Silver Spoon Series

As Alan approached what he still thought of as his home, he realized he had been neglecting something. He hadn't checked on the status of his soul's fragile bonds in a while. He knew they were all there, that much he paid attention to, but he hadn't tried to sense much from them. When he had first returned to Elstree after discovering them, he had checked habitually, but the amount of information he could read from such a distance was miniscule. After discovering that, he had found himself trying to read them less and less.

Now that he was paying attention again, he could tell that one of the bonds had gotten stronger while another one had gotten a little weaker. Reading what he could from them, he was surprised to discover that the weakening one was from Two Socks. Perhaps it was simply the wolf coming more into its own and relying on Alan less. The other bond was harder to discern. There were a lot of dark emotions swirling around it, but also a sense of joy. It made for a strange juxtaposition that occluded any other information.

Having proven that he could sneak up on his friendly neighborhood wolf last time, Alan didn't try to block his own end of the bond, and so he wasn't surprised to see Two Socks waiting for him. It was a little strange that he wasn't hiding in the grass, though, he was simply standing tall and watching Alan approach. Perhaps he had ruined their game last time. It made Alan a little sad, but only for a moment. His eyes had been covered with nostalgia goggles for a bit there, and he had only now realized that something was different.

He was still probably fifty meters or so away, but that wasn't an issue for his Stalker boosted eyesight. There on top of Two Socks's head was some kind of creature. Seeing it made his steps falter for a moment, but he kept on, wanting to get a closer look. From here it looked like some kind of worm, or maybe snake, but the Arnold Schwarzenegger version.

It was difficult to see the whole thing from here, but he estimated its length at around sixty centimeters. It was very thick around for its length, though, maybe ten to fifteen centimeters in diameter. When Alan had closed the distance maybe halfway, Two Socks started walking towards him, careful to keep his head relatively steady. This let Alan get a better look.

It was definitely not a worm, it had two eyes on the front of its body and a large beak underneath the two black orbs. This beak looked like it was made up of three parts instead of two, and they came together to form a rather pointy pyramid shaped mouth. He was having trouble getting his identify skill to kick in, possibly because it was so close to the wolf.

The 'skin' of the creature made it seem more like a snake, even though he didn't know of any snake with a beak, and this thing had no discernible head. Its body simply tapered down slightly until the front that had the eyes and beak. All of its flesh was covered in small shiny scales. With the sun shining on them it was difficult to tell exactly what color they were, but he was getting hints of silver and brown, with possibly some red and maybe yellow in there.

Finally they met and Two Socks's tongue hung down from its mouth in greeting. The creature on his furry head lifted the front portion of its body up and opened its three-part beak wide open and hissed. Alan didn't know if it was trying to communicate, or threaten him, but identify finally triggered.

Dragon: Omnisminera Worm (???) level 5

So that told him both not a lot and a ton. The first thing he obviously noticed was that this thing was considered a dragon, therefore it was reasonable to surmise that the egg had hatched and this was it. The second thing he noticed was that it was not listed as 'ferric' like the egg had been. Also, it was a worm, not a hatchling or dragonette. The guide to the dragon life cycle he had purchased had mentioned how the actual designation of the creature would change as it grew, after reaching certain milestones.

Most of the freshly hatched dragons would start as a hatchling, which looked much like a miniature dragon, but they hadn't fully developed their scales yet and their bones were still fairly fragile. Occasionally a dragon would emerge from its egg as a full dragonette. This was the second milestone it listed, and these creatures had fully hardened scales and the bones were much more dense. There were several more stages along the way before they would officially be called dragons, but that's where they all started. Thinking back, there had been a line in the pamphlet that he had heard of eggs hatching in even less developed forms, but the author had dismissed this as a result of confusion and misidentification of other similar species.

Perhaps the most interesting part of the incredibly short description his skill had given him was the three question marks in place of its rarity. Was this the result of some kind of obscuring ability like Alan had himself, or did the Network not actually know its rarity. He was leaning towards the former because this new universe was supposedly very old and very big, so the chances that it couldn't determine the rarity of something had to be minuscule.

