Starting With Contract Pets

Chapter 4: Queen of Thorns

Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

Along the way, Su Bai tried out his dull golden finger again.

Ever since he awakened, he had been able to obtain information from any object he focused his attention to without touching it.

However, this effect did not work on humans.

Furthermore, he could see all the existing attribute light balls. These light balls were of different sizes, big and small. Some were solid, while others were scattered. The only thing he could push down seemed to be light balls from dead animals and plants.

In fact, he had just not yet found the function of these light balls. The only thing he figured out was that, each time, the light balls would only stay in his hands for about three minutes before disappearing automatically.

He walked into the Golden Carp Material Building and found a material market under the name of Golden Carp Mountain Hall. The area on the right half of the second floor was designated for Su Bai and the others who had just turned sixteen years old to purchase beginner materials.

“Wow, it’s so crowded!” Su Yue exclaimed.

“Of course. The entire Carp Town only has this place; everyone will naturally congregate here.” Yang Zhou shrugged casually. “Su Bai, what have you chosen, a nature material or a monster material? I’m going to choose a monster material.”

Nature materials referred to the treasures naturally bred by heaven and earth. The hatched pets from these materials were usually spirits. Monster materials referred to the crystal cores and bones of monsters or spirits. The hatched pets were very similar to the original providers of the material.

Nowadays, most people would choose monster materials because they were a good guess. For example, if one used the crystal nucleus of a Tier 3 commander monster, the Three-headed Bone Crow, as their beginner material, then the hatched spirit would also be of the departed type. Even the skills and characteristics would be similar to the Three-headed Bone Crow to a certain extent.

However, because of the bonus strength provided by the soul stone, the potential of the spirit would generally be better than the Three-headed Bone Crow.

Nature materials, on the other hand, were not so easy to guess. One could at best guess what type of spirit would be hatched, but everything else was impossible to deduce. Thus, over time, most people began having a preference for monster materials.

“It doesn’t matter to me. I’m poor, so I have to place priority on the price-to-performance ratio. I’ll go choose with you first,” answered Su Bai. “By the way, how much did your mom give you?”

Yang Zhou: “Two million.”

Su Bai: (○ ??д?)ノ

Su Yue: w(?Д?)w

The two brothers exchanged glances, flabbergasted. Was this the benefit of being a single child...

...

“How’s this? It’s the crystal nucleus of a Tier 3 high-level commander monster, the Vulcan Butterfly. It’s only one step away from becoming a terrifying Tier 4 monarch monster. The Vulcan Butterfly, meanwhile, has the potential to advance to the next level. I think it’s also pretty good.”

Yang Zhou picked up a fiery-red crystal nucleus and asked Su Bai for his opinion.

Generally speaking, the most common servant pets had ordinary strength, could kill people easily, and were unafraid of attacks from small firearms like pistols.

Warlord monsters were unafraid of rockets, ordinary artillery shells, grenades, and other weapons. The strength of their skill could easily destroy an entire building, and their vitality was tenacious. The warlords’ ability to restore their health was also astonishing.

Although commander monsters were powerful enough to threaten a village, monarch monsters could sweep a whole country. One skill alone could turn a village into ruins.

Su Bai looked closely at the diamond-shaped crystal nucleus, which looked like a red crystal.

At the same time, a line of small fireflies appeared in front of his eyes and formed the words: Crystal nucleus of a Tier 3, high-level commander monster, Vulcan Butterfly. Preservation intact, loss of spiritual power less than 5%.

[Name/Race]: Vulcan Butterfly monster

[Gender]: Male

[Level]: High-level Commander

[Attribute]: Fire, Flight

[Features/Passive]: Burning Sky (When the Vulcan Butterfly is in a state of anger, the power of the fire skill is doubled.)

[Restrained]: Wood

[Weakness]: Water

[Evolutionary process]: Little Fire Worm – Fire Silkworm – Flame Butterfly – Vulcan Butterfly

[Introduction]: An adult Vulcan Butterfly is generally a high-level commander monster or a low-level monarch monster. It thrives in a volcano and usually likes to lie in the magma, drifting with the waves of lava. Its hometown is near a volcano, where it not only increases its fire skill power but also restores its health with the flames’ help.

The Vulcan Butterfly has a violent and arrogant temperament. In the face of every invading enemy, it will chase after it until its death. Its characteristics include Burning Sky, Fire Healing, and Weak Fire. Vulcan Butterflies with Weak Fire characteristics generally find it difficult to survive to adulthood.

*****

Before Su Bai spoke, his younger brother took the lead. “Although the Vulcan Butterfly is powerful and terrifying, its crystal nucleus isn’t very suitable for a beginner material. First, the Vulcan Butterfly has a violent temperament that’s difficult to control. Second, it has three characteristics: Burning Sky, Fire Healing, and Weak Fire. Out of these three, the Weak Fire characteristic is too useless. Choosing it as a beginner material is equivalent to betting on luck. It’s too uncertain and not recommended.”

