Chapter 12: 11. Little Wildcat

11. Little Wildcat

Li Ang clearly felt his heartbeat quicken.

The possibilities revealed by the system’s monster taming function made his whole body shiver; it was a reaction of excitement.

The most intuitive improvement was that the low-level monsters he tamed were born with more combat intelligence than those subdued by others using mental suppression.

Mental suppression has a probability of causing summoned beasts to forget how to use special attacks, which is why the distinction between quality and inferior goods in the summoned beast market often depends on this.

This alone was already more than worth it.

He scrolled through the summoned beast panel in the system a few more times; besides the unlocked taming function, there were also "Enhancement" and "Breeding Ground Construction."

[Summoned Beast Enhancement: After taming a summoned beast, the enhancement route will be displayed. The master must collect the corresponding food and materials to assist the summoned beast in growing and becoming stronger.]

[Breeding Ground Construction: Choose a suitable site and arrange construction materials according to the plan to build a living space for summoned beasts to rest, recuperate, and be self-sufficient.]

Li Ang took a rough look; the breeding grounds also had levels. The lowest could be built with common materials, while the highest level involved opening up a dimensional space, a separate small world inside that could hold many monsters.

Of course, if he were to choose a site, he thought the best place would be the first base of the Air Cavalry Regiment: on the team’s airship, so that no matter where the team went, there would be basically no need to worry about the summoned beasts following along.

Thinking of this, his train of thought veered off into how to get his hands on an airship.

The system popped up the airship panel again, and Li Ang closed it directly.

He had been standing in place for a while, and Zoe beside him was curious about why he was dazed, starting to poke him with her finger.

If one were to look at every panel of the system carefully, one wouldn't finish even by sunset.

Li Ang put away the wyvern egg and bent down to pack up the remaining iron ore.

He didn't plan to tame the wyvern for the time being; even with the system's help, this kind of monster was still too low-level.

Moreover, it wouldn't grow up to be a combat force immediately, and the feed and care required before that would take a huge amount of energy. Before he transmigrated, he had been exhausted just from raising a cat; he understood this kind of thing very well.

Besides, if someone he knew discovered he was carrying a wyvern as a summoned beast, he would truly be laughed to death.

After packing up, Li Ang shouldered the basket full of ore and wyvern materials and headed straight toward the village on Satus Island.

Zoe followed by his side, looking at several colorful stones in her hand; they were fine crystals that had fallen out when the bedrock disintegrated. Her cheeks were flushed red, as she liked them very much.

The scenery along the way was monotonous. To get to the village, one had to pass through the middle of the island, where flat meadows stretched out—a sight they were both long accustomed to.

Zoe seemed to find it boring; after putting the stones in her pocket, she started waving the Sword of Wind Breath again.

Her delicate little face had been expressionless, but gradually, as if remembering something, a smile appeared, and her body followed suit, starting to appear diagonally in front of Li Ang.

Seeing her posture as if to block him, he secretly thought, "Not good."

With so many things happening just now, he had forgotten to take that sword from her.

"I saw you use magic; you can create water and smash rocks. Magic is really amazing."

"Mm."

"But it seems like you always need to use something, or touch it directly with your hand. Does that mean if you don't do that, you can't use magic?"

"..."

She had discovered the characteristics of a spellcaster.

Even other spellcasting professions liked to rely on mediums to cast spells, though they usually used things like wands or staves and didn't always depend on casting materials.

But for a spellcaster, casting either required materials or communicating with the spirits within things.

This pattern had been discovered by Zoe; her observational skills were actually quite good.

"I’ve figured out the rules of magic, so—"

Zoe took two hops to land directly in front of Li Ang.

"Let's duel again. This time I’ll definitely be able to dodge your magic. I’ve thought about it, I have a move for it."

Li Ang naturally wouldn't doubt her agility, but she couldn't possibly defeat a 9th-tier professional who had been through hundreds of battles, and the point wasn't about whether to fight or not.

"Give me your sword; don't talk about this again."

"Oh, the sword is just being returned to me for now."

Zoe’s enthusiasm waned by half. She gripped the hilt, her hand hesitating halfway.

She held back for a moment and whispered, "I know the logic; if you lose a fight, you have to lose something. My candy was also won from others."

This kid was a real ringleader. Whether the candy was won or snatched, Li Ang couldn't really say.

"This sword was left to me by my father, and I’ve always cherished it... I know I lost it myself, so, can I trade something else to get it back?"

Li Ang looked into her earnest eyes and sighed.

"You’ve got the key point wrong. I’m not coveting your sword; I want you to understand that dueling at will comes with a price. Besides, you don't have anything—"

"I really don't know what I have that you would like, but Li Ang, you can say it. As long as it's something I have, I can give you anything."

Li Ang looked at the innocence on the girl’s beautiful face and reached out.

"Ouch, that hurts!"

He couldn't help but flick her smooth forehead hard.

"Don't talk like that. If you say things like that, bad people will easily take advantage of you."

"Wh-what do you mean? That’s what it said in the books Mom left behind."

The girl covered her forehead with both hands, looking at Li Ang with grievance.

"You’ll understand later."

Li Ang suddenly understood some of the feelings of parents; sometimes it’s not that there is no willingness to communicate, but that there is truly no way to begin.

"If I can't trade for it, then I can only challenge you to a duel."

"Forget it, I’ll take the trouble to explain to you clearly why you can't duel—"

"Duel, duel."

"..."

Li Ang started to get a headache.

"Are you afraid? Are you?"

"..."

"You’re clearly so much older than me, yet you’re afraid to compete with me. What a small fry~ small fry~ weak and powerless~"

"Hey!"

Li Ang hallucinated a vein throbbing on his forehead. He glared at Zoe and saw a flash of cunning in the corner of the girl’s eyes.

This little brat!

She wasn't stupid; she knew Li Ang didn't want to duel for certain reasons, and she knew what she was doing might be wrong, but she was still deliberately acting out.

Before, she would run away as soon as she was startled, making Li Ang think she was a frightened little deer. Perhaps now, because she was slowly getting familiar with Li Ang, she had a bit of audacity. Maybe a wildcat that was sometimes tame and sometimes bared its claws was her true nature.

"Where did you learn these words?"

"From the books Mom left behind. Sometimes, you just have to do this; it’s called a provocation."

That’s not a provocation at all.

Zoe’s mother, this lady I’ve never met, you really are something.

Sigh, the protagonist of the world... I haven't even seen the stormy waves of the official plot yet, and I already have a headache. I clearly haven't provoked her even once; should I run away quickly?

Li Ang covered his face, but through his fingers, he saw Zoe lift her chin, point with the tip of the sword, and giggle.

This personality really needs to be corrected.