Chapter 2
Dog Days
Moshi Moshi?
Legoshi and the boys from room 701 gathered outside of the Cafeteria with the rest of the school. Now being Sophomores the Canines were a little apprehensive standing outside the Cafeteria. They remember how hard it was to be in the large room and then be abruptly introduced to the rest of the student body.
Legoshi and the rest of the student body waited with bated breath while the new students were introduced to the teachers. They talked among themselves and speculated on what kind of species might be joining the school. Speculations ran rampant from Elephants to tiny mice to bats to hawks and beyond. Legoshi listened intently to his friends and those around him. He remained hunched as he usually did when in a crowded room with people he wasn't comfortable with.
Without warning the doors to the cafeteria flung open and a horde of anthromorphs flooded out. The number of students almost equaled half of the total students already at Cherryton Academy, marking it as the largest class in the last hundred years. Hundreds of different species were greeted warmly by the Sophomores, Juniors, and Seniors of Cherryton, and a few dozen tour groups were quickly hashed out.
Legoshi and the boys of 701 somehow got wrangled into leading one of these groups for the Canine students that had joined.
"Alright, everyone!" Jack called out after getting hoisted up into the air by Legoshi and Collot. The golden Lab sat on their shoulders and gathered the other Canines' attention. "My name is Jack! I'm a Labrador Retriever, The wolf on my left is Legoshi, my best friend, the Sheep Dog on my right is Collot, a friend of mine. The other Canines around me are also friends from Dorm 701! We will be your tour guides for today!"
Legoshi sighed internally; he did not want, nor need, to interact with more people than he already did. The fact they were Freshmen like they had been only made it worse… he was not good with younger animals.
The group walked through the school, looking at the different clubs, showing off the Drama Club that Jack and Legoshi frequented, and the Kendo club that Voss was a part of.
It took several hours, and many restroom breaks, but eventually the group of fifty canines ended up at the 700's block of the dorms where a majority of the new students were going to stay for the school year. After showing the group where the Biology Day rooms were they got the all-clear from the Dean and took the new students to the Canine club room for the 700 block.
With an entire classroom's worth of students in the rec-room, Legoshi and Jack took up space towards the door.
"It's going to be a very busy year, isn't it 'Goshi?" Jack remarked while playing with his claws. The Wolf nodded his head and watched the large group of Wolves, Dogs, Foxes, and Jackals play and talk. Voss scaled the many ropes hanging from the ceiling while being trailed by a group of no less than five other Fennec Foxes.
The little teen displayed a show of acrobatics that would make a normal canine cry, but seeing the rest try to keep up made it more bearable. Voss quickly landed on Legoshi's shoulder and sighed while the rest of the Fennecs ran past.
"That was exhausting…," Voss whispered into Legoshi's ear.
"I bet," The wolf murmured
"I thought I was full of energy… Those ruffians have no idea how to behave!" Voss lamented jokingly.
"Well, that just means you now have others your size to keep in line, instead of us making sure you don't-" Legoshi stopped as a young vixen strolled up to him. Voss saw the look in her eyes and bolted, leaving Legoshi's shoulder rumpled from the quick getaway.
"Hello," The shorter Grey vixen purred shyly. "My name's Juno, what's yours?"
"Uh…," Legoshi blanked and began to sweat. He had never had a girl, wolf or otherwise, come up to him so boldly before. "Le-le-legoshi," He stuttered.
"That's a nice Name, Legoshi," Juno batted her eyes at him and leaned in slightly. "Would you mi-"
"Sorry miss, but Legoshi and I need to get going. We have a thing to do at the place!" Jack interrupted with hast from beside them. He put a hand on Legoshi's shoulder and hastily maneuvered him out of the room. "Sorry BYE!" Jack called as they slammed the door behind them and raced off.
"By the Rex, thank you, Jack!" Legoshi gasped out while leaning over a railing on the side of the main building. They found themselves on the roof of the Academy, both completely drained and covered in sweat from their esc-run, yeah, run….
"No problem man, I saw how that Wolf girl was coming on to you and how uncomfortable you were! No way was I going to let you get dragged off by some hormone-doused girl!" Jack chuffed.
