Chapter 196: Ruby-Eyed Crimson Spirit Fox

The egg shook a little before cracks started appearing on it.

'Come out,

Henrick was excited as it was his first time watching a beast coming out of the egg.

'Kacha'

Soon, the cracks on the egg spread like spider webs and with each passing second, they grew bigger.

'Kacha' 'Kacha'

In the next second, a small furry creature came out of the egg and excitedly jumped up and down as though it had waited for this day to come for many years.

'This one looks very excited to come out the egg,'

Henrick could easily say what it must be feeling and tried to hold it.

The furry little beast had shining red-coloured fur that made it very attractive. It looked just like the spirit fox he fought outside; however, this spirit fox had red fur where the spirit fox from outside had silver coloured fur.

'Growl'

The moment Henrick held it in his hands, it became angry and growled for a moment; however, its anger soon disappeared for some unknown reason.

Next, it looked at Henrick and felt some close connection to him.

"Hmm"

He caressed its smooth fur for a moment while thinking a name for it.

"From now on I will call you ruby,"

It was not because of the fur, he kept that name; instead, it was because of its eyes. They looked like ruby gemstones that increased the charms of the little spirit fox in his embrace.

'Gugugu'

All of a sudden, the little spirit fox's stomach growled.

"You are hungry? Wait...let me see give you a high-level fire fruit,"

Henrick kept it on the ground and took out a high-level fire fruit from the inventory; however before he could give it to the spirit fox, it ran over to the eggshells from which it came from and started munching on them.

The outer side of the eggshells was still the same as before; however, the inner side of the eggshell looked completed red. Blood red.

'Is it a natural one or because of my blood?'

Henrick had no way to know about it. So, he stopped bothering about it and didn't stop it from eating the eggshells.

According to his knowledge, only the eggs from high-level beasts' eggshells will make their offspring eat.

However, from the earlier projection of the three-tailed spirit fox outside the tunnel, Henrick was sure that this egg belonged to the same beast.

….

'Ding,

Congratulations to the master, Ruby has successfully reached rank 1.

As soon as the little beast finished all the eggshells, it revealed a satisfied look on its face before elegantly walking towards Henrick.

'Already a rank 1?'

Henrick was also satisfied with the little spirit fox's progress and kept the high-level fire fruit back into his inventory.

'You are finally got a single complete tail and could be called as a single tail spirit fox,'

Until now, there were no tails to the little beast; however, after eating the eggshells, it reached rank 1 and gained a tail.

The strength of the tailed spirit fox is measured with the number of tails.

From rank 1 to rank 5, it will gain a single tail for each realm and for rank 6 and rank 7, a spirit fox would gain 2 tails for a single realm.

So, when the spirit fox gains 9 tails, it would become an immortal being; however, it was not that easy to become. For that, a spirit fox needs to undergo many trials and tribulations just like other beasts. 

'Let's see whether it got any skill or not,'

Henrick picked the little fox from the ground and used the system to check the information on the little fox.

'Ding,

Wild beast name:- Ruby-eyed crimson spirit fox (One tail)

Strength:- Rank 1

Skill:- Flash steps.

Inherent skill:- enhanced speed.

Description:- A beast with a little more potential than a normal spirit fox.

'Flash steps? Nice,'

Henrick didn't bother to check the skills because he had a rough approximation of the skill.

'You are an ideal mount for me,'

Henrick lightly caressed its smooth red-coloured fur and that action was enjoyed by the little spirit fox. 

"Now, let's search for another treasure,"

Since he got one of the good items, he wanted to proceed to the next treasure.

'Let's go through that same tunnel I came from,'

Soon, Henrick started climbing into the tunnel; however, just when he entered the tunnel, the little fox in his embrace jumped down and went to the exact opposite from where Henrick had found the egg before starting jumping up and down while letting out some excited noises.

'Crr crr'

"Did you find something?"

Henrick stopped climbing into the tunnel and walked towards the little fox before asking it.

'Crr crr'

"Really?"

Since Henrick had learned 10000 beasts language, he could understand what the spirit fox was saying and was excited.

According to it, there was something hidden there. So, without wasting any time, Henrick summoned his burning spear and started digging there.

'Clank'

After digging for a few minutes, Henrick felt his spear had touched some metal.

'Woah'

Keeping his spear aside, he cleared the sand and found an old wooden box that was half rotten.

'What the heck?'

Henrick didn't expect that this rotten wooden box made a metallic sound when his spear touched it.

'I should not judge it by its appearance,'

Nevertheless, he calmed himself down and opened the rotten wooden box only to find a jade box.

"Let's see what is inside it,"

Next, he opened the jade box and was shocked by what he had seen inside the jade box.

'Th..this is the true treasure,' 

Finally, Henrick understood that the spirit fox's egg is not the true treasure inside this small cave. It was the things inside the jade box.

'Ding,

Item name:- Skill upgrade crystal.

Grade:- Level 1

The item inside the jade box was none other than the skill upgrade crystal which could upgrade any of his level 1 skills into level 2.

'Did I just earn 10000 crude souls?'

Henrick was still unable to believe that he got such a valuable item here.

Compared to the egg of a spirit fox, the skill upgrade crystal is rarer and whenever a skill upgrade crystal appears in any of the auction halls, it would be sold for very high prices.

'Thank you, Ruby,'

He lifted the little fox into the air and thanked it for helping him find such a valuable item.

'Crr crr'

The little fox growled a little as though asking him to put it down.

"Okay"

He patted it and slowly kept it on the ground with a bitter smile on his face.

'I thought it would be like my other beasts back at the home; however, it is always serious with me,'

Compared to the eighteen beasts at the home and the baby fire monkey in his cultivation abode.

Nevertheless, he was not bothered much by the little spirit fox's aloof nature and looked at the skill upgrade crystal in his hands.

'Time to upgrade another skill,'

Without wasting any time, he opened his skills section and started thinking about which skill to upgrade now.