Ambrose woke up the next morning and realized that he had finally run out of trail rations. Normally he would be okay with that, but with the obvious side effects being reduced attributes and regenerations going hungry was simply not an option.

So, after eating some leftover soup made from bits of animals that he had managed to hunt down near his property, Ambrose decided it was time to find some creatures to tame.

Namely the [Egg-Laying Rabbit] which was supposed to be native to the Norsege Isles.

At first, Ambrose hadn’t believed what he was reading. A rabbit that laid eggs? Obviously, he had been scammed when he purchased the book. After looking through the bestiary once more Ambrose realized that the rabbits would probably be his best bet for [Taming] at his low level.

Levels didn’t mean everything of course, as could be seen with how much Ambrose had grown just by completing hard physical labor and practicing his spells. But Ambrose was sure not going to mess with anything more than ten levels higher than himself because at that point it was just asking for death. Ambrose hadn’t died yet and he didn’t want to know what it was supposed to feel like.

After grabbing his backpack and slinging his bow around his shoulder, Ambrose headed out the front door to begin his journey around the valley.

Previously, Ambrose had wanted to try to find some hidden path out of the valley. Either through a concealed cave that led through the mountains or a regular tedious hike over them. After about an hour of walking and a dozen more herbs to add to his collection, Ambrose finally found what he was looking for.

A crack in the mountains that split them in two allowed for a decent, albeit crooked, entrance towards the land outside of the valley. It wasn’t exactly the perfect path but it would have to do.

Vines covered the walls of the path while numerous vegetation-covered rocks expanded over the terrain. Luckily for Ambrose, the sunlight shone directly through the top of the crack and shed its rays down. What would have been a tense walk through the mountain was turned into one of an adventure.

Ambrose tried to [Inspect] anything that looked out of place, but either his skill was too low or there was simply nothing of note. He had expected to get a little lucky with a mineral or metal or some sort due to the degree of the fissure, but it seemed to not be meant to be.

It wasn’t long before Ambrose reached the end of the path and emerged past the valley mountains and into a new area. The same [Heavy Timber Pine] trees covered the landscape while thriving in the uneven and rocky terrain. It certainly wasn’t good of an area as the lake location, so Ambrose didn’t even think about moving his hard work over here.

Ambrose had joined the collective settlement to be within a safe distance of people, but also far away enough that he wouldn’t have to see them if he didn’t want to. Ambrose would eventually have to make a trip down to his fellow players, but for now, it was just him and his homestead. And he was on a quest to get some eggs.

The [Egg-Laying Rabbit] was supposed to be a common enough creature that inhabited mounds of boulders, creating burrows and dens underneath the hard rock to make a safe home for their young. It was also here that [Wilderness Survival (Apprentice II)] came into effect. It had previously leveled up after Ambrose had gathered the fruits from the [Grapemelon] tree, but now it was being put towards a different test.

[Wilderness Survival] was the innate skill given to every one of the Norse race. Its ability to navigate the difficult terrain and provide food from the dangerous wildlife was what made the Norse the natural natives to the Norsege Isles. It was also the skill that would help him track down the rabbits.

Pulling out the bestiary, Ambrose refreshed himself on the details written down about the rabbits. Each one was like a normal pre-disaster rabbit from Earth, except their molted gray colors which were adapted to blend in with the stones of the landscape. They were also about twice as big as regular rabbits but retained their docile demeanor. The rabbits were more likely to run away than confront Ambrose if they saw him, which was why Ambrose had a feeling that the only difficulty of [Taming] the feeble creatures would just be capturing them.

But even that proved to be an easy feat.

Finding the nest of the rabbits didn’t take long as Ambrose soon found a trail that led straight to their hideout. The packed down grass pointing a red arrow right in the direction he needed to follow. [Wilderness Survival] helping him identify and track the rabbits the entire way.

When Ambrose reached the house that was comprised of stone, he immediately used his most valuable skill, [Earth Manipulation], to trap the rabbits inside their den. With another wave of his hand and a push of his will, a single entrance appeared from the underside of the dug-out cave system. And now, all Ambrose had to do was wait.

One handy trait about [Earth Manipulation] was the fact that the skill gave him the sense of all earth and stone in a manipulatable area. Which was why he could sense the lair that had been created underneath the pile of stones. And it didn’t take long for Ambrose’s first rabbit to pop out its head.

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With another force of will, the dirt flowed towards the underbelly of the grey rabbit. Trapping it in place. Its terrified screams rang out with a shriek that echoed across the land. Ambrose grimaced as he walked over from his hiding spot.

While he had trapped the creature from the waist down, its lungs went in overdrive to state its fearfulness toward all that would listen. It also certainly made the rabbits still hiding underneath much more cautious about venturing outwards.

Ambrose would get them all eventually, but right now it was best to take things one step at a time. Reaching towards the pouch that held his most important tools, Ambrose pulled out a soul gem.

[Unbound Soul Gem

Rarity: (Inferior)

Description: A useful gem that can be used in a myriad of skill processes. This soul gem has not been bound to a soul]

Trying to use a bound soul gem would result in nothing happening. Since bound soul gems always contained a soul of some sort. Soul gems would often be used in things like [Enchanting] which chained the soul of a person or creature towards a mystical item to power its properties. Using the souls of humans or sentient humanoids was frowned upon but it was still apparently a common practice outside of Norsege Isles. Since an enchanter would probably never come to such an uninhabited place.

For a soul gem to be used with a [Taming] skill, two things must happen.