The two teens sat down and leaned against the railings and looked up into the night sky. The stars showed brightly and the two found comfort in the brilliance of it all. Jack scooted over and leaned into his best friend. The wolf wrapped an arm around the Golden lab and scratched the top of his head absently.
"Jack, look," Legoshi pointed at a group of shooting stars in the sky. "Make a wish."
"Mmm," jack stared for a moment before closing his eyes. "You know, the legends say that the shooting stars are the Remnants of our Ancient Ancestors… and those that Came Before."
"I've heard that before, the Grey Wolf hummed. "Something about a sudden shift in the natural balance when they suddenly all disappeared… and our Ancestors came into being."
"Yeah…," Jack hummed and slowly got up. "It's super late now… I bet Collot, Voss, and the others are super done with handling the Freshies by themselves." Jack stretched and yawned.
"Yeah, pry should help them," Legoshi got to his feet and twisted back and forth a few times which released a whole mess of pops from inside his body.
"Dude, we got to get you to a canidae doc sometime… that just does not sound natural!" Jack chuckled.
The two childhood friends quickly made it back to their dorm before the Housemother, a Mandaril female by the name of Misa, found out they were missing. Once back to their dorm room they were treated to a group of four very tired young teens sprawled out on the floor just this side of passing out.
"I take it Legoshi and I escaped before the crazy hit?" jack quipped with a smile.
"I hate you both so much… You left us with the hormonal idiots…," Durham, a male Coyote, bemoaned. Miguno and Collot groaned while Voss fell over and passed out on Collot's chest. Jack and Legoshi shared a look before they sighed and got down to their skivvies. With a bit of prompting and cajoling the rest of the boys were ready for bed, though still on the floor.
Legoshi took out a large blanket from his cupboard and tossed it over everyone as he curled up alongside Jack and Miguno. It looked like a parachute had deposited a group of worn-out pups on the ground but to the group of six boys sleeping on the floor, it was peaceful.
The next seven days of school went by in a whirlwind of emotions as the new students rushed to and fro to find their classes while the upperclassmen scurried about in search of their next place to hide from the ever-growing horde of fans from the freshman class.
Legoshi and his roommates from 701 began to really stick together after the third day. What prompted this behavior was the fact that all the wolves that joined the school, and the dozen or so dogs, had begun to hunt Legoshi and Jack down. For some reason, the Freshmen wanted to get to know them more than any other Dog or Wolf in the school. In an effort to fight off the ever-present freshmen their roommates had taken to going everywhere with them, even going so far as to get everyone's schedules rearranged so they would have every class together.
The only times they were 'safe' was during Club Activities and Biology Day when the rooms were heavily monitored by the teachers.
One Thursday afternoon, things … changed for Legoshi… And the School
Sitting on the stage in Drama Club Legoshi yawned and scratched at his face. The big Grey Wolf had been asked by Tem to wait for him thereafter classes, something the normally sociable Alpaca asked in person. This time however he had given the Wolf a folded-up paper and told him to open it when no one was looking.
So, he waited.
Fifteen minutes passed before the doors to the Theater room opened up. Tem, acting far more paranoid than Legoshi had ever seen him before, slunk into the room. Upon catching sight of Legoshi and seeing that he was the only other person there, Tem relaxed noticeably.
"It's good to see you Legoshi!" The Alpaca blurted happily. "Been a while since we last talked."
"It has," the Wolf sent a small, almost imperceptible, grin at his friend. The Alpaca sat down beside Legoshi and removed the watch from his arm. The Wolf Teen watched his friend quietly, waiting for him to talk about what was obviously bothering him.
"Legoshi, what do you know about the world around us?" Tem asked while looking off into the distance. His eyes were unfocused and his hands were wrapped around the watch almost protectively. His Liquor Brown eyes then flashed to the Wolf's and stared into them for a long time, waiting for a response.
"Um, what do you mean?" The Teen Wolf asked hesitantly. "Like, politics? Geography or what?"
"Spiritually, metaphysically, and reality?"