“Yes, Su Yue is right. I don’t recommend choosing it, either.”

Nodding, Su Bai looked proudly at his younger brother. He was really worthy of wanting to take the pharmacist qualification certificate exam, being rather knowledgeable.

Yang Zhou remained silent, for he was quite reluctant to give it up. After all, he had been swayed by the strength of the Vulcan Butterfly. He did not really understand what Su Yue had just said, so he checked online, only to find the exact same information.

Still unwilling to give up, he approached a nearby trainer for advice.

The trainer, who looked to be about fifty years old, glanced at the Vulcan Butterfly’s crystal nucleus and shook his head. “Your two friends are right; it’s not appropriate.”

“Thank you.”

Nodding, he reluctantly returned the crystal nucleus.

“Then out of Aquamarine, Conch King, Moving Mountain Rock, and Crazy Sand Venomous Lizard, which one is better? I’m going to choose one out of these four; you can give me a suggestion.”

“I suggest buying the Aquamarine and Crazy Sand Venomous Lizard. These two are good in all aspects and worth starting with. Although the Moving Mountain Rock monster has a strong attack power, it’s too slow and has obvious shortcomings. The Conch King isn’t bad, either; its defensive capabilities are very good. However, it only has two evolutionary processes, while the others have three.” Su Yue carefully thought it over and gave these suggestions.

Su Bai checked the stats of those four monsters on the Internet and said, “I suggest buying the Conch King. It’s really not bad, with strong beginner defense and good attack power. Besides the water attribute, it has the poison attribute. Plus, I think that this pet may give you a surprise as it very likely has other evolutionary types. You must know that this monster has only recently appeared, so not everything about it has been figured out yet. You can still expect new changes from it, but I can’t say the same for the other pets.”

His younger brother’s opinion was strongly based on the existing information.

However, through his golden finger Pet Tamer interface, Su Bai saw that the Conch King had another possibility of evolution: Fusion mutation. After mutation, there was another extra evolutionary type, giving it a total of four evolutionary types. This was not something a normal monster could offer.

“My big brother’s right. It depends on your choice.”

Su Yue thought about it and quickly understood. Although it had been a hundred years since the aura rejuvenation, new monsters were still being born, and the world had only just unveiled itself to humans.

“Okay, then. I’ll choose the Conch King. It’s a low-level commander monster and only costs 1.5 million yuan, which is 200,000 yuan cheaper than the other two. I can use the remaining money to buy hatching materials.”

Yang Zhou finally came to a decision.

Generally speaking, the market price for the servant monster’s crystal nucleus started at 10,000 yuan, the warlord monster’s at 100,000 yuan, and commander monster’s at 1 million yuan.

“Let’s go pay the bill. I want the crystal nucleus of this mid-level warlord monster, the Queen of Thorns.” Su Bai picked up a green spherical crystal nucleus.

He was not as rich as Yang Zhou and only had 600,00 yuan. This meant that he could only choose from materials below the mid-level of Tier 2 warlords, and then leave a portion of the money to purchase hatching materials.

Queen of Thorns had a dual element of wood and poison. It was very fast and had outstanding wood attribute skills. Besides these, it had a three-stage evolutionary process and could naturally awaken two very good innate skills. Moreover, the adult Queen of Thorns was a humanoid type with slightly higher intelligence and the ability to learn several special skills.

However, in actual fact, the most important thing about it was its passive characteristics:

Growth (The effect of its grass attribute can be doubled and plants can be spawned.)

Survival (Can extend a certain survival time even under fatal attack.)

Thorns Domain (The Queen of Thorns in its domain can double the effect of its skills. Restoration ability is doubled, and the effect is improved as the domain expands. It can also provide restoration to its own spirits.)

Hidden Poison (Its opponent will not be aware of its poisoning).

All in all, these were all very good characteristics and each one was very practical.

Aside from its attack power being not as high as the fire and gold attributes, it was very suitable as a beginner spirit in terms of practicality and every other aspect.

Of course, it also had shortcomings. The Queen of Thorns looked pretty good, though its beginner form, Thorns, was not pleasing to the eye at all. In fact, it could be called ugly.

Su Bai did not care, though. His desire for cute pets was not strong. On the contrary, he preferred the violent, domineering, and mighty—even hideous, terrifying, and mysterious—kind of pets.

He considered those more impressive.

The Queen of Thorns’ crystal nucleus only cost 500,000 yuan, which was the most cost-effective beginner material he could choose.

If he did not have to choose a beginner material that was conducive to beginner development, he would choose a violent pet, instead.

Su Yue also approved of his choice. Wood and poison attributes pets were very suitable as beginner pets.

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