The Wolves Ch. 022

"Sounds good," Anja said. "We probably wouldn't want to get started right now... perhaps tomorrow afternoon we can go down and talk to her?"

"Works for me," I replied. "I wonder what class Vixa would fall into, and how strong she would be."

"She could get pretty strong, I think. Especially if she falls into Class-A or Class-S. Animals that fall into either of those categories would gain a huge percentage of your own stats once tamed. Class-A starts at a 50% bonus, and Class-S at 75%." Ben explained.

"I'm betting the Seotross down below is Class-S. How awesome would it be to tame that," Mason said.

Before I could answer, there was a popping sound and my dad appeared in front of us carrying two small pouches.

"Here you are," he said, handing the pouches to me. "Do you want me to set up a meeting with Tamara?"

"Tamara? That's the woman you were talking about?"

"Yes," he answered with a nod. "Tamara Ridley. She's been operating those enclosures for hundreds of years and has tamed quite a few animals over the years. She is what you might consider a Beastmaster."

"We would like to meet with her, yeah. We were thinking about tomorrow afternoon, though that depends on how long we will need to meet with her."

"Ah yes, your date. It shouldn't take long so you'll have plenty of time. I'll try to set the meeting for 12:00 or 13:00."

"That should be fine," I said looking over to my friends who all gave nods as confirmations.

"Okay, I'll talk to her later today and then let you know what she says either later tonight or tomorrow. I need to get back to work though. It's going to be a very busy next week or so."

"Thanks for these," I said, holding up the two pouches.

"No problem. See you all later," he replied, teleporting away.

I opened the first sack dumped the contents onto my hand. They all said 417E, so I passed them out. When everyone had one, I opened up the second pouch and dumped them all out. I rolled them around until I could see the number on each, which was 706S.

"Ben, what's 706S?" I asked while passing them along.

"Looks like it's Portal."

"Oh, awesome. I let my mom know I wanted the skill and was wondering if she had forgotten about it."

I learned both skills and then put the empty pouches in my inventory.

"Evidently not," Ben said. "I know we still have some time before the ship will be ready, but should we head up?"

"Sure. Maybe we can watch while she finishes."

We got up and walked over to the portal leading to the portal room. The light was actually green for once, so we stepped through without waiting.

"Hello again Zogyr, Zaszi," I greeted, having recognized the two of them from the day before.

"Morning boss," Zogyr said. "Where to?"

"The Moon please," I answered.

"Sure thing," Zaszi replied, hitting the button on her console. "You can head on through."

"Thanks, and thank you both for remembering what I said yesterday."

They both nodded, and my friends and I turned to go through the portal leading up to the moon.

"What was that about?" Mason asked.

"I met them both yesterday, and when they recognized who I was, they both kneeled. I didn't like that or them referring to me as 'milord', so I chewed them out a little bit. I do like 'boss', though. It has a nice ring to it, I think," I answered.

"Ah. Back to the taming thing. Do you think there is armor for animals similar to the stuff we're wearing right now?"

"That's a good question." After thinking about it while we walked, I continued, "I would think so, otherwise animals wouldn't be able to take any hits without receiving some serious injuries. We'll be able to ask Tamara that when we see her tomorrow."

"Ben also said that an animal will be able to level up once tamed. Do you think they'll be able to learn skills or perks?"

"I don't think so," Ben replied. "At least not any animals native to Earth. Scyftan foxes and other alien animals might be able to learn skills, but I imagine they will just gain attributes whenever they level. Besides, there are a bunch of abilities we can learn that affect pets. Kill Command and Ravage are two off the top of my head."

We arrived at the hangar door, so I pulsed it with mana and waited for it to open. When it did, I gestured my friends to walk forward. I walked just inside the door and waited for it to close, and then started walking towards Abi.

"She is a lot bigger since the last time we saw her," Anja said. "What is she at now?"

"Eight hundred twenty-two point five meters long, two hundred thirty-five meters wide and one hundred seventeen point five meters tall," I answered after a moment. "By the time she leaves to take the dragons and their eggs to a new world, she'll be over a kilometer long."

"Wow!"

[We're here, Abi. What side of the ship is the hanger on?]

[Port. There is already an entrance over there for you and your friends. There are about fifteen minutes to go before it will be finished.]

[Cool, thanks.]

"There is an entrance to a new landing bay on the port side. Follow me," I said, changing direction to walk behind Abi. While walking, it gave us the opportunity to look at her from a few different angles. The six thrusters were absolutely massive in size, and were in triangular clusters of three. There was a gap in between the two clusters, which was used for two of the now four energy weapons mounted on the back to dissuade any pursuers. When we got to the port side, we could see an opening in the side of the ship, as well as a ramp leading up to it.

It took a few minutes of walking, just because of her current size. When we finally arrived at the landing bay, Ben immediately burst into laughter.

"You didn't," he said, continuing to laugh. Mason and the twins had no idea what he was laughing about, since none of them had watched the show.

"I did," I replied with my own chuckle.

"How about explaining for those of us out of the loop," Mason said.

"Go for it, Ben."

"None of you have watched any of the Stargate series, so you've never seen what is affectionately known as a Puddle Jumper. In the shows, it was a ship created by a very advanced race, and was built to be able to transit through stargates. It seems like Jonathan wanted Abi to replicate one."

"It is similar, but quite different as well," Abi said, her voice coming from all around us. "It will be quite capable though, and have both a shroud and a shield."

"I don't see any weapons," Ben said, walking around the ship. "Does it have weapon pods like the show?"

"Four of them," she answered. "One dorsal, one ventral, one port and one starboard. The dorsal and ventral ones are turreted energy weapons, able to fire in three hundred sixty degrees, while the port and starboard ones will fire missiles. It has been fun building it and might be good enough to build more of them in addition to fighters later on. We'll see."

"What would it be, a transport?" Ben asked.

"It could certainly work as a troop transport, but I was thinking of something along the lines of a bomber. There would be space for the crew, but it could carry a sizeable amount of torpedoes and missiles."

"That's pretty cool. Will all of us get to fly it?"

"You definitely could after piloting lessons. Unfortunately I can't download the knowledge on how to fly it, as I can with Jonathan thanks to our bond. I can pilot it remotely, though, so if there is ever a situation where Jonathan is incapacitated, if you get him on the ship I can pilot it back."

"Well, let's hope that never happens," I said.