Zeke stared at the new being that had supposedly been created just recently. The small puppy, with dark fur and slightly grayish face and belly, looked up at Zeke with its wide, heterochromia eyes that were the same colors as Zeke's; both being blue and green.

Now that he thought about it, the dark color of the fur was also similar to Zeke's own hair color, but that was neither here nor there. What really mattered is how in the actual hell did this creature get born in the first place?

The puppy in question continued to stare at Zeke with those big ol' eyes, the tail swishing back and forth excitedly. Zeke had no clue what this was all about.

"Okay… so, you're saying that I gave birth to you?" Zeke asked, not sure if he had to speak to it or do something else. "And now we're… best friends?"

"Yep!" The puppy responded happily, the voice sounding through Zeke's mind with no apparent voice heard aloud.

He knew this was some form of telepathy, but how it was possible, he had no clue. He needed to know more.

"How?" Zeke asked simply. "I'm not supposed to have anything that can… give birth."

The puppy chuckled, though his eyes were staring at Zeke quizzically with its mouth still closed. "Silly! Of course you don't have anything! You gave birth to me with your mana!"

"My mana?" Zeke asked. "Wait, you mean that headache? Was that you?"

"Not really?" The puppy tilted his head, as though not sure of the answer himself. "If you mean if I was responsible for the headache, that is wrong. However, the mana that was inside of you was the reason why I was given birth. So maybe it's the mana?"

"Right…"

That made Zeke finally understand how this all worked, to an extent. Despite losing his Iron Parallel Thought skill, he could still feel it working at the back of his mind, and he was able to connect the coincidences together.

The headaches occurred when Zeke fused his skills together to make Mythril Bastion. Everyone assumed that it was because something went wrong, causing internal damage to his channels which is causing the headache. Despite trying many methods, nothing really worked, hence why Lyle gave that potion to Zeke.

While he wasn't sure whether it was truly responsible for creating this… puppy, he was certain something occurred when one ended and the other began, which caused the puppy to be born.

It was even clearer as his headache just vanished. And he was certain it was gone for good because he didn't feel that strange pressure building anymore. He tried to ignore it, a sort of failsafe to prove that he was still fine, but now he can say without a doubt that he really was fine.

"Do you know why it was mana?" Zeke asked, trying to further tie up the knot to this mystery. "I should have used up most of it during that last battle at the tower."

"You did, but that didn't mean that the mana affected by the dozens of skill fragments was removed. I think you can say that it was left as impurities?" The puppy tilted his head to the other side as he made his thoughts. "I believe you read a book before about the impurities left behind in the natural mana surrounding everyone? Which is the reason why taking in mana from nature is considered a bad idea to take in as part of your attunement?"

As though prompted, Zeke instantly recalled one of the many books back at Cloud's study where he read that particular section. It came so vividly that Zeke made his eyes flutter, shaking his head.

Did the puppy actually show him an extremely clear memory from his past? Rather, it sounded like the puppy's own thought process was nearly the same as Zeke. Except it was done way faster than he could have reached on his own.

"Wait, did you just… are you connected to my mind?" Zeke asked again, his earlier dread and fear replaced with genuine curiosity.

"I believe I am!" The puppy answered excitedly. This time his tail swished even faster. "It looks like I'm connected to your soul, and I can even see your status clearly like I can my own!"

"Wait, you got your own status?" Zeke asked, his brows rising. "Can you show me?"

As quickly as he said it, the notification showed up, revealing the status page of the puppy.

Name: N/A Race: Wolfdog/Hyena Familiar Construct (Unique): Level 1

Familiar Skills: Steadfast Mind (R) Level 8 Iron Parallel Thought (R) Level 2 Meditation (U) Level 1 Enlightenment (R) Level 1

"Well, there's my missing skills."

Zeke muttered, realizing that all of his mental skills, including the newly gained Enlightenment, was now transferred over to the puppy. Strangely enough, there is no name.

Then another prompt appeared, surprising Zeke again.

Would you like to name your Familiar Construct? Y/N

"It's asking for a name…" Zeke asked, getting the puppy's tail to swish back and forth.

"Oh! Oh! Oh!" He shouted happily, actually barking his cute barks with his mouth. "Name me please! I want a name!"

Zeke can't help but think of this adorable puppy as, well, just a puppy excited for their owner. It also felt like the puppy is close enough to Zeke to not be nervous like any new puppy, and he even adapted to the situation as fast as Zeke did–if not faster.

Seeing all this and how there is clearly no hostile intent, Zeke decided to do that. His dream from earlier resurfaced, and a small smile formed on his lips. He always wanted to have a dog, and he even had a name for it.

"Then… how about Tir?"

Tir was a cut-up name from Fenrir, a famous mythical wolf from video games, put with the letter 'T' because it was easier on the tongue to pronounce. A childhood name that Zeke thought was a cool short name for a dog.

