Chapter 36 - Breakfast
12th Winter, Month 3, the Year 3400
It was 0600 in the morning. It was still dark outside and only a few people were walking around the street in the shopping district. Some of them were headed to work, some of them were headed home from work. Some were headed for the dungeon and some were coming back from the dungeon.
Some of the shops around Pasken Pet Nursery were going to open soon. Especially the butcher shop, the vegetable shop, the fruit shop, and the grocery store. These kinds of shops would usually open early in the day because housewives and househusbands would buy their grocer at that time.
Some of the shops in the shopping district had some decorations in front of their shop. Since it was the last month of Winter as well as the last month of the year, a lot of events would be happening. Most of the shops all around the world would hold some kind of event and Gyling City included too.
The events varied from eating contests to pet battling contests. There were many kinds of events happening during this month every year. The events happening would usually be related to the shop. If it was a clothes shop, it would usually be a fashion event. If it was a restaurant, it would usually be an eating contest.
Over at the Pasken Pet Nursery, the first floor was dark from outside but it could be seen from outside that the second floor was bright. Over at Lucas's room, he was not on his bed, and from the neat-looking bed, it could be concluded that he was not sleeping on that bed that night. He was not in the room and the bathroom either.
At Katheryn's room, Katheryn was not in the room too but Hailey was sleeping soundly on her bed. She was covered with a thick blanket as the weather was cold. At the edge of the room were two Furballs sleeping soundly. They were Red and Blue. Since the care service was packed, they could not stay there.
"Kling! Klang!" Over at the kitchen, the sound of metal was heard. A beautiful woman was holding a wok with rice inside the wok. With a spatula, she mixed the rice properly with the cooked ingredients inside the wok professionally. She was making fried rice.
The beautiful woman was Katheryn. She was preparing for breakfast. She was not alone in the kitchen though, there was someone else there… or better term, something else there.
A humanoid creature covered with brown fur with an iron plate on its back was by her side standing on a chair while looking inside the wok. That creature was Foody. Katheryn added some salt on the fried rice when suddenly, "Kii Kii Kii," Foody said something, and his palm was opened wide giving a sign of stopping at Katheryn.
"I know," Katheryn replied while smiling. Since Lucas obtained Foody, she had been forging a bond with Foody. It was all because of food. Sery had said before that Foody and Katheryn would work well together and he was right. When Lucas introduced them, they got along well immediately.
They're like friends right now. When Foody started getting to know Katheryn, he was getting fascinated with cooked food more and more. After 20 days of spending time with the Pasken Family, he was starting to neglect the uncooked food. He was in love with cooked food.
Foody would still eat fresh fruits and vegetables but he would never eat any rare meat or anything related to them. His appetite had changed thanks to the taste of cooked food. Foody had truly turned to a real foodie.
Foody's appetite and his taste was not the only one that was changing. His stats and ability in fighting had changed a lot too. Thanks to his S grade potential, Foody went through training smoothly. He did not take a long time to max out his stats and he also did not take a long time to improve and learn new skills. All in all, his training was a massive success.
Since he was getting along well with Katheryn and his training was doing well, Lucas let him spend time with Katheryn whenever Katheryn was preparing breakfast and dinner. Other than these two dining times, Foody would be with Lucas, training.
After 20 days of intense training, Foody was the first to reach the Newborn Stage bottleneck. He was now at Newborn Stage Rank 10. If he ranked up once more, he would advance to the next stage which was the Child Stage.
S grade potential was remarkable. Foody spent the same amount of time training with Fury and Glaide but he was now the strongest among the three. Foody was now officially Lucas's strongest pet uncontested. He was also the strongest monster in the Normal Nursery Dungeon. No matter what rank the monsters in the dungeon had, none of them could defeat Foody.
Foody's stats were all maxed out and the same went for his skills too. There was nothing he could improve and thus, Lucas let him stay with Katheryn. If Foody were to advance his stage, he would not be able to enter the dungeon and pet playground anymore. Thus, Lucas did not let him advance.
