Chapter 30: Ares' Treasure

If it were any other day, Charles would have jumped three feet high in excitement at the sight of these three treasure chests. However, after witnessing a mountain of treasures, these three chests seemed underwhelming, leaving him slightly disgruntled.

Reluctantly turning back, he suddenly realized that the gleaming treasures had vanished!

"What's going on, was I hallucinating?"

When Charles looked again, he nearly fell off the pedestal in fright, turning pale. Below the pedestal was a dense mass of man-faced spiders, their grotesque human faces churning his stomach. Just one glance revealed their levels—Lv29, Lv32... If he accidentally fell in, he'd be devoured so thoroughly that not even remnants would remain.

The treasure he had seen before was just an illusion created by something akin to 'holographic projection' technology. If he had been greedy for the treasure, he would likely have stepped into thin air and fed the man-faced spiders.

"I was just thinking, with so many treasures, not even Genosha's national treasury could match this. Good thing I was smart enough not to fall for it!" Charles felt a wave of relief wash over him.

The gold was gone, but there were still three treasure chests. Thinking this, Charles felt much more content.

He tossed a small stone onto one of the chests to ensure there were no traps before rubbing his hands together in anticipation and opening the first chest.

[Ding! Obtained miracle drug [white quality] x20!]

[Ding! Obtained alchemy formula for miracle drug [white quality] x2!]

[Ding! Obtained beast core (Tier 1) x20!]

As the system notifications continuously chimed in his mind, Charles examined the treasures he had acquired. The miracle drugs and alchemy formulas were of white quality, which was better than the basic grey level, but still not exciting enough to thrill him.

"Oh my, 20 beast cores! That's a lot!" He exclaimed in surprise upon seeing the number of beast cores.

Normally, it takes the killing of a hundred ferocious beasts to potentially yield just one beast core. Although these were only tier 1 cores, the sheer quantity was staggering!

Charles counted them by their attributes: gold, wood, water, fire, earth, wind, lightning, ice, light, and poison, two of each kind.

"This expedition truly paid off, risk comes with reward!"

After storing the treasures in his [storage space], Charles rubbed his hands together in anticipation and proceeded to open the second treasure chest.

The excitement of opening these mystery boxes was similar to his pre-transmigration days when he would spend money on gacha games in mobile apps. He carefully cracked open the chest just a slit, and when a glimmer of purple shone through, his excitement peaked. "Purple! SSR?"

[Ding! Acquired rare material: a drop of dew [purple quality]!]

Having adapted to the system for a while, Charles was familiar with the rarity scale of items in the Beast Mastery World: grey, white, green, blue, purple, orange, gold...

Purple-tier items were extremely rare!

When Charles focused on the tiny droplet of liquid inside the glass bottle, a tooltip appeared:

[a drop of dew: A rare energy entity that has existed since the primordial chaos of the universe. When given to a pet, it grants a significant amount of experience points without any side effects.]

Looking at the small [a drop of dew] in his hand, Charles was exhilarated.

Directly feeding experience without any side effects? Could he be so lucky?

Immediately, Charles summoned Max, preparing to feed it the drop of dew.

Having not seen Charles for a while, Max was extremely happy, circling around Charles while sighing contentedly. It then jumped into Charles's arms, nuzzling against his chest enthusiastically.

"Alright, alright, Max, calm down now. If you drop this, you won't get to have any!" Charles cautioned.

Max, being highly intelligent, quickly calmed down, eyeing the small droplet in Charles's hand with curiosity.

Charles unscrewed the lid and poured the drop of liquid into Max's mouth. The pet barely had a chance to taste it before the liquid vanished.

Moments later, a purple aura enveloped Max.

[Ding! You have fed your pet a drop of dew (purple quality), your pet gains +2000 experience points!]

[Ding! Your pet Max has leveled up, current level: Lv8!]

[Ding! Your pet Max has leveled up, current level: Lv9!]

[This level up utilized 800 experience points in total; excess experience points will automatically be applied after breakthroughs!]

[Ding! Feeding Max rare materials has made it very happy, your bond with your pet has increased!]

[Pet loyalty +5!]

