"Fine, take as long as you want but I want that bitch dead. I am against second chances but since the circumstances this time were somewhat unavoidable, I am willing to overlook your half-assed efforts. But you shouldn't take my leniency for granted and waste my time."
The old Tamer shuddered thinking of the daggers hidden in Nelson's words. His instinct told him to let go of this job but the losses he had suffered already were too much for him to give up this early. He mustered his courage and looked straight in Nelson's eyes as if to defy his overwhelming presence and keep his self image from deteriorating.
Nelson didn't even bother about what the old Tamer was thinking in his heart. Instead of encouraging the Tamer, he threatened his well being so openly as if the old man wasn't a threat but a chess piece in his eyes that Nelson could move based on his will.
"You don't have to report to me until you complete the task. I don't want to see your useless face until then. And don't take too long either because that would only be forcing me to destroy everything and everyone you have ever loved. Believe me when I say that it would not be difficult at all."
Nelson had lost all his patience by that point and was unwilling to even look at the Tamer. Therefore, he told the tamer to get lost from his sight immediately.
The old Tamer was an energetic looking old man even though he had seen many years of life. But at this moment his figure looked extremely hunched as he dragged his aged body away like a panicking worm crawling its way out of danger.
The old man had not only lost the best chance to earn easy money but had also ended up losing most of his battle strength. To a Tamer, his strength was completely based on the amount and the quality of the spirit animals he had tamed. Tamers were quite like the Summoner class in various role play games. The character itself was extremely weak and relied on its summons to fight in a battle. Even though the Summoner class was weak in the beginning and was hard to level up, it became the hardest to beat at the higher levels due to the increase in the number of summons around the summoner and the quality of the summons.
The old Tamer was the same as his own strength was negligible as he was barely able to defend himself without his summoned spirit beasts' protection. Since he had lost all the beasts in his previous assassination attempts at the hands of Zach, he needed to replenish his strength and the number of spirit beasts to rely on in case he needed to protect himself from Nelson in the near future.
The old Tamer missed the strength he possessed previously. He had finally become an all rounder in terms of defense and offense after such a long time but the beasts he had tamed with so much difficulty were killed in just a blink of an eye. The rhinoceros was the perfect defense he could have asked for while the Iron Mantises were the most effective offensive team he had ever seen. They were vicious, lethal and extremely dangerous and being the same species their coordination with each other was immensely good. The formation he had developed after overcoming several trials was now broken. But the bar was now set too high.
The old Tamer didn't think he would be satisfied with anything below the level of his previous team. He needed the new beasts to be at least on par with his previous ones if not better.
Given the time frame for the job that Nelson had ordered him to complete the task in, there were not many suitable places that could offer him such a quality of beasts. As such after scouring various information channels, when he couldn't find any related information he had to turn to his last resort; Greenland.
Greenland was an isolated island at the edge of Byzantium city that was surrounded on all sides by a huge water body and was still an uninhabited place. Not a single acre of the land was occupied by humans at this moment. This meant that the beasts were probably living in their natural habitat where they would have more opportunities for growth. Natural selection would definitely make sure that only the strongest of those beasts could survive the process and those who survived ultimately evolved into something more formidable and more aggressive by design.
A tamer needed to be knowledgeable about the habitat of various monsters, their habits and the different ways to train and ultimately mutate their beasts into a higher version of themselves. For example, the rhinoceros that the old man previously had was the first beast he ever trained. It didn't always have such a great and impenetrable defense. He had trained it endlessly and groomed it in that direction so as to become his most defensive shield in times of crisis.
Just based on the natural environment, the old Tamer was sure that he would be able to find some high quality spirit beasts deep within Greenland. But that didn't mean he had the guts to go that deep. He was in fact terribly afraid of this place due to the immense number of poisonous wasps in this place. Not only were the wasps as big as the biggest birds he had ever seen but their aggressiveness wasn't any less than the Iron Mantises he had groomed previously. Once these beasts set their sights on someone, they wouldn't let go until either of the parties was dead.
The place was too dangerous for the old Tamer; especially without his beasts. It was as if he was running unarmed into the arms of life threatening danger. If it were during normal times, the old Tamer would probably have been too afraid to enter this place but in times of crisis he had to turn towards this place for help. Only by taking huge risks like this could he complete the assassination job given to him by Nelson. Otherwise, he risked being chased around by him.
Therefore, he was willing to play the high risk high return game this time. He was betting his life on the line for a chance to tame the highly aggressive and numerous poisonous wasps in this place. Although he could find poisonous wasps in other places as well, he chose to come to this place because the quality of these beasts was far higher than any other place in his knowledge. Not only were these wasps bigger and more frightening, their poison was also very potent and could induce powerful hallucinations through its toxins. Due to his newly raised standards, the old Tamer was now unwilling to tame the normal wasps and had come here to get his hands on these mutated wasps in Greenland.
As he traversed through the dense shrubbery of the place, he felt that something was different in this place but he couldn't quite keep his finger on it. It was as if the answer was eluding him barely as it made fun of him right in his face.
The old Tamer ignored it for the moment so that he could focus on his surroundings a little bit more. He couldn't afford to lose focus here because doing that meant he didn't treasure his life. A single moment of carelessness could mean the end of his already diminishing life.
After traipsing around in the wild, the old Tamer finally found something useful. He saw a beehive hanging on the lower side of a heavy bough of a large mulberry like tree.
The old man had come prepared with everything that a Tamer like him might need on an excursion like this. There were beast repellants, all kinds of bait, treats and many such tricks of the trade. He took out one of the baits he had prepared beforehand.
He spread out the prepared honey to the poisonous bees that were hanging around the hive. From the looks of it, most of them were the worker bees. There was no queen bee or the royal guards in sight. He needed to draw them out in order to proceed with his impromptu plan.
Although strength of the worker bees couldn't be underestimated especially if there were more than one, there was a limit to what the old codger could achieve against an enemy like Zach who was more mysterious and elusive than poltergeists.
The bees were attracted by the sweet scent of the honey and they rushed out of the hive and crammed on top of the honey he had put in several marked locations. He watched them feed onto it and could rest assured that the bees would definitely be his in the future.
The honey he had fed the bees was laced with his handmade concoction that rendered the bees very harmless for a period of time by taking control of the neural activity. The old Tamer could easily use that time to get along with the bees and help them break their connection with the queen. Although these bees would no longer have access to the hive mind, they would become loyal to him in the long run.
The old man didn't set his sights on the queen bee for the time being because he knew his current strength. He didn't have enough power to take on the queen bee and her royal guards on his own. He needed the support of the entire hive in order to instigate a rebellion and to make the queen bow down its head to him.
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