My first goal was to reach some high ground. If I could get a visual on the castle, and thus the center of the world, that would be best. After that, I’d be looking to secure transportation. I had a feeling that the castle was deceptively distant, and that three months wouldn’t be enough unless I had a faster way to travel.
I couldn’t open Portals, as that was considered an external ability, so my biggest time-saver was no longer an option. I still had my multiple jobs, my experience bonuses, and my weapon proficiency. However, I lost Slave Communication, Fire Control, and most spellcasting. Unless it was something that only worked for me, like Map, I couldn’t cast it.
I used the Map which extended out as far as I could see, making sense of things at the edge of my vision. A distant lake may look like a blue line in my vision, but can be completely clear when examined on the map. It was that kind of thing. I moved through the forest for a bit, and it was then that I suddenly got a Sense Danger alarm. I leaped to the side, and just then a tiger-like monster leaped out from the trees. It had long tusks, and my immediate thought was that it was a sabertooth.
Normally, I would have cast some kind of spell to damage it, but I didn’t have access to a spell. I only had my sword, and it wasn’t a nice one like Lydia’s growth sword, but a cheap steel thing.
Rooooar! The tiger let out a rumbling roar before leaping at me again. I didn’t know what level it was, so I quickly used Monster Identify while dodging it again. When I finally saw its status, I calmed down immediately. The Monster Identify called it a Sabertooth Feral, it was only level 35. I didn’t know how strong I was, but I had multiple jobs that exceeded that level by quite a lot at this point.
“Oh, is that all you got?” I was a bit surprised, but I supposed this was the outer rim of the dungeon.
If this dungeon worked like other dungeons I had been in, then it stood to reason that the closer I got to the center, the harder the enemies would be. That left me feeling somewhat interested in how hard things would get. However, at the moment, this monster wasn’t much more challenging than things I offered in my dungeon in Chalm.
I shuffled my jobs around, re-equipping the long-abandoned Hero. With Moderate Swordsmanship and Basic Weapon proficiency, I felt much more at ease battling the monster using my sword. Just as I was about to strike its neck, a thought came to me. Instead, I struck it with the back of my hilt and then backed away. I readjusted my jobs again and then advanced on the monster.
It lunged at me again, and I dodged and struck it again. Each time, I did so, it’s movements became weaker.
“Come on…” I said, willing the creature to give up.
It took another fifteen minutes of careful movements, but the monster finally lowered its head submissively. I let out a breath of relief.
“So, I can do that much.”
I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to Tame an animal. It seemed like I couldn’t use things like Submission or Weaken to make it easier. However, this animal was already a lot weaker than me, so it didn’t take too much to beat him down and ultimately control him. Stroking the creature’s fur for a bit, I finally jumped onto his back.
I ended up getting a quicker mount sooner than I expected.