Might as Well

While on the surface the areas around the world of Magic Unbound were different, the developers were still good enough to make the tutorial areas the same in a sense. Each had a middle-sized town, several crafters that could be found and learned from, and a few NPCs that would teach the basics of archetypes if one went and looked for them. As well as several secrets that Sam would mercilessly exploit in the future.

And the areas around these tutorial towns were also given the same treatment.

Every tutorial town, like Greenwood, had an area around them that could be broken down into layers.

Greenwood had a forest.

The outer layer was full of low-level monsters that were perfect for beginners to learn the ropes. Going deeper, players would find monsters that would give them a challenge, but they would still be defeatable alone if the player prepared or was talented enough. Going one layer deeper for solo gamers would be only possible for the strongest or most talented, with parties dominating the monsters found there.

And it was in this layer where players around the tutorial towns could find bosses.

Of course, one could ask: how could the game prevent much stronger players from coming back to tutorial towns, dominating them, or simply causing chaos?

When Sam experienced those memories, he really had to tip his hat to the developers of the game…

If a high-leveled player decided to go back to a tutorial town, a lot of things could happen. If, for example, they had a valid reason to go there, like on a quest, then nothing would happen. They would simply go there, speak to whomever they needed to speak to, and leave.

But if some miscreants decided to go back to their old tutorial town to grief beginners and low-level players, the game wouldn’t stop them with barriers or warnings.

No…

Instead, they would be approached by some NPC and offered a quest that was more attractive than griefing noobs, or maybe some event would happen near them that would need their attention. Or sometimes the NPC wouldn’t even approach them, maybe their guild leader would task them with the job not knowing their intention.

Thanks to the game’s ability to gather data, analyze it and make use of it, it could delay or distract any player that was aiming to cause chaos where there shouldn’t be chaos.

And what about those who were unaffected by these actions?

Every area of the game was home to a being that was its guardian, and when those obstinate people arrived at these places, those guardians would get a revelation from a ‘god’ and go and do a little cleanup.

It took players a long time to put this together, but when it clicked, everybody was impressed. Sam couldn’t blame them, as it was a good system.

But his goal wasn’t to cause chaos but to head to one of the spots in the forest where he could acquire something he needed.

So he left the town, woke up the guard who was napping with his greeting and ignoring the grumbling he left behind, and headed for the deeper part of the forest.

Granted, with his level the moment he stepped into the real deep part of the forest, the first squirrel would destroy him, but he had a secret weapon.

Distraction!

He had several chunks of fresh, prime giant rabbit meat ready to be thrown! And with a little bit of stealth, audacity, and knowledge from his memories, it wouldn’t be any trouble to reach his goal. With that determination, Sam stepped over the imaginary line that separated the forest from the fields before it and started heading deeper, hands ready to throw juicy meat pieces at aggressive predators.

Arguably not the greatest plan, but according to his memories, most really aggressive predators were nocturnal, and those who were active during the day had learned to fear humans, so they wouldn’t attack him without due cause. Were he a little stronger, maybe with an aura spell, he would have been able simply to stroll through the forest.

As it was, Sam had to check his every step, stop every time a bush bristled, and listen when he heard a noise.

For a while, he was all alone, the natural sounds of the forest surrounding him, then suddenly he heard a noise.

A bush moved to his right.

Sam froze, with one hand reaching for the meat in his inventory, the other approaching his sword, but not yet drawing it. Then an enormous hog stepped through the underbrush, snorting and honking with excitement.

Sam could see the moment when the hog realized it wasn’t alone. It also froze, staring at Sam, then it took a big sniff and, to Sam’s relief, snorted dismissively, looking away from him and restarting his movement, trotting forward. And to his surprise, followed by a succession of small piglets, excitedly squealing.

It would have been adorable if Sam didn’t know that the hog was at least Level 5 and would have gored him to death within seconds, Mana Shield notwithstanding. He waited with bated breath until the small family vanished in the wild undergrowth and then continued on his journey.

As he skulked around the forest, Sam couldn’t help but feel that he should deserve to receive at least the basic stealth skill.

‘Or maybe not…’ he thought as he tossed another scrap of meat at a snarling wolf. The wolf jumped a little, catching the meat while flying through the air, and while it was busy gorging itself on it, Sam beat a hasty retreat.

Looking up at the approaching mountainside that rose out of this part of the forest, he felt relieved, as it meant he was close to his goals.

At the beginning of the game, one of the guilds whose members were from the same city, the same city he lived in, managed to get some hints from the rangers in the Greenwood, and after some trouble, figured out a trick for something amazing.

