“Why didn’t you tell me? I almost slipped up.” Kanade excimed and sat back down. Li promptly sat beside her; her huge frame once more made the sofa suffer.

  “It never came up.” She whispered, the helmet added another muffled yer. “What happened?” She finally leaned over Kanade and began petting Han’s head. Somehow he could feel she wanted to take off her armor but couldn’t.

  “I don’t know… we had the test, and he became bigger. Let’s… let’s focus on the money…” She dispyed the papers out of her pouch. She seemed to have given it some thought.

  “The protection job?” The predictable choice didn’t come from Kanade.

  “Mm, too dangerous. I’m not going there without feeling weak. Their boss will return soon, the payments will be smaller.” Han was so on edge about the whole situation; it’s as if he’s missing the single piece of the puzzle.

  “Their auction’s there, isn’t it?” Li asked, to which Kanade confirmed with a nod. “Then the Hanma bear. With me, we’d take it out.” She added, but unlike Han, Kanade wasn’t that pleased about it, or with something in general.

  “Maybe…” Kanade turned to the right, her eyes softened upon seeing Han. “…We need to get stronger, then money won’t matter.” She pced her head against Han’s. His blue eyes were stunned by the change in her, or rather, her drive had become clear to him, and it seems, to herself. She jolts back as another topic appeared in her mind;

  “Did you get it?” She smiled like a child waiting for a present.

  “Yes. It’s inside my armor.” Li pointed to her armor’s hip piece, normally where pant pockets would be. Kanade’s excitement toned down, and she sat up straight.

  “Ah… it’s fine. Tonight, we’ll use it. I’ll go home and hunt some small game. If you’re up for it, we could do the bear thing today.” She thought out loud with her eyes unwaveringly locked onto the mission paper.

  “Sure…” Her muffled response seemed rather unenthusiastic. Something wasn’t right, and Han couldn’t put a finger on it.

  They separated. Li went on to continuing her partymate job. Whilst Han and Kanade escaped the bleak marble vestibule, entering the peak sunlight for that day. It didn’t seem so, but they have spent the better part of the day inside the guild. Nonetheless, they escaped as licensed, although F-rank, adventurers.

  He pnned to rex on her shoulders; good thing he didn’t even try. He would’ve probably broken her back. Still, he couldn’t wait for them to be home to check his stats. Surprisingly, he also leveled up. Pochirin will probably surpass him soon, but for now he’s ahead; he’s level 12, whilst Pochirin’s a level under. Speaking of, Pochirin skipped a level, he clearly remembers him being level 9.

  Han’s stats were slowly becoming quite absurd. Having 12 HP and MP was unfathomably bad; they were, however, offset by having 12 skill points in every single stat. If he wasn’t one-shottable, and with a good baseline start, his level would be the equivalent of at least level 40 already.

  Now Pochirin, Pochirin’s stat boost was insane; everything physical reted doubled. They were horrid, but now they were somewhat along the lines of a level 26 Zom. And his previous guess was correct; he gained an ability.

  ? Bite of Obliviousness ? was an ability he has to enable; the next attack will cause confusion. It had a decent cooldown of a minute, the usage could be absurdly useful in his hands. Though, he’s a bit unsure about the status effect called “confusion.” If it literally means what it means, that’s still an extra attack from someone. Han already thought of an example; he sneaks up, attacks, causing confusion to which Kanade would nd a devastating arrow hit. Sadly, Han inwardly sighed;

  How exactly would I communicate that?

  His introverted senses kept tingling the whole way home, to be fair, he was a literal bck-furred wolf walking around the city, a few gnces wouldn’t kill him. The stone path had ended, and they quickly arrived at their street; it was quiet. It was the second time that there was no one outside aside from some kids in the shade. The NPCs seemed to follow a schedule of sorts; at this point, the pyers and the menu kept reminding him that this is a game. In the dirt, a path of dried blood led from their shack.

  They came home to a mess they hadn’t cleaned up. The porch had a pile of crusted blood, she didn’t even have to unlock their door yet, and they both knew that there was another one before their doorstep. Kanade seemingly didn’t want to go inside without preparing, she turned around and went to the shack opposite of theirs. Han had trouble remembering, but it was probably the granny’s.

