-Is there a place where I can leave the Earth Lizard?

-There is a stable close to here on the right which will cost you a penny if you also want to park your carriage, but most of the alleyways here also function as impromptu stables, the thing is nobody will look after your carriage nor your pack monster if you place them in an alleyway so be careful, you are also responsible for cleaning up after your pack monster if it makes a mess so be careful as you can be fined by it, other than that there is really nothing else…You sure you don’t want a coachman? I know you tamed this Earth Lizard, but you still didn’t have much time to train it.

-Thanks, and no thanks, I think this lizard will mostly understand what I want, alright see you, thanks for your help.

-Goodbye sir Lukas, oh our company is planning to head towards Brumbar a major city in this region, if you decide to leave I would be delighted to see you again sometime!

-Yeah thanks.

Avian replied, not looking back as Avian held the reins to the Earth Lizard with one hand while using the other to hold onto the rabbit girl who was still asleep.

This was the first time Avian drove a carriage in this world, luckily he didn’t need to be concerned too much as the Earth Lizard was not just any monster but a monster Avian tamed himself, Avian didn’t know about other taming blessings, but his [Monster Tamer] blessing basically allowed for Avian to have a good understanding between him and his tamed monsters, the Earth Lizard wasn’t an amateur as well when it came to being a pack monster and easily understood Avian’s intentions as they started to ride off to Avian’s general store where the others were waiting.

Hilton watched Avian drive away, his eyes glinting as he was pretty impressed about how Avian easily could drive the carriage when he had only just tamed the creature, today had been a very interesting day indeed, but he couldn’t dwell on it too much as he had to start preparing for departure as well, he hoped to meet Avian once more after all of this as the young man gave him a very deep impression from what he had done today.

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-Guaaa!

The Earth Lizard growled, finally reaching their destination as Avian parked the Earth Lizard right into the Alley in front of his store.

The Earth Lizard was immediately ecstatic the moment they arrived as it suddenly started to eat all the trash that was inside the Alleyway, Avian felt a bit weird when he saw the big Lizard eating the trash with a happy look on its face or at least something he perceived as happy, not knowing if this was a good thing or not, or if later the dumb Lizard would get a tummy ache.

But he remembered Hilton saying that Earth Lizards can survive anywhere because they can literally eat anything, Avian remembered him quoted saying that Earth Lizards have almost never been recorded getting a tummy ache from the things they ate, Earth Lizards themselves aren’t stupid either, even though they eat almost anything they also understood what they could and couldn’t eat making them one of nature’s most knowledgeable and resilient eaters.

Knowing this Avian decided that this was okay since the Earth Lizard himself should know better, instead he wondered about the waste or dung this Earth Lizard would produce, Hilton too described this as he assured Avian that Earth Lizard’s produce a type of very unique waste that was not much different from a rock, it didn’t smell and could also be used as a type of hard flammable fuel like coal.

Avian was fascinated by that and looked forward to seeing it, which was an odd thing to say as what he basically wanted to see was dung or feces.

-Master! I mean Lukas! You have arrived!

Coming out of the store, Gabriella was the first to greet Avian as he made some noise which was noticed by her, following her were the others namely Deborah, Cornelia and Ogra.

Looking at them Avian immediately noticed Deborah and Cornelia looking really tired and out of breath for some reason and also slightly terrified, while Ogra looked like she was dissatisfied about something.

Avian had no idea what they were doing in his absence, but he also didn’t really care which is why he didn’t ask.

-I guess you guys already got to know each other?

-Yes, I think we’re going to get along.

Gabriella replied, showing a wryly smile while Deborah and Cornelia looked a bit tired and Ogra simply looked clueless, again Avian didn’t bother to ask since it looked troublesome.

Cornelia looked to be the most excited when she saw the carriage as that meant they wouldn’t need to walk a lot anymore and could also leave the town whenever before the monster horde came.

Deborah and Ogra on the other hand were more enamored by the Earth lizard for different reasons as Deborah thought the Earth Lizard looked very cool and handsome while Ogra simply drooled while looking at the Earth Lizard not even needing to describe what she was thinking.

Deborah and Ogra asked if they could pat the Earth Lizard, Avian said sure since he saw no problem in that as he had already tamed it.

Deborah hesitant at first, was able to easily pat the giant Earth Lizard, seemingly liking it the Earth Lizard returned the kind gesture by rubbing his head against her body which caused a round of laughter to come out of Deborah who hugged the Earth Lizard.

Seeing how friendly and tame the Earth Lizard was Ogra too tried next, but as soon as she even came close to the Earth Lizard, the Earth Lizard quickly changed tune compared to when it dealt with Deborah by suddenly looking vicious while growling at Ogra.

Ogra immediately stepped back, looking dissatisfied and hurt as she suddenly exclaimed.

-Why no animals like me!?

