It was around noon when Daniel woke up, he’d never really overslept or slept in before but he could simply feel a sense of coziness that filled his every waking thought. feeling Kerberos under his arm Daniel felt the canine give off a similar sense of ease almost saying “yeah we don't need to do much today let’s just stay in” yawning a bit Daniel was ready to go back to sleep until he turned his head seeing a pair of caramel brown eyes staring directly at him. For a moment Daniel could've sworn that his heart had stopped until he let out a shaky breath and rested his hand on Aya’s head “why… just why are you like this?” the only response he got was a small series of giggles as the small girl began to climb over his body and onto the other side of his bed. 

 

Restraining the groans of pain he felt as the child's boney knees and elbows dug into his body Daniel turned to Aya and asked in a deeply exhausted voice “so whatcha need this fine morning” giggling again Aya simply laid next to Daniel before poking his cheek with her small fingers “you said you were going to help me get a pet today but you were sleeping and mom told me I shouldn't bother you when you're tired”. Eyeing the child Daniel couldn't help but grin at the shy almost timid sincerity that Aya expressed slowly sitting up Daniel swung his legs from beneath the covers and grabbed his phone “okay Aya it's time to get you your pet”. As those words were spoken Daniel could see her face light up as brilliantly as the sun itself as she ran out of his room with an exuberant speed. 

 

Changing from his pajamas Daniel could see the concern in Kerberos eyes and it seemed both sad and reluctant but Daniel could easily tell what it was petting gently Daniel simply smiled at the dog “don't worry buddy you not being replaced any time soon.'' Grabbing his glasses off of the nightstand Daniel ventured over to Aya’s pastel encased room as various shades of pink, blue, black, and while lined her walls tuning it into an 80s pop artists frantic fever dream but in the end Aya loved it and that's all that mattered. Sitting next to Aya on her bubblegum pink bed Daniel used his laptop to open up the ROW website which was surprisingly still up while Aya sat beside him playing with Kerberos. "Kerby" Aya practically leapt at the chance to play with the fairly large hellhound where initially there meeting were met with reluctance now the two played together as roughly as two brother who'd known each other their entire lives, after playing tug of war for the third time in a row and Aya losing for the third time in a row Daniel had finished speeding through the quiz allowing for a notification to appear on Aya’s phone. 

 

Opening the notification Daniel turned to his own phone while Aya fanned over the three pets that she could choose, scrolling through his menus Daniel saw the messages tab with 6 unread messages highlighted in red. Remembering what he promised himself Daniel opened the messages and what he saw bot confused and worried him deeply.

 

(Hey Daniel I saw your fight you were pretty cool maybe we could party up some time >

 

(Hey Daniel I thought I should send you a gift to show that I'm capable enough to fight with. It's the core shards from a level 4 golem hopefully that'll convince you also one of my friends sent a request as well >

 

( now you may be wondering why I'm texting you so much out of the blue well you see while I was watching you fight I noticed something that I don't think many others picked up on. You had a plan or at least you made on the fly and that's exactly what allowed you to win. You're a tactician and with your plans and my tenacity the two of us would be unstoppable so text back so we can start our new clan >

 

(Daniel. I heard what happened please text me back >

 

 

( Daniel I hope you're okay my uncle or as you know him the principle seems to want to keep it under wraps something about keeping the school's reputation in check he's gonna do some bullshit awareness announcement and just void all of your work till you come back >

 

(I hope you're okay >

 

(Daniel… please talk to me >

 

Daniel felt conflicted and uneasy, if even half of what Jessica said was true then it explained why nobody knew or even commented on his suicide but it also made Daniel wary of talking to Jessica. She clearly had an ulterior motive but most of what she said was true making him cautious about how to proceed until his thoughts were interrupted by a soft "mew" emitting next to him. Craning his head Daniel watched as Aya joyously held a small blue and green kitten in her hands its dark green vine-like tail curled carefully around its new masters' fingers. 

 

Leaning over Daniel gave a weak smile saying "good job Aya looks like you got a Nept Nept " reaching out his hand Daniel watched as the kitten shrunk away wrapping its tail tightly around Aya’s hand while putting on an almost comical angry face that appear as little more than a pout. Pulling his hand away Daniel stared at the cat proudly since it was already showing that it was ready to protect itself and its master " looks like your new pet isn’t that fond of strangers but don't worry ill figure out a strategy for you and your Nept Nept, actually what did you name her?". Aya sheepishly glanced at the cat and back to Daniel whose intrigue only grew as the silence dragged on until Aya suitably red in the face burned out “I named her Atlantia!!!" 

