Chapter 30 - Powerful Companion

[Do you want to name your tamed beast?]

Arthur said yes. He didn’t choose the name, though. He spoke with the serpent.

"Yuki. That’s my name."

"Yuki, alright. Now, Yuki, how can this work? I mean, you can’t breathe out of the water, you said?"

"I can’t, no. But if you help me level up a little bit, then I can learn how to breathe out of the water."

"What level do you need?"

"I think 5."

Arthur checked his system tab. Now he could see Yuki’s stats.

[Name: Yuki]

[Species: Snowveil Serpent]

[Rarity: Rare]

[Growth Potential: Unknown]

[Level: 1]

[HP: 30/30]

[MP: 70/70]

[Attributes:]

[Strength: 1]

[Agility: 6]

[Vigor: 1]

[Intelligence: 7]

The creature had pretty decent attributes for level 1. Maybe it was due to the rarity of the beast, or was it the bonuses from his Soul Artisan class.

Speaking of it, the bonuses were wild.

[Soul Companion]

[Type: Passive]

[Tier: Divine]

[Level: 1]

[Description: Your Tamed Beast is soul-tied to you, meaning you cannot release the beast back to nature, or pass it to someone else. You’re its only master.]

[Note: Leveling up this skill will grant you more bonuses.]

[Bonuses:]

[Higher growth potential for your tamed beast, current unknown potential.]

[+20% EXP gains for your beast.]

[+10% attribute growth per level.]

And there was also the skill that Arthur got really excited about, even more than the rest.

[Soul Resonance]

[Type: Active]

[Tier: Divine]

[Level: 1]

[Cost: 20 MP]

[Description: Infuse a fraction of your Tamed Beast’s essence into an item you’re crafting, granting it a trace of the beast’s nature and attributes. Requires the beast to be nearby during the crafting process.]

[Note: Leveling up this skill will grant you more bonuses.]

With these passives, not just the growth potential of his tamed beast was higher than normal, it would also gain more attributes and EXP per level.

But the best part was the usage of the beast for future crafts. Yuki was still weak, with no abilities to use, so it barely had any elemental essence in it.

However, by leveling up, Arthur was sure the creature would be much stronger in the future.

"So let’s level up, then," Arthur said.

All Beast Tamers shared some of their EXP with their companion. Arthur wouldn’t earn less EXP, it didn’t work like that. It was more like, the EXP he gained, 50% of it would go directly to Yuki.

So basically, Yuki didn’t need to kill anything yet to get stronger. It only needed to stay close to Arthur while he did it.

Yuki couldn’t leave the river. To make things work, Arthur had to leave the river and then lure some monsters next to it so that Yuki would gain EXP.

So, that’s what he did. It wasn’t hard to find weak wolves roaming the area, wolves that were around level 3, weaker than Arthur.

With his improved attributes from the contract plus his decent weapon, Arthur easily grinded out wolves like a maniac. It took him another 2 hours to get Yuki to level 5...

During this time, though, Arthur also reached level 6, which was nice. He earned more free attributes to use.

When Yuki reached level 5, it learned a new passive.

[Passive Skill Unlocked: Frostgill Breath (Lvl 1)]

[Description: Allows your Tamed Beast to breathe outside of water for extended periods. Duration increases with skill level.]

This didn’t mean Yuki could stay forever out of the water, but it was a start. In the future, that could change.

Yuki left the river, now able to breathe for a while outside of it. He jumped onto Arthur’s shoulder, wrapping around his neck.

"How are you so smart?" Arthur asked.

He’d read about Beast Tamers before. They could also talk to beasts, like he was doing with the Animal Whispering skill, however, not all beasts had high intelligence.

Yuki, though, seemed quite smart. In fact, its Intelligence attribute was quite high.

"I’m not an ordinary creature, that’s why. My mother was so big she was even bigger than these forest trees. At least 5 times the size."

Could Yuki be telling the truth? Maybe. Arthur knew there were special creatures scattered throughout the game, and these creatures, once tamed, were much better than the rest.

Not just in intelligence. Some were still dumb but really tanky, or could do lots of damage. It all depended on the type of beast.

Anyway, Arthur returned to the city with Yuki wrapped around his neck. He didn’t go visit the beast tamer, as his quest now required him to go see the mayor, Ray.

After all those hours Arthur spent swimming to find Yuki, then killing monsters to level him up, more players were getting closer to reaching the city.

Arthur passed by a few of them that weren’t level 10 yet, but almost there. Some were level 6, others 7, and there was even one level 8.

When he passed by them and they saw his nickname, everyone stopped what they were doing.

He frowned.

’Why did they stop talking and fighting monsters to stare at me?’

Arthur had just come out of the forest near the city, and he spotted at least 15 players on the roads near Snow Pine.

He’d already thought about the worst. From what he had read on the forums, most players from the other kingdoms wanted to find him and kill him.

Some were envious of him, others wanted to know his secrets, and some just wanted him to lose EXP.

But the players from the harsh kingdom of Aldora? Every single one of them was in the same shit together, leveling up slower than the rest of the players because of the cold penalties.

To them, having Cinder, the most famous player in the game, being from the same kingdom as them was an honor.

They all smiled and waved at him.

"Cinder, you’re the best. Can I take a picture with you? Maybe record a video?"

A lady said something that almost made Arthur choke. She screamed with everything she had, even jumping.

"Can you sign my chest, Cinder? Please? I’m your biggest fangirl."

She even started opening up her shirt, but her friend standing next to her stopped her.

"Don’t do this, please."

Yuki, although smart, had no idea what the fuck was going on. When the players talked, the little creature couldn’t comprehend. It could only understand Arthur.

Also, the creature had no way of knowing it was a game. To the NPCs, they weren’t players, but The Chosen Ones who could return from the dead.

Arthur wasn’t in a hurry, so he stopped by and talked to them for a while, taking some pictures, and he even signed that girl’s chest in the end...

The guy standing next to her looked quite angry about it. Perhaps he was a friend who got friendzoned and couldn’t stand watching Arthur do that.

Either way, after he was done, Arthur left and moved toward the city.

The guards let him in, obviously. The same happened when he reached the mayor’s tower.

Arthur went up the tower using the teleportation device at the base.

Ray was sitting on his couch, staring through the window while drinking wine. That man loved his wine.

"Why do you have this serpent? I asked the beast tamer from the city to find it. Did he do it?"

Arthur proudly said, "I’m the one who tamed it. I’m also a Beast Tamer now."

"What? How? Anyway, doesn’t matter. Pass the creature to me, and I’ll give you your rewards."

The hard part finally came.

"I’m sorry, mayor Ray, but I can’t do that."

"Huh?"