-Maybe it’s because you look at them as food, now stop with this nonsense and get on the carriage, we have still a lot to do today.

Saying as such everyone finally got on the carriage, the carriage itself looked like one of those western carriages with linen roofs, but for the amount of money he paid the carriage was really top notch as it was partially made with metal making it sturdier, the wheels looked to be made by a black rubber and it also had a type of wheel suspension build in with springs and other metallic parts, making it very shock absorbent and pleasant to ride compared to the previous carriage Avian had rode on that made him tired after sitting inside for a long amount of time.

The insides again were just like he requested very spacious allowing for plenty of application to load cargo or other modifications, everyone was amazed as they got on especially Cornelia who was already enamored by the carriage from the beginning.

-Master, perhaps should I carry her?

Gabriella asked, noticing that Avian had seemingly still been carrying the rabbit girl ever since they split, as her loyal knight Gabriella thought that it was her duty to relieve her master’s every burden, but Avian shook his face as he replied.

-No, its fine, instead can you do something about your sword and shield? Their slightly too eye catching, I rather not we garner some unneeded attention if we walk around with those things on you.

-Oh! I didn’t even think of that I am sorry!

Immediately catching on, on what Avian was implying, Gabriella looked at her two armaments her dark golden sword and shield, she had only gotten them recently after the [Oath Of Fealty] and didn’t really know much about them, after being reminded by Avian she started to concentrate to see if she could do anything about them and quickly enough she figured it out as her sword and shield lightly shone before changing, turning from their original dark golden color and morphing into a simple iron sword and iron shield.

Everyone was very surprised to see something like this, not many people had the opportunity to see the abilities of a [Knight] like this, documentation of their abilities was also sparse not only because they were rare, but also because throughout history the abilities of the many [Knights] always seemed to be different to each other depending on the weapon they got from their [Oath Of Fealty], Gabriella’s sword and shield seemed to have the ability to transform, though Avian didn’t know if this transformation was just an illusion or a physical one.

Luckily he didn’t need to guess as Gabriella herself explained what it was.

-It seems like my sword and shield can transform into different swords and shields as I wish gaining their unique properties and abilities, to get new swords and shields I need to absorb different kinds of material into my sword and shield or I can also copy a sword and shield I held before, I can also store the sword and shield inside of me and recall them when I need them there is also…

Avian stopped thinking after that as he instantly realized that Gabriella’s weapon was too absurd for him to understand, he also realized that the [Knight] blessing was incredibly over powered for some reason and even far more busted then his [Hemomancer] blessing in comparison, but after listening to Gabriella and hearing the limitations of her blessing Avian’s head quickly cooled down as he started to see that it wasn’t that great after all.

There were many plus sides to her blessing and her sword and shield, the first being that it couldn’t be taken away from her as it was connected to her soul, if it got too far away from her, the sword and shield would automatically disappear and come back to her, on the other hand she could also recall them to herself or store them inside herself making it impossible for anyone to take them.

The transformation of her sword and shield was also extensive, through absorbing a certain material it would unlock other kinds of swords and shields with unique properties and abilities, she could also copy and sword and shield she found and it to her own arsenal without buying the actual item.

Those were the plus sides of her blessing with many more other functions and things to come, but the limitations were just as brutal as the benefits.

The most brutal limitation being that she can potentially lose all of her power.

Since Gabriella is Avian’s [Knight], her duty as his [Knight] was to protect him her master, if she fails to do so and Avian dies at one point, her sword and shield will immediately disappear including all the powers she got from it which included her rank which could drop from any rank back to unranked turning her back to how she was at the beginning and up to find a new master.

Since Avian didn’t intend to die period, he wasn’t too bother about this as even if he did die this wasn’t something he should be concerned about since he was already dead.

The second limitation on the other hand was the real troublesome thing, it seems as if the power of a [Knight] weakens the farther away the [Knight] is from their master, Gabriella didn’t know how far away she would need to be before this effect took place, but she knew that if she got far enough she could turn so weak that she would go back to being an unranked [Knight].

For the record Gabriella was now a rank 1 [Knight] as the requirement to become a rank 1 [Knight] was to get a master, as a rank 1 [Knight] she already had a few more abilities then before, her attributes also increased making her currently the strongest amongst them which she already was even when she was unranked.

Fortunately, there was a way to combat this limitation, unfortunately when Avian heard the requirement for it, he instantly frowned as it was not something he thought was suitable to him.

The requirement to extend the range before the [Knight] was weakened was for the [Knight] and master to increase their trust in each other, Gabriella explained that if they have enough trust in one another she could move father away separately without being weakened, on the flip side if they have no trust in each other she would need to stay extremely close to Avian for her to keep her power, her growth too was also dictated by this distance, to grow her rank as a [Knight] she always needed to be in the presence of her master, if they ever separated Gabriella’s progress would freeze until they were reunited.

