Chapter 369

Jacob looks at his own monster. The drake horse looks at him maliciously, and he can tell, even without using the Grimoire, that that thing clearly wants to take a good bite of him.

He looks, though, at Taya’s own monster, and hers is even meaner. It just so happens that Taya’s creature is female, and Jacob’s is a male. But the matching gender doesn’t seem to make it less ferocious. In fact, as Taya gets closer, the monster starts thrashing against the gigantic cage.

And even Breslav says, “This one is really feisty. I don’t think that you’ll be able to tame it, even if you manage to feed it the biscuit. In fact, it’s probably better if you just give up, or perhaps pick the other one. This is not going to be tamed. We’ll probably have to put it down.”

But Talia looks like she’s just about to take a stroll in the park when she unlocks the cage and walks inside, against Breslav’s advice.

Breslav gets closer and takes out a spear, ready to go to Talia’s rescue.

The drake horse, however, does a complete change in attitude, just when Breslav was about to say that Talia Carrot would never have any chance with it. As soon as the girl enters the cage, the thing screeches in fear and jumps to the end of the cage.

What is happening? Breslav thinks.

Some drake horses are really ferocious, and wouldn’t even cower in front of a Mithril Rank fighter. That’s how crazy they are. And if it wasn’t for their insane utility and speed, the Beast Hall wouldn’t even bother taming them. In fact, Captain Saveliy is one of the few who has all his members tame one, since they are among the fastest monsters at Adamantite Rank — faster than many Peak Adamantite monsters — and large enough to carry corpses or other monsters with them. And in his whole experience, in his five years with the Beast Hall, he has never seen a drake horse react like this one.

Talia says, “Calm down, girl. Everything is okay.”

What does she think she’s doing? Breslav mutters. Does she know that the monster can’t understand her?

But the giant drake horse seems to actually calm down, and slowly gets closer to Talia, rubbing her muzzle against the girl’s hand.

An origin note for the curious: this copy was taken from the author's official page without consent, and reading there supports the author.

Breslav is stunned. Nothing he knows can explain what just happened. And so he turns to John Cabbage. Perhaps the young man knows more. Maybe they are secretly Beastmasters that came to evaluate Captain Saveliy’s operation. Sometimes the Beast Hall does such secret evaluations, to make sure that captains are following orders.

When he sees John Cabbage’s stunned expression, though, it becomes pretty clear that the young man has also no idea about what’s happening.

“It’s so easy,” Talia says, feeding her creature the biscuit and taking a bite of the rest. “Mmm, this is so good, too.”

Breslav, who has tasted many Beastmaster biscuits, knows that they taste like crap. He envies this girl’s attitude toward life. But he also thinks that a Beastmaster’s life would soon hammer it out of her.

But now that he sees that these two are clearly experts at what they’re doing, he just turns to John and says, “Well, if you can hurry up, I’ll go get lunch ready. We’re taking over the kitchen, and we brought some great meat. Is it going to take more than five minutes, you think?”

John just stares back at him, and then at the giant drake horse that is mean-mugging him.

- - -

Jacob cannot tell Breslav that the only reason Taya managed to tame her own drake horse like that is because she has absorbed the power of a Primordial God. And even though creatures such as monsters answer to the God of Monsters, Asmodeus — one of the most powerful Evil Gods, if not the most powerful — a Primordial God’s power is absolute. And when faced with the direct representation of one, the monster can clearly feel who’s at the top of the food pyramid. Furthermore, Taya’s power allows her to bend fate and Karma, making her luckier, and making it easier for her to have outcomes such as this one.

But when Jacob looks at his own drake horse, he knows that he’s not going to have an easy time at all. That he, unlike Taya, will have to go through the same process any other Beastmaster would have.

The Grimoire is already pointing out weaknesses on the giant drake horse. But Jacob is only at Intermediate Imperium Rank in power. And that thing’s jaws would punch through all of his Skills like a hot knife through butter.

“So what are you waiting for?” Breslav says. “Come on, man. Let’s go to lunch.”

Breslav is already talking to Jacob as if he was a Beastmaster already. But the reality is that Jacob thinks that the only thing he could be in about five minutes is dead, if he enters the cage without a plan.

Jacob communicates telepathically with Taya.

Do you have a plan? he asks.

Yeah, she says with a big smile. But you’re not going to like it.

Whatever you’re thinking of, we’ll just do it, Jacob replies telepathically. As long as this thing doesn’t eat me alive, I’m willing to do anything, really.

I’m not sure you’re gonna stand by those words.

Come on, Taya, let’s stop wasting time, Jacob replies. Just tell me what to do.

Well, first of all, you have to get naked.