4 Chapter 3: Andru Beast - Skeleton Version

The next day.

Zhuge Chen appeared in front of Bai Qi's house with a large bag, waited for quite a while after ringing the doorbell, before the gate slowly opened. With deeply set dark circles and worn-out face, Bai Qi appeared at the door.

Seeing that it was Zhuge Chen, Bai Qi shook his somewhat dizzy head and said, "Zhuge Chen? You finally came. Did you bring any food?"

"Uh, are you okay?"

Seeing Bai Qi in this state, Zhuge Chen's face fell, handing over the shopping bag he was holding to Bai Qi and said, "You were fine yesterday…"

Bai Qi yawned, flipping through the shopping bag while answering, "Nothing much, just didn't sleep last night."

Zhuge Chen looked doubtfully at Bai Qi devouring the food like a starving ghost, but didn't ask further, saying, "You ran off as soon as the contract was concluded yesterday. I thought I'd come see you today and congratulate you."

"By the way, where's your skeleton?"

"Alpha? He's lying in my workshop."

Bai Qi pointed towards his yard, feeling a wave of dizziness. He immediately took a piece of bread out of his bag, rapidly cleaned it up, and then regained his senses.

Yesterday, he had evolved Alpha six times in a row, nearly draining his already not-so-strong body completely. Add to that his own reckless messing around with other things, if Zhuge Chen had come a bit later, he might have starved to death here.

However, it was also a wake-up call for Bai Qi. In the future, when using the Evolution Egg, he must prepare some supplements in advance.

Looking at Bai Qi in this state, Zhuge Chen remembered some rumors about pets of the Undead Department and couldn't help but shudder.

This guy, he hasn't been depleted by that skeleton, has he? He seems to have heard about cases in other cities where pets of the Undead Department had rebelled and sucked the life out of the Beast Master.

"Are you sure you're okay?"

Bai Qi nodded, saying, "It's good that you came, could you lend me a hand?"

Zhuge Chen nodded, followed Bai Qi to his workshop, and saw Alpha obediently lying on a platform, but he had already been dismantled into pieces.

This scene was almost identical to that of a bizarre science experiment in the movies.

Zhuge Chen looked at Bai Qi speechlessly and asked, "Is this what you were working on last night?"

"Alpha's foundation is too poor, so I plan to strengthen him a bit," Bai Qi nodded, took a mechanical shoulder guard from the side and quickly connected Alpha's arm and body.

"Don't just stand there, help me install this too. I've specially designed it as plug-and-play; it's not difficult."

Is this your way of asking for help….

Zhuge Chen couldn't help but roll his eyes, but seeing Bai Qi in a state where he could fall asleep at any moment, he earnestly helped out.

Soon, Alpha was assembled once again, still looking frail. But with the addition of the metal armor, he seemed somewhat stronger.

Not bad, now there was no need to worry about Little Skeleton's joints falling off due to his fast speed.

Bai Qi examined him up and down and was quite satisfied with his design.

Actually, if it weren't for Little Skeleton's inability to handle too much weight, Bai Qi would have wanted to add more.

A laser sword, chest plate cannon…

As long as he wanted, making a beast from the Other Realm like Andru wasn't impossible.

Of course, Bai Qi was only thinking about this, such weapons were only eligible for Beast Masters of the third stage and above. Not only were they worth a fortune, they were also not affordable for a student like Bai Qi, who relied on his parent's living subsidy.

Seeing Bai Qi in this state, Zhuge Chen shook his head helplessly and said, "So why were you so eager to make the contract yesterday? There were quite a few beasts worth making the Main Pet at Elf House."

Having awakened his talent with much difficulty, but contracting a skeleton soldier with a very low ceiling, Zhuge Chen couldn't help but feel a bit sorry for Bai Qi.

Bai Qi shook his head and said, "Alpha may just be a skeleton soldier, but he is considered to be a mutant species. He may not be much worse than others."

Upon hearing this, Zhuge Chen was stunned, and remembering the somewhat abnormal speed of Alpha the day before, he seemed to understand. "So that's it. If it's a mutant species, then it makes sense."

[Name]: Skeleton Soldier (Alpha)

[Race]: Undead Department

[Growth Level]: Zero Stage Three Level

[Bloodline Level]: High-grade Servant (Mutated)

[Racial Skills]: Bone-breaking Reformation (Beginner), Skeletal Hardening (Beginner), Invisibility (Beginner)

[Condition]: Evolvable

Although they barely avoided dying from exhaustion at home, the gains were also quite good. Not only did they elevate the bloodline level to high-grade servant, they also once again developed a racial skill, and the growth level also improved by three levels.

However, the cost was that the originally neat courtyard now looked like it had been ransacked by bandits.

It seemed that they had to go and equip Alpha with some special training tools.

Zhuge Chen, circling around Alpha, couldn't help but exclaim, "Attaching mechanical weapons to a skeleton soldier, what would Professor Chu think if he found out?"

Bai Qi shrugged, "This is called learning being put to use, and there's no rule saying that students of Mech are not allowed to install them on other pet beasts."

Mech, full name, Mechanical Pet Beast Arms Design, was also one of the special majors of Star Mechanics Academy.

"Um... I suppose so."

At Zhuge Chen's words, he was somewhat at a loss and couldn't refute Bai Qi's argument.

Even though there are no instances of mechanical arms and non-mechanical pets being put together yet, some auxiliary mechanical equipment is still relatively popular with pet-type pet beasts. As for installing weapons, there seems to be no explicit prohibition against it.

"So, are you planning to raise this - um, Alpha as a mechanical pet beast? I remember traditional pet beasts and mechanical pet beasts don't have the same energy, do they?"

Bai Qi shook his head, "That won't be the case, it's only a temporary solution for now."

The strength of a Mechanical Beast was that it could be equipped with various weapons and energy sources. As long as the resources and technology were in place, and it didn't exceed the mental capacity of the Beast Master, it could be strengthened indefinitely.

Alpha's current equipment could only be considered as external weaponry, and still needed to supplement energy separately.

Unless Bai Qi could research a technology that allowed traditional pet beasts and mechanical weaponry to share or convert Energy Value, it could only be used for now.

Of course, the most important reason was that he was broke.

As a newly emerging pet beast system for humanity, Mechanical Beasts, despite their strength and providing the Federation with tools to contend with the kingdom of ferocious beasts, weren't affordable for just anyone.

Besides, he had the Evolution Egg on hand, so there was no need to worry about this for now.

There's nothing that can't be solved by evolution. If there is, then simply evolve multiple times.

"Alright, I should get going. I was originally going to have you install the mechanical prosthetics, but let's wait until you've rested."

Zhuge Chen planned to leave after a short stay, and only then did Bai Qi remember that he had been so preoccupied with studying the Golden Finger the day before that he had forgotten about this.

"It's okay, I'll go with you now."

Bai Qi put Alpha into the pet beast space and pulled Zhuge Chen out.

"By the way, do you have any other quirky pet beasts like Alpha?"