Yugioh Card Summoner

CH.534 Visiting the Wild Pack pt.1

“Thank you for coming with us, Brian.” Unika said, as we set off from HomeBase. 

Today we were visiting The Wild Pack clan. You remember them, right? They were the tamer clan that brought some tamed monsters for show on what was supposed to be the final day of the adventuring tournament.

And like Kitchen Knights before them, they had invited us to visit. They actually only invited the Card Beasts, but I decided to go along with them, because it could be fun.

Naturally we brought all our tamed monsters with us, so Rani and Glad were in the ship, while Einar and Unika kept their monsters in their Tamer’s Paradise. 

I really could use that skill. I need to see how quickly I can get it. It shouldn’t be that difficult, since I already know Space Magic, and I also have Storage. I just need to put some effort into getting it.

The Wild Pack’s clan house was a massive ranch located some ways away from the nearest city, which makes sense, since they need a lot of space for all their monsters to roam. 

It had a main living building which looked like a large mansion, a large quantity of smaller houses, as well as buildings that looked like barns or other such buildings, which I’m guessing are the monsters’ dwellings.

The ranch even had a river running through it, with a decently sized lake as a part of it. It was honestly a really cool location.

We took a nice long overhead view of the place, before heading back towards the city, where we were going to meet the person who’d guide us to the ranch.

We beamed ourselves down a bit away from the person waiting for us, I unsummoned our B.E.S. of the day, and we headed towards them. I had to put some effort into keeping Glad in line, because he was excited to run off somewhere. I really need to take him out more. I think he is bored on HomeBase.

Our guide was a beast-folk male, and judging by his ears and tail, he is some kind of dog-folk. Or maybe dog-kin? I don’t really know the difference. 

At least I know he is a dog-folk/kin instead of a wolf-folk, because he has droopy ears. Wolf-folk have pointed, straight standing ears, while dog-folk have droopy ears. At least that is the general rule of thumb.

The dog-folk had a few tamed monsters with him. They seemed to be a pack of Forest Wolves, but the alpha of the pack was probably an evolved, C-rank wolf instead. A few of the wolves, including the alpha, had saddles, so he probably planned for us to ride to the clan headquarters.

“Greetings, Card Beast party, I believe? From the Card Summoner clan?” He confirmed.

“Yes, they are.” I answered him. “I am Brian Wood, the leader of the Card Summoners. I hope you don’t mind that I tagged along, despite not being invited.”

“... Of course not, Sir.” The beagle man responded. Is that racist? His ears do remind me of a beagle. “We simply did not think you would have the time to spare for a leisure visit.”

“Well, luckily I was able to acquire the required time for the visit.” I said.

The Card Beasts then introduced themselves, while the beagle introduced himself as Balto.

We then mounted up, Einar and Unika both releasing their monsters from Tamer’s Paradise. I rode on Rani bareback, since I was too lazy to put a saddle on her, since we were just having a casual trot. And the usual problems with bareback riding don’t really affect me because of my stats.

Eline ended up riding one of the wolves, mainly because she didn’t want to waste the mana to summon a monster.

While we rode along, Glad and Nio were flying above us. Glad was flying relatively straight, with Nio flying circles around him. It looked funny, because Nio was basically orbiting Glad.

The Wild Pack’s clan area wasn’t fenced in, which I found surprising. It's just … everything has a wall around it. Even small towns have a protective fence or a wall.

Maybe it is just the sheer number of monsters living here? Maybe they accept that wild monsters might invade, because they shouldn’t be a problem and they can use them as feed for the tamed monsters.

Unika and I made sure to call Glad and Nio to us, just so the members of The Wild Pack wouldn’t think they are wild monsters. Not that they aren’t wearing collars that show that they are tamed monsters, as required by the three Kingdoms when entering a city or town with a tamed monster, but you can’t always immediately spot it.

I guess I can quickly tell you about that law. It is basically what I just said. Tamed monsters must have a visible collar.

Also, only adventurers (generally) can bring tamed monsters into cities. There are exceptions, but most of the time, you’d just register, because it is free.Note: I don’t actually remember if I ever mentioned a fee related to registering. Brian never paid one, so even if there is one, it is nominal at most.

The collar must then have the name of the monster’s tamer, as well as their guild card number, and if they are a member of the clan, the name of the clan. 

All of HomeBase monsters naturally have custom collars, and they also carry the HomeBase mark, aka. my family crest, aka. that swirly thing from the back of a Yugioh card.

Balto led us to one of the outbuildings, and asked us to leave our tamed monsters there. Glad was a bit less glad about having to be cooped up, because he still had excess energy to burn, but the others didn’t cause any problems.

As we headed from the stalls to the main building, we were stopped a few times by the people just walking around, either with or without monsters accompanying them. They mainly wanted to congratulate the Card Beasts for winning the adventuring tournament, and it honestly almost seemed like I was ignored. 

