Shopping in the Marketplace, a Teacher's Advice
Lin Yuan walked into his bedroom.
There was a simple single bed, three bookshelves packed with books, and plenty of healthy green plants. A faint fragrance filled the room.
The computer desk was large, with three monitors arranged on top.
Lin Yuan deftly switched on the computer and soon logged into the Pet Beast Alliance's official marketplace.
His identity information had already been updated.
Previously, he had two tags: [One-Star Beast Tamer] and [One-Star Certified Pet Food Shop Owner].
He had earned the former two months earlier. In this world, anyone whose mental power reached 10 points could become a one-star beast tamer.
At Puquan Experimental High School, this was also something every first-year student had to achieve before the awakening ceremony.
He had received the latter after inheriting the pet food shop his parents had left him.
In this world, any shop dealing with pet beasts underwent star-rating certification.
Certain pet beast products even had to pass strict certification procedures before they could receive a sales permit.
After that, the shop could connect to the official online channels and open an online storefront.
Products sold through the Pet Beast Alliance's official channels had to be graded resources at the very least. At present, the only product Yuanming Pet Food Shop could sell online was the ordinary-quality [Purple Dew] Zilan produced.
That was why Lin Yuan frequently logged into the Pet Beast Alliance's official marketplace. He needed three computer screens because he had to work across multiple windows to check order information.
[Purple Dew] was also their shop's most important product, both online and offline.
This was also why Lin Yuan always strictly "controlled" Zilan, keeping her from casually giving them her flower dew to use.
Now, two new tags had appeared in his identity information.
[Kindling Seed] and [Puchuan Inheritor].
Beneath those four tags were different links leading to the corresponding platforms and webpages.
Naturally, Lin Yuan opened the [Kindling Seed] interface.
Five percent off all products—that was the first thing he saw.
He searched for [Sweet Rain Pearls] of Transcendent Quality. Quite a few shops supplied them, with prices ranging from twenty-five thousand to thirty thousand Alliance Coins.
That was more or less what he had expected.
But when he searched for [Spirit Treasure Liquid] of Transcendent Quality, the results were completely blank.
Clearly, the [Kindling Seed] status he had gained merely by entering the Kindling Class was not enough to grant him access to this product.
Lin Yuan quickly clicked the link beneath the [Puchuan Inheritor] tag and entered another marketplace interface. He dragged the page onto another screen and immediately compared the two.
Here, all products were ten percent off.
He also spotted an ingot icon shimmering with golden light, followed by a notice—
"Your first purchase is free if its value is under 100,000 Alliance Coins. If the total exceeds 100,000 Alliance Coins, you must pay the remaining balance after 100,000 Alliance Coins have been deducted."
Compared with the [Kindling Seed] marketplace, the [Puchuan Inheritor] marketplace had more merchants supplying [Sweet Rain Pearls], including some of even higher quality.
And when he searched for [Spirit Treasure Liquid] of Transcendent Quality, information from three or four shops appeared.
The prices were fairly consistent, almost all around a hundred and fifty thousand Alliance Coins.
To be honest, the price still gave Lin Yuan a bit of a shock.
His parents had been in poor health while they were alive. Much of the income from the small shop they had run for years had gone toward medicine and medical treatment.
Even so, they had still left Lin Yuan around eighty thousand Alliance Coins.
Over the past two years, with Qin Bailing and Linghuan's help, Lin Yuan had continued to run Yuanming Pet Food Shop in good order.
He had saved another forty thousand Alliance Coins.
In other words, he now had a hundred and twenty thousand Alliance Coins in savings.
A quick calculation showed that, with the inheritor marketplace's ten-percent discount, he would still need to spend a little over seventy thousand Alliance Coins to buy all the materials Zilan needed to evolve.
That was good news.
But there was one thing Lin Yuan could not overlook—his choice of a first contracted beast.
In fact, in the Chenlong Kingdom, anyone who became a one-star beast tamer and awakened a talent of any rank could register with the Pet Beast Alliance and receive a starter pet beast with relatively ordinary potential for free.
But beast taming was, in a sense, a profession that "burned money"—at least during the early stages of development.
For students with better talents, a free starter pet beast generally would not be enough.
When Chen Xuanbai had explained to the seven of them how to make good use of this first batch of starting funds, he had vaguely hinted that, for promising students from families of modest means, it was excellent funding for buying their first starter pet beast.
Yes, the best choices for a first contracted beast cost around a hundred thousand Alliance Coins.
Such pet beasts often started at transcendent low-grade quality. Most were excellent combat pet beasts, more than capable of supporting high-school beast tamers through their early competitions and practical combat activities.
