“T-thanks… for the n-new ax…?” Sah Ul’ said nervously, running alongside the group.

 

“Oh, that’s better Sarah!” Drake smirked, “That’s called sarcasm, a great tool for jokes.”

 

“I do not like this,” she said firmly.

 

“What are you teaching her?” Charlotte asked with concern.

 

“Oh you know, the essentials,” Drake dismissed.

 

“How is sarcasm an essential in a post-apocalypse fantasy world?” Landin scoffed.

 

“Very essential. Love and Peace brother,” Drake laughed, putting up a V sign.

 

“I’m not even sure what I’m supposed to say to that…” Landin frowned.

 

“Come on now Landin, I thought you were kewl.”

 

“I- I am cool…”

 

“Quetz doesn’t like it when Drake confuses her,” Quetz cooed.

 

Atropos stroked her lightly as they ran, “It is okay Quetz, if it makes you feel better I do not understand the conversation either.”

 

“It doesn’t,” Quetz said firmly, frowning.

 

“You guys have such a long way to go,” Drake sighed.

 

“I don’t think our understanding of your jokes and sarcasm are on the list of things to improve on…” Charlotte chided.

 

“No!” Drake shouted raising a fist into the air, “It is a top priority! I’ve had enough of my jokes falling flat because you young whippersnappers don’t get them, and Sarah is from a different planet!”

 

“Thank the great gods for that,” Kalik scoffed.

 

“I liked it better when you were just broody, not broody and insulting,” Drake frowned.

 

“C-can we take a quick breather? I’m running low on stam here,” Landin said after a few more minutes of full sprinting.

 

Drake took a look up at the sky, the sun still around midday, his eyes turning to his own stamina bouncing between 99% and 100%.

 

Hmm, this new regeneration is pretty crazy. I didn’t really notice until that vampire army fight since nothing has really been close to hurting me but my regeneration is on another level after that race change. Even the Cardinal Beast wasn’t really a match. Drake thought, sighing slightly. I really would like to fight something that puts me on edge again… Ah, wait no why would I want that? Damn, Asuran blood! If something that strong is on this planet what is everyone else going to do about it?

 

“Alright, we can take a quick break. Landin come with me though,” Drake said waving the teen over.

 

“Y-yeah?” Landin said out of breath, “What is it?”

 

“We didn’t get a chance to do your first summoning before we left. Maybe we should do it since you’re practically defenseless right now,” Drake said, scratching the side of his cheek.

 

“Oh I see how it is, you’re calling me useless now after sticking me with this class?” Landin leered.

 

“That’s exactly what I’m saying,” Drake smirked.

 

“Have I mentioned lately how much I hate you at this moment?”

 

“Multiple times.”

 

“As long as you know,” Landin shrugged, pulling a handful of F-Rank cores from his inventory, “So the skill doesn’t really say how to do this other than chant the spell and have the cores ready…”

 

“That’s all you need then,” Drake assured.

 

“Fine by me. The less complicated the better, that class description was a doozy…” Landin sighed, placing the cores on the ground.

 

“So I just chant right..? Oh wait I need some kind of item or equipment too,” he said, nervously confirming.

 

“Oh yeah?” Drake said.

 

After a moment of rifling through his inventory, he pulled the Lightning Storm in a Bottle that he had been holding onto, tossing it to him.

 

“I don’t use this and I don’t think anyone will be using it, so you can just use this,” Drake said.

 

Landin caught the small bottle. It was clear with a bright yellow bolt of crackling lightning snapping back and forth inside it, a crude stopper at the top of it containing the energetic bolt.

 

“Here goes nothing…. Please don’t be some disgusting creature…” Landin prayed, pressing his hands so tightly together they were turning white.

 

“Your journey may have ended,” Landin began, a silver magic circle swirling to life below him and encompassing the monster cores on the ground, power humming in the air.

 

“But mine is just beginning! Aid me, reverie me.”

 

Landin continued the circle condensing and shifting a pale blue as it spun below him picking up speed until the circle gave off heat melting the snow around them.

 

“Offer your everlasting to me! Rise!”

