Winning Vote:
[] The *Jyarimon*. it already seems to have taken a liking(?) to you.
[] Don't Train, Focus on the first spell. (2/6 progress currently made)
===
Once again you continue your studies of High Programming under Sorcerymon, it goes much the same as before, albeit with a new little companion snuggled into your fur this time around. Jyarimon proves to be a fairly heavy sleeper (as expected of a newborn) and spends most of the evening resting on your back. He wakes up near the end of the studying session and of course tries biting you again. It has the exact same effect as last time, which means he at most manages to rip out a little bit of your fur.
Seeing the display, Sorcerymon decides to offer a free meal to the fresh mon, and then after a moment's hesitation extends the same offer to you as well. You'd never been one to turn down free food and accept without hesitation. While you manage to down the small meal without much fuss, the Jyarimon turns out to be a far more messy eater. After identifying that yes there is food in front of him, the baby digimon tears into it with a brutality surpassing even Gnaw. Watching him shred apart and summarily devour a piece of meat the size of his own body is fascinating in a morbid sort of way and honestly just a little bit frightening.
When his meal is finished, the little red digimon turns to Sorcerymon, snarls at him, then tries to climb up your back again. He nods off shortly thereafter. Your mentor finishes the interaction with a warning.
"Ya'll should be careful of that'un little feller. His virus instincts are darn strong, could be a right varmit when he digivolves"
"He-he could?" You question, before considering his behavior and nodding a moment later. "Ah, thanks for the a-advice."
If he acts like this once he's a rookie then...
You shudder. With thanks given to champion for his warning you give a final wave and head off towards your hut, looking for a nice and rejuvenating rest.
On the way, you manage to spot Gramps planting the little Yuramon nearby Fu's hut, which you guess means that she'll be mentoring that particular mon once they evolve.
Flamemon comes into sight just a couple moments after he finishes and goes so far as to ask if he can take the Choromon. However, Gramps refuses his request, seemingly having decided to hang on to it personally, for a little while at least. You think you can understand the decision since since the baby mon has been shocking anything that gets near it and constantly trying to get away whenever possible. Your best friend is saddened by the refusal for a moment, but swiftly perks up upon spotting you. He shouts out a cry of "Good Night Verge!" and gives a thumbs up. At that moment you really wish that you could return the gesture, but in the end have to settle for another simple wave.
Upon entering your personal shelter, Lunamon practically leaps out at you from the side. She proves to be very excited about the prospect of having a *Little Brother* as she calls it and tries to introduce herself by attempt to pet the Jyarimon.
"Hi! I'm Lunam-eeek!" The rookie's greeting transforms into a shrieks as her new *Sibling* envelops her entire hand. Lunamon panics at the sudden glomping of her arm and starts rapidly trying to shake it free.
"Aaaah! Onii-Chan help! He's trying to eat me!" For a brief moment you're scared for the white digimon... Then you remember that the mon trying to *eat her* just hatched a few hours ago. She's in no danger besides maybe getting saliva on her skin. Still, you step forward to try and help though it quickly proves to be unneeded as the aggressive baby mon summarily flies from her hand just a moment later.
Thankfully, instead of slamming against a wall, it lands without much trouble on the bed itself. Your new ward growls at her, then turns suddenly as a noise emits from the nearby box, soon the mon is paying rapt attention to the *Teevee*
On the verge of tears, Lunamon examines her hand looking for injuries. Upon finding none she gives a sigh of relief and then turns to pout at you.
"Little brother is mean! Why'd you have to pick him?!"
I-uh. D-do I know how to answer that? Umm...Quick Verge! U-use a distraction so you don't have to!"
"Uh-at-at least he likes watching the teevee?" You reply gesturing with a paw towards the little black box.
"Hmph. Still a meanie..." Lunamon grumbles, pointedly turning away from you. She moves to try and sit next right next to the mon, but as it growls she thinks better of it and moves a foot away.
Together they watch a show of some sort about strange creatures that almost look like feminine versions of Flamemon fighting each other. It's... very weird and you try to ignore it by heading straight to sleep. Thankfully it comes quickly, even with Lunamon occasionally cheering in the background.
You wake up the next morning to a faint pressure on your right paw and further inspection proves said feeling to be exactly what you initially suspected. Namely the Jyarimon gnawing at your limb... While it's sleeping no less. After releasing a small sigh, you extricate yourself from its *affections* and head out, leaving Lunamon to sleep beside her new adoptive sibling. You find the idea of having a *brother* to be odd, but honestly something you should have seen coming given Lunamon's propensity of giving strange labels.
