7 Adaline

1 day later…

4 people were riding on top of a monster at an abnormal speed and were shaking violently. The monster is faster than any horse. With its speed and size it could easily tear down any tree on its path.

The monster was at least 8 feet tall. It had no eyes, it ran on four legs, and it had a large beak like a bird. It relied on its sense of smell and hearing to navigate through the forest. Most of its body was made entirely out of dead leaves, dead flowers, and dried branches. Only its mouth and claws were made out of keratin, which is something made out of fingernails, hooves, bird beaks. It looked horrendous and dangerous

"Arbor, tell your damn pet to calm the hell down!" Radix yelled as he had trouble keeping his balance.

"I can't control it. I just recently tamed him, and he hasn't recognized me as its master yet."

"Dad, what the hell?" Grace yelled.

"The Adalis is one of the fastest creatures in the forest. Had we traveled using other methods, then we wouldn't have arrived in the human village in one day." Rias added seemingly enjoying the ride.

"STOP!!!" Arbor yelled and the Adalis creature stopped suddenly. The force and momentum when he stopped made the 4 elves get launched off the creature's back.

The four elves were groaning in pain. Most of them were just happy that the ride was over.

"If I wasn't an elf and if it wasn't made out of flesh, I would have killed that thing and eaten it and make it watch as I eat its limbs." Radix said. Elves cannot eat meat.

"If you eat meat, you'll lose your magic powers. And besides the Adalis is made out of organic matter, not flesh." Rias added. She looked at her surroundings and was amazed, even though it was just a plain forest, it was the first time she's been outside of her home.

"I know. Grace, where's the bloody village so we can kill every human in it?"

"We're here to scout if the humans are infected, not to kill them. If you hurt them for any other reason other than self defense, then I will hurt you."

"Uh, guys, look." Rias pointed at a house that was crooked and looked abandoned.

"Do you think any humans live there?" Radix took out his bow and arrow.

"Unlikely. Look at the design of that shelter. It looks like it is about to collapse any moment now." Rias said but found it fascinating. This is the first time she has seen a human shelter that didn't come from pictures.

"That's strange. There wasn't a house there when I left." Grace went into deep thought. She was sure that there wasn't a worn down building when she left.

"The human village is just over there." Arbor saw the human village from a distance.

"Adalis, stay here." Arbor said, but the Adalis didn't listen and walked towards the worn down cottage. It sniffed something delicious coming near the cottage house.

"Adalis is the species name, you still haven't given it a proper name yet?" Rias asked.

"Like I said, I just recently tamed her. I still haven't found the time to name her."

"Dad, where did you even find an Adalis? Aren't they an endangered species?"

"A couple of months after you left, I found this large egg, and an Adalis mother was beside her egg. It had multiple injuries from another creature, it was probably trying to eat the egg. But the mother fought fiercely and protected her child but died in the process. I felt bad for it and I took it with me to tame it. And just last week, it hatched."

"It hatched last week? An Adalis can grow that fast?"

"They sure can." Rias said, "Although there haven't been many sightings of them and we still don't understand most of its capabilities, Arbor had made quite the contribution to the elves for letting me study the Adalis. This was also a good day to study the Adalis' speed and power firsthand. But I wonder how a creature that is made out of organic matter could hatch from an egg? Most organic creatures are usually sprouted from the ground like trees.."

"I heard that an Adalis can produce exotic flowers grown from the ground. Has that happened?"

"No. I have also heard of it, but the Adalis hasn't been able to do anything like that. It is still too early to tell."

"Oh… but why does it look like that? I don't think an Adalis should have dead organic material on it."

"We believe that it's because it's only a newborn. We are not entirely sure yet. Although when other organic species start to have dead organic material on them, it's usually after they've died."

"Maybe it's because you're not giving it proper meals? What did you give it, meat, vegetables?"

"So far it hasn't eaten anything, despite the fact that we give him deer, fruits, vegetables, and water. It's like it was looking at poison or something."

"Let's focus on the matter at hand. We'll infiltrate the human village and inspect any human who is showing abnormal behaviors. Radix, you'll… where did Radix go?"

Grace pointed at the human village, and there was Radix running towards it like a madman.

"Son of a-" Arbor and the rest ran to stop Radix from doing anything unnecessary. If they could remain hidden then the better chance they have to detect a zombie.

They failed to notice 2 people near the cottage house. One had just recently arrived with a mule and a brown bag. Whilst the other just exited the cottage house.

