Awakening, the Spirit Otter
“Could this be... that thing? The Status Window?”
I narrowed my eyes as I stared at the Status Window glowing brightly in front of me.
It was already extremely bright, and over the past few days, I had not even thought about looking at my smartphone or a monitor, so it had become difficult to stare directly at something rectangular and brightly glowing.
I had never really been interested in this stuff, but apparently, ever since things like Gates appeared in the world, strange phenomena that had never existed before also began happening to people.
People gained what were commonly called supernatural abilities.
They used those powers to kill monsters pouring out of Gates.
And they brought back resources from beyond the Gates.
But still.
“Why did this happen to me?”
I muttered while staring blankly at the Status Window.
Wasn’t this kind of thing supposed to happen to people who wanted to do things like clear Gates?
“Let’s see. What is this? How am I supposed to look at it? Is it touch-controlled? Oh, it is.”
I carefully pressed the ‘Tamer Class Exclusive Status Window’ among the several windows.
Name: Yang Suho
Class: Tamer
Level: 25
Title: None
Fame: 0
Health: 100/100
Mana: 100/100
Affinity: 9/10
Luck: 8/10
Attack: 1/10
Defense: 1/10
A list of stats appeared beneath my familiar name.
Even I knew how to read stats. It wasn’t like I was some caveman.
These days, one of the most popular kinds of short-form content was famous Awakened and explorers showing off their Status Windows almost every day.
Other than my class being Tamer and my Affinity and Luck being unusually high, the Status Window was so simple that it almost felt lazily made.
But in one corner of it,
‘Partner Status Window’
A button with a size and presence that was impossible to ignore was flashing brightly.
Without thinking, I pressed it.
And the moment I did,
“Agh!?”
I was nearly crushed by a Status Window far larger than my own.
Partner Name: Daldal
Tamer Name: Yang Suho
Rank: Spirit Beast (靈物), SSR
Title: Military Officer of the Dragon Palace
Fame: 60/100
Affinity with Tamer Partner: 3 (+50 Bond Bonus)/100
Health: 100/100
Mana: 100/100
Affinity: 10/10 Luck: 9/10 Leadership: 3/10 Physical Attack: 7/10 Physical Defense: 5/10
Magic Attack: 6/10 Magic Defense: 6/10 Agility: 10/10 Stealth Movement: 10/10
Unique Environment Bonus: +2 to all stats
Skills: Select to View
Items: Select to View
“......”
What the heck is this?
It was an incredibly flashy Status Window compared to the one I had just seen for myself.
First, I took a picture of it as a keepsake, then slowly checked the details.
Its rank was SSR.
So ranks like that actually exist.
I thought I had occasionally seen R-Rank or S-Rank Partners on the internet before.
Wasn’t SSR much higher than those?
Isn’t that insanely amazing?
Well, whatever.
I guess that was how it was.
And its name was Daldal.
I see.
Wait, you’re my Partner?!
Peep, peep.
The otter, now having recovered some of its strength, grabbed onto my pant leg.
Then it suddenly stood upright on two legs and proudly thumped its chest with its front paws before snorting through its nose.
Peep!
Cute.
I had never seen such a proud-looking wild otter before, so I took another picture.
It came out well.
Peep, peep!
[Translation: Nice to meet you!]
Excited, the otter ran one lap around the small farm cabin.
Then, moving so quickly that my eyes could not even follow it, it climbed onto my shoulder and settled there.
“Uh, yeah. Nice to meet you too.”
Without thinking, I offered the otter on my shoulder a handshake.
The little guy tilted its head while looking at my right hand, then pressed its plump muzzle against my finger.
Ahh, that feels nice.
As though hypnotized, I used both hands to stroke its long body.
Ahh, this feels amazing.
“Wait. This isn’t the time for that. Let me ask you something. You’re my Partner? But you’re... an otter. How is that possible?”
After finally coming back to my senses, I asked it.
Peep. Peep.
[Translation: Spirit. Beast.]
“And what exactly is that, little otter?”
