Chapter 20: The Lucky Guy!

While glaring with a face full of envy, jealousy, and hate at the incredibly lucky fellow before him, Isaiah Thomas remained fearless in his ignorance. He seemed completely unaware of how enviable his situation was and continued to look innocently at Luo Pei and Old Strom, who had both frozen in shock.

After a long silence, Luo Pei and Old Strom finally “dared” to reach a conclusion based on their reasoning. However, at that moment, Luo Yan suddenly saw a small black shadow flicker slightly in the bushes by the stream behind Isaiah Thomas.

[That thing looks like…]

Luo Yan subconsciously bit his nail. Suddenly, his eyes lit up, and his whole body shook. A look of wild joy appeared on his face. Without thinking twice, Luo Yan immediately sprinted forward with all his might, his sudden movement accidentally giving Luo Pei a small fright.

His “majestic” father was instantly enraged and roared, “Luo Yan, what are you doing? If you keep being naughty, I’ll spank you!”

As it turned out, the obedient son gave his father no face at all. He wiggled his backside and vanished in a flash, leaving the “majestic” father so angry he nearly jumped from his feet…

…

…

…

The bushes by the stream were very thick, with weeds nearly half a person’s height. A small child like Luo Yan was completely buried in them. However, he had already locked onto his target, so he wasn’t worried about not finding it.

After struggling to reach the bushes, Luo Yan spotted a small thing curled up inside at a glance—it had a thin, small body and looked ugly, like a small puppy. Although it was still September, the temperature on the mountain had already dropped. As a breeze blew past, the little thing shivered slightly.

Despite it being such an ugly little thing, Luo Yan looked at it as if he had found a rare treasure. He froze on the spot, his face gradually turning red, and even his breathing became rapid.

Isaiah Thomas was nothing; I am the damn luckiest one!!

Pushing aside the dense grass, Luo Yan looked at the shivering little thing lying inside and danced with joy, nearly wiggling his backside in a celebratory dance.

Having lived for nearly one hundred and fifty years across his past and present lives, and as a rare Level 7 Undead Alchemist, Luo Yan had seen countless natural treasures. There were not many things that could still make him excited, let alone this excited.

Without hesitation, he scooped the ugly little thing out of the bushes. In his excitement, Luo Yan gave it a loud, heavy kiss on its face. Then, feeling satisfied, he held it in his arms and waddled back out of the bushes. The little thing didn’t seem to dislike Luo Yan’s slightly rough movements; instead, it snuggled closer into the warmth of the big fellow’s arms and lay there comfortably.

After struggling out of the bushes, Luo Yan held the ugly little thing high in the air from a distance. Like presenting a treasure, he shouted excitedly to Luo Pei, “Dad, look what I found!!”

Found what?

Hearing this, Luo Pei turned his head and squinted to look closely—by the way, Luo Pei’s vision was 2.5—wasn’t it just an ugly little puppy?

Curling his lip with indifference, Luo Pei rubbed his temples helplessly, completely defeated by Luo Yan’s childishness… But then again, this made sense. Luo Yan was only five years old; it was only natural for him to be childish.

With a self-deprecating smile, Luo Pei finally adjusted his mindset. But suddenly, his body shook as if he had remembered something, and his eyes widened in panic.

“Damn it!! Luo Yan, could that be… a Pinecone Bear cub!!” he shouted in panic. At this moment, Luo Pei felt his heart accelerate tenfold. This wasn’t excitement, but terror.

[Magic Beasts have strong territorial instincts. Aside from a Pinecone Bear cub, what other animal would be here? The boy must be holding a Pinecone Bear cub!]

After the initial panic, Luo Pei became furious. He strode toward Luo Yan and shouted, “Luo Yan, put that thing down right now!!”

This wasn’t just panic caused by care. No matter how panicked Luo Pei was, he knew that a tiny thing like this could not possibly hurt Luo Yan. His reaction was entirely due to another, more important reason.

Anyone who hunted often knew that two types of fierce beasts were the most dangerous. The first were those that had eaten humans; such beasts already knew the deliciousness of human meat and the fragility of most humans. They would actively attack humans because such creatures seemed very easy to deal with.

The other type were those that had witnessed humans killing their kin. Such beasts would have a deep hatred for humans planted in their consciousness. Once they possessed enough strength, the damage they caused was far more severe than the former. It was said that the “Carol City Beast Tide” fifty-three years ago was caused by a Level 7 Magic Beast with a similar background, and tens of thousands of people died then.

Because of this, Luo Pei’s reaction was so intense. Unfortunately, his good son had no intention of cooperating. Seeing Luo Pei’s large hand “descending from the sky,” Luo Yan simply twisted away from his father’s palm. Then, without stopping, he ran around holding the little bean, screaming as he ran, refusing to give the little Pinecone Bear to Luo Pei.

“No, no~~ I want to raise Jenny~~”

“You brat, you can’t raise it! It saw us kill its mother, it will be very dangerous in the future! And why Jenny? How do you know it’s a female?”