Now, it carried a lot of meaning throughout the years in his life, and honestly it sounded perfect for the little pup in front of him.

"Yes! Yes! My name is Tir! I'm sticking with that and you can't stop me!"

You have named your familiar construct. It will now be known as Tir.

…..

Name: Tir Race: Wolfdog/Hyena Familiar Construct (Unique): Level 1

Familiar Skills: Steadfast Mind (R) Level 8 Iron Parallel Thought (R) Level 2 Meditation (U) Level 1 Enlightenment (R) Level 1

Now that the name is out of the way, Zeke thought again exactly what to do with the puppy, now known as Tir. Brushing his chin, he thought hard on how to even explain this situation.

"Okay, so you're connected to my mind, making you my familiar. But I don't remember reading anything about a familiar like you. Do you know anything about it?"

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"Mmh… let me think."

Zeke let Tir do exactly that, taking a bit of time. He also could sense something going on within himself just as much as he could with Tir. It was a strange feeling, as though his own mind was whirling for the possibilities. Then Tir responded with a clear answer.

"Do you remember the book 'Taming for Taming's Sake?" Tir responded, getting Zeke to recall the title with ease, somehow. "You read it because there wasn't much else to read, and the girls were busy playing with each other. One of the pages there said there is such a thing as a 'Mind Construct', a familiar made entirely from the mind of the mage. It's not considered true taming as it was just a being formed from the mind. As such, it's not possible for the construct to actually exist."

Zeke actually did remember that, but he put it aside in the back of his mind due to how ridiculous it sounded. He would've completely forgotten about it too, but Tir actually dug up the memory deep within his mind and displayed it as though he read it just seconds ago.

"Are you able to read my mind and pull up every memory?" Zeke asked in wonder, getting Tir to nod his head eagerly.

"Yep! I think that's how I'm doing it! I'm your familiar, but I also exist as your Mind Construct! I'm your Mind Familiar Construct!"

Tir said ecstatically, even jumping up and down the bed in glee. Hearing that now, Zeke can definitely tell that Tir actually exists.

Finally, everything made sense. Forming a Mind Construct is not considered useful as it requires too much mental power and mana to try and create it. Even if one can create it, it would only just be a sort of mental aid for the mage, rather than a true familiar. Even if that mage had enough mana to summon that mental aid construct into reality, doing so without a specialized skill or enough mental power would be nigh impossible to keep in reality, and so the construct would just be put back into the mind of the mage.

It was also barely possible to keep the mental aid alive in the mind, and once the mana runs out, the construct would disappear before the mage can summon it again. It was done so that it could help cast spells or support the mage with any menial tasks for their daily job.

But Tir was special. It even said so in the status where the Class would have been. It is a Unique Familiar Construct, meaning that not only does it act as a regular familiar, it can act as a mental aid like a construct.

In other words, it might be the most powerful mental aid construct and familiar Zeke had ever seen. The fact that it can easily exist and can easily read his mind and his memories so easily proved that.

It was one of those things that Zeke thought about doing, but with everything going on in his life, there was no way he was going to do something so risky before reaching Journeyman, and even then, he got too busy with the towers and the otherworlders to do that. Now, it just happened all on its own, and now Tir existed right here in front of him.

But what does this mean? What could this help him with? If there's anything he wanted out of this, it would be to help him cast spells while he fought, or help him settle his thoughts when extreme things were happening, such as the tower with the knight going after them.

But that wasn't all. His mind whirled at the possibilities, his brain exploding with ideas that may or may not be useful.

Then, all of a sudden, his mind arrived at the solution–just like that. He looked over at Tir who looked at him expectantly.

"You were thinking too many thoughts, Zeke. That's why I helped make your thinking quicker. This could be good to help the otherworlders get training faster."

"You are…" Zeke almost shivered at the thought of how easily Tir manipulated his thinking process. Then Tir spoke up all of a sudden.

"Zeke, I can tell that you're scared. I know it's scary, but I don't want to hurt you. If I do, I end up hurting myself. That doesn't make any sense at all!"

This time, Tir looked rather upset. Not the fact that Zeke was hesitating about Tir's potential danger to himself, but the fact that thinking about it at all doesn't make sense for Tir, just like he said.

"S-Sorry, it's just… it's just that there's so much going on already, I couldn't help myself."

"Mmh…" Tir tilted his head again, which was becoming a tic for him apparently. "Then, to make it easier for you, I promise that no matter what happens, I will never harm Mikella and Clara. Regardless of what happens out there, my main goal is to keep you safe, after Mikella and Clara."

He stopped for a moment, looking at Tir questioningly. That was… surprisingly cutthroat.

In other words, Tir is ready to abandon everything, including the otherworlders, if it means protecting Mikella and Clara. And of course Zeke, since he was a part of him. That was…

That's exactly what I would do.

