A Salamander, but Mighty

POV: Luchael

He had bought some of the ingredients in the city, specifically, he had procured those parts that necessarily had to come from monsters since he didn't have enough courage to go hunting monsters alone and his lizard-monster ally certainly wasn't in the condition to fight, but he was collecting others himself, in order to save as much as possible while waiting for the lizard monster to fully recover for a new adventure in the dungeon.

Because of this, Luchael had walked out of Stanbroodge and into the nearby wilderness.

Besides, I still call it a lizard monster, considering how intelligent it seems, perhaps it would be better if I stopped referring to it as a thing but rather as a person... he thought to himself as he picked up some particular plants from the ground. Does it have a name? I should find a way to ask it.

Once he had collected the last ingredients, Lucahel settled himself with his back against a tree, took the pestle and mortar and began to get to work; As a [Herbalist] he had a choice of preparations he could make to temporarily enhance his own or another person's abilities. He could make concoctions capable of speeding up healing, making someone stronger, recovering Mana and other things like that, things which [Alchemist]s could also do, the difference was that theirs was an elite class and their effects were superior in every way.

To give an example: the potion that Luchael was making served to double the speed of recovery of Health points, but they were not an instant recovery like that given by a similar potion prepared by an [Alchemist], which, as an elite class, healed instantly instead of just speeding up recovery.

I don't want to become a merchant, but perhaps I could make a few potions for my own use... he began to speculate, his mind completely absorbed by the work and only his long hare-like ears still audible. turn around and move, catching every sound coming from the surroundings. The problem would be that I would end up making enemies if I had to start traveling again, for some, there is no worse monster than competition from out of town.

Once the concoction had been properly pounded and blended, he added the monster parts he had purchased earlier and began mixing again; within a few minutes the preparation was ready and with a smile he put away his work tools and began to walk back to where he had left the lizard monster.

Luchael spent that time humming to himself, thinking back to the few days that had passed since he met his bizarre ally; he had not yet gone to the library and although in that short period of time he had tried to listen to new stories told by some minstrel or to introduce the subject to the inn, the only thing he had achieved was that no one had ever met a monster capable of human thought that had not already ascended.

Maybe it isn't showing me its true power? He wondered spontaneously, shortly afterwards he found himself shaking his head at the absurdity of the idea, no, the injuries it suffered from the rodamuse are real, it really risked its life in that fight.

As he continued his thoughts, he found himself in sight of the lizard monster: it seemed to have recovered from its injuries enough to move around, to the point that it was trying to climb a tree! Luchael slowed his pace progressively, listening to the salmadrer who seemed to be having a conversation with itself, expressing various mood swings with the limited body language a reptile might have.

It seemed to realize that Luchael was getting closer because it suddenly stopped making sounds and turned its head to focus its eyes on him. Pits completely black as the deepest night seemed to dig inside his soul...

The Leporan's legs began to shake.

“I'm b-b-back!” Luchael exclaimed as he began to approach again with his hands open and clearly visible. The lizard monster came down from the tree, appearing threatening only by its appearance and the depth of its eyes rather than by an attitude that indicated a desire to harm him, "I have prepared an invigorating potion for you, it will make you heal faster.”

The question now was whether the lizard monster would take the concoction or not, there was no reason to ask these questions since they had slept together without trying to kill each other and had even fought together in a dungeon, but Luchael was a person full of doubts and uncertainties more than the average of his people, already quite shy and with a meek spirit, the only thing in which he surpassed his peers was in his spirit of adventure.

“You… you have a name, right?” He asked the lizard monster, sitting down with his knees on the ground and uncorking the bottle before taking a few small sips, “mm!! How good!! It tastes great!” He exclaimed cheerfully.

The monster looked at him, turning its head slightly, it almost seemed like it was mocking him, even though a monster couldn't show any kind of expressiveness. Then it did something Luchael described as a sigh and nodded.

So it has a name! He thought as he offered the concoction to it, 'but there's no way you can tell me... would it be okay if I gave you one? At least I don't have to refer to you as lizard monster or anything anymore.”

The salmadrer moved its fat tail a few times… the meaning? Difficult to define for anyone other than the lizard monster itself, the fact that it did not bite him but instead rested its front paws around his hand to help itself drink, made the leporan realize that the matter was trivial.

“Okay, then we need a name!” Luchael exclaimed snapping the fingers of his free hand. The monster gulped down the entire concoction and raised his jet-black eyes to look its benefactor in the face, “Lissoss?”

The monster took a half step back and stood watching him.

“Saldra?” Leporan proposed, placing a hand under his chin.

Nope.

“Aradra?”

The lizard monster started hopping around happily after the last proposal; judging by how it had behaved in those days, it was evident that it was exaggerating its mood so that I understood what it wanted to tell him.

“Ok, I get it Aradra, now stop! Your wounds are still open!”

The lizard monster… no, Aradra, stopped. The wounds that still ran through its body were evident, the potion didn't work that way unfortunately and it would have to stay calm to make it work at maximum effectiveness.

“You must stay calm, this is not a real healing potion, it will decrease the time it takes for you to fully recover, but it doesn't do it instantly,” Luchael said, raising his hands with open palms, trying to invite Aradra to calm down. The monster gladly obeyed, “now, I have brewed enough potions to give you more tomorrow. I don't want to rush you, but we'll have to go back to the dungeon soon if we don't want to end up sleeping outdoors."

Aradra wagged its tail a few times, and like the other times, this was no exception: Luchael couldn't tell whether or not it was approving of what he was saying.

“I'm glad you're understanding,” Luchael placed the backpack on the ground and opened it, offering access to Aradra, “shall we go back to town? Unless you have something to do out here... maybe you're hungry? Do you want to go hunting?”

The leporan didn't even have time to finish his second question before Aradra quickly slipped into his backpack, curling up into a ball as usual with its head turned outwards. He closed the backpack and put it on his shoulder again; it was as he was walking away that he noticed the bare patch of earth and the rock worn away by something that appeared to be acid.

Luchael wasn't an expert when it came to monsters, but salmadrer were fairly common monsters and information about them was easy to come by, so he knew that they were capable of developing acid and earth magic, only when the two fought in the dungeon, Aradra did not use that power. This obviously meant only one thing.

It's getting stronger, he thought with a shiver down his spine. His reason told him that he wasn't running any risk with Aradra, but his instincts told him that he was carrying something in his backpack that would sooner or later find him an easy target. Calm down Luchael, you're leveling up too. You'll become stronger as it will... yeah.

He set off, it didn't take long to get back to the squalid inn where the two were staying overnight.