 

Landin completed the chant, the monster cores turning to a melted puddle shifting and moving like silver on the magic circle. Slowly the material began reforming, molding into a figure Drake and Landin couldn’t make out just yet.

 

But a breath later the form solidified, a small puppy slowly emerging.

 

Landin looked as if in a trance as the puppy began to finalize. Pale silver fur with scruffs of deep blue lining its ears, neck, and paws. And with a shake of its head, it shook off the remaining liquid that covered it, its tongue lolling out the side of its mouth as it yipped.

The bottle in Landin’s hand had begun to frost over, the yellow bolt turning to a pale blue inside it, with snowflakes somehow falling endlessly without piling up, like a magical snowglobe.

 

“Awe…. it's so tiny,” Drake said, bending down to stick a finger in front of its muzzle.

 

The puppy growled, yipping again, then brought its maw down on Drake’s finger.

 

“I think he likes me,” Drake smirked as he stood up holding his hand out to Landin, the puppy still attached to his finger.

 

“Y-yeah…” Landin said, still mesmerized by the puppy.

 

“So,” Drake said, dropping the puppy into Landin’s arms, “Do you have a name for it?”

 

“Name?”

 

“Yeah, we can’t do the whole tropey thing of calling it dog or puppy for 10 episodes. That would just be too cliche.”

 

“I’m not sure…” Landin said in a daze.

 

“Huh, you seem off? Are you high or something?”

 

“I don’t know, I feel… funny? Like I have other senses?” Landin said, his eyes swimming slightly.

 

Drake placed his hand to his chin, “Maybe it's the influx of stats from the skill? But it's just an F-Rank summon and level 1, I don’t think it would be that big of an increase. Let’s see…”

 

He quickly inspected the summon.

 

[Juvenile Tundra Wolf Level 1]

 

“Tundra Wolf…? That sounds…Huh…” Drake said, looking at the puppy with a new light.

 

The puppy yipped again, burping a small blue fire escaping between its teeth, freezing Landin’s shoulder before sputtering out.

 

“Ah! What the?!” Landin exclaimed.

 

“Cool….” Drake mused, “It has ice fire! That's so dope! It’s a level 1 and has an elemental affinity?! I’ve never run into a monster below F- Rank that has something like that, summons are amazing!” Drake beamed.

 

The puppy whimpered nuzzling into Landin’s chest at Drake’s excitement.

 

“Hey you’re scaring him,” Landin reprimanded, forgetting that the puppy had just frozen his shoulder, stroking its back, “I’ve got the perfect name. Ifrit!”

 

Drake frowned, “Going the final fantasy route, huh, but that’s a fire-type summon…”

 

“I can do what I want, it’s my summon,” Landin said, giving a smirk, “And I know, I’m naming him that because it's an ice fire, and I know it will annoy you to no end.”

 

“A FF junky huh… And it won’t annoy me in the slightest,” Drake said, his fist quivering by his side.

 

“Sure….”

 

“Fine, but at least tell me this. Favorite character.”

 

“Lightning,” Landin replied instantly.

 

“Generic,” Drake scoffed, turning up his nose.

 

“Then what’s yours? Probably Tifa, I mean Sarah might as well be Tifa with her proportions…” Landin mumbled.

 

“You say something Landin…?” Drake scowled.

 

“Nope,” Landin answered, stroking Ifrit’s back, comforting himself more than his new puppy.

 

“And I’ll have you know. It’s a tie. Paine, Rikku, Beatrix!” Drake said proudly.

 

“Bro… You’re one of those then…” Landin said, turning away and walking back to the group.

 

“What?”

 

But Landin was already back at the group, squeals and shouts announcing his return.

 

“What’s wrong with my choices? I encompass all three greats! Goth girlfriend, cheery positivity, and big mommy energy! Oh…”

 

Drake coughed, moving back to the group.

 

“Oh my, he is so adorable!” Atropos said, “He reminds me of Clotho when he was younger.”

 

Clotho gave her a confused look.

 

“Where did you get him?” Charlotte asked, trying to pet the puppy only to receive a whimper from the wolf pup making her frown in disappointment.

 

“He’s my first summon. Check out what he did to this item though,” Landin said, motioning to his hip where he had clasped the bottle.

