Chapter 181 - Gathering Fireflies (1/2)

He had previously visited the pet shop at the White Heart City when he took Rudra around to show him the different things. Rudra had also brought an eagle as a pet which could help him scouting. He had also thought about getting a pet since then, but without decent attack skill books for the pets getting a pet was considered a waste.

Now, it was a different scenario as the pet would enable him to work even during the night which would give him an advantage over the competition. He used to be at a better level than the one on the first place of the leader board and he realized that he couldn't always maintain this advantage without some cards up his sleeve. So, a pet firefly became a necessity to him.

He went to the managing NPC of the pet shop and requested if there were any pets that were luminescent to which the NPC simply laughed. Then, he requested for equipment to catch insects. He was shown different kinds of pooters, nets, malaise traps and the like.

For fireflies, he didn't need most of these. Traps could only be used with a lure, but the fireflies found at the Welog town were a specific kind called Fireglows by the system which only eat the dead skin off the salamandrids. They live in a symbiotic relationship with the salamandrids, which makes it so hard to catch them. One would have to risk catching them only when the salamandrids are at rest and at this time they had to quickly grab them, or they will fly away.

”I will take a couple of nets and a pooter and ten bottles to keep them,” said Shadow looking at all the equipment shown by the NPC. ”Can I meet with the resident tamer of this store?” he asked. ”I need some help to tame a few insects.”

”You want tame insects?” asked the NPC to which Shadow nodded.

”Insects aren't very useful unless they are tamed in very large numbers. Only few people in the world specialize in such things. Don't waste your time. Most of the insects brought here would be used to set traps for animals and are one time uses. We only capture and sell them. Most even die after an attack, we don't have anyone who can tame a large number of them to attack,” said the NPC as he sold the equipment to Shadow. ”I suggest you also stick to capturing insects and not taming them. They can be very efficient in traps.”

”No, I don't need a large number. I just need a few to be domesticated and move around the place. Just like a simple pet. Don't need them to attack or anything,” said Balthazar.

”I will get the tamer for you, if you want,” said the NPC shaking his head. ”But it will cost you 5 gold for a consultation.”

”Five gold?” asked Balthazar surprised. That was far too much for a simple consultation. He didn't even ask to tame anything.

”Yes, I am willing to do it only because you are the First citizen of the city. Else most tamers wouldn't even indulge such discussions. You do have specimen available, right?” asked the manager.

”No. I don't have one on hand,” replied Shadow.

”Can't have a consultation with a tamer without a specimen. They are always trying to tame one beast or the other. What you are asking is quite a weird request for a tamer. I can't let you in for a consultation without even a specimen,” said the NPC shaking his head as he pointed to the door.

”I can come for the consultation later?” asked Shadow. ”At night.”

”As long as you have a specimen, I can introduce you to a tamer for a consultation. But you must make the meeting count. After that, subsequent consultations will depend on her,” said the NPC.

Shadow went out and went to the adventurers association to get a weapons cache to increase his bag space. After that, he used the teleportation portal to get back to the Welog town. He quickly went towards the direction of the mountains. He had less than an hour to reach the place and find a fireglow or at least to kill a salamandrids to get a firestone.

The small town was surrounded by woods and it would take at least 30 minutes at his best speed to reach the boundary of the habitat of the salamandrids. It was already started to get dark and he had to hurry the only good thing was that volcano area doesn't get completely dark due to the burning lava and volcano.

The salamandrids, larians, cinder wolfs, firehawks and most of the beasts that live near the volcano glow even in night. That would be a bit more beneficial to work at the night at that place but the fact was that it was very dangerous to hunt at night apart from the glowing ones, there would also be other beasts that don't glow and give away their position. He also thought of capturing cinder wolf and firehawks later, but he couldn't use them for scouting as the glowing beasts would give away their position. He could only use them as attackers.

As he made his way through the woods, he came into contact with a few beasts. He didn't move in stealth as he needed to move at his best speed else it would be hard to reach his goal in time. His chances would improve if he reached his destination faster.

There were wolves, leopards, tigers and other beasts in the forest. He ran away from the ones he could escape from and made quick attack and used of fireworks and explosives to kill or distract them so that he could reach his destination. Due to this he had only 15 minutes by the time that he finally reached, but he also managed to get to level 16 as he had killed high level beasts in the forest. He hadn't yet allocated the previous attribute points that he got from going to level 15 and that left him a total of 16 free attribute points.

He put two attribute points in each of the attributes again. Though his focus was on agility, he wanted to maintain a decent balance among the rest of the attributes. He put the remaining four points into agility. He had to focus on agility due to his fighting style and profession. Even though balance was considered necessary, he couldn't let his agility below other players and monsters. His performance always depended on his high speed.

Character: Shadow Tyrant (Human)

Affiliated Village: Black Rock Village.

Affiliated City: White Hear City (Capital)

Title: Kade's apprentice, First Citizen of White Heart City, Dwarf's friend.

Job: Assassin

Level: 16

Exp: 110/14000

HP: 7500/7500; MP: 3100/3100; SP: 3800/3800

Physical Attack: 198;