The vibe the man gives off is that everything he does is a test to see if he likes you. And what Plethora would do is walk through the side where the man is pointing in stead of through the visible portal. But this is what he should have done if he was here on his own.
The two split up phantoms set two steps forward standing at the same height as the portal, and then one phantom steps left into the portal and the other right where the man pointed at.
After another weird feeling in their gut both phantoms ended up in the same room. He was right that to the right was another portal, but it just ended up in the same place.
The man came out of another portal laughing loudly. "Kid you're so funny when you are serious." He laughs some more. "But it's true, normally the invisible one would bring you to a better area, but I like you a lot already and would've brought you here anyway. You still make me like you more when you are like this though! Most kids these days are so stupid."
As the man was laughing Plethora looks around the area. It's a long hallway with silver colored panels on either side a slight distance away from each other.
Plethora, merged back into one again, walks toward the first silver panel and sees that when he is close enough the panel turns transparent and shows a small room behind. Inside this small room is a small white ball of fluff, about as big as a humans head. The small ball of fluff turns a little and Plethora feels it staring at him, but he can't see any eyes.
"Oh that's a frufru, they mostly live in the snowy mountains. Noble woman love them, maybe something for your mom?" The man says after he noticed Plethora standing at the first room. He was distracted by his own rambling.
"Neh, I don't think she'll like it, my mother is a little different then most woman." Plethora says as he continues walking to the next room.
In this room is a big blob of black flesh, wiggling around. As Plethora comes closer to check it out more clearly a massive amount of tentacles shoot out of the blob and only stop at the now transparent barrier. Plethora jumps back in fright as the barbed tentacles grind against the barrier.
"Hahahahaha that happens every time and I have to laugh every time! That little girl always scares everyone, a special one that is, she comes out of a dungeon far away from here." The man looks reminiscent while thinking about where it is from. "Anyways, look around, I'll tell you a bit about what you see when you are interested."
And like that Plethora continues. Finding things that look a suspicious lot like a dragon, but dragons are extinct. Things that look like living plants, things that look like a mishmash of different animals. Even a goblin, which the man assured Plethora that it wasn't a goblin as that would be slavery, and slavery is prohibited.
Plethora did find a number of creatures that he does like for his mom and himself, for his mom he was pretty sure that he will pick it when he first saw it. It's a creature only 50cm long with a furry snake like body but it has a big cats head and front paws. It moves with a combination of slithering and walking with his two front legs, it has no venom and has a cuddly nature if she likes the other person. And the man told him she likes Plethora, and that will help him introduce her to his mom.
For himself he is still doubting between two. One creature is something that looks like a floating starfish with dozens of tentacles with many little tentacles each. Apparently it can split off its tentacles and shoot it to a target, then it holds on to the target with its sucky small tentacles before using needle like tentacles to pierce the target and injecting it with paralysing venom.
The other one is a little imp, imps are not monsters or animals, but actual demons. They have different colours of skin but this one was a forest green with red eyes. Seven small horns, about 2cm tall and 1cm wide, growing up around his skull. Short arms and legs, it has rather big bat like wings with a boney spike on each wing's end, and a tail that looks like it has been made of just bones with a sharp dagger like bone on the end.
As a noble Plethora got to study many things, and demons were one of those things. Demons aren't necessarily evil, but they are tricky buggers. They'll try to gain as much as possible to gain more power, if not by strength it'll be by money or possessions. That's why they steal and trick. But this makes it that one can influence them easily though, if one is smart enough.
Imps specifically are not so smart, but they are soul based creatures. They are born from souls, opposite of most creatures who are born from flesh. Plethora never fully understood this, but apparently it depends on if you have parents or are born from energy.
A positive side to that is that if a being of souls gains enough energy it will evolve. A quantitative change resulting in a qualitative change when enough is gathered. And as each soul creature evolves in a unique way it is an exciting thing.
"Hehe young Hable, I see you are thinking about the imp. Honestly speaking it is the least special creature here, but I have a way to bind you two together in a way that it'll never think about betraying you. But you'll need to give him one of your clones as body." He puts his hand on his chin to think some more. "Yes, that would work great. The imp will grow stronger as your body and your cloning technique grows stronger, and your soul will grow stronger every time the imp evolves... How could I have never thought of this! Oh and if you die he dies, but if he dies you can probably bring him back in a new clone without too much trouble."
And then he starts chuckling, then laughing, then it starts to take on a maniacal feeling. "I'm a genius, a freaking genius! This will bring human kind to the next level! Percy, say yes and I'll give you a hand, a hand in becoming the strongest alive." He continues laughing while Plethora wonders if the man knows about his mission from Moeder. But he dismisses the idea.
Plethora doesn't speak and let's the man continue. After more laughter the man turns and looks Plethora in his eyes, his smile gone. "Here, take the prideling, your mother will love the gift. Return tomorrow with your real body and your mother, I will meet both of you outside, she will vouch for me. I understand you won't trust me yet, but you will truly become grander than anyone else. Now go and give me some time to talk to Moeder." And at the end of the sentence Plethora disappears from the hallway and stands in front of the shop with a snake like cat in his hands. Dazed.
Just standing here won't help him though, so he moves towards his real body while carrying his gold and the prideling.
~~~~~~
"Is the food good Percy?" She asks while they're having breakfast. His mother was so happy to be together again that she ordered too much, Percy has a big bowl of his favourite noodlesoup and the table is filled with little snacks.
"It is very good mom, it's my favourite, you know that." he says with a smile.
"Then why are you so distracted? Are you dreaming about girls?" she pouts and looks upset. She's just messing with him though, Percy has never really shown any interest besides training.
"No mom... I was wondering, have you heard about Typhon before?" Perch asks in the most nonchalant way he could muster. Not that it helps him in not arousing suspicion from his mother.
"I have, he is a monster tamer, or monster breeder to be exact. Always focused on creating the strongest, not just monsters though, anything that moves. He says it's for his mission to create the strongest human. He's a genius, but also a madman. Why?"
Percy pokes his noodles with his chopsticks, he's so proud that he can eat with them, but even that doesn't bring him joy while being questioned by his mother. "Well..." he starts and looks behind him, seeing his phantoms arriving. "I got you a present!"
The phantoms arrive and merge back into Percy, now he has the prideling around his arm and the wallet back in his pocket. He gives the prideling to his mother, the little creature almost jumps persons when she sees Percy's mother, she obviously likes her even more.
"Ahhh Percy, thank you soo much, it's sooo cute." The woman and cathead duo rub there heads together. "What's her name?"
Percy didn't name her yet, so "I thought it's best if you name her, you'll be spending a lot of time together after all."
She puts her hand on her chin and the prideling holds the end of her tail to her chin as to mimic her new owner. "Lotta will be your name." The cat head waves on her tail in joy, obviously liking the sound of that. "Good Lot, you're so cute!"
And then the temperament around the woman changed. "But I know that man, there's more, isn't there?"
"Yes, well," Percy stammers. "I saw a companion that could grow with me over time, and he said he'll bound it to me, to my soul. But that sounded quite drastic and he said you'll vouch for him, he said to meet him tomorrow..."
She smiles again, but the smile didn't reach her eyes. "Oh Percy, that's not a problem, we can go see what he has to say. He's a madman, but not an idiot. He knows what happens if his idea is a bad one."
The rest of the day continued in quite a merry mood, even though there was a slightly tense undertone. The day had a lot of good food, and his mom shopped so much that he ended up using all 9 of his phantoms just to carry the bags.
At night they slept in the Hable house in the capital, but Percy didn't sleep a lot, he was anticipating his new companion.