The First Legendary Beast Master

The guards that had accompanied the assistant and the Governor set a large chest down on the ground, and Musa gestured to it.

"I believe that should be sufficient payment for your work, Lord Runemaster." The Midwife explained.

The guard opened the lid, showing that it was mostly full of silver and copper coins, but a scattering of rough magical gems and other items.

"If my suspicions are right, this is your entire life savings." Karl replied. Find your next read on empire

The Governor laughed at the look on his face and patted him on the shoulder.

"On the contrary. It's yesterday's gate collections. The Midwife is an employee of the city government, so her expenses are covered by the city."

Karl smiled. "Well, that does make me feel better about it. Alright, I agree with the price. Thank you for your patronage, and you are welcome to look for me in the future if you need my expertise again."

The Midwife nodded happily as Karl moved the chest to his inventory, but the look on the Governor's face said that he planned to do no such thing.

Surely, he didn't think that Karl could only make fertility charms?

Remi spoke up as Karl bowed and turned to leave. [No, I have been researching since people started treating you strangely. Cat Demons, which look a lot like you do now, have a reputation for making deals too good to refuse.

Deals that put you permanently in their debt, or that take something much more valuable than you thought you agreed to.

For example, it wouldn't be uncommon for a Rakshasa to have written the purchase agreement in a way that all the children born of the fertility stone belonged to them.]

She even brought up the pages in the {Compendium of Demons} tome that she had acquired somewhere.

[You know, you can acquire more than Priestesses from the Library.] Remi reminded Karl.

[But Priestesses come preloaded with knowledge.] Hawk noted.

[They smell better than books, too.] Thor agreed.

Cara nodded in agreement. They even tasted better. Books weren't even worth licking.

Rae agreed with her sister. Humans definitely tasted better than books.

Remi sighed in exasperation as her siblings failed to understand the basic appeal of gaining knowledge from books. But they had her, and with her guidance, their Karl could guide them all to new skills.

Karl made his way out of the building towards the gate, where the guards were doing their very best not to laugh.

"Sir, might I ask what exactly you delivered to the midwife?" The Guard Captain asked quietly as Karl reached the exit.

"A Royal Rank Fertility Charm blessed by the Green Dragon God." Karl replied happily.

"Ah, I had hoped that it was finally the delivery of growth potions for premature children. They've been on backorder for ages."

Karl shook his head. "Sorry. But I can inquire if you're desperate. However, premature children normally catch up to their peers once they're school aged. They just need to endure until then."

The guard nodded. "Please do. You're at the Laughing Dragon, right? I remember that the guards said something about a Werebear and a Cat demon hanging out with a bunch of Priestesses."

"Yeah, that was most likely us. I didn't know that we were so memorable." Karl replied.

"No offence, but with so many soldiers just returned to town, I think they've made a note of every potentially single woman of marriageable age."

Karl frowned. "I will have to keep an eye on my friends then. It wouldn't do to have something happen. But tell me, as I'm new to the city, how likely is it that someone might try to push their weight around?"

The Guard shook his head. "The Governor would bust their balls in public if they did, so it won't be the soldiers, though you can expect them to flirt constantly. You might have some trouble with the drunks, but that's true anywhere.

Normally, we would be more afraid of the Lord, but with the triplet Princes just born, he doesn't really leave home these days, and the Governor is doing all his duties."

Hawk was happy resting in his space, so Karl began to walk back across the city toward the Inn.

There were shops all along the main street that led to the Laughing Dragon, so Karl stopped and grabbed some snacks to taste test, and then a jeweller operating a small street stall caught his attention.

"What is that ore?" Karl asked as he examined the oddly coloured items.

"It's Mana Jade, all of these pieces are carved from a single slice of stone." The shopkeeper explained proudly.

It was beautiful, but not magical. However, Karl suspected that it could be.

If his goal was to reach Totem Rank as quickly as possible, it would take money and effort.

The dungeon in the city should help on the 'effort' side of things, but making Runic Jewellery and items should make up the necessary funds to get the rest of what he needed.

"How much do you want for the four bracelets?" Karl asked.

"All four of them?" The pale violet Demoness asked in shock.

Perhaps they were more expensive than Karl expected.

"Two Gold coins each."

Or maybe this was a less affluent area than he thought.

"How about a bulk discount? Seven and five silver for all four."

The shopkeeper nodded happily, and Karl quickly moved the items to Remi's space, so the Naga Queen could inspect them.

The Mana Jade was a vibrant green with violet streaks, and looked good against her scales. If it really did take as much mana as Karl hoped, she would make him buy more of this stuff to upgrade.

Karl found a few more interesting shops on his way back, and made a note to bring the others down this street soon.

Back at the Inn, things were quiet. Everyone was just catching up on sleep and discretely listening to gossip on the street through the open window.

You could learn a lot about a city by how the people behaved in public, and while there had been trouble last night in the tavern, the daytime crowd was cheerful and more concerned with shipping delays with a holiday coming up.

As they understood it, there was a Mythic Rank or higher 'Lord' person in town, and he had declared his wife's birthday a city holiday. It sounded a lot like White Day at home, when the girls would gift chocolate to their crush and gather the courage to maybe ask him out.

But the gossip had given them a good idea of the power structure of the city, where a handful of Totem Rank leaders working under the Governor controlled the districts, while the Lord was actually the leader of the nation, and a form of royalty, as his sons were referred to as Princes, but not in relation to their power level.

But much more shockingly, that seemed to be a normal thing all over the nation, to have at least a few Totems in every major city and most towns.

That final bottleneck was where most people here were getting stuck, and while there were many Overlords, there were relatively few Totems.

Unfortunately, all the talk was about the upcoming Matriarch's Day parties, and nobody mentioned anything about events outside the city, except that some of the deliveries were late.