"What does a monster eat exactly? Meat may be?" he thought. "Urghh… I wish master had gone more in-depth when she taught me about the beast companions," he started whining a little.
He decided to go to the market outside and buy something for Pearl later on. For now, he would continue with the alchemy.
He proceeded to make a few pills before taking a break to get some food and returned back to make some more pills. He continued until it was 6 pm.
"I should stop now, and go do the other things," he thought as he left the alchemy room. He took the wooden token from the door and returned it back to the elder outside.
The elder looked at the time and calculated the price based on the amount of time he had spent in the room and the discount off of his badge number.
"168… that is 46% discount off of 2 spirit stones for each hour. Rounded off, you have to pay 8 spirit stones for the entire day." The elder said.
Alex took out 8 spirit stones from his storage bag and paid for it. The sky was starting to darken and since nobody was fighting today, most of the disciples had returned back from the crater.
Alex slowly made his way back to the other side of the mountain. However, instead of going back to his home, he left for the market in front of the sect.
After walking past the gate, he looked around to see if there were any restaurants there. Instead, he found something better. Towards the outer area of the market, he saw a small shop called 'Beasts Care'.
"Is that like a Veterinary?" he wondered and walked towards the shop. The shop was very small compared to the other shops in the market.
As he entered, he saw a very old man sitting in a chair, petting a little bunny on his lap. As soon as he realized someone had entered, he looked to the side and asked, "What do you want, boy?"
Alex was surprised when he saw the man be grumpy without even him doing anything. The man was wearing an elder's robes, so he decided to not say anything regarding his grumpy personality. Instead, he put on a friendly smile and asked,
"Hello elder, I got a new beast companion and it seems to be hungry, can you tell me if there is something I can buy here to feed it?" he asked.
The elder didn't look towards Alex at all and went back to petting the rabbit on his lap as he asked, "What beast?" he asked.
"It's a little kitten of a White Cat monster," Alex replied.
"Hmm… " the man turned towards Alex as he looked at him with a confused look. "What beast did you say?" he asked once more.
"A White Cat monster's kitten," he replied.
"A White… Cat? Show me," the elder said as he got curious.
"He is currently sleeping elder," Alex tried to say, but the elder just spoke back once more with a more authoritative voice, "I said show me."
Alex flinched a little. "Hey Pearl, can you come out?" he slowly whispered to the cat. However, the cat showed no response whatsoever. He tried softly calling it a few more times, but he was left unattended by the cat.
"What is going on boy? I told you to bring out the beast?" the older man started to get angry.
"I'm sorry senior, this is my first time trying to call out my beast companion, but he seems to not hear it when he is inside the tattoo," Alex replied.
"Your first time? Just pour some Qi into your tattoo and call it, let me check," the elder said.
Alex did as the elder said and poured some Qi into the tattoo. Surprisingly his tattoo swallowed in the Qi, never to be seen again. Alex faltered slightly when he saw that immediately found his footing and started calling Pearl out.
His tattoo suddenly itched and within a single second a white light suddenly shot out of his arms. Pearl, the little cat, was standing straight on top of the counter.
It turned around to look at Alex and meowed but immediately started purring with a serious face when it saw the old man.
"It's okay Pearl, he's not here to hurt you," Alex said calming Pearl down, and only then did pearl stop purring.
"Fascinating," the old man started mumbling as he walked up to Pearl and looked at him more carefully. "So fascinating. A monster I have never seen before. I never thought I could find one that I wouldn't recognize."
He suddenly turned to Alex and asked, "You said this is your first time taking the cat out, right? Then you must've gotten it recently. Tell me, Where did you get it?"
"Umm… it's actually been around 3 weeks since I saw him last. He bonded with me in the southern forest without me knowing and only came out today for the first time," Alex answered.
"Hmm… 3 weeks ago… southern forest… cat…" the elder's eyes suddenly lit up as he turned back towards the cat. "No way, the cat monster that was said to be in the saint realm. That cat?" the elder said with shock.
Alex was shocked too. 'He knows about the crater? I don't remember seeing him back there?' he thought.
"I see, no wonder I have never seen it. It's the child of a saint realm monster that came here from far away. Then that must mean that you were the Hong Wu Sect's Disciple there at the time."
The elder eyed Alex up and down and started saying, " I see, I see. You were the little kid they said Wen Cheng went out of his way to make a disciple."
Alex was a little shocked, "You know about me?"
The elder chuckled a little, "Hahaha, I am one of the few ones who do. In fact, I am even part of the reason why the other elders do not know about you."