All he was left to do was stay by Katheryn's side and help her while Lucas was busy with Fury and Glaide's training. He was indeed helpful and his intelligence worked well when he learned some work to do in the nursery with Katheryn's teaching. He was not helping with the customer service but more grunt work.
"Foody, try to taste this," Katheryn picked up a small plate and scooped up a bit of the fried rice onto a plate. He gave the small plate with that bit of fried rice at Foody.
Foody took the plate and sniffed the fried rice. Once the scent of the fried rice entered his nose, his eyes lit up. "Kii! Kii!," Foody was excited. Katheryn had understood what Foody was saying based on his action. Foody seemed to like the smell of the fried rice.
Foody took up a spoon, scooped the fried rice, and ate it. Foody chewed the fried rice slowly and he nodded once in a while. A few seconds later, he opened his eyes and nodded vigorously. "Is it good?" Katheryn asked while smiling and Foody gave her a thumbs up.
There was a reason why Katheryn asked for Foody's opinion. She could taste it herself but Foody gained the Perfect Taste and Perfect Smell skill while training in the dungeon. With the two skills, it was easy for him to know if the food was good or not.
Lucas did not train Foody for that skill, he got it by accident. With his S grade potential, his love for food, and the nursery dungeon's enhancement, he got the two skills by chance. It was a surprise to both Lucas and Foody. They never thought they would get it.
Foody gave his approval and thus, there was nothing else needed to make the fried rice tasted better. Katheryn turned off the stove and put the fried rice into a big bowl. After that, she fried some chicken eggs and made some salad.
She put the food on the dining table and went to wake up Hailey, Red, and Blue. "Sery, tell Lucas that it is breakfast time now," Katheryn asked Sery. [Roger!] Sery replied and informed Lucas about breakfast.
Since Lucas got Foody and Glaide, the nursery dungeon had become his second home. He was training himself as well as training his pets hard to participate in the Winter events. Other than coming out for breakfast and in the afternoon to shift with Katheryn, he had been staying in the nursery dungeon all the time.
Once Lucas got the message from Sery, he brought Fury and Glaide out of the dungeon. Lucas looked different now. He was not the skinny guy anymore. He was not the skinny guy with firm meat anymore. He was now muscular but not that kind of body-building muscular with big muscles all around their body.
He was thin but not skinny. His body had more mass now compared to before. Before he became a tamer, he was skinny to the point that his bones could be seen. After he learned the Universe Body Cultivation Technique, he had more meat and those bones were not apparent anymore.
Now, if he wore clothes, he looks like common thin teenagers but if they were to see his body, his muscles were sculpted beautifully. It might have been around 20 days in real time but he had been training for more than 200 days inside the dungeon. In Petrian, it was equivalent to four months.
His transformations were not a surprise to his family but to outsiders, it would be shocking. Lucas was not the weak-looking boy anymore. He looked much more manly now.
The trio walked upstairs towards the dining room. Thanks to the system leveling up for the past 20 days, Sery had expanded the space in the nursery and the house. It was now more spacious and Glaide could walk around the house easily.
Other than that, Sery had made an area specifically for their pets to eat. He had created a special dining room for their pets. Hailey was still scared of them. She did not mind much about Fury anymore but she was super scared with Glaide. Glaide was the biggest pet they had at the moment and that frightened her a lot. So, the pet dining room was more than necessary.
Foody joined his other pet comrade at the pet dining room while Lucas, Hailey, and Katheryn had their family breakfast together.
While they were having breakfast, Katheryn asked, "When will you start participating in the events? I heard from Sery that he issued a mission related to the Winter events." Katheryn scooped up some salad from the salad bowl to her plate.
"We are going to start participating today," said Lucas while he continued eating the fried rice. Lucas glanced at Hailey and asked, "Do you want to go with me? It will be nice to have someone cheer me up while I participate with the events," Lucas thought that it might be good to bring Hailey out this time.
"…" Hailey was silent for a bit before she replied, "There will be a lot of tamers around and there will be a lot of pets too…" Hailey said that while her head was down. Lucas looked worried. He cannot let Hailey keep being like this.