Active Skill

  Intimidate lvl 1

  Let out a vicious roar, temporarily inducing fear and paralyzing creatures who are inferior to you. The weaker the target, the longer the duration.

  I tore off a chunk of the Direwing’s leg as I considered my new skill.

  There were probably more red masks pursuing us who were lower level than me, so this could be extremely useful. Though the skill lacked some critical information I would need to experiment with, like knowing how long the duration was and the mana cost. Also, could it affect multiple targets at once? That would mean if a group only had one red mask as strong as that last guy, I could easily isolate them. It would also be great for helping Lily level up in the future, as I could paralyze stronger prey for her and help her get huge experience gains.

  Still, knowing the duration, mana cost, and range, as well as just how loud this roar had to be, would all be useful to know…

  I licked the blood from my chops as my gaze drifted over to Grick. He was busy going through the dead red mask’s pockets, where he found another coin purse. He cackled giddily as he emptied one into the other and tied it to his waistcloth.

  I was slightly tempted to test Intimidate on him but decided against it. I didn’t want to be mean, and he would still be useful for guiding us through the tunnels.

  Since he could trade with humans… Perhaps he would be useful for making supply runs in the future? I had no use for any currency we got off these red masks otherwise.

  Healing Shrooms were becoming less and less useful to me as my vigor stat continued to grow. Healing Potions, however… If I could figure out how to communicate to Grick to go into a town and buy some Healing Potions…

  I knew it was a long shot. Even if I could get the message across, I had little faith in the goblin not to just get ripped off or even get distracted by some other “treasure” and blow the gold on something worthless.

  I gave Lily a few more minutes to finish her meal while I made use of my Pack Bond level-up and checked her stats.

  Name: Lily

  Race: Hell Hound

  Level: 9

  Path: Trickster Pup

  Stage: 3

  Body Development: 20%

  Vitals

  Health: 130 / 150

  Mana: 170 / 200

  Stamina: 240 / 280

  Attributes

  Strength: 35

  Dexterity: 65

  Vigor: 30

  Sense: 48

  Attunement: 40

  Active Skills

  Decoy Strike lvl 3

  Create a single shadow clone, then strike when your foe takes the bait.

  Bonus damage if you strike directly after your clone is attacked.

  Shadow Clones lvl 2

  Create two shadow clones to overwhelm and confuse your enemies.

  Slip Dash lvl 2

  Slide along the ground in a quick evasive maneuver.

  Passive Skills

  Basic Fighting lvl 2

  Enhanced Smell lvl 4

  Balance lvl 2

  Quick Reflexes lvl 2

  Traits

  Easy Stride lvl 3

  Reduced stamina drain from running and movement-based skills and traits.

  Wall Runner lvl 1

  You can run along walls as long as you maintain your momentum.

  Pack Bond lvl 4

  You gain experience from anything killed by a member of your pack during a hunt in which you are involved.

  You and your packmates regenerate mana and health 5% faster while resting together, the bonus stacking an additional 5% for every nearby pack member.

  You and your packmates take moderately reduced damage while hunting together.

  You have an innate understanding of your pack members' stats and abilities.

  I was mildly surprised to see the system recognize her name as Lily. It is not like I had ever told it to her, after all. Really, all of my siblings' names were just things I made up on the spot. I wondered if someone started calling me something, would the system recognize it as my name? I really had no attachment to “Lisha.” I’d also be devastated if the System ended up naming me “Puppy” because of Grick. But, it hadn’t done so yet, so I supposed it wasn’t a true concern.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  Then, as I continued to skim through, something else stood out to me about her Pack Bond trait. Particularly, the last bonus, and I did a quick check of mine to compare.

  Mine specifically referenced the stat screen, while hers mentions an innate understanding of stats and abilities. Everything else was the same, however.

  That kind of confirmed what I already suspected about her and my other siblings. I never saw one of them staring off into space like there might be a system message in front of them before. Of course, they couldn’t read, so such a feature would be useless to them. That meant the system did indeed accommodate normal monsters in another way. I could assume she likewise had an innate understanding of her own skills and abilities.

  I would have to get more serious about helping her level up once we found ourselves in a better environment and were not being pursued. Having her help me tackle this quest would already go a long way with that.