The last thing Alan noticed was just how short the description was. There was no mention of threat level, or any description about the little worm. Alan was still pretty sure it wasn't really a worm like those on Earth, since he was almost positive worms didn't have eyes or beaks. He had noticed in the past that his identify skill gave information partially based on the other beings level. The more powerful the other creature, the less information he got. This worm was only level five, so how powerful could it possibly be, but his skill had given him only as much information as when he had used the skill for the very first time. Less actually if you considered the question marks.

All of this went through his mind in seconds, while he was now standing in front of his friend. Normally Alan would give Two Socks a hug or rub his head or back, but with this dragon/worm thing sitting there, he was suddenly reluctant to get too close. Instead he settled for a verbal greeting.

"Hello there buddy, it's good to see you. How is everything going, and what is that on your head?" His voice may have risen a little at the end.

Of course Two Socks couldn't actually communicate verbally, but Alan had become pretty adept at reading his body language. He was a little confused by the message he was getting now, but it seemed like things had been going well, and that the worm on his head was a friend. To try and get some more information, Alan tried talking directly to the cranial bound creature.

"Well, I don't suppose you could tell me who you are. My name is Alan."

The omnisminera worm stretched forward and once again its beak opened and a hissing screech came out. The noise suddenly cut off and the worm reared back even more. It made that sound one more time before quickly cutting it off. It almost seemed like it was trying to talk and finding itself unable to, much to its surprise. Then its body lowered back down some, and the beak closed, followed by the eyes, it must have eyelids somewhere.

Alan was wondering if he was supposed to do anything, when he felt an itching sensation in his brain. He had felt it before in the presence of the egg, and he tracked that feeling again. He followed it back to his aura, and then from there to the bond on his soul that had been growing stronger. He couldn't read any feelings or information from that still small thread, but the longer he focused on it, the more he could almost hear something. Then, all at once there were words in his head.

"...dense can you be! TS has no problem hearing me, so why can't this guy?"

Alan must have reacted somehow because it seemed that the worm now realized he could hear it. The words weren't really audible, they were almost like his own thoughts instead, but his brain was clearly telling him they were other. Even without sound, Alan had a feeling that the words were coming from a young girl.

"Finally! Can you understand me now?"

If this had been two weeks ago, he would have been at a loss with how to respond. After interacting with Indiana, though, he felt like the communication was similar. If that was the case, he could speak out loud, or mentally, and it (she?) would be able to hear him.

"I can, are you the creature on my friend's head?" He thought towards the worm.

When the thoughts came back they were definitely feminine, and indignant. "My friend has been nice enough to let me ride around with him as he goes about the chore you left him."

She seemed very possessive of Two Socks, and not too favorably disposed towards Alan. He wasn't sure why, but he wasn't going to ask that right away. First he was hoping to get her name, and maybe why she was a Dragon and a Worm.

"He is a very nice wolf. My name is Alan, would you mind sharing yours."

"I have heard a lot about you Alan, and you may call me Akilatjin." She wasn't going to share her nickname with this man. Names were important, and potentially dangerous, for ascended beings, but Aki was enough of a realist to know that there was a strong bond between them already that was more dangerous than any name.

"Greetings Akilatjin! Are you hatched from the egg that I rescued?"

He wasn't sure of the mechanics, but he actually heard her snort in his head. "I hardly think rescue is the correct word for murdering the being who had me before and then stealing me. But, yes, I did hatch from that egg."

Alan was taken back a little by the intensity of feelings he was getting from Akilatjin. He had assumed that the drow, Griff, had obtained the egg through purchasing it. The dark elf had hinted at that while monologuing in their fight. Alan would have assumed that the baby inside the egg would be happy to be free of that evil man, if it was even aware of what was happening. However, it seemed like she both knew what had happened, and resented him for it.

"I am sorry you see it that way, but that being was trying to corrupt your being with a dark ritual. That was why I killed him."

She answered right back. "And after freeing me from his 'dark ritual', you decided to put me in one of your own."

Now that he thought about it, his magical circle to empower and attune the egg probably felt similar to Akilatjin. Both were sending foreign energy into her aura. He hadn't thought about it at the time, but from her perspective it did seem that both were incredibly invasive. It was also possible that she wasn't aware of the specific nature of the two different rituals, how Griff's had been powered through death and blood, and Alan's purely through magic. When you're getting stabbed, you don't really care if the man at the other end is a good person or not.

