Chapter 7: The transformation! And Challenge..?

'No. No. Wake up Damian, you can't sleep here.' Repeating the sentence over and over in his head, Damian put the slipping Brave down, getting up.

He was so exhausted that if he had remained seated a bit longer, he would have fallen asleep. And Damian very well knew the consciousness of sleeping in the open in a forest. Especially if the forest is filled with monsters.

Damian looked at the fast-asleep Brave. 'Is it an aftereffect of the skill?' With one more question on his long question list, Damian squatted beside her.

"Brave, get up." Damian's wake-up call went in deaf's ear as Brave didn't even spare him a glance. Damian could feel his brows twitching.

'Is this why my sister resorts to violence to wake me up every morning?' Recalling the backbone-breaking techniques his sister used on him every morning, Damian looked at Brave.

'Nope! No way I am resorting to her devilish techniques for waking my cute Brave.' Unwilling to be like his devil sister, Damian chose a more peaceful way.

"Get up, Brave." Calling out loud, he shook the sleeping Brave.

A few more attempts and Brave was on her paws, ready to leave. Smiling at himself, Damian got up.

He rubbed his eyes, looking at the sky. The sun was starting to set in the sky, brushing a pale tint of orange on the infinite canvas. The orange rays were destined to create a great work of art-one special to those open to capturing simple moments in the soul..

Seeing the beautiful scene, Damian just wanted to let himself be immersed in the beautiful sky. Lying on the soft lap of mother nature, he wanted to keep starting at it, eventually falling asleep.

The moment the thought of sleeping entered his mind, Damian quickly shook himself and started jumping intently. It was a technique he used to reduce his sleepiness whenever he was up for a late-night study.

A while later, feeling fully awake, Damian decided to return to the clearing he had started from.

'Moving to a location I know is better than moving in an unknown direction.' As Damian started walking, he had his eyes and ears wide open, ready to move at any sign of an enemy.

Brave had been awake for a while, looking at her master with a tilted head. He was attacking the ground, so she started attacking it as well. He began walking toward her forest, and she obediently followed.

Damian set off on their return trip, unaware of his cute Brave's actions.

As the duo walked through the woods, Brave suddenly stopped on her track. Raising her nose, she sniffed in the air.

*Sniff! Sniff!*

Noticing Brave sniffing in the air, Damian halted his turning around. He looked at her. "What's the matter, Brave?" He asked.

All he got as an answer was the tilted head of Brave as she continued her sniffing.

"Do you smell something... or someone?" Damian tried again, this time in a low voice.

*Squeak!*

With a squeak, Brave closed her eyes, lifting her nose. She sniffed the air and started walking.

'It looks like I need to teach her some communication skills.' Nodding to himself, Damian didn't stop her, and started following her.

Continuing her walk for some minutes, Brave stopped again. Looking at a dense shurb a few metres away from her, she let out a high-pitched squeak.

*Squeaaak!*

As if responding back to her, the bush shook a little, confirming Damian's suspicion.

The cute Brave had an angry expression on her face as the soft hairs on her body began to harden, and a golden glow flashed through her eyes as every hair on her body seemed to have a life of its own, softly shaking.

The black symbols of thunder running from her eyes to the middle of her back started flashing with sparks of yellow lightning as the hairs on her body started rising, one by one...

First was the hair on her nose, then followed by the hairs on her head, as the more hairs that were raised, the more her eyes glowed and the more the bush shook. Taking a step forward, Brave was about to make a leap when...

"Stop!" A loud command put a halt to her, as well as the bush's shaking. As if the Brave from before was an illusion, all the hard hairs on her body returned to her soft ones and her eyes lost their golden shine.

"Brave." As Damian called her name, his eyes seemed to darken as he continued in a monotone, "Follow me."

Damian didn't wait for an answer as he started walking back.

*Squeak!*

When she saw her master walking without any second thought, she followed behind him.