"Um, I know The Rex came back after three days and brought Modern Animal Kind back from the edge of extinction? At least… that is what I was taught in Sunday School. If, ugh, if that is what you mean," Legoshi sighed and ran a large hand over the top of his head. "I don't know much about metaphysics, but Reality is what we make of it… Right?" with his hand still on his head Legoshi looked down at his herbivore friend and grinned awkwardly at him.
"Well, not what I was expecting from a wolf like you Legoshi," Tem quirked his lips in a strange smile. The Alpaca stared down at his watch again, as if trying to glean some meaning of great importance from it.
"You know… I never asked you where you got that watch from…," Legoshi blurted out. The Alpaca blinked and looked up at his friend and sighed tiredly, suddenly looking much older than his sixteen years.
"When I was … Five I think?" Tem furrowed his brows and nodded, "Five. I was going to the marketplace with my mother. It was a sunny afternoon and there were a lot of carnivores out that day. My mother was in a huge hurry to get some produce because we were having a large banquet for my Grandmother that evening. During our shopping trip I ended up getting separated from my mother and I ended up in the Black Market Alley."
Legoshi sucked in a breath between his teeth and stared, wide-eyed at his friend.
"Most of the Carnivores there ignored me, I don't know why, but this older, white-maned, lion plucked me off the street and started walking me out of the Black market and back toward the rest of town. Before we could get out though we were stopped by a group of much younger lions, The Shishigumi if I remember correctly."
Legoshi stared at his friend, having never heard the story before, and he felt both intrigued and revolted by what the Alpaca was telling him.
"The White Lion stood between me and the Shishigumi, I remember the fight that happened next." Tem rubbed a hand over his face, wiping away a thin trail of tears beginning to form. "He fought them all, all ten of them, singlehandedly. I ducked around a corner and watched him tear into the Lions and kill several of them. By the time he was done, four of the ten Lions were dead, the other six were unconscious and the White Lion was missing an arm..." Tem glared at the ground.
"Why are you telling me this, Tem?" Legoshi asked hesitantly. The white Alpaca looked up at Legoshi with a blank stare.
"Because, you remind me of that White Lion. After the fight, he tried to take me to my mom, but he ended up collapsing in a side alley. He wasn't going to make it and we both knew. So, he gave me something special." Tem unclasped the latch holding the watch's loop together and offered it to Legoshi. "He gave me this watch."
Legoshi watched as the white color of Tem's fur began to change, becoming creamy and warm, nothing like the brilliantly clean white it had been the whole time everyone else had known him. It shocked Legoshi to his core, but he still took the offered watch and held it in his large hand.
"I don't have any more use for it… I've done everything I could to make things better in this world, but I'm just a single Alpaca. You, Legoshi, are far stronger than I will ever be, or ever could be, and I want you to have it because of that." Tem got up and turned around to look directly into Legoshi's eyes.
"Why… Why me?" he asked.
"Because," Tem stepped forward and kissed the side of Legoshi's face making the Grey Wolf turn almost crimson in color. "You have been my friend since the moment we met, you have listened to everything I ever told you and not once talked down to me about any of it. None of my other friends can listen as well as you can, and again none of them are as compassionate and kind as you are."
Legoshi stared at Tem and opened and closed his mouth several times.
"I think this will be the last time I will have the pleasure of being with you Legoshi…," Tem moved back and smiled a sad, watery, smile.
"Tem…?" Legoshi asked, confused beyond the bend and barely there now.
"I have some things I need to take care of tonight… If… If I don't make it, could you give that letter in my locker to Els?" Tem took a step back and angled his body towards the door. Legosi sat there, stunned and confused by how unexpected the evening had turned. "If I had known you sooner, Legosi, I would have been happy loving you too," Tem smiled bashfully and walked towards the door. "So, do me a favor, you big goofy Wolf," Tem turned back and glared playfully at his friend, "Find someone that makes you happy, truly happy, and tell them how you feel. Good Bye, my friend."
Legoshi stared agape and shocked at Tem's words. The Alpaca waved him goodbye and walked out the door, the door closed behind him with an audible thud and the sound of shoes tapping across the floor as the Alpaca raced away and off into the school.
Legoshi got up and stared at the watch in his hands, the complicated face looked far more intricate now that he got to see it up close, the number of buttons and dials on it was outrageous for such a small thing. The whole of the watch unclasped and stretched out, fit in the palm of his hand in its entirety. The Wolf touched his cheek and blushed underneath his Grey coat. That had been the first time someone else had kissed him that wasn't family.
