The First Legendary Beast Master

Chapter 944: Barukth

The token turned out to be a small stick with the number of party members and rank written on it with ink, and then a brief shorthand note that Karl assumed was their descriptions in a local code.

But when the bunny girl at the gate began to giggle, Karl realized that it was most likely a warning about Lotus, and not anything to do with their actual threat level to the city.

Now Lotus was much more calm as they entered the city, as she had already gotten a dose of fluffy bunny ears to calm her down, and she could happily admire everything within the city.

Interestingly, it turned out that there were far fewer Trolls inside the city than on the farms, and the population was a little over half Dwarven, with the rest being almost all beastkin.

Fortunately for Karl and the others, that also meant that the city was sized for larger bodies, as the larger beastkin species were often close to two metres tall.

But it also meant that Opheliaʼs bad luck streak was back, and she was getting all the attention of a supermodel in the slums, with heads snapping to watch her go by.

”This is ridiculous.” She muttered as Lotus dragged the group into a pastry shop.

”You could transform back. With a hat on, nobody can tell a human from a beastkin except by smell.” Lotus suggested.

Ophelia growled softly. ”I would if I could, but every time I get annoyed, I just switch back to bear form.”

”Youʼre having problems with your transformations?” Karl asked.

If there was some sort of drawback from remaining transformed, he should make sure that Thor was aware, as he was the one most often in humanoid form.

Ophelia shook her head. ”Itʼs a berserker thing. Before I rage, I instinctively transform. But when Iʼm in a bad mood, it doesnʼt take much to trigger the automatic rage, which triggers the passive transformation.

Basically, having someone stare at my ass like that makes me change into bear form, which only encourages them.”

Karl chuckled. ”I remember once that before the awakening, you wanted to be a magical girl idol. Who would have thought that youʼre still the idol of the group, even as a Berserker?”

The hostess at the bakery giggled at their exchange while she waited to seat the group.

”He has a point. I donʼt know how you thought that you would escape that fate, your bear form is absolutely stunning. Itʼs almost like you have a charisma charm active, but I donʼt sense any magic active on you, other than some sort of regeneration spell.” The cat - eared beastkin woman joked.

That would be [Void Body], active thanks to the Epic Guard, who was currently lounging in the Tiny World, waiting for something interesting to happen.

Since the spell passively granted its protection to the whole group as long as it was active, Karl never really dismissed the advanced Golem, and just let it do whatever it wanted while they were not working.

Sometimes it would shadow him, sometimes it would lounge in the Tiny World. But both were enough to keep it immediately at hand if there was trouble.

The waitress brought them out an assortment of fruit juices and baked goods, which caused Lotus to give her a confused look.

”No fancy coffee?” She asked.

The waitress laughed. ”We only have unsweetened Hill Dwarf Coffee. Trust me, you do not want that. If you would like, we can put Dwarven Rum in the fruit juice to make a punch?”

Tessa made a dismissive gesture. ”No, itʼs better that we do not get the Green Dragon Cleric drunk before dinner.”

Lotus looked at the plate of pastries, jams and spreads in front of her. Was this not dinner? It looked like dinner to her.

”We have meat pies as well, if you want to have a full meal.” The waitress offered, then handed Tessa a menu with expertly hand drawn pictures of everything they sold.

”In that case, bring everyone a meat pie or two. We will sort out which ones we like.” Tessa insisted.

The staff brought out dozens of small meat pies, fresh from the oven, only a few minutes later. That was a meal that should keep everyone happy, including Tessaʼs instinctive need to stop Lotus from eating nothing but sweets for dinner.

While they ate, Karl checked the Guild Store, and found that he could still reach the inventory from where they were. He couldnʼt reach the Cyhosasa branch from here, though they were on the same island.

They were close to halfway between the two, but the scale of the maps wasnʼt precise enough for Karl to tell exactly where the halfway point was. What they had wasnʼt one large continental map, but a stack of smaller regional maps, and all of the scales were either different or not specified at all.

Once they had eaten, Karl led the group out towards the cityʼs market. According to what he had overheard, there were few retail store type shops here. Instead, the Dwarves preferred to work in a private workshop, then bring their goods to the market when it was time to sell.

That way, nobody bothered them while they were working, and they could make the most of their time, with the market day being a form of day off from their actual work.

It was a different system from what Karl was used to, but it seemed to work for them.

The setup also meant that the market changed day by day, so they could find new things every time they visited the city. That was an opportunity for the Darklight Host, if they did eventually want to expand to new markets.

Spreading their goods across the Dragon Isles would help build up a reputation that would ensure that they were welcome, no matter where they went. A hidden benefit of being a crafting guild as opposed to an adventuring one, which the locals would only remember the existence of when there was trouble.