[Welcome to the World of Remnant]
Ruby blinked.
Then she blinked a second time just to make sure she hadn't gone crazy. A third blink confirmed that yes, a floating blue text box just greeted her to her own planet.
"What is going on?" Ruby said to herself as she moved her head around to see if the box would follow her moments, it did.
"Can I touch it?" Ruby reached out to poke the floating blue mystery. Much to her surprise, the text box was solid but vanished the moment Ruby took her finger off it.
[Would you like to start the tutorial?]
[Yes/No]
"Okay, sure let's go with the tutorial." Ruby pressed the Yes button with some hesitation, the only reason why she pressed it at all actual was because things couldn't get any weirder than a blue floating box. What happened next taught Ruby that it can always get weirder, ALWAYS.
"WHOO! It's great to know this worked!" Ruby jumped in surprise from the loud and very sudden addition of a new voice.
"Opps, sorry about that Miss Rose I didn't mean to scare you." Ruby looked around her room frantically only to stop once she spotted a white fox now sitting on her bed.
"Aw hell, please don't scream." The fox pleaded.
"AHHH!" Ruby screamed.
"OWWWW!" The fox put its paws over its ears to try and block out some of the noise, once Ruby ran out of breath for screaming. She was surprise to find that no one had run into her room yet.
"Ow, please don't do that again. These ears are so, so sensitive to high pitch noises." The little fox looked a bit dazed from the loud noise Ruby just put it through.
"What's going on? How do you know my name?" Ruby's voice trembled a little while asking these questions. The fox shook its head one last time before it looked up at Ruby with a surprisingly expressive face, for a fox at least.
"You're in the Tutorial Miss Rose and I know your name because I've seen the story of your adventures." The fox said as it started to swish its tail back and forth out of what Ruby assumed was habit. After a brief moment of silence, the fox heaved a sigh as it saw that Ruby was probably still rather confused.
"Still not making any sense? That's fair, let's continue with the tutorial and maybe some of this will start to click." The fox proceeded to curl its tail and then, much to Ruby's surprise, pulled out a game menu with its paws. The new menu was blue like the last one but contained all the things Ruby had come to associate with the RPGs her sister played sometimes.
"How did you do that?" Ruby said with some of her previous fear and surprise turning into curiosity. Ruby reached out to touch the highlighted part of the menu and was rewarded with a small ding noise, the menu then showed Ruby a picture of her with a bunch of numbers on the side.
"This is your status menu Miss Rose, from here you can view your level, combat abilities, and even the skills you've picked up along the way." The fox stated with pride evident in its voice, Ruby let out a small 'Oh'. She started to fiddle with the status menu, just to see what else was there, which lead to the most important discovery so far. Ruby couldn't help but giggle as she spun the model of herself around and around.
"Would you like to play with the spinning model for a bit more or would you like to see the rest of the tutorial?" The amused tone of the fox broke Ruby from her giggle fit and she gave the fox a curious stare.
"Ok but do you mind if I ask a quick question?" This seemed to catch the fox off guard momentarily before it sat just a little bit straighter. Most likely trying to make itself look important or knowledgeable but, it just reminded Ruby of when Zewi had finished learning a new trick and was demanding a treat as a reward.
"Okay sure, I'm in no hurry to finish this thing any time soon, what's on your mind Miss Rose?" The fox said casually in attempt to help Ruby relax, or so he could relax, it's one of the two.
"What is all this? Also why didn't Dad and Yang come running in when I screamed before?" All Ruby got in reply from the fox was a small 'Hm' as it tapped the menu and brought up a rather different screen.
"This should help explain a bit, what you're seeing here is the journal menu. Any info you or I learn gets sent here for safe keeping, I've put a little something together about what's happening at the moment if you want to take a look." The fox stretched and proceeded to lie down as he said this, earning a less than amused look from Ruby before she tapped on the highlighted part of the current menu.
