28 Trade

Trade was about to get going. An adventurer approached the signboard. With his light leather armor and a bow slung across his shoulder he looked like a ranger. He didn't give me the impression of someone strong but seemed more like the careful and calculating type.

Both his clothes and armor were colored with patches of green and brown, aiding with stealth. Potential to be a good hunter!

"Lord Eldar, you wrote here you'll buy beast corpses, what about animals?"

"I will buy them but only once per species and at a lower price compared to a beast's."

"There are no exchange rates here. Why is that?"

"There was little to no business so far. Also, it's simple, beasts I already have, one iron ingot per body. Beast that I don't have, one silver ingot for the first body. Savage beasts bodies would hypothetically give 20 gold. Animals are five for an iron ingot. Finally, a chance for taming is worth 2 iron ingots or two beasts I already have."

"Why didn't you just write it down?"

"I just did."

During my short explanation, I had engraved it on the signboard.

"Then, what animals do you already have?"

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"A squirrel."

"That's it?"

"I'm a tree! I can't go after animals and hunt them."

The ranger then excused himself and left for the forest. Over the next few days, he brought me one animal corpse after another. I had so far newly collected ten animals. Deer, bunny, boar, wolf, lizard, snake, spider, sparrow, fox and even a bear.

The ranger, named Sven, hadn't claimed any reward yet and I soon came to know the reason. He wanted to tame a tempest wolf!

Taming was a rather peculiar process. After a tamer gained respect and trust from a beast they could sign a contract. The specifics of this contract would be decided by how the contract was formed.

If it was formed through mutual respect it would be an equals contract binding both parties to help the other. If it was established through the dominance of the tamer it would be a tamer-servant contract. If it was established through the dominance of the beast it was a beast-servant contract. Also, a contract could not be forced, death was always an alternative.

The contract that Sven was hoping to achieve was an equals contract. He wasn't as strong as a tempest wolf but with my help, it might be possible to still succeed.

I commanded one of the tempest wolves to come over. It approached but seemed increasingly apprehensive against the human in front of it.

"Lord Eldar, what should I do now?"

"How would I know? Get it to like you or something like that. My only task here is to give you a safe environment by making sure it doesn't bite your head off."

He looked a little disappointed. He must have been hoping for some miracle cheat that would result in an instant contract.

Nevertheless, he had prepared something else. He grabbed a big chunk of meat from his pouch, held it up and conjured a little fire beneath it. A magus huh. He cooked the meat until it was golden brown, dripping with fat.

The tempest wolf was already salivating and looking greedily at the piece of meat. Sven would probably have already lost his life to the hungry wolf if I didn't forbid it from attacking it.

"Hello, Mr. Wolf, I am Sven. Would you like to make a contract with me? I can give you more delicious food if you accept."

It was a low blow. The wolf wasn't allowed to attack but wanted the delicious food in front of it. Tempest wolves aren't the smartest in the forest so this one didn't even get the unfairness of the situation. Any human in its position would complain but this wolf simply agreed.

A golden current manifested between them extending in both directions until it connected their hearts. Sven's strategy had worked.

He threw the meat towards the tempest wolf that jumped up, grabbed it and devoured it within seconds.

The more the news of this event spread the more outraged the other adventurers became. They knew Sven, he was both a magus and a fighter but hadn't reached the knight realm in either. For him to have a companion that could defeat a baron magus!

He was now the strongest among them!

Even worse the way he used wasn't possible to imitate! He had brought most of the animals that were commonly seen in the forest. Meaning the only way to get a chance to tame a tempest wolf was to either kill two and bring their corpses to Eldar or kill a different beast.

But just the idea of this was ludicrous to them. They were jealous of Sven for having a beast that they couldn't defeat. So how should they hunt such a beast?

Naturally, there were some that thought of a solution to this problem. One of them might not be able to defeat a beast but if the stronger ones formed a team they could do it.