22 Impassioned Market

Ivan was a teenager from a wealthy family. However, he was currently filled with regret. At the time of The Awakening, he didn't think much of it. How much could his life change if wild animals mutated? He didn't pay much attention until recently, when monster training surged in popularity. After seeing how important monster training was, he spent a large sum of money to obtain an impressive looking monster, a Steel Plated Scorpion, and managed to contract it. Now the problem he was facing and the same reason he was so regretful was that he was too late in starting his monster training compared to some of his peers.

With his family's money, he purchased a massive amount of spirit jade with the excellent idea of shoving it all into his monster. How could he know that monsters required time to absorb spirit jade? It had been a few days and his scorpion was still at a measly level three while his friends all had higher level monsters. How was he going to show off when they all had superior contracted monsters?

He went online to look for solutions, having lost track of how many times he had done so. He didn't expect to find anything, all the so called solutions he had previously tried did nothing. This time however, he found a place selling a potion that was advertised as speeding up spirit jade absorption for contracted monsters. "Experience boosting potion," Ivan thought. "Seems like a scam."

He saw the price and was shocked. "500 grams of spirit jade for one potion?" Ivan was about to close it when he decided to buy a few to try. If there was something he didn't lack, it was money, and who knows, maybe the potion would do something. He paid for it, and a few hours later a drone arrived at his doorstep and delivered a package.

Ivan opened up the package and saw three vials filled with a green liquid. He picked one up and carefully examined it, not finding anything special. "Oh well, let's just try it."

He uncorked a vial and poured it in one of the potions into his scorpion's mouth. It seemed to enjoy it, but nothing changed. "The description did say it only increases absorption speed." Ivan stuffed the Steel Plated Scorpion full of spirit jade as he had done many times before, stopping when the effects were almost completely reduced. After waiting half an hour, he did so again. To his surprise, the feedback in his mind indicated the experience gain was back to the normal amount!

"No way! It actually worked!" Ivan quickly went back to the site where the potions were sold and bought as many as he could. He only managed to buy twelve more before it said they were sold out. Ivan cursed out loud. "Didn't it just say it had two thousand in stock? Who bought all my potions?"

At the same time, people scattered all over the country were scrambling to buy the newly discovered experience booster potion. With them being sold out, the prices quickly rose as people competed for them. Many people who wanted to have the strongest monsters and those who saw the importance of having them understood how vital it was to have these potions. With them, one's leveling speed could greatly outpace that of others.

In a government laboratory, scientists were analyzing the components of this new potion.

"How is it? Have you found anything?"

"Sorry, general. The materials in this seem to have been broken down to elementary particles and restructured. The role of mana in this potion is also unclear," replied a scientist in a white coat. "Our highest precision devices have also been malfunctioning recently. The reason is unknown, all the diagnostics have returned that everything was fine."

"What about the source of these potions?"

"We have no trace of the person producing them. They were distributed anonymously, and the only contact has been with their contracted monster, identified as a level 1 "Puppet Sprout.""

Meanwhile, in a backyard, the people responsible for the potion buying craze were oblivious to what was happening. Aura was in the process of having Puppet absorb the heart of the world tree, and Lydian and Ariel were by his side to observe and make sure they were not disturbed.

Aura took out the container holding the heart of the world tree and unsealed it. A breath of refreshing air was released, making everyone experience the same feeling of comfort they had in the hollow of the tree in the spacial realm.

He took out the shining green crystal and held it in front of Puppet, who looked at it as if it was the most beautiful thing in the world.

"Are you ready?" asked Aura. His monster nodded. Aura pressed the crystal into Puppet, where it sank into its body and dissolved into particles of light. Puppet's body released a dazzling light. The light faded and revealed Puppet, who looked more spirited. Looking closer, Aura could see a diamond shaped gem on its forehead.

[Leafy Marionette absorbed treasure - Heart of the World Tree]

[Leafy Marionette gains 1.5x increased exp permanently]