CHAPTER 48: "BE MY PARTNER?"

 

The Familiar Appraiser was an odd NPC. 

Firstly, Ai couldn’t tell what race or kingdom they belonged to. He wore a giant turban style headwear that covered their head and ears so he couldn’t see if they were an elf or another horned race. Their clothing was incredibly bulky, so he also couldn’t tell if they had wings or not. Though he knew for a fact that they weren’t at all human since their eyes gave a luminescent glow as their hands hovered slightly above Athens. 

They also ate the Fairy Gem (Which Ai found out was a gem that was formed from a dying fairy’s wings) that Ai gave to him, which apparently made its appraisal stronger and even more precise.

Speaking of which, the owl was strangely calm and docile in the presence of the appraiser. It looked almost as if it was dozing off as the appraiser’s hands casted a warm glow that was just as luminescent as their eyes. Usually Athens was the type to fly around and on occasion pick up things it found interesting, never was it ever this quiet.

The NPC was surprisingly easy to find thanks to the forums. They lived in a small cottage near the forests close to the human region, it was even connected to a main road. Ai had assumed that this appraiser was a hermit or something.  Turns out that a handful of players had also been in need of their services for various reasons like quests and the like, so the NPC’s location had been thoroughly noted in the forums. If this was a real person, Ai would’ve felt bad about their every move being stalked by hundreds of people, but this was a useful thing in terms of games.

The appraiser hummed once more than finally pulled back their hands. Ai leaned forward just a bit out of curiosity. The appraiser stroked their chin thoughtfully. They were silent for so long that Ai was worried that he had come here for nothing.

“This creature is a Shadow Being, but I’m sure you could tell.” The appraiser laughed. They tried to give Athens another pat but it seemed like the owl had run out of patience and hooted before flying back to Ai’s arms. “Shadow creatures are known to be fickle, cold, and dangerous but this one has formed a Shadow Bond with you.”

“Shadow bond?”

The appraiser nodded. Then without warning, they suddenly leaned forward and plucked a single feather from the owl, causing it to flail its wings and snap its beak towards the appraiser. Ai managed to hold on to it, but the appraiser didn’t look scared at all. He wouldn’t be surprised if they were used to animals behaving in such a way to other people other than their owners.

“Of course other pets can form bonds with their owners too, but a Shadow Bond…” The appraiser examined the feather they plucked. “It’s more of a contract than a bond. The moment you took the creature in, you unknowingly signed a contract with it.”

“Contract…” The words sounded really scary. Added the fact that it was formed without the owner even knowing made it even scarier. Still...looking at the owl being all cute as it snuggled inside his arm made it hard for him to feel too angry about it.

“Hmm...these contracts tend to be beneficial in nature to both parties, so I wouldn’t be too worried about it. Just think about the fact that this creature picked you because it found you worthy of its Shadow Bond.”

The appraiser pocketed the feather they plucked. “Wait here while I get some materials to get the details of the bond.”

Ai looked at the appraiser with confusion. Could the appraiser do such a thing? Give him details about what the bond does? He thought this was as far as they go in terms of appraising the relationship between him and his pet.

The appraiser scratched the skin just underneath their turban. “Ah, the gem you gave me was quite high in quality, so I managed to do this as well! The fairy must’ve died in peace for the gem they left to be this pure.”

“Can fairy gems really do that much?”

The appraiser nodded. “It's one of the purest forms of Fairy Magic, one of the strongest magic in the land. Though the purer the better, it's quite hard to get your hand on those. Even the most impure gem holds a substantial amount of power to the average human.”

Could it be that those bandits he saw in the fairy’s story be…

“Here you are!” 

The appraiser didn’t take long at all. They returned with a single blank piece of parchment paper, chalk and the Athen’s feather. They laid the parchment on the table between them and placed the feather at the center. With clean strokes, they used the chalk to draw an intricate magic circle on the parchment.

The circle flickered three times, then the feather disappeared, looking as if it was drowning into the parchment and circle below it. After the feather disappeared, there were lines of writing that looked to be written with golden ink.

“Done!” The appraiser said, sounding extremely proud. “Thankfully it’s all good. You can take it now.”

Ai hesitantly touched the paper, scared that his touch would rip the paper or maybe even smudge the ink. When nothing happened, he slowly rolled the paper and gently gripped it in his hands.

