2 Chapter 2: Training

I spent the night looking over each of the features and all I can say is that the system was too overpowered. The evolution paths branched from normal evolution paths to elite paths; for a normal path she only needed to eat tier 2 meat, while for the elite she needed to eat tier 2 meat as well as a wood core. The meat wasn't the problem, the core which I needed could only be found in wood type creatures, if someone found a core, they would rather use it on their own partners than sell them. Sighing at this fact I knew I had to go back out into the forest again.

As for the training menu it allowed me to select a certain aspect of Shade and then it would make a 3D training ground within our minds. This allowed us to train privately without anyone knowing how strong we would get, when I activated it in the middle of the night, I woke Shade who was sleeping pleasantly which caused me to get hit by her vines repeatedly. A few hours later she finally felt I had enough and went back to bed leaving me with welts all over my body, using the ointment that I got from the quartermaster when I first got here, I opened the training menu again looking at the options.

[Training Open

- Attack Power

- Defense

- Vitality

- Senses

- Speed

- Vines]

Given how everything was progressing I would be in the training menu quite a lot within the next two weeks. Time in the training menu is 10:1 in favor of the training menu, it also provides unlimited stamina to help the training along. As the first week reached a close the Overseer which was in charge of seeing how training was coming along came to my cabin however unlike before when he entered the cabin, he was immediately restrained by thick vines the size of one's arm. These vines were barbed in away which will cause your skin to be shredded if you tried to resist, the poor overseer found this out the hard as he tried to break free himself. His beetle was summoned as well however it was also restrained in a matter of seconds, what was even more surprising was the fact that the barbs on the vines pierced the carapace almost instantly. Watching this unfold I finally raising my hand causing Shade to huff then went back to sleep, the overseer was holding his arm which he tried to free as blood hit the floor. The beetle crawled over to its master releasing a pitiful chirping sound as if trying to get sympathy from him.

Since coming back from the forest Shade and I haven't left the cabin even once which was seen as us slacking and forgoing our training period. Sadly, though reality was quite harsh; we were constantly training in the training menu and I used the system store for food and other necessities, what was amazing about the system was that each time we finished a training session it created it would reward us with five hundred credits. I used the first five thousand credits to buy another system feature though this one was a little useless when you thought about it, this feature sent you to a fully stocked bathroom with a jet tub and everything. Sadly, though I couldn't take anything out of this bathroom, Shade who was a wood type monster loved the bathroom as it was an endless source of water where it could relax, I promised her that each day after training I would allow here to relax within the bathroom for as long as she wanted to.

If you asked someone if this was a meaningful purchase, they would say it was completely worthless however I was a person who lived in the modern era so living without a real toilet was really hard for me. I mean you had a pit in the back room for your business but beyond that you had nothing, don't me started on cleanliness around here. Right now, Shade was sulking because I wouldn't let her in the bathroom until the overseer was finished doing his rounds which caused him to be attacked instantly when he walked into the room.

With only a glare from the overseer he grabbed his beetle who was still chirping and left my cabin. In this past week I've been training Shades speed, reaction time, senses, and vines which caused them to develop at a rapid pace. Now Shade had two types of vines which she can deploy; the first type are restraints which were used on the overseer just now, they can restrain multiple targets with almost perfect precision, the other type are piercing vines which can well pierce through iron. Sighing at the sight of the retreating overseer I sent Shade into the bathroom while I planned for the next week, now that the vines are so strong, I wanted to improve Shade now which meant I needed to improve attack power, defense, vitality, and resistance.

Right now, Shade could defeat any creature within the same rank as her and some creatures of the second rank. I'll train Shade until Thursday, after that I'll go out into the forest for a wood core; I'm going to be giving the best to Shade as she will be my lifeline in this world, when I get back to civilization, I'll probably be better off than most people. Shade has lived most of her life in the wild so she isn't lazy like the domesticated monsters that were raised in captivity, if others aren't careful, they will be attacked without any warning. I'll probably have to cut her bathroom time if she doesn't behave herself but even then, I won't limit her that much.

The fated day had come much quicker than I had expected but it was worth it; looking at Shade who was almost as tall as me now I couldn't help but feel a little scared as I looked at her razor sharp claws and teeth, her wood like skin grew even darker while her eyes adjusted automatically so they could blend in with the lighting in the surrounding areas. Before leaving the encampment, I tied a rope around Shades neck so I wouldn't fall off; the last time I rode her I barely withstood the wind, now that she has been trained, she was going to be a lot faster. When Shade walked out of the cabin with me the surrounding individuals that were training their own familiars all stared with blank faces at the emerging monster, the rhino who was aloof since the very beginning was now shaking where it stood. The overseers no longer looked on the sidelines, instead they directly moved out of the way when we went past, the overseer's familiars were tier 2 while the head overseers personal guards were tier 3 or 4.

