Chapter 28 - Difficult Quest, and Fishing

[Animal Whispering (Rare)]

[Type: Passive]

[Level: 1]

[Description: You can imbue your voice with mana, allowing you to speak with beasts. You cannot attack while trying to talk with a beast. Don’t try to use this in the middle of combat. First, restrain the beast. Improving this skill will allow you to speak with stronger beasts.]

This passive was key and quite useful, not just for beast taming. In fact, many players who had this passive were sought after for completing special missions. Being able to speak with creatures was pretty useful.

The second skill was an active one: Beast Contract.

[Beast Contract (Rare)]  

[Type: Active]

[Level: 1]

[Description: Form a bond with a beast after meeting the right requirements. These requirements depend on the beast. Some can only be tamed with low HP, while others need special items or can only be tamed through talking and convincing.]

[Cost: 100 MP]

The beast-taming process wasn’t as easy as people thought. It required items, patience, time, and even a bit of luck. If Arthur didn’t know the right requirements for the specific beast he was trying to get, then the only way to do it was through testing.

Back in his previous life, there were a few beast tamers in the game- not that many, but a few. They had a group, a special guild where they shared their knowledge about the beasts, like a bestiary thing.

Obviously, that was top secret among them, so Arthur had no idea how to get that information for himself. This time, in this life, he would have to be the one creating that thing, the one clearing the path for everybody.

Anyway, with these two skills, Arthur only needed something to restrain the beast. A special item called Magical Rope.

And to perform the contract, he also needed a Beast Seal. The Magical Rope was quite cheap, costing only 10 silver coins. It was used not only for beast taming but also for other activities.

But the Beast Seal? Well, that was quite expensive, costing around 1 gold coin. The beast tamer NPC sold one to Arthur for that price.

"Expensive," Arthur complained as he stared at a small talisman shaped like a beast head.

"Yes, but if you can successfully tame a beast, then you can also sell this beast and earn money," the beast tamer said. "You can get back your investment with just one beast. Though, as I said, you need to succeed."

"Oh? Really?"

Arthur had no idea he could sell the tamed beasts to other NPCs. Apparently, it wasn’t hard to change the Beast Contract, allowing the beast to have a new owner and obey his commands.

’Now that I think of it, those beast tamers were quite rich... bastards kept this secret...’

With both items in his inventory and the needed skills, Arthur could finally start his quest.

"The pet the mayor wants is... I know it might sound weird, but it’s a tiny water serpent that lives in the nearby river."

"...Water serpent."

"But it’s a special type of creature, only seen a few times throughout the years. Some folks say it’s a mythical beast’s puppy, but I think those are just stories."

Before, Arthur was quite confident in completing the quest, but after hearing that, he wasn’t so sure. He knew that if an NPC was telling those types of stories, 70% of the time, they were true to some extent. So, catching this water serpent the mayor wanted wouldn’t be so simple.

"Is it strong?" Arthur asked.

"I never heard about it fighting anything, so I assume not. But it’s fast, and we only see it when the creature wants us to see it."

"And you’re giving me this type of task?"

The beast tamer laughed. "I forgot to tell you, but it might take a while for you to get this serpent. The mayor said I had one year to find it, so yeah, have fun."

Arthur couldn’t believe it. The mission was B-level difficult, but judging by what the beast tamer was saying, it was much, much harder.

However, he wouldn’t back down. I mean, he already accepted the quest, so he had to complete it anyway...

"I would suggest that you buy some supplies before heading there, and maybe some fishing gear, seeing how you might spend a long time there... Also, a tent would be good."

Arthur just gave a thumbs-up to the man as he left, moving toward the shop streets to buy the needed supplies...

He left the city with dried meat, water, and the basic fishing gear he had bought, including a fishing hat, a basic fishing rod, and bait. He got a tent and a basic wooden stool too.

Fishing was a popular skill that many players tried. In Chronos, one could get 1 crafting profession and 2 gathering professions.

But fishing didn’t count as a gathering profession, and cooking didn’t count as a crafting profession. Those were the two skills that every player would level up for fun.

Of course, it could get good rewards, just like any other profession, but to get those, one had to put in the work to level up. Most people preferred always to be fighting monsters, so their professions came in second.

Arthur, though, while walking toward the river to start his task, was still earning EXP, all thanks to Shadow Cloak killing monsters non-stop with her contracted daggers...

He checked the leaderboard, and Shadow Cloak was top 1 of the WHOLE server, not just in the Aldora Kingdom. She was getting close to level 8 at that point...

That was huge. No player had leveled up so fast before. Well, they didn’t have Arthur’s OP contracted items before.

’I need to tame my first beast and get to the nearby mine. Soon, Shadow Cloak might need a new set of daggers.’

After leaving the city and walking for five minutes, Arthur realized something. He didn’t have 100 MP yet.

"Damn it, fuck, I’m so stupid. I won’t be able to use the Beast Contract thing. What do I do?"

He still had his free points, 10 in total. Spending them in Intelligence wasn’t ideal, but that was the only thing he could do...

’These points in Intelligence will help me with my second class, Priest or even a Mage.’

At least he didn’t have to use all of his points. Only 4 was enough to pump his mana to pump his mana to 100.

Arthur reached the river that flowed next to Snow Pine City. Before trying anything, though, he decided to place the stool near the river’s edge and fish for a few minutes.

"I need to relax my fucking mind."

When he swung his fishing rod for the first time, notifications popped up.

[Special class detected, new bonuses for Fishing being added...]