Book 4, Chapter 6

The Wonder Mount

           "Is this your companion too?" Hawklooked at Rosa and shuddered. "But aren"t you a warrior?"
　　
　　    "Imentioned I"m Soul Manipulator too, right? It"s an alternative cla.s.s for Tamer.Now you know why I can bring more companions. Alright, Rosa, put them down."

            Rosa released the couple gently and went back under.

            "More companions makeyour work easier, don"t you think?"
　　
　　    "Yeahbut...this is more than just "more companions"! I can"t believe this! Two...dragons,two trees, a nightmare, a parrot..." Hawk went over my team members one byone. "Oh, and the ten friends behind you. Introduce us please?"
　　
　　    "Correction.They"re Phantom Knights, my servants. The "trees" are two tentacles from one ofmy companion, not two. And he"s not a tree. He"s called a Creeper. The one who b.u.mpedyour tree is Lucky. He"s big, but quite the gentleman if you get to know him. Andthat"s Loong"er floating in the sky. You don"t have any problems with thissymbolic Chinese creature right? This is not a parrot on my shoulder. She takesthe form of an Aurora Heaven Bird when not fighting but..."

            I tossedPhiona upward. Boom, she turned into a fireball, then the grand black avianblocked the sunlight above our heads.

           "Be gentle next time!"

           "Oh,sorry...If anyone is dangerous, it"s her. So don"t get fooled by the look ofthat beautiful pet parrot. Next. Phantom, come out." 

　　
　　    Alump a black mist appeared in front of me.

           "Phaaantom here. Orders,master?"
　　
　　    Elfyseems about to faint. "Do you have any idea how much you need to pay forcompanion eggs on the market??"
　　
　　    "Theysell them on the market? No I never checked. So how much?"
　　
　　    "But--wait--areyou even a real player?"

            Interesting. I never knew Hawk could open his eyes THAT wide.

           "Listen,companion eggs are super hot merchandise out there, especially good ones. Doyou know why they won"t allow you to change companions? This is a typical psychtest designed by the developers."
　　
　　    "Psych whatnow?"
 　　
　　    Elfyexplained. "Simple. The game company set up a giant headachefor all the players. First, most people have really few companion slots. Theyneed to think carefully before getting a companion. If they find a low levelcompanion first, they will lose the chance to get other better ones in laterstages; but if they try to wait for later stages, they will have a hard timereaching that stage without a companion in the first place. Besides no one is sure they can get ahigh level companion even if they level up."
　　
　　    "There"sa "Loyalty" for companions right? I heard that companions with low Loyalty canget captured by other players. Why don"t people take a weaker companion first, thenfind someone to take it away?"
　　
　　    "Ofcourse someone already tried that!"
 　　
　　    "And?"
　　
　　    "Theguy deleted his character and started anew." Hawk took over the topic.
　　
　　    "Whywould he do that?" 　　
　　   

           "Guesswhat, when your companion is taken by someone else, the slot is still occupied.Suppose someone has two slots and lost a companion to another player, he willonly bring one companion for the rest of his career. Youget the point?"
　　
　　    "Oh s.h.i.t.Thank G.o.d I didn"t actually do it."
　　
　　    Hawklooked around the companion army. "I think...we should choose somewhereelse to level up."
 　　
　　    "Dowe have to?"
 　　
　　    "Definitely."Elfy pointed behind my back.

            I turned around and like "Fuuuuuuu--"

           The area behind me hasalready turned into a slaughterhouse somehow. Lucky is still picking out theremaining boars one by one, sometimes another one would get dragged away by aplant vine and go missing for good.

           "Now I didn"t give theorder! Guys! Stop it!"

