The First Legendary Beast Master

Morning light woke the group, and Rae updated Karl on the state of the city, as well as the fact that there were Royal and Monarch Ranked people dressed like labourers going to jobs before dawn.

If they were expecting special treatment for their power level here, they were going to be greatly disappointed.

Making gifts for the important people might be their best option.

In her estimation, if they started to develop a reputation for being valuable craftsmen and healers, they would have a level of worth to society and wouldn't be seen as deadbeats or freeloaders.

But she had seen people in armour headed for a temple building not long ago when she was observing from the roof of the Inn. That should be the Dungeon that they were told about.

It was mostly Royal and Monarch Ranked fighters going in, so they could make a living just off the Dungeon.

Everyone headed down to breakfast, which was a thick stew served with fresh bread and fried eggs. It was pretty good, even Lotus had to admit. Not fancy fare, but definitely worth adding to their menu.

Beth wasn't on duty for the morning, and there was a large Orcish woman working the front desk. But she seemed to know who Karl and the others were, so the Innkeeper was organized enough to at least brief morning shift on their guests.

After eating, they returned to the room to plan their day, and to make the item that Beth's mother, the midwife, had requested.

"Alright, I am going to inscribe this with runes for virility, fertility and pleasure. You add a Holy Item blessing as I enchant the runes, and we should have a Nature Dragon enchanted fertility treatment." Karl suggested to Lotus.

The little Priestess gave him an enthusiastic thumbs up as Karl began to carve the egg - sized green stone. The process went much more smoothly than Karl had expected, as if the stone was willingly accepting the power, instead of passively having the power forced on it.

The finished product had violet glowing runes, and the entire stone shimmered with the green of nature magic.

Lotus examined the stone. "It looks good. I think we need to give it away to test it, though. Testing it ourselves would be... unwise."

That was an eloquent way of putting it.
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So, Karl went down to the front counter to get directions.

"Miss, I am looking for Miss Beth, or her mother, Musa. They had requested an item to help with Midwife Musa's work last evening, and I have it completed." Karl explained.

The Orcish woman gave him a huge smile, and Karl realized that the System had translated to Orcish for her. He didn't know if it didn't do that for everyone, or if it was just that his accent translated well, but Orcs seemed to be fond of him.

"The Barmaid is off until lunch. But I can draw you a map to her mother's work. You only need to go straight down this road until you get to the castle wall. Then go to the west side, closest to Frostfire Gate, or ask any of the guards to take you to her.

They will all know who she is, she has been the midwife at the Castle for most of a century."

Karl thanked her, then went to check with the others.

"I think that we will wait here for the morning. The streets are packed with the morning rush, so we can check out the city after everyone is at work." Ophelia suggested.

"Alright, that works for me. Rae will wait here with you, and I will be right back after I deliver the item." Karl agreed.

[Let's fly.] Hawk suggested.

It wouldn't be the strangest thing that they had seen this morning out the window. So, Karl went down the hall to the back patio, where Hawk exited his space and Karl hopped on his back. It was a shame that he didn't have a harness like Thor to help him stay on, but Hawk just used a [Ghostfire Body] barrier to hold him in place.

The Ghostfire Thunderbird spread his wings and lazily circled up to a hundred metres in the air, above the morning commuters, but closer to where longer distance flying traffic was.

Most of it was winged demon species, but there were some Manticore riders, and a few messengers riding giant eagles.

[I like this place too. I can fly around in the city without anyone freaking out.] Hawk informed Karl as he scoured the Castle for their target.

[There, on the second floor balcony, west side of the castle, just like the Orc lady said.] Karl spotted the Midwife at what was likely her office.

Hawk circled and swooped down outside the Castle gates, a mere dozen metres from their target.

He vanished into his space just before he reached the ground, letting Karl make a dramatic entrance in front of the guards.

The man was suitably impressed.

Of course, he thought that Hawk was a transport skill, but an Epic grade and Monarch Rank one.

"Captain, I have a delivery for Midwife Musa. It's urgent for her work." Karl informed the guard, after noting that there was a lineup of workers waiting to get into the castle.

The Guard nodded, then motioned for someone to escort Karl.

When they got to the balcony of the inner building where she worked, Karl gestured up.

"Would it be too rude to just jump up?" He asked.

"It's your head." The Guard shrugged.

"In that case, let's go knock on the door."

The young soldier chuckled and led them down a corridor, then up a flight of steps to a door marked with the sign of a healer and a bassinet.

He knocked politely, and an exhausted young woman opened the door.

"This had better be important, we've been assisting labour for the last fourteen hours." She whisper shouted at the guard, who flinched away from her wrath.

"Maybe I should have jumped up and faced them alone." Karl whispered, to which the guard smiled softly.

"Midwife, I have a courier with an urgent delivery for your mistress." He explained.

"Then send him in and piss off. What are you still standing here for?"

The guard did just that, and Karl stepped inside, closing the door behind him.

There was an old saying in the Golden Dragon Nation. "Discretion is the better part of valour". Nowhere was that quite as clearly exemplified as the moment that the guard turned and ran from a woman a third his size and half his Rank.

Truly, he was a man of great wisdom.

Musa was resting on a rocking chair, but her eyes lit up with bright pink light when she saw Karl.

"Did you have the thing my daughter mentioned? What do I owe you?"

Karl took out the stone. "First, you should test it to make sure it works. I haven't actually made one like this before. But once you have verified it, we can negotiate."

It was only after he finished talking that he realized everyone in the room was staring at the glowing green egg.