I need to recon my territory, obtain wood for a palisade and also trim monsters around my territory. We are going north around the outskirts of the syrup meadow near the foot of the mountains and then south until the hills. There is the level issue too. I don't have enough magic power to teleport to the dungeon, so I need to grind with whatever is living around here that won't submit to me.

Our group is composed of Zahariel, Helen & company, Marcy, Shraaizar and me. Zahariel & Helen are wizards, Marcy a guild receptionist and I need to level Monster Tamer. Everyone level 1. I wonder if the guild receptionists actually go out and do battle to level up. Dunno. Maybe if I found one that doesn't hate my guts to ask.

Since everyone ate all my food at the feast I have even more empty space at the item box. The only stuff that I am keeping now that is worth tracking weight is the apiculture products. Honey and Wax. It is good because I am going to get some big old trees during our travel. The plan is to use elementals and Helen's earth manipulation to remove the tree whole into the item box. When it gets too full I'll teleport back home, dump them and teleport back. The lumberjack monkeys will process the wood.

Marcy calls the alert, "A big group of low-rank monsters is coming to check on us. Get ready!"

We use stealth to lure them in. It is no good if they sense our ranks and just run. Monsters can sense the relative strength between them, but to us, a level 1 villager is a human and a level 90 Facemelter is a human. There is no difference. Thankfully there is no 'Facemelter' job.

To our north comes a group of about twenty wolves. There are normal wolves, subordinate wolves, and one red streak leader. Oh, the nostalgia. I was a chicken back then.

"Leave the red one untouched. Slay the others don't let them flee."

Flash Freeze, nova blast, Starfall, Multishot, Air Cutter, Firebolt. It is a guessing game, who cast what. Hint: Mittens is a fire-type monster and the gorilla kids taught him some basic fire magic.

I approach the immobilized red streak. "Monster Taming!" The tendrils wrap around him but he does not submit until my MP ends. It is no use switching jobs in combat for a larger MP pool if it comes empty. The recovery does not increase that much. The ice is cracking under the might of the wolf. I think it is also a fire type monster because it is not that stronger than Cloude. "Submit or die!" I tell the wolf. It snaps its jaws at me. Bark and drool.

Expecting the wolf to get out of the ice soon, I get a ruined pelt from the item box and wrap around my left arm. It comes and jumps at the extended and exposed arm, latching on from the bottom. I think I'd be fine even without the wrapped pelt, but whatever. Maybe it was a vorpal wolf. A good thing it is not vorpal and not smart. Now I only need to flex my elbow and its back will turn to face me. I put a hand at its nape and clench my arm to force it deeper into its jaw. It looks like I have the wolf in a sleeper hold, but my left is in its mouth, not over the neck.

The wolf dislikes having this thick arm stuck in its mouth and thrashes. I just pull the arm up and grab it by the belly. It can only claw at the empty air. My MP recovers. "Monster taming!" And again it fails to submit, but I get a ding.

Skill Taming (monster) level 7

"If you don't submit, you die!"

"Grrrr! Woof!" The wolf calls my alleged bluff. It won't submit. I respect it, have a painless death. I'll dragon claw you to the next life.

Helen (wizard) has gained 12 level! Marcy (guild receptionist) has gained 14 levels. Zahariel (wizard) has gained 12 levels! Grendel (monster tamer) has gained 4 levels. 25 SP awarded.

The first levels are a cakewalk. Especially with me leading the party.

I change my job to magician. I'll need MP to move back and forth. Soon after defeating the wolves the storage was full. The short-distance gate can cover almost 3 and a half miles. I'm still in range. Gate in, dump trees, gate out. Rinse repeat. Two hours later no encounters but full storage. I had to use teleport. Are we that far away from home?

The fifth hour was nearing its end when the alert was given by a flying Zahariel. "Flying monsters incoming! Two of the big ones." We are already close to the mountains. If you compare the advantage flying monsters have over land-based ones, it is obvious that the mountain favors the flyers.

We ready ourselves for combat but the monsters do not land. They soar over the canopy and we can get a glimpse of dark green leathery wings on the sides of a huge body. "I think I saw fur, what is that?"

Marcy's trained ranger eyes sound the alert, "Chimera! Helen put a barrier facing up! Everyone close in!"

"Defense Barrier!" Helen's raised staff shoots a blueish energy up and an umbrella-like canopy covers us. Right after that the chimeras crash through the foliage and breathe fire! This barrier spell drains MP to stop damage but it only works in one way. Helen's MP should be plummeting. I could see the goat, dragon and lion heads. Lion in the middle but no mane. There is also a reptilian tail flailing behind.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

I take a goblin spear out of storage and aim dead center at the mouth of the chimera. "Power Javelin!" The spear flies through the fire and hits the open dragon mouth from the inside.

"Gwaooowr!" The painful roar of the first chimera causes the second to also charge down and across the trees. Dry branches are splintered and spread all over the place. This one has the dragon head in the middle and goat to the right, lion with a mane to the left.

"Multi-homing shot!" There is no way Marcy would miss a target this huge charging from this short distance. The homing modifier is just to focus all the virtual arrows created by the multishot in a single place, the dragon mouth that threatens to breathe and bring down our shield.

"Updraft!" Shraaizar uses a wind spell I never heard of before. The air gathers under the chimera and bursts up. The wings spread open can't help but give the huge body lift. The chimera is thrown off-track, tries to avoid taking the arrows in the mouth and shoots its fire breath up.

