Chapter 5 – Recovery, Revelations, and Reflections
Sunlight cut through the trees like a gentle slap, warm and insistent. I blinked awake, groaning as I tried to sit up.
Mistake.
Pain roared through my body like a bad credit score—every joint, every muscle, screaming in protest.
"Grrha..." I forced myself upright with a grimace. "Man, that lil' bitch really got me."
The battle came back in flashes—ice, blood, and the elf girl collapsing beside me. Then... barking?
"Nyla!" I called out, my voice hoarse.
A bark answered. She burst through the brush, dragging something huge behind her—limping, bloodied, but alive.
She dropped the carcass and barreled into me, knocking me flat.
"Oof—easy, girl! I'm barely held together here."
Her tongue launched a full assault on my face. I groaned, half-laughing. "Yeah, yeah. Missed you too."
She finally relented, curling beside me like a living weighted blanket. She was being clingy. Even through the link, I could feel the desperate relief pouring off her.
"You're really laying it on thick today," I muttered. "Alright. Later cuddles. Right now, I need to not die."
She reluctantly peeled herself off and went back to her prize—an oversized deer-like beast. Enough meat for days. Too bad I didn't have a freezer. Or soap. Or civilization.
I rolled to my side—right into something.
The elf girl.
She was still out cold, dried blood crusted across her temple. Her white hair was tangled, her breathing shallow but steady.
I remembered now. I hadn't beaten her—she'd just burned herself out.
Still, I'd received a system notification: Tamed.
I pulled up my status.
Kai – Level 6 (Human)
HP: 90/300 MP: 90/90
Strength: 20 Defense: 20 Agility: 15 Intellect: 150 Luck: 4000
Unique Skills:
• CHOSEN
• Monster Mage
Common Skills:
• Champion Hook
• Fancy Footwork
• Dynamic Combo
• Parry
• Battle Tactics
My new unique skill caught my eye.
Monster Mage – Gain a portion of the power of all tamed monsters. Grants elemental affinities based on companions. Allows fusion of compatible monsters. Fused monsters must be tamed again and may mutate—risk increases with lower compatibility. Due to CHOSEN, all effects are amplified (including negative ones).
I stared.
So not only did I get stronger just by collecting party members, but I could also fuse them? This world was one unethical experiment away from turning me into a Pokémon professor.
And Chosen was making everything worse—or better—depending on how suicidal I felt.
I turned to the elf.
Frost Elf – Name: Undecided – Level 1
HP: 20/50 MP: 20/200
Strength: 4 Agility: 10 Defense: 3 Intellect: 100 Luck: 20
Unique Skill:
• Icy Resolve
Skills:
• Icy Aura
• Mana Manipulation
• Ice Creation
Her level reset after taming. Most stats dropped. Icy Resolve was new.
Icy Resolve – You acknowledged your opponent and gave your all. Though defeated, your spirit remains strong.
+50% affection with tamer
+50% combat stats
Unlocks unique evolutions and breeding capabilities
"Breeding?"
That word practically glowed.
Warning popped up:
Monsters of different species cannot breed. CHOSEN overrides this rule. Crossbreeding may significantly alter local ecosystems.
I blinked. "So... I can make custom hybrids now?"
The girl stirred beside me. Her eyes fluttered open—cloudy, unfocused.
"M...ster," she whispered.
"You can talk?"
But she was already fading back out.
"Rest easy, Yuki."
Yeah. That name felt right.
I scooped her up and carried her toward the shelter. Nyla snarled behind me—jealousy radiating like a furnace.
"Oh relax," I muttered. "She's not replacing you."
Still growling.
"Alright, damn."
I turned to the frozen spires left from Yuki's earlier attack. I placed her in the middle, figuring the cold might help.
And it did—too well.
The ice wrapped around her, pulling her in like a cocoon. Mist swirled, frost blooming across the ground. Her wounds began healing instantly.
Natural hibernation cycle? Racial healing ability?
Didn't matter. She'd live.
I limped over to the stream and drank like I was back from the Sahara. The water was cold, crisp, and tasted like something bottled by gods.
Then hunger hit.
Nyla's kill was waiting. I got to work—gutting, cleaning, cursing my life choices. I set up traps using spare organs for bait and dragged a few logs into place for a fire.
No rest for the wild, I guess.
Once the meat was roasting, I called Nyla over.
She curled into my lap like a spoiled house pet.
I opened her status.
Beowyr Pup – Name: Nyla – Level 5
HP: 130/200 MP: 50/50
Strength: 15 Agility: 25 Defense: 15 Intellect: 100
Affection: 90% → Growing
Unique Skill: Wolf-Assassin –
You noticed your prey. They were already dead.
+50% assassin skill proficiency
Grants: Presence Concealment, Silent Bite, Shadow Wolf, Stalker
Stalker – Track a designated target within 1000m.