  I was a little disappointed by her development percentage as well. 20% was still quite a ways off from stage 4, but I supposed it made sense. I’ve received several development bonuses, and going even further back, when I was first reunited with her, it was clear she hadn’t been eating very well. That means as far back as when I was hunting the forest, I was already taking leaps and bounds over her in just about every aspect of our stat screens.

  Level 9 wasn’t too bad, though. I could guess she was only level 3 or 4 when we were first chased into this cave system. Having her level at least double certainly made her a viable threat against our enemies.

  Then, considering her health and corresponding vigor stat… I felt a bit concerned.

  She was so squishy! Granted, the whole point of her skill set was to not get hit in the first place… but… one wrong move could seriously injure her.

  Lily had picked clean the Direwing’s leg and licked the blood from her chops as she eyed up the other.

  Sorry, but break time’s over. It's time to go!

  I gave a big stretch as I stood, then huffed for both Grick and Lily to follow before I started heading back into the caves. Above, the other Direwings were either circling far out of reach or found perches on the mountainside. I was glad that they clearly didn't have the wherewithal to try to contact the other red masks and alert them that something had happened.

  “Puppy goes wrong way,” Grick said, running up to me and pointing to the faraway wall in the forest. “Human place is there.”

  I gave a soft growl and nodded to the cave, Lily already in step beside me.

  Grick seemed perplexed for a moment, then snapped his fingers and hop-stepped after us. “Puppy grabs shinies! Smart puppy!”

  Sorry, but no, I huffed

  I'm sure he'll be pretty unhappy when I drain our supply, but I already used way more of my reserves and mana than I wanted to taking down that last group of red masks.

  I did a quick check of my reserves and vitals to see where I was at.

  Vitals

  Health: 350 / 480

  Mana: 353 / 615

  Stamina: 360 / 436

  Elemental Reserves

  Fire: 16/20

  Electricity: 7/20

  Water: 14/20

  Wind: 14/20

  Earth: 11/20

  I had certainly spent far more of my mana and taken more damage than I would have wanted. Normally, you could call them very successful fights considering we took down four enemies, and one of them was far higher level than us.

  But I’d nearly drained half of my available mana in all of that and taken considerable damage. We still had thirteen more red masks to kill, and running out of mana could potentially be a disaster.

  But there was always the chance of gaining more stats from achievements and maybe another level. Plus there my Moon Harvester trait, if I could get one of the fights to happen in the skylight cavern at night. There, I could unleash spell after spell while worrying a little less about being conservative. The crystals only restored my reserves, and I didn’t want to waste stamina on hunting and eating other magical creatures…

  …Maybe a would have to try eating one of the red masks after all. Their magic seemed weak, but wouldn’t they still restore some of my mana? The thought made my stomach gurgle unhappily… I would save that only for a last resort, I supposed. But I really wanted to avoid it at all costs.

  I found the metal box where I had left it and started pawing at the latch until I got it undone, then lifted the lid with my nose.

  “P-Puppy? Puppy shouldn’t—”

  I raised my paws and slammed them down on the crystals.

  {Elemental Absorbption}!

  Grick instantly ran at me. “Bad puppy! No! No take shinies!” Grick chastised me, and then he hit my nose… it didn't hurt at all but…

  My eyes narrowed.

  He hit me!

  The goblin continued striking my nose again and again with each reprimand. “Bad puppy. Shinies for trading. Take to human place. Bad. No!”

  His weak arms aside, he wasn't exactly putting his full force into it and certainly not trying to hurt me, even if he were able to.

  All the same, when I got over the absurdity of what he was doing, I was none too please…

  How dare he treat me like a misbehaving pet!?

  I curled my lips back and snarled at him, snapping my jaws forward as a warning. It took all my self-control to not test Intimidate on him right then and there.

  “Ah! Don't eat Grick!” he cried and fell into a ball, arms over his head.

  Lily just watched us, turning her head, tail wagging uncertainly, as if she were not sure if we were playing or having a serious fight.

  “B-but puppy doesn't understand,” Grick said, raising up a single finger from his defensive position. “Puppy makes less shiny. Less value. Less good things.”

  That wasn't my concern right now. I gave him a look that warned him if he ever did that again, he might be getting more than a little warning bark.

  I closed the lid with one paw and left it on top as I pointed at the latch with the other paw. Grick came forward, pouting with a long frown. “Puppy move paw,” he said.

