The Earth Online

19 The Beast Tamer, The Berserker, and the Priest

The trio immediately bought most of the blood souls available on the Lagash market. While exchanging tons of cheaply priced red balls with hundreds of shekels, they came across all kinds of species—ranging from tree ents to tiny elemental spirits.

Each blood soul only costs a tenth of a shekel, and they had to bring back hundreds of bags with them.

Since it was physically impossible to carry those tons of blood souls themselves, they borrowed an Akkadian dimensional cube from Ganuru. Luckily, the old orc was kind enough to lend it to them for a couple of days.

He immediately said yes and something about, “I’m cheering for you humans, good luck!”

“Damn, since Ganuru left the Akkadian cube to us for a couple of days, we should definitely go back to Mount Uruk and hunt some more beasts. Then, we can sell them back here. It’ll save us a lot of time and effort since we don’t have to go back and forth anymore.” Kedrick suggested to the other men.

“That’s a brilliant idea, then we can buy those blood souls again before they become popular.” Haya chipped in. The tan man and gentle giant were getting hyped up at the notion of gaining an upper hand in the game.

Thaleos enthusiastically agreed to their suggestions and then hid the Akkadian cube in his utility bag.

~ ~ ~

After finally getting back to the Melam Military Base, they started consuming half of the soul balls and started gaining skill points. Thaleos decided to upgrade his specialized skill branch, he placed about ten points on Beast Affinity and another ten points on Familiar Synchronicity.

Thaleos remembered how Ur explained the two skills in one of the blue pop up messages. The adorable looking elf gently shared,

“The Beast Affinity is one of the basic skills a beast tamer has. It’s dedicated to helping players get closer to their battle familiars. Their affinity is absolutely vital when it comes to fighting since it shortens the transference of commands from the player’s mind to the beast. “

The bearded man racked his brain for James’ journal entries, as far as he remembered, James only mentioned this topic briefly. Thaleos thought to himself that it was pretty much aligned with Ur’s description. The elf’s soft tone brought Thaleos out of his musings,

“The Familiar Synchronicity is one of the most important beast tamer skills since it allows your battle familiar to synchronize with your level-ups. Each skill point added to Familiar Synchronicity allows the battle familiar to synchronize up to five levels.” 

As Ur was just about to leave the transmission, Thaleos asked him one last question,

“What about the three skills I acquired after reaching level 5?” Ur nodded his head as a response and spoke,

“The Heart of Tyranny core skill allows beast tamers to combine the magic found in enchanted weapons with other skills. This skill is usually passive but when activated, it can create powerful attacks. It also has a 20% chance of triggering the Tyrannical Effect, which in turn, causes additional damage and reduction in the target’s psychic resistance.”

Usually, Haya and Kedrick would ask tons of questions to Ur, but they were also busy deciding about their own extra skill points. So, the beast tamer proceeded to just quietly listen to the golden-skinned elf,

“The Anger Strike is an active skill that launches powerful attacks on your targets. There’s also a 20% chance to infuse the Anger Strike with some shock waves that can stun targets. The effectivity of the attack depends on the target’s psychic resistance.”

The elf seemed to be enjoying explaining the skills, he looked similar to Haya whenever the tan man was nerding out. Ur continued with shining eyes,

“Lastly, the Blood Rage Skill as both active and passive. For its passive capabilities, this increases heavy damage on enemies and speeds up your movements. When you use its active-skill capabilities, your health points and physical strength lowers. This results in your body releasing its emergency energy. The energy’s extra adrenaline makes your attack damage and speed levels six or seven times higher.”

After answer all the beast tamer’s questions, Ur and the blue pop up abruptly disappeared, leaving Thaleos to his thoughts.

Given all the descriptions, the bearded man took his time to consider which specific skill to level up. It seemed like all three skills were vital for a beast tamer.

After a couple of minutes of thinking, he finally decided to dedicate the rest of his skill points to the Heart of Tyranny and Anger Strike skills.

