Of course, Tobias gravitated to the best saddle out of the room. It had been placed front and center on the rack. Specialty built for the Overlord, it had fine leatherwork detailing around it.

Something like bastardized interlocking Celtic knots, Tobias thought as he glanced it over.

The blanket was equally fine: Jet black with thick padding and so brand new that none of the dust from the tack room had tarnished it.

Max was less than pleased. The moment Tobias came over with the saddle and blanket, his skin started to twitch all over. His nostrils grew large as he took deep gusts of air, scenting the saddle as if it were a predator. Whites showed around his eyes.

He may have just become a levelling beast, but he wasn’t stupid. He recognized the saddle. It was the same one the Overlord had used on him today when he’d rode him for the first time – too green to even be called green broke.

“Easy boy,” Tobias murmured. “Trust me, I know you don’t like this saddle but it’s the only one in here that will fit you. I want you to be comfortable.”

Actually, Max was so broad backed that it was the only saddle in the room with the smallest chance of fitting him. Or else Tobias would have tried something else, the pretty leatherwork be damned.

Under ideal circumstances he would have loved to give the stallion a good brush down, tons of treats, and get him used to the idea of equipment.

There was simply no time.

Max looked like he was trying to decide if he was going to rear up and stomp on Tobias, or just turn and bolt.

Somehow – probably something to do with the Steed Tamer class – he managed to stand with only a little prancing in place.

Though he did toss his head a few times before he would accept the halter and the bit in his mouth.

Time was ticking down, and it took everything Tobias had in him to stay calm and patient. This was a living animal with a mind of his own. Not a pre-System car he could jump in, turn the key, and drive.

After what seemed to be an age, but was likely less than a minute, Max finally accepted the bit in his mouth. Though he still played with it a lot, clearly unused to the feel of the snaffle on his tongue.

Tobias rewarded him with a soft pat on the neck, then returned to the saddle to check that the girth was still cinched tight. It was, which meant that Max was still too new to riding to have figured out the trick of sucking in air to keep the girth – the big strap that went around the middle—looser.

That was something smart horses figured out almost immediately. If they inflated their barrels, then the strap around their bellies wouldn’t be as tight later. It didn’t matter to them whether the saddle holding their rider fell off or not.

Tobias’s father taught him the trick of walking a horse around for a few minutes to let them relax and let out their air. Then return and cinch the saddle band back tight.

The moment he finished his checks and let the stirrups down to what he assumed would be the right length for his legs, he received a notification.

New Skill Acquired – Steed Handling 1

So, he got new skills as well as new levels.

Nodding to himself, Tobias dismissed the notice and then grabbed up a rope to lead Max out. Then he paused.

I need to hurry, he reminded himself.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

But there was an opportunity here he could not afford to pass up.

He dropped the rope to let Max stand and get used to the saddle. Then he moved back to the tack room and the racks of saddles. Tobias placed his hand on what he judged to be the second-best saddle and concentrated on his storage ring. The saddle seemed to shrink in place and then disappeared. Within a moment it had become another line item within his inventory.

Tobias moved to the next saddle, and the next. Each took less than a second.

He stared at the ring on his hand. “How much can I fit in here?”

It turned out he could fit all the saddles, save for the ones that were so broken he didn’t bother with them. He could also fit every rope in the room, including the fancy pre-System ones with the synthetic weaving and the metal snap on one end. He stored every head halter and bit U-shaped pull halters for the plow-beasts. Then he threw in extra snaps, straps, buckets, grooming equipment including bruises, soaps, hoof picks and every horseshoe he could get his hand on.

Tobias completely emptied the room except for the whips, hobbles, branding irons, and other pieces of equipment that were distasteful to him.

Though he already had a mountain of coins in his storage ring, it was only with the addition of the tack and gear that he felt rich.

And he sensed he had even more room in the ring to spare.

He passed by Max who seemed to pick up on his good mood and swiveled his ears curiously.

“I’m going to grab the feed.” Tobias was unsure how much Max understood but was certain he could at least pick up on the tone. “With the extra food, there’s no reason I can’t take the mare and the mule, too.”

On impulse, he stepped forward to look the horse in the eye. “You know the ones I’m talking about? She’s the only pregnant horse, and the only mule. I already put halters on them. Cut them out of the rest of the herd outside and then wait for me. I’ll be there in a few minutes.”

Part of him wondered if he was going insane for talking to a horse like this. It was rumored that some classes ate away at a person’s mind – though those were supposed to be dark and high magic classes. Necromancy and such.

Tobias had never heard anything like a Steed Tamer before, so who knew?

Everything else he’d asked the horse to do so far was something he would have probably done on his own anyway: bullying the other horses, which was his right as a young stallion, and attacking Brock which a violent horse like Max would happily do in any case.

But he could swear there were wheels and cogs turning behind Max’s eyes.

The horse suddenly shook out his mane, turned in a neat circle, then trotted out of the tack room and through the open doors to the outside paddock.

Maybe he did understand me, Tobias thought. Or… he just went out to join the rest of the herd like any normal horse.

Either way, he was heading in the right direction.

He quickly went to the back feed room to add whatever he could to the ring. There wasn’t much left: Three bags of grain which was not nearly enough to support the Overlord’s large herd, bales of alfalfa that stood only waist high. Again, not nearly enough to support the Overlord’s herd. And a few half mineral blocks.

Still, the theft gave him time to think.

He couldn’t just run off in the middle of the night with three horses in tow without being confronted. He probably couldn’t even do it if he were by himself.

There were Warrior path guards posted at check points all throughout Alpha City and especially ringing the outer perimeter. They were meant to keep wild System beats out… and escaping people in.

He was going to need both a distraction and a good excuse for why he was riding with several horses.

Also, some way to cover my tracks so no one realizes it was me who killed Brock. Oh yeah, and the magical spurs, Tobias thought with a frown.

Despite the difficulty, he spared a moment to wish he could take the whole herd with him. But anything that went into the wild lands outside Alpha City – or the Wildy as the Overlord insisted they call it – became monster food.

It was going to be risky enough with three horses, plus himself.

The very least thing he could do was to set the rest of the horses free, so they had at least one night to stretch their legs. Horses were meant to run and be free. These horses worked, and when they weren’t working, they were shut up in small stalls.

So, he needed a distraction, a way to set the horses free, and for it to cover his tracks.

There was only one way he could think to accomplish all of this.

Fire. The bane of all stables.

If the people the Overlord hired had any sense, they would have kept fire well away from the barn. Dry hay lay everywhere. Its dust drifted up thick in the air just awaiting a spark. Not to mention the dry timber that made up the skeleton of the large barn.

Inflammable mage lights were mana expensive, or so Tobias was told. So, the Overlord’s sub-bosses ordered that the Support Pathers use either candles or lamps with oil.

Once Tobias was certain he had stored everything of value, he grabbed a handful of loose straw. Then, with a held breath, he opened a glass lamp that hung off a nearby nail and stuck the ends of the hay stalks in.

The hay caught fire at once and Tobias dropped it in a nearby corner against a wall. It smoldered there, sullenly. Not fast enough.

Tobias grabbed one of the bales they used for bedding – the straw being too poor in quality for all but starving horses to care about. With the strength born of years of labor, he snapped the straps and spread all the loose straw over Brock’s corpse. This barn could be the man’s pyre.

He grabbed a second oil lamp, stood back, and slammed it down by the man’s head.

Oil and flame exploded out and Tobias was lucky he stood well out of range. More importantly, the fire quickly caught and spread.

Tobias ran out the front doors.