Jamie received his new Battlepet Trainee ID from the receptionist, and turned around, waking towards the exit. As he was heading for the door, John got up from the seat, and walked towards Jamie, joining him as he exited the building.
"So, I'm planning to meet with some friends at Munchers Paradise at 5:30pm. Do you want to go?"
"Uhhhh...I want to browse the Battlenet and check out the Astral Tracing skill that was mentioned."
"C'mon man. We haven't met in ages."
Jamie shook his head. "Why not some other time?"
"I'm busy for the rest of this week. Are you free next week?"
Jamie hesitated, then shook his head. "Probably not."
"So, it can only be today."
"Fine. I'll see you there at Munchers Paradise."
.,......
Once he got home he started the washing machine, then went to his room. He lay on his queen sized bed lying forwards, with his head propped up on a pillow. Eve lay besides him on his right, looking at the laptop, her head laying on the bed between her paws. As Jamie was browsing the screen he muttered "Interesting."
"What's interesting?"
"The abilities granted by increasing Astral Body purity. Stage 4 purity grants one the ability to send pulses of soul energy around the surroundings, allowing them to get a vague sense of what is going on around them in a certain radius. The energy consumption varies depending on the distance and strength of the pulse, and with enough training and soul energy one can maintain a constant sensing field around them, although there are ways to negate this field. "
"Stage 5 Astral Body purity and Astral Body size allows one to put things safely inside one's Astral body, whether it be inanimate objects, or living objects bonded to the soul. It's constantly warned that it's very easy for the soul to be destroyed from within, so to be careful what is stored, and increasing Astral Body size and Astral Body purity will increase the size of the space."
"Stage 6 purity and above, it becomes gradually easier for one to make finer distinctions in what one can sense with the soul energy, along with being able to utilize soul energy in more flexible ways, such as using it to exert pressure on a single or group of beings."
Eve huffed. "Great. But what about finding a beast to bond with that could help fix your little problem?"
Jamie searched it up, and ended up bringing up a list titled 'Most Desired Bonded Beasts.' Jamie then checked the perks that these beasts brought to their bond contract anchor based on the percentage, along with their growth potential and skills. He found two that matched what he was after, a Three Talon Raven, and a Green Eye Peacock. Jamie opened up another browser, and searched to see if any Battlepet stores sold any younglings of the two. The results made him wince. Some stores did....but not in this city, and he couldn't afford it. It cost 100 thousand mystic credits or higher for them, and their was a waiting list.
The average person earned about 60 thousand mystic credits per year working full time, and Jamie was only a trainee working part time at Warpet's Delux, who only had 13,897 thousand mystic credits in his account. If he continued his hours he would earn 40 thousand in a year. Great for a part time trainee, but it would take over 2 years to earn that money, THEN he would need to travel to a different city and put his job on hold while staying there for a brief period of time to interact with the beast.
Jamie closed his eyes and sighed, rubbing his temple with his left hand. Eve lifted her head and looked at Jamie, asking "what's wrong?"
"The good youngling beasts costs too much."
Eve licked Jamie's face. Jamie forced a smile and rubbed Eve's neck for a minute, before turning to the laptop. Eve asked him "Can you borrow some money?"
"I can't contact Michael while he is in a portal, and Mum's a tightarse. So no, unless I borrow some from the bank, which I'm not sure will get approved. I might have to consider buying a budget beast that has a high chance of boosting soul size upon it's breakthrough. How long will it take you to reach the next stage, and would you be willing to halt strengthening your body?"
"...six months. However, since I evolved, I have started to passively gather energy, regardless of what I am doing."
Jamie froze, in shock and in....fear. "wait wait wait...Since when can creatures absorb energy without trying? That's not possible."
Eve turned to look at Jamie. "And yet I do. Even without gathering energy actively, I will reach the next stage in about 2 years."
Jamie remained frozen for a moment, while his hands started to shake. He eventually took a deep breath and closed his eyes, trying to calm down. Five minutes later, when his hands stopped shaking, he opened his eyes, then clenched his left fist briefly.
"I need you to stop absorbing energy actively. Also, will you be able to passively absorb energy at the next stage?"
"Okay. I have no idea, but I will probably passively absorb energy at the next stage."
Jamie's eyes closed briefly, and he thought."So, I need to find a way to make money urgently. And, it needs to be a permanent method. Even if I borrow money once, I can't do it again and again"
Jamie tapped the surface of the laptop, thinking. His mind came up blank, failing to think of a way to find a easy method to make a consistent, high amount of money. Sighing, he checked the Battlenet. Typing in a quick search, he clicked on his first entry, that made his eyes widen. It turns out that selling exclusive beasts and items that could help creatures grow stronger, or simply providing new, verifiable information on stuff like ways that could strengthen any creatures, of new skills, and new creatures could allow him to get either mystic credits or Andnor Government Points (AGP). AGP could be used to trade for stuff that the government made available that had been sold to them. There were also some companies that followed the same practice, offering to buy and sell certain items that could be used to strengthen oneself. Jamie perked up at this, thinking to himself "This seems viable. Especially since I am going to enter the portal some time next week possibly."
Jamie started looking up locations where growth items were more prone to form around this city, and the results made him disappointed. He found growth items were more likely to form at more element energy concentrated areas, and that the areas were usually monitored and constantly swept through. He was unlikely to find anything. One of the articles he read at the end led him to search for bounty hunting tasks. What he saw when he searched had him frowning in contemplation.
As a result of the portal opening up at Hastrood Gardens, the current government forces in the area had been stretched, needing to divert attention to the portal. Some of the remote towns in the area had started to have problems as a result. Jamie looked at two cull requests from two remote towns that had been having some problems with the local beasts attacking livestock and people. Each of the creatures involved were stages two and three, which were within his range, and it offered 100 mystic credits per head. It was certainly something he could do. Jamie smiled. "Eve, how would you like to go fight some beasts for real this time?"
Eve perked up. "Where?"
Jamie considered the two options, before saying "Bulagd. Some foxes have started hunting beef cattle more aggressively, when they noticed the higher staged Martial Warriors withdrew from the town. It's a eight hour drive from here."
Eve's tongue started lolling, her tails wagging "Sounds like fun.. Lets go."
No. I promised to meet John later on today, and also, I want all three of us to practice the trick that was mentioned when getting the ID. Being able to keep track of each other via the the bond contract will be useful given what we are about to do. And, I need to buy some equipment first."