The Big Grey Wolf got up and looked at the watch in his hand with apprehension. It was beautiful in its design; The flowing lines, hard edges, curving script along the sides, and the seemingly endless ancient knots in the band. Without a thought Legoshi slipped the watch around his wrist and, somehow, clasped the two halves of the band together around it.
The next thing Legoshi knew he was waking up in his Dorm Room with Durham and Collot pulling him out of bed. The energy had been completely drained from the Grey Wolf and he felt even more tired than usual when his depression hit.
The whole school seemed to be in a buzz as the droopy-eared teen got himself ready for the day. When he stepped into the showers he noticed the Watch on his arm. It had changed.
Where there had been ancient knots and rows of complex lines were now intricate carvings of moons, birds of some sort, wolves howling, and a weaving script of some sort that he could not read. Legoshi lazily removed his clothes and stepped into the shower. The cold water woke him up immediately and made him give a sigh of relief.
What immediately sent him into a tizzy was the fact that the watch glowed moonlight blue and blinded him.
"Good Morning; Legoshi The Grey Wolf. Welcome to 'The Gema!'"
The Grey Wolf stared at the blue text box that opened before him. While freaking out, he peripherally took notice of some of the details of the screen; it started off with the First quarter moon in the bottom left, then the Waxing Gibbous in the top left, the top right had the Waning Gibbous while the bottom right had the Last Quarter. The whole thing was framed with running wolves that started from the bottom till they got to the middle of the top where two wolves were howling at the full Moon.
"What in the Holy Rex's name is going on here," he muttered. He put a hand to his muzzle and nibbled on his middle finger while his index rubbed at the edge of his nose. He lifted the arm with the watch and watched as the dials on it span and whirled madly around in their housings.
"As the New Player, Legoshi The Grey Wolf, you may choose to either go through the tutorial or skip and continue on with the game!"
A blue box appeared with options to continue the tutorial and an option to skip. Having played some games in the past he was not going to pass up the chance to go through a tutorial on something he had no idea about. When he put his finger to the button, he was surprised to feel a firm object instead of just a holographic screen like he expected. The screen both disappeared suddenly, causing him to flinch with the abrupt loss of contact his finger had with the screen.
It was only then that Legoshi noticed something interesting. In the top left most portion of his vision he saw a see-through portrait of himself with a Red Bar, Green Bar, and Blue Bar lined up beside it horizontally. The first had the HP letter next to it while Green had SP and Blue had MP. In the top right-most portion of his vision was a series of transparent words. Menu, Status, Inventory, Quests, Journal, Map, and Relations. Each was listed in descending order alphabetically.
"To continue with the Tutorial, please say or think the word 'Menu'"
Seeing if it would do anything, the Wolf mentally sounded the word out. To his surprise, something did happen. The room grayed out and everything around him slowed to a halt. A large menu with everything that he normally saw plus a few more appeared before him.
"This is the Main Menu, here you can access the other Menus at your leisure and also access the Options Menu where you can change many of the graphical and physical aspects of 'The Gema'. For this tutorial, we will be looking at your Status Menu and assigning your first fifty points!"
Legosi sucked on his teeth and ran a hand over his ears. 'Tem, what in the world did you leave me,' he mentally groaned. He scratched the back of his head while thinking of what to do. The obvious answer was to go along with whatever psychosis he was going through and hope things turned out for the best. With that in mind, the Teen Wolf sighed.
'Status menu' he mentally commanded. Unsurprisingly a screen with several lines of information and descriptions appeared. Three separate menus were also available inside the Status menu. The Attributes Menu was the one that was currently displayed and had the Attributes listed with a series of directional buttons next to them to raise and lower the skills. To the right of that was a diagram of a virtual Legoshi doing weights since the first Attribute selected was Strength.
