Risen World

Chapter 85: Gotta Catch Them A... Well Some of Them

Walking through the forest Joshua was a bit surprised at the turn of events since they had left the beginner dungeon. First off he found out what ability that little butterfly, or I guess he should say that Flutter had. Lilly's naming sense still gave Joshua a hard time sense she would always glare at him if he didn't call her pets by the names she gave them. Anyways Flutter's extra ability from being a variant was called boost and it was going to be a key part of Lilly's combat ability going forward. It boosted all members in the current party's stats by ten percent. The only problem was the fact that it could only boost either physical stats or mental stats and not both at the same time. It still had the other abilities that the blue butterflies used against them in the dungeon, but it was a bit faster than those butterflies which made it easier for it to stay out of danger.

This ability didn't stack so it didn't matter how many of these butterflies used the ability it would only amount to a ten percent gain in stats. The only thing that could change this would be if one butterfly was boosting physical stats while the other was boosting mental stats. In that case it would only take two butterflies to completely boost all of the group's stats by ten percent or a butterfly and Lilly herself. That's why they decided to move on to the marsh area instead of catching another butterfly.

The next thing Joshua found out after defeating the boss was that Lilly seemed to be enamored with these little pink rabbits. When Joshua was going to put down the pink rabbit that was still left alive after he took down the boss, Lilly rushed forward and picked the frighten little guy up while giving Joshua a harsh glare. It didn't take more than that for her to tame the creature and to come walking out of the dungeon with a now named Mr. Floppy and Mrs. Floppy pair. Joshua wasn't even sure what gender the two rabbits were, but he hoped they didn't reproduce like they did before the world changed otherwise they were going to need a farm for all the baby rabbits that would be popping up soon.

The last thing that Joshua found out was the fact that Lilly had actually never finished the beginner dungeon before they went in together. He had assumed she had finished it before with another group sense she had the first pink bunny before they even entered. It turned out that she got Mr. Floppy from a run where the group wasn't strong enough to take down the king rabbit before it would get healed back up. So in the end they exhausted themselves and had to escape the boss and abandon the dungeon. While they were escaping the king rabbit charged into the wall sending the little rabbit soaring off its back into the hallway where everyone was escaping to. Sense it was split up from the boss Lilly was able to tame it before any other person in the group tried to kill it.

In the end Lilly gained a new companion, but everyone in the group was furious with her sense she couldn't help with taking down the boss at all. That was the start of her troubles when it came to grouping up with others. She had actually gained several levels while entering the dungeon with them while they had hardly gained any sense they were already near the highest level necessary for the dungeon. This made it seem like she was just there to leech off of them, but if they had bothered to realize the fact that her being able to tame monsters to help out could be a huge benefit in the future they might have taken a similar approach as Joshua was taking instead of shunning her.

Sense this was the first time for Lilly to finish the dungeon she was given a skill while Joshua was just given some higher level potions along with some system points that could be used later on equipment if he needed it. The skill that Lilly ended up getting was actually quite useful, especially for her Job. It was a skill called frenzy that put all of her pets in a frenzied state for a minute. While in this state all of their stats would go up by ten percent and it had a cool down of ten minutes. Of course this ability could be leveled up in a similar way that echo strike could. So in the end the more pets Lilly had the stronger this ability would become.

Now Joshua found himself staring over a cliff while listening to Lilly hum a song to her group of pets. He was in an awkward situation where he had to figure out how to carry Lilly down the cliff without it being to weird. He couldn't just carry her like a sack of potatoes and he definitely wasn't going to carry her bridal style like some white knight either. In the end he squatted down and waived her over. "Get on my back. I have a way to get us down the cliff fast and safe." Joshua explained.

"Oh you're going to give us a ride? You hear that Mr. and Mrs. Floppy? We're going soaring!" She excitedly said. At first Joshua was going to ask her to put the pets away, but before he could she had already climbed on top of his shoulders and was pointing as if to tell him she was all set. Joshua just groaned a bit with the idea of having two rabbits snugly above his head before sending some aura into his scarf and jumping off the cliff. Lilly shouted in excitement as they hovered down towards the marsh below. Flutter was following just behind them all the way down. When they landed Lilly cheered a bit while Joshua checked his head to make sure those rabbits didn't leave him a present and sighed in relief when he found out everything was okay.

"Alright before we head to the dungeon there are a few things we need to do first." Joshua opened his inventory and pulled out a staff he had gained from the dungeon beforehand and handed it over to Lilly. "From what I can tell so far, you aren't much for fighting. In the future we will have to rectify that and get you some training so that you can defend yourself to an extent. Your synchronize ability will give you the stats necessary to fight depending on what pet you're synced up with, but unless you know how to fight it won't really matter in the end."

"I get it, but I'm not really much of a fighter and it cost quite a bit to get some real training." Lilly responded in a matter of fact like way.

