Chapter 28 – Shenty City
There was a limit to how many pets a tamer could have at one time. It was based on the tamer's cultivation. Based on the stage and rank of the tamer's cultivation, it would determine the amount of space given to the tamer to have pets.
At Stage 1, the space given was based on the rank. For each rank up, one space would be given to the tamer. So, the total of space that a tamer would get at Stage 1 was 10. At stage 2, the space would double by 20 and the tamer would have 30 spaces in total.
These spaces which the tamers called the Pet Space was where they stored the pet cards. They could view the amount of space they had through their default system.
After that, the pet's tier would determine how much space would be used for that pet. For Tier 1 pets, they would use one space. Tier 2 pets would use two spaces, Tier 3 would use three spaces and the higher the tier the more spaces would be needed. The stage of the pets did not affect the amount of space needed. Only the tier matters.
Even so, these rules only applied to the second pet onwards. For the tamer's first pet, it did not matter what Tier it had, it did not use any of the pet space at all. They were special and that was the reason that tamers would choose the best pet they could get as their first pet.
More than that, a special rule was applied to pets that went through an evolution. When a pet evolved, its Tier would increase. Based on the rule of Pet Space, they would need to occupy more spaces.
Lucas once thought of this and asked Sery about it. According to Sery, only the beginning space was important. No matter if the pet's tier increased through evolution or the Tier Breaker, the beginning space they occupied would be the same. If the pet occupied one space before the evolution, it will still use that same space after evolution. So, evolution was seriously one of the best things a pet could get.
Lucas was a Stage 1 Rank 2 tamer. He had two empty spaces in his Pet Space. Fury used none of it because he was Lucas's first pet. So, with the two spaces, Lucas could get two Tier 1 pets. He could get one for offensive and the other for riding. That was his plan and he would use the Tier Breaker item to elevate the pet's tier to Tier 2.
[Will we search for your new pets now?] Sery asked.
"If we want to participate in the events, we need to get them fast. So, we will do it today," said Lucas. The pet nursery was popular now but it was only popular in the shopping district they were in. Even if the Phoenix Clan knew of the nursery's prowess, they would not want to promote the nursery because they wanted to have the nursery for themselves.
So, it was Lucas's responsibility to promote the nursery and his method was to participate in events and competitions to show that his pets were trained by their nursery. Katheryn had done a lot of online promotions but that method of promotions was not that effective for a newbie business like theirs.
Lucas finished cleaning the dishes and left the kitchen. Lucas passed through the dining room and saw Red and Blue slept below the dining table. He went to the living room and saw Hailey was looking intensely at the tv screen. She looked terrified while hugging the small pillow on the sofa.
"What happens?" Lucas looked at the tv. Lucas's eyes were wide opened. He looked shocked. Surprised. Terrified. All the bad experiences he had a few weeks ago surfaced in his mind. Lucas's chest started to move up and down rapidly. His heart was beating wildly too.
"Hah—Hah—Hah--!" Lucas breathed heavily. Sweat started to form on his forehead. His eyes were out of focus. Lucas held his chest and his eyes were watery.
{Shenty City was destroyed by five super-powerful Veteran Stage and Master Stage monsters overnight!} was the title shown by the news. At the side of the news title was two words 'Breaking News'.
Lucas was in shocked when watching the news when suddenly, something happened to his surroundings.
*BZZT!* *BZZT!*
Buzzing sound rang in his ears. Lucas's heart beats faster and he saw his surrounding distorted and breaking. At the same time, he heard people talking.
"He is waking up!"
"Too dangerous! Increase the wavelength!!"
A second later, the buzzing sound and people talking earlier disappeared. Lucas's surrounding turned normal and the news continued as usual.
Lucas still held on his chest in pain from remembering the event happening a few months ago.
[As you can see here, Shenty City is destroyed. Shenty City is no more!] said the reporter who was reporting at the scene on a helicopter.
The cameraman zoomed towards the ground and all that was shown were rubbles from the collapsed building. There were many massive craters on the site possibly the result of the monsters' skills. Not only that, but the cameraman also managed to record many dead bodies around.
There were also many people on the ground. All of them were tamers. Some from the military but most of them were tamers that survived the disaster. The tamers with their pets were searching around for survivors. All of them looked extremely tired and there was no light on their faces.
"I am going higher. There is something more you can show to the viewers," the helicopter's pilot said. The reporter heard that and nodded but she was still talking, reporting, and describing what she saw at the site of the disaster.
The helicopter went higher and then, the pilot shook his head in regret while the reporter and the cameraman were petrified. Not only them, the viewers too. "A sea?" The reporter mumbled. The cameraman's body trembled and the camera he held trembled too making the footage on the tv shook.
"Why is there a sea here?" said the cameraman. From his knowledge, Shenty City was far from the sea. The biggest water body they had was a river. Even that river was not that big. They had a lot of drains though. It was a city and all cities in the world had many drains.
"Not a sea. This is a massive lake. It took over half of Shenty City. One of the monsters had a powerful roar skill that can turn anything weaker than the skill to water," said the pilot. The reporter and the cameraman gasped. The viewers heard the pilot too and they were shocked too.
"I heard this from the other pilot. Also, this water is not normal. It is made from ground, stones, trees, buildings, road, humans, and pets' flesh and blood. It looks like normal water but its origin is more than water," said the pilot lifelessly.
The pilot was shocked too when he heard about that from other pilots that heard the same thing from other pilots. At first, he thought that it was a rumor but then, the rumor was confirmed by their higher-ups. The pilot and helicopter belonged to the military and the military was now guarding 'Shenty City'.