The tier 2 beetles were scared when Shade first appeared but now, they didn't even burrow underground like last time, instead they froze in place not daring to make a sound. The overseer's curiosity quickly turned to fear as they saw the beetle's reactions but they quickly recovered and opened the gates for us. It's strange when I first entered this death camp the overseers were beyond arrogant and would beat anyone that came near them, now they avoided me like I was the plague. As soon as we left the encampment I hopped onto Shade and allowed her to run freely, the creatures that lived within the forest avoided us however those that tried to attack us were instantly slaughtered by dark green vines. Some were crushed to death while the others were pierced, in the end though it didn't matter as dead is dead.

I made sure to put the corpses into my inventory for future prospects, poison type creatures were quite rare in the alliance and would go for a pretty penny. In addition to the corpses I collected plants as well as the system stated that I could make remedies directly from the system, all I needed was the materials. When the sun was high in the sky Shade finally stopped running and approached slowly, when she moved passed some brush, I finally saw a giant tree with twirling vines, in the center of the tree was a face carved out of wood. The eyes of the face were hollow while the mouth released a sound similar to a cry for help in the eyes of an unwary traveler, this was a mandrake tree of at least the third tier, one could tell by the facial features that this face made. One more tier and it would evolve and its 'song' would cause instant death to anything that was below tier 4, as I watched this plant in the distance, I could feel Shade tense up at the sight of this creature.

'System what will happen if I give Shade this creatures core?'

[Next evolution will be strengthened even further]

'Well the saying 'no risk no reward' is true this world as well.'

"What do you think, should we go for it or not?" (Me)

Shade huffed then laid down allowing me to get off of her; seeing this I knew she wanted to do this herself, I gave her a single pat before moving away from her. I pulled my gun out as I watched Shade charge forward alerting the mandrake to her presence; in an instant roots that were covered in dirt shot out of the ground while the face which was giving out a helpless cry plastered a smile on its face, just before the roots could even touch Shade vines shot out of no where tearing the roots to pieces. The vines and roots fought against each other as Shade approached but just as she was about to strike roots shot out of the mouth of the mandrake hitting her. Shade fell back but beyond being stunned for a moment she seemed fine, this was the result of the endless training that we did together, her defenses were out of this world even my gun couldn't penetrate her skin now. Shade once again approached but this time with even more aggression, obviously that surprise attack pissed her off, her vines fought even fiercer than before tearing the roots apart one by one but the roots were also getting punctured out of no where as well. Unlike before when she approached Shade swiped at the roots that shot out of the mandrakes mouth causing green liquid to shoot out covering Shade in its blood. Ignoring this fact, she continued to claw at the face until the roots behind her stopped moving, by the time she was finished the face no longer existed, instead it was replaced by a green glob of twitching flesh.

Seeing that it was safe I moved forward avoiding the roots that were lying on the floor altogether, once in front of the mandrake an unmistakable smell flooded the air. This smell rivaled the smell of a durian fruit which was world famous back on earth, holding back my lunch I pulled a knife out of my inventory which I bought just before leaving the encampment. Using this knife, I cut into the mandrake; layer by layer I dug a hole about ten inches inside of it until I finally found a glowing green crystal, this crystal was lime green and the size of a fully grown mans fist. When Shade saw this crystal, greed filled her eyes as well as the connection between us but I ignored this and directly depositing it into my inventory causing a vine to appear behind me which connected with the back of my head.

The vine was just a plain vine without any barbs however it was still as thick as an arm which caused me to fall face first into the green sludge of the mandrake. Pulling myself out of the sludge I turned to Shade who was poking a root with her paw as if she had nothing to do with it, giving revenge some thought I entered the bathroom to wash the sludge off before climbing onto Shade who was sulking about being left behind even though she was covered in mandrake blood. When we got back to the encampment, we were being stared at again but Shade was covered in blood seemed to be an even fouler mood than before. When we got inside of the cabin, she was about to jump onto the bed however with a single thought I sent her into the bathroom to cool off, the smell that came from the mandrake was horrible and I really didn't want to sleep in it.