After a few seconds of pondering what exactly the term means, you shake your head and try not to think about it anymore, choosing instead to visit Socerymon for a tasty breakfast. With that done, you head to Gramps and start on your daily morning chores to help prepare for the festival.
===
Do you make buying breakfast from Sorcerymon an automatic daily expenditure? (Choose One)
[] Yes:
-[] Just for yourself. (-50 bits per day)
-[] For yourself and Lunamon. (-100 bits per day)
-[] For yourself and Jyarimon. (-100 bits per day) (Warning, Lunamon may get jealous)
-[] For yourself and both of your *Siblings*. (-150 bits per day)
[] No.
===
When lunch finishes in the early afternoon, Gramps organizes yet another assembly for the village's inhabitants. He waits until everyone is sitting down and listening before trying to explain what he's called everyone there for. It takes a few minutes for all the required mon to finish eating, arrive and quiet down, but finally he's willing to speak. The old Elecmon loudly announces that thanks to his recent outings, he's managed to find out who the Goblimons' *Employer* is and more importantly where he's currently staying. As it turns out, according to the information he was able to gather, the digimon responsible for everything that happened is a plant-type champion called Woodmon.
He just so happens to be camped roughly a day of fast-paced travel away from the village, along with a large number of subservient mon. Though so far as Gramps was able to find out, this Woodmon is the only champion there.
Gramps warns that this will be a very dangerous matter, but nonetheless hesitantly asks for volunteers to go and help him deal with the champion and secure the village's safety. After all, as he quickly explains, he's sure that it must be readying some plot for revenge. Flamemon is the first to answer, loudly shouting "Of course I'll join! A hero would do nothing less!" Sparks voices his acquiescence to joining next and of course by extension volunteers his Mechanorimon to help in the fighting. Fu is the third rookie to join, saying that it only makes sense for her glorious self to come along.
You're initially very hesitant about joining the party, but keeping the ability to dig without worry in the near future pushes you a bit towards accepting even if it requires more dangerous fighting. Hesitantly, you voice your own intentions to come along. Auger follows behind not long afterwards, though for some reason he sounds somewhat angry.
The only rookie who doesn't volunteer to come is Lunamon. She insists that she doesn't like violence of any sort and says that she'd only get in the way. With so many other volunteers Gramps is absolutely fine with her staying, only telling her to be careful while everyone else is gone. While everyone else is getting ready for the road, Lunamon hops up and tells you to please keep safe. Next with a surprising amount of bluster, she puffs up her chest and promises to look after her new little brother while you're gone. it almost makes you laugh. Almost. The dread which comes from having to leave the village to fight a champion of all things is too oppressive for that. So instead you just thank her, then try not to squirm as she hugs you.
The trip will take roughly two days in total, which means your party will have to stay in the wilderness overnight, so Gramps ends up buying a number of supplies. This includes several tents to protect against potential rain and a very large quantity of prepared meals. Weight isn't much of an issue since Sparks' vehicle digimon is more than capable of carrying it all without trouble.
Just before you head off towards the gates, Sorcerymon walks up and makes you an offer. He's willing to sell you his only recovery disk at a 25 percent discount, bringing the cost down to a mere seven thousand, five hundred bits. While having such a potent item to heal the others or yourself in case of trouble is tempting, if you do buy it, then you won't have enough money to purchase the Tiara unless you get more bits.
(Choose One)
[] Buy it.
[] Don't buy it.
In the end it only takes roughly an hour to make sure everything is ready, after which your group heads off towards the enemy camp. On the initial leg of the trip there, you manage to spot some sort of blurry grey figure following your group, but Gramps seems to notice it too, and after shooting a bit of lighting towards it and annihilating a tree, the digimon seems to decide that stalking your group is a bad idea and that's the last you see of it.
The pace itself is tiring, but not pushing. Not for most of you at least. Auger takes it the worst, as his speed and endurance are still a long way off from what it was the last time he was a rookie. Despite that, your group still makes good progress, moving east through the thick woods. It's actually a fairly easy trail to follow given that the path seems to be paved with many a fallen tree.
