They spent more time than they planned getting to know Hawthorn and explaining how he came into being. The capybeara had vague memories of his bear life, but similar to Lily, felt that the past had some strange jumble he couldn’t understand. He spoke few words, sharing Lily’s ability to speak out loud, but preferring to speak in their minds. Even then, he spoke only when required.
Anika felt some relief that Hawthorn had not inherited Lily’s exuberant personality. She didn’t think she could handle an exact clone of Lily. On the other hand, Lily seemed a little upset that the bear did not want to run and play, but the bear clearly had come into being as an adult as opposed to Lily’s childlike presentation.
Anika had no idea what factors contributed to their differences in personality. Lily had explained her ability like making a clone, yet it seemed to take very little from Lily. Of course, Lily had some difficulty explaining her abilities at times, so Anika shouldn’t be too surprised that things had turned out slightly differently than intended.
They finally reached a point where they had covered all the basic information the former bear needed to know, and it seemed content with its role as the tank. Leka had watched in fascination, having never seen anything like Lily’s ability. Sinaya, after getting over her shock, had spent most of the conversation petting Hawthorn, his fur maintaining a more bear-like quality as opposed to the coarse and waxy hair on Lily’s body. Anika wouldn’t mind snuggling up with the fluffy fur of her new companion either, but for now they had work to do and levels to get.
They made their way out of the forest, deciding to return to the prairie area for more leveling rather than staying in the jungle fighting more of the bears. Anika felt it would be a bit rude to Hawthorn to make him fight creatures that could be his family. If monsters had family. Anika didn’t know.
Their Capy pack had dissipated into goo, their timer up, so the first thing they did upon reaching the prairie was find a half dozen pantopu for Lily to transform into capybaras. That was when Anika noticed something strange about her buffs. The Capy Cultivation buff had the number ‘2’ in the corner of the icon. Curiosity taking hold, Anika mentally selected the buff.
Capy Cultivation: Increase experience for you and your Anima-bonded companion by 5% per party member. This bonus stacks. Non-bonded party members gain half this bonus.
Two instances present.
Current bonus: 100%
“Wow, this is overpowered!” Anika exclaimed, staring dumbfounded at the experience bonus. Prior to Hawthorn joining the party, they had received a 45% bonus for their party of 9 – Anika, Lily, Sinaya, and the six capybara. With Hawthorn, the bonus would increase to 50%. But now, the screen showed the presence of two instances of the buff, which meant Hawthorn must have inherited Lily’s Capy Cultivation buff. Right when Anika thought experience would slow down significantly, they now had an instant doubling of their bonus experience.
“What is?” Lily asked, looking up at Anika,
“Hawthorn… you have the Capy Cultivation ability, right?” Anika looked at the capybeara.
“Yes.” Hawthorn answered out loud, his low, rumbling voice the same as his mind voice.
“That is your experience buff, correct?” Leka asked.
“Yes. And it seems they stack. We now have 5% per party member from both Lily and Hawthorn.”
Sinaya stopped, eyes flickering briefly before turning to stare at Anika. “I have a 45% increase to my experience now.
“Yeah. And me and Lily have a 100% bonus. I assume Hawthorn has a 100% bonus as well.”
Hawthorn nodded.
“This is unprecedented.” Leka said, a hint of excitement in her voice. “The ability to level twice as fast as anyone else… and the priests were worried that you had come to us without any levels. You will exceed even their wildest expectations. And you can assist others in gaining levels as well. We lack the numbers needed to control the dungeons with their rising Chaos magic. If we can train more of our younger members more quickly, we will be more prepared for the coming Chaos Eruptions!”
Anika wanted to use other people to help her power level, not hang around providing a leveling buff to everyone else. Of course, the more the merrier. She wondered if the buff gave diminishing returns after a certain number of party members. She’d previously asked Leka if there was a maximum party size, and she said that there was no max, but after 10 members in a party they received diminished experience values. They had 10 now, including the temporary capybara members. They didn’t earn experience and level up, however, so maybe they would not count against the buff. Anika could only imagine how much experience they would receive as Lily gained levels and got the ability to polymorph a larget Capy pack. For now, she tried not to think about it.
