Chapter 110: New pet (4)

"As expected, getting hit by those won't be pleasant…" Luke thought.

Still, that lone bird gave Luke a golden opportunity. By taming that one, Luke would gain the mobility in the sky that he needed. So, with that in mind, Luke dashed toward the monster when it prepared to eat the frozen zombies. 

The monster only noticed Luke's presence when it was in the middle of the first snack, and it didn't have time to spread its wings and try to fly. When he was close enough, Luke used Spark Ball level four, and it made the monster tremble all over. Luke used the attack five times more, and eventually, the beast collapsed. Without wasting time, he used Tame after jumping on the monster's back, but just like before, the skill didn't work at first, and the creature began to recover and resist.

"Come on, little chicken, be a good boy and don't resist," Luke said.

"It is a female," Rina said. "Just like Arcnine.

"Does that change anything?" Luke frowned.

"It does, female monsters can put eggs, and they will become obedient to you," Rina said.

"Isn't that a bit late to inform me of that?" Luke frowned again. "And they would need another monster to reproduce, right?"

"Some need that, but some can lay eggs just by eating regularly," Rina explained.

That didn't make much sense in Luke's head, but he didn't want to understand monster biology. Nevertheless, the bird resisted a lot more than Arcnine, probably because of the difference in levels. Still, Luke didn't let it make any noise, so the process didn't attract other monsters.

Congratulations! You obtained your second follower.

Luke finally realized why the system would give him that message. It was due to the fact that the descendants of his tamed monsters would naturally become his followers as well. Having an army of monsters seemed nice, but it would take a while to create it. Another thing that Luke was worried about was what he was going to feed them. He didn't see it, but Arcnine was probably eating zombies, and that… difficult to imagine, to say the least. Making them eat zombies or even the creatures of their species was something that Luke wanted to avoid, but eating other creatures was fine since it would make the cleanup of battles a lot easier.

"You caused me a lot of trouble to catch you… so let's name you Artiuno," Luke said.

"Even though you say that, you look satisfied enough to make me think that the name was something you had decided during the fall," Rina said.

"By using this, you can find the crystal in the blink of an eye," Shalia said.

"Well… that is true… but first, let's find some clothes shop," Luke said while his face was blue due to the cold.

It was probably making minus ten degrees Celsius, and while Luke could resist that by moving his body around, he couldn't risk getting sick. Not to mention, his legs were even colder because the body of his new partner was even colder than the ambient.

While Luke couldn't put his armor away to put clothes on, he still found a big, black overcoat that helped a lot. Since it was made of leather, it prevented his body heat from escaping, and it didn't get in the way of his armor.

"You two seem fine with all this cold… especially you, Shalia, despite that armor of yours…" Luke frowned.

"While we can't show our strength, it doesn't change the fact that we have years of battle experience while also dealing with harsh weather," Shalia explained.

In any case, Luke felt so weird while wearing that. He lived all his life in Miami, so cold wasn't something he was used to. Luke also changed his pants to be sure that Artiuno wouldn't free his legs. He was starting to look like a member of a gang of motorcycles since that was also made of leather… but it was the only thing he found that wouldn't get wet.

"Now, let's do some test drive," Luke said and then jumped on the back of his new ally. "All right, Artiuno. Fly as high as you can!"

It didn't take long for Luke to regret those words. As soon as Artiuno began to fly, he realized that he had to hold his feathers so as not to fall, but since the speed was too high, he ended up pulling those and falling. Fortunately, Artiuno reacted fast enough to recover Luke… even though his ally had lost some HP. 

"Maybe I should look for something to help me… I can't rely on her feathers," Luke said. "All right, Artiuno. Fly too high in the sky at moderate speed."

While that solved a problem, it created another. While they were flying upward, some other Koriri noticed Luke's presence and began to fly toward them. Luke gave the order to Artiuno zigzag in the air, and that worked, but while they dodged the projectiles, it gave room for the enemies to approach.

"Watch my back, Artiuno!" Luke said, and then he jumped.

The monsters frowned when they saw Luke moving toward them. Since they were flying upward, they didn't have time to slow down and dodge. Thanks to it, Luke attacked them with the fully powered Spark Balls. After paralyzing them for a full second, Luke grabbed his sword and used Stinger.

While Luke couldn't maneuver that well during a free fall, his skill still granted him the mobility to slice the throat of two Koriri. He even landed on the back of another, making the beast grunt in pain due to the impact and even more when he made his sword pierce its head. The monster began to fall, and so did Luke. But before they could gain speed, Artiuno appeared nearby, and Luke jumped on its back.

You obtained 35 experience points.

You obtained 35 gold coins.

You obtained 35 experience points.

You obtained 35 gold coins.

…

"Haha, that was pretty fun," Luke said.