The Wolves

Earth

Spectre Base, Canadian Rockies

August 16, 2019

11:33 PDT (14:33 EDT)

Everyone was in shock. Except for Bria and Tamara, that is, who immediately burst into laughter when Ben fell off of Nathid and fell on his ass. After realizing that he wasn't hurt, the rest of us soon burst into laughter as well.

Tamara used her sleeve to wipe away her tears while walking over to help Ben to his feet.

"Sorry about that, Ben. Everyone always wants to ride the gryphons, and this is a little prank we pull on them. I'll get him saddled up and then all of you can take a turn riding him, if you wish," she explained, a saddle appearing in her hand.

"Seems like a pretty mean prank," he grumbled with a sour look on his face. "What if I'd been hurt?"

"Well, it would be nothing a few hours in a med chamber couldn't fix. Besides, you're wearing that armor. From experience, I know you didn't even feel the impact," she replied as she placed the saddle on Nathid's back.

"Fair enough, though I doubt people wearing this armor wouldn't enjoy it very much."

"Well actually, pretty much every single person that has been pranked has been much higher level than you and your friends, so it didn't bother them at all. Things that hurt you now wouldn't even register on your radar if you were a hundred levels higher."

After another thirty seconds or so, Nathid was saddled and she gestured Ben to hop on. He was a little wary, but after checking that the saddle was firmly secured, he stepped into the stirrup and then swung his leg over. This time he had a handhold to grab onto which, along with the stirrups, meant that he wouldn't fall off. There wasn't a rein to direct Nathid where to go, and I was about to ask Bria about it when I realized that the rider could probably lean in the direction they wanted to go.

This time when Ben said the magic word, Nathid had a running start before leaping in the air and beating his large wings, soon propelling them through the air with ease. As we all watched, Nathid took Ben for a loop around the large enclosure, which included a brief amount of time when they were out of sight behind the mountain, before returning.

"That was awesome!" Ben exclaimed, making no move to get off of Nathid.

"Alright, who's next?" Tamara asked, drawing everyone's attention over to her. It seemed that she was saddling up Yoni while the rest of us were tracking Ben and Nathid as they soared through the sky.

"Me next!" Mason said, using Dash to close the distance. He was about to put his foot into one of the stirrups to throw himself over Yoni's back when Tamara moved to put a hand on his chest.

"Uh uh. You can clearly see that Yoni is quite a bit smaller than her mate. She can't support your weight and keep the two of you in the air. If you want to go up, you'll need to ride on Nathid," she explained before looking over to the twins. "Ladies, which of you would like to go first?"

I saw them look at each other for a moment, and without a word Sonja started walking forward. A week ago I would've thought there was some twin voodoo going on. If they couldn't communicate telepathically then, they definitely could now. At the same time the twins were doing their thing, Ben was struggling to take his feet out of the stirrups so he could actually dismount Nathid. Mason grabbed Ben's right leg and pulled the first stirrup off before walking around and doing the same for his left leg.

I could hear Ben thank Mason before swinging his leg over the side and hopping off. Mason wasted no time mounting Nathid, and quickly bid him to fly as well. Nathid leapt into the air and began to ascend without any difficulty, and was immediately followed by Sonja and Yoni. They easily passed Mason and Nathid and that seemed to trigger a race between the two. When they disappeared behind the mountain, the girls were in the lead, and that didn't change when both pairs appeared on the other side. In fact, the lead by the girls increased by quite a bit.

"Yoni is way faster than Nathid," Bria said as she walked over to stand beside me. "She isn't as fast with someone on her back, but she isn't slowed down nearly as much as Nathid is with your friend on his back. What is he? Two-sixty? Two-seventy?"

"Something like that, yeah. He's a massive human being," I said with a chuckle.

"Are you going up next?" she asked as we watched Mason, Sonja and their mounts on approach.

I shook my head. "Nah, being able to transform into a dragon and fly around kinda ruined the wonder of it for me. Besides, I already scanned Nathid a little while ago, so now I can shift into a gryphon whenever I want."