'Dear Miss Rose, in this little pocket of info is a basic run down of the current situation. You've been given a gift from a spirit (That's me by the way) that allows you to interact with world around you in the same way you would a video game. This comes with many perks including limited space time manipulation, which is why your family hasn't come barging into your room if you did scream and cause me no small amount of pain.' After reading that last part Ruby couldn't help but give a nervous chuckle at what she did to the fox.
'Hopefully that'll have answered some basic questions and you can finish the tutorial in a much timelier manner. This has been an info dump from the White Fox, Bye-Bye.' As Ruby closed the message, she noticed the fox seemed to be falling asleep on her bed.
"Hey!" Which Ruby quickly corrected, the fox jumped a bit before it stretched its body once more before it looked at Ruby.
"Alright, we're almost done here. Up next is your equipment menu." With a tap of its tail, the menu screen gained a new highlighted area on the screen.
"From here you can choose your weapon, clothes, and even abilities. Almost explains itself, no?" The fox said with a cheeky look, at least Ruby thought it looked cheeky, hard to tell with all that fur. Ruby nodded her head but a nagging thought came to her just as she was about to tell the little animal(?) that she was ready to end the tutorial.
"I think I've got a good idea about how all this works but can you finally tell me why you're doing this? You said something early about reading a story about me and, well, umm…" Ruby trailed off slightly at the end but the fox decided to answer anyway.
"Do you really want to skip to that part? I mean there's still an item menu you can look at." Ruby's unimpressed looked told the fox all it needed to know about that suggestion. Eventually the fox sighed again as it closed the floating windows with a flick of its tail.
"Fine let's talk shop, honestly I didn't want to do this in the first place Miss Rose but due to recent circumstances, I need your help. A friend of mine is doing something really, really, REALLY stupid and you were the best person I could think of for this big old mess." The fox's ears drooped as it talked, making Ruby internally sque at the cute sight and ponder at what the fox meant.
"Okay so what is this friend of yours doing?" The fox grumbled something under its breath in response to her question, causing the young girl to grow even more suspicious of the so-called spirit.
"I can't really tell you but… let's put it this way, he's basically doing the stupid equivalent of toying with a really big bomb he thinks he knows how to defuse but he actually doesn't." Ruby felt her face go blank at this, after a few moments of trying to figure out what to say next, the fox spoke again and saved Ruby the effort and potential embarrassment.
"It's actually worse than what I just described but yeah, I need your help and I need it bad." The fox begged which started a mini mental war inside Ruby. On one hand, THIS WAS SO COOL! With this power she could become the toughest, fastest, best… bestest huntress ever! The other part of Ruby's mind that wasn't totally convinced by the talking fox's vague explanations was worrying over whether or not this thing was even telling the truth.
So Ruby decide there was only one smart thing someone should do in this situation, she was going to ask politely if it was telling the truth. Wait why is it smirking at her?
"You are very expressive when you're deep in thought, has anyone told you that before?." The fox had a big grin on its face. It couldn't read her mind but Ruby was pretty sure it didn't need to by the looks of things.
"I'll do you a solid and forget what just happened but I'm guessing you want to find out if I'm telling the truth or not. Because for all you know, I could be a lying liar who gave you this little power for an evil purpose that will end with all the puppies being kicked." The smug smirk on the fox irked Ruby to say the least. Before she could try to form a witty retort, the fox continued.
"So it's a good thing I have some proof I can show you." For the first time, the fox flashed a smile that wouldn't look out of place on a cartoon villain.
Ding~
[New Request: Down the Rabbit Hole]
"Whoa! This has your face on it… Can I change it?" The fox performed its equivalent of placing its hands over its heart, gasping in mock sadness.
"Miss Rose! Are you saying you don't like my face that much?" The fox continued its fake emotional breakdown as Ruby ignored it and instead tapped on the request. A new box opened up underneath the request with some new information.
-The fox claims to have evidence eh? Claiming that it's totally on your side eh? Well YOU can be the judge that!
Eh?
-150 EXP
-50 lien
[Accept?/Deny?]