"You are right to be angry, Akilatjin. I didn't consider what the effect of my circle would be on you, other than how it could benefit myself. The only thing I can say in my defense is that this is all new to me, and I see now that I hadn't properly considered what I was doing. I apologize for forcing you into my magical circle."

There was a pause before she spoke again, and Alan thought he caught another set of thoughts being passed around, but he couldn't be sure. Finally, the worm answered.

"I will think on your apology, but I am reluctant to take it."

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Alan bowed his head. "That is all I can ask. In the meantime, is there anything I can do for you?"

"You could release TS from your servitude."

He had been on the backfoot for almost the entire conversation, but now he was just plain confused. Alan didn't know who TS was and as far as he knew, no one was in his servitude. An argument could be made for the Corelians or the new mercenaries, but servitude seemed a bit strong of a word.

"I'm not sure what you mean by that. Who is TS?"

There was quite a bit of venom in her thoughts as she clarified. "TS is what I call the wolf beneath me. He is my friend and I cannot stand that you have ensorceled him into obeying your commands."

"I have not ensorceled him, Two Socks is his own beast. I was there as he grew up, but I have never commanded him to do anything."

"If that is your answer, then I have nothing more to say to you today."

Two Socks looked at Alan with a sense of shared understanding. It seemed like he knew what Alan and Akilatjin had been discussing and the wolf felt for him. Alan briefly tried to get her to say anything else, but she stayed true to her word. It made for an awkward walk back to the farm house. After a few minutes, Alan simply tried to push past the silent treatment he was getting from the worm, and instead shared some of his news with Two Socks. The wolf also let Alan know about some of what he had been up to. It was clear that Akilatjin had been part of his exploits, but the wolf seemed to be trying to stay neutral and attempted to downplay her involvement.

While Alan was still unsure how to take the worm that was a dragon and her attitude toward him, it was good to be back here with the wolf. Yes, it was a blow that it seemed like his dream of crushing everyone in the tutorial on the back of a dragon was going to stay a dream, but he wasn't going to get all mopey. If plan A fails, there's always B, C, and his favorite, Plan I for improvise.

The farm looked unkempt again, although he noticed there were strange paths through the garden full of weeds where someone had removed all the unwanted vegetation. A glance at Two Socks caused the wolf to look up with his eyes. Apparently Akilatjin was also helping out around the place. Even if she and Alan ended up being unable to get along, it seemed like she might still be helpful. Maybe he really would be able to salvage something there. He had been hoping for so much more, but in the face of her ire, he wasn't sure what to do.

Occasionally as they had walked home, Alan had gotten that sense again that the wolf and the worm were communicating somehow, possibly something similar to how she communicated with him. Alan hadn't tried to listen in so that he could snoop on their conversation, but he was attempting to hear what Two Socks was saying. The wolf and Alan's method of 'talking' at the moment wasn't the most efficient or detail oriented, and if they could communicate with their thoughts instead, it would be a huge improvement. In the end he made no progress, and decided to be happy with what they had.

Alan had plenty of time now before he needed to go back and check on Thadrick's group. He refused to call them Danny's party, even though the man seemed to be taking on the role of their leader. During this break from dealing with things in Elstree, he needed to clear as many dungeons as possible. Still, he wasn't going to neglect the fun he and Two Socks could have. Even if there was a third wheel tagging along.

It was too bad that Two Socks couldn't come into the dungeons with him. He had checked on that with Tamee early on, and only people in a party and their bonded companions could enter together. As a 'simple' beast, no matter how strong or awesome he was, Two Socks was unable to join Alan in a party. That meant that they would simply have to make time to hunt some of the leaked monsters together. It was an important job to keep the area safe, but it would also just be fun.

After having checked over everything at the house, restocked his strategic supply of fruit, and done some weeding and other maintenance, Alan and Two Socks set out to hunt. He had tried to ask Akilatjin if she wanted to stay back here, but she made her feelings clear. She had still refused to talk to Alan, but the way she burrowed her body further into the wolf's soft fur made it clear that she had no plans on leaving her position. Oh well, this would at least give him a chance to see how well she fought.

