Chapter 8 – Pet Foods
"Is it okay to let Fury by himself?" Lucas was worried. He now knew why Katheryn was worried too. Now that he knew how many times Fury almost died, perhaps it would be better training for Fury if he was there too.
[For stats training, it will be better to let him by himself. However, for skill training, it will be better if you train with Fury. The reason is simply that in a battle, a tamer will need to order the pet to use the skill. Training with them will help with coordination between tamer and pet] Sery explained.
"So, you mean to let Fury max out all of his stats and then, we will train together?" Lucas asked. Sery confirmed it with yes. "Then, do I need to fight the monsters by myself?" Lucas was worried about himself now.
[You only have one pet now. There is nothing I can do to help. This is also the reason I told you to train outside the dungeon first] said Sery.
Lucas scratched his head and said, ��Well, I will manage somehow."
There was a reason why humans needed a pet to fight the monsters. As monsters or pets have tiers, humans were in a tier too. However, humans were in Tier 1. They were as strong as Tier 1 monsters. They could fight Tier 1 monsters of the same rank by themselves, but when a higher Tier monster appeared, their pets were their only choice.
There were two modes of battle when using pets. The first was Order. In Order, the tamer would give order to their pets and they would engage in battle with their opponent. Other than that, in Order mode battle, the tamer could use support skills to power up their pets.
Order battle was usually done in competitions or tournaments. They were used while battling in the wild too but most of the time Tamer would use the second type of battle in the wild.
The second type was called Synchro. In Synchro, the tamer would enter the body of the pet and give the order while inside their body. This mode was used most of the time in the wild because of the dangers present in the dungeon.
While in this mode, the tamer's stat would be added to the pet and the pet would become stronger. Due to the pet rarely having maxed stats, this mode was used widely when in the wild. The safety of the tamer and pet would increase with the increase in stats.
"Let's get inside now. Sery, please tell me when it is time for dinner," said Lucas. Lucas walked towards the circle beside the huge monitor and entered the Stage 1 Normal Dungeon.
When he arrived inside the dungeon, he was met with the vast green field. Other than the soft breeze of wind, a few trees, and a small stream of water, there was nothing around.
"I don't see any monsters around," said Lucas.
[I teleport you to an area far from danger. Train your body first and then, we will explore this area later] said Sery. [For now, you should train your body, and then, you can try fighting monsters] Sery gave his advice.
[Here you go] A tent suddenly appeared beside Lucas. [I created this tent for you. This is a normal tent] said Sery. [As for food, you can search them by yourself. The trees you can see from here are all fruit trees]
"Aren't they pet food?" Lucas asked.
[Who said that humans cannot eat pet food? Most of them are inedible to humans but fruits, vegetables, and meats can be eaten by humans. The fruits and vegetables you can find in this dungeon is the same magic plant humans planted. They get the seeds from dungeons] said Sery.
"Ooo…" Lucas had no idea. He always thought that the magic plant was something that formed after the appearance of dungeons. It looked like they were pet foods.
"That's right! Now that I am here, I can collect pet food to sell too!" He was too focused on training that he forgot about the services the Nursery had offered. They needed to sell pet food and this might be his chance of collecting some of them.
"I don't have anything I can use to store the food."
[If you want to use the food you collected as pet food to be sold in the Nursery, the system will announce a notification and when you agree, the pet food will be automatically transported to the storeroom] said Sery.
"Whoa~ That is convenient," thought Lucas and then, he realized another problem. "… Sery, send me back home. I forgot about something," said Lucas.
[???] Sery was confused. Lucas had just arrived in the dungeon and he suddenly wanted to go back. [Is he scared?] thought Sery. Since Lucas was his Master, he followed the order and sent Lucas back.
Once Lucas was back, he immediately ran upstairs to his room and searched something in the bookshelf. "This is it!" exclaimed Lucas and he learned a new skill. He thought that he did not need it because he was too focused on battle skills until he realized he needed to search for pet food.
Name: Appraisal Eyes
Element: Normal
Grade: S
Rank: 1
Mastery: 0%
Effects: Can appraise anything. Limit: Only works on a target of similar or around the same power as the user.
"I don't have much knowledge about pet foods and monsters. This skill is vital for my strength," said Lucas. Sery did not say anything.
Sery had thought that the appraisal was one of the most important skills for Lucas. Even so, Lucas was so focused on fighting skills that he neglected it. Sery did not want to remind Lucas about it because Lucas needed to figure it out by himself. It was his choice and his power.
After Lucas learned the skill, he went back to the dungeon. Once he got back, he got a notification that Fury had maxed out his health stats. "That's fast!" Lucas was shocked. He immediately put another order and let Fury train his energy stats next.
