Chapter 104: A Pleasant Surprise

Chen Xiaolian returned to the marketplace and strolled around a bit more. He attempted to obtain more information regarding ‘Hell Type materials’.

However, he was unable to find any precise information regarding why these materials would suddenly be in short supply.

Seeing as the time was almost up, Chen Xiaolian returned to the Services Office to meet up with Qiao Qiao and Soo Soo.

Despite wandering for a few hours, Qiao Qiao and Soo Soo did not buy anything. They could not help but feel shocked at what they saw and heard within the flea market.

For the sake of safety, they did not choose to walk back. Instead, they chose to authenticate their identities in the Services Office. Thus, they acquired permission to enter a private room and use a teleportation array to directly teleport back to the ‘Tourist Lodge’ where they were staying.

Checking the time, Chen Xiaolian saw that there was less than an hour before the appointed moment to meet up with Lun Tai and the rest.

After deliberating for a moment, Chen Xiaolian returned to his room while Qiao Qiao and Soo Soo rested in the living room. After entering his own room, Chen Xiaolian produced the items that he had purchased and began his inspection.

[Gryphon soul (Broken): There is a probability of summoning out a pet Gryphon. If activation is successful, you will acquire a pet Gryphon. If activation fails, this item will disappear].

It really is a shitty deal. Chen Xiaolian faintly smiled.

However, that was not his goal. Although the Gryphon was quite a good pet, Chen Xiaolian did not intend to test his luck by trying to summon out a Gryphon.

His intention was…

Devour!

Four-Eyed Adorable Cat… Fine, let us call it the Four-Eyed War Cat…

All the Players considered this cat to be a shitty pet for a good reason. Its skills were quite good; the same was true regarding its melee abilities. The problem however, resided with its low Growth Capacity [1].

Although pets can devour other pet souls to increase their Growth Capacity… the Four-Eyed War Cat was originally a [B] Class War Pet. Additionally, it held the title of the one with the lowest price to performance ratio.

Who would be willing to spend a huge price to let it devour other pet souls? Wouldn't it better to simply open another pet?

Chen Xiaolian later found out from the experienced Lun Tai about something so ridiculous, it would render one speechless.

The number of species of pet souls that was suitable for the Four-Eyed War Cat to devour was too small!

When devouring pets, it would be best if their attributes were compatible. Back then, Chen Xiaolian had attempted to let the Four-Eyed War Cat devour the Black Widow’s soul. In the end, the system prompted that due to incompatibility in attributes, the success rate was only about 1%... With such shitty odds, who would be willing to go test it out?

Chen Xiaolian found out from the experienced Lun Tai that the so-called attribute compatibility generally pertained to one rule: Similarity of species.

First, consider the type of pet in question. A mammal was better off devouring other mammals.

Letting a mammal devour an insect would cause it to feel uncomfortable.

Under the mammal category were other specific parts that required discretion.

Take the Adorable Cat for example. It was an animal of the feline family. If you were to let it devour a War Wolf, the probability of success may be higher than that of devouring insects, but not by far.

A feline and a canine would certainly show signs of rejection.

Simply put, the more similar the species, the higher the success rate will be.

Chen Xiaolian had analysed this matter beforehand. The best method to let Garfield grow would be to find ‘feline animals’.

An example of that would be tigers, lions and leopards.

The problem was… the reason everyone viewed Garfield as the worst pet was…

Even within the feline family, it was also the weakest!

Think about it, if you have a feline pet of the tiger type… is there any need to let Garfield devour it? Just open it up and use it! It is stronger than Garfield argh!

That was why no one will idiotically choose to strengthen Garfield… because that sort of action was too wasteful!

As a result, the number of Players and Awakened ones from all levels who would adopt Four-Eyed War Cat as a pet was very small.

Even if there were, those who do were all at the newbie and rookie stage. To them, the Four-Eyed War Cat was just something to help them temporarily through that stage. Once they acquire a better pet, they would immediately discard the Four-Eyed War Cat!

However, Chen Xiaolian was a humane and soft-hearted fellow who chose to not use an [A] Class Black Widow. Instead, he continued keeping this Adorable Cat.

“Gryphon, Gryphon… its name has a lion word [2]. Lions are feline animals. It should at least have feline attributes and be compatible with Garfield.”

Chen Xiaolian considered it before transferring one Gryphon soul from the system into the War Pet interface, letting Garfield devour it…

[Prompt: Inputting Gryphon soul (Broken). Due to compatibility with the original War Pet, Four-Eyed War Cat, success rate of devouring is at 61.4%. Do you wish to continue?]

Chen Xiaolian breathed a sigh of relief!

61.4%. This rate of success has achieved the rate that he expected!

Without any hesitation, Chen Xiaolian chose to continue.

In the system interface, Garfield instantly transformed into a brilliant mass of golden light. After the golden light faded away…

[Prompt: Inputted Gryphon soul (Broken). Devour failed, item has disappeared].

Chen Xiaolian’s eyes bulged out and he cursed out loudly: “F**k!”

Is my luck so bad? I failed with a probability that is above 60%?

Again!

At any rate, there are still eight Gryphon souls. After failing one, I still have seven more!

[Prompt: Inputting Gryphon soul (Broken). Due to compatibility with the original War Pet, Four-Eyed War Cat, success rate of devouring is at 57.9%. Do you wish to continue?]

Eh? The success rate has changed?

Chen Xiaolian mumbled softly to himself and came to understand the gist of the problem.

Probably, each Gryphon has varying degrees of Broken state. Thus, each of those Gryphon souls would have varying rate of success!

[Prompt: Inputted Gryphon soul (Broken). Devour successful].

Chen Xiaolian laughed out! My luck is picking up! A success rate of 61% ended up with failure. A success rate of 57% ended up with success.