The first was that the creature was accepting of the soul gem to collect its soul from its mortal body. This part was arguable the hardest of the two since letting the soul leave the body was a surefire way to end up with no control over it. Harvesting the soul from the creature could happen in a variety of ways. The first was through simple dominance of the [Taming] skill. Having a high enough willpower to overpower a weaker creature would almost always effectively bind the soul to the gem. The other ways were methods to weaken the creature's willpower. Some of which involved gradually gaining the friendship of the creature, or knocking it unconscious.

Ambrose was currently beating down the rabbit in a simple battle of wills as the soul gem drained the soul of the rabbit from its body.

The second part of the process was making sure that the creature’s body didn’t perish. While the soul gem might contain the soul, its mind and body would still be the same. The consciousness would continue to live on in the body. The soul gem created a collar of sorts that Ambrose could transmit his thoughts to the creature. Which allowed him to control it with absolute ease. Having the soul of the creature also meant that while difficult, it was sometimes possible to resurrect the fallen tamed being. Though it required magic far beyond the skills of the Norsege Isles.

In summary, in order to gain control of the creature, Ambrose had to best it either through willpower or force and make sure it didn’t die in the process. Both of which would be influenced by the level of the [Taming] skill. But for taming a rabbit? Ambrose overpowered it with ease.

[Bound Soul Gem [Egg-Laying Rabbit]

Rarity: (Inferior)

Gender: Female

Owner: Ambrose Jay

Description: Bound soul gem containing the soul of a [Egg-Laying Rabbit]. The animal was tamed by Ambrose Jay]

Ambrose smiled as he felt his consciousness exert itself over the soul of the rabbit. Its personality stayed the same, except the strong danger it once felt for Ambrose was now muted and a heavy sense of obedience replaced it. The rabbit had the same instincts as an animal and would continue to act like one, but now it would listen to Ambrose’s commands.

Ambrose smiled as he held the gem and urged the rabbit to follow him back to where he was waiting for the rest of the rabbits to emerge.

Ambrose only wanted to get four rabbits in total, three females and a male. He had plans to eventually get a whole host of the rabbits, enough to fund a minor egg selling business and it would be easier to potentially raise them from birth instead of going out to hunt them. Hence the need for the male to fertilize the eggs.

Ambrose didn’t stop until the afternoon passed and he had collected all of the rabbits from their den. He felt momentarily bad about either [Taming] the creatures or twisting their necks to serve as dinner but he wasn’t worried about harming their expansive population. The rabbits bred, well, like rabbits.

After urging the four soul-bound rabbits to follow him back to his house, he slung the string of bunnies over his shoulder. He had slaughtered the entire nest and would have to store the meat for further consumption.

It wasn’t long until Ambrose returned to his home and went about skinning and butchering his kills. Gaining half a dozen pieces of (Inferior) chunks of meat and skins. The meat would serve as food for the next few days but unfortunately the skin had barely any use beyond serving as plush for his pillows and eventual chairs. He dropped the scraps of fur into a stone box before doing the same with the butchered meat. Creating a sealed container for the meat which he sunk into the ice-cold lake.

The water would serve to keep the meat cold and ready to be eaten when he got hungry. It was only a temporary solution until Ambrose got around to making his cold storage room in the mountain that he had built his house next to.

It was at that moment Ambrose wondered how the natives of Eden kept their food frozen through the summer. They obviously didn’t have fridges or other electrical contraptions since Eden capped all technology at a certain level. That left only a magical route. He would inquire about it once he went back to Bjora. Maybe the book store owner would give him some information.

Getting back to the task on hand, Ambrose started constructing the rabbit coop.

Following his preset plans, Ambrose didn’t make the pen within the acre that contained his house, instead opting to build the coop on the left side of the road on the acre closer to the lake. If the acre were imagined as a tower, with the one that had his cabin on it on the top and the one on the very bottom the one in the lake, Ambrose was building the coop on the acre right below the cabin.

After constructing a blueprint with some spare scrolls, Ambrose went to work chopping down the trees and clearing the roots. It didn’t take long till Ambrose had his area ready for construction.

Since it was just a coop it didn’t need a stone foundation or anything fancy, just a space secure enough that the rabbits couldn’t escape and felt safe enough to lay their eggs. Ambrose eventually came up with a fifteen by fifteen square foot pen with a portion of that dedicated open fields to run around on while the other was meant for housing.

Manipulating a ring of stone to emerge, Ambrose got to work making the rest of the rocky constructs. While Ambrose had initially wanted to make the entire thing out of wood he soon realized that the rabbits naturally lived underground stone dens. Since Ambrose needed to be able to enter the coop to collect the eggs it couldn’t be underground.

“Unless?” Ambrose felt like an idiot for forgetting that he just needed to carve out the den underground while creating spaces for them to make their nests to lay their eggs. He could then manipulate the earth once more each day when he wanted to collect the eggs. Ambrose would have to keep the waist-high stone wall but that was just so predators would have a more difficult time getting to the rabbits.

After a few moments clearing up the area, Ambrose urged the rabbits through a small hole he created. Once he closed it up he released his conscious hold on the rabbits and set them “free”. They were still under his influence but now he wasn’t directly controlling their actions. It was the same as setting them to an [Wander] option.

Ambrose watched as they soon found the small pile of rubble and entered its depths. He felt a giddy surge of joy as he felt them kick up small amounts of rocks in the tunnels as they settled into their new homes. If they hadn’t been soul-bound, then they would have never been this calm.