           Lucky tossed a torn corpse behind his back and lookedaround in a "I didn"t do nothing" way. Although the blood around hismouth gave him out.
　　
　　    "...Doyou know any other places we can use?" I glanced around the now lifelessforest.
　　
　　    "Oh!I get it!" Elfy jumped.
　　
　　    Hawkseems to have something up his mind as well. "Are we thinking about thesame thing?"
 　　
　　    "That"swhat I mean! What do you say?" Elfy is smiling wide as if she won thelottery.
　　
　　    ButI"m in the dark here. "A little explaining please?"
　　
　　    Hawk:"The Wonder Mount not far from here. It"s full of monsters with levelsaround 470 or 480. Sometimes level 500 bosses would appear among them. Shouldbe just the right place for us."
　　
　　    "So...whatare we waiting for?"
 　　
　　    "Theproblem is the monster sp.a.w.n can be troublesome."
 　　
　　    "Toomany?"
 　　
　　    "Um,no. They are just, endless. Normally, monsters resp.a.w.n after some time when youclean them out. But on that mountain, any monster you kill will immediatelyresp.a.w.n inside its belonging area. You may hold them back but they will keepgathering up in your location, until there"s not enough s.p.a.ce for you to move asingle step. We"ve been there twice. The first time we just quited, and secondtime...yeah, we were drowned."
　　
　　    Nowthat sounds fun! "Why do the monsters move like that, have you consideredabout it?"
　　
　　    "Huh?No. Why?" Hawk is confused.
　　
　　    Elfycaught my answer though, as expected. "They"re trying to prevent playersfrom reaching the top."
　　
　　    "Bingo.There has to be something up there. The monsters located on the mountain arenot for grinding, but to repel any intruders."
　　
　　    Hawkheld up his chin. "I see it now... So there are really treasures."
　　
　　    "Thenlet"s hurry! Go go!!" I"m already on Night Shade"s back. Oh lordJehovah, Maria, Hades, Yeshua, or whatever is watching me, please please let it begolds, or a treasure vault or something so I can pay my debt! I can"t even sleepwell with that in my mind!
　　
　　    "Let"sgo!" Hawk and Elfy are already riding on Sunlight while I was doing mysilly prayers. Their positions is...a little bit strange though. OnlyHawk is sitting on Sunlight. Elfy is seated on Hawk"s right shoulder.

            Wegalloped towards the Wonder Mount, while I kept observing the couple frombehind. I"d say that"s quite some skills. The path in the forest is far fromsmooth--our mounts would hop and turn from now and then. But they can actuallykeep a posture like that without any trouble.

            Yeah, Hawk deserved that bodyshape. Elfy is small but is still a human weight, yet Hawk carried her likeholding a rubber duck.
　　
　　    Wereached our target. Before we can get into the mountains, we still need to pa.s.sa lake splitting the two locations. From a close look, the mountainoccupied a large area but isn"t really high on the vertical level. A layer oflavender colored mist is floating around the mountain, sometimes giving outsome shiny light reflections.
　　
　　    "Itlooks beautiful enough." I tried to lighten the mood, because the twopeople beside me are already in an escaping stance.
　　
　　    "Thedanger is well hidden."
　　
　　    "Justlike your phoenix, the scenery is just meant to cover the true malice that maytake your life anytime."
 　　
　　    "Um,you don"t have to be THAT careful right? Just follow from behind. I"ll go first."I pointed forward. "Lucky! Go!"
　　
　　    Luckyroared and jumped ahead.

           Splash!

           He disappeared under the lake.

          After severalseconds, a giant water pillar rose from the lake, with Lucky and a mess of monsters falling from it.
　　
　　    "Huh,I didn"t expect the lake to be so deep." I looked at the now water-soakedLucky.

            In theory, a lake about 20 meters wide should be no deeper than 3 meters but...I guess common sense doesn"t work in here.
　　
　　    "Itold you not to get fooled by the looks of them. Last time we fell deep underthe water. We were lucky that we can swim fast or those piranha swarms would have turnedus into skeletons."
　　
　　    "Isthere a bridge?"
 　　
　　    "Nope.But there is a narrow point, our companion mounts should be able to jump over."
　　
　　    Wecame to the mentioned point. It"s about...6-7 meters far from the other side.

           Igave Night Shade a pat. "Can you do it?"
　　
　　    Withouta word, he just leaped over the lake with ease. He even gave me a defying look and a snort.

           Ok, I really should be careful not to offend this guy. Iwonder how fast his Loyalty drops if I try anything funny.
　　
　　    "Hawk,go for it!"
 　　
　　    Heasked Sunlight to move a bit away from the bank, before they charged andsuccessfully made it. The distance should be no problem for a unicorn like that,even with two people riding on him.
 　　
　　    Hawkpointed at the path towards the mountain. "Avoid any visible pathsand routes. No matter who you are, they will always send you back to thestarting point. That"s what happened to us last time. The only thing about thepaths is that they"re safe--monsters will not attack anyone who walks on them."
　　
　　    "Thatsounds tricky. You two should lead the way. I can"t really do anything beforewe actually meet any monsters."