Fang carefully peered down over the ridge to see more. He saw a crimson sand dune nestled up against the foot of the hill he was on. And there, in the shadow of the ridge, he saw Bobb and Camelia. Bobb was a bold male dwarf , with long beard on his face. He was wearing a lose fitting tunic and sandy pant. Camelia was a tall, tan-skinned human woman. She was wearing a battered armor, shield and helm. Both were armed with long swords, the dwarf also had a light Crossbow hanging from his belt.

Fang quickly realized that they were bandits. And watched them dragging several black robed corpses away from a metal machine.

The machine immediately stole his attention. The dark steel machine was 20 feet long, mounted on many wheels of varying sizes . The body was encased with armored plates wrapped with wrapped in chains and attached with sharp still edges. At the hood of the machine was a construct of human skulls - giving a nightmarish look. On top of the machine was slender metal canon loaded with a long iron harpoon. Two smoking silver rods were sticking out of the machine's tail.

He could realize that this machine might be his ticket out of this hellish canyon.He noticed a small leather bag lying in the sand near the machine. As the bandits are busy in dealing with corpses away from machine, he decided to sneak around the bandits and retrieve the bag.

Fang climbed down from the ridge quietly . He sneaked past the quarrelling bandits as they continue to argue with each other while moving the corpses. He picked up the bag and opened. Inside it , there were a bag of salt, a soul coin and a heavy black iron key. He put them all in the bag of inventory.

Then he come near the machine and tried to open the door to sneak into the vehicle. The door was locked, he took out the heavy black iron key he found earlier and tried - Click , the door unlocked. He jumped into the machine and then closed the door behind him, the hinges creaked with rust. Wind howled hungrily outside of the machine. A cold chill ran down his spine as he surveyed the interior of metal mechanical vehicle. Inside the large machine, there were 8 seats, several seats were occupied by sand blasted skeletons which rattled when he looked . His heart almost stopped beating. He saw the skeletons' standing up from their seats. Then they started to approach him - their eyes were glowing, crackling sounds were coming from their mouth. And he fell unconscious for the second time in the day. Just before he dropped senseless, a screen appeared before his eyes -

You took 10 psychic damage because of your Fear of Bony Things trait.

And he saw sparkles before dropping on the floor unconscious ...

Xiao Fang opened his eyes and saw a trunk moving before his eyes. Then a torrent of sparkles was blew from the trunk into his face. He felt a wave of calm and happiness came over him, washing away the dread he felt before, returning the vigor.

You are healed by 5 HP by the cure wound spell of Lily, the Hollyphant.

The spray of sparkles was stopped after some time. His eyes focused on the creature before him -

It was a small elephant, as big as a large dog with golden hide, flying with four pink feathery wings just above the passenger seat in front of him . The big white eyes was pure but looked sad somehow. He couldn't see the stats of the creature, must be much higher level than him.

"Hi there, I'm Lily, and I'm a holyphant. At least I think I am. A devil with six tongues told me so the other day, right before he tried to eat me," the small elephant-like being blurted out continued.

"Are you OK ? I saw you enter this Infernal War Machine, looked at those skeletons and almost died in fear . Those bones can't hurt you, the mean bandits kept them for decoration"

Xiao Fang looked back at those skeletons - they were in same positions, no sign of any movements that he saw before being senseless in fear. He felt ashamed and checked his status window,

HP : 5/10 

How could he be so afraid of those old bones, so much so that almost died. Without the help of the holyphant, he would surely die. He said to the creature,

"I'm Fang Hao. I owe you life"

"He he, you must pay your debt. You have to help this lady get out of this place. Now accept the contract!" Lulu's trunk touched Fang's forehead. A white light enveloped both, Fang saw a familiar screen appear before his eyes -

The Holyphant, Lily, is offering a companion contract on equal footing. Do you accept ?

"I accept"

A string of letters started to appear in the screen

Creating companion bond ...

Error ! Individual is level 1 and WIS don't meet the requirements.

The other party is a celestial creature and willingly wanted to be bonded . Unique condition found. Unlocking Special Subclass System : Beast Master

WIS +3

Soul Space Created

Companion Bond successful ...

New Skill Proficiency : Nature (INT), Animal Handling (WIS).

New trait : Holyphant Whisperer

New Skills : 

a) Beast Taming : Expertise in Animal Handling. You can tame magical beasts with challenge rating (CR) one-eight of your level. 

b) Beast Companionship : Your beast companion is greatly affected by the bond you share . You can determine its action, but if you are incapacitated, it can act on its own. Also it's ability and stats highly dependent on your own stats.

Max no of Beast Companion : 02 (capacity is increased with increase of WIS)

Adjusting Stats of the holyphant to be companion with the beast master...

Update complete.

Fang checked his status -

Fang kept staring at the screen with daze. He didn't kill a single monster yet, his XP is still 0. He was at death's door two times already. But he became strong both time +1 to every ability scores first time and now he got a spirit beast companion as well as increased HP, WIS and two skill Proficiencies. "What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger, huh !", he chuckled inwardly.

"I'm very grateful to have you as spirit companion. Why have you chosen me, Lily ?"

"You are not corrupted like others here. You are special, I never saw anyone make it out of the cave alive. You are my hope to escape this place. I'm your beast companion now - we are bound together for life and death. If you die, I'll die too. If I die, you won't die, but your soul will be damaged irreparably. And my strength is suppressed greatly to be a companion of level 1 Rogue", Lily blew a small, sad puff of sparkles from her trunk.

Fang could feel her emotional turmoil and sadness through the soul connection. He didn't know what to say to comfort her, he just embraced Lily. She didn't resist, she could feel the good wills of Fang.

"Well, it's not that bad, you know. I can stay in your soul space. I have to always hide from the corrupted creatures here. Now I can travel with you without any worry and we can communicate directly through our connection", Lily's trunk reached up and gently touched Fang's face . With the big eyes, she looked so adorable that Fang couldn't help but pat on her head - Lily's small white eyes seemed to grow twice the size . How cute ! Fang smiled a big, goofy grin.

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