Chapter 188

Chapter 188

Lorant watched Air-Two stomp off with a bemused smile, shaking his head before turning back to face the two completely different types of secondary pet eggs.

He took a deep breath, one hand holding the steel-made 'heart', the other gently pinching a small, soft lump of 'egg core', carefully trying not to break the pet egg that looked like a shell-free egg.

However, despite appearing extremely fragile, as a type of pet egg, it was actually quite resilient.

With the amount of force Lorant was using, there was no way the pet egg would be damaged. Even if thrown forcefully to the ground, as long as it wasn't pierced by something sharp, it would remain unharmed.

He gently placed the membrane-covered egg, directly above the steel heart. The soft egg core covered a small opening resembling a 'blood vessel'.

The exposed blood vessels on the steel heart were not sealed. Although the internal structure was unknown, from the outside, it clearly appeared to be a small passage.

As Lorant made his move, the egg seemed to be sucked in by some unseen force, slowly sliding into the small tube.

With a soft 'pop', the two pet eggs merged into one.

At the same time, the pet egg that had once resembled a steel-cast heart began to soften as the egg core slid in, as if it transformed from steel into a living entity, starting to beat softly.

Lorant held the small 'heart' carefully and placed it on a large, luminescent leaf.

This leaf was from a Grade 5 plant beast. Apart from some obscure potion recipes, hardly anyone used it.

However, its fruit was a commonly used potion ingredient.

Thus, although this leaf was from a Grade 5 plant beast, it was an additional value of the plant beast, making it quite inexpensive. Lorant had bought a large quantity to place these newly assembled 'pet eggs'.

Except for the first few minutes after assembly, these pet eggs could not touch any material other than this type of leaf.

If placed somewhere inappropriate, it would rapidly decay.

Yes, this strange, beating heart-like substance was the final form of the Furious Ragdoll Bear's pet egg.

After completing the first one, Lorant began to pick up the next soft 'egg core' and combined it with its matching 'egg shell'.

By the time Air-Two returned, Lorant had already assembled eleven pet eggs. Air-One was even faster, having assembled fifteen eggs in its tentacles.

Air-Two placed the dolls aside and quickly joined the 'assembly' line for the pet eggs.

Soon, all eighty-seven pet eggs were assembled.

All the steel hearts were used up, but there were still some leftover soft 'egg cores'.

Lorant checked the guide carefully but found no information on how to preserve these egg cores if they weren't inserted into a steel heart, or if they could even be preserved.

He decided to set these aside for now and deal with the current situation.

Eighty-seven pulsing hearts lay on the luminescent leaves, appearing quite eerie in the dim light.

Lorant glanced at them and adjusted the light spell in the beast storage to make things appear more normal.

He carefully picked up the first assembled heart, that was beating most prominently, and walked over to the place where the dolls were set.

The dolls were arranged by Air-Two, with the first being a rag doll. The human-shaped doll looked rather ugly, with its crooked mouth and stitched eyes unappealing.

Lorant placed the heart in front of it but found no change in the heart.

So, he proceeded to the next doll.

The next doll was an oddly shaped large disc, and even Lorant was momentarily unable to tell which creature it was supposed to be modeled after to create such a peculiar toy.

Similarly, the pet egg showed no reaction.

The third in line was the 'Teddy Bear,' which Lorant had high hopes for. As he approached the doll, the heart on the large leaf started beating more vigorously.

"Is it this one?" Lorant murmured to himself, noticing the distinct reaction from the pet egg.

Even though the pet egg had shown its preference, Lorant still wanted to let it make a few more choices.

He was curious to see what kind of requirements this egg had for its doll appearance.

Although he had bought the teddy bear as a temporary appearance for the Furious Ragdoll Bear, if this beast could exhibit greater power in another shape, Lorant would definitely be willing to custom-make dolls for these little ones.

Each doll was presented to the pet egg one by one, but unfortunately, while a few of the later dolls caused the heart to beat, none were as strong as the teddy bear's reaction.

In the end, Lorant decided to place the pet egg on the teddy bear.

