Tick tick. “Oh!”

Twisting his pack around he gently lifted the egg out and onto his lap. It had been a week since he had moved in with Benson and had learned a few tricks of the trade of being a full time farmer.

The egg had actually dimmed in terms of brightness. Tick. A thin crack pierced the otherwise blank opal shell. Tack tack crack. Now he could just see a little peck, pushing against its former home. Crack. Now he could see it’s cute little head. A few more ‘ticks’ and ‘tacks’ later a baby chick was born. As soon as it was out of its shell it began hopping around on the basket to make soft little ‘cheap cheap’ gently reach out his hand to pet the cute little chick he received a new type of notification.

Congratulations on the first successful tame beast. Since you are the first Beast Tamer and owner of said beast please name your beast before continuing. Name: _ _

“Oh I haven’t thought of a name for you little guy?” Scrambling to think of a name for his future beast of terror, he couldn’t think of anything good. “Claws, no to lame. Raxstore, no that’s a name for a mighty dragon not a bird. Hendrix, no that’s way too on the nose. How about...” At this point he was coming up blank. So he began looking around, landing on the opal shell. “I shall name you Opal''

Checking the chicken database... ‘Opal’ has not been taken. Now will it be helpful or be a hindrance, that is up to you to decide. Please pick a class you want for Opal.

“Wait, it's a chicken! Ah man.” Opal continued hopping around on the basket, chewing, coming to rest in Marlow’s hand making soft coos.

“Aaw I can’t stay mad you little baby” He said wiggling his finger at the future beast of terror. Turning his attention back to the notification he read over the possible classes Opal could grow.

Eggspert: Opal will produce eggs 200 times faster than normal, each egg has a 1/1,125 chance of increasing one stat four times at random. The eggs are much hardier than normal eggs. Choosing this class removes the possibility of combat and having any fertile eggs.

*Arcane Eater (Rare): Opal will become a mage slayer. Being in a highly dense magical area for so long has left some... unique effects on her. Opals can drain anyone with their mana channels unlocked on contact. Where upon draining mana she can either filter it into her magical growth, personal growth, or into other skills or spells. Choosing this class will completely remove the option of breeding Opal. Recommended characteristics: Intelligence.

Fluffy: Opal will grow extremely fluffy feathers, so fluffy in fact she can not be harmed by any physical damage. It is said once you sleep on a fluffy creature you may not want to wake up. Choosing this Class will lower Opal’s class of being a successful fast moving creature and remove Opal’s ability to swim. Recommended characteristics: Constitution.

Mount: Opal will become a chicken mount. Growing quickly she will be the size of a horse, as strong as an ox, while still keeping its chicken mind. This mount can carry up to [1] people comfortably or a wagon smoothly. Recommended characteristics: Strength.

“Well that’s pretty obvious” Marlow chucked pressing down on the ‘Arcane Eater’ option. Opal stood very still, not even breathing. Then the smallest change accrued each feather tip turned a light pink. As soon as the transformation was complete Opal continued on like nothing happened.

“Marlow, where you go, come on, these horses aren’t going to feed themselves, you know,” Benson said from around the corner. “Well well well looks like your glow egg finally hatched and oh. It was a chick. Sorry son, looks like fate hasn’t favorited the bold.” He said sarcastically towards the end.

“I guess by the look on your face you finally got to see the magic behind the mask, ya. Well let’s have a looky here then” Bending down Benson carefully scoped up the cheery little bird. “Lets see here, It is a healthy Unique Silkie. That’s unusual, umm. Oh the class of the arcane eater that is usually reserved for more aggressive beasts. Level one is good and you have already tamed it. Well done we’ll make a tamer out of you yet.Benson continued rambling on about a few more things that Marlow couldn’t make sense of.

“What do you mean ‘usually reserved for more aggressive beasts’ ? I thought this was a restricted class?”

