-Guaaa!

A big brown lizard growled, using its big and wet eyes to stare at Avian who started to pat its head, the big lizard seemed to like it as it started making purring sounds while narrowing its eyes in pleasure.

Avian observed this big hunk of a lizard, it was bigger than a horse and almost as big as the carriage it dragged, it had a long body most of which came from its long tail, 4 legs with 5 stone like talons on each foot while its entire body was covered in again stone like scales from head to toe, it was also very tame even though it looked quite scary and strong, but that was good for Avian since he liked tame creatures more than any other creature.

-What did you say again about this one?

Avian asked, taking his hand back as he returned to carrying the rabbit girl with both hands, the big lizard seemed to be a bit sad that the patting had stopped, but neither Hilton nor Avian cared as Hilton replied enthusiastically.

-This is an Earth Lizard, a very popular pack animal if I may say, since you said you wanted a pack animal with both strength and stamina instead of speed and stamina, this is the best one we have in that category, of course there are also other animals such as Wild Yak which most of the merchant’s employ to carry their wares since Wild Yak aren’t much different but also produce Milk and Wool regularly which merchants also sell or use themselves, the difference is that Wild Yak are Herbivores while Earth Lizard’s are Omnivores and when I say Omnivores I literally mean they eat almost anything.

Saying as such, Hilton picked up a rock that was inside a box with numerous other rocks and suddenly threw it at the Earth Lizard sitting inside the stable.

The Earth Lizard watched the rock fly at it and opened its mouth suddenly shooting out a long and pink tongue like a whip as it cleanly caught the rock mid-air with its long tongue and pulled it back chewing happily as it ate.

Avian watched and found this very interesting while also convenient since this meant he wouldn’t need to pay a whole lot for its food expenses, Avian had also seen a lot of merchants on the caravan he came with employ this kind of lizard, but more often than not he also the Wild Yak as merchant’s likely preferred it more for the resources it passively produced compared to the Earth Lizard who didn’t produce anything and simply was good in the sense that it was easy to feed.

Avian needed a strong and durable beast since he wanted to make a adventurer’s party where they would likely travel all sorts of places, he didn’t want to worry about his beasts food situation too when he had to worry about everyone else, the beast could also be included as fighting potential in their party as the sharp looking talons and powerful limbs didn’t just look like there were there for decoration.

Avian already after looking at everything that was here decided to buy this beast as he didn’t think there was a need to consider anything anymore, but there was still something he wanted to try.

-I am buying it together with the sturdiest and spacious carriage you have for sale, but before I buy it can I try something? Don’t worry I am still going to buy no matter what happens.

-Huh? Ehm…Well, its fine I guess…but what are you going to do?

-I would rather like to spare myself from spending another 10 gold for a high-ranking [Slave Mark].

Saying as such, Avian momentarily placed the rabbit girl onto a bench nearby to free his hands.

As he was doing so the rabbit girl was a bit hard to pry off from himself as she held Avian’s chest like a vice, but Avian was easily able to free himself as he placed her on the bench watching her wriggling and muttering trying to find something before looking back at the Earth Lizard who was staring at Avian with its dumb big eyes which most perceived as really cute.

Seeing Avian approach, the Earth Lizard thought that they were going to play again and that he was going to get patted, but no such happy thing happened as Avian suddenly held the Earth Lizard’s right and left temple staring directly into its eyes as Avian started to use one of his abilities.

[Blood Control]!

Immediately Earth Lizard seemed to turn mad as its eyes which were originally brown started to turn red with a feral look in its eyes, the sudden shift of eye color was followed by intense and brutal struggling as the Earth Lizard seemed to want to get away from Avian or rather shake him off, its earlier cute growl was nowhere to be heard as it suddenly started to roar viciously.

-WRAGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Everyone that was present was shocked as they heard this terrifying roar of the monster, all the monsters nearby too quieted down as they were intensely intimidated by the sudden berserk rage of the Earth Lizard.