"So are you in? Because even if you turn this down, you'll still get to keep the ability to interact with world like it's a video game. You don't really have any reason to accept this request of mine but please, at least hear me out on this." The fox had moved to foot of the bedroom door, waving its tail to and fro, fro and to, waiting for Ruby's answer. A heavy silence filled the room for what seemed to be a dragged out minute, and then Ruby spoke.
"All right, I'll have a look at this evidence and decide from there if you get to stick around. So now if you don't mind, could you please get out of my room?" The fox stared at Ruby for a moment before it started to giggle. Ruining what Ruby had thought to be a serious moment.
"HA!hahaha~ Sorry but that's how you finish that sentence, really?" The fox wheezed out between his bouts of raspy laughter.
"Hey! It's something anyone else would do!" Ruby's denial must have been weak and seemed to only add to the fox's amusement. So Ruby decided to throw one of her nearby plushies at it, the following squawk that came from the fox as the toy entered its mouth brought a smile of satisfaction to Ruby's face.
The fox quickly spat the toy back out along with any leftover flavours it brought. After the fox was done trying clean its tongue of cotton, it looked over at Ruby with an amused grin forming on its face.
"I didn't expect that to happen, well played Miss Rose. I think if we stick together we'll get along just fine." Ruby could tell that little display of amusement and admiration was the most genuine the fox had been with her, while she still had mixed feelings. It was hard for Ruby to deny that she didn't find the fox's offer and situation to be just that little bit intriguing.
"Alright, when you're ready to go just head outside and I'll guide you to my evidence. We've got all day so take your time, which now that I think about it. We still have some time left for the last part of the tutorial!" The sound of party poppers rang out and Ruby was certain some holographic confetti appeared behind the fox.
"Don't worry, I'll give you a speedy version, making friends and deepening your bounds with them will help teach you skills you can use in and out of combat. Also it's a great way for someone as shy and socially awkward as you to actually get out there and see the world for a change." The fox the said last part a little too quickly for Ruby to process normally. She didn't get a chance to finish processing it either, as the fox decided to leap back onto her bed, to the windowsill and make a final quip before leaving.
"Alright then, I'll see you later Miss Rose and don't worry about finding me. I'll know when you're ready to go by way of 'You-Remembering-to-accept-the-request'. So until then Miss Rose Bye-Bye!" With a flourish of the tail and a bounce of the paws, the fox leapt out the window and into the wild. Also a rather loud noise went off as well.
CLANG~!
"Wah!" Ruby did not expect there to be a loud noise, she also did not expect to fall off her bed because she jumped a little too much in surprise. This time, her dad and sister came running to help her. Ruby was positive that it was the fox's fault.
After breakfast, where her sister and dad asked questions so loaded that they might as well have been guns, Ruby managed to get away from home with the help of Zwei.
'I walked Zwei this morning Ruby.' Yang had her arms crossed and an eyebrow cocked as she said this.
'He's demanding more walks! Look, he's restless! Zwei needs this!' Zwei then helpfully added to Ruby's argument by waiting at the front door with a leash and collar.
"Arf!"
"Like we agreed, I'll give you some of my dinner tonight." Ruby said in a not so quiet whisper.
"Arf!" Zwei happily agreed to Ruby's bribe as the pair walked down the bush trail. After a few minutes, Ruby cheeked her surroundings to see if there was anyone nearby. Once Ruby decided the cost was clear, she undid Zwei's collar and tried to remember how to get the menu back up to accept the request.
"Um… Open! Nothing, maybe… Start! Not that either." Progress was minimal so far, as Ruby posed dramatically and yelled random words. Zwei took the time to sit down, enjoy the forest smell, and watch Ruby flail about until she finally yelled.
"ARGH! JUST OPEN THE STUPID MENU ALREADY!" Ruby was finally met with the wonderful sound of the menu opening.
Ding~!
"Huh? Was that how I was supposed to open it?" Ruby asked nobody in particular, though Zwei seemed to have an opinion or two.
