Religious questions aside though, Jason had a new thing to do for the day. It wasn’t even lunch yet, and his plans to stay in and rest were down the hole. Instead, it would be a thrilling day of walking around and looking for plants and animals to observe. Though that did bring up the question of if pets would have been infiltrated by the System. Animals controlled by a Tamer or Summoner would likely be, if only because part of the skill there probably comes from the Systems manipulations. But just the family pet should still be... Safe? Free? Jason isn’t sure what would be the best way to describe it as the System isn’t likely to do anything with the new threads, but it could.

Jason stands up and stretches, ‘Meh, I’m not exactly in a position to stop the System from doing any of this. If anything, learning about the process could help me free beings in the future. Not that I’ve necessarily seen anyone that needs to be freed. Hell, Andrew is off delving the secrets of the System and doing just fine. I guess maybe there might be some odd situation involving dungeon monsters or some such. But that can wait for the future. Right now I can only help myself.’

With a shake of his head, Jason heads out. Though stops once he is on the street. The big question now is where to go? There are a lot of plants in the area. Problem is that all of them are well cared for, which in this case means spelled or maintained by highly Skilled workers. Even with Jason’s low level farming skill the System has already infiltrated his own plants. It wouldn’t be out of the question for a master to be in charge of the nobles district. Maybe not for day-to-day care, but they definitely have touch upon every single plant here. There isn’t even a single stalk of grass out of place.

Jason sighs, “I guess I need to go to one of the other districts or maybe even out of the entire city. Who knows if there isn’t some kind of city wide aura effect in place. Though I guess if I wanted to find normal animals as well, I would have had to leave, anyway. Of all the animals that might be free of the System lines, farm animals are the farthest from it.”

Decision made Jason starts walking down the street towards the walls. When he reaches the gate to the trade district one of the guards motions at him, “Wait a second sir! Are you heading out to shop or planning to go out of the city and fight some monsters?”

Jason shrugs, “I was planning on doing a little hunting.”

The guard nods, “Okay, please take this pass.” And the guard hands Jason a thin stone disk. “This is your pass to get back in the city without having to wait in the line.”

The guard sighs, “Normally getting this would take a bunch of hassle, but someone up high found out who brought you in. It wasn’t even requested, they just decided to hand one out to anyone in your group that is leaving. I’ve gotten chewed out something fierce the last couple days because the rabbitkin in your group is leaving with Peter the Wanderer, and of course we can’t exactly stop him. Doesn’t change the fact that apparently I’m supposed to give her one somehow.”

The other guard nods, “True enough. Anyway, have a good time! Happy hunting.”

Jason waves at them as he continues on his way. Through the trade district and past the homes of the commoners until he comes to the large gate to leave the city. Jason looks around for a moment and then shakes his head. At this point he has no clue which ways is which so with a shrug he heads off towards a nearby field being worked by a lizardkin.

When he gets close the lizardkin looks up, “Whatcha you want?”

Jason shrugs, “I’m heading out to test a new thing and wanted something easy to test it on. Any pests nearby you need taken care of but aren’t dangerous enough to bother with getting someone else to take care of?”

The lizardkin scratches her head, “Interesting request. Though useful enough for me, I guess. Didn’t bother reporting it to the guild as no one there would bother with it but the scamps are getting out of hand. Love the little suckers, but they love my crops more than I love them.”

Jason frowns, “What’s a scamp?”

The lizardkin laughs, “Sorry, I guess if you had to ask what was around you would be new. That’s just the term me and the other lizardkin call them. They actually come from my ancestral home in a stinking swamp a good distance off. My tribe brought them along as pets and like us they are one of the few types of warm blooded reptilians around. That of course let them adapt to the area well enough.”

With an embarrassed grin she admits, “Well, more than well enough. Apparently part of what kept them under control in the swamp wasn’t the predators. Rather, it was the soil. So yeah, they nest in firm ground. Not much of that in a swamp, not much but that here.”

Jason nods, “Okay, lizard pets that got out of control. Invasive species are a bit of a thing. So what do they look like? Oh, and where do you want me looking for them. I could obviously just wander around till I find some, but presumably you only want to cull a few.”

The lizardkin shrugs, “Give it a hundred or so more years and things will balances out. You can find the ones I want culled over in that rocky area over there. They really like nesting under the boulders. As for what they look like?”

She turns toward a sturdy shed on the edge of her field and does an odd almost whistle. Being a kin her face is more human than not but her lips are still more lizard than not. This prevents her from doing the traditional whistle, but what she manages is quite haunting. It has a much deeper tone like the wind whipping through the eaves of an old wood building.

Akhier

Thank you for reading! Next two chapters are free on my Patreon ( https://www.patreon.com/dragonheartednovels ), five chapters beyond that for only a dollar, and many more for five dollars (two chapters release a week at this tier).