Three days had passed since Aeris bonded with Silvermoon, and the change in his circumstances was already remarkable. The wolf's presence had transformed him from a helpless noble's son into something resembling an actual tamer. More importantly, their bond strength had grown from 34% to 52%, allowing for more complex communication and coordination.
Currently, they were tracking a small group of goblins through the deeper sections of the Whispering Woods. According to Tamer Chronicles, goblins were perfect training opponents for new tamers—weak enough to defeat but clever enough to provide real combat experience. The Royal Tamer Academy paid two silver coins per goblin ear as proof of extermination, making them an ideal source of both experience points and income.
"Three of them," Aeris whispered, crouched behind a moss-covered boulder. Through their mental link, Silvermoon confirmed his assessment with a pulse of agreement. The goblins were small, green-skinned creatures armed with crude wooden spears and rusty daggers. By themselves, they posed little threat to a wolf of Silvermoon's size.
The plan was simple: Silvermoon would circle around to cut off their escape route while Aeris approached from the front to draw their attention. It was a basic pincer maneuver that should work perfectly against such primitive opponents.
What happened next, however, was anything but basic.
As Aeris stepped into the clearing where the goblins were gathered around what appeared to be a small campfire, he immediately noticed something was wrong. The creatures weren't cooking food or sharpening weapons like typical goblin behavior suggested they should be. Instead, they were huddled around a glowing object partially buried in the ground.
The moment Aeris realized what he was looking at, his heart nearly stopped.
It was a Magic Crystal—but not just any crystal. The intense azure glow and the way it pulsed with rhythmic light marked it as a Rare-grade Mana Crystal, worth at least a hundred gold coins. These were the kind of treasures that veteran tamers spent months searching for, and here was one just lying in a random goblin camp.
His luck stat was already proving its worth.
The goblins noticed him at the same moment he spotted the crystal. They shrieked in alarm, grabbing their weapons and forming a crude defensive line around their treasure. Under normal circumstances, this would have been the moment for a careful battle, but Aeris's mind was racing with new possibilities.
"Silvermoon, new plan," he whispered through their bond. "We need that crystal intact. Can you circle wide and take the one on the left? I'll handle the other two."
Confidence he'd never felt before surged through him as he drew his grandfather's sword. The blade still felt clumsy in his hands, but Silvermoon's presence bolstered his courage. More than that, he could feel something else—a sense of rightness, as if the universe itself was aligned in his favor.
The first goblin charged with its spear raised high. Aeris sidestepped—somehow knowing exactly when and where to move—and brought his sword down across the creature's weapon arm. The goblin shrieked and stumbled, dropping its spear. Before it could recover, Silvermoon erupted from the underbrush behind the remaining goblins, her jaws clamping down on the leftmost one's neck with lethal precision.
The final goblin, seeing its companions fall so quickly, turned to flee. But as it spun around, it tripped over the very crystal it had been guarding, falling face-first into a tree trunk with a sickening thud.
Aeris stared at the scene in disbelief. The entire encounter had lasted less than thirty seconds, and all three goblins were either dead or unconscious. More importantly, the crystal remained undamaged.
[COMBAT COMPLETE]Defeated: Goblin Scout x3Experience Gained: 150 XPLevel Up! You are now Level 2New Skill Unlocked: Lucky Find - Passive
As the notifications faded, Aeris carefully extracted the Mana Crystal from the dirt. It was even more beautiful up close, its surface smooth as glass and warm to the touch. The mana radiating from it made his skin tingle with potential.
"This changes everything, Silvermoon," he murmured, tucking the crystal safely into his satchel. "With this, I can not only pay for academy enrollment but actually arrive with proper equipment."
Silvermoon's response came as a mixture of satisfaction and alertness. Through their bond, he sensed her detecting something else nearby—not danger, exactly, but something unusual that warranted investigation.
Following her lead, they moved deeper into the forest, eventually coming upon a sight that made Aeris question whether his luck stat might actually be higher than the system indicated.
Trapped beneath a fallen branch, whimpering in pain and exhaustion, was a Sky Wolf.