"Hero Will Connor, are you ready?" Jack sat on top of a mule and waved his hand frantically at Will. He was waiting for Will outside of his horribly constructed house.

Today is the day that Will left the village to get his blacksmith license. Jack will be his guide during the entire road trip.

Will had everything inside his iron chest. He could put his items in his pocket and bring them anywhere with him, it doesn't need to be in his hand the whole time to stay in its shrunken size.

"Do we have everything?" Asked Will.

"Lemma double check. Blacksmith badge, a mule, and I think that's all."

"What about food? This trip takes 2-3 days."

"I got food from grandma that will last us at least 4 days. She's the greatest."

"I'll be sure to pay you back after we arrive." Will said as he got on top of the mule, then he noticed that it was too small and there wasn't enough space. Not only that but a mule isn't the fastest method for transportation.

"Um, do you have anything other than a mule? Maybe a horse?" Will was still not comfortable with a horse. He still remembered how his ass ached when he sat on top of a horse for the first time. But a horse is still faster than a mule.

"There aren't any horses in the village. Most people just walk from village to village but that takes too long. And besides, mules can endure longer than horses. I'm very lucky to have him." Jack petted the mule's head gently.

*Break*

They both heard a branch breaking in half.

"Goblins." Will drew out his handgun and pointed at the source of the sound. The only other monster that has ever appeared in this area were goblins. Any human would be too scared to enter because of how dangerous it is.

"I thought you laid out an effective goblin trap?" Jack stood behind Will. Will is geared up, but Jack was weaker in terms of everything and he didn't have any armor on, except his enchanted shirt.

"About 90% of the goblins die in the trap. But the other 10% I have to take care of it myself.

"I know I'm supposed to be scared, but seeing a hero in action is gonna be so cool." Jack was feeling both fear and excitement.

"..." Will.

As they got closer the louder the noise got. They both did not recognize the sound, and it didn't sound like an animal at all. It seemed like it was either struggling or fighting for its life.

"What is it?"

"I don't know."

They saw a giant creature running around in circles with its mouth on the ground. It looked funny at first, but it also looked horrifying.

{Adalis}

{HP 2000/2000}

Will was shocked. A creature with 2000 HP. It has 40x more HP than him.

"Jack, do you know what an Adalis is?" Will asked very softly. Even after watching many movies and playing hundreds of games, he has never heard of such a creature before. This showed him that this world was more than a simple fantasy world.

"Adalis? Never heard of it. But it does look a lot like an organic creature."

"What's that?"

"A creature made out of organic material. Elves use them to travel distances since they are both lovers of nature. But that's what I heard. I'm a blacksmith, not an animal expert. At least I think that's an animal."

"Elves?"

He remembered the elf that stole arrows from the weapon shop a few days ago.

'Does that mean that this is her mount?'

And evil thought crept up on him. He's gonna get his revenge one way or another.

Will noticed that his brown book was glowing. He opened it and saw some information about the Adalis.

{Adalis}

{An endangered species, but still tameable. It's speed and strength vary as they continue to grow and eat . It can grow at an extremely fast rate. It will kill anything when it feels threatened or when it is protecting its young}

{...}

It did not show any other information. It didn't even tell him how to tame it, just that it could be tamed, but how?

"Tameable…" Will had an idea. If he could tame the creature, then he wouldn't need to worry about travelling the world. He had no idea how fast it could go, but it could probably go faster than a mule, right?

"Jack, do you have any meat with you?"

"Meat? You mean our rations?"

"Yes."

"I do. Why? You're not going to tame it, right?" He said in a joking manner.

"..." Will.

"Oh, my god, you are. I don't know if you noticed, but that creature looks very hostile. Look how it's destroying your goblin traps."

"I know. But I need food to tame it."

"...I hope you know what you're doing."

Jack quietly took out half eaten beef jerky.

"Sorry, beef jerky is my favorite snack."

"Don't you have anything else?"

"Let's see, canned beans, tuna, dried fruit, powdered milk, water. That's all I have."

"I'll use the beef jerky. Most likely that creature is a carnivore?"

"And if it attacks?"

"That reminds me, go back to the cottage house. If it attacks I'll live, but you'll die and I cannot let that happen."

"But Hero-"

"Go!" Will said loudly but not enough to alarm the Adalis.

Jack looked at Will one last time before hurrying to the cottage house. Jack also got out his gun and aimed it at the Adalis from a safe distance.

