Free Web NovelChapter 46: [46]: The Valerius Menagerie, Guaranteed Capture**
Levi didn’t bother using the main roads to travel to Valerius Citadel. With his Speed stat sitting at a massive 88, walking on the designated dirt paths was a waste of time. He sprinted directly through the open wilderness, his Boots of the Deep Tide tearing through the tall grass and leaving a trail of kicked-up dirt in his wake.
Low-level mobs didn’t even have time to trigger their aggro animations. By the time a Level 15 wolf noticed him, Levi was already fifty yards away.
It took him barely an hour to cross a distance that would take a normal player an entire afternoon.
As he cleared a dense forest, the tree line broke, revealing a massive, multi-tiered stronghold built directly into the side of a towering mountain. This was Valerius Citadel. Unlike the rustic stonework of Threshold, Valerius was heavily militarized. Massive iron walls, towering trebuchets, and hundreds of heavily armed NPC guards patrolled the perimeter.
This was the undisputed hub for the mid-game. Players ranging from Level 20 all the way to Level 40 used this place as their base of operations. Right now, it was completely empty of players because nobody else on the server had hit Level 20 yet.
Levi walked through the massive front gates completely uncontested. The NPC guards just gave his pitch-black Obsidian Carapace a respectful nod.
He didn’t stick around to sightsee. He opened his minimap and immediately routed himself toward the military district. He navigated the winding, stone-paved streets until he reached a massive open-air courtyard filled with iron cages, stables, and exotic beast pens.
This was the Citadel’s menagerie.
Standing in the center of the courtyard, currently yelling at an NPC stable boy, was Beastmaster Joram. He was a massive, scarred veteran with an eye patch and a thick leather apron that looked like it had been chewed on by a bear.
Levi walked right up to him.
"I need a license," Levi said, cutting off whatever Joram was yelling about.
Joram turned around, sizing Levi up with his one good eye. "You look like you know how to hold that scythe, kid. But riding a beast isn’t about hitting things. It’s about control. I sell basic horse licenses for a hundred silver. If you want the Master Mount License, the one that lets you tame and ride elite monsters, it’ll cost you. And I don’t give discounts."
"How much?" Levi asked.
"Two thousand gold coins," Joram grunted, crossing his massive arms.
To a normal player, two thousand gold was an utterly astronomical sum. It was the kind of money a massive guild would have to pool together over weeks of taxing their members just to afford one license for their Guild Master. The game deliberately priced it that high to keep early players off elite mounts.
Levi didn’t even blink. He opened his interface and transferred exactly 2,000 Gold Coins into the trade window.
Joram’s jaw physically dropped. The NPC’s scripted gruff demeanor instantly broke as the massive pile of digital currency registered in his ledger.
"Right then," Joram coughed, awkwardly pulling a stamped metal badge out of his pocket and handing it over. "You’re licensed. Try not to get eaten."
[System Notification: Master Mount License Acquired.]
Levi pocketed the badge. "I need capture gear. What do you have?"
Joram quickly pulled up his vendor menu. "I sell basic rope lassos for normal beasts. If you’re going after the big ones, you need Iron Taming Lassos. They cost fifty gold each, and they only have a ten percent chance to capture an elite beast when it’s severely weakened. Most hunters buy a dozen just to catch one bear."
Levi looked at the tooltip in the vendor menu.
[Iron Taming Lasso]
[Rarity: Uncommon]
[Effect: 10% chance to capture an Elite beast when its HP is below 20%. Consumed on use.]
A 10% capture rate was atrocious RNG. Levi absolutely hated relying on luck. Missing a capture meant wasting 50 Gold, and more importantly, it meant wasting time fighting a massive monster for no reason. He wasn’t going to roll the dice. He was going to manipulate the system.
"Give me twenty-seven of them," Levi said flatly.
Joram stared at him like he was insane. "Twenty-seven? Kid, that’s one thousand, three hundred and fifty gold. You trying to capture an entire army?"
"Just process the transaction," Levi sighed.
He dumped the 1,350 Gold into the window. Joram hurriedly accepted it, handing over a massive, heavy stack of thick iron chains. Levi took them and immediately walked away from the vendor, heading for a quiet corner of the menagerie behind a row of empty griffin cages.
He made sure no NPCs were patrolling the area and opened his Boundless Fusion interface.
"Let’s fix that terrible capture rate," Levi muttered.
He dragged the twenty-seven Uncommon lassos into the fusion window in batches of three. He tapped the ’Fuse’ button nine times in a row. The alleyway lit up with repetitive flashes of silver light. The heavy iron chains melted and compressed, turning into nine sleek, silver-reinforced binding chains.
[Steel Taming Chains]
[Rarity: Silver]
[Effect: 35% chance to capture an Elite beast when its HP is below 20%. Consumed on use.]
"Still not good enough," Levi said.
He placed the nine Silver chains back into the fusion slots in batches of three. The system immediately threw up the red catalyst warning, demanding a 500 Gold fee per fusion to upgrade to Gold-tier.
He had to do it three times. That was 1,500 Gold total.
Levi checked his wallet. Between the Master License, the base lassos, and the fusion fees, he was burning through his Blood Moon event payout at lightning speed. But an elite mount wasn’t a luxury; it was a required piece of progression hardware.
He paid the 1,500 Gold.
Three blinding, prismatic explosions of color rocked the quiet corner of the menagerie. The silver chains completely dissolved, the metal heating up until it turned into a glowing, pitch-black material that radiated dark energy.
When the light cleared, three sets of heavy, glowing shackles floated in the air.
[Hollow’s Domination Shackles]
[Rarity: Gold]
[Effect: 100% capture chance on any non-boss beast when its HP is below 20%. Consumed on use.]
"Guaranteed capture," Levi grinned, grabbing the three shackles and securing them to his quick-belt. "That is exactly what I paid for."
He closed his menus and pulled up the regional map. He didn’t just want one elite mount. He had three guaranteed capture items for a reason. His SSS-Rank Boundless Fusion talent explicitly stated it could fuse *any* identical items or consumables. In Aethelgard, captured beasts were stored in the inventory as Mount Tokens before they were summoned. They were technically items.
If he captured three identical Elite beasts, he could fuse them into a mutated, Gold-tier monster.
He scanned the map for the perfect target. Just east of the Citadel was a massive red zone labeled the ’Crimson Steppes.’ It was a Level 22 area, notoriously dangerous for its wide-open plains that offered zero cover from roaming packs of highly aggressive elite monsters.
It was a nightmare for normal players. It was a grocery store for Levi.
He checked his potion supply. He had fully restocked his top-tier mana potions before leaving Threshold, so his fuel tank for Siphon Aura and Hollow’s Guillotine was good to go. His health was capped at 1,320, and his unbuffed Total Attack was a devastating 496.
He didn’t need to prep any further. He walked out of the menagerie courtyard, passed the massive iron gates of Valerius Citadel, and headed east toward the Crimson Steppes. It was time to build a monster.
