A group of kids crowded around the wagon, gawking at the various normally dangerous beasts.
“Wow,” a young girl whispered, staring up at Rika.
“Want to pet her?” I asked, and she quickly nodded. The frosted direfox leapt down to the ground and walked around the girl, her long tail trailing after her and encircling the excited child. Rika stopped back in front of the girl and allowed her to touch her soft fur. I grinned, looking around at the other Mibara children who were excitedly whispering about the beasts.
Some of these kids were basically toddlers last time I had passed through the village. They had probably seen a few larger, higher rank beasts pass through over the years, but most of the underage kids in the local club of tamers only had rank F and G beasts. Some of the older members had rank E beasts, mostly lubargs, rockstalkers, pannids, and other beasts that had been bred in Freehold for years and sold through the Gurt branch, as well as some oxalire for farming and a single, co-owned tarand for emergencies. Without a local branch and more resources, there were no rank D beasts in the village, save for my own as I passed through.
“What’s that one?” a young boy asked, pointing.
“That is a collus,” I explained, walking over and stroking the dark feathers of the beast. It was a bit like the griffators that I had fought with as a child around Mirut, except where that was a jungle ambush predator, the collus was a skyborne threat. It was huge for a bird, if it was even taxonomically correct to call it a bird, but otherwise small and weak compared to many rank D beasts. I had yet to actually evolve one, as it had taken years before we could acquire a breeding pair, and I was looking forward to seeing what this transformed into when we reached the capital. I told the kids a bit about where they were found and how they hunted, and how rare they were and hard to find and tame.
The velociraptor-meet-eagle was rather regal looking, and I was glad to have it on my team. I would have liked to have a swift griffator as well, but since they could not evolve further, it was a bit of a waste to bring one with a collus on deck.
“And this one?” another child asked, eyes wide.
“This one is a headpounder,” I said, looking over the dark, green-tinged beast that sort of resembled one of human’s closest relatives on Earth. While not actually a gorilla, and probably not even an ape—it had paws instead of hands—it had similar massive shoulders and powerful arms, making it appear front-heavy with a smaller backside and a nub of a tail. Its head was more like that of a cape buffalo, including a mean looking set of horns. It would pounce on its prey, pinning or grabbing it with its dexterous paws, then smash it into submission with its horned forehead. It reminded me a bit of a minotaur, except less humanoid and more feral.
It was one of the strongest rank D beasts I knew of, nearly comparable to the rank C living tanks like shuggopotami or rhinothells, but it was better suited to fighting against smaller enemies. Because of how it fought, it was just not well-suited to fight against larger threats like the dracosaur, which is why I did not bring it with me for that fight the year before.
Fortunately, I was able to bring back plenty of meat to reach its level cap. I was not entirely sure how rank was determined, and privately thought that if it had a more balanced body to allow it to charge, ram, and have the endurance to run further, it would have been a rank C beast, however it was that rank was actually determined.
As big and powerful as it was, when tame and at rest it was rather lovable looking. Once you saw it fight, it was difficult to go back to looking at the gorilla-buffalo as cuddly, but for the kids who were only seeing it relaxed, I could see how they could be excited. That would not be the case for the last member of my menagerie.
“And this one,” I said, anticipating the children. “Is a mecrokotas.”
I looked at the enormous, heavy breathing beast, then back at the wary children. While the collus probably could have carried off a child, never to be seen again, and the headpounder could crush their skulls in with a single smashing headbutt, there was something uniquely disconcerting about the mecrokotas. It had taken me a while before I decided to tame this one and bring it with me, but I needed firepower that could ride the wagon, particularly if I failed to find any other rank D or C beasts along the way to make use of.
The mecrokotas was from east of Taraponi, another beast that Hella had brought back for the Guild. At a glance, it did not look that much more powerful than some rank E beasts like lubargs or pannids, but it was a surprisingly sturdy creature. When put up against their evolved forms, like the lion-sized proud lubarg, anyone not in the know would put their money on the proud lubarg, and yet the mecrokotas managed to not just hold their own, but usually come out on top.
It was another beast, like the headpounder, with well developed forequarters compared to a weaker backside, but unlike the headpounder, this beast had endurance to spare. Its long, thick neck gave it an intensity and power that was not to be ignored. It had a wiry, bristly medium length coat and rounded ears with a flat muzzle filled with sharp teeth. Its eyes had a tendency to bore into you, as if constantly waiting for you to lower your defenses. It was a hyena-like killer, twice as large as those on Earth, as though it had a grizzly bear in its recent family tree.
A large round ear twitched and the mecrokotas lazily lifted his head, glancing around at the children who quickly took a step or three backwards. It snickered, and set its head back down.
As uncomfortable as the beast could make people, I was glad it was on my side.