  She grabbed a bucket that’s hidden under the porch’s stairs and waved to Han. He absentmindedly followed, his gait had been completely changed—it’s smooth. As if he’s lurking or ready to hunt at any moment, whilst it wasn’t for that reason particurly. He had somewhat adapted to the quadrupedal biomechanics and their syncing akin to a pendulum, instead of focusing on his back two legs to push him forward and the front ones to steer.

  Anyhow, their short journey ended at a well. Which, to be honest, he never really noticed being in this world, except the one in the capital’s square; that one stood out. With a bucket in hand, she leaned, grabbing the chain to attach it. Han’s height was enough to peek into the dark, echoing hole. It wasn’t anything too interesting, but the urge was real. Though, he did note the chilly breeze that escaped from it.

  The racketing chain slumped as the bucket sunk into the water for a moment. During that time, Han checked his surroundings. The street was pretty close to the lower main one, yet it’s quiet. The buildings here weren’t shacks, and the ground wasn’t dirt yet, the silence persisted. Maybe he was overthinking it; the thought kept forcing itself due to the eeriness that surrounded it.

  He quickly brushed it off, the bucket plumped onto the ground, spilling some by accident. Another urge appeared before him, the bucket filled with ice-cold water; the taste had to be amazing. Han attempted to lean in;

  “Your mouth would rash.” Her cold hand pushed his nose away from the water. He didn’t question her action, but it did put a bnk spot in regard to this situation. A well, clearly within the lower-css architecture, that should be used by the citizens nearly daily—is presumably toxic.

  Kanade stomped home, the bucket swaying her tiny body to the right; since there was still some distance—Han stepped in front of her.

  “Hm? Ah…” She muttered noises but had come to a realization as Han crouched under the bucket, putting its weight on his back while she only focused on bancing with the handle.

  “Great job~” Her hand would have definitely nded on his head, though it couldn’t. The bucket barely impacted his movement, the weight didn’t matter aside from the bancing aspect, which gave an idea he had to try eventually.

  As soon as they came back, Han immediately sat on the porch and got ready to wait. The cleanup wasn’t exactly perfect, she simply used a wet rag to wash away most of the inside’s gore. Outside didn’t matter as much, so slowly spilling the water did the work fine.

  “Phuu~” Kanade cpped her hands dry. “Let’s hunt.”

  Finally.

  ?

  A wonderful day, the sun’s shinning, the berries are juicy; life couldn’t be better for a deer. It’s extraordinary awareness keeps itself safe, even a critter stepping on a branch would alert it instantly. It bent its regal neck to nab some berries that were nicely pced in the lush grass, its field of view giving it a very good vantage around it’s whole body. As its neck is at its lowest point;

  —Crunch.

  A sound pierced its heart; it couldn’t tell whether it was a human or something else. What it knew is that it was time to run. The world turned upside down, it’s senses completely jumbled up, it wanted to run one moment and sleep the next. Everything eventually faded as a wolf appeared, its maw around the deer’s neck, there’s was no chance for it to fight back. They both fall to the ground; the bck furred wolf being the victor.

  Han’s still not sure about the obscure ability. That didn’t matter though;

  “Sorry~ I got ready to take the shot, didn’t mean to spook it.” Kanade jumped from a tree right above where the deer was. Her descend nearly silent aside from the gear jolting back down. “You took care of it alone. I’m surprised. Maybe the bear and… won’t be so bad.” She said, grabbing a berry from her lure and throwing it into her mouth. Han also ate one, they popped bitter nectar into his mouth. At least the aftertaste was sweet.

  Anyhow, he sat down in the shade; Kanade will take a while to butcher the deer anyway. The ability, ? Bite of Obliviousness? and his passive seemed to really be overpowered in practice. He was trying to be silent and everything, but he wasn’t perfect; made noise, stepped where he shouldn’t have and moved without patience like an amateur—yet that didn’t matter, because he simply didn’t exist for the deer. That was the same with Wenn and Helmuth. At the end of the day;

  How did Kanade gain Pochirin?

