After exhausting his words, Hudson finally managed to keep the starving Lord Bear with a lavish dinner.
Had he known, he would not have wasted so much effort. Hudson silently cursed his own stupidity. This guy was obviously the lazy, food-loving sort, yet he had failed to make use of such an obvious weakness.
The first step of the plan was complete, but Hudson was utterly at a loss as to how to turn the Young Bear into his mount.
In theory, once a knight awakened the Heart of Life, their affinity with magical beasts increased. However, the extent of that boost varied from person to person.
Some people could take a stroll through the Monster Mountain Range and pick up a decent mount; others could take a stroll through the Monster Mountain Range and end up as magical beast droppings.
One only had to look at the knights without exclusive Magical Beast Mounts to know that the latter was far more likely than the former. Unless one was a legendary hero from epic tales, it was best not to expect pie to fall from the sky.
The most common way to obtain a Magical Beast Mount was to first beat it into submission, then slowly talk it around, and finally sign a contract.
This also depended on luck. If one encountered a magical beast that would rather die than submit, no amount of effort would help.
It was not impossible to force a contract upon one, but then one had to constantly guard against the magical beast's backlash. When a beast no longer feared death, a contract was not particularly useful.
Aside from relying on luck, there were also artificially raised Magical Beast Mounts. For example, Count Pierce's Griffon Cavalry and the Church's Dragon Cavalry.
Because those magical beasts