* * *
Once the kids were satisfied, I spoke with some of the older tamers who were already members with the Guild. I gauged their skills—with my 3-point magic appraisal, although to their eyes, I did a mundane evaluation—and let them know which of them I thought was close to advancing to bronze rank and should try taming a rank D, which was only two people. To the others, I recommended continuing to practice taming more beasts, and made recommendations for what I knew the Guild had in stock that they could request from Freehold in Gurt, if they wanted to buy young beasts to raise rather than go hunt.
Mibara’s village leader was a friendly woman, and we spent some time discussing the latest news and recent happenings along the east-west route to Roko. There had been some increased traffic out of the walled cities towards settlements since Tobar’s death, mostly people concerned with what the changing tide might bring. While the Kingdom had settled to a comfortable level after losing the north under Tobar’s rule, a new head beneath the crown was almost always turbulent to some degree. Hopefully, it would be for the best and the Kingdom would be prosperous, and those that left the cities who did not mesh with village life would return ashamed, hat in hand, or head on to a new city and try to make a fresh start.
It was too early to tell, and I personally could not predict what this Tournament of Talents meant for the future of the Kingdom. I did not want to assume Rugnor’s intentions were bad just because I had my own issues with authority and the crown, but concentrating power was not a particularly good look, especially with his willingness to forgive criminal history in exchange for the aid of the powerful.
The main problem with people leaving the city in large numbers was that it invariably led to a rise in banditry. People rarely set out intending on falling to banditry, but when food got scarce, humans were only ever nine meals from anarchy. If faced with watching those you love starve, or starving yourself, there was no knowing what a person could do.
While Mibara had not faced much banditry, as it was almost as far from the central Kingdom as Gurt, which saw little emigration, apparently banditry was on the rise around Roko. I thanked the village leader for her time and the information, since we would no doubt encounter said interruption on our route, being a higher value target with the wagon and tarands.
Of course, I would be happy to introduce those bandits to my friendly companions, I thought. My mecrokotas was always willing to make some new friends.
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In truth, I could not really risk losing my beasts in battle to bandits before reaching the capital and the tournament, but they would give any attempted opposition enough pause that they would either rethink their plan to take us on, or give me ample opportunity to deal with them myself, even if I had to keep myself restricted in how I operated due to Damir’s presence.
We spent a night in Mibara as guests of the village leader, and I offered her a small gift of cheese, syrup, and some fruit we grew on the farm. What was a fairly simple party platter on Earth was a valuable gift on this world, and Mibara’s leader was happy as could be to receive it. We had a pleasant dinner, a comfortable sleep, and in the morning the village children saw us off after we loaded back up to depart.
After half the morning on the road, Damir cleared his throat. “You, uh, wouldn’t happen to have another one of those fruits that you’d be willing to share, eh?”
I sighed, suppressing a chuckle at his boldness, and crawled over the driver seat back into the wagon. Having a driver seat was actually kind of pointless, since the tarands drove the wagon themselves as tamed beasts and I only needed to ask if I wanted something different from them, but I could imagine a time where after enough generations of selective breeding and keeping the tamest beasts, wagons could be driven by more domesticated tarands with mundane reins. If that did come to pass, I did not want to need a brand new wagon design, so Freehold’s wagons were built with mundane control in mind from the start.
I rummaged around in a trunk that was stored in the back among the beasts, which in actuality only really contained filled waterskins, some cheap road rations, and other low-value items, and pulled a few fruits from my inventory out of sight before making my way back to the driver’s seat. I handed Damir one of the apple-pear fruits, and kept two skillfruit for myself.
He raised his eyebrow at my two fruit, and I shook my head. “It’s an acquired taste. Too tart. You wouldn’t like it,” I said, hinting that he should drop it, which he did. I had plenty of both in my inventory, and I planned on eating plenty of skillfruit on the journey to the capital. If feeding Damir other fruit kept him off my back about it and not asking too many questions, it was worth the lost product.
Swallowing the SP-boosting fruits, sweeter than the wild-grown ones I had first discovered and started with but still tart enough that I would have liked some syrup to go with them, I considered my stats and which skills I wanted to beef up on my journey. Many of my skill points over the past year had gone into Taming, predictably, and I had not yet gained another level since beating the dracosaur, though I was getting close. Level 45 would be a nice SP windfall, and I was strongly debating further advancing Strength now that I had grown into the advanced skill.
Part of it was vanity. The people in this world were largely not overweight like they had been in my first life, and the active laborers or soldiers were often fit and had sleek, corded muscles. The diet in much of the Kingdom was not that high in protein, relying on grains as staples, which limited their muscle growth. A part of me liked the attention I got, having a nicer physique than most, even if I did not earn it quite the same way, manually applying skill points to achieve it.
After spending an important year of my life in the Velgein lands of the north, where the people ate mostly meat, daily life was harder, and they were all pretty well-muscled, I did not want to fall behind. I was not sure I would ever meet Golchev again, but if I did, it would be nice to stand next to him eye-to-eye and match him pound-for-pound. I also knew that my strength had helped me a lot in my adulthood, and I expected it would help me again, either in the tournament or surviving what came after. My magic was a trump card, but obvious strength was as much a weapon as the sword on my hip.
