Sacred Blessings

The Fox : Hunter's First Familiar

The next morning, Hunter awakens. He finds that it is raining. That being the case, he decided to light the interior wood burning stove and make some pine tea (the result of boiling pine needles in water). Beside the stove there is a small pile of wood used for kindling. The larger stack of wood used to feed the fire was located under the bed frame. The morning was cool, not cold enough to see condensation on your breath but enough that it gave you chills. Once the tea was on, Hunter left the hut to get breakfast, which meant checking traps. The crayfish traps were empty. Most of the small game traps were empty except one. It was quite a rare catch indeed. Hunter had caught a pheasant in one of the deadfall traps. Returning to camp, Hunter proceeded to pluck the pheasant and drink his tea. Hunter cut a leg from it and placed it on the stove for breakfast. Most of the pheasants would be left to smoke in the small smokehouse while Hunter explored the dungeon today to be served at dinner tonight.

" OK, now that is taken care of, time to pack.", says Hunter, "Then we are off to the dungeon."

When Hunter left his home it was nearly midday. It would take him roughly 30 minutes to get to the dungeon gates. Hunter intends to clear the first 5 floors today as long as he makes good time. Arriving at the dungeon door, Hunter recognizes some familiar mana. It was Liliana the guild master, waving him down as if he could see her. In her hand she held a couple of items for Hunter on his first day. One was a small cube that was roughly 3 inches in size, the other was another hooded cloak similar to his current one. Once Hunter was within earshot she called out to him.

"Hunter, come over here for a second! It's Liliana!", she called out, "I have a few things I would like to give you!"

As Hunter approached he could sense that she was excited. He could also sense many other adventurers heading into and coming out of the dungeon. The thing he could feel the most though was none of these things. The dungeon was radiating monster mana. The feeling made Hunter's hair stand on ends, the thought of battle was even more alluring.

"Finally you show up, I've been waiting here all day!", says Liliana, "You, sir, owe me dinner tomorrow. My office before you go to the dungeon. Bring the food to the office if you don't mind. You may cook it or buy it. If you wish to buy it, I can supply you with an advance on the materials you would sell to the guild."

"I will bring you some of what I plan to eat for supper. Pheasant stew. I caught the pheasant itself this morning. It is currently smoking. I plan to stew it over night with some wild potatoes, carrots and onions I found yesterday before I came to the guild.", says Hunter, "Also, you said you had some things for me?"

"Yes! Here! So the cube is a storage cube. It has a limit but I'm not sure what it is. The cloak is made from dragon skin, it's impervious to flames and nearly puncture and s***h proof.", says Liliana, "These are some gifts from me since you don't have a party yet. I expect you to repay me for them when you can. No rush to pay it back. Just make sure you do."

Hunter graciously accepts the gifts and proceeds to take his cloak off and put on the new one when Liliana stops him.

"Hunter, if you don't mind my asking, why are you also covered in scars?", she asks.

Hunter replied, "Wild animals don't care if you're blind.".

Hunter was now equipped with his new cloak and all his items but water, food, and his bag were in the newly acquired storage cube. He said his goodbyes to the guild master and proceeded to head down to the first floor of the dungeon. Once on the first floor, he found new monsters he'd never seen before. They were similar in some ways to the animals above but some could use spells and some could even use weapons. The least harmful of the dungeon monsters and the most abundant were Slimes. There were a couple of different types, though at the time Hunter could not tell the differences. Each slain slime dropped a slime pearl. Hunter gathered each of the slime pearls and dropped them into a small leather-bound pouch. Once the pouch was full, Hunter dropped it into the storage cube. The next weakest monster on this level was a rat-type monster that could throw earth magic stones using its tail. Hunter killed any of these he came across and kept the hides for pouches and kept the tails to see what they were worth. Hunter being the hunter-gatherer, he kept the meat as well from a couple of these to use for bait or food if needed. There were a few stronger monsters scattered among the larger rooms on this floor. One of these monsters was a wolf-type monster. Hunter could hear it from the hall he was approaching from. He could also sense that it could wield magic as well, though he did not know what type. The wolf also sensed Hunter approaching and readied itself. When Hunter entered the room, the battle began. The first attack that came was a blade of wind that the wolf flung Hunter's way using its tail. Hunter dodged it with ease, and proceeded to counter attack.

"Wind Scythe.", says Hunter, as he created a wind blade of his own using his hand in a slashing motion.

Hunter tries not to damage the pelts too much, cleaving its head with his Wind Scythe. Once the wolf stopped moving, he started to scrap out the pelt and gather a little meat for food. Once he was done, he decided to start to head back. He could feel it was getting late and he wanted to get home to that stew. On his way out of the room, he triggered a trap that had been concealed from detection. The trap teleported him but to where he did not know. He instantly felt an immense presence in the room he was teleported to. Immediately, he sensed an incoming attack and was barely able to dodge. He got burned by the fire that was thrown his way. It nicked his leg and got his off hand pretty good.

