Walking to Silaro

The next morning, they sought out some slimes for breakfast. When they found some, Damien asked “Can you use your new skill?”

“Huwah!” Bluey shouted. Suddenly, lightning coursed around Bluey, the yellow streak expanding to engulf it's whole body. Charging into a slime, it got zapped by the electricity in addition to being flattened.

Taken aback, Damien opened up the status screen, and found the Lightning Enhancement explanation:

Adds Lightning damage to physical attacks based on MAG

So Lightning Enhancement adds Lightning damage to Bluey's attacks? That's pretty straightforward. And perfect for Bluey. Although it being based on MAG is interesting, since it would have none if it weren't for Stat Share.

Bluey dragged the slime over to Damien to eat.

However, when Damien picked it up, the slime was blackened, basically cooked into charcoal. “Uh...I can't eat this.”

“Huwah!”

“Yeah, yeah, I know it's my fault since I asked you. I guess we save your skill for stuff we aren't planning on eating,” Damien suggested.

Blue gave another 'Huwah!' and turned Lightning Enhancement off, the yellow receding back to the single streak.

After flattening and eating their breakfast, Damien pulled up the map. “Alright, I think we should head over to Silaro and...figure out what to do,” he said, not sure exactly what he should do. I guess I'm living in this world now, so I need to figure out how to make a living. If I have the Summoner job, then I should be able to join an Adventuring Party or whatever, right?

“Huwah!” Bluey replied, and hopped alongside him as they headed towards the northwest. According to the map, there was a road where the grassland and forest met that would probably speed up their travel time, so going northwest was the most efficient.

As they walked up and down the hills, they occasionally stopped and defeated any murder-rabbits they found, as well as collecting slimes (which could hardly be called combat at this point, given Bluey smashed all of them in just a few seconds) to carry for meals.

He kept checking their levels throughout the day, but they didn't go up. We must not be getting enough experience from just these two creatures. Hopefully we can find something new that's worth more.

Towards the evening, as Damien was considering stopping for the day, they did find something new. What looked like a boar digging into the dirt. The boar was impressively large. probably at least a meter long, and half a meter tall. The boar didn't seem to notice them yet, so Damien crouched down, whispering “Bluey, do you think you can take it with your new skill?”

“Huwah!” Bluey replied confidently, before activating Lightning Enhancement.

The crackling of the lightning wreathing Bluey grabbed the boar's attention, and it stamped the ground, facing Bluey.

Bluey didn't wait for it, charging at the boar, who was also charging back. Bluey jumped up, connecting with the boar's face.

The boar also hit Bluey, sending it flying back towards Damien.

Shoot shoot shoot! “Heal, heal!” Damien said, holding his hand out towards Bluey.

Bluey had a green aura for a moment, before hopping back towards the boar.

Damien turned to face the boar as well. While it had hit Bluey, it had obviously taken damage as well, and was struggling to stand up. “Hit it once-” he started, but stopped as Bluey was already diving towards the boar.

Smacking squarely into it's side, another jolt of electricity shocked the boar, who crumpled onto the ground. Bluey celebrated a bit by hopping around, then turned off Lightning Enhancement and jumped into Damien's arms. “Huwah!”

Damien pet Bluey's head again, which caused Bluey to squirm in enjoyment. “Nice job! That was amazing. We had to level up from that, right?”

“Huwah!”

Damien pulled up his status screen and...they had not leveled yet. Sighing, “Well, we gotta be close, right?”

“Huwah!”

Damien chuckled, “Do you just reply 'Huwah' to everything?”

“Hu-...huwah...”

Damien stared down at Bluey after the lackluster response. Did...did I offend it somehow!? I've been kind of treating it like a pet, but maybe Bluey is a bit smarter than I'm giving credit...

“Uh...sorry Bluey, I didn't mean for that to come across as an insult. I think it's cute.”

This seemed to cheer Bluey right back up, and it started squirming in his arms again.

Phew...

After another night under the three moons, and a breakfast of slimes, they continued on their way. According to their map, they should only be four days away now.

As they kept making their way northwest, Damien noticed they were running into more murder-rabbits and boars, and less slimes. These are probably worth more experience, but we're running out of food. Well, I'm running out of food, since I think Bluey can eat anything.

Bluey seemed to be hungry, as it nibbled on some of it's kills through the day.

Towards the evening, Bluey dragged a boar it had just killed over to Damien, and started nibbling at it, before looking up at Damien.

Damien shook his head. “I'm glad you can, but I don't think I can eat this uncooked.”

“Huwah?” Bluey asked.

“Like cooked with a fire.”

Bluey seemed to think for a moment, they hopped over a few steps. It then activated Lightning Enhancement and spun around around quickly in place. After a few moments, the brush underneath sparked and a fire started, so Bluey hopped out.

