Elizabeth pouted as she glared at the Defender, Alan scratching his cheek nervously as he adjusted his grip on his new shield, the frigid wind whipping the edges of his thick cloak.
“So unfair,” the girl huffed, “I was the one that basically beat the bear, but he gets two items?”
“They’re only D Rank, Beth,” Chris chuckled as he walked beside his sister, “You don’t use a shield anyway, and the cloak gives a bonus to cold resistance and defense, so it’s not that useful for you.”
“It does look warm, though,” Jessica sighed, pulling her own thin cloak around her.
“It is,” Alan admitted, “I feel quite toasty right now. I can lend it to you tonight to help you sleep, if you want?”
“Yes please!” Jessica nodded happily.
“Anyway,” Chris laughed, patting his sister on the shoulder, “Enough pouting, more keeping an eye out for any danger, alright?”
“Yeah, yeah,” the girl sighed, extending her Sense Presence Skill as far as it would go, “Huh.”
“What’s up?” Chris asked, Elizabeth pointing off to the side.
“There’s a group of monsters that way,” she explained, “I’m not sure, but they were moving like they were fighting something.”
“Shall we go take a look?” Chris asked, looking at the rest of the group, who seemed just as intrigued as he was, “Maybe we’ll get to see what we’ll be fighting on this floor before we have to actually fight it?”
The group quickly left the thin trail they’d been following, hurrying towards the location Elizabeth had felt the fight. They quickly arrived, peeking over a partially snow-covered hill to see a pack of wolves attacking what looked like another wolf. The ones attacking were all mostly white, growling and snarling at the other as it tried to back away from them, its coat a startling golden color.
“Snow Wolves,” Chris said, frowning as he looked at the golden one, its fur matted with blood, “And a Snow Wolf Variant? What’s a Variant?”
“We have to save it!” Jessica suddenly gasped, making to get up and run in before Elizabeth grabbed her, pulling her back down, “Beth!”
“Jess, no!” the girl hissed, “You’ll get eaten alive if you try fighting all those alone!”
“But-!” Jessica protested, blinking as Chris suddenly stood, lifting a hand as a ball of flame gathered in his palm.
The spell shot forwards, striking the ground just in front of the pack of wolves, exploding into a column of flame that quickly surrounded the golden wolf. The largest of the Snow Wolves looked back at the source of the attack, spotting Chris and howling, the others gathering behind it as they joined in.
“Everyone, stand up and shout!” Chris yelled, confusing the soldiers for a moment, before Alan hopped to his feet and let out a wordless yell, the others quickly copying him.
Seeing the number of foes increase, the five wolves growled, the four smaller ones looking at their leader, before it snorted and ran off, the others following it, leaving the group and golden wolf behind.
“Thank you!” Jessica called as she hurried down the hill towards the golden wolf, Chris waving his hand, extinguishing the flames that surrounded it as it watched the girl approach.
“What are you doing?” the captain suddenly asked, “If that thing attacks her-.”
“I can kill it from here,” Chris replied flatly, keeping his gaze fixed firmly on the monster, “But she needs a stronger pet right now. No offense, Loppy.”
The rabbit just sneezed, shivering in the cold wind.
“Hi,” Jessica said as she drew closer to the wolf, marveling at the gorgeous golden hue of its fur, “Wow, you’re so pretty.”
The wolf just snarled, limping backwards slightly, one of its hind legs giving out after a few steps.
“You’re hurt,” Jessica said, her expression worried as she tried to approach, the wolf snarling at her again, “I don’t want to hurt you, I promise. I want to help.”
The wolf just tried to turn away, hopping off on three legs for a few steps, before it collapsed, Jessica gasping as she ran to its side.
“Oh no,” she muttered as she saw the wounds covering the wolf’s body, “You’re really injured! Uhm…I have the Healing Magic Skill, so I can help.”
The wolf growled again as it tried to stand, its legs not cooperating with it.
“Hold on,” the girl said, pushing the wolf gently down, flinching as it snapped at her, but keeping her hands pressed against its body, “Heal!”
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The warm light shone from under her fingers, the wolf watching in fascination as the pain in its body lessened.
“Sorry,” the girl panted after a minute, the light fading, “I can’t heal all your injuries because I don’t have enough Mana, but it should hurt a lot less now, right?”
The wolf just looked at her for a moment, before standing back up and trotting around a little, before coming to a stop just in front of her.
“Oh, uhm…” Jessica blinked as the wolf stared at her curiously, “You don’t have to, but you are welcome to come with us if you want?”
The wolf cocked its head to the side cutely, before leaning in closer to the girl and licking her cheek, making Jessica giggle, blinking as the screen appeared in front of her.
------
“Seriously, what kind of name is that for a dog?” Elizabeth teased as the group continued along the thin trail.
“I think it suits him, thank you,” Jessica huffed.
“Yeah, but ‘Aurum’?”
“It means ‘gold’, and his fur is gold, so it works perfectly,” the Tamer explained.
“I know what it means, it’s just a little…on the nose?”
“Would you have preferred I call him ‘Goldie’ then?” Jessica shot back, Elizabeth rolling her eyes before conceding defeat, “Didn’t think so.”
“Hey, where’s Loppy, by the way?” Chris asked, looking for the Horned Rabbit.
“In here,” Jessica said as she showed him the back of her left hand, the one with the flower-like symbol on it, one of the petals colored white, “She’s sleeping in my Tamer’s Mark.”
