The First Legendary Beast Master

As soon as the Governor was gone, the locals flooded in to see what Karl and his group had for sale.

Most of them hadn’t been interested in buying magical accessories today, but once the adventurers left, they would still be living in a desert, and water was a precious commodity.

The cistern below the city might be full, but it also contained the runoff of the city streets. It was good enough for washing, or feeding animals, but only the most desperate would drink it themselves, even after boiling it.

There were purification spells widely available, but those who would drink cistern water or puddle water were unlikely to be able to afford one.

But now that the cistern was actually full, and not just an emergency backup, perhaps the Dwarven Clerics would purify the whole thing, and make it safe enough for general use.

The stall was quickly crowded with shoppers, even after they had realized that the runic magical items were prohibitively expensive.

They already had arrangements with the Trollish Shamans to come around and fill their water barrels or household cisterns, so it wasn’t like they would die without spending a month’s salary or more on a magical ring.

But for the shopkeepers, especially the restaurants, this was a golden opportunity.

Purifying water for many trades, like pottery and paper making, was a long and painful process. But the rings made pure water.

The restaurants simply saw an opportunity to get ahead of their competition.

How luxurious would it be to be able to offer free water at the table in the desert? Normally, it was a limited item that they charged for. They could steal customers every day with service like that.

Then, someone realized that they had forgotten one minor detail during the massive rainstorm.

The effect that Karl and Remi had caused was roughly a hundred kilometres in radius. But the next two cities, Banar to their west and Shatholaled to the south, were roughly one hundred and twenty kilometres away.

How mad were they going to be that a massive storm had washed away the drought, right up to the farms closest to their city? Wouldn’t that feel like a direct slight to them?

Also, were they all cursed? Shatholaled wasn’t in the desert, and it got regular coastal storms, so it was likely fine. But Banar was definitely in the desert, and built along one of the few rivers that carried runoff from the mountains in Nulnalgat through Gabil.

It might still be suffering from the curse, and the storm didn’t make it to their city walls.

“Mister Karl, will you be stopping at Banar? They’re in a similar situation to us, and outside the storm area. I bet that they would thank you for breaking the curse on them as well.” One of the beastkin men asked as he examined the details of a [Ring of Tidiness].

Karl frowned. “I hadn’t intended to, but if they might also be cursed, perhaps it would be best if we did. Their curse might have broken due to the storm, even if it didn’t make it to them.

There is so much water here that it would have caused their curse to activate once the storm got close enough. That should have alerted the Shamans to the issue.”

Lotus poked Karl in the side, and he sighed.

“Alright, we will stop in and see how things went there. If they need help, we can try to break whatever curse is going on there as well.” He amended.

Rae giggled in Karl’s mind. [Good call. There might be more Bomgon spies there as well. They’re kind of dumb, but they’re fun to hunt.]

Karl smiled at Lotus, who had no idea that the conversation had taken a very dark turn after her well-intentioned suggestion. Instead, Lotus simply thought that she had managed to win a victory for the balance of nature.

Technically, she wasn’t wrong. It would be a victory for the balance of nature. But it would also be a stealth hunting trip for Rae, who had already cleared all the spies that she could find from Barukth.

“This ring, will it clean my entire hotel?” A large Werebear man asked.

“It should. Most would do it a room at a time, so they know that it’s doing it properly, and not tossing a guest’s belongings around. But if you put effort into it, cleaning the whole hotel shouldn’t be too big of an issue.” Karl agreed.

Lotus nodded in agreement. “If you do it right, it will clean your laundry as well. Takes the mess right out.”

She had one hundred percent used one of those items to clean up spilled snacks before. Karl was certain of it. Bonded clothing could just be returned to your space and come back clean. But the furniture could not.

One after another, the items in the case were snapped up by the locals, until finally, what was left were craftsmen who didn’t need the original items in the case. The cleaning rings were useful, but not enough that many of the Dwarves who had apprentices would pay the fee.

They already paid an apprentice who was fully capable of cleaning.

So, Karl brought out a few more options.

“These are Commander Rank, not exactly the peak of the art, but I thought you might like them. I have rings with an increased chance of a higher grade outcome while crafting. We also have ones with Increased Focus, which is good for preventing spelling errors and random mistakes. Then I have a single Overlord Ranked bracer that increases both the chance of increased item grade, and the chance of success when crafting a new type of item.” Karl announced.

The Dwarves began to take their shirts off, and Lotus gave Karl a strange look.

“What are they up to?” She whispered.

“I believe that they’re predicting a fight over who gets the Overlord Ranked item, and they don’t want their favourite shirts torn.”