Anika did not love being the center of attention. She did not like when people stared at her. Unfortunately, she now had a gigantic half bear, half capybara companion following her through the halls while Lily chattered at high speed. Everyone stared. Some people asked what the hybrid creature was and where he came from. Others gave her and her companions an assessing gaze. Some just outright gaped, though that was mostly the younger acolytes. The older members of the temple had more self control, though none of them expected to see something usually found in a dungeon, or not found in nature at all, roaming the halls.

  The first trial involved food. Bears ate significantly more food than baby capybaras. Since Hawthorn didn’t exactly have hands to hold his plate, nor Aether magic like Lily, that left Anika piling a plate high with bear friendly food. Luckily, sun bears frequently munched on fruits and honey, and with the hybrid capybara influence, Hawthorn seemed disinclined to eat meat products, though he did sniff a fried fish with interest. Anika added it to his plate.

  Lily still needed to sit at the Degeta sized tables to reach both her stool and her food, and luckily that put Hawthorn at a perfect height so sit on the floor and munch his food happily. Anika just shook her head thinking about her current lot in life. She had magical powers, in a strange magical world, and now ate dinner with an energetic baby capybara on one side and a life-sized teddy bear on the other, like the grand prize from a carnival ring-toss you know nobody will ever win. Definitely more exciting than data science.

  The merry band worked through about half their meal when Philip rushed over, seemingly so excited about the new addition to Anika’s party that he didn’t bother to get himself a plate of food first. It took a lot to win Philip’s attention over food.

  “Whoaa! Where did you get a bear!” Philip plopped down in a seat across from Hawthorn and stared at the large bear hybrid.

  “He’s my new friend! I got a new spell and it let me make a new friend and we chose him and now he fights with us!” Lily, more than happy to explain, dribbled partially chewed greens from her mouth.

  “Lily, don’t talk with your mouth full,” Anika admonished before adding a bit more explanation to Philip. “This is Hawthorn. Lily has a clone spell that allowed her to gain a new companion bonded to both of us. He’s part sun bear, part capybara, and he’s our new tank since you are off leveling with Panu now.”

  Anika paused a moment, “I’m surprised Panu isn’t with you.”

  “Oh, he was! But I saw you and ran over. He is getting food.”

  “Why don’t you get food then, since I assume Panu will join us and I’d rather not tell the story twice.”

  Philip ran off to the food line and shortly returned with Panu. Panu sat down across from Anika, while Philip took his previous spot across from Hawthorn. Lily pouted a little, but got over it once Panu reached over and gave her some head scritches.

  “So, Lily created this handsome fellow?” Panu asked once Anika had caught him up on the basics.

  “Yup! It is my new level 10 spell! And we picked Hawthorn because he was big and strong but also cute and now he is our new friend! And in five levels I can make another new friend!”

  Anika turned to Lily and stared at her, this new information hitting her like a ton of bricks. “You can create even more companions?”

  “Yup! Every five levels I get another new friend!”

  “WHAT?! You are going to just keep making new companions? And they all have your boons?” Anika’s mind raced with this new knowledge.

  If Lily could keep creating new companions, eventually Anika’s party would be a menagerie. And if they all retained Lily’s Capy Cultivation boon… not only did Anika not even need a party to get a significant experience boost, she would get to multiply that boost every five levels if the buff continued to stack.

  The exponential experience curve would have significantly less impact on her with Lily’s additional clones. Of course, her own experience buff would only multiply linearly, so it would take more time to get to each level compared to the last, but she wouldn’t be so behind the other heroes with this catch-up mechanic.

  “Yup,” Lily said confidently. “They get all my boons! That is why they have the Anima bond with you and the buffs! They give you magic just like me!”

  “Hold on,” Anika tried to process the implications of that statement. “You said when you are level 20 that I’ll share your Aether magic as well. Does that mean that Hawthorn will make me able to use Earth magic?”

  “Yup! He has all the same things as me, he just has a different magic but that’s good because you get more that way!” Lily nonchalantly took another bite of greens and fruit from her table, happily nomming away as if she hadn’t just rocked Anika’s world. And clearly Anika wasn’t the only one dumbfounded by this revelation.

  “Whoa, whoa, hold up here. You are going to get more companions just as powerful as Lily and the rest of the god’s gifts, and all of them will let you use a different kind of magic? No one can do that! I’d heard of certain abilities and boons allowing access to a second affinity magic, and that is rare on its own. But this is crazy!” Panu looked from Lily to Anika wildly.

  “It’s not just the magic.” Anika had a slightly glazed look, as she hadn’t even shared with them about Capy Cultivation stacking. “Each of them also gives a full experience buff. Today we earned 100% additional experience. With another companion, we would be at 150% bonus without anyone else in the party. And it will keep going up.”

  The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

  Panu and Philip just stared at her. Anika returned their looks with equal shock. Finally, Panu spoke.

  “So…. Want to join my party?”

  -----

  They did not go to the dungeon the next day, instead, Anika continued the routine from the previous weeks of using Piromi to practice archery and train her agility and endurance on the various training courses. Anika gained another point of both Potency and Vitality through training and found a new way to exhaust her muscles, as Vok insisted she begin practicing archery using the opposite arm to draw the bow. Anika felt like a fumbling child trying to write left-handed as she did her best to coordinate her muscles to their new tasks, managing to haphazardly miss the target repeatedly.