If Will dies then he'll respawn. But if Jack dies he'll remain dead forever.

"Oh video game gods, don't fail me now." Will prayed to gods that don't exist.

Will put away his gun, raised his hands up, and walked slowly to the Adalis.

The Adalis had his entire body covered in dirt in an attempt to grab something from the goblin trap.

The Adalis heard Will and it hissed at him like a cat.

Will stopped in his tracks not even moving a muscle. He would be lying if he said he wasn't scared, mostly because of the pain he will feel should the creature in front of him ever attack him. He's not afraid of death, but the pain.

But he needs to take risks otherwise he'll never amount to anything.

"I come in peace." Will said.

The Adalis got into a lower stance as if he was ready to pounce at Will at any moment, like a lion that was about to attack its prey.

Will slowly flicked the half eaten beef jerky at the Adalis and it landed in front of him, but the Adalis didn't even look at it.

The Adalis kept staring at Will, as if it was waiting for him to make any sudden moves.

"Crap, beef jerky didn't work… what does it want? I should have brought that dried food."

This isn't the first time that he's clueless about something. He had to figure it out on his own. It's not like video games where they'll give you a guide for basically everything.

Will realized something that he overlooked, the goblin traps.

"Why did it mess up my goblin traps? It's too big for it to fall down so it probably didn't fall down… unless."

Will had a realization.

He slowly reached for his pocket, the Adalis kept hissing at him and even growled at him, as if it understood that Will was about to do something.

"Relax." Will wasn't sure if the Adalis could understand human speech.

He pulled out his iron chest without alarming the Adalis. Once it saw what Will pulled out, it was confused.

'Is it intelligent?' Will thought. Goblins also have intelligence, but only when it comes to killing and pillaging. He learned that the hard way.

The way it reacted when it saw Will pull out the iron chest showed him that the Adalis had the same reaction as another human being. Anyone would be confused if they saw Will pull out a small chest.

Will placed it on the ground and it grew in size. The Adalis backed up as if it was afraid of it. It was intelligent for showing fear, since it didn't know what Will was fully capable of. It could very well be a weapon or something deadly.

*Sniff* *Sniff*

The Adalis smelled something delicious coming from Will's iron chest.

Will opened the chest and took out a goblin heart.

"Is this what you want? Is this why you messed up my goblin trap?"

The Adalis didn't say anything. It just kept staring at the goblin heart despite not having any eyes.

Will flicked the heart that it, and the Adalis ate it before it could touch the ground, like a dog playing with a frisbee with its owner.

'How do I know if I tamed it?' once again, he was on his own. It's not like there would be hearts floating above him after eating a piece of meat or bones.

"Hiss!"

The Adalis got into his stance again, but it seemed less angry and less wary of Will.

"Do you want some more?"

Will got a goblin tongue and threw it at the Adalis. And once again it ate it whole before it could hit the ground.

Upon consuming the goblin tongue and heart, it exited his body from behind, and a glowing flower from its behind sprouted,

"What?" Will was confused. What just happened?"

But ignoring that glowing flower, Will got a handful of goblin parts. Instead of throwing it at the Adalis, he walked slowly towards it and handed it over to him.

The Adalis backed up, but the temptation of eating goblin meat is too hard to pass. He then walked towards Will, still very wary of him, and gently picked the goblin parts without hurting Will's hand.

'Looks like watching all those dog videos on youtube are finally starting to pay off.' Will thought.

As the Adalis continued to fill his stomach, Will reached the Adalis with his other hand without making sudden movements.

He touched the head of the Adalis. The Adalis shook a bit and tensed up, but it calmed down.

{Adalis(female)}

{Tamed}

{Age: 1 week}

{HP 2000/2000}

"My god, you're just a baby." Will gently petted the Adalis. He had a weakness for animals, even if this one was hideous..

As the Adalis continued to eat the more it changed. Its outer appearance was horrendous at first. But later beautiful flowers, and green grass covered his body, and the branches grew leaves on it. It looked better than before and less frightening.

Will continued to pet it, its outer skin or whatever one might call it, it was softer and easier to pet due to it growing so many flowers and leaves.

Then he noticed that he had unlocked a new recipe on his book and some new information on his bestiary.

