It wasn’t long before I came to a clearing. My eyes widened when I recognized the farm house. I did not want to be here. I glanced at all the felled trees. It looked like some sort of natural disaster, not a bunch of wolves chasing a squirrel.

  “Finally, what took you so long?”

  I had been reliving that night in my mind when the rabbit jumped out of nowhere. “Ahhh! Twisted tail dung eater.”

  “Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you. But we need to get going. It’s getting dark. Come on.”

  Benji began heading straight for the farmhouse.

  “Are you sure this is safe?”

  “Yes, for sure. I was here the other night when those wolves started going crazy. They are scared of getting too close to the house. The disgusting human that once lived here had really scared the wolves. Now they won’t get near it.” Benji said as they headed towards the house.

  “What do you mean, what happened to the human?”

  “Unsure… But who cares? It was just a human.”

  Once we reach the house, Benji led me under the house to a crawl space, through what seemed like a maze of peers. Then up through a floor board into a storage room that led through a broken piece of wall that went into the living room next to a fireplace.

  Benji promptly moved over onto the rug next to the still burning fire and sprawled out. “This is nice.” The rabbit said with a happy sigh.

  “Umm, Ben. Are you sure there is no one here? Fire places don’t just make themselves.”

  I looked around at the moderately well-kept house. The only light came from the fireplace, but I could still make out the room with ease. There was a nice-looking couch, a recliner, and a bookshelf to the right and towards the back. To the left of what I assumed was the kitchen area were stairs leading up.

  “I’m positive. There has been no one here for years. The fire place is enchanted, it’s always burning.”

  “Oh. Well, that’s convenient.” This eased my worries considerably, and I moved over to the rug. Though I still glance at the stairs leading up. Afraid that we weren’t actually alone, but I did my best to push the thoughts away. This world was making me paranoid.

  “It’s warm, isn’t it?” Ben said, laying on his back and holding his feet up to the fire.

  “Yes, it is nice. Too bad there isn’t something to eat.”

  “Well…” Ben said, “I do have a bit of food. But you have to promise to not tell the Mother Tree.”

  I looked at Ben’s serious expression in confusion, but agreed I was starving. “Yea, of course I won’t say anything.”

  “Okay, come check this out.” Ben said as he headed towards the kitchen area.

  In the back of the kitchen, inside a basket, were several bluish mushrooms.

  “I know a place where these grow constantly. It’s actually on the way towards the dungeon. If you like these, you will love the fresh ones. I brought these here a few days ago, so these are still good.” Ben said as he picked up a mushroom and began eating. He then grabbed a couple more and stood up on his hind legs and wobbled back to the rug next to the fireplace.

  “Come on, there great, I promise.”

  I just shook my head in amusement. The rabbit looked ridiculous walking like that. Grabbing a couple with my mouth, I moved back next to the fire.

  Sitting next to the fire, I bit into one of the mushrooms. No sooner than I swallowed, a prompt appeared.

  You have ingested: Aged Forest Mana Shroom

  Effects: Boost mana recovery by 10%

  (Note: If intelligence attribute is below 28, side effects may occur.)

  Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

  My eyes widened at this. This was the same mushroom. Except it was more potent and less effective at boosting mana due to being aged. I briefly wondered why I didn’t get prompts for the other things I ate. Then I decided I would ask the local resident.

  “Hey Ben. I was…” I stopped mid sentence and rolled my eyes. Ben was lying on his back with a goofy expression as his left foot twitched slightly. My eyes were widened in recognition. This had to be the rabbit I had seen after escaping the wolf cave.

  I looked back at the mushrooms in front of me. I had already taken a bite, and the shrooms didn’t seem to be affecting me. Maybe the boost from the title gave me enough intelligence to bypass the requirement. Despite what Ben said, I didn’t feel safe here and didn’t want to end up like Ben. Sure; it was safer than being outside, but I would feel better being all snuggled inside of a tree.

  Glancing back at the stairs, then back at the rabbit, I couldn’t help but smile. It was such an odd sight. My entire experience in this world had been completely ridiculous so far.

  I took another bite of the overly delicious mushroom. I could see how these things could become addictive. Especially when you hadn’t had much to eat. I was starving. I didn’t understand why this little body was always so hungry. Taking a few more bites, the room started to spin.

