Another World

Aura, Lydian, and Ariel left early in the morning. A Puppet Sprout walked next them, carrying a massive backpack on its back. They made their way out of the city and into the mountains. While they were walking along a dirt trail, they met a kindly old man accompanied by a Stone Rabbit.

"There are some dangerous creatures in there, you kids should be careful," he advised them, seeing as they only had a level 1 monster.

"Thank you, we will," Aura said as they continued along the path. When they left, Aura inspected the man's monster.

[Stone Rabbit - ***]

Type: Earth

Level: 2

Health: 18/18

Constitution: 6

Strength: 6

Agility: 6

Defense: 6

Mana: 15/15

[Skills]

Burrow - Stone Rabbit rapidly burrows into the ground, evading attacks. It can leap out and attack the target from underneath

Stone Body - Stone Rabbit hardens its body, increasing strength and defense

"There are more and more people with contracted monsters now," observed Lydian.

"Even for people who have no desire to pursue being a monster trainer, having a contracted monster or two can be nice. They can act like a companion and someone that can help with chores," said Aura.

Ariel nodded, "Some construction companies are finding having monsters is useful in their work. When more types of monsters are identified, maybe other industries will begin to use them. For example, the list of monsters Aura gave me could help hospitals find suitable monsters."

As they traveled deeper into the mountains, wild monsters started to appear. Lydian summoned Lyn and a display of strength from a level 10 Crystal Horse deterred them from attacking. After some twists and turns, they arrived in front of a cave. Aura opened up his map and scrutinized the area. "It should be in here."

The trio walked into the cave. It didn't take long before they saw the space crack. A pitch black object stood in front of them, the air surrounding it twisting and swirling. It looked like the space there was a glass pane and someone had punched a gaping hole in it.

"So this is what a space crack looks like," Ariel muttered as she walked up to it, carefully examining it.

"Don't walk into the unstable space around it," said Aura. He picked up a rock and threw it into one of the rotating eddies around the portal. It was swiftly swallowed in and crumbled to dust.

Lydian was curious about the space crack too. After staring at it for a while and gaining nothing, she gave up.

"We should head in now, it's safe if you move straight into it. I'll go first."

Aura stepped forward, and his vision went black. A moment later, he stumbled onto a patch of wet grass. Behind him, the figures of Lydian and Ariel emerged.

Aura surveyed their surroundings. They were standing on a grassy plain pitted with massive pools of water. Aura looked over one and couldn't see the bottom. The sky was a dome of purple that reflected in the water.

"This should be a very small spacial realm. The barriers around Earth are still stable and shouldn't allow space cracks leading to worlds that are any larger. The valuable materials we're looking for will most likely be scattered around the center. On the way, we can see if we can find a suitable monster for Ariel." Lydian and Ariel both agreed with this plan.

"Puppet, sense which direction the mana is the most dense and lead us there." Puppet hesitated for a bit and headed towards their left, Aura and the others following it.

While they were walking, they admired the scenery that couldn't be found anywhere on Earth. The bright green expanse mixed with large patches of blue and purple stretched on and on.

Suddenly, as they passed one particularly large pool of water, a sphere of water shot out of it. Aura had Puppet create a Puppet Sprout to block the incoming projectile. The Sprout was blasted into pieces.

[Many Eyed Fish - Wild]

Type: Water

Level: 7

Health: 35/35 (Healthy)

Constitution: 12

Strength: 7

Agility: 9

Defense: 5

Mana: 29/46

[Skills]

Compressed Orb - Many Eyed Fish condenses a large amount of mana into a water sphere and launches it

Orb Eye - Many Eyed Fish shares vision with the water spheres it creates

"That Compressed Orb attack was too powerful!" exclaimed Lydian. "Lyn, use Stampede and Resplendent Gleam!"

Faced with the extremely bright light, the lumpy fish screamed and closed the eyes all over its body.

"Puppet, use Puppet Strings." The fish became partially immobilized and was hit head on by Lyn. After a few more attacks, the strange looking fish died.

"The monsters here are much more powerful than on Earth. We need to be more alert."