Chapter 848 - Define Cute

"To think that I only found out about this game until now! I am excited for this. I will definitely hug the cutest of all monsters!" A girl that is has reached eighteen years old stated.

[Do you wish to create the character named 'Basil'?]

"Yes." Basil stated as her vision changed to that of the starting village.

She decided to become a summoner after seeing that the advertisements of the playable job classes. She always wanted to command her favorite cute pets in battle. Also, her current idol right now in the game is Equinox due to his cute summon or soulbounds as they call them.

She searched for the pet shop in the starting village, but she also saw an interesting scene before searching for it. She saw a player getting roped in for the quest that the old woman generates. She is one of the people who pitied him as he did not know what he is signing up for.

"He should have just refused as nothing comes out from getting that quest anyway." Basil stated muttered as she searched for the pet shop.

She arrived at the pet shop and is greeted by the clerk there named Tia. She is an old woman that is a bit kind yet harsh at the same time. The players speculated a change in the NPC as it should have been Gaius working at the pet shop. Many tried to see if something changed but nothing special in particular could be investigated.

She operated the pet shop as Gaius is currently running errands somewhere. She is currently the manager and owner as she is Gaius' business partner so to speak. She just operated the pet shop as normal which made the buzz of changing personnel die down.

Basil looked at all the pets in the shop and she could see that her so called cutest animal is not present. She did not like the ones here as they are furrier than what she likes. She debated whether to get a bird, but she could not handle it anymore and asked Tia about the state of the animals in the shop.

"Excuse me? Do you not have any cute animals around?" Basil asked.

"Cute? If that is what you want, then the cats and dogs are in that corner." Tia replied.

"I am sorry I needed to elaborate on that. Do you have some that are cold blooded or reptiles? Those are my preferred cute." Basil elaborated which shocked Tia.

"Is that so? Why do you think reptiles or cold-blooded animals are cute?" Tia asked a question which made her emit some kind of pressure.

Basil did not know but she unknowingly activated a secret story line. The sign in front of the pet shop suddenly became Closed for 10 minutes. Basil did not notice that the aura that Tia emitted changed to something else which is understandable because she is still level one.

"I do not know how to answer that, but I always loved them as a child because my parents study them. They always brought them at home to study and I will talk to them as if they are my friends. Although, it came at the cost of having almost no human friends because they think I am weird." Basil answered honestly.

Tia sensed that there were no lies in the girl's answer and her stance softened. She also looked at Basil suddenly like a mother that cares for a child. She then went to the back room and came out holding an egg with scales.

"Unfortunately, we do not have reptiles at the moment because they have yet to hatch. This is the closest egg that will hatch. It is the egg of a Flame Lizard. Will you take it? Although, you will also need to hatch this small darling." Tia asked Basil.

Basil's eyes suddenly glowed as she observed the egg of the Flame Lizard. The egg looked like a mix between different lizard species eggs with a hint of a fantasy motif. It has a deep crimson color and also smelled like soot.

"I will accept but I need guidance in hatching it since I am not familiar with the flame lizard's way of hatching an egg." Basil stated which made Tia smile.

"You do not need to worry silly girl. You just need to accompany it for a day or so in a high temperature environment. I leave that to your own choices as there are many areas in the village with high temperature." Tia explained as she handed the egg to Basil and a pair of Summoner Gloves.

"Be sure to come back in the store the moment you hatch the egg. I will teach you the Soul Sealing Process. If you change your mind, you can come back and hand the egg back to me. You can then choose from the available ones in the shop." Tia reminded as she left Basil to her own devices.

[You have received an egg from Tia.]

"Is it not a Flame Lizard egg?" Basil thought but she needed to start warming up the egg

Basil clutched the egg that is about one foot in height and hurriedly went to survey the spots in town. She first went to the open field with the sun shining. She basically sunbathed the whole day with the egg, but the hatching percentage only got raised by 5%.

Seeing that the sun is basically ineffective, she went to the next obvious choice. She went to the smithy and asked permission to be near the blazing furnace. The blacksmith thought that she is crazy but then he saw the egg she was clutching. The blacksmith just told her to cooldown if she cannot handle the heat anymore.

She stayed in the smithy for a total of three days before the egg reached 99%. She also earned Fire Elemental Resistance because of the heat of the furnace blasting on her face.. She almost died but she managed to hatch the egg and returned to the pet shop where she is taught the sealing spell when a red lizard came out of the egg.