Chapter 12 Choose Your War Beast! (Part Two)
"That one with two giant heads looks good.
Wait! This one seems better..."
Rocky had trouble making up his mind. Each of the war beasts he saw intrigued him but he could only choose one.
All of a sudden, a faint cry came from a stable on the corner. Rocky was drawn to it. He hadn't looked at this one yet!
He walked to the source of the sound and saw a small beast curled up in the corner of the stable. He could not see clear what that it looked like under the dim light. It seemed to be ill, because it kept trembling like a leaf. Rocky felt pity for it and could not help but reach his hand out to touch it. "All right, now!" Rocky stroked the little beast to comfort it.
It seemed that it worked! The little beast stopped trembling soon and began struggling to stand up. Its slender limbs held it up and then it hobbled out of the corner and stood in front of Rocky.
As it got closer, Rocky finally saw clear its features. What came into his sight first were its large round eyes, innocent and adorable. Its long head looked like the dragon which Shirley rode on last time.
"Is this a dragon?" Rocky had stars in his eyes when he noticed that, but soon disappointment visited him as the little beast's body showed up. Its skin was as wrinkled as a new-born bird, but it didn't have wings.
"Oh, it's not!" Rocky remembered that Shirley's dragon had wings and two fore limbs, but this little beast only had four legs. Obviously, it was not a dragon.
The little beast walked closer to the steel bars and licked Rocky's hand
"Oh! That's ticklish! Ha-ha!" Rocky laughed as he looked at the little war beast, which was the cutest one he had seen.
"Time's up!" A loud voice rang out suddenly.
"Sorry little guy! I need to go now," Rocky said, standing up to leave. He then turned around and began to walk away. But he stopped when he heard a faint groan. He turned back to look at the beast and was greeted with its innocent eyes.
Rocky smiled and glanced at the number that hung on the steel bars, and then walked to Priest Dean as well.
"Now! Tell the beast raiser the number and you will get the war beast you choose. Then you shall perform a blood bond. Once the beast swallows down a drop of your blood, you will become its master," Priest Dean said and then nodded at the beast raiser.
The beast raiser walked to the young man who stood in the first.
"Number fourteen," said the young man.
"Number fourteen, a two-star war beast, named Hellish Hound," the beast raiser announced. Then one of his subordinates went to the number-fourteen stable and opened the door. He led out a wolfhound-like war beast, which had two long teeth like tusks sticking out of its mouth. It looked quite fearsome.
"A two-star war beast! No bad!" Priest Dean nodded.
The other young men looked at the Hellish Hound, envy sparkling in their eyes.
"Two-star?" Rocky nudged a young man standing beside him and asked out of curiosity, "Hey! What does “two-star’ mean?"
The young man shot Rocky a disdainful look, his lips curling in annoyance. He replied curtly, "You don't even know that!? How can you be a royal spirit manipulator then? '“Two-star* indicates their potential, how strong they can become later on. The best war beast is a nine-star one. A nine-star war beast is a legendary being, as strong as a great master at the Immortal Stage. The higher the star rating is, the stronger a war beast will be. Take this two-star war beast for example, it will stop growing stronger as it reaches grade two, which is its limit. For a three-star war beast, grade three will be its limit. But a two-star war beast is good enough for us now.
However, a spiritual beast has the capacity for variation. A spiritual beast can break through its limit. It can still reach nine stars if through this process,” the young man answered. "Yet this kind of spiritual beast is few and far between. Very few people have the opportunity to see one through their entire life," he added.
Rocky then thought to himself, "Wow! A spiritual beast can upgrade its level! The variation he mentioned could perhaps be something like gene mutation. But what triggers the variation? Why can the spiritual beast upgrade through the variation? Is there something special about their genes? I should do some research on that. Maybe I can even make a brand new species of spiritual beast! Those people who look down on me would definitely be stunned! Ha-ha! None of them would dare to call me crap anymore!
I specialized in the animal gene study, something which nobody could surpass me in!"
"A spiritual beast is so uncommon. Only the best spirit manipulators are qualified to own that. The strongest spiritual beast in the Holy Dragon Empire is the Blaze Furious Lion, ranking number two on the Spiritual Beast List. That is a seven-star one.”
"What's number one?"
"It's General Bryant's Big Dipper Dragon, a rare spiritual dragon. Although it is also a seven-star one, it is much stronger than the Blaze Furious Lion," the young man answered.
"Spiritual dragon? Why are the other kinds of spiritual creature called beasts? But dragons are referred to as such?" Rocky asked, rather perplexed
"The Dragon Master Clan is a superior spiritual race, and dragons are the rarest spiritual creatures in the Wild Spirit Land. What's more, dragons are always stronger than other spiritual creatures at the same level. The dragon spiritual power is what ensures the top position of the Holy Dragon Empire in the Wild Spirit Land, as the power enables us to control dragons. The dragon is the symbol of our Holy Dragon Empire, so we distinguish it from other spiritual creatures. And the pride and honor only belongs to the royal spirit manipulators. That's us!" the young man said proudly, his chest puffing up.