Karl woke up with the dawn the next day, not because he set an alarm or had anything urgent to do, but just out of habit.
That was when the Giants usually started to scout for attacks, so that was when he needed to be ready, and he didn’t want to lose that routine when he might be finished this quest in a few days and back home to the rest of the team.
He briefly wondered what they were up to, and if they had gotten to stop in at the Lithium Mines, where he was certain that they would be the stars of the town.
Even the less famous and military Elites were like idols to the small-town youth, especially the ones not yet old enough to have gone through the serum injection.
As he sat down for a morning tea, as they didn’t have any coffee in the dispensers set up along one wall for the hotel guests, Karl noticed that he was still the centre of attention.
He looked up at a man who was trying to subtly observe him, enough to let the man know that he was caught, and that Karl was willing to talk to him. With that, the Elf switched seats to join him at the table.
“You’re going east into monster territory for a quest, right? Now, I know it’s a quest, and it’s giving you directions, but that’s still a terrible idea. There isn’t anything in that direction that is weaker than you are. Even if you tag team them with your Lightning Cerro, it’s not going to be an easy fight. I am a woodcutter by trade, and even I don’t go east of town, much less across the border.”
Karl nodded. “I agree that it might be a terrible idea, but I am a Beast Master. Monsters are part of the deal.”
The woodcutter chuckled. “Well, do you at least have a portal scroll with you for an emergency escape?”
Karl didn’t even know that was a thing, so he shook his head.
“Yeah, that’s what I thought. I don’t know where you came from, but your common sense certainly didn’t grow up here. I will get you the supplies that you’re going to need. How much room do you have in your inventory?” “Two slots.” The man looked confused. “You only have room for two more items?”
Now it was Karl’s turn to be confused. “Perhaps there is something off with my inventory arrangement? Each slot is a metre cubed, roughly. I can just load them with stuff until they’re full.” Karl explained.
The woodcutter gestured out the window at someone, and the dragon came inside, looking suspiciously at Karl, as if he was going to try to match make her and Thor first thing in the morning.
“Can you tell me about his System? There is something wrong with it. All his inventory space has merged into two slots the size of Guild Bank vault cubes.” The man explained.
The dragon stared deeply at Karl, then shrugged. “Yup, it’s broken. But I don’t know what to do about it. Maybe it’s supposed to be that way? It looks like it works just fine, and I can see his class just fine. It might be a quirk of his class, giving him bulk space for raw materials. You know, like how the crafter classes get a bag for reagents and materials.”
The woodcutter snapped his fingers. “Alright, now it all makes sense. The Beast Master must be some sort of hybrid crafting and combat class. I will go get the travel supplies ready with the space limitations in mind.”
Then he left the room, leaving the dragon and Karl sitting at a table together.
“Tea?” Karl asked, prepared to get up and pour another cup.
“No, thank you. I already ate. I’m sure that they already warned you that your path would be dangerous, but I think that you might be alright. You don’t smell like a human. You smell like a strange beast. As long as the ruler of the territory doesn’t see you as a threat, you should be able to pass through with only minimal competition. Just keep moving and try not to go snooping around nests or dens, unless you’re absolutely certain it’s the one you want.”
“Got it. That should be easy enough in theory. But we both know things never work out that way once you’re actually in the woods.” The dragon laughed at Karl’s joke. The woods were her element. Even if the beasts were much more powerful than she was, they wouldn’t attack a Forest Dragon in the forest. It just wasn’t in their nature.
The Mayor sat down to join them, and then a few men dressed as Rangers, one of which was holding a tiny blink cat.
“Your bonded partner?” Karl asked.
“Actually, no, my wife’s new best friend. But he insisted on coming with me today to see you. They’re wicked smart, the Blink Cats are. My bonded partner is a timber wolf to grant me the increased eyesight and sense of smell that canines are famous for. He’s currently napping on my front porch.
Bonded animals might not age and die like their unbonded counterparts, but they get just as lazy in their old age.”
Karl could only imagine how lazy and grumpy a hundred-year-old wolf would be.
“So that’s how Rangers pick their partners. I gained the same from my first partner, a Windspeed Hawk. My eyesight is incredible for a human.” Karl explained.
“Lucky bugger. The rare classes always get all the good stuff for themselves, and the rest of us just get left feeling inferior.” The second Ranger complained.
“Rangers do have some benefits, though. My only class skills are for enhancing the damage that my beasts do. The attack skills I had to train separately, or gain from my beasts.”
All four at the table laughed that time, and the Dragon smirked at Karl.
“You’re not making him feel better. Being able to gain skills from a whole group of magical beasts is practically a Ranger’s wet dream. I suspect that your class might actually be an advanced version of their class, or perhaps the druid or shaman class. Sometimes it takes a crossover between them to come up with something new, but if it let a Ranger bond and gain skills from beasts in addition to their archery and woodcraft skills, it would be completely worth it.” She explained.
“Do Rangers not get sword skills?” Karl asked.
“Superb ones, actually. But their attitude is that if they have to draw their sword, things have already gone wrong.”
Karl chuckled. “I am the opposite. I start with the blade if things are going right. If I have to use my bow, it’s normally because I was caught too early by something that can fight back.”
While they joked, the woodcutter gathered the items that Karl would need, and came back with two large bags, nearly the size of the inventory spaces, along with an itemized receipt.
“Now, this might be overkill, so I can return some of it if you’d like. Here is the list, and the total is seventeen gold pieces, four silver, eight copper.”
Karl focused on his Status screen and had it withdraw eighteen gold pieces. He could get used to that ability.
“There you go. Keep the rest for your assistance.”
There was food, as predicted, but not in the way Karl expected. The bag contained a magical lunch box that could be activated to create a meal once a day.
Most of the rest was filled with various potions, tinctures, lotions and scent blockers that will help him through the wilderness without drawing too much attention to himself, along with an enchanted water bottle, and a few enchanted repair kits for weapons and armour.
Karl had never seen anything like them before, but they weren’t all that expensive, and he definitely wanted to bring them home with him.
“I know that this might sound odd, but do you have a skill book library available?” Karl asked.
The Mayor shook his head. “We can get skill books, but they need to be custom-made and sent to us. It takes a week or two.”
“Yeah, I suspected that might be the answer. But it was worth a shot. Perhaps the next time I’m in a real city, I will have time to visit the library. I wanted to get a proper shaman healing spell for my partner, to go with her healing totems and splash heal.” Karl explained.
If they didn’t have a full-time healer, that role was on [Regeneration], [Eternal Lightning] and Remi. Having a proper healing spell would have been nice.
But come to think of it, if he had more points, he could get [Trollish Regeneration], the upgraded version of Bestial Regeneration.