Flamemon sticks with you for the most of the day's trek which is nice. Talking with him again in a normal fashion after everything that's happened is comforting, though it doesn't last. After you make camp for the night he ends up sleeping with Sparks in his Mechanorimon. The Candlemon as it turns out is just as uncomfortable sleeping outside the villages walls as you are and sadly well... You're a bit too big to fit in with them.
Much to your surprise, Fu is the one who tries to comfort you as the night approaches, deciding to rest against your warm furred side. Auger isn't far behind and sleeps against your other side. While their presence is comforting you find it a bit difficult to nod off without the soft and comfy bed that you've gotten used to. To this day you still remember almost being snatched up by that red-eyed digimon, which only heightens the fears which come with staying outside the village overnight.
With Gramps leading the way, your party managed to find the Woodmon's camp sitting within a very large clearing early in the next morning. Unfortunately, thanks to Sparks' Mechnorimon it isn't exactly a very stealthy approach.
His camp looks almost exactly like you imagined, with tons of tents of all shapes and sizes sitting haphazardly around the area, including a couple truly gigantic ones. But overall there aren't actually that many all things considered, you doubt even twenty digimon could fit inside the smaller ones and the bigger ones must be for champions. What it possesses that you didn't expect is a number of large crates identical to the ones you'd found in the mineshafts by your village sitting at the very center of camp. Obviously this is where they'd the loot they'd dug up and transported from the mines.
Cries of alarm erupt from the various sentries as the two story mechanical champion comes into sight. A number of
circular flying digimon shoot into the sky, shouting out warnings to the rest of the camp. Over a dozen rookies erupt from the tents. You count a half dozen
strange looking plant digimon while also seeing double their number in Goblimon and Shamanmon. The latter you expected but you're more than a little worried over what these other mon might be capable of.
However all of those worries are brutally thrust aside as what looks like a differently colored Sorcerymon walks out of the one of the larger tents and then laughs uproarously upon spotting your group. You freeze in place as the champion digmon levels a glare your way.
"You guys again?! Gwahahaha!" he raises his free hand, letting it glow with arcane power. "You really gave us a whoopin' before, but it's not gonna be the same this time! I'm gonna get my revenge right now!" A ball of electricity bursts to life in his hand. "Thunder Ball!" With that he rears the arms back, then tosses the attack directly at you.
It flies forth towards you at high speed, but a metal leg slams down directly in front of the attack before it can hit you. The attack crashes against the metal of Sparks' Mechanorimon blackening the material, but whether it does any actual damage you're unable to tell.
"Blegh, fine! I'll take that metal thingy apart first, and then the rest of you!" He yells in annoyance.
A moment later, the flap of the second tent opens up revealing a large digimon that looks like a walking tree.
The Woodmon (for what else could it be) barges towards your group the moment he sees you, carelessly knocking a few rookies out of the way as it charges for your party.
"Grrr, you must be the Daemon-damned troublemakers! I'll drain the life out of all of you for throwing me behind schedule!" Now you can see why it had that Shamanmon running things; it doesn't exactly seem like the patient type… or the even-tempered type… or the 'planning ahead' type. However, before it can reach your group it's forced to dodge aside as a ball of fire is hucked his way.
"Fight me Villain!" Flamemon roars, his face turned up into a happy grin. "You'll pay for all of your foul acts of injustice!" Your best friends body erupts with a cloak of flame, before he lets out a battle-cry and leaps towards the Woodmon straight on.
Fu, Auger and Gramps meanwhile square off against the incoming rookies. You:
===
Choose One:
[] Decide to try and help them. You're not strong or brave enough to fight against a champion, so you'll make sure your friends aren't overwhelmed.
[] Flamemon is fighting against the Woodmon by himself. Maybe you can help somehow? But if he's as tough as the thick-trunked tree he looks like, dealing damage might be hard.
[] Sparks is battling against that enemy that looks like Sorcerymon. He doesn't look that tough, so maybe you could hurt him?
===
Stat/Skill Changes:
Skills:
- Basic High Programming: 8.5/100
- Digging: 16/100->19/100 (I should have raised it in prior updates sorry)
Stats: (From Food)
- Strength: 91.75-> 93.50
- Fortitude: 94.25
- Endurance: 83.75->85.50
- Agility: 68.75
===
Authors notes: Woot! got this done pretty early in the day! Sorry if the shift is jarring for anyone but I didn't want to split this up into several updates. The pacing is already slow enough.
Beta'd by @no.
