Speed Is King

"WHAT!? What did I just say? What did I just say?? DO NOT GIVE ME BANANAS!" Elliot roared at the system angrily. "I AM NOT A MONKEY!"

[Magic Banana is a Unique Grade item. Would you like to read its description?]

At the words "Unique Grade item", Elliot's anger suddenly evaporated like a drop of water in the simmering heat of the desert at noon.

"Ah hahaha. I might have over-reacted a little. Ehm. Yes please, show me the description of the Magic Banana." Elliot said rather sheepishly.

[Magic Banana. Unique Grade. Grants the player a permanent increase of 2 Beast Affinity points with Monkey and Ape type beasts. Grants the player a unique 6th sense to discover bananas.]

Elliot felt his anger starting to bubble up within him once more when he discovered the near useless effect of the "Unique Grade" Magic Banana. But he suddenly sighed and threw himself back on his bed. "Ah what's the use? At least I know exactly what will happen tomorrow morning. I'll be able to prepare myself for that."

"Hawk, at least tell me how to level up so I can assign more points to my stats!"

[Affirmative.]

[You will be able to gain experience points via three main methods.]

[The first method is by gaining both theoretical and practical knowledge of beasts. The more you know about beasts, the more effective you will be as a beast tamer. Before level 10, you can only gain a maximum of one thousand experience points using this method.]

[The second method is by killing beasts. Before level 10, you can only gain a maximum of two thousand experience points using this method.]

[The third method is by taming beasts. Before level 10, you can only gain a maximum of four thousand experience points using this method.]

"Hmmm. That's not too bad. So I can just read a beast encyclopedia and gain levels that way?" Elliot asked the system.

[Affirmative. All the knowledge you acquire will be stored within my database, and could be accessed anytime and anywhere.]

"Excellent! Let me gain that 1000 points first then!" Elliot jumped out of his bed eagerly and began to surf the internet for all sorts of beast-related information.

"The mantis shrimp has the world's fastest punch at 50mph! It accelerates faster than a 0.22 calibre bullet…?"

[10 XP gained.]

"Puffins use twigs to scratch their bodies?"

[2 XP gained.]

"99% of Bottlenose Dolphins are right handed!"

[2 XP gained.]

"Capuchin Monkeys wash their hands and feet in urine! Oh my…"

[30 XP gained.]

"Whoa, 30? You must really like it when I learn about monkeys huh? Alright then!"

"Grooming each other is an expression of love for monkeys!"

[15 XP gained.]

"Monkeys can understand numbers and count! Hmmm, that's actually pretty cool."

[20 XP gained.]

After one hour of nonstop reading about monkeys, Elliot finally hit level four after collecting 1000 XP points.

"Damn it. I know so much about monkeys now. Way too much than I would have liked, especially all their mating habits." Elliot muttered. "But the XP is good, and now I have 40 points to spend! Hawk! Show me my updated stats."

Beast Affinity: 0.01

Sub Affinity with Monkeys and Apes: 2

AI Comment: Even a gentle cow being butchered would take the time and effort to spit at you. Stay away from animals. ALL animals, except monkeys and apes. They LOVE you!

Luck: 1.1

AI comment: Luckier than the average human being. If you're a monkey, you'll find bananas to eat every week.

Overall: 0.62

AI Comment: You still need help. A LOT of help."

Available points: 40

"Ok, slight improvement in my overall score. Let me see what sort of skills I can buy!"

[Skills available for purchase:]

[Beast Taming Aura - Passive aura that increases your affinity with beasts by 0.2.] [Cost: 5 points]

[Summon Beasts - Active skill which allows you to summon and control the beasts you have tamed.] [Cost: 5 points]

[Summon Wolf - Active skill which allows you to summon and control a temporary common wolf] [Cost: 5 points]

[Summon Hawk - Active skill which allows you to summon and control a temporary common hawk] [Cost: 5 points]

"Hmmm. All look pretty good to me. I want them all!" Elliot told the system.

[Purchasing [Beast Taming Aura], [Summon Beasts], [Summon Wolf], [Summon Hawk]. Please confirm.]

"Confirm!"

All at once, Elliot felt a jolt of power suddenly infuse his body. Although he did not feel stronger, he immediately sensed that he could do several new things.

He jumped out of his bed and quickly stretched out his hand. "Summon Hawk." Elliot whispered softly.

Right before his eyes, a grey mist suddenly appeared out of nowhere. After swirling for a second, the grey mist disappeared and revealed an extremely fierce-looking but incredibly cool hawk!

SCREECH!! The hawk screamed loudly and flapped its massive wings!

"WHOAAA!!!" Elliot was so shocked that he screamed out as well and fell back on his bed!

However, the hawk did not attack him and merely flew off to perch on his chair.

It's sharp beak and claws seemed ready to kill and its eyes seemed to stare daggers at him.

Even though it was merely a hawk, its regal presence completely filled the room, demanding from every being in it their tribute of attention.

Which Elliot was happy to give, of course.

Elliot gulped and gave the hawk a weak smile. "Good hawk. Stay there and don't go anywhere."

Thankfully, it was fully under his control and it obeyed his every word. If not, that hawk's sharp beak and claws could definitely deal heavy damage to him.

Elliot took a deep breath and slowly got used to having a hawk under his control. Already, his mind was aswirl with the things he could with such a powerful beast under his command.

Suffice to say, with a hawk to keep a lookout from the sky, his chances of survival had skyrocketed.

"Alright. Next, the wolf." After experiencing the hawk's complete obedience to his words, Elliot had no worries whatsoever in summoning the wolf.

"Summon wolf.." He whispered.