It was cruel, but it was the truth. Zeke was never a hero to the otherworlders, and he didn't care what would happen to this world. He wanted to make sure his family is safe and sound, and if his friends are included, he would try to protect them too.

Maybe he wasn't as cutthroat as he made himself out to believe. He was still a bleeding heart, and somehow he can tell that he would gladly do what he can to protect and help everyone, even at the cost of his health.

What Tir did was basically break down all of the other thoughts and feelings, pulling out only the very core of why he wanted to do what he can. To protect Mikella and Clara.

"...Alright," Zeke nodded. "Guess that was pretty obvious. I mean, you're made out of… me, I guess."

"Yep!" Tir nodded.

"Okay… well, what can you do?"

It was clear that Tir can basically alter his mind, not to change it, but to get rid of any unnecessary process of thinking and get to the solution as quickly as possible. He can also perfectly recall each memory Zeke had with complete clarity. He was certain that it wasn't just the skills Tir had that made this possible. It was because Tir was a construct, and as such, he didn't have any mental barriers like emotions or any psychological issues that might come up in a normal human brain.

He wasn't a brain at all, he was a construct–a mental aid made real. But seeing this, what else can Tir do outside of all of that?

"Well…" Tir looked up, actually looking like he was wondering what he could do himself. "I don't know. Just ask me anything. I'm trying to figure this out myself! I was literally born just a few minutes ago. If we're being specific, I was born exactly 7 minutes and 42 seconds ago."

"Holy shit," Zeke widened his eyes. "Then…"

His thoughts whirred at the possible things Tir can do. Then, something obvious came up, something that wasn't aided by Tir, but something that he desperately wanted more than anything.

"Tir, you think you can help me out on making our world's version of a smartphone? For me to talk to Mikella whenever I want. Oh, and Clara too."

Tir gasped as though Zeke had just given him something incredible. "That's right! That's such a good idea, Zeke! Alright, I'll work on it now! I'll use your Runic Library and probably some other Class Skills. I may have to use your mana for this. Do you mind?"

"G-Go right ahead. Use it all. Oh! Wait, umm, give me at least a quarter of my mana behind. My regeneration isn't good right now, and I don't wanna fall over right after feeling better again."

"Alrighty! Here we go!"

Tir turned to the other side of the room, getting Zeke to turn to face the direction Tir was facing.

Then a barrier formed in front of Zeke, surprising him since he hadn't cast it. It was the same Mythril Bastion he created, yet there was no physical substance. It felt like a hologram, where his hand could phase through and not feel a thing.

On that barrier, several, if not hundreds of different runes, scattered about. They flew across the barrier, acting like a terminal screen, at such a fast speed that it made Zeke's head spin. Yet, each one of those runes were the things he studied and learned years ago when he started studying to be a Runist.

But this time, Tir was not only going through every single rune letter and array Zeke had ever learned and created, but redesigning the runes and shifting them to become new rune arrays, something that Zeke hadn't done before. But he also knew he could've done so had he not been so busy lately.

Then Tir kept going and going, to the point where Zeke felt like he was watching the process of his own rune studying session going fast forward at about five times the speed. He could catch up, but he also knew that it could seriously give him a headache he desperately didn't want back.

This was incredible. Tir was already doing rune research that would've taken Zeke months, or perhaps years, in just a few seconds. Each new rune array Tir created was then thrown away, creating new rune arrays in a matter of seconds.

Several thousand iterations later, the final rune array was left on the barrier, something that was so deeply complex and alien to Zeke that it took him a fair bit while to know how it worked even with his experience.

All the while, Zeke could feel the changes done to the rune array. It was built to last, to use as little mana as possible, and something that doesn't heavily affect his surroundings. Many rune arrays could be made, but what stopped them from being created is the after-effects they put out once created into the real world. That's why Runists often had to keep remaking new rune arrays, making it even more difficult to create new arrays on the spot.

But Tir did it all in just a moment. He looked back at Zeke, his eyes glowing with pride.

"Done! Praise me! I did something good!"

Zeke looked back at Tir, completely stunned at the process. Yet all he saw was an adorable puppy swishing his tail, ready to be praised.

This puppy just created an entirely new rune array that was on the level of a rune formation, something that required several runists to accomplish in just under a minute.

Recalling his strange Title description, Zeke pursed his lips and patted Tir's head, brushing his soft fur left and right and hearing a delighted groan from the pup.

"Good job, Tir. You're such a good boy."

"Yay!" Tir shouted in Zeke's mind. "I got praised! I'm awesome!"

Zeke chuckled, looking back at the barrier. Even with all of these incredible things Tir can do, Zeke still felt it was worth it.

Because even without these things, Zeke could tell he's gonna love having Tir around.

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