185 Comrade (1/2)

\u003c\u003c Congratulations, Franz Leopold wants to become your comrade \u003e\u003e

\u003c\u003c Information:

A comrade is a being of another race that voluntarily agrees to follow along with you. Between both parties is a relationship of equality with one party commonly being the leading one, which is agreed on beforehand. And which is the one who has been offered the comradeship and not the one offering to become the comrade.

While a comrade has similarities to pets, there are some stark differences such as being unable to trade them and also the inability to store them inside the pet space. But things such as shared character info, skills that affect pets, and the clearance for dungeons is the same.

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Thankfully the information directly followed the popup screen or Ivan wouldn't have known what its content would have meant. But still, it came as a huge surprise to him. While he wasn't quite sure of the details it seemed like the lizard was named Franz Leopold and because of their constant fighting, it had decided that it would be good for him to follow along with him, which was the reason for it making the decision to become his comrade.

Initially, he had planned to increase his pets to strengthen his combat strength but because he had met Leopold he had given up on it and instead focused on training himself with his help. But now it seemed like lady luck had mercy with him and he would gain a new member for his party. Although it wasn't a pet in some way it should be even better.

As such thoughts flowed through his brain he didn't hesitate to press the accept button. The window hadn't even finished when a male voice rang through his mind.

`Hey, boss.`, it didn't take much to guess that it was Franz's voice. It seemed like, unlike Vlada his intelligence was much higher, and as such he was able to form complete words and language.

`Hey.`, using his mind to respond, Ivan greeted him back before continuing with a question that had plagued him ever since the window had appeared, `How come you decided on becoming my comrade?`

`Because mom said that if I ever meet someone who can help me get stronger I should take that opportunity. And while fighting I learned more than in the last years staying on this plateau.`

`Then why didn't you go further onto the plateau?`, Ivan asked confused. If he wasn't able to learn much here, then why not continue further in?

`Because those guys are way too strong.`, Franz whined. It seemed like he had tried before but the difference in strength had been too much. So much in fact that he had been unable to learn anything from it.

`So you need a slower curve of strength increase?`

`Yes. Unlike humans, we get stronger mostly by fighting and consuming our foes cores and blood essence. But enemies of similar strength don't do as much as stronger ones. And since I'm between two layers of strength present on the plateau I haven't been able to find fitting enemies.`, he continued to explain.

`Well then welcome on the team. And let's get stronger together.`, now that all the immediate questions were out of the way he welcomed Franz officially.

`Great to be on the team.`

`Oh right, can you maybe shrink?`, Ivan asked. It would be unsuitable to have a giant lizard following him around everywhere. And that was the only way to do it since he couldn't keep him in the pet space.

`Sure.`, luckily he was able to do so, and soon he had shrunken into a less than twenty cm long lizard. Together with its size, his weight had decreased as well which was awesome. Now it could sit on Ivans's shoulder and he would be able to easily carry it around.

`Great. Then let's go.`

`Yay, out to great new adventures.`, the lizard seemed way more excited than Ivan.

This time he rode on Vlada for the whole way and as such the travel time wasn't as long as on the way out.

Standing before the villa he once again realized how much he had been missing his family in the last weeks. Although they had chatted regularly over the phone, just as when Lara had been away it wasn't a great replacement to meeting his family in person.

He hadn't informed anyone that he would be returning today so there was nobody to greet him. When he entered the villa he found it empty. It seemed like everyone was out at the moment. Although he felt slightly disappointed it suited him just fine. This way he could take a shower first.

He had to wait until the evening for the members of his family to come back. It seemed like everyone had gone out shopping.