“Well, I suppose if we are helping everyone else level, that also helps us.” Anika shrugged. “We should go take advantage of the buff now though!”
They found another trio of water buffalo a short distance from the pantopu herd that now walked with them as the Capy pack. Hawthorn charged forward, his skin rippling into rock as he approached. Anika fired an arrow at the rightmost monster, joined by Lily’s pet rock and Sinaya’s meteor hammer. Anika managed to land her arrow in the creature’s eye, a bullseye success she would definitely not repeat today or probably for the next month. The lucky shot plus the joint bashing caused the first buffalo to fall quickly.
The second water buffalo charged Hawthorn, attempting to pound him with its hooves. Hawthorn ignored the attack, allowing the hooves to clatter off his rocky back before swiping his claws at the third water buffalo. He tore thick gashes across the front of the creature. Both water buffalo immediately conjured their water shields, but Hawthorn swiped again, the slashing and piercing of his claws penetrating the water shield that stopped blunt force and magic attacks. His attack caused the third water buffalo to stumble forward, falling towards the ground.
Sinaya and Lily teamed up on the second water buffalo, while Anika aimed an arrow at the now grounded third monster. She needn’t have bothered, as Hawthorn slashed it a third time and it collapsed fully. Pivoting to the second buffalo, she launched an arrow towards its chest. Sinaya’s meteor hammer swung at its head once more, and it fell as well.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
“Well, that was easy. The water buffalo are no threat to Hawthorn, and his claws are vicious!” Anika looked at the multiple gashes on the creature Hawthorn killed, satisfied with the choice they made for Lily’s spell.
“Hawthorn is really good! He is better than Epona!” Lily sprinted over to rub against his head as he lay down, ready to chill now that the fight was over.
“No resting yet, Hawthorn, we have a lot more of these to kill before we head back to the temple!” Anika felt a lot more optimistic about their chances without Philip now. Hawthorn didn’t have the range Philip had with his trident, but Hawthorn didn’t have to worry about blocking hits when his stone skin could take a beating.
The capybeara slowly got to his feet and began ambling further into the prairie without complaint. Lily let out a little cheer and ran circles around him in excitement. Anika figured she was safe enough next to Hawthorn with the rest of the capy pack spread out around them.
The rest of the afternoon passed in a blur of easy battles. Hawthorn made a fantastic addition to the party, shrugging off the attacks of the buffalo and pantopu. He would have no issues with the wolves or zanide in the higher level dungeon, and Anika thought they should probably go back to that dungeon next time. As the afternoon drew to a close, they swung through some of the stands of trees that held the giant squirrels and Scurry captains, easily defeating them.
Hawthorn and his stoneskin created an impenetrable wall that nothing in the dungeon could damage. He didn’t even need healing from the hits he took, nothing able to hit him with the speed and power that Sinaya used to damage the sun bears earlier, and nothing in this dungeon had magical attacks effective against the rocky defense. The group easily racked up experience from simple monsters and mini-bosses alike, the double Capy cultivation allowing Anika and her companions to earn 40% of their needed experience to level.
When the group arrived back at the temple, Anika felt invigorated by the success of the afternoon in the dungeon. Sinaya delivered a serious punch with her fighting abilities, Hawthorn made a more than adequate replacement for Philip, and Lily with her obscene collection of rocks made an excellent damage dealer. Even Leka seemed pleased with the progress the group made.
“Is Hawthorn going to stay with us or stay with Epona? If he stays with us we will be really warm in bed!” Lily had managed to crawl up on Hawthorn’ back and rode him back to the temple like the world’s strangest circus act. Now she jumped off his back, clearly assisted by her Aether magic to make a graceful descent, and ran over the Anika.
“Uh… I’m not sure. He definitely cannot fit on the bed. But I don’t know if he should go to the stables with Epona. He might scare the other horses.” Anika looked at Leka, hoping she would have a better idea of what to do with their very large new companion.
