Chapter 92 – Giving a name.

Roland and Bernir were in the process of returning to the workshop. After getting breakfast out of the way both of them were ready to work on some things. The crimson armor that he wore needed some tending and his shield did take the brunt of that attack. Before any repairs could be made he would need to clear up some things with his new worker and also his new tamed beast.

The little puppy had woken up halfway through their trip and was now running circles around Roland. From what the old man said at the adventurer’s guild he knew that the wolf pup needed to be named. Unless this final bit wasn’t complete the little dog wouldn’t fully listen to him.

“How about you name him Red, Mr. Wayland? Or maybe Ruby?”

Bernir had been giving him some naming advice along the way but Roland wasn’t feeling any of them. He looked at the fuzzy ball of energy that was jumping around, it even chased after some adventurers that they ran in during their return which left him to apologize.

“He was found in a fire dungeon…”

After mumbling to himself he moved over to where the dog was. The little guy looked up to him and gave out a loud bark. Roland leaned down to pick him up, the little guy’s tongue was out and he was panting out loud.

“How about… Agni?”

With his love for old mythology, he came to the conclusion that he could go with one of the fire gods from his old world. Agni was the name of the ancient Hindu fire god which would fit the theme of the fire dungeon that he got this puppy from. After looking through the wolf’s status screen he did possess a high affinity for fire.

“Oh?”

Bernir called out from the side as after Roland mentioned the name something started happening. A strange magic symbol appeared in front of the puppy that was somewhat similar to a rune but not quite it. This magic symbol slowly floated towards the small wolf’s forehead and entered it. Following this, the small monster’s body started glowing for a second before returning to normal.

“Was that a tamer contract? Didn’t think I’ll ever see one so close up.”

Bernir chimed in while watching the strange phenomenon. Roland also noticed that he gained a title the moment the process was finalized.

It looked more like an achievement than a contract but he knew that even this could unlock special classes. He wouldn’t be surprised if he would be able to pick one of the tamer related classes in the future. There was also a change to his new friend’s status that appeared after this strange phenomenon.

‘Bonded? I guess we have a connection now?’

“I wonder…”

He placed the wolf down on the ground but this time around he started out with his name.

“Agni… sit?”

The little puppy perked up at the command and after barking sat down on his behind. His tail continued to swing around while kicking up some dirt in the process. Both he and Bernir were quite surprised at how the puppy was behaving now. It seemed that by having the contract the monster would start to follow its master’s instructions.

Roland also remembered what the man at the guild told him. If the master outlevels a young monster like this there are never any issues with the commands. Even less if the master is a tier above, only when the monster starts to outlevel its owner would it show defiance.

He was reminded by the old man to be careful. Allowing the monster to fight for a person without the master doing anything would cause it to advance quickly. Many tamers sometimes got lazy and stagnated with their monsters overtaking them.

The experience between a tamed monster and its master would be divided between the two. This wasn’t at 50% as some might think. It was closer to 70% for the monster and 30% for its owner. In some cases, if the monster was a violent variant it could go berserk and even kill its own master. Such stray monsters would then roam the land unhinged from their contract.

Having a monster go berserk could be counteracted by a couple of things. Besides the owner having a higher level some tamer and summoner-like classes could have special traits or skills that kept their beasts at bay. Another way would be through magical items similar to slave collars that would force a monster to obey.

‘Well, I can always keep it from advancing if it ever reaches my level…’

This was the most common way of guarding oneself against an unruly tamed beast. In Roland’s case, he was an active fighter and he also gained experience from crafting items. It was highly unlikely to him that his tamed monster would ever reach a higher level than he did.

“It’s finally listening to you, Mr. Wayland.”

“Good… let’s go.”

It was time to return to his home, with his new wolf partner now somewhat behaving he could give Bernir some work. After arriving they headed over to his side workshop where he kept the regular iron and steel tools.

“You can stay in this shed for now. You can also use the spare wood if you want to customize it.”

“I-I can make changes?”

“Sure, you do have that carpenter class, it would be a waste to not use it. Just tell me before you make any changes.”

The two started talking and Roland began listing some rules for his new worker. For one thing, he wasn’t allowed to wander around the premises. There were many buried traps here and there that could be set off by the clumsy half-dwarf. He had already been shocked by his door so he didn’t want him to get his foot blown off on a mine.

“M-mine runes?”

Bernir took a bit to look around. The backyard was a bit unkempt and weeds along with grass were making it hard to spot where these mines could be buried.

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“Yes… I’ll probably have to remove those, for now just don’t go behind the house.”

Roland glanced at the puppy that he was holding. The little guy was wiggling around and trying to escape but he knew that it could cause an explosion to occur. Maybe later he could teach this wolf to evade the traps by smell but for now, they were a big hazard for both Agni and Bernir.

“Okay, Mr. Wayland…”

Roland wanted to remind Bernir about dropping the honorifics but then he remembered. He was actually about double the age of this young man, so acting as his master wouldn’t be that out of the ordinary.

“Well, I’ll be in my house if you need something.”

Bernir nodded as Roland left him to his own devices. The straw mattress and the blanket were in the log shed already so he only needed to get the half-dwarf a pillow. The log shed was quite large, there was also room behind it to expand it in scope. He was hoping that Bernir that had the carpenter class would be able to expand it himself without his help.

‘I wonder if he could help me build that wind turbine later…’

After his makeshift steam engine had been set up he started thinking on ways of improving it. There were other ways of generating power that didn’t even require mana in the first place. One of these were wind turbines, there was enough space to make one of them in the back.

There was no reason to make a full-sized one, he wasn’t interested in grinding down grains to make flour. He was mostly interested in generating electricity which he could connect to his generator. With some wind runes as backup to make it spin when there was no wind, it could work better than his previous setup.

Roland closed the door after himself and placed Agni on the floor. The little animal instantly took off towards one of the rooms. He gave out a sigh but let the wolf look around the house while he decided to go to his workshop.

After going downstairs and removing his armor he gave out another sigh. A lot had happened in just one day and he suddenly found himself, two roommates. He wasn’t sure what to do with the two but he had some plans.

First, he remembered his times in Edelgard. This had taught him the power of magical contracts. These contracts could actually be made by him thanks to his scribing profession. Depending on the tier of the person signing it a higher level scribe would be required.