CH.535 Visiting the Wild Pack pt.2
CH.535 Visiting the Wild Pack pt.2
“By the way,” Indigo spoke up as we were walking … somewhere. “Where did you find a Bibi?”Note: Unika’s Winged Fox
“It was … What was that place called again? Brian?” Unika asked me, since she couldn’t recall the name of the town they went to.
“Mental Visual Designing, open.” I said to open up a System screen I can manipulate quite freely. I could have used Dungeon Founder instead, as both have been linked with Storage, so I can use either to display information stored in Storage. I just picked Mental Visual Designing because I felt like it. I used it to bring up a map and then pointed at the location. “A small town, right about here.” I told Indigo. “Unika can tell the rest of the story.”
“Thanks, Brian.” Unika thanked me, before she told Indigo about how she spotted the call for A-rank adventurers and how that led to her taming Nio.
After that story was over, she brought up another topic.
“And what about those shining balls of light around the orthrus fox?” She asked.
“... Am I allowed to answer that?” Unika asked, while looking at me.
“I guess I can answer. It is just how Unika’s foxes evolved. You saw them during the tournament. They were two separate iron foxes. But perhaps because of their closeness, or maybe some other circumstance, when they evolved, they combined into one orthrus fox. And those orbiting lights are essentially the personalities of the separate foxes.” Yes, what I said was a lie, but it is also like a quarter truth. Maybe a half truth? I just omitted the fact that they combined and evolved because of a Rank-Up-Magic.
“... I see? … and orbiting? What is that?” Indigo asked.
“Oh right, space science.” I muttered. “Orbiting means to circle around an object. It is basically what the moon does around the planet.” I looked at Indigo and it seemed like she had already lost the plot, so I tried to simplify the explanation as much as I could, while I used Mental Visual Designing to show her some diagrams I could quickly draw about how planets orbit around stars, and how moons orbit around planets.
I honestly don’t think Indigo understood much of it, but Unika, Einar and Eline seemed to understand some of it. Maybe I need to hold a science lesson on HomeBase.
And if anyone asks why I know this stuff, I can just tell them I studied it to learn Space Magic.
“Hello, my love.” Indigo called out, as we approached a large three-headed wolf. Aka. a cerberus. And not just any cerberus, but the same one The Wild Pack brought to the showcase they put on for the adventuring tournament.
The large monster lowered its three heads to Indigo, and she quickly petted all of them. She then opened the bag she was carrying, pulling out three massive meat chunks, with a visible bone extending from them that Indigo used as handles, before tossing the chunks to the three heads.
“Still an impressive sight.” I commented. “I know Nio is also S-rank, but seeing a large monster like this being tame is something else.”
“Says the one with a Fenrir.” Indigo pointed out.
“Well, Nir is a summoned monster, not a tamed one, so it isn’t quite the same.”
“Speaking of, how did you do it?” Indigo asked.
“Did what?” I asked.
“You know what I’m talking about! You came one with the Fenrir! You were a Fenrir-kin! I could feel it!” Indigo called out.
“She’s right, we can feel it.” Unika said.
“... You can feel it? How? What does it feel like?”
“Don’t change the subject! Answer me first!” She demanded.
“... well, it’s nothing special really. Just a skill, Beast Union. I’m sure you’ve heard of it.” I answered.
“Of course I have. It allows you to come one with your tamed monster. I don’t have the skill, but few of our members do.” Indigo stated. “But that wouldn’t allow for what you did.”
“True, but you can do the same, but in reverse. I call it a reverse union.” I told her. “Unika, care to demonstrate?” I requested. Sure I could do it myself, but I’d first have to change my race to centaur, horse-folk or human before I could union with Rani. And to one of aforementioned or bird-folk before I could do it with Glad.
I think it is just a limitation of the technique. Humans are adaptable, so they can do it with anyone, but more specific races can only do it with monsters that somewhat match their race.
So a horse-folk can do it with horse monsters, and since a hippogriff is half-horse. Same with bird-folk and a hippogriff being half-eagle.
Maybe that is why there is also that ‘taming bonus’ when taming monsters as you are? You somehow match. Something is trying to tell you that there is something special about that specific monster.
Unika did as I asked, doing a reverse union with Nio. She probably picked Nio because Nio’s union is nice and visible.
Not only does Unika grow another tail, she also gets a pair of wings. Luckily this wasn’t Unika’s first time doing this, so she knew to remove her jacket and shirt before doing so.
