RETURN OF THE SHADOW - Chapter 182

The jaws and the salamandrid scale and skins were quite precious and salamandrid skin armor would have high fire resistance and defence that it can be used till tier 1. The heart and meat also can be used to create dishes which give a slight amount of fire resistance, but it was clear to him that most of it had been wasted, burned or filled with impurities from the explosive which couldn’t be used.

He dug into the flesh of the beast to get to the stomach and took out a flaming stone. It was dealing him burn damage even after the beast had died. He quickly put it in his bag and checked the fireglow in the container that he had. Satisfied by the fact that he had managed to capture a fireglow and got a firestone withing 2 minutes, he started to cut up the usable parts of the beast quickly and made way to the tree to check out the surroundings.

The salamandrid and he had made quite a few loud noises. Though weaker beasts would be detered by the sounds, there was a slight chance that stronger ones might be attracted. The highest chance was that other salamandrids might be attracted. He took out his scope and began to check the surroundings before deciding a direction to proceed in.

As expected, in a few seconds he saw another salamandrid approaching him from an area about a few hundred metres away. He quickly stashed his scope in his bag and moved in that direction. He found it and used the same method as before to capture a fireglow on it. While attacking, he decided to kill the salamandrid in the same method as he did the previous one.

After he caught the second fireglow, he realized that the important thing was to collect the insects rather than killing the salamandrid as he had less time. If he managed to get a few fireglows tamed, he could get experience faster, come back to try and tame more fireglows and kill more salamandrids.

Though he was lowing materials, he was getting 525 experience point per one kill of the salamandrid. It was clear to him that farming at this place would definitely help him increase his experience than forging. So, continued the same for a few more minutes till it was dark that he couldn’t do anything more.

He had managed to capture 5 fireglows in this time and also managed to get hold of 5 firestones. His attempts have also begun to get the attention of other beasts. So, he decided te use his hearthstone to get back to the White Heart City to get the fireglows tamed. It would be easier to farm if he could get his team along with him.

So, he went back to the pet shop and requested the NPC to meet the resident tamer of the shop. The NPC asked for the specimen and once he had confirmed he led him out of the shop and behind it where there was another door. They went through the door and found a large empty room lined with a few cages with a beast or two in them. The centre of the place had a female NPC and she was petting a ram which was eating some feed from the other hand of the tamer.

[Berlyn] (Master Tamer)

Level: ?????

HP: ?????

The tamer was a 6 feet long lady who wore a deep blue colored leather armor. She had a round pleasant face with green eyes and had red colored hair which dropped to her waist. Shadow had never seen her before as the players had learned taming skill by two years when he had joined the game.

“Hello!” said Berlyn standing up. “Who is our new visitor?”

“Master Berlyn, this is a customer who wanted to have a consultation with you,” said the manager. “Mr. Shadow Tyrant is the first citizen of the White Heart City. He wanted to talk about taming of a few insects.”

“Mr. Shadow, Master Berlyn is one of the best tamers that visit the city. She is a druid who had been to the dryad city of Grovestian and had been trained by the best of the tamers. She has been taming beast for our store for a long time and has been recognized by the guild as a Master Tamer,” said the manager introducing the tamer. “I will let you to talk shop,” he said walking out of the room.

“Master Berlyn, I am Shadow and wanted to consult you about taming fireglows,” said Shadow as he came forward and pulled out the containers with the fireglows.

“Nice to meet you, Adventurer,” said Berly as she took one of the containers in her hand and watched the fireglow from close. “I haven’t really ever tamed insects. In fact, I haven’t even seen fireglows from such closely before.”

“I have heard that it is very hard to tame insects and most tamers don’t usually attempt it,” said Shadow. “But I hoped that you could at the very least advise me in just keeping them alive and ways to attract them back into the containers. The very basic of training. I don’t need anything else.”

“You plan to use them as lanterns,” said Berlyn immediately recognizing Shadow’s need.

“Yes. It is too hard to hunt in the night without proper light and unlike lanterns these don’t keep one of my hands busy,” said Shadow nodding to the tamer.