This meant that it was almost always not worth sending her away compared to keeping her near him which was a big bummer to Avian as he actually wanted her to be a type of second in command for him when he wasn’t present or to lead separate missions while he did something else.

He could still do so once they got stronger, but currently parting from Gabriella was simply not worth it for both of them as that would only weaken her.

There were a lot more limitations after this too, but these were the main ones to be concerned of.

Avian already knew about a few of these things regarding [Knight’s] from his research the past 2 years, but there were a lot of things he actually didn’t know that he only just heard, he also started to realize, for how powerful a blessing was it equally had a powerful restriction, the rarity of blessings was divided by how common they were, this didn’t mean that a rarer a blessing was the more powerful it was as that all depended on the type of the blessing and the rank of the blessing holder, for example a person with a production blessing could never be able to beat a person with a combat blessing, but a person with a rank 1 production blessing could easily beat a person with an unranked combat blessing.

The pure difference of attributes very much mattered between each rank.

When Avian fought the bandits a week ago, he always chose to fight those who were unranked like him, there were both unranked and rank 1 bandits present, but everyone fought those of equal rank because that’s battle goes in such situation, as the rank 1’s couldn’t let them slaughter their unranked comrades which forced them to deal with other rank 1’s.

Luckily even if Gabriella and him got separated and she lowered in rank, her attributes would still stay the same, the biggest drawback were the abilities she would be barred from which all were still very crucial to unleashing her power.

On a side note, for them to become an effective adventurers party they all would need to thoroughly understand each other’s abilities and capabilities.

Since their social dynamic was that of being a slave to Avian and or being his [Knight], everyone other than Cornelia didn’t really need to hide anything from one another when it came to their own blessings.

Upon listening to Gabriella and her abilities, they quickly started to share details about their own blessings as well.

This is when Avian finally got to know Deborah’s blessing which turned out to be the blessing of the [Hunter], a blessing Avian immediately realized was something they actually very much needed and could be very crucial.

The blessing of the [Hunter] wasn’t a very popular blessing for how it almost seemed like a jack of all trades.

[Hunters] could track, trap, butcher, scout and use bows efficiently.

All those were skills that had their own respective specialist blessings which were aptly named [Tracker], [Trapper], [Butcher], [Scout] and [Archer].

Each of these blessings were much better at what they specialized in compared to the [Hunter], but what Avian needed wasn’t a specialist but someone who was useful to his party over all, admittedly he would have been satisfied if he had just gotten a [Archer], but a [Hunter] wasn’t that much worse from a [Archer] in his opinion even if she didn’t do much damage with her bow, Avian instead valued all her other abilities which would be immensely useful to him and others once they got out into the wild.

And just like that as they rode down the street inside their carriage, the women started to discuss their blessings with each other, Gabriella obviously led the discussion as she even started to layout a proper party formation, the only people who weren’t participating in the discussion were the rabbit girl, Avian and Cornelia.

The rabbit girl wasn’t included for obvious reasons.

The reason Avian didn’t participate was simply because he didn’t feel like he should include himself when the girls were properly getting to know each other, he still didn’t know what their reaction would be if he told them that he was a [Monster Tamer] so he rather not dampen the mood right now as he would tell them another time.

Cornelia had similar reasons as her blessing was one of the blessings on the blacklist, she had heard all too well the stories of how people with blessings on the blacklist were treated once word got out, she wanted to get more comfortable with them and get to know them before telling them, but she knew that at some point she would need to tell them regardless which was likely very soon.

Already Gabriella and Deborah noticed that Cornelia wasn’t participating much in the discussion, they were already experienced in Cornelia hiding things and since it concerned her blessing they didn’t try to push her into saying it while Ogra didn’t think anything at all as she simply answered anything she was asked giving out all the info regarding her [Barbarian] blessing as much as she could.

All this time neither Gabriella nor Deborah remembered to ask Avian for his blessing as he wasn’t inside the carriage but driving it making him out of sight and out of mind, but unexpectedly as the discussion raged on, Gabriella suddenly remembered as she turned to Avian wanting to ask.

-Ah! Master I forgot to ask! What is your…

-We arrived, get down the carriage and wait until I park it.

Arriving at the perfect timing, Avian immediately ordered the girls to get out while he parked the carriage in an empty and spacious alley.

Gabriella for some reason felt like Avian had done this on purpose though she wasn’t completely sure, but as she and the others waited for Avian they looked around to see where they were as they actually didn’t know where they were going.

A quick look though was all Gabriella needed to know where they were as the first building she saw told her everything.

-“Maria’s Fine Cloth Emporium” ?

Not far from here there were also other shops aiming for the same customer base, selling armor, weapons, equipment and necessities.

It was clear that this part of the town was bustling as many people were going through these streets and shops to load up on items and good equipment for the upcoming monster horde.

This place was Alimdal’s Market district.

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