{Adalis}

{An endangered species, but still tameable. It's speed and strength vary as they continue to grow and eat . It can grow at an extremely fast rate. It will kill anything when it feels threatened or when it is protecting its young}

{A lover and protector of all forests. It can produce exotic flowers after eating certain prey. It can go up to 2 weeks without food. It gathers its energy from the sun or standing on or near a forest. It can perfectly camouflage itself in the forest to hide itself from predators}

{it's favorite food are goblins, ogres, trolls, gremlins, gnomes, imps. It eats these species only because it believes that they destroy the forests, and therefore are its natural enemies}

{It's appearance will change to dead organic matter if it doesn't eat its specific foods after a week. It will grow weak, lose its ability to camouflage, and will die after 2 weeks}

{Animal cage}

{A portable animal cage used to trap monsters. It does not work on monsters bigger than 10 feet}

'The heck. I'm not gonna put it in a cage.'

He still inspected the animal cage, it could be made from wood, iron, and steel. The stronger the cage the better it is.

"Poor thing. You haven't eaten anything at all since you were born."

Will continued to give the Adalis all the goblins parts he had. The reason he even had goblins' parts in his chest, is because he wanted to see what he could craft with it. He didn't think it would be used to tame a creature.

After a while, the Adalis growled in satisfaction and it became increasingly friendly with Will.

"This is just like that animated dragon movie, only in this case it's an Adalis instead of a dragon… Jack!"

"I'm coming!" Jack thought that Will was crying out for his help, and he ran towards him as fast as he could.

But Jack tripped on the iron chest and landed on his face.

"Ow."

"..." Will.

Jack looked up, and the first thing he saw was the Adalis, its mouth filled with blood and body parts.

Jack fainted on the spot due to fear. One second he thought that Will had been killed by the Adalis, and eaten.

"Oh, Jack." Will shook his head.

Then he noticed that the Adalis continued producing even more flowers.

Although he found it gross, he yanked one of the flowers from the ground.

{Exotic flower}

{A rare type of flower used for potions}

{Exotic flower seed}

{A seed used to grow exotic flowers}

"Making potions and planting seeds… okay then."

Will placed the flowers and seed inside his chest and took it all with him. Although there were 5 exotic flowers, there was only one exotic seed. His first goal was to become a blacksmith, after that he'll worry about crafting potions.

Will slowly got on top of the Adalis with Jack on his shoulders, the Adalis kneeled before Will and made it easier for him to get up.

"Good boy, er, I mean girl. What should I name you? Hmm… Something unique, something different… Adaline! That's your name."

The Adalis' mood didn't change a bit, but it knew that its name was now Adaline. Almost similar to Adalis.

"Let's see, Jack said that the village was up north so… sun in the west yada-yada-yada, go over there!" Will pointed at a specific spot.

Adaline ran at full speed to where Will pointed.

At first Will wasn't ready for such speed, but it got easier once Adaline used it's branches on his back to hold Will down, like seat belts.

It also used its branches to bind down the unconscious Jack before he fell down.

Adaline used her head to knock down all the trees on it's path and it didn't even faze her.

Once they finally made it on the road, Adaline could run faster without any obstacles in its way.

"Man, this feels amazin- cough, cough, swallowed a bug."

On the road, there was a familiar woman riding a mule. Her eyes were covered in bags due to not sleeping. She was tired and sore. But the thought of her child made her exceed her limits.

"Jack, mama's coming. I'm sorry I missed your birthday." She's Jack's mother. Her name is July, although it is pronounced 'Julie' it's not like in the calendar.

*rumble*

The ground started shaking violently. And it only got worse by the second.

Over the distance, she saw a giant creature headed her way. But there were 2 men on top of it.

"An Organic creature in the middle of the road?" July quickly got out of the way while witnessing that creature. She knew that organic creatures don't attack unless they were provoked, which is why she wasn't scared of it. She also knew that elves rode those creatures.

But when it ran past her, she was shocked to see one of the two people on top of Adaline.

Her son, Jack, was unconscious and bound as he was being dragged against his will.

"JACK!!!" Any signs of her tired face were gone and replaced by fear instead. It did look like Jack was being kidnapped. July got off the mule and started chasing after his son, but her speed was no match for Adaline.

"JACK!!!" her scream could be compared to a banshee's. Any loving mother would do the same if they saw their child being kidnapped.

"Cough, cough." Will kept choking and coughing because of the bug and thus didn't hear her or recognized her.

July saw how her child was being taken away. She tried to run, but her body couldn't handle it anymore.

"Mom, she can help!" She ran back to the village. At this point she is willing to seek the help from anybody, even her own mother.