Charles excitedly picked up Mousie from the ground.
Unlike what he had imagined, Mousie did not undergo a drastic physical change like Max had; its body was now enveloped in denser dark attribute energy, and upon closer inspection, a pair of tiny sharp fangs had appeared in its mouth.
He checked Mousie’s [mystical beast]panel.
—[Shadow Flying Squirrel]—
[Name]: Mousie
[Attribute]: Dark
[Level]: Lv22
[Quality]: Platinum
[Skills]: [Mimetic Illusion], [Darkness Cloak], [Darkness Drawn], [Power of the Demigod]
[Weakness]: Entire body is vulnerable
[Hobbies]: Scaring people
[Mood]: Hungry
[Health]: Good
[Loyalty]: 89
[Evolution]: 2 possible paths
[Description]: A juvenile Demigod. Don’t be deceived by its cute appearance; angering it would be a terrifying affair. Its true power remains sealed.
“Indeed, Mousie has successfully evolved and upgraded to platinum quality!”
Gently stroking Mousie’s fluffy tail, he suddenly noticed an additional skill.
[Power of the Demigod]: Each attack by Mousie and its summoned beings will increase damage by 10%, stacking up to 10 times.
The brief skill notification brought a surge of delight to Charles.
Due to being merely a replica, the ferocious beast projection that Mousie copied was significantly weaker than the original ferocious beast, often serving merely as a ‘meat shield sandbag’ in battle to buy time for Max’s attacks.
But with this [Power of the Demigod] skill, wouldn’t Mousie grow stronger during combat, increasing its attack power by 10% with each strike, up to a total of 100% damage boost? Pure numerical superiority!
“Squeak, squeak…”
Mousie, freshly evolved, looked quite exhausted, trying to speak to Charles but its eyelids drooped, and it fell asleep right in the palm of his hand.
“Looks like you had some good luck, seems like a successful evolution, huh?” Ezra glanced at Mousie in Charles’s hand and spoke softly.
“Yeah.” Charles nodded, storing Mousie back in the Beast Mastery space. Given its current state, it seemed it would need several days of deep sleep to recover.
Now that both Max and Mousie had reached Level 22, what Charles needed most was to seize the opportunity to find and bind his third mystical beast, advancing towards becoming a fourth-tier Beast Master.
Charles rummaged through his backpack, pulling out a silver mystical beast egg from his [storage space], and turned to Ezra: “Teacher, I’m already a third-tier Beast Master and haven’t yet bound a third contract mystical beast. I’ve searched through the entire Lsengard treasury and found only this silver mystical beast egg. I’m not too greedy, just give me a diamond-quality mystical beast egg.”
“A diamond-quality mystical beast egg! Do you think those are laid like eggs in a henhouse, just given upon request?” Ezra chuckled, somewhat amused and exasperated.
“Old man, you were just boasting about divine beasts and refined energy, and now you can’t even produce a diamond-quality mystical beast egg? In that case, I might as well head to Nova Academy, where Vice Chancellor Emma is an acquaintance of mine.” Charles looked visibly frustrated.
“Teacher, not old man. Is that how you speak to a teacher?” Ezra glared fiercely at Charles. He had only agreed to let him enter Cyber Academy a short while ago, and already Charles was overstepping, which spelled trouble for the future!
“I don’t have a diamond-quality mystical beast egg, but I do have a rather good weapon here.” Ezra gave Charles a mysterious smile.
“A good weapon? How powerful can it be!” Charles asked, full of curiosity.
“It won’t be weaker than the supreme spear you hold, that’s for sure,” Ezra said somewhat impatiently.
Stronger than the ice and fire supreme spear?
At that, Charles’s eyes lit up instantly. The ice and fire supreme spear was a blue-quality weapon, the highest quality available in Lsengard, which he had managed to get through a fortunate deal.
Higher than blue-quality—could it be an orange or purple-quality weapon?
Gray, white, green, blue, purple, orange, gold… An orange-quality weapon was already among the top tier, just below spiritual weapons. It might only be one grade higher, but the price difference was tens of times greater. He had once seen in the news that a purple-quality sword at the Misubi auction house fetched a sky-high price of over 500 gold coins.
At this level, weapons are often priceless, their value immeasurable in mere money.
Because as Beast Masters progress, although the number of mystical beasts increases, there is only one Beast Master. Killing a Beast Master can be much easier than defeating several mystical beasts. Thus, the first lesson for a Beast Master is ensuring one’s survival in battle. ?н%е?$?%–συ!т@–
Having a suitable weapon is of utmost importance.