He laid the teddy bear flat on the ground and placed the small heart onto the doll's protruding belly.

Then Lorant took out a pre-prepared bottle of potion and sprayed it all over the egg and the little teddy bear.

After this operation, the steel-hard heart, which had been incredibly tough, melted like chocolate in hot water, turning into a pool of silver liquid that seeped into the body of the teddy bear.

One minute passed, then two.

Lorant watched the motionless teddy bear, feeling tense.

Just as he was about to pick up the little guy to check if something went wrong, the teddy bear twitched suddenly.

Before Lorant could react, Kong One and Kong Two behind him were startled.

"It's alive! The toy is alive!"

The two floating octopuses had their minds visibly churning, clearly astonished.

All sixteen tentacles twitched almost simultaneously, startling Lorant, who had been focused on the teddy bear.

"You two!" Lorant jumped in fright, glaring at the two sneaky behemoths behind him. "Stop scaring people in the back! Did you see what I just did? Get to work!"

Such big octopuses, and they got scared by a small toy, how embarrassing!

Realizing their reaction was a bit shameful, Kong One and Kong Two avoided eye contact, one looking left and the other right, pretending nothing had happened.

Lorant chuckled at the two, shook his head, and refocused on the teddy bear.

The doll was lying on the ground, struggling to move its limbs, which, paired with the doll's face, looked somewhat eerie.

Lorant hesitated for a moment before helping the little guy sit up.

The well-made teddy bear stood up with Lorant's assistance and patted the dust off its body. It stood obediently in place, tilting its head as if examining Lorant.

The doll's eyes, made of a translucent crystal, could now "blink" after becoming the Furious Ragdoll Bear, though Lorant wasn't sure what exactly had changed.

Lorant stared at the strange little creature, his lips pressed together, until the little guy lost control and fell to the ground after taking a couple of steps.

The little doll sat on the floor, rubbing its behind with a pout, which made Lorant smile.

At first glance, a moving doll seemed odd, but this was his pet after all! Even if it looked unusual, it was perfectly normal, right?

Lorant, realizing this, directly picked up the toy bear that had been sitting on the ground. The bear, held in both hands, seemed to be in high spirits, squinting its eyes with a look of happiness.

Carefully and gently poking the toy bear’s belly, Lorant caused it to squint and laugh innocently. Though it, like the Holy Light Peacock, seemed to be mute, it didn’t stop Lorant from being affected by its emotions, and he laughed along innocently with it.

While instructing Kong-one and Kong-two to fetch more ‘Teddy Bears,’ Lorant sat down on his special seat, holding the toy bear as he began to examine the new page of the illustrated manual.

"Raging Ragdoll Bear"......................b0002.

Finally, after the Glassy Ice Flame Dog, another entry belonging to a B-grade beast pet had been activated.

It should be known that the first entry to be illuminated in the entire guide was actually a B-grade entry. Yet, now, with even A-grade entries activated, this second type of B-grade beast had only just arrived.

When Lorant clicked on it, the first thing that appeared was a ragdoll bear that seemed to be hastily sewn together from scraps of cloth.

Its limp appearance wasn’t very attractive and hardly resembled a bear. This little bear ran over from afar.

As it neared Lorant, the entire ragdoll suddenly jumped up, and when it landed, it had transformed into a rather fierce-looking giant bear. Its huge body had fur that could be matched to the colors of the original ragdoll bear.

This bear clearly wasn’t one with a good temper; its sharp claws seemed to be forged from steel, reflecting light menacingly.

And when it opened its roaring mouth, a mouthful of sharp, terrifying teeth could be seen. Lorant had no doubt that this mouth could easily bend metal.

After the bear on all fours finished its roar, it silently walked to the spot closest to Lorant and sat down, tilting its head as it looked at him with a simple-minded expression.

Lorant couldn’t resist reaching out to poke the Raging Ragdoll Bear in the guide, causing it to tumble over, and then he smiled.

The little guy sure became fierce when it transformed!