This military did not belong to Shenty City, it was a combined force of the military from many different cities nearby Shenty City. Shenty City's military was wiped out completely by the monsters. Even though they were strong tamers, the monsters were stronger.
According to the news, the city mayor moved fast when a report came about the approaching monsters. He immediately evacuated the citizens and called for help from all the cities around them. There were hundreds of thousands of casualties but most of them were tamers that fought the monsters.
Some of the citizens that were too late to evacuate the city lost their lives but 80% of them survived the disaster. The mayor lost his life too. He was commended for acting fast and called for help immediately. Although many people died, many people survived too. If he was late in evacuating and calling for help, everyone could die.
A few minutes of silence from the reporter, he was jolted awake by the sounds of many other helicopters. It looked like the news reporter from other channels had arrived there too. In the air on top of the massive lake were military helicopters either scouting the place or escort the reporters for their news.
The reporter continued her report. She reported what the pilot had said earlier and added more information she got before they departed with the helicopters to Shenty City's remnant.
According to her, all five of the monsters were of unknown origin. The military had disclosed the information to the media that they did not come from any of the dungeons presented near Shenty City. They went through satellite images but at the time the monsters appeared, something went wrong with the satellite and no images were obtained from the satellite.
Not only that, but their species were unknown too. The military went through the monster catalog and none of them matches any of the monsters known to humanity. Even so, they found out something else. There was no information about the monsters in the catalog but some of the monsters' body parts match up with many other monsters.
The military had concluded that the monsters were possibly a result of a combination of a few monsters. They were still investigating and more would be reported later.
If what the military said about the monsters combining was true, it would also explain their overall power. The five monsters were far stronger than their stages suggested. One attack from them could turn many things into water. A few other attacks from them destroyed the city completely and killed thousands of tamers.
After the reporter completed the report on the scene. The news moved on to another clip. It was the media conference held by the strongest tamer in the world, also the only tamer with four Legend Stage pets, Rufus Ruyel, the emperor of the world, Petrian. Not only that, but he was also one of the members of the S-Rank Clan the Dragon Clan.
Since he was the emperor of the world, he could not take the role of the Grand Patriarch of the Dragon Clan. His responsibility in managing and defending the world was more than enough of a burden on his shoulders, so the elders of the clan did not want him to become the clan's Grand Patriarch.
On the tv screen was a man who looked to be in his early forties. He had black hair, fair skin, and clear black eyes. The man was handsome. Even though he looked to be in his early 40s, he was as handsome as a 20 years old celebrity.
He did not look friendly nor he looked arrogant and proud but he exuded the charisma of someone with power and authority. As the emperor of the world, he needed that aura to lead people. Without that aura, people would stomp on him and try to take his throne.
Lucas still held his chest with his left hand from the shock earlier. He sat by Hailey's side and his right hand hugged Hailey who seemed to be shivering and sobbing from the shock.
If Lucas could remember what happened to Wiuyi City instantly upon watching the news and got extremely shocked, Hailey, who had been embracing what had happened to them all this time, was much more terrified.
Katheryn came upstairs and saw Hailey struggling by herself. Although Lucas held on Hailey, he did not try to calm her down as he was still in shock too. Sery saw what happened and immediately informed Katheryn and that was the reason Katheryn came upstairs.
Katheryn immediately went to the tv and switched it off. She went to Lucas and Hailey and hugged them. Hailey was crying and trembling. Lucas looked listless from the shock. He was not responding to Sery and Katheryn. Katheryn hugged them and patted their back while whispering to their ears some calming words.
While Katheryn was busy calming her two children. The media conference continued. After some introduction speech by Rufus, he went to the main topic. With a domineering and raging aura, he said that although the investigation was ongoing, he knew who might be the cause of all this disaster and warned them to be prepared as he would act soon. He would deal with them personally. He looked extremely angry.
When the viewers heard that, they gasped. Everyone knew that he was the most powerful tamer in the world. His pets were said to be able to destroy an E Grade City which had a population of 1 million people in one attack. When he declared he would personally deal with them, everyone shuddered.
"Tch! Which idiot is it?! Which idiot would dare to destroy a city! Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! You just incur the wrath of that freaking monster!" A man who sat in a dark room was angry. He shivered too as he had a feeling that he was a target too. "I better make a video too admitting I am not the one!" He was scared.
Not only that man, but all the other criminal organizations were scared shitless too. All of them were cursing the one who did that. They had been staying in the shadows for the past few years without doing anything big publicly and here came an idiot showing off perhaps a successful monster combination to the world and incurred the wrath of the emperor.
"This old man will come to me first! Damn it!!!" That man in the darkroom was cursing. He knew he would be the first person to become the victim of this disaster. "I need to run away fast!" He wanted to run away when suddenly something smashed into the room.
"Shit!!!" An early 40s black-haired man came inside the room. It was Rufus. "… How can you be here? Aren't you…?" said the man in the darkroom while pointing at the tv.
"That is pre-recorded," said Rufus and he released his domineering aura but before the aura was released, the man in the darkroom fell on his knees and kowtowed towards Rufus.
"Not me! Not me! Old man, it is not me! You need to trust me. You know that although I am a bad guy, I will not massacre people without any aim like this! We have known each other for a few hundred years. You should know me better than my children," the man in the darkroom begged.
"… Then, who do you think did this? First, Wiuyi City and now Shenty City. Your criminal organization is the nearest here. Who else if not you?!" Rufus bellowed.