"Arf" Which, even for those not familiar with the canine tongue, was a blatant form of sass. Not wanting to acknowledge that her dog just sassed her, Ruby tried to play it off as best she could.
"Well I thought it was going to be something more than just saying Open Menu, okay?" Ruby's retort fell flat against Zwei's counter argument.
Zwei stared at her with a slight tilt of the head that seemed to question Ruby's brain factions. Ruby turned away from Zwei at that point, if she ignored Zwei then it meant she didn't just lose an argument against her pet dog.
After a bit of fiddling with the menu, Ruby managed to find the request in the Journal Menu and quickly pressed the 'Accept' button.
"Well that was quick." The sudden addition of the fox's voice made Ruby jump a little. Turning around to see the fox sitting on a nearby tree branch grinning with amusement just made Ruby want to stomp her feet in anger, so she did.
"Don't do that! It's not nice!" Ruby pointed accusingly at the fox, which seemed to only make its grin that little bit bigger and annoying.
"I won't make a promise I can't keep but, you're right. Let's get to my evidence so we can get the search for my friend started! Follow me Miss Rose!" The Fox hopped off the branch and landed with a solid Thump. Shooting the pair one last cocky grin, it gestured with its tail to follow along into the forest.
Minutes passed by in silence as Ruby and Zwei followed the smug little fox. With little to do besides talk to either her dog or the fox, Ruby found herself getting lost in thought.
'Agh, this is taking forever~! I wonder if we still have any cookies left back home, did I hang out the washing? Ack! I forgot and now Dad's going to go on and on and whyyyyyyy.' It wasn't until Ruby saw that the fox had stopped walking and was looking at her with amusement and why was Zwei sitting beside him looking-
"I was totally paying attention, you can't prove anything." Ruby received an annoying grin from the fox while Zwei just replied with.
"Arf!" Ruby's embarrassment was short lived as the Fox chocked back a chuckle and gave Ruby a more serious look, even Zwei started to pay more attention with how sudden the change in demeanour was.
"This is it Miss Rose, the place where my friend formed that horrible plan of his and went off without me. Now at first glance this place doesn't look any different but that's because I don't leave shiny crystals sitting out and about in the open." Before the Fox could continue, Zwei brushed past it and wondered into a bush.
"Is that where you hide the crystal?" Ruby asked casually, the fox shook its head in response causing Ruby to groan slightly. With a throaty chuckle and a teasing grin, the fox leapt onto a nearby tree branch where it proceeded to make itself comfortable. Seeing the fox that had begged her to come walking all this way, only for it to start getting ready to take a nap of all things! Ruby started to point dramatically at the fox and was about to lay out one heck of a smack down but, the smug little thing interrupted her.
"Hold up, I'm not making you do all the work if that's what you're thinking. I left a marker around here so that way I could find where I stored that little memory crystal, I carved out a little diamond picture on a tree. Find the diamond and you find where I put the crystal which leads to, wait for the dramatic finish here, you getting the evidence to help prove my intentions!" The fox then threw out some more fake confetti and made the noise of the really long noise maker thing that's at every birthday party every. Now that she thought about it she didn't know what they were even called, weird.
"Arf! Arf!" Zwei's bark drew their attention back to the little corgi sitting next to a slightly pale looking tree, as Ruby looked up to the fox she saw what was beginning to become an all too familiar grin.
"Is that the tree you marked?" Ruby didn't like how the fox's grin grew wider once more while nodding its head.
"Sure is, by the way. Are you sure your dog isn't also a spirit because I'm pretty sure dogs aren't that smart." The fox said casually as it hoped down to the ground.
"I'm pretty sure most foxes don't talk either." Ruby then realised that quiet little remark wasn't so quiet, luckily the fox was the opposite of offended.
"Hah! Touché Miss Rose." Ruby puffed out her chest with pride at managing to verbally one up the smug fox, even if it was by accident. The smug little spirit jumped into the bush just beside the marked tree and came out with a crystal that had the number thirty carved onto it. There was brief pause as the fox just stared at the crystal before passing it to Ruby.
