Chapter 28: A Mutated Plant-Type Magical Beast 1

“Hey, boss, give me two Grass Sprite eggs.”

Just as Kent was carefully examining the Grass Sprite eggs, two young women dressed as warriors entered the shop. Both wore leather armor, short warrior tunics, leather boots, and leather helmets. They looked only eighteen or nineteen, yet each had a fourth-rank swordswoman badge pinned to her chest.

Kent couldn’t help being impressed. A warrior only became first rank after awakening battle aura, and even Alice’s father was merely a third-rank knight. Yet these two girls were already fourth-rank warriors at such a young age. Alliance City truly deserved its reputation as a gathering place for the continent’s finest talents.

“Ladies,” Kent suddenly said, “as a mage, I strongly recommend that you choose those two Grass Sprite eggs. Ideally, you should form soul contracts with them. At the very least, use equal contracts.”

With that, Kent calmly walked out of the magical beast shop under everyone’s bewildered stares.

A moment later, roaring laughter erupted behind him.

“Brother,” Kweilin asked with an odd expression as he caught up, “isn’t a soul contract a bit excessive for a Grass Sprite?”

Kent shook his head.

“What if I told you that one of those two Grass Sprite eggs contains a mutated lightning-attribute beast, while the other is light-attribute? Would you still say it isn’t worth it?”

“What?!”

Kweilin spun around and immediately started running back toward the shop. But after taking only a single step, he stopped, turned around again, and stared at Kent with an ingratiating smile.

“Brother, if you have something to say, just say it. If you want something, ask.” Kent felt his scalp tingle under the intense gaze of another grown man and snapped irritably.

Alice and Delis immediately burst into laughter. Even Big Nose, Delis’s newly acquired Earth Demon Rat, seemed to be looking at Kweilin strangely.

Kweilin chuckled awkwardly before finally asking, “Little brother... how did you know?”

“This is Niu Niu.” Kent pointed to the tiny creature sitting on his shoulder. “I accidentally formed a soul contract with her, and ever since then, I’ve been able to sense the attributes of magical beast eggs.”

Niu Niu had been sitting on Kent’s shoulder the entire time. Kweilin simply hadn’t noticed her because he had been walking on Kent’s other side.

“A Grass Sprite?!” Kweilin stared at Niu Niu in disbelief.

“Hmph. She’s not an ordinary Grass Sprite. She’s a mutated light-attribute Grass Sprite,” Kent added casually.

Kweilin suddenly felt a little dizzy.

How could one person possibly be this lucky?

Mutations were indeed more common among low-ranked magical beasts, but they were still exceedingly rare. And the fact that Niu Niu possessed the light attribute made matters even more extraordinary.

The light attribute alone was rare enough, but that wasn’t the most important point.

Everyone on the continent knew that a mutated magical beast possessed the potential to grow all the way to ninth rank. That was precisely what made mutations so valuable.

A future ninth-rank light-attribute magical beast—if news of that ever spread, it would probably cause an uproar throughout Alliance City.

That was why Kweilin had instinctively wanted to rush back into the shop the moment Kent mentioned the two Grass Sprite eggs.

Of course, cultivating a mutated low-rank magical beast all the way to a high rank was no easy task. It certainly couldn’t be accomplished in only a few years. Still, mutated beasts grew much faster than ordinary high-ranked magical beasts, which could require more than a century to mature.

That was the true advantage of mutation.

For instance, if a mutated magical beast had the potential to reach seventh rank, it might take only a few decades from birth to reach that level.

Back inside the magical beast shop, meanwhile, the two young swordswomen were holding the two Grass Sprite eggs Kent had pointed out, their faces filled with hesitation.

They could certainly sign equal contracts.

An equal contract allowed the magical beast to retain a high level of intelligence after hatching. In contrast, a master-servant contract would suppress the beast’s intelligence and bind it more tightly to its owner.

But equal contracts came with drawbacks as well.

A contracted beast under an equal pact was not obligated to obey every command. If its owner treated it poorly, it might even run away.

Yet none of that was what truly bothered the two girls.

The real problem was embarrassment.

Signing an equal contract with a mere Grass Sprite was the sort of thing other warriors would laugh at endlessly.

And so the two young women stood there holding the eggs, torn between Kent’s strange warning and the humiliation they might face if they actually followed his advice.

"Let’s sign an equal contract," one of the girls—the slightly taller one—said to her companion. "If... if he really makes us look foolish, then next time we see him, we’ll make him regret it."

"Alright," the other girl nodded in agreement.

"Hahaha, those two idiots."

"Exactly, exactly. I think they should just sign a soul contract."

"Haha, right. A Grass Sprite and they’re actually signing a—wait... why is it purple? Could it be..."

The two girls spent two hundred gold coins purchasing two equal-contract scrolls, then immediately began hatching the Grass Sprite eggs.

