01.30 - Monster Rancher Too

Hermes and I searched for Ryu in the area they had been playing in.

My ‘Tracking’ Skill was a lot better than Hermes. We soon stumbled upon the aftermath of a fight. There was knocked over vegetation and dried blood.

“Now that looks like a clue,” I said.

Hermes shook his head.

“I’ve been here before,” Hermes said. “Those are monster marks. That blood isn’t human either.”

“You should look beyond the obvious,” I said while pointing to some of the shrubs to the side and some leaf covered tracks. “There were two big monsters here, both predators. They must have had a fight and at least one of them retreated after getting seriously injured, but there is more to these tracks.”

“Oh,” Hermes said as he inspected it further, “there are three smaller paw prints beside it, and some fresher tracks.”

“They might be from Ryu,” I said while pointing further. “Judging by the traces left, he must have followed the monsters.”

We traced the tracks for a while.

“See that?” I asked.

“The blood is getting less,” Hermes said. “And something rested there.”

“Good observation,” I said. “Maybe Ryu tried to heal the monster in question?”

“But why?” Hermes asked. “Plus, Ryu sucks at healing.”

“Now that’s what we need to find out,” I said as we continued our search along the path.

We found Ryu next to a hollowed out tree, kneeling and using what seemed to be healing magic.

“Yo, Ryu,” I said. “We’ve been looking for you. Need a hand?”

“Uncle Grey!” He looked back at us for a moment. “Can you help me save her?” He asked, then continued to focus on his spell.

His patient seemed to be a gale wolf. A female with 3 young cubs.

But it was already too late to save the mother.

“She’s already gone,” I said as I tapped Ryu on his shoulder. “You are just fighting against decay.”

“But what about those three?” Ryu asked, visibly shaken.

“They are too young,” I said. “They probably won’t make it either.”

“Is there nothing you can do?” Hermes asked.

“Actually,” I said. “There is something I could try.”

I hadn’t made use of the Envoy Class’ ‘Soul Catcher’ before.

The description only mentioned recently departed souls.

Sure enough, there was a lingering presence surrounding the recently departed monster and her cubs.

I took a closer look at the corpse.

Not to reanimate it. I wasn’t a Necromancer, or rather, I hadn’t spent too many points into it. But I needed some idea of the body to recreate it with ‘Vessel Creation’.

The first thing conjured by ‘Vessel Creation’ creation was a bare skeleton, that was surrounded by more and more muscles, tendons, blood vessels, nerves, and other tissues by the second.

After half a minute, a fully formed female gale wolf lay on the grass next to her former body.

All that was left was to insert the captured soul into the vessel.

The first thing she did after she took her second first breath, was to inspect her former body and then tend to her offspring. Paying no heed to us, neither threatening nor thankful.

Well, this was a good first experiment at least.

If I could do it with a monster, it would certainly also work on other entities.

“And now?” Ryu asked while looking back at the gale wolf who was still nursing its young.

“We're going home,” I said with a shrug.

Neither Ryu nor Hermes seemed to accept that as an answer.

“Fine,” I said. “I’ll give it a try, but don’t blame me if this doesn’t work out.”

‘Animal Handling’, ‘Animal Communication’, and ‘Taming’ were, as the name suggested, intended for animals, but it was worth a try. I hadn’t come across a docile monster before, but then again, the line between animal and monster was as blurry as that separating humans and animals. Maybe she was just apathetic towards us as long as her cubs needed her more, but I might as well use the chance.

Long story short, the three of us returned home with four wannabe doggies.

The kids took them in without an issue, but Kentaro and Reiko were very skeptical. Tia helped me convince the others that we could keep them.

This was the first step to what would ultimately become a small menagerie or monster ranch.

It did take a combination with ‘Camouflage’, but I managed to also tame a few Aurochs, and a flock of Cockatrice. The latter were said to emerge from special chicken eggs and have the power to turn people to stone, but those were tall tales with little support.

I also wanted to try my luck on some equine monsters, but they were very shy and very fast. Not an easy target for ‘Taming’.

I was out in the woods with the now twelve year old Inari, Ariel, and Kei when we were slowly but surely envelopped in a strange mist.

“This doesn’t seem natural,” I said while looking around, trying to detect potential close threats before they could get too close to us. “Stay close to me.”

Ariel held on to my clothes, so did Kei.

“Wait,” I said, “where’s Inari?”

Ariel pulled on my mantle, then pointed to the far off left distance.

The moving shadow in the distance seemed to be Inari, but there was a second, larger shadowy creature up ahead.

What the hell could it be, and why couldn’t I detect it?

I hadn’t encountered anything with a Level high enough to even come close to my now absurd Stats, let alone something that could overcome my detection Skills. There’s a first time for everything, as the saying goes. But I didn’t want it to be today.

I tried to use ‘Know Your Enemy’ on the shadow, but whatever it was seemed still too far away or just shrouded by the mists.

I quickly checked my own status to make sure it wasn’t a glitch in the system:

//========================================

// Hero - Lvl. 23 - Grey Morgenlicht

…

// Stats:

Physical Power 2903

Physical Resist 2801

Special Power 2677

Special Resist 2341

Status Power 2039

Status Resist 2153

Random Power 1901

Random Resist 3137

// Familiar: Tia

//========================================