Chapter 4 - Buying Pets

Chapter 4 – Buying Pets

"So, if we are to have nutritious, healthy food, our health stats will increase?" Katheryn suddenly said while they were having breakfast. Lucas nodded. "That is a pity then. I should have cooked something healthy," said Katheryn.

"It is fine, mom. This is just the first day. We will take this slowly. Besides, the Universe Body Cultivation Technique is a passive technique. Our body is always cultivating, so our stats will increase even without doing anything but the effect will be lowered," said Lucas.

"You are right. So, what are you going to do next? Will you need to get yourself a pet? Sery said that you need to become a strong pet tamer," said Katheryn. Hailey kept quiet and kept eating her breakfast. She was not interested in becoming a pet tamer.

[Yes, Master will need to get a pet. Not only Master, but Madam also needs to get one too] said Sery.

"Then, I will give you some money to buy some pets. Pick a good one for yourself," said Katheryn.

[There is no need to pick a powerful or rare pet. Just pick the cheapest. We are broke right now. So, let's not waste money] said Sery and Lucas frowned. As if knowing what Lucas was thinking, Sery added, [No matter how weak a pet is, they can become strong when training in this nursery. Master, I mentioned this earlier]

"Yeah, mom. Just a few hundred Peto is enough. Sery had said that any pet we catch will be strong when trained in this nursery. Besides, if we have extra money, we can buy the tier breaker in the nursery system's shop to raise the pet's tier," said Lucas.

"Hmm…" Katheryn wanted the best for her son but she decided to listen to Sery and Lucas's words. "Okay. Buy one for me too," said Katheryn and Lucas nodded. After that, they had their breakfast.

Hailey went back to the living room watching cartoons. Katheryn handed some money to Lucas to buy pets for both of them. "Hmm? Mom, this is too much," said Lucas.

Katheryn looked around and whispered to Lucas, "Buy one for Hailey too. I will train it first and slowly let Hailey get used to that pet. After that, I will give the pet to her," Katheryn smiled. Lucas smiled too. It looked like Katheryn had her plan to help Hailey go through her trauma.

It was not like Katheryn and Lucas were not traumatized by the calamity. Lucas suffered more especially when he saw his father was killed in front of his eyes. Even so, both of them knew how to handle their trauma, so it did not impact their life.

On the other hand, Hailey was a 10 years old girl. She was too young and not strong enough to handle such trauma. Though she was not on the scene, she saw her dead father lying lifelessly on the metal table and dying brother who was fighting hard to stay alive (survived thanks to the powerful nursery system)

All these scenes impacted her a lot. Hailey was not distant from her family. As a poor family, they were closed with each other. She was closed with her father and closed with Lucas too. Seeing both of them suffered traumatized her a lot.

"Buy a cute pet. Hailey loves cute things," said Katheryn while smiling. "Okay, mom," said Lucas and Sery added, [Madam, you are the best!]

After that, Sery accessed the laptop and searched for the closest pet shop in the shopping district and the closest one was 10 minutes from the nursery. "I am going," shouted Lucas and he came out of the building and walked leisurely towards the pet shop.

While on the way there, Sery suddenly shouted, [Master! Wait. Let's go to that skill shop!] Lucas stopped and looked around. A shop 10 meters from him was spotted. "A skill shop?"

[Let's go there. You will need many skills to become a strong tamer] said Sery.

In a battle, pets were not the only ones fighting. The tamer needed to fight too. Although pets were the main battle force, the tamer had their role too instead of just commanding the pet to attack.

All tamers would become support for their pets and that was the reason they learned cultivation techniques. They could not use the cultivation technique to support the pet but they needed the cultivation technique to learn skills to support their pets.

So, all tamers would know a few support skills to help their pets in battle. Even so, the tamer would need to learn offensive skills too in case all of their pets were out of commission, the tamer needed to fight to survive.

Be that as it may, rarely could a human survive when all of their pets were out because human's strength depended on the pets they raised. Without pets and only relying on the cultivation technique, humans were as strong as Tier 1 monsters. So, humans could not fight higher tier monsters without a pet.

Luckily for pet tamers, when they caught, trained, and bonded with a pet, they would get a bit of free stats from the pet. Around 1% of the pet stats would be added permanently to the tamer and it happened every time a pet rank up.

However, this situation happened only if the tamer bond with the pet was high. If a tamer caught many pets to get the free stats, they would not succeed if the pet's bond with the tamer was shallow.

"We don't have enough money to buy skills. We need this money to buy pets," said Lucas. He wanted to have skill too but the most immediate matter at the moment that needed money was to buy a pet. He needed a pet to become a real pet tamer as well as to open the nursery. Once the nursery was open, the family would have a source of income.

[You don't need to worry about that. Do you know that the bookshelf inside your room is not normal? Not only that bookshelf, but all the bookshelves in the house also are not a normal one] said Sery.

"What is not normal about them?" Lucas asked. He found them completely normal.

[The bookshelves can produce cultivation technique books and skill books] said Sery and Lucas was shocked. Sery continued [All the bookshelves needs are data regarding the cultivation techniques and skills]

"What do you mean?" Lucas asked.

