Chapter 11: “Ice Wolves”
“A lone wolf” might sound cool, but generally they were actually just wolves who had lost a power struggle in a pack. Rare’s group hadn’t encountered any other wolves of this type, but thinking back, this wolf didn’t seem weak enough to be kicked out of a pack. While it had faced off against the girls and the boar, it hadn’t felt at all in disgrace. Although now that it was Rare’s follower, it was hard not to see it as just a big house dog.
“But that’s fine. If you’ve got family, we might as well take them all in. I’m not heartless enough to force you apart, after all.”
At this point in time, Rare wasn’t concerned with the demerits of having more [Subordinated] followers. She’d need increasing amounts of XP to support them all, but she came to a realization from seeing the catkin girls fight: it would drastically reduce the risk whenever they went into battle. Speaking of that last battle, the XP she got from incapacitating a wolf that was about the same or slightly higher in power level was probably about the same as she’d get from defeating an equal enemy solo. Having to split that XP in five was obviously a big decrease, but it also meant the duration of battle decreasing by a corresponding amount. Even still, doing some mental math, while soloing would still be noticeably more efficient, there was still a lot of value in doing things this way where the XP earnings would be more stable.
If the number of her followers increased, then she’d just have to earn that much more XP. While Rare had gotten excited and recklessly splurged when she first discovered the [Subordinate] system, she originally wasn’t planning to proactively participate in raids or PvP; she just wanted to enjoy the game at her own leisure. She was looking forward to the game so much that she signed up for not just the open beta but also the closed beta, which is how she became a tester.
Besides, there were a lot of things she wanted to try out with more followers. There were things she could investigate about the very act of getting more. If she could spec each follower however she liked, then she could build characters who were completely different types from her. She’d have to order the NPC around instead of playing herself, but still, she could have a lot of fun researching and optimizing builds. Like, seeing if increasing Kerry’s INT could elevate her from her idiot status or not.
They followed the wolf deeper into the forest. They technically used an animal trail, but it wasn’t hard to traverse since these animals were so huge that they could just walk the trail normally.
After a short time, they arrived at a cave entrance that was similar to Rare’s current home. Apparently, this was a wolf den. The wolf wanted to go into the cave alone, so she agreed to wait outside. Rare had tamed the alpha wolf, so she figured everything would be fine, but if she had gone inside with it, she couldn’t discount the possibility of some disgruntled packmates deciding to attack her. Having no idea what the state of things were in the pack, that was the one outcome she wanted to avoid.
Eventually, the wolf came back out. Behind it, more of what looked like the same kind of wolf followed it outside. Looks like she really had tamed the largest one, since the next one was slightly smaller, and the other six were about the size of larger breeds of dogs in the real world. Well, they were about as big as real wolves, but their anatomy, like their faces and legs, were a lot thicker. In other words, they were more like giant puppies; that’s what they reminded her of.
“God, they are so adorable…”