The First Legendary Beast Master - Chapter 1512

Chapter 1512: The Right Bribes
The first runner came out, and Karl patted her head, then gave her a carrot cake cupcake that left the bunny confused.

Did he think that she liked carrots just because she was a bunny?

He wasn’t wrong, but wasn’t that a bit racist?

Oh, these were good. Made with Mystic cooking, and designed to increase mana regeneration with a side effect of extra smooth fur. Lotus had originally made them for Ophelia, who could never be fluffy enough for her.

Order after order, Karl repeated the process, to the point that the cashiers were getting suspicious.

Nobody got that close to the runners unless they were also mortals, who shared their degrading and animalistic status. But Karl wasn’t speaking to them, and giving them snacks wasn’t expressly forbidden.

If anything, he was obeying the rule perfectly, treating them like a favoured pet.

But it felt like he was cheating somehow.

In the waiting room, they knew that he was definitely cheating. The cupcakes were nearly as potent as a Mythic Rank growth potion, which the runners could not afford on their salary. Yet, Karl didn’t even look when they came out, he just fluffed the ears and gave out snacks.

Free growth snacks that made their fur soft.

If the Hall stayed busy, wouldn’t they all get a year’s worth of growth this afternoon?

Once the crowd was gone again, the cashiers turned on Karl.

“What are you giving out to the runners?”

“Snacks. Would you like one? The cost is minimal.” Karl joked.

The two women glared at him, and Karl laughed as he relented. “They’re just cupcakes. Carrot cake flavour. Here, try one.”

Being alchemy apprentices, the two realized immediately that the cupcakes were magical, and not just in the “This is magically good” way. They had been crafted to give specific spell effects, and Karl was using them as treats to win over the mortals.

Highly suspicious behaviour from any man, especially one with a skill to attract beastkin.

But compared to Cara’s actions, Karl’s gifts would have seemed perfectly reasonable.

Her class had just started Amaldor’s combat training class, and the Chaos Badger was organizing the children into teams for a battle royale.

The Wrath Demon was just watching as she worked, ensuring that she was being reasonably fair to the two teams, and not stacking the teams against one side.

She had disrupted every class that she was in so far that day. Not because she didn’t know what she was doing, but because she did.

Better than the kids in class.

And with that knowledge, she found new and creative ways to create what the teachers were dubbing an ‘alternate success’ where the outcome was not what they expected, but the effort did not fail.

It was utter frustration, and they couldn’t effectively argue that she was wrong when her solution did work.

Amaldor examined the two teams that Cara had created. “Alright, we will let our newest student explain her rules for the match.”

Cara smiled. “The rules are simple. Everyone starts in the arena square with a sash around their waist. There are two ways to eliminate a target. Remove their sash, or remove the contestant from the square.

No weapons, no hair pulling, no attacking the eyes, no strikes between the belt and the knees, no nipple twisters or wet willies.”

The students giggled at the reference. The rules sounded simple, but they quickly found a hack.

The sash was tied around the waist, and they were almost all human, so they didn’t have claws. If they just knotted the sash tightly, it would be nearly impossible to remove.

They could work together, and avoid being removed from the ring.

They only had to find their opponents alone, or in smaller numbers, and they should be able to force an elimination. It seemed so simple in theory.

But once the match started, Amaldor realized just how bad things could go if a bunch of competitive children were given too much freedom to choose how they fought.

The first few exchanges were proper martial arts fights, then one of the boys realized that the rule against attacking between the waist and the knees didn’t prohibit him from grabbing pants at the knees and pulling them down.

Once the first such ambush was successful, the whole vibe of the match changed from sparring to a no-holds-barred brawl.

Clothing was shredded, faces swelled from slaps, children went flying as striking techniques gave way to suplexes and team throws. Amaldor started to make notes of techniques to ban from the next sparring rounds, and which ones they should likely start to teach.

A defence against being pantsed was likely a good idea.

Cara slipped past him to intervene before a girl whose trousers had been pulled could stab the girl who had targeted her.

“No weapons. Remember, when they get close enough to grab your pants, you can punch them in the face, just not directly in the eyes,” she warned.

The girl who had been gloating at her chance to humiliate her pantless rival now looked terrified as the other girl descended upon her, pummelling her while wrapping her legs around her target’s waist, so she couldn’t escape.

Unable to think of a better defence, one hand went to defend her face, while the other worked to try to undo the knot in her attacker’s sash.

“Are you just teaching them to be vicious?” Amaldor asked as Cara returned to his side.

“Nope. I’m teaching them to get along. After today, they will realize how nasty things can get, and they will either form lifelong rivalries, or they will compromise and find their own informal rules so that they can get along without teacher intervention.

You have to let them get it out of their system at least once.

If it gets too out of hand in the classroom, like when the boys hit puberty and discover they like girls bodies, just let the girls use weapons for a day. They’ll learn.”

Amaldor laughed. “I like the way that you think. It sounds a lot less stressful than trying to force them to behave just because there are rules.”

Cara smiled. “Consequences teach much faster than rules.

And… stop, the sash has been removed, you’re out. No more punching her face.”