Taming normally targeted monsters from beyond the Gates, and the creatures successfully tamed became the Tamer’s Partners.
Even I knew that much. It was common knowledge these days.
After all, Awakened with the Tamer Class had practically taken over short-form videos lately.
They risked their lives to tame bizarre monsters, then commanded them like extensions of their own bodies while exploring worlds beyond the Gates.
Watching them was one of the main sources of excitement for people these days.
But I had seriously never seen a single Tamer who had tamed an otter.
And there was something else strange.
“This Affinity thing. Isn’t it something you can only build after spending a long time sharing hardships with your Partner? Then why am I starting at 3? And... what is this Bond Bonus?”
I muttered while staring at the Status Window, which was still full of things I knew nothing about.
“Have we met before or something?”
The little guy, who had been bringing its huge black nose close to my mouth while I talked to myself, suddenly snorted.
Peep! Peep, peep!
Then it jumped down from my shoulder and began searching all around the house as if it belonged there.
Just following Daldal around for a short while made my eyes dizzy.
It was really fast.
If it was already this fast on land, just how fast would it be underwater?
But running around like that, it was definitely going to knock something over or spill something.
That made me a little nervous...
Crash!
I knew it.
Splash!
Why did it suddenly go into the bathroom? And it even knows how to use a toilet?
“Are you okay? You didn’t get hurt, did you?”
I hurried toward the place where the loud noise had come from.
The door to my father’s study, which had been tightly shut, was now slightly open.
I knew otters could use their front legs almost like hands.
But I never expected one to know how to open a door.
I opened the door wide and looked into the room, expecting it to be a complete mess.
Thankfully, the room, which was filled with furniture and various belongings, was not that badly disturbed.
Only one wooden storage box filled with photographs had been knocked over.
Daldal was holding a photograph in its paws.
It was a photograph of my father that even I had never seen before.
My father was smiling brightly with the fish farm behind him, a large scoop net resting on his shoulder.
Farther in the background was a younger me, looking at flowers blooming in the field near the fish farm.
And then...
“Haha... Good grief, Father. You really weren’t honest with yourself, were you?”
There was a family of otters in the photograph, fighting over who would get to eat a huge flounder that was bigger than they were.
Peep!
With one adorable little toe, Daldal pointed at the smallest otter in the family.
Peep, peep!
[Translation: Me!]
It was definitely the same one.
“I see. You haven’t changed at all since you were little, have you?”
Peet!
You never knew where, or in what form, an old bond might appear again.
That evening.
Peep, peep. Peep, peep, peep, peep. Peep, peep, peep. Peep, peep. Peep, peep.
[Translation: I am the eldest of an otter family that long ago received the grace of Lord Yang Mungyu, the Small Dragon King from two generations past, ruler of this ‘Small Sea Abundant with Fish,’ and Lord Yang Taesik, the previous Small Dragon King. I am Daldal, a Spirit Otter.]
The little otter of the fish farm.
Daldal politely introduced itself to me.
Yang Taesik, whom Daldal called the previous Small Dragon King, was my father’s name.
And Yang Mungyu was my grandfather’s name.
I had no idea how my grandfather and father had somehow become Small Dragon Kings...
But I guess it wasn’t a bad thing.
Peep, peet, peet. Peet, peet, peet, peet, peet. Peet, peet, peet, peet, peet. Peet, peet.
[Translation: I have continuously guarded this Small Sea while waiting for Lord Suho to return. From this day forward, I shall aid Lord Suho with all that I possess, even at the cost of my life. If Lord Suho commands it, I shall swim through the deepest open sea without ever seeing sunlight. Please command me to do anything you wish.]
It didn’t sound like Daldal had made that many noises, but the translation was incredibly compressed.
And its way of speaking had suddenly become extremely formal.
“So you’ve been guarding this fish farm all this time even though no one was here. Thank you, really. I’ll be counting on you from now on.”
I held out my hand toward Daldal.
The little guy, who had been standing steadily like a person, scurried over and rubbed its face against my hand.
