AK - The Alchemy Kingdom

Chapter 149: Beast Tamer

Year 4, Fall, Third Month, Third Week.

"Who's gonna pay for it? Don't tell me you were expecting me to do it for free?"

Johann looked awkwardly at Katlyn trying to guess if she was being serious or playing hard to convince. All his savings had been spent on the expedition, and although they had been successful, the loot wouldnt be converted into crystals immediately.

During the mission, they encountered many beasts aside from the silver wolves. However, this additional loot was distributed amongst the other hunters as they agreed before. Johann was in no way at the lower end of this deal, he got to keep the five silver wolves, each would be worth much more. Dead, the wolves offered five MQ wind crystals, meat and materials, but Johann was planning to used them alive, otherwise, he wouldnt go to the trouble of capturing and bringing them close enough to the Alchemy Capital.

Unfortunately, he didnt have enough to pay for the spiritual rule or the taming process, which he needed, if he wants to earn more with the beasts alive. Actually, even with the spiritual rule, Katlyn couldnt guarantee the beast would be tamable. The rule only forced the beast to obey the bearer of the taming mark, but how could it obey an order without comprehending it?

Thats when Katlyn entered the scene, she was using her mothers knowledge and the experience of the previous taming to teach the beasts some commands. Fortunately, the spiritual rule would change the beasts instinctual aggression towards them and smooth the process, even though it was common to see some understandable resentment in the first week of training. Of course, the taming process would largely diverge for different beasts. The wind horses accepted and learned the instructions much easier than the bat, for example.

Johanns idea was to keep as many wolves as possible to help in the hunts and exchange the rest for crystals, after being trained, of course. The price for the trained wolves would undoubtedly sky rock. AK government would probably buy them, but the appearance of other interested parties isnt impossible. So, the Mage wanted to maintain the wolves for future exchange, but he was meeting difficulties to get more crystals now. The Council refused his request for a loan or to supply the spiritual rules for later payment.

The cost of maintaining the wolves restrained outside the city was also pressing him to find a solution fast. Both the government and Katlyn were trying to guarantee a bite out of this meal before it turned too expensive. In the end, Johann could only give up and pay the two sides with a cub each. Although the cubs would live longer and probably respond better to training, he needed to put the beasts to use as soon as possible, which meant keeping the adult wolves.

The process of merging the spiritual rule with the beasts soul was delicate and an important national resource, so the Council refused to sell or borrow it, even to Katlyn. The spiritual tools needed to be in strict control of AKs government, which also gave them some strategic position when negotiating tamed beasts. The attitude could be seen as unfair, but securing AKs interests was more important.

After the Mage agreed, a security team escorted Wein to the temporary camp where the wolves were being contained. Keeping the beasts inside the city would be easier for Hunters Inc. but the Council regulations prohibit the entrance of any unmarked (without the spiritual rule) beast inside the city. Moreover, only tamed beasts could circulate inside the city, the marked beasts could only enter to go directly to a registered taming facility, under the escort and permission of the Ministry of Defense. Until they were thoroughly trained, even marked beasts represented a risk to the citizens lives.

Even so, when the five marked wolves were escorted to the Taming Hall, everybody that could, came to peek, the Path ended up looking like a parade. The sullen wind Mage finally recovered his proud and victorious mood when he felt the awe and even admiration coming from the citizens. Although Johann still behaved like an outsider, he finally felt at home. The parade continued until the escort entered the city and turned to the right section of the production district, where the Taming Hall was located.

The place looked very distinct from the training grounds that stood around it, a central building, just a little bigger than a house, besides many stables and other small simple constructions. Between the main building and the stables, there was a wide corridor with access to the road through a strong gate. This area was used to bring the beasts in or out of the Hall, and for the caretakers to tend to the beasts.

At the other side of the stables, there was a big area surrounded by a blue barrier, where the beasts would be trained and allowed to run freely at specific parts of the day. Because of the importance of the taming work for AK, the Council supplied the bubble crystal and paid for the construction of the free-range.

Since the barrier formed a dome over the ground, they could even use it for flying beasts, like the bat. Currently, the Hall was only taming six wind horses. So, they have enough space to house the five wolves, but Katlyn decided to put the five together in a bigger stable while they were getting used to the place.

While the taming process demanded authority, if the beasts felt secure and trusted the trainer, it would go much faster and smoother. Feeding and taking care of the horses was easy because they ate grass and vegetables. The only special detail was that Katlyn tried to feed them only with magic-enhanced food to strengthen their wind attributes. Fortunately, magic-enhanced grass could be easily collected outside the city and the farms could spare some magic vegetables.

However, the wolves couldnt be handled that easily. Although they still had to test different foods to comprehend the whole diet of the beasts, it would include meat for sure. Finding meat in the Alchemy Capital wasnt difficult. With the hunters bringing meat constantly, getting a dozen kilos of meat daily wouldnt be impossible, they could even get some MQ meat that came monthly from AP. The problem with meat was the cost, depending on how much meat they ate, the cost could go up to one MQ crystal of meat, daily.

Since Katlyn didnt know how much time it would take to train the wolves, she could only force Johann to agree with paying for the feeding cost of the beasts. The Mage could only pray the beasts would be worth their grain. After discussing the last details, he reluctantly left, leaving behind all of his investments in Katlyns hands.

One hour later, the aide she had sent to get some raw meat returned. Katlyn equipped a dagger and a portable shield, just as a precaution, and left to check on the wolves. She carefully entered the stable holding the five marks visibly to show them that she was the master. Even though the marking process ended up reducing the animosity towards everyone the beasts identified as the same species as their master, technically, they were only forced to obey the last person they saw holding the mark.

Thats why one of the first commands Katlyn would teach was that attacking Humans was prohibited unless the master gave the order. Once the wolves recognized her as the master, they couldnt display any hostility towards her, but they still hesitated and tried to keep their distance, the cubs even stay behind their parents. Katlyn put the plate with the pieces of meat on the ground and took a step back to demonstrate they could take it.

The wolves hunger was evident in their uncontrolled drooling. The scarred leading wolf hesitantly moved forward sniffing the air to confirm nothing else was at play. It stopped a couple of meters from the plate and looked at Katlyn, asking for confirmation. She took the opportunity to start teaching them the simple affirmative commands, both spoken and gesture. While nodding, she pushed the plate forward and spoke.

Yes.

The wolf slowly moved to take the meat while paying attention to her reaction, it masterfully bit all the pieces and carried it back. Katlyn smiled, as the beasts appeared to be more relaxed. She took the plate and left them to enjoy the food. Tomorrow they would start the training, but now she had to go to the Ministry of Education to solve other problems.

Katlyn gave a deep sigh as she thought about her next task, organizing night classes for more than one thousand citizens while taking care of her own business wasnt easy. However, she felt relieved to finally settled down and move on with her life, she still hated the Kingdom for killing part of her family, but having a good life was enough vengeance for her.

Not that the Kingdom would let them go easily

Almost a thousand kilometers away, the Wind Lord received an unpleasant report.

Your Grace, all of our spies failed to return from their mission. The other Adventurers said that they left AP earlier.

Whispert tapped his fingers in the wind throne without showing any visible reactions. However, the attendants and tunes knew of his anger. The sound of the tapping was somehow hurting everyone present, the attendants even started to bleed from their ears, but nobody dared to complain or cry.

Its clear they dont want any type of cooperation with us I cant figure out what the Dynasty wants with them, but now I see that they are more capable than we estimated Lets put some pressure and see if someone willing to back them