9 My first companion in this world

After leaving the guild, both of them strode on the street when suddenly Aisha asked, "So. What are we going to do now? Any plans? Or are you gonna go try out the quest? If you want I can help you with anything". "Nah. Its alright I can do it myself. I'm more efficient that way!" He answered in a prided manner, it clearly showed that he was confident with his skills. But to Aisha. It looked like he was being dragged down by a dead weight.... Like her. She then said with a faked smile, Oh.....is that so? Then I'll be going to the Inn, if you want I'll be there and you can get to me if you need anything". She then went on the direction of the Inn and Void send her off with a smile on his face, not that could be seen. He then turned his expression to a cold one, "now then, let's see who our guest is that's been following me since the morning" he then turned left and went on. After a while he turned right. Walking 20 steps he stopped in front of a store that had various items and jewels. He stood there a bit and shake his head with a disappointed expression. He then went on his way while keeping a 'thinking hard' expression. After a bit, he turned left once again and stopped in front of another shop which looked similar to the previous one and thought, "So my doubt is verified! I am indeed being followed! Am I that popular that there are fans for me already?" There was a smile on his face, his mask clearly covered it so no one could tell if he was smiling with that expression. He then went on the direction of the town gate.

When he reached the town's gate there were more guards than the previous visit he had when coming to the town for the first time. The guards were doubled and patrol was tripled, archers walking on top of the wall were vigilant about the surroundings, there were some archers on the tower and a mage with them. The mages were as vigilant as the soldiers and archers ready to shower hell on whoever tries to attack them.

This scene caught his interest, so he went near the gate and asked one of the guard, "hello, is there something wrong? The town seems on alert, are we under attack or something?". When the guards heard this they looked at him differently. One of the guards came forward and said, "and who are you? I don't remember seeing you around" the other guards immediately went on guard when he asked him, who he was. "I'm a rouge that came to the town yesterday, I'm new to being an adventurer but I'm sure the guard at the gate yesterday was a bit low" Void said and glance around the soldiers who were still on guard. When the guard heard this he let out a 'sigh' then said, "my apologies, since you were new we didn't know that you are an adventurer, I'm the head guard of the gate, a level 9 warrior, nice to meet you Rouge". To this Void smiled and said, "pleasure is all mine, so let's get back on the track, what happened for you all to be this alert?" He then glance around and saw that the guards were more at ease now. The head guard said, "we received orders from the local lord to tight the security and guard watch, there seems to be some disturbance in the Mountain of Grievance, there have been scout parties sent from the nearby cities and not most of them returned, its getting weirder lately".

Void nodded as he totally understood what was going on, 'looks like I'm right on time, if I can get there before him, then I'll be a step ahead to become a shadow assassin hehehe". He then put his hands helplessly and said, "is that so? Then I gotta be a tad bit extra careful, I don't like and want to get in deep sh!t when I'm out questing".

"Haha, you said it, well good luck out there, we don't want to see a young adventurer getting killed in middle of a forest, it will be a pain to clean that up" the head guard said with his corner of the lips curled up. "Let him pass! He's good" he then said to the men near the gate. Void just like that passed the gate and entered the forest.

He then walked for two miles before bumping into his first prey. It was a wild Black wolf.

Wild Black wolf

Level : 7

Skill : Fear howl

Drop : fangs, Black wolf fur, meat.

About : one of the beginner lvl mob(1) in world of Artik which lower level players usually hunt after being done with regular wild wolves. They give good exp for low levels. (Caution : if you plan on facing them, then it's better to face one on one than three on one, where you will be the one)

He remembered the description about it from the game, "looks like I'll have good hunt and be richer when I return to the town hehehe~". He then whistled at the wolf to get it's attention.

The wolf which was cleaning up after doing its duty was suddenly attracted by the sound of whistle and turned around to only see a weak looking human standing 12 feet away from it with daggers in his hands. It initially thought that this human must be here to fight with it. It had fought many humans in the past and killed some, while letting others escape or escape itself, this much is natural for it as bring a beast has its ups and downs, it never thought about hunting for fun or for any other purposes other than food and to survive. To survive, it faced countless dangers and hardship, at last it became strong among other wolves but it still decided to be a lone wolf as it already saw its parents getting killed by a pack of Sliver wolves when it was a cub.