"Oooh! I haven't been able to scan a dragon yet, though I was able to scan a nice dragonkin woman I saw in the cafeteria the other day. The form is pretty formidable, though perhaps not as formidable as your seotross form."

'I haven't scanned a dragonkin yet, but perhaps I should get on that,' I mused. "Are you sure about that? We acquire the abilities of whatever we scan while in the corresponding form, right? As such, we should have access to the abilities of the seven different types since we transform into the Chromatic variant. That means that we should be able to breath fire and control things with telekinesis, to name a few. I haven't tried doing any of those in my dragon form, though I should be able to, as should you in your dragonkin form."

She was silent for a moment as we watched the twins switch, while Ben hopped on Nathid again. "I hadn't really thought about that. Usually I just have someone hold my phone or put it down where I can see it before shifting into a new form so I can see my stat increases. I was surprised how much my stats were multiplied while in my dragonkin form. Intellect went up slightly, while everything else doubled, at minimum. Constitution and Strength were the highest at somewhere around eight times my human norm, while Agility and Endurance went up a lesser amount. It's the most powerful humanoid form I've acquired so far."

"Seems pretty well balanced. My seotross form is mostly Strength, with some hefty penalties to Agility and Intellect. The added Constitution and Endurance makeup for that, though. Not to mention having an extra set of arms."

"A lot of people saw how powerful your form is, actually. The screens in the lobby were tuned into your fight with that bear... Berengar was the name? Anyways, I watched that fight and there was a stats page on the side. They were insane!" she enthused. "Well, not your Agility or Intellect, as combined they didn't even hit twenty, but your Strength and Constitution were ridiculous for your level! I think your physical damage reduction was at somewhere like eighty-nine point six or eighty-nine point seven percent! You avoided a lot of the bear's attacks, but you probably could've tanked them no problem."

"Oh really? I knew people watched our fight against Jihm, but I didn't realize they watched that one as well."

She quickly nodded. "Your team is on every time you go to a dungeon. It's usually on a smaller screen, but they do put your boss fights on the big screens. People like seeing their King kicking ass," she finished with a laugh.

I was about to respond when Tamara entered our conversation.

"What are you two gossiping about?" she asked with a grin. "Not interested in riding Nathid around the enclosure?"

Again, I was beat to the punch.

"I asked the same question. His answer was essentially that gryphons aren't very exciting when you can turn into a massive dragon and fly around that way. I would probably agree if I had already scanned a dragon."

"You forgot the fact that I scanned Nathid as well, so I could turn into a gryphon if I wanted to. Nah, I'll let my friends have their fun," I replied as I looked past Tamara and saw that the twins were racing around the enclosure now.

"We were also talking about our various forms. He's scanned a seotross, and a dragon, while I've scanned a dragonkin, so we were comparing notes," she said before turning back to me. "We never talked about your dragon form... how much do your stats increase when you shift into it?"

"They go way up," I answered, thinking back to when I had my someone read my stats off. "I think it was something like a sixteen times multiplier for Strength, twenty times multiplier for Agility, one point two times multiplier for Intellect, eight times multiplier for Constitution and then a twenty times multiplier for Endurance."

Tamara whistled when I finished listing off the multipliers. "There aren't many species out there that are that robust, but it makes sense when you consider the fact that they are unable to level. I do wonder if those values will increase as you get older as well, since dragons get stronger and stronger as they age. Perhaps I'll try to find a dragon willing to let me scan them and we'll see if there is any difference."

"Wouldn't that make someone incredibly overpowered if those multipliers increased as well? In my dragon form my stats are equivalent to someone over level one hundred, I think. I can't imagine what it would be like if someone was at level one thousand while in their dragon form."

"It could, and there are are overpowered individuals in the universe. This isn't a game, and as such, there is nothing in place to keep balance. That is something that young people, specifically those on Earth, don't understand. Not until they go into a dungeon unprepared and realization is beaten into them."

"Why is that a problem on Earth, and not elsewhere?"

"Ah, that's very simple. Many children on Earth play video games thinking that it will prepare them for what's in store when they're finally allowed to delve into dungeons. There are many flaws in those games. They do a good job of replicating abilities from the real world, but there isn't any pain transference when your character gets hurt, and you can just respawn your character if you die."

