4 +1 xp

Arne quickly stepped in and crushed the dragged the slime of the Shadows head and onto his hand. He felt a lot stronger. He tried to squeeze the slime and realized that he had enough strength to do so.

Arne stepped in and dragged the slime off Shadow's head. The slime didn't have a clue as to what was happening and simply envelop Arne's hand. Arne bashed his hand into the floor until he luckily hit the slime core.

"+1 Xp"

"+1 Strength"

"User fought alongside Canis Lupus, does the user wish to make Canis Lupus his pet?"

"Yes, No."

Arne wasn't sure what Canis Lupus was. He guessed that it was Shadow, since that was all he could think of. He selected "Yes.". A small light shined around Shadow which quickly faded.

"What does the user want to name Canis Lupus?"

"Shadow:" Arne said.

"Canis Lupus has been named Shadow:" The system wrote.

"You can access Shadow's status, by saying pet." The system wrote.

"Pet." Arne said.

-----------

Pet:

Name: Shadow

Species: Canis Lupus.

Progression:

Speed Oriented: X

Strength Oriented:

Vitality Oriented:

Skills: Telepathy(super basic)

Evolution: Currently unavailable.

-----------

Arne looked at the page in front of him, it looked self explanatory. He changed the orientation from speed to strength. He also assumed that the system had gifted him with telepathy, since he couldn't hear Shadow earlier.

Anre pocketed the slime core and looked at Shadow. He was snoring. Anre picked him up and shook him awake. Shadow woke up shocked, and when it realized it was Anre, it began growling.

Arne heard a squeaky voice in his mind, "Human."

Arne tried talking and thinking back but Shadow couldn't hear him. The skill seemed to be one way only. Either way, it was better than nothing. Arne now had a better grasp of what Shadow was thinking.

Arnee continued scouring the forest, and spotted three slimes beside each other. He couldn't throw Shadow in alone, that would be suicidal. Arne placed Shadow down, and he bit into his toe. Arne remembered that he needed to buy new shoes.

Arne took out his bow, and steadied it like a drunk steadies himself on a fence. He brought his arrow to the string and pulled it back. He shot, the arrow flew through the air and pierced the slime he was aiming for. But it didn't hit the slime core. The arrow was absorbed and the slimes rolled towards him.

"Bow mastery 0.4/1000"

"+1 Perception"

"We need to go!" Arne said

"Grrrrr!" Shadow growled not letting go.

He scratched Shadow's ear which made it let go, Arne picked him up and began running away. After a minute he returned back. And shot another arrow, another miss. A

"+1 Perception"

"Bow mastery 0.7/1000"

He ran away, and returned after a minute. He shot. A hit! The slimes rolled towards him again.

"+1 Perception"

"+1 Stamina"

"Bow mastery 1.7/1000"

He felt a bead of sweat running down his forehead. He looked at the bright blue sky, there was a pack of blue birds flying by, he smiled. It took all his arrows until he killed another slime, the entire time boxes appeared detailing an increase in something.

When there was only one slime left. He threw Shadow in to fight for him, he sat down and watched the battle. "Slime!" Shadow cried out as he growled. This time, Shadow won the fight.

------------

"4 slime cores, not bad. Did the wolf prove useful?"

"Yup. This Shadow's quite useful!" They both laughed as Arne showed the wolf cub dangling of his finger which it had bitten into.

The merchant took out 4 copper coins. 4 copper coins was all Arne had which couldn't buy anything. This scenario happened a lot to Arne, luckily, there was always work to be done in the town. Especially on the farm.

He walked there, Shadow still dangled from his finger. Farmer Joe was an old man, he'd slaved at the farm his entire life and his back hadn't thanked him, but his farm certainly did. It grew massive, and was the biggest one in the town.

Nowadays, he'd sit on a wooden chair overseeing his children alongside other kids working for him. Arne walked up to him and greeted him.

"Since when did you have a pet?"

"Since yesterday. Hahaha"

"Oh, make sure to feed him well, that way he'll grow strong."

"I sure will."

"Do you want to work?"

"Yeah."

"Then go and get started. What are you waiting for?" Farmer Joe said with a rough voice.

Arne wasn't a good archer by any means. A lot of days he wouldn't get a single slime core, and very rarely would he make more than he spent daily. To make living expenses he'd have to work on the farm.

The farm was big and filled with strawberry plants. Bees swirled all around, the plants had matured and strawberries hung off them. The heavy and juicy strawberries, dragged the plants down to the dirt floor and were slightly buried by dirt.

Arne threw Shadow into one of the empty chicken pens. He got a wooden bucket and began plucking strawberries alongside all the other kids. They noticed him and waved at him, some of them taunting him for his archery. After he had dug up a few strawberries, a message appeared.

"+1 Perception."

That's when it dawned on Arne, he didn't have to fight in order to increase his stats. He was still unsure what perception did, but he knew that it had to be good. He got extra motivated and spent the rest of the day digging up strawberries a lot faster than the other kids. In total, he gained 11 perception, 1 strength, and 2 stamina.

He was drenched in sweat when night had begun. He brought his bucked, now full, to farmer Joe.

"What has gotten into you, kid?"

"I felt especially motivated today."

"You should feel especially motivated everyday then!" Farmer Joe laughed.

"Here you go."

Farmer Joe handed Arne 20 copper coins. That was more than he had ever gotten before. He grabbed Shadow and ran towards the butcher merchant, he reached him just before he'd close. He bought a Shadow slab of meat for 7 copper coins, and himself some bread for 6 coins. The rest he spent on arrows, buying 20 arrows in total.

Arne and Shadow wolfed down their meals. "Sleepy." The squeaky voice inside Arne's mind said. Shadow quickly fell asleep.

As he walked to the stable for water he remembered what day it was. Tomorrow he'd finally turn 16 and could finally become a real adventurer. That meant he could accept proper quests, he could also get proper training.

He put Shadow down on a stack of hay.

Suddenly, boxes began to appear in his vision.

"Error"

"Access denied."

"Error."

"Error."

"Acess deni #13124¤"!#!"

"Users will be transported in 3, 2, 1."

The entire world around Arne shifted. It was as though what he saw ripped apart, the sounds changed, the temperature shifted, and the atmosphere was different.

He was in a desert, and the sun was blasting him. He had already begun to sweat and another message appeared.

"Survive for an hour."

"Time remaining 60 minutes."

Suddenly, the sand in front of him exploded and out of it flew a huge worm.

It had a huge gaping mouth with two claws in front of it and 16 eyes on its head. It was read and haid long isolated hairs all over it's bodies. It flew right into the air and began an arc, then fell straight down.

"Wait a second, it's falling towards me." Arne ran away from where he stood, he stumbled and tripped on the hot dry sand, luckily the worm missed him by a few centimeters. He started running in circles, with the worm ascending where he was 5 seconds ago.

"Running is good training, you should be thankful. And giant worms are good motivation. You should be thankful." The demonic voice said. Arne was panting too much to respond but he felt completely different.

Eventually.

"Time remaining 1 minute."

Arne's clothes were drenched in sweat by now, his running had turned into him wading his way forward. He started a countdown in his head, '10, 9, 8…" And when he thought he was finished another message appeared.

"Time remaining ##!!¤¤%#!"

"Time remaining 10 minutes."

"fuck youuuuuu!" Arne cried to the system as he continued wading forward.