"I'll follow you to the ends of the cosmos if I have to... You are mine... Master."
Shadow Wolf – Merge with shadows. Create doppelgängers. Shadow becomes sentient.
Silent Bite – A lethal, undetectable strike. Victim doesn't even get a death cry.
"Holy hell..." I whispered, running a hand through her fur. "What did you do last night?"
Nyla wriggled in my lap and purred through the link.
"Too much... that spot's too much..."
I smirked, scratching behind her middle tail again just to hear her squeak.
Yeah. This world was wild...
But I was starting to feel right at home.
———
A few hours passed with me lazily petting Nyla while she napped, curled in my lap like a spoiled housecat. Every time I stopped, she groaned in protest, so I kept at it nonstop. Weirdly enough, I felt better—less pain, more energy. Maybe monster girl therapy was legit.
Right as I was thinking of stretching my legs, my stomach let out a growl so loud it startled Nyla awake.
"Alright, alright—first, food."
The deer-like monster had finished draining. I hauled it over and carved it into chunks. No seasoning, no sauce—just raw monster meat. But I was starving, and hunger makes anything taste like five stars. I skewered some on sharpened sticks and set them to roast over the fire.
While breakfast cooked, I figured it was time to check on Yuki.
I stepped into the fog surrounding the ice pillars. The temperature dropped fast, crisp and biting. In the center, Yuki sat cross-legged, eyes closed like she was meditating. The blood on her face and robes had dried to a crust, but all her wounds were gone.
Impressive.
Her eyes fluttered open the second I got close.
"Master. How may I serve you?"
"Okay, hold up. You gotta ease up on the 'serve me' talk when you look like a kid. I ain't into that freaky shit. I mean—I'm into freaky shit, just not that kind. You feel me?"
"...Pardon?" she blinked.
"Where I'm from, grown men don't get 'served' by toddlers. Not legally, anyway. I'm not tryna get caught up in some To Catch a Predator episode."
She recoiled, disgusted. "Excuse me!? I was offering assistance, not volunteering to be your personal fuck toy, you degenerate."
"Oh." ...Fair.
"And for the record, I may be small, but I'm nineteen in human years. My kind live long. Among my people, I'm still considered young, yes—but by your standards, I'm legal."
I squinted. "Yeah, nah. That whole 'I'm actually 500 years old!' loophole don't fly with me."
She sighed. "Are you a moron? I thought you were a noble warrior. I was willing to die to defeat you. And this is who you really are?"
"Sorry?" I shrugged. "Also, how are we speaking the same language now?"
She froze. "You're right... we weren't before."
And she had the nerve to call me dumb.
I gave her another once-over. No bruises, no cuts, not even the gash above her eye. Just dried blood and attitude. I raised my hands.
"Truce. I just came to check on you. You hungry?"
Her stomach answered before she could—loud and clear. She blushed.
"...Thanks... Mast—Kai."
Nice save.
We stepped out of the fog. I rotated the meat while Yuki went to the river to clean off last night's trauma. Nyla, of course, growled the moment she walked by. Yuki fired back with a gust of frosty wind.
"Stay from master. Master is mine," Nyla growled across the link.
"As if I'd be interested. Keep him, pup," Yuki snapped.
Wait—they could talk to each other through the link? I thought that was just between me and each of them. Interesting.
"This has potential."
After Yuki washed up, we sat by the fire. Roasted meat, no words—just the kind of silence that only exists when you're both hungry and still alive. Nyla curled beside me, glaring daggers at Yuki. Yuki returned the look with enough chill to flash-freeze lava.
Eventually, the tension thawed. Yuki talked about her homeland, her people, her upbringing. I asked if she had parents. If she wanted to go back. She asked about Earth, my life, how I ended up here. It was... nice. And weird.
Her affection stat held at 50. Honestly? Perfect. I couldn't handle another clingy, jealous monster girl breathing down my neck like Nyla did.
Just as we finished eating, the bone traps I'd set around the camp rattled and chimed.
Nyla jumped up, growling.
Yuki moved beside me, frost curling around her fingers.
I stepped forward, cracking my neck.
From the trees came a swarm of small, green, muscle-bound goblins—cackling, grinning, eyes locked not on me, but on Yuki.
Goblins.
Maybe they smelled the roasted meat. Maybe they'd been tracking her. Either way, they'd just picked the wrong camp to raid.
I sighed. "Man, I just got done cookin'. But fine."
I stepped forward, fists up.
"I may've just met this chick and she's got a smart-ass mouth—but nobody touches what's mine."
Then I charged.
Left hook. Right hook. Uppercut. Three solid crunches. The lead goblin hit the dirt, twitching before going still.
"Who's next? I'm just here to kick ass and chew bubblegum—and I'm all outta gum."
Behind me, Nyla howled. Yuki smirked, frost curling from her palms.
Three of us. An army of them.
I liked those odds.