Status MenuAttributes MenuSkills Menu
[-|+]
Str: 10 [←|→]
Vit: 5 [←|→]
Dex: 4 [←|→]
End: 12 [←|→]
Per: 10 [←|→]
Cha: 2 [←|→]
Int: 7 [←|→]
Wis: 6 [←|→]
Luk: 3 [←|→]
Points: 50
"For this section, the System has already calculated the number of points you have built into yourself over the course of your lifetime. Now, you will use the 50 points given to you from the many Level Ups you were unable to take advantage of and augment yourself in a manner of your choosing. If you wish to hold on to these points, please allocate a minimum of five points before continuing on with the tutorial.
"Huh," Legoshi blinks. He looked at his attributes and thought over what he might do. "Well, kind of looks like I can't leave until I put at least ten points in… so let's do that," he rubbed the spot between his eyes and sighed.
He clenched his hands tightly enough to pop his knuckles and relaxed. He traced his fingers over the attributes and stopped over Per. With a tap of his clawed finger, a description appeared.
[Perception: The ability to take in the information around you, be it Smell, Sight, Sound, Vibration, or some other sense. A higher Perception increases the efficiency of the senses and can even allow for a greater range of senses if points are high enough.]
"Huh…," He scratched his chin. "I'll put five points there I guess," Legoshi tapped the Plus arrow five times. The number turned over to 15 and he immediately felt his senses sharpen noticeably. His vision became sharper and his hearing more acute. His sense of smell became better and his sense of touch became finer all at once.
A feeling of nausea swept over him suddenly and he clutched his mouth. He fell to one knee and the feeling of something firm under his knee helped steady him. After what felt like hours Legoshi was back to a semblance of normal. His senses seemed to quiet down and were no longer over firing. He was able to concentrate on individual senses then and heighten their sensitivity. It was like he was given better control over his own body with just a simple increase of those five points.
Once he was able to relax and think straight again he looked at these points more carefully.
"Is this what Tem had to go through whenever he upgraded himself?" Legoshi wondered. It wasn't too far of a leap of logic to think this was actually what Tem had been talking about the whole time they had known each other. Any time it was mentioned, Legoshi had always wondered why the Alpaca was so enthused by The Gema, but after this whole upset, he could understand.
The Grey Wolf's steely eyes stared at the Attributes list once more and he thought hard on his next choice. He decided that he was only going to increase two of his states at a time after what happened last. If he was going to be knocked off his feet after each increase then only augmenting two aspects was better than everything at once.
His finger hovered over Intelligence, but he was also staring at his Charisma. He knew he was terrible at talking with people, but he was fine with that. He was a sort of Introvert anyway; his best friends were Jack and Tem, and then all the other Canids from room 701. The others from the Drama Club were a close second after them but everyone else in the school were happy to leave him be as long as he did the same.
With a furrowed brow he put Five points into Intelligence putting it up at 12. Almost instantly he felt a sharp jab of pain in his head and it felt like his mind was on fire. He fell to his knees while the heels of his hands dug into his eyes in an effort to keep the building pressure in his head contained. Then, like a rubber-band snap, the pain was gone.
Legoshi stared into his palms with watery eyes and watched as the shakes that had enveloped him subsided. There was then a wet feeling at the end of his nose and a single drop of blood fell from his nose into his hand. The single drop was all there was and the pain was no more. Blood did not continue to flow and he felt absolutely fine. A stark contrast to how increasing her Perception had felt.
"What in the Rex have you gotten me into Tem… Holy Rex." he fell back on his butt and stared at the blood on his hand. He thought about how the last couple of days had gone and everything Tem had talked to him about the night before. He felt a sickening feeling in his stomach and fought hard to keep the nausea down.
He was distracted however when a new box appeared, overlaying the previous screen. An option to skip the rest of the Attribute section was offered. Legoshi slammed the option that let him skip the madness and get on with the insanity of it all.
"Hopefully this is just a super realistic hallucination and when I'm done with this I won't ever see it again," the teen muttered to himself with a strained-looking smile.
The next screen to pop up is the Literal Status screen.