The local Tutorial Boss was a giant mother wolf protecting her cubs. Players could anger it by driving the population of animals she relied on to feed her cubs down, or by killing too many wolves as she feared the players would bring harm to her cubs, or by simply receiving a quest to kill it after completing a chain quest with the locals.

What that guild figured out thanks to one of their rangers (and later mercilessly bragged about) was that if you were smart enough, you could lure the mother wolf away and tempt the little cubs with fresh meat to come with you.

Just grabbing them never worked, as it would push the instant berserk button for the mother wolf, and even the rangers stationed at Greenwood would look down on the player who did that.

But tempting them with meat was fair game…

And Sam was here to try it, with a little variation.

He didn’t have enough power, or people, to lure the mother wolf away, so he was planning on bribing it. Mostly because having an animal companion this early would be a godsend, and because in his previous life, Sam was almost deathly allergic to anything with fur, and he really wanted to experience what it was like to own a dog. Or wolf. He wasn’t picky…

Minutes later, he realized that the underbrush was clearing out a little, with the trees standing just a little farther from each other, and more and more rocks were littering the ground.

Swallowing heavily, he put away his sword and knife into his inventory, and retrieved a bigger amount of meat, then slowly, not even trying to hide he walked forward, towards where, according to his memories, the cave housing the mother wolf was.

Seconds later, Sam even began to hear the playful yips of wolf cubs as they presumably played around.

Stepping around the last tree, he found himself in a clearing surrounded by rocks. Laying in front of the entrance of a cave was a giant wolf, with scraggy gray and white fur, very intelligent eyes that were looking directly at him, and giant fangs that Sam didn’t really want anywhere near him…

The half dozen cubs around him were, however, incredibly cute. They were basically small balls of soft fur with snouts.

Sam raised his hand, one empty and the other holding the meat, and took a final step forward and stopped at a decent distance from the small family. Then the wind shifted, and a small gust flew from behind him, bringing his scent towards the wolves. The small ones, so far ignoring, or not even noticing him, suddenly stilled, and raised their adorable heads towards him.

Sam could see their little beady eyes trained on the juicy meat in hand as drool started to flow from their mouth. He would have chuckled if he weren’t at a mercy of the area boss.

The mother wolf spent a moment looking at him, then glanced at the cubs, then at him and around them. Then a moment later, presumably after making sure nobody else was around, she snorted and stood up slowly. With lumbering steps, she stepped forward and growled at him.

Getting the clear message, Sam raised his hand and gently threw the meat in front of the giant wolf, as it towered over him with its almost eight feet of height.

The wolf then spent a few moments smelling the meat, nibbling it a little, while actively trying to shove the cubs away from Sam’s offering, before picking it up with her teeth and throwing it behind her with a lazy movement.

The moment the piece of giant rabbit meat went flying, the cubs jumped and ran after it, and as it landed with a meaty thud, they pounced on it and began tearing it apart, while their mother simply stood there and eyed Sam.

Sam, knowing his precarious situation, just gave the mother wolf a small, closed-mouth smile.

Then he slowly moved his hand so that the wolf could see and retrieved another piece of meat.

While reading the body language of a wolf was much harder than a human’s, Sam still could see a small spark of delight appear in the wolf’s eyes.

So, without further ado, he threw it at her…

After half an hour of slowly throwing pieces of meat at the wolf with a few minutes of interval, to allow the cubs, and after that their mother to eat their fill, the mother wolf finally got used to Sam enough that she simply retreated to her previous position, laid down once again and rested her not so small head on her paws that could probably pulverize his ribcage and watched the cubs play while still keeping an eye on the surroundings and more importantly, Sam.

Sam, taking this as a sign of trust, swallowed heavily and took a step forward while eyeing the giant wolf. As the wolf didn’t do anything, Sam took another one. And then another, and so on, until he was standing next to a small flat rock that was perfect for sitting down. Which he did immediately, mostly to be able to relax a little, as holding so still was starting to stress his body.

And as he sat down under the watchful gaze of the mother wolf, he could feel his legs shaking.

It was one thing to see a wolf in the zoo, and it was another thing to see the same animal, just three times its original size in the game with Magic Unbound’s perfect recreation of the senses.

Sam would freely admit to anyone if they asked that he was scared as hell…

But he had a plan, and thus far it seemed to be working.

Watching the freely playing pups, he couldn’t help but let out an involuntary chuckle. They were just so adorable. Currently, they were play fighting over a stick, with two of the bigger ones holding on to the two ends, and the rest attacking the two wherever they could.

Then he froze as he realized that the mother wolf instantly raised her head and looked at him alerted by the noise. He slowly turned his head and looked into the eyes of the giant wolf, then shrugged and pointed at the pups.