 

[Winter Storm in a Bottle] [Spirit Item] [No Grade]

 

• 1% Increase to Critical Strikes

• +5 to Dexterity and Stamina

• Can only be worn off-hand.

• Spirit Housing for a newly summoned bond. This item will increase in both Grade and Status alongside the Summoner.

• If this item is destroyed the bond will be broken and the summoned spirit will be lost.

 

 

“The stats aren’t crazy and for some reason, they’re for Dex and Stam but I feel like it's going to get up there sooner rather than later,” Landin grinned.

 

“No fair. Why does he get things?” Quetz pouted.

 

“That’s because his class requires it and I have them on hand,” Drake said trying to appease her, “When we get back to the town or if we can somehow find stuff on our way I’ll do what I can for you guys too. Don’t forget you still have your rewards for your class upgrades, we just have to wait until we get to where we’re going first.”

 

“Then we must be on our way and resume the journey,” Sah Ul’ said walking up next to Drake “I’m sure… M-m-mother must be worried.”

 

Drake was taken aback, mouthing the word ‘Mother’.

 

“Y-yeah… I’ll have to make sure to introduce you when we finally get there, shouldn’t be more than another day at most, less if we could stop taking breaks every hour.”

 

“You must introduce me as well, Lord Drake!” Atropos said raising a hand.

 

“M-me too!” Charlotte said, a little more hesitantly.

 

“Quetz too!” Quetz chirped, looking between the two.

 

“That’s a given, I’ll be introducing all of you,” Drake chuckled as if it was natural, “Then, shall we get going? The day is still young and there is light to burn!”

 

“Burn like how my thighs are….” Landin complained, rubbing his legs, Ifrit yipping in his arms, “I know buddy, he is mean isn’t he?”

 

Drake frowned but started walking nevertheless, leading the kids to the marked direction on the map that Taliya had provided for him.

 

“Almost there,” he said under his breath, his heart racing.

 

—-------------------------

 

The rest of the day into the next passed with relative normalcy. If you could call Sah Ul’ and Drake decimating swaths of monster populations as a pack of teens followed them around at inhuman speeds normal.

 

“Are we there yet?” Landin asked, becoming more and more out of breath with each passing minute.

 

“Weakling. Why must you constantly ask the same question over and over,” Kalik growled.

 

“Stop arguing or I swear I’ll turn this car around!” Drake shouted back.

 

“What is a car?” Sah Ul’ asked.

 

“It’s a smaller version of the bus we were in before,” Charlotte explained, “And he’s joking again Sarah, we aren’t in a car, and he can’t turn it around,” she chuckled wearily.

 

Sah Ul’ tipped her head slightly in confusion.

 

“It’s fine… She’ll get it eventually…” Drake sighed, glancing again a his map, “We’re almost there. We should be able to see it, just, about, now.”

 

Drake suddenly came to a halt, the broken asphalt highways twisting and turning into a city in the distance. Snow fell lightly on top of them bringing on a truly dystopian post-apocalyptic feeling. The highways looked as if transported, broken in clean cuts rather than chipped and broken cracks that you would ascribe to a naturally broken structure.

 

“Home sweet home…” Drake muttered, a puff of white smoke escaping his lips.

 

“Isn’t this downtown?” Charlotte asked, heaving breaths.

 

“Yeah, I recognize that building. Isn’t that a mall?” Landin added.

 

“Maul?” Atropos asked.

 

“M-a-l-l, it’s like a big shopping district,” Landin clarified.

 

Question marks almost manifested above Atropos’s head. But Drake moved on walking along the interstate highway into the city.

 

“Hmm, I don’t sense anyone or monsters just yet. I wonder if it’s abandoned? But the map Talyia gave me points here. Was her info bad?” Drake said a twang of anxiety bubbling up in his stomach forming a knot.

 

“We will not know until we have entered the city, Patriarch,” Sah Ul’ reassured.

 

“Yeah, you’re right. Let’s get going, maybe once we pass the highway and get into the city limits there will be people,” Drake nodded.

 

A few minutes of walking passed as they stayed vigilant. Drake was on his toes more than usual. Being so close to his family but unable to confirm that they were really here began to eat away at his patience.

