Versatile: Alternate World

I wandered around the Bazaar to take a look at the stalls. It's not that bad, but most stalls lack variety and they have common goods. Nevertheless, they seemed popular to the crowd. Enjoying the bazaar like this is not that much different from exploring Night Markets in the real world. The only difference is that the bazaars only occur in villages and small cities. You won't see the bazaar in big places like the Capital itself as that place is the center of business and doing a Night Market Bazaar will anger most business owners there since it is also a crowded place where most players will gather, it's not a good area for the business of the NPCs especially stalls for Bazaars.

I have already checked most stalls and their displays but I ended up disappointed. This place is either a hit or a miss. There are some things that are particularly eye-catching for players but for a veteran player like me who already has experienced this before, it's pretty much a lackluster bunch of items that I would never get interested in again.

I was about to walk away when I noticed a tent different from the bazaar stalls. And from the looks of it, no one has noticed this tent being held up yet as it seems to have just finished its setups just now.

I grew curious due to the symbol above their tent that is hanging above, like some kind of store sign. Upon closer look, it is slowly revealed to me that it was a violet-colored magic circle and a chain that looks the same as those taming chains used to tame monsters. The moment I saw the symbol, I immediately knew it was the pet shop. I didn't expect to see a stall of a pet shop to install a tent in Mining Town. Seeing one is a surprise but clearly, a big opportunity for me as I can start taming monsters to aid myself.

I have a little bit of money here that I can spend. Without anything that I wanted to buy at this current bazaar, and the only one that seems promising is this pet shop tent, I went inside to inquire about whatever they are currently selling and see whether my assumption is correct or not.

The moment I entered, the smell of different monsters wafted in the air. It's not the smell that is disgusting but a smell that distinguishes that beasts are being kept inside the stall.

On the shelves are different kinds of tools for taking care of pets like brushes, scissors for trimming the fur of monsters with excessive amounts of fur, and many more which clearly gives out that this is a stall that has complete tools for taking care of various monsters tamed by players and that is a good thing, making me impressed.

While looking at the shelves and all the tools displayed, a teenager and a bulky built man with a black beard and mustache similar to those of pirates appeared in the direction of the cries of the monsters. The teenager is carrying a box full of tools for taming while the bulky built man is currently giving commands to the young man when they noticed me looking at their displays.

"Oh? A customer! I thought no one would gain interest in our wares! Welcome, welcome!" the bulky guy immediately went to the counter to entertain me. The teenager guy nodded, put down the crate he was carrying, and stood on the side, waiting for orders from the bulky guy.

"I see that this seems like it sells items that are related to pets and taming. Are these things for sale?"

"Of course! We are currently selling Pet Supplies, Pet food, Chain Of Taming, and of course, monsters that are ready to receive a master!" he proudly said as he pulled out the golden chain of taming. I have always seen it before but I never used it since I haven't tamed any monsters back then because I am afraid they would just die due to those f*ckers that keep on killing me. I would be too devastated if they died due to my powerlessness.

"How does this work? Do you tie it up to a monster or it is like an artifact that will break once used and then the magic will do its work?"

"Oh? Are you perhaps a complete beginner to Pets and taming? Then, I can explain things to you including how to properly use the chain of taming."

He handed me the chain of taming and allowed me to properly examine the chain. At first glance, it looks like a normal chain but it's not clearly made of metal. It's soft to the touch and it resembles more of a jelly. It's still similar to a chain but only in the looks.

"You already noticed the difference? The reason you can feel it soft to the touch is due to it being made from solid mana. This will invoke the spell to tame monsters using it without hurting the monster in the process. But I would say that this was a useless way to do so as you still needed to hurt the monster you want to tame just to properly tame it without failing."

"There are two things to do to gain pets. One is to tame an existing monster. Monsters that are available to be tamed are those Beast Types and Insect Types. Humanoid Types like undead and goblins are not falling in the category of tameable."

"To tame a monster, you need that item that you are holding to do that which is called [Chain of Taming] though I knew you already have an idea what it was. Of course, you can purchase that item from any shop specializing in pets like ours. However, it's a pretty dangerous process, and to tame a monster 100%, you need to lower its health to 5% for higher chances of success. It would have been fine if that was the case. However, a monster can only be attempted to be tamed 3 times. If those three times allocated to you are all failed attempts, the monster you are trying to tame would just reject the fourth immediately

"The second thing to do is buy an egg or find an egg in the wild. Of course, if you buy it here, it would be a mystery pet unlike if you found an egg in a nest of a monster where you can be really certain what will hatch from it. The eggs you can purchase here would be like a Gacha game for you. You gamble on getting a good pet out of all the eggs sold here.  It would take a few days before it will hatch once a player like you can get an egg. Out of the two options, egg raising is more tedious since you still have to take care of the baby monster after birth, however, it would be easier and safer to do. Taming a monster takes time to gain recognition while pet monsters hatched from eggs can immediately establish loyalty immediately. And that is all there is. The Pet supplies are like their equipment and of course, pet food which is already very obvious," the bulky guy explained.