  Upon seeing her less than stellar performance, Vok said she had to practice at least an hour a day on the opposite arm. Anika didn’t know why she couldn’t just focus on mastering archery with her current draw arm, but Vok had gone into a lecture on using cover, injuries, and other reasoning. It all seemed logical, so Anika couldn’t argue. Her muscles, however, happily yelled at her.

  Lily spent time in the Aether training facility, but Hawthorn stayed with Anika or spent time in their room. He had claimed the rug as his bed and seemed quite content to nap. Anika didn’t want him wandering around alone just yet. Leka needed to notify Nilendi and the other priests about Anika’s new addition, and until word spread through the temple, it seemed safer to not have the capybeara roaming the halls alone.

  In the afternoon, Leka arrived with Nilendi to discuss Anika, Lily’s abilities, and Hawthorn. Lily and Hawthorn enjoyed a swim in the pond by the obstacle course while Anika answered Nilendi’s lengthy questions. Where did he come from? What other abilities did Lily have? What abilities did Hawthorn have? There would be more of them? And on and on. By dinner, Anika had had enough of people, and urged the group to eat as quickly as possible so they could retreat back to their room. After a quick stop at the library, of course. Anika wanted to snuggle up in bed and read.

  Degomi brought more archery practice and another trip to the dungeon. Leka insisted they return to the lower level dungeon so that they continued to coordinate their strategies and assess Hawthorn’s capabilities. They became incredibly efficient at killing the squirrels and prairie monsters.

  Hawthorn, like Lily and Epona, also had the ability to manipulate and create his elemental Earth magic. He had different spells from a traditional Earth user, his Rock Skin replacing the Sandpaper ability that humanoid Earth mages started with, and did not have an attack spell like Philip’s Dirt Discs. Leka said most Earth magic users couldn’t turn Earth to Stone until level 15, but because Hawthorn started as a monster, their abilities frequently did not line up with the normal progression of magic abilities.

  Most magical beasts only had one or two magical abilities and did not have the ability to Manipulate elements, thus their species spells generally pulled from one aspect of the magic. With Sun Bears, they went straight to stone rather than having a dirt or clay based ability. The Water Buffalo created water shields, something that humanoid Water users did not have a spell ability for. Other Water magic based creatures used Ice, and could do it at any level, though creating Ice required level 15 for Anika. Lily’s magic merged the creature’s natural abilities with her Enhanced magic abilities granted by the gods, giving Hawthorn access to more magic while still retaining some of his species specific benefits.

  Hawthorn could provide the party with the Fortify buff that Philip used, and Anika appreciated the increased Vitality. They hadn’t been at any risk in this low-level dungeon, but she wouldn’t complain about higher endurance and defensive capabilities.

  Between Sinaya’s ability to one-shot smaller monsters like squirrels and Hawthorns efficient claws, they rampaged through the squirrel trees, clearing several Scurry Captains and dozens of regular squirrel packs. They smashed scores of pantopu and handled the water buffalo with ease. As the afternoon drew to a close, they roamed deep into the dungeon, finally finding something new to face. Leka, satisfied with their progress, led them to the far northeast of the dungeon, through the prairie and into an area with slightly larger trees. Somewhere near this location, the highest level boss in the dungeon would spawn.

  This low-level dungeon did not spawn many boss monsters. Just two types of Mini Boss spawned: the Scurry Captains in the front of the dungeon and a Senior Sun Bear in the jungle area. In this back corner spawned the highest level boss. Usually, that was a regular Boss Monster, but occasionally the dungeon spawned a full Dungeon Boss.

  Anika had read about all the bosses in this dungeon, thus she spent the walk discussing the options with the party. The regular Boss Monster that spawned took the form of a giant lidok. It gained magical abilities based on Aether magic, and threw multiple projectiles at potential enemies using its telekinetic powers in addition to its powerful arms. It had the ability to block projectiles headed its direction, forcing a party to engage it in melee combat or strike with magical attacks.

  The tough hide of the creature would make the fight a time-consuming slugfest, with each side bashing the other repeatedly until one fell. Of course, Anika and her party would attempt to dodge the thrown balls, but as the creature could redirect them with Aether magic, they would undoubtedly take some hits in the process. Their armor would generally prevent too much damage, though they would likely return to the temple battered and bruised.

  The Dungeon Boss, on the other hand, used the Water Buffalo template. Whereas the regular water buffalo monsters could only shield themselves with water magic, the dungeon boss gained the ability to attack with water magic as well, shooting water pulses from its horns. It had the potential to do more damage, as their armor would have less impact on the effectiveness of the water attacks. Worse for them, Hawthorn had weakness to Water attacks when using his rock skin, which meant he would either have to risk taking damage from the hooves of the monster, or risk taking increased damage from the creature’s water attacks.

  Anika thought the giant sloth-monkey was the less risky fight, but Leka believed they could handle either monster. And the Dungeon Boss would provide significantly more experience than the lidok boss. With the huge boost to experience and their rampage through over 250 monsters today, Anika now only needed just over 20,000 experience to reach level 11. Anika originally thought it would take significantly longer to reach the next level, but with Capy Cultivation on their side, she could taste their advancementl.

  As they approached the tall trees, Anika saw movement ahead. A stand of straggly bushes under the tree rustled and from behind them stepped their new foe. Its horns gleamed silvery in the light, a sheen of water coating them and reflecting the sun. It stood half again as tall as its non-boss counterparts.

  Anika examined the water buffalo as it sauntered through trees. Time to face their first dungeon boss.