RETURN OF THE SHADOW - Chapter 197

Hearing the deacon talk about this character Nodentius, he was sure that he had stumbled into learning some part of the lore of the place and it would be useful to find out more about it. He didn’t expect his priority to change suddenly but this was too god a chance to give up. Most of such lore would be associated with an armament or tool used by the concerned person and the players would get a chance to obtain it.

In his past life, all guild leaders and top management always had their feelers out for any information of this kind. All the hints that were in open places like the temple were already pursued by various guilds and most have succeeded by the time he had joined the game. This time, he had luckily stumbled into one such case and had no intention of giving it up.

He had knowledge of quite a few armaments’ appearance even if he didn’t know their skills and attribute values. So, he began to observe the statue of the knight much with more concentration. The knight had a turtle shell shield on his back with a pair of daggers just below the shield hanging from the back of his waist. He had a harpoon in one hand that he held upright.

Looking at the harpoon, Balthazar started to get a few doubts. He remembered a unique weapon called Sting Ray which looked like the same harpoon and was well known to be used by a berserker called Steel Breaker. He was one of the well-known players and his harpoon had both water and poison attributes skills which helped him create one of the most powerful adventurer teams of the Five-Elements empire.

It was extremely tempting for him to go ahead and explore the story of the knight to get to the harpoon. He couldn’t use it as it as he was an assassin player and even if he could get an assassin tool, he would use it as he already had void dragon set which he already started working on. But he could always put it in his bag and give it to someone he trusted. He needed to have a trusted berserker player for that though or he could at least sell the weapon later. The weapon is definitely a part of inheritance that would help occupy the sea region which was almost as important as the land.

He asked the deacon to see if he could explore the library of the temple to know more about the knight and spent some time going through the books and updated his map of the town using the one available at the temple before he asked for a quest. He also had 250 temple contribution points that he hadn’t used and decided to check if anything valuable was there. He was still disappointed as he couldn’t see things that were of much use except for an underwater breathing potion that was valued at 300 contribution points.

Being an iron-grade member, he would have special quests than the others which he could take. This finally was of some use to him as he found a quest that aligned with his aims. It was to contact the coastal guard to find out about some supplies which failed to reach the temple.

It was the thing he needed the most right now. He already got enough information to know the time to get to the coast, but he had to search through the coast and hope to find the coastal guard station. Now, he got a map to the station with the quest. He also had a reasonable reason to at least talk out with the players if he was caught by the Raiders at the beach.

He had decided that he needed to spend some time in the alchemist association to craft some antidotes. Apart foro the guide that he got Arias he also had herbs and poison that he had collected from the Greybark marshlands. As the original reason for him to come to the town was to explore the marshlands and kill knuckers, he had to prepare for making a trip alone into the place.

He had spent quite some time concocting potions in his past life to have a basic understanding of it. It was one thing to concoct antidotes which could nullify most potions, they need the appropriate ingredients that are hard to acquire and recipe that is even harder. Those might not even help subdue the poison of some of the monsters, but to handle specific toxins there were a couple of easier ways to produce antivenom for specific toxins.

The easiest way was the similar to the one in real-life. One had to use a beast. They had to take a strong beast, infect it and after the symptoms of the infection were down, one could concoct a potion using their blood which contained the naturally produced antivenom by these beasts. This was a commonly known thing in his previous life and that was the reason he had collected samples of poisons from the beasts when he went hunting in the marshlands with the other players.

This was one of the reasons a lot of guilds kept tamers and brought beasts that weren’t very useful in specific terrain. They were used for the purpose of making antivenoms when exploring new lands. The most effective is to capture beasts in that specific place as they would be able to lose the symptoms of poisoning of the other species much faster than those not native to the specific place.

The other method of getting an antidote was to kill the other species that lived in the cohabitation with the poisonous species and use their meat for making potions or just cooking and eating them. But it was always better to make potions as the effects of potions would persist longer than compared to simple cooking and eating. Usually, the herbs grown in same place also need to be used in conjunction with the meat.