"For Scyftans, and many other races in that quadrant of the galaxy, it's entirely different. While children do play video games in their free time, they're much more advanced. Virtual reality pods were developed as soon as people discovered the potential of them, and the video game industry exploded soon after. Companies were developing incredibly realistic games, which, in some cases, were identical to the real world. It gave people the chance to hone their techniques and prepare themselves before ever setting foot inside of a dungeon."

"The key difference between games that are popular with Scyftan youth, and games that are popular with those on Earth, is that it is incredibly real. While you can't die by playing the game, you will feel pain when you get hit, and your character can permanently die. If it does, there is no respawn mechanic. You would need to start all over again."

"I see. So if there are powerful people out there, how are they dealt with if they go on a rampage or something?"

"Ships are the best way. Even the strongest person can't withstand a barrage from a bunch of ships for long; their mana regeneration just can't keep up. That usually ends up causing a lot of collateral damage, however, so they are rarely used. Instead, teams are brought in to take the individual down. There are actually a few different organizations that provide the service of containing such threats. I daresay the Hellraisers could do the same, if they were so inclined."

"Really?" I asked, surprised. "They're strong enough to do that?"

She nodded. "There was a reason that the Spectres were held back and Abi was called in. Every member the Hellraisers is over level one thousand, if barely so, but that's a few hundred levels higher than even the strongest Spectre. We really have stagnated while hiding out here. It will be good to finally be able to start delving once again."

"For a team so powerful, they definitely backed off pretty quickly when Abi fired a warning shot."

"Probably because she was shrouded and could have easily destroyed their ship, leaving them stranded here. Anyways, come. Your mom asked me not to keep you and your friends past 16:00. There are a few things we need to go over before then."

I nodded and followed her as she walked over to where my friends were standing. Mason and Anja were about to order Nathid and Yoni to take off when she told them to stop. After explaining that there were some additional things to talk about, she unsaddled the two gryphons with the help of her daughter before putting them away in her storage. After depositing Thoosa on her mother's back, Nathid and Yoni leapt into the air, heading back to their perch on the mountain. We watched them as they flew, before turning and heading the way we had come.

I wondered why Thoosa wasn't flying beside her parents, but Bria answered that for me as we walked through the enclosure. Apparently while Thoosa is able to glide now, she isn't able to actually fly on her own, requiring her to ride one of her parents around. She wouldn't have to do so for long, however. In two to three weeks, she'd be able to fly on her own.

After leaving the enclosure and making sure the door was locked, Tamara opened up a portal to her office, saving us a few minutes of walking. Bria didn't join us, having other things to do this afternoon. Upon arriving in her office, she bid us to sit while walking over to the fridge and grabbing a bottle of water for each of us. After setting one down in front of each of us, she sat down opposite of us.

"Alright, as my husband told you earlier, we'll go back to see the wolves on Wednesday, assuming the weather permits us to do so. We'll aim to see them twice a week, and as such I'll need your schedules. I know you'll be starting some training shortly. When will that be happening?"

"Monday to Thursday, with the entirety of the weekend free to do whatever we want," I answered. "We plan to use the weekends to level up in dungeons, but we can work around that to visit the wolves."

"Perfect. I'll coordinate with whoever will be training you on Wednesday, and then we'll see them again on Friday before you leave."

"Leave?" Sonja asked, looking puzzled. As were the rest of us for that matter. "Where are we going?"

Tamara froze at that before relaxing once again.

"I guess the cat is out of the bag, one moment."

My friends and I looked at each other wondering what she was talking about.

"Alright, apparently your mom was going to fill in your friends parents tonight when they met with them, but I wasn't aware that your friends didn't know. Or that you didn't, either. You will be accompanying Abi when she transports the dragons and their eggs to their new home. Your friends will be allowed to go as well, if they get permission from their parents."

"Really?!" Ben exclaimed, which was followed by a very unmanly squeal shortly afterwards.

