The Silver Fang

The hounds growled viciously as they as they turned their attention to Liam and his familiars. However, Liam remained calm and eyed all of them, counting their numbers.

"Eight in all...", said Liam ,"Just enough for all of us then. Kai!"

Kai sprang forward and rushed towards one of the hounds. The massive beast bared it's fangs and tried to bite her, but Kai easily dodged it's attack and slashed her claws at the beast's neck.

The hound yelped in pain and the place where Kai's claws had scratched was lit with a bright fire. It tried desperately rolling on the ground to put the fire out but it had no luck and soon burned to ashes.

"Excellent work, Kai", Liam praised the little fox before turning to the rest of the hounds. They backed away from him, now hesitating to attack.

"I'd rather wrap this up quickly", said Liam and he looked at his fanged monkey and steel scaled python ,"Razor, get those two people out of there. And Jiri, keep those dogs away from him"

The monkey nodded and sprang into action, swinging nimbly from tree to tree. He quickly plucked up the man and the little girl as if they weighed nothing, and then swung to safety.

Jiri, the enormous python, slithered around the dogs. The hounds couldn't move as they were paralyzed by Jiri's gaze. As soon as Razor returned to Liam's side with the hostages, he ordered Jiri to attack.

"Alright, use your poisonous cloud!" Liam shouted.

Jiri opened his mouth and sprayed a purple cloud of poison at the hounds. The unfortunate dogs could do nothing but stay rooted to the spot as they were still paralyzed. After two minutes, the cloud of poison cleared up and all the hounds lay down on the ground, now dead.

"Hmm, that was kinda easier than expected...", said Liam as he scratched his head in confusion ,"Have I really leveled up that much?"

"Umm...excuse me?"

"Huh?" Liam turned to the man who stood behind him, staring at him in awe.

"My name is Jacob", he said ,"T-thank you for saving my daughter and I"

"It was nothing, really", Liam replied with a kind smile ,"My name's Liam. I hope you and your daughter did not suffer any injuries"

"No no, we're quite fine. Aren't we, Tina?" Jacob asked the little girl who nodded stiffly.

"Well, I'd love to stay and chat but I have some things I must attend to", said Liam as he walked over to the hounds on the ground.

As per his usual fighting style, Jiri had managed to leave one of the hounds still alive, although just barely. Liam stretched out his hand towards it.

"Tame", he chanted.

The hound glowed brightly before turning into tiny particles and flying to his hand.

[«Notice»

-Successfully tamed Night hound

Number of slots available: 2]

"Awesome! I almost have a full party at this point", said Liam before turning to Blu ,"Round up all the dead hounds and keep them for me"

"Your name is Jet", he said to the dog. The hound barked and wagged it's tail happily.

"Oh! Are you an adventurer perhaps? What guild do you belong to?" Jacob asked.

Liam frowned ,"Yes, I am an adventurer. But what do you mean by 'Guild' though?"

"Oh, I see. You just started out as an adventurer recently then", said Jacob ,"I just assumed you were be part of a Guild, seeing as how fast you took down those beasts with ease"

"Let us settle and set up camp for the night first", Liam suggested ,"Then you can tell me all about it"

They went to work. Liam asked Razor to gather some fire wood and asked Kai to hunt down some animals for supper. The rest of his familiars, stood by on watch. Jacob took the role of setting up two tents and sleeping bags while Tina played around with Blu, squeezing him between her small hands.

Soon, they were seated around a warm fire, enjoying warm bowls of rabbit stew that Jacob had prepared.

"So tell me", said Liam as he ate ,"What did you mean by guild?"

"Well, guilds are associations formed by strong adventures", Jacob explained ,"It's basically a small cooperation of adventurers, where the members can get information, take part in auctions, buy equipment and accept requests in exchange for money"

"Oh! That sounds awesome!" said Liam excitedly, nearly dropping his bowl of soup.

"Mmhmm", Jacob nodded in agreement ,"After I saw your abilities and how strong you and your pets were, I thought you might be part of a big guild. Are you a Summoner?"

"Umm, no I'm a Beast Tamer", said Liam.

"Beast Tamer, huh?" Jacob raised an eyebrow at him ,"Never heard of that one before"

Liam sat forward with a serious expression on his face and asked ,"How do I join a guild?"

"Oh that? You just have to take an exam for the guild to see if you're eligible to join", Jacob explained ,"Although I have to warn you, most guild exams are usually tough. Even for adventurers"

"Thanks for the advice, I'll keep it in mind", said Liam ,"By any chance, do you happen to know where I can go to join a guild right now?"