 

Then once they were just about to enter city limits he felt something enter his aura sphere and darted forward to meet it, leaving the teens with Sah Ul’ to catch up.

 

Drake stood there dumbfounded.

 

“Yo,” the man said, tipping his hat to Drake.

 

“Hi…?” Drake responded looking the man up and down, as well as the strange monster next to him that was happily eating a banana from his hand.

 

“New here?” the man asked.

 

“No? Yes..? I mean I used to live here,” Drake replied.

 

“Oh, looking for family then, are ya?” the man smiled, patting the extended neck of the monster.

 

The monster bayed slightly sounding like a goat, but had a neck as long as a giraffe. Its head shaped like a dog, it looked at Drake almost disinterested seeing he didn’t have food to offer with its pitch-black eyes.

 

“Yeah, by the way, what the hell is that?” Drake asked unable to help himself any longer.

 

“Oh, Bella? She’s a good girl, won’t hurt nobody. She likes bananas.”

 

Drake shook his head, inspecting the monster.

 

[Black-Eyed Atoph Level 4]

 

“Atoph…?” Drake muttered, hearing the crunching of snow behind him.

 

“Oh my god, what the hell is that?!” Landin shouted.

 

“It’s a Black-Eyed Atoph, don’t you know anything?” Drake said smugly.

 

“Why would I know that?! And there is zero chance you knew that until right now!”

 

Drake shrugged, turning back to the man, “So you get people coming through looking for family normally?”

 

“That we do, most people come in on monsters that they’ve tamed though. Faster traveling and all.”

 

“People are taming monsters?” Drake asked, looking over his shoulder to Landin.

 

“Yup, good business in taming right now. Strong monsters out there that most people can’t deal with, so you buy yourself a monster to ride, and use it as bait if you have to. If not you get to train them up a bit and they’re half-decent fighters. Not everyone can afford or find a combat assistant. Have to be a damn monster yourself to get one during the tutorial I hear,” the man said, spitting the word, “If you folks need some monsters on your way out, you can come find me. Can’t have my girl Bella, but I have some decent Mana Wolves left.”

 

“I’ll think about it, but you know anyone named Maria Wallen or maybe Travis?” Drake asked expectantly.

 

“Oh, Mrs. Wallen? Of course, I know her, what you got to see her for? If you want to fight her I’d advise against it, she dun whooped every moron that tried so far. Only reason this city has any semblance of order thanks to that worthless city lord.”

 

Drake broke into a wide smile.

 

“She’s here…”

 

He took no time taking a large explosive step forward, finding a street he was familiar with and tracking down his old family home. A single floored 1-family house right at the corner of a small lot with a single tree in the sad excuse for a yard.

 

Drake ignored the notification that sounded in his head asking if he wished to contest for authority over the city, only having eyes for the scuffed-up white door that had seen years of abuse from three angsty teens.

 

He walked to the door, each step feeling like he was taking a journey in it of itself. Walking up the brief three steps leading to the door, the squeaky black guard rail on the verge of falling over to a light breeze, he opened the door.

 

The sound of children yelling, a TV blaring, and people chattering hit him like a ton of bricks. His mother’s house was filled to the brim with people, but none that he recognized.

 

“Who the fuck are you?” Drake said, only a few heads turning in his direction, then returning to their conversations.

 

“What the-” He muttered about to release his aura, but saw two children run down the long hall into the living room and thought against it.

 

Instead, he entered the house closing the door behind him as he found the kitchen and his jaw dropped.

 

“T-this isn’t what it looks like, I swear.”

 

In front of him was Lamar, the cyclopean wearing a shirt far too small for him that Drake knew was his for sure, since it had Rias Grimore on the front with red accent lettering saying ‘Feeling Devilish’ on it.

 

Next to Lamar a familiar redheaded giant of a man wearing a chef’s apron holding a ladle.

 

“No, it’s exactly what it looks like. Let him cook. Oh, hey there bro.”

 

“Bjorn?!”

 

“Talaga! Who is that la loco punyeta yelling in my house!? What bills are you paying to be shouting?!” a female voice screamed from the living room.

 

“Shit,” Drake grimaced a deathly cold shiver running down his spine.