 

Stunned by the sudden burst Daniel took a moment the process the name while Atlantia climbed Aya’s length of auburn hair until it sat on her head like a small ball of green and blue, "so what made you think of that name" Aya shrugged a bit fiddling with her hair anxiously as if she were nervous of Daniels opinion "well, its named after a famous dryad and since she's blue and green it reminded me of how dryads look and-" Aya continued this train of thought until her voice eventually dwindled into a murmur. Staring at Aya with a smug grin on his face Daniel simply asked: "Is that the only reason" at this Aya’s face went beet red as she stammered out a response eventually simply saying "it's the name of a girl I like… I mean like" Daniel couldn't help but grin at the child who hadn't even left the 3rd grade and was already crushing hard on her classmates. 

 

Shaking his head Daniel didn't press any further and simply decided it was time for Aya to begin leveling up. Taking her to his old house backyard Daniel let Aya take care of the sky hopper litters while he lured the golems away from her, by the end of their little grinding session Daniel had gained 15 more XP putting him halfway from getting to level 4 while Aya was just a few XP away from reaching level 2. Taking Aya back home Daniel decided to put his analyze skill to use checking Kerberos and Atlantias’ stats since he recently learned that like players pets evolve when they reach level 5.

 

===============================

Name: Atlantia

Species: fae-line

Element(s): blue, green

Lv: 1

Hp: 12/12

XP: 4/10

Sp: 16/16

Spells

Kudzu: 5 dmg -10% spd 2 dmg per sec (6 sec duration) [4 sp]

Skills

Hydro step: produce a portal and teleport within a 3-meter radius

Verglas path: -15% spd 3 dmg per sec (10 sec duration) 4-yard radius

Recovery: unless completely killed a creature can take a long rest and recover their max hp (5 minutes for 1 hp)

Inventory slots: 0/9

 

============================

Name: Kerberos

Species: magma pup

Element(s): red, black

Lv: 4

Hp: 30/30

XP: 15/ 35

Sp: 30/30

Spells

Shadow flame strike: 9 dmg +4 damage (if at night) [3 sp]

Skills

Flame cowl: + 10 dmg to all spells

Void gaze: causes any creature in its eyesight (10ft arc) to be stunned for 5 seconds (effect immediately nullifies if eye contact is broken)

Recovery: unless completely killed a creature can take a long rest and recover their max hp (5 minutes for 1 hp)

Inventory slots: 2/9

• Bone dancers collar
• The lucky foot

==========================

Impressed by the amount of info he could now see Daniel saw that Kerberos was right on the edge of evolving while he was still at level 3. Seeing he relied too much on Kerberos Daniel felt deeply guilty as he tucked Aya into bed, yet as everyone went to sleep Daniel couldn't help but feel unnerved at how quickly everyone was developing. He didn't want to be a burden and the very thought brought back dark memories of the chord tightening around his neck, rubbing his neck Daniel went out into the yard and that night while crickets chirped in the shadows the sound of grinding stone and snapping bones accented the air with a single near inaudible ding.

 

R/didyouknow/ ROW vs the government :

Leakypanda: hey has anyone noticed how the military personnel don't kill the ROW creatures all they ever do is scare them away I just wanted to know if it was some kind of PETA bullshit or something cause some of these weird goblin creatures got creepily close to my house this one time

 

Thatoneguy99: no dude the guns don't work

 

TigOlBitties: wait WHATTTT???!!!

 

6ex9ine: hey girl in the chat

 

LeakyPanda: what do you mean the guns don't work?

 

Thatoneguy99: I mean the guns don't do shit for dick against any of the creatures it's for show

 

Blurryface_resurch: yeah it was a post on the Unknown website I'll send you a link: < https://tfnthemartial-beastconspiracy.weebly.com/ >

 

trigtrog: Unkown you mean the hackers

 

LeakyPanda: I can't fucking believe it

 

Trappedmime: f in the chat for the S.W.A.T

 

Dabiggae: I mean have you ever seen the health of the creatures go down after getting fired upon

 

Thatoneguy99: well you better, basically the military instituted martial law to keep the people in check but their bullets simply pass through their bodies, they even tried testing enchanted bullets but every time they were fired they simply exploded but since the creatures are just animals they are scared of the loud noise they make but it's inevitable that the monster will realize that the loud noise doesn't hurt them and they'll swarm

 

LeakyPanda: then what should I do I'm only a level 3 I can't stand any high-level encounters and I don't want to risk my life going after some of these monsters I mean have you seen the Iron hide wolves

 

Gussieguss: my advice grind your ass off because as it sounds it’s already begun

 

Thatoneguy99: I agree to do whatever you can to get to level 5 and QUICKLY

 

Aurgur_8: I'm telling you right now society is one incident away from losing its collective shit, believe me, one incident