"If you don't mind, you can back to our town with Tina and I", said Jacob ,"We have one really strong guild called The Silver Fang"

"Really?" asked Liam and he clapped his hands together ,"Sounds great to me"

"Yeah, I'm sure they'd love to have any unique class member to boast about", said Jacob.

"Oh, I'm actually a sub class", Liam corrected him.

"What?!", said Jacob in disbelief ,"You're only a sub class and you're already this strong!"

"Is this strong?" said Liam looking at his familiars ,"Well, I've haven't seen any other adventurers yet, so I wouldn't know"

Jacob was quiet for a little while before he said ,"Liam, I think you should try as hard you can to keep your powers a secret. It's very unheard of to see a sub class adventurer as powerful as you and there are many wicked people in this world..."

Liam nodded, understanding what Jacob was trying to say. True, Liam could only imagine that if other adventurers were to find out about how powerful he was, they would go to any extent to either level up like him-

Or even get rid of him.

Liam got up and stretched.

"Well, it's getting late", he said ,"Why don't you and Tina get some sleep, I'll take first watch"

°

The night was calm as the campfire burned brightly with Jacob and Tina sleeping soundly in their tent.

Liam looked up at the crescent moon in the night sky and sighed.

'I can't wait for tomorrow...' he thought to himself 'I guess for now, I'll just distract myself by updating a few things'

He opened up his menu and scrolled down to the stats of himself and his familiars. It had been so long since he'd checked that he was completely astonished by what he saw.

[<Stats>

Lv. 7

HP: 390

MP: 380

-Strength: 85

-Agility: 85

-Intelligence: 70

-Stamina: 90]

[<Skills>

-Tame

-Enhance

-Switch

-Persevere

-Paired Senses

-Beastification

-Devourer]

[<Familiars>

-Blu:

Lv.10

Race/ Slime

Skills/ Alternate space

Ingest

Dissolve

Imitate

Detect Enemy

-Kai:

Lv.8

Race/ Fire Fox

Skills/ Molten slash

Fire blast

Quick dash

-Ralph:

Lv.5

Race/ Fanged boar

Skills/ Rampage

Impale

Restore

-Jiri:

Lv.5

Race/ Steel scaled python

Skills/ Ensnare

Paralysis

Poison Cloud

-Seph:

Lv.4

Race/ Rainbow lizard

Skills/ Camouflage

Heat Detect

Sneak

-Razor:

Lv.4

Race/ Fanged monkey

Skills/ Shred

Frenzy

-Sky:

Lv.4

Race/ Silver winged falcon

Skills/ Silver arrows

Bird's eye view

-Jet:

Lv.3

Race/ Night hound

Skills/ Piercing howl

Night's blessing]

"Whoa...", said Liam in disbelief ,"No wonder Jacob said I was too strong. Well, I guess that's what comes from hunting monsters without rest for three days straight. Oh yeah, I almost forgot-"

Liam suddenly remembered that he hadn't collected the rewards from his quests. He opened his Inbox and clicked on claim.

[Congratulations: You have successfully completed your quest.

Congratulations: You have successfully completed your quest.

Congratulations: You have successfully completed your quest]

[«Notice»

-You have leveled up from Lv.7 to Lv.8.]

[«Attention»

-The familiar Blu has reached the minimum threshold and is now eligible for evolution.

Would you like to evolve the familiar, Blu?

YES/NO?]

"Wait, my familiars can evolve?!" he said in surprise ,"Of course I want them to get powerful!"

Liam clicked yes and Blu shivered slightly. He began to glow with a faint yellow glow.

[«Notice»

-Successfully evolved familiar, Blu, into greater slime

-Familiar, Blu, has one new skill

-Familiar's skills have been improved by 10%]

[<Familiar>

-Blu:

Lv.10

Race/ Greater Slime

Skills/ Alternate space

Ingest

Dissolve

Imitate

Detect Enemy

Duplicate]

"That's incredible...", Liam muttered in amazement as he patted Blu gently ,"And you have a new skill that lets you multiply yourself"

Blu bounced around happily as if proud of himself. Liam glanced at the rest of his familiars.

'If I can evolve them too' he thought 'It would really help improve our strength a lot'

"Well, tomorrow's another busy day", said Liam as he yawned and laid on the ground. He turned to his familiars and said ,"You guys keep watch and wake me up if anything happens. I'm gonna catch some Z's"

Then he closed his eyes and fell asleep.