While Shade was relaxing, I immediately prepared the meat and the core; I had numerous corpses in my inventory so getting tier 2 meat wasn't a problem. When I was finally ready, I summoned Shade who was now drenched from head to toe with a pleasant look on her face with her tail wagging, shaking my head at this I directed her to the meat which she immediately devoured. As she finished the last piece of meat and then the crystal which was glowing beside it, she crawled up to the bed and fell asleep, no matter how I tried she wouldn't respond to me at all not even through the connection we had. One must know that even when she was sleeping, I could feel her emotions but at the moment it was like she wasn't even there.

[Evolution has begun, estimated time until evolution is finished: 15 hours]

I read the message and sighed in relief before crawling up to Shade; as I laid there her slow breathing sent me into the void of my consciousness, I dreamt about earth, my family, and the very few friends that I had there. I dreamt about what could have been but this was interrupted by pounding on my door, I looked over and found that it was one of the patrolling overseers. When I opened the door I found that he stared at Shade who was calmly sleeping on the bed, he cleared his throat noticing that she didn't move which must have gave him some kind of closure.

"The head overseer wants all trainers to be present within eight hours, no exceptions." (Overseer)

"Thank you for the reminder." (Me)

The moment he relayed the message the overseer immediately left in hurried steps; once he was gone I turned to the timer and saw that there was six hours left until the evolution was complete, since I had a lot of time on my hands I scrolled through the system shop checking what I could get to help me pass the time. I spent my time waiting for the evolution to finish reading books bought from the system shop, these books were originally hit novels from earth but back then I never got the chance to read them. I got half way through one of the books that caught my attention when I heard dinging from the system followed by several notifications.

[Congratulations, Shade has reached Tier 2]

[Shade has awoken a minor poison affinity]

[Tier 2 training sessions have been unlocked]

[Name: Shade

Gender: Female

Type: Wood/Poison

Skills: Enhanced Senses LV 8, Vines LV 9, Night Vision, Poison tip LV 1]

'She definitely received a boost in the skills department, system can I get a description of the new skill?'

[Poison Tip LV 1: Coat your vines in a venom with a 10% chance of paralyzing target]

Before the evolution Shade's skills were all at level five but now, they are at eight and nine while becoming poisonous, these were the obvious changes I have no idea what her actual combat abilities are. Shade who was on the bed finally started to move; as she became aware of her surroundings excitement filled the connection between us, she moved towards me and nudged me with her head as if expecting me to do something. Letting out a quick chuckle I activated the training menu but this time a new selection was opened up 'poison' this session definitely stood out as I remembered what happened with the vines she already had. Looking at the clock to see that I had another two hours before the final test I activated it sending Shade and me into the system once again.

Third person POV *Gathering Point*

"How's the young star doing?" (Head Overseer)

"Can I speak freely?" (Guard)

"Yes, after all you had quite the experience with him." (Head overseer)

The guard which was in front of the head overseer stroked his wounded arm as he shivered at the feeling, he thought he forgotten. Last week when he went to check on the boy, he got restrained by the boys familiar, it wasn't the first time a familiar attacked an overseer so without thinking he tried to free himself which caused his arm to be shred. It took several experienced healers just to make the arm look like an arm however they weren't so lucky with its efficiency, the doctors stated that he will never be able to use that arm ever again.

"The boy and the creature is a threat and should be disposed of accordingly, we train monsters here I get that but that boy is something else." (Guard)

"Isn't he though, my precious had to come out to save me from those nasty vines." (Head overseer)

"So, you understand what I mean, why are we allowing him to live when it will be even more dangerous later on!?" (Guard)

"Hush now your frightening my precious." (Head overseer)

The guard turned to see a crimson beetle behind him, it was attached to the ceiling of the room with its claws at the ready. If not for its masters wishes this beetle would bleed this noisy fellow for disturbing its sleep, as if on instinct the guard moved back away from the claws that shined in the candle light.

"Let the boy be, he is my favorite toy after all, when the time is right, he will repay my kindness for sure." (Head Overseer)

The head overseer giggled like a school girl as he thought about future prospects but the guard which was standing beside him had a very terrified look plastered on his face. He knew the overseer for years; in fact, they were in the same training camp together, the only reason why he was here today was because the head overseer crippled all the other trainers before the matches even started. The guard remembered the giggle of this monster the night before it all went down, so whatever he wants won't be pretty that's for sure.

"Sir its time." (Guard)

"Oh… time sure slips away from you when your having fun, come precious we have lives to ruin." (Head overseer)