“That is relatively simpler compared to the many other requests that come to me,” said Berlyn as she retrieved a small book making a quick picture of the insect surprising Shadow. “Most who come to consult me actually have requests like teaching their pets some skills.”

“I have been trained by dryads. They don’t tame insects. They tend to have a concept of loving their pets and that is hard with insects. Most insects die on attacking and dryads find it hard to teach their pets to even fight. They mostly teach them scouting, riding and scavenging techniques. Insects don’t have much mental capacity and can’t actually learn such skills. Some insects can be used for scouting, but these require special training methods, mostly sonic skills from the owner to get a decent performance from them,” she said explaining the difficulty in taming insects.

“You require them to only hover near you and move in certain directions as they provide light. It is quite easier than other things. I have a suggestion that might work. First, we need to realize something that attracts them and keep them healthy and safe. The rest is easy,” said the tamer as she pulled out some feed and put it through a small hole in the lid and to check the fireglow’s reaction to it.

“So, what do they feed on? I have only thought that they feed on Salamandrid skin and ate stuff grown near volcanoes?” asked Shadow. “I haven’t seen or heard of them eat anything else.”

Berlyn looked a bit displeased that an adventurer is questioning her methods. No customer ever asked her about her methods before. It could be considered as trying to get to know her tricks or countermanding her. “Adventurer Shadow, asking a tamer’s methods isn’t very appropriate.”

“Sorry, I had never interacted with a tamer before. I am just concerned as I would have to feed the fireglows, if I am going to use them,” apologized Shadow. He was confused by the entire thing. In his past life, there was already a standardized insect feed being sold and used for insects in the city.

“That might be true, but I am still experimenting. I hope you understand the process and I am not responsible if anything bad happens to the fireglows. You need to understand that when a tamer is handling new species, we can’t guarantee their safety completely,” said Berlyn in a calm tone. “But even I heard that the fireglows only survive at place having a lot of fire elements. So, you might be right,” she continued.

“OK. I understand.”

“No, you don’t. You managed to catch the fireglows. So, you have been to their habitat. You can get me something which have seen it close to,” said Berlyn.

“It lives on salamandrids. I have some of the skin and meat,” said Shadow pulling out a bit of his spoils from killing the salamandrids.

“That might work,” said Berlyn taking them from Shadow’s hands and making a paste a small amount of which she put into the fireglow container. The fireglow reacted to it and started to eat it, but it only ate a small amount and left the remaining in the container.

“Well, one part done, but I would like to keep in further observation. Sometimes, there might be adverse effects of the change in diet,” said Berlyn not willing to give the fireglow back immediately.

“I will leave you to research on that. Consider, the fireglow a gift,” offered Shadow. “So, what was the other part? You told that once we have dealt with issue of feed and attracting them, we can easily tame them.”

“Oh, yes. That is the easy part. The problem you will have with insects is to control their flight path and movements properly. Even the fae who have one of the best insect tamers use sound for controlling their swarms,” said Berlyn. “You need to use nocturnal bird and just hang a glass cage containing the fireglow on their feet.”

“What?! That’s all!” exclaimed Shadow.

“Yes. That is the best option. I would suggest nightjars or nighthawks. They have a good mental capacity and can see well at night which can be very useful for scouting at night as well as scourging for things. They are quite easier to control compared the other ones and nighthawk have a high speed and endurance with the ability to grow to strong beasts,” suggested Berlyn.

“There are common nightjars and nighthawks available at the store. You can choose to buy them. The equipment for attaching fireglows to the birds can be considered my gift. You can leave now,” said Berlyn placing the fireglow container on a cage and letting out a small wolf from a cage and started to feed it.

Shadow made his way back to the manager of the pet store. The manager had already been informed of the details of their transaction and had a few equipment ready for him. He immediately took Shadow to the second floor where there were quite a few birds and beasts on display. He took him to a corner where there was a door which led to the nocturnal section.

