The First Legendary Beast Master

Karl leapt up from the ground level to stand on the catwalk and inspect the new arrivals, who all waved happily at him.

"I thought that there were ten of you coming?" He asked.

"Security rejected five of us because of family political connections." One of the girls, a tomboy with a crew cut, replied.

Or perhaps that was a very effeminate boy?

Karl checked the system interface for the truth.

{Name} Marissa (Prefers Mark)

Well, that was easy enough. He should start just keeping the name overlays up over everyone. Oh, yes, that made his life so much easier.

"So, Mark. You're saying that they picked the five of you because nobody would miss you if you were stuck here for an indeterminate amount of time?"

The Acolytes looked panicked for a moment, then shook their head. "No, the other five had high-ranking Ministers for parents. The Royal Security team was concerned that they might pass information back to their families that could be leveraged in Parliament."

One of the other girls, Janet the system said her name was, held out a tome as a peace offering.

"We rescued the books they brought. All the Acolytes sent back had a few with them. We were supposed to give them to you as a goodwill gesture." She explained.

Other than Mark, everyone was short, dark skinned and had long black hair. Mark's was just cut differently, and Karl was beginning to wonder if the Head Librarian had chosen this group as a form of petty vengeance, knowing that Karl would find it nearly impossible to tell them all apart.

Then he noticed something else, a twitch under the robes of the short-haired Acolyte. Mark definitely had a tail.

Karl tried not to make a show of scenting the air, and found that they didn't have a scent at all. They were definitely disguised.

But Soul Sight showed pure and clear energy, no signs of the corruption that came with being a fake or terrible person.

[Do you want me to dispel them?] Cara asked.

[No, I think I know what happened. They're using a Human Transformation spell to make beastkin Clerics look like humans. The Librarian must be trolling the Royals with her choice of Acolytes.]

Remi giggled in her space. [I bet they annoyed her about something, so she sent them all demihumans. Aren't the Royals supposed to be like, 'rah, rah go humans'?]

Karl laughed to himself at the description. He already knew it was just a front, as so many of the ranking members of the nation were dragons, but officially, Remi was right. The Royal Family promoted the Golden Dragon Nation as a human nation.

That was about ninety-five percent true. But that last five percent had a unique knack for ending up in the same spot as Karl. Or perhaps it was the other way around.

Karl took the book from Janet before the hesitation grew awkwardly long, and admired the cover. [Introduction to Inscription] was the first book they had offered, and Remi was ready to come out and steal it from him if he didn't turn it over quickly.

"Thank you, Janet. That will be very useful in the future."

One after another, they handed him books. They were all crafting based, but Karl noticed that Janet had another one out, likely the book that one of the others was supposed to present to him as their welcoming gift.

He returned to the start of the group and picked up the book from her hands.

{Learn Skill} [Smite]?

{Skill Learned}

Karl patted her on the head, and smiled as the Acolyte's cheeks turned bright red.

"Thank you very much."

He accepted the next book in the line, [Poison Arrow] from the Acolyte named Mabel and repeated the process.

Only Mabel didn't have as much self-control, and when he patted her head, the disguise broke and her ears broke free, twitching happily.

"Unfair. You knew, didn't you?" She pouted.

They must have been wagering on who would be the first to fail.

"That you're all beastkin? Yeah. You forget that I am a Monarch-Ranked Beast Master." Karl agreed, before moving on to Rene, who handed him a book of [Life Leech].

"Now this will come in useful. Imbuing this on a weapon will improve the survivability of our Elites by a large margin." Karl thanked her. Read exclusive chapters at empire

The Acolyte known as Rene freed her ears before Karl even took the book, revealing fluffy black cat ears and the twitching of a tail under her robes.

She passed him a book of [Talisman], a Shaman spell that was essentially a devolved form of Runecrafting. But the knowledge that he gained from learning the skill added an incredible amount of useful practical information to his knowledge base.

Finally, Mark handed him a book of [Blessed Item], the skill that the Clerics used to create Holy Weapons.

"Seriously?" Karl asked.

Mark nodded. "The Chief Librarian herself wrote you that copy at the Archbishop's request."

Handing that skill to someone outside the High Priesthood was unheard of. It was not an Epic Ranked skill, but it was the exclusive skill of the Clergy, and it would never do to have someone passing out fake holy weapons that weren't aligned to one of their gods.

"I will use it well. And so will most of you." Karl replied with a smile.

"Sir, we don't know the skill." Mark reminded him.

"I will fix that later. First, say hello to Chief Engineer Fizzspark, who is responsible for ranged weapons, and Forgemaster Granite, in charge of melee weapons."

The Acolytes instinctively curtsied, before Mark caught himself and bowed.

Granite didn't miss the slip-up, but he didn't want them to be doing either on his behalf in the first place.

His gruff tone startled them all when he began to speak. "Right, good to meet you acolytes. Now, we have a lot of work to get done, so what are you all standing about for? Head down to the central clean room and get scrubbed in for your lessons."

The Acolytes ran off, used to being given orders, and the Dwarf smirked at Karl.

"You're going to have your hands full with those ones, Monarch. They worship you like an Idol, and you haven't even started showing off yet."

Karl smiled. "I'm sure the novelty will wear off. But I should start teaching them the skills they'll need. There are only so many members of the Special Forces teams, and I will have to make their weapons personally. But these young ones will need to know the ways to make more flavours of weapons at lower Ranks."