“I don’t care, I don’t care, I want to raise it~~ I’ll take it for walks every day, and I’ll be good and give it baths and food. Dad, please don’t take Betty away, okay?”

“Damn it, wasn’t it Jenny just now? Why did it become Betty!”

“But I think Dale is cuter~~ It has a moe feeling~~”

“What does a tiny thing like you know about ‘moe’? And if you’re talking about moe, you should call it Loli!!”

“Anyway, I just don’t want you to take Emma…”

“How did it become Emma again~~”

“…”

“…”

“…”

Watching the father-son argument develop in an increasingly weird direction, and seeing that Luo Pei seemed unable to catch his son no matter how much he chased, someone finally couldn’t stand it and stepped forward.

With a light cough, Old Strom grabbed Luo Pei as he ran past, then called Luo Yan over to observe the creature closely. Finally, he said softly, “Hmm~~ Respected Director, I see this Pinecone Bear has not opened its eyes yet. It should have been born recently and didn’t see what happened earlier. Since Luo Yan likes it, let him raise it. There shouldn’t be any problem.”

With Old Strom providing a way out, Luo Pei finally and reluctantly permitted his son’s selfishness. However, he still threatened that he would settle the score with Luo Yan later for both offenses, not noticing that Luo Yan was now smiling so hard his face was cramping.

The Elemental Spring is nothing, the Moonlight Battle Aura is nothing; I am the luckiest one!!

This wasn’t a case of Luo Yan being sour because he couldn’t have the grapes. In fact, the “constitution conversion” effect of the Elemental Spring was indeed a miraculous creation, but that was only for ordinary people. For a natural Professional like Luo Yan, drinking it would only increase his constitution by one level. Even without it, he was still a Professional—with the help of his memories from before his rebirth, Luo Yan didn’t believe his potential was much worse than someone with a Moonlight Battle Aura talent.

[But a Magic Pet that suited me and had enough chemistry… for any Professional, that isn’t a simple matter of one plus one equals two!]

—Whether in the combat or magic system, a good Magic Pet could increase a Professional’s strength by more than five times. This was already a widely accepted conclusion on the continent!

For a Wizard like Luo Yan, what he needed most was a close-combat tank-type Magic Pet like a Pinecone Bear!!

As everyone knew, Wizards always had weaknesses in close-combat defense. Therefore, when Wizards chose Magic Pets, they always leaned toward tanky, close-combat Magic Beasts with high health and thick skin. Unfortunately, good tanks were hard to find. It was as difficult as climbing to heaven to tame a high-level Magic Beast, while low-level Magic Beasts were useless as tanks. For most Wizards, owning an adult tank Magic Pet was an unreachable dream, let alone a juvenile one.

But the Pinecone Bear, a freakish beast that was only Level 2 yet had close-combat abilities comparable to a Level 4 Magic Beast, was undoubtedly the most suitable tank Magic Pet for a Wizard!

…

The most precious thing about the Pinecone Bear was that its level was only 2, while its combat ability could rival a Level 4 Magic Beast—on the Amelia Continent, Levels 1 to 3 were considered low-tier, 4 to 6 were mid-tier, and 7 to 9 were high-tier. People on the continent knew that leveling up wasn’t too hard and could be achieved through hard practice, but there was a hurdle between each tier. Moving from Level 3 to 4 was called “Crossing the Heavenly Gate,” and moving from Level 6 to 7 caused ninety percent of the most brilliant geniuses to fail!

…

Now it’s understandable, right? The value of the Pinecone Bear lay in its low level and high strength. In other words, it was a “tier-leaping Magic Beast.” At Level 2, it could suppress any low-tier Professional in close combat. If it were lucky enough to reach Level 4, it meant its owner had acquired a mid-tier Magic Beast—and according to the patterns summarized over thousands of years, the lower the level of a Magic Beast, the easier it was to level up, evolve, or even mutate. There was no need to explain this principle.

As a Level 2 Pinecone Bear, its potential in this regard was probably second only to a Level 1 Slime Bubble. If fed properly, reaching Level 4 was a sure thing, and even becoming a high-tier Magic Beast was not just a dream.

A high-tier close-combat tank Magic Pet raised from a young age…

It was no exaggeration to say that if news of this unopened-eyed little Pinecone Bear in Luo Yan’s arms got out, even Level 9 experts of the magic system might take notice. In terms of gold coins, the price would be astronomical—enough to feed all of Talim Village for hundreds of years!

Of course, Luo Yan wasn’t so stupid as to trade this little Pinecone Bear for gold. For a reborn person like him, the least valuable thing in the world was probably gold coins. Something that could be obtained as long as one wanted it—how could that be compared to a Pinecone Bear cub? Luo Yan understood the key point very clearly and would never be so foolish as to throw away a watermelon for a sesame seed.

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On the way down the mountain, Luo Yan was so excited he felt like he was going to cramp. He hugged the little Pinecone Bear tightly and didn’t want to let go for even a second. What suited him was the best. Compared to the “lucky” Isaiah Thomas, who was envied by everyone, Luo Yan unhesitatingly felt that he was the real “lucky guy”!!