He had also taken the meat from the beasts for the same reason. He collected enough herbs to make a few experiments. He had seen the attempts made by other players and also had some practice in his past life and he was sure that he could get it after a few experiments. He also needed a target to try out his potions.

So, his first point of visit needed to be a pet store where he could get the tamer to use the poison, he had to produce some blood after infecting beasts. The other need he had was to get a few antivenoms into some other animals like possums to test the antivenom which he made. The thing was that the test animals were usually disposable ones like possums.

Unlike the White Heart City, the place he was at currently was just a town. The facilities that were available also differed due to this. There was no pet store available but there was an intermediate tamer at the edge of the town who handled animals in a farmland. This was his right next to the forest. As it was just a town, one couldn’t expect Master Tamers. Intermediate tamers were the norm in most towns. Balthazar actually considered it better than the pet store as he could interact better with the tamer. Now that the upgrade of the game allowed a person to pursue as many secondary occupations as he wanted, Balthazar also wanted to try out taming.

Taming was a hard occupation as it needed knowledge of multiple other occupations like alchemy, herbology, cooking and even forging to be a good tamer. Herbology, alchemy and cooking were for feeding and improving the statistics of the tamer beast. One should also know the characteristics of various beasts, their tastes, physiology, etc. Forging was just an additional skill that could be used to create armor and improving the attacks of one’s tamed beast.

Balthazar first decided to request the tamer to teach him taming skill. For the most part, druids were the ones who usually tried to learn the beast taming skill as their own skills and magics helped with the process. They have methods to perceive the beasts and even transform into them which makes it easier for them to contact wild beasts and establish a contract with them. Balthazar knew that it would be impossible for him to do that and he hoped to learn the basics to at least teach the beasts that were his pets some attacks and other skills.

Moreover, he currently needed to ask the tamer to administer poison and collect blood. He wished to learn this and the methods to keep his beasts healthy and safe if they were affected by poisons. Unlike players, the pets which died would be lost forever. This needed them to be taken to tamers to heal even if they were crippled. Most players learnt the tamer skill just for this reason.

As he reached the location, he noticed that the farmland was actually a small part of the place marked on the map. There were only a few herbs being grown there which he was sure would be mostly used to help the growth of the beasts. These herbs were cordoned off with use of a fencing and magical shock wires covering the sides and the top which would keep the beasts from feasting on them wantonly. The rest was a large ground for the beasts to roam around freely.

There were only two buildings in the land owned by the tamer. One was his office and the other was a stable of sorts that he uses to hold beasts that would attack or kill the other beasts that he had in his land. This had cages and equipment to subdue the beasts.

He entered the office and was greeted by a secretary. “Greetings adventurer. If you want to buy any pet are beast, please browse our catalog,” she said as a list depicting various beasts, their possible skills, stats, features and prices materialized in his view.

There were a bunch of pets and items that would help grooming and equipping pets. There were a few pets common with the ones he saw in the pet store at the White Heart City. There were a few that he wouldn’t be able to find in the White Heart City and are only found in this town. There were even poisonous species like serpents and even the a few completely aquatic species. There was another board beside the secretary which had quests that were offered by Kiran. They ranged from meat to capturing beasts. Like the NPCs of other professions and shops, tamers would also offer quests.

He browsed through the list and noted down a few which he could probably perform in the forest. If he went to the forest, there was a high chance of him encountering a few beasts. Capturing beasts would also provide him reputation, but it wasn’t something that he could do alone. He marked a couple of them which he could try with the help of Agua Canalon if he did venture into the forest behind the town.

“I would like to meet the tamer,” asked Balthazar. “I have a special request from him.”

“Please, follow me. A consultation with Tamer Kiran would cost you a gold coins and further service charges will be decided according to your request,” said the secretary. As Kiran was an intermediate tamer, his capabilities would be clearly different from that of a Master Tamer like Berlyn and so would his charges and demeanour.

After paying the secretary, another personal arrived and was quickly taken across the field to the stables on a cart driven by a pair of dogs to the stable. The tamer was at the entrance of the stable where he was mixing some concoction using his magic.