“Phew, hope you find the information worth the effort.” The appraiser held the Fairy Gem Ai gave to them while eyeing it happily. 

Ai didn’t reply. He stood then gave a perfunctory goodbye. As he stood, the appraiser’s eyes landed on the book hanging by his waist.

“Ah wait! Are you a mediator?”

 

***

 

Ai wasn’t quite sure what he had expected when the appraiser called him, but it surely wasn’t to offer him Keygiver services. 

After throwing in some more amount of money, the appraiser had offered to read off the Scrolls he had and unlocked more of the book. Though it wouldn’t be as fast as when Keygivers did it, it was still a considerably shorter amount of time rather than going back to Pymule or finding another Keygiver somewhere. So Ai had accepted the offer.

It was a good choice since he needed to level up. He felt that it needed to be done like days ago when he just finished Oceanus. He only now realized how underleveled he had been for most of the quests after the beginner village.

Honestly without Morion to guard him, he would’ve probably been one shot killed by one of the stronger enemies.

At least now, that was one problem out of the way. He had reached level 27! He’d also learned more skills that seemed incredibly useful.

 

[Unbiased] - (Passive) A mediator must remain unbiased and be unswayed by others!

Immune to all controlling effects

 

[Knowledge of a Third Party] A mediator must know everything about the two sides before going into mediation!

Displays status (class, stats, levels, status) of opposing players.

Displays HP and Weakness of mob enemies.

Displayed information stays available until the corresponding player or mob is killed.

Cooldown: 5 minutes

 

Only two skills this time but they both seemed extremely useful especially for someone like him who needed to strategize more when fighting. A status effect immunity as well, which seemed extremely useful. He just wished he’d gotten that when he was faced with the ghost illusion that managed to hypnotize him.

Level 27 also meant that he was only 3 levels away from being able to reach his first Class Promotion, though he wasn’t very sure of what a mediator would be promoted too. In any case, just a little bit more and he would be the only few or maybe only player to ever reach that far.

Next he opened the sheet of paper that the appraiser gave him. As he looked at it, the owl also perched on his shoulder as always and seemed to also be looking at the contents with great intent, though Ai didn’t know if it understood the words or not.

 

Relationship type: Familiar

Master : Ai (Elf, Mediator)

Level: 30

Creature type: Shadow Shifter

God affiliation: Noi Aethera

Bond details: Player must not change to another pet or familiar until the current familiar reaches [Evolution] at level 60. Changing to another pet or familiar will allow the current familiar to absorb the player’s available levels by half of the player’s current level.

 

What part of that was mutually beneficial? Ai annoyedly thought as he poked the owl’s head.

“You’re going to absorb my progress if I use another pet, huh?” He grumbled. “You greedy little owl.”

 

Bond bonus: Doubles EXP earned by players and enhances all of the player's skills and stats by 1% each level.

 

Ai read those lines a couple more times. 1% with each level...meant right now all of his stats were boosted by 27%. Though he felt happy about it, he also felt that it was kind of wasted on the mediator class like him who only needed the HP and SPD stat. Other stats were useless on him since they were low anyway.

Ai traced the fifth line in the paper.

God affiliation….

Ai wasn’t sure of who Noi was and what he was the god of. If he had to guess, he would say maybe something like the God of Shadows since Athens was a shadow creature, but now the paper said that the shadow shifter was currently aligned with Aethera while Noi’s name was crossed out.

What was that even about?

In the end this paper didn’t tell him what Athens could actually do. It didn’t display skills or stats, only its levels and the details of their ‘contract’. He would have benefited from different information, but it was information nonetheless. At least now he knew he could never find and adopt another pet thanks to the contract.

Ai sighed exasperatedly and pocketed the piece of paper. Honestly he was beginning to feel like all of this wasn’t worth whatever he went through in the ghost village.

A ding from the [Thought System] thankfully managed to distract him.

Ai didn’t even realize that his lips were curling slightly into a smile when he realized it was from Morion. The message was short but the words were funnily polite even though it was a casual letter between two players playing a game, akin to a text message you sent to a friend.

 

Hello Ai!

I'm sorry if this seems rude or anything, but about the new PvP event coming up. Will you be my partner?

 

Ai updated design? Though this maybe too feminine, idk anymore TwT