When night came, Sandrine quickly set up camp and mentally went over the check list she had established during the day. She had a lot of rewards to open, between the ones from the rankings during the offroad event and all the chests she had found today. However, there were things that were more important !
There were only a few hours left before the start of the first season, and with the end of the newbie 'protection' period, the game would no longer be as nice, and the difficulty would skyrocket. She needed to be ready.
First of all, she fed all her pets. Then, while Paquerette was eating, Sandrine put on her farrier apron, took her tools, and checked out the mare's legs, making sure the horseshoes were intact and secure, and that she didn't need to file the hooves. Then, she installed the anti-slip pads to the horseshoes, so that Paquerette wouldn't slip in the rain.
With that done, she did a full medical check up of all her pets. Their health stat was very high, they hadn't been hurt during the day and recuperated when they slept, so logically they were alright, but she still wanted to make sure.
Then Sandrine continued crossing items off her list, counting the rain gear for all of them, making rain protection for the pheasants' cage when they were strapped to Paquerette during the day, checking the condition of the outdoor tent, organizing the food supplies…
When everything was over, she quickly whipped up a sandwich to eat on the go and then started to ponder. There was still a lot of time before the start of the next day. Should she really go to sleep ? Shouldn't she do something more productive and try to be as ready as possible ?
Her eyes swept over her profile panel.
[Player : Sandrine Legrand
Nickname : 84jojo84
Species : Human
Vehicle : Paquerette (Select to see profile)
Job : Friend with the barn (Tamer)
Health : 98
Fatigue : 14
Strength : 9 (Average human : 7)
Constitution : 10 (Average human : 6)
Agility : 10 (Average human : 7)]
"This last point of strength…"
It was annoying. If she could, she would have wanted to start the next season with maxed out stats to rest assured that she had done her best, but she never trained in strength, so this last point wasn't easy to get.
She could try training now, but she would have to really lift heavy things until her muscles get torn apart for it to work, a stat wasn't so easily raised. And starting the next day while wounded wasn't the best idea.
As she looked around, thinking, her gaze stopped on the night monsters outside the tent, looking at her fixedly with their wide cloudy eyes.
"Wait… Stats raise more easily while fighting, right ?"
That was what she had noticed. She had to stay between life and death for an entire day for her constitution stat to go up, however while fighting a boss and not suffering such damages, she still had two stats going up. This meant that training could only go so far, the game put an emphasis on actual achievement and real hurdles.
"And that way, Gribouille could also level up !"
It wasn't only about her. Sandrine was still assured with Paquerette, her evolution clearly made her overpowered for the newbie protection period, and she surely wouldn't be considered weak even during the first season. However, the puppy was still blocked on level 4, with the hidden conditions for his level up not fulfilled. Sandrine didn't know what those were, but fighting high level monsters would surely help, right ?
"Babies, we won't sleep tonight !"
The pitchfork appeared in Sandrine's hand. She felt a bit excited. The VR fight set had told her that she needed more fighting experience, and that was the perfect moment for this ! The conditions were somewhat safe, if she was scared, she could get back under the tent, taking advantage of the safe zone.
Gribouille shakily came and stood next to her. The puppy didn't look very sure of himself, but he was doing his best to stand tall. So very cute !
Sandrine took a deep breath and tried to steady her mental state. She couldn't afford to go crazy here, the VR fight set had said that she needed to work on her mental state and reign in her impulsivity in order to make better decisions in stressful situations. She had a tendency to be stronger when she went bonkers, but she also needed to have a strong and steady lower limit too. The ideal state would be if she slowly raised the bar of what her brain considered 'stressful', until she reached the point where most situations wouldn't be considered as such, and she could keep her sanity intact everytime.
But that was in the future.
Sandrine lifted the half-wall of the tent. The monsters were right behind it, pressed against the waterproof fabric as if this thin material was an impenetrable shield. The night creatures were, as always, about five or six directly next to the safe zone, but a lot more could be spotted in the dark, wandering like lost souls. If she killed the ones next to her, Sandrine was sure that the other ones would come running to take their place. She wasn't even sure if there was an end to them, they seemed too numerous.