Damien was stunned for a moment. Then quickly started grabbing grass, sticks, and anything else that would burn. After there was a pile on fire, he ran a short ways to the nearest tree, snapping off branches to get larger pieces to burn.

As he got back, he tried to stack them together to catch the fire properly. After some work, he was satisfied the fire would burn, at least for a while.

Bluey had dragged the boar over to the fire, laying it up against it. Soon, he heard the crackling of the skin as the underside of the boar started cooking.

Damien picked up Bluey in an embrace. “That was a great idea. You're so awesome!”

Bluey was excited about the received attention, squirming and rubbing against his chest.

As the boar cooked, he realized that while he was now able to cook the boar, he didn't actually have anything to cut or eat it with. Hmmm... “Bluey, can you make yourself sharp?”

“Huwah?”

“Like...cutting some of the boar meat off like a knife,” Damien explained, making a chopping motion against the boar.

“Huwah!” Bluey said, smacking against the boar. It...didn't really do anything, besides tear off some of the skin.

“Well, that's okay, it was a longshot.” Looking around, he found a slightly pointy branch, and used it to scraped off more of the skin on the boar's belly that had been made brittle by the heat. Underneath, the meat seemed to be tender. Jabbing the stick in, he was able to pull off a hunk of meat. Alright! He wasn't sure how cooked it was, so he decided to hold it over the fire for a while longer.

Bluey seemed to want to imitate him, and pulled off a hunk of meat as well. Instead of cooking it over the fire, Bluey just ate it.

Damien chuckled as he turned his own hunk of meat. After a few rotations, he figured it should be good enough, and cooled it off slightly, before taking a bite.

Hmm...it's not bad. Definitely cooked, at least. Could use something to season it a bit.

After repeating this process a few times, Damien felt pretty full. Bluey also seemed satisfied, as instead of squirming it just curled up next to Damien and closed it's eyes.

Damien got up and grabbed some more wood, putting it on the fire, before sitting back down and petting the mostly-immobile Bluey.

“Hu-wah...” Bluey got out as it slowly slid into his lap.

Damien chuckled, “Haha, yeah, let's call it a night.

In the morning, the fire was just a few smoldering coals. Damien (and Bluey) tore off a few hunks of meat and started eating their breakfast, and Damien packed a few extra hunks into his jacket for a snack later.

The day was similar to the last, until around midday, when they finally hit the road on the map. Well, I guess it's a road. It's more like worn down tracks through the grass. Regardless of the state of the road, it seemed like they were making decent time, so they kept walking westward.

Towards evening, after dispatching another group of murder-rabbits, Damien double-checked the status screen as he always did, and saw two flashing red icons. We both leveled up! Finally! I guess the boars helped out a bit.

“Huwah!” Bluey said excitedly.

“Let's cook the murder rabbits for dinner. Do you wanna start a fire while I work on leveling up?”

“Huwah!” Bluey replied, before hopping off to gather sticks. Since the road was on the edge of the forest, they would have a lot easier time collecting enough for a fire.

Damien opened up his level up screen:

Damien leveled up

Summoner – Level 3

STR – 13

VIT – 17

MAG – 42

DEX – 16

Stat Share

Heal (summon)

New Ability Available

Clicking on the New Ability Available box, he got another list to choose from:

All Abilities +4

MAG +8

Summon Boost – Summons will gain 10% extra stats (stacks with Stat Share)

Damien squinted his eyes. This feels like the classic short term vs long term play, right? The extra stats now would be nice, especially for me, but giving my summons extra stats over the long terms has to be the correct choice, right? He looked over a Bluey, who was doing an attempt at stacking the logs together for a fire, as he had done yesterday. Yeah, that's gotta be the pick.

After selecting, he then pulled up Bluey's level up screen:

Bluey leveled up

Slime – Level 4

STR – 35

VIT – 32

MAG – 23

DEX – 35

STR +5

Lightning Attunement

New Ability Available

Bluey is...way stronger than me now. Clicking the New Ability Available, it showed:

STR +7

DEX +7

Damien once again let Bluey choose themself. After about two seconds, Bluey clicked 'STR +7'.

Damen chuckled a bit, “Do you just wanna be really strong?”

“Huwah!” Bluey said. It then jumped at a tree, smashing a hole through it and knocking it over.

Damien's eyes went wide, staring at it, then staring at Bluey.

“Huwah.”

“Yeah, I'm glad you're on my side.”

Bluey started the fire while Damien spitted the rabbits, then creating a makeshift holder for them. Yeah this looks much more survival-ly than just laying a boar next to the fire.

After cooking for a while, the rabbits smelled roasted, so he peeled the skin off while eating the tender meat underneath. “This is pretty good, what do you think?”

“Huwah!” Bluey replied, chomping down on it's own roasted rabbit.