His Hunter class had turned into Stalker, and Alan had made great improvements in his tracking ability since coming here, but there was no way he could compare to Two Socks's gift of finding prey. The first monster they located was called a lightning buffalo and it was at the high end of quartz. It wouldn't have been much of a challenge for either man or beast if they had been alone, but being together allowed them to take it a little easier.

Rather than trying to sneak up and land a decisive blow, Alan took the opportunity to try out his crossbow again. He could always use practice with his non-magical ranged attack. At the moment it wasn't all that effective against things at his level, but if he ever got a better version of the weapon, it would be helpful to have already leveled his skill. Plus, maybe the skill would become part of a future class.

Alan's first shot was a good one, hitting the large creature in its neck. Against an Earth buffalo, that would probably have been a fatal shot, even if it wasn't an instant kill. This lightning version of the beast, however, was almost twice as big and even at a distance there was a charge to the air which proved its name wasn't for nothing. The shot still weakened the beast, and he could see blood running onto the ground, but it wasn't going down that easily.

A metallic taste coated his tongue and electricity visibly gathered around the beast's hide. After a few seconds, a brilliant yellow bolt of lightning arced across the intervening distance and stuck Alan's shield of air. One of the things that training with the villagers had allowed Alan to do was start working on mana shields. With a variety of mages that needed to practice their casting, he had also been able to spend time as their target, eventually finding a way to form a mana-based shield. Due to their different starting spells he had been able to try out a variety of shields.

Just like handling mana itself, each type of shield was similar, but needed its own twist. Through trial and error, Alan had learned that shields of the same mana as an attack were particularly effective, but he had no real experience with lightning mana, and so he couldn't create a shield of it. He had figured air was the closest thing to it that he knew, and it was at least partially successful. The wall of mana seemed to absorb almost half of the electricity, before the bolt blasted his shield apart. He had been anticipating its failure, though, so he had already repositioned himself even as the buffalo was attacking.

While he was distracting the animal, the stalker wolf and his passenger helmet were creeping up on it. After it spent all of the electricity it had been gathering, Two Socks pounced on the buffalo's back, actually landing his paws on its spine before biting down on it. It was a fairly serious wound, but like Alan's it would probably not take the creature out on its own. Then something truly horrifying happened.

Akilatjin had been draped on the top of Two Socks's head with her body trailing down his neck. As the wolf had drawn closer, she had gathered herself entirely on the top of his head and after Two Socks bit down, she launched herself forward like a spring, her 'head' (the end with her eyes and mouth) disappearing into the wound. Then her body started wriggling, and within a matter of seconds, she was fully inside the buffalo.

After having delivered his package, Two Socks pushed off and bounded away. The buffalo did not seem to be enjoying whatever was going on inside of it, and started moving quickly from side to side, as if to dislodge something. Then an even larger amount of electricity from before started gathering, but it all just sat there impotently, it didn't seem like it could turn that energy on an enemy that was somewhere inside of it.

Two Socks came trotting over to Alan and they watched together as the buffalo gave one last snort before it crashed to the ground. Advancing on the slain beast, they watched as a patch of skin started to bulge out, and then three little points appeared, jutting out from the skin, before coming together and tearing off a hunk of flesh. Then the bloody worm was sticking its head out and squirming its body through the hole. He wasn't sure how it was possible with a three part beak, but he was pretty sure she was somehow smirking at him as she sat on top of her kill. She must be feeling pretty pleased after her demonstration.

One thing was for sure, Alan was going to keep some distance from Akilatjin until they had settled their relationship a little more. The thought of her devouring him from the inside was enough to make him queasy, and she apparently knew it.

"Impressed?"

The silent treatment was over, apparently, so he would try and make some progress while he could. "Yes, that was incredible. Do you have to hold your breath while you're in there or do you even breathe?"

Most of the blood had run off of her sleek scales by now and Two Socks was giving her a tongue bath to clear off the last of it. Her little head cocked to the side as if she was thinking.

"I don't actually know. Huh."

It seemed that whatever had happened to cause her to emerge a Worm was not normal for her either. She was still figuring out stuff too. It made him feel a little kinship with her as he had felt the same way when he arrived in the tutorial. Actually, he was still feeling that way.