The mother wolf followed his finger with her eyes, and as Sam watched, he could see the tender care for her cubs in those eyes. Then the wolf surprised him by letting another snort that seemed to be more like a chortle, and the mother wolf simply laid back, half closing her eyes.

Sam let out a sigh of relief and then refocused on his goal…

As the cubs played around, they would inevitably come closer to him, which allowed him to reach out and simply pet them.

The first time he did this, every wolf in the clearing froze, their intelligent eyes directed at him, while the pup he was petting shivered in fear, but as they realized what he was actually doing, the bigger cubs returned to their games and the mother just huffed.

He kept this up for a while when something happened.

The stick, already chewed thoroughly and incredibly dry, broke.

Both big cubs took one piece of the stick, triumphantly howling at their victory, then trotted to their mother to show off their spoil while the rest of the pack of cubs followed them, yipping jealously. Except for the smallest one.

During the tousle, one of the bigger cubs kicked it away, and as it lay there pitifully, it whined in a high voice at their mother, no doubt complaining about the unfairness of the game.

Sam watched this in fascination, not daring to interfere.

The mother wolf opened an eye, looked at the triumphant cubs, and the whining one, then used one of its giant paws to bat the howling ones to the side, causing them to stop the noise they were generating, then looked at the small wolf pup, snorted derisively and returned her head in a resting position and closed her eyes.

The small wolf whined a little more, but no more attention came from its mother. Then it shakily stood up and looked around. And Sam could clearly see the spark of an idea appear in its eyes.

‘Probably along the lines that if the mother doesn’t help me, then the other thing that gives me food will help me…’ Sam thought with a wry smile as he watched the smallest cub slowly approach him, with the most pitiful look on its head.

Apparently, it was an aspiring actor…

Sam just chuckled and retrieved a small piece of meat and held it out to the wolf cub. The fight was immediately forgotten as hunger bloomed behind the wolf’s eyes and it pounced so fast at the meat that Sam almost had no time to let it go.

After that, it was pure bliss for the little wolf…

Sam kept feeding it small scraps while petting it, scratching behind its ears, and then finally, after the wolf was almost comatose from happiness, scratching its belly.

Keeping up the good work, Sam watched as the rest of the pups played while their mother napped, but nothing else exciting happened.

Then, as he could clearly see the sun leaving its zenith and descending towards the horizon, Sam watched as the cubs one by one tired themselves out, simply laying next to their mother, either chewing on the stick they had won or half asleep.

Except for the smallest who somehow managed to worm its way into his lap was getting his stomach scratched by Sam.

Then, without any warning, the mother wolf stood up, scaring the wolf cubs awake, gave him a long look, growled at the cubs, then turned halfway around towards the cave. The pups getting the message slowly got up, sleepily yawning. Even the one in Sam’s lap stopped (no matter how reluctantly) enjoying his ministrations and jumped off his lap and to their mother.

Though both Sam and its mother could see it hesitate.

The mother wolf once again surprised Sam, when she sighed, gave him a piercing stare and reached down with her snout, and nudged the smallest cub toward him.

The cub at first was confused, then as it realized what was happening, yipped happily, and ran around excitedly its mother once, then dashed back to Sam’s leg, looking up at him with adoring eyes.

Sam looked into the eyes of the wolf mother and, still sitting, bowed his head in respect, then reached into his inventory, taking out most of his meat supply, followed up by throwing it towards her.

Instead of letting it land on the ground, the wolf, with an almost impossible speed, reached up with her mouth and grabbed the pieces of meat out of the air. Then calmly nodded at him and followed the rest of the cubs back to the cave.

Leaving Sam alone in the clearing with one adorable and eager wolf cub.

He leaned down and patted the wolf on its head, to which it leaned into with great enthusiasm.

And as his hand left the wolf’s head, the screen he was hoping for appeared in front of him.

[Congratulations! You’ve tamed a Juvenile Gray Forest Wolf!

Would you like to see its status page?]

[You’ve acquired your first pet! Make sure to treat it right!]

[Thanks to the way you’ve tamed the Juvenile Gray Forest Wolf, you acquired the Companion Sense skill!]

[Companion Sense: Level 0 (0%) This skill allows you to determine the direction of your companion relative to yourself. With the improvement of the bond between you and your companion, the ability of this skill will also grow.]

Sam smiled, then looked down at the small wolf that was still staring at him.

“Let’s go, little guy!”

He stood up, shaking the pins and needles from his appendages, and began heading towards the town, with the wolf excitedly running after him with its stubby legs and yipping in happiness.