Chapter 8

  I hated it here. Okay, that wasn’t entirely true. But, like, one of the things you don’t think about when you’re playing a game, is just how much battles were, well, actual battles. Sure, the mayor assured me the Mun’s were practically immortal, and would be healed right as rain easily enough. But still, making my Gear Pup battle another felt dirty. Like, seriously, gear puppy fight club?

  Still, I did it. Call me a bad person, but I did it. I needed to know how the battles worked. I wanted to know how to make my Gear Pup stronger. And I figured, this was still a part of the tutorial stage, all things considered, and it was best to give it a shot. I’d try anything once, I always claimed. Though, this one nearly broke me.

  As I approached the wild Gear Pup, which was busy rolling around adorably in the tall grass, I felt an itching in my mind. It let me focus on the little guy, telling me his name, and his level. This particular Gear Pup was only level 3, one level lower than mine. Interestingly, two options fuzzed into existence above its head.

  Auto Battle (75%)

  Manual Battle (???)

  It didn’t take a leap of logic to guess I could just command my Gear Pup to attack this wild one, and that would be the Auto Battle feature. The two would fight, and based off no actual prior instruction, but sheer guesswork, I figured it meant mine had a 75 percent chance of winning.

  I was pretty sure that was what the Mayor did. He just sent his coilosus into the tall grass to autobattle the poor gear pup, and well, I know how that went down.

  Needing to better understand just what type of world I was in, and what this gauntlet did for me, I mentally focused on the Manual Battle portion. There was a spark, like electricity jolty from my gear pup to the other gear pup. Immediately, the wild one stopped rolling around, and came up on its feet, hackles raised in the least intimidating way possible, as it squared up against mine.

  The two started circling, which was comical considering the tall grass between the two made this whole thing utterly ridiculous. I felt a tug in my mind, and recognized it, instinctually perhaps, thanks to the magic of the gauntlet, that it was my gear pup asking for its orders.

  I mentally picked Bark from its attack list. I’d played plenty of games in my life where you could capture and train monsters and battle them, just like this. I had a good idea of what the attacks would actually do, but, wanted to test them out. This, was the safest way to do so.

  My gear pup acknowledged my command, and opened its mouth. The most adorable little bark came from the little guy, though unlike before, when he was just happy barking, this one had power. An almost visible wave of force rolled over the wild gear pup, and the level three creature shuddered slightly, and let out a small whimper.

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  I felt bad, for all of a second, before the little bastard leapt at my gear pup and bit him on the shoulder. My gear pup let out a yip of surprise, and I saw its health drop from 20, to 17. That little shit had just bit my pup for three points of damage.

  “Bite,” I said, both aloud, and mentally. My gear pup growled low and bit into the other gear pup, which yelped and jumped backwards at the suddenness of the attack. A healthbar appeared overed its head, though I couldn’t see the numbers. Still, my gear pup’s bite took about a third of the health off the lower leveled assailant.

  Not to be deterred, the other gear pup dashed forward again, biting mine once more. Another pitiful yelp, another little squeal, as the two puppies engaged in mortal puppy combat. That bite took mine from 17 to 14. Mine answered with another commanded bite, and dropped the other’s health another third. Gears showed from the bite wounds, and the wild gear pup let out pitiful whimpers, its chest panting, as it looked from my gear pup, to me, with the worst mix of puppy eyes and apprehension and betrayal.

  It let out a heavy sigh, and bite mine once more, dropping his life to 11. With the worst feeling ever in my chest, no sense of pride in what I was doing, I gave mine the final command. One last bite, and the enemy gear pup was down. It disappeared in a flash of light, turning into a small Mun Crystal, just like the one I’d mere moments ago put in my gauntlet.

  A second later, a small bar flashed to life under my gear pup’s health bar. It increased about halfway, and mentally I knew it was an experience bar. That one fight, had gotten my gear pup halfway to a new level. If I did another, would he grow to level 5? There was only one way to find out, I knew, though, honestly, I really wasn’t looking forward to it.

  I knelt down and gave my gear pup a pat on the head, congratulating him on his victory, even as I wasted a refresher to bring him back to full. His wounds instantly went away, and he wagged his tail happily.

  “Good job little guy,” I said, proud of him, though still guilty about what I’d just done. I picked up the other Mun crystal, and without a second thought, slid the crystal into my gauntlet. Just as before, the crystal glowed bright, and then immediately, the gem slot to the left of my current gear pup lit up, before the gem settled comfortably in it.

  “Just a question,” I said as I stood back up, my eyes already looking around, searching for another target, “how many Mun can we use at once?”

  “You can have up to three battling at a single time,” the mayor answered, smiling as if he was proud I’d asked the question. “And their experience will split evenly.”

  “Does it have to be three on three?” I asked, working through the knowledge quickly.

  “In the wild, no.” The mayor answered, “though, if you challenge another Tamer, the gauntlets do impose additional restrictions.”

  “Got it, thanks.” I didn’t care about Tamer battles. Not now. Those weren’t my priority. All I cared about right now, was leveling up my gear pup. Wait… scratch that. I grinned as I saw movement, another gear pup. Gear pups.

  I burned another refresher on my newest gear pup, and then pointed outwards, summoning it. With it happily barking and running around me and the gear pup that had just battled against it, I looked towards my next target, and selected the Auto-Battle option, which shown with a 100percent. Was it the best choice? Probably not. But, it was the quickest way to land me a third Mun, and to keep the bad taste of bullying the little guys out of my mouth. Another Mun in the distance had already drawn my attention, after all, and the only reason I was grabbing this next gear pup was because, well, three Mun’s was better than one.