[Kiran] (Intermediate Tamer)

Level: ?????

HP: ??????

The NPC was about 5 feet tall with brown hair, green eyes with a round face and he looked like he was lost in his work but realized that someone was approaching as soon as heard the cart. He wore a grey colored leather armor and leather cleats holding a wooden staff with a red coral affixed on its top. If it wasn’t for the staff in his hand, one could mistake him to be a farmhand instead of a tamer by his appearance.

“Ah! A guest,” said Kiran as the cart stopped by the stable. He put a pause to his work and pulled out a couple of chairs which he laid down for Balthazar to sit along with him. “Hello adventurer! I am Kiran,” he said shaking hands with Balthazar.

“Nice to meet you, Tamer Kiran. I am Shadow,” responded Balthazar. He hadn’t expected the tamer to be so friendly with him and was a bit confused. In his past life, he remembered that NPCs with complex professions like tamers that required study of multiple other profession usually had a little haughty temperament. At the very least, he hadn’t seen one who was so accommodating to a player and stopped his own work to address him.

“Glad to be of service to any member of the temple,” said Kiran as they sat down. It was then that Balthazar had realized that he still had the badge of the temple on his chest and he forgot to take it down. Still, he was surprised that the badge would have such an effect on other NPCs which weren’t a part of the temple. He only expected it to be important to the members of the temple.

“I have a few requests of you tamer Kiran,” started Shadow.

“Please,” said Kiran as he waved his hand indicating him to proceed.

“I heard that one could produce antivenoms by infecting beasts with venom,” said Shadow as he pulled out the guide that was given to him by the battlemage Arius. “I received this from an alchemist in return for a favour. It describes the process that can be used to make antivenoms through other beasts which have a resistance to poisons.”

“May I have a look at that,” said Kiran as he took the guide from Shadow. A couple of seconds later he returned it back to Shadow. He also looked a bit angry. “It is very harmful to my pets and something that I haven’t tried before but can be tried out. But I need to be compensated for the beasts and my time. Moreover, it is can cause fatal reactions in my pets. You need to compensate for that too. It is best if you buy one beast and try it out yourself,” suggested Kiran.

Balthazar had already expected that he might get such a reaction from the tamer, but he still asked because his attempt might not be as successful. For starters, any tamer NPC wouldn’t usually sell a player a pet which has a higher level than him. But the pets had a better chance of resisting the poison if they were of a higher level than that of the monster from which the poison was obtained. This was one of the reasons that tamers had to maintain a level greater than the average level of members of exploratory teams.

“The problem is that there is a decent level of success only if the beasts have a slightly higher level than the beasts, I got the poison from. The poison if from horned toads which are level 17 creatures. So, it is hard for me to have a pet at level 18 when I am at level 17. So, I am requesting you for this. I will pay any costs or losses that you might have,” said Shadow. “Also, I would like to request you to teach me the art of taming beasts.”

Kiran laughed loudly when he heard Shadow’s second request. “Fine. I guess, I will try,” said Kiran surprising him again. “It isn’t for you. I need to do it too,” he continued.

“I have been stuck as an intermediate Tamer for a long time now. I like animals and have grown up in a farm. My interest into these sprung from those times. I like the view and enjoy the company of these things in wide fields,” said Kiran pointing to the beasts. “That is why I spend more time out here than inside the office.”

“I was told by my master that I wouldn’t improve my skills if I had this mentality and would only improve if I force the beasts to improve under pain and stress. It had long been suggested to me that I try out poisoning and attacking a few of my pets aggressively to force improve their state,” he continued. Balthazar was puzzled by the ramblings of the tamer. He was getting bored of hearing about the tamer’s experience and lost his interest in him. He didn’t even understand what provoked the speech and started to worry about the knuckler when a notification brought his attention back to the tamer.

New Quest: Kiran’s acknowledgement

Description: Capture a mud lizard alive.

Rewards: Tame beast skill and instruction from Kiran in taming.