Original of the Living (Part 2)

"Ah, good morning Jyuuk." Brak the Bear Beastperson said when he saw Jyuuk step down the stairs of his house. After the whole thing with his Lost Experience had been taken care of, Brak was nice enough to give Jyuuk a place to stay while he figured out what to do next.

First, Jyuuk learned a few skills. The first one he got was the A Beast's Nature Skill, which was unlocked immediately after Askee's sister, Eskee, tried to get Jyuuk's experience back. It was the racial skill of all Beastpeople and heightened one's natural qualities for a while, but the actual effect seemed to depend on what type of Beastperson one was.

For example, Brak's strength was increased as well as his natural senses. And whenever he activated his skill, his body became more bear-like, meaning that his fur covered more areas of his body and his face began to near the features of a bear's.

In Jyuuk's case, since he was a monkey Beastperson, his speed was increased. Since the rank of his skill wasn't high enough yet, his outer appearance didn't change yet, but he was sure it would at some point if he kept using it.

The next skill that Jyuuk learned was a relatively basic one, it seemed, Appraisal. In the beginning, it only told him pretty general information, but when it became Rank 1, it already told him things he didn't necessarily know. He would continue raising the rank of his skill to find out as much information about the animals and monsters he saw as possible. In addition to Appraisal, he also learned Botany, something like a specific skill when it came to appraising different plants.

Then, Jyuuk learned a few other general skills, like Mana Manipulation and Cooking.

And in preparation for today, the first day he wanted to leave town to go hunting, he also learned Pole Combat and trained at a dojo for about two weeks in game. Although it only took that long since Jyuuk also had to go to work for eight hours a day, and then had to take care of a lot of other things in his apartment.

"Good morning Brak." Jyuuk bowed forward and sat down on the opposite side of the table, and Brak placed a cup of tea in front of him.

"Thank you." The Monkey-man said with a smile and sipped at the cup. Brak nodded and smiled. "So, what will you be doing today? You said you wanted to get outside of town, right?"

"Yes, I want to see what kind of creatures are out there. I really can't wait." He said excitedly, but Brak only scratched the back of his head in worry.

"You sure that's a good idea? You don't even have your occupation yet, so you won't be able to get past Level 15 anyway. And your sleep problems are also pretty troubling…"

"I know, but you don't need to worry, Brak. I may sleep for a long time, but I will be back before nightfall, so it should not be a problem."

"Alright, but really make sure you're back by then. There are a lot of savage beasts out there that will not hesitate in the slightest to feast on a sleeping body. The side effects of Stolen Experience are really troubling, huh…?"

"Thank you for your worries, Brak. I really appreciate your help during the past few weeks."

"Of course. You're a good kid, and I can't just let you sleep on the streets. We don't have an Inn here, after all." Brak said with a smile and stood up, then walked over to his bedroom to get dressed for his workday.

A few minutes later, he came back out wearing his leather armor. "I've got to go for my shift. Just make sure to lock up when you go out. You remember how that works, right? Just pour your mana into the door."

"Thank you, Brak. But I think I'll come right with you!" Jyuuk said with a smile and stood up, grabbing the wooden Pole he leaned against the table as well as the small leather backpack he bought last week that was filled with food and water.

"Ah, sure. Then come on, my shift starts soon." Brak said with a smile and stood by the door, waiting for Jyuuk.

Both of them made their way over to the gate where Jyuuk and Brak met the first time.

"Alright, be careful now. And come sprinting back here if you need any help, alright? Us guards will take care of the rest."

With a nod, Jyuuk left town and made his way through the thick grown jungle to look for some beasts. But he wouldn't try to kill them, oh no, he would try something else!

He would try to tame it! This was something that Jyuuk loved to do in any game that allowed it and specifically asked Prime Industries to consider creating an amazing Taming System.

And now he would try to figure out how it worked after they confirmed that they followed his wishes. The first thing that Jyuuk did was to activate his Racial skill. Now that he ranked it up to 2, his senses also became sharper in response to the activation.

He closed his eyes and felt the wind on his fur, and listened to the sounds of the birds that lived in the forest, together with the cries of other beasts in the distance. They might be a pain to capture, but at first, Jyuuk figured he should capture a bird, maybe an eagle. They wouldn't take up too much space, which was the most important part for now. He couldn't run around with an elephant following him, after all.

