MTLNOVEL Chapter 11: The poor horse
Zero left the city, his business was done here. This location was of no use to him anymore.
He fell into thought, where should he go next? Experiencing the game so many times, he already knew all the possible ways to progress further, but since he didn't have any particular goal, deciding on a path was hard.
He took a glance at his scythe, it cracked, its aura changed, and it was much brighter than before.
The scythes special abilities didn't change. He did learn something new though, the name of the scythe and the name of its special skill.
[Devourer] and [Devour], so it's not actually an anti-magic artifact, it simply devours all of the energy... interesting.
It's status is also [Corrupted], is this why it's cracked? Zero had many questions regarding his scythe, but he didn't have anyone to answer him.
He just buried these questions deep in his mind and went back to his home. Would he be able to meet his 'Taxi' again? Zero wondered, getting around the world quickly was nice.
It seemed these players were transported here long before he did, why? He was pondering while strolling back to his hut.
Most importantly, why would they succumb to npcs? Are they so clueless they don't know how to progress in the game at all? Weird.
A pleasant surprise fell into Zeros view, that black wolf!
He jumped on its back happily and patted its head. "To the hut!"
The wolf jerked up shocked. What the hell?? Suddenly it felt a shiver running down its spine. A scythes blade suddenly appeared in front of its face.
"Don't wanna?" Zero starred coldly. The wolf had shown its puppy eyes to the world. It ran, it ran like it never did before! This scary human, why again!?
The first time they met, the wolf had woken Zero up from his slumber by gently licking his face, and this prick just jumped onto my back as if I'm a horse, talk about gentle!
The wolf felt like crying. It should've just killed that human right there... just why did it have to be nice to him?
They arrived at the hut at night. The wolf was out of breath. Just put me out of my misery already damn you! Is what the wolf thought.
Zero was happy, he didn't lift a muscle and had arrived at home already. This is just like a vacation!
He starred at the wolf, with a... rather difficult expression. A smile creeped up onto his face, you are mine now. Is what he told the wolf through his demonic look.
The wolf shed a tear, why, just why... it was thinking of putting itself out of its misery, but didn't do it in the end.
Zero took out his grimoire and built a dog hut for the wolf, and signaled it to move its butt in there.
The wolf heaved a sigh, fine. It went into the hut and enjoyed the moment of peace it could get. It would rather be a simple dog than a horse!
But the wolf knew this man wouldn't let it go so easily. It should have fled to the other side of the world instead of staying there.
Zero went inside the hut and unclothed himself. All this killing around had soaked him in blood and sweat, it was time for a bath.
He noticed that the rain stopped pouring after he left the location of Starlight city. This meant every location should have a designated statue to keep away weather.
He should go searching for the one in his area... the smell of rain... perfect, rainy weather is beautiful.
Only the sound of rain pouring down could calm his nerves, there were no cigarettes in this world after all.
He was lying in the bathtub, trying his best to relax, the warm water helped a bit, but not too much.
Still being clean is the best feeling ever. He dried himself, got clothed and went to bed. Visiting is good but home is better, of course visiting is even better if you destroy half the place you visit, but still, home's better.
He had a sweet dream that night, a beautiful dream about achieving his life goal, 100% completion on the game. He didn't see anything better his entire life.
The wolf on the other hand had a nightmare about its future with this human... exploitation, pain and suffering. All of that it had to go through... it was crying.
In the morning Zero ate some bread he bought in the city, it was dry and generally mid, but it was good enough to satiate him.
As for the wolf... he spared it some raw meat. The wolf had to work hard after all, or else he would be slow on his feet.
Zero had to think of a name for the wolf, he didn't care much about it, but it was a nice gesture of appreciation.
Dog..? The wolf was growling at him, don't you dare name me that! I will tear you to pieces!
Zero pointed his scythe at it annoyed, you will like whatever name I give you. He communicated with his expression.
It should be grateful he was considerate enough to give this dog a name at all.
Don't then! Wolf is good enough!
Ugh what a complicated fellow... Coal will do. He waved the dog back into its hut. He wasted too much brain power on this dog, should he just kill it?
Nah, that was wasted effort for nothing if he did. He already regretted adopting a pet.
He had a dog in his childhood, at first he was happy but he regretted getting one ever after. It wasted his time that he could use to play the game! And caring for it was too tedious.
Well anyway, moving on. He sat on the back of the dog and commanded it to run to the cave.
They quickly arrived, Coal was not willing to jump into the hole at first, but who ever asked it, right?
Zero threw Coal into the hole and jumped in right after, again this moist cave. He had already cleared it before so there were no monsters on the first layer. They quickly ran to the portal leading to the checkpoint, Zero had already been in the checkpoint so there was nothing different here.
They both approached the portal leading to the second layer. Zero had collected his breath, and... of course he kicked Coal in first.
He couldn't leave his new companion here alone, right? If it couldn't survive a couple monsters it might or might not encounter on the other side, then would it even be worthy of being his companion?
Of course not. Zero jumped in right after, a lush cave appeared in front of him.