Moving the animation aside, Lorant began to carefully read the description of this beast pet in the guide.

"Raging Ragdoll Bear": A combat-type beast pet known for its strength and defense abilities, possessing two forms. In its adult form, it stands over five meters tall.

Skills:

1. "Transformation": The Raging Ragdoll Bear prefers to exist in its ragdoll form but can switch to 'beast form' at any time. In beast form, its energy consumption is significantly higher than in ragdoll form.

2. "Bear Strength": The Raging Ragdoll Bear can instantly increase its strength to about ten times its normal state, delivering a terrifying attack to its enemies.

3. "Steel Bones and Iron Body": Although the Raging Ragdoll Bear in its ragdoll form has no bones, once it transforms into its beast form, its defense becomes astonishingly strong!

4. "Trembling Earth": In its beast form, the Raging Ragdoll Bear can cause the ground around it to shake violently.

5. "Roar of Fear": In its beast form, the Raging Ragdoll Bear can roar to instill fear in its enemies, causing them to instinctively flee in the short term.

The abilities of the Raging Ragdoll Bear didn’t seem complicated. Simply put, it was a battle beast known for its amazing defense and powerful close combat abilities.

This was a relatively extreme type of beast pet. Compared to the B-grade Glassy Ice Flame Dog, the Raging Ragdoll Bear sacrificed speed and tracking abilities, focusing only on strength and defense.

Naturally, its actual combat power exceeded that of the Glassy Ice Flame Dog.

In a sense, this beast pet was truly born for battle, living up to its "Raging" title.

Lorant could already imagine a terrifying giant bear emitting a "Roar of Fear" during a beast tide, stunning the surrounding beasts, then charging toward the center of the horde with the "Trembling Earth" skill, crushing the lead beast with a single "Bear Strength" strike.

The scene was simply beautiful to imagine!

What was even more important was that the Raging Ragdoll Bear had a natural disguise. Once its reputation spread, Lorant believed many wealthy merchants would choose this little guy, usually appearing as a toy, as their primary guard beast pet.

Usually pretending to be a plushie that can be held in your arms, but turning into a giant bear that protects you at a critical moment—this is the kind of security-giving beast pet that anyone would love!

The breeding of the Furious Ragdoll Bear went extremely smoothly. Ninety percent of the monster eggs chose the 'Teddy Bear' body without any issues. A small portion had a particular fondness for other types of ragdolls.

For example, one 'heart egg' remained as still as a stone, barely moving throughout the process, except when it was facing a 'Snow Rabbit' prototype plush. Only in front of that plush would it start beating vigorously. As a result, Lorant ended up with a 'Snow Rabbit' shaped Furious Ragdoll Bear.

Fortunately, these personalized beast eggs were a minority. Most of the Furious Ragdoll Bears shared Lorant’s aesthetic taste, finding the Teddy Bear body quite nice, which prevented the huge pile of free Teddy Bears from the toy shop from being left idle.

Of course, Lorant wouldn’t forget to find a beating heart for his little bear.

As the shop owner’s bear, its treatment was naturally different from other plushies. For other plushies, the heart chose the toy, but for this little bear, the toy chose the heart.

After having Baby bring it out from the bedroom, Lorant carried this chubby little bear and passed by all the monster eggs.

Like the Teddy Bears, almost all the hearts responded to this chubby little bear.

So Lorant directly chose the heart that beat the most vigorously, making it the true heart of his little bear.

With the sprinkling of the potion, under Lorant’s anticipating gaze, his little bear slowly moved.

Lorant was pleasantly surprised and quickly picked up the little bear.

He gently brushed aside the little bear’s fur, revealing a pair of small bean-like eyes.

Although they were not very lively, Lorant saw a sense of dependence on him in those little eyes.

Bringing the little bear back to his room, Lorant used a cleaning spell to make it fluffy and soft again, then carefully placed it on the bed.

The little bear, with a head and body of equal size, struggled to get up.

Its somewhat short legs made movement a bit inconvenient, but even so, it stumbled towards Lorant, who was standing by the bed.