[Ding! You have unlocked new abilities: [Pet Vision], [Mind Communication].]

[Ding! Your Beast Master level has broken through! Current Beast Master level: Level 2.]

A flood of notifications streamed past Charles like a waterfall, leaving him momentarily overwhelmed.

After reviewing the system notifications several times, Charles was stunned!

Max had jumped two levels directly, with an additional 1200 stored experience points!

Pet loyalty had increased by 5 points!

And all of this was because of that tiny drop of dew?

As Max's attributes improved, Charles, as a Beast Master, also grew. He not only gained two new abilities, [Pet Vision] and [Mind Communication], but he also advanced to a Level 2 Beast Master.

"You know, Ares should not be called the War God anymore, he should be renamed the God of Stinginess, giving me just this tiny drop of such an incredible thing?" Charles grumbled.

As he finished speaking, the man-faced spiders beneath the platform became restless, startling Charles into silence.

He then opened the [Pet] tab to check Max's attribute panel.

[Level]: Lv9 [View Advancement Materials]

Each level advancement for a pet can bring a significant change, but the materials required for breakthroughs are usually complex.

Charles chose to view the advancement materials, and a popup appeared on the screen.

[Advancement Materials]: Ice attribute beast core [Tier 1] x1, Fire attribute beast core [Tier 1] x1, Regenerating potion [Grey] x2, Fire lotus seed x1, Polar cold spring x1!

Dual-attribute pets have unique combat abilities, but they also require twice the materials for advancement.

Fortunately, he had just obtained a large number of beast cores; otherwise, with a 1% drop rate, it would have been a hassle. As an alchemist, Charles had the formula for the grey-tier regenerating potion, and he had taken some fire lotus seeds from the Herbal Shop. However, the polar cold spring... What exactly was that?

Was he supposed to travel to the Antarctic to get water from a spring there?

Charles pondered for a moment, realizing he couldn't get it immediately. "I'll leave it for now. I'm only missing this one material. Once I regroup with the team, I'll ask the teachers in the group!"

After organizing all the materials neatly in his storage space, Charles turned his attention to the last treasure chest.

Unlike the previous two chests, this one was intricately carved and emitted a faint glow.

Just from its luxurious appearance, it was clear that whatever was inside was no ordinary item!

Charles blew on his hands for luck, then eagerly opened the chest. A golden light flashed, revealing—an egg?

As he focused on the pet egg, the system immediately provided a notification.

Apart from the quality label showing "Gold," everything else was "?" with no useful information. Charles directly looked at the [Description].

[Description]: This is a gold-quality pet egg, currently in a dormant state. Keep it with you for 24 hours to form a contract (100% success rate).

The information was brief, but it filled Charles with joy.

From Level 1 Beast Master to Level 10 Beast Master, each level upgrade allows for the taming of an additional pet.

However, apart from the first Beast Mastery, which has a 100% contract success rate, future contracts with ferocious beasts will always be lower than this percentage. The exact rate depends on the beast's submission level, the Beast Master's strength, the beast's quality, and even its mood, all of which greatly influence the outcome.

"This is fantastic! A guaranteed contract with a gold-quality pet!" Charles couldn't help but grin widely.

Using a pet egg completely eliminates this hassle. The contract success rate for pet eggs is 100%, and the base loyalty is even higher.

Regarding the origin of pet eggs, the theoretical community has yet to reach a consensus. Charles couldn't find it in the "Beast Master Beginner's Guide," but he knew one thing for sure—

This item is extremely precious! Especially since it's a gold-quality pet egg!

Ordinary Beast Masters don't have the ability to see ferocious beast attributes like Charles does, making each contract attempt a gamble.

With a pet egg, at least the pet's quality is known in advance.

A high-quality pet egg is as valuable as miracle drugs in the auction market.

"I hope you won't disappoint me!"

After a moment of hesitation, Charles decided to keep the pet egg with him. In 24 hours, he would know the result.

After finishing this, the mountain suddenly trembled, and a light shone from behind the statue—a passage out of the tomb had opened!

"I can't delay any longer; Aria is still waiting for me. I hope she's safe!"

Looking up at the statue of Ares, Charles didn't linger any further and hurried towards the exit...