Maybe that is because everyone is a beast-folk? I don’t think I’ve seen a single human here. I guess this clan is called The Wild Pack, so maybe they have a pack mentality of not liking outsiders, and especially not liking humans.

The main building wasn’t as large as I first assumed, but it definitely was a mansion. A medium one that a lower ranked noble would own.

I was expecting the inside of it to be busy, similar to the outside which had plenty of people moving about, but it was actually pretty quiet. Only a few people were sitting at the tables set out in the entrance room, chatting about this or that.

As we walked past, they looked at us, and one of them even glared at me. I really need to find out what that is about. They should have seen that I can change my race on the fly, so why are they like that?

Or is that why they are like that? They saw me being a Fenrir-kin, something that they might see as the ‘Alpha’ race. And instead of sticking with it, not that I can, I changed back to the inferior human race.

I’ll ask whoever Balto is taking us to.

He led us to an office, not unlike Zay’s guild master’s office. Except that this one was a lot less organized, and there were multiple small bird-monsters sitting on the branches of fake trees that were placed around the room. 

There was also an open window behind the desk of the room’s owner, likely so the birds could fly out and in as they please.

The birds weren’t all of the same race. There was everything from falcons to parrots to owls. And guessing by the harnesses that have tubes attached to them, I think the leader uses the birds to send letters. 

He could use a phone. … Then again, the birds will be out of a job if he gets a phone. 

As for the man leading this operation … Well, they are actually a woman. She is a wolf-kin, I think, but she has evolved. She has wings on her back, so she is a Winged Wolf-kin, maybe? Her fur is dark-gray, as are her wings, and her hair is indigo, and cut quite short.

She petted one of the birds on her desk, but as she saw us come in, she stopped and the bird flew to one of the fake trees in the room. She then quickly cleared her desk by brushing everything on it, mainly what looked like toys and treats for the birds, onto the floor.

“Welcome. I apologize I wasn’t ready for you.” She began. “I’m Indigo. And please, no jokes about it. I’ve likely heard them all.”

“Don’t worry. You’ll hear no jokes from me.” I responded. “I’m Brian Wood, leader of the Card Summoners. And this is…” I gave Unika the floor, so to speak.

“Unika. Leader of the Card Beasts.”

“Einar.”

“Eline.”

“Yes. I do thank you for coming all this way.” Indigo said.

“It is no problem.” Unika responded. “Sir Wood is capable of providing us with high speed travel methods.”

“Can he summon that many dragons?” Indigo asked. “Or do you perhaps ride on that fenrir?”

“I can.” I answered. “But dragon travel has its problems, mainly the wind. Also, it isn’t safe to go at over mach speeds when riding a dragon.” I informed her. “I prefer airships.”

“Airships? Can they be that fast?”

“Mine are. I’m planning on releasing some to the market soon-ish. Like within a year or so. So if you are interested.”

“I don’t believe our clan could afford one, but thank you for the information.” Indigo said.

“I’ll send you an ad anyway.” I told her. “Maybe the price will be reasonable enough.”

We chatted for a bit more, but Indigo was seemingly getting restless. She must get bored if she has nothing to do, so we agreed with her to continue our talk as she and Balto showed us around.

On the way, I asked her about the looks I was no longer receiving.

Indigo responded that it can be difficult for a beast-folk to find a place in mainly human focused parties and clans, so they end up having to make their own. Or joining a clan like The Wild Pack.

Because of that, those that have had those difficulties joining parties and clans don’t really like humans walking around their dwelling.

I then asked if it would be better if I was a beast-folk, and while Balto seemed surprised, Indigo said it might make things better. So I swapped my race to be Wolf-kin.

Balto just stared as my tail and ears popped out of my body. He must not have been watching the adventuring tournament. Maybe he is some sort of vice-leader, and since Indigo was clearly there, he must not have been.

With my tail and ears now out, the number of … hostile looks reduced to zero. Instead, the few that had seen me without them just looked at me like … well, like I had grown ears and tail out of nowhere.

We headed back to the stables where we left our tamed monsters, because Indigo asked to see them. And after introducing them, she told us to bring them along, so we did as ordered.

Glad was especially glad to get out. He didn’t seem to like the food someone had brought him. Indigo asked why, and when I explained what our monsters eat, her eyes went wide. I suppose it isn’t every day that you hear that tamed monsters eat B-rank and above monster meat.

It isn’t my fault, okay. They are just some of the easiest stuff to get, because they spawn in HomeBase and I can just kill them, have Lua or Cailie purify some of the miasma, and then feed them to them.

Rani does eat meat, by the way. Well, she does now. She didn’t use to when she was just a horse, but now that she is a war-horse, she can eat meat. She isn’t the biggest fan of most meat, but poultry is something she does enjoy, so I make her chicken salads. Her diet is mostly vegetables, as well as some plant monster carcasses, so adding some chicken into that does make for a really decent chicken salad, and that is coming from me. 

I don’t like meat salads. Keep the meat away from vegetables, unless I’m having a burger. Or the vegetables have been pickled.