Chapter 102: Pets (2/2)

“Ah…” Looking at the players passionately digging through dirt, Terry suddenly remembered something. “The choco…”

Before he could finish, Jom covered his mouth. “Shh! Let’s leave, now!”

Actually, Jom’s original prediction was right, there was indeed a birdcage in the mountain bandits’ hideout (something akin to a horse stable, but for chocobo’s), but now with the hideout being turned to pebbles by the barren giant, the chocobos weren’t exactly fit to be pets right now.

Having consecutively broken two promises to the other players, Jom was most likely going to have to repent if he waited for the other players to realize, so he decided it was best if they left before then.

After all, Jom and Terry had originally come out to explore the Trinia Forest, running into the mountain bandits was just a detour on their grand adventure… At least they probably weren’t returning to the town until after their promise had been forgotten.

Terry let out a muttered sound of agreement and nodded his head. He didn’t really care what they did next, plus he was too lazy to have to use his brain, so he might as well leave all the thinking to Jom. He just thought that if Jom didn’t let go soon, he was going to have his first death of the battle right there.

Just as the two were sneaking away, Jom noticed the gray Shar-Pei sitting alone atop a small hill of crushed rock.

He hesitated for a moment, but ended up walking to the dog’s side, asking it, “So you’ve avenged your owner’s death, do you wanna come on an adventure with us next?”

The gray dog tilted its head to stare at Jom, and then looked over to the smiling Terry. After a long moment, it slowly started to wag its tail.

Jom couldn’t help but smile.

“Let’s give him a name.” Terry squeezed over. “We’ll call him Schett Kiviak Beast!”

The dog bared its teeth and gave a warning howl.

“He loves it,” Terry said, completely unable to read the dog.

“Why the snarl…” Jom scratched the dog’s head with a blank face. “Since we don’t know your old name, from today on we’ll call you Pikes!”

The dog gave a very simple answer.

“Woof!”

“Okay, now that that’s settled…” They were ready, Jom and Terry brought their dog along with them, trying to sneak past the other players while they were preoccupied with digging up items and equipment.

[Ding! Player Jom has acquired the first pet. The system will activate the ‘Pet’ and ‘Mounts’ systems in ten minutes, all players please take note.]

[Pets are creatures that help with fighting, item delivery and mood checks. Recommended pet: Docile Chocobo]

[Mounts are creatures that could be ridden. They are needed to unlock the Rider class in later stages.

Recommended pet: Sprinting Chocobo]

Jom froze, he slowly turned his head, finding the gaze of every single player present trained strictly on him.

All he could do was give them an extremely stiff and awkward smile.

“Hoho, I’m doomed…”