  “Oops.”

  Looks as I didn’t have enough intelligence after all. I reluctantly pushed the remaining mushroom away. Eating another would likely have me end up like the rabbit.

  I was unsure why I didn’t open my stat page and look to see what my intelligence was. Or was the boost even calculated in? I had forgotten all about having stats. I also really needed to go over the things that unlocked. Suddenly, I remembered my blessing from the mother tree to summon a familiar. I then opened my stat page, head still slightly spinning. Now was as good a time as any to summon a familiar.

  Become the Soul Bound familiar to a being on a legendary quest Yes/No?

  Jason Storgan looked at this floating screen in confusion. The first floating screen that he had declined, and the news was calling the “Rapture” had a lot more information.

  Apparently, every being on the planet had received the first floating message. But this one had little to no information. It did have a time counting down in the top left corner. He assumed that’s how much time he would have before he missed out on this chance and someone else would get the opportunity.

  He had five minutes to decide. There was not much information on the news about what was happening exactly, but popular belief was aliens. This did seem like the most likely scenario to Jason. He was irritated that his girlfriend accepted it without even saying a word to him.

  “Soul Bound Huh,” he had no idea what that consisted of, but the part about a legendary quest seemed intriguing.

  Jason looked at the prompt. If he accepted this, would he see his girlfriend again? Did he want to see her again? She had betrayed him. At least that’s how it felt.

  Yes, he did want to see her, if for no other reason than to ask her why. They had been sitting on the couch together watching tv. She hadn’t even looked up at him. It would have been simple for her to turn and tell him what she was doing. Or say anything, really. He had tried to accept once he realized what happen but by then all ten thousand slots were filled.

  Jason selected yes, it’s not like he had anything to stay around here for. The next moment he started to feel a sucking sensation and a bright green light engulfed him. Then he was standing in a dimly lit house.

  The only light came from a fireplace. Other than this fire place the house looked abandoned other than a dead rabbit and a black squirrel on the rug. Jason wasn’t sure what he expected, but this definitely wasn’t it.

  “Hello?” He didn’t know what to say exactly. Now that he thought about it, he really hoped who ever was bound to was a good person. He just assumed it would be some old wizard on a quest to save the word from a dark lord or something. Though with the presence of a dead rabbit and squirrel laying next to the fire, he was afraid he had been summoned by a madman. Maybe accepting this quest had been a bad idea.

  “Hello, I was summoned to help with the quest.” Jason tried again, this time a bit louder. Not getting a response, he was about the head out the front door when he felt someone looking at him. Turing around, he saw the squirrel he had assumed was dead looking at him curiously.

  The squirrel then stood up on its hind legs. “Really! This is what I get for a familiar? A human? Is this some sort of sick joke?” The squirrel then turned to the rabbit, who was now twitching slightly. “Ben, can you believe this? I summoned a human. Is this normal?”

  Jason stepped back in wide-eyed shock and disbelief. Was he really summoned by a talking squirrel? This was insane. He didn’t want to be a squirrel’s familiar! Was there a way to change this?

  The squirrel turned back to Jason. “Never mind him, he had a few too many shrooms.” The squirrel took a step forward and stumbled slightly. “It seems so have I.”

  “Uhhh, are you the one that summoned me?” Jason asked.

  After a moment, the squirrel spoke. “Wow, you really sucked the mana out of me!” The squirrel turned to look at the rabbit again before looking back at Jason. “Can you speak?”

  “Yes, I can speak.” Jason hesitantly said.

  “Great, you speak gibberish, just my luck I can’t even get a human that can speak English.”

  “English?” Jason asked.

  “Oh calm down, I’m sure you have questions, but I’ll have to teach you to speak later. Now is not a good time.”

  “I can understand you just fine.” Jason said, trying to mouth the words to have the squirrel understand.

  “We are going to need to find you a proper weapon. The wolves are going to tear you up.” The squirrel placed its hand on its chin as if in thought. “I wonder if I can re-summon you when you die? Or will I get another one? Hey Ben, do you know anything about summons?”

  “Die? Wait! What do you mean?” Jason asked, eyes wide.

  The squirrel then grabbed its head with both hands. “Ughhahh!”

  The next moment, Jason was back in his living room. Eyes wide and heart pounding out of his chest. “Had that really just happened?”