Everyone else started laughing as he covered his mouth, blushing when he noticed us all starting at him. Eventually he joined in, laughing at himself.

"When would we be leaving?" Anja asked.

"I'm not sure of the exact time, but it will be sometime in the evening of August 23. They need to wait until after Abi's latest growth to load the ship, which is entirely up to him," she answered, pointing at me.

"Jonathan? Why?"

"Because the time between growths is dependant on my mana regen, Mace. I haven't been putting any of my attribute points into Intellect as that would increase my mana regen and make the window open earlier than they would like. Being in the dungeon all day yesterday did push back the window several hours, so I may have to increase my intellect a bit to compensate. I'm sure Abi will let me know if I need to do so, so we're on schedule."

"You don't have to spend a single attribute point increasing your Intellect, actually," Tamara stated. "All you would need to do is switch to your Scyftan form, or your dragon form, and that would provide you with all the mana regeneration you would need."

"I can't believe I forgot about that! I had intended on sleeping in my Scyftan form when I found out that I would get a slight intellect increase out of it. That probably would've made the window sooner though, so maybe this is the best."

"If you want to increase Abi's growth as much as possible, you'll probably want to scan a dragonkin and remain in that form as much as possible. That extra twenty percent to Intellect would increase the rate at which you generate mana quite a bit. Anyways, we're getting off-topic. So either my husband or I will take you to see the wolf pups every Wednesday when you get back. If you're using the weekends to level up in dungeons, then I imagine you'll be able to spare an hour or two on Saturdays or Sundays to visit them?"

"Either of those days is fine for me. I have no preference for either. I suppose whichever day is best for you will work for us," I replied, getting nods from everyone but Ben.

"I don't have a preference either, though it could depend on what percentage a dungeon is at. If we're close to a boss fight and the dungeon is at 10% or less, we'll probably want to get that done."

"That's fine, we'll work around it," Tamara said. "Now the other thing that I wanted to talk to you about is something that I already explained to Jonathan. You heard me say that Tame Beast isn't something that you cast, it's something that you work at. Tame Beast is also a skill that doesn't level up like other skills do, nor can you buy different tiers of Tame Beast to advance quicker. It will always take everyone the exact same amount of time to level up Tame Beast from tier E to tier S, which is approximately six thousand three hundred days, total. If you do the math, that is a little over seventeen years and three months. For Scyftans that amount of time is nothing compared to our lifespan, but is roughly a fifth of an average human lifespan. You need to be certain that this is something you want to commit to."

It was a depressing thought, one I hadn't realized until now. By the time my friends died of old age, I'd probably be around a hundred years old, and still look the same as I do now. A few days ago I probably would've thought that we'd delve into dungeons together until we were too old to continue and hang it up. Instead, I'd have to watch them grow old and die before burying them one by one.

"...just be like having a pet, wouldn't it? We got a dog when I was five or six, though she passed away a few years ago," Ben said.

"It is very much like having a pet, yes, though there are some differences. The first is that for each tier you need to tame an animal and keep it alive for however long that tier requires. For tier E that is one hundred days. Once you reach Tier D, you need to find a Class D animal to tame and keep it alive for two hundred days to advance again. It means that you very well might end up losing some very good friends along the years as they die, be it from injury or old age."

"There isn't a requirement to level all the way up to Tier S, is there? So we could stop upon hitting Tier D or Tier C?" Mason asked

"You could, though that would greatly decrease the strength of any of your companions. They can get incredibly strong by the time you reach rank one hundred at Tier S."

"Oh, that reminds me. Is there armor for companions like the armor we're wearing now? It seems like they would be nothing but fodder inside of dungeons."

"There is, indeed. My husband is actually a crafter more than he is a tamer, and he has developed armor for many different species of animals. They work similarly to the armor you're wearing now, though are a bit different. I'll show you an example," she said.

She began walking behind the couch my friends and I were sitting on, while taking the same cube that she had shown me at breakfast out of her inventory. She set it close to the wall and then activated it, the portal appearing just above it, as it did before. When it was stable she put her fingers in her mouth and whistled, though this time it was a quick series of whistles, rather than one long one.