Seeing that the wolf isn't making a move yet he was confused, "huh? Didn't I just draw argo now? Then why is it still not making a move? Is it afraid of me? No that's not much of a possibility, they just go on hunting whoever they see and yet this wolf seems..........hesitating?". He was very confused at the phenomenon that was taking place here. He wolf was nonetheless was very confused itself as why the human in front of it is still not making a move? More over the human even whistled at it to get it's attention, he could have used a sneak attack and killed it pretty easily, yet he wanted to go toe to toe with it, is he a nut case?.

Void was getting a bit impatient and made an action with his dagger to show the wolf, "come at me!". The wolf saw his action and was about to lung at him just then it heard a sound of a puppy crying. It was immediately attracted to it and started to run in that direction. When Void saw this his eyes popped out, "that did not happen! Did that darn wolf just ignored me and ran away! Oh oh oh, i'm not letting you get off the hook that easily doggy". He then started running at the direction the wolf went. The more he went in that direction he could hear a faint sound of a puppy crying and barks of wolves fighting, he then knitted his brows and increased his speed. When he could hear the sounds clearly he slowed down and used Stealth. He hid behind a tree and was dumbfounded at the scene that was taking place. The Black wolf which he encountered 5 minutes ago was standing with wounds over its body and gasping a bit, there were five Silver wild wolves in front of it who were clearly pissed off.

Silver wild wolf

Level : 8-9

Skill : heal blessing of the wolf god, bite

Drop : fangs, Silver wolf fur, meat

About : the alpha wolves and the ones that got blessed by the wolf god. It was said these wolves were used as mounts and hunters by the Darwin civilization. (Caution : never face these wolves alone if you are a low level than these wolves)

He remembered what the game description said about these wolves when he was still playing the game. Only after a while did he notice the three normal wild wolves behind the Black wolf. One of the of the three wolves was standing guard behind the Black wolf, seemingly it was guardian the two wolfs behind. There behind the wild wolf was a full grown wolf with a cub near its legs, the cub was crying and seemed afraid of what was happening. Void, only did he understand what was happening, 'hahaha, so those wolfs were ambushed while having a picnic and the baby cried out loud so you went to save them? What are you a savior of the wolf kind or something?' He thought as it felt funny that wolves stay in packs and more importantly, wild Black wolfs are not the helping kind but a killing kind which will do anything to preserve it's territory and food. Yet the situation happening right in front of his eyes was pretty much what can be added to the catogery 'out of the ordinary'.

"Well I want to watch it till the end, but since you showed your good will, I'll help you out a bit" he said in a low voice. He then canceled Stealth and came out of hiding as he whistled. When the Silver wolves heard the whistle sound, they instinctively turned around and saw a weak human. One of the wolf which seemed as the leader growled at the wolf in the side. The wolf immediately launched itself towards Void.

Void did nothing but sneer at the wolf until it was 3 feet away from him, then he went into his killer mode. The wolf jumped and lunged at him. Void did nothing but move a bit to the right slashed the dagger in his right hand at the wolf. The wolf whipped when it landed on the ground, there was a visible mark on it's left eye as the blood gushed out. It then got furious and launched at him with full force. This time Void took a battle stance by bending a little and keeping one of his dagger behind while the other was in the front. The wolf was 10 inches away from biting him. Right then he spined while ducking, he brought the dagger he was holding behind him and *slash* *slash*. There were two continuous slashes and the wolf fallen on the ground with no movements. It was dead.