And yes, HomeBase employees get high quality underwear, including things like sports bras.
She does also have clothes that have holes for the wings she gets from her union with Nio, but she doesn’t use the union much, so they aren’t her everyday clothes.
“... I see. … would you be willing to teach us that technique?”
“I don’t see why not.” I told her.
While Indigo gathered those with the Beast Union skill, the four of us and our monsters had some lunch. We even fed Indigo’s cerberus, because why not?
And, I mean, it isn’t a big deal. Sure the cerberus eats a lot, but only about half of what Nir eats whenever I feed him.
“You didn’t need to feed him.” Indigo said, as she returned with three other people. They each had a monster following them.
“It was no problem.”
“Thank you.” Indigo simply said. “These are Nora, Fintan and Dawn. They are three of the five members that have the Beast Union skill. Sadly the other two aren’t here currently.”
“Well, they can always teach each other.” I reminded her. “This isn’t some secret I won’t allow you to share.”
“Yes. Thank you.”
I then looked over the three.
Fintan is a lizard-folk, and he had light green scales. With him was a D-rank monster, a forest lizard.
Nora is a cat-folk with light orange hair. Her tails and ears are a bit of a darker orange. Her monster was something I was quite familiar with, as Eline could summon one of them. A lightning tiger.
Last was Dawn. She was a race I’ve only seen at a glance, a penguin-folk. I saw a few in the waters around the Hero’s county, but not that many. Most of them live up north, I think.
Penguin-folk are not technically bird-folk. I mean, they are, but also no. It is complicated, okay? It isn’t like the two races share much, except that both have feathers.
For example, penguin-folk have the racial skills ‘Cold Resistance’ and ‘Swift Swimming’, and their wing-arms aren’t powerful enough for flight, like bird-folk arms are.
Penguin-folk also have a lot shorter feathers, and they have them all over their body. I suppose it acts as an insulating layer.
Dawn’s tamed monster of choice is a horned seal, which she was pushing on a cart.
I was a bit unsure on how the seal would deal with being out of the water, so I faced Dawn and asked. “Are you and the seal going to be alright out of water? We can do this next to the lake.”
“We can deal. We’re used to it.” Dawn answered.
“... yeah, we are heading to the lake. You shouldn’t have to ‘deal’ with it when there is an easy solution.”
As we headed for the lake, Unika and I explained the basics of reverse union. Mainly that the monster you are doing it has to be of a race matching yours, and that the monster has to have the correct mindset for it to be possible.
For the race matching, Fintan and Nora should be just fine. They both have basically perfect matches. Not so sure about Dawn though.
For the personality part, Fintan and Dawn should be able to deal, as their monsters are lower ranked, but I’m a bit worried about Nora. B-ranks aren’t always the easiest. It really comes down to the relationship the two have.
Once we got to the lake and both Dawn and her seal were in the lake, we were ready to start. Since Unika demonstrated earlier, and I was better at showing the difference in the monster mentality, I decided to show them how to do it.
I was doing the unions with Rani. I changed my race back to human, so the demonstration would be possible.
First, I had Rani want to be one with me, so when I did the union, we turned into a horse-folk.
I then undid the union, before asking Rani to want me to ride her. I then redid the union and came out a centaur.
This was one of the best ways of showcasing how the difference in the monster’s mentality can have drastically different results. Despite the fact that my stats in both forms are the exact same.
I then undid the union and changed back to wolf-kin.
We then had our students try. Fintan went first, because he was the one I was the most sure would succeed. Sadly, his first try failed and he ended up becoming one with his lizard, not the other way around. I think that is because Fintan isn’t the most assertive person.
But when he tried again, he managed to do the reverse union. His looks didn’t change much. He already looked like a lizard, now he just looks a bit more like a lizard. His tail is a bit longer, his nails are a bit sharper, snout is a bit more pronounced and so on.
With Fintan’s success, the other two gained a lot more confidence and were ready to try.
Dawn actually managed her reverse union with surprising ease, getting it right on her first try. I honestly expected it to be impossible for her, because of the race problem, but apparently I’m just wrong. Though the penguin-folk and seal mix did look a bit strange, and after Dawn undid the union, she said she had some muscle pains because of it, and her skin felt itchy.
So clearly not a perfect union, but it worked.