As the duo walked away, the bush parted, giving way to the Leader Wild rat and his three companions ran out. Walking out, the three companions followed the duo as their leader ran back to the forest.

.

.

.

.

'What was that?' Damian wasn't wondering about what was inside the bush, since the ugly tails extending out of it revealed the identity of the Wild rats of the morning. Rather, he was wondering about...

'Brave's transformation?' Looking back at Brave, following him like a duck, her mother Damian couldn't believe how much she had changed before.

'Was that her battel transformation?' As Damian had this doubt, he looked at the companion window to his left. 'If it is, then I need to make sure she doesn't use it again.'

-

[ Strength: 5 ]

[ Agility: 19 ]

[ Stamina: 2/6 ]

[ Vitality: 12 ]

[ Mana: 0/4 ]

[ Intelligence: 5 ]

-

She had just started her transformation and she was midway through it, but her Mana dropped to zero instantly, followed by her Stamina, which started dropping crazily.

'Thank goodness I received a system message and stopped her, or else...?' Damian didn't know the consequences of stamina dropping to zero, but he wasn't willing to use Brave as a test subject.

Putting his thoughts to a stop, he picked up a twig and added it to the few he hugging between his arms.

Finally, we got back here. Dropping the bundle of twigs in his hands. Damian got to work. Grabbing the twigs for a campfire. Damian couldn't help but think of the strange clearing in the middle of the forest.

'It has to be a beginner's zone created by the system.' Back in the forest, one of the reasons he stopped Brave was because he wanted the Wild rats to follow them. And as he had suspected, when he got near the clearing, they stopped following him.

'The further I get from the clearing, the denser the forest gets.' Damian's thoughts were interrupted when his eyes landed on Brave, dropping twigs beside the campfire, setting up multiple campfires of her own.

With a smile, Damian left this task to his hard working Brave and got to the lengthily task of starting a fire.

Thankfully, he had found the right tools for starting the fire: a stick with a dull point and a long piece of wood with a groove.

Fixing the wood with a groove between his legs, he started rubbing the stick in its groove in a 'plowing' motion.

'Thank you, dad, for forgetting the matches.' Damian was quite good at starting a fire thanks to his dad, who always forgot to bring matches on their family camping trips, and to save his dad's life from his mother, he had to use the "fire plowing" and "bow drill" quite often.

Brave pulling the twigs was dumbfounded by her master's new course of action. She wanted to help him, but how was she supposed to fo that? With no answer to her question, she chose to continue her task of gathering twigs...

.

.

.

.

Looking at the crackling fire, Damian was relieved that he had chosen to add some of his stats to stamina, or he would have been more tired than he was now.

*Growl!*

Hearing the growl in his stomach, Damian couldn't ignore it anymore. With a thought, he took two breads out of his inventory, stuffing one in his mouth. He passed the other one to the silent Brave beside him.

*Squeak!*

Brave sniffed the bread carefully and the moment she did, as if receiving a heavenly treasure, she hugged it affectionately, attacking and biting it like her nemesis soon after.

Laughing at the amusing scene, Damian bit another piece of bread. He was so hungry that even the dry bread tasted like a sweet cake.

Stopping after the third bread, Damian took the water bottle out of his inventory, taking four small gulps. He used the cap to let Brave sip it as well.

*Burp!*

With a burp, Damian let out a satisfied sigh, laying back on the soft grass. Brave sneaked beside him, snuggling between his arms, closing her eyes.

It was a new moon night, clear and devoid of any clouds. The blessed black of the starry night gave a fuller sense of home to Damian.

'I... I want to sleep.' The hands patting the soft hairs of Brave came to a stop as Damian closed his eyes, embracing in the lap of sleep.

.

.

.

.

To a ruler, their subjects are everything, and slaving their subjects is challenging their authority. Unfamiliar with the rules of the jungle, the sleeping Damian had awakened a king, challenging his authority and turning his safe zone into his cage.