Chapter 7

  ~ The Danger Passed ~

  SW/SW/SW

  He gawked at her. Gawked at his Summon Beast. She was half-woman half-snake. In RPG games, she was known as lamia. Ace blushed heavily when he learned that his Summon Beast wore nothing. The flaming red scales only covered half of her breasts and he could clearly make out their shapes.

  “Master?” she tilted her head, confused as to why her Master was covering his eyes.

  “C-Can you just defeat the enemy, please...?” Kail ordered weakly, still had his eyes covered.

  “If that’s what you want...” she trailed off and faced the enemy. Pointing her claw at the forest deity, she shouted, “You dare to attack my master?! You deserve nothing but a painful death!”

  As if understood her language, Daucaryon neighed angrily. The tendrils on its body vibrated violently as it charged towards its opponent.

  Ace opened his eyes to see his Beast fighting Daucaryon. Looking at her, there were two panel bars above her head, each colored red and blue. In an instant, Ace knew what those bars represented.

  Above the health and mana bars, Ace found something intriguing. It was bracketed and obviously was her name.

  Agriella.

  He felt his heart skipped a beat. Agriella, huh? It felt so natural when he said it, flowing nicely out of his mouth.

  Was it normal for him to fall in love with something unreal? With something that was clearly not a human? Since the first time they locked eyes, Ace knew he had to protect her. Sounded so stupid, he knew that, but wasn’t it natural for boys to protect the ones they loved?

  Daucaryon’s swipe attack was quickly blocked, but the difference in strength sent Agriella flying several meters away. Ace gasped when one third of her health bar disappeared.

  He wanted to protect her.

  Even though she was just a Summon Beast who he could call so conveniently, he still wanted to protect her.

  Lifting his staff to the air, he shouted, “Firebolt!” and watched as a small ball of fire flew to Daucaryon and exploded.

  To his horror, he had just dealt two HP damages. The wide gap in their level was too much. What was worse, he had gained Daucaryon’s attention. Instead of attacking Agriella, it came to him.

  Angered, Ducaryon let out multiple sharp vines out of its body. They cut anything it their path as they travelled in the air, aiming to end Ace’s life in an instant.

  Driven by reflex, Ace dodged aside, but one of the vines got through his right arm. It successfully created a hole in there.

  [You take 103 damages!]

  HP [37/150]

  Ping! [Light Armor skill increased!]

  “Damn!” Ace cursed, quickly healed himself with a spell. It was just a small attack but it hurt like hell. One more and he’d die.

  Agriella took the perfect moment to backstab the forest deity. The attack caught it by surprise and dealt 68 damages to its HP. Ace flinched when the forest deity stabbed Agriella right in the chest.

  That was a critical hit!

  She took 267 damages and nearly died. Without thinking, Ace took a bottle of Minor Healing Potion from his inventory and threw it at her. With a loud crack, it shattered when it came in contact with her head. The content drenched her body but restored her health.

  “Master, why did you have to throw it at me?!” she shouted angrily, her cheeks ballooned. Although relieved that the potion recovered a little bit of her HP, now it wasn’t the time to relax. They had to distract the stupid deer and run away.

  Ace grabbed another Apuberry and threw it so far that it was almost impossible to find. Daucaryon neighed and ran towards the berry, leaving the two alone.

  “Agriella, run!” he shouted.

  “Y-Yes, Master!” she slithered to him at surprisingly fast speed and the two of them ran. Ace was in front, running along the familiar road leading to Dragonis with Agriella in tow.

  Ace looked back and was grateful that the forest deity didn’t follow them.

  Ping! [Charisma increased!]

  Finally they arrived in Dragonis with their lives intact. Slowly he regained health as he walked inside the walled city.

  Many eyes followed them as they walked. It was obvious that people looked at his Summon Beast.

  Curious, Ace used his voice command to open Agriella’s status.

  Ace couldn’t believe what he just saw. She had an excellent stats, as well as nice range of skills. She had high level of Healing, too. It was no wonder that her HP was almost close to half of its max value by the time they reached Dragonis.

  What piques his interest was that she had Casting skill. For a Warrior, it was kind of weird. The dangerous thing was that she didn’t have Control Magic. It would be disastrous when she cast AoE spell.

  It kept bothering him for a while, but what the heck was perks? He tapped Agriella’s perks table and something popped up.

  “Oh, awesome!” he exclaimed and turned his head to find Agriella. She was staring at him with her head tilted to her side.

  She looked cold and unfeeling without a smile.

  “Y-Yes?” he asked, a little bit uncomfortable being stared at and with her looking almost nude like that.

  “What are you reading, Master?” she slithered closer. Her smooth shoulder touched his arm and he blushed.

  Preoccupied with her status window, she didn’t notice his discomfort and exclaimed happily, “Oh, it’s me!”

  “Uh... I-I was just looking at your attributes. No weird stuff,” Ace stuttered as he closed the status window. “B-By the way, aren’t you cold?”

  “What do you mean?”

  Ace wished that she would stop tilting her head while displaying that innocent look. He was literally melting like a chocolate in a hot pan. Afraid to meet her eyes, he glanced somewhere, but then cursed himself.

  His eyes refused to leave the valley of her breasts. They looked so soft and he wondered if the look and the feel were the same.

  Some high-level players passed them, snickering, “Look at that guy talking to an NPC.”

  “Must be a weeaboo.”

  “Loser.”

  Ace glared at them, but they continued on and laughed so hard it hurt.

  NPC or Non Playable Character was just programmed to say specific lines when interacted to. They were known to repeat the same things over and over, earning them a title “Broken Recorder”.

  —that guy talking to NPC.

  Gulping, Ace looked at Agriella, who was fixing up her hair. Dread filled his mind.

  —talking to NPC.

  Summon Beasts were NPCs, too, and they were supposed to say the same lines.

  But...

  But here Agriella proved it wrong. She... she was able to display so much emotions. She was angry when he threw a potion at her and exclaimed happily upon seeing her own status window. She even responded to his question, displayed curiosity, and tried to strike a conversation.

  Realizing that Ace was staring, Agriella stopped fixing her hair and looked back. They locked eyes.

  “Yes, Master?” she smiled warmly.

  His eyes widened.

  ...no matter how he looked at her, she was just a normal lamia girl instead of an NPC.

  Spoiler: Status