In the interface, a golden light flashed across Garfield’s body.

His body did not appear to have changed much.

However, after opening the interface for his attributes, Chen Xiaolian saw that Garfield’s attribute values have changed.

Physique, Endurance, Agility, Energy… none of those exhibited any change. However…

[Four-Eyed War Cat].

Growth Capacity: [B]

A progress bar appeared behind the alphabet [B] that was located behind the Growth Capacity!

Since the devouring process was successful, the progress bar moved forward rapidly from 0% to 100%!

A “ding” resounded and a golden light flashed out.

The value changed!

Growth Capacity: [B+]

Chen Xiaolian’s heart pounded with excitement!

He opened the interface containing Garfield’s attributes…

Garfield’s original attribute values were:

Physique: [B]

Endurance: [C]

Agility: [C+]

Energy Points: [C-]

Comprehensive Melee Ability: [B-]

No apparent change was evident, however!

At the back of all four attributes: Physique, Endurance, Agility and Energy Points was a ‘↑’ symbol!

An up arrow!

Chen Xiaolian tried to check it out.

He discovered that as long as he gave it a thought while looking at the up arrow, a prompt would appear on the interface:

[Prompt: Number of enhancement left: 1 time(s). Current Growth Capacity is at [B+], each attribute values cannot exceed Growth Capacity].

This meant that Chen Xiaolian could choose to upgrade any one of the four attributes.

Naturally, he cannot enhance Comprehensive Melee Ability. It was a value obtained through comprehensive evaluation after all.

Chen Xiaolian pondered it through and chose to enhance Physique!

Physique rose from [B] to [B+]!

At that moment, the Four-Eyed War Cat within the interface abruptly raised his head and made a roaring gesture. A golden light flashed and Garfield’s figure trembled for a bit.

Chen Xiaolian noted that the claws on the Four-Eyed War Cat’s front paws were emitting a golden glow!

Is this the indication that his strength and attack power has become stronger?

Chen Xiaolian was secretly delighted and continued with the devouring process without hesitation.

[Prompt, inputting Gryphon’s soul (Broken). Due to compatibility with the original War Pet, Four-Eyed War Cat, success rate of devouring is at 77.1%. Do you wish to continue?].

[Prompt: Inputted Gryphon soul (Broken). Devour successful].

This time too, a progress bar appeared behind the [B+] alphabet of the Growth Capacity.

However, this time’s successful devouring process only brought the progress bar to 50% before stopping.

Chen Xiaolian sighed.

One successful devouring process was enough to propel [B] Class to [B+] Class.

However, to propel Garfield from [B+] to a higher realm, one successful devouring process was not enough.

The higher the level, the more materials Chen Xiaolian has to spend on the devouring process.

Once again, Chen Xiaolian chose to continue the devouring process.

[Prompt, inputting Gryphon’s soul (Broken). Due to compatibility with the original War Pet, Four-Eyed War Cat, success rate of devouring is at 47.9%. Do you wish to continue?].

[Prompt: Inputted Gryphon soul (Broken). Devour successful].

This time’s process only had a success rate of 47.9%, causing Chen Xiaolian to become somewhat worried.

Thankfully, luck was on his side and he continued to be successful!

The progress bar reached 100%!

Growth Capacity rose from [B+] to [A-].

[Prompt: Number of enhancement left: 2 time(s). Current Growth Capacity is at [A-], each attribute values cannot exceed Growth Capacity].

Chen Xiaolian smiled satisfactorily.

This time’s upgrade gave him 2 enhancements. That was quite fair.

After hesitating for a moment, Chen Xiaolian chose to continue enhancing Physique.

Physique rose to [A-].

After hesitating, Chen Xiaolian used the remaining enhancement on Agility.

Agility rose from [C+] to [B-].

At that moment, a pleasant surprise arrived!

[Prompt: Your Four-Eyed War Cat has achieved the required conditions. New skill activated: Lightning Doppelganger].

Dayum! New skill activated?!

Chen Xiaolian was overjoyed!

Garfield originally has 3 skills as stated by the system below:

Combat Skills: Tiger Rush ([B] Class Melee Skill), Cat’s Roar ([C-] Class Ranged Skill), Adorable Flash (Are you sure this is a skill?)

As implied by its name, Tiger Rush was easy to understand.

As for the Cat’s Roar skill, Chen Xiaolian felt that it was very useful. At the very least, it came with a stun effect, the probability involved notwithstanding.

However… that Adorable Flash skill… Chen Xiaolian believed that skill was certainly a prank by the Development Team!

At any rate, Chen Xiaolian has yet to discover any use for that ability. He has also not tried using it before.

Now, the skills list has been added with this [Lightning Doppelganger]?

[Lightning Doppelganger]: [B] Class Skill, Melee / Ranged dual attributes. Four-Eyed War Cat’s ultimate skill. In battle, it can transform out doppelganger(s) to do battle. Each doppelganger has the same attack power as the original body. The number of doppelgangers depends on the pet's Agility. Every Class of enhancement will allow the number of doppelgangers to increase by 1. Note: This pet’s current Agility is at [B-], it can transform out 2 doppelgangers].

“… … … ”

Countless ‘son of a bitch’ sentences stampeded through Chen Xiaolian’s head.

Why didn’t you son of a bitch tell me earlier!!! If you had said so, this senior would have pumped all enhancements into Agility eargh!!!

1 Recap: Growth Capacity is the limit that their attributes can achieve. For example, a pet with a [B] Class Growth Capacity can only have a maximum Agility of [B] Class. It cannot have a [B+] Class Agility.↩

2 The name Gryphon in Chinese is ‘狮鹫’, pinyin: ‘shī jiù’. ‘狮’ (shī) means lion and ‘鹫’ (jiù) means eagle.↩