Having a soft, warm creature show me such affection made my heartbeat gradually speed up...
“But, well. As you can see, I only came back to my hometown a few days ago, and I don’t really have anything to do right now.”
Peep, peep?
“There probably isn’t anything I need your help with right away. For now, let’s just relax and live comfortably like this.”
Peep... Peep!
I had set a goal for myself.
I wanted to inherit my father’s fish farm and restore it to the lively place it had once been.
But right now, I had nothing.
And I had not properly learned how to do it yet.
I did not want to recklessly mess with this precious place without knowing what I was doing and end up ruining it.
I had plenty of time.
The reason I came here in the first place was because I was tired of the suffocating and harsh life in the city.
I did not want to live here while constantly being chased by something too...
“Are you hungry?”
I asked Daldal.
It was early spring, but the sun still set early.
Once deep darkness arrived, finding an open store in a remote countryside place like this would become difficult.
It would probably be better to hurry and eat.
Peep, peep!
[Translation: I am a fully grown adult otter. I catch my own foods good!]
The fact that Daldal’s way of speaking occasionally changed had to be a problem with the translator.
Peet, peep, peep!
[Translation: Leave it to me, please do!]
“Uh, wait.”
I hurriedly stopped the little guy just as it was about to rush out through the front door.
Peep, peep?
Daldal stood upright like a person and twisted only its head around to look back at me.
Cute!
“Since this is our first meal together, I think it would be better if we prepared it together. Want to go night fishing with me?”
Peep?
I stood up and grabbed an old, dust-covered key from near the front door.
“Come on. It’ll be fun.”
Then I gathered various things like fishing rods, bait, a scoop net, and an icebox before leaving the house together with Daldal.
“Heave-ho.”
There was a small beach not far from the fish farm.
I woke up the boat that had been peacefully sleeping at the simple dock my father had built while he was alive, then headed out into the nearby sea.
Peep, peep!
Daldal climbed onto my head while I drove the boat and kept looking around in fascination.
Relying on my memories, I chose a fishing spot that was not too far away.
Around this time, when March was turning into April, my father and I always used to enjoy fishing together in these waters.
When the sleeping earth began to wake, and mugwort started shooting up together with pale green leaves, there was one fish that always came to mind.
We had come to catch dodari, marbled flounder.
“Shall we start?”
I prepared a special dodari rig with spreaders attached to both sides, then immediately lowered it all the way to the seabed.
Once I felt the line tapping against the bottom, I repeatedly jerked it strongly up and down, almost enough to look ridiculous, stirring up dirt from the seabed.
When an irritated dodari snapped at the lugworm bait and the fishing line pulled tight...
“Now!”
I quickly pulled up the line and hooked the fish.
I had caught a plump spring visitor, a dodari.
Peep, peep!
[Translation: Lord Suho’s hunting skill is amazing!]
“Hahaha. Thanks. This much is easy. You know, I’ve caught even bigger ones before.”
Feeling proud of myself, I showed off the dodari I had caught to Daldal and bragged a little.
Peet, peep, peep! Peep, peep!
[Translation: I shall show Lord Suho my skills, I will!]
Apparently unwilling to lose, Daldal suddenly leaped from the boat into the sea.
Peep!
[Translation: I’ll show you why I’m a Spirit Beast!]
Daldal looked at me proudly and stretched both front paws high into the air.
Then, suddenly, the area around the little guy began to glow brightly.
[Information: Skill ‘Master Fish Hunter’ has been activated.]
A Status Window?
It used a skill?
Splash!
“Whoa!?”
Before I could even react, Daldal plunged into the sea like a raging gale.
The force was so great that a powerful whirlpool formed where the little guy had disappeared.
Still holding my fishing rod, I stared blankly at the spot where Daldal had vanished.
And after who knew how much time had passed,
Peeeeep!!
The little guy appeared.
“Uh... Huh? Whaaat??”
And it came back with fish I had never seen before in my life, fish that were neither dodari nor flounder...?