I more or less knew that double-advancing Strength would noticeably change my appearance, pushing me from the realm of ‘peak genetics’ up to ‘enhanced physique’ or even ‘superhero body,’ so I needed to be cautious. Morag, the blacksmith in Mirut that I had first seen the skill on and one of the few I had seen in the Kingdom, had been double-advanced and cut a ridiculously imposing figure, the kind of man you could imagine tossing anvils around with ease. He also worked all day, every day, hauling around hunks of metal and smashing them with a hammer. He had earned the skill through hard work, the skill points applying themselves naturally.
If I allowed myself to increase the skill slowly over the journey, which should point-by-point increase my strength quantitatively without causing an extremely notable change, it might not be too overt and go unnoticed by Damir. Once he saw me to the capital, I could apply the last point and reach the new tier.
I applied the two new SP to Strength, feeling my muscles pump slightly under my clothing. If I did another one to two points in Strength every other day, I should be easily primed to double-advance in the capital.
That left me about the same number of points to play with on the off-days, meaning I could double-advance another skill if I wanted. I took a look at my skill menu, debating.
SP: 0
+ 3-Point Magic (0/1000)
+ 4-Point Magic (100/1000)
+ 5-Point Magic (0/1000)
+ 6-Point Magic (100/1000)
+ 8-Point Magic (100/1000)
+ Acrobatics (0/1000)
+ Brewing (0/1000)
+ Butchery (0/100)
+ Cooking (0/100)
+ Detect (0/1000)
+ Enchanting (0/100)
+ Foraging (0/100)
+ Horticulture (0/100)
+ Inkmaking (0/100)
+ Inventory (0/1000)
+ Knotting (0/100)
+ Leatherworking (0/100)
+ Literacy (0/100)
+ Needlework (0/100)
+ Negotiation (0/100)
+ One-Armed (0/1000)
+ Ranged (0/1000)
+ Smithing (0/100)
+ Stealth (0/100)
+ Strength (2/100)
+ Taming (486/1000)
+ Tanning (0/100)
+ Two-Armed (0/1000)
+ Unarmed (0/100)
+ Woodworking (0/100)
Many of my advanced skills were crafting-type skills, and would not particularly benefit me to further advance as I headed towards the tournament. Negotiation might help me in the capital, where I was more likely to meet merchants with the double-advanced skill, but I also was doing well when it came to finances and could afford to trade without applying pressure and nickel-and-diming other traders. It also was unlikely to help me in the tournament.
Stealth was something I had neglected after spending years rather comfortably in Freehold, and was already advanced enough to help me when I hunted for meat. My mundane stealth was boosted tremendously with 5-point magic, anyway. As far as that form of magic went, I had let that slip behind, so I decided it was time to bring it back up to speed. Though it was generally billed as illusion magic, it was also how I formed my barriers, and I could imagine other tricks with light and sound that I had not fully explored since double-advancing the skill. That’s something I can do while overwintering in Roko.
Beyond increasing all my magic, further increasing my taming towards mastery, and double-advancing Strength, perhaps adding some points to Unarmed would be a good idea. It complemented my strength nicely in a non-lethal way, which might be nice to have in the tournament, which I sincerely hoped was not going to be fights to the death. Since the crown wanted to collect powerful individuals and bring them to Rugnor’s aid, I was assuming that fighting to the death was off the table, but I truly did not know.
As always, I would also keep my eyes open for possible new skills that I would benefit from. It was easy to gain one now, more or less at will, with the skillfruit I always had on hand in my inventory. My skill list was enormous already compared to most people’s, and I rarely saw new skills that interested me, but it was always a possibility.
With a vague plan in mind, I glanced at my full profile before dismissing my metasystem.
Pilus Horgson (Lv 44)
HP: 334/334
MP: 455/483
Status: Absorption (major), Protection (major)
EXP: 3771/4400
Skills: 3-Point Magic(++), 4-Point Magic(++), 5-Point Magic(++), 6-Point Magic(++), 8-Point Magic(++) Acrobatics(++), Brewing(++), Butchery(+), Cooking(+), Detect(++), Enchanting(+), Foraging(+), Horticulture(+), Inkmaking(+), Inventory(++), Knotting(+), Leatherworking(+), Literacy(+), Needlework(+), Negotiation(+), One-Armed(++), Ranged(++), Smithing(+), Stealth(+), Strength(+), Taming(++), Tanning(+), Two-Armed(++), Unarmed(+), Woodworking(+)
Familiars: Collus (Lv 10), Frosted Direfox (Lv 7), Headpounder (Lv 10), Mecrokotas (Lv 10), Tarand (Lv 8), Tarand (Lv 10)
I stretched, sat back to digest, and kept my eyes on the road ahead. We still had a long way to go before the next settlement.