The First Legendary Beast Master

Chapter 978: Focus On Growth

The locals turned out to be exceptionally organized, and when Karl stepped outside to check on the state of the city, hundreds of tents had been set up, a fire was going to replace the streetlights that were destroyed, and someone in the distance was calling out to come to the soup pot if you hadnʼt eaten.

”It looks like they have everything taken care of well enough. If you want to start sending the sleepy patrons to the rooms, Rae is finished setting up hammocks along all the walls. She made frames of Earth Magic, so you can just take them down in the morning by untying them.” Karl explained as he came back in.

The Innkeeper nodded in thanks. ”Alright everyone, listen up. The rooms have been made communal for the night, thanks to our Demonic guest and his team. There are hammocks hung in all the rooms. If youʼre tired, just find somewhere to sleep for the night.”

Most of the younger ones, and the single parents, went up to the rooms, where Karl could hear laughing and cheering from the kids. Swinging in hammocks was fun, and there were soft blankets.

The parents who didnʼt go up to the rooms early just kept drinking, as did Karlʼs group, until Lotus began falling asleep at the table.

Karl opened the [Tiny World] against the wall by their table, and the ladies all filtered inside. Today had enough excitement already, and they had no intentions of passing out at a table like the Dwarves were.

The Innkeeper looked inside the dim space curiously. All that he could see that was it looked like grassland, but he couldnʼt tell how large it was.

”I will move the entrance, that was just more convenient to let everyone head for bed.” Karl explained.

The Innkeeper motioned for Karl to follow him.

”If you set it up here, in the keg room, nobody will bother you. Iʼve got all I need for the evening, and the staff wonʼt be in here until breakfast tomorrow. That entrance isnʼt large, it should fit along the wall.” He offered.

”That would be greatly appreciated. I will leave it open in case of emergency, but warn your server not to enter without knocking. Lady Rae will likely be on guard all night, and sheʼs been known to eat intruders.”

The old man laughed. ”In that case, I can think of a few people who I would love to send to get you for breakfast, if I could trust them in the keg room.”

Rae poked her head out the entrance, which was near the Guild House replica, but facing the grassland.

”I donʼt mind, really. But Iʼll be in spider form. I donʼt like sleeping as a humanoid.”

The Innkeeper turned to listen to something from upstairs, then nodded. ”Alright, I will see you all for breakfast. The door is kept latched, but you can open it from the inside if you need out.”

Karl nodded. ”No worries, I can open portals as well. If there wasnʼt a good spot here, we would have just moved to somewhere in the wilderness to set up camp.”

The Innkeeper shook his head. ”Thatʼs even less safe than staying in a crumbling city. The wilderness has some truly devious sorts of beasts in it.”

”Oh?”

The Dwarf shook his head at Karl. ”Perhaps that was the wrong thing to say to a Monster Man and his band of feral adventurers. But we can talk about it in the morning, I need to get upstairs.”

When he left, Karl entered the Tiny World and mentally scanned for Dana. He should meditate for the night, to help integrate some of his new power and try to push towards Totem Rank a bit faster. But meditating alone was boring.

Unfortunately, Dana already had a sleeping partner, and moving a sleepy Badger was incredibly difficult when Cara locked her claws through the hammock.

However, there was a backup plan.

Instead of meditating in bed, he would have Rae make him a swinging chair, and he could sit under the branch of a large tree, facing the entrance, so he would see what was happening if Rae alerted him.

Once Karl was settled into his swinging chair, he called the Lamia bodyguards, so that Rae could get a bit of sleep.

She had a busy day, and a spider needed her beauty sleep, so she could dream of all the glorious carnage of the day.

And Rae had inflicted a lot of carnage to dream about today.

Rae slept in the tree that Karl was swinging under, while Karl focused on his work. His adapted body seemed to absorb power without any obstacles at all, and it was growing steadily as he drained the dayʼs influx from the Haint Claw and Sword of Champions.

He wasnʼt the only one that had changed, though. Karl could feel the beginnings of a separate will in the Haint Claw, which was technically a sapling of a full-grown Haint.

Most likely, it was supposed to take decades or centuries to grow into a fully sentient weapon, like Leafa. But with the extra feeding and the advantages of Karlʼs Class, it wasnʼt going to take much longer, and it would be awakened.

The Blade of Champions was showing no similar signs of sentience, but the power level from multiple nearby Totem Kills was absolutely ridiculous.

While the combat power difference between the Overlord and Totem Rank wasnʼt all that large, if you didnʼt consider the damage reduction, the purity and potency of the soul and life energy was on a whole other level.

As Karl understood it, Totems were expected to live many times their standard lifespan, and that was reflected in the energy that had been collected from them.

The Tiny World was quiet through the night as Karl focused on adding energy to the nine stars in his mental space, and to his body. Between the two, he could force his power to grow smoothly, and while he briefly considered moving on to another pattern, this one was working so well that he didnʼt want to mess with it yet.