Chapter 26: The Covenant Array's Origin
Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
"Use Flame Breath, Ballie!"
"Eekk!"
Hearing Shao Zifeng's instruction, the running Ballie suddenly came to a halt. It opened its mouth and took a deep breath like it was drawing air into its lungs to suck the fire element from its surroundings. The fire element rapidly accumulated to form a dark-red energy ball in its mouth.
At the same time, a mysterious array appeared in front of Ballie. When the energy ball came into contact with the heart of the array, a tiny and soft fire pillar burst out from the center of the array at once.
Boom!
The tiny explosion generated a weak heat wave, but it did not form a turbulent flow in the sealed space. That just showed how low the power of the skill was.
They were in the Faculty of Combat Training's Skill Appraisal Chamber in Sucheng University. When Shao Zifeng was determined to change his course, Director Zhao brought him there. It was unlike Sucheng City's appraisal center, which was busy much like the appraisal centers in all of the country's major cities. Major colleges could conduct appraisals on their own students' pet beasts and send the data to the Appraisal Bureau for registration. The combat trainer certificate would then be delivered in two working days.
Wang Hao did not have his appraisal done on campus simply because he had gone there for too many appraisals when he was choosing his pet beast. So, the teacher-in-charge was starting to ignore him.
"What a shame! This Armadillo Lizard of yours has only mastered two skills. Don't get me started with its defense skill. The power level of its Flame Breath is much lower than that of its peer in the same order. It has achieved the Second Order in terms of strength, but whether it can evolve into a Fire Lizard or not is still up for debate." Director Zhao held the appraisal report that he had received from the university staff and shook his head, feeling a little disappointed. This person… lizard had been a favorite of Director Luo.
He did not know from where Shao Zifeng got this baby Armadillo Lizard. It was simply incomparable to its peers. It was two-thirds smaller, and its skills, as well as power level, were at least 10% lower than that of other normal baby Armadillo Lizards. He could say that this was a lousy pet beast.
The South African Armadillo Lizard had the appearance of a western dragon, and its known evolved forms—the Fire Lizard and Firedragon Lizard—were powerful fire-type pet beasts. Hence, it was very sought after among combat trainers. The only thing was, this species was rare, and it only existed in South Africa. It was for the same reason that South Africa had classified Armadillo Lizards as a protected mutant species. As a result, the lizard became a rare pet beast from the country, with which only a few people could apply to have a covenant.
Director Zhao did not know Ballie's origin, even Shao Zifeng did not. Although there were few Armadillo Lizards in the other space and time, he clearly remembered that he had bought an Armadillo Lizard for his personal connection. However, in this space and time, he could not remember a thing about Ballie's origin.
As if Ballie had sensed Director Zhao's contempt, it became unhappy with him and started to grit its teeth, glaring at him. If Fengfeng had not told it to keep its head low, it would have burned the man's hair.
Compared with Fengfeng, Eggie sounded much better to the ear, so Ballie decided to call Shao Zifeng, Eggie instead of Fengfeng.
Ballie was indeed a naming genius.
It was no longer mad now. Instead, it started to smile.
Sensing Ballie's anger earlier, Shao Zifeng kept pacifying it. He was not sure if it was because Ballie had begun to mature, but it seemed to care more and more about saving face.
As eager as Shao Zifeng was to become a combat trainer, he did not want to draw too much attention to himself. With the exception of Ballie's defensive ability and Flame Breath, he had chosen to conceal its Flame Manipulation ability, which required a pet beast to have an extreme affinity for the fire element. It was also able to strengthen or weaken the power of the fire-type skill as it wished.
Ballie had actually used this skill to weaken its Flame Breath to trick the appraisal personnel.
He also did not mention that Ballie was not evolving like ordinary Armadillo Lizards. It was the only one that had an atavistic evolution process; it was extremely rare even in the entire of Daxia, where there were only a few pet beasts with atavistic evolution on record. Then again, even if he were to tell them, no one was going to believe him.
"Shao Zifeng, you may follow Liu to complete the covenant procedure. I have something on and need to make a move."
Seeing Director Zhao leave, Shao Zifeng breathed a sigh of relief. Director Zhao might have been smiling the whole time, Shao Zifeng's gut feeling told him that Director Zhao's attitude toward him had subtly changed... and that was exactly what he wanted—he did not want to draw attention to himself.
Last time, when the MAD had brought him away to help with the investigation, Director Zhao had been on the scene. They had released him later on, and it had been puzzling Shao Zifeng. But when Director Zhao came to him to help him register as a combat trainer today, he started to have a vague idea of what it was all about.
He and Director Zhao were not related in any way, and he had never even heard about Director Zhao before this. There was no reason for Director Zhao to give him special treatment. Besides, the MAD would not have released him just like that considering his background.
Under such circumstances, Shao Zifeng could only think of one possibility: Director Zhao was working for someone, and he could already guess who it was.
"No matter what, I am indebted to someone now." Shao Zifeng sighed. He could only return the favor when he became stronger.
...
"Shao Zifeng, you are to stand on that platform, then apply a drop of your blood on the pet beast's forehead and vice versa. After that, feel the position of the covenant space and open it up. Do you have any more questions?" A female staff member in her thirties pointed at the platform in the middle of the room with a gentle smile.
Shao Zifeng returned a smile and walked up to the top of the platform from the revolving staircase on the side. The platform was over two meters tall, and it had been painted with strange patterns of connecting lines that converged at the center.
That was the covenant array. A vast number of memories appeared in Shao Zifeng's mind the moment he saw the array.
Over twenty years ago, during the Unknown Revival Event, the animals in the world had undergone various odd changes and gained unknown powers.
There had been incidents of people being wounded by animals, and Daxia had apparently seen it coming. So, it had been well-prepared and had quickly suppressed most of the aggressive animals using unknown means. The remote areas and some cities, as well as towns, had been devastated, but it had little impact on the country as a whole.
...
Shao Zifeng shook the chaotic memories out of his mind. He then took out a knife, which had been handed to him by a staff member, gave his thumb a light cut, and pressed his thumb against Ballie's forehead.
Ballie, who had been told beforehand what it should do, was very crude and simple. It made a cut on its right paw with its left claw, then flicked a drop of warm blood that contained the fire element onto Shao Zifeng's forehead.
The array seemed to activate at once as it glowed with light. An unexplainable feeling lingered in his heart, linking their hearts together in a bond.
Shao Zifeng and Ballie closed their eyes in unison.
-- Gift
received