Pet Beast Codex

A minute passed.

Her mother's voice was a few notches louder than usual, though her expression remained calm. "I'm going to the restroom."

The staff member said, "Turn left ahead, go to the end, then turn right and you'll see it."

Her mother nodded and lifted her foot to head right.

"Ma'am, it's to the left," the staff member reminded her.

Her mother's back stiffened for a moment before she turned left as though nothing had happened.

Qiao Sang found it both funny and helpless, and restrained the upward curl of her lips.

Mom, your strong, independent woman persona just fell apart.

She turned to look at the Fire Fang Dogs, her thoughts returning to them.

Qiao Sang realized that Fire Fang Dogs loved to move and were bursting with energy. Not a single one of them stayed quietly in place.

There really was a reason novice Beast Tamers chose Little Chubby Doves as their first pet beasts...

Qiao Sang could not help asking, "Do you have any Fire Fang Dogs with quieter personalities?"

The staff member tactfully replied, "Actually, our base has many other pet beasts as well."

Qiao Sang understood instantly.

Her soul was that of an adult, after all. Even without experience in beast taming, she did not think she would be as helpless as a fifteen-year-old when faced with a pet beast with a difficult temperament.

In that case, she would not worry about personality. She might as well choose a Fire Fang Dog that caught her eye.

"Can I take a look at that one?"

Qiao Sang noticed that one Fire Fang Dog had been ramming itself into a tree. It was not charging blindly into the trunk, but gathering strength and striking it with purpose.

Qiao Sang felt that its target was not the tree, but itself.

After all, who would stupidly ram into a tree without any purpose?

"Of course," the staff member answered.

"Dudu!" She raised the metal whistle hanging from her chest to her lips and let out a piercing sound.

All the Fire Fang Dogs stopped moving and turned their attention toward her, no longer causing trouble.

Several Fire Fang Dogs tilted their heads.

"Fang?"

Is it time to eat?

With the flames no longer in the way, the staff member entered the Fire Fang Dog enclosure and picked up the chosen Fire Fang Dog.

"Fang?"

The Fire Fang Dog blinked its confused eyes, its flame-like ears twitching.

The Fire Fang Dog was placed before Qiao Sang.

Fire Fang Dogs were small canine pet beasts, with fiery red fur streaked with several black stripes and a tuft of short orange fur atop their heads.

The Fire Fang Dog before her stood around sixty centimeters tall and was clearly a size smaller than the others. There were still fresh marks on its forehead from its collision with the tree. Its dark pupils looked up at her wetly, making her want to reach out and pet it.

Unlike the other hot-tempered Fire Fang Dogs, this one instead looked a little pitiful.

Qiao Sang had already imagined the tragic history of a weak Fire Fang Dog being ostracized, having its food stolen, becoming malnourished, and then training desperately.

It must have been trying to practice some ultimate move by ramming into the tree just now.

Something like Flame Impact.

The staff member introduced it. "This Fire Fang Dog is currently the youngest one at our base. It was born less than a month ago."

So it wasn't weak. It was just young...

But young was good. Many Beast Tamers chose to raise pet beasts from the egg stage, since that often made it easier to build affection and mutual understanding with them.

Qiao Sang had considered buying a young beast egg before, but quickly dismissed the idea.

She still had school to attend. She could not possibly bring an egg to school with her; it would be both conspicuous and unsafe.

If she left it at home, her mother had to go out to work, and Qiao Sang would not feel at ease with no one there to look after it.

Qiao Sang crouched and reached out to stroke the Fire Fang Dog's head.

The Fire Fang Dog narrowed its eyes in comfort, its red tail unconsciously wagging.

It looked quite obedient.

Qiao Sang felt the soft fur beneath her hand for a while and became even more satisfied.

She looked into the Fire Fang Dog's eyes and smiled. "Are you willing to come with me?"

The staff member's expression turned a little strange. This Fire Fang Dog had quite the bad temper. Taking advantage of its young age, it acted without restraint and was always picking fights with the other Fire Fang Dogs.

The older Fire Fang Dogs saw that it had only recently been born, could not even use Spark, and did not yet have fully developed claws. Its attacks neither hurt nor itched, so they simply let it make a fuss.

Sometimes, they even played along, pretending to be defeated. It thought it could beat the others and became more and more arrogant.

As a professional receptionist, she had enough sense to tell what kind of pet beast a customer wanted and what their needs were.

This girl clearly wanted a Fire Fang Dog with a quieter personality.

Should I warn her...

There were no mild-tempered Fire Fang Dogs in this base.

She thought about the commission for a Fire Fang Dog, then thought about the school-district apartment for her son. In the end, she said nothing.

Come with her?

The Fire Fang Dog naturally understood what that meant.

Should it go?

Of course it should. It no longer had any opponents here, and this human's hand felt very comfortable when it stroked it...

Looks like it's time to go out and find new opponents!

"Fang!"

The Fire Fang Dog nodded solemnly and held out its chubby paw.

Qiao Sang froze for a moment, then shook it.

This had gone far more smoothly than she had imagined...

Just like that, one human and one dog reached an agreement.

Contracts between humans and Extraordinary Creatures were established through the Pet Beast Codex.

The Pet Beast Codex acted as a medium, closely linking the two sides. Generally speaking, both parties had to be willing for a contract to succeed.

However, it was also possible to form a contract after completely defeating an Extraordinary Creature, catching it off guard.

The latter came with many hidden risks. Without sufficient intimacy, a pet beast could easily refuse to obey. Only high-level Beast Tamers did not need to worry about that.

As long as a Beast Tamer's Brain Domain Development was high enough and their Pet Beast Codex powerful enough, even if the pet beast suffered backlash, it would not be able to dissolve the contract.

At that moment, Qiao Sang connected her consciousness to her brain domain.

The Pet Beast Codex within her brain domain rested quietly without any movement. Although it was called a codex, it was as thin as an envelope and contained only a single blank page.

Qiao Sang had read that when the Pet Beast Codex first awakened, it was white and had only one contract space for contracting a pet beast.

Once Brain Domain Development reached ten percent, the Pet Beast Codex would awaken into gray, and the contract spaces inside would increase to two.

Following the hand seal for activating the Pet Beast Codex from her memories, Qiao Sang formed a seal in front of her.

The Pet Beast Codex in her brain domain quickly activated and slowly opened to its only page.

A faint white glow gradually gathered from all directions above the Fire Fang Dog's head, forming a small circular star array.

There was actually a simple way to identify a Beast Tamer's level. Whether they were forming a contract or summoning a pet beast, one only had to look at the light appearing on the pet beast.

Just like the Pet Beast Codex, whatever color it was, that was the color of the star array summoned for the pet beast.

However, this could only serve as a reference. Even if an ordinary person's Pet Beast Codex awakened again, without a pet beast of corresponding strength, they would still be unable to pass the Pet Beast Alliance's Beast Tamer level assessment.

The glow of the star array covered the Fire Fang Dog's head. It curiously raised its head to look at the star array and did not resist.