Asher was practically running through the city, heading back to the shop. He was a little worried that a monster just disappeared into his arm. Asher turned the corner and came face to face with an annoyance: William.
The idiot stood on top of a pile of boars. "BAHAHAHA. Look at this massive boar. I am truly amazing." He stood on top of the boar's corpse. He wore spotless armor and looked like a knight out of a fairy tale. However, that vision was tainted by the fact that several of his teammates looked like they had survived a natural disaster.
'That ass didn't do anything. His stats haven't improved since the last time I looked.' Asher thought to himself as he passed by. Asher thought he should mention that dealing with the Thorn family would not be helpful in the future if they produced such a worthless noble. Asher decided against it. If he were to say something to his father, he would have to explain how he knew it.
Asher pitied his party. Except for William's cheering squad, every party member was covered with scrapes and bruises. Asher had already turned in the male boars he had collected while keeping the larger females for himself. Asher did not think William was that smart, but if he showed up with two large female boars. Even the idiot would be able to put two and two together eventually.
Asher stuck to the side of the street, trying to avoid the idiot's eye. The last thing he wanted was to deal with his annoying face. He might punch him out of reflex. "Hello, peasant." Asher flinched as he heard the voice. Asher turned around to bet with Willaim with his usual glowing halo. "It is unfortunate that you did not take up my offer. Otherwise, you would be able to benefit the soils."
Asher let out a sigh. He looked over William's shoulder at the poor souls that made up his party. One dude looked like he would fall over and never get up. "Yes, how unfortunate." He could not help but feel some level of pity for these people. It was not their fault this man was incompetent. Asher thought about stealing the boars again to teach Thorn-in-the-ass a lesson.
Asher decided against stealing the boars. William deserved it, but his teammates did not. It would be unfair to them. William launched himself into a long and rather rude soliloquy. Asher tuned most of it out as it was primarily self-indulgent and belittling nonsense. Asher gave his best customer service smile.
"You must know your place now." William laughed. "If you apologize, I would happily forgive you and allow you to be my bag boy." William went to place his hand on Asher's shoulder.
His hand never made contact with Asher's shoulder. Instead, his hand moved right through, causing him to fall face-first on the ground. The figure of Asher turned into black smoke. A few feet away, hidden from view, Asher desperately tried not to laugh.
William stood back up before looking around for the invisible Asher. 'This guy is an idiot.' Asher covered his mouth as William stormed away, fuming. 'I think that I am getting a lot better at that trick. The uses are endless.' Asher was so happy he learned Doubleganger and Veil.
Asher smirked as he headed back to the shop. When he got there, Cynthia was nowhere to be found. "Cynthia... Teacher..." He through all the floors, but Cynthia was no longer there. "I wonder where she went." Asher thought hard but realized he did not know that much about Cynthia.
Asher looked at his now tattooed left hand. "Maybe I can figure this out?" Asher focused on the tattoo, and the familiar system chimed, leaving the duplicate entry he got when he formed the contract with the sylph.
[Congratulations! You have formed a contract with an Apatite Sylph. Do you want to give it a name?]
{y/n}
Asher thought for a moment before searching for Apatite Sylph in the monsterpedia. Apatite Sylph was a symbol of the wind goddess, Yel. They were believed to be the messengers of the goddess and would fly all over the world to deliver messages from her heavenly tower to her beloved, Titanus, the god of earth.
In reality, the Apatite Sylph flew great distances to locate flowers with essence-rich nectar. Their feathers would be covered with poisonous pollen from different flowers. The bird spends almost 20 hours a day flying between flowers.
Asher scratched his chin. He flipped to the page about the taming contract. The steps were easy to understand. First, a drop of blood must be fed to the creature. Next, a bond must be formed between the beast and the caster. And last, to complete the connection, the animal has to give a name. "The book says that if a name is not given within the first 24 hours of the contract forming, the contract is dissolved."
There was nothing about the new tattoo on his hand that formed. Asher scratched his head as a new headache formed. "These books always seem to leave out the important details." Asher looked over the tattoo on his hand. "I guess I have to give you a name." Asher thought it over thoughtfully.
"Polly, Peanuts, Iago, Pepper, Greeny. Okay, I suck and naming things." Asher laughed sarcastically at the terrible name he tried. "The Apatite sylph represents luck and misfortune. So... I know. Themis."
[The name of 'Themis' has been accepted. The contract has been completed. Themis is now summonable.]
[Congratulation! You have tamed your first monster. You have acquired the skills 'Call' and 'dismiss']
[Call]
Type: Taming
Quality: C
[This spell calls a tamed monster from your soul space to your side. The beast under summoning sickness cannot be summoned.]
[Dismiss]
Type: Taming
Quality: C
[This spell sends a tamed monster back to soul space. Once a beast receives significant damage, this skill is activated automatically. If this is started this way, the beast is under the effect of summoning sickness for 1 hour.]
Asher looked over the skill that he had gained. He decided to activate the call skill on his newest pet. The black tattoo began to move and jump out of his skin. The black ink turned to green feathers. The little bird flapped and fluttered back and forth, chirping happily. Asher smirked as the system chimed again.
Name: Themis
Monster: Apatite Sylph
Quality: Novice
Elements: Wind/Poison
HP: 20/20
MP: 50/50
Tamer: Asher Richt
Description: A rare, beautiful bird-type monster infused with wind and poison elements. Its beautifully green-colored fathers are coated with a paralytic poison that it uses to paralyze predators. This bird can flap its wings 13 beats per second. It is rare to see this creature as it will constantly migrate long distances looking for flowers with potent aetheric activity.
