After hours of running and walking, I finally reached the territory of the next town. The sky was slowly turning into the ominous orange color of dusk.

“With my pace, I won’t be able to reach the next town in time…”

Looking at my thin limbs and shaking legs, it was impossible to reach the next town before their gates closed. I decided to take a rest for now. I walked towards the nearby stream, which was luckily nearby. I sat on a flat rock after drinking water straight from the stream.

“Once nighttime comes, monsters will start to appear…”

Areas near towns and cities have special barriers placed on them. During the day, when the energy of the sun could power the barrier, monsters would stay away from the cities and roads. At night, however, there’s no source of power, leading to the barrier getting weaker. During this time, monsters and beasts can roam around freely and can even come close enough to the city walls.

“But this is perfect timing for me…”

As I received my taming system, I can finally initiate a contract with a monster or beast. But still, one problem remains. That is, taming needs the approval of both parties to succeed. To do this, tamers usually send a telepathic message to a monster or beast they want to contract. Usually, such messages contain the losses and benefits of getting tamed by the tamer. .

When the message is received but not accepted by the other party, it usually ends with the tamer getting attacked. As such, tamers usually bring more powerful tamers to protect them in case of failure during their first contract.

I, on the other hand, do not have anyone to back me up in case of failure. In short, I need to be more careful than others when initiating my contract. For me, failure is almost equivalent to death.

With that in mind, I started climbing a tall tree, where I waited for nighttime.

—

In areas near cities and towns, where is the most dangerous area at night? The answer is beside any body of water. As cities and towns were usually built in strategic locations, they were almost always beside water sources. Monsters need water to survive too, but since there’s a barrier protecting such water sources during the day, they almost always head for the nearest water source as soon as nighttime comes.

I was hiding atop the tree, stifling my breathing as I waited patiently.

Just an hour after the sun had set, hundreds of different beasts came and went to this specific stream. It ranges widely from a springy and cute-looking blob called Slime to a four-armed bear with a blazing flame on its forehead called Blaze Bear.

Why do I know their race names? That is because, as a tamer, I can inspect the status of beasts and monsters, which includes their relative danger level, race, and gender. Rather than the usual system pattern where a status window pops up, information just appears inside my head when inspecting monsters.

So far, all monsters have had at least an orange danger level, even the slimes. The orange danger level means a high chance of death upon conflict, which was only a level below red, representing certain death. I can choose to tame one from the lot in front of me if not for one problem… Only male beasts have come to this place so far! What could be the reason only males have appeared so far, regardless of race?

One hour, two hours, three… Time passed quickly. As usual, only males appeared before me. I’m starting to think of just contracting a male one, but my dream of making a harem of monster girls prevents me from doing so. Unless your tamed monster dies, there’s no other way to undo a contract. So once tamed, it will forever be tied to the tamer.

While I was fighting the urge to yawn, the time was nearing midnight. Finally, a female beast came into my range. It was a slime about the size of a basketball. Through the faint light from the two moons, I can see that it was pinkish in color, further confirming the result of my appraisal.

Without wasting a moment more, I quickly sent a telepathic message to it with my desires, my rules, the losses, and the benefits it can get from contracting with me. Usually, newbie tamers can only send a sentence or two before using up their mental energy and fainting. However, I, who have the soul of a man who lived past 40 in a world filled with technology, along with my 18 years of living in this harsh world as an orphan, definitely possess a mental capacity way above my apparent age.

I squeezed in as much information as I could and managed to input a lot. In essence, in exchange for making the beast as strong as a god in the future, I asked for its consent to be a part of my harem in the future. Of course, I didn’t phrase it directly like that, but that was the core idea.

I held my breath as the slime stopped moving. A second turned into a minute, and finally, a response was received. The slime refused and tackled me from atop the tree, punching a hole through my lungs… Just kidding, the slime accepted the contract at once!

As it accepted the contract, the slime was enveloped in a faint white light. As it faded, information entered my head and slowly integrated with my brain. After a moment of blank staring, I recovered my bearings. I earned two skills from the slime! The skills were [Playing Dead] and [Tackle]. Both were common skills for a slime.

For now, I just need to pass the time until sunrise so that the other beasts will move away from the place. However, since I can’t be discovered in any way during that time, I asked the slime to stealthily climb the tree to where I am. After that, we both stayed still for hours on end until the sun was smiling upon another bright day.