Emperor of Soul Pets

Chapter 6: First Soul Pact

Soul Crystals were rare organs found in soul monsters. These crystals contained the purest, condensed form of a soul monster's powers and abilities. Soul trainers fed these crystals to their beasts to increase the chances of them learning a new skill, talent, or affinity.

Many soul trainers sought out these soul crystals to strengthen and improve their monsters. Unfortunately, soul crystals had their limitations. First, soul crystals were exceedingly rare, and there was no way to know if a soul monster had one before killing them. Secondly, soul crystals could only be used once per phase. Because of this limitation, most trainers used soul crystals to stimulate their soul monsters' level to the next phase. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, soul crystals needed to be used on the same attribute monsters to have the most effect.

It was possible to add a new attribute to a soul monster with a soul crystal, but only if either it was either a pure elemental attribute crystal or a crystal whose main attribute aligned with the soul monster.

In this case, the crystal in Loudy's hands was bright yellow and shaped like a horn, which indicated it was a primarily beast type crystal with some hidden attribute. The problem was that neither Loudy nor Rao Wu had the knowledge required to decipher any invisible attributes accurately.

Rao Wu's eyes glowed as he looked at the crystal. Grinning, he slapped Loudy's back and then said, "Loudy, this is perfect for you! You're still in the second phase, right? Why don't you try it out and see what you'll get?" The chances of mutating into a different species through crystals were much higher in the lower phases than it was in the upper phases. Loudy was thus the best choice to eat the soul crystal.

"Guoo~" Loudy hesitated. Soul crystals were immeasurably rare. He felt Rao Wu should give it to one of the Dusklight Wolf cubs.

"Nope. You earned this! It's yours." Rao Wu firmly shut down Loudy's protest and then ordered him to stuff it in his mouth.

"Guoo~" Loudy let out an appreciative gibber and then laid down to focus on absorbing the soul crystal.

Rao Wu nodded as he observed the Steelback Ape. Crystal strengthening could take hours, so he did not bother waiting. Instead, after asking some Dusklight Wolves to watch over his friend, the little man picked up the cleanly cut carcass, and then made his way to the caves. Rao Wu greeted many Dusklight wolves as he descended the cave system until he reached the blackout zone.

Unperturbed, Rao Wu walked blindly through this zone with practiced steps until he eventually popped out at the underground Eternal Spring Lake. As usual, he found Uncle Twilight staring at the lake with melancholic eyes. Rao Wu felt a stab of pain in his heart when he saw the many tufts of gray hair that embellished the once night-black fur.

"Gruu~" Twilight's ears twitched, and he turned to see Rao Wu walk in with the carcass. The old Star Dusklight's eyes lit up, and he trotted over with a toothy grin. "Gruu~."

"Yeah! It's the Berserk Wild Warthog!" Rao Wu grinned and boasted as Twilight inspected the carcass. "I caught it with Loudy's help."

"Rraff!" Twilight approvingly nodded and then dipped his head to sniff the carcass. Seconds later, he looked at Rao Wu with puzzled eyes. "Gruwuu?"

"Uh... about that." Rao Wu hesitantly scratched the back of his head and weakly chuckled. "I kinda gave the soul crystal to Loudy. I wouldn't have gotten the warthog without his help so..." Rao Wu bent his head and apologized, "I'm sorry!"

Thonk!

Twilight used its paw to strike Rao Wu's chest softly. It then grinned and barked approvingly when the child raised his head. "Rraoo!" No matter what, loyalty and friendship were of the utmost importance. A sacrifice today could become a life-saving grace tomorrow. Rather than be angry, Twilight was glad that Rao Wu had learned this lesson.