"Phew! That was pretty tiring."
Xu Ran stretched as he watched Liu Gu and the Wind Lion Dog leave.
Grooming a long-haired dog as tall as a person had left him feeling completely drained.
It seemed he needed to become a Beast Tamer as soon as possible.
After forming a contract with a supernatural creature, a Beast Tamer received feedback that strengthened their physique.
Although it wouldn't make them strong enough to leave their Contract Beast on the sidelines and jump into battle themselves, their physique would still be far beyond that of an ordinary person.
Then, never mind grooming one-he could handle nine in a row with no trouble!
Xu Ran opened the system panel and took a look.
New information had appeared on it.
[Host: Xu Ran Contract power: Tier 1 Contract Beasts: None System skills: [Fur Plucking (D-rank)] (1/100) Contract Beast skills: [★Claw Edge] (No teaching target) Happiness Points: 2174 System upgrade EXP: 50/1000] [Novice Mission 2: A first attempt Quest description: Use the system skill [Fur Plucking] ten times (1/10) Quest rewards: System skill [Drugging], system upgrade EXP +100] [Lucky draw]
Using Fur Plucking once earlier had increased its skill EXP by one point.
The Contract Beast skill called Claw Edge was what he had obtained from that first use of Fur Plucking.
The star in front of it indicated that it was a one-star skill.
Contract Beast skills were ranked from one to five stars, in ascending order of power and potential.
He had scored something on his first try. Although the skill was not particularly powerful, it was a good sign.
In addition, Xu Ran's Happiness Points had passed one thousand, successfully unlocking a new system feature.
His gaze moved down the panel and landed on a new entry.
[Lucky draw]
He opened the interface, and a spinning wheel appeared before him.
Different words were written in each section of the wheel, and they kept changing.
One fleeting glimpse nearly made Xu Ran's heart stop.
A Holy Spirit Race Evolution Route, a five-star skill scroll, an epic-tier Contract Beast cub...
Any one of those items would have countless Beast Tamers fighting tooth and nail for it. Even powerful Beast Tamers capable of uprooting mountains and leveling cities would be tempted. Calling them priceless hardly did them justice.
He had to admit that the system had sparked his interest in the lucky draw.
The wheel offered two options.
[Draw once] Cost: 1000 Happiness Points. [Draw ten times] Cost: 9500 Happiness Points.
Even worse than Tencent. Ten draws didn't even come with a guaranteed reward.
So Xu Ran chose to make two single draws.
Since he was just starting out, he urgently needed to turn his Happiness Points into something useful.
Hopefully, his luck would be as good as it had been with Fur Plucking!
Without hesitation, Xu Ran pressed [Draw once].
The moment Xu Ran selected it, the wheel spun at tremendous speed. Its colored sections became impossible to distinguish, as though all their colors had blended together.
"Stop!"
Xu Ran shouted.
The instant his voice fell, the rapidly spinning wheel froze on a white section, and the entire wheel erupted with white light.
"A... high-quality cat teaser?!"
Xu Ran stared blankly at the words in the white section.
One thousand Happiness Points... for this?
What made it hardest to accept was that Xu Ran actually seemed to have a use for it.
"I refuse to believe this!" Xu Ran tried again, unwilling to give up. "Stop!"
The wheel froze once more. This time, the pointer landed on a blue section, and blue light burst forth.
Blue... should be better than white, right?
Xu Ran looked at the words in the indicated section.
"An Awakening Stone?"
It looked considerably more promising than the cat teaser, but Xu Ran had never heard of it.
He reached out and touched the blue section, and a piece of information entered his mind.
[Awakening Stones are special items produced by the system. One stone can awaken one ordinary creature into a supernatural creature.]
For some reason, once Xu Ran learned what the Awakening Stone did, the image of the cat that refused to leave surfaced in his mind.
"Meow~"
Speak of the kitty, and the kitty appeared.
Once the Wind Lion Dog left, the kitten returned to its original spot. After rubbing against Xu Ran's hand, it stretched out a hind leg to scratch its chin.
Ordinary creatures felt a fear rooted deep in their bloodline when faced with supernatural creatures, so the kitten's earlier reaction had been perfectly normal.
But that would no longer happen.
Xu Ran closed the shop door and produced a cat teaser as though performing a magic trick.
"Kitty, look over here."
"Meow?"
The kitten paused.
The fake mouse dangling from the cat teaser instantly captured its full attention.
Its pupils swiftly widened into circles, almost filling its irises. It rose to its feet and crouched slightly.
It gathered its strength, then leaped!
"Meow!"
The kitten traced an arc through the air and landed straight in Xu Ran's arms, reaching out with both front paws to bat at the fake mouse on the cat teaser.
As he looked at the kitten in his arms, nervousness and anticipation crept into Xu Ran's eyes. He took the Awakening Stone, shimmering with multicolored light, from his pocket and pressed it against the kitten's forehead.
"Good luck."
"Meow?!"
The kitten froze.
Under Xu Ran's gaze, the stone seemed to melt, flowing through the kitten's forehead and into its body, bathing it in a multicolored glow.
As the multicolored glow swirled, the kitten's body began to tremble almost imperceptibly. Then the colors of the glow seemed to vanish one after another.
With each color that disappeared, the kitten's trembling grew more violent.
Eventually, only one color remained in the glow surrounding the kitten.
Purple.
Its trembling reached a peak, and its bones gave crisp cracks, as though it were being remade from the inside out. Its body gradually began to change as well.
Its frame broadened, and its body grew sturdier.
As though several vertebrae had been added to its spine, the kitten's body grew longer and sleeker.
Its fur remained snow-white, but its four paws took on a hint of regal, imposing purple. A purple lightning marking also quietly appeared on its forehead.
"Meow!!!"
The kitten's eyes snapped open. Its mismatched yellow and blue eyes now had distinct purple rings around their pupils.
The instant it opened its eyes, purple arcs of electricity shot from its body in every direction, only to be drawn back by the kitten just before they touched Xu Ran.
Time for a system appraisal.
[Species name: Lightning-Chasing Cat Attribute: Lightning Growth Rank: Transcendent Rank Size: Small Grooming needs: ☆☆☆☆☆ Assessment: A kitten that has just been groomed. Frequent grooming is unnecessary.]
"A lightning-type Contract Beast." Xu Ran smiled.
Of the ten known supernatural attributes, lightning ranked among the strongest in combat.
It seemed the kitten had gotten lucky.
"Meow~"
The kitten leaned toward Xu Ran and rubbed its head against his cheek.
Already perceptive, it had grown even more intelligent after awakening into a supernatural creature.
Realizing that its awakening had something to do with Xu Ran, the kitten felt even closer to him.
"Don't celebrate too soon." Xu Ran rubbed the kitten's head. "You took my stone, so you'll have to work for me for the rest of your life."
"I need a Contract Beast to make a contract with. You're the one."
"Meow~"
The kitten answered, which counted as its agreement.
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