Cyro-City´s Beast Pagoda
Cyro-City´s Beast Pagoda
It felt as if hours passed and time seemed to have stopped when Jason finally arrived at his destination, only 25 minutes later.
The beast pagoda was much grander than the one he had been previously to, and the Pagoda itself had seven floors, while two were reserved for hatching.
As for the other five floors, beasts belonging to different ranks inhabited them.
While Jason was fascinated by the mana fluctuations he could feel and see all around, he walked slowly towards the large gate that flew open right after he stepped in front of it.
There was an attendant waiting for him with an extremely happy expression seeing Jason, which surprised him slightly.
What Jason didn't know was that this young attendant was responsible only for the first floor and it had been a long time since there had been someone making an appointment for the first layer.
The innate talent for soul-awakenings for most youths in Cyro-city was, at least, a soul energy of 11+ units which was enough to bind an awakened beast.
Furthermore, even if one's soul energy was less, one would rather practice the Heaven's Hell technique for a few months in order to reach the threshold to venture directly to the Beast Pagoda´s second floor. Or form a soulbond with a potential beast caught by beast merchants as their service was faster and more reliable than the Beast Pagoda´s.
Jason walked through the opened gate and the attendant ran up to him.
"Hello, Sir. I presume you are Mr. Stella, right?"
The attendant greeted and asked hopefully.
Jason answered with a nod as the attendant's eyes lit up.
"Follow me please, Mr.Stella."
The Beast Pagoda was large and they walked for more than 10 minutes until they reached the first floor consisting of wild-ranked beasts.
During these 10 minutes, the attendant asked various questions that were important for him to suggest a suitable soulbond, and Jason answered them as well as he could.
One of the questions, for example, was what type of beast Jason wanted to form a soulbond with and what rank the beast should be at.
This question was what Jason was unsure about.
Right now, he had chosen a certain criteria his soulbond should fit in, but he wasn't sure what kind of species Cyro-City´s Beast Pagoda had and if Jason would be able to form a contract with it.
Right now, he wanted to test the purity theory much more than anything else.
To test the theory with the Holy white bacuri fruit as safely as possible, Jason wanted to form a contract with a beast that possessed a high endurance.
Unfortunately, Jason´s innate soul energy only allowed him to bind a beast below the four-star wild rank which hindered his plan to a certain degree.
But forming a contract with a one-star wild beast was also not safe as Jason wasn't sure if such a weak beast would be able to endure the powerful energy of the Holy white bacuri fruit, which would most likely cleanse his new soulbond's body.
Even for humans, eating this fruit was dangerous, because it would forcibly wash out a certain amount of impurities and how could Jason know if a one-star wild beast could survive that?
He was also unsure if a three-star wild beast could survive that, as Jason was unaware of how potent the holy white bacuri fruit´s cleansing effect was.
As such, he had to pick a beast with high endurance and certain grit in order to get through the cleansing.
In the end, the range of beasts he could choose from became less with each criterion in his mind.
He decided to restrict his selection to three-star wild beasts with his required survivability and endurance.
After he told his expectations, the attendant wasn't sure what to think of Jason, as the criteria named were somewhat familiar, causing him to be overly careful with his next words.
"I don't want to suspect any ill-intention from you, but purchasing a beast in the beast pagoda is solely intended for soulbonds and not to experiment with them."
Jason wanted to experiment with this beast but he didn't want to harm or kill it as the most important fact was that he wanted to form a soulbond with this beast.
Killing or crippling it would decrease his combat prowess in the end, even if his soul wouldn't be damaged in the process as the worst-case scenario.
"You don't have to worry about that. I can form a soulbond contract with the beast I choose in front of your eyes if that lessens your worries."
Upon hearing his client's words, the attendant sighed in relief.
He hadn't been employed at the Beast Pagoda for a long time, but he had already seen many crazy people on the first floor trying to purchase wild beasts with ill intentions.
Hearing Jason saying that he would bind the beast in front of him, caused his slowly accumulating worries to vanish into thin air as nobody would hurt one's own soul by killing or crippling their particular soulbond.
