Astral Pet Store (WN)

The Little Skeleton and the Managarm had woken up. Both were bewildered after noticing that their spots had been taken.

Su Ping looked at the Managarm. This was a pet left in the boarding service that would end the next day. By then, its master would come to pick it up.

Since that customer paid for the regular boarding service, the Managarm would have to step away from the nursing pen.

The system suddenly commented with a severe tone, “All the pets left in your care must stay in nursing pens and cannot be left outside. The host must purchase another nursing pen for the Managarm at once.”

Su Ping was taken aback. “But that person only paid for the regular service back then.”

“How can an owner of a pet store have zero compassion for pets?”

“…If you’re so compassionate, why don’t you give me some for free?”

“…Warning! Profanity alert.”

“When did I swear, I #¥…”

“…Warning! Second profanity alert.”

“…”

Su Ping cooled himself down in an instant.

Inhale, and exhale…

Su Ping had gotten over the fact that he was going to spend money. It was merely 10 energy points. Given his savings, he could afford it. Besides, the Managarm was going to be picked up the next day. He would have to add more nursing pens sooner or later.

“I’ll just pretend that I paid the one energy point maintenance fee out of my pocket today.”

Su Ping heaved a sigh. He could only make about a hundred coins with the boarding of this Managarm. At the moment, it would practically be as if he were taking care of it for free for another person.

Fortunately, this would never happen again.

He chose to buy the nursing pen; soon enough, another one appeared out of thin air.

“Go on.” Su Ping let the drooling Managarm enter the pen.

The Little Skeleton: “??”

Su Ping crouched down and patted the Little Skeleton’s head who was standing on the side, baffled. He accidentally used too much strength and snapped its head off.

Su Ping blushed with embarrassment as he quickly placed its little head back on.

He was relieved after seeing that the bones were set properly. The Little Skeleton was his pet and it didn’t have to stay in a nursing pen. On this front, the system did not have any requirements.

“I will buy one for you later, when I get extra energy points,” Su Ping said to the Little Skeleton.

Since the Little Skeleton was his, he could not let it suffer. It also had to enjoy comfort.

The Little Skeleton seemed to be able to understand him. It nodded clumsily.

Su Ping smiled at it and went back to the lounge. He took a look at his energy points; he made over 300 that day, and adding the hundred and something left from before, he had a bit over 400 energy points, quite the wealth.

“Upgrade the Chaos Spirit Pool,” Su Ping said.

A hundred points were deducted at once.

At the same time, the Spirit Pool that used to look like a dried well began to give out a radiating glow around its edge. Some strange lines appeared on the edge by the time the glow vanished. They looked like ancient runes.

“Pool upgraded to the second rank.”

Su Ping was pleased. One part per ten million of chaos aura could be imported into the second rank Spirit Pool; there was a chance that a pet of advanced Bloodline could be bred!

After all, every pet with an advanced bloodline could be sold on the market for hundreds of thousands at the very least, and the best ones would be worth tens of millions and even hundreds of millions!

Even though the store could not sell pets at the moment, Su Ping thought he could breed one and rent it. That would be a large source of income as well!

“Initiate breeding?”

“Yes.”

“One hundred energy points for breeding. Please confirm.”

“…”

Su Ping didn’t realize that the expense for breeding was ten times higher after the Spirit Pool was upgraded. Being the case, he only had enough energy points for three rounds of breeding!

After a moment of hesitation, Su Ping made up his mind and confirmed.

“Activating Chaos Spirit Pool…”

The dry-looking Spirit Pool gleamed slightly, and there seemed to be starlight gathering at the bottom.

A moment later, the Spirit Pool returned to its original state. Nothing happened.

A message appeared above the Spirit Pool. “Breeding failed.”

Su Ping was dumbfounded.

“Failed?

“The breeding failed?”

“When chaos aura forms life, there is a small chance that the process will fail,” the system explained.

Su Ping received a nasty shock. That was to say, he had wasted one hundred energy points for nothing, right?

Words popped out above the Spirit Pool again. “Continue Breeding?”

Su Ping came back to his senses. His eyes reddened. Those were one hundred energy points, converted from ten thousand coins, and all of it was gone in a puff!

“Try again!” Su Ping bit his teeth, making a determined effort.

After the energy was injected, the Chaos Spirit Pool once again began to gleam. Su Ping kept his eyes wide open and checked when the light was about to dim down.

All he saw was an egg in milk-white color floating above the Spirit Pool quietly.

“!!”

Su Ping was shocked. An egg? The pool could generate an egg?

His identification spell failed in the egg as well. He could not tell what was in it.

“Please collect.”

While still confused, Su Ping picked up this large egg which felt warm. All of a sudden, he thought of fried eggs. He was getting hungry.

“What kind of egg is this? How do I hatch it?” Su Ping asked the system.

“The host has to deal with it in person,” the system passed the buck.

Su Ping curled his lips. He could identify pets but to identify an egg… Was he supposed to pay himself and ask an expert from the Pet Identification Institution to tell him?

On second thought, Su Ping dismissed the idea. He didn’t have that much money to spare. To ask an expert to identify it would cost a fortune. He thought he might just as well search the internet for eggs of different pets. Maybe he could solve the mystery.

He placed the egg on the single bed he had put here for napping at noon when he was at the store. He set the egg by the pillow and covered it with the quilt to keep it warm.

Having done this, Su Ping took a look at the Chaos Spirit Pool. He decided to stop trying after hesitating for a moment.

He only had a bit over a hundred energy points left.

Coming up next, he had to finish the main quest, to open up cultivation planes and buy deaths. Those were all places that he had to invest energy points. He had to reach a sort of balance in the savings.

Speaking of the training quest, Su Ping remembered that the system had granted him free access to any cultivation plane for once and unlimited times of deaths when he was defending the name of the store!

“I can use this chance to finish my main quest and the training quest.”

Su Ping was gloating as he left the lounge. The Lightning Rat was hiding behind the counter. He waved to the Lightning Rat while wearing an ear-to-ear grin. “Here, come on. Come over here.”

The Lightning Rat was frizzly from fear. It was even using the “Thunder Cloak” skill. Its fur was like steel needles with electric charges. The Lightning Rat gave Su Ping a fierce look, turning quite hostile.

Somehow the Little Skeleton had sensed the hostile intention from the Lightning Rat. All of a sudden, the Little Skeleton stumbled over to Su Ping’s front.

The Little Skeleton clenched its fist like a fighter in defense. It looked at the Lightning Rat with its hollow eyes; there was a thickening blood-red color in those dark, empty spaces.

Su Ping was surprised. He never thought the little thing would come forward to protect him.

He froze when he felt the tension, anxiety, and a bit of fierceness in the Little Skeleton’s consciousness.

After falling into silence for a while, Su Ping slowly picked up the Little Skeleton, then he walked to the door and pulled the shutter door down.

The light in the store dimmed instantly.

Su Ping went back to the counter and pulled up the window of the cultivation plane.

“System, can I bring both pets into the same cultivation plane?” Su Ping asked.

“The host can only bring pets with contracts built into the cultivation plane. If the host wants to take the customer’s pets for training, please buy a temporary contract,” the system replied.

“Temporary contract?”

The interface of the shop popped out immediately. The slot for the “Awakening Potion” was gone and in its place was a golden scroll that had the words “Temporary Contract” written on it, with a price of ten energy points.