The remaining wolves got more angry as they watched their companion die by the hands of a seemingly weak looking human. The rest of the wolves stopped attacked the Black wolf and started running towards him. Seeing this Void simply smiled before swing in a low voice, "Burst". Then suddenly those wolves felt that the human in front of them became more stronger than them in a second. He then used his busting speed and killed one of the wolf before reappearing in front of the black wolf. The Black wolf was scared out of its wits, but it still managed to keep up its courage and blocked his path to guard the wolfs behind it. Void only smiled at seeing this and once again used his speed and killed another one. Only two wolves remains, they were too scared to fight and wanted to run away, too bad they were facing Void. This time he appeared near the two wolfs and slashed at them in a speed not visible to bare eyes, it seemed more like dancing than killing. Then he stopped striking and moved away. 'Yes! I nailed it!' He thought. There was a lot of marks on the two wolves. " Maybe I over did it? Now the fur is ruined! *sigh* guess I can't do anything now huh?" He then helplessly went over to remove the fur of the other three wolves. After removing the fur he collected the fangs of them, now those wolves looked skinned. He then used his dagger to cut the chest of the wolves and took out the elemental crystals from them. Just then a thought crossed his mind, "I successfully killed them and skinned them, now.............HOW THE F*CK AM I GOING TO TAKE IT WITH ME!" he clearly didn't think about it. Just then, an idea came across his mind, he immediately grabbed his pendent with one hand and touched the fur with the other. The fur glowed a bit and broke into light sparkles and disappeared. He then closed his eyes and saw that the Equipments option was blinking. He then said, "Equipment in his mind and saw something that made him want to shout out loud.

Crystal pendent (magic) : luck +3, (hidden effect triggered).

Effect 1 : Dimensional storage (20 cubic meters), parting gift from Cecilia.

He was pleasantly surprised by it. He started storing all the loot and put everything he had into it. After finishing everything did he notice that the wolves were staring at him anxiously. He helplessly let out a sigh and took out a wolf meat as he went towards them. He wolves were extremely caution, they kept their guard and didn't even move an inch. He then threw the meat towards them. Non of the wolves came forward and still kept their distance. Only the little cub did move forward and smelled the meat a bit, then it happily wiggled its tail as it started eating the meat. The parent wolves also joined their kid and started eating, only the Black wolf kept its distance. Seeing that the Black wolf still don't trust him, he smiled and put his hands up, shaking his head. Seemingly understood what the human wanted to say the wolf turned around and started walking. Seeing the Black wolf leave he wanted to follow it, but before he could the cub circled his legs happily. He crouched down and patted its head while thinking, 'whahoho, this cub is way too cute! I wanna pat it just like this forever~". He then jolted back to reality and smiled at the wolf family then to follow the Black wolf.

After around five minutes did he find the wolf. It was laying down on the ground and looked pretty weak. He went near it and crouched down only to see many injuries on its body. He then got up and looked around a bit and found some herbs and berries. He came back and started making the medicine before treating the wolf. After 10 whole minutes the wolf had green paste on its wounds, only then he realized that it had became a bit dark. He wanted to go back to the town, but he just couldn't leave this wolf. He helplessly started gathering some sticks and started a fire, then he took out some of the wolf meat to cook it, "too bad I don't have any spices or anything else to season this, it would taste good, what a waste! And why the heck am I still around and playing pet doctor with a wolf!? Ain't I supposed to be a thief? Then why am I doing a ranger sh!t?" He then helplessly started eating the meat.

The wolf was drawn by the smell of the meat and woke up only to see green paste on its body and the human, who confronted it and helped it out with the Silver wolf incident, eating cooked meat. Then it realized that it collapsed while walking and lost consciousness and this human saved it. Seeing that the wolf woke up he tossed a piece of meat to it and started eating his meat, he was hungry as hell. Seeing that the human gave it a piece, it didn't immediately eat but stared at him suspiciously for a bit, only then it started to eat it. The flavor of the cooked meat piqued its hunger and started eating it maniacally. Seeing this, Void smiled and threw another piece of meat to the wolf again and starter eating his piece. The wolf happily ate it. After finishing it, he stood up and went to the side of Void and lay near him and a close to the fire. When the wolf came near him, he did nothing and let it lay there. After a bit he started stroking the wolf's hair, it didn't seem to mind it so he continued it as he said, "haha, my first companion in this world is a black wolf that I was going to fight a few hours ago? Life sure loves to play with us pretty well". The wolf which seemed to understand him got closer to him and snuggled like a kid who want to be spoiled. He then started to stroke its head for the next hour.

..............

In the dark, a shadow observed them for a bit before disappearing into the forest.