"This is the last video we made together, we travelled all over Remnant leaving these behind as check points for the return trip home… Just tap it twice to play the recording Miss Rose, I'll be over here until you're done if you don't mind." All the playful and mischievous energy that appeared to radiate off the spirit just disappeared while it walked away from Ruby and Zwei.
"Hey Zwei, could you do me a favour?" A quick glance at her dog told him all he needed to know about the favour. Zwei sent Ruby a quick nod and raced after the spirit, leaving the hooded girl by herself with the crystal. Seeing no reason to delay, Ruby tapped the centre of the crystal twice and watched with awe as she was suddenly enveloped in some sort of bubble.
Soft static filled the air as the surrounding area began to overlap with the crystal's recording. The fox flickered into sight, almost causing Ruby to jump in surprise but, after seeing the fox's tail extend, then disappear when it reached toward the bubble. It was clear this was merely a rather expansive recording.
"Alrighty then, crystal is up and running." The fox mumbled before taking its tail back and striking a pose.
"Hello future me! Or traveller who's collecting these for fun and if you are said traveller, Bugger off! This is private mate!" Ruby had stop herself from laughing at the fox's hammy acting, the fox suddenly calmed down again and started swishing its tail back and forth.
"Joking aside, you'll be happy to remember that we did it. We found the ride home and it's even in pretty good shape, give or a take a few rare parts of course. Granted you know this already future me but I guess I can indulge you as well nosy traveller." The fox started to grin as a voice rung out in the recording.
"We've discussed this! There is no traveller!" This only got a bout of raspy laughter from the fox as it called back.
"There totally is a nosy traveller and you can't prove otherwise! HAHAHA!" Its laughing fit was interrupted as the fox was smacked in the face by something that went by too fast for Ruby to properly identify. Another quick flash of static filled the area before the fox came back into sight.
"Anyway, just between me and you traveller-" The fox dodged the airborne object this time "My friend and I aren't from around here, in fact there's a whole bunch of people like us stuck in this world. You heard that right, world. We travelled dimensions just to taste your food!" Ruby's eyes went as wide as they could go and said what most would after hearing something like that.
"WHAT!?"
"Really mate?" The same voice from before shouted again.
"Yeah I guess that is a bit much huh? Still I think that's enough for you Traveller, I've updated you enough times in the past. Now remember future me, or is it future you?" Suddenly from the recorded bushes, a black and white cat strolled up to the fox with a serious expression that Ruby had never seen on a cat before.
"Hey do you mind if we pause the recording here?" The fox's demeanour shifted from hammy to serious in the second it took to turn around and look at the cat.
"Sure we can pause it here, what's up mate?" As the fox asked this, the cat became visibly uncomfortable.
"Listen I've been thinking about our place in this world." The fox raised an eyebrow at this but seemed to grow rather uncomfortable at what cat just said.
"Dude no, we talked about this before. We talked about this with everyone when it was being decided who was going to do what to get everyone home. This isn't our world, this is Remnant. The place filled with monsters, super things that might be from the time of this world's gods, and a bunch of other people we really shouldn't mess with." The fox looked ready to continue his rant when the cat cut him off.
"I know! Look I know we agreed to all that but this was before… The village." The area seemed to grow silent at this.
"Mate..." The fox let out a heavy sigh as the cat's stare got even more intense.
"Okay, okay, I get where you're coming from at least. What happened at the village was our fault, we didn't do all we could have and -"
"I want to stop Beacon from falling." The cat said cutting the fox off, it also caused Ruby to say for a second time.
"WHAAT!?" This was just as crazy to the fox as it was to Ruby it seemed.
"WHAT!? Dude that's crazy! Listen, if you try to stop that from going off. You'll probably hurt more people than you'll save." It was the first time Ruby heard the fox so panicked and flustered but she could do nothing more but watch in stunned silence.
"Actually I think I've got a way to stop it." The cat watched as the fox went from panic to a rather deceiving calm. The transition was jarring and if Ruby was being honest, a little creepy as well.
