398 The Boneclaw's Master

'How is that possible, what happened?'

Trying hard to think back at any possibilities, there really was nothing that he could think of. Even if the Boneclaw had been defeated by the sudden fall, then why wasn't the first quest complete, and what even were the conditions to become the Boneclaw's master? Luckily, there was one person with him who could probably answer his questions.

Although he wasn't heavily relying on him for help, because there were many times he had failed him before.

"Okay, I guess I should start with a simple question first." Quinn said, looking and staring at his status screen. What's a familiar?

"I thought, you started to hate me because you hadn't talked to me in so long." The system replied. "Well, I can safely say that we are in my domain now. So any questions you have on this type of topic I can freely give you all the information you need." It said in a cheery voice..

Although Quinn did not look entertained, as he remembered the image of the horrible Boneclaw, it was still sending small shivers down his spine as he thought about it.

"A familiar is a vampire's companion. Think of it like a little pet. They do whatever their masters wish for. Their life force is now linked together with yours. But some stronger familiars do have a will of their own. So do not confuse that with complete control. Just because their life is linked with yours does not mean it will do what you say. However, it does mean that they will do everything in their power to protect you. Usually..."

"If a familiar dies, it doesn't really die either. It's just temporarily out of use as it takes a while for it to reform, and later on it can be used again. The only way to kill a familiar is to kill its owner. Usually, a marking, or an item of some sort can be used to keep this on your person. Do you remember the earring Fex wore? That to was his own familiar."

It certainly sounded like so far there were no downsides to having a familiar, apart from it not being completely under Quinn's control, but it seemed like the pros outweighed the cons.

"Does every vampire have a familiar?" Quinn asked.

"No," The system replied. "Familiars are, in a way, not of this world. Or you can even go as far as to say not of this universe. At least that's what my research showed me. The vampires from time to time are able to bring these families from their universe into our own.

"Because of this, a special rule was put in place. Only the vampire leaders as well as their successors are able to have a familiar. Since this rule was implemented, I don't believe there has been an incident. Not during my time, anyway. Over the years we learnt more and more to make it less dangerous, so in truth perhaps more vampires could have familiars as well, but now it has become a tradition to only allow the leaders and their successors to have them."

As expected, there always seemed to be a downside to something like this. It couldn't have all just been one way, but nothing in life was like that. There had to be some kind of a balance.

The image in his head had appeared of the Wendigo being stabbed through the head again. Then Quinn started to think about all the Wendigos that were dead around him. Was that all the doing of the Boneclaw? If that was the case, then instead of killing Quinn, did the Boneclaw decide to choose him as his master?

"Why me? Why did the Boneclaw choose me?" Quinn asked.

"Well, although I said I could give you answers to everything, I can't read the Boneclaws mind. However, there is someone we can ask. Why don't we ask the familiar himself?"

Knowing that the Boneclaw had chosen him, Quinn didn't think it would decide to kill him this early on. It was still too early on to tell whether or not he was worthy. So it shouldn't be a risk.

"How?"

"Take off your shirt." The system ordered

"What!" Quinn said, a little embarrassed at the request that he made.

"Don't be silly now, I have no interest in a young boy's body, who do you think I am?" The system said half annoyed. "The reason why I'm asking is that there is no object and when you look in the water, you are able to see the Boneclaw's reflection, correct? This means the Boneclaw has attached itself somewhere on you. Perhaps there is a marking of some kind, and right now I can't see any markings on you. I'm just hoping it's below your shirt and not anywhere else."

Hearing this, Quinn too was hoping that the marking wasn't in some type of strange place. As he complied with the request and started to take off his shirt.

"Ah, there it is!" The system said with joy. "It looks like the marking is on your back"

The marking was a circle the size of a fist down his back, and when looking closer, it looked more like a strange-looking skull. As it had two dark eyes and the mouth of a demon..

"It looks kind of cool. It suits you. Go on then, now we know where the marking is, why don't you summon it!" the system said.

"That's what I was waiting for you to tell me how to do, you idiot." Quinn said, as he was starting to get frustrated with the system more and more.

"Hey, it's been a long time, and I can't tell you everything. Most of the time it comes from a special feeling. Why don't you just try to think of the Boneclaw, maybe it will appear!" the system shouted back.

In truth, if one was to watch the argument that was going on right now, they would only be able to see one person here, Quinn shouting and no one else. For when the system spoke, it would speak in his mind.

Still, while the two were bickering loudly, the voice managed to attract some unwanted attention. One of the Wendigos who was in the water was still alive. It slowly started to paddle its way towards the noise.

While all of this was happening, Quinn was unaware, still bickering away. A loud splash was heard as it leapt its way across the pond out, and with its long arms stretched it was coming towards Quinn.

The loud shriek had shocked Quinn, but what surprised him even more, was before he could even do anything to kill it, directly in front of him, the very thing he was trying to summon was there. The creature's body had blocked the view of everything, its back was large blocking Quinn's view, so he was unable to see anything that happened. Then when it turned around, the blood could be seen covering its long dangling fingers.

Not even for a second, did Quinn even feel like he was the master of such a powerful looking scary thing. But it stood there right in front of him doing nothing, and the system also noticed the marking on his back had disappeared.

[inspect]

[Boneclaw]

[Large Undead, who always seem to be suffering in hatred and pain. When searching for master it specifically looks for those with the strongest source of evil intent in the area. It will do whatever it can to fill this need of its master's desires.

They love to torture their victims and hide in the shadows. They have the ability to constantly teleport within a small area and will use their hardened bony fingers to slice their enemies.

While some Boneclaws do appear before their masters and fulfil their wishes. At times they will go out on their own, fulfilling their masters' subconscious desires.]

Reading the information in front of him made Quinn equally confused. He had no evil desires, or at least to him he thought he had no evil desires, so why did it choose him? Or was it just stuck in the facility for so long that it had chosen to attach itself to the first thing it could see?

Plucking up the courage, Quinn decided to ask..

"Why, why did you choose me!" Quinn said.

The system wanted to interrupt Quinn, asking him what he was doing. If this confrontation ended badly. Then there was a chance it could change its mind and try to kill Quinn. Forcing a fight that they had just avoided. Boneclaws were incredibly strong, and the truth was the AI had never heard of a vampire managing to obtain one as a familiar before. At least not a normal vampire.

The last one that had done was the Vampire King during his time.

The Boneclaw didn't reply and simply lifted its finger, pointing to one of the tunnels.

"I think he wants you to go this way?" the system said.

Shortly after, the Boneclaw started to disappear in front of Quinn, like a shadow slowly fading, and eventually, the mark on his back had appeared again.

Putting back his clothes on, Quinn felt like there was nothing he could do for now, and he would just have to go along with it. The Boneclaw chose him, and it didn't want to kill him. That was good enough for now. As long as it didn't try to stop him from trying to save Peter then that was okay with him.

Out of all the tunnels that he could have chosen to go down, Quinn eventually decided to pick the one that the Boneclaw had chosen. It was clear it didn't want to kill him, so perhaps it was trying to show him something.

After a long walk down the tunnel. He was finally greeted with a few stairs. Walking up the stairs, there was what looked like two slanted doors. Pushing them open, the outside sky could be seen. He had finally exited from the cave.

*****

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