“I think that, at this point, it would be more strategic to focus on the foundational and core skill to help maximize the two other skills. Well, I can just hunt more elite beasts just to get their blood souls.” Thaleos muttered to himself and the other two men heard his plan,

“Yeah, that definitely works! As an architecture, one thing I’ve learned in university is the importance of a structure’s foundation. Without it, you’re basically fucked.” Haya said just as he finished dedicating half of the skill points to his general skills and a couple to the Berserker Fury core skill.

“You guys have a point, but I feel like there’s also a benefit in placing a few of the skill points into the supplementary skills. They can help you fare better against different kinds of beasts because of their diverse effects.” Kedrick decided to give his two cents in, while still deciding on where to place his points in.

After going through the level four skills, he decided to activate the Healing Sphere Skill and the Regenerator Passive Skill. He placed a few points on those two skills, and dedicated half of it to the Ward Off Evil Skill.

He carefully decided on the third skill since most beasts had poison drenched talons or demons probably had the potential to place curses on players.

The beast tamer agreed to Kedrick’s strategy, as well, and decided to do the same thing once they get a new fresh batch of blood souls.

~ ~ ~

The trio agreed to go to Mount Nergal just so they can test out their newly acquired skills. Haya even pointed out in an excited tone, “I think that Mount Nergal has more higher-level beasts, too. Like logically speaking, there’s a higher chance that we’d encounter elite monsters.”

Thaleos and Kedrick nodded their heads in agreements, as they traverse through the rocky terrain.

“Looks like you’re adjusting to our mountain hikes as well, Kedrick.” Just as Thaleos mockingly uttered those words, Kedrick immediately tripped on a large tree root.

The dark man yowled in pain, the two immediately checked if Kedrick sprained anything.

“Dude, you’re alright. You’re literally made up of rocks.” Haya said as he returned the priest’s tiny emergency pack back to him. The pack was basically a first-aid kit, save for some otherworldly items, like potions and beastly herbs.

The umber man accepted Haya’s words as a compliment, and they just continued their journey through the mountain’s jagged pathway.

Once they heard the loud rushing of water, they immediately became wary of their surroundings. Thaleos remembered James mentioning water beasts found in rivers, lagoons, waterfalls, and oceans.

After walking past the bushes—which acted as a barrier to the pristine waterfalls—they finally reached the enchanted falls.

They soundlessly scouted the area and noticed that there was a hollow cave behind the steep rushing water. The area seemed to be extremely quiet except for the waterfall’s rippling flow and stream bubbles.

The three immediately felt like something was off, as the water burbles sounded like they were moving against the current. Kedrick whispered in a hushed tone,

“We’re absolutely f****d if the beasts here are sirens. I swear to god, those are the nastiest and sleekest creatures out there.”

Haya solemnly agreed as he remembered how Thaleos mentioned that James was absolutely terrified of the sirens he saw in his dreams.

He described how those water creatures moved at lightning speed and packed some terrible attacks.

Luckily, Thaleos had a bit of fire sprite ashes in his utility bag. The bearded man crouched on the forest floor and sparingly mumbled to the other two, “One thing that works effectively against these little critters is putting some of the fire sprite remnants in their eyes. But for that to work, we need a way to blow some of the ashes on the sirens’ beady eyes.”

While they were hatching up a plan, one of the sirens emerged from the hollow cave and quietly swam to the school of fishes resting in the middle of the river.

The siren had an upper body that looked almost alien-like, as it had large beady eyes and shiny scales. It had long gills for its hair, protruding cheekbones, and numerous ragged teeth. It also had this long majestic fishtail that seemed to change its color every time it hit the sun’s rays.

As soon as Thaleos brought out the fire ashes from his utility bag, the mystical creature’s eyes swiftly squinted its eyes in suspicion as it started sniffing around the location.

The trio immediately held theirs breathes but as soon as Kedrick accidentally choked at his own spit, the siren quickly turned its head around their direction.

Its hands swiftly shifted into claws and its eyes changed into an angry red. Before they could even react, it rapidly swam towards their location.