Mittens leaps up into a tree trunk with amazing speed. Ever tried to catch a cricket? What about one that can spring at over 50 MPH? Its red shell blurs as it goes up and around the chimera with the busted mouth's blind side to slash at its wings. Unfortunately red in a winter forest is not the most invisible color. The chimera glimpsed the blur and dove under a deadly slash from Mittens. He could not draw blood but forced the chimera to land.

"Impaling Spike!" Zahariel uses earth magic to pierce the neck of the lion head right before it hits the ground. The combined speeds of the falling monster and the rising spike caused the stone stake to do as its name says and impale the chimera. "Shape Stone!" One of the wizard's specialties is to chain magical spells to create unpredictable effects. The seraph caused the stone at the bottom of the spike to reshape up and around the neck, joining up with the tip and giving the chimera a thousand pounds collar. The beast limps under the weight, but from the angry glare on the goat head, it is left as the only one controlling the body.

I'll join the fight on the other side. The maned chimera is wounded but still flying. "Shraaizar, can you restrict its mobility for me?" I ask my naga partner at the same time another goblin spear appears in my hand.

She answers, "Consider it done, Grendel!" and uses another wind magic spell, "Downdraft!" Actually, it was the same spell. You just name the direction of the 'draft'.

This chimera is being harried trying to dodge Marcy's arrows and Shraaizar's wind blades. Its belly is exposed, perfect. "Power Javelin!" I throw the spear straight up into the stomach of the creature. I keep running past it to escape the plummeting beast.

Soon after I hear the big body splattering on the ground and raising a dust cloud. Party status, all right. The other one should be dying by now... Crap! "Job Chan...."

Helen (wizard) has gained 11 level! Marcy (guild receptionist) has gained 14 levels. Zahariel (wizard) has gained 1+11 levels! Grendel (Monster Tamer) has gained 1+5 levels. 38 SP awarded.

Hashtag Facepalm. ORZ. I forgot to change jobs back to Monster Tamer. These chimeras should be B-rank.

Helen sees me kneeling and runs to my side, "Grendel! Are you hurt?"

"Yes, but not physically. Did you see the level up message?"

"You forgot to change jobs! Poor thing!" She tiptoes and pats me on the shoulder.

Marcy also comes to help, "Cheer up, loverboy! At least these chimeras have several cores. One on each head." What? Is it a pemadra sale?

"I can't believe you are so easy to please like this, Grendel!" I'm being mocked by a seraph.

It is true. I can sense the pemadras.

"Can't be helped. I'll store the bodies in the item box."

"Can we eat? I'm hungry after this fight," complains Helen.

Marcy agrees with Helen's proposal, "I got a new soup recipe in town I want to try making. Can I?"

We stop to eat. Wolf n' veggies soup for everyone. With intact pemadras for we monsters. Mine was worth 2 points, and yours?

Marcy breaks the munching silence, "These chimeras were a mated pair. They only hunt together when they have young to feed."

"Isn't it dangerous to leave the youngsters alone in the nest?" Asks Helen.

"Not as much as leaving one parent alone. You see, the order of the heads on a chimera is random. It may be any of the three. Usually, they hatch in clutches of five or six. It is bound to have one or two whose heads don't match either of the parents. Like for this couple, a goat-headed chimera. These pups are killed as soon as they hatch. The ones whose main head match one of the parents will be left alive..."

"As long as it is not alone with the parent whose head doesn't match, right?" I complete.

"Yes, that is correct!" Marcy answers with a teacher-like tone.

"Wait, won't the chicks kill each other?" wonders Zahariel.

"Not usually because they have the same strength. Attacking one group might end with the attackers being killed. They just keep to their sides of the nest."

"Does it mean that there is a nest full of chimera pups for grabs?" I ask.

"Or taming, right?" Helen the psychic read my mind.

"Hey, hold it. Chimera can hunt for miles. Its nest could be anywhere in the northern Dragonspine mountains. It is suicide to go in just to look for a nest." Marcy splashes cold water on our dreams of a monster army.

"Fine. Let them grow and then we harvest more Exp." The chimera isn't even ripe yet. I don't want sour chimera.

After eating I return the skulls and the pelts we left out to dry some blood to the item box for tanning and we resume our patrol. The chimera weights around 8,000 lb. Almost an elephant. I bet I could ride one.

Our first day of patrol ended without any further incidents. I set the last free slot of anchor atop a big flat rock and change jobs to magician.

"I can take four on each trip with teleport. The first trip will be Marcy, Helen, Shraaizar, and Mittens." The rats count as 'Helen' as long as they are in contact with her. Like inside her robe or held in her arms like Emory is now.

"Don't bother coming back just for me. I can fly back. Bye!" Zahariel takes off and goes out to enjoy some beautifully orange dusk skies.

I focus on the anchor by the willow hill and cast teleport. We reach home but the legendary level 10 didn't come.

The group goes do their things, and down the hill for me, to turn in the last shipment of trees for today. The monkeys are hacking at the trees with enthusiasm, I can see there is a troop resting in the slope. They are probably taking turns. Others are carrying the branches and roots away, everyone is working with enthusiasm. Back uphill the smell of hot willow syrup can be noticed. The houses are all covered in amber as I ordered. It is weird, the poisonous amber makes the houses look like they are covered in caramel if light hits the right angle. But when it hardens it will be bug-draft-mold and slime proof. Any larvae or eggs still inside the wood was also cooked, choked, poisoned, and killed. The resistance of the structure will also improve.

Tonight is the last night the girls will sleep on the wagon. Tomorrow they will have a proper civilized roof. And we will need to remodel some doors because there are ten feet tall trolls around.