Aeris's knowledge of Tamer Chronicles kicked in immediately. Sky Wolves were legendary creatures, known for their pale blue fur that seemed to shimmer with stored lightning and their ability to briefly walk on air. They were proud, intelligent, and notoriously impossible to tame. Even Leon Hartwell, the protagonist himself, had never managed to bond with one.
Yet here was a young Sky Wolf, clearly injured and alone, looking up at Aeris with eyes that held both defiance and desperate hope.
"Easy there," Aeris said softly, approaching with the same careful patience he'd shown Silvermoon. "Let me help you."
The Sky Wolf's ears flattened against its head, but it didn't growl or snap as Aeris knelt beside the fallen branch. The wood was heavy but not impossible to move, especially with Silvermoon's help. As they lifted the branch away, the Sky Wolf flexed its trapped leg gingerly.
Through his Monster Communication skill, Aeris could sense the creature's pain—a deep ache in its right hind leg, but nothing that seemed permanently damaged. More complex emotions swirled beneath the surface: pride wounded more than flesh, gratitude warring with instinctive independence, and underneath it all, a loneliness that resonated with his own memories of isolation.
"You're just a juvenile, aren't you?" Aeris realized aloud. "Separated from your pack somehow."
The Sky Wolf's response came not in words but in images: soaring through storm clouds beside older wolves, the joy of racing through the sky, then darkness and falling and pain. A hunting accident, perhaps, or territorial dispute that had left the young wolf stranded on the ground.
Without thinking, Aeris reached out and gently touched the wolf's injured leg. The moment his skin made contact with the creature's fur, he felt a shock of recognition pass between them.
[EXCEPTIONAL CIRCUMSTANCES DETECTED]Sky Wolf (Juvenile) - Compatibility: 94%Warning: Sky Wolves are considered impossible to tameUnique factors detected: Mutual isolation, shared determination, exceptional luck convergenceRecommend immediate bond attempt
Ninety-four percent compatibility? With a Sky Wolf? Aeris could hardly believe what he was reading. According to everything he knew about the world of Tamer Chronicles, this should be completely impossible.
But as he looked into the young wolf's silver eyes, he realized that impossible seemed to be his specialty lately.
"What do you say?" he asked, extending his hand palm-up toward the creature. "Want to soar again?"
The Sky Wolf studied him for a long moment, its gaze seeming to pierce straight through to his soul. Then, with deliberate care, it placed its paw in his palm.
[LEGENDARY BOND FORMED]Sky Wolf (Juvenile) - "Stormchaser" - Bond Strength: 78%Congratulations! You have achieved the impossibleSpecial Ability Unlocked: Storm Step - Move with lightning speed for short distancesYour reputation precedes you - Unknown entities are taking notice
As the bonding completed, Aeris felt a rush of power unlike anything he'd experienced. Through his connection with Stormchaser, he could sense the wolf's innate understanding of wind and lightning, the way it could read air currents and atmospheric pressure. More than that, he could feel his own potential expanding, as if bonding with such a rare creature had unlocked hidden depths within himself.
Silvermoon, meanwhile, seemed remarkably unfazed by the addition to their pack. If anything, she appeared pleased, as though she'd been expecting this development all along.
It was only as they were preparing to leave that Aeris heard the voices.
"—told you I saw smoke from this direction. Could be bandits, could be worse."
"Keep your voice down, Marcus. If there are goblins about, we don't want to announce our presence."
Two men emerged from the forest, both dressed in traveling clothes but moving with the careful precision of trained fighters. The older one had graying hair and carried himself with the bearing of a soldier, while his younger companion kept one hand resting on his sword hilt.
They froze when they spotted Aeris standing among the goblin corpses, flanked by two wolves that shouldn't exist together in nature.
"Well," said the older man after a moment of stunned silence. "This is unexpected."
Aeris's mind raced. These weren't ordinary travelers, despite their appearance. Their equipment was too good, their alertness too professional. More importantly, something about the way they carried themselves suggested they were accustomed to giving orders rather than taking them.
His luck stat was about to be tested once again—but this time, he had no idea whether the outcome would be fortune or disaster.
"Good morning," he said carefully, keeping his voice steady despite his racing heart. "Beautiful day for a walk in the woods, isn't it?"