Hilton who was arguably the closest, was shocked as he didn’t know what Avian was doing to the Earth Lizard, he wanted to tell him to stop since it looked dangerous with the Earth Lizard struggling inside its stable looking as if it was about to break free, all the while the spectators all watched with bated breaths no sure what was going on.

Avian who was the closest and on experiencing the full brunt of the Earth Lizard’s rage tried hard not to get shaken off as this was the crucial step, he could feel through his hands and through the use of his [Blood Control] that the Earth Lizard was slowly getting weaker and weaker, buts its struggle was also getting more intense as it felt its own life being in danger.

After a few seconds and realizing that the Earth Lizard couldn’t shake off Avian who had a good grip on his head, it instead tried to bite him!

Avian predicting this primitive move didn’t avoid it and instead right at the moment it opened its mouth caused an intense bloody shock to go through the Earth Lizard’s head stopping it as it got stunned.

This was also the final struggle as the Earth Lizard quickly slumped to the ground about to go unconscious.

Before it went unconscious though Avian used his other ability to finish off as he smiled with success.

[Control Monster]!

Avian felt a faint connection between him and the Earth Lizard form at that moment just like the one between him and his crows, surprisingly the Earth Lizard took over 20 slots of his charisma that would usually be enough to tame 20 crows.

Having prepared for this a few minutes earlier Avian had freed a few of the crows under his command to regain at least half of his charisma slots just in case he needed more making his current tamed creatures 30 crows and 1 Earth Lizard with 10 free slots still available.

To be very honest, Avian didn’t feel too confident about this method of taming creatures as he never tried it before, his first time taming a crow was very easy and simple after all as he simply needed to hold it and use his [Control Monster] ability, the crow instinctually knew it would not be able to beat Avian in a fight which is why it surrendered itself under Avian’s control without a struggle just like the other crows.

The Earth Lizard was Avian’s first attempt at trying to tame a stronger monster with his [Hemomancer] strength as that barely allowed him to tame this creature, when he first took a look at every creature on sale, Avian also used his [Monster Tamer] trait to judge which monster he could theoretically tame, which included the Earth Lizard as it was still considered unranked.

Of course doing something like this when he didn’t even know if he would succeed would normally be foolish and not something Avian would do, but Avian had his reasons as a monster by law couldn’t walk free in a town or city without either having a [Slave Mark] on it or being under the control of a tamer, Avian decided that he would tame the monster there and then since he didn’t think Hilton would mind considering that he was going to buy it regardless of what happened.

The people who were watching attentively including Hilton were confused why the Earth Lizard suddenly fell unconscious after going mad out of nowhere, they looked at Avian strangely who seemed to be the cause of the event, but Avian didn’t react as he simply patted the unconscious Earth Lizard on the ground before it started to react, gently opening its eye which turned back to normal before turning it towards Avian.

Everyone thought that Earth Lizard would return back to trying to kill Avian considering what he was doing to it, but surprisingly, the Earth Lizard didn’t seem to be mad at all, instead it suddenly licked Avian looking happy for some reason, which immediately grossed Avian out as he slapped the Earth Lizard away while wiping off the sticky saliva.

The Earth Lizard whined pitifully, but still tried to inch closer towards Avian rubbing him with his snout.

Hilton still confused of what just happened, but thinking deeply inside his mind quickly connected the dots as he understood what must have happened as he smiled brightly before coming closer to Avian who relatively wiped most of the Saliva but was still dissatisfied.

-I see that sir Luka’s has a very interesting blessing, if you told me earlier you were a kind of tamer I would have shown you all sorts of battle monsters we have in stock!

-Well Yes, I am a tamer, but I don’t think not the kind of tamer you would appreciate sir Hilton.

-Is that so?

The reply puzzled Hilton as he didn’t understand what he was getting at, but regardless, now that Avian had tamed the Earth Lizard the [Slave Mark] was no longer necessary, instead Hilton gave Avian a white ink which was resistant to all sorts of liquid like water, Avian took the ink with the brush and pained a decently big emblem near the neck of the Earth Lizard, not being much of an artist Avian kept it simple as he merely drew a circle, on top of which he overlaid a single wing to represented that this monster was under the control of a tamer which was him.

