Seeking Tools is Not as Good as Seeking Skills

The construction work had been in full swing for several days. With the efforts of hundreds of people, some buildings had already taken shape and would be ready for use in a few more days.

At this moment, Claire was in his attic, looking out at Nafu City in the night. For some reason, he always liked to stand at a high place and overlook the city that belonged to him.

He glanced at his trading panel, which already had two trading points. However, Claire wasn't in a hurry to trade.

He had been busy outwitting and outmaneuvering those nobles these days, and time had unknowingly passed by fifteen days. After tonight, he would have another trading point. Since he wasn't in a hurry, he might as well wait until midnight to accumulate three trading points before making a trade.

"It's almost time," Claire muttered to himself, then walked back from the balcony to his favorite lounge chair.

Leaning back, Claire watched the clock on the wall begin to count down.

"Three, two, one!"

When he reached one, he opened the trading panel. As expected, the two trading points had become three. Just as he had thought, after his promotion, the charging time for trading points had changed from seven days to five days.

Immediately, Claire's pupils contracted. On the rudimentary trading panel, he saw a newly appeared button: "Upgrade Trade!"

"Huh? What's going on?" Claire wondered. He had only heard from the person who sold him the revolver that once he reached two trading points, he could add fixed friends. But he hadn't heard anything about being able to "Upgrade Trade!" when he reached three trading points.

Claire scanned the trading panel several times but saw no other changes besides this.

After hesitating for a moment, Claire still reached out and pressed "Upgrade Trade." Upgrading was better than not upgrading, right?

The next second, the trading panel that had been in front of Claire snapped shut, leaving only a small, constantly rotating circle, much like his phone during an upgrade in his previous life.

Although there was no indication of when the upgrade would be complete, Claire had plenty of time. He picked up a magic book from the side and began to read, waiting slowly.

However, he didn't have to wait long. In less than ten minutes, Claire's eyes brightened again, and the panel unfolded once more.

Seeing the panel before him, Claire pursed his lips. This was the real trading panel! Had he been using a trial version before?

The trading panel before him was very different from the previous one. In terms of appearance alone, it was much more sophisticated than the previous rudimentary trading panel, and several new buttons had appeared: "Start Trade," "Personal Space," and "Fixed Friends."

Claire clicked on the "Fixed Friends" section. It was blank, as he hadn't added any friends. However, it displayed previous trading partners, showing that he could add them as friends by spending one trading point.

He glanced at "Personal Space." It was similar to his Spatial Ring. Items traded could be placed directly inside without the time limit of the previous trading space.

Claire then looked at the upper right corner, and his eyes widened slightly. His original three trading points had become one.

"Did it use those three trading points to upgrade?" Claire guessed.

But since it was already spent, there was no point in regretting it. Claire immediately clicked "Start Trade" to see what changes the upgraded trading panel had.

Text that had never appeared before appeared in the center of the energy vortex: "Matching you with a one-star trading user..."

Claire muttered, "After upgrading, I'm already one-star? Then the quality of matched users should be higher. It seems this upgrade wasn't a loss."

The vortex cleared like murky water, and a delicate face appeared before Claire.

The other party greeted him with a bright smile, "Hello! My name is Lan Zhao! What's yours?"

Claire was a little surprised. This was the first time he had encountered a trading partner who smiled so happily. Although the previous ones had also smiled, they hadn't been as sincere as this person.

"Hello, my name is Antonio," Claire said, habitually using his alias.

"Hello, hello, Antonio!" The other party continued to smile with white teeth. Just looking at the other person's smile made Claire's mood improve.

As they spoke, Claire glanced at the upper right corner of the panel. The one-minute countdown that had been there had now disappeared.

However, this slight glance was noticed by the other party. Lan Zhao smiled and asked, "Are you a newly upgraded one-star trader?"

"What makes you say that?"

Lan Zhao scratched his head sheepishly, as if embarrassed that he had seen through Claire's thoughts. "Generally speaking, only at Level Zero is there a trading time limit. At Level One, there is no such limit. I just saw you habitually glance at the upper right corner and guessed it."

Claire readily admitted, "I did just upgrade."

"It's okay, there's no rush for the trade. Let me introduce you to some trade items from our world that might interest you. See if there's anything you like." With that, Lan Zhao turned and walked into the house.

Claire didn't wait long. The other party came back carrying a large pile of items of various colors.

Lan Zhao first picked up a blue egg the size of an ostrich egg with mysterious patterns. He said with a proud tone, "This is a pet egg that I painstakingly transported from Anxing Forest. Although I don't know what kind of pet will hatch from it, its evaluation is three stars!"

After placing the blue egg on the table, he took out several similar eggs and placed them on the table, introducing them like a family heirloom. "These are all one-star pet eggs. This one is a Slime egg, this is a Fire Dragon Beast egg. If raised well, it's possible for them to become Lord-level pets in the future! There's also a Water Cloud Beast egg, and this one is our local specialty, the Electric Tail Cat!"

While introducing these pet eggs, Lan Zhao maintained a bright smile on his face, excitedly introducing the pets from his side to Claire.

"Beast Taming Plane?" Claire already had a guess in his heart.

"Uh... can you show me their abilities?" Claire asked.

"Of course!" Lan Zhao readily agreed. "Which one do you want to see? I run a pet shop, and I have pets hatched from these pet eggs."

"Let's see the Slime first," Claire said. His world also had Slimes, and he wanted to see if they were the same.

"Please wait a moment, I'll be right back," Lan Zhao said, then returned to the room.

In less than half a minute, Lan Zhao ran back carrying a jelly-like mass.

"Hahaha, stop tickling me, it tickles so much!" Lan Zhao removed the Slime from his body and placed it in front of Claire.

Just like the Slimes in my world, Claire thought. But why were they so close to humans? Although the Slimes in their world were not strong, even considered very weak, any adult could easily kill one with a stick. Yet, this creature charged forward fearlessly upon seeing a human, showing no friendliness like it did towards Lan Zhao.

"Have you decided?" Lan Zhao was still struggling to get away from the Slime's embrace.

Claire finally snapped back to attention and asked, "Can living beings also be traded across dimensions?"

"Of course, I specialize in trading pets," Lan Zhao said with a smile. "Have you decided which one to choose? I recommend the Electric Tail Cat. Its temperament is quite docile, and it also has a certain attack power."

Claire shook his head. There were not a few strange creatures like these in his world. Not only Slimes, but also Five-Colored Dragons, Elves, Merfolk, Sprites, and other strange creatures.

"I'm not very interested in these pets. I prefer skills over treasures! I want..."

Didn't I just write yesterday? Why do I have to write again today?! (Slams table and cries)

Thanks to "Book Friend 20200920090319519" for the 100 coin tip!!!!!!!!!!