Skills:
[Poison Feathers]
Themis scatters its feathers, covered in poisonous liquid. The poison can slowly infect a target, temporarily weakening the target.
Cost: -5 MP
[Gust]
Themis flaps its wing, creating a solid gale to push a target away from it.
Cost: -10 MP
[Flutter Speed]
Themis uses wind elements to speed up and fly upwards of 100 km/hr.
Cost: -1 MP/sec
Asher lifted his finger for Themis to land gracefully on it. This was the first time Asher entirely viewed the little creature. It was no longer covered with blood, and its beautiful green feathers were fully displayed.
"My, what a lovely creature." Asher jumped out of the skin. Cynthia had sneaked up behind him. "Did this little creature come from the egg? Did you name it yet?" Cynthia rubbed Themis's chin.
"No, the egg is still in the bag. It hasn't hatched yet. I found Themis here being hurt outside the city. It was odd I didn't even cast a spell, but it was contracted. It also became a tattoo." Asher smiled. "Is there a reason why I did not need a spell?"
"Magic follows emotion. If both of you consented, then a spell can be formed. This type of bird flies great distances looking for flowers with high Aether essence to convert into mana." Cynthia explained. "If it was that badly hurt, there is no chance it could find another. When a taming contract is formed, the contract relies on your mana."
"I see. So, it allowed the contract because it had little choice. Poor thing." Asher did not know how he felt about having a creature contracted to himself through those means. But the little bird fluttered to his shoulder and rubbed its head against his cheek. Asher felt a little better since Themis seemed happier.
Asher closed the book in his lap and petted Themis on its little head. "So, where did you go?"
"I had to...." Cynthia was cut off by Asher's bag jumping from the table.
[The lotto egg has now reached maximum MP. It will now hatch.]
Asher quickly removed the egg from the bag. It was pulsing and shaking. The eggshell broke and shattered, revealing the creature inside. Asher looked at the beast, stunned. It was a little ragdoll wearing a little blue dress.
Asher looked it over with suspicion. "This can't be right. This is a doll." Asher looked to Cynthia for an explanation, but she shrugged. Asher focused on the doll, activating his scan ability.
Monster: Cloth Doll
Sub-species: Golem
Quality: intermediate
HP: 8/8
MP: 280/280
Description: A sub-species of Golems. This creature will never move during the day. It will lay itself in the road or forest to be picked up by a child. At night, it will completely drain the mana of those around it before leaving to find more victims.
Asher felt the urge to throw it across the room. It was utterly horrifying. The only saving grace was that it was physically weak, but its mana was considerable. Asher realized if he let it go off, it might hurt someone. Asher summoned an arrow and pricked his arm. He allowed a drop to fall onto the doll's stitched mouth. The blood drop quickly disappears.
Asher focused on the same energy that appeared when he formed the contract with Themis. Limelight flowed from his fingertips, wrapped around the doll, and dragged it into Asher's arm.
[You have formed a contract with a 'Cloth Doll.' Do you wish to give it a name?]
{Y/N}
"Alice," Asher stated as the new status of his latest contract appeared.
Name: Alice
Monster: Cloth Doll
Sub-species: Golem
Quality: intermediate
Elements: Soul
HP: 8/8
MP: 280/280
Description: A sub-species of Golems. This creature will never move during the day. It will lay itself in the road or forest to be picked up by a child. At night, it will drain the mana of those around it entirely before leaving to find more victims.
Skills:
[Soul Siphon]
Drains mana from target 1 MP/sec. Gains 1 MP/sec.
[Soul Transfer]
Restore mana for target 1 MP/sec. Losses 1 MP/sec.
Asher's eyes went wide. 'It is a soul element creature.' Asher looked through his monsterpedia for more information, but there was no specific information on cloth dolls. But golems were in the book. The page had a picture of what you would expect from a golem: a large rock-like frame and a hulking body.
'Golems are widely debated as being either artificial or natural lifeforms. Being the species with the most type of subspecies, they come in various forms with a wide variety of powers, usually based on what their body is made of. The only commonality between the subspecies is their artificial appearance and the soul element status. ***
***see Coalgate's Compendium of Golem taxonomy for more information...'
"I guess it is a type of golem." Asher covered for himself. Asher was not sure if the status screen was attached to his system or was a part of the tamer ability. He did not want to let Cynthia know he had it. "The monsterpedia says that Coalgate's Compendium of Golem Taxonomy has more information."
Cynthia rubbed her chin. "I don't have that book. I think only Soul Element users ever read it, so I never stocked it." She sighed.
"Why only soul users?"
"Because they can artificially create golems." She stated bluntly.
"How do they make a golem?"
"Some soul users can create a false soul and put it into a doll made from anything to create a golem. Coalgate's Compendium is a book discussing the powers and abilities of a golem made from different materials. So, it is popular among people who think of themselves as golem masters."
"Talk about broken. I would hate to face one of them."
"You don't know how fighting a soul user can be. Picture what a false soul can do. Now, imagine if they used a corpse instead of a body made of rock or metal." Cynthia quizzed her student.
"You mean...." Asher didn't want to say it. He gulped. "Necromancy."
"Yep. In this country, the patron goddess guides souls to the underworld, so necromancy is strictly forbidden as it insults her." Cynthia smiled. "Soul element is the most frightening."
Asher smirked sarcastically. 'Understatement of the century, Cynthia.'