Infinite Realm

*Meow*

"Huh?" Sato suddenly turned to glance at the entrance of the underground temple.

What he happened to lay his eyes on was a little feline, bigger than an average kitten but similar to a beagle[1] in height.

The feline had caramel coloured fur with black stripes all over it, reminiscent of a tiger. But in reality, it wasn't one. The blue pupils in its eyes together with the white patch of hair on its forehead were enough to make Sato realised that this was a strange creature native to the fantasy world of Infinite Realm.

"How did you get there?" Sato stared at the creature with cautious eyes.

The feline stood right at the entrance of the underground temple which was the spot Sato had just exited. The strange thing was that the entrance was a one-way route, which means that there was only one path in and out. Since the feline had appeared just a few seconds right after Sato, it meant that it has been following him from behind. The problem with this idea was that Sato never felt any movement from behind so the matter's appearance was unnatural.. This meant that either the little guy had directly appeared out of nowhere or that it had high-tiered stealth skills that trumped Sato's senses without fail.

'Doesn't look like a monster.' Sato narrowed his eyes as he studied the creature.

"Meow."

The feline suddenly moved and jumped right at Sato. There was no sign neither was there any intention to attack, there was just pureness, similar to when a dog greeted its owner.

Sato caught the feline squarely and was surprised to see it in his arms. He began wondering why such had happened as he never expected it to approach him of its own volition.

"Hai. Lttle guy, you do know that you've picked the wrong choice here. If you had gone for a [Summoner] instead, you could be raisee properly and your future potential heightened. Instead, you came for a [Swordsman] like myself. That's a bad idea."

[Summoners] were part of the mage classes but different from the rest. Unlike most classes were the battle strength of the player directly lied in themselves, [Summoners] fought using summoned creature/monsters called summmons. As for how they got their summons, [Summoners] either bought one from an NPC store or they explored the fields in search of one. The advantages and disadvantages of either side was clear to see.

Buying a summon in an NPC store would mean buying a much weaker monster than a field version, and also, originality would be lacked as the store would surely have another copy of the monster. The advantage was that there was no stress in this method and the said creature had already been Broome and raised to fight battles.

As for finding a summon in the field, it was a lot more taxing than buying one but the strength of the monster was more than that of a greenhouse baby. The main problem laid in taming such monsters as they were a a difficult problem to handle, even for a class known for doing such.

Usually, a summon's strength would not be above the summoner's by more than a factor of one. For example, if a [Summoner] was a level 10 player, their summoning would be at most level 11. However, for a level 10 [Summoner] to trap and tame a level 11 monster without outside help was an issue. Therefore, it was usually only guilds players who had selected this class. The others who happened to do so either did based on curiosity or they simply had not read the pre-released manual that informed the general public of the various abilities of the different classes.

One special skill of a [Summoner] was the fact that they could raise a monster from young. Sato felt that the feline wasn't an ordinary creature so he knew that the class that would be able to utilise it properly would be a [Summoner].

"If you're to come with me, I might as well sell you off to some [Summoner]."Sato said to the feline.

"Meow." The feline simply meowed in response, seemingly not understanding the words spoken to it.

"Well, I will pay attention to you later. As for now, I need to find a mining spot."

Dropping the creature back on the floor, Sato proceeded to take out his map and check for directions.

"Meow."

The feline rubbed itself against his leg till it noticed that Sato had glanced at it. Then it suddenly turned towards a direction and started moving forward.

"Huh? You want me to follow you?"

Seeing the creature turn to him with yearning eyes, Sato understood that it was trying to lead him to a certain direction.

"Alright then, let's see where it is you want me to go to."

Since this was a game, Sato had nothing to fear regarding his life. Dying here compared to reality just meant losing a few Experience points so there was no harm in following the creature.

The duo then proceeded deeper into Maldora Canyon but during the process, they barely encountered any monsters. The very few they met with was easily taken care of by Sato without any delay.

The two walked forward till they began approaching a corner within the canyon. What made this place special was that Sato had noticed that both the texture and colour of the soil had changed. From the usual brown cinnamon and caramel colour, it had taken on a wood colour[2] and become a lot harder and denser.

'Could it be?' Sato squatted down with anticipation as he dug out a portion of the soil and felt it.

'Rough to the touch and reminiscent of an ore. It really is it, Gast.' Sato rejoiced.

As a blacksmith, and one who considered mining, Sato had read about the relevant information he would need for his goal.

Gast was a special kind of soil that could also be used as a forging material. It was roughly on par with a low-end 2-star material and hard the special effect of becoming soft like plastic after heating despite having a hard form in its original state.

The reason why Sato was elated at its appearance was because the presence of Gast signified the presence of another material, the 2-star material Dawn Steel, which was a lot higher in rating than Gast. Also, the presence of both Gast and Dawn Steel instigated the possible presence of Black Dawn Steel, which was a 3-star material.

'Has my good luck finally caught up to me or what?' Sato simply couldn't believe it.

While his current location wasn't his original destination, it was still better. Not only was there an obvious abundance of 2-star materials but there was also a high possibility of spotting a 3-star one. Also, he had managed to make it to this place without much difficulty or effort, unlike his original destination that was supposed to be riddled with danger.

'And it's all thanks to this guy.' Sato stared at the little feline who was grooming itself with its paws.

"You're a good one and so, for your contribution, how about a name." Sato spoke to the feline.

"Let's go with, Milo."

"Meow"

The creature showed a satisfied look as it heard the name.

"Haha. Alright, time to get to mining."