After eating two rabbits each, Damien laid down next to the fire again, while Bluey jumped on his chest. He started petting Bluey again, until Bluey seemed to fall asleep.

Damien pulled up the map screen again. Hmm...if we keep up our current pace, we should make it on the evening of the third day from now...

“You there!”

What is that? Bluey? No, can't be Bluey. Is it the goddess again?

“Are you alive?”

No, the goddess doesn't sound like a middle-aged man. Opening his eyes, he looked up, but just saw a blue sky with strips of cloud in it. He sat up, looking around.

“So you are alive, then,” he heard from behind him.

Turning around, he saw a man in a carriage. Slightly plump, with a medieval-looking pompous outfit, and a thick mustache he was stroking.

“Are you in need of a ride to Silaro? I can take you for 10 coppers,” the man suggested.

“Yes, but I don't have any money.”

The man blinked a few times. “You have no money? Aren't you an Adventurer? I've never met a Summoner class that wasn't.”

Trying to think quickly, Damien responded, “Uh, I was going to Silaro to sign up.”

The man seemed suspicious. “And you were walking there?”

Damien nodded. “Um, I...got lost?” he said, sounding unsure himself.

The man grew even more suspicious. “Lost? Does your status screen not have a map?”

“Oh...yes, it does.”

The man grabbed the reins of his horse. “Well, if you have no money, I'm going to be on my way.”

Damien wasn't sure if he should try to plead or not. I don't want to come across as rude to the first person I met.

Bluey, who had woken up, was squirming in his lap, looking over at the carriage.

“Well, walking was the original plan anyway.”

“Huwah!”

Finishing off the rest of the murder-rabbit meat, they started walking along the road. Despite his comment, Damien was secretly hoping they would run into a more generous traveler who would give them a lift the rest of the way.

However, it was not to be, as the day passed fairly uneventfully. There was no other travelers on the road, and they only ran into a few murder-rabbits for meals.

Once dusk hit again, they (mostly Bluey) set up a fire again by the edge of the forest, and roasted that days catch.

After eating and cuddling again under a tree (Bluey seemingly unable to sleep without being in his lap), Damien thought about his journey so far. This isn't so bad. It'd be nice to have a place to stay, and eat something different, but I feel like I can take on the world with Bluey by my side. Bluey squirmed a bit as he pet it's head. Just a couple days left, and we can figure out what we're doing next...

Damien was jarred awake by Bluey shaking in his arms. As he opened his eyes, he noticed the fire was low. As he went to get up and add more logs, he stopped, frozen, as he noticed a hulking mass next to the fire.

As his eyes adjusted, he realize it was a giant bear. By the look and sound, it was chowing down on their leftover murder-rabbit they had cooked.

Damien wasn't sure what to do. Should I just pretend to be asleep? Should I run? I don't know how bears react in this world. He clutched Bluey harder.

Bluey looked up at him, then jumped out of his arms.

“Bluey!”

The bear turned around, roaring at them.

Bluey seemed unphased. Activating Lightning Enhancement, Bluey hopped towards the bear, smacking it in the shoulder.

The bear roared in pain, but didn't seem overly affected, raising it's paw and swatting Bluey.

Bluey flew several feet before recovering.

Dammit! “Heal, heal!” Damien yelled, engulfing Bluey in a green aura.

Bluey charged again, this time hitting the bear in the side, then successfully dodged an attack, enraging the bear.

The bear stood up on it's hind legs, before slamming down. When it did, a pillar of earth came out from under Bluey, knocking it up and away from the bear.

Did the bear just use magic!? Damien thought, starting to freak out a bit. He used 'Heal' again on Bluey. Bluey gave a 'Huwah!' and charged at the bear again.

The bear went to use it's magic again, but this time Bluey was ready, hopping off the ground when the bear hit it, barely dodging the pillar of earth.

However, the bear lunged at Bluey, biting down at it. This caused the bear to get shocked again, though, so it then shook it's head, throwing Bluey against a tree.

Damien, ignoring the bear, ran over to Bluey.

Bluey gave a weak 'Huwah!', as Damien could make out the bite marks in Bluey's outer membrane.

Damien started tearing up, “No no no! Heal, heal!” After glowing green again, Bluey suddenly stopped. What's wrong, am I out of MP!? Before he could pull up his status screen, they were sent flying as the bear used it's magic against them. They were sent flying, with Damien barely able to hold on to Bluey as they tumbled, just missing a tree.

Damien tried to stand up, holding Bluey in his arms. As he did, he felt a sharp pain in his back as the bear slashed him with his paw, sending him flying. As he landed, he lost hold of Bluey, who started frantically 'Huwah'-ing. Reaching out, he tried to use Heal one last time. Sorry Bluey, just run, save yourself...