"How did you squeeze between its ribs?" He asked. She wasn't that thick, but was probably wider than the space between the large buffalo's bones. How had she gotten in and out of the rib cage to devour its organs?

"I didn't, my teeth are sharp enough to eat through anything."

Alan couldn't help pointing something out. "You don't have any teeth. I've seen inside your beak several times and there aren't even any ridges along the edge."

There was a hint of confusion in her reply. "What do you mean beak? I'm a dragon, we don't have beaks, we have mouths and teeth."

Rather than try to explain it to her, Alan took out a small mirror he had purchased from one of the village's few shops. He held it up so that she could see for herself, she seemed a little shocked by her appearance. After a quick back and forth, Akilatjin explained that what she had thought of as her teeth had apparently been the pieces of her beak. Alan didn't understand how she could control it so well if she didn't even know what it was, but he had long ago learned how weird his own body was, so he was prepared to let it go.

Twice more they found creatures wandering around. The second one was more humanoid, while clearly monstrous, in shape. It had tentacles instead of arms and an incredibly thick hide. The mouth also opened to an awe inspiring degree and was filled with a dentist's worst nightmare of broken and jagged teeth. Akilatjin had attempted her previous method of attack with less impressive results.

Alan had shot this one in the torso, but the bolt hadn't penetrated very far. That skin was tough stuff. It had still distracted the monster enough for Two Socks to sneak up behind it, and after slicing it with his claws, Akilatjin had launched herself at the bloody gash. She managed to get her head in there, but before she could burrow in deeper, the monster used a tentacle to reach behind itself and wrap around her body. With a visible strain it managed to pull her off, and before they could do anything to stop it, it shoved her in its mouth.

She was long enough that it was only able to stuff the back third of her in before chomping down, but that could have been, should have been, fatal. It seemed like her scales weren't just good for keeping her clean, however, they were also incredibly tough and even though she was in obvious pain, the teeth couldn't break through her natural armor. Both Alan and the wolf did not react well to seeing her hurt, and they charged forward.

Two Socks clamped down on one of the tentacles, keeping it locked in his jaws. The other was still holding their Worm so it was easy for Alan to dodge and then slice that thick hide open from the monster's neck to its groin with his spewn. All of its organs made a rapid evacuation to the ground and it collapsed.

This could have been his turn to gloat over his kill, but Akilatjin was clearly hurt. Alan sent a quick thought to make sure she was willing to let him heal her, and initially he was refused. After more of that tingling, itchy sensation, which he was positive now was caused by the other two communicating, she relented.

Alan first cast healer's mark and then laid his hand on the injured area and cast minor healing. Once he made contact with her body, his senses told him that she wasn't as hurt as they had feared, so he was able to relax slightly. Her injuries were mostly just bruises, which while painful, weren't really life threatening. He directed the vita energy toward the wound, and was shocked by how much of it was used in repairing the damage. He was rewarded with a notification.

Talent Upgrade: Mend → Mend I

He sure was getting a lot of these upgrades lately, but it made sense since he had gotten these traits at around the same time. If it was simply through use that they improved, then he could most likely expect some of his other starting traits to level up soon as well. This one was especially nice, as anything that improved his healing was welcome.

The last monster they had faced was actually a pair of snakes. Their level was higher than either of the other two, being on the low end of opal, and Alan had not been looking forward to fighting the slithering menaces. It turned out that they weren't really looking forward to a fight either.

When the snakes saw Akilatjin sit up on Two Socks's head, some kind of instinctive response took over and they started booking it in the opposite direction. Alan summoned a couple of bramble walls and they quickly got themselves stuck trying to simply work themselves through it. A couple of slices with his spewn had then ended the fight before they could reveal their true snakey-evil.

That had been enough adventure for one afternoon, so they headed back to the house for a meal. Alan had harvested the buffalo and even gathered the snake's bodies after Akilatjin had reluctantly asked him to. He and Two Socks had some nice buffalo steaks and Akilatjin had devoured one entire snake. That was an impressive feat since it was twice as long as she was and almost as wide. That beak of hers had simply opened wide and she had started Pac-Man'ing her way through it. Afterwards she had ended up in a bloated body induced stupor. All in all, it was a good time.