“I do not think he should be with Epona. However, I am hesitant to leave him alone before we have had a chance to inform the temple of his presence. We would not want anyone to attack him, believing him a sign of the Chaos Eruption. I will discuss this with Nilendi. Until then, keep him with you. I believe your room has plenty of space on the floor.”
“We can’t make Hawthorn sleep on the floor! That’s mean!” Lily cried indignantly.
“Floor… fine.” Hawthorn flopped to the ground, rolling on his back as if to emphasize his point.
“See Lily, no worries. Hawthorn will be fine. The floor may be a little cold, but he should be able to bear it.” Anika grinned down at her companions, pleased with herself. No one laughed around her.
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Zola stared at the monster in front of them. A humanoid monster with four gangly arms ending in long, spikey claws stared back. The monster stood a head taller than Zola and had wideset eyes on either side of a wolflike jaw. A short, black fur covered its body, leaving only its oversized, humanoid feet with 3 toes exposed.
The monster swiped with both of its left arms, one aimed towards Zola’s head and the other aimed lower, near their waist. Zola pivoted to the side, leaning away to avoid the upper arm while blocking the lower arm with their right scimitar. They brought their left arm up, turning their hand to face the sharp edge of the scimitar up, and sliced at the lower of the creature’s left arms. The scimitar found purchase on the creature’s forearm, opening a gash before the creature could disengage from Zola’s blocking scimitar.
The monster roared with pain, immediately retaliating with a combo, raking its upper arms towards Zola’s face, then swinging its lower right arm towards the offending scimitar.
Zola moved faster than the monster, dodging backwards before twirling to attack the right arms of the creature with both their scimitars. The left scimitar sliced through the wrist of the creature, severing it at an angle so it hung limply, barely attached. Using the momentum of the spin, Zola’s right scimitar connected with the overextended upper right shoulder of the monster. The creature’s arm remained attached, but Zola knew they had severed tendons by how quickly the arm collapsed to the creature’s side.
The monster spun towards Zola, but Zola continued to press their advantage, completing the spin to rake the left sword across the creature’s back. The blade connected with enough force to throw their opponent off balance, sending it stumbling forward and away from Zola.
Zola had finally become accustomed to this strange Kineta body. Though they lacked the flexibility of their Makraean form, the solid bone and strong muscles compensated with significantly more power. Dodging and avoiding attacks took more effort, and Zola had to constantly think about how this new body could turn and move rather than relying on instincts. Against a single monster, their effectiveness had returned to previous norms. Zola no longer stumbled or missed easy targets as they had in their early battles against the large shadow ravens.
Zola did not often find themself emotional, but they felt a distinct shame at their performance in those first days. That discomfort with their own form drove hours of practice, both in the training room and on the obstacle courses, until Zola reached an understanding with this new body.
Against multiple enemies, however, Zola still suffered from the inability to turn and contort their body into any shape or direction necessary to reach monsters on any and all sides. The tactical map that appeared today upon entry to the dungeon made up for some of Zola’s previous lack of effectiveness. On Makraea, they had a full slate of magical tracking by default. Additionally, their people developed advanced magical rituals and technology to emulate their planet’s native display options when visiting planets with a less advanced system. The summoning, however, had not allowed Zola to bring any of this advanced technology with them.
Now that Zola could easily track monsters behind them, the lack of flexibility greatly limited effectiveness in combat, a situation Zola needed to remedy. The weaponsmaster, Vok, had demonstrated an Aether technique that Zola would work on next. They could use Aether to manipulate weaponry as an extension of the body, emulating the movement of the native Makraean body. They did not like to admit that this planet had something to teach them that Makraea had not taught, but circumstances and limitations drove innovation. Zola would learn from this master Vok. And they would perfect these new techniques.
Zola lunged forward with both scimitars forward, capitalizing on the monster’s forward stumble, and easily impaled the creature through the back with their swords. The monster slumped to the ground, and Zola allowed it to slide off their blades, giving them a final shake to free the scimitars from the creature’s body. A successful hunt. And soon Zola’s success would continue. Once they mastered and surpassed the weaponmaster’s techniques.
