"Mother, although it looks like a cat and belongs to the cat family, it should actually be a cheetah."
Lin Ke spoke with certainty.
Furon nodded. "Mm-hmm, I know. You must like this sort of kitten, right? I'll buy it for you as a birthday present!"
...From the look of things, it was hard to tell who the present was really for.
And, madam, could you please listen to what people are saying? This isn't a cat. It's a cheetah! A cheetah!
Lin Ke felt utterly drained. He wondered whether that Viscount Azan simply liked women of this sort.
"What's wrong? Don't you like it?" Furon pinched Lin Ke's cheek.
"I like it." Lin Ke glanced all around, but nothing he saw made his "Luck" Bloodline stir again.
By now, the two guard squad leaders had arrived, with Baron Puxin only a few steps behind them.
The hunters, adventurers, and others nearby had already been giving nobles like Furon and Lin Ke a wide berth.
Once Baron Puxin arrived, they moved even farther away, and even the shop became much emptier.
"John, we'll take this little cheetah. Mother and I will go upstairs first. Come up after you finish the paperwork."
At the sight of Baron Puxin, Lin Ke calmly withdrew his gaze and gave John his instructions.
And as he mentioned going upstairs, his Bloodline stirred again.
Well, well. So it was upstairs.
Lin Ke immediately took Furon's hand and headed for the stairs, asking the shop manager along the way, "Miss, could we go upstairs and have a look?"
"Of course, young master, but I'll need to take you up myself. There are some dangerous magical beasts up there."
With fewer customers around, the manager had a little more time to spare.
She locked the cash drawer, pocketed the key, and gave an employee some instructions before leading them upstairs.
"Wait a moment. I'd like to have a look upstairs too." Baron Puxin approached with a smile.
He had just gone over to ask John and the employee what they were buying.
When he heard that Furon was buying it, he generously told the employee to put it on his account.
"Lord Sandir, you're here!" The manager seemed to have only just noticed Sandir and hurriedly put on a deeply deferential expression.
"Yes. I'll take Lady Furon and her party upstairs. You needn't come." Baron Puxin waved a hand and strode straight toward the stairs, then turned back with a smile to invite them along. "Lady Furon, Young Master Lin Ke, please."
The manager said nothing. She bowed and withdrew.
"Thank you, Baron Sandir." Faced with Baron Puxin's enthusiasm, Furon found it difficult to refuse.
Just then, a guard squad leader leaned toward Lin Ke's ear and said, "The baron said he only wishes to entertain his sister-in-law on his own territory."
His own territory, huh... Lin Ke sneered and hurried forward to wedge himself between Furon and Puxin.
Puxin's son gave a soft snort. "How old are you?"
Lin Ke could not even be bothered to acknowledge him.
But the Puxin boy went on anyway. "I'm already seven. I became a [Scholar] two days ago, so I'm a Professional now. And I've only had one year of Enlightenment~"
At that, Lin Ke was profoundly shocked by his talent, and his genuine feelings showed on his face.
Even John had taken no more than ten days to acquire his class. How had this Puxin boy managed that?
Truly terrifying!
Seeing Lin Ke's shocked expression, the Puxin boy smiled smugly. "You're definitely going to become a [Knight], right? Father says you stupid-"
"Enough, Galia. I will not allow you to flaunt your talent excessively. Even if your talent shines as brightly as the stars, it is still a gift of Azan's glory."
Baron Puxin reprimanded him in a low voice, then looked at Furon with a smile. "My apologies, my lady. Galia is still a child. I often teach him to be humble."
Furon shook her head gently without saying anything, instead looking at the slick-haired, powdered-faced Puxin boy with mild surprise.
Of the Professionals she had met, apart from Garros and his group, there were only Lin Ke and the other two.
All she knew was that John, the slowest to acquire his class, had taken a full seven or eight days.
Why was this child's talent so poor?
Yet when Baron Puxin saw the surprise in Furon's eyes, he could not help the corners of his mouth from lifting.
As for Lin Ke, he guessed that word of him, John, and the others becoming Professionals had probably not spread yet.
After all, this purchasing party was the only group from Azan Castle to have come into the city recently.
And as everyone knew, Young Master Lin Ke's birthday was still many days away.
"Creak, creak..."
Thus, with some looking smug and others looking surprised and pitying, the group reached the second floor.
The second floor was much quieter. A burly man guarded the entrance, and there was not a single customer.
When the guard saw Puxin, he bowed and stepped aside.
"This place probably has the most magical beasts in the entire city."
Puxin introduced the place to Furon with practiced familiarity, pointing inside.
The cages here were larger and sturdier, with runes flowing across them. Lin Ke recognized some of the ancient script, including "reinforcement" and "silence."
Writing here in Nathang was divided into ancient and common scripts, much like seal script and simplified characters in his previous life.
"Wow! What a scary snake! I saw one very much like it when Garros and I were having fun on another plane!"
Furon pointed at a snake in the very back and exclaimed.
Lin Ke looked over. It was a huge, pure-black snake, coiled inside its cage and flicking its forked tongue.
The wooden sign in front of the cage read: water-element venomous snake, level-three magical beast, Bloodline inclined toward cold and ice. Suitable for master-servant contracts, experiments, culinary preparation...
Below this description was the price.
Seven hundred gold coins!
Lin Ke's pupils contracted.
Magical beasts were so expensive!
"...So, all things considered, this Demon Serpent is rather good. But I keep a level-two Demon Serpent at home myself... Living magical beasts that can enter pet contracts are the most valuable."
Baron Puxin explained with a boastful expression, though most of his speech was about how wonderful his own snake was.
Still, Lin Ke managed to glean some information from it.
So only living magical beasts were this expensive.
That made sense. Many magical beasts gained a certain degree of intelligence after their Bloodlines underwent Enlightenment.
Most proud, untamable magical beasts would never enter a magical beast contract, such as a master-servant contract, with someone weaker than themselves. They would sooner kill themselves.
As such, magical beasts that had been captured and already had contracts engraved into their souls, needing only a buyer's blood and signature on the contract, fetched higher prices.
A single level-three magical beast was worth seven hundred gold coins. That was daylight robbery!
"Mother, I'd like to look around the third floor."
Lin Ke looked around and found that none of the magical beasts here stirred any feeling in him, so he could only keep heading upward.
"Little Lin Ke, that would put the shopkeeper in a difficult position..." With the manager downstairs, Furon felt a little awkward, but she did not want to refuse Lin Ke either.
"No problem! If Young Master Lin Ke wishes to visit the third floor, he can! It's an honor for this shop!"
At the sight of Furon's troubled frown, Puxin's eyes lit up, and his throat bobbed as he swallowed a tremendous mouthful of saliva.
Like a warthog eyeing a delectable daffodil.
With Puxin the warthog's approval, Lin Ke could not be bothered to look any longer. He took Furon's hand and headed upstairs.
They reached the third floor, where everything was eggs.
"This is the place!"
Lin Ke's intuition told him there was a treasure here!
P.S. Please send monthly votes and recommendation votes.
Before you continue