“There are 20 days left before the long flight to Cyber Academy departs, and I have no teaching tasks for you during this time. Hard days await you, so prepare what you need for the journey. These might be your last 20 days in Lsengard,” Ezra spoke softly. As he talked, he stepped into a nearby shadow, his form starting to fade.
“By the way, I remember Cyber Academy enrolls two students, who’s the other one?” Charles felt a chill down his spine as a figure flashed through his mind.
Could it be Celestine?
If it really was Celestine, that journey might turn into quite an ordeal…
“Your classmate, you say? Heh, you’ll find out in 20 days,” Ezra’s form was nearly gone, his voice softening, “I can only say that girl is terrifyingly strong, not just for you, but even the city lord’s daughter is nothing in her presence.”
“Don’t worry too much, just enjoy your final days of high school,” Ezra chuckled, and with that sound, his body completely disappeared, presumably transported away.
Staring blankly at the shadow where he had vanished, Charles was momentarily stunned.
Grace could arguably be considered the most talented Beast Master he had ever encountered. She awakened to her powers while still in elementary school, becoming a Beast Master at a young age. By high school, while others were still attending theory classes, she had already formed a contract with her second mystical beast, rightfully earning the title of Lsengard’s foremost prodigy!
What kind of existence could possibly surpass Grace’s talent?
Having finished tidying up the basement, Charles was about to leave when his phone suddenly vibrated. Ezra had sent him a contact.
He lightly tapped the profile picture, which showed a figure against a snowy plain. Due to the angle, Charles couldn’t make out the face, but he could see the pale golden hair shimmering under the setting sun.
“Yekaterina.”
“What a commanding name,” Charles said with a light chuckle.
…
After the enrollment ceremony ended, Lsengard became desolate. The vast Genosha territory, with the provincial capital of Vendatia thousands of kilometers from Lsengard and the imperial capital even further, left students without the means or funds to afford expensive flying beast tickets to start their journeys home early.
During these tranquil days, time slipped away like flowing water.
In a forest 300 kilometers from Lsengard, a man and two beasts, three shadows in total, were swiftly moving. Every time they passed, roars echoed through the area.
“Mousie! Activate the Power of Demigod and take on that lightning demon ape!”
“Roger that!”
“Max, use your skill, bone-achingly cold, to clear out those minions around us!”
“Yikes…”
[Ding! You have defeated the ferocious beast [lightning demon ape] (Lv18·Silver quality)!]
[Ding! You have defeated the ferocious beast [green insect] (Lv17·Bronze Division quality)!]
[Ding! You have defeated the ferocious beast [red-eyed rabbit] (Lv20·Bronze Division quality)!]
System prompts kept appearing before Charles, who had been fighting from dusk till dawn, and into the next day, until Mousie and Max started to protest, prompting him to finally stop.
“Not bad at all,” Charles mused as he carved up the spoils from the ferocious beasts on the ground, “this lightning demon ape that once chased me all over the mountains, now easily falls before me.”
These days, he could hardly sit still. Riding his cloud leopard, he returned to the mountain range that had once been his training ground to test his skills and get accustomed to Max and Mousie’s new abilities.
Who would have known that the ferocious beast, which once nearly wiped out their team, could now barely last a round against him, especially after Mousie activated the Power of Demigod, rapidly stacking the damage to a 100% increase? These first-tier ferocious beasts fell as easily as slicing through vegetables.
After stuffing all the materials from the surrounding ferocious beasts into his storage space, Charles rode the cloud leopard back to Lsengard. ƒreewebηoveℓ.com
Before he even reached Lily’s house, he could hear a noisy commotion coming from inside.
“Could it be that Sly has sent someone?” Charles instantly became alert, pulling out his ice and fire supreme spear from his storage space. As he approached the front gate, he saw a familiar figure.
“Lily! You’re finally back! I haven’t seen you for days; I thought something had happened to you!” Charles dropped his supreme spear and rushed forward, embracing the beautiful woman in a light yellow dress tightly.
“Cough, my dad’s home, you know. Be a little careful,” Lily coughed lightly, her face flushing slightly.
Charles peeked through the door crack and indeed saw a middle-aged man in a shirt, who appeared to be in poor health, and wondered aloud:
“Is something wrong at home? Why does he look so upset?”
“Recently, the Miller family’s pharmacy brought in an alchemist from somewhere who suddenly started dumping cheap miracle drugs, almost taking over our entire business. If this keeps up, we might have to close down, so my dad came over to sell the villa to temporarily cover the losses.”
Only then did Charles understand that the arguing inside was likely about the price of the villa…
The Miller family’s pharmacy… That’s Benjamin’s place. They don’t even have an alchemist; how could they have so much stock of miracle drugs to afford such dumping tactics?