CH.367 Visiting a horse ranch
Today’s little side quest started from a question from Molly and Cina, then asking to do sothing with them. I don’t think they were being greedy, just maybe a bit jealous that I spend ti with Einar and Eline, when I really don’t show the sa amount of love towards the two of them.
That in itself was the truth. It was just easier for to connect with Einar and Eline, as they joined the party earlier. … though I guess that is a bad excuse, as I feel more connected to Unika and her family, compared to the two horse-folk girls. I never really gave the two a chance, so it is about ti. There is also Maya the cat-folk woman I picked up at the sa ti as Molly, Cina and Karl, but she is content with just doing her work and taking care of Einar and Eline.
And I guess now that I’m talking about everyone living on HoBase, I should probably ntion Valoa, Unika’s younger (half) brother. Well, she calls him her brother, so the half isn’t really necessary, even if they aren’t full siblings. Valoa has been getting used to HoBase just fine, and is getting better at light magic due to the excellent teachers he has access to. As well as his own drive to be better. He has also been learning Foxfire with Unika, so that is also good to hear. But the most interesting developnt is what has been happening to his body.
It began after about a week of him living here. He has begun to grow out a tail. It wasn’t quite the sa as the bushy tail both Unika and Olia had, as his curls upwards into almost like a bun, like the tails of so dogs do. That combined with his ears that don’t stand up like Unika’s, make Valoa look more like a puppy than a fox, but what do I know?
But enough about Valoa, let’s get back to Molly and Cina. The two of them wanted to do sothing with , and I do have a place I want to visit. In part because I was asked to co if I have the ti, and in part because I want to see if the lord ruling that area is worthy of being invited to HoBase’s grand reveal.
… the sad part is that I’ll still be bringing both Unika and Einar with , so it isn’t just the three of us, but that is what I can offer the girls. I an, that place specializes in two things, horses and taming said horses. So of course I want to bring my tars along.
We flew over to the town, actually it is basically a small city, but officially it is still called a town, of Kri. Molly and Cina were both quite happy to be riding in a B.E.S. again, as they haven’t been in one since the ti they moved to HoBase.
The flight over was nothing special, but I did enjoy hearing stories from Molly and Cina about their ho. Mainly about the other horse-folk there. For the horse-folk, one of the big dreams most of them have in life is evolving, and that is because of what they generally evolve into.
Centaurs. And I do have to agree, that is quite the evolution.
But it isn’t just that. It is also because centaurs are the lords of that land, similar to how nobles rule the Ruiso kingdom. Centaur, or sotis few of them, take over an area and beco the ‘rulers’ of that area. And if anyone tries to take that land away from them, they fight for it. To the bitter end.
Because of that, centaurs are seen as a very powerful, but also noble race. Because for those that don’t want to take their power away from them, but just want to share the area with them, they are (usually) great rulers.
That has even led to so people trying to ‘ta’ centaurs. Not ta as in the skill, but ta as in getting them to be your servants. Because if you have soone that is seen as mighty and noble as your servant, what does it say about you?
That makes want to level up the girls, because if they evolve into centaurs, I could have the two of them pull my carriage. And that way, in areas where centaurs are seen in that kind of light, people would quickly realize my power. I really might just start leveling them up when we return from this sidequest.
“OOH! Cina! Do you see that?” Molly yelled out as our ship stopped over Kri. “A centaur! She is leading all those war horses.” Molly might be almost 20, but at the mont, she acted more like an excited 12 year old.
“... impressive.” Cina nodded along, but her volu was a lot lower.
“How many are there?” Einar questioned. “I understand that they are tad, but having that many tad monsters following just one person isn’t easy.”
“True.” Unika agreed. “Usually adventurers don’t have more than five permanently tad monsters. … But that might be because of the food costs and having to transport said food.”
“Is that why you only have two?” I asked.
“Not really, but yes. I used to have two more, but … they didn’t make it.”
“... I see.”
A great reminder that tad monsters are living beings. They aren’t like summoned monsters that are beings that co here from a parallel dinsion, or wherever they co from. And if they die here, they don’t really die. But of course that doesn’t go for tad monsters. They die when they are killed.
“Lord Brian! Can you let us down there? I want to run the centaur!” Molly demanded.
“... yes. Please.” Cina added.
“Let’s not. We might cause an accident. I’ll beam us to the town gate, or actually a bit away from it. We’ll walk from there.”
Getting into the town was easy enough, though the gate guards were a little suspicious of Lumi. And yes, we did bring the blizzard tiger along. It just is a sha Einar doesn’t have the Tar’s Paradise skill yet, so he has to have the tiger out and walking with us.
“You know, you could have sent a letter. We would have made so preparations.” The one that ca to greet us wasn’t the Viscount himself, but instead his wife, who I got acquainted with during the birthday party. She was quite the pretty lady, in her early 30s. I do know the two have two children as well, but they are both very young still.
“Sorry, I’m just a bit impulsive. I hope it won’t be too big of a problem.” I apologized.