Moreover, they often had publicly available, well-established evolution paths, making them the most suitable pet beasts for one-star beast tamers to contract.
Lin Yuan had known all of this two years ago.
The day his savings reached a hundred thousand Alliance Coins, he had even celebrated. Financially speaking, he had secured his first step ahead of time.
But his current plan might upset the balance he had previously established for himself.
If he used his current savings to buy Zilan's resources, he would have fifty thousand Alliance Coins left.
Fifty thousand Alliance Coins could actually buy a decent starter pet beast, but its starting quality would be ordinary high-grade at best.
For an average second-year high-school student, that would certainly be respectable.
But for one of the top seven seeds in Puquan Experimental High School's second-year Kindling Class, it would be a little hard to justify.
Having been a teacher in his previous life, Lin Yuan knew exactly how confused and disappointed the Kindling Class teachers would be if, despite having a hundred thousand in starting funds, his first contracted pet beast failed to meet the "standard" for an outstanding student.
But he had always been decisive, not someone who agonized over things.
After barely another three seconds of consideration, he made his decision.
Zilan's evolution came first!
Zilan had already met the prerequisites for evolution. Once the materials arrived and she evolved, she would soon be able to replenish his cash flow.
Yes, Lin Yuan had long since learned that even one transcendent mid-grade [Purple Dew Orchid] was enough to elevate any pet food shop from one star to two.
Not to mention the even higher-quality [Purple Spirit Treasure Orchid].
The assignment Chen Xuanbai had given them was to contract their first pet beast within seven days.
Naturally, Lin Yuan understood his teacher. On the surface, they only needed to contract their first pet beast. In reality, the teachers were more interested in assessing how much rapport they could build with their contracted beasts within that week.
But things had come to this, and Lin Yuan had a backup plan ready.
With so many years of life experience, he naturally took a longer view.
Knowing what talent he possessed, and understanding that his wealth would gradually accumulate after Zilan evolved, he was ultimately unwilling to settle.
At the current pace, even if he failed to contract his first pet beast within seven days, being a "bad student" once would not affect his future growth.
With that thought, he quickly began adding the evolution materials Zilan needed to his shopping cart, one by one.
He also selected materials with relatively better composition and quality from the available options.
One drop of [Spirit Treasure Liquid] of Transcendent Quality, and one [Sweet Rain Pearl] of Transcendent Quality.
There were also more than a dozen other ordinary-quality materials, including [Orchid Rain Leaves], [Purple Sweet Branches], and so on.
After the ten-percent discount, Lin Yuan used his initial "grant" of a hundred thousand Alliance Coins and paid an additional 71,863 Alliance Coins himself.
When "Payment successful" appeared, Lin Yuan let out a long breath.
Deliveries from Pet Beast Alliance shops were all handled by [Courier Birds]. Once the goods had been gathered, he would receive them in about two hours.
Meanwhile.
At Chen Xuanbai's home.
As he looked at the quiet, thoroughly satisfied [Shadow Witch Cat], Chen Xuanbai was beaming too.
"After I bought ten female cats over the past two days, Xiao Ying finally stopped running off. His overall energy has stabilized, too. His level was stuck at Transcendent Level 7 for a while, but now he's quickly risen to Transcendent Level 10."
"His power is brimming, and he's adapting to his trait faster. At this rate, he'll soon reach the threshold of his next evolution."
"It's just that, with his personality, I wonder if the usual evolution path will still suit him."
"Whatever the case, a breakthrough is a good thing. It's all thanks to that boy Lin Yuan."
After thinking for a while, he also opened the Pet Beast Alliance's official shop. "I should give that boy a few suggestions and pick out starter pet beasts around a hundred thousand Alliance Coins with strong future potential."
Lin Yuan was sitting at his computer.
He was looking up information about pet beast evolution.
After all, he was not yet a certified beast breeder. This subject was not taught in the first year of high school, and he had only skimmed its surface through self-study before.
Although the [Eye of All Spirits] explained the evolution path, primary materials, supplementary materials, and evolution procedures in detail, carrying it out would still require him and Zilan to work together.
Fortunately, his memories also held plenty of practical experience from conducting experiments and cultivating plants and animals in his previous life. Combining that with this world's knowledge of beast breeding allowed him to grasp things quickly.
While he was researching, a string of messages from Chen Xuanbai suddenly popped up in the bottom-right corner of his screen.
He clicked them open.
They were links to three pet beasts his teacher recommended.
A line of text was attached below: These three pet beasts are quite suitable for you. I've put in a word with our city's Pet Beast Alliance. Tomorrow, you can go to their Breeding Center and take a look in person. If they suit you, you can pick whichever one catches your eye best right there.