"Alright." The fox took a deep breath and started to grin. Its teeth looked just a little too sharp and the smile was too wide to be welcoming. Ruby thought she heard the cat gulp but she wasn't sure if it was really the cat or her making the sound unknowingly
"How do you plan to stop the Fall of Beacon." The fox became very still as it waited for its friend's plan, Ruby didn't like this one bit as it was very clear that the fox was very, VERY, angry.
"We take away the one person who made the plan possible in the first place. Without all those little illusions the plan would've been a complete bust." The cat sounded very sure of itself and the plan but the look on the fox's face said otherwise.
"First of all, that's barely even a plan. You've just told me what you want to do, not how you're going to do it. Second, if you take her out now it'll be murder plain and simple." Before the fox could continue, the cat held up a paw to interrupt politely… Sorta.
"I'll agree with the first point and I never said I was going to kill her." The fox leaned closer to the cat, its teeth sharpening to an unnatural degree and it even started to growl.
"Fine, so how are you going to take little miss illusion out of the picture? Because if you do this, that means it'll be harder to fix the machine. You're not forgetting the machine right? Because while I don't mind you trying help a world filled to the brim with heroes, I DO mind the fact you're about to ditch all those stranded people, all those stranded CHILDREN! Especially when we have a way to get them home!" The fox was breath heavily, it only seemed to realise that it had gone into a rant and backed away from the cat.
"I'm sorry, that was… Sorry." Ruby started to pull deeper into her hood, this didn't feel like something she should be watching but at the same time she couldn't bring herself to walk away.
"No it's alright, after all this time we've found our way back home and from you're point of view it looks like I'm about to jump ship. I get it, I really do get it but at the village… I realised that the people living in this world are real and, and we know what's going to happen to them and then what happened to the village is going to happen to an entire city! However, if we can convince one girl to change for the better, just one girl. Then I honestly believe we'll have left this world with something more than a passing fancy." The cat stood proud as it finished talking and Ruby felt a bit of admiration swelling for the cat's sense of justice but when she looked over to the fox. Ruby would admit later that she felt a little sad for what was going to happen next.
"Mitchell, it sounds like a good idea on paper but there are too many holes in this plan. In fact the biggest problem with this plan is assuming that you can change this girl for the better. Before you try to argue, let's list off all the things we know about this little gem of a murder. When we first met her, she assisted in a murder. When we learnt about her backstory, she agreed to a plan that would ruin hundreds of thousands of lives. Heck we can even get a good guess as to why she even did most of it, a powerful person pulled her from the streets and has an almost creepy admiration for said 'saviour' enough to go along with something that big and crazy. Is that someone you think you can change Mitch? Is that someone you think would listen?" The cat had its head lowered and seemed to refuse to meet the fox's gaze. The next few moments were silent until the cat let out a small.
"Yes… Because we also saw her regret her actions, I believe she can be convinced." The Fox didn't say a word but it assumed a much more hostile stance.
"This is crazy mate and you know it, I'm not going to let you put those kids lives on the line like this." The cat just gave the fox a sad smile in return.
"I know you won't but I can't let you stop me." A sudden Vroom! Sound echoed in the recording and to Ruby's shock. The fox look as if it was being crushed under a giant rock and try as it might, it couldn't break free of the invisible force. The cat gave the fox one last sad look before it ran off into the forest. Ruby watched in horror as the fox screamed in pain and had to endure what must have been five minutes of pure force crushing it. When it finally stopped, the fox didn't get up straight away, it got up with wobbly legs and when it took a step, the fox almost collapsed.
Watching the fox slowly limp toward the gem wasn't a pleasant sight for Ruby but when it finally reached the crystal, and by extension her, Ruby let out a sigh of relief. The bubble around her popped and sitting right in front of her was the fox, swishing its tail back and forth like always. Zwei was there too but he was busy chewing on a rather large stick not too far away from them.