The moment the creatures emerged, everyone froze.

One Grass Sprite had a pair of purple wings.

The other had white wings.

Both, however, had green hair.

"Mutated lightning attribute... and light attribute!" the two girls screamed in shock.

As their owners, they could naturally sense the attributes of their contracted magical beasts.

The commotion instantly attracted attention.

"Miss! I’ll offer five thousand gold coins for the lightning-attribute one!"

"Beauty, tell that guy to get lost. Five thousand for a mutated lightning magical beast? I’ll pay eight thousand! Miss, don’t run!"

The people who finally realized what had happened rushed toward the two girls. Some even considered directly snatching the creatures away. However, this street was under the protection of the Mage Guild, and anyone who dared use force here would have to face the guild’s wrath.

The two young women recovered from their shock and immediately fled.

The two newly hatched Grass Sprites were held tightly in their arms as they disappeared into the crowd.

"Boss! Boss! What’s wrong with you?"

Inside the magical beast shop, the attendants panicked when they saw their employer collapse weakly onto the floor. Several people hurried over and lifted him up.

The shopkeeper felt as if his heart had been shattered.

Those two Grass Sprite eggs were worth at least several hundred thousand gold coins.

Especially the light-attribute one.

Wasn’t there a priest standing behind it? If he had put it up for auction, the price might even have exceeded one million gold coins.

The shopkeeper felt utterly miserable.

But then he suddenly remembered the Earth Demon Rat egg Kent had purchased earlier.

A first-rank egg that nobody wanted.

The realization struck him like lightning.

The things that others ignored were actually priceless treasures.

And the one Kent had bought...

The shopkeeper’s face turned pale.

"That... that means..."

Thinking about it, he suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood and collapsed dramatically.

"Brother, what exactly is that Big Nose?" Kweilin asked repeatedly.

Kent, Alice, and Delis were sitting together in a luxurious restaurant. The table was filled with dishes made from magical beast meat. Big Nose was happily devouring its meal, while Niu Niu continued munching on her fruit as usual.

Kweilin, however, had been pestering Kent nonstop.

"Those things you don’t want turn out to be incredible magical beasts. So the one you actually chose must be something extraordinary. Come on, brother, tell me."

"This is nothing special. I only bought it because Delis liked it," Kent replied casually. He had no intention of revealing the whole truth, so he quickly changed the subject. "But this little fellow is indeed interesting."

"What makes it special?" Kweilin immediately became curious.

He stared at the grayish, unattractive egg in Kent’s hand, then pulled Alice away slightly so that she sat closer to Kent.

Kent took a bite of magical rabbit meat before explaining:

"I suspect this is a plant-type magical beast."

"That’s it?"

Kweilin looked disappointed.

Most plant-type magical beasts were considered useless. They couldn’t move freely, and their combat abilities were usually very limited. That was why very few people chose them as pets.

Of course, there were exceptions.

The Treants of the Elven Forest were a completely different matter. Those creatures possessed astonishing magical and physical resistance. Some powerful Treants could even fight against dragons—one of the strongest types of magical beasts on the continent.

However, ordinary Treants usually evolved from ancient trees over extremely long periods of time.

"Do you want it or not? If not, let Alice hatch it and take a look. She’s a mage, so this kind of creature would be much more suitable for her."

Kent wasn’t exactly lying, but he hadn’t told the whole truth either.

Deep inside the egg, he had faintly sensed something else—a trace of a subtle, bloody aura.

Kent couldn’t help wondering if this might be one of the continent’s Ten Most Terrifying Magical Beasts—the legendary Skeleton Vine.

This plant-type magical beast was extremely strange.

When it fully extended its body, it looked like an ordinary plant, spreading countless vines across the ground. But when it contracted itself, it could shrink into a perfectly round sphere, making it almost impossible to distinguish from an ordinary egg or plant seed.

The most terrifying aspect of the Skeleton Vine was its ability to break through magic defenses. Its vines carried a powerful poison, and even magical beasts with strong senses could not detect its presence. By the time they realized something was wrong, their blood had already been completely drained.

According to legends, deep within the Magical Beast Forest there was a seventh-rank Skeleton Vine that had occupied the territory of a ninth-rank magical beast. The surrounding area, extending for dozens of miles, had become a forbidden zone of death. Even magical beasts flying too low in the sky could not escape its deadly vines.

Of course, Kent had not mentioned any of this.

"Since you prepared it for Alice, then I won’t take what belongs to someone else." Kweilin chuckled. "Consider this a gift from your big brother."

As he spoke, he gave Alice and Kent a rather meaningful glance, his expression full of teasing implication.

However, deep down, Kweilin also let out a sigh of relief.

He quickly took out a contract scroll and handed it to Alice.