Chapter 24: Master is irritated?!
Next day.
Without any tiredness or muscle soreness, Leon woke up… and found no one beside him! Leon always woke up before Louise, took the bathroom first, and then greeted his partner with his usual morning smile.
It was highly effective with his fresh aura and smell — Louise never complained!
But because of the last day events, which severely exhausted his mana and body, Leon inferred his body needed more sleep to properly regenerate. He didn't mind since Leon didn't feel any pain after overworking.
Impressed by his body and Louise's will to stick to the schedule, Leon made an exception for today, deciding to spend his day differently. He already planned some changes because of his two new additions.
"Morning routine first!" Leon reminded himself before opening his system to try development paths he hadn't had time to test yet.
After a refreshing shower, Leon sat by the desk and opened his system as though he were opening a laptop. He then headed to his inventory, clicked on two newly acquired cards, and started reading their development paths.
Fortune wanted Leon to have a female and male crocodile on his team. With these two, Leon naturally could force them to go through breeding development. It wouldn't be just card cloning, however.
"Oh god…" Leon sighed at the requirements to make these two bred.
It wasn't like Leon needed to prepare a dwelling for these two crocodiles, but he'd have to provide them with sufficient resources, allowing the crocodiles to keep the egg warm and filled with enough mana. Feeding the mother and father was also needed if he wanted them to look over the eggs.
The Book of Monsters provided Leon with sufficient information about the best items for this race, so nothing stopped Leon from developing his blue crocodile army.
But would it be really worth it?
[Blue Crocodiles lay around fifty eggs.]
[You have a 99% chance of those eggs being of the common grade and 1% of the unique grade.]
To say nothing of their grade, the eggs incubated for at least twenty weeks, which was too long. Leon was already level twenty, and Louise would soon level up as fast as him. At his current level and skills and the items at hand, Leon could deal with blue crocodiles without any problem.
Of course, he'd need the armored boat, too.
The point didn't really change, though.
"System recommends me to find a room outside the inventory for these two… So with better environment and resources, I'd be able to increase chances of their evolution…." Leon decided to drop the breeding for now.
It consumed too much time...
Moreover, deep inside his heart, Leon was also aware of his talent and potential. He wasn't a person who should dally and play with low-grade monsters whose existences at most threatened low-level villagers.
Leon was someone who ought to hunt higher-grade monsters and make them breed at least epic-grade monsters for his use! But with his flaws, Leon didn't think that far and just thought of the breeding as a waste of time and resources. He preferred to follow a different path closely related to his blacksmithing subclass.
"I'll pick up more blueprints and catch more monsters for fusion." Leon saw that this path was available, but between the same gender, so he'd be able to try it in the future with different species.
Fusing monsters seemed like a thing he ought to focus on next! For that, he needed more monsters, and his impending adventure with Louise should provide him enough fun and cards.
After checking his stuff and putting it into his backpack to hide his inventory feature, Leon pondered inwardly about a pet monster while going to the smithy. 'I should find a monster whose appearance won't draw too much attention and evolve him through the card system but with enough pampering. I should ask hunters of this village for some information.'
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Returning home from the market street, Leon was in such an unusual mood that he nearly missed his partner waiting for him at the inn's feet.
"Master is in a bad mood?" Louise asked upon seeing her master.
Leon was interested in how she'd found out about it. "How can you tell?"
"Master stuffs his hands in his pockets and moves his eyes around as though looking for enemies!" Louise replied with her newest finding about Leon, which was as accurate as it could get.
He fixed his eyes on Louise, calming his itchy feelings, and nodded. "It's just that I was in an argument with some people. I used a card they despised, ending up with me just saying goodbye to them."
"What has happened?" Louise blinked and curiously looked at Leon, her eyes shining bright. It was her time to encourage him, use a soft voice, and pat his head.
Therefore, Leon voiced out his story.
After spending time in the smithy, he went to the market street to sell some of the blue crocodile's meat to the villagers and get a hefty income. Believing he'd be able to fund one more blueprint from the system shop, Leon was in a good mood, which plummeted after exchanging a few words with the villagers.
"They wanted me to donate the meat to them," Leon said in a dead voice.
Louise barely stifled her laughter, covering her lips just in time. He was so cute!
"I told them I am not stupid enough to do that. The argument started — they told me it was because of their donations that I could get my hands on the blue crocodiles and level up. I sent a counter, conveyed to them in the nicest words that I am not a charity and their fishermen would be jobless if it weren't for me, and slightly raised the price for the meat. Women, yes, I remember only women's voices, started screaming at me, calling me ungrateful. They gave me home, apparently." Leon continued in an emotionless voice.
Louise's anger ignited when she heard how they treated her master! Ignoring her fears of the outer world and its male population, Louise wanted to go to the market street and have a talk with those guys!
It was just too unfair, wasn't it?
Leon extended his hand and stopped her. "The card I used already hurt them deeply."
"What did Master say?" Louise carefully asked, slightly frightened at the possible words of her master.
Leon curtly replied. "I told them Silver Wing Royal Family doesn't care about them and just sucks their taxes for their own gain."
"Ah…" Louise's anger dimmed — the villagers had been severely hurt!
Picking up a letter from his inventory, Leon passed it to Louise, then looked behind, "It's because of this letter that I used the royalty's name."
Louise looked at the letter's stamp and noticed an image of the wing!
She had seen the same picture on a flag in the mayor's house. "Someone invited Master for a talk?"
"Yeah, wanna come with me? It's tomorrow," Leon replied.
Louise naturally didn't want to miss that exchange. If something happened, she'd be able to assist her master, too!
On their way back to their room, Leon let his irritation take over him. "That's why you don't blindly help foreign people. Once their problem gets fixed, they reveal their true colors and interests. Mind your own business, and you'll be fine, Louise."
Louise felt like she'd heard those words, at least something similar, so she nodded a few times and did her best to recall more of that memory.
Perhaps, Louise had some of her memories sealed in her! She desperately hoped so.