Is this really a Game?!

Chapter 821 Devil-Horned Bear, and a Tamer’s Dilemma

Fluffy no longer possessed his antler-like horns, instead, they had turned into sharp, blade-like horns that came out of his head. They were named bladed devil horns, and Fluffy had gotten them after managing to evolve to a new variant species, the devil-horned bear.

His fur had also changed.

When not in fighting mode, Fluffy’s fur was now even fluffier and he looked like a giant cotton ball that was incredibly comfortable to lie on, but during combat, the fur would suddenly constrict, showing most of Fluffy’s body as it became incredibly tough and sharp, it was as if thousands of tiny blades were covering Fluffy’s body.

Each blade could be controlled, but Fluffy hadn’t trained that skill for long, thus he was only able to control up to 100 of the blades, allowing him to make them longer, thicker, sharper…

As the monster got close to Beast, Blackie was the first to hit it, shocking it slightly with its black lightning before the new monster from the jungle, an insectoid that was a mix between a praying mantis and a beetle thanks to the thick and round carapace around it, slammed the monster from the side, drawing blood with its blades and pushing the monster some 8 meters to the side, right where Fluffy was waiting for it.

With a roar, Fluffy stabbed the monster with its horns while also attempting to bite down at the monster. Seeing that it wasn’t working, Fluffy quickly pulled his head back before standing up on its hind legs and slamming down on the monster, constricting and sharpening his blades, stabbing the monster at over 200 places at once.

The stab wounds were mostly shallow and wouldn’t be enough to seriously injure the monster, but thanks to the control Fluffy had over the blades, he was able to lengthen about 100 of them, causing them to stab deeper than initially, causing the monster to cry out in pain as it tried to get away from Fluffy.

Fluffy didn’t let it get away, however. Fluffy constricted its muscles, pushing deeper into the monster, causing it to cry out in pain as the blades penetrated deeper and deeper into it.

The roars of pain didn’t last long as the monster was quickly hit from the sides and from behind by Blackie, Beast, Reign, and the others. Tens of attacks landed on its body, easily penetrating through the fur and decimating the insides of the monster.

None of the attacks so much as touched Fluffy, however.

Fluffy let go of the monster, allowing it to collapse on the ground before roaring in victory.

“Good job Fluffy, but we need to be quiet, alright?” Beast said as he rubbed Fluffy’s large head, causing the bear to let out a growl as its eyes squinted, showing how happy he was to be complimented and have his head rubbed.

Fluffy, Blackie, and the third monster all returned to the spatial dimension where the rest of the monsters were located. Right now, Beast was able to have up to 15 beasts under his control, but with the increase in capacity came some issues.

Monsters became more difficult to control the higher their Tier. Even when tamed, some would only listen to Beast superficially, while others would listen to him perfectly, like Fluffy and Blackie.

It’s thanks to those two that the beasts he had in the spatial pocket were behaving right now, as before, they were causing some problems that needed Beast to personally sort them out.

The higher the Tier, the more arrogant a being was as well, which made some of the tamed monsters butt heads and even fight against one another. Some had even gotten injured while inside the spatial dimension, causing Beast quite some headaches in the past.

Blackie was the strongest beast he had, and thanks to that, he was able to make the beasts obedient inside, and with the help of Fluffy, a new variant monster that was stronger than the average monster of his realm, the rest didn’t dare cause trouble any longer, even the new Tier V was quite obedient.

Of course, Beast knew that it wouldn’t last for too long. He would need to get more powerful beasts, and those he already had under control would evolve in the future, which would cause them to once again butt heads against one another.

Beast tamers had to think carefully of what they did the more powerful they became. Taming monsters was fine in the early stages as the low-level monsters would usually be fully obedient, but the more powerful they became, the more intellect they had, and the higher the arrogance, causing tamers to have to spend quite some time in order to train them after taming them.

Even death was possible inside the spatial dimension, and for now, Beast had no idea what exactly he could do to, at first he thought about limiting the interaction the beasts had with one another.

Of course, limiting interaction wasn’t always a good thing as while they were inside the dimension, the beasts could spar against one another and grow more comfortable fighting alongside the others.

It was a tricky situation that all tamers would go through.

One would need to decide what kind of tamers they wished to be, would they make the beasts obey them out of fear and respect, or train them so that they were truly loyal and obedient?

Should one focus on getting more monsters and simply letting them stay inside, separating them all and letting them have their space, or allow them to interact with each other and bond?

Beast could divide the hidden dimension at will, he could easily separate the dimensions into a couple of pieces, allowing each beast to occupy one, which would make it impossible for any of them to fight against one another, but he didn’t want to do so.

He wanted to have his beasts working alongside each other so that when he summoned them in the future, they would be able to work together to fight powerful enemies. If he simply had an army of beasts that all fought by themselves, they wouldn’t be as powerful as they could potentially be, which was not what he wanted to see.

“Still debating on what to do?” Reign asked Beast who sighed before nodding his head.

“Well, you luckily still have quite some time to think about it, you can even decide to separate the beasts in 3 areas, slowly getting accustomed to one another in the future as well, so don’t be hasty in deciding what to do.”

Beast nodded as they continued walking through the jungle. At times, he truly wished he wasn’t a tamer, even though the ability did give him some really good skills.

He could get more attribute points than others by consuming the blood of his tamed beasts, he could even fuse with them, gaining a powerful boost to his stats and more skills that he could use in battle, but it was also an ability that was a lot more similar to a class.

Even his own class wasn’t as troublesome as his ability, which would pretty much force him to micromanage his beasts and put a lot of effort into mastering it.

If it hadn’t been for Aethion, who had told them that classes were merely things that were there to help players out during the leveling phase and to guide them, he would have truly felt that something was wrong and that the tamer ability was supposed to be his class, not an ability.

In the end, innate abilities were the most important, especially early on. They were the most powerful weapon one had in their arsenal, and by focusing on them, one would gain immense benefits.

Still, he wondered if being a Necromancer or a Brood Mother was better than being a tamer. The undead and the monsters M’azgara creates were loyal from the very start and there was no need to waste time training them. Fighting against one such being was the same as going up against an army.

He was better at fighting than such classes thanks to his fusion, and his beasts had higher potential and talent on average, allowing them to become immensely powerful later on. But in the earlier stages, those two would definitely be better.

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Tord and the others glanced at Beast several times after the battle. Beast was always the quiet one in the group, he didn’t speak much, and even his aura seemed a bit weaker than the rest, but they knew it was only the case when he wasn’t fighting.

The moment the battle started, it was as if Beast transformed into a different person. He was decisive, his aura was sharp, and his ability that allowed him to have powerful beasts under his control made it impossible for anyone to ambush him while he was alone.

And so, the group not only entered the corrupted area but ventured deeper inside of it. All of them were alert and ready to deal with any enemy that might come their way.