She raised her pitchfork and struck forward as a probing attack, trying to judge the force she needed to apply to pierce their skin. The teeth entered the flesh like butter, immediately making the monster howl in pain, its face separating in two vertically, revealing a long disgusting tongue and rows of teeth as pointy as a shark's. It tried to devour her but slammed on the invisible wall, incapable of reaching the girl despite her being a few centimeters from it.
"I would say it's about as thick as a boar. Nothing extraordinary, otherwise Paquerette wouldn't have killed one while still at level 1. But that could also be an effect of the newbie protection period, maybe they'll get stronger later."
Having roughly understood her enemies, Sandrine took a fighting stance, trying to steady her emotions. Her face grew serious and she tried her best to regulate her breathing. If she felt that her heartbeat was quickening or her stress levels were going up, she would have to stop and try to calm down again. This was her training.
Next to her, Gribouille had observed the probing and reached his own conclusions.
Don't believe Sandrine, she is still babying him but Gribouille has been growing very fast since his level up, almost everyday he would grow a few centimeters higher. Right now, he reached the upper half of Sandrine's thigh, almost her hips. He wasn't considered a puppy anymore, he was the size of a big dog in his young adult days. His stats also kept going up, which was normal. He had been very weak at level 1 because of his age, but his recent growth had some effect.
[Name : Gribouille
Species : Earthen canidae
Lvl : 4
Favorability : 30
Health : 98
Fatigue : 14
Strength : 6
Constitution : 13
Agility : 8]
Gribouille also got ready, lowering himself to the ground, tightening his muscles, ready to pounce.
The time seemed to come to a still.
Then, at the exact same moment, both leapt forward.
Sandrine's pitchfork penetrated the monster's throat, then disappeared before it could reach for it, reappearing again to stab it in the abdomen. Dark blood kept flowing and the creature grew unsteady. Sandrine kicked it aside and rushed towards another one.
While she was doing this, Gribouille leapt towards another monster, biting its throat. Unable to use its distorted mouth to devour the puppy under its jaw, the creature used its long twisted arms to try and hit it. However, Gribouille's constitution wasn't to be underestimated ! He hung on, trying to ignore the disgusting taste of greasy slimy fur in his mouth, clamping its jaw harder as his teeth penetrated the flesh and tore up the artery. Blood flowed on his black and white fur, rendering him sticky and heavy, the wet feeling was extremely uncomfortable.
Eventually, the monster wavered and fell. At this moment, Sandrine had already engaged another creature. It had watched her kill one of its own, so it was ready, with its head split open and its long arms reaching for the girl. Sandrine ducked under the arms, using her high agility to twist her waist and appear just underneath it. Then she made her pitchfork appear, impaling the monster on it.
From the corner of her eye, she saw another creature that had gotten too close, so she threw the corpse impaled on her pitchfork on the new monster, using her freed pitchfork as a pole while she jumped over the two entangled bodies to attack the new creature from behind.
Three down.
On his end, Gribouille had just killed his first monster when the last one next to the tent had finally finished going around from the other side and reached him. The puppy didn't have the time to gather his thoughts before a disgustingly long and slimy tongue reached him. He was overstimulated by the feeling of the blood on his fur, the taste of the greasy fur in his mouth, the feeling of a life having ended because of him, and now another terrifying creature was upon him.
The puppy felt really bad.
But he was a big dog now. His aunty was super strong and watching over him from inside the tent, and even his mom was doing her best, he couldn't be the only one being a scared and delicate pup !
He needed to grow stronger in order to protect his mom and aunty just like how they had protected him.
So Gribouille gathered all his courage and scratched the slimy tongue. Maybe it was because of his high constitution, but his claws were extremely sharp, instantly drawing dark blood before the monster could even come closer to devour the dog.
The creature shrieked in pain, and Gribouille jumped on it, biting and scratching. However, it had already split its face open, and now it was too difficult to directly bite the throat without being caught and eaten, so he could only inflict as much damage as he could, mangling that creature's body.
The monster seemed to sense that this fellow was annoying. It could have remained entangled with it, but it was just a contaminated creature without reason. It saw an easier prey, Sandrine already fighting another monster nearby and with her back to it, and it pounced.