It stretched out its equally short arms, seemingly asking to be picked up.

Lorant’s heart melted completely, and he immediately scooped up the little bear, then fell onto the bed and buried his face in its belly, rubbing it happily.

The little bear didn’t seem to feel any discomfort being pressed down and happily closed its eyes, its short little hands touching the back of Lorant’s head, looking extremely pleased.

Feeling the little guy’s dependence on him, Lorant couldn’t help but feel that it seemed to have known him for a long time.

Whether after merging with the monster egg, the plushie would still retain its former 'memory' was the thing Lorant wanted to know most at the moment.

Unfortunately, all of this batch of monster eggs had already been placed on new plushies. To study this question, he would have to wait until the next breeding session.

But even if they didn’t retain their memories, Lorant didn’t think it would matter much.

The little bear had become a brand new, active little bear, while his own memories remained unchanged, right?

From this perspective, he believed this kind of beast pet would become one of the most popular star pets in the pet shop.

Honestly, who could resist the idea of their companion plushie coming to life and guarding them?

Lorant certainly couldn’t.

Holding the soft little bear, he fell into a deep sleep.

The next morning, after a simple breakfast, Lorant headed to the backyard with his bear in his arms.

The ragdoll bears bred yesterday were all arranged in the indoor pet playroom by the floating octopuses.

Although the ragdoll bears have a 'beast form,' they seem to prefer their ragdoll form. Unless something unusual happens, they don’t seem to want to shift into their beast form.

Lorant placed his little bear on the garden table in the yard, so they could face each other.

"Little One, can you turn into your beast form now?" Lorant asked, his hands constantly rubbing the little bear's soft fur, massaging its ears.

The little bear tilted its head, thought for a moment, and nodded in agreement.

It slowly stood up, clumsily ran toward the edge of the table, and jumped off the table.

With a huge roar, a large and robust brown bear appeared in front of Lorant.

Probably due to its young age, Lorant's ragdoll bear didn’t look very big. It resembled a brown bear from Lorant's memories, with juvenile features in its face, round and quite cute.

It was hard to compare to what it would look like when fully grown.

However, it appeared exceptionally sturdy.

Covered in brown fur, it seemed like a layer of solid muscle, and just standing there emitted a sense of power.

After the initial roar, the brown bear stood still, fixing its gaze on Lorant, until Lorant approached and began to stroke it. Then it sat down on the ground.

Lorant sensed that this little guy was worried that if it moved while in this form, it might scare him, so it obediently stood still, waiting for him.

Lorant stood on his tiptoes, took hold of the brown bear's ears, and rubbed them, sensing a gentle nature from such a fierce-looking bear.

After instructing the ragdoll bear to demonstrate a few other abilities, Lorant gained a general understanding of this type of pet.

To put it simply, if an adult Glassy Ice Flame Dog faced an adult ragdoll bear, Lorant honestly didn’t believe the Glassy Ice Flame Dog would stand a chance.

Admittedly, the Glassy Ice Flame Dog had higher mobility, and as long as it maintained distance from the ragdoll bear, it wouldn’t be caught by this relatively slow-moving pet.

However, with the Glassy Ice Flame Dog's abilities, a long-range attack would likely not even break through the defenses of the ragdoll bear. And once it got close, it would be overwhelmed by the ragdoll bear's intimidating roar, and with its delicate skin and frail body, the Glassy Ice Flame Dog probably wouldn’t endure a single strike...

As for the ragdoll bear, even if it was bitten, as long as there was no open wound for the Glassy Ice Flame Dog's strange ice flames to enter, it would be perfectly fine.

In summary, if they really fought, the ragdoll bear could make countless mistakes, but the Glassy Ice Flame Dog might only withstand one...

Lorant got a raw sugar ear from the kitchen and gave it to the ragdoll bear, which he had named 'Bear Two,' to gnaw on. Lorant then leaned back, sitting on the big bear's belly, reveling in the warm breeze in the Animal Pet Shop's backyard, permeated with the aroma of candy.