  I raised a brow but did as he asked, and he opened the lid again. He then began picking crystals off the top, inspecting them briefly, and then tossing them. All the while, he muttered, “Puppy should trust Grick. Grick smart. Less shiny, and humans won't trade good things. They'll call shinies worthless rocks. Call Grick stupid!”

  I looked at the crystals he was discarding, and indeed, they had lost some of their luster and just looked like clear rocks now.

  When he was done, he closed the lid and latched it, with only about half of the crystals discarded. “Grick is sorry. Puppy doesn’t know these things. Grick won’t get mad at puppy.”

  Great, now I'm the one who feels bad. I nosed the top of his head, letting him know it was alright and we were still friends.

  That seemed to brighten him up slightly, but we still had a job to do. I picked the box up by the handle and continued on, Lily once again falling right into step beside me but Grick lingering back in confusion.

  “Puppy still doesn’t go to human place?” he questioned, running after us.

  Lily seemed to understand our mission. Perhaps she had the quest as well and understood it innately, as with her stat screen.

  Curious about one more thing, I glanced back to Grick and tried to check his stats… but nothing came up. I supposed the system did not recognize him as one of my pack members. I wonder if it was only meant for my siblings or perhaps someone who I had grown a strong bond with. While I liked Grick and more and more considered him an ally, I supposed I wasn’t nearly as close to him as any of my true family yet.

  I wondered if he would continue to stick with us in the long term or return to his home in this cave when everything was done. That would be his choice, of course, but I wouldn’t mind him sticking around. I might even be disappointed to see him go.

  “Does Puppy want more crystals?” Grick asked after a while, running ahead to talk to me, the back of his heels hitting the mask strapped to his back as he did so. “Grick home is this way.”

  I looked down the familiar tunnel, and as I listened, I could hear the river rumbling lowly through the tunnels. I could find my way without him now.

  To his question, I shook my head and huffed, then continued to the river. Once again he looked perplexed. He trailed along behind, rubbing his chin in thought.

  Soon, the river became louder, and we heard voices. I gave Grick and Lily a low huff as I crawled forward, not using Veil of Shadows this time to conserve mana, and soon I saw that familiar purple glow. I peeked out just enough to see a group of four red masks sitting around by the riverside.

  “Can’t believe the pups made it this far,” one muttered.

  “Aye, would have thought they’d at least stay behind in the last cavern. Maybe they found another branch even further back.”

  “You don’t think they traveled downriver, do you?”

  “Almighty, I hope not. The plan is to continue clearing the upper caverns, and if nothing turns up, we’ll have to try. It might be pointless, though. Too many higher-level monsters down there that would have killed them.”

  Another stood and stretched, wandering over to where I was hiding and lifting his shock pole enough to barely see into the dark tunnel beyond. I huddled back against the tunnel wall and closed my eyes. Between my black fur and camouflage trait, I didn’t think he’d noticed me, and he didn’t.

  When I heard him stepping away again, I opened my eyes.

  “Shouldn’t the lower entrance group have made it here by now?” he asked.

  “Not if they’re doing their jobs right. There are a lot of branches and isolated caverns down that way. It’ll take some time to clear them all. Anyway, once the upper and lower teams meet us here, we’ll know they either made it downriver or back out into the forest.”

  The lower team, at least, would never be making it to this rendezvous point, I thought with an inward smile.

  I slowly came forward to get a better look at this group. Four were already a lot to deal with, but if this supposed upper team joined them, it would be an unwinnable fight.

  Once again, there was one red mask that looked bigger and stronger than the other three. If each group had one of these elites, then isolating them and fighting alone was essential. But I needed to take this group out before their reinforcements arrived.

  Also, when the lower team I had killed never showed up, they would investigate and eventually figure things out… Also…

  I considered the river. That would be an excellent place for disposing of the bodies, perhaps creating even more confusion and separating the next team further.

  But how to go about taking down four at once?

  The tunnels I had just come from were quite tight together; there were even some spots where a full-sized human would have to crouch and shimmy his way through.

  If one of the weaker ones took the lead, and I were to use intimidate while he was in a choke point… then that would basically turn out to be a free kill.

  I doubled back to go find Lily. She was smaller, and they would not see her as a great threat, so it was time to put her skills to use and have her bait them into my trap.