The First Legendary Beast Master

Dana sipped Dwarven Ale, then tapped the table to get everyone's attention.

"I think that Tessa is right. We are literally attracting Chaos to us at this point. Whether it is Cara or that old dragon as the focal point, it might be better if we spent some time in the wilderness until it calms down." She suggested.

Karl had considered that before they left Drodh, but he didn't think that it could get so extreme that it might touch off a series of events like this.

Matilda would be rolling with laughter if she knew.

Ophelia nodded. "We might still be on the weaker side for the region, but I think that we should be alright wandering the wilderness. Or, at least, less likely to get stuck in the middle of a tragedy than hanging around the cities."

Karl changed the topic as the waitress came over to their table in the mostly deserted Inn.

"As a thank you all for your assistance, I dug out the good whiskey from the cellars. There will be more people here soon, they're just checking on all the houses, now that the head count is mostly complete." The waitress explained as she set a gallon sized wooden cask on the table.

She was right. Within an hour, the place was packed, and the boss was bringing out dinner for everyone, in celebration of winning the battle within the city.

"Have you heard? A lot of the bodies went missing. We have confirmed kills all over the city, and plenty of signs of battle, but the corpses have vanished." One of the Dwarves was attempting to whisper to his friend.

Attempting, as he was quite drunk, and shouting in what should have been a whispered tone.

"Were the bodies supposed to be left for cleanup crews?" Karl asked a wolf-eared beastkin at the next table.

"No, it's just strange that so many of them are missing. I can see them being looted clean by the street kids and scavengers, but who would take a whole Ogre? They're certainly not edible." The man explained.

"Well, some of them were claimed by Lady Rae. She has uses for them that don't involve eating Ogre flesh." Karl offered.

The beastkin looked at the transformed spider, who waved at him. "Oh, that makes sense. Magical beasts often gain power from their kills. I will explain that to the Totems when they come asking around."

Rae giggled. "They should already know. They were there for a number of the battles where I claimed the corpses. It's not really a secret, and I let them loot what they wanted first."

The tavern got more packed by the minute as the repairs to the nearby buildings were finished, and everyone started to look for somewhere to spend the night.

"The Council Members say that we can take rooms in the underground city. They haven't been used in centuries, since the population shrunk. But they're safe enough. That's a good start, but getting them clean and safe to sleep tonight could be an issue." One woman complained loudly from the far side of the room.

"Well, we're Dwarves. We can just drink until we pass out at the table and sleep here." A man at her table announced, clearly intoxicated.

"David, we have the children with us."

"What? I'm already too drunk to walk that far. One night sleeping in the tavern won't hurt them any."

Karl chuckled, and gave Rae a questioning look. The spider nodded in agreement, and Karl went to talk to the Innkeeper.

"I can have Lady Rae make cots or hammocks in all the rooms, enough to sleep twenty in what is now a twin bed unit. It'll be cramped, but it should be fine for the kids for the night, and you can keep the hammocks." Karl offered.

"You would give up your room?" The Dwarf asked, startled.

"I have a separate space where my people can rest. It's no real hardship for me and my team."

The Dwarf nodded. "If you've got something set up, that's fine by me. Did you need anything?"

Karl shook his head. "I will open the separate space from a safe location so that we don't accidentally get trapped in it and have to blast our way out. But other than that, we have what we need.

If the number of people who can't find a place to sleep gets too high, we can start setting something up outside as well. Like, a large tent or something."

Karl turned to go back to the table, but bumped into a small catgirl who was standing right behind him, staring up and waiting.

"Sorry about that. Can I help you, little one?"

The girl smiled. "I got my System today. You've got a funny name."

"Karl is a funny name? I suppose it's not so common everywhere."

The girl shook her head. "There are lots of Dwarves named Karl. But your name has pretty Silver decorations around it. I don't see those on anyone else."

Karl shrugged. "I can't see my own nameplate."

The conversation made the rest of the room turn to look at Karl's name on the System interface.

"She's right. What is that? It's nothing I've seen for a Guild Leader or a War Champion." One of the beastkin asked.

"Yeah, I don't think it's to do with his class either because the name itself is still a dark red. What is with the decoration?"

Lotus poked Nachtia. As the oldest and wisest of them, she should have some answers.

But she had never seen anything like it either.

The locals all discussed it, but nobody had seen a name decorated like that before.

"I wonder if it's a reward for doing fun things? Like a special sticker for having a good day at school." The little girl suggested.

That was as good of an explanation as anyone else had come up with.

Karl suspected that it was actually to do with the advancement of his constitution, as someone would have mentioned it earlier if it had been active more than a day or two.

Most of what happened in the Trial Instance was just optimizing his constitution, so that had to be the change that had triggered the nameplate change.

Maybe he really was a boss monster now? Like a whole quality Rank higher than normal people?