I think I got on the bad side of a few guards but I don’t care. After a short argument, one of them went away. When Hakon arrived I asked him one simple question.

[ Eric ]

“Can you tame those wolves?”

After a moment of silence, Hakon answered.

[ Hakon ]

“Maybe… but why do you want to tame them?”

[ Eric ]

“Where I come from we use dogs to help with hunting and there are dogs similar to wolves so I thought why not try.”

There were only nine wolves left but they will be helpful in many situations if we train them. With his spells and my help, Hakon gathered wolves in one of the sheds. The next day, I explained everything to Astvar, and to my surprise, he was pleased with my idea. Maybe he always wanted a pet or something. For now, it looked like the wolves only were ‘peaceful’ toward Hakon and me.

Seeing how Hakon trained those wolves an idea popped into my mind. What if I’ll tame the monster. It might be even easier than killing it. First I would need to gather some information about this wolf. Or to be more precise, about its power. Since I’m weak I can only try to outsmart this wolf.

I asked villagers about the wolf. Most of them heard for the first time about a black wolf. Even no one in the bar heard anything about the wolf. While I was going home, disappointed in today’s search for information, I noticed something interesting. A crow flew into the shadow. Since it was black I couldn’t see it. I scared it with my False Fear and the crow didn’t leave the shadows. It felt safer there. Then it hit me. I’ll need to check the place where I first encountered the wolf once again to confirm my conclusion.

Early in the morning, I took Tae and Hakon with me to the side of the mountain where I encountered a black wolf. I took Hakon since he is a believer of a god of the hunt, Ullr and Tae just to have more people by my side. The wolf ran away last time when guards arrived so it might not be able to fight the group.

[ Eric ]

“Can you tell anything by looking at this?” I asked Hakon, who was closely examining the mark left by the wolf’s fangs.

[ Hakon ]

“Obviously this monster is strong since he left that mark without touching the ground with his paws but this wasn’t a normal attack. It used some kind of magic.” Answered Hakon.

[ Eric ]

“Magic… huh?”

There was something weird when that wolf attacked me. I thought this was the mist because of how cold it was at night but I might have been wrong. I stood in the same place where I was attacked and looked around. A few steps behind me was a big tree. The wolf didn’t attack me from behind because it was my blind spot… it had different things in mind… Like using the shadow of the tree to attack me.

[ Eric ]

“Are all monsters able to use magic?”

[ Hakon ]

“Not all. They are very strong but only some of them are able to use magic.”

[ Eric ]

“So this is a unique dog… I might have an idea how to tame it or at least how to catch it. By the way, have you ever heard of someone taming a monster?”

[ Hakon ]

“Yes. King of the dead kingdom had a Spirit Lion as his pet.”

[ Eric ]

“How did he tame a Lion?”

[ Hakon ]

“From what I’ve heard he gave the lion two options. Submit to me or die. At least that’s what the story says.”

[ Eric ]

“Submit or die… Not my style but I guess it worked well for him.”

Hakon needed to leave because his guard duty was coming up. Tae, confused as always, just stood there and watched me.

[ Tae ]

“So… What are you planning to do Eric?”

[ Eric ]

“Since I’m not strong I’ll need to test a few things.” I said as I showed a mushroom to Tae.

[ Tae ]

“What is it?”

[ Eric ]

“Poisonous mushroom.”

[ Tae ]

“WHAT?! Why do you want it?!”

[ Eric ]

“You know that I have a resistance to poison and while I’m not strong, I’m very perceptive. I noticed that one wolf stepped on it and after inhaling some of the sprouts it fell to the ground and it didn’t die.”

[ Tae ]

“And why do you need them?”

[ Eric ]

“Isn’t it obvious? That's how I’ll catch that wolf.”

[ Tae ]

“You’re crazy… you know that?”

[ Eric ]

“I know but that’s how I’ll survive in this world and probably live in luxury.”

I spent the whole afternoon gathering all the mushrooms. I came back with a whole basket of them. Once I left them in my hut I went to the inn because I was hungry after that work. When the waitress was giving me the food I noticed that she was looking like she had a headache. I heard her talking with another waitress. She probably took a break because of that. The second waitress also felt dizzy once she gave me my order. Sorry for that, girls, but you helped me even more than you could imagine…

I had a beautiful dream. Enjoying my life in some luxury yacht on a Californian beach on a nice sunny day. Sharing a drink with a beautiful woman and for some reason, they didn’t talk… No… They talked but the only sound they made was…

*knock* *knock*

Finally, the knocking stopped. I closed my eyes again in hope that I’ll be back in the same dream but the knocking came back.

[ Eric ]

“Tae… can you check who is knocking… Tae?”

Tae wasn’t in his bed. Unfortunately, I had to stand up and open the door. To my surprise, it was Astvar with his guards. The thing that actually surprised me was that they all were on their knees. Something serious going to happen.

[ Eric ]

“Umm… How can I help you?” I asked.

[ Astvar ]

“Dear Eric. Would you help us again?”

[ Eric ]

“Help? With that?”

[ Astvar ]

“Well… you see… I need a guard.”

[ Eric ]

“Don’t you already have a lot of guards?”

[ Astvar ]

“I do but I’ll be going to the Pure Sun clan. So I’ll only take a few guards but we don’t have that many guards so I need to hire a few more… and I think you’ll be perfect for that!”

[ Eric ]

“I don’t know… I’ll think about it…”

[ Astvar ]

“I’ll pay seven silver coins for a day!”

[ Eric ]

“Eight!”

[ Astvar ]

“Eight it is!”