Well, that was, at least, what the attendant thought.
If he had even the faintest idea that Jason wanted to test feeding the soulbond a magical fruit that would forcibly cleanse its impurities, he would have directly kicked Jason out of the Beast Pagoda and blacklisted him forever.
Several people had tried something like that and the results had been devastating, which Jason clearly didn't know.
But, these tests had neither been seriously done nor safely carried out.
The magical fruits purchased for such experiments were much more potent than the one Jason owned and only God knew how the scientists tested this theory with the beasts.
In Jason´s opinion, most failures resulted from experiments that would probably feed the cleansing ingredient in the beast's growth phase, or maybe the beasts were too weak to withstand the potent magical fruits.
Jason had done a lot of research about the holy bacuri fruit and it was not only the worst magical cleansing fruit but his, in particular, was the weakest of the weak that Jason found to be in his favor.
With a good soulbond, it should definitely be possible for a beast with high endurance and survivability to get through the cleansing process without receiving any injuries, while Jason would keep a watch and help in every possible way.
When he reached the wild beast floor, Jason immediately activated his mana eyes [abyssal effect] to scan through all kinds of beast potentials and mana purity, but he was disappointed.
If there were some hidden treasures, Jason would rather pick such beasts instead of experimenting with his second soulbond but not a single beast had a color radiating from it, which left Jason a little dejected.
Now, Jason was almost forced to experiment with his second soulbond but after thinking for a moment, he felt that he was still doing fine.
If the worst situation arose, Jason would just feed his soulbond with some small parts of the fruit instead of the whole fruit which would decrease its magical effect by a large margin.
Nevertheless, this would be better than killing his soulbond, wouldn't it?
There was also the possibility that the cleansing effect was rejected by beasts, which Jason wasn't sure if it was possible.
Even so, it was definitely worth a try with a small piece of the fruit as an appetizer to test the theory.
As long as he fed small portions, a high endurable beast shouldn't die.
Some time passed and Jason was slowly walking through the corridors, looking at each type of beast, that left him disappointed.
There was not a single beast that met his requirements, and more than two hours passed without him finding a decent beast.
The Attendant became slightly nervous because it was rare for wild beasts to fit in the criteria Jason had in mind.
Even after searching through the beast catalog, he couldn't find a suitable beast, when Jason suddenly asked,
"Why is there no beast inside this enclosure?"
Jason was about to continue his search when he saw an empty enclosure with a holographic picture of the beast that attracted his attention.
Upon seeing the holographic picture, the attendants' eyes brightened up and his mood soared even higher than Jason´s when he quickly looked at the information about the particular beast.
"Apparently the beast is giving birth, right now."
The attendant reported and Jason´s eyes lit up.
Previously he had wanted to form a soulbond with an adult three-star wild beast and tame it if necessary. But raising a newborn would be even better as he could easily tame it, while the soul connection between them would be much stronger leaving him no worries about disobedience.
Jason was in such a good mood that he ran up to the attendant, asking,
"Once the offsprings are born, can I immediately form a contract with one?"
The attendant, surprised by Jason´s sudden eagerness, didn't know what to say. One had to normally wait a few days before one was allowed to contract a beast.
If the beast he wanted to form a contract thought of Jason as his mother, it would be much easier to foster an extremely deep connection with each other which was what everyone wanted.
Thinking for a moment, the attendant remembered that there was no law forbidding a beast to be sold directly after it was born.
It was only seen as a little immoral.
As such, the attendant called his superior to ask for permission.
Upon seeing the attendant's expression and hearing the superior shout at him, Jason felt a little apologetic.
The superior didn't care about the life of wild-ranked beasts and shouted in anger, having to answer such an idiotic question.
Even if Jason felt sorry for the attendant, he was still happy to have his request approved.
Maybe, he would be able to change his plan with a newborn beast as his second soulbond, as he could feed it the cleansing holy white baruci fruit.
If he divided it into marginal parts in addition to the innate characteristics from his future soulbond it should be possible.
But for now, it could wait, as there was something more important.
Now, it was time for Jason to pick his new partner!
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