"Think it’s finally tamed?"

I held down the head of the wolf-like monster—a Green Wolf—while placing a chunk of meat in front of it.

"There, there," I cooed, petting the creature’s neck with my free hand. It squirmed away slightly but didn’t try too hard to escape, seemingly too focused on the meat.

"Go ahead, eat up," I said, removing my hand.

The Green Wolf immediately lunged at the meat, devouring it with fervor. I took the opportunity to stroke its back gently. No reaction. Its attention was entirely on the meal.

"Hmm, maybe the real test will be how it reacts after it’s done eating," I mused.

As you might have guessed, I was experimenting to see if I could unlock a Taming Skill.

The wolf gnawed at the meat until it was completely gone. Then, as if suddenly remembering my presence, it lowered its body and growled menacingly at me.

"...That looks like a failure," Rio muttered from behind me, crouched and observing the scene.

"No way! That can’t be!" I protested.

It was happily munching away a moment ago! Surely, it must’ve dropped its guard because it was already tamed, right?

"Good boy—ow! Ow ow ow!"

As I reached out to pet it again, the Green Wolf bit down on my hand.

"Hahaha!" Rio burst out laughing.

"This isn’t funny—it hurts!" I snapped, prying the wolf off. With a whimper, it scampered off into the forest.

Rio was laughing so hard she couldn’t even make a sound anymore. Her sides were shaking, tears running down her cheeks.

"Sorry, sorry," she said between giggles, grabbing my hand to examine it.

"For how much you were yelling, it doesn’t look like it even left a scratch."

Using Water Magic, she cleaned off the wolf’s drool from my hand and patted it consolingly.

"If only Master were here—he’d know right away if a skill had been unlocked."

"You could just train your Appraisal Skill, Shu," Rio suggested.

"I know, I know," I admitted.

Theoretically, using Appraisal repeatedly would help it level up and eventually display my full skill list. But grinding a skill like that felt tedious, and honestly, I kept forgetting to do it.

"Anyway, it’s probably time to set up camp."

"Yeah. Let’s just build a house here," Rio said nonchalantly.

We were in a cleared area, perfect for camping. With Earth Magic, I created shelter with ease.

By the end of the trip, we had gathered fifteen Regulus Fruits. Most of them were yellow, not the red ones we’d initially been looking for, though we did find two red ones deeper in the forest. I carried the fruits in a basket woven from vines, slung over my back.

As for the prey, we had a deer and a bear—both good catches—but transporting them posed a dilemma.

"How should we carry these?" I asked.

"Dragging them is probably the only option…" Rio said with a sigh.

"Yeah, I figured."

We were just outside the Demon Forest, near the shared carriage stop. I had taken the prey out of my dimensional storage here, but transporting it all the way to town was going to be tricky.

"...Maybe I’ll use magic to float them," I suggested.

"Won’t that draw attention?"

"Probably, but dragging them might ruin the pelts. We can’t afford to lose their value."

"True," Rio agreed. "All right, let’s go."

With the plan decided, I used Gravity Magic to levitate the bear slightly above the ground, tying a vine rope around its hind leg to make it look like I was pulling it. Rio did the same with the deer, tying the rope around its antlers.

When we reached the clearing where the shared carriages stopped, a group of adventurers and travelers were milling about.

"Whoa!"

"What the—?"

The adventurers stared as we emerged from the forest, floating prey in tow.

"Heading back to town?" asked the driver of one of the carriages, noticing us.

"Yeah, but we’ll walk. Can’t really afford a ride right now," I said with a wry smile.

"Ah, gotcha. Well, take care out there," the driver said, clearly baffled but choosing not to press further.

Meanwhile, the adventurers continued to whisper among themselves, sneaking glances at us but making no move to approach.

"We’re definitely attracting attention," Rio noted.

"Yeah, but it can’t be helped. It’s all for the money," I said.

"Exactly," Rio agreed.

We walked along the road, drawing stares from every carriage we passed. When we finally reached the north gate of the city, the gatekeeper from yesterday greeted us.

"So, you two made it back. I was starting to get worried when you didn’t return last night… And you actually brought down a Great Deer and a Murder Bear? That’s impressive," he said, his tone a mix of awe and disbelief.

"Thanks," I said casually, though his reaction to the floating prey was hard to miss.

"How in the world did you carry them all the way here…?" he asked, looking closely at the slightly hovering carcasses.

"That’s a secret," I replied with a grin.

The gatekeeper shook his head as we passed, and once inside, the merchants immediately took notice. Their eyes locked onto us—and our prey—with curiosity and greed.

"Well, looks like we’re the center of attention again," Rio said, glancing at the onlookers.

"Yeah, but that’s not a bad thing. Let’s see how much we can sell these for," I replied, brimming with determination.