"Hey, can you speak? You have much more magic than anything else I've sensed down here.", says Hunter, "If not, that's no problem, I'll just kill you anyway. The amount of mana coming from you, I can't tell whether you're a beast or human."

"I am the demon fox beast of the 25th floor. How dare you intrude here!", says the fox, "I will eat you for dinner!"

"So you can talk. I was told there were some beasts here that could talk.", says Hunter, "Though I figured you would be nicer."

"Stupid human! Time to die!", yells the fox.

The battle ensued in earnest. The fox bombarded Hunter with fire magic. Hunter, using his katana and wind magic, proceeded to block, slice and dodge the onslaught of fire balls. The battle raged on for several minutes, though it felt like hours. After casting many high level fire magic spells, including Fox Fire, Hell's Gate, and Inferno, the demon fox was starting to run out of mana, and Hunter wasn't far behind, yet he was better off than the fox at that point. Hunter's curiosity peaked. If this monster can speak, does it feel compassion? Hunter needed to answer this for himself before he could justify killing this fox. So that's what he had planned to do. By the end of this fierce battle, the winner was Hunter, though he managed to lose the use of his left hand due to fire damage sustained while fighting with the demon fox. He would not regain the use of this hand for days to come. He managed to wound all of the fox's legs and incapacitate it. The fox could no longer heal itself. It was out of mana. Hunter puts a binding spell on the fox to bind it in place, binding its legs in place. Hunter took a piece of cloth from his bag, tying it around the fox's mouth and then binding it in place.

"Please, don't move. I am going to heal you now. Now don't get any ideas that string around your snout will explode if you try to use magic.", Hunter says, "I don't want to kill you if you can see reason. I honestly don't know how I got here. If you use telepathy to speak, feel free it doesn't activate the string.".

"Why don't you kill me? When I get free from here I'm just going to kill more humans.", snarls the fox, "I can't believe a blind brat beat me and he let me live no less. So what is the plan?"

"I didn't kill you because I didn't see a reason to. I was able to speak with you and therefore able to reason with you. All the other monsters in this place can't talk or see reason.", says Hunter, "No plan really, just wanting to get home really. Would you know what floor we are on?"

"This is a bridge room between floors 23 and 24. If you are planning to go down, I don't recommend it with your wounds.", says the fox, "Some of the monsters on the 24th floor would be almost on par with me. If they had intelligence they might be stronger."

So the fox and Hunter talked a bit. While they were talking hunter was preparing some of the monster meat he had gathered on the way. He roasted some meat with his fire magic, and put it in some water and spices he brought along. Hunter piled wood into a pile and lit it with fire magic to roast the meat in the pot. While it was stewing, Hunter prepared a bed for himself and walked over to untie the fox's mouth. Before untying the fox's mouth, he wrapped another around it's throat.

"Now this string works the same way but, this explosion is quite a lot stronger than the first.", says Hunter, "I figured you might want to eat. You don't have to but I imagine this string will be more comfortable."

The fox could not believe what it was hearing. A human offering a beast food. This human was not like the rest. He doesn't think like the rest. The other adventurers all kill without question. A monster is a monster. The rarer the better, that's what they all say. Not this one. The fox decided to take this human up on his offer of kindness, though that didn't mean the fox trusted him yet. They ate together and talked about many things. Many things unimportant but some were what decided their fates.

"So when you leave this place what is your plan? I assume you intend to keep adventuring, but do you plan to take surface jobs?", asks the fox, "Why are you adventuring while blind? What do you plan to do with me? "

"Full of questions, aren't we? As far as why I am adventuring and why I will continue, I adventure to make money. I'm on my own, I need things, essential things. A bed and food I can't hunt or gather myself. Those are things I plan to use adventuring for.", says Hunter, "I don't have a grand dream. I want to live my life the way I want to. I want to experience things I want to experience and some of those things cost money. "

"I intend to take surface jobs I see fit to do. If I am requested for a job, I will go see the client and decide for myself.", says Hunter, "As far as what I'm going to do with you, if you want to stay here, you can. If you want to come with me, you can. That choice is up to you. I don't know what I'm going to do to explain you to everyone, but I can think of something."

The night prattled on, both of them chatted a bit more and ate a bit more. The fox, though, was still reserved and decided not to attempt to kill Hunter or try and leave once he fell asleep. The dungeon room where they fought only had one entrance and one exit. To keep monsters out for the night, Hunter decided to put up a magical barrier at each entrance. The barriers would keep lower level monsters out, but the higher level monsters would be able to break through with time. With camp settled in, Hunter laid on the bed he had made by the small fire. Hunter extinguished the fire with water magic and went to sleep for the night. The fox still awake, thought to itself before resigning itself to sleep as well.

"I am very puzzled by this human. I never dreamed a human would actually speak to me.", thought the fox, "This human may be fun to serve. He clearly doesn't know about how the pact works, let alone how binding works. What the hell? I'm curious to see what kind of life he will lead. I'll give him the run down in the morning."