As he entered the room, he realized that the entire room was dark with sparse light entering from small holes at the edges of the room. He couldn’t see anything in the place. The manager took a small lantern which a emitted a mild light. “We don’t really use lights in the room unless a customer asks for one of them. They really don’t like to light. Most of them get startled and we recommend covering the cages of birds with a cloth,” explained the manager.

There were a bunch of animals in the place. There were all kinds here. Raccoons, monkeys, owls, snakes were the ones that he recognized immediately. He had never seen so many different kinds of nocturnal animals before. The manager took him past a few cages, and he could finally see the birds that the tamer suggested.

[Common Nightjar] (flying pet)

Level: 10;

HP: 2500/2500;

Perception: 45;

Attack speed: 50;

Physical attack:

Peck attack: 70;

[Nighthawk eyas] (elite flying pet)

Level: 13;

HP: 3000/3000;

Perception: 60;

Attack speed: 70;

Physical attack:

Peck attack: 80;

“I would suggest the nighthawk as it lives longer and has better capabilities than the common nightjar. Even the babies have stronger physique than the common nightjar,” said the manager pointing to the cages.

“How many do you have?” asked Shadow.

“Six babies and two a.d.u.l.ts. There are more eggs. You can have more if you want, it is just a matter of time as we have a set of parents,” said the manager. “I would recommend one per an adventurer. Else, it would be hard to maintain a good amount of control.”

“My friends also need a few. Can you point me towards other nocturnal pets that can be used for scouting?” asked Shadow. “And why would one have trouble maintaining control over the multiple pets?”

“Oh! That is due to the nature of the business. As we have an intention to sell. We put most of the pets on a spell which we later change so that it thinks you to be the tamer that had raised it. It is the best way

to make them obedient as almost all beasts raised in captivity have the closest link with the tamer who raised them. There is a specific keyword used for every kind of pet. When multiple pets of the same type are sold to the same customer, there tends to be an overlapping which makes it harder for one to control the pets,” explained the manager.

“It could be true,” thought Balthazar. He had always raised pets from the beginning or captured and raised them in his past life. He had never used a pet store to buy a pet before. “Might be a method used by the system to restrict players from depending too much on the pet store. After all, its main aim is to improve the skill of the people,” he thought as he nodded to the manager.

“So, could you introduce me to other nocturnal scouting animals?” he asked.

“Nighthawks and Tyto Owls are the best aerial scouts at lower levels. Can’t sell you high level ones as they don’t tend to obey weaker masters. It is a matter of safety of the customers. Raccoons and monkeys can be useful to check caves or so, but high chance of losing their life. Snakes and pythons are a viable option, but they tend to be harder to control. You could also use a bat for this issue,” said the manager.

“Ok. Give me a Nighthawk eyas and my friends are coming for who would also like to buy a few more of the same,” said Shadow. He had already contacted Slaine and talked about his plan to him. He asked to only get a few top ones who they planned to include in a 5-man team if they participated in competitions.

“Sure, eyas are easier to tame as they are still younglings. It will be a better option if you plan to use it for long term. They don’t mind mild magical lighting, but they avoid proper light,” said the manager as pulled out a small cage and pulled an nighthawk eyas from its larger cage and gave it Shadow.

“You can put it in a pet pouch,” suggested the manager pulling out a small sack. “It is a basic one that has an internal space to hold upto 10 cubic metres. You can have up to 5 normal sized pets in it. Specially made to hold pets. Can’t put non-living being in it.”

The manager performed a small spell after which he had the nighthawk eyas eat some feed through his hand. It flew to his should, began to nibble and rub its head against his neck. “It recognizes you as its master,” said the manager. “You just need to feed it in time during early hours of twilight daily to maintain loyalty and can feed it more to help it grow faster. It is already trained to fly. It can fly up to a height of 30 metres for a duration of one hour easily. You can also use it for scouting when it grows up.”

The went out and Shadow had paid the manager for the nighthawk, feed and collected the equipment to use along with it. As he was paying, Slaine entered the pet store with Rudra, Brick, Roll and Light.