After the city lord escorted the two injured youths away, the commotion quickly died down. With the excitement coming to an end the crowd began to slowly disperse as most people moved on. Anthony’s group took that moment to continue their exploration of the city, heading toward the market district while discussing the events that had just unfolded.

  “Too bad the reward was for cultivators only, or we could have sent Pom up on stage to earn an easy fifteen silver!” Elara said with a look of yearning as she glanced back toward the area they had just left.

  Anthony seemed lost in thought and didn’t immediately react to Elara’s words. Instead, after a few seconds, he shifted the topic.

  “I cannot pull my mind away from the powerful aura released by City Lord Hector. What realm has such a man reached?”

  Elara shrugged her shiny red shoulders, lowering her tone slightly as she responded.

  “The exact power of the city lord is a closely guarded secret. He’s at least in the Mastered realm—that much is obvious to all. The question is whether he’s still in the initial Mastered realm or if he has broken through to mid-grade or even peak. It's important to keep his exact realm a mystery so the enemies of our city remain doubtful.”

  Anthony listened carefully to Elara’s explanation, clenching his fist slightly as he reaffirmed his promise to one day reach such power. Their conversation was put on pause a moment later as the group followed Pom toward a building labeled Bestiary at the far side of the market district. It was the one shop the redheaded young apothecary insisted on visiting.

  The sounds of chirping, squeaking, and the skittering of clawed feet sliding across stone floors could be heard before the group even fully entered the building. Anthony and Elara covered their noses as the strong smell of animal feces and urine flooded their senses, but Pom wandered in happily, rushing up to the cages.

  Many of the creatures in the shop were only kept alive because they were useful as fresh ingredients, but some had other value. Pom stood before a cage filled with small, red-eyed foxes that produced a strong scent from the glands on their necks—one that perfectly mimicked the odor of a basilisk, acting as a potent beast repellent the foxes used for self-defense.

  Elara and Anthony followed Pom around the store, observing the various odd creatures for sale. Birds of all shapes and sizes perched in cages, a litter of feline-like creatures curled up in a box in the corner, and a pool of turtles whose shells emitted a glass-like blue glow.

  After making a single lap around the store, Pom’s lips pressed into a slight frown as she came to a stop near the front desk, drawing the shopkeeper’s attention with a wave. The shopkeeper, an old woman with thick glasses and long leather gloves covering her hands up to her elbows, glanced up at Pom as she separated a pair of snakes into two separate enclosures.

  “How can I help you?”

  Pom slid her glasses up her nose and offered the shopkeeper a polite smile, pulling a small vial of purple liquid from the leather pouch around her neck.

  “I’m looking for one of the creatures that can be tamed using the extract of lavender fairy fungus.”

  The old woman’s eyes widened slightly as she leaned forward, holding her glasses close to her face as she scrutinized the vial in Pom’s fingers.

  “Hmm, fairy fungus, aye? You don’t say… What a precious thing you’ve got there. My, my.”

  She blinked a few times, mumbling something inaudible to herself before putting one wrinkled arm forward and gesturing for Pom to put the item away.

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  “Best not to wave that around too freely, love.”

  Pom nodded and quickly stuffed the vial back into her pouch, then looked up at the old woman with hopeful eyes, waiting for her to continue. The shopkeeper finished her task before pulling off her long leather gloves and retrieving a thick tome from beneath her desk.

  Adjusting her glasses once again, she carefully flipped through the massive book until she reached an illustration of the exact mushrooms Pom had found in the forest after killing the warg.

  “The lavender fungus… Hmm. This one is used for taming a few species of precious canines. Let’s see here… Eastern dreadwolf, wyrm-wargs, and… Oh my… the golden-fanged fortune hound!”

  The old woman looked up at Pom with a hint of envy in her eyes as she glanced at the pouch on her chest.

  “Sell the potion to me! I can offer you fourty silver coins for it right now.”

  Elara’s jaw dropped as she glanced toward the pouch on Pom’s chest with newfound appreciation, while Pom took a step backward, covering the leather pouch with one hand.

  “Forty silver!? For some purple mushroom juice?!” Elara spat the words out in exasperation, her yellow eyes jumping between Pom and the shopkeeper in bewilderment.

  “I’m sorry, it’s not for sale,” Pom rejected the offer firmly, eyeing the old woman warily as she spoke the words.

  With an offended huff, the shopkeeper waved one hand through the air dismissively.

  “Relax, child. Old Mary is no thief! If you won’t sell it, then you won’t sell it—but it ain’t wrong of me to ask.”

  Mary, the shopkeeper, turned her attention back to the book with reluctance, pointing toward the depictions of the three canines beneath the fungus as she continued her explanation.

  “Of these three creatures, only the Fortune Hound is native to this land. Unless you plan to travel across the sea, you’ll need to focus on that one, but your luck is damn good in that department. These past few weeks there’s been talk of a young Fortune Hound in the hills to the north. The immature beast is a real nuisance, always stealing livestock from the farmers in the area, but because the creature is blessed by the god of luck, they can’t do nothin’ but let it happen. No one dares hurt it, and make an enemy of a god.”

  Mary gestured toward Elara and Anthony as she continued speaking to Pom.

  “You and your friends could head up to the hills, nab your hound, and earn a fat reward from the farmers guild for taking care of the problem.”

  Elara’s eyes squinted excitedly as she heard the word ‘reward’, her tangled black hair shaking up and down as she swiftly nodded her head toward Pom.

  “We’ve got a mission! Good job Pom!”

  Pom smiled proudly toward Elara before thanking the old woman for her help, while Anthony stepped forward to glance at the thick yellow tome still laying open on the counter as he spoke his thoughts aloud.

  “What exactly is the use of a golden-fanged fortune hound, anyway? Why would someone wish to tame it?”

  A toothy grin spread across the old shopkeeper's wrinkled face as she tapped one thin wrinkled finger on the paragraph of text beneath the picture of the hound. Anthony leaned forward to read the words, briefly glancing at the image of the proud-looking white and gold wolf depicted above, then spoke the words below aloud for his companions to hear.

  “The Golden-Fanged Fortune Hound is most well known for its ability to detect… v-valuable items!”

  Anthony’s gaze shot over toward Elara after speaking the word, whose red skinned face was suddenly overcome with a look of joy as she urged him to continue reading. He quickly turned his attention back toward the book as he continued.

  “These creatures are often used by powerful organizations, adventuring guilds, and even royal families as a means to hunt down lost or stolen treasure. The more powerful a Fortune Hound becomes, the greater its ability to track down valuables. It is widely believed that Fortune Hounds are…”, Anthony hesitated for a moment before continuing, “blessed and protected by the god of luck, and any attempt to harm such a creature is considered taboo.”

  Anthony glanced up at Pom and Elara with uncertainty, but the red skinned leader of the group waved one hand in the air dismissively as she responded to the warning in the text.

  “We aren’t going to harm it, so we’ve got nothing to worry about! This is too big an opportunity to pass up, having a treasure hunting beast is a dream come true! We have to take the chance! Agreed?”

  Anthony and Pom shared a glance before both turning toward Elara and nodding their heads in unison.

  Elara’s toothy grin returned as she clapped her hands together once.

  “Good! It’s settled then. We head to the farms!”