Party, Plus One

I drifted back and forward between sleep and wakefulness for another hour, the cool morning air tickling my left ear. Also, keeping me on the precipice of full sleep was an occasionally twitching, soft furry ear that would sometimes brush the bottom of my chin, which was resting on Luna's head.

"Master, do you want to wake up now?" The loyal dog-girl asked, squirming to get a better look at my face. Peering down at her, I answered her truthfully, "I am just stealing enough of your warmth to stay warm until I get the fire going." She just stared back, confused by my answer for a second, before letting out a giggle at the unexpected childishness of my answer. "Master, you stay under the warm covers. I will get the fire ready. I have slept more than enough over the last day." I freed her from my grip and watched her straighten her clothes that had wrinkled while lying in bed.

Luna headed out of the tent, and I realized she did not have shoes to wear. "I have footwraps for you," I informed her. She turned back towards me, smiling down at me, "Thank you for the consideration, Master, but beast-people typically do not wear shoes as it prohibits us from feeling the vibrations of the earth. Feeling the earth is essential for our abilities of enhanced agility to work." "Oh, okay," I said, not quite getting it but accepting the explanation since she was the first beast-person I had ever met.

I heard the flint being struck, followed a few minutes later by the crackle of the fire. Feeling the warmth makes its way through the open tent flap to my chilly nose, I finally crawled out of the sleeping bag. I pulled my armour from my pocket dimension, hoping Luna didn't notice its absence from this reality and slipped it on. Then I clipped my gauntlets to the back of my belt. I picked up the sleeping bag and brought it with me. Once outside, I strung a piece of rope between two trees before draping the one large sleeping bag over it. Being a big camper in my past life, it was ingrained in me always to get your sleeping bag aired out first thing in the morning. Looking back at Luna, her lack of reaction made me confident that I was not doing anything strange by this world's standards.

"Luna," I called out to my new companion, who had just finished loading up a new set of scrap wood into the fire. "Yes, master?" She looked over at me, standing at attention. "I am new to this land, and I worry that I may at in a way that makes the local populace uneasy. If you ever find my actions or anything to be odd, let me know." Her eyebrows immediately raised, and before I could stop her, she launched into a laundry list of my oddities. "First off, Master, you are much too kind. Someone is bound to take advantage of you. And you are too polite to your inferiors. I am your slave, and you are my Master. If you ask, rather than tell me to do things when we are around others, they will think you are weak. Also, I have never seen a tent like this. It is much too nice. And you are very tall for a human male. They are usually only a bit taller than I am. Never a full head and a bit taller." Luna finally finished rattling off all the little thoughts about my strangeness before she followed it up with, "But that isn't to say I don't want you to be kind to me, just not in front of others if you don't want to stand out."

"Now, would you like me to turn a few of these packed meals into something a little more exciting," Luna asked, retrieving a few of the meals from one of the trunks I had taken from the carriage and set up in the camp. I nodded at her, as I wasn't the best cook, and the thought of the same dry meal again made me a little disheartened.

While Luna collected a pot and some cooking ingredients from amongst the scavenged chests, I realized I had not checked my System Menu in a while. Opening it up, I had a few unread red dots on a couple of menu items. First, I went to the log and read that I had gained 1200 experience points from defeating the orcs and completing my quest. I did not seem to receive any loot from what I could see in the log.

The last line in the log was the most interesting, "Luna has joined your party." This new message reminded me that I had the inaccessible skill section earlier that required me to have at least one party member. Closing the log, I saw that the rectangle surrounding the word "Skills" also showed it had something new with a little red dot in the upper right-hand corner. Selecting it, I saw the heading for New Game Plus was flashing. Upon scrolling down to look at that section of the skill list, I saw a new message.

"Select One (No Cost):

Party Management: The skill holder gains the ability to use their system to level up and manage their party's stats and skills, the same as how they manage their own.

Lone Wolf: The skill holder forgoes companionship, hardening their heart. They receive a +10% modifier to all stats, skill effects, loot drop rates, etc."

Damn, Lone Wolf is broken. But, I can't abandon Luna at this point, I thought to myself, as I watched her cheerily hum and sway her hips to a non-existent beat of her own through the semi-transparent display.

I confirmed my selection and felt a new rush of power and knowledge flow through me as I gained the new skill. While still in awe over the further info swirling in my head, Luna handed me a bowl of the stew she had crafted from the hodge-podge of ingredients we had lying around. She purposely avoided breaking my concentration as she could tell I was deep in thought about something. While my body handled autonomously eating the stew. I looked through the new screen that was available to me, in which I could see Luna's Stats and Skills.

Most importantly, there was a level-up button next to her current experience total. It had a +2 next to it. Based on how getting new skills had caused a rush of data to enter his mind, he decided to wait for them to be done eating.

Once Luna finished up her meal, she spotted that I had completed my own. She came over to me and retrieved my bowl before scraping the little bits of the remaining dregs at the bowls' bottoms into the fire. She grabbed one of the water skins and a few scrap pieces of cloth and the washbasin from the previous night. She washed the dishes clean and rinsed the basin before placing the damp towels on the line I had hung earlier to dry. Then she returned the tableware to the trunk.

Feeling my eyes upon her, she turned towards me and tilted her head to the side inquiringly. "Come here and take a seat, Luna." I directed her, patting the empty section of the bench next to me. She promptly took a seat before I continued, "This is my first time doing this, so I am not quite sure it is gonna feel for you." I informed her as I pressed the level-up button. Watching the process with my Mana Vision, I saw little sparkly lights twinkle around her momentarily before being sucked into her body. Luna, looking slightly disoriented, slumped to the side, toppling in my direction. I caught her in my arms, cradling her until she righted herself. She shook her head as if trying to unscramble her brains. "You okay?" I check in with her.

"It was a bit disorienting, Master. But, what did you do? I feel very powerful now. Like as if I could tear a tree from the ground."

"Haha, maybe don't do that quite yet." I chuckled. "Luna, I'm about to tell you something that I don't think would be good for me if others knew I had it. Can you help me keep my secret?"

"Of course I can, Master. Anything to help ease a burden of yours!" She responded, tail wagging as she grabbed my hand and stared me straight in the eyes to show her resolve. "First, I need you to answer a few questions for me to make sure I explain this right."

"Do you know of levels, classes, stats, like strength and wisdom, skills, et cetera?" I questioned the dog-girl beside me. "Silly Master, even I know of those! I got my own revealed to me on my hometown's status stone each year on my birthday!"

"Hmm, okay, well, is a status stone the only way to check them?"

Shaking her head, Luna explained, "People with the analyze skill can also see some of it."

Hearing this, I realized that I would have to look more into the other Eye skill feature to see if I can change what others see about me and my abilities.

"How does one normally go about levelling up?" I next asked. "They can do so at the stone when checking their status. They click level up, and the system gives them a new attribute point or skill on alternating levels, Based on what they did to earn the experience to level up."

This news caught me a bit off guard. I guess Picking skills is a unique ability of my system. "Have you ever heard of someone having a power that lets them choose what skills they get, perform level-ups away from a stone and do the same for their party members?"

Luna quickly shook her head, "Never. The greatest adventurers of the land would want that person to be part of their party! As there is no such thing as a portable status stone. Why do you ask, Master?"

Dramatically, gripping my fist before me, I responded, "well, it is because... I got the power!"