“Hey, didn’t that only have four petals before?” Elizabeth asked, “It has five now.”
“It did,” Jessica nodded, “The number went up when I reached level fifteen in my Taming Skill, so I think it indicates how many monsters I can have Tamed at once.”
“Oh, that’s cool!” Elizabeth laughed, “We’ll have to keep an eye out for any other interesting monsters for you to Tame, then.”
“Yeah!”
“Pity you couldn’t have tamed one of those bears from the previous floor,” Alan laughed as he walked up beside the three of them, “They could take quite a few hits, it would have been nice to have another person to help defend, or monster, I guess?”
“What level is Aurum anyway?” Elizabeth asked, Jessica looking off to the side as she checked, her eyes going wide after a moment, “What? Is it high?”
“Level seventeen,” the girl nodded, making the other three pause, “I wonder what that means for my own levels? Will I even be able to help him in fights?”
“And will half your Experience still go to him?” Elizabeth added.
“I think it’ll be fine,” Chris shrugged, blinking his eyes a few times, “If you manage to Tame a monster of a higher level, they’ll be harder to order around, but you also get more of the Experience from your kills.”
“How do you know that?” Alan asked, looking between the three of them as they glanced away, “Oh, is this the thing we were told not to ask about? My bad.”
“It’s fine,” Chris chuckled, “Just a Skill thing.”
“Fair enough,” Alan nodded, jogging forwards a bit, “Anyway, it’s my turn to take the front guard, so we’ll chat later.”
“He’s nice,” Jessica giggled as the man hurried to the front of the group.
“Oh?” Elizabeth smirked, “Does someone have a crush?”
“Maybe,” Jessica admitted as she blushed, “I mean, he’s like five years older than me though, so it might be a little weird for him if we started dating.”
“He might not even be single,” Elizabeth teased, “Or he could be gay.”
“Then we could just be friends,” Jessica shrugged, smirking back at her friend as Elizabeth gave her a disappointed look, “I’m not going to rise to the bait, Beth.”
“Enough, you two,” Chris chuckled, looking up as the captain waved back to him, “Looks like we’ve found a decent place to set up camp anyway, so go help everyone.”
------
“Hey, Jess, right?” Alan said as he walked up to the girl, who was busy stirring a large pot of stew.
“Yeah, that’s me,” Jessica smiled at him, “What’s up? The food is almost done, just another five or so minutes.”
“That wasn’t what I wanted to talk to you about, actually,” the young man said, rubbing the back of his head nervously, making Jessica blush slightly, “I, uhm…I wanted to ask about your friend, Bethany?”
“Who?” Jessica blinked, staring at the man in confusion.
“Uh, Chris’s sister?” he continued, “You’re always calling her Beth, so I thought her name was Bethany.”
“Oh, no,” Jessica laughed, “Her name is Elizabeth, but Chris and I call her Beth for short.”
“Oh, great!” Alan chuckled, before looking away again, “So, uhm…anyway…I was wondering why she was talking to me so much lately?”
“Talking to you?” the girl sighed, “About what?”
“Nothing, just asking me a bunch of questions about stuff and my life,” Alan said nervously.
“Like what?”
“If I was single,” he shrugged, “Or gay? Look, I don’t want to be rude to her, but I don’t think it’d work out if she’s trying to date me or something.”
“She’s not,” Jessica chuckled, “Beth’s very, very gay, so you don’t have to worry about Chris coming after you for that.”
“Oh…” Alan muttered, “Then why was she asking me all those questions?”
“Because she was meddling,” Jessica shook her head, “Don’t worry about it. I’ll give you a bigger serving tonight if you forget about it, deal?”
“What?” the man blinked, “Uh…yeah, sure?”
“Okay, see you later!” Jessica called as he walked away, turning back to the pot as she continued to stir, “Really, what is that girl thinking?”
She continued to cook for a while, tasting the stew and nodding in satisfaction, looking over the soldiers, who were all glancing at her expectantly, obviously waiting for the food. All except Alan, who was chatting to Chris.
“He’s smart and honest, but also a little airheaded,” she murmured to herself as she blushed slightly, “Just my type.”
------
“It’s a horde Boss,” Chris said as Elizabeth finished describing what she’d seen to him and the captain, “The biggest Snow Wolf is probably the actual Boss, and the fifty other wolves are the horde.”
“I said ‘about fifty’,” Elizabeth added, “I didn’t get enough time to count them before they started to notice me. I think they could smell me even when I was using Stealth.”
“In which case, this is going to be a tough battle,” the captain sighed, “That’s a lot of enemies in one place, I’m not sure we’d be able to survive a direct fight with them. Not unless-.”
“Unless I step in,” Chris interrupted, nodding his head, “Okay, I’ll take care of the regular Snow Wolves, the rest of you focus on the Boss.”
“Are you sure?” the captain asked, “The last Boss gave us a hard time, Private Baxter was almost killed.”
“Who?” the two siblings asked as one.
“Private Alan Baxter?” the captain said, “The Defender Class you gave the fancy shield to?”
“Oh, Alan!” Chris nodded, “Sorry, didn’t know his last name was Baxter.”
“It’s fine,” the captain smiled, “Anyway, what’s the plan of attack?”
“Okay, it should be quite simple,” Chris said as he started to draw in the snow and dirt, explaining his idea as the other two listened.
After several minutes, the captain sighed, shaking his head as he stared at Chris in disbelief.
“This plan is crazy,” he said, “But honestly? It might just work. I’ll let the men know the details.”
