The First Legendary Beast Master

Chapter 1901 Different Systems Different Rewards

Distracted from the conversation by the rewards, one of the rangers went and picked up a bow, then stared at it with what seemed to be a mix of horror and confusion.

"This is an Epic item, but not like anything that I've seen before. Come and inspect the actual status of the items." He insisted.

Karl checked the item, and then he was confused as well.

"Aren't those the level of bonuses that are always on items?"

"The levels, sure. But what are these bonuses? Where is the added monster damage, the agility bonus, the Ranger modifier?"

"It's got nature element damage bonus, [Crippling Wounds] skill bonus to slow the target, and increased attack speed. That's no worse than usual. In fact, it's extra useful because you're all Elven Rangers, and you use nature element damage skills."

They were clearly at an impasse, so Rae transformed to mediate.

"I think that they only ever get boring skills on their items, but since we were here, they got things that they didn't expect, and it's messing up their ability to stack bonuses to get just what they wanted."

"Oh, good point. Nothing is worse than getting a good bonus that's not what you need."

"Wait, when gear drops in a dungeon, you get all sorts of modifiers? Not just the ones that are for your class?"

Karl nodded. "Everyone can equip every bonus. It's just a matter of whether you have a skill that can actually make good use of it.

Actually, let me correct that, some bonuses aren't for everyone. Some are class specific, and then there are items that have a specific skill. For example, I could make a sword with [Earthquake] on it, and most of you would not be able to use the skill, even if you had the sword.

Because that's not a skill that Rangers can use."

Now the Elves looked truly confused. "How does that even work? Every item type has specific bonuses. The Craftsmen of the Elves all agree."

"Perhaps it's a system-based difference? Like, the items that we make aren't designed for their System, so they have very different bonuses? That would explain the confusion," Rae suggested.

"First, hello, might I ask who you are?"

Rae laughed, "Lady Rae Bloodbath. I've been here the whole time, just in spider form. This transformation makes it easier to interact with others, so I use it fairly often."

The explanation seemed to have shaken the very foundation of everything that the Elves knew about the world.

Monsters were monsters. Even if they were intelligent ones like dragons, they were what they were. They didn't learn skills to turn themselves into humanoids, they used the skills that they were born with.

If monsters could just learn new skills, how would anyone else survive?

"Isn't this fun, we're all learning new things." Cara cheered, twirling a shining silver necklace around her finger.

"Hey! How did you get that?"

"Badger, remember. I'll trade you for it. One shiny object."

She held out another silver necklace, and the man stared at her, baffled by the offer to trade.

What she had in her other hand was a Rare Grade necklace with an astounding amount of mana regeneration on it, but what she had taken was a simple Elven Mythril necklace that the warrior had intended to give to his girlfriend as a proposal gift.

But more concerningly, the necklace that Cara was offering had his family crest on it.

"How?" He repeated.

"See, Elves live such a long time and they still don't understand the basics. I want your shiny thing, and I will offer you a shiny thing in exchange. We call this the barter system, equivalent exchange."

The other Elves laughed at the simple explanation, as it completely ignored everything that the man was actually trying to understand.

"No, how did you know my family crest?"

"Oh, that. You've got it on your shirt. Plus, it's on this pen that I found somewhere."

The warrior sighed and held out his hand to get his pen back.

But Cara handed him both the pen and the necklace.

"Good to do business with you."

Well, it would work as an heirloom item to propose with. It did have the family crest on it. Even if it was much more expensive than he could normally afford to give away.

"Hey, I got a cupcake."

Rae and Karl chuckled, while Cara looked so innocent that every Elf in the team immediately knew that she had rifled through the man's pockets and left him the snack for reasons unknown.

At least, unknown to him.

"Well, if we've finished up here, I suppose that we can exit the dungeon and finish our shopping trip. The Elves make all sorts of lovely stuff, and I should collect some before I head home."

"Mister Karl, you may wish to transform back into the fox form you used when you arrived. The appearance of a Tengu within the city would be... problematic. Also, about your friends..."

Rae laughed at the thought of the Elves' reaction to her.

"I will retreat to my space, so I don't scare the locals. If there are children of the Spider Goddess around later, I might come out to say hello, but I suspect that there won't be any in town.

No matter where we go, the Dark Elves, the Sea Elves and the Forest Elves rarely get along."

Cara was already in humanoid form, and her badger ears wouldn't attract too much attention in the town, as long as people didn't realize that she was an actual badger. However, if they realized that Karl had brought an actual Chaos Badger into the village, there was no telling what might happen.

And even the group members were giving him subtle hints that Cara should be left behind for his shopping trip.

Possibly because they realized that she had checked all their pockets during the boss fight.

That might have something to do with it.