“Well in the most technical sense yes and no. Ya see, any beast can go down any class the ones you saw were the ones most compatible with Opal. Since you choose Opal’s class as soon as she hatched those were the most compatible at that time. If you waited, other classes may have opened up. For example if you took two horses and chose one of them to go down the class of the mount it would have a head start on it’s brother. Meanwhile if you waited on the other one and went through some special events like a war, meeting a higher being, or being in a high density of mana for long amounts of time. Other classes may open up for that.” Benson said all with a gleeful look on his worn out face.

“So do you think that was the best thing I could have done?”

“Oh absolutely not, If you had enough coins to spare and got your soul forge unlocked I would have thrown all them in a pot and hopfel hit the jackpot.” He said without missing the beat.

“Soul forge?”

“Oh ya ur new here. Basically the soul forge allows us to combine skills, spells, classes, and titles into new and interesting things. Tho it will cost ya some major coin. That is why nobles, adventures, and mages are powerful; they got the coin to back it up.”

“So how do I get the soul forged?” Marlow asked out of curiosity, full well knowing that he couldn’t even afford a single loaf of bread.

“Well you're a long way from that, but if you're interested now we can kick start your progress?” Benson’s smile was all it took to make him realize that he didn’t have a choice in the matter.

Weeks later Marlow had learned a lot of new skills, mostly non combat, had grinded said skills, and had almost learned the final one he needed. One of the requirements of learning this particular infuriating slow skill was shoveling all the manure out of the stables, for the better part of the morning.

The main reason why it was infuriating was that last time he tried to learn this he was interrupted by Benson who needed him to help him milking old Moo-tha. The one thing that made it all worth it was seeing the notification icon light up. Opening it up caused a cascade of grey light that bathed the barn.

Skill gained: Chicken Attender (Novice II): You gain 1n%, where n = skill level, when taking care of chickens and other chicken related beasts.

Skill gained: Cow Attender (Novice I): You gain 1n%, where n = skill level, when taking care of cows and other cow related beasts.

Skill gained: Horse Attender (Novice I): You gain 1n%, where n = skill level, when taking care of horses and other horse related beasts.

Skill gained: Sheep Attender (Novice I): You gain 1n%, where n = skill level, when taking care of sheep and other sheep related beasts.

Skill gained: Pig Attender (Novice I): You gain 1n%, where n = skill level, when taking care of pigs and other other pig related beasts.

Skill increased: Tame (Novice I): When trying to tame a creature into joining your cause, you gain 1n% of taming them, where n = skill level.

Skill increased: Tracking (novice V): Staring deeply into a footprint, overturned rock, or any other traceable evidence, you gain 1n%, where n = skill level, when tracking their current path it will dimly highlight the area that they just passed through. Cool down 4 minutes and 55 seconds between uses.

Skill gained: Groom (novice IV): Cleaning, scrubbing, and cutting hair is now second nature to you! You gain 1n%, where n = skill level, when grooming animals and can increase reputation with said animals by .5n% for each successful grooming sesion.

Skill increased: Environmental Awareness (novice III): When you are in a familiar or unfamiliar environment, you gain 1n%, where n = skill level, when using your surroundings to their fullest.

Skill gained: Cleaning (novice I) Sweep, sweep, sweep away, or in your case shoveling. Making sure where you go is a bit cleaner than it was before. Gain 1n%, where n = skill level, when cleaning.

Ding Ding Ding! Extreme synergy detected the skills; Chicken Attender, Cow Attender, Sheep Attender, Horse Attender, Pig Attender, Groom, and Cleaning. Have extremely similar effects for the small price of thirty two hundred gold you can combine these skills into one new single skill. The level of the new skill will be the average of the original skills, and any remaining skill points (rounded up) will be returned as free skill points! If you do not have the necessary gold on hand, you may combine these skills at a later date or choose to have the money taken from your bank account. As this is the first time you have found skills with extreme synergy, you have been informed as a courtesy. You will receive no further information on skill synergy from the system.

New system menu available! Hazah! You have unlocked the ability to use ‘Soul Forging’! By meeting certain requirements, you can combine skills, spells, titles or even classes! Be careful, as combining skills with low synergy will lower the new skill’s efficacy.