"So Miss Rose, what's the verdict? Do you want to help me? Or would you rather I just leave you be?" The fox wasn't smiling, in fact it almost appeared emotionless, but Ruby knew better now. It was reaching out for help in a world that wasn't its own. The answer was so obvious to Ruby now, lives on the line, a friend in trouble, and a great chance to become the world's best huntress.
"I'll help you Mr… are you a mister? Now that I think about I don't even know your name?" The fox blinked at this, then it started to chuckle. Ruby only realised what was about to happen a few seconds too late to stop it.
"HA!Hahaha~! You couldn't tell I was a boy? That hilarious! H-how many women do you know with voices like mine?" The fox was banging it paw on the ground in what seemed like an attempt to gain some semblance of control back. It didn't make Ruby feel any better though.
"Y-you jerk! I was just being considerate okay!" Ruby then saw that Zwei was using both of his paws to cover his eyes. The sudden sound of coughing coming from the fox caught Ruby off guard for a moment before she went back to being angry.
"S-sorry about that Miss Rose, h-hehe no really I-I'll stop laughing now. I promise." Ruby was sceptical at first but the fox did visibly start to calm down after a moment or two.
"Right, back to my name… My name, ah bloody hell I just realised I can't use my name around you Miss Rose. Mitch would be on guard if you started saying my name just like that." Ruby frowned at this, from what she saw of this Mitchell cat. It would probably be very paranoid about the fox coming to hunt it down.
"Maybe if you tell me your full name, we could make a new name from it? Maybe?" It was a random idea but the fox didn't seem dismissive of it. In fact from what she could see, the fox was rather warming up to the idea.
"My full name… I never told him my full name!" The fox then started to dance wildly with its tail swishing much quicker than usual.
"I've got it Miss Rose, please call me James!" the now identified James announced with a toothy grin, Ruby smiled back and held out her hand to the smug little fox.
"Nice to meet you James… Are you sure you don't want to try my idea though." James chuckled as he shook her hand with his paw. A small blue box popped into existence at this action but Ruby quickly tapped it away with her free hand.
"I'm pretty sure James will do just fine Miss Rose, and congrats on finishing your first request." The sound of party poppers rang out in area, causing Ruby to jump in surprise and a blue box to appear in front of her as well.
Choosing to ignore the snickering coming from the fox, Ruby looked at the new box and was quite happy to see the results present.
~Request Complete~
Rewards:
-150 EXP
-50 lien
After tapping the little box away, Ruby felt a jolt of energy surge through her. It only lasted a moment but Ruby felt just a little bit better than she had felt this morning.
"So how did your first level up feel Miss Rose?" James asked without his usual smugness.
"A little weird actually, it was like I just got zapped by some dust but I feel better now rather than tingly." Despite herself, Ruby gave herself a pat down just to see if anything felt off. Seeing as nothing felt wrong, Ruby looked at the fox and gave him a thumbs up.
"Alright good to know, and speaking of knowing, which most certainly means growing. It's time for another tutorial!" James grin widen when Ruby let out a groan.
"Again? Really?" This just got a chuckle out of the fox before it took a pose that wouldn't look out of place on a teacher.
"Sorry but how I set up the levelling system is a bit different than most you've seen." Pulling the status screen up, Ruby leaned in a bit as the fox started talking.
"Alright, I'll skip the boring bits and tell you what's what. Your states determine what you can do and those same stats increase with level ups but here's the curve ball. I've included a bonus point system so you can boost your stats. Example, say you notice that your endurance is looking a little low compared to the rest of your stats. BOOM, apply the bonus points and you too can be slugged in the face with a metal pipe and keep on trucking." Ruby felt herself pale a bit at the example, James seemed to find this funny for some reason but Ruby didn't feel like finding out why.
"Now it's time to put theory to practise. Open up your status menu Miss Rose and you should see some arrows on your stat numbers. Also, you only get three bonus points per level up so make sure you plan ahead before you apply them, M'kay?" Ruby felt a little uneasy after hearing that, she was never the best when it came to strategy and management games, like Remnant: The Game. Sleep well little air force, you tried.