Jyuuk followed the noises that sounded like they came from an eagle-like bird, although it sounded a bit smaller than usual for an eagle.

After a few minutes, he reached the tree where it seemed to have built its nest and grabbed a small piece of raw meat to use as bait.

"Now I need to be slow and quiet…" Jyuuk muttered to himself and placed the meat onto the ground to wait for the eagle to react to its smell.

It took nearly half an hour until it even looked out of its nest, but then it immediately jumped down to grab the meat. And just like that, Jyuuk jumped forward and threw a blanket he prepared just for this over the eagle.

Covering a bird's eyes relaxed it, made it calm down. And this allowed Jyuuk to easily connect with it and make sure it couldn't escape while he figured out what to do next.

However, Jyuuk didn't know what to do next at all. How would taming work in this game? Earn its trust? Then maybe he should try to feed it.

Thinking that it wouldn't hurt to try a few options, Jyuuk grabbed another chunk of meat and ripped it into small enough pieces that the eagle could eat them properly.

Carefully, Jyuuk bound the blanket together at the bottom to make sure the Eagle couldn't fly away when its eyes were uncovered. So, Jyuuk slowly removed the blanket from the Eagle's head, and it immediately began to scream.

The Monkey Beastperson slowly moved his hand over the Eagle's head to try and calm it down and held one of the small chunks of meat in front of its beak. It took a while, but soon enough the Eagle began to eat. After a few chunks, it wasn't Jyuuk that held his hand against the Eagle's head anymore, but the Eagle pushed its head against Jyuuk's palm, releasing calm chirps.

[Congratulations! You tamed a Blue-Feathered Eagle!]

[Taming Skill Learned]

With a big smile on his face, Jyuuk removed the blanket and the Eagle spread its wings, allowing Jyuuk to get a good look at it. The feathers all over its body were a dark blue, and it was only about half as big as a regular eagle should be.

The eagle jumped on Jyuuk's shoulder and rubbed its head against his. With a smile, he closely looked at his new friend and a notification appeared.

[Name the Tamed Beast]

"Hmm… How about Aotori?"

In response to Jyuuk's suggestion, the eagle chirped happily as if it liked the name its new Master gave it immediately.

[The Tamed Beast has been named Aotori]

[Aotori]

[Race - Blue-Feathered Eagle][Owner - Jyuuk]

[Rank - 0][Level - 67]

[HP - 100]

[STR - 26][END - 19][AGI - 35]

[Skills]

-[Claw Attack][Rank - 0][Level - 53]

"Interesting… Come on, Aotori. Let's find something to test how strong you are." Jyuuk stood up and packed the blanket into his backpack, then closed his eyes to listen for some kind of animal in the distance. Not long after that, he heard something that seemed to be a rabbit not too far from where they were.

But before Jyuuk and Aotori were even a hundred meter away, Aotori flew back to its nest.

To Jyuuk, there was only really one explanation for this.

Aotori was a girl! And her eggs seemed to be in the nest.

Jyuuk sighed out loudly and followed her back to the tree. He decided to see if he could grab the nest, or at least the eggs and bring them with him. He wouldn't want to take Aotori's babies from her after all!

Jyuuk placed his staff on the ground and slowly climbed up the tree. In real life, he was a good climber already, but here in the game it seemed like his hands practically stuck to the surfaces he was trying to climb on, so it didn't take long for him to climb the five or so meters up the straight tree.

When he reached the level of Aotori's nest, he saw five eggs. Four of which were dark blue, but the last one was a bright red.

That one probably wasn't one of Aotori's eggs, but she still took care of it like any of the others, so Jyuuk would feel bad to take it away from her.

Maybe it was some kind of magical property of the Blue-Feathered Eagle that it layed eggs of other species? Probably not, but Jyuuk couldn't say for certain what the developers switched up in the game.

So, Jyuuk placed his backpack onto the branch and placed Aotori's eggs into the blanket he used to capture her. Usually, even a tamed animal would react agitated when someone would touch their eggs or cubs, but Aotori simply watched Jyuuk do what he was doing without reacting, and then sat down on top of the Backpack as if to protect the eggs from other things. She even sat there while Jyuuk was climbing back down the tree.

But for now, Jyuuk ignored this and decided to go look for that rabbit that he heard a few minutes beforehand.