“Urm that’s… That's pretty cool! So what would happen if I combined ‘Tracking’ and ‘Environmental Awareness’. Mentally moving the skills over to the cartoony cauldron they plopped in with a little splash. The gold coin icon lit up from a dull gray to a shiny version of itself reading two hundred. More goofing around he learned that every skill added was basically doubling the amount of money you have to pay. Three skills four hundred, four skills eight hundred, and in his case seven skills sixty four hundred gold. Man no wonder the rich got richer they could afford to make amazing skills and use them at their leisure!

Remembering that Benson wanted him to talk to him after he got the seventh skill. He of course found him shearing Mr Woolz.

“Good Morning, Marlow! If you're looking for Maple, Misty, or Taz, the guards took them out to go investigate some village. For building against the kingdom or something like that.”

“Oh, so that's where they went. I’m here because I finally got the cleaning skill!”

“Oh really!” Benson finished shearing Mr Woolz. Gesturing for Marlow to grab the other bags he picked them up, before continuing.

“So you proby read over your notifications, yes?” Benson said distractedly. Receiving a nod he continued.

“Good you now have access to your soul forge, which means you could combine your skills, yes.” Getting another nod, he opened up the door to the barn while continuing with his speech.

“The soul forge is also super expensive, good thing we as tamers only use it sparingly, otherwise we mainly leave it be. Put those down right there. I take it that you saw how much coin it takes to do that right. Put that bag by the others.” Benson sat down at the table, pausing to take a deep breath and steady his aching back.

“Now I'm going to do something that would have been done once you’ve gone on a few quests on your own, but I feel it would be better if you two got teamwork down early. To truly understand why we value our beastys so highly and why we don’t go out much. Now go get Opal.” He barked and just like a scared rabbit Marlow ran off to find Opal.

Of course being a chicken he found her in a chicken coop. Picking up the three foot tall bird he booked it back to the house. She was getting really heavy. with Benson around it wasn’t surprising to see the animals grow up so fast. Meeting in the dining room, where Benson had already begun moving the kitchen table.

“Hrumph, a good habit to get into boys. It's to keep your secrets out in the open. Cause you never know when a thief is gonna take a gander at your house. Now I know you ain't magical, but do your best to remember this pattern.” Benson huffed and puffed, as he and Marlow shoved the table off the rug. Only to flip the rug over revealing a complex pattern of circle, triangles, and other complex mathematical symbols Marlow couldn’t place.

“This here is a ritual of soulbinding, what it’s gonna do is going to bind you and Opal’s souls together. So that whenever Opal dies she can be brought back. We, the tamer society, use this sparingly. Well I’ll let you see.”

Ritual ‘Soulbinding ceremony’ Effect permanently binds subjects' souls together. Components; two or more living and willing subjects, thirty feet gold string, tenn ounce of each subject’s blood [ten ounce of Opal’s blood and ten ounce of Marlow’s blood], forty pounds of marble, twenty pounds of clear quartz crystal, one high grade core per subject [currently holding two], and eighty two thousand mana. Begin ritual Soulbinding ceremony? Yes/No

“Hold on, you can start this now!”

“Yes, I could start now-” Benson replied, accidentally starting the ritual. Getting a pair of screams followed by two thuds inreturn. Meanwhile Benson had a whole slew of different problems.

"Shoot, forgot it was voice activated." Mages, expectantly trained ones, could sense magical outbursts. That was how they were able to find any rogue mages so easily. Or at least that is what the rumors indicated.

He had planned on inviting his pals over to enjoy this wonderful experiment. If they could have some sort of weapon against the travelers it was problemy best to have a few of their own side, before they were all snached up by other organizations. Soon the Society of tamers shall rise once again, but until then.

Benson glanced over at the light show and wondered how long it would take. Averting his eyes when the string of gold began glowing. He noticed that his kitchen windows weren't covered. Just beyond where the light shows. Illuminating two faces.