"Hmmm, I get the gist of it, however, how many pets does an individual can keep?" I asked.

"Ah, normally, you adventurers can only have a maximum of 7 pets but since you are my very first visit to this stall, then I will tell you a secret. You can increase the maximum 7 slots for pets indefinitely."

Hearing this, my ears perked up. This method is not available in my past timeline and this is new info that I didn't know.

"A secret?"

"Yes, actually, pet selling is a slow business. Most of us vendors only rely on the [Chain of Taming] to be sold since most of the players tend to just catch their own pets than buy them. And that business would also go to a halt once most customers managed to own 7 pets. Therefore, this method was born. For us tamers, taming is life, and we also want to get lots of pets to increase our manpower. But that limit made us have a hard time dealing with it. Therefore this was invented by the Master of Tamers."

He pulled out a chain similar to the [Chain of Taming] and place it on the counter. However, unlike the former which has a golden luster of color, this chain is colored silver. I checked it out to know its uses.

[Pet Slot Relinquish Chain]

Type: Consumable

Info: An item used to increase a pet slot limit. Once used, 2 empty pet slots would immediately be unlocked. Can be used until the individual's pet slot reached 100 slots. Consumed immediately once used.

Note: This thing is pretty expensive. So if you want it, you need to work your *ss off.

Price: 1,000,000 gold

100 Slots? That's pretty overwhelming to have that even though I don't think I needed that many slots! I don't even think I would tame that many monsters all at once! Not only that, but this thing is so f*cking expensive! 1,000,000 gold is just a lot of money!

"...This is pretty expensive," I frowned.

"Of course it's expensive! Just like the [Bag Expansion Coupons], this item also increases the limit. And to limit people who can have 100 slots, it was made like this!" the bulky guy said.

I agree with that though. If this item is cheap, then in no time, the 100-limit pet slot is already widespread to all. Though I still don't get why you would need that many slots.

"I know you can't afford the [Pet Slot Relinquish Chain], but I am sure you can afford to buy a [Chain of Taming]! We sell it for 10 silver," he said.

I pondered a bit on the situation. I am aware of the danger posed by taming. And in taming, your very chances are too low and those three chances are pretty hard to save up. This isn't pokemon that as long as you have enough pokeballs in your arsenal, you can use them all to catch a monster. Therefore, I wanted an easy method. I am not in a hurry to earn a pet but having an early one would be good, especially with my weak self.

"Do you have the Gacha thing you said earlier?" I asked.

The bulky man was surprised but he immediately composed himself.

"We have and one chance cost 100 silver. Do you want to try it?" he asked.

Well, nothing will go wrong. It's not like there are weak pets, just weak masters.

"Then let me have a single try then."

The bulky man was immediately moved to tears. Looks like this is their very first transaction ever.

"Thank you very much! Guy! Bring the eggs here!"

The teenager he called Guy nodded and returned to where they came from. After a while, he returned carrying a table with wheels carrying a tray full of eggs. Each of them is similar to a chicken egg but slightly bigger. Honestly, I am not a person who is very lucky. But I will be happy despite the bad luck I will get in choosing an egg. I paid the transaction and proceeded on choosing an egg.

"Anyway boss, what monster will hatch on these eggs? " I asked.

"I don't really know. Actually, the supplier of eggs never told us what eggs are delivered but commonly, they would be normal beasts like Rabbits, Cats, or Dogs depending on the beast."

I nodded. Honestly, I was surprised in the past timeline to know cats, rabbits and dogs can hatch in an egg. But then I remembered that this place does not follow the commonsense so I decided to drop it. Now I looked into the eggs. It would be good to hatch a bird type or any kind of flying type monster for me to use to scout in the skies easily but a cat or a dog is fine too. But then, I noticed the very center egg shook. I thought I was just imagining things but the egg in the center was indeed shaking a bit. However, the owner seems not to notice this so I decided to choose the center since it is making a move. In that case, that would be very easy to hatch an egg that would hatch anytime now.

"I will choose this," I pointed into the center egg.

"Alright then!" the bulky guy said and Guy quickly did his job.

After that, the egg was brought to me and this time, it was contained in a portable incubator. Below it has the days that it needs to hatch. There are 15 days on it displayed so that means it would hatch once the displayed counter would become zero. I also bought three packets of pet food for 3 silver. I left the place and stored the egg in my inventory. I would be waiting for 15 days this time. And of course, I was excited. This would be really good if I managed to hatch something good for 100 silver and although I am unsure what will appear out of it, I am excited about the outcome.