Lucas looked around and there were three trees nearby. Lucas chose the biggest tree out of the three trees and headed there. Once he got there, he saw that the trees had a lot of round green fruit. Lucas used his appraisal eyes to appraise the fruit.
Name: Green Orange
Element: Normal (3%), Plant (10%), Wind (15%)
Quality: Medium
"I thought this is a normal element dungeon? Why is there food for wind element pets?" Lucas asked. From the appraisal data he saw, the green orange was suitable for wind element pets because the wind element was the most present in the food.
[There is a normal element present in the green orange fruit too. So, this is a pet food for normal element pets too] said Sery.
"… It made sense," said Lucas. "The quality is good for us to sell," said Lucas.
[It is good to sell but we can do better than that. There are many high-quality pet foods you can find in this dungeon. When you become strong, you can find a better one] said Sery.
Pet foods had quality. There were no ranks or stages for pet food. They only had quality. There were eight pet food qualities known to humans. The lowest was of bad quality. No shop would sell bad quality pet foods. Pets and monsters dislike bad quality pet food too.
After bad, there were low, medium, good, peak, perfect, super, and hyper. The most common pet food quality that was sold in the shop was medium quality. There would be good quality pet food too but they were expensive and uncommon.
For peak and perfect quality pet foods, they were usually sold to the shop VIPs. As for super and hyper quality pet food, they were usually found in the dungeon and not sold anywhere. Even if they were sold, it usually happened in an auction.
Pet food had many effects on pets and monsters. Most of them were used to curb hunger. They were usually used as normal food. Even so, they could sometimes raise the talent and stats of the pets and monsters. The chances were low but it could happen and the occurrence was not rare.
For those to happen, the pets or monsters needed to eat high-quality pet food. The percentage present when the pet food was appraised was the percentage of success the pet or monster could get when eating the pet food.
Using the green orange as an example, the wind element's percentage in the fruit was the highest and thus, it was most suitable eaten by wind element pets and monsters. Even so, as long as there were percentages for another element, it would be suitable for pets of another element too.
Lucas set up his tent below the green orange tree. After that, he climbed the tree and plucked the green orange. He kept some to eat and the others were sent to the storeroom. After that, he went to the other two trees and it looked like they were green orange too.
One of the trees had good quality green orange. Comparing the stats of the medium quality green orange with the good quality green orange, Lucas was shocked. The percentage of elements in the good quality green orange was twice the medium quality one.
"Whoa~ The stats are no joke. That is why they are expensive. I wonder what stats will the peak, perfect, super and hyper quality green orange will be?" Lucas was amazed. He decided to pluck all of them and sent them to the pet nursery's storeroom.
"Sery, will the system fix the price for pet foods too?" Lucas asked. He remembered Sery said that all the prices were fixed and they cannot change it.
[Yes. You don't need to worry about the price. They are the same as in the market. The pet nursery system gains energy from money. The system will not lower the price because the system needs the money to operate] said Sery.
[You can say that the pet foods are the most expensive thing in our nursery if we are comparing them with the effect of the other services we offer] said Sery.
[So, my advice to Master. If you want to gain easy money, collect many high-quality pet foods] said Sery. [The item in the system shop is expensive and you will need a lot of money to buy them]
"Ok. Still, to get high-quality pet foods, I will need to become stronger first. The high-quality pet food can only be found in the dangerous area," said Lucas. He knew that the rarity of high-quality pet foods was due to them located in a dangerous area. Not many tamers could get their hands on them.
"You said that the nursery dungeon will reset after one day. So, the fruits will grow back, right?" Lucas asked. Sery confirmed it. Lucas did not need to worry about not having enough pet foods to sell.
After that, Lucas got back to his tent and decided to make a schedule for his training. He made a simple schedule where in the morning from 0500 to 0900, he would train his physical stats. He would train his attack, defense, and speed stats.
He would rest from 0900 to 1000. From 1000 to 2000, he would explore the dungeon. Fighting the monsters and collecting pet foods. He would rest from 2000 to 2100. From 2100 to 2700, he would stay inside his tent and train his mental stats. After that, he went to sleep and continued with the same schedule the next day.
(His schedule is based on the time inside the dungeon)
Since he was still a weak tamer without any concrete protection, his schedule from 1000 to 2000 would be limited to collecting pet foods. As for fighting the monsters, he would need to raise his stats first or wait until Fury finished the stat training.
Lucas asked Sery to remind him of his schedule. He had no watch he could use. So, he could only rely on Sery. "Can't you make me a special watch to keep track of the time in the real world as well as the time inside the dungeon?" Lucas asked.
[I can but you need to pay me. I will need that money for energy to create the watch] said Sery.
"… Well, make sure you tell me when the time is up. When I have money, I will pay you to make the watch," said Lucas.
[Okay] Sery replied. Lucas asked the time in the dungeon and it was 0800. He had an hour to train his body and decide to go for a run.