  “I’m done. Let’s move” She finally said after some time. She had taken nearly everything she could from the deer and put everything in leather bags. It was a lot of food, which Han was quick to note; he didn’t really know whether they’re feeding the street again or if that was a one-time thing. Else, she really pns to bulk up, though to be fair, Li’s ham’s weren’t sculpted from nothing.

  He came up and grabbed one of the two bags, biting it with his teeth and waiting for her to leave. Her hand did jolt the moment he rummaged the bag, probably thought he would eat some. Their whole expedition here, didn’t take a while, they did have to wait for the berries to lure the deer. But everything got done after an hour or two at most. So Han was estimating whether Li will be back home soon; otherwise, there won’t be anything to do again.

  As they kept walking against the peaceful breeze of the pins, the woods’s birds chirped into an echoey melody, and most importantly since there were no crowds here that he could bump into; he opened up the menu.

  His css wasn’t bugging him completely, but it wasn’t something that disappeared from his mind. Aside from his level which he could tell just by being inside the menu and gncing at the corner, he hasn’t opened up his css skill tree or even anything reted to it after getting, probably, the first glitch he’s seen, however;

  C?

  That was the first letter of his css, the rest of the word; he had no clue. There’s no three-letter css that he’s aware of, especially the one that starts with C. The skill tree menu is empty, the other things weren’t there, or he’s unable to open them like css description, scalings and whatnot.

  Still, he probably couldn’t use his skills, abilities, and passives he gained through his host until he checked his skills. He face palmed inwardly the moment he remembered he had this incredible ability; ? Explode ? an ability that explodes the symbiont or the host on command.

  How… wonderful.

  That at least reminded him that he could use something in the future instead of relying on the host’s. But that was purely on the chance that he could actually gain something useful.

  The shack eventually came into their view, they quickly go inside. Kanade snatched the bag from Han’s mouth and pced them under the bed for some reason. He didn’t care but at least guessed that it was for them.

  Han sat in his spot behind the bed, with nothing else to do he watched Kanade prepare. She checked the bow’s string, counted the arrows and did basic maintenance that he had never thought of doing as a pyer. Li came home sooner than ter, though Han had already smelled her coming home down the street.

  Her feet thunk the ground every step until she reached the bed to which she used to finally sit down. Han was the first one to notice her shallow breaths, nonetheless, she lifted off her helmet whilst gasping for air. She was rather pale, far more than yesterday.

  “Are you sure you want to go?” Kanade kneed down in front of her and asked.

  “Yes. Give me a moment.” And a moment they gave, she sat there; perfectly straight in heavy armor, breathing heavily with an arduous journey ahead of them. “The Hanma Bear… it’s strong.” Her voice hoarsed, making her cough the next second. Assuming that she’s either heard of it or fought it gave some mixed feelings to Han, Kanade though, he already knew she’s undeterred.

  The issue is, there’s no reference for him to use, he hadn’t fought a Hanma variant in a very long time; however, the main problem is that Li’s strength was unknown. Aside from her armor, the other powerscale addition he gained was after Wenn had praised her. She had to be level 20 minimum—there was no way that she couldn’t carry them through the fight.

  Li’s forceful breaths kept getting cut off, it hit Han. Of course he never added a variable he never thought about before since it couldn’t impact him; illness. Even now, tiredness didn’t impact him extremely, but as a pyer illness as a status effect didn’t have enough impact that could turn a fight sideways.

  Now, their main powerhouse and their frontline—was sick. It’s not that they are that weak without her, but they’re weak without her; it hardly makes sense, it does when accounted for the Hanma Bear being their literal weakness. Han probably can’t tank hits, even if he pyed the jester and ran around, Kanade couldn’t do significant damage to kill it. Assuming there’s nothing hidden under her sudden drive to gain power like a power-up or a hidden ability. During Li’s rest, Kanade geared up, threw everything she needed on, and finally turned to her whilst practically ready to step out the door;

  “Are you sure you want to go?” She repeated. Her tone was honestly cold, but when it was an important matter; it didn’t stick with him. The heavy armor cnked as she stood up slowly. The helmet slid back on and attached with a click in the silence, until letting out a muffled;

  “Let’s go.”