Gribouille was thrown to the side, managing somehow to land on his feet, and incomprehensibly looked towards the monster. Why was it gone ?
Then he noticed the situation. His mom was in danger !
Gribouille ran as fast as he could and jumped on the monster's back. But it didn't stop. He sank his teeth in the creature's nape and clamped his jaw tightly. The monster roared in pain but didn't slow down, almost reaching Sandrine despite its mangled body. So Gribouille used all his strength, everything he had, to bite even harder, to use his little pointy teeth to sever the spinal cord and tear off the vertebrae, almost decapitating the monster on the spot.
He just wanted to protect his mom.
Blood exploded, spurting into his eyes, filling his nose and mouth to the point where he couldn't breathe.
And the creature fell.
He had succeeded, he had killed it.
At this moment, Sandrine heard a buzzing sound.
[Congratulations, your pet Gribouille has reached lvl 5 !]
[You have filled the hidden conditions for the evolution of your pet Gribouille. Check its panel to use your evolution chance]
She saw the message flashing before her eyes, but she didn't have the time to appreciate it. She finished off the monster she was entangled with and lifted her eyes to discover that more creatures were approaching.
It was time to regroup. It was such a pity, she was starting to get the hang of it, her emotions were very stable, but Gribouille was obviously exhausted, and she wanted to use the evolution chance.
Before the monsters could cut their retreat, Sandrine grabbed Gribouille and went back inside the tent.
Both of them were a mess, sweaty, dirty, and covered in blood, but Gribouille really looked the worst. The poor thing was coughing up blood, and he even had some running from his nose. At first Sandrine had been scared, thinking he was wounded, but looking at his high health stat, this was probably not his. The poor thing had literally drowned in his enemy's blood.
Looking at his state, the training was probably over for him.
Sandrine helped him clean up and gave him his plushy worm. He looked a bit shaken and really needed it now.
"Okay, now let's check out the evolution chance !"
[Name : Gribouille
Species : Earthen canidae (Evolution chance available)
Lvl : 5
Favorability : 35
Health : 98
Fatigue : 14
Strength : 7
Constitution : 16
Agility : 9]
Sandrine pressed the button next to the species, and the lucky draw appeared. She pressed the lever, not expecting anything. After all, she had needed Paquerette to be faster for their survival, but she just wanted Gribouille to grow up healthy and happy. Even if he wasn't very strong, she could accept it.
The little images turned and turned, and Sandrine didn't recognize any of them, so she simply waited until the rows slowed down and three little dog images lined up neatly, starting up a flurry of light and sound every bit as good as the best casinos.
[Congratulations, your pet Gribouille has evolved from an Earthen canidae into a Guard Dog !]
Sandrine read the message several times and scratched her head. She didn't have much expectations for Gribouille, but still… Paquerette had become a wind horse, a kind of magical creature, while her baby was just a guard dog. It was a bit disappointing.
"Well, my baby is always the best, no matter his species !"
She shouldn't show her disappointment to the kid, that would ruin his self confidence.
Sandrine turned to watch the puppy who suddenly was engulfed in light, shining bright, his form growing indistinct. After some time, the light slowly faded, revealing his new body.
Gribouille hadn't changed much. He was still a tall puppy, black and white, with floppy ears and a worm plushy in his mouth. However, now he reached Sandrine's waist and his muscles were quite developed, with especially wide shoulders. His head was a bit slimmer and his snoot longer, as if he had shed his baby fat. But he still had his big wet eyes. He was still Sandrine's little baby !
"Woah, my boy is so handsome !"
Sandrine hugged him tightly. Gribouille happily wagged his little stubby tail. He was stronger now, probably having reached the end of his growth period or close to it, and his stats weren't so far behind Paquerette anymore.
[Name : Gribouille
Species : Guard Dog
Lvl : 5
Favorability : 35
Health : 100
Fatigue : 0
Strength : 12
Constitution : 19
Agility : 10]
The evolution had brought him back to peak condition, but mentally he was still a bit scared by the whole ordeal, and didn't want to go back and drown in blood. Sandrine could understand, and she would never force her son to do what he didn't want to.
So ultimately, she took her pitchfork and went back alone to fight until morning light.