And just like that Avian saved 10 small gold pieces, but he still had to pay for other stuff as the Earth Lizard including the carriage he wanted wouldn’t go for cheap.

And as predicted, the Earth Lizard cost 6 small gold pieces while the sturdy and spacious carriage he wanted cost 11 small gold pieces in total being 17 small gold pieces.

Avian wearily gave the smiling Hilton the 17 small gold pieces, Avian original funds of 70 small gold pieces had almost been completely exhausted as he had only 18 small gold pieces including a lot of silver and copper left.

Even though 18 small gold pieces was still a lot for an average person, Avian increasingly thought that he simply did not have enough money, having not even bought yet all the equipment he would need to buy for his newly bought slaves, together with their daily necessities, there was much he needed to purchase which his 18 small gold pieces could barely afford.

Avian knew if they didn’t do something quickly and start earning money they would quickly go into red, knowing this Avian decided that he would deal with everything today before acting at the first thing tomorrow.

Avian also wanted to know the status of the monster horde heading their way, having gotten his personal method of transportation with combat slaves to bolster his strength, Avian had enough means and opportunity to leave at any second, the thing was, he was still hesitant.

While browsing through the monsters he could buy, Avian had a bit of a conversation with Hilton about the monster horde.

Hilton was happy enough to talk and give information as he told Avian that everyone who wanted to leave had already left at this point, Hilton too together with his company would leave tomorrow which is why they were selling everything they could before leaving.

80% of the people in the town decided to stay though, which included lots of adventurers and the renowned Silver Fang adventurers party who were all rank 2 individuals, but there were only 4 of them, they also talked about the guild master of the branch located here who was supposedly very strong as well, but this was all knowledge Avian already knew instead what interested him was something else Hilton mentioned.

-My sources tell me that, our governor has already informed the Lord of the happenings here, while I am not 100% sure, it looks as if the Lord had decided to send one of her knight squadrons over here as reinforcement, not knight’s as in [Knights], but rather powerful vassals under this regions Lord, it seems as if this place is going to be alright after all considering that they will be able to arrive within 2 days if they hurry.

-But you’re still leaving?

-You know us merchants, even though we both know this monster horde is a great opportunity for great wealth, considering what I have to lose here if by any chance we can’t defeat the monster horde…I would rather not bet more than I can lose.

-I see.

Avian said, not bothering to talk anymore as he basically got what he wanted, instead something else pulled his attention as he suddenly heard a cry near him.

-No! Help me! NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

The cry was loud enough to make Avian feel like he went deaf for a moment as his ear drums rattled, he wasn’t the only one either as people were still present and looked at the source of the sound as they looked over.

Avian feeling this wasn’t good at all, quickly jogged over towards the rabbit girl seeing her sweat and cry in her sleep showing some intense expression as she seemed to be very much in pain.

Of course Avian immediately knew that she was just dreaming which is why Avian quickly took her in his arms cradling her and started patting her while whispering gentle words to calm her down.

-Shh…Shh everything is fine, no one will hurt you, don’t worry I will protect you, calm down, calm down.

The rabbit girl sobbed in her sleep, but seemed to have finally calmed down as she immediately hugged Avian and held on for dear life, spastic rounds of shivering continued until eventually they too stopped as she went back into a peaceful sleep just like earlier.

The people who were spectating inside the slave market, stopped doing so as they continued their shopping, nobody wanted to get involved in something so troublesome especially not those who went into places like slave markets, Hilton too smiled wryly as he actually felt glad he sold the girl while he could, while Avian started to question if buying the girl was really worth the effort considering how she was right now.

In the end asking something like this was pointless as Avian had already put down his chips, he would put her too use be it through hook or crook.

He made a promise to her too after all.

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