"Don't worry I'll be the one showing you the basics and when I'm doing my own training you can train with my father at his gym. I'm not expecting you to become a full-fledged martial artist or anything, but it would be good if you can avoid danger while your pets do most of the actual fighting." Lilly nodded to Joshua's response. "In the mean time you can use that staff to improve your healing capabilities. It's not going to make a huge difference, but it should be enough for now."

"So are we going to go now? We've already spent almost half the day going through the dungeon and coming here." She asked while looking towards the sky.

"Not yet. We aren't going to start exploring the dungeon today. We will be getting you two more pets that have a more offensive mind set than the ones you have right now, then we will take down the giant beast that's guarding the entrance to the dungeon." Joshua explained.

"What kind of little guys are you thinking about getting me now? I hope they're interesting."

"WellI wouldn't exactly consider them cute like the ones you have now. In fact they're probably the opposite, but right now you need some pets that can protect you while I'm fighting on the front lines. I'm not sure how the beasts will react in the hidden dungeon sense it doesn't follow the same rules as the system generated ones so I can say for sure that all the monster will only attack me or that your presence hiding ability will work against stronger creatures. In the end it's just better to have more protection for you." Joshua explained.

"Alright, lead the way then." Lilly responded with a bright smile before moving over next to Joshua. "I can't wait to see my new friends." Joshua simply nodded before heading further into the marsh in the direction of the hidden dungeon. Although he didn't plan on entering it just yet, the dungeon was near the center of the marsh area. That was exactly where he was most likely to find high level beast for Lilly to tame and he had two such beast in mind. First was the commander lizard which didn't really have anything special about it, but it was highly intelligent in comparison to the other normal beast he had faced up to this point. It was also strong enough to tank some blows and quick enough to get in small attacks on a target while Joshua was fighting head on. Its most important role would be to be Lilly's guard dog for the moment though.

The other pet that Joshua was planning to get was that three star frog that he had seen fighting the lake guardian in the first place. Although the frogs were simple minded and straight forward they could still be useful as ranged attackers and tanks in some scenarios simply due to their size. The pair of frogs had lost to the alligator because it was clearly smarter and more tactical than the frogs. If that wasn't the case then it would have been impossible for it to catch them without using a surprise tactic in the first place. With Lilly commanding the frog on how to fight it would be far more useful in the upcoming battles.

By the time they reached the center area Joshua was forced to put down several of the smaller lizards that had gotten in their way. After a while they had found a lizard commander, but it only had one star next to its name so Joshua passed on it and moved on to search for a stronger one. It was possible to train the lizard, but he didn't plan on training the pets up before the fight and in the end the lizard would most likely be replaced by a new pet that has more potential and a far better move setand it will probably be 'cuter' if Joshua had to guess.

After searching for about an hour they finally found a group of Lizard that had a two star commander that was level twenty-four. Joshua signaled Lilly to wait while he charged into make quick work of its subordinates. Last time he was worried about frightening it into escaping, but this time around he knew he could chase it down. With an aura coated blade he tore through the smaller lizards easily and lunged towards the bigger one before it could even turn around to run. He jumped in front of it and stopped its frantic charge with the scale blade. Then he bashed the poor thing with the flat of the blade knocking it unconscious. He watched over it for a minute before waiving Lilly over to tame it.

When Lilly got close to it she looked at it with interest for a minute before sighing a bit. "This guy doesn't have much room for growth, but I suppose he will be good for now." Lilly calmly said before taming it in the same way she had done with the butterfly. Her aura entangled with the creatures for a moment before it woke up and stood by her side while looking towards her fondly.

"What do you mean it doesn't have much potential? Is there a way you can tell?" Joshua asked with a bit of surprise.

"Yep, as a beast tamer I can tell when any creature I'm taming has great potential or not. Mr. and Mrs. Floppy both have pretty high potential and can evolve into something even greater in the future. Flutter has even more potential than they do, but this lizard doesn't have any path to move forward. "Lilly replied in an unusually serious fashion. "It can gain levels and all that, but that's it. Oh well, I guess it will do for now." She said with a pout. Joshua bitterly smiled at her antics before leading her in the direction he had seen the three star frog leave towards last time he came to the marsh.

It took a while of searching for Joshua to find the creatures nest with his aura pulse. He had come across several other frogs, but none of them were in the same league as the one he was searching for. When they found the large green frog it was sleeping peacefully on the edge of a small pond. There were no other creatures in the area sense they were probably use to avoiding its territory. When Lilly saw the giant frog her eyes brightened up and she waltzed over towards it without a care in the world. At first Joshua was terrified for her safety, but he realized her presence was being hidden by the pair of bunnies and watched while being ready to charge in and defend her at any time.

When Lilly got close enough she place her hand on the large frogs belly before her aura started to infuse the creature in the same way it had for the lizard. The large frog's eyes opened in shock before looking down towards her in confusion. Although the frog wasn't very bright it did seem to understand what was going on. For a while the two auras battled for dominance until eventually Lilly's won and the frog stood up in front of her in a rather non-threatening way. It bowed its head a bit signaling that she was successful in her endeavor. Now the next step was taking down the guardian of the lake.