“Nothing too bad, but my husband won’t be able to see you until the evening.” She then apologized in turn.
“That’s fine. But we do wish to get in contact with the centaur lady, if possible.” I requested.
“Oh? You know of Bella? You need to share your information network with us.”
“Maybe later. … and admittedly, I didn’t know her na, so thank you for the introduction.”
Lady Aliana then gave us a quick tour of the ranch, while also asking my two tars about their skills. She was actually quite surprised by Lumi, well maybe more so the fact that a young child is the one that tad the B-rank monster.
“Brian. I’ve heard you have quite the arsenal of rare skills, so perhaps you also have the Taming skill?” Aliana asked.
“I do know the basics, but I’ve never attempted to ta anything.” I admitted.
“Would you like to try?” Aliana asked. “We have so regular horses. They are quite easy to ta and are perfect for practice.”
“Sure. I’d like that.” I agreed. “... is it possible for to purchase the horse if I do manage to ta it?”
“Yes. The regular horses are just fine. For war horses, we have a waiting list.” Aliana said.
Before we got to testing out the taiming, the centaur lady ca up to us and introduced herself. As revealed earlier, her na is Bella and she was the one in charge of all the war horses here. She was also the person who had tad most of them, impressing Unika. War horses might be horses, but they are also D-rank monsters. And while D-rank monsters aren’t overly difficult to ta, war horses specifically seem to be quite the proud race and apparently aren’t tad that easily.
When Unika asked Bella about it, the centaur laughed a bit before telling us that after she just runs with the horses until they get tired, and then they are easy to ta. This surprised not only Unika, but also Molly and Cina, as apparently war horses can run for more than 10 hours at max speed.
“Can we run with you?” Molly asked Bella with stars in her eyes.
“... please.” Cina added.
“Lady Aliana, do you need ?” Bella asked.
“No. Go and run.” Aliana told them, and the three soon took off.
I do hope Molly and Cina have so fun. I really should participate in their morning runs every day. I do it 3 or 4 days a week, just for practice, but that is about it.
“... Let us head to the stables, so Brian can test if he is a tar.” Aliana then said.
After we reached one of the stables, yes there are multiple of them, she went around checking the horses they had. A lot of them were already tad, but unlike the war horses, regular horses are just F-rank monsters, so they don’t need to be tad to stay ta.
Aliana picked one of the horses, attached a harness and a lead to it and brought it out of the pen.
“Go ahead, Brian. Let’s see if you can do this.” Aliana said. “And if you need tips, just ask.”
“... Alright.”
I slowly approached the horse and when I was close to it, I extended my hand out and let the horse sll it. I didn’t want to be too fast, so as to not scare it off. Like co on. Sure I’ve never tad a horse, or any other monster, but I have ridden a horse back on Earth, so I know sowhat how to act around one.
The horse was seemingly taking in my scent, and it didn’t seem to be perplexed, so I felt comfortable to continue.
“... quick question, can I feed the horse?” I asked.
“Yes, you may. Do you need to get sothing?” Aliana asked.
“Nah. I’m fine.” I said, as I bought a carrot out of Storage. It was one of the HoBase carrots we harvested just two days ago, when we had our first HoBase harvest day.
I held the carrot in my hand, letting the horse first nibble on it, before it took a big bite. I wasn’t overly worried for my hand, because while I was holding onto the carrot in a sowhat dangerous way, which could get my fingers bitten, my defense should be high enough to keep this horse from biting them off.
I then began stroking the horse gently, while also putting so mana into it. At first, I was putting way too much mana into it, and the horse seemingly got terrified, but Laura quickly began regulating my mana output, and we cald the horse down before it panicked.
From there, it was smooth sailing. A mix of petting the horse with mana and feeding it so fruits and vegetables from Storage, and in about six minutes, the horse was tad.
“That’s impressive.” Aliana said. “Sure the horses are easy, but most still fail on their first try.”
“... well admittedly I almost did. I was putting in way too much mana in the early stages.” I admitted.
“That can happen with high leveled people. I probably should have warned you.” Aliana said.
“Don’t worry about it. The taming succeeded, so it’s fine.”
“Do you want to take the horse out for a ride?” Aliana asked.
“... is that fine?”
“Of course. … you do know how to ride a horse, right?”
“I know how to ride a dragon. How difficult can a horse be?”
“... I wouldn’t know.”
“That was a joke. I’ve ridden a horse before.” I told her. “... though I don’t know how to attach a saddle, so I do need so help with that.”
Aliana quickly had one of the stable hands bring a saddle over, and she then instructed on how to saddle the horse. I then got on the horse, and rode into the pasture.
And it was fun. Sure the horse is quite basic compared to a dragon, and not nearly as comfortable, but I still liked it. Just the basic feeling of it was nice. And I didn’t have to ride alone, as Einar joined riding on the back of Lumi. There we were. Just a couple of guys riding animals. Nothing strange about it. The fact that Einar is a cat-folk riding a large tiger is just par for the course.
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