The First Legendary Beast Master

Chapter 728  Upgrades By Proximity

Karl looked at the bow that was brought to him, and the simple staff that the Mage had chosen. "Alright, I know what to put on both of these. Give me a few minutes, then I will do the blades for the warriors." He explained.

He would have to do a few for his own team as well. They had yet to reap the benefits of having a craftsman in their group.

Karl kept the staff simple, with skill enhancement percentage increase, Blessed Item for bonus damage and strengthening abilities for the staff itself. At Royal Rank, that was already enough to make it an exceptional weapon, and it had the advantage of only taking ten minutes to write the runes and cast the Blessed Item spell.

The bow got a short poem about unerring aim and swift arrows, along with a Blessed Item Spell, but it also got a small stone inscribed with the [Poison Arrow] skill.

Since Karl had gotten new spells from the clergy, he might as well use them all when he had the chance. Plus, adding Poison Arrow removed the need to have an arrow creating skill or carry physical arrows.

That was the best part about his own bow, other than the fact that it helped target.

He was tempted to do more, but if he tried to overload the less capable alloy with too many Runes, it would either shatter or simply fail. They didn't have the time to be wasting weapons today, so this would have to do for the Royal Rank weapons.

The mage smiled as he held the staff. "I must say, it's a bit odd having a holy weapon in my hands. But even more strange to think that it was made by Karl from the Capital, not some Bishop."

Othello chuckled. "That would be Karl from the Lithium Mines. He's still not adapted to being a Capital Towers resident."

Karl sat down at a surviving table in the ruined clean room and began to meditate before he worked on the next few weapons. He needed some mental clarity before working on new runes so that he didn't make any mistakes.

As he focused on the flow of energy within his body and the circulation through his veins, Karl began to feel something shift within him. {Requirements Fulfilled}

{Skill Unlocked} Bestial Form: Allows the Packmaster to join his beasts in front-line combat.

Karl maintained his focus on the process of clearing his mind and recovering his energy, but the collective gasps of the people in the room, as well as Remi's clapping, brought him out of his meditative trance.

"I unlocked a new skill. Did it do something visual?" He asked.

Remi nodded happily, and one of the acolytes cast a spell that created a large mirror out of water magic.

{The Dana Mage is going to love you.} Remi insisted as Karl stared in shock at the mirror.

His body looked similar to the way that it had for the last month or so, massively muscular in a way that would make the most avid steroid enthusiast blush. But now it looked more balanced, as he was close to two hundred and twenty centimetres tall, and completely covered in white fur, with black stripes.

His head was a bestial muzzle, and he had fluffy ears on top.

He had become... a Weretiger? That was the best guess that he had for what to call this Beast Form transformation.

His hands were still functional as human hands, but he had retractable claws of black metal that leaked magic, as if always covered in [Disintegrate].

His feet were paws, and his legs had an extra joint, the same as cat legs did. It made standing a strange experience, but he instinctively understood how to move in this form, and the sense of power from the increased strength was addictive.

Karl chuckled, a deep rumbling feline sound in this form, and then deactivated the skill.

"Hey, you shrunk." Fizzspark gasped.

Karl looked at himself. He was still a bit bulky and muscular, but he was definitely smaller than he had been this morning.

Hopefully, not shorter. He was already short enough.

Fizzspark held out her arms, and Remi picked her up in both of her right arms, so the Gnome could inspect Karl more closely.

She had a small magical device in her hands as she happily poked Karl with a finger.

"I don't think that it was a backlash. I suspect that the skill didn't activate properly the first time, so he has just been slowly expanding until it became fully active, and now he's back to normal-sized.

Well, I think that he's normal-sized. He's still kind of muscly. Gnome men are sort of pudgy and squishy, much more pleasant."

Rae's voice filled Karl's mind with enthusiasm. [Cara and Dana both approve of this change. They say that you were taking up too much bed.]

[Tell Cara that Remi can carry her gnome like a baby in just her two right arms, and it's adorable.]

If they were going to joke about his size, he could at least taunt the Badger back.

Rae laughed at Cara's response to Karl's words, but the badger had an idea.

[If we're both furry, we can turn the heat all the way down in the room, and Dana will never want to get out of bed. So we can just sleep all day.] Nôv(el)B\\jnn

It was brilliant, in a way. Nobody wanted to get out of a warm bed into a freezing room. But they might need Remi to use ice magic to make the room that cold until next winter.

Karl sighed and waved Remi back a step so that he could get started on the blades. Two more for the team that was here, then weapons for his own team, and finally, he could make something for the new King. The fancy staff for Ahmad might not be as cool as some of the other things he would get, but it was as good as Karl could do.

Unless...

Runes didn't have to go on weapons to be useful. He could make the new Totem some jewellery. Surely, Forgemaster Granite knew how to make more than weapons.

That would be an exceptional gift for him, as Monarch Ranked accessories were even more rare than Monarch Ranked weapons. Especially ones that were tailored to the user.