Focusing back on the menu at hand, Ruby looked over her stats and was honestly having trouble picking a stat to increase. After a few minutes of trying to choose, Ruby felt a small tug on her sleeve.
"Miss Rose, this is just an idea but why don't you wait a few levels before applying some points? That way you'll have a better idea of just what type of huntress you want to be and you'll have some bonus points to help with any weakness that might pop up along the way." Ruby immediately closed the status menu at the suggestion.
"Yep, let's go with that." Ruby was content, awesome powers, people to save, and a talking animal buddy. The day couldn't get any better than this! It could however get much, much worse.
"So how we going to convince your family to let me stay with you?" James said with a not so innocent grin and Ruby's good mood promptly shattered. Quite a few thoughts surged in Ruby's mind with the more prominent one's going along the lines of 'That stupid fox tricked me!' 'How is Zwei going to share with him?!' 'Dad's going to yell at me for bringing a fox home AND not hanging out the washing!'
It only took one last hysterical thought to send Ruby screaming.
'I WASHED THE REDS WITH THE WHITE CLOTHES!' Ruby fell to her knees in despair at her inevitable lecture while Zwei and James looked on with more worry than amusement.
"Should we do something to snap her out of it or-" James paused mid-sentence as Zwei hunkered down like a bomb was about to drop.
James quickly copied the canine and was glad that he did as Ruby let out a shrill scream of pure frustration. Even though he protected his ears much early than last time, James could still feel his ears ringing like no tomorrow.
"Ow! I deserved that, this was my karma coming full circle." James muttered to himself, he did feel a little better at the sight of a teen girl in a red hood jumping up and down muttering words like 'Fudging' and 'Doo Doo Head'. Still didn't change the fact that Ruby was marching over to him.
'Better take this one on the chin' James thought as he was picked up by the scruff of his neck.
"Don't. Do that. Again!" James blinked in surprise at the amount of firmness in Ruby's voice.
"Whoa… Uh… Sorry Miss Rose. I promise I won't spring something last minute on you again." James shot Ruby a nervous grin only to be unceremoniously dropped a few seconds later. Shaking any dust off his fur, James looked back at Ruby.
"Thank you for not throwing me I guess? Anyway it shouldn't be too hard to convince your family to let me stick around. I mean, I'm about as house trained as any pet is ever going to be." Zwei let out an audible growl at this.
"Next to him that is, the second most house trained pet." James looked at Zwei to see if had been appeased, he was.
"Oh boy I'm really in for a lecture when I get back. Although you might want to come up with a back up plan in case I can't convince Dad and Yang. There a little over protective at times." Ruby tried to hold back grimace as some embarrassing memories came to mind. Like the time Dad thought that a boy had crush on her, he didn't show up to school for three weeks and only came back after the principle gave her Dad an hour lecture on why he shouldn't threaten ten year olds.
"He still can't quite look me in the eye too." Ruby mumbled to herself, she broken out of her thoughts as Zwei nudged her leg causing her to look down at him.
"Oh right, I need to put the collar back on so we don't look suspicious." Once Ruby finished putting the collar on Zwei, Ruby felt a new weight on her shoulder. She shot James a look of displeasure, he grinned in return.
"What? it'll add to the story of how you couldn't get rid of me. Plus if you try to push me off I might fall onto Zwei who would then headbutt me back to you." James said with faux innocence, Ruby grumbled mean things under her breath about the stupid fox as she made her way back home. James let out a throaty chuckle at this and with a razor sharp smile said.
"Miss Rose, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship." Ruby couldn't help but groan.
Hm? Did you think this update was going to be for The Sword and the Blacksmith? Whoops~! That's next time, oh and don't worry. I don't have a clue as to what I'm doing for the plot! Am I lying? YES! What am I lying about? I'm not telling~!
Until next time ladies and gentlemen, I hope you have a lovely hot chocolate on hand and some biscuits or cookies to dunk with your drink. BYE BYE!