[LVL: 5] [HP: 250/250] [SP: 200/200] [MP: 10/10]
Head: [100/100]
Hybrid: +50% HP RG
Torso: [100/100]
Hybrid: +50% HP
Left Arm: [100/100]
Hybrid: +25
Right Arm: [100/100]
Hyrid: +15% MP RG
Left Leg: [100/100]
Hybrid: -10 Relationship Gain (Everyone)
Right Leg: [100/100]
Carnivore: -30% Relationship Gain (Herbivores)
This is the Status Screen. When you are injured and do not know the extent of your injuries, this screen can give you a quick synapse of your current functionality. This screen will also, on the far right, show any Buffs or Debuffs you may be under the affect of.
"Huh, that's useful," Legoshi blinked, surprised by how useful the function of the screen was.
To access this screen directly, say or think Current Status, and a miniature version of this screen showing any buffs/debuffs and a representation of your body which will be colored to show the current status of your body.
"Ok, I'm starting to really like this thing," the Wolf Teen muttered.
Please hit 'continue' to proceed to the next portion.
The Grey Furred teen quickly tapped the Continue button and watched as a new screen appeared.
Inventory
Weapons [Apparel] Aid Misc Junk
╢ Towel ╟
╢ Boxers X2 ╟
╢ White L-Sleeve Shirt ╟
╢ Grey Pinstriped Pants ╟
╢ Brown Shoes ╟
╢ White Sock X2 ╟
╢ Suspenders ╟
╢ Black Belt ╟
╢ Black Tie ╟
As should be obvious, from here you can equip and unequip any Item that is within your inventory. As the world around you is Paused while in this Menu, unless accessed from the world directly, you will appear to others to have instantly changed your appearance should you change anything in this Paused state. The opposite is true, with a small exception, when accessing this Menu from the World. When using this Menu without pausing you will have to directly pull your equipment from the Inventory, which will look to others as if you are pulling something out of thin air, before Equipping it.
Adding things to your inventory is easy; just put your hand on the object you wish to store and apply the Mental Command Store and it will be stored in your inventory. There are limitations in place upon the inventory, but that will be explained at a later time and not in this inventory.
"Huh… That… Is crazy…," Legoshi gulped at the sheer possibilities this could potentially afford him, and what it has possibly afforded others before him. The very thought made a shiver rush down his spine and out his tail.
From this point on the system will give you guidance once a new menu has been opened as the key components for using the system have been made available and explained. To leave the Menu, simply give the REVERT command and you will be returned to the World. All items that were in Player: Legoshi The Grey Wolf's possession are now stored within the System Inventory and must be accessed as instructions have advised doing.
"Finally," Legoshi sighed thankfully. "Revert!" He commanded with as much dignity as he could. Being forced to stand in nothing but your boxers and a towel was highly emasculating. The world went white.
Legoshi felt cool tiles under the pads of his feet once more and a warm brush of air fluffed his whiskers. With a blink, he looked around the empty washroom and sighed. He quickly stripped and got in the shower, slinging his large towel over the shower door. Within minutes he was washed and rinsed. He toweled himself off as quickly as possible and applied a low odor cologne to help keep his natural musk from getting to anyone. When reaching for his Toothbrush, however, he decided to test whether what had happened in that strange place was real or not and tried to Store his toothbrush.
Unsurprisingly it did in fact disappear. Legoshi paused and took a deep breath before releasing it. His already frayed mental state was further strained because of the abject weirdness going on, but he put on a brave face and tried to call up his Inventory.
Instead of a screen popping up in front of him, a small radial screen was projected from his watch with the appropriate dials and buttons lit up for each command. He wheeled it over and selected his toothbrush. Said brush appeared to float in front of him for a moment before gravity took effect. He snatched it up as quick as a whip and applied a generous helping of paste before brushing his teeth.
He idly looked at the watch and recalled that all his clothes were now in there as well.
The instant he was done brushing his teeth and rinsing the residue, he went about getting dressed. He pulled out his Socks and the extra pair of Boxers which he quickly pulled on. He then pulled out his pants, shirt, tie, suspenders, and shoes in quick order. He snappily pulled his ensemble together and walked out of the bathroom.
"Rex in stripes!" Jack remarked, "I think that is the fastest I have ever seen you get ready Legoshi!" The Golden Lab smiled at his friend and crossed his arms. The rest of their dorm was already ready for the day and waved the pair on. Legoshi grabbed his sweater vest and bag of books. Jack grabbed his own bag and the group of six rushed out the door.