Chapter 124: Beast Tamer
The scratching sounds coming from the front doors of the church suddenly stopped completely, leaving the dark cellar drowning in a terrifyingly quiet silence that made Julien’s skin crawl.
"Did it just give up and walk away to find easier prey in the city?" Maya whispered hopefully, keeping her daggers raised while her eyes stayed glued to the stone ceiling above them.
But her hopeful theory was immediately shattered into a million pieces when a complete crash echoed from the main sanctuary right above their heads.
The giant mutated tracking beast had apparently decided the barricaded wooden doors were entirely too much trouble and just threw its whole body straight through one of the beautiful stained glass windows instead.
The terrible sound of shattering glass raining down onto the wooden pews was closely followed by a terrifying, guttural roar that practically shook the dust right off the cellar walls.
"We cannot stay trapped down in this dead-end basement while that thing hunts us from above," Kyle stated grimly, gripping his new steel sword tightly and stepping right onto the bottom stair to block the narrow entrance.
"If we get cornered down here with no escape route, that monster is going to eat us like fish in a barrel."
Julien knew the mercenary was completely right about their terrible tactical position, but fighting a giant bat-hound with zero defensive skills was practically a guaranteed death sentence for a squishy travelling merchant.
’I need a serious defensive buff right now, or I am going to be the very first appetiser on the local menu,’ Julien thought to himself in pure panic, frantically swiping his hand in the air to open his glowing blue system interface.
’I have points sitting in my bank account right now, so it is officially time to level up my class and buy something that will keep my head attached to my shoulders.’
He navigated straight to his character progression tab and dumped a huge chunk of his newfound wealth directly into the level-up button, fully expecting the system to offer him a standard merchant shield or maybe an emergency teleportation spell to get them out of the basement.
But the cheerful blue interface glitched out completely and turned a very strange shade of purple, humming with an unusual digital sound before presenting him with a brand new skill tree that made absolutely no sense at all.
[Class Progression Anomaly Detected.]
[Notice: User history indicates extensive commercial trade of live monster cores and biological assets within the sector. The system has automatically registered you as an active biological asset handler.]
[Cross-Class Skill Unlocked: Commercial Livestock Management (Basic Taming).]
"Are you fucking serious?" Julien shouted.
"Who exactly are you talking to right now, because there is a literal monster about to come down here and eat us!" Aiden yelled frantically, leaning against the cold stone wall and looking completely panicked by Julien’s terrible timing during a crisis.
’I guess this perfectly explains why a travelling merchant suddenly gets a taming skill out of nowhere, because the system literally views wild monsters as tradeable inventory and just wants me to manage my stock,’ Julien thought to himself, quickly opening the premium shop tab and searching for something very specific to make his crazy plan actually work.
He filtered the expensive catalogue for premium monster food and immediately purchased a slab of highly enchanted prime meat that cost him another ridiculous sum of credits.
The glowing meat materialised right into his empty hands just as the cellar door was completely ripped off its hinges by a giant pair of black claws.
The bat-hound squeezed its terrifying body through the narrow opening and tumbled down the stone stairs with a loud snarl, looking like a horrible mix between a giant wolf and a hairless bat with entirely too many sharp teeth for comfort.
It locked its glowing red eyes directly onto Kyle and lunged forward with its jaws opened incredibly wide to bite the mercenary’s head completely off his shoulders.
"Hey, you ugly dog, look at what I have for you!" Julien screamed at the top of his lungs, activating his brand new taming skill and throwing the slab of premium monster food right into the air between Kyle and the jumping beast.
The purple light of the taming skill washed over the dark cellar and hit the bat-hound right in the middle of its jump, completely stalling its aggressive momentum in midair.
The terrifying monster snapped its jaws shut around the expensive prime meat instead of Kyle’s head, landing heavily on the stone floor and chewing the magical food with a very confused expression on its ugly face.
A cheerful blue screen popped up right over the monster’s head, accompanied by a very upbeat digital chime that felt completely wrong for the terrifying situation they were all in.
[Commercial Asset Acquired.]
[Notice: The biological entity has accepted the premium bribe and recognised your authority as a livestock handler.]
[Loyalty level is currently stable.]
Kyle slowly lowered his sword and stared at the giant monster happily chewing on the glowing meat right in front of his boots, looking completely bewildered by the sudden turn of events.
"Did you just buy a giant vampire tracking dog with a piece of magical steak?" Kyle asked slowly, looking back over his shoulder to see Julien letting out a very long breath of pure relief.
"I prefer to call it acquiring a new commercial asset, but yes, I basically just bribed the local wildlife to join our rescue team," Julien replied with a very genuine smile, walking slowly forward to stand right next to the giant beast.
The bat-hound swallowed the last piece of the expensive meat and actually nudged its large, ugly head against Julien’s hand, acting exactly like an overgrown puppy that just found its favourite person in the entire world.
"Well, the system might charge me an absolute fortune for shipping fees, but at least it knows how to deliver a very good distraction when we need one," Julien joked, patting the monster on its leathery head while the rest of the group just stared at him in complete shock.
"If that thing decides it is still hungry later, I am officially throwing you right in front of it," Maya muttered from the back of the room, slowly putting her daggers away while Silas, the survivor, looked like he was about to faint from the crazy display of system magic.