Chapter 13

  Grinding out levels in games was easy. You could just run in circles in the same area of grass, or same section of a dungeon, and let the random encounters continually spawn. On average, you could probably trigger an encounter every six to ten seconds, and a battle would take less than a minute. Meaning, experience was easy to come by. Then, any time your team got too low, a run back to town would only take another minute or so. Quick, easy, efficient.

  That was not the case for real life. It was pretty clear that gear pups spawned the fastest in the area. Their crystals, far as I could tell, would also refresh in a rapid time, given how weak and common they were. Springers took a little while longer. I didn’t have an actual clock or way to tell time all that easily, but mentally I found there were less springers, and their rate of reappearance seemed perhaps twice as slow as that of the gear pups. Because both were the food source for the calfers, it made sense. They were prey, and prey needed to spawn faster, because well, prey was attacked and defeated more consistently than predators.

  Calfers, therefore, were more scarce, and didn’t spawn all that quickly. Even after heading to the Mun Center, and the shop, and the talk with the mayor, the Calfer in the area wasn’t back. And, when I scanned the area, I saw the calf sized, go figure, calfers, were spread out quite a distance apart from each other, as far as my eyes could tell. With just my feet to power my travel speed, and even with the occasional jogging from one area to another around the outskirts of town, to try and farm experience off the calfers, it was a trek. And then, when my gear pups took too much damage, I opted to return to the Mun Center, not wanting to waste my refreshers. Especially since the mayor hadn’t told me how exactly I was supposed to make money to afford more…

  That was something I figured I should probably ask him before I headed out on my journey for good. It wasn’t pressing for now though, because I was just beating up the local wildlife to power level my three gear pups. As they grew stronger, auto-battle became my go to. A level 10 calfer, even being the predator it was, fell quite quickly when ambushed by a trio of gear pups of equal or higher level.

  Even still, the sun had all but set by the time I was facing down my final target for the night. My first gear pup was level fifteen, and the other two were a single battle away from hitting the magic number as well. Given night was approaching, I’d already mentally decided to call it after this battle. My stomach was grumbling, and I figured if I wandered back in town, the mayor may at least be willing to offer me a meal and bed for the night. Otherwise, well, I did have a tent, and rations, I could use if I’d somehow worn out the town’s hospitality.

  For the most part, I’d stuck to fighting calfers. Sending my gear pup pack after other gear pups just felt wrong, especially with the level disparity, since the highest leveled Gear Pup I ever saw was only level 5. Springers I attacked when I saw them, but they liked to hide under rocks and in small cave type areas and were kind of hard to find. Especially because the ambush type Muns didn’t like to be found by, well, a pack of gear pups that were much stronger. One of the key survival traits of ambush type creatures, after all, was knowing what not to ambush.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  Speaking of. I had landed a new Mun during my training spree. A flying Mun at that. It was called a Gearow. I’d practically died laughing to myself when I noticed the prompt to start auto-battling with it, since it had been sleeping on a low hanging tree branch. The level 4 creature was about the size of a pigeon, and it’s wings looked like they were made from a tan canvas like some strange steampunk creation, though its head looked very, very alive. Gears twisted in its belly, which could be seen whenever the wind fluffed its feathers around, revealing the cage like body, telling me it definitely was more machine than bird. With a bit of self-control, in that I only made one ‘birds aren’t real’ comment to myself, I’d claimed it, and replaced one of my springers on my gauntlet for it.

  I’d tossed the spare springer crystal back out when I did so, just like I had with the other extra’s I’d gathered previously. No reason to hold onto extras as far as I could tell, especially when they were such low level Muns. At least, none that I could think of just yet. I figured when I met with the mayor again I could double check that I wasn’t being wasteful in some way.

  All that aside, it had been an extremely productive day. And as my three gear pups sunk their adorable teeth into the calfer, my smile grew even larger as I watched them get to work. The calfer was strong and tough, sure, but the three dogs had numbers and levels on it. There was no power of friendship, no plot armor, that would save the calfer. And as it let out a final belch of flames, and fell to the ground, covered in bite wounds, its body glowing and turning into a crystal, my smile widened. I saw the experience bars appear over my three Mun, and watched as the other two ticked up, growing them to level 15. I’d—

  My three gear pups began flashing violently, golden light surrounding them, and before I could say anything, do anything, think anything, I felt an immense heat on my wrist. I looked down in time to watch two of the three gear pup crystals turn golden, before they flowed into the first. It flashed, and solidified, the heat leaving as quickly as it had come. And then, as I looked up, my mind realized what had just happened.

  The gear pups had combined. And, judging by what I was seeing, this wasn’t normal. At least, not as far as I knew. Where once three Mun had stood, now a single one remained.

  The puppies were no more. The cute, adorable fluff balls were gone. Now, a creature, waist high, covered in dark fur, muscles, with the occasional gear and metallic sheen here and there, stood proud and mighty. Three heads, on a single body, which was as thick as a Great Pyrenees, looked at me. They all grinned, their glowing red eyes unnatural, their maws filled with sharp razor, metallic teeth. Above its head, a new name, and new a level. This wasn’t a Cog Dog. This wasn’t the normal evolution path. This, was something special, and it filled me with both wonder, and a multitude of new questions.

  Cogberus

  Level 10