't know. That's what happened last time. And we didn't

even reach this far before we were driven out."

　　    I

turned to Phiona: "Scout from above, let's see where the monster ran off

to."

　　    "Alrighty." 

            A strong current caused us to lose balance a bit. Phiona turned into a black

dot in a flash.

            She came down after a brief moment. "There are a

group of players fighting with monsters on the other side of the mountain. A lot

of them. All the monsters elsewhere are marching towards them like tidal waves!"

　　    "Ohh.

So someone is doing the job for us..." Hawk mumbled.

　　    Elfy

jumped onto his shoulder. "Quick! Now we'd better not waste their effort. Let's

get up there and claim whatever treasure lies ahead!"

　　    "Right.

Let's hurry it up." I hopped on Night Shade too. "Onward! Here I

come my precious!!"

　　    "Hey--wait

for us!" 

           I charged ahead out of too much excitement, leaving the couple a

good distance behind.