Chapter 9: Taming Exercise
-Tame successful. View animal information?
"Yes."
[Name: Lizard
Type: Reptile
Hp: 10
Mp: 0
[Stats]
Unavailable.
[Skill tab]
Passive:
Active: ]
"Just a lizard, huh? Seems the system doesn't really care much for taxonomy. Why isn't there any stat though? And no exp bar either."
-Stats are too low for the system to display.
-Lizard is unable to level up.
"Well, that explains that then."
After taming the lizard, Dustin could feel something he had never felt before throughout his time of using his gift of controlling animals. He couldn't explain it, but it was as if he could understand that lizard, almost as though they were connected to each other.
He found another lizard, but didn't tame this one. He wanted to see the difference between the one he had tamed, and the others. Also, unlike before, he could instantly control these little animals now.
After experimenting for a bit, he found out that there was no difference at all. If there was no difference, then what was the point?
"System, what is the difference between tamed creatures and the ones I haven't tamed?" Dustin asked.
-Tamed creatures can be used as summons, and will never betray you, the tamer. 10% of any experience point they receive will be shared with you the tamer. You are able to fuse with them after favorability reaches a certain stage. When favorability reaches max, the tamer will gain one skill from the tamed monster. Distance apart does not affect the taming.
-Creatures that have not been tamed are exempted from all the mentioned benefits and effects.
"So that's how it works. I got to say, taming is pretty cool, especially at the later stages."
Dustin had already thought of various possibilities in his head, but something else struck him. Doesn't this mean taming these normal animals was sort of useless? Seeing skills and the mana stat, he could pretty much visualize the kind of monsters the world would face during the apocalypse. These normal animals would be no match at all.
He continued deep into the forest, walking towards a bigger animal. He didn't head straight for the biggest dot he saw, instead he went towards one of the middle sized ones.
On getting to the place where the dot was shown on the map, he looked around, but found nothing. He wondered if the radar was broken, but that was unlikely. It had to be an animal that could camouflage itself.
"System, highlight all the tameable animals in the surrounding."
Beep. Beep.
A sound rang in Dustin's ear just as he caught the silhouette of a snake. While he looked closer to confirm his suspicions, a blue circle outline formed around the animal, and Dustin could now pin point it's position.
"A python? That thing's kinda big, shit!" Dustin exclaimed in surprise.
He hadn't seen such an enormous snake before in his life. Of course, he had seen plenty on television and had even watched some movies about a snake in the Amazon rain forest, which was totally exaggerated. He hadn't seen one this big before, face to face.
The way his skill worked, if he didn't try to control an animal, it won't be subservient to him, which meant a predator would remain a predator unless he controlled it.
Dustin wasn't in any way curious to know what being crushed felt like, so he took control of the snake before calling it over. If it was before he got the system, some animals would appear to be under control for a while, then after some time he would lose control over them, and if it was a hostile animal, it might even attack.
There was a time he nearly got bitten by a dog after he lost control of it, but luckily there was a fence between them. With his new (A) rank skill, he doubted the chances of that happening.
After experimenting with the huge python, Dustin thought of an idea. Whenever he was absent from home, he always worried about Sil's safety. Now that he had awakened, he was sure that they would be others that will appear just like him. If for whatever reason he had to leave the house and a monster attacked, Sil would be totally defenceless.
Dustin thought of placing an animal with him that would be able to protect and keep Sil company while he wasn't home. They tried getting a dog once, but it died soon after from an illness. It was a street dog after all.
"I'm not sure how strong these apocalypse monsters will be, but I'm sure they'll be stronger than normal animals. They do have monster as their general banner. It's only safe to think so." Dustin said as he let the snake go.
He also used that opportunity to remove the lizard, which he had tamed from his tamed animals. It was useless. Besides, he only used it for an experiment.
He went on deeper into the forest, towards the largest dot of them all. Although it sounds exaggerated, it wasn't really that big, but it was still the biggest.
As he approached the location, he appeared in a part of the forest that had a little clearing, probably just enough to fit two cars. Towards the middle of the clearing, Dustin once again was surprised. This time however, his eyes were wide open and his mouth almost dropped.
"Is that a tiger?" He questioned himself as he looked at the spotted animal sitting on top a mound of dirt and grass.
He had suddenly stopped moving, only staring at the animal that was showing a bit of hostility while standing up slowly.
"System, can you identify that animal?" Dustin asked, as he wasn't all that sure if it was a tiger.
Beep. Beep.
[Name: Jaguar
Type: Beast]
"A Jaguar ay? I knew these spots were different."
Dusting had immediately forgotten about his skills and was now slowly backing away when he remembered. His taming skill wasn't the weak one he had before. There was no need to be afraid.
He walked up to the beast and activated he's skill. Maybe it was because he had the gift prior to the system's arrival, but he didn't need to do anything special when activating his skill. He just did on instinct with his mind.
The beast immediately retrieved its hostility and sat back down.
Dustin thought for a moment, and then he tamed the jaguar. As he did, a notification popped up, telling him it was successful, before a window opened.
[Name: Jaguar
Type: Beast
Hp: 100
Mp: 0
[Stats]
Strength: 20
Agility: 15
Sense: 15
Vitality: 10
[Skill tab]
Passive:
Active: ]
"No shit. It's even stronger than me, but there's no intelligence stat. I remember there being one. That means it is just like in games. It's related to mana. Since this guy is also unable to level up, I don't think he'll be able to face the monsters. Maybe the weaker ones."
"Alright!"
Using the information he had in his brain that had been transferred when he first activated the skill, Dustin used the aspect of the skill that could treat the tamed animal like a summon, and immediately, the beast disappeared.
Simultaneously, a new section appeared in the system interface.
[Tamed Monsters]
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone