Then again, perhaps I shouldn’t be too astonished – I have just Tamed about twenty different creatures in a single night. If two Bonds got me to Novice, maybe I should instead be shocked that twenty new Bonds didn’t shoot me all the way to the peak of Journeyman.

Congratulations!

You have advanced a Class Skill past Novice. Tame is now Initiate 1. Due to your uses of this Skill, two new effects have been discovered.

Effect 1: Quantity is its own version of quality. However, to gain the full benefit of this, delegation is key. You can now nominate ‘Managers’ of teams of up to five additional individuals. The Managers will have a more limited version of your control over the Bonds. Note that no control will be accessible by your Managers which has not already been ceded to you. Due to your diverse type of Bonds, and the fact that the division between Tame Bonds and Dominate Bonds is not always clear, Managers can be either Tamed or Dominated beings, and are not limited to control only over others of the same type of Bond.

Effect 2: You have made the choice of diversity over homogeneity. You have more than twenty-five Bound and no more than two of the same type. As a result, you have a choice to make:

- Group special abilities: once per day, per Bound, each of your Bound can use an ability from any other of your Bound.

- Individual enhancement: once per day, per Bound, you can ‘borrow’ an ability from any of your Bound.

Which ability would you like to choose? Group special abilities / Individual enhancement

This is new. This is the first time I’ve had to make a decision on a rank-up message. And it’s a hard one. From what I gather, the first option would allow each of my Bound, once per day, to copy a special ability from another of my Bound. I have to guess that the kiinas’ airblades and Bastet’s fire-breath would be the main candidates here, though from my vague memories from last night, I think that two of my other new Bound have special abilities too.

That could be pretty powerful: imagine all of my Bound sending an airblade at the same time and overwhelming an enemy. Or half sending an airblade, and the other half setting fire to them with fire-breath. Really, that’s definitely a way of turning quantity into quality, as the first effect talked about.

On the other hand, giving myself the ability to borrow abilities would be pretty awesome. Right now, it’s more limited than the group option: I would only be able to ‘borrow’ an airblade twice and fire-breath once. And whatever my other new Bound have once too. But this could turn me into a really badass beast – once per day.

I briefly bask in dreams of pouring out attacks like some sort of magical gun turret, in the future when I potentially have access to attacks of every element and not just one. But after a moment, I shake my head and push it away.

It might be cool, but I mustn’t make my decision based on ‘cool-factor’. No, there’s a more important element to take into consideration: resources.

Both the kiinas’ airblade, and Bastet’s fire-breath use mana. The airblades are relatively economical in mana-use – they only seem to take ten units or so. The fire-breath, on the other hand, is rather heavy on its mana consumption, generally taking seventy or more units of mana at a time.

Although I need to check out the stats for all my new Tamed Bound, of my core group, only Bastet, River, and the two kiinas had the mana pool to even pull off a single fire-breath. However, they could have each pulled off an air-blade. So, unless borrowing the ability is ‘free’ – which I seriously doubt – then clearly there are other considerations than just the once per day limitation there.

At the same time, although my mana pool is significantly better than any of those of my Bound, what if in the future several more develop abilities more along the lines of Bastet’s mana-consuming one than the kiinas’ relatively economical one? In that situation, even I wouldn’t be able to take full benefit from having access to the full pool of my Bound’s abilities.

There’s also another factor to take into account: replicability. With sufficient study, could I succeed in replicating the attacks of my Bound all on my own? I’ve so recently gained Fire-shaping, though haven't really fully got to grips with it yet. When I have, what if I could learn to do a type of fire-breath by myself? Or even not have to rely on it being a breath attack – what if I could make jets of fire come out of my palms like a flame-thrower? Could I learn to create a wind attack of my own?

Honestly, given what I’ve learned to do so far, I suspect that I’m far more likely to learn to create an attack which is at least similar to what my Bound are capable of than all my Bound are to be able to do the same.

Plus, another thought. What if, by essentially having access to mana abilities before reaching Tier two, my Bound are therefore more likely to develop mana abilities? It’s an exciting thought. Though it does bring up another question: what if abilities can only be shared within the tier?

I frown at the text hanging in front of my eyes. It is stubbornly silent, not giving any indication whether my sudden fear might be true or not. Well, it doesn't say that there’s a limitation like that, I think to myself. It talks about once per day, per Bound. Should I take the risk?

Because, honestly, I think I’m leaning more towards group empowerment than personal empowerment. If I’m trapped, or out of mana, or needing to keep my mana for all the other magical things I’m able to do, then I’ve essentially wasted this choice.

Just like the first effect mentioned, delegation is important. As the most recent battle and then subsequent night proved, I have enough uses for my mana at the moment. Unless I double or triple my mana pool, I’m unlikely to have much spare mana floating around in times of crisis. Certainly not enough to become a magical gun turret.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

So, just as the first effect is linked to improving the group, I think the second effect should be too. I haven’t even properly considered the first effect, so caught up in trying to make my choice for the second.

The ability to raise some of my Bound to the position of ‘manager’ both excites and frustrates me. I was wondering how the hell I was going to be able to properly direct so many Bound, but this is an easy solution. But it is frustrating that even in a world which never knew humans before me, I can’t get away from corporate hierarchy.

At least this time, I’m at the top! Though it is interesting that I can essentially grant a certain amount of power over the Bonds to my ‘Managers’. I already know that Bastet and River will be my first candidates, but will have to spend some time considering who the others will be, and who I’m going to assign to them.

Suddenly, I become glad for all my experience in HR. I wouldn’t have any clue where to start otherwise. But as it is, I know: draw up a job description of what I’m looking for, then create profiles of all the candidates, both for Manager roles and for their teams.

Strangely excited to get started, I choose ‘Group special abilities’, confirm ‘yes’ when it asks whether I’m sure, then close the window.

We’re travelling through the forest. When I check my map briefly, I see that we’re heading away from the cave, into an area which has no detail on my map. I realise that we’re following a combination of Sirocco’s scouting and Fenrir’s nose by observing the cavalcade for a bit. Hades is travelling beside Persephone, right in the middle of the group, the safest position, I guess. Probably a good idea with me focussing so much on my notifications.

Seeing that we’re still travelling, I decide to quickly look at my status screen – there have been enough changes to it that I want to actually see them.

Name: Markus Wolfe

Race: Human

Class: Tamer

Level: 13

Energy to next level: 48%

Energy absorption rate: 46u/hr

Energy towards debt: 84% (248)

Intelligence

36+1 (+5%)

Mana: 555/555 (15u/IP)

Wisdom

40+2 (+5%)

Mana regeneration rate: 1050u/hr

Willpower

43+10 (+25%)

Health regeneration rate: 53u/hr

Constitution

22

Health: 330/330 (15u/CP)

Strength

20

Stamina: 120/120

Dexterity

20

Stamina regeneration rate: 200u/hr

Class skills

Dominate – Initiate 2

*Companion Bond

Tame – Initiate 1

Fade – Initiate 3

Inspect Fauna – Novice 4

Inspect Flora – Beginner 8

Inspect Environment – Beginner 9

Fire-Taming – Beginner 3

Non-Class skills

Flesh-Shaping – Journeyman 9

Stealth – Novice 3

Animal Empathy – Journeyman 1

Meditation – Journeyman 4

Energy Manipulation – Master 1

Sensation Management – Beginner 7

Spearmanship – Beginner 9

Archery – Beginner 7

Blunt Weaponry – Novice 1

Short Blades – Beginner 5

Fire-Shaping – Beginner 3

In addition to the rank-ups, Flesh-Shaping went up one whole level – though I suppose that I should be grateful it did that much, sitting in Journeyman as it is – and so did Short Blades. That one probably only because I did something different with my knife – poisoning it first. I did get a nice chunk of Energy, either from the danaris or from Taming so many creatures.

Honestly, I’m still not entirely sure if I do get Energy from that. I seem to get some with Dominate, but with Tame? I haven’t noticed, but I’ve generally been more focussed on other things each time. With Sirocco, it was the vine-strangler forest. With Lathani, it was saving Fenrir. With all these others, it was more about getting through the whole lot so we could sleep in safety and peace.

Perhaps one day I’ll be able to definitively answer the question, but it’s not today.

Seeing as we’re still travelling, I pull one of the bits of spiderweb off my belt. Once more fingering it, I try to identify its texture. Somewhere between wool and silk, I decide in the end. It’s warm, far warmer than silk, but it’s not nearly as scratchy as wool. This will be perfect for clothes, I decide.

Pulling one of the pieces from my Inventory, I close my eyes and compare them. Surprisingly, there’s not much difference. Both accept my mana and take about half my mana pool for a piece I’d estimate as about half a metre squared, more or less. The one which was in my Inventory takes a little bit more mana, perhaps three hundred and fifty where the other takes a little less than three hundred, but it’s not a big difference. Certainly not if I compare to what saturating carcasses is like.

Does that mean the danaris didn’t expend much Energy when creating this? Or because it’s a product rather than an implicit part, it’s less saturated anyway? Or perhaps it’s because it’s been sitting around for days – maybe it did have more Energy in but lost it over time? Though in that case I would expect there to be differences between the pieces which I haven’t put in my Inventory.

Once the pieces are saturated with mana, I test my control over them. To my glee, I discover that I can basically do the same thing with this material as with hide – I can change the shape easily. If it remains the same area, it takes precious little mana to change, but I can also expand it with extra investment of mana.

I test the material with some weapons too, as much as I can while riding on Hades. While I doubt it will have much effect on blunt damage since it has no rigidity to it – which is part of its attraction – I discover that it does have some potential as armour. My flint arrowheads battle to pierce it, though they would probably have more luck when travelling at speed, and my wooden spear fares even worse. My knife does manage to cut it, but I have to put some effort into doing so.

Clearly this material isn’t as strong as earth spiders’ web would be scaled up, but it’s far better than I could achieve with plant fibre, and much more flexible than equally armoured hide would ever be. And if it has the same effect as silk does on projectiles, this is definitely a good find.

Tucking the patches of web into my Inventory, I resolve to create some clothes for myself at the first possible opportunity.

Now, onto more important matters: a job description for a Manager.