Master Of None

Chapter 173 - 173. Tamer's Guild Master

There seemed to be someone rushing around every step of the way. Carrying food, cleaning the grounds, practicing with the tamed beast, too many moving parts to easily keep track of. 

The species of monsters were hard to account for as well, some as simple as goblins, night hawks, giant spiders. And others with additional limbs or massive fangs the party had only ever seen in story books. Walker was certain a wealth of knowledge existed here, he would only need to gain access to any library they had. For adventurers knowing the traits and possible attacks of a monster was a massive advantage, therefore if he utilized his mental archive skill and the tamers guild information the entire party would benefit. 

The main building they had been led into was mostly storage and indoor resting pens. Many stairs led underground which was only assumed to be to more resting pens. The entire building was designed to have larger doorways and wide open concepts. This was definitely to make the tamer's beasts feel more comfortable. 

Something akin to a store was on one side or a large hall, shelves upon shelves of strange things. The jars and baskets held ores, crystals, monster parts, bones, flowers, so many things. "Ah our little shop caught your eye, I see. That's for tamers to buy things their bests may need for growth. Rare foods? We have it. Rare medicine ingredients? Right over there. Shed feathers from a molting falcon? Yup have it right in the shop. We travel so far and so often that we easily establish a decent trade network to get what we need." Definitely a surprise for the party, the tamers would obviously have resources that others did not and would aim to trade and sell them. Walker made a note to stop there on his way out, maybe he and his all around appraisal skill could find something nice. 

Only half of the main building seemed to have a roof, most likely due to the accessibility for flying monsters. This meant that only half the building had a second floor. Reaching a large staircase and heading upwards the all too familiar sounds of a busy office filled their ears. Many in tamers guild inscribed clothing ran from desk to desk sharing paperwork. This was only one of the many headquarters, imagining how complicated the web of information that traveled through each one let alone to and back from each other was daunting. 

Midnight was behind Walker following along taking in the sights. She was steadily gaining a larger and larger ego since tamers were constantly stopping to gaze at the little dragon that had entered the office. Most of them had only even seen the guild master's dragon and that was if they were lucky to see it taking off. Standing much taller Midnight pranced about, "sister says she likes it here, people understand her power." Hearing onyx translate walker wanted to slap himself, this was all he needed, Midnight to get an even bigger ego from all the attention. 

"Well of course they understand your power, there's only one other dragon here. Tamers that can tame a dragon are extremely rare. Not that you're necessarily tamed but to them it's the case." Laurence casually replied to Midnight, everyone had steadily gotten used to Onyx's translations. Onyx himself felt great pride every time he was able to convey something that couldn't be spoken, to him it was a job only he could do in the party.

"Actually speaking of the other dragon, will we get to meet it? Do you want to meet it Midnight?" Not sure if she should be excited or worried Su wanted to test the waters to hear what Midnight thought of other dragons. 

"Ah well that's completely based on the guild master's mood." Laurence seemed a bit off put with his answer, maybe the guild master was overprotective of his companion. 

"Sister says she would only like to meet them to show them she is stronger. Then she will have this as her territory too." Well the first part was expected, Walker didn't worry about that it was a classic Midnight desire. But what was this about territory?

"What do you mean take this as your territory?" Walker figured the best way to understand was to flat out ask.

"Sister says that she is the most powerful dragon at home so that makes it her territory. When she proves her strength she will take this as her territory too." Well it was true that Midnight was the only dragon they knew of at home so technically it could be her territory. 

"Well just don't run in to battle with the Guild master's dragon, at least try and have a conversation first. Who knows maybe you two will be friends." In response Midnight snorted dramatically. "No, I know that's you ignoring what i'm saying. Friends first then we can talk about territory." Picking up on Midnight's different responses and gathering the meaning before Onyx spoke was one trick Walker had picked up on. Surprisingly the only other person with a knack for it was Remey, Walker wasn't sure if it was due to their rivalry or if it was a special bond they had. 

Once they had walked through the offices they came to a rather silent corner, this was in contrast to the adventurer's guild which led directly to ornate doors and office space right outside them. Instead here at the tamer's guild they were greeted by the average oak door, well slightly larger oak door. Lawrence knocked on the door softly almost as if he was afraid to be more loud. In response a loud thud came from the other side of the door accompanied by some scrambling. "Whoever is interrupting my peace better get their sorry butts in here before I come out there to beat them!" The gruff voice did absolutely nothing to hide away their anger. Was it peace the person inside was having or a nap? The party was sure it was the latter based on the scrambling after Lawrence knocked. 

Pushing open the door they were all greeted with a fairly simple room. There were no grand bookshelves or large desks. Just simple comfy chairs around a coffee table. One plain looking desk covered with paperwork. Not even paintings adorned the walls. Even the floor lacked a carpet and only had the woodboards. The owner of the gruff voice they had just heard said behind said plain desk.

Expecting a larger man to be the owner of the voice they heard the party was stunned to be dead wrong. Just barely four and a half feet tall the smaller burly man glared at them. His long beard was peppered with grey losing its brown color. Spots of soot streaked his aged face. Something told them that even though he seemed small and old that he could easily take them down without any trouble. "Ah Lauraence you finally drag yourself back here. I thought you'd been lost in the forest again. Get on over and sit down, I expect good news." The guild master did not even spare a glance yet for the party. He was completely focused on his own members, rightfully so, if he wasn't his position would be at serious risk. Seeing this Laurence wanted to speak up but thought better of it and sat down as instructed. "Elise, while your senior talks let me see that cursed crow egg you picked up, I will take a careful look, you know I have a knack for guessing how good a monster will be."

Her eyes lit up at this, not only did she get to show off Avela, but she would also be able to show off her new friends who helped her acquire the best possibly cursed crow chick anyone would ever see. Carefully she summoned Avela from her beast ring in to her hands, "Guild master Ribbolt, As you can see she has already hatched. Her name is Avela and she is easily the greatest cursed crow the guild shall ever see. She has a very strong affinity for dark mana which means she should be able to lock down other monsters better. Even more she has a weak wind affinity which makes her more amazing. I could not have achieved this without my new friends!" with the spotlight suddenly on them Walker saw no reason not to introduce himself. 

Hello sir, we are known as the omnipotent party. We hail from the crystal kingdom capital city Diamond. We are only affiliated with the adventurers guild and look forward to continuing to build a relationship with the tamers guild." His words seemed to go unheard, the only noticeable difference was that Ribbolt's eyes stopped on Midnight and Onyx for a moment. The look was enough for Walker to know they had been noticed. Ribbolt focused back on Avela and Elise, wagging his finger over the little fluff ball. "Now Laurence, why aren't you reporting in? Speak already." The hint of annoyance made Lawrence sit up much more straight before he began to recount their travels.