As for Nora, it went about like how I expected. It didn’t work. Simply put, her lightning tiger didn’t want to become one with Nora and Nora wasn’t strong enough to force the tiger to do so.
“... maybe some outside force would help.” Indigo said. “I’ll get Tugga and get him to intimidate the tiger.”
“Not recommended.” I told her. “It might end up like me and Nir, with Nir’s instincts trying to take over.” I informed her. “... actually, that isn’t a bad idea.” I realized that we don’t need the cerberus, we have a fenrir. “Nir, I need you.” I summoned out my massive wolf.
The four that hadn’t seen him up close stared at the massive wolf. I quickly promised Nir I’d feed him afterwards, but I needed him to do a reverse union with me.
The fenrir agreed, and soon enough, I was a fenrir-kin. And since I was, I could speak Beast, instead of having Unika act as my translator.
“Alright, little shit.” I spoke to the tiger. “Your lovely owner is asking nicely, but I won’t. You’ll do what is asked, or else.” I tried intimidating the lightning tiger, and if its body language is anything to speak of, it seemed to have worked.
“Alright. Nora, I think she is ready to try again.” I told the cat-folk.
She? How did I figure out that the lightning tiger is a female? No one ever mentioned it.
But as I was pondering that, I quickly realized why. I can smell it.
… wait, I can smell genders?
I quickly sniffed Einar and Eline, not in a gross way, and yeah, I can smell genders when I’m a fenrir-kin. Maybe it is something to do with hormones?
I then took in the scent of Unika, Indigo, Dawn and Nora and tried to differentiate between them. I did spot some differences between them, but I’m not quite sure what they mean.
They mean that Unika and Indigo are perfect for breeding. Dawn is not suitable and Nora isn’t powerful enough.
… wait? Where did that come from? Nir?
Sadly I didn’t get an answer. This is weird. I’ll have to ask Laura later.
As for Nora with the now more submissive lightning tiger, she managed to do the reverse union, but the tiger's instincts clearly took over her and she attempted to pounce on Dawn.
Luckily I’m fast as anything while in a union with Nir, so I quickly moved between the two, caught Nora, and gently subdued her.
“Alright. Undo the union.” I ordered her. “You need some levels before trying this with a B-rank.”
Perhaps out of fear, maybe because she knew what she was doing, Nora undid the union. I then let her go, before helping her onto her feet.
I then, still as in the union with Nir, spoke to the three.
“Well, I think we will have to call it here. I hope you learned something. Nora, if you want to do that again, tame a weaker cat monster or get more powerful. Dawn, you might want to tame a different monster for better results. Fintan, gain some confidence. It worked out because your lizard is weak, but if you try with a stronger monster with that attitude, you’ll end up like Nora.” I told them.
“Yes Sir!” The three answered in unison, almost like they had practiced that.
Well, whatever. I undid my union with Nir, so we could head somewhere to eat.
And while we were eating a second lunch, with the three union students and Indigo joining this time, Unika pointed out something.
“... Brian. You stayed a fenrir-kin, despite the union ending. Why is that?” She asked.
… I did? Why? I assumed I changed back to a Wolf-kin.
I quickly opened up One of Every Race to confirm.
One of Every Race | |||
Normal Races | Class Races | Modifier Races | Special Races |
Human ☐ | Swordsman ☐ | Spiritual ☑ | Dragon Hearted ☐ |
Advanced Human ☐ | Guardian ☐ | Multi-Armed ☐ | Melusine ☐ |
Dwarf ☐ | Sorcerer ☐ | Heterochromic ☑ | Centaur ☐ |
Cat-folk ☐ | Summoner ☐ | Gender Change ☐ | Fenrir-kin ☑ [unlocked] |
Wolf-folk ☐ | Blacksmith ☐ | Spiritual Being ☐ | |
Wolf-kin ☐ | Enchanter ☐ | Cambion ☐ | |
Rabbit-folk ☐ | Chef ☐ | ||
Horse-folk ☐ | User or Rare Skills ☑ | ||
Bird-folk ☐ | Pack Leader ☐ [new] | ||
Lizard-folk ☐ | Dragon King ☐ | ||
Mer-folk ☐ | |||
Dhampir ☐ | |||
Dhampir Cured ☐ | |||
[Change to selected Race] |
Well, she isn’t wrong. I’m a Fenrir-kin. I also got a new class race, Pack Leader.