[Everything in the house is connected to me. As long as I can scan the skill books in the shop, I will have their data and turn the data to skill books in the bookshelves. Not only that but with my power, I can fix the error in the skill and improve them] said Sery.

"So, I can have free skills?" Lucas asked and Sery confirmed it. "But, isn't that robbery?" Lucas was a bit opposed to that.

[It is not robbery. The skill that I will produce is not similar to the skill in the shop. It will be better than what they sold. So, we are not stealing anything from them. We gather the data by ourselves and turn it into skill using our ability. So, it is not stealing] Sery persuaded Lucas.

Lucas thought for a bit and decided to trust Sery. Lucas entered the skill shop and asked, "How to scan the skill books? They are locked."

[No worry. All you need to do is touch the skill book and I will scan it immediately. This kind of lock is nothing to a cheat power like me] said Sery. Lucas went to the nearest skill book and touched it. Once he touched the skill book, Sery immediately did his job.

Lucas was afraid that the shop worker would get suspicious and he grabbed the skill book and read the description of the skill. Sery did not take long to scan the skill book. It only took him a few seconds. After that, Lucas moved on to another book.

Lucas spent an hour inside the shop and left without buying anything. He had touched all the skill books in the shop. [I will need some time to produce good skills for you. It will take a few hours at least] said Sery.

"Oo. Thank you. Will we need to go to another skill shop too?" Lucas asked. Although he felt like he was robbing people, he considered what Sery said was correct.

[There are two more skill shops nearby] said Sery and he transferred the location to Lucas's mind. After that, they spent two hours on both skill shops before they headed to the pet shop.

In Petrian, two places would sell pets. They were the Pet Nursery and Pet Shop. The pet shop's main business was selling pet and pet food. They sold a variety of pets in their shop.

On the other hand, Pet Nurseries main business was helping take care of pets. Not all nursery sold pets and thus, it was considered a side business for pet nursery.

The pets sold by pet nursery were usually pets abandoned by their tamer while the pets sold by the pet shop were usually caught fresh from the wild. So, pet shops would have a variety of pets while pet nurseries would mostly have similar species of pets.

Even so, pets coming from the nursery would be highly trained while the pet from the pet shop was wild and needed a lot of training. Both businesses had their pluses and minuses.

Lucas got inside the pet shop and similar to his pet nursery, the pet shop used the spatial technology too. "This shop is not a normal pet shop," said Lucas. There were many people inside and all of them came to buy a pet.

[I will never let you come in contact with a shady shop. This pet shop is the best in this shopping district. They take care of their pets nicely and all of them are healthy] said Sery.

"What should I choose? There are so many choices," said Lucas. He did not know what to choose. There were too many pets available in the shop and he had no idea what pet was the best for him.

[Let's go to the Tier 1 section and buy the cheapest pet. No matter how bad the pet is, they will be strong when trained by our nursery] said Sery and Lucas walked towards the Tier 1 sections and he was met with many pets that were caught in cards.

When a pet was caught by a tamer, they would become a card. This card would enter the tamer's system when they were not summoned. When in the system, the stats of the pet could be viewed by the tamer. If the pet the tamer caught was not to their liking, some of them would kill the pet, some would release them and some would sell them to the pet shop.

Most tamers would choose to release or sell the caught pet for more income. Only a small group of tamers would kill the pet. Before they were caught, pets were usually vicious monsters but once they were caught, they would become docile. So, to many tamers, killing them was a bit ruthless and they chose to release or abandon the pet.

The pet cards were embedded in a thick glass display and Lucas could see a lot of different types of pets. Since he was in the Tier 1 section, all the pet cards in front of him were Tier 1 pet.

Monsters (before they were caught) or pets (after the monsters were caught) had tier. At the moment, there were 10 tiers known to humans. There might have been higher tier monsters but humans had yet to find one.

The weakest monsters would be in Tier 1 while the strongest was tier 10. The tier determined their raw power but after the monsters became a pet and trained by a tamer, it was possible for a tier 1 pet to beat tier 2 pet but impossible for tier 1 to beat tier 3 and above due to the massive difference in stats.

Many other factors played a role in determining the full power of a pet. Even so, all pet tamers preferred higher tier pets because they were naturally stronger and their path as a tamer would be easier.

Be that as it may, all of that would become a dream when the tamer's catching power was low. For a tamer to get a pet, they need to consider their catching power. This stat would determine the requirement needed for them to have a pet.

For Lucas, his catching power was Tier 1 and thus he could only get Tier 1 pets. The pet he got could not be Tier 2 and above. All of them needed to start at Tier 1. If he wanted to have a higher tier pet, catch or buy a Tier 1 pet and raise it and hope it would evolve to a higher tier.

Luckily for him, he had Sery the cheat system. All he needed was money and his Tier 1 pets would be able to become Tier 2, 3, 4 even 10 or perhaps 11 or 20 if possible.

Lucas knew his family's income was not stable yet and thus, he chose three of the cheapest pets he could